Trans Democrat Sarah McBride is set to make history as the first out transgender state senator ever elected in the United States, after winning the state legislative primary in Delaware.
McBride, a trailblazing trans activist, national press secretary for Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and author of the book Tomorrow Will Be Different: Love, Loss, and the Fight for Trans Equality, already became the first trans person to speak at a major party convention when in 2016 she addressed the Democrat National Convention.Read More
But now she is set to make history again.
Only four openly trans people have ever been elected to state legislature in the US, but McBride is set to become the first openly trans person to be elected state senator in the nation’s history.
McBride triumphed spectacularly over her opponent Joseph McCole in Tuesday’s primary (15 September), with 91 per cent of the votes.
Steve Washington was unopposed for the Republican nomination and McBride will face him in November’s election, but as the state and district are strongly Democratic it is almost certain that she will win.
As the results came in, McBride wrote on Twitter: “Tonight sends a powerful signal that candidates like me can win.
“Everyone deserves to see themselves in government, to follow their dreams, and to be accepted by their community.
“I will never take for granted the honuor of carrying that mantle.”
Mayor Annise Parker, president and CEO of the LGBTQ Victory Fund, which backed McBride’s campaign, said in a statement: “Sarah’s primary win shatters another lavender ceiling in our movement to build LGBT+ political power and her victory will inspire more transgender people to run for elected office.
“At a time when the Trump administration, cynical politicians and too many state legislatures are attempting to use trans people as political weapons, Sarah’s win is a powerful reminder that voters are increasingly rejecting the politics of bigotry in favour of candidates who stand for equality.
“Three years ago there were zero out trans state legislators anywhere in the country, but each win reinvigorates a virtuous cycle that familiarises voters with trans people and encourages more trans people to run.
“We are optimistic we can double the number of trans state legislators in 2020 – from four to at least eight – and their impact will be felt well-beyond the boundaries of their districts.”
HRC president Alphonso David celebrated her win, saying: “Sarah McBride is one of the most impressive people I have had the privilege to meet.
“From her brilliant policy expertise to her ability to inspire and empathise, Sarah is the epitome of what can make an elected official great… Sarah is no stranger to making history.
“As the first transgender speaker at a national party convention, Sarah spoke for a community long ignored and pushed to the sidelines… Next year, as the first transgender state senator in our nation, Sarah will show that any child can achieve their dream, no matter their gender identity or sexual orientation.
“While we will be sad to lose her as a staff member at the Human Rights Campaign, we are overjoyed to have been a piece of her story. Congratulations Sarah.”
U.S. Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who joined major decisions for LGBTQ rights on the bench and was known as the “Notorious RBG” in progressive circles, has died at age 87, the Washington Blade has confirmed.
“Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died this evening surrounded by her family at her home in Washington, D.C., due to complications of metastatic pancreas cancer,” a Supreme Court spokesperson said in a statement Friday evening.
Rea Carey, executive director of the National LGBTQ Task Force, said in a statement upon Ginsburg’s passing she was “a giant of justice, a champion for equality and progress.”
“Justice Ginsburg was an American hero and pioneer, a voice for so many marginalized people, leaving behind a legacy of courage, tenacity and historic impact in creating a better country and a better world for all of us,” Carey said. “We are all so grateful for all Justice Ginsburg has done for LGBTQ people, for women, for our ability to control our own bodies, for all that seek to move freedom forward in this country.”
Ginsburg’s death will light a bonfire in an already tumultuous political season, as emotions are heated and civil unrest — even violence — has gripped the country ahead of the 2020 presidential election. The fate of Ginsburg’s seat, who was strong proponent of abortion rights, will be seen as key to deciding whether or not abortion will remain legal in the United States.
With a seat vacant on the Supreme Court, the responsibility falls to the president of the United States to appoint a replacement who will be subject to Senate confirmation. For the time being that is Trump, who would have a Republican-controlled Senate to evaluate his pick before the election.
