Washington Blade

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Bullied Transgender Youth Dies by Suicide in N.H.

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A 14-year-old transgender youth left his school, walked down Huse Road to the overpass over busy Interstate 293, climbed the 6′ chain-link fence installed by the New Hampshire Department of Transportation to prevent people falling off the older bridge and its low guard rails, and lept into eastbound traffic.

A spokesperson for the Rainbow Youth Project confirmed in a phone call Monday that Nova Dunn, a student at Southside Middle School, died by suicide. The New Hampshire State Police while not commenting, citing an ongoing investigation, confirmed the incident and the resulting “hours-long traffic jam at the location” just east of the Mall of New Hampshire.

A friend of the family, Stacey Greenberg, wrote in the GoFundMe post to raise the funds to defray the cost of the funeral:

“Hello, this is Stacey a friend of Melissa and Mom to one of Nova’s close friends. No one should have to outlive their child, but Melissa has now experienced this twice. On Wednesday afternoon, 14-year-old Nova left this earth and found the peace and acceptance he was searching for.”

The New Hampshire Union Leader reported that Manchester School District Supt. Jenn Gillis sent an email to district families last Wednesday night that said in part: “It is with deep sadness that we inform you that one of our students has died unexpectedly.”

Gillis wrote that: “This loss may raise many emotions, concerns and questions for our entire school community, especially our students.”

Manchester School District spokesperson Andrew Toland, in a press statement, noted that counselors from other Manchester area schools and the state’s Disaster Behavior Health Response Team spent May 18 at the school “directly impacted” by the death.

“Our focus in the coming days and weeks is to be supportive of our students, families and staff,” said Toland.

Multiple sources alleged that bullying and transphobia factored into the death of the teen, although the Washington Blade has been unable to verify any of those claims.

In the past few months there has been considerable attention focused on trans youth nationally, particularly around school policies regarding trans youth health care and gender identity. Last month, New Hampshire Public Radio reported that the New Hampshire Supreme Court heard arguments in a case brought by a Manchester parent challenging school policies around trans and nonbinary students.

The parent says she was kept in the dark when her child began using a different name and identifying as a different gender at school — something the parent objected to, NHPR reported.

At issue is a district policy that says Manchester school staff generally shouldn’t disclose when a student identifies as trans or gender nonconforming without that student’s permission.

Republican New Hampshire lawmakers are rallying behind legislation that would force schools to disclose a student’s gender identity to parents when asked. The state House of Representatives narrowly rejected one such proposal last month, but another remains on the table after passing the state Senate along party lines.

Nova Dunn/Facebook

In an interview on Rated LGBT Radio with Rob Watson this past week, Lance Preston, founder and executive director of the Rainbow Youth Project USA, noted that the toxic legislative atmosphere had tripled calls for assistance to the RYP’s crisis counselors, as nearly 18 states have banned trans youth gender-affirming therapy for minors, and have also passed laws the forbid discussion of LGBTQ issues, history and people in classrooms.

Preston also pointed out that more than a half dozen states enacting measures, like New Hampshire’s proposed disclosure of a youth’s gender to parents, in cases of non-affirming households specifically places those youth at risk for suicide or leaving, oft times ending up living homeless on the streets. 

At the beginning of this month, the nation’s leading suicide prevention organization for LGBTQ youth, the Trevor Project, released the results of its latest survey of queer young people ages 13 to 24. 

The survey of 28,000 youth nationwide, conducted last fall, underscores the negative mental health impact of anti-LGBTQ legislation and policies. Among the key findings:

  •    41 percent of LGBTQ young people seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year — and those who are trans, nonbinary and/or people of color reported higher rates than their peers. 
  •    56 percent who wanted mental health care in the past year were not able to get it.
  •    LGBTQ young people who had access to affirming homes, schools, community events and online spaces reported lower rates of attempting suicide compared to those who did not.
  •    Trans and nonbinary young people reported lower rates of attempting suicide when all of the people they live with respected their pronouns and/or they had access to a gender-neutral bathroom at school.
  •     LGBTQ young people who experienced victimization because of their orientation or identity — including being physically threatened or harmed, discriminated against or subjected to conversion therapy — reported more than twice the rate of attempting suicide in the past year compared to those who did not have any of these anti-LGBTQ experiences.
  •     Nearly 2 in 3 LGBTQ young people said that hearing about potential state or local laws banning people from discussing LGBTQ people at school — also known as “Don’t Say Trans or Gay” laws — negatively impacted their mental health.

