Seventy-three countries fear they could run out of antiretroviral (ARV) medications, which prevent the transmission of HIV, because of the coronavirus pandemic, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
A new WHO survey released ahead of the biannual International AIDS Society’s conference found that 24 countries currently had either supply problems or critically low stocks of the anti-HIV medications because of COVID-19.
In the 24 countries experiencing shortages, around 8.3 million people are using ARV medications.
Suppliers failing to deliver the medication, shut downs of air and land transport and limited access to healthcare services were listed as reasons for short supply in the survey.
WHO director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at the International AIDS Society’s press conference: “WHO is deeply concerned about the impact of COVID-19 on the global response to HIV… While tackling COVID-19 is a global priority we must not turn our backs on the 38 million people living with HIV and the millions more at risk of infection.
“Now is the time to redouble our efforts, build national unity and global solidarity to tackle both the coronavirus pandemic and diseases like HIV.”
According to data released by UNAIDS and WHO, antiretroviral drugs saved 15 million lives between 2000 and 2019.
A UNAIDS and WHO modelling exercise in May, 2020, predicted that six months of disruption in accessing the HIV drugs could lead to a doubling of AIDS-related deaths in sub-Saharan Africa in 2020 alone.
Ghebreyesus said: “The disruptions in access to life-saving commodities and services come at a critical moment as progress in the global response to HIV stalls.
“In 2018 and 2019, the number of new HIV infections stabilised at 1.7 million annually and there was only a modest reduction in AIDS-related deaths.
“Despite steady advances in scaling up HIV treatment coverage to more than 25 million people, the ’90-90-90′ targets set for 2020 will not be reached.
“Progress is stalling because HIV prevention and testing services are not reaching the groups that need them most.”
Those groups, he said, included “men who have sex with men, sex workers, transgender people, people who inject drugs and prisoners”.
He added that WHO has suggested all countries prescribe ARV medications for longer periods of time, up to six months, during the COVID-19 pandemic “while shoring up the supply chain for all medicines”.
We would like to thank all of the members of the Marin County Board of Supervisors for two important and recent actions. On June 2, the Board approved a Resolution declaring June as LGBTQ+ Pride month, and restating their commitment to assuring policies and funding to address the needs of the community. The resolution called for flying the Pride Flag for the entire month of June over seven different County buildings – a first! Special thanks go to Board President Katie Rice for her leadership on the Resolution and the logistics of installing Pride Flags during the month.
On June 23, the Board approved a $10,000 grant to support a new program at The Spahr Center to serve LGBTQ seniors. This outreach effort is intended to identify and support seniors living in nursing homes, residential care and assisted living to reduce isolation and provide social support. It follows on from another $10,000 grant recently provided by the County’s Adult & Aging Services agency to conduct phone outreach to 160 senior Spahr Center clients to check on their welfare during the Covid-19 emergency.
We are very grateful to the Board for making this grant from its Non-Profit Community Partner Program. The Board received $2.6 million in requests for $700,000 in funding, making it a real honor to be supported. Special thanks to Supervisor Damon Connolly for his advocacy on behalf of The Spahr Center’s request.
The Spahr Center Starts a New Program to Provide Medications to its HIV-Positive Clients!
A federal program called the 340B Drug Pricing Program permits certain non-profit organizations to purchase medications at the lowest available price for their clients. The Spahr Center was recently approved to offer this service to 140 eligible clients of the agency. To do so, we have partnered with Mission Wellness Pharmacy in San Francisco, an expert on 340B that provides a very high level of service to its clients. This includes packaging medications in easy to use daily pill packs and delivery by mail, courier or pick up at The Spahr Center’s office. 340 B medications will be billed to our clients’ insurers, and revenue from the program will be used to expand our HIV services. In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, our HIV clients are experiencing increasing issues with housing, financial and food insecurity. 340B revenue will enable The Spahr Center to address these urgent needs. For more information about participating in the program, please email [email protected].
Marin County’s Health and Human Services Agency Makes a Strong Statement About Non-Discrimination in Health Care Services
In June, the Trump administration reversed an Obama-era rule implementing the Affordable Care Act which prohibited discrimination against LGBTQ people in the provision of health care services. The Trump action was especially targeted at transgender individuals to deny them a range of services, including hormone treatments and gender confirmation surgeries.
