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World Athletics bans trans women from female events

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World Athletics will ban trans women who have been through puberty from female competitions.

The governing body’s president, Sebastian Coe, said on Thursday afternoon (23 March) that “transgender athletes should not be competing in the female category”. 

Coe stated at a press conference in Monaco that trans women who transitioned after puberty “will not be allowed to participate in women’s events” from 31 March – Transgender Day of Visibility. 

Current rules allow trans women to compete if their testosterone level is sufficiently suppressed.

However, Coe said: “Where the science is insufficient to justify maintaining testosterone suppression for transgender athletes, the council agreed it must be guided by our overarching principle, which is to protect the female category.

“We cannot in all conscience leave our transgender regulations as they were at five nanomoles per litre for at least one year when we were unsure about the impact of doing so across all our disciplines. So we need to know more and we need to know more now.”

https://youtube.com/watch?v=J8vHIV9NEWI%3Ffeature%3Doembed%26enablejsapi%3D1

The decision to exclude trans women came after a consultation which included 40 member federations, athletes and trans organisations. 

Coe said: “The majority of those consulted stated that transgender athletes should not be competing in the female category.

“Many believe there is insufficient evidence that trans women do not retain advantage over biological women, and want more evidence that any physical advantages have been ameliorated before they are willing to consider an option for inclusion into the female category.”

He added that in order to conduct further research into its transgender eligibility guidelines, World Athletics will establish a working groups which will aim to “consult specifically with transgender athletes to seek views on competing in athletics” and to “review and maybe commission” additional research. 

The working group will be comprised of an independent chair, “up to three council members”, two athletes from the Athletes Commission, a transgender athlete from athletics, three representatives of non-member federations and representatives of the World Athletics Health and Science Department.

Alongside a ban on trans athletes, athletes deemed to have a so-called difference of sexual development (DSD) – will have their testosterone threshold reduced to 2.5 nanomoles per litre. The runner Caster Semenya has historically been excluded under DSD rules.

‘Exclusionary and discriminatory’

Inclusion of trans athletes in sport has been the source of much debate and moral hysteria in recent months, with many states in the US taking steps to ban trans people, including children, from taking part in sports. 

Reaction to the news was swift on social media, with one user saying they “don’t want to see any pride-washing from World Athletics” after excluding trans athletes. 

Another Twitter user described the move as “exclusionary and discriminatory policy based on artificial frenzy”. 

Football v Transphobia campaign lead Natalie Washington said: “The real story with World Athletics is the switch to 2.5nmol/L for athletes with sex variances. 

“It’s a scandal. The trans ban affects no-one at present. The athletes with sex variances ban could affect hundreds, thousands of women.”

In 2022 the International Olympics Committee dropped blanket rules on trans athletes, saying that agter extensive research it no longer deemed testosterone levels the most important factor in determining whether trans women should be allowed to compete.

However, in dropping its own policy, the IOC encouraged individual sports to set their own rules. As a result, some have introduced strict rules effectively banning trans women, such as swimming body FINA.

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6th Street Playhouse Concert Series presents Big Brother & The Holding Company April 16

Big Brother & The Holding Company

Big Brother & The Holding Company are considered, along with the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane, the pioneers of the “San Francisco Sound”. They are also the band that launched the career of Janis Joplin. They are the band that recorded ‘Cheap Thrills’, which has been voted by Rolling Stone as one of the greatest classic rock albums of all time and which, along with their hit version of “Piece of My Heart” is in the Grammy Hall of Fame, and the Library of Congress. Their energy, spirit and their story define a time when music was at the center of a cultural revolution, yet their music is still listened to and loved. 
Today, original members Peter Albin, bass and Dave Getz, drums, who have been playing together for 57 years, continue to bring their original music, the music that they created with the great and legendary Janis Joplin, to audiences all over the world. 
Darby Gould, formally with Jefferson Starship, will be singing the great Janis/Big Brother classics ‘Piece of My Heart’, ‘Summertime”, ‘Down On Me’, ‘Ball and Chain’, ‘Me & Bobby McGee’, ‘Mercedes Benz’ and others. Joined by Tom Finch and David Aguilar on guitars and Nancy Wright on sax, they recreate the songs, the energy, the spirit and the fun that continues to prove they are a band whose music is classic and timeless. Everyone sings along!
Visit the Band’s website at: bbhc.com

