San Diego City Commissioner Nicole Murray Ramirez has been elected as a national co-chair of the upcoming National March for Equality set for June 11 in Washington, D.C.
Commissioner Ramirez, who has been a Latino gay activist now for almost half a century, holds the distinction of being the only gay activist to be elected to all six of the LGBT marches on Washington. The first march was held in 1979 and the last one in 2009.
Ramirez has also served as a national co-chair of three national marches as well as an elected national chair of Stonewall 25 which drew over a half a million marchers to New York. He is now involved in the organizing of Stonewall 50, set for 2019 in New York.
“I am very honored to have been elected and believe that this is the most diverse leadership ever elected to lead one of our marches on Washington,” stated Murray Ramirez. “From activists involved with HRC, AMFAR, National LGBT Task Force, International Pride to advocates of immigrant rights, Black Lives Matter, queer youth and the trans community.”
Murray Ramirez has been acknowledged as an established national gay activist having been elected to the national board of directors of the HRC, National LGBTQ Taskforce and the National LGBT Latino Organization serving as its co-chair for three terms.
Currently Murray Ramirez serves on the national board of the Harvey Milk Foundation, chairman and CEO of the International Imperial Court System of the U.S.A., Canada, and Mexico, the executive director of the National GLBT Network U.S.A., and is a past state president of Equality California. Murray Ramirez also writes a regular column for San Diego LGBT Weekly.
The National LGBT Equality March on Washington is set for Sunday, June 11, and is being organized like the recent “Women’s March” with cities across the nation also holding “Equality Marches” the same day.
The second year of local programs to support lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) seniors has started, including the launch of the LGBTQI Elder Information & Assistance Program to increase elders’ access to social services for the healthy aging. (LGBTQI = lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning, queer, and intersex.)
“We have partnered with Sebastopol Area Senior Center to provide a county-wide LGBTQI specific information and assistance service that will encourage LGBTQI seniors to feel comfortable in identifying their needs and accessing services,” according to Adult & Aging Division Interim Director Gary Fontenot.
Because of experiences of discrimination, LGBT seniors are often uncomfortable sharing who they are or seeking services from agencies that may not understand their concerns or were unsafe to access in the past. That worry makes them less likely to seek the support services they now need for healthy aging.
“Since all our staff members have been trained in LGBTQI concerns and issues,” according to the Center’s Executive Director Linda Civitello, “more LGBT seniors will be comfortable making contact and getting the services needed to improve their lives.” To reach theLGBTQI Elder Information & Assistance Program, please call or email Wayne Wieseler at Sebastopol Area Senior Center at (707) 829-2440, ext. 103. or wayne@sebastopolseniorcenter.org.
Given the high senior population in Sonoma County (25% and growing) and data showing that it has the second-highest number of LGBT couples in California (The Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law), the LGBTQI Giving Circle Fund of the Community Foundation of Sonoma County and the Sonoma County Human Services Department Adult and Aging Division chose to fund expanded LBGT senior support services again this year.
A CaliforniaChick-fil-A franchise is waiting for its cows to come home after thieves absconded with three mascot costumes from a storage shed earlier this week.
The shop posted news Tuesday on Facebook of the Sunday night theft from a store in the city of Folsom. The post pleaded with customers to help find the kidnapped cows.
James Daack, the store’s hospitality director, said Thursday they just want the cows back with no questions asked.
“We’re hoping that through us reaching out in numerous ways, that the people who took the cows will come to their senses and bring the cows back to us,” he said. “We’re hoping it’s a prank.”
The Chick-fil-A fast food chain based in Georgia specializes in chicken sandwiches. Its ads feature crafty yet spelling-challenged cows that urge customers to “Eat Mor Chikin.”
Some commenters on Facebook called the theft “beefnapping” and said that stealing cows is called “rustling.”
Folsom police are investigating. Police Sgt. Andrew Bates said he expects the cow costumes to turn up given the media attention.
“It’s not like somebody can dress up for Halloween in that,” he said, “and it’s not money that someone can spend.”
The Trump administration dropped a lawsuit accusing North Carolina of discriminating against LGBT residents on Friday in response to the state’s decision to undo its “bathroom bill.”
The filing represents the first significant movement in a tangle of legal action challenging the state’s nondiscrimination laws since a deal last month to replace the law known as House Bill 2. But advocacy groups, who say the new law continues to discriminate against gay and transgender people, have vowed to continue with a separate federal lawsuit.