Link to the GoFundMe campaign to assist the family is here: (Nova Dunn)

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Homeland Security reports anti-LGBTQ threats are rising, intensifying

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Violent threats against the LGBTQ community are rising and intensifying according to data from a document by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that was shared with law enforcement and government agencies on May 11. 

“These issues include actions linked to drag-themed events, gender-affirming care, and LGBTQIA+ curricula in schools,” the agency said. 

DHS also warned of the potential that these threats may lead to a rise in attacks against LGBTQ public spaces and healthcare sites, just as Pride celebrations across the country are slated to begin in June.

According to the agency, data from the FBI’s hate crime statistics indicates that 20 percent of those committed in 2021 were motivated by bias linked to sexual orientation and gender. 

The Williams Institute of the UCLA School of Law reported in 2022 that “LGBT people [are] nine times more likely than non-LGBT people to be victims of violent hate crimes.” 

The Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, a group that describes itself as “a disaggregated data collection, analysis, and crisis mapping project,” found that anti-LGBTQ incidents including “demonstrations, acts of political violence, and the distribution of offline propaganda — have more than tripled from 64 events in 2021 to 193 events in 2022 as of mid-November.”

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Tanzanian man convicted of violating country’s sodomy law, sentenced to 30 years in prison

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A Tanzanian man last month sentenced to 30 years in prison after a court convicted him of violating the country’s sodomy law.

According to LGBT VOICE Tanzania, an LGBTQ and intersex rights organization, the Kilwa District Court sentenced Muharami Hassan Nayonga to 30 years in prison after it convicted him of violating Sections 154 and 157 of the country’s Penal Code that criminalize so-called unnatural offenses and “indecent practices between males.”

LGBT VOICE Tanzania said Nayonga was a security guard who lived in Masoko Ward. He was arrested on April 13 “after he used his phone to persuade a young man known as Zalafi Selemani to be intimate with him.”

“After the arrest, Muharami was examined by health professionals who found that he had engaged and engages in unnatural sex,” said LGBT VOICE Tanzania. “He was then brought to court and confessed his crimes where he was sentenced to 30 years in prison by the Resident Magistrate of the Court, Carolina Mtui, under case number 27 of 2023.”

LGBT VOICE Tanzania accused the country’s government of violating Nayonga’s human rights.

“Using Sections 154 and 157 of the Penal Code to persecute LGBTQIA people is a violation of human rights and a violation of the Constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania,” said LGBT VOICE Tanzania.

There have been consistent reports of discrimination and violence against LGBTQ and intersex Tanzanians in recent years. These include murder, assault, harassment and denial of basic rights and services.

The Health Ministry in 2016 prohibited community-based organizations from conducting outreach on HIV prevention to men who have sex with men and other key populations, based on the pretext that such organizations are engaged in the promotion of homosexuality. The ministry also closed drop-in centers that provided HIV testing and other services to key populations. International organizations ran many of these centers, and the government accused them of promoting homosexuality.

The ministry also banned the distribution of lubricant.

A crackdown against LGBTQ and intersex Tanzanians has been underway since 2018; with reports of raids, mass arrests, arbitrary detention and forced anal examinations.

According to Daniel Marari, a human rights lawyer and researcher, most Tanzanians strongly oppose LGBTQ and intersex rights on the assumption that non-traditional sexual orientation or gender identity is ungodly and immoral.

“While acknowledging the presence of LGBT people in the Tanzanian society, many anti-LGBT actors find it easy to demonize the issue as un-African, and a western invention as there is no such thing as a right to homosexuality. Those who are quick to condemn homosexuality hardly bother to reflect on the scientific aspects of sexual orientation or gender identity,” said Marari.

Marari also stressed LGBTQ and intersex Tanzanians are not asking for any special rights but basic human rights like every other citizen.

