A growing number of conversion therapy survivors are sharing their trauma on TikTok amid growing efforts to outlaw the discredited practice.
Nearly 700,000 Americans have undergone conversion therapy, half when under 18, according to the UCLA’s Williams Institute. The so-called therapycan range from counselling or “praying away the gay” to torturous electric shocks, but all forms have been rejected by every mainstream health organisation for decades.
Now survivors are shedding light on the secretive practice, sharing support and advice for others who may be forced to undergo what they did.
30-year-old Mike Dorn began talking about his experience when the US went into lockdown. “I was going through a pretty dark time being at home all the time and I knew that I needed to talk about it,” they told Reuters.
They were forced to endure conversion therapy at age 15 when their conservative Christian parents shipped them off to a “disciplinary camp” in California.
In a series of six videos they recounted how they were isolated, broken down, told they would go to hell, forced to dig holes and shoved if they disobeyed orders.
“I was physically abused if I said anything or did anything they didn’t approve of,” they said. “I was verbally abused almost every second of every day, because if they weren’t going to put the fear of God into you, you weren’t going to change.”
Mike’s videos have been viewed 1 million times and they’ve been overwhelmed with thousands of messages of support. Roughly half were from countries including Britain, Mexico and Indonesia, most of whom went through conversion therapy as teens.
“A lot of people were messaging me, and it was this form of love and support and family that I’ve never experienced before,” they said.
Another conversion therapy victim, 20-year-old Merry, shared her story in hopes she could help others. One of her videos, “How to survive conversion therapy”, has been watched more than 500,000 times since December.
“Don’t tell them anything about your past,” she warns in the video. “Anything traumatic in your life, you do not get to tell them about… They are going to get inside your head and convince you that that is why you are gay.”
Her videos instantly resonated with viewers and after she posted the first one she began receiving five or six messages a day. She now estimates she’s been contacted by about 50 at-risk people and 20 survivors from their teens to late 40s.
The U.S. Supreme Court has set Nov. 4 as the date when it will hear oral arguments on whether a taxpayer-funded, religious-affiliated adoption agency can lawfully reject same-sex couples — a case that could have significant impact on policies and laws prohibiting discrimination across the board.
The court on Wednesday designated the Nov. 4 date for the hearing on the docket for the litigation, Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, which was filed by Becket Law on behalf of Catholic Social Services. Justices had agreed to take up the case in February.
The case came about after the City of Philadelphia learned in March 2018 that Catholic Social Services, which the city had hired to provide foster care services to children in child welfare, were refusing to license same-sex couples despite signing a contract prohibiting agencies from engaging in anti-LGBTQ discrimination.
When the city said it would terminate the contract, Catholic Social Services sued on the basis it can maintain the contract and refuse placement into LGBTQ homes for religious reasons under the guarantee of free exercise of religion under the First Amendment.
Because the case is based on First Amendment claims, a decision in favor of Catholic Social Services, if granted on those grounds, may have implications on non-discrimination polices and laws across the board — whether at the local, state or federal level — based not just on sexual orientation and transgender status, but also race, religion, national origin, sex and any other protected characteristic.
That means adoption agencies could legally refuse placing children into Black families or families of a minority religion. It’s not just adoption; civil rights laws for employment, housing and health care would also be compromised. Although the Supreme Court ruled in favor of LGBTQ rights in Bostock v. Clayton County, a decision in favor of Catholic Social Services would undermine that in the name of religious freedom.
The case history hasn’t been favorable to Catholic Social Services. A federal judge in Pennsylvania and the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals denied a preliminary injunction in favor of Catholic Social Services. The Third Circuit, which declined to revisit the case “en banc” before the full court, based its decision in part on the 1990 ruling in Employment Division v. Smith.
But in the aftermath of President Trump restructuring the Supreme Court with the appointments of U.S. Associate Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, there’s no telling how the court might rule.
Although the Supreme Court had rejected injunctive relief to the adoption agency in response to an emergency request, Gorsuch as well as U.S. Associate Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas signaled they would have ruled for Catholic Social Services — before any briefing had even taken place in case.
The Trump administration, in the form of a legal brief in June from former U.S. Solicitor General Noel Francisco, argued before the Supreme Court the City of Philadelphia “impermissibly discriminated against religious exercise” by requiring Catholic Social Services to abide by its contract.