Senate Majority Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), flip-flopping from rules he set in 2016 when he refused to allow a vote on the confirmation of Merrick Garland, said in a statement late Friday the situation is different from 2020 and Trump’s pick will get a vote..
“Americans reelected our majority in 2016 and expanded it in 2018 because we pledged to work with President Trump and support his agenda, particularly his outstanding appointments to the federal judiciary,” McConnell said. “Once again, we will keep our promise. President Trump’s nominee will receive a vote on the floor of the United States Senate.”
When conservative justice Antonin Scalia died in 2016, McConnell struck a different tune, saying he’d let the people speak their voice in the presidential election rather allow consideration of President Obama’s nominee Merrick Garland.
“This vacancy should not be filled,” McConnell said at the time. “The American people should have their say on this issue, so let’s give them a voice. Let’s let the American people decide.”
Trump has recently updated his list of potential Supreme Court picks, which include anti-LGBTQ choices such as U.S. Circuit Judge Kyle Duncan and James Ho of the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, as well as Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.).
‘A force for good’
Appointed by former President Bill Clinton and confirmed in 1993, Ginsburg joined the majority for every decision for LGBTQ right from the Supreme Court.
Alphonso David, president of Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement Ginsburg was “a force for good — a force for bringing this country closer to delivering on its promise of equality for all.”
“Her decades of work helped create many of the foundational arguments for gender equality in the United States, and her decisions from the bench demonstrated her commitment to full LGBTQ equality,” David said. “She was and will remain an inspiration to young people everywhere, a pop culture icon as the Notorious RBG and a giant in the fight for a more just nation for all. We extend our deepest condolences to her family and loved ones.”
Among the rulings she joined was Romer v. Evans in 1996, which struck down Colorado’s anti-gay Amendment 2, Lawrence v. Texas in 2003, which struck down state laws criminalizing sodomy. Both decisions were early indications the nation was beginning to head into a different direction to accept.
Ginsburg also joined rulings that advanced same-sex marriage, including Windsor v. United States in 2013, which struck down the anti-gay Defense of Marriage Act; Hollingsworth v. Perry in 2013, which restored marriage equality to California after Proposition 8; and Obergefell v. Hodges, which struck down state bans on same-sex marriage and extended full marriage equality throughout the country.
For each of these rulings on marriage, justices were split 5-4, so Ginsburg weren’t on the court, the decisions may not have come out in favor of the LGBTQ community.
More recently, Ginsburg joined the decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, which found anti-LGBTQ discrimination is a form of sex discrimination, thus illegal under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. The broad ruling grants protections to LGBTQ people wherever there are laws against sex discrimination, including employment, housing, health care and education.
Shannon Minter, legal director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights, said although former U.S. Associate Anthony Kennedy and U.S. Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch were the authors of major LGBTQ rights from the Supreme Court, Ginsburg was “the most important voice for LGBT people.”
“As a civil rights advocate, she litigated and won the groundbreaking cases that established strong constitutional protections for women,” Minter said. “As a Supreme Court justice, she authored key sex discrimination decisions that paved the way for the Court’s embrace of equality for same-sex couples in Obergefell and for LGBT workers in Bostock. She was our champion and the architect of an expansive vision of gender equality that was broad and capacious enough to include LGBT people. Without her influence and legacy, none of those landmark decisions would have been possible.”
Ginsburg herself became the first Supreme Court justice to conduct a same-sex wedding, marrying Kennedy Center President Michael Kaiser and economist John Roberts in 2013.
Kevin Jennings, CEO of Lambda Legal, said in a statement Ginsburg was an “irreplaceable giant” on the Supreme Court.
“Throughout her entire legal career, including her 27 years on the Supreme Court, Justice Ginsburg fought for the rights of those on the margins,” Jennings said. “From her time as a lawyer with the ACLU Women’s Rights Project to her years on the Supreme Court, Justice Ginsburg spoke with a clear and strong voice against inequality and gender discrimination. A long-standing ally of the LGBTQ community, her unwavering support, both on and off the bench, was a testament to her commitment to equality for all people.”