“What LGBT people are asking for is the fulfillment of the Constitutional promise of equality and there is nothing specifically western about that. Tanzania has ratified international and regional treaties guaranteeing basic rights including the right of minorities and vulnerable groups and it is time it lives up to its promises,” said Marari. “There is no doubt that the criminalization of private consensual homosexual acts between adults affects the private lives of LGBT people as they cannot express their sexual or gender identity without being liable to prosecution.” 

“Even where there is justification to restrict homosexual relationships so as to protect special groups like children or other vulnerable persons from sexual abuse, just as heterosexual relationships can be restricted on the same grounds, that argument would not justify all-inclusive criminal sanctions where persons involved are consenting adults,” added Marari.

Consensual same-sex sexual relations remain prohibited in Tanzania, and anyone convicted under the country’s sodomy law faces up to life in prison.

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Spain joins global LGBTQ, intersex rights initiative

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Spain has become the latest country to join a U.S. initiative that seeks to promote LGBTQ and intersex rights around the world.

“The United States and Spain recognize that all human beings should be treated with respect and dignity and should be able to live without fear no matter who they are or whom they love. Promoting and protecting the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LGBTQI+) persons is an important part of our shared foreign policy objectives,” reads a statement from the U.S. and Spanish governments the State Department issued on Wednesday. 

“Consistent with its commitment to these values, Spain formally announced it would join the Global Equality Fund as a donor partner,” it adds.

The statement notes Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares on Wednesday “participated in a signing ceremony to mark this commitment.”

Argentina, Australia, Chile, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Uruguay contribute to the fund alongside the Arcus Foundation, the John D. Evans Foundation, the M•A•C AIDS Fund, Deloitte, the Royal Bank of Canada, Hilton Worldwide, Bloomberg and Out Leadership.

“Through the Global Equality Fund, like-minded governments, foundations, and corporations provide support to civil society organizations working to promote inclusion and respect for all persons, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity or expression or sex characteristics,” notes the statement from the U.S. and Spain. “The United States and Spain will continue to work to ensure that all people — including LGBTQI+ persons — can live in dignity, freedom, and equality.”

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Fabian Nelson is ready to make history as Mississippi’s first LGBTQ state lawmaker

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During the LGBTQ Victory Fund’s National Champagne Brunch Sunday morning in Washington, D.C., the Washington Blade spoke with Fabian Nelson, a Black and gay Democratic candidate who could become the first out LGBTQ lawmaker ever to serve in the Mississippi Legislature.

Nelson will square off against two opponents from his party in the Aug. 8 primary. If successful, he would face a general election on Nov. 7, an easier gambit provided the seat to represent Mississippi’s 66th House District is solidly Democratic, Nelson said.

Notwithstanding his electoral prospects, Nelson acknowledged the challenges with racism and homophobia that he has continued to contend with as a candidate, along with the hostile political environment in which he would serve if elected. Still, he is optimistic about the trajectory of his campaign and for the potential to move Mississippi in a better direction.

“I come from a family of a lot of ‘firsts,’” Nelson said. His grandfather opened a bank in the early 1900s for Black residents of his hometown, while his grandmother was the first Black nurse to integrate the hospital in Yazoo City and his father was the first Black graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University’s dental school.

“They keep raising the bar, so I have to raise it a little bit higher,” he said.

Mississippi has a Republican trifecta as well as a Republican triplex, which means the party exerts tremendous political power with control over both chambers of the state’s legislature and the governorship, along with the offices of the secretary of state and attorney general.

If elected, Nelson would represent residents of Mississippi’s majority-Black state capital, Jackson – which has long suffered with issues like high poverty rates and rising crime, including gun violence.

Years of poor governance have exacerbated these problems, while the state’s conservative legislators have used the city’s condition as a pretext to strip residents of the right to choose their elected leaders. 

Nelson has an expansive range of policy areas that he said will be major priorities should he win the House seat, from expanding Mississippi’s Medicaid program to fighting back against the conservatives’ disenfranchisement of his constituents in Jackson and their harmful anti-LGBTQ legislative proposals.

Anti-LGBTQ legislative bigotry coupled with homophobic personal attacks

During Mississippi’s first legislative session of 2023, lawmakers considered 31 anti-LGBTQ bills, more than were introduced anywhere else in the country.