However, the Justice Department brief heavily relies on the Supreme Court decision in the Masterpiece Cakeshop case, which was a narrow ruling in favor of a Colorado baker who refused to make a cake for a same-sex couple, in an apparent attempt to link the issues to Catholic Social Services in Philadelphia and avoid a wide-ranging ruling applicable to other scenarios that may compromise the U.S. government’s authority in making contracts.
Acting Solicitor General Jeffrey Wall has made a formal appeal before the Supreme Court for time for the U.S. government to participate in oral arguments. Although justices haven’t yet responded to the request, they’re likely to allow the acting solicitor general to participate given the federal implications of the case.
“[Catholic Social Services] may resume certifying foster parents for the City at any time,” the brief says. “The City “strong[ly] desire[s]” that it will do so. But the Constitution does not entitle CSS to perform those services on the City’s behalf, with City funds, pursuant to a City contract, in a manner that the City has determined would be harmful to its residents and the thousands of children it has a duty to protect.”
Becket Law, in its brief filed in May before the Supreme Court, maintained the City of Philadelphia targeted the adoption agency in violation of the First Amendment “under any standard,” but takes pains to make the case the city didn’t take the right administrative procedure before cutting off Catholic Social Services.
“In its rush to penalize this religious exercise, the City failed to figure out whether CSS actually violated any law, much less a neutral, generally applicable one,” the brief says. “Instead of a law, Philadelphia had a preferred outcome: the Archdiocese of Philadelphia should get with the times, accept that it is ‘not 100 years ago,’ and start endorsing same-sex relationships for foster care.”
The American Civil Liberties Union, which has intervened in the case, argues in a brief filed last week the City of Philadelphia’s contract applies to “all contractors, both religious or secular,” therefore should survive judicial review even under a higher level of scrutiny.
“The requirement imposes no substantial burden on CSS,” the brief says. “It does not require CSS to endorse any same-sex marriages, but merely to certify that families meet Pennsylvania’s statutory criteria.”
The Supreme Court announced the date for oral arguments on the same day the House Ways & Means Committee issued a report on the waiver the Trump administration gave to South Carolina from non-discrimination rules on federal funding. The request was based on Miracle Hill Ministries seeking to place children consistent with its religious beliefs.
The committee report, titled “Children at Risk: The Trump Administration’s Waiver of Foster Care Non-Discrimination Requirements,” found the Department of Health & Human Services permitted discrimination within the child welfare system based on religion and sexual orientation and failed to recognize its negative impact on LGBTQ families. Further, the report found the Trump administration didn’t consult policy experts on the decision and instead relied on political appointees.
After a virtual Democratic convention that didn’t showcase the party’s diversity so much as simply present it as a matter of fact, the Trump campaign responded on Saturday with the creation of 13 new coalitions to make the point that, as the campaign put it, “President Trump Delivers Success for All Americans, Regardless of Background.”
The new affinity groups included what appeared to be an L.G.B.T.Q. coalition, “Trump Pride,” as well as groups for truckers, gun owners, firefighters, and Albanian and Ukrainian Americans.
Also on the list: Assyrians for Trump, Chaldeans for Trump, German Americans for Trump, Italian Americans for Trump, Medical Professionals for Trump, Polish Americans for Trump and Serbian Americans for Trump.
The former head of the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum has agreed to pay a $1 million settlement for his role in a massive state pension fund pay-to-play scandal. Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced the deal with Bill White on Thursday.
Cuomo charged that White acted as an unlicensed paid middleman for investment companies seeking lucrative state pension fund business during disgraced former Controller Alan Hevesi’s tenure.
White “secretly” received more than $570,000 in fees from the deal, Cuomo said. He also not only gave $10,000 to Hevesi’s 2006 reelection campaign, but bundled $50,000 in donations from two Guggenheim principals.
They are throwing a $5 million fund-raiser for President Trump this winter, and are quick to make it known that they have the president’s sons’ cellphone numbers on speed dial. They have poured more than $50,000 of their own money into supporting the president, who smiles in photos on the bookshelves of their home.
But Bill White and his husband, Bryan Eure, are not red state evangelicals or die-hard right-wingers. In fact, for years, they were key players among a cohort that Mr. Trump loathes: Manhattan’s liberal elite.
The couple say they have been condemned not just for hypocrisy, but for what has been seen as a betrayal of their own community, by backing a man who has scaled back L.G.B.T. protections. They dismiss such concerns. “I don’t like identity politics,” Mr. Eure said.