Jamie R. Grosshans, the last-minute choice of Gov. Ron DeSantis to the Florida Supreme Court, is an anti-abortion defender who has been active in a number of Christian legal groups, including a powerful national organization whose mission is to “spread the Gospel by transforming the legal system.”
Grosshans, from the Orlando suburb of Winter Garden, was named Florida’s seventh justice Monday, filling the vacancy created last year when President Trump named two of DeSantis’ previous appointees, Barbara Lagoa and Robert Luck, to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit.
She left out some details on her application: specifically her membership in the Alliance Defending Freedom and her 2011 work with Orlando attorney John Stemberger to prevent a young woman from having an abortion.
Stemberger, you may recall, once declared that he would be willing to die to stop same-sex marriage. Hit the link for much more.
A lesbian elected official in North Dakota delivered an impassioned speech in defense of her municipality’s decision to fly a rainbow flag outside City Hall. Her heated remarks followed several bigoted comments from townspeople angered over the LGBTQ pride symbol’s public display.
“I am proudly the first openly elected lesbian in North Dakota, so that is why I’m not paying any heed to your crap,” Evans said Sept. 8 at a City Council meeting in Minot, which went viral after it was posted online. “I live in Minot. I am a taxpayer. I am a person. I get to see myself represented on that flagpole.
“This city is big enough for all of us. Me having a flag flying doesn’t take away anything from your rights and freedoms,” Evans continued. “I’m sorry it doesn’t make you feel comfortable, but we’re here, we’re queer, and we’re not going away.”
The flag — which was approved by the mayor after a local LGBTQ group, Magic City Equality, asked for it be flown — was intended to debut during LGBTQ Pride Month in June, but it was delayed until Sept. 2 because of the coronavirus pandemic, according to local news reports. The controversy surrounding the flag resulted in extra security at last week’s council meeting, according to NBC affiliate KFYR.
A video of the full council meeting that was shared on the city’s YouTube page shows several residents making homophobic and bigoted remarks.
One man claimed that the “LGBT flag represents the genitals of certain Americans,” while another said he’d be “embarrassed” to explain the flag’s meaning to children. Another resident said flying the flag could lead to pedophiles’ being “glorified,” while a woman said it’s the kind of thing that leads to “looting, riots and destruction.” Another woman said it was “a dishonest move” for Evans, who was elected this year, not to have explicitly made it known that she was a lesbian during her campaign.
Evans, who grew up in Minot, told KXMB-TV in June that she left the city three decades ago because she didn’t feel welcome because of her sexual orientation. She said she returned in 2017 and finds Minot, a town of less than 50,000 people, to be much more accepting now.
After she was elected, Evans said she planned to advocate for a municipal ordinance forbidding LGBTQ discrimination in public accommodations. She also said she wanted to make the city more accessible for people with disabilities, as she herself has multiple sclerosis.
The U.S. Department of Education is threatening to withhold some federal funding from Connecticut school districts if they follow a state policy that allows transgender girls to compete as girls in high school sports.
In response to a complaint filed last year by several cisgender female track athletes who argued that two transgender female runners had an unfair physical advantage, the federal agency’s office for civil rights determined in May that Connecticut’s policy violates the civil rights of athletes who are not transgender.
School districts including New Haven, as well as the Capitol Region Education Council, were asked around the beginning of September to sign a document to receive grants from a program for magnet schools that states they will “not participate in any interscholastic sporting events” unless the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference changes its policy on transgender athletes.
The Federal Magnet Schools Assistance Program Grants are worth about $3 million a year to New Haven and the education council.
The athletic conference has said its policy is designed to comply with a state law that requires all students to be treated as the gender with which they identify.
But the U.S. Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights argues the policy violates the civil rights of girls who are not transgender under Title IX, the federal law that guarantees equal opportunities in education.