North Carolina’s compromise deal last month got rid of the most well-known provision of House Bill 2 that required transgender people to use restrooms corresponding to the sex on their birth certificates in many public buildings. But the new law makes clear that state legislators, not local governments, are in charge of any future bathroom policies.
The replacement law also prohibits local governments from enacting new nondiscrimination ordinances until 2020.
Tara Borelli, a lawyer for Lambda Legal involved in a separate lawsuit against North Carolina, said that her group’s federal litigation will continue. She said the new law, known as House Bill 142, is essentially a continuation of its predecessor’s discrimination.
She and her colleagues plan to amend their current lawsuit on behalf of transgender residents to encompass the change in law.
“HB142 was unconstitutional the moment it was enacted,” she said Friday.
A spokeswoman for Republican Senate leader Phil Berger didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Several sports organizations that moved events from North Carolina because of HB2, including the NCAA, have said that the new law will allow them to hold championship events in the state again.
Today, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and Equality NC hailed the news that Chicago and California are maintaining their bans on taxpayer-funded travel to North Carolina. The announcements come after North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, Senate President Phil Berger, and House Speaker Tim Moore passed a law doubling down on many of the worst aspects of the state’s notorious anti-LGBTQ HB2 law.
“We thank California Gov. Jerry Brown and California Attorney General Xavier Becerra for their leadership — and we commend Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel for taking action in the wake of fresh attacks on equality in North Carolina,” said JoDee Winterhof, HRC Senior Vice President for Policy and Political Affairs. “This sham ‘deal,’ passed without a single LGBTQ person at the table, actually doubles down on discrimination against millions of North Carolinians. It’s far past time North Carolina politicians — both Republican and Democrat — stop using LGBTQ people and other communities as political pawns to target for discrimination. In order for North Carolina to move forward, lawmakers must fully repeal HB2 and pass inclusive non-discrimination protections.”
“Cities across the country are seeing HB142 for what it really is — a fake repeal of HB2,” said Equality NC Executive Director Chris Sgro. “The new law continues to make North Carolina the only state in the nation to reserve for itself the exclusive ability to regulate bathroom access and one of only three states to ban cities from passing crucial non-discrimination protections. Cities like Chicago want to ensure that all of their employees are safe when traveling. It is unfortunate that HB142 continues to put LGBTQ people in harm’s way when a simple full repeal of HB2 would have resolved the issue.”
HB 142 is not an HB2 repeal, and replaces one discriminatory, anti-transgender, bathroom bill with another. It bans local LGBTQ non-discrimination protections statewide through 2020, and it substitutes the previous anti-transgender bathroom provisions with a new provision that forbids state agencies, public universities, primary and secondary schools, and cities from adopting policies ensuring transgender people have access to restrooms consistent with their gender identity.
The 5 is a novel of fantasy and mystery. Think Agatha Christie. Strangers mysteriously brought together in a house that has been provided for them. Their host, a professor named Orlando, has contacted five women and invited them to take part in her class at an unnamed university in Tallahassee, Florida, but she never arrives. Why are they there? If this truly is a class, what are they expected to learn? As they wait for the professor, they settle into the housing that has been provided and begin an investigation. But we veer away from Agatha Christie, when two of the women sleep together. Moreover, in several parts of the women’s journey, events happen that defy the laws of nature: levitation, astral flying, and reincarnation to name a few. The 5 is a tough novel to pigeonhole.
Characters have unique quirks, hidden motivations and instincts for self-preservation. The story is told through alternating points of view. The five women seem to be deliberately diverse and early on we’re given each woman’s history. Sandra is a beautiful blond with family problems and a car that drives itself. Maria is an overweight Hispanic woman with a shady past and a defensive personality–she claims to be a runaway who was at Trent State when the National Guard fired into a crowd of protesters (homage to Kent State). Sunina is from the Mideast and believes that she is a conduit for a goddess, can astral-project, and is convinced that they are all there for a reason. Carmah is an aloof African-American woman who lives with her grandma and says she doesn’t have time for the “riddles” the women are faced with, yet stays out of curiosity and, ironically, learns a great deal about herself.