The “anti-gay” white couple who stood outside their mansion and pointed guns at Black Lives Matter protesters will “definitely” speak at the Republican Party convention this month.
Mark and Patricia McCloskey, who are both personal injury lawyers, made headlines around the world after they were filmed pointing guns at Black Lives Matter protesters from the steps of their palatial mansion in Portland Place, Missouri.
On Monday, August 17, the McCloskey’s lawyer told the New York Times that the couple would “definitely be speaking” at the Republican National Convention (RNC).
Albert Watkins said in an interview that Mark McCloskey, who threatened Black Lives Matter protesters with an AR-15, would speak at the Republican convention with his handgun-toting wife, Patricia, by his side.
However, Watkins added that Patricia was not expected to speak as “she is not built for this”.
The lawyer said that the couple would take part in a video presentation at the RNC, and added: “They, like many Americans, are horrified, if not mortified, at the prospect of their constitutional rights being compromised by the constitutional rights of others.
According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, they once sued their neighbourhood’s trustees to demand they enforce a document called the Trust Agreement, which prohibited unmarried people from living together.
Neighbours said it was because the McCloskeys “didn’t want gay couples living on the block”.
As the McCloskeys unsuccessfully appealed the case all the way to the state Supreme Court, trustees voted to impeach Patricia, accusing her of being anti-gay in 1992.
However, during a deposition in 2002 Mark refuted the claims, and said: “Certain people on Portland Place, for political reasons, wanted to make it a gay issue.”
Pete Buttigieg, who made waves in the Democratic presidential primary as a gay presidential candidate, made progress on LGBTQ rights a component of his message during his speech Thursday at the Democratic National Convention.
The range of Buttigieg’s remarks was the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” which enabled him to serve openly in the military; the Supreme Court ruling for marriage equality, which enabled him to marry Chasten Buttigieg; and this year’s Supreme Court decision barring anti-LGBTQ discrimination in employment.
“Now in 2020, it is unlawful in America to fire anyone because of who they are or who they love,” Buttigieg said. “The very ring on my finger reflects how this country can change. Love makes my marriage real, but political courage made it possible — including that of Joe Biden, who stepped out ahead of even this party when he said that marriage equality should be the law of the land.”
But Buttigieg, speaking at the venue in Indiana where me married his spouse, made the case more change is on the way.
“If so much can change between 2010 and 2020, imagine what 2030 could look like,” Buttigieg said. “Imagine what we could achieve — the coalition we are building this very season, gathering progressives and moderates, independents and even former Republicans, to help build a future where everyone belongs.”
Buttigieg also drew on his own historic candidacy for the White House, which he said couldn’t have happened in the time before he was born.
“The day I was born, close to where I’m standing, here in South Bend, the idea of an ‘out’ candidate seeking any federal office at all was laughable,” Buttigieg said. “Yet earlier this year I campaigned for the presidency, often with my husband at my side, winning delegates to this very convention.”
Watch Buttiigeg’s full remarks here (via NBC News):
The lead U.S. foreign aid agency has proposed a new policy on gender and women’s empowerment that eliminates any mention of transgender people or contraceptives, running counter to its own long-standing practices in deciding what programs to support.
The draft policy released by the U.S. Agency for International Development on Wednesday was billed as an update and replacement to the original 2012 policy, released under the Obama administration. Though written subtly, the agency’s gender policy is parsed closely by experts and grantees as a clue to the kind of initiatives the agency will prioritize, and it guides USAID’s grant-making and development work worldwide.
The updated policy has been in the works for months and has been the subject of much scrutiny and internal controversy. It states its goal as “a prosperous and peaceful world in which women, girls, men, and boys enjoy equal economic, social, cultural, civil, and political rights and are equally empowered to secure better lives for themselves, their families, their communities, and their countries.”
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USAID did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Perhaps the starkest difference is how the old and new policies refer to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people — indeed, whether those populations are mentioned at all. The 2012 policy mentions LGBT people twice — once in a footnote and once in a reference to partnering with LGBT advocates to advance gender equity. It also used the phrase “gender identity” eight times, in recognition of the transgender experience, in which a person’s assigned sex does not accord with their own gender identiity.
The new policy doesn’t use the acronym LGBT or its more inclusive variants or the words “lesbian,” “gay,” “bisexual,” “transgender” or “identity” at all.
