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Gary Carnivele
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New Zealand weightlifter to become 1st transgender athlete to compete at Olympics
Weightlifter Laurel Hubbard will become the first transgender athlete to compete at the Olympics after being selected by New Zealand for the women’s event at the Tokyo Games, a decision set to fuel the debate over inclusion and fairness in sport.
Hubbard will compete in the super-heavyweight 87-kg category, her selection made possible by updated qualifying requirements.
The 43-year-old, who will be the oldest lifter at the Games, had competed in men’s weightlifting competitions before transitioning in 2013.
“I am grateful and humbled by the kindness and support that has been given to me by so many New Zealanders,” Hubbard said in a statement issued by the New Zealand Olympic Committee (NZOC) on Monday.
New Zealand weightlifter becomes first transgender athlete to go to Olympics
Hubbard has been eligible to compete at Olympics since 2015, when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) issued guidelines allowing any transgender athlete to compete as a woman provided their testosterone levels are below 10 nanomoles per litre for at least 12 months before their first competition.
Some scientists have said the guidelines do little to mitigate the biological advantages of those who have gone through male puberty, including bone and muscle density.
Advocates for transgender inclusion argue the process of transition decreases that advantage considerably and that physical differences between athletes mean there is never a truly level playing field.
NZOC CEO Kereyn Smith said Hubbard met IOC and the International Weightlifting Federation’s selection criteria.
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“We acknowledge that gender identity in sport is a highly sensitive and complex issue requiring a balance between human rights and fairness on the field of play,” Smith said.
“As the New Zealand Team, we have a strong culture of …. inclusion and respect for all.”
The New Zealand government offered its support.
“Laurel is a member of New Zealand’s Olympic team. We are proud of her as we are of all our athletes, and will be supporting her all the way,” Minister for Sport and Recreation Grant Robertson said in a statement.
Center of debate
Weightlifting has been at the centre of the debate over the fairness of transgender athletes competing against women, and Hubbard’s presence in Tokyo could prove divisive.
Save Women’s Sport Australasia, an advocacy group for women athletes, criticized Hubbard’s selection.
“It is flawed policy from the IOC that has allowed the selection of a 43-year-old biological male who identifies as a woman to compete in the female category,” the group said in a statement.
Hubbard’s gold medal wins at the 2019 Pacific Games in Samoa, where she topped the podium ahead of Samoa’s Commonwealth Games champion Feagaiga Stowers, triggered outrage in the host nation.
Samoa’s weightlifting boss said Hubbard’s selection for Tokyo would be like letting athletes “dope” and feared it could cost the small Pacific nation a medal.
Belgian weightlifter Anna Vanbellinghen said last month allowing Hubbard to compete at Tokyo was unfair for women and “like a bad joke”.
‘It just isn’t fair:” Caitlyn Jenner on trans girls playing girls’ sports
Australia’s weightlifting federation sought to block Hubbard from competing at the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast but organizers rejected the move.
Hubbard was forced to withdraw after injuring herself during competition, and thought her career was over.
“When I broke my arm at the Commonwealth Games three years ago, I was advised that my sporting career had likely reached its end,” said Hubbard on Monday, thanking New Zealanders.
“But your support, your encouragement, and your aroha (love) carried me through the darkness.”
Olympic Weightlifting New Zealand President Richie Patterson said Hubbard had “grit and perseverance” to return from injury and rebuild her confidence.
“We look forward to supporting her in her final preparations towards Tokyo,” he said.
Another transgender athlete, BMX rider Chelsea Wolfe, will travel to Tokyo as part of the United States team, but is named as an alternate and not assured of competing.
Canadian women’s soccer player Quinn, who came out as transgender last year and uses only one name, also has a chance to be selected for the Olympics, five years after winning bronze with the women’s team at the 2016 Rio Games.
Political donations lead Stonewall Inn to ban some beers
The Stonewall Inn’s owners say they won’t serve certain beers at the famous LGBTQ bar during Pride weekend to protest manufacturer Anheuser-Busch’s political contributions to some politicians who have supported anti-LGBTQ legislation.
Co-owners Stacy Lentz and Kurt Kelly said they would be instituting the ban on Friday in support of the “Keep Your Pride” campaign, a recently launched effort highlighting five companies that it says advertise support during Pride but have also made contributions to anti-LGBTQ lawmakers.
The campaign, a project of Corporate Accountability Action, used data compiled from the National Institute on Money in Politics to show that Anheuser-Busch contributed more than $35,000 to 29 legislators it described as anti-LGBTQ between 2015 and 2020.