On June 24, Benita McLarin, Marin County’s Director of Health & Human Services, issued a strong response to the Trump rule.
“The Marin County Health & Human Services Department condemns this action as a step backwards in advancing the Marin HHS vision that All in Marin Flourish. Marin HHS is charged with protecting the health and well-being of all County residents and supports protection of LGBTQ+ persons against discrimination in the delivery of healthcare. We urge the Trump Administration to reconsider this decision that will lead to adverse health outcomes for the LGBTQ community for years to come.”
The Spahr Center is enormously grateful to Director McLarin and Jei Africa, Director of Behavioral Health & Recovery Services, a division of HHS, for their leadership. We view it as critical that Marin County officials make clear that LGBTQ+ people, and people living with and affected by HIV, will receive equal treatment under local laws and be treated with dignity and respect in all of its services. Our thanks for this declaration of sound policy.
A Recording is Available of the Spahr Center’s LGBTQ+ Pride Event
On June 18, The Spahr Center held a well-attended LGBTQ+ Pride event on Zoom. We honored our Founder and namesake Janie Spahr, who was the highest vote-getter to be Grand Marshall of the San Francisco Pride Parade. And we heard from two brilliant and moving panels of speakers. The first panel discussed the history of LGBTQ+ activism in Marin County, and told important stories about pivotal events in the history of both the Marin AIDS Project and Spectrum LGBTQ Center, which merged five years ago to form The Spahr Center. This panel included Janie Spahr, Jayne Schabel, Jim Tomlinson, Paula Pilecki and Beth Lillard. Our second panel of participants in The Spahr Center’s Youth Program discussed their vision and aspirations for the future of LGBTQ+ activism in Marin County and nationally. Their presentation was galvanizing for its calls to genuinely address the intersection of LGBTQ+ and racial issues, and it firmly established that a new generation of queer activists will assure greater equity and progress in our movement for social justice. Thank you to Alex Marshall, Grace Marshall, Harris Neal, and Simon Darrow for participating in this discussion. Click here to watch the video! The password is SpahrPride20!
Marin Rallies Against Transphobia and Anti-Black Racism
On Saturday, June 20, two Marin residents severely verbally harassed both Jasper Lauter, a 17 year old transgender person and a group of young people holding a bake sale in support of Black Lives Matter in downtown Fairfax. In response, The Spahr Center’s Director of Youth Programs, Fel Agrelius, and our Youth Advocacy Coalition, organized a spirited rally attended by 75 people on June 25, also in Fairfax. Speakers demanded an end to discrimination and violence against transgender people, advocated for concrete actions in response to the murders of Black Americans at the hands of the police, and the importance for the LGBTQ+ community to stand in solidarity with Black and Brown activists. Following the rally, Fairfax Police Chief Chris Morin, who had come out as a gay man three days before in a City Council meeting, referred hate crime charges against the Marin couple to District Attorney Lori Frugoli.
The Spahr Center’s Board of Directors applauds Fel and the Youth Advocacy Coalition for their strong work in the last year to organize and create opportunities for queer youth in Marin County to give voice to their experience and aspirations. Photos: Jasper Lauter and Alex Marshall
The Spahr Center Convenes a Social Justice Fellowship for Queer and Trans Youth
This summer, the Youth Advocacy Coalition (YAC) has expanded into a larger group of queer and trans young people committed to social justice advocacy. There are 17 fellows who are each full of energy, passion, and excitement to work together towards equity in Marin. The YAC has always been a mighty force for LGBTQ+ equity in the county. Its members are bringing their wisdom and expertise to join with peers across Marin to mobilize as queer and trans youth committed to creating a County that is safe, supportive, and empowering for all of its residents.
The fellowship consists of three major sections: community building, learning about social justice theories and histories, and taking action in the community! In peer-led weekly discussions, fellows talk about sustainable activism, different roles people may play in movements, generational divides and connections, positionality, and more. During “Liberation School” classes, fellows read many of the key authors of intersectional feminist and queer theory, including Kimberle Crenshaw, Andrea Smith, and Dean Spade; research and present on key moments and movements in LGBTQ+ history such as Stonewall, the Compton Cafeteria Riots, STAR, and gay bars.