Sunday, April 16, 2023 at 8pmin the GK Hardt Theatreat 6th Street Playhouse
6thstreetplayhouse.com/concertseries/big_brother_and_the_holding_company
 
Advanced Reserved Seats $49Day-of-Show $60
 
Enjoy the Music.
TICKETS & INFO

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Disney To Defy DeSantis With Major LGBTQ Conference

The Miami Herald reports:

The Walt Disney Company will host a major conference promoting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights in the workplace in Central Florida this September, gathering executives and professionals from the world’s largest companies in a defiant display of the limits of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ campaign against diversity training. Michael Chamberlain, chief marketing officer for Out & Equal, confirmed the conference would be held at The Walt Disney World Resort, Sept. 11-14.

Dozens of iconic American companies — including Apple, McDonald’s, Uber, Walmart, Hilton, Amazon, Boeing, Cracker Barrel and John Deere — are sponsoring the Out & Equal Workplace summit, which over 5,000 people are expected to attend. Several agencies, including the State Department and the CIA, are listed as government partners and will have booths at the conference.

Read the full article. Disney has also committed to hosting the same convention next year.

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SRJC Student Film Festival Happens March 31

Sonoma County student short films for the 15th annual student film festival to be held on Friday, March 31st, 2023, at 6:00 pm. Select films will be shown to the public and will be followed by a Q & A. 

The Sonoma County Student Film Festival was initiated 15 years ago by the Student Government President, Amanda Swan, and launched at SRJC Petaluma. The Sonoma County Film Festival (SCSFF) encourages students to build academic and professional connections with their peers and community. The goal of the event is to connect and introduce student filmmakers within the community to our own Film Studies and Digital Filmmaking programs here at SRJC.   

This program is the result of collaboration between the SRJC Petaluma Student Life and Communication Studies departments. Featured filmmakers receive passes to attend the Film Fest Petaluma, Sonoma County’s Premiere international short films festival. 

Details and ticket information are studentlife.santarosa.edu/sonoma-county-student-film-festival  

SELECTED FILMS: 

A Man Named Quinn Director: Mandy Miller, Santa Rosa Junior College Concerto Director:  Dylan Scott Campbell, Rancho Cotate High School 
Itchsanity Director: Ben Lohrentz, San Franscisco State University Expectations Director: Andrew Carniglia, Santa Rosa Junior College  
SRJC Theatre Arts’ Journey Through Covid Director: Samuel J. Gleason, Santa Rosa Junior College Bodega Body Director: Johnathan Vargas, University of California Santa Cruz  
Echo Director: Jaden Reiter, Sonoma State University  Lipstick Director: Colin Miller, Santa Rosa Junior College  
Text Me Director: Emma Wilder Meiners, Santa Rosa Junior College  The Good Guys Always Lose Director: Frank Alonso & Christopher Valenzuela, Santa Rosa JC  
Hyperacusis Director: Matthew Tribble, Santa Rosa Junior College  Nieve de Garrafa en Roseland Director:  Bryan Fructuoso Zurita, Santa Rosa Junior College  
Twinkle, Twinkle Director: Mandy Miller, Santa Rosa Junior College  Quit Trippin Director: Zane Boban-Bennett, Santa Rosa Junior College 

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Missouri attorney general bans gender-affirming care in “power grab”

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Missouri’s Attorney General Andrew Bailey (R) has announced an “emergency regulation” that restricts gender-affirming medical care for transgender people in his state.