“We just felt Stonewall having the platform, the power to do this, it was important to stand up,” Lentz said. “We really just want Anheuser-Busch to stop donating to lawmakers who are trying to legalize discrimination.”
Flashback: Stonewall Inn Riots of 1969
In a statement, Anheuser-Busch said, “We support candidates for public office whose policy positions and objectives support investments in our communities, job creation, and industry growth.”
The statement continued, “Together, with our brands, we have a clear role to play in bringing real change and creating an inclusive and equitable world where we cherish and celebrate one another.”
It was at an earlier incarnation of the Stonewall Inn in June 1969 when bar patrons fought with police who had come to carry out a raid, which galvanized gay rights activism around the country and the world.
Rep. Ritchie Torres to introduce measure condemning anti-trans bills
Rep. Ritchie Torres, a New York Democrat, said he plans to introduce the first resolution to condemn state bills targeting transgender people this week.
This year, state legislatures have considered more than 100 bills targeting trans people, “making 2021 the worst year for legislation that discriminates against the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) community since 2015,” the bill states. Eighteen anti-LGBTQ bills have passed, and 10 await governors’ final signatures, it adds.
Most of the bills target transgender youth by seeking to ban them from school sports teams that align with their gender identity or limit their access to gender-affirming medical care. Governors in nine states have signed athlete bans into law, and two have signed restrictions on medical care.
“It is shameful to witness legislatures across the country endorse policies that endanger the safety of trans individuals and block access to critical services,” Torres said in a statement to NBC News. “My resolution makes it clear that Congress denounces the rise in anti-trans legislation and hate crimes, and that as a body we will pursue legislation that protects the well-being and safety of the trans community.”
The legislation specifically mentions an Arkansas law that will ban gender-affirming care, including hormones and puberty blockers.
Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, a Republican, vetoed the bill in April, calling it a “vast government overreach,” but the Legislature overrode the veto, and the bill will become law next month unless a judge intervenes. The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuitlast month in an effort to block the law.
Nearly 1,500 trans kids will lose access to medical care if takes effect, according to Torres’ bill.
Legislation like Arkansas’ “discriminates against the transgender community, is not based in science and is intended to sow division and instill animosity toward our fellow Americans,” the bill states.
The bill also connects “laws and political rhetoric that deny the humanity of transgender people” to negative mental health outcomes for LGBTQ youth and rising anti-trans violence. By blocking trans people from accessing health care, housing, public spaces and employment, the bills “give license to others to take violent action based on their biases,” the bill says.
This year is on track to become the worst in history for fatal anti-trans violence, according to advocates. At least 29 trans and gender-nonconforming people have been killed so far this year. In 2020, at least 44 trans and gender-nonconforming people were killed.
Fatal violence disproportionately affects trans women of color, especially Black trans women, who make up half of those killed so far this year.
Torres’ legislation is co-signed by 30 other representatives and endorsed by 13 LGBTQ advocacy organizations.
In a letter to colleagues requesting sponsors for the legislation, Torres urged them not to ignore the “troubling lived realities experienced by members of the transgender and nonbinary community.”
“We must uplift their narratives and take actions that advocate for their well-being.”
LGBT+ refugees desperately need help, but UK’s plans will send them back to danger
Benali Hamdache, Green Party spokesperson for migration and refugee support, looks at the issues facing LGBT+ refugees on World Refugee Day.
In too many places, this pandemic has allowed regimes to crackdown on LGBT+ people. Cameroon, Ghana, Philippines and Uganda have all seen outbreaks of arbitrary arrests and violence. LGBT+ refugees in Kenyan camps have experienced assault and murder.
Here in the UK the Home Office’s social media is currently adorned with the rainbow flag and Boris Johnson has acknowledged that COVID has worsened the situation for LGBT+ people globally. We have a government that professes inclusivity, openness and action.
But Priti Patel’s New Plan for Immigration threatens to close the door on countless LGBT+ refugees. At a time when refuge is in greater need, our Home Secretary is out selling harsh new proposals on refugees during Pride Month.
Earlier on in the year, the Home Secretary released a 46 page policy statement on her vision for changing the asylum process. These represent the biggest changes proposed in two decades. Nowhere in the document is the impact on refugees seeking support because of their gender or sexuality considered.
But those impacts are real and have been laid out by Rainbow Migration, one of the country’s leading charities working with LGBT+ refugees.
The first concern is the demand that all evidence for an asylum claim must be laid out at the beginning of the case. It is suggested that anything disclosed later will be given “minimum weight”.
This will mean many more LGBT+ asylum seekers will have their claims rejected. The reality is that not everyone is able to tell a stranger everything that has happened to them immediately. Many will carry huge amounts of shame and trauma about the experiences that brought them to flee. This harsher process will result in people being sent back to danger.