“It sends a message when an overarching umbrella policy that is supposed to inform all of USAID’s practices and initiatives is missing those factors,” said Gayatri Patel, director of gender advocacy at CARE, a humanitarian organization, though she added it is difficult to know yet how the new policy will impact future USAID programming.
That omission sparked an internal email exchange among USAID officials this week, which was seen by ProPublica. A USAID official passed along a comment from a colleague, noting the exclusion of those words. In a response sent around an hour later, Timothy Meisburger, USAID’s director of the Center of Excellence on Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance, wrote that while staff should feel free to comment on the policy, they should “keep in mind that the policies of the current Administration may differ from those of previous Administrations, and that it is our duty as civil servants to faithfully execute the policy of the current Administration.”
Meisburger, a political appointee who joined the agency in 2017, did not respond to a text message and email requesting comment.
In a section on inclusivity, the 2012 policy is specific, saying it applies to people “regardless of age, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability status, religion, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, geographic area, migratory status, forced displacement or HIV/AIDS status.”
The new policy is far more vague, saying in its inclusivity section that the agency wants to ensure “all people, including those who face discrimination and thus may have limited access to a country’s benefits, legal protections, or social participation, are fully included and can actively participate in and benefit from development processes and activities.”
In a section on maternal health, the new draft policy mentions only “fertility awareness” and “healthy timing and spacing of pregnancies” as family planning methods, even though USAID has funded the provision of contraceptives in developing countries for decades. The 2012 policy discussed the global lack of access to contraceptives.
That change is in line with the Trump administration’s yearslong effort to advance its socially conservative views on family planning in the global arena.
“For the gender policy to be silent on that is another glaring omission,” Patel said.
Gender experts and advocates said the new policy falls far short of providing the up-to-date technical expertise that the agency needs to grapple with gender issues in development.
Officials at USAID warned that favoring Christian groups in Iraq could be unconstitutional and inflame religious tensions. When one colleague lost her job, they said she had been “Penced.”
“The field has progressed in the eight years since 2012,” said Susan Markham, USAID’s former senior coordinator for gender equality and women’s empowerment. “But this document does not do that. It is not based on technical advances or knowledge. It’s clearly a political document about the word gender.”
The proposed USAID policy also adopts the phrase “unalienable rights,” which did not appear in the 2012 version. That phrase mirrors the State Department’s Commission on Unalienable Rights, a panel launched by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in 2019.
When he unveiled the commission’s draft report in July, Pompeo derided the “proliferation of rights.” Critics say establishing such a hierarchy of rights endangers the lives and safety of vulnerable groups like LGBT people and women around the world. The commission’s draft report asserted that the two foremost unalienable rights, in the view of America’s founders, were the right to property and religious liberty, and describes same-sex marriage as a “divisive social and political” controversy.
The new policy is in tension with another set of USAID rules, the Automated Directives System, which lays out the agency’s organization and functions. A section of that rulebook dealing with gender, updated in 2017, addresses lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people and emphasizes the importance of gender identity when conducting analysis.
Officials at USAID have repeatedly pushed back release of the revised gender policy. It was originally slated for release in late 2019, said three people familiar with the process, and was delayed in part by the coronavirus pandemic. The policy rewrite has also been shrouded in secrecy, with outside advocates and even gender experts within the agency getting little chance to offer input until the very final stages.
Members of the public have until early next week to submit comments on the draft.
One official involved in the policy update process was Bethany Kozma, the USAID deputy chief of staff. Before joining the Trump administration in 2017, Kozma advocated against Obama-era guidelines that schools allow transgender students to use bathrooms that match their gender identity. During her time in the administration, she has played a key role in advancing conservative causes globally, such as opposing references to sexual and reproductive health in United Nations documents.
In the last few months, USAID’s leadership has been seeded with several right-wing political appointees, including Mark Kevin Lloyd, a Tea Party activist with a history of making and sharing anti-Islamic comments, who was named the agency’s new religious freedom adviser; Kozma, who was elevated to a higher position as the agency’s deputy chief of staff; and Merritt Corrigan, the agency’s former deputy White House liaison, who had made repeated anti-LGBT statements on social media. Corrigan left USAID this month after she unleashed a tirade against the agency on Twitter, though she later claimed she did not send those tweets.
