GLAAD, the media monitoring organization that advocates for proper treatment and representation for LGBTQ+ people in media, is now calling upon the media for increased and more accurate coverage of violence against transgender people, especially women of color.
After the death of Christa Leigh Steele-Knudslien, the first transgender casualty of 2018 and a victim of domestic abuse, GLAAD released a statement on their website elucidating both their mission and expectations for the media’s coverage of transgender murders:
“[GLAAD is calling on the media to] report on the brutal violence perpetrated against transgender people, particularly transgender women of color. With violence against transgender people at an all-time high and rising, national media coverage is severely lacking.”
The statement continues: “The media must do a better job of reporting these murders and bringing needed attention to a community under vicious and violent attack.
In order for people to be aware of the horrific violence affecting the community, the public needs to know it is happening. The media has a responsibility to communicate about the deadly realities faced by transgender people.”
In addition to the necessity of increased reporting of violence against transgender people, GLAAD is also making clear that media outlets must respect the victims by using proper pronouns and names:
“Respect and use the lived identity, name, and pronoun of the victim. Report on each victim with dignity and respect, portraying them as a person, not just a statistic.
Disregarding the victim’s gender identity and misgendering them in news reports adds further insult to injury, compounding the tragedy by invalidating who the victims were.”
For guidelines on properly and respectfully reporting on transgender people, GLAAD offers their guides entitled “GLAAD’s Doubly Victimized: Reporting on Transgender Victims of Crime” as well as “GLAAD’s Media Reference Guide.” GLAAD also directs readers to contact them if they see a news story “which misgenders a transgender victim and/or publishes details about their personal life irrelevant to their murder,” at the email address transgender@glaad.org.
GLAAD reported that in 2017, 26 transgender people were killed in the United States and nearly all of the victims were transgender women of color. The organization cites that this due in part to transgender women living “at the dangerous intersections of transphobia, racism, sexism, and criminalization which often lead to high rates of poverty, unemployment, and homelessness.”
So far, GLAAD has posted the names of two known transgender women who have been murdered in 2018; Christa Leigh Steele-Knudslien, 42, who was killed on January 5 in North Adams, Massachusetts and Viccky Gutierrez, who was killed on January 10 in Los Angeles, California.
To learn more about individual transgender victims of violence, more information can be found at https://mic.com/unerased.
Sunday, March 4 @ 3 pm. Occidental Center for the Arts presents: Dan Crary, Bill Evans & Wally Barnick: Americana Masters!
Join flat picking pioneer and ‘Bluegrass Alliance’ founder Dan Crary, banjo legend Bill Evans, and SoCal acoustic favorite Wally Barnick as they come together as a trio of Americana Masters to perform cutting edge bluegrass, folk, and Americana music at our acoustic sweet spot on a Sunday afternoon! Get your reservations soon! $25 Advance/$30 at the door. Fine refreshments and Art Gallery open for viewing. Wheelchair Accessible. www.occidentalcenterforthearts.org. 707-874-9392
Americana Masters Dan Crary, Bill Evans & Wally Barnick
Today, Equality California announced the endorsement of four pro-equality candidates for California State Senate and Assembly offices.
“To continue to advance LGBTQ equality, Equality California endorses candidates for public office who have demonstrated a 100% commitment to fighting for our community” said Rick Zbur, Executive Director of Equality California. “The candidates we have endorsed today will make California stronger by fighting for the rights of all Californians, including those of the LGBTQ community.”
The candidates are as follows:
Senate District 12
Equality California endorses Anna Caballero for California Senate District 12. Caballero currently represents Assembly District 30 and previously served as secretary of the California Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency. She is a former mayor of the city of Salinas and former Assemblymember representing Assembly District 28. During her time in the Assembly, she has received an Equality Score rating of 100% each year she served. Caballero has been a public and steadfast ally of the LGBTQ community for more than a decade. Both as a Mayor and as Assemblymember, she was an early and vocal supporter of marriage equality in a socially conservative district. She was one of the first LGBTQ officials in the Salinas Valley to support LGBTQ civil rights and marched as grand marshal in Salinas’ first-very LGBTQ pride parade. She serves on the board of directors of the Equality California Institute.