Finally, fellows divide into small workgroups to manifest different community support structures and work for justice! The groups discussed different projects last week, and are currently investigating the possibilities of food-related mutual aid, a community garden, an underground newspaper, community education campaigns, and art projects. Fel, who facilitates the program, is extremely excited for what is in store for the rest of the summer, and is already planning the next version of the fellowship to launch during the school year.
Two New Support Groups for Senior Women and Bisexuals
The Spahr Center is inviting participation in two new monthly drop-in groups. The first is for senior lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer women. The second is for bisexual men and women. Both groups are to be led by therapists, and while ongoing participation is encouraged, individuals may join on a drop-in basis. Dates and times of meetings will be chosen by participants and facilitators once the groups have formed. For more information or to sign up, please email [email protected]
Help Us Get to Zero in the Fight Against HIV/AIDS: Support Spahr’s AIDS Walk 2020 Team
Virtual AIDS WALK 2020 is more important than ever!
Renewed international demands for racial justice are a call to all of us to reflect upon racial inequality in our communities. New HIV cases in Marin have dropped to levels not seen before. Unfortunately, however, 2019 was the first year in which new infections in our communities of color outnumbered those among whites. We will not eliminate HIV until we eliminate longstanding racial disparities in this epidemic.
All funds raised by members of The Spahr Center’s AIDS Walk 2020 Team will help fund new HIV prevention programs providing culturally appropriate outreach to and services for young men of color, especially PrEP (a daily pill that stops HIV transmission). This, in combination with our programs that provide testing and treatment to newly diagnosed people with HIV will save lives and prevent further transmissions.
Getting to Zero HIV-related deaths and new HIV infections is our goal for everyone in the community. Can you help us get there? Please make a donation today by going to https://sf.aidswalk.net/andyfyne
BREAKING NEWS: On the morning of Sunday, July 19 join a 90 minute virtual AIDS Walk by visiting https://sf.aidswalk.net/! Scheduled performances and appearances include: Bette Midler, Gloria Estefan, Vanessa Williams, Laura Linney, Matt Bomer, Alex Newell, Skylar Astin, Alan Cumming, stars from “Queer Eye” and more.
In 2018, the nation’s only transgender-specific suicide prevention hotline started tracking an alarming trend. Trans Lifeline was getting call after call from trans people in serious crisis whom its volunteers couldn’t always help.
From 2018 to 2019, the hotline took 23 times more calls from Spanish speakers than in previous years. Staff members and volunteers saw a 146 percent spike in calls from trans immigrants and a 386 percent increase in calls from Latinx trans people. Many of its hotline operators, however, couldn’t speak Spanish, leaving many trans callers without an affirming place to call during a crisis.
This week, the nonprofit said that won’t happen again. On Wednesday, Trans Lifeline launched an all trans-staffed Spanish crisis hotline.
T Peña, Trans Lifeline’s bilingual services coordinator, said the move is critical to making sure the group’s resources go to those who need them most.
“We expect as we partner with organizations that are Latinx, organizations that deal with immigrant issues, we hope that they will be able to pass us on as a potential resource and for us to be able to partner with them to help trans Latinx folks,” Peña said.
It’s a substantial expansion for the six-year-old organization, which started as a small team of crisis response volunteers and has flourished into a fully staffed nonprofit that distributes grants and connects callers to resources.
Yana Calou, director of communications for Trans Lifeline, said the group is the largest provider of direct services to transgender people in North America. It’s also unique in that it’s entirely trans-operated; callers can be sure that the voice on the other end is that of another trans person.
Perhaps most significantly, Trans Lifeline won’t call 911 or the police without consent from callers. Peña said the policy is about making sure callers feel safe and know they have choices during a crisis.
“We know that our community is especially vulnerable when they do interact with the police, and that could end up very terribly for someone,” Peña said.
The 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey, conducted by the National Center for Transgender Equality, found that 58 percent of transgender people reported being mistreated by law enforcement. Of those who were arrested, 22 percent said they believed it was because they were transgender. A quarter of Latina trans women reported that police they interacted with also assumed that they were sex workers.
Studies show that extreme discrimination, economic hardship and family rejection contribute to higher suicide risk in trans communities. The 2015 survey also found that 40 percent of respondents had attempted suicide. Trans Lifeline leaders say that while their work started as simply responding to emergency hotline calls for fellow trans people, they recognized over time that it was tied to economic justice for their community.
Callers have also increasingly asked about trans legal services.
