D.C. Congressional Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton released a letter last week calling on Michael R. Sherwin, the Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia who serves as the city’s top prosecutor, to step up prosecutions of hate crimes targeting the LGBTQ community.
Norton’s office said her letter follows several public meetings Norton has held to address the issue of prosecuting hate crimes.
“This letter is the latest in my longstanding work to ensure every member of our community is safe from attack and harassment,” Norton said in an Aug. 5 statement. “We must work to protect our LGBTQ community,” she said.
“The U.S. Attorney for D.C., who is not elected by D.C. residents or appointed by D.C. officials, is responsible for prosecuting almost all local crimes in D.C.,” Norton said. “I have continuously pressed the last several U.S. Attorneys for D.C. to prosecute hate crimes and will continue to do so. The office must work to ensure everybody can live in a safe environment.”
D.C. police records show that as of June 30, 2020, in the first half of 2020, there were 15 reported hate crimes targeting the victim because of their sexual orientation and 12 reported hate crimes targeting the victims because of their gender identity. It couldn’t immediately be determined from police records how many of those cases resulted in an arrest and whether the U.S. Attorney’s Office has prosecuted any of the cases.
Norton noted she has introduced legislation in the House of Representatives calling for giving D.C. the authority to prosecute all local crimes. The legislation was not expected to be approved by Congress under the current Republican-controlled U.S. Senate.
A spokesperson for the D.C. U.S. Attorney’s Office couldn’t immediately be reached for comment on Norton’s letter to Sherwin.
A massive explosion that killed more than 200 people in Beirut on Aug. 4 nearly destroyed the offices of Lebanon’s oldest LGBTQ advocacy group.
Helem’s offices are located less than a mile from the city’s port where the explosion took place. Helem Executive Director Tarek Zeidan on Monday told the Washington Blade during a Skype interview the blast damaged buildings up to 10 miles away.
“You can imagine how close we were,” said Zeidan. “Nothing much of inside the center remains: Doors, windows, fixtures, furniture, everything was blown out.”
Zeidan said the explosion injured several Helem staffers.
“They had to be taken to the hospital that night for their wounds to be stitched, but thankfully no one lost their life,” he said.
Helem was founded in 2001.
Its offices are located in Beirut’s Mar Mikhael and Gemmayzeh neighborhoods, which Zeidan described to the Blade as “the most vibrant … most LGBT-friendly neighborhoods in the entire Arab World, much less in Lebanon and in the city.” Zeidan said a lot of bars, coffee shops, art galleries and nightclubs were located in the area.
“All of that has been destroyed,” Zeidan told the Blade. “The entire area has been brought down.”
Zeidan said most of the buildings in the area that remain standing are not structurally sound. Zeidan added “nothing inside” Helem’s offices “is salvageable.”
Zeidan and his partner live more than a mile away from the blast’s epicenter.
Zeidan told the Blade the explosion caused “one entire side of the house to sort of implode inwards with all the glass” and “the living room fixtures blew inside as well.” Zeidan said his partner was in the room “that sort of exploded, but thankfully he wasn’t hurt.”
“I was not in the house,” said Zeidan. “I just came back and saw the carnage and went down and saw the same.”
Initial reports indicate a fire that ignited more than 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate stored in Beirut’s port since 2013 sparked the blast. The explosion took place against the backdrop of Lebanon’s economic and political crises that the coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated.
Zeidan on July 22 was in Helem’s offices when he spoke with the Blade in a Zoom call about the impact the crises and the pandemic has had on Lebanon’s LGBTQ community.
“You’re not exaggerating when you say things are really bad,” said Zeidan.
Zeidan noted to the Blade that Helem at the beginning of the pandemic launched food and clothing drives.
Zeidan during the Zoom call also said Helem was working to create what he described as a “community kitchen” to provide people in need with hot, nutritional meals twice a week. Zeidan also said Helem worked with the American University of Beirut to create a clinic within its medical center that would provide free diagnostic services to LGBTQ people.