The department did not immediately respond Thursday to a request for comment.
New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker said his city could lose the final two years of funding for its five-year magnet school grant federal when the federal fiscal year ends this month.
“It would basically mean that New Haven schoolchildren would have less access to educational opportunities,” he said. “There are teachers and administrative staff that support our program that are fully funded by this grant.”
He and Timothy Sullivan Jr., the superintendent of schools for the education council, said they have no intention of signing the document.
“It is unconscionable that the federal government would threaten to take away funds that support Hartford area children during a pandemic, and we will fight to keep the money in our community,” he said. “However, no amount of money will deter us from accepting all children for who they are and providing equitable access to programs and services.
The state’s congressional delegation also sent a letter Thursday to Kimberly Richey, the U.S. Education Department’s acting assistant secretary for civil rights, calling the department’s action “an unprecedented overreach.”
“This case is anything but normal, and it is clear that OCR is unwilling to enter conversations with (grant) recipients, even to discuss reasonable options such as waiting until the court ruling on CIAC’s policy,” the delegation wrote.
The dispute over transgender participation in Connecticut high school sports is the subject of a federal lawsuit, filed in February by cisgender track athletes who argue they were denied championships and potential college scholarship opportunities as the result of having to compete against two transgender girls.
The ACLU of Connecticut, which is representing the transgender athletes, said the Trump administration is trying to pressure schools into denying transgender athletes an opportunity to compete.
“It’s incredibly mean spirited,” said Dan Barrett, the ACLU of Connecticut’s legal director. Connecticut Attorney General William Tong declined to say how the state will respond but said he is working with the school districts to secure their magnet school funding.
“Neither federal law nor Connecticut law tolerates discrimination against transgender students,” he said. “Transgender girls are girls, and the Office of the Attorney General will continue to protect every woman and girl in this state against discrimination.
Trans and non-binary people should be able to self-declare their legal gender without the need for a medical diagnosis, says the British Medical Association.
The trade union, which is the professional association of doctors in the UK, passed the historic motion at its Annual Representatives Meeting (ARM) meeting.
The BMA motion declares the union supports: self-declaration of gender for trans and non-binary people, continued access to gender-related healthcare for under-18s, trans people accessing healthcare in settings “appropriate to their gender identity”, ensuring trans healthcare workers can access facilities of the gender they identify as, and ensuring all trans people can access gendered spaces in line with their gender identity.
“We as doctors are in a unique position, because we’re asked to take an active role in people’s transitions,” said Dr Grace Allport, who spoke in favour of the motion at the BMA’s virtual ARM yesterday.
“I hope the BMA ruling gets doctors to reflect on what we’re trying to do here,” she added. “And I hope GPs who are concerned about providing treatment like hormones will see that they have the backing of the medical community at large.”
Currently, adult trans men and women who want to have their gender legally recognised – a process governed by the 2004 Gender Recognition Act (GRA) and important for administrative purposes such as taxes, pensions and marriages – must have a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria.
Reforming the GRA and removing the need for trans people to have a medical diagnosis to get their gender legally recognised was suggested by then-prime minister Theresa May in 2017.
But despite a huge public consultation on potential reforms in 2018, and leaked reports earlier this year that suggested 70 per cent of the more than 100,000 people who responded to the public consultation back demedicalising the gender recognition process in the UK, the Conservative government has yet to publish the results or announce its plans for reforming the GRA.
Allport, who authored the BMA motion in favour of trans and non-binary people self-declaring their gender, told PinkNews that it was written with the leaked reports about GRA reform and equalities chief Liz Truss’ comments about trans healthcare in mind.
“As doctors, it’s really important that we take a stand,” she said. “The government shouldn’t be picking and choosing what healthcare is appropriate.”
The heated public debate over whether trans and non-binary people should be allowed to self-declare their gender (a system in place in dozens of other countries including Ireland, Malta and Argentina) had put doctors in a “weird position where we’re expected to define what is a valid transition”, Allport added.