“There is an increase in anti-immigrant and anti-trans sentiment in the U.S. right now, and that’s being reflected in the callers that are calling us,” Peña said. “They’re worried about their [immigration] status. They’re worried about access to resources. They’re worried about an increase in police violence and surveillance in their communities.”
Calou said, “We’re also taking more calls directly from trans folks in detention centers — and have seen a rise in those.”
Because people in immigration detention might have only one chance to reach someone by phone, Trans Lifeline wants to make sure the Spanish hotline is operating 24/7. The new line will be staffed by 10 volunteers, as well as full-time staff members, and it will grow as the organization recruits transgender Spanish speakers.
Spanish services became available Wednesday. Callers can ring Trans Lifeline’s old number (877-565-8860 in the U.S. or 877-330-6366 in Canada), and they will have the option of choosing English or Spanish.
Poland’s President Andrzej Duda on Monday proposed changing the constitution to ban LGBTQ couples from adopting children ahead of Sunday’s presidential run-off in which the candidates are polling neck-and-neck.
The opposition centrist Civic Platform (PO) candidate, Warsaw mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, said this weekend that he is also against the adoption of children by LGBTQ couples.
Duda is an ally of the ruling nationalist Law and Justice Party (PiS), which dismisses LGBTQ rights as an invasive foreign influence undermining Poland’s traditional values.
A majority amounting to two-thirds of the lower house of parliament is needed to change the constitution. After an election in October, PiS rules with a slim majority and does not hold enough seats to carry out such changes.
Duda said he hoped he could garner broader support for his proposal from some members of PO, the agrarian PSL grouping and from the far-right Confederation party.
“I am convinced that, thanks to this, children’s safety and concern for the good of children will be ensured to a much greater extent,” Duda said at an event in Warsaw.
The constitutional change would specify that only married heterosexual couples would be able to adopt children, he said. Courts would have the right to check on couples to ensure they fit into the definition.
A spokesman for PO said the party was against the constitutional change proposed by Duda.
Trzaskowski has previously said he is in favor of civil partnerships for gay people and proposed a sexual education program in Warsaw that would teach children about LGBTQ issues.
Duda’s comments come after he said LGBTQ ideology was worse than communism in a campaign stop last month and vowed to ban teaching about LGBTQ issues in schools in an effort to protect what he sees as the traditional family.
Poland was this year ranked the worst country in the European Union for LGBTQ rights in a poll by Brussels-based NGO ILGA-Europe.
Pride Month is behind us, and an unsteady future is ahead of us. In the words of Marsha P. Johnson, “Nobody promised you tomorrow.” This quote is a rallying cry to continue our momentum, and to never give up. As news coverage of peaceful protests across the nation dies down, we need to ensure that “there is no pride for some of us without liberation for all of us.”
This is a critical moment in our nation’s history, and to be on the right side of change is necessary. We have reached another boiling point. White supremacy and white silence have always been embedded in our culture; none of this is new. Black voices have exposed the rotten roots of the country for centuries.
But this is not a lost cause. It’s not too late to become involved. We can continue to educate ourselves. We can continue to hold ourselves accountable. We can continue to dig deep into the darkest parts of ourselves and internalized, institutional, and structural racism. We must continue to enact change.
Our literature has often provided blueprints for cultural transformation. Many of this month’s titles reckon with our queer history, look towards our queer future, and hopefully provide a pathway to both queer joy and systemic change. We must give ourselves space to move toward a world where community is not just a word, but a radical promise of love, understanding, and intervention in the face of adversity.
The fight for justice stands front and center in the 25th anniversary edition of Howard Cruse‘s Stuck Rubber Baby. The book explores one gay character’s involvement in the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s.
Painstakingly researched and exquisitely illustrated, Stuck Rubber Baby is a groundbreaking graphic novel that draws on Howard Cruse’s experience coming of age and coming out in 1960s Birmingham, Alabama.
This 25th anniversary edition brings this rich and moving tale of identity and resistance is back in print–complete with an updated introduction from Alison Bechdel, rare photographs, and unpublished archival material that give a thorough, behind-the-scenes look at this graphic novel masterpiece.