Nelson, who was involved in advocacy against these legislative proposals as a member of the Human Rights Campaign, noted the importance of mobilizing the public’s opposition to anti-equality bills in helping to defeat 30 of those 31 proposals that failed to pass in the last session.

Unfortunately, Nelson said, the lone bill that survived was perhaps the most harmful of those under consideration in the chamber – a measure barring access to guideline directed gender affirming health care interventions for youth in Mississippi with gender dysphoria, which the governor signed into law in late February.

It was a major blow, Nelson acknowledged. At the same time, he said, pushing back more effectively against Republican messaging on the healthcare ban, such as by framing its proponents as politicians who are trying to “play doctor,” may have yielded a different outcome.

Nelson is not just encountering anti-LGBTQ bigotry in the legislative context, but also that which has been directed at him personally as a gay candidate for public office in a deep-red state in the Deep South. Especially in Mississippi and among older folks in the state, homophobia can come from voters and elected officials even from his own party, Nelson said.

“I think [my] being LGBTQ may pose a problem with some of the Democratic lawmakers” in the chamber, he said.

Nelson told the Blade one of his supporters, an 80-year-old Jackson resident whom he affectionately calls “Miss Emma,” was approached by a Democratic opponent who asked her, “How do you feel about [Nelson] being gay with his [LGBTQ] agenda?”

“All these years, I’ve voted for straight people,” Nelson said she told him. “None of them came and picked my garbage up or cleaned my flowerbed out.”

Following the city government’s shutdown of trash hauling services earlier this month, Nelson said he had personally been picking up and disposing of garbage for Miss Emma along with Jackson’s other elderly or disabled residents.

Nelson said effectuating real change is possible when pro-equality candidates run for office, fight for their constituents, establish relationships with colleagues on both sides of the aisle, and communicate effectively with the public about what is (and is not) happening in the Capitol building to encourage more active civic engagement and strengthen political organizing efforts.

Entrenched issues of racial justice

Fabian Nelson (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

Nelson’s campaign comes amid the scandal over the GOP-led Tennessee House of Representatives’ expulsion of two Black Democratic lawmakers from the chamber, which was widely denounced as racially motivated.

Meanwhile, over the Mississippi border into Alabama, the state’s Republican Gov. Kay Ivey last week ousted the Black director of early childhood education, Barbara Cooper, for including teaching on concepts like inclusion and structural racism.

Asked how he expects to contend with racism in the chamber if elected, Nelson said conflict can be minimized and discussions made more productive in many cases by practicing active listening so those with different views feel heard.

“You don’t have to be the loudest one in the room to make an impact” he said, so long as you are “standing your ground when it comes to bad legislation and, you know, standing my ground and fighting for what I believe in, not backing down.”

Engaging members of the public and bringing them into the fold is another crucial tool, Nelson said. He pointed to the public outcry in Tennessee and across the country that led voters to return state Reps. Justin Pearson and Justin Jones to their democratically elected seats in the legislature.

Residents in Jackson were not only deprived by their government of garbage collection services, but also suffered the near collapse of the city’s water system, prompting the U.S. Department of Justice to step in with a lawsuit last year on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Civil Rights.

Meanwhile, rising crime in Jackson and calls for an increased police presence created the pretext for Mississippi’s Republican lawmakers to pass H.B. 1020, legislation that will allow conservative state officials to appoint, rather than allowing constituents to elect, judges and prosecutors in the city’s sprawling Capitol Complex Improvement District. 

They will serve alongside a Capitol Police force whose jurisdiction was expanded despite the department’s officers having shot four citizens since last August with little explanation or accountability.

News that the governor signed H.B. 1020 into law last week had instigated protests, by which point Nelson said it was already too late. He said the time to rally opposition among voters, which would have first required effectively reaching them with information about how the law would strip them of political power and autonomy to pick their elected officials, was immediately after Republican lawmakers had introduced it.

“If you have the citizens, the people, in your corner,” he said, “you cannot lose when you start exposing this bad stuff that’s happening.”

“And one more thing,” Nelson said, pointing to a pin on the lapel of his jacket, “this is our new state flag.”