“Anna Caballero has a long history of advocating for LGBTQ equality as a public official and has been a strong voice and champion for our community in the rural communities she represents,” stated Rick Zbur, Executive Director of Equality California. “Her 100% pro-equality voting record in the Assembly speaks for itself, and we look forward to her continued leadership in the fight for equality in the California Senate.”
Assembly District 30
Equality California endorses Robert Rivas for California’s Assembly District 30. Rivas currently teaches at Gavilan Community College, is the Student Support Manager at San Benito High School, and serves on the San Benito County Board of Supervisors. As Supervisor, Rivas has been an outspoken advocate for LGBTQ rights and programs to meet the needs of the LGBTQ community. Rivas led the effort to create the first LGBTQ resource center in San Benito County, served on a regional LGBTQ taskforce organized by Assemblywoman Anna Caballero, and worked to develop local partnerships in his community to create ongoing discussions about LGBTQ issues. From his experience working in education, Rivas understands the key role school districts play in identifying and supporting at-risk LGBGTQ youth and is committed to implementing programs in our schools to assure that all schools are safe and supportive for all students.
“Robert Rivas has been an outspoken advocate to assure that government programs meet the needs of LGBTQ people in his rural community,” said Rick Zbur, Executive Director of Equality California. “As a member of the San Benito County Board of Supervisors, he has demonstrated his strong commitment to the LGBTQ community and we look forward to his continued leadership as a member of the California Assembly.”
Assembly District 38
Equality California endorses Christy Smith for California’s Assembly District 38. As a member of the Newhall School Board, she advocated and supported policies to make schools safe and secure for LGBTQ students. When elected to the Assembly, she has promised to take steps to assure full implementation of the FAIR Education Act and to work to create LGBTQ cultural competency training programs for government workers and public safety officials so that they are able to better serve the LGBTQ community.
“Christy Smith will be a strong ally to the LGBTQ community as a California Assemblymember,” said Rick Zbur, Executive Director of Equality California. “Her commitment to improve government programs that serve the LGBTQ community by implementing LGBTQ cultural competency trainings and instructional materials in schools will improve the lives of LGBTQ youth and people.”
Assembly District 44
Equality California endorsesJacqui Irwin for reelection to California’s Assembly District 44. Throughout her career in public service, Irwin has been an effective advocate for the communities she represents, working across party lines to advance LGBTQ equality, improve public safety, and increase access to quality, affordable education. As an Assemblymember, she worked to increase funding in California Community Colleges to help close achievements gaps for students, including LGBTQ youth, who often face financial barriers to pursuing higher education. In 2016, she authored AB 2524, which requires criminal justice data, including details on hate crimes based on a victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity, to be publicly available online to help ensure better policing, public awareness, and public policy to end violence towards the LGBTQ community.
“Assemblymember Irwin has been a dedicated ally to the LGBTQ community, focused on improving equality, opportunity, and safety for LGBTQ Californians, said Rick Zbur, executive director of Equality California. “Working across party lines, Irwin has fought to provide quality, affordable education for LGBTQ students, and authored legislation to increase access to criminal justice data, including anti-LGBTQ hate crimes, to help improve policing, and address violence against LGBTQ people. We look forward to continuing our partnership to advance LGBTQ equality.”
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Equality California is the nation’s largest statewide LGBTQ civil rights organization. We bring the voices of LGBTQ people and allies to institutions of power in California and across the United States, striving to create a world that is healthy, just, and fully equal for all LGBTQ people. We advance civil rights and social justice by inspiring, advocating and mobilizing through an inclusive movement that works tirelessly on behalf of those we serve. www.eqca.org
LGBTQ community protest against discrimination in Ecuador with “public kiss” demonstration (Photo by JUAN CEVALLOS/AFP/Getty Images)
LGBTQ+ people are being forced into “gay cure” rehab clinics and subjected to rape and beatings in Ecuador.
Campaigners in the country have called on the government to investigate into over 100 clinics in which they believe human rights violations are being carried out against LGBTQ people.