There is no need to dramatically shorten the process in manner. People deserve a fair hearing and the time to open up and share their journey.
The second concern is around how refugees will be detained. Detaining people in “reception centres” will be doubly damaging for a range of asylum seekers.
There’s huge amounts of evidence that LGBT+ asylum seekers face discrimination and intimidation in refugee holding centres. While out in the community people have been able to find support and begin to express their gender and sexuality freely.
We’ve seen what mass detention of refugees looks like in Australia. Unbelievably hostile spaces that re-traumatise the traumatised. We should not be emulating that here.
The final concern, also laid out excellently by Rainbow Sisters (a collective of LGBT+ women and non-binary refugees), is around routes to the UK.
The new proposals threaten to send back anyone who could have claimed asylum somewhere on their way to the UK. They make arbitrary decisions about what constitutes a safe harbour for LGBT+ refugees and emphasise the value of resettlement plans. But many LGBT+ people have to flee their homes suddenly and quickly. What constitutes a safe country may differ widely from person to person and across the EU not all countries guarantee the same level of rights to LGBT+ people.
These proposals also threaten the plight of trafficked people. Punishing refugees for being brought here “illegally” would add another layer of cruelty.
In reality Priti Patel’s proposals that asylum seekers can be sent back to their first “safe” harbour seem unlikely. EU countries in the wake of Brexit seem unwilling to sign any kind of reciprocal deal along these lines. LGBT+ refugees deserve more than empty threats and being treated like a political football.
We already have an undoubtedly harsh asylum system. A Freedom of Information request looked at how many claims based on gender or sexuality had been rejected between 2016 and 2018. More than 3,100 LGBT+ asylum claims had been rejected from countries where gay sex is criminalised. From Pakistan and Nigeria to Bangladesh.
Priti Patel’s proposals to make the system harsher are wrongheaded and mean spirited. This Pride, our government cannot claim to be allies, but then turn its back on LGBT+ people in danger.
Trans woman went out drinking with friends. They violently beat her to death
A trans woman was reportedly beaten and brutally dismembered by her friends after going for drinks in an attack that has fuelled fear in Miranda, Venezuela.
Elizabeth Rondón, a 33-year-old vegetable seller, was slain Monday morning (13 June) after at least three people beat her, according to activists and witnesses.
Loved ones described Rondón as a quiet but charismatic person who traded vegetables for food in the Santa Cruz del Este neighbourhood of the Baruta municipality.
But her friends, they said, “bothered her a lot” for being trans, often harassing her for it.
On Sunday night (12 June), Rondón went to drinks with her friends who proceeded to cruelly mock her for being trans, witnesses told police, according to Agencia Carabobeña de Noticias.
Rondón, upset from the comments, hit back and a scuffle reportedly ensued. She then allegedly left with the group who beat her unconscious, police said.
The morning after, passers-by found her dismembered body in El Pozo. Her head had been severed off, her jaw detached, and her arms and legs all detached, a coroner report said.
Rondón is the fourth LGBT+ slain in Baruta this year, according to data collected by LGBT+ advocacy group Never Stop Dreaming. Fearing the “growing wave of violence” in the municipality, it tweeted: “They are killing us.”
Never Stop Dreaming called for “competent authorities to carry out an exhaustive investigation” while urging police to consider the killing a hate crime, considering that “trans women are not recognised” in Venezuela.
To Movimiento SOMOS, an activist group working from Mérida, the killings represent the “importance of Pride as a political response to systematic hatred”.
The group took aim at what it called the “indifferent” authorities, it wrote in a Twitter statement.
“Trans lives matter,” it added. “We demand justice for this and all crimes against LGBT+ done with impunity.”
Take Pride in your local library
This month, we’re honoring Pride with virtual programs and events, summer Take & Make craft kits, booklists for all ages, community resources, and more. Visit this news post for the full list.
Register for the Sonoma County LGBTQI+ History Timeline on Tuesday, June 22, at 5:30 pm. Explore the community building, cultural, and social change forged by local LGBTQI+ people from 1947 to 2000.
Join us in celebrating Pride Month, a time to promote the self-affirmation, dignity, equality, and increased visibility of the LGBTQ+ community. The LGBTQ+ community will always be welcomed and celebrated at the library, not just during Pride Month but every day.Learn More
Thank you for being a member of the Sonoma County Library community. Visit our online library for thousands of films, TV shows, eBooks, databases, magazines, classes, videogames, and more. Be sure to check out open jobs at Sonoma County Library here.
Questions? Please call your local library branch or click here to send us a message.