Jane is the only one who has seen Dr. Orlando. She has amnesia about her life before their meeting and thinks she might be an android–at one point she thinks they all might be androids. All she remembers of her past is waking up naked in a muddy swamp with a debilitating headache. Through the tree branches, in the night sky, she could see Mars and found some comfort in that. We learn that she waited until daylight and walked until an elderly couple stopped to pick her up. In the hospital in Miami, Dr. Orlando reached out to her and brought her to Tallahassee ahead of the others.
It took me a while to warm up to this book. The book’s timeline is tricky; the story takes place in the 1980s but references to the past go back to the 1960s and 70s. The narrative flow of the story is broken when the author stops the story to present each of the characters backgrounds. This slows down what has been, and afterward continues to be, a nice momentum. While some of the author’s analogies seem cliché, others are first-class. My favorites are, “An atmosphere like the inside of an old refrigerator that has been unplugged for a week.” This is used to describe Carmah’s boyfriend’s house trailer. Sounds from another room are like “pins dropping on a cow bell.” When explaining her efforts to exercise Maria says, “You would too if you looked like you’d been dead and floating in salt water for five days.” But she really won my heart when, frustrated with the search for Dr. Orlando, she says, “If we find her, maybe we should rough her up.”
The author plays with the reader and putting the puzzle together is an interesting experience. In an Alfred Hitchcock-esque moment, Moreau gives herself a cameo in her own story. Chapter titles are unusual as they are often named after other books, from Gulliver’s Travels to Intruder in the Dust. She even manages to include a reference to Schrodinger’s cat. Eventually, the women break the law and use their skills of manipulation to get the information they need to find Dr. Orlando. Often humorous, the journey of these five women is replete with adventure, danger, and playful misdirection all the way up to the big reveal at the end.
The 5
By Iza Moreau
Black Bay Books
Paperback, 9761523418138, 318 pp.
January 2017
– See more at: http://www.lambdaliterary.org/reviews/fiction/03/07/the-5-by-iza-moreau/#sthash.Sjg1STM6.dpuf
Legislators in the nation’s largest conservative state of Texas sought Tuesday to chip away at the landmark Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage, voting to let county judges and other elected officials recuse themselves from issuing marriage licenses if they have personal religious objections.
The bill won preliminary approval in the Senate 21-10, with full Republican support and all but one Democrat opposing it. A final vote, expected to come Wednesday, sends it to the state House.
State Capitol Building in Austin, Texas Heather Drake / Loop Images/UIG via Getty Images
Texas’ Republican-controlled Legislature only meets every two years, meaning state lawmakers weren’t able to respond to the high court’s June 2015 gay marriage decision until now. Should the bill become law, however, it will almost certainly be challenged as unconstitutional by federal lawsuits.
“If we don’t do this, we are discriminating against people of faith,” said the sponsor, Sen. Brian Birdwell, a Republican from Granbury about 40 miles southwest of Fort Worth. He was referring to clerks, judges, justices of the peace and other elected officials empowered to issue marriage licenses in Texas’ 254 counties.
Opponents say it sanctions discrimination and defies the nation’s highest court.
“The Texas Senate today said it has no problem with public officials picking and choosing which taxpayers they will serve,” Kathy Miller, president of the progressive activist group the Texas Freedom Network, said in a statement. “This bill opens the door to taxpayer-funded discrimination against virtually anyone who doesn’t meet a public official’s personal moral standards.”
Birdwell’s hotly debated proposal only applies in cases where other officials without objections agree to step in for the recusing party. If the substituting official is located outside the county where the marriage license is being sought, documents could be sent electronically so as not to unduly delay the process.
Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton initially caused confusion by issuing a non-binding opinion following the 2015 Supreme Court ruling, suggesting that county clerks statewide who objected to gay marriage for religious reasons could refuse marriage licenses to same-sex couples. But, after civil groups threatened lawsuits, gay couples soon were being married across the state without incident.
Sen. Sylvia Garcia, a Houston Democrat and former judge, said Tuesday that the law was unnecessary since Texas officials have been issuing marriage licenses for nearly two years without objection. She said the bill will let many Republican officials now stop doing so, not because they have legitimate, religious-based problems with gay marriage but because they want to take ideological stands that will impress local primary voters.