Four years ago, amid considerable pressure from the public, the GOP-controlled legislature made the extraordinary decision to replace Mississippi’s state flag that had flown since 1894, which depicted the Confederate battle flag in its upper left canton.

The new banner features a white magnolia blossom befitting of the state’s official nickname.

RELATED TOPICS:ALABAMAANTI-LGBTQ BILLSANTI-LGBTQ LAWSANTI-LGBTQ POLITICSANTI-LGBTQ RHETORICANTI-TRANS HEALTHCARE LAWANTI-TRANS YOUTH HEALTHCARE LAWCONFEDERATE FLAGDISENFRANCHISEMENTFABIAN NELSONFEATUREDHOMOPHOBIAHUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGNJACKSON MISSISSIPPIJUSTIN JONESJUSTIN PEARSONKAY IVEYLGBTQ VICTORY FUNDMISSISSIPPIMISSISSIPPI FLAGMISSISSIPPI LEGISLATUREPOLITICAL ORGANIZINGRACIAL JUSTICERACISMSYSTEMIC RACISMTATE REEVESTENNESSEETRANSPHOBIAU.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICEU.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY OFFICE OF CIVIL RIGHTS

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AROUND THE WEB

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Gay TikTok couple arrested in Russia

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A young gay couple has been arrested with one facing deportation back to his native China after running afoul of Russia’s “gay propaganda” law signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin last December, for their videos on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. 

Gela Gogishvili, 23, a Russian national and his boyfriend, Chinese national Haoyang Xu, 21, live in Kazan, the fifth largest city in Russia located on the banks of the Volga and Kazanka Rivers in southwest Russia. The young couple had been documenting their everyday lives with their 740,000 followers on TikTok and 64,900 subscribers on YouTube.

The couple was arrested this past Thursday and although Gogishvili was released, Xu remains being held in a Russian detention center for migrants before being deported in seven days.

In an interview with Newsweek’s Shannon Power “We were very scared … it became a living hell because the impossible happened,” Gogishvili said.

According to Moscow-based LGBTQ group, DELO LGBT+ a local citizen tipped off police to Gogishvili and Xu’s social media content.

“The ‘gay propaganda’ law falls under the Administrative Code, but the Kazan police’s criminal investigation department has been looking for these guys … and they are treated like they are dangerous criminal offenders,” Vladimir Komov, senior partner and a spokesperson for the organization said.

In a court hearing Friday, Xu who had moved to Russia to study Russian at university, was found guilty of violating the enhanced “gay propaganda” law and sentenced to a week in the detention center for migrants before being deported. The couple’s attorneys are appealing that decision.

Gogishvili comforts Xu outside the courtroom and after the hearing Xu being escorted to a detention center before his extradition to China. 
(Photo Credit: Gela Gogishvili)

According to Newsweek: Police stopped the couple in the street after they had attended a museum with friends and demanded Xu present his papers, such as passport and student visa, but he couldn’t because he did not carry them on him. The officers then escorted them to get his documentation and took them in a police car to the Yapeyeva police station.

But once they got there, police informed the men they were being charged under Article 6.21 of Russia’s Administrative Offenses Code, otherwise known as the “gay propaganda” law.

“The policeman told us that it’s not that Haoyang didn’t have his papers on him but we will be prosecuted for ‘gay propaganda’ and … Haoyang could be deported,” Gogishvili said.

DELO LGBT+‘s Komov said that he could not understand why the couple had been arrested because they were “quite popular” on their social media platforms and their content was “not erotic” by any standard.

“They do TikToks about their everyday life as a gay couple, how they do chores, how they wash the dishes, how they communicate and only share a few romantic moments such as kissing … and some cuddling,” Komov said.

“How did the police informer and the Kazan police deem there was LGBT+ ‘propaganda’ on their social media? These guys just posted videos in which they kiss, hug and show their favorite sleeping poses.

“All this was considered an inappropriate demonstration of ‘homosexual intimacy’.”

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin issued a decree last December that directs the Russian Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media, abbreviated as Roskomnadzor, to ban any websites that contain information about LGBTQ identities without a court order.

As a part of the stepped up enhancements of the law, “Information propagating non-traditional sexual relations and (or) preferences” now serves as grounds for blacklisting any website in Russia and more recently used as a tool by Russian police and prosecutors against those posting prohibited material on their personal social media platforms.