Celebremos el Orgullo LGBTQ+ en la Biblioteca
Este mes dedicamos al Orgullo LGBTQIA+ con eventos virtuales, kits de arte para llevar y hacer en casa, listas de lectura recomendada para todas edades, recursos comunitarios y más. Vea todo aquí.
Regístrese para una charla virtual con las historiadoras de la Cronología de la historia LGBTQI+ en el condado de Sonoma el martes, 22 de junio a las 5:30pm. Exploraremos cómo personas LGBTQI+ locales se crearon comunidad y fomentaron cambio cultural y político durante los años 1947 a 2000. *Este evento será en inglés.
Celebremos juntos el Mes de Orgullo LGBTQ+, un tiempo para promover la autoafirmación, dignidad, igualdad y mayor visibilidad de la comunidad LGBTQ+. La comunidad LGBTQ+ siempre estará bienvenida y celebrada en la biblioteca, no solo durante el Mes de Orgullo, sino cada día.Obtenga más información
Gracias por ser miembro de la comunidad de la Biblioteca del Condado de Sonoma. Visite nuestra biblioteca en línea para ver miles de películas, programas de televisión, libros electrónicos, bases de datos, revistas, clases, videojuegos y mucho más. Revise aquí los puestos disponibles en la Biblioteca del Condado de Sonoma.
¿Preguntas? Por favor llame a su biblioteca local o haga clic para mandar un mensaje.
California utility regulators extend moratorium on power, gas shutoffs amid pandemic
State utility regulators have extended a moratorium on electricity and gas shutoffs for unpaid customer bills through Sept. 30, the California Public Utilities Commission announced Thursday.
Under the decision, residential customers who have fallen behind on their energy bills during the pandemic will be automatically enrolled in one- or two-year payment plans. Small businesses will also be signed up for a similar plan.
Ratepayers can apply for state and federal aid to help cover missed energy payments during the pandemic.
In Sonoma County, residents can access assistance through a county-run program to help cover back rent and utility bills. So far, officials have disbursed less than 10% of the $32 million set aside for assistance.
Qualifying Sonoma County residents can apply for rental assistance on SoCoEmergency.org or by calling 211 to reach English- and Spanish-speaking operators. Applicants can also find a community-based organization to assist them by visiting socoemergency.org/emergency/novel-coronavirus/finance-housing/housing-and-renter-support/.
Conservative West Virginia state GOP lawmaker comes out during Pride
A conservative Republican lawmaker in the House of Delegates took to Twitter and other social media platforms this past weekend announcing that he is gay. Twenty-four year old Joshua Higginbotham said that he felt he owed it to the voters of West Virginia, after recently deciding to share it with his family and friends.
Higginbotham, who was first elected to the House when he was only 19, represents rural Putnam County located alongside Interstate 64 between the state’s capital city of Charleston to the East and Huntington to the West. His campaign adverts have all trumpeted his avid support of the Second Amendment as well as taking a pro-life position.
However, a check of some of his recent legislation shows a more progressive mindset. He is lead sponsor on House Bill 2998, a measure amending the State’s current codes relating to unlawful discriminatory practices in four categories covered by the West Virginia Human Rights Act and the Fair Housing Act, adding language that prohibits discrimination based upon age and sexual orientation, or gender identity; and defining “sexual orientation” and “gender identity.”
That measure, earlier in the legislative session, led to a series of conflicts which involved the state’s only other openly gay lawmaker, Democratic Delegate Cody Thompson (D43-Marion). Republican House Delegate John Mandt, who resigned after posting an anti-gay slur but then was re-elected drew harsh criticism for an extended online diatribe opposing protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity the Associated Press reported earlier this year on February 7, 2021.
In his social media video as well as in an interview with reporter Anthony Conn from the local ABC News affiliate WCHS 8 in Charleston, Higginbotham said, “I am still a Christian. People think that gay people can’t be Christians. I believe God loves me no matter what. I’m still a conservative Republican. That’s rare, I know, but you can be gay and Republican. You can be gay and conservative.”
He added referring to his conservative politics that “nothing changes except now [you] know about my personal life.”
The statewide LGBTQ advocacy group Fairness West Virginia applauded the delegate’s decision to come out. “We think that it’s great that Delegate Higginbotham can lead his authentic life now. This must be a big burden that’s lifted off his shoulders,” Executive Director Andrew Schneider told WCHS ABC 8.
There are some in the state who are critical of Higginbotham. One source who asked to not be identified, told the Blade in a phone call Tuesday that Higginbotham’s support of former President Trump raised some doubts as to his veracity especially in issues surrounding Transgender West Virginians.