Ecuadoran LGBTQ people demonstrate in front of the government palace in Quito against human rights abuses of gays in 1998.
(Photo by GUILLERMO LEGARIA/AFP/Getty Images)
An estimated 200 clinics are operating in the country.
Four people have come forward so far to tell of the horrifying abuse they were subjected to between 2014 and 2016 under the guise of “rehab”.
The victims say that they were beaten, placed in solitary confinement, chained to their beds for days at a time, force-fed concoctions of medicines and raped as a “corrective” measure by fellow patients and staff.
Some were also forced to wear makeup and high heels.
Ane Barragan, a coordinator at Causana Foundation, who have campaigned against gay “cure” therapy for over a decade, said that the treatment LGBTQ people were put through in an attempt to “convert” them was some of the worst they had known.
They added that it was an issue because the clinics in which the “conversion therapy” was happening were not be regulated or monitored.
It is believed that most of the victims are being admitted to the clinics by their parents under the guise that they are entering drug or alcohol rehab clinics.
Treatment costs $1,500 a month and they are usually held against their will for at least three months.
Cayetana Salao, of the LGBTQ rights group Taller de Comunicacion Mujer, said: “Corrective therapy, in mostly private and clandestine alcohol and drug addiction clinics, continues in Ecuador. It’s a reality.”
They added that of the six cases investigated by the state since 2012, no one has been found guilty or punished for the alleged violations.
“We call on the judiciary to move these cases forward and hold those people responsible to account,” Salao added.
(Photo: NELSON ALMEIDA/AFP/Getty Images)
Ecuador is one of three countries, alongside Malta and Brazil, which have banned the practice.
Homosexuality was legalised in 1997, and same-sex civil unions have been legal for over a decade.
Numerous raids were carried out on the “gay cure” clinics between 2012 and 2015 under the guidance of former health minister Carina Vance, who is openly gay.
The crackdown saw over 116 clinics raided and over 100 clinics shut down as a result.
However, within months the clinics had re-opened under different names.
Vance explained that the clinics “have a lot of power” and it is a “lucrative” business with lots of “economic interests”.
“There are families using these so-called services and this has to do with a prevalent, a very homophobic … a sexist society,” Vance said. “Cultural change is very difficult to produce.”
Maria Jose Espin, head of technical management at the health ministry’s regulatory agency, ACESS, said that these “establishments do not exist”.
“There are no de-homosexualization clinics. They shouldn’t exist,” she said.
She was sent to a “conversion” clinic 10 hours away from her home.
She said: “I’d told my family two months before that I was a lesbian and they’d been threatening me ever since.
“I was full of fear. I knew the principal ‘therapy’ at these clinics was rape.
“They told me I was bad, I was hurting my family, I was being manipulated by my girlfriend, that God made woman for men.
“I knew the same would happen to me if I didn’t comply.
“So I did everything they asked me, everything I could to survive until I could escape or someone saved me,” she said.
Ms Constante said she has not spoken to her family since.
“The first time I saw my father, at my work, I was terrified, I ran away and hid. They’ve never said sorry, never shown any regret. I’m still scared and I don’t trust them,” she added.
A trans prisoner in Missouri has won a landmark court case meaning that she will be able to access gender-affirming treatments.
Jessica Heckling has been n the Potosi Correctional Center since she was sentenced to life in prison without parole in 1995.
At just 16-years-old, was convicted of first-degree murder and armed criminal action after she shot an killed a man during a drug-related incident.
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At that time, Hicklin was beginning to come to terms with her trans identity but because of former rules held by the Missouri Department of Corrections, she had been unable to access many of the treatments and procedures in order to transition.
Because she had not been diagnosed with gender dysphoria before being sentenced, she was denied access because of the “freeze frame” policy.
The policy has been coined “unconstitutional” by Hicklin’s lawyer, Demoya Gordon of Lambda Legal, and they hope that the court ruling will come as a significant blow to it.
“If they can’t justify not doing this for her, how that can they justify not doing this for anybody else. This should be the knife to the heart of the policy,” Gordon added.
Hicklin was diagnosed with severe anxiety and depression the longer she was forced to live as male.