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40 prominent athletes urge Congress to drop proposed trans sports ban

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A group of 40 prominent athletes including soccer player Megan Rapinoe and boxer Patricio Manuel signed a letter Monday urging lawmakers to drop a proposal introduced by House Republicans to ban transgender and intersex women and girls from playing on school sports teams. 

The letter was issued by Athlete Ally, a nonprofit group that works towards creating more LGBTQ-inclusive athletic environments, just as momentum seems to be building for a federal proposal modeled after statewide bans that exclude trans and intersex women and girls from competing. 

“Right now, transgender and intersex human rights are under attack,” the letter states, “with politicians in Washington, D.C., pushing forward H.R. 734, the so-called ‘Protection of Girls and Women in Sports Act,’ which would stipulate that Title IX compliance requires banning transgender and intersex girls and women from participating in sports.”

“If this bill passes, transgender and intersex girls and women throughout the country will be forced to sit on the sidelines, away from their peers and their communities,” the letter continues. “Furthermore, the policing of who can and cannot play school sports will very likely lead to the policing of the bodies of all girls, including cisgender girls.”

The legislation was introduced in February by U.S. Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.). A markup session was held in March, and on April 6, the House Rules Committee announced it may meet during the week of April 17 to provide for floor consideration of the proposal. 

According to the Movement Advancement Project, 20 U.S. states now have laws barring trans students from participating in sports consistent with their gender identity.

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Santos bill would ban US foreign aid to countries that criminalize LGBTQ people

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Republican New York Congressman George Santos has introduced a bill that would ban U.S. foreign aid to countries that criminalize LGBTQ people and women.

“Discrimination against both women and the LGBTQ community is unacceptable,” said Santos in a March 24 press release that announced the introduction of Equality and Fiscal Accountability Protection Act of 2023. “My bill will send a clear message that the United States will not offer federal aid to countries found to be violating the rights of individuals based on sexual orientation. We as a nation have a responsibility to stand up for the human rights of all people, regardless of race, religion, or sexual orientation.”

The press release notes the bill would require the State Department “to assess a country’s human rights record before providing federal aid.” 

“Countries found to be violating these rights would be ineligible to receive aid until they take steps to address the issues,” reads the press release. “If passed, the bill would make a significant step forward in the fight for LGBTQ and women’s rights and would send a strong message to countries that discrimination or criminalization will not be tolerated.”

Congress’ website currently notes “text has not been received for H.R. (House Resolution) 1736.”

Santos introduced the bill two days after the State Department released its annual human rights report that, among other things, details the prevalence of so-called conversion therapy and the treatment of intersex people around the world. U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield on the same day hosted a meeting at the United Nations that focused on the integration of LGBTQ and intersex rights into the U.N. Security Council’s work.

The Biden-Harris administration in 2021 released a memorandum that committed the U.S. to promoting LGBTQ and intersex rights abroad. U.S. Reps. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) and Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.) and U.S. Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) last week introduced a bill that would require the country to promote LGBTQ and intersex rights abroad through its public policy.

The House Ethics Committee last month opened an investigation into Santos, who is openly gay, over allegations of financial and sexual misconduct. The embattled New York Republican has admitted to lying about his professional and educational background. 

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Takano to renew House Democrats’ push for the Equality Act

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U.S. Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.), a co-chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus, issued a statement Thursday pledging to introduce the Equality Act during this Congress, legislation that would extend federal anti-discrimination protections to LGBTQ Americans. 

The bill would prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in “employment, education, access to credit, jury service, federal funding housing, and public accommodations.” 

Four previous versions were introduced in the House by Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) and in the Senate by U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) in 2015, 2017, 2019, and 2021. The Biden administration and congressional Democrats have signaled that the legislation remains a major priority despite the Republicans now exercising their majority control of the lower chamber.

With Cicilline’s planned departure from Congress on June 1 to lead the nonprofit Rhode Island Foundation, Takano thanked and credited his colleague “for his leadership on behalf of our community and stewardship of the Equality Act.” 