As a young gay man leading a closeted life in the 1960s American South, Toland Polk tries his best to keep a low profile. He’s aware of the racial injustice all around him–the segregationist politicians, the corrupt cops, the violent Klan members–but he feels powerless to make a difference. That all changes when he crosses paths with an impassioned coed named Ginger Raines. Ginger introduces him to a lively and diverse group of civil rights activists, folk singers, and night club performers–men and women who live authentically despite the conformist values of their hometown. Emboldened by this new community, Toland joins the local protests and even finds the courage to venture into a gay bar.No longer content to stay on the sidelines, Toland joins his friends as they fight against bigotry. But in Clayfield, Alabama, that can be dangerous–even deadly.
Fairy tales have long been structured around heterosexual relationships. Cinderella is Dead by Kalynn Bayron offers an intriguing re-imagining of the classic Cinderella story, and drives YA readers to dig deeper and challenge their societal expectations.
It’s 200 years after Cinderella found her prince, but the fairy tale is over. Teen girls are now required to appear at the Annual Ball, where the men of the kingdom select wives based on a girl’s display of finery. If a suitable match is not found, the girls not chosen are never heard from again.Sixteen-year-old Sophia would much rather marry Erin, her childhood best friend, than parade in front of suitors. At the ball, Sophia makes the desperate decision to flee, and finds herself hiding in Cinderella’s mausoleum.
There, she meets Constance, the last known descendant of Cinderella and her step sisters. Together they vow to bring down the king once and for all–and in the process, they learn that there’s more to Cinderella’s story than they ever knew. . . This fresh take on a classic story will make readers question the tales they’ve been told, and root for girls to break down the constructs of the world around them.
In this life-affirming, heartening and refreshing collection of interviews, young trans people offer valuable insight and advice into what has helped them to flourish and feel happy in their experience of growing up trans.
Speaking openly and candidly about their gender, their experiences of coming out, their aspirations, and their fears – accompanied by interviews and support from their parents and carers – this book is beautiful proof of the potential for trans children to live rich and fulfilling lives when given the support and love they need.
With their trademark candour and empathy, Juno Roche gives voice to a generation of gender explorers who are making gender work for them, and in the process, reveals a kinder, more accepting world, that we should all be fighting for.
Each place in the world has completely different sets of ideological beliefs. In The Pink Line, Mark Gevisser chronicles and investigates the roots of disparities in cultural practices of gender and sexuality around the world.
More than five years in the making, Mark Gevisser’s ‘The Pink Line: Journeys Across the World’s Queer Frontiers’ is a globetrotting exploration of how the human rights frontier around sexual orientation and gender identity has come to divide–and describe–the world in an entirely new way over the first two decades of the twenty-first century. No social movement has brought change so quickly and with such dramatically mixed results. While same-sex marriage and gender transition is celebrated in some parts of the world, laws are being strengthened to criminalize homosexuality and gender nonconformity in others. A new Pink Line, Gevisser argues, has been drawn across the world, and he takes readers to its frontiers.
Mirroring our current pandemic moment, Emma Donoghue’s The Pull of the Stars: A Novel chronicles the relationship between three nurses who work in the maternity ward of a small hospital during the influenza outbreak of 1918.
In an Ireland doubly ravaged by war and disease, Nurse Julia Power works at an understaffed hospital in the city center, where expectant mothers who have come down with the terrible new Flu are quarantined together. Into Julia’s regimented world step two outsiders–Doctor Kathleen Lynn, a rumoured Rebel on the run from the police, and a young volunteer helper, Bridie Sweeney. In the darkness and intensity of this tiny ward, over three days, these women change each other’s lives in unexpected ways. They lose patients to this baffling pandemic, but they also shepherd new life into a fearful world.
With tireless tenderness and humanity, carers and mothers alike somehow do their impossible work. In The Pull of the Stars, Emma Donoghue once again finds the light in the darkness in this new classic of hope and survival against all odds.
As always, if our list of LGBTQ releases missed an author or book, or if you have a book coming out next month, please email us.
Fiction
The Blue Star (Reissue) by Robert Ferro (Author), Andrew Holleran (Foreword), ReQueered Tales
Wednesday, July 86:00–7:30 p.m. Online program Free| $5.00 suggested donation Thirty years ago, the Sixth International AIDS Conference was held in San Francisco at the height of the AIDS crisis. Activists and people with HIV from around the world confronted political and public health leaders, demanding action in response to the growing pandemic. A reunion of activists and attendees of the 1990 conference will provide opportunities for remembrance of the conference, and reflect on the conference’s legacy and role during the COVID era. This event is scheduled during the 23rd International AIDS Conference, originally planned to be held in San Francisco and Oakland, which is now taking place online from July 6 to July 10. Register online here.