Trans and civil rights advocates have criticized Bailey’s announcement for spreading misinformation and attempting a “power grab” while his state’s legislature considers a bill restricting gender-affirming care. Though Bailey’s announcement mentions “children,” it doesn’t list any age limits for his emergency regulations, meaning that it could apply to people of all ages.

Republicans sneaked a last-minute amendment into a voting rights bill. One Democrat said the genital examinations would happen “over my dead body.”

In a March 20 statement, Bailey announced restrictions including a requirement that individuals must wait 18 months before being given gender-affirming care.

During this waiting period, they must undergo at least 15 hours of therapy, including “a full psychological or psychiatric assessment” to see if they have autism and to ensure that all their “mental health comorbidities” have been “treated and resolved.” 

“Comorbidities” is a word for other medical conditions that may be present in a patient, and it has become one of anti-transgender activists’ favorite words as they push the unsubstantiated theory that mental health conditions are regularly mistaken for transgender identity by health care professionals.

In a tweet, out journalist Erin Reed noted that a trans person’s mental health comorbidities could often be resolved by receiving gender-affirming care. However, if trans people are blocked from receiving such care until those comorbidities are resolved, those conditions may never get resolved.

Bailey’s announcement said transitioning individuals must be monitored for 15 years afterward to find any adverse effects of their gender-affirming care. Patients must also undergo an annual check-in to ensure that they’re “not experiencing social contagion with respect to the patient’s gender identity.” “Social contagion” is another anti-transgender buzzword that refers to the idea that people just transition because their transgender friends are pressuring them to do so.

Bailey’s emergency regulation would also require transitioning individuals to sign an informed consent document that says the use of hormone replacement therapy and puberty blockers are “not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).”

Susan Halla, president of the trans advocacy group Transparent, said that the FDA hasn’t approved of such treatments because “studies involving young people are rarely conducted,” Salt Lake Public Radio reported.

The informed consent document would also contain statistics suggesting that gender-affirming care is dangerous and unnecessary. These statistics have been debunked, Halla said, and also contradict the suggestions for trans-related care issued by major American medical and psychological associations.

In his announcement, Bailey wrote, “Because gender transition interventions are experimental, they are covered by existing Missouri law governing unfair, deceptive, and unconscionable business practices,” suggesting that his office may prosecute any clinics that don’t follow his new regulations. However, such interventions aren’t “experimental.” Medical practitioners have rendered such care for decades.

“Even Europe recognizes that mutilating children for the sake of a woke, leftist agenda has irreversible consequences,” he added, echoing a right-wing lie that gender-affirming surgeries are commonly performed on children. They aren’t.

Halla said of Bailey’s announcement, “There are many things on it that are blatantly false, or impossible to quantify in some way. One of the items was to make sure that this child is not part of a social contagion. Like, how do you do that?”

Tom Bastian, a spokesman for the Missouri American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said, “These actions do not protect anyone; rather, they put an already marginalized group of children in greater danger.”

Bailey, who is not a doctor, said his emergency regulations will last 30 legislative days or 180 days, whichever is longer, his statement said.

Reed wrote of the announcement, “This is a de facto ban for many trans youth while the Missouri legislature considers a ban in and of itself. This unilateral action is a power grab by the Attorney General, plain and simple.” Bailey is also up for re-election in 2024 and may be pursuing this crusade to shore up conservative votes. 

Meanwhile, Missouri’s Republican-controlled senate approved bans on gender-affirming care and transgender women participating in women’s sports, including at private schools and colleges.

“With [Bailey’s] announcement, I think you’ll see that very few clinicians are willing to risk direct, retaliatory, legal action and or risk to their professional license,” Brandon Barthel, a Kansas City-based endocrinologist who provides care for transgender adults, told The Kansas City Star. “Wouldn’t surprise me if this effectively halts any gender-affirming care on minors in the state of Missouri.”