Helem is among the organizations that participated in last October’s anti-government protests that forced then-Prime Minister Saad Hariri to resign. Prime Minister Hassan Diab and his Cabinet on Monday resigned amid growing outrage over the blast.
Zeidan is among those who police tear gassed on Sunday during anti-government protests in Beirut. Zeidan’s voice was hoarse when he spoke with the Blade on Monday.
“Yesterday it wasn’t outrage,” he said. “It was rage. It was rage against everybody: Not just the people responsible, not just the people that ran the port, not just the political sponsors. It was rage against subsequent governments, of subsequent bad governance and corruption and murder and theft and the deliberate impoverishment of the Lebanese people and the fattening of the pockets of the political elite and ruling class.”
Zeidan told the Blade the Lebanese people have launched their own relief efforts without assistance from their country’s government. Zeidan said Helem volunteers and staff “immediately joined” them.
“Many of our volunteers are out on the streets cleaning up debris or assisting the makeshift community kitchens,” he said. “We’ve dedicated funds to support people who are seeking shelter from the community, particularly because so many places are unlivable, even if they are structurally sound.”
OutRight Action International launches Helem fundraiser
“We are going to survive and the center will survive,” Zeidan told the Blade.
“We’re worried about the community and our friends and neighbors and people in the heart of the city,” he added.
OutRight Action International notes 100 percent of the fundraiser’s proceeds “will be passed on to Helem to use for the support of the LGBTIQ community, the center’s relief efforts, and any other urgent needs on the ground.” OutRight Action International Executive Director Jessica Stern on Monday reiterated her organization’s support of Helem.
“Helem, the oldest LGBTIQ organization in Lebanon, was severely damaged in the recent explosion in Beirut. Helem is working to rebuild, while also struggling to support countless LGBTIQ people who have been left homeless, and engage in city-wide relief efforts,” Stern told the Blade in a statement. “OutRight’s mission is to work with local LGBTIQ organizations around the world to promote LGBTIQ equality.”
“When crisis strikes, it is our duty and honor to do what we can to support local activists,” added Stern.
A groundbreaking El Salvador National Assembly candidate hopes to make history as the first openly gay man elected to the country’s legislative body.
Erick Iván Ortiz is among the candidates that members of Nuestro Tiempo, a new political party, have chosen to run in the National Assembly elections that are scheduled to take place on Feb. 28, 2021.
Ortiz, 29, has an economics degree from the Higher School of Economics and Business in El Salvador. He also studied human rights at Luis Amigó Catholic University in Medellín, Colombia, and participated in a social leadership development course at George Mason University.
Ortiz told the Blade his social activism began a decade ago with a specific focus of defending democracy, promoting institutions and transparency and young people’s participation in politics, among other issues.
“[My work] began in a very difficult context for El Salvador because it was a moment in which we were facing an attack on democracy due to the attempt to tie up the Constitutional Court,” said Ortiz. “We joined forces with different sectors of the population to make ourselves clear, and at that young age I saw myself as an agent of change.”
Following the 2014 presidential campaign in which LGBTQ issues were used in a negative way, Ortiz, along with other people who were uncomfortable with what happened, decided to organize themselves. They formed Colectivo Normal in 2015.
“The collective was born under the analysis that the problem with our society is cultural,” he said. “We have a sexist, violent and homophobic society because this is the social construction that has been made.”
Colectivo Normal has since used cultural and political advocacy to advance their cause, using the arts as a strategy to spark new conversations in order to change the narratives around the LGBTQ community. After a process of deconstruction and constant learning within the collective, members met with different LGBTQ organizations in a round table in which the Salvadoran LGBTI Federation was created.
“I have been able to train alongside El Salvador’s best trans activists like Karla Avelar, Karla Guevara, Ambar Alfaro, Paty Hernández, among other people, and better myself,” Ortiz told the Blade.
Advancing a human rights agenda
Joining a political party is nothing new for Ortiz.
He was previously part of the right-wing Republican Nationalist Alliance (ARENA) party’s youth wing, but Ortiz made his priorities clear.
“The challenge is not to speak with those who are convinced, but to speak where things are more complicated,” he said. “It was important to have a partisan spokesperson to generate an internal conversation around a specific issue.”