Jason Rae, who as the first openly gay secretary for the Democratic National Committee made his national debut Tuesday night reading the roll call for states in the formal nomination of Joe Biden, has a personal anecdote to tell about the presidential nominee.
When Rae was in a different role as a page in 2003 for the U.S. Senate, Biden, then a U.S. senator representing Delaware, introduced Rae to an important visitor.
“Then Sen.-Joe Biden came and said, ‘Hey, hey, come here, I got to show you something. I want you to meet somebody,’” Rae said. “And he came and introduced us to the Dalai Lama. Here’s a 16-year-old kid — fresh in D.C. from Wisconsin for me — and here’s the senator who is wanting to make sure that we get these experiences and having such interest in that.”
In addition to his duties as DNC secretary, Rae is one of 635 LGBTQ delegates to the 2020 Democratic National Convention. An uncommitted delegate representing his home state of Wisconsin, Rae hails from Glendale, Wis., a suburb of Milwaukee and just outside the city where the half-virtual, half-live convention is taking place.
For many Biden supporters across the country, the goal for the election is simple: Defeating President Trump and removing him from the White House. Rae, however, said from his perspective there’s more to it.
Rae, now 33, said the election for him is about making sure “we’re really going to move our country forward on a number of issues, including LGBTQ rights.”
“I know Joe Biden’s still gonna push to pass the Equality Act within his first 100 days, reverse Trump’s ban on transgender military service, really push in a holistic way,” Rae said. “I think the Biden-Harris administration understands that LGBTQ equality is a civil rights issue, and that they are going to take the concerns of our community forward.”
Rae is among LGBTQ delegates who spoke to the Washington Blade and said they don’t just want the election to be about getting ridding of Trump and anticipate results once Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris are elected.
Earl Fowlkes, a D.C.-based gay Black activist and chair of the Democratic Party’s LGBTQ Caucus, said “of course there’s more” than beating Trump and making that case will be a winning element to Biden’s election.
“I think we made a mistake in 2016 of believing saying that I’m not Trump is a winning formula,” Fowlkes said. “People have to have a reason to vote. It’s not just because of Trump and who he is, but because of what we offer in response to Trump’s policies. We’re offering comprehensive inclusive policies that will lift up all Americans, especially those who are most vulnerable, such as our transgender sisters and brothers and people who are poor.”
Fowlkes also said promises from Democrats have to be more than just talking points and must be acted upon swiftly in the next administration.
“It has to be really instituting policy changes, and in the first 100 days of the administration,” Fowlkes said. “It has to happen.”
The 635 delegates at the 2020 Democratic National Convention, which includes 30 transgender delegates, make up a sizable portion of the 3,979 delegates who are part of the event.
It’s also the most LGBTQ delegates ever at a Democratic convention, and by a sizable margin: In 2016, for example, the number was 515, and in 2012 the number was 550.
Fowlkes conceded his interaction with the LGBTQ caucus is limited because of the virtual nature of the convention, but was hopeful it would nonetheless infuse delegates with enthusiasm just before the election.
“We won’t have these huge rallies when you’ll be able to say the candidates all fell flat, or there’s a lot of enthusiasm people are carrying more than they’re sure before,” Fowlkes said. “We don’t have that so we’re gonna have to do really one-on-one and use social networks to really drill down deep and convince queer people to vote.”
The perspective there’s more to electing Biden than getting rid of Trump stands in contrast to the general public, according to a recent survey from the Pew Research Center made public last week.
A majority of Biden supporters — 56 percent — say their top reason for backing the candidate is “He is not Trump.” Other factors, including leadership, personality and policy, didn’t even break 20 percent.
For Trump supporters, the reasons for backing him were more spread out: 23 percent cited leadership, 21 percent cited policy, 17 percent said he’s for American values. “He is not Biden” came in at 19 percent.
Glen Paul Freedman, an Atlanta-based gay delegate for the Democratic convention, said getting rid of Trump is “a top priority,” but “it’s not just so much” that goal, citing among other issues the president’s authority to appoint justices to the Supreme Court.
“There’s other things that are outside LGBTQ rights, whether it be for you know personally for health care, or just in a society that treats people with dignity and respect,” Freedman said.
With Biden continuing to lead in the polls against Trump, LGBTQ advocates are also beginning to pile on the demands they want to see upon election of the Democratic nominee to the White House.