Cicilline, who drafted the legislation and chaired the Equality Caucus in the last Congress before Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) took over this year, noted the heightened importance of the Equality Act’s passage amid the proliferation of anti-LGBTQ and especially anti-trans legislation. 

“With homophobic and transphobic legislation being proposed in state legislatures across the country and here in Congress,” he said, “it is far past time we act to finally outlaw discrimination against the LGBTQI+ community by passing the Equality Act.” 

The legislation is also backed by major LGBTQ advocacy groups including the nation’s largest, the Human Rights Campaign. “There is overwhelming support for this bill among the American people and the business community, and we will continue fighting until this bill is signed into law,” said the organization’s President Kelley Robinson. 

Robinson also thanked Cicilline for his leadership on the bill and said the Human Rights Campaign looks forward to working with Takano, “an incredible champion for our community” who “is the perfect leader for this effort” to “build on he work Congressman Cicilline started and get the Equality Act signed into law.”

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Bill would require US foreign policy to promote LGBTQ, intersex rights

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Three lawmakers on Tuesday introduced a bill that would require the U.S. to promote LGBTQ and intersex rights abroad through its public policy.

U.S. Reps. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) and Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.) introduced the International Human Rights Defense Act. U.S. Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) has sponsored the bill in the U.S. Senate.

Garcia, the former mayor of Long Beach, Calif., of Peruvian descent who represents California’s 42nd Congressional District, last November became the first openly gay immigrant elected to Congress. Garcia on Tuesday noted to the Washington Blade during a telephone interview the International Human Rights Defense Act is the first bill he has introduced. 

“These issues around global human rights are ones that unfortunately, many aren’t codified into law,” he said.

Garcia said the U.S. has “different levels of global involvement,” depending upon who is president. He added the bill is “a great way of codifying an important office for us at the State Department, but also a series of measures and reports that will ensure that we’re promoting (LGBTQ rights) abroad.”

President Joe Biden in 2021 signed a memorandum that committed the U.S. to promoting LGBTQ and intersex rights abroad as part of the Biden-Harris administration’s overall foreign policy.

Then-Secretary of State John Kerry in 2015 announced the creation of the special envoy for the promotion of LGBTQ and intersex rights abroad. The White House in 2021 named Jessica Stern, who was previously the executive director of Outright International, a global LGBTQ and intersex rights group, to the position.

Former President Donald Trump tapped then-U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell to lead an initiative that encouraged countries to decriminalize consensual same-sex sexual relations. Then-State Department spokesperson Ned Price during a 2021 interview with the Blade said  the decriminalization of consensual same-sex sexual relations is one of the Biden-Harris administration’s five priorities as it relates to the promotion of LGBTQ and intersex rights overseas.

Markey and then-California Congressman Alan Lowenthal introduced the International Human Rights Defense Act in 2021.

The Human Rights Campaign, the Council for Global Equality and Equality California are among the 111 organizations that signed a March 24 letter to U.S. Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), who chairs the Senate State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs Subcommittee, and U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), who is the ranking member of House State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs Subcommittee. The groups urged lawmakers to increase funding of the State Department’s Global Equality Fund to $40 million and U.S. Agency for International Development’s Inclusive Development Hub’s Protection of LGBTQI+ Persons to $30 million in fiscal year 2024. 

“We are grateful to you for your dedication to global LGBTQI+ rights programs over the last five fiscal years, including the additional $25 million increase to these programs within the Fiscal Year 2023 Consolidated Appropriations Act,” reads the letter. “These investments have provided flexibility to the State Department and USAID to scale already existing programs and develop new mechanisms to quickly deploy funding to LGBTQI+ organizations across the globe.”

“Even with these increases, the State Department and USAID continue to face significant funding gaps to address the needs of LGBTQI+ communities impacted by COVID-19, rising authoritarianism, and humanitarian crises,” adds the letter.

The White House has sharply criticized last week’s passage of a bill that would further criminalize homosexuality and LGBTQ and intersex people in Uganda. Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday spoke about her support of LGBTQ and intersex rights during a press conference with Ghanaian President Nana Afuko-Addo that took place in Accra, the Ghanaian capital.

Garcia described the Uganda bill to the Blade as “awful” and added “a big part of why we’re having this discussion now is that there are countries across the world that are criminalizing same sex relationships.”

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