Ortiz explained his project within ARENA came to an end and he decided to resign at the same time because his innovative plans to generate policy changes did not align with the party’s vision.
“Now I have decided to join Nuestro Tiempo, because it is a party that includes diversity as one of its seven tenets,” Ortiz told the Blade. “In the face of an openly anti-rights government that has made us invisible and has downplayed LGBTI issues, I decided to take the leap and take the reigns of our representation and get involved in the front lines of politics.”
In El Salvador, as in many other Latin American countries, there is a historic invisibility with respect to LGBTQ political representation. Ortiz said one cannot depend only on promises from parties that do not handle the issue well.
“The only thing we are asking for is equal rights,” he told the Blade. “We don’t want special rights. It is about guaranteeing access to justice, fighting impunity towards hate crimes, guaranteeing there is no discrimination in the labor sector, in health services and education, to name a few.”
“The LGBTI struggle, at the end of the day, is about fighting for an El Salvador that is more inclusive, fairer and more peaceful,” he added.
The coronavirus pandemic has made the beginning of Ortiz’s campaign challenging for him and for his team. Ortiz’s campaign will use the internet to announce his platform and legislative proposals.
Ortiz told the Blade they include a national anti-discrimination law that would include all Salvadorans who have been historically marginalized. Another of Ortiz’s proposals would legalize marijuana as a way to generate new income for the State and to balance public finances while dismantling the black market at the same time.
Ortiz said he will work on the issue of mental health, given the history of conflict through which the country has lived and the insecurity with which it has experienced for years. Ortiz added he considers it necessary to rebuild the social safety net in a comprehensive way that protects vulnerable Salvadorans.
“The programmatic proposal will be consultative, something that will be built with other people and will therefore be able to identify which ideas the citizenry needs to be implemented,” he said.
Short and long-term challenges
“My biggest concern at the moment is the empowerment of the LGBTI community with respect to the current situation,” said Ortiz. “My proposal is to put the LGBTI community at the center of the electoral political proposal, something that has not been done before. This will only be possible with the support and unity of the LGBTI movement.”
Ortiz said now is the right time to put aside differences as a movement and build upon a base of common ground that includes non-discrimination and to clarify any doubts with regard to them.
“The 2021 Legislative Assembly’s composition is a long-term challenge that worries me,” said Ortiz. “We will have a more conservative relationship than the one we currently have, because polls indicate a party like Nuevas Ideas that has proven itself to be openly anti-rights will be in the majority, and this will be added to the traditional conservatism of ARENA, PCN, PDC and also now of VAMOS as a political party.”
This scenario would leave in a marked minority the parties and initiatives that are against the anti-rights proposal being configured.
Ortiz says it would be a big challenge to face an ultra-conservative block in the National Assembly if he were elected. Ortiz adds existing communication channels can be used to advocate from a seat within the legislative body.
Ortiz in his ticket will include Gabriela Martino, a proud mother of a gay son who is an LGBTQ rights activist. Martino has experienced first hand how painful the discrimination a child can face in education and family settings, among others.
“Gabriela is a woman who is very committed to our project, because she also has a voice that speaks from being a straight mother who is proud of her children, of her family and who thinks it is convinced that no boy or girl should spend their childhood suffering from discrimination or violence,” says Ortiz.
Ortiz says he has the support of Nuestro Tiempo, given he did not end up with a bad position on the list of candidates after the internal elections. Ortiz tells the Blade his position demonstrates the commitment the party has on the issue of inclusion.
“I feel an enormous responsibility with this candidacy, because it will be an earthquake for society and therefore bolster who we are,” he said. “I am not possibly going to fully represent all segments of the LGBTI community, but yes, my voice is going to represent the LGBTI voice in the political agenda.”
“We all need to be able to break this glass ceiling that women broke decades ago and to ensure that my candidacy will not be the last one and that each leader there is will be empowered and be able to be those agents of change that society needs,” he concludes.