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Queer Families and All Caregivers Can Help Shape the Future of Home Visiting Services in Sonoma County

North Bay LGBTQI Families is supporting First 5 in outreaching to families and/or caregivers in Sonoma County to seek input regarding how to shape home visiting services to best serve children and families.

Voices from the community are critical for creating an integrated, equitable, coordinated system of support through home visiting. First 5 is inviting parents/family members in our community to participate in this process by completing a survey, attending a focus group, and/or engaging in an interview, where they will have the opportunity to share their parenting experiences and offer ideas and suggestions about how to best serve families in Sonoma County.

You can sign up to participate by submitting the interest form available at this link or via the QR code shown in the flyers above. You can also call (650) 353-2245 and leave a message or email [email protected] with your name, email, and phone number and you will be contacted regarding next steps.

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Out lawmaker files bill to ban hateful foster parents

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California state Sen. Scott Wiener (D) has introduced a bill designed specifically to protect LGBTQ+ youth in foster care. 

S.B. 407 seeks to require that the unique needs of LGBTQ+ youth are considered when assessing the fitness of home. Under the bill, homes in which potential foster parents are not supportive of LGBTQ+ identities would be considered ineligible to foster. 

“My dad grew up watching you as Wonder Woman,” the trans woman wrote. “Unfortunately he isn’t as open minded as you.”

“Every child deserves to be one hundred percent supported at home,” Wiener told the Los Angeles Blade. “S.B. 407 ensures that foster youth receive this essential support by specifically requiring LGBTQ acceptance be considered in the resource family approval (RFA) process, creating standard documentation for the assessment of LGBTQ youth needs, and ensuring more frequent follow-up. These youth are at high risk for homelessness, criminal justice involvement, and mental health issues, and we must do everything in our power to ensure they have a safe home in the state of California.”

The bill states that at least three studies estimate that approximately thirty percent of youth in foster care identify as LGBTQ+ and that these kids “have a right to be placed in out-of-home care according to their gender identity and the right to have caregivers that have received instruction on cultural competency and sensitivity” regarding caring for LGBTQ+ youth.

It also stated that LGBTQ+ foster youth who are currently being placed with families that do not affirm them are experiencing “additional harm and trauma.” It cites the Trevor Project, which found that teens with parental support for their gender identity were 93% less likely to attempt suicide. 

Since 2019, California’s Foster Youth Bill of Rights has included a child’s right to have their LGBTQ+ identity affirmed, as well as the right to keep it private if they want to. But those rights have not yet been applied to the placement process.

“LGBTQ+ foster youth experience violence and other stressors unique to the LGBTQ+ community, including homophobia or transphobia,” Tony Hoang, Executive Director of Equality California, a sponsor of the bill, told the Blade. 

“S.B. 407 protects LGBTQ+ foster youth from being placed in non-affirming homes by creating standard guidelines and criteria that carefully screens potential families. LGBTQ+ foster youth need a healthy environment that supports and embraces them as they explore their identity.”

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Grindr joins major public health push to distribute free at-home HIV tests

The world’s most popular gay dating app, Grindr, is participating in a nationwide effort to distribute free at-home HIV testing kits to populations most affected by the virus. 

“If you’ve got a way that you are testing, and it’s really working for you, then that’s great, and you should stick with that,” Jack Harrison-Quintana, director of the app’s social justice division, Grindr for Equality, told NBC News. “If you don’t, this is an additional way for you to get tested in a way that’s just about as easy as doing an at-home Covid test.” 

Grindr, which reports 12 million monthly active users worldwide, is partnering with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Emory University and several other public health organizations and corporations on the Together TakeMeHome campaign, which launched Tuesday. Supported by a $41 million grant from the CDC, the program will provide up to 1 million HIV self-tests over five years, at no cost for individuals 

The program, according to a statement released by Emory, was initiated in response to a decline in the number of HIV testsadministered nationwide during the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Grindr’s primary role in the effort is to allow users in the U.S. and Puerto Rico to easily order an at-home HIV test directly from the app. Starting Tuesday afternoon, Grindr users will see a “Free HIV Home Test” button in the app’s main menu. Those who click will be redirected out of the app to the Together TakeMeHome site, where an at-home HIV test can be ordered. 