“We end up as gatekeepers, not just of healthcare but of what is ‘male’ and ‘female’,” she continued. “It doesn’t feel like a role doctors should be doing – it doesn’t feel like something anyone should be doing for anyone else.”
An immigration judge on Monday granted asylum to a lesbian woman from Cuba who has been in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody for 10 months.
Judge Pedro J. Espina, who is based in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, via videoconference granted asylum to Yanelkys Moreno Agramonte, 36, based on the harassment and discrimination she suffered in Cuba because of her sexual orientation. Espina said Moreno would face future persecution if she were to return to her country.
Moreno, in an article the Washington Blade published on June 18, said her family and neighbors never accepted her. Moreno also said Cuba’s National Revolutionary Police in Zulueta, a small town in the center of the country where she lived with her girlfriend, Dayana Rodríguez González, 31, subjected her to homophobic treatment.
The context of rights for the LGBTQ community on the island is extremely limited, because same-sex couples cannot legally marry and they do not have the right to adoption. Cuba’s Labor Code does not protect transgender people and only those who undergo sex-reassignment surgery can change their gender and photo on their identity document, a process that can take several months.
Rodríguez and Moreno entered the U.S. together on Nov. 3, 2019, through a port of entry in El Paso, Texas, but were separated as soon as they began the asylum process.
Rodriguez was released from the El Paso Service Processing Center on Feb. 4, 2020, on parole and a $7,500 bond. Moreno was transferred to the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Basile, La., where she remained until her final immigration hearing.
Rodríguez, who now lives in Arizona, in a message she sent to the Blade said she was very happy when Moreno called her and told her she had won her case.
“I felt a lot of emotion in my heart,” Rodríguez declared. “I couldn’t help it. I still can’t stop crying. We will be together again soon.”
Liza Doubossarskaia, a legal assistant for Immigration Equality, which assisted Moreno with her parole petitions, welcomed the decision with joy.
“We are all extremely happy for Yanelkys and Dayana,” said Doubossarskaia. “It has been a difficult journey for her, but fortunately it has a happy conclusion.”
Moreno won asylum without legal representation and she will be released soon, according to Rodríguez. who added her girlfriend will first move to Houston and then meet her again after 10 months of forced separation.
In 2019, there were slightly fewer than 1 million same-sex couple households in the U.S., and a majority of those couples were married, according to new figures the U.S. Census Bureau released Thursday.
Of the 980,000 same-sex couple households, 58% were married couples and 42% were unmarried partners, according to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey.
There were slightly more female couple households than male couple households.
The U.S. had 122 million households in 2019. The number of gays and lesbian households in the U.S. is greater than 980,000 since that figure only reflected same-sex couples living together.
The 2019 American Community Survey for the first time included updated relationship categories that better captured the characteristics and number of same-sex households in the U.S. than in years past.
Since 2014, the year before the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same sex marriage across the U.S., the number of married same-sex households has increased by almost 70%, rising to 568,110 couples.
According to the survey, same-sex married households were more likely to be in the workforce than opposite-sex married households, 84.6% compared to 80.4%.
However, there was a difference between gay and lesbian couples. Married women in same-sex households were much more likely to be working than married women in opposite-sex households, but the reverse was true for married men in same-sex households. They were less likely to be working than married men in opposite-sex households, according to the Census Bureau.
The District of Columbia had the greatest concentration of same-sex households, at 2.4% of households, followed by Delaware (1.3%), Oregon (1.2%), Massachusetts (1.2%) and Washington State (1.1%).
In the survey, the average age of a respondent in a same-sex marriage was 48, and the average age of the spouse was 47. Of those who responded to the survey as being in a same-sex married household, 82% identified as white, almost 7% identified themselves as Black and almost 4% were Asian. More than 13% were Hispanic.
More than 16% of same-sex married households were interracial couples, double the rate for opposite-sex married couples.