A former D.C. politico has crossed a major hurdle in his effort to become Michigan’s first openly gay member of Congress after cinching the Democratic nomination in the primary for the state’s 6th congressional district.
State Rep. Jon Hoadley (D-Kalamazoo), who served as president for the now closed National Stonewall Democrats, won the contested primary by claiming 53.3 percent of the vote in comparison to teacher Jen Richardson, who had 47.7 percent.
The Associated Press declared Hoadley the winner the day after the primary on Wednesday. According to MLive.com, election results slowed in Kalamazoo with increased absentee voting amid the coronavirus pandemic, which resulted in delays in declaring the winners.
Hoadley will advance to the general election, where he’ll face Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), who has a reputation as a moderate in the solidly Republican district.
Amritha Venkataraman, Michigan state director for the Human Rights Campaign, commended Hoadley in a statement and said Upton “should be running scared.”
“After decades of failed anti-equality leadership from Upton, Michigan’s 6th is ready for fresh, bold new leadership,” Venkataraman said. “While Upton claims to oppose discrimination against the LGBTQ community, he has regularly voted against legislation to protect LGBTQ people including essential non-discrimination measures like the Equality Act that would make real change.”
Recognizing the distinction Hoadley could have as Michigan’s first openly gay member of Congress, Venkataraman added the candidate would “give a voice to the over 300,000 LGBTQ people across the state of Michigan.”
“Hoadley is the only candidate who will fight for working families over special interests, pass the Equality Act and ensure people with pre-existing conditions have access to health care,” Venkataraman said. “Over the next 90 days, HRC will continue to digitally barnstorm the state and help make sure Michigan sends Jon Hoadley to Congress.”
LGBTQ-related election news also came out last night in Kansas, where Stephanie Byers won her primary for a state House seat and is headed toward becoming the first openly transgender person ever elected to public office in Kansas. Only four out trans people have been elected and seated to serve in state legislatures who still hold their seats.
Annise Parker, president of the LGBTQ Victory Fund, said in a statement Byers “shattered a long-standing political barrier in Kansas.”
“At a time when trans people are targeted with hateful policies and legislation by the Trump administration and in so many state legislatures, Stephanie’s race is a powerful reminder of where our country is headed,” Parker said. “Stephanie’s victory, like every victory for a trans candidate, will inspire more trans leaders to run for office in their communities and that will be transformative.”
Also in Kansas, Republicans granted the nomination to U.S. Rep. Roger Marshall to run for U.S. Senate, as opposed to the more right-wing, Peter Thiel-backed Kris Kobach. All the Republicans in the primary, however, have anti-LGBTQ records. Marshall berated another primary candidate, Bob Hamilton, a business owner for being LGBTQ-friendly, for his company’s membership in the Mid-America LGBT Chamber of Commerce.
Lindsey Clark, associate regional campaign director for the Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement Marshall “has attacked, demeaned, and dehumanized transgender people” and called on Kansas residents to reject him on Election Day.
“He and his fellow Republican candidates waged one of the most anti-LGBTQ primaries this cycle, engaging in a race to the bottom by releasing ad after ad attacking transgender kids and LGBTQ people,” Clark said. “Marshall’s brand of anti-LGBTQ extremism may have won a primary, but it won’t win the battle ahead.”
President Trump’s own HIV/AIDS advisory council adopted a resolution Thursday urging his administration not to implement a new regulation that would enable discrimination against transgender patients in health care.
The measure, which the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS adopted unanimously, cites as reasons to scrap the anti-trans rule the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, which found anti-LGBTQ discrimination is a form of sex discrimination under the law, and the Trump administration plan to beat HIV/AIDS by 2030.
“Be it resolved, in light of the recent Supreme Court ruling, PACHA urges the Secretary to apply the same definition of discrimination ‘on the basis of sex’ to healthcare and not move forward with implementing OCR’s rule changes to Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act that are slated to go into effect on August 18, 2020,” a draft copy of the resolution says.
In the event the Department of Health & Human Services moves forward with the rule, the resolution calls on the Office of Civil Rights to “have a clearly defined system” to report instances of LGBTQ people being denied care.