The test kit consists of an FDA-approved OraQuick device that uses mouth swabs and takes 20 minutes to provide a result. The app will also allow users to set “Testing Reminders” where they can set up a three- or six-month reminder for HIV testing.  

Dr. Robyn Neblett, the acting director of the CDC’s Division of HIV Prevention, said these at-home tests give people “the power to test on their own terms.”

“Removing barriers to testing like stigma, discrimination, and access to physical services improves health, advances health equity, and moves our nation closer to ending the HIV epidemic,” Neblett said in a statement.

The CDC recommends those ages 13 to 64 get tested for HIV at least once as part of routine health care. Those with certain risk factors — including men who have sex with men — should get tested at least once a year. 

The Together TakeMeHome program is available to anyone in the U.S. and Puerto Rico over the age of 17, and each individual can order up to two kits every 90 days. The focus of the program, however, will be on U.S. populations disproportionately affected by HIV, including cisgender men who have sex with men, transgender people and Black cisgender women. 

Men who have sex with men account for 70% of new cases of HIV in the U.S., according to the CDC. Whites in this demographiccomprised 15% of the 34,800 HIV transmissions in 2019, while the much smaller populations of their Black and Latino peers comprised a respective 26% and 23% of new cases.

According to an investigation published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine in 2019, the distribution of HIV self-tests provides “a worthwhile mechanism to increase awareness of HIV infection” and prevents transmission among men who have sex with men.

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Uganda passes a law making it a crime to identify as LGBTQ

Uganda’s parliament passed a law on Tuesday making it a crime to identify as LGBTQ, handing authorities broad powers to target gay Ugandans who already face legal discrimination and mob violence.

More than 30 African countries, including Uganda, already ban same-sex relations. The new law appears to be the first to outlaw merely identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ), according to rights group Human Rights Watch.

In addition to same-sex intercourse, the law bans promoting and abetting homosexuality as well as conspiracy to engage in homosexuality.

Violations under the law draw severe penalties, including death for so-called aggravated homosexuality and life in prison for gay sex. Aggravated homosexuality involves gay sex with people under the age of 18 or when the perpetrator is HIV positive, among other categories, according to the law.

The legislation will be sent to President Yoweri Museveni to be signed into law.

Frank Mugisha, a prominent Ugandan LGBTQ activist denounced the legislation as draconian.

“This law is very extreme and draconian … it criminalizes being an LGBTQ person, but also they are trying to erase the entire existence of any LGBTQ Ugandan,” he said.

Museveni has not commented on the current proposal but he has long opposed LGBTQ rights and signed an anti-LGBTQ law in 2013 that Western countries condemned before a domestic court struck it down on procedural grounds.

Supporters of the new law say it is needed to punish a broader array of LGBTQ activities, which they say threaten traditional values in the conservative and religious East African nation.

“Our creator God is happy (about) what is happening … I support the bill to protect the future of our children,” lawmaker David Bahati said during debate on the bill.

“This is about the sovereignty of our nation, nobody should blackmail us, nobody should intimidate us.”

In recent weeks, Uganda authorities have cracked down on LGBTQ people after religious leaders and politicians alleged students were being recruited into homosexuality in schools.

This month, authorities arrested a secondary school teacher in the eastern district of Jinja over accusations of “grooming of young girls into unnatural sex practices”.

She was subsequently charged with gross indecency and is in prison awaiting trial.

The police said on Monday they had arrested six people accused of running a network that was “actively involved in the grooming of young boys into acts of sodomy.”

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Arkansas restricts school bathroom use by transgender people

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Tuesday signed a law prohibiting transgender people at public schools from using the restroom that matches their gender identity, the first of several states expected to enact such bans this year amid a flood of bills nationwide targeting the trans community.