“All the clerks and judges know about the law and are following the law,” said Garcia, who also asked if the constitutional duties elected officials swear to uphold shouldn’t extend to enforcing Supreme Court decisions. Birdwell cut her off, saying the state Senate shouldn’t engage in a “constitutional debate.” He added that “lawmaking belongs to the legislative branch,” not the courts.
The Senate defeated Democratic amendments seeking to weaken the bill, including one that would have docked the pay of county clerks refusing to issue gay marriage licenses.
Laws similar to Texas’ haven’t survived court challenges in other states. Last summer, a federal judge struck down a provision in a Mississippi law that had allowed county clerks to recuse themselves from issuing gay marriage licenses because of religious objections.
Equality California today released its Annual Report and Legislative Scorecard for 2016, giving a snapshot of the organization’s programs and achievements in 2016 and rating lawmakers on how they voted on Equality California’s highest priority legislation.
The Annual Report documents Equality California’s robust growth over past three years, from a total revenue of $2.0 million in 2014 to $3.9 million in 2015 to $6.4 million in 2016. It also details Equality California’s many achievements in 2016, including the passage of 8 pieces of legislation in Sacramento that advance LGBT equality and social justice. Our annual report highlights our work to register LGBT voters, elect pro-equality candidates at every level of government, reduce stigma for people living with HIV, advance fair and equitable immigration policies, and ensure that schools and health care providers are meeting the needs of LGBT people. As our annual report indicates, we expanded our federal advocacy efforts with the addition of a Washington, D.C.-based national policy director, and the growth of programs addressing the needs of the LGBT community and the challenges facing LGBT people.
2016 Scorecard ratings were based on how legislators voted on 8 sponsored bills, two sponsored resolutions and two opposed bills. This year, 44 of the Assembly’s 52 Democrats and 21 of 26 Democratic senators scored a pro-equality rating of 100 percent from Equality California. The score for Senate Democrats decreased slightly, from a perfect 100 percent Equality Score in 2015 to 98 percent, chiefly due to votes by a number of Democratic legislators on SB 1146, which requires religious universities to publicly disclose whether they have a “license to discriminate.” While only one Republican lawmaker received a 100-percent rating this year, bipartisan support overall increased over last year, particularly in the Assembly, where Republicans went from 34 percent support on average last year to 39 percent this year. Governor Jerry Brown earned a score of 100 percent, having signed all eight pieces of Equality California-sponsored legislation that crossed his desk.
“2016 was a great year for Equality California,” said Rick Zbur, the organization’s executive director. “We mounted the most vigorous candidate electoral effort in the history of the organization, expanded into Washington, D.C., and broadened our programs addressing the disparities that LGBT people continue to face in health and wellbeing when compared to the general public. Our Equality Scorecard gives members of the LGBT community and our allies the tools to understand which legislators are voting to advance LGBT equality and hold others accountable.
Each piece of legislation that Equality California sponsored in 2016 advances the organization’s mission of achieving full equality and acceptance for LGBT people inside and outside of California; reducing the disparities in health and wellbeing suffered by the LGBT community; and working for a fair and just society for LGBT people and all the communities of which we are a part.
The American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Wisconsin, and volunteer attorneys from the law firm Hawks Quindel have sued Wisconsin’s state university system and insurance board over their refusal to provide gender-affirming health insurance coverage to state employees who are transgender.
The federal lawsuit was filed on behalf of Alina Boyden, a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Shannon Andrews, a cancer researcher at the University of Wisconsin Medical School.
“The state continues to deny our clients coverage for medically necessary treatment simply because they are transgender, in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment,” said John Knight, an attorney with the ACLU LGBT Project. “All that transgender people like Alina and Shannon are asking for is to be treated like everyone else, and that includes respect and coverage for the health care they need.”
The state’s Group Insurance Board approved coverage for such medically necessary care in July 2016, but under pressure from the state attorney general, voted in closed session to rescind the benefits in December. Boyden and Andrews filed challenges to the exclusion with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and they are now seeking relief in federal court.
“Many people can relate to paying into an insurance plan only to be told that the treatment they need is not covered,” said Andrews. “But when the reason you are denied coverage is because of who you are, it is even more painful. And it’s clearly discrimination.”
Boyden said, “Too many transgender people continue to face discrimination in all facets of life, including health care access, and so I felt compelled to stand up and try to do something about it.”
ACLU of Wisconsin Legal Director Larry Dupuis said, “The state should not be playing games with its transgender employees’ essential medical needs. It has cruelly backtracked on its promise to provide access to care that the medical community agrees is necessary.”