Days before the Bostock decision in June, HHS made the rule final, vacating protections under a 2016 Obama-era rule prohibiting discrimination in health care and health insurance on the basis of sex stereotyping and transgender status. The Obama-era regulation was based on Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, which bars discrimination on the basis of sex in health care.
PACHA adopted the resolution with limited discussion. Carl Schmid, co-chair of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS and executive director of HIV+Hepatitis Policy Institute, said he’d “fully support” the measure.
Justin Smith, an Atlanta-based HIV/AIDS activist and director of the Campaign to End AIDS, introduced the measure and said it came about based on previous talks with the HHS Office of Civil Rights, which gave the council vague assurances in a written response deemed insufficient in light of the Supreme Court decision.
“There have been some really important changes in our legal landscape,” Smith said. “So, back in June, the Supreme Court ruled that under Title VII of the Civil Rights of 1964, that employment discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender folks on the basis of sex is actually against the law, which could have some profound implications for this proposed rule change to Section 1557.”
In a legal sense, nothing had practically changed with the Trump administration’s rollback because U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor in Texas in 2016 issued a nationwide injunctionbarring the U.S. government from enforcement of the Obama-era rule. The Trump administration later declined to appeal that court order before deadline.
Roger Severino, director of the Office for Civil Rights at HHS, defended the rule change as necessary in response to the 2016 court injunction in a statement last month to media outlets.
“The gender identity and termination of pregnancy provisions of the 2016 rule were held unlawful and unenforceable by a federal court in December 2016 and a court vacated that language in October 2019,” Severino said. “Further, it was the Obama, not Trump, administration that decided to exclude sexual orientation as a protected category in this health care rule a mere four years ago.”
But the final rule, nonetheless, prompted a flurry of lawsuits from LGBTQ legal advocates who say vacating the protections contravenes the law, not just on the grounds of the Bostock decision, but constitutional claims of equal protection and due process.
In response to one lawsuit filed by Lambda Legal, U.S. Judge James Boasberg in D.C., an Obama appointee, held a hearing Monday to consider a preliminary injunction against the measure. Boasberg, who asked parties whether HHS’ hands were tied in issuing the anti-trans rule, said he’d wait for the U.S. government to file an additional brief before rendering a decision, which he said will likely not come down before the rule takes effect on Aug. 18.
According to the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey, transgender respondents also encountered high levels of mistreatment when seeking health care. One-third of those who saw a health care provider in the past year said they had at least one negative experience related to being transgender, such as being verbally harassed or denied treatment.
Additionally, 23 percent of respondents said they didn’t seek necessary health care due to fear of being mistreated as a transgender person, and one-third didn’t go to a health care provider when needed because they could not afford it.
Meanwhile, lawsuits are continually filed against hospitals, many of them religiously affiliated, for refusing to grant transition-related care, such as gender reassignment surgery, to transgender patients. Just last month, the American Civil Liberties Union sued University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center in Baltimore for cancelling a scheduled hysterectomy for a transgender patient as part of a transition plan.
Assistant Secretary of Health Brett Giroir addressed the council before the adoption of the resolution, expressing a commitment to continue the Trump administration plan to beat HIV/AIDS by 2030. He didn’t mention the anti-trans rule, nor was he asked about it.
“We are constantly looking for ways to expand the HIV message, all throughout my offices and throughout the agency,” Giroir said. “This is really, as we said, it’s not owned by one specific group, it’s got to be a whole of government, and really a whole of society approach.”
Giroir announced HHS will expand the program for free PrEP access to the underinsured with TrialCard, which will be responsible for current and new enrollees starting Nov. 1. Additionally, Giroir said HHS will launch online Aug. 17 the first national HIV epidemic analysis dashboard to keep track of progress toward reaching the goal of ending the epidemic.
The AIDS council during the meeting also unanimously approved two other resolutions. One calls for increased uptake in the “Ready, Set, PrEP” program, a Trump-era plan that providesfree PrEP to the uninsured, as well as data collection on the location, race, ethnicity and LGBTQ status of the estimated 1,000 users. The other resolution seeks increased funds in the time of COVID for entities seeking to help with HIV, including Ryan White programs, state and local government and HIV testing.