The bill signed by the Republican governor makes Arkansas the fourth state to place such restrictions at public schools, and it comes as bills in Idaho and Iowa also await their governor’s signature. And it might be followed by an even stricter Arkansas bill criminalizing transgender adults using public restrooms that match their gender identity.

Arkansas’ law, which won’t take effect until later this summer, applies to multi-person restrooms and locker rooms at public schools and charter schools serving prekindergarten through 12th grade. The majority-Republican Legislature gave final approval to the bill last week.

“The Governor has said she will sign laws that focus on protecting and educating our kids, not indoctrinating them and believes our schools are no place for the radical left’s woke agenda,” Alexa Henning, Sanders’ spokesperson, said in a statement. “Arkansas isn’t going to rewrite the rules of biology just to please a handful of far-left advocates.”

Similar laws have been enacted in Alabama, Oklahoma and Tennessee, although lawsuits have been filed challenging the Oklahoma and Tennessee restrictions.

Proposals to restrict transgender people using the restroom of their choice have seen a resurgence this year, six years after North Carolina repealed its bathroom law in the wake of widespread protests and boycotts. More than two dozen bathroom bills have been filed in 17 states, according to the Human Rights Campaign.

“They’re singling out transgender people for no other reason than dislike, disapproval and misunderstanding of who transgender youth are,” said Paul Castillo, senior counsel and students’ rights strategist for Lambda Legal. “And the entire school population suffers as a result of these types of bills, particularly schools and teachers and administrators who are dealing with real problems and need to focus on creating a welcome environment for every student.”

The proposals are among a record number of bills filed to restrict the rights of transgender people by limiting or banning gender-affirming care for minors, banning transgender girls from school sports and restricting drag shows. Transgender people have also faced increasingly hostile rhetoric at statehouses.

Another bill pending in Arkansas goes even further than the North Carolina law by imposing criminal penalties. That proposal would allow someone to be charged with misdemeanor sexual indecency with a child if they use a public restroom or changing room of the opposite sex when a minor is present.

“It’s a flagrant message from them that they refuse to respect (transgender people’s) rights and humanity, to respect Arkansans’ rights and humanity,” said Holly Dickson, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas.

The new Arkansas law requires schools to provide reasonable accommodations, including single-person restrooms. Superintendents, principals and teachers who violate the prohibition could face fines of at least $1,000 from a state panel, and parents could also file private lawsuits to enforce the measure.

“Each child in our schools has a right to privacy and to feel safe and to feel comfortable in the bathroom they need to go to,” Republican Rep. Mary Bentley, the bill’s sponsor, told lawmakers earlier this year.

But Clayton Crockett, the father of a transgender child, described to lawmakers earlier this year how a similar policy adopted at his daughter’s school made her feel further marginalized.

“She feels targeted, she feels discriminated against, she feels bullied, she feels singled out,” Crockett said at a House panel hearing on the bill in January.

Opponents have also complained the legislation doesn’t provide funding for schools that may need to build single-person restrooms to provide reasonable accommodations.

At least two federal appeals courts have upheld transgender students’ rights to use the bathroom corresponding with their gender identity. Supporters of the bill, however, have cited a federal appeals court ruling upholding a similar policy at a Florida school district last year.

The Arkansas measure won’t take effect until 90 days after the Legislature adjourns this year’s session, which isn’t expected to happen until next month at the earliest.

Sanders signed the bill a week after she approved legislation making it easier to sue providers of gender-affirming care to minors. That law, which also doesn’t take effect until this summer, is an effort to effectively reinstate a ban on such care for minors that’s been blocked by a federal judge.

Sanders earlier this month also signed a wide-ranging education bill that prohibits classroom instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation before 5th grade. The restriction is similar to a Florida measure that critics have called the “Don’t Say Gay” law.

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