Same-sex married couples had a higher median income than opposite-sex married couples, $107,210 compared to $96,932. In same-sex marriages, male couples earned more than female couples, $123,646 versus $87,690.
An incumbent Democratic lawmaker who opposed equal marriage has been defeated by a gay drag queen.
Earl Jaques Jr, who has sat in the Delaware House of Representatives since 2009, lost out to progressive challenger Eric Morrison – a popular local drag queen known who performs as Anita Mann.Read Morex
Morrison claimed 61.13 per cent of the vote in Tuesday’s Democratic primary for house district 27, while, Jaques received just 38.87 per cent.
Drag queen wins in a landslide despite smears on campaign trail
Jaques had told local media: “That is so far off-base for our district, it’s unbelievable. You wonder what the point is. You can have fundraisers, I don’t care about that. But dressing in drag? Really?”
He had claimed: “I’m not sure he represents the people who attend those places of religion [in the area]. If he’s actually having a fundraiser in drag, I don’t think those churches would endorse that.”
Happily, it turns out that more than 60 per cent of Democratic voters have no issue with drag queens – but do take some issue with bigotry.
As Morrison’s campaign noted, the lawmaker “voted against same-sex marriage in 2013, and refused to vote yes or no on banning the barbaric practice of conversion therapy for Delaware’s LGBT minors in 2013.”
Morrison is believed to be the first out gay man to serve on Delaware’s General Assembly.
Eric Morrison thanks supporters after resounding primary win
In a Facebook post, he wrote: “This morning, I am overwhelmed with emotions—but most of all with gratitude. Thank you to our incredible core team members. Thank you to our wonderful volunteers who knocked doors, made calls, stuffed envelopes, attended events, greeted voters at the polls, delivered yard signs and volunteer ‘goody bags,’ and many other important tasks.
“Thank you to our donors who believe that political candidates and elected officials can and should be funded by the people. Thank you to the nine people-focused activist organisations that endorsed us. Thank you to anyone who did anything to support our campaign in the biggest or smallest of ways.”
He added: “This isn’t over! Before we know it, the general election will be here on November 3, and we face two candidates—a Republican and a libertarian. But for today, we celebrate and we THANK YOU for your support. I look forward to taking every remaining step of this exciting journey with you.”
McBride, who was the first trans person to speak at a major party conventionin 2016 when she addressed the Democrat National Convention, claimed a stunning 91 per cent of the votes in the primary, paving the way for her anticipated victory in the heavily-Democratic district in November.
The Washington Blade, the nation’s oldest LGBTQ newspaper, today announced it has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over its refusal to turn over emails related to a rule change allowing federal contractors to discriminate against LGBTQ workers.
The Blade filed a FOIA request for emails within the Department of Labor related to the Trump administration’s proposed rule change allowing a religious exemption in employment non-discrimination requirements for federal contractors. The request sought to shed light on the motivation behind the proposal and whether it was to enable anti-LGBTQ discrimination in the name of religious freedom. The Department has so far ignored the FOIA request, forcing today’s action after more than a year of waiting.
“We’re committed to our mission of holding the Trump administration accountable for its actions affecting LGBTQ people and marginalized communities,” said Chris Johnson, Washington Blade White House reporter. “Our readers deserve to know the motivation for the Department of Labor’s proposal to undercut President Obama’s 2014 executive order, which brought long-sought protections for LGBTQ people working for federal contractors.”
The suit was filed by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, which is representing the Blade in the case.
“We are glad to be representing the Washington Blade as it seeks access to records that could shed light on whether government officials took steps to undermine regulations intended to protect LGBTQ individuals from employment discrimination. Federal FOIA can only promote greater transparency and accountability if agencies comply with their statutory obligations to release information, which we fully expect the Department of Labor to do in this case.”
“This is another example of the Trump administration obfuscating and shirking its responsibilities to transparency,” said Blade editor Kevin Naff. “Thank you to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press for joining us in this effort to hold the administration accountable and to get answers to these important questions.”