Friday, July 176:00–7:30 p.m. Online program Free | $5.00 suggested donation Join us for a virtual tour of our newest online exhibition, “Labor of Love: The Birth of San Francisco Pride, 1970-1980.” The exhibition’s co-curators, Gerard Koskovich, Don Romesburg and Amy Sueyoshi, will lead a special guided tour of the exhibition, explaining their curatorial choices and demonstrating how San Francisco’s LGBTQ community forged the internationally renowned annual celebration that would come to be known as Pride. Register online here.
Wednesday, July 226:00–7:30 p.m. Online program Free| $5.00 suggested donation Black LGBTQ leaders have long been at the forefront of protest and revolutionary movements, including the Compton’s Cafeteria riot of August 1966 in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco and the Stonewall riots in June 1969 in New York. Activists Marsha P. Johnson and Miss Major protested in the streets, strategists such as Bayard Rustin worked behind the scenes to combat inequality and thought leaders like James Baldwin moved the intellectual conversation forward. This panel will shed light on these revolutionary leaders, tracing the arc of justice from the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s to the burgeoning LGBTQ rights movement of the 1980s to the modern-day movement for Black lives. Foregrounding the significance of intersectionality and intersectional movements, a panel of today’s activists will share their own personal experiences, critical historical context and social commentary on racial and LGBTQ justice in America. Register online here.
Friday, July 316:00–8:00 p.m. Online program Free| $5.00 suggested donation Join us for a screening of director Caroline Berler’s 2018 documentary Dykes, Camera, Action!, which examines queer women’s cinema from the mid-twentieth century through the present. Lesbian filmmakers have used the cinema to build visibility and transform the social imagination about queerness. The documentary features filmmakers Barbara Hammer, Su Friedrich, Rose Troche, Cheryl Dunye, Yoruba Richen, Desiree Akhavan, Vicky Du, film critic B. Ruby Rich, Jenni Olson, and others as they share moving and often hilarious stories from their lives and discuss how they have expressed queer identity through film. The screening will be followed by a prerecorded panel discussion with some of the interviewees, moderated by Jenni Olson. Register online here.
Photos and video of a large crowd gathering on Fire Island over the holiday weekend are drawing the ire of some on social media. Suffolk County police were called to the beach in Fire Island Pines, a hamlet on the barrier island, twice on Saturday for reports of large groups of people not social distancing or wearing masks, a department spokesperson said on Sunday. The gathering was one of several on Fire Island reported on social media Saturday.
A video of one of those incidents posted on Instagram shows dozens of people standing closely together without masks. A photo of the same gathering shows a Suffolk County police vehicle responding on the sand. Several people who said they live in the area spoke out in the photo’s comments, condemning the actions of the crowd and arguing that local residents and businesses have been following state coronavirus guidelines.
Suffolk County police said officers walked through the gathering and reminded people to social distance, however no citations were issued. One attendee, Corey Hannon, even bragged on social media that he had recently contracted COVID-19, but, after only quarantining himself for eight days, he decided to flock to the beach party regardless.
Another of the attendees of the party, identified as Giancarlo Albanese, uploaded an image to his public Instagram page celebrating his apparent defiance of state social distancing guidelines. ‘F*** your mask. F*** your social distancing. F*** your vaccine. F*** your eugenics,’ Albanese wrote. ‘Kiss my a**hole if you think Im an a**.’
The proposals, voted on by the public over the past seven days, were supported by more than two-thirds of voters, though the opposition maintains that the referendum was rigged from the start.
Alphonso David, president of the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ advocacy organization, slammed the gay marriage ban and said Putin is a “threat to the human rights of all.”
“Russia is tripling down on its attacks on the basic human rights and dignity of LGBTQ people by adding constitutional prohibitions against marriage equality,” David said in a statement. “Putin and his administration used propaganda brochures leading up to the election promising a return to ‘traditional family values,’ using marriage between loving couples as a wedge to push through his nefarious agenda. It is shameful, manipulative and malicious.”
The constitutional amendment comes after decades of legal and social oppression of LGBTQ people in Russia.