The LGBTQ Victory Institute, which trains LGBTQ political hopefuls and seeks to ensure LGBTQ people obtain appointments in the U.S. government, identified last week four specific goals for the next administration.
• Appoint a Senate-confirmed openly LGBTQ Cabinet member for the first time; • Nominate an openly LGBTQ U.S. Supreme Court justice for the first time; • Appoint openly LGBTQ woman ambassadors, LGBTQ ambassadors of color, and transgender ambassadors for the first time; and • Ensure openly LGBTQ people receive equitable representation among presidential appointees and that they reflect the full diversity of the LGBTQ community.
Annise Parker, former mayor of Houston and CEO of LGBTQ Victory Institute, said in a statement a coalition of 31 organizations will support the effort.
“Presidential appointees have tremendous influence over the policies and direction of federal agencies and the executive branch, so it is essential LGBTQ people are included both in high-level positions and throughout the next administration,” Parker said. “There is an LGBTQ person qualified to fill nearly every position in the next administration and this coalition is determined to help them navigate a complex appointments process to ensure we are well represented.”
Democrats are making promises they plan to deliver. Among them is Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.), who was among the high-profile speakers at the convention’s LGBTQ Democratic caucus on Tuesday.
Cicilline in his remarks envisioned passage of the Equality Act, legislation that would update the Civil Rights Act to expand the prohibition on anti-LGBTQ discrimination under the law.
“With Joe Biden as our president, it will become the law of the land, so this is an important election for our count,” Cicilline said. “It is not an understatement to say our very democracy depends on it, but our community has a special interest in this, because we can elect a president and a vice president who have a long record committed to full quality for our community, and we’re fighting against a president who has in every way undermined full equality.”
Other high-profile speakers at the LGBTQ caucus were Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who represents the largest city to elect an openly LGBTQ mayor, as well as lesbian Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.). The virtual caucus had 5,390 page views from 3,050 unique devices, a spokesperson for the Democratic National Committee told the Blade.
It’s not that getting rid of Trump doesn’t have value in and of itself. LGBTQ delegates at the convention drew attention to anti-LGBTQ record to say getting rid of Trump would be a good thing.
Freedman, CFO and CEO of the Stacey Adams-backed Fair Fight Action, didn’t hold back in his assessment of Trump, saying Republicans supporting him are racist.
“I just think that a party with a leader who is a racist, and I believe that some of the people in his party are racists, and now feel that they have over the last four years — and even more going up into the election…been more public about their voice about being racist, and that they would like to see America turned back,” Freedman said. “So, I can’t imagine anyone who is voting does not see this or not understand why it is so important to make a huge change here in America.”
Rae said Biden, as well as his running mate Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), would bring a new day to the White House.
“Right now, we have an administration, right now in Donald Trump and Mike Pence, who have really used all of their power to fight against LGBTQ rights,” Rae said. “So for me, this is a struggle for our community, and this is an opportunity for us to elect two leaders in Joe Biden and Kamala Harris who are going to fight for the LGBT community, each and every day.”
Rae is confident LGBTQ lives would improve under Biden based in part on his interactions with the candidate. Since his time as a Senate page, Rae said he has spoken with Biden, both in his capacity as vice president and 2020 presidential candidate, most recently at the New Hampshire State Party Convention.
“Last fall we had an opportunity to chat for a little bit and I just really find them both to be — genuine is the best word I can find — because it’s real,” Rae said. “They are real people who really care.”
The mother and father of hate crime victim Matthew Shepard gave their full blessing to Joe Biden at the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday night (August 18).
Judy and Dennis Shepard joined several of Biden’s former rivals, including Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar, in wholeheartedly pledging their support for Biden, announcing their state’s votes and helping to formally nominate the Democrat.
Speaking from their home in Wyoming, the couple praised Biden’s efforts in helping to extend federal protections to LGBT+ people like their late son.
“After our son’s death in Wyoming, Joe Biden helped pass the legislation to protect LGBTQ Americans from hate crimes,” Dennis Shepard said during the Democratic National Convention roll call.
“He understands more than most our grief over Matt’s death. But we see in Joe so much of what made Matt’s life special: his commitment to equality, his passion for social justice, and his boundless compassion for others.”
The votes announced by the Shepards — who were joined in the roll call by Indiana’s Pete Buttigieg, gay Maine state rep Craig Hickman and representatives for the other 53 states and territories — mean that Biden is now the official Democratic nominee, and Kamala Harris the vice presidential nominee.