Counsel on the filing includes Dupuis of the ACLU of Wisconsin, Knight of the ACLU, and Nick Fairweather and Mike Godbe of the law firm Hawks Quindel.
Some new details have come out regarding the Chechen law enforcement’s ‘preventive’ raid against LGBT people. It were LGBT people who had managed to flee from the Republic who gave the insight.
Some of the fugitives were willing to share the information with journalists despite fear of doing damage to themselves and their families in Chechnya.
The LGBT people who fled from repressions in Chechnya said there are 2 secret prisons for illegal detentions of offenders, as well as drug addicts and LGBT people who Chechen government sees as an issue, according to the Svoboda Ratio Station.
The raid began in December of 2016, not February of 2017 as earlier reported, according to the fugitives. The law enforcement would usually seize them at home, but sometimes they arrested them at work. Raids were carried out by employees of local departments of internal affairs, Special Rapid Response Team Terek, and Private Security Regiment of the Chechen MIA (also known as the “Neftyanoy Polk” (Rus. “Oil Regiment”), according to the fugitives.
Employees of the abovementioned agencies, as well as those of some other Chechen intelligence agencies, would frame those suspected of homosexuality by contacting them via the Internet. They later abducted and threw them to secret prisons.
Arrested LGBT people were sent to at least 2 such prisons at the end of 2016, according to the Radio Station. One is located in the Town of Argun and the other in the Tsotsi-Yurt village. The Argun prison was organized in a former military commandant’s office, as reported earlier.
Argun military commandant’s office
Many detainees were tortured to get them to inform on all the people they knew. Alternatively, prisoners could simply examine their phone messaging. This made the number of victims grow exponentially.
The 1st raid gradually stopped by the New Year, according to the Radio Station’s sources. However, a new one began in February. There were reports of first murder victims who may have been killed by their families as early as in March. The Radio Station learned about at least 2 such murders. However, the information has not been officially confirmed; the Chechen police does not prosecute for “honor killing”.
It has also been reported that the police covered its tracks in some cases. For example, the Grozny Chechen State TV Company deleted all videos featuring a journalist the police was going after so it would seem the journalist has never existed, as later turned out.
One of the fugitives who referred to himself as “Said” told the Radio Station he got a call from a family member serving in military when Said was in the City of Krasnodar. He demanded Said came back while being upfront about his family having to kill him. Said asked to kill him “remotely” instead. The caller replied he could not promise it; he understood he would be tortured to get him to inform on other people.
More than 30 letters were sent to kavkaz@lgbtnet.org, an e-mail for the victims, after it has been published in the Novaya Gazeta Newspaper, according to Russian LGBT Network Chairperson Tatiana Vinnichenko. The letters were sent by those arrested during the 1st raid and released from the prisons after torturing and those who fled during the 2nd raid. All fugitives are in severe stress, as pointed out by the Radio Station.
“They are in a very tough situation and do not know who to trust and where to flee”, according to Vinnichenko.
May we remind you that arrests and murders of LGBT people in Chechnya were reported by Novaya Gazeta on April 1. The Newspaper reported on at least 3 such murders and dozens of abductions. Muftiate members and 2 famous local TV anchors who had close ties to Kadyrov were among the victims, too. Head of the Chechen Republic’s Media Relations Officer Alvi Karimov and Head of the Chechen Republic’s Council on Civil Society and Human Rights member Heda Saratova refuted the accusations almost immediately.
Heda Saratova
Both denied there were either persecution of LGBT people in Chechnya or LGBT people among Chechens. The 2 stated they do not tolerate LGBT people, thus making clear what the national stance on the matter is.
Reports on persecution of LGBT people and reaction of Chechnya spokespeople to such persecution led to a public outcry. The President of Russia’s Council on Civil Society and Human Rights and Amnesty International International Human Rights Organization demanded the Chechen government investigated reports of persecution of LGBT people in the Republic. Later, Russia’s Commissioner for Human Rights Tatiana Moskalkova also asked the Chechnya Prosecutor General’s Office and Public Prosecutor’s Office to investigate reports of abduction of LGBT people in Chechnya. On April 8 and 9, the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, German Federal Foreign Office, and United States Department of State demanded safety of LGBT people in the Republic.