A person with HIV who is in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody says they are afraid the coronavirus will kill him.
“With my condition, God forbid, if I get coronavirus, I don’t know if I will make it,” the ICE detainee told the Washington Blade on July 29 during an interview.
The detainee has been in ICE custody at a privately run detention center in the Southeast since last October. The detainee is originally from a country in Africa with laws that criminalize people with HIV and members of the LGBTQ community.
The detainee asked the Blade not to identify them by name to protect their privacy. They also requested the Blade not identify the country from which they originate and the facility in which they remain in ICE custody because of fear of retaliation and any potential impact their decision to speak publicly could have on their asylum case.
“It would be a death sentence if I were sent back home,” said the detainee.
The detainee told the Blade there have been coronavirus cases in their detention center, including a man from India who tested positive before his scheduled deportation.
“They were taking him out to deport him,” said the detainee. “They closed our unit down for a month.”
The detainee said there are 96 detainees in his unit. They told the Blade that ICE quarantined them after another detainee tested positive for the coronavirus.
“We were not able to leave the unit,” they said.
They told the Blade that staff brought food to the unit when it was locked down. The detainee said they are now able to access the yard for an hour a day.
‘It’s not safe’
ICE on its website notes as of Monday there were 908 detainees with confirmed coronavirus cases.
There were 21,888 people in ICE custody as of July 31. Statistics on ICE’s website note 21,085 detainees have been tested as of July 31.
Immigration Equality and Lambda Legal are among the advocacy groups that have demanded ICE release detainees with HIV because of the pandemic.
ICE in April released four men with HIV who had been detained at privately run detention centers in Louisiana and Arizona. ICE in the same month also released Iván and Ramón, two Cuban men with HIV represented by Immigration Equality and Lambda Legal, from a privately run detention center in Texas.
“We are relieved that Iván and Ramón don’t have to spend one more day in the dangerous conditions of ICE detention, terrified of contracting COVID-19,” said Immigration Equality Legal Director Bridget Crawford after their release.
A federal judge in California has ordered ICE “to identify and track all ICE detainees with risk factors” and consider whether they should be released.
Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf in April said ICE would consider the release of detainees who are at increased risk for the coronavirus on a “case-by-case basis.” An ICE spokesperson a few weeks after Wolf’s comments said their agency had released upwards of 700 detainees “after evaluating their immigration history, criminal record, potential threat to public safety, flight risk and national security concerns.”
ICE in March suspended in-person visitation at its detention centers. ICE in previous statements says it continues to provide detainees with soap for showering and handwashing, sanitizer and masks.
“The health, welfare and safety of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainees is one of the agency’s highest priorities,” says ICE on its website. “Since the onset of reports of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), ICE epidemiologists have been tracking the outbreak, regularly updating infection prevention and control protocols, and issuing guidance to ICE Health Service Corps (IHSC) staff for the screening and management of potential exposure among detainees.”
“ICE continues to incorporate CDC’s COVID-19 guidance, which is built upon the already established infectious disease monitoring and management protocols currently in use by the agency,” adds ICE. “In addition, ICE is actively working with state and local health partners to determine if any detainee requires additional testing or monitoring to combat the spread of the virus.”
Illinois Congressman Mike Quigley in June told the Blade that ICE is “ignoring” social distancing guidelines from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and not providing “protective gear or hygiene products” to detainees. The detainee with whom the Blade spoke last week also said there is no socially distancing at the detention center where they are in ICE custody.
“There’s no such thing right now as socially distancing,” they said.
Denied medical attention, misgendered, jumped and aggressively handcuffed. These are the abuses that Juniper Simonis, a genderqueer nonbinary pansexual person, suffered after federal authorities took them into custody last month during a protest in the city.
Simonis was drawing property lines with surveying chalk in front of the Edith Green-Wendell Wyatt Federal Building in downtown Portland on July 10. Simonis three days earlier attended a vigil at the same location to honor Summer Taylor, a Seattle protester who was hit and killed by a car in early July.