Matthew Shephard murdered at 21.
Matthew Shepard was a 21-year-old gay college student who was beaten, tortured and left to die in an anti-gay hate crime in 1998. His killers claimed that they had only intended to rob him but were moved to murder when Shepard made sexual advances towards them.
The case became one of the most prominent examples of the “gay panic” defence being used in an attempt to justify a homophobic hate crime, and it sparked a campaign to extend protections towards the LGBT+ community.
The State Department has appealed a federal judge’s ruling that said it must recognize the U.S. citizenship of a gay Maryland couple’s daughter who was born in Canada via surrogate.
U.S. District Judge Theodore D. Chuang in June ruled in favor of Roee Kiviti and Adiel Kiviti of Chevy Chase, Md., who legally married in California in 2013. Their daughter, Kessem Kiviti, was born in 2019. The State Department on Aug. 13 appealed Chuang’s decision to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va.
Lambda Legal; Immigration Equality and Morgan Lewis, a private law firm, represent the Kivitis. The two advocacy groups also represent Derek Mize and Jonathan Gregg, a gay couple from Atlanta who sued the State Department after it refused to recognize the U.S. citizenship of their daughter, Simone Mize-Gregg, who was born in England via surrogate.
The couples maintain their children are U.S. citizenships under Section 301(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act that states “a baby born abroad to married parents is a U.S. citizen at birth when both parents are U.S. citizens and one of them has resided in the United States at any point prior to the baby’s birth.”
“It’s sad that we have to continue this legal battle,” said Roee Kiviti in a press release that Lambda Legal issued on Monday.
“Once again, the State Department is refusing to recognize Roee and Adiel’s rights as a married couple,” added Immigration Equality Executive Director Aaron C. Morris. “The government’s attempts to strip Kessem of citizenship are unconstitutional, discriminatory, and morally reprehensible.”
A State Department spokesperson on Monday declined to comment.
“We decline to comment on pending litigation,” the spokesperson told the Washington Blade in an email.
Three gay Democrats will jointly deliver the Democratic National Convention keynote address on Tuesday (August 18) — becoming the first LGBT+ people ever to do so.
The trio of rising stars are Pennsylvania representative Malcolm Kenyatta, Georgia rep. Sam Park, and Long Beach, California mayor Robert Garcia.
Usually the keynote speech is delivered by a single individual, but this year Kenyatta, Park, and Garcia will be among 17 Democratic trailblazers to share the address, offering “a diversity of different ideas and perspectives on how to move America forward”, a DNC spokesperson said.
By speaking in one of the most prestigious slots at the convention the three LGBT+ members will break new ground for queer representation in politics, but they already boast several historic firsts between them.
Park is the sole LGBT+ Asian-American lawmaker in the Georgia General Assembly. He regularly braves open homophobia as he works to pass progressive legislation in the Conservative stronghold state, including a bill to bring healthcare access to low-income households.
“It’s important for us to introduce and work on passing legislation we think would benefit the state to at least demonstrate to those we represent what exactly it is that we are fighting for,” he told NBC News.
“Being in the minority, it’s difficult to pass legislation, but that still doesn’t mean you can’t do it.”
Democratic National Convention 2020 keynote to also platform queer Latino and Black politicians.
Garcia, who is Latino, is the youngest mayor in Long Beach history as well as the first LGBT+ person ever to hold the position. Over the past few months he’s been leading the fight against coronavirus in his city, even as he lost his mother and stepfather to the deadly virus.
And Kenyatta is the first gay Black man to be seated in the Pennsylvania General Assembly.
“As somebody who inhabits all of these intersections, growing up in an incredibly poor neighbourhood to a working poor family, as one of only two openly LGBTQ members of the Pennsylvania General Assembly and the only one that’s a person of colour, I see all the different ways that frankly our systems are broken,” he told LGBTQ Nation earlier this year.
Kenyatta predicted the conference is going to be a “huge historic moment across the board”.
“Being a young person, a Black person, and a queer person — all those different intersections bring a certain perspective,” he told the Pennsylvania Capital Star.
“And I think it’s important because this president has tried very hard to divide folks up along race, class, gender and economic status. He is actively working to make life more difficult for the people he has sworn to serve. So all of the intersections that embody us are people Trump has gone after.”