Samuel Braslow

The new face of Planned Parenthood is unafraid of the current climate of hyper-conservative populism. If anything, Dawn Laguens is optimistic about the chronically besieged organization’s future.

“Planned Parenthood is happy, though, to be taking on the fight, and to be standing up against some of these outrageous attacks that we see both at the federal and state level,” Languages said in an interview with The Advocate.

The longtime VEO and president of Planned Parenthood, Cecile Richards, stepping down in January, Laguens, the executive vice president and chief brand officer, has assumed the role of acting spokesperson.

Laguens, who identifies as a “member of the gay community,” according to The Advocate, is quick to emphasize the inclusivity of Planned Parenthood, especially in regards to the LGBT community and HIV/AIDS treatment. “A really exciting thing we’re doing is offering PrEP in 44 of our states, in terms of AIDS prevention work,” she said of the HIV prevention treatment. “We now offer hormone therapy for our trans patients in 20 states and counting. And, as we have always done, we offer nonjudgmental, welcoming care, knowledgeable care for LGBTQ young people, all throughout their life.”

As an organization founded for reproductive justice, Planned Parenthood has long retained elements of its female-oriented origins. The tax-exempt corporation has taken some flak over its pink marketing, with some on the left arguing it reinforces gender stereotypes.

Laguens points to evidence that contradicts accusations of exclusivity. A recent survey indicated that 20 percent of patients identified as LGBTQ. Planned Parenthood recently rolled out an updated gender-neutral website to reflect the diverse services it offers to male-bodied and female-bodied individuals, both trans and cisgendered. 

“A lot of people don’t know how many folks we serve in the LGBTQ community, but also don’t understand that we offer a wide range of services for men,” Laguens said.

Despite public perception, 12 percent of Planned Parenthood’s patients are men who take advantage of STI testing and treatment, vasectomies, and “a full range of sexual and reproductive health care,” according to Laguens.

In the era of #MeToo and #TimesUp, Laguens sees Planned Parenthood at the forefront of the renewed dialogue about agency over one’s body. While #MeToo has been driven by revelations of predatory behavior on the part of individual men, Planned Parenthood has long fought the systemic violation of physical autonomy committed by governmental and judicial forces. To Laguens, there is a direct connection between the two. 

“So many people are getting the connection that it’s not like #MeToo and #TimesUp over on this side of the equation, and then [on the other side] there’s whether the government will allow you to have birth control, or access to abortion, or access to honest, accurate information in sex education – it’s all connected, because again it’s all about how do you be equal, and how do you be free?”

Planned Parenthood has withstood over 100 years of attacks, but the day it ceases to draw political ire – the day when we accept complete autonomy for women and LGBTQ folks – is the day it outlives its founding charter. Until then, Laguens is confident in the organization’s strategy: Continue helping people.

“Planned Parenthood is making a difference every day in the lives of people you know, allowing them to have control of their body, to have a shot at their dreams, to be able to complete their education, and of course to participate economically. So Planned Parenthood is actually the solution, not the problem in this country.”

The Department of Justice wants to stop collecting data about the sexual orientation and gender identity of 16- and 17-year-olds, officials announced this week.

The National Crime Victimization Survey is a twice-annual report that collects the data of up to 135 thousand households to understand the “frequency, characteristics, and consequences” of crime in the United States, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Since 2016, the NCVS has given participants 16 and older the option to confidentially list their sexual orientation and gender identity. The survey has been especially useful for acknowledging under-reported crimes.

In a statement released on Wednesday, the DOJ announced its intentions to raise the minimum age “due to concerns about the potential sensitivity of these questions for adolescents.”

The move drew a quick rebuke from advocacy groups, including the University of California-Los Angeles’ Williams Institute, a think tank dedicated to LGBTQ+ research and public policy. In a statement, the Williams Institute argued for the necessity of the data, saying it was essential for understanding violence against LGBTQ+ groups.

“The Bureau of Justice Statistics at the Department of Justice has been a leader in advancing knowledge about the LGBTQ+ population, but the Bureau’s new leadership seems to want to bury its head in the sand,” Director of Federal Policy Adam Romero says in the statement.

This point was echoed by another advocacy group, New York-based Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network. “What’s measured is what matters when it comes to public policy,” said executive director Eliza Byard to Mother Jones.

For instance, in August 2016, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention published data that detailed the health disparities and high rates of violence suffered by lesbian, gay, and bisexual high school students. The groundbreaking report has been “hugely important for designing public health programs run out of the CDC,” according to Byard.

On the CDC’s own website, the agency states, “Collecting information about students’ sexual identity and about the sex of their sexual contacts is necessary.”

While LGBTQ+ advocacy groups do not deny the sensitivity of the questions, they find the DOJ’s argument disingenuous. “Youth have been answering questions about their sexual orientation for years, in numerous studies, as well as on federal surveys,” said Kerith J. Conron, Blachford-Cooper Research Director and Distinguished Scholar at the Williams Institute.

Conron points out that two other national surveys have asked similar questions to even younger respondents. The 2015 Youth Behavior Risk Survey included respondents as young as 13, and the National Survey of Family Growth polls subjects as young as 15.

“We know that LGBTQ+ youth are more likely to be victimized, sometimes by their own families, and we need data from the NCVS to learn whether crimes are reported and how the criminal justice system is responding to young LGBTQ+ victims,” said Conron. “Instead of dropping these items from the NCVS, which were cognitively tested and performed well, the Department of Justice should focus on making it easier for youth to answer questions by investigating strategies to improve the data collection process.”

This latest move falls into a strategy of the Trump administration to ignore LGBTQ+ people into bureaucratic nonexistence, denying them use of government protection and services. For historically marginalized groups, the political nostalgia of “Make America Great Again” always represented a red flag of regressive policy. There is no “again” for racial, ethnic, sexual, or gender minorities; there is only the hard-won progress accrued over the last few decades and the current threat to that progress.