Federal authorities violently disrupted the vigil.
In the days between the vigil and Simonis’ arrest, they traced the property lines of the federal building in chalk to help protestors avoid trespassing. Simonis also frequently shouted from a distance at agents, asking why the vigil had been disrupted.
Simonis, a 35-year-old quantitative ecologist, has been involved in the protests in Portland since they began in late May. Simonis has marched, provided medical attention and put out fires at the demonstrations — often helping to keep the peace.
“(We) are there to put our bodies, and our lives, and our money and energy towards protecting those who are standing up for their rights right now,” they said.
Simonis believes federal agents targeted them because of the information they have been collecting and sharing on social media. This information included the property lines of federal buildings, photos of agents with their badge numbers, and details about federal police funding.
Simonis also said they feel they were targeted because they are “visibly queer and trans,” and visibly disabled because of their use of a service dog.
“I am a marginalized sitting duck in some respects,” they said.
While Simonis said what happened to them was traumatizing, they do not want their experience to detract from the Black Lives Matter movement. Simonis also believes they survived their detention because they are white.
“We can’t have everybody focusing on the white people getting kidnapped when Black people are still getting killed day-to-day,” they said.
Flashbang grenade thrown at Simonis during previous protest
Federal agents during the July 7 vigil stormed the area. Simonis suspects federal officers were targeting a specific protestor in the crowd for arrest, but to their knowledge, no arrests were made. Simonis described the vigil as peaceful and said there was no provocation for the agents to disperse it.
Amid the disruption, while federal officers were moving back towards the building’s entrance, they threw a flashbang grenade at Simonis and their service dog, Wallace. The agents who conducted the raid were unknown to Simonis, and they couldn’t determine what organization or bureau they represented.
“I was super pissed,” said Simonis. “I spent the next 36 hours trying to figure out who these guys were.”
After fruitless calls to the Portland Police Bureau and the Multnomah County Police Department to help identify the federal agents, Simonis decided to take matters into their own hands.
Knowing the federal agents in question often stood outside the building watching protestors, Simonis decided to research where the property lines of the building are. They wanted the agents to explain why they had disrupted a peaceful vigil, without risking being arrested for trespassing. On July 8 and 9, Simonis marked the divide between federal and public property with chalk to ensure their safety.
“I wanted to stand on the sidewalk and fucking yell at these people, and I wanted to know where I was legally allowed to do that,” Simonis said.
For two days, Simonis documented agents moving in and out of the federal building and eventually identified the officers as members of U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Protective Service.
Simonis on July 9 said they saw multiple federal agents storm out of the building towards them when they were on the southeastern corner of it.
Simonis, who was aware of the arrest of other protestors throughout Portland, said they expected to be “snatched.” But, the agents retreated back into the building.
Simonis at 8:30 p.m. on July 10 returned to the federal building to touch up the chalk line and continue protesting.
As they were fixing the lines near the front entrance, Federal Protective Service and U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents surrounded Simonis, threw them to the ground and handcuffed them.
“They do not say anything. They don’t say, ‘stop.’ They don’t say, ‘what are you doing?’ They don’t say ‘get off our property’ … they don’t say anything. They just streamed out of the front of this building and snatched me,” Simonis said.
Simonis provided the Washington Blade with a video of their arrest.
Simonis said officers used mace and separated them from their service dog.
“As someone who already has PTSD, who already has almost been killed multiple times, including by someone grabbing me from behind, what I instantly get shunted into is a fight or flight response,” they said.
Simonis was detained in handcuffs in the building foyer for an hour before being taken down to the basement. There, agents told them they were under arrest for spray painting federal property.
“Even though everything I had in my hands was chalk — it was clearly chalk — they just assumed I was doing something illegal, even though I knew I wasn’t, and I had all of the documentation to show them that I wasn’t,” Simonis said.
When Simonis was taken into the federal building foyer, an officer offered medical attention, but Simonis requested a trained medical professional flush their eyes and tend to their open wounds.
Two Portland Fire and Rescue members arrived an