Despite doctors recommendations, the prison denied her hormone therapy, access to women’s commissary items and regular hair removal.
However, the 38- year-old has now won her right to access these potentially life-saving items after she won a court case against the Missouri DOC.
Speaking about the ruling, Hicklin said it has been “life-saving”.
She told BuzzFeed: “It’s like you’re out in the middle of the ocean, your boat capsized, and you’re just hoping that you’ll see a boat on the horizon and that you’re not going to drown, but how do you keep treading water?
“It’s like this lawsuit was a flare. That’s really how I’ve felt, like we filed this lawsuit and it’s in the courts, there’s no indication of whether anybody saw it and I’m just drowning, and wondering why I’m still treading water. So obviously the feeling is, the boat showed up. There is life now.
“For me this is life-saving, and I know for sure if I’m talking to someone, it’s going to be life-saving for them. It’s like you’re drowning and somebody throws you the life vest,” she said.
She added that straight after she found out the ruling she almost could not believe she had won.
“I kept going, like, Are you kidding me? I get to be the woman I am? Even just trying to explain it my eyes are fogging up. I have so much hope for the future now,” she said.
She went on to explain that even being able to wear female underwear will create an incredible sense of affirmation because for a long time all she could feminise was her hair.
“All my life it’s been the only expression of womanhood I had was my hair and I’m looking forward to having [women’s] underwear that’s me… I will be the only one who knows that I have it but it’s a sign of me. And just to be able to say I dress like a woman, because I am one.”
Hickins said that the freeze frame policy, which has stopped her from furthering her transition for such a long time, is often not an “official written police” and so it’s difficult to know how many US prisons are enforcing the “antiquated” policy.
“They don’t adhere to either modern medical practice or standards of human decency,” she said.
The prisoner added that before the ruling she was scared every day that they would not win the case.
She said: “I wanted to have hope that it was going to happen and when it didn’t I had to convince myself every night when I went to bed, how am I going to go on, how am I going to keep doing this?
“I was just explaining to my therapist the other day, I can’t even take myself in the mirror anymore. And to think I’ll actually be happy to look in the mirror, that’s actually going to be me, not this other person.”
Donald Trump’s budget plans include a massive slash to HIV funding.
The GOP billionaire has come under fire from LGBT groups following the release of his 2019 budget plans released on Monday.
The budget includes cuts to domestic HIV/AIDS programs, despite the growing needs, including elimination of Special Programs of National Significance (SPNS).
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) civil rights organization, issued the following statement in response to the Trump-Pence Administration’s dangerous and irresponsible FY 2019 proposed budget.
David Stacy, HRC’s Government Affairs Director, said: “Budgets reflect your values. The Trump-Pence budget released today shows a callous disregard for critical programs that impact LGBTQ Americans.
“The elimination or slashing of programs related to the Affordable Care Act, HIV/AIDS, and international humanitarian projects are a direct threat to the safety and well-being of LGBTQ people here and around the world. Congress must reject these harmful proposals.”
Asia Russell, Executive Director of the Health Global Access Project (Health GAP), said: “President Trump’s proposal to cut over a billion dollars from the U.S. global HIV response in fiscal year 2019 shows how very out of touch he is with the American people and their values.
“Americans from across the political spectrum and every part of the country support the U.S. government’s long-standing leadership in funding life-saving HIV treatment and prevention programs in sub-Saharan Africa and across the developing world.
Yes, legendary TV star, Ted Danson drinks Smirnoff. To anyone who’s been living under a rock, Ted is very famous. Most parents would totally, probably know who he is.
“If this budget passes as proposed, Donald Trump’s legacy will be millions of new and unnecessary infections and deaths – and a massive resurgence in the AIDS pandemic.
“This is not a time to back down. U.S. funding for global AIDS programs has been critical in reducing deaths and new infections to the point where defeating AIDS is within reach. But after several years of flat funding from Congress, the response is running out of gas. At the very moment we should be on the brink of ending AIDS, Trump’s deadly budget would shift the global AIDS response into reverse.
“Congress should treat this proposal the way they treated the President’s first budget – by declaring it dead on arrival. Instead, Congress should uphold American leadership in the fight against HIV by providing urgently-needed funding increases for PEPFAR and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in the coming fiscal year.”