In 2013, a federal law was passed criminalizing the distribution of materials that promote same-sex relationships to minors. After the passage of the measure, dubbed the “gay propaganda law,” the country saw an increase in anti-LGBTQ violence, according to a 2014 Human Rights Watch report. In 2018, the country banned Pride events, and in 2019, it took action to block LGBTQ groups from officially registering in the country.
More than half of the LGBTQ people surveyed in a 2019 poll by the Russian LGBT Network, an advocacy group, reported experiencing at least one type of violence or abuse due to their gender identity, sexual orientation or both. Over the past several years, there have also been reports of state-sponsored detention, violence and torture against gay and bisexual men in Chechnya, a semi-autonomous Russian region.
Prior to the weeklong vote, the Russian LGBTQ Network issued a statement calling into question the motives of the long list of referendum proposals.
“The main purpose of adopting series of amendments to the constitution is to keep in power a current government and Russian President,” the group said. “We consider other constitutional changes artificial to gain people’s attention.”
In apparent defiance of the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling against anti-LGBTQ discrimination, the Trump administration has announced plans to change Obama-era regulations to allow homeless shelters to refuse to house transgender people consistent with their gender identity.
Secretary of Housing & Urban Development Ben Carson announced in a statement Wednesday the plan would allow homeless shelters to voluntarily establish policies on the admission of transgender people.
“This important update will empower shelter providers to set policies that align with their missions, like safeguarding victims of domestic violence or human trafficking,” Carson said. “Mission-focused shelter operators play a vital and compassionate role in communities across America. The Federal Government should empower them, not mandate a single approach that overrides local law and concerns. HUD also wants to encourage their participation in HUD programs. That’s exactly what we are doing with this rule change.”
The proposal would purportedly preserve the 2012 Equal Access Rule barring anti-LGBTQ discrimination in federally-funded housing programs, but “require any determination of sex by the shelter provider to be based on a good faith belief, and require the shelter provider to provide transfer recommendations if a person is of the sex not accommodated by the shelter and in some other circumstances.”
“For example, under the proposed rule, if a single-sex facility permissibly provides accommodation for women, and its policy is to serve only biological women, without regard to gender identity, it may decline to accommodate a person who identifies as female but who is a biological male,” the proposed rule says. “Conversely, the same shelter may not, on the basis of sex, decline to accommodate a person who identifies as male but who is a biological female.”
LaLa Zannell, Trans Justice Campaign Manager for the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement the proposal is cruel amid high unemployment rates during the coronavirus crisis.
“Housing Secretary Ben Carson: Where should the Black and Brown trans women who have faced discrimination at work and violence in their homes and the streets go after we have been turned away from shelters?” Zannell said. “Shelters funded by taxpayers should be open to all — period. We should all tell the Trump administration that this proposed rule is not only wrong but deadly.”
“In some faith traditions, sex is viewed as an immutable characteristic determined at birth,” the proposal says. “Thus, legally compelled accommodation determined on a basis in conflict with the provider’s beliefs could violate religious freedom precepts.”
Further, the rule draws on privacy issues, a concern cited by opponents of allowing transgender people to use the restroom consistent with their gender identity, as a reason for the change.
“HUD does not believe it is beneficial to institute a national policy that may force homeless women to sleep alongside and interact with men in intimate settings — even though those women may have just been beaten, raped, and sexually assaulted by a man the day before,” Carson said.
The proposal concedes HUD “is not aware of data suggesting that transgender individuals pose an inherent risk to biological women,” but adds “there is anecdotal evidence” non-trans women may fear being housed with transgender women.
Sharita Gruberg, senior director for the LGBTQ Research and Communications Project at Center for American Progress, said in a statement the proposal “is targeting transgender people for discrimination.”
“Giving shelters a license to discriminate against transgender people would be wrong at any time, but to do so in the midst of a pandemic and an economic crisis constitutes an act of wanton cruelty,” Gruberg said.
According to a study from the Center for American Progress and Equal Rights Center before the 2016 regulations went into effect, only 30 percent of shelters tested were willing to appropriately house transgender people, and 1 in 5 outright refused to provide them with shelter.
The proposal appears to conflict with the recent ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court in case of Bostock v. Clayton County, which determined anti-LGBTQ discrimination is a form of sex discrimination, thus illegal under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Although that ruling pertained to employment, not housing, the logic in the decision should affect the Fair Housing Act, which bans discrimination on the basis of sex in housing, and any regulations emanating from the U.S. government on that statute.