The budget claims: “At the funding level requested in the Budget, the United States would provide sufficient resources to maintain all current patient levels
on HIV/AIDS treatment.
“U.S. efforts to control the HIV/AIDS epidemic are a direct reflection of U.S. leadership abroad and the goodwill, compassion, and generosity of the American people.”
All members of the council were informed of their dismissal by a letter sent via courier.
Six people had already resigned from the Council en masse in June, saying that Trump and his administration “do not care” about the cause.
The move came after the quiet closure of the White House Office of National AIDS Policy, which was shuttered as part of the Presidential transition and never re-opened as Trump failed to appoint a new director.
The White House was slammed by GLAAD over its inaction.
GLAAD tweeted: “It’s time to stop being dismissive of questions about the firing of members of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV and AIDS. It’s time for this administration to prioritize issues related to HIV and AIDS.”
Chicago-based HIV activist Scott A Schoettes, a former member of the council, previously laid into the decision.
He tweeted: “Remaining #HIV/AIDS council members booted by @realDonaldTrump. No respect for their service. Dangerous that #Trump and Co. (Pence esp.) are eliminating few remaining people willing to push back against harmful policies, like abstinence-only sex ed.”
Mr Schoettes accused Trump of “executing a purge” by eliminating the council in combination with other policies. It was reported earlier this month that federal agencies had been banned from using the word ‘transgender’.
In an open letter, the six members of the council who had already quit explained that they had dedicated their lives to fighting HIV and AIDS, but felt that the Trump administration was preventing them from doing this successfully.
They wrote: “As advocates for people living with HIV, we have dedicated our lives to combating this disease and no longer feel we can do so effectively within the confines of an advisory body to a president who simply does not care.”
“The Trump Administration has no strategy to address the on-going HIV/AIDS epidemic, seeks zero input from experts to formulate HIV policy, and—most concerning—pushes legislation that will harm people living with HIV and halt or reverse important gains made in the fight against this disease.”
(Getty)
While Democratic candidates for President Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders both met with HIV advocates and proposed an action plan on the issue, Donald Trump did not.
The letter also raised objection to Trump’s healthcare policies.
The letter stated: “We know who the biggest losers will be if states are given the option of eliminating essential health benefits or allowing insurers to charge people with HIV substantially more than others.
“It will be people—many of them people of color—across the South and in rural and underserved areas across the country, the regions and communities now at the epicentre of the U.S. HIV/AIDS epidemic.
“It will be young gay and bisexual men; it will be women of colour; it will be transgender women; it will be low-income people. It will be people who become newly infected in an uncontrolled epidemic, new cases that could be prevented by appropriate care for those already living with the disease.”
The group concluded the letter by saying that the resignation was not an easy decision, but one that must be made.
“The decision to resign from government service is not one that any of us take lightly. However, we cannot ignore the many signs that the Trump Administration does not take the on-going epidemic or the needs of people living with HIV seriously.”
The bulk of the cuts are proposed to the President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), which was set up by former President George W Bush to tackle the AIDS crisis, and is one of the largest providers of funding for global projects battling the spread of HIV/AIDS.
Former President Bush, who is often praised for setting up PEPFAR despite his broadly regressive stances on LGBT issues, penned an op-ed for the Washington Post warning against any cuts.
He wrote: “My administration launched PEPFAR in 2003 to address the HIV/AIDS pandemic that threatened to wipe out an entire generation on the continent of Africa. Nearly 15 years later, the program has achieved remarkable results in the fight against
“Nearly 15 years later, the program has achieved remarkable results in the fight against disease. Today, because of the commitment of many foreign governments, investments by partners, the resilience of the African people and the generosity of the American people, nearly 12 million lives have been saved.
He added: “As the executive and legislative branches review the federal budget, they will have vigorous debates about how best to spend taxpayers’ money — and they should.
“Some will argue that we have enough problems at home and shouldn’t spend money overseas. I argue that we shouldn’t spend money on programs that don’t work, whether at home or abroad.
“But they should fully fund programs that have proven to be efficient, effective and results-oriented.
“Saving nearly 12 million lives is proof that PEPFAR works, and I urge our government to fully fund it. We are on the verge of an AIDS-free generation, but the people of Africa still need our help.
“The American people deserve credit for this tremendous success and should keep going until the job is done.”
California Lt. Governor and Gubernatorial candidate Gavin Newsom is interviewed by Politico’s Carla Marinucci at University of San Francisco in San Francisco, Calif., on Monday, February 5, 2018.
Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, who sits atop most polls and has raised the most money in the 2018 California governor’s race, begins spending some of it Monday with his first campaign ad. It features the then-San Francisco mayor presiding over the first same-sex marriages in the city on this day 14 years ago.
Today, we can confidently say, is the first day in the state of California that we are providing marriage equally and fairly to everyone and denying no one their right and their opportunity to live their lives out loud,” Newsom says in a 2004 clip near the start of the minute-long ad that was posted to his Facebook page at 6 a.m. Monday. It will become Newsom’s first TV commercial this spring, campaign officials said.
Leading with the issue that vaulted Newsom into the national spotlight, and releasing the ad on the anniversary of the Winter of Love marriages in San Francisco, is a sign that Newsom will try to shape the campaign around his leadership on controversial issues.
The ad also highlights Newsom’s efforts to bring universal health care to San Francisco residents and being at the vanguard of 2016’s successful Proposition 63, which banned the possession of large-capacity firearm magazines and passed over the opposition of the powerful National Rifle Association.
Republican businessman John Cox of Rancho Santa Fe (San Diego County) the only other candidate to have produced a TV commercial, which was broadcast this month on Fox News affiliates.
Newsom and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa were virtually tied in a poll by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California last week, far ahead of their rivals. Newsom has $19.5 million cash on hand, more than twice as much as his closest rival in the money race, state Treasurer John Chiang.
Today, San Francisco leaders joined together at a press conference to support a new bill authored by Senators Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) and Henry Stern (D-Canoga Park) to expand and strengthen California conservatorship laws by giving counties broader reach and more flexibility to help those who cannot care for themselves and who are dying on our streets. SB 1045 is sponsored by San Francisco Mayor Mark Farrell, who is continuing the work Mayor Ed Lee started in bringing this issue forward.
Senator Wiener was joined at a press conference in support of the bill by Mayor Farrell, San Francisco Board of Supervisors President London Breed, Department of Public Health Director Barbara Garcia, and Community Housing Partnership Executive Director Gail Gilman, as well as supporters of the bill. The press conference took place at the Richardson Apartments, a permanent supportive housing building for extremely low income, chronically homeless individuals.
Senate Bill 1045 allows local governments more flexibility in expanding the reach of the conservatorship system, modernizing its administration, and assisting individuals who suffer from chronic homelessness, accompanied by debilitating mental illness, severe drug addiction, repeated psychiatric commitments, or excessively frequent use of emergency medical services. SB 1045 is co-authored by Senators Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica) and Steven Bradford (D-Gardena.)
Senator Scott Wiener said: “In San Francisco, like in cities all across California, people are suffering and dying on our streets. Many of these people can no longer help themselves, and we need to get them off the streets, into housing, and into supportive services so they can get their lives back. But our counties need more ways to help these people, and that includes strengthening our conservatorship laws for the most extreme cases. Over the coming months, Senator Stern and I will work closely with counties, cities, advocates, and others to craft a bold and comprehensive bill that will save lives. Here in San Francisco our public health officials and community organizations have been working tirelessly, but they need more tools to help the people that are suffering on our streets. I’m greatly appreciative the work of my friend the late Mayor Ed Lee did laying the groundwork on this issue, and for the ongoing support of Mayor Farrell. This is an all-hands-on-deck situation, and that’s why I’m also supportive of efforts by Board President Breed to strengthen our existing laws and efforts. What’s happening on our streets is inhumane and we can no longer sit back and watch people die. We have to act.”
San Francisco Mayor Mark Farrell said: “San Francisco has an epidemic on our streets and we need to expand every opportunity to help those with behavioral challenges. When people cannot care for themselves, we have to step in and help. This can be a path toward to a new beginning for our at-risk communities.”