Neither the Justice Department, which has been charged with implementing the Bostock decision, nor the Department of Housing & Urban Development responded to the Washington Blade’s request to comment on how the proposal is consistent with the Supreme Court ruling.
Mara Keisling, Executive Director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, said in a statement the proposal “flies in the face of the Bostock Supreme Court ruling, so it will not stand, but it could still put people in danger.”
“Discrimination and criminalization have left countless transgender people, particularly transgender people of color, exposed to violence and abuse, all while family rejection can leave transgender youth with nowhere to turn,” Keisling said. “Secretary Carson is contradicting the very mission of his department by trying to make shelters less safe for those who need them and further endangering the lives of marginalized people. We will fight this rule like trans lives depend on it because trans lives do depend on it.”
The submission of the proposed rule is the last step in the process before publication in the Federal Register. A 60-day comment period for the rule is expected to start in the coming days.
HUD had previously announced it would gut the 2016 rule for homeless shelters with a rule allowing homeless shelters to refuse to house transgender people based on religious beliefs or privacy issues, but no document until now had reached this point in the rule-making stage, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.
The White House didn’t respond to the Washington Blade’s request to comment on whether President Trump is OK with the rule and think it’s consistent with the Supreme Court’s decision in the Bostock case.
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Jenna Karvunidis, the mother who inadvertently began the craze for gender reveal parties, revealed she regrets creating a “monster” while pledging her unequivocal support for her gender non-conforming daughter.
Karvunidis, who lives in the US, threw the first-ever “gender reveal” party in 2008, for her eldest daughter, Bianca.
But she told The Guardian that she never meant to start a trend, or to create an entire identity for her child before she was even born.
“I was just looking for a way to up the ante and get everyone excited and involved,” she said.
“And I have a flair for theatrics and love to throw parties – we had a party for the goldfish once.”
A year or so later, Karvunidis began seeing people she didn’t know copying her idea of using coloured icing on a cake to suggest a baby’s gender.
“It was really weird to me,” she said. “I kept thinking maybe someone did one before me but NPR did this whole exhaustive thing and got to the bottom of it.”
While she thinks that gender reveal parties would become a trend whether she’d thrown one or not, she no longer supports the concept.
“Now I think the whole thing is not great at all, though,” Karvunidis continued.
“The problem is they overemphasise one aspect of a person. I had two more kids after Bianca, but I never had another gender reveal party.”
Gender reveal parties thrown by straights cause fires, explosions and violence.
Gender reveal parties gone wrong are mostly a heterosexual trend – and have resulted in fires, explosions, and at least one instance where a pregnant woman was hit in the face with a baseball bat.
It was Karvunidis’ second “pretty girly” daughter, she said, who really changed her thinking about gender.
“On Christmas morning when she was three, she opened up a set of Legos in primary colours and started crying,” Karvunidis explained.
“She said: ‘Santa Claus brought me a boy toy.’ She thought because they weren’t pink they weren’t for her.
“That’s when I was like: ‘You know what? Something has to change.’
“There’s such an obsession with gender that it becomes limiting in many ways and exploitative in others.
“You don’t want what’s between your legs to guide your path in life.
“I want my kids to grow up in a world where gender doesn’t matter.”
World’s first gender reveal baby now rocks a suit.
A photo of her eldest daughter, Bianca, wearing a suit went viral in 2018.
“Bianca rocks her suits,” Karvunidis said.
“She is the most confident 11-year-old you’ll ever meet. The way that started is that it was time to get dressed up for our family Christmas pictures a few years ago and Bianca had been saying for a while that she didn’t want to wear dresses.
“I was like: ‘That’s fine. What do you think about a suit?’ We both looked at each other and she said: ‘Can girls wear suits?’ I said: ‘Absolutely. Let’s get you one.’ That’s the photo that ended up going viral.”
With her eldest daughter wearing suits supported by her family, Karvunidis said she gets a lot of emails “from transgender or non-binary teenagers who see themselves in Bianca. And they see her family supporting her”.
“I know how it feels to be a teenager who’s not loved or accepted,” she said. “Whatever flavour we get, we’re happy with.
“Bianca’s pronouns are she/her, but you might be surprised how many girls might wind up in suits if they were allowed to do whatever the hell they wanted.”