San FranciscoBoard of Supervisors President London Breed said: “As a progressive city, we must do more to care for those who cannot care for themselves. It’s not compassionate to let those who are grappling with severe mental health and substance abuse issues simply wither away on our streets. These necessary changes to state and local law are a critical step toward a more healthy and more human San Francisco.”
Barbara Garcia, Director San Francisco Department of Public Health said, “We are supportive of measures that will help provide our community members who have addiction disorders and who are homeless with more intensive treatment options. Treatment support and care is critically needed to reduce suffering and save lives.”
Gail Gilman, Executive Director of Community Housing Partnership said, The introduction of this bill allows a process to begin to have a serious discussion about how to care and provide support to individuals who sometime in the moment cannot make those decisions for themselves. We too often see in supported housing individuals who need a higher level of care and who in the midst of their addiction or mental health crisis are unable to make decisions for themselves and need an intervention. This legislation will create a framework for the community to come together and truly understand how to assist these individuals.”
SB 1045 has been introduced as intent language, so that Senators Wiener and Stern can work with local governments, service providers, and advocates over the coming months to determine how to ensure the conservatorships are structured to best help those most in need of shelter and recovery, should those counties elect to use it. No county will be required to use the new conservatorship.
The California conservatorship system is one of the most important safeguards for protecting individuals incapable of managing their own affairs. Currently two kinds of conservatorship are authorized in California: Lanterman-Petrie-Short (LPS) conservatorships are designated for individuals who are “gravely disabled” and thus unable to care for themselves, while probate conservatorships are designed for individuals unable to care for themselves due to physical health issues, cognitive impairment, or elder abuse.
California faces an unprecedented housing affordability crisis, accompanied by significant untreated mental illness and drug addiction. These conditions, coupled with the limitations of our state and local social services, have left some counties searching for more tools to provide help and support to those Californians in the most need. In San Francisco, many of the successful programs and services have still fallen short of providing meaningful rehabilitation to a small population of residents with severe mental illness and drug addiction who are deteriorating on the city’s streets. Los Angeles faces similar challenges. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is currently evaluating the efficacy and reach of their conservatorship system pursuant to a motion coauthored by Supervisors Mark Ridley-Thomas and Kathryn Barger.
Many of these people routinely use social and emergency services and find themselves in law enforcement custody, effectively converting a health issue into a criminal issue. By allowing greater flexibility to conserve these extremely disabled individuals – who are unable to make decisions for themselves – we can keep people out of the criminal justice system and focus on their health and well-being.
The Education Department has told BuzzFeed News it won’t investigate or take action on any complaints filed by transgender students who are banned from restrooms that match their gender identity, charting new ground in the Trump administration’s year-long broadside against LGBT rights.
It’s the first time officials have asserted this position publicly as an interpretation of law. No formal announcement has been made.
For nearly a year, the Trump administration took a less clear stance, with officials saying they were studying the issue. When the Education Department and Justice Department withdrew Obama-era guidance on transgender restroom access in February 2017, Trump’s officials said in a memo and court filings that they would “consider the legal issues involved.” Then last June, the Education Department issued another memo saying it was “permissible” for its civil rights division to dismiss a trans student’s restroom case. However, in those statements, officials never cemented their intent to reject all restroom complaints issued by trans students.
For the past three weeks, BuzzFeed News called and emailed Education Department officials attempting to pinpoint the agency’s position.
Finally on Thursday, Liz Hill, a spokesperson for the agency, responded “yes, that’s what the law says” when asked again if the Education Department holds a current position that restroom complaints from transgender students are not covered by a 1972 federal civil rights law called Title IX.
Asked for further explanation on the department’s position, Hill said Friday, “Title IX prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, not gender identity.”
She added that certain types of transgender complaints may be investigated — but not bathroom complaints.
“Where students, including transgender students, are penalized or harassed for failing to conform to sex-based stereotypes, that is sex discrimination prohibited by Title IX,” Hill said. “In the case of bathrooms, however, long-standing regulations provide that separating facilities on the basis of sex is not a form of discrimination prohibited by Title IX.”
The Education Department’s stance conflicts with two federal appeals courts.
Catherine Lhamon, who led the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights during the Obama administration, said the new school-restroom policy is legally dubious.
“Until now, the official position of the Department has been that Title IX protects all students and that they were evaluating how that protection applies to the issue of bathroom access,” she said in an email to BuzzFeed News. “This new categorical bar of civil rights protection for transgender children required to attend schools every day ignores the text of the law, courts’ interpretation of the law, the stated position of the Department to date, and human decency.”
The Education Department’s stance conflicts with two federal appeals courts, which held that Title IX guarantees transgender students’ access to restrooms matching their gender identity. Lower courts have been divided on the matter.
Although Hill said “the law says” transgender student restroom complaints aren’t covered by Title IX, the law does not say that.
Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 says it bans discrimination “on the basis of sex” in publicly funded education settings. Does that exclude transgender restroom disputes? The plain text of the law, as some federal judges have noted, does not answer the question. It’s ambiguous, they say. The term “sex” — including in the law concerning separate restrooms — is not defined as referring to gender identity or a person’s sex as identified at birth.
But insofar as Title IX needs clarity, the highest courts in the United States to contemplate the law’s scope found it does, in fact, confer transgender students the right to use public school restrooms matching their gender identity.
The exact meaning of Title IX is ambiguous: It bans discrimination “on the basis of sex.”
Federal appeals courts for the 6th Circuit and 7th Circuit both suspended school restroom policies, ruling that transgender students were likely to prevail at trial using claims under Title IX.
Most recently, in May 2017, a unanimous three-judge panel for 7th Circuit wrote in Whitaker v. Kenosha Unified School District that a “policy that requires an individual to use a bathroom that does not conform with his or her gender identity punishes that individual for his or her gender non‐conformance, which in turn violates Title IX.”
Harper Jean Tobin, policy director for the National Center for Transgender Equality, told BuzzFeed News, “It marks a shift in position for the Education Department that is particularly remarkable in light of case law.”
For the department to neglect those decisions, Tobin said, is to “ignore the law in favor of their ideology.”
Hill did not answer questions about how the department reconciles its position with conflicting circuit court rulings, or why it won’t accept the complaints arising even from students inside those circuits (which encompass Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee, and Wisconsin).
In May 2016, the Obama administration issued guidance that said Title IX ensures transgender students can use restrooms and other school facilities in accordance with their gender identity. (A district court suspended that guidance after a challenge led by the state of Texas.) But even before it had guidance on the matter, the Obama administration enforced this view of Title IX in 2013.
With Trump in office, the Justice Department and Education Department sent a Dear Colleague letter to local officials in February 2017 rescinding Obama-era guidance. But the Trump administration letter did not assert a position on what Title IX required, instead announcing that officials were going to “more completely consider the legal issues involved.” It made similar statements in briefs filed at the Supreme Court and US District Court in North Carolina.
In June 2017, Candice Jackson, acting head of the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, issued a memo that said it would be “permissible” for a complaint concerning a restroom to be dismissed. But that memo did not assert any interpretation of the law or a general rule for handling such complaints.
The Justice Department said in October that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1965, which bans sex discrimination in the workplace, does not protect transgender people.
But it did not make such a clear statement on the education law. Rescinding the school guidance created the absence of a position for recipients of federal education money.
Officials at the Education and Justice Department’s did not answer questions from BuzzFeed News about when they stopped considering transgender student restroom complaints as a matter of policy and how many of those complaints have been rejected.
A Justice Department official told BuzzFeed News on Friday, “The Department of Justice cannot expand the law beyond what Congress has provided. The Department of Justice remains firmly committed to protecting the civil and constitutional rights of all Americans, and will aggressively enforce all civil rights laws enacted by Congress.”
But Lhamon disagreed, given her view that Title IX doesn’t actually tie the administration’s hands.
“That interpretation represents an appalling abdication of federal enforcement responsibility, inconsistent with the law and with courts’ interpretation of the law, and totally lacking in human compassion for children in school, whom the Department is charged to protect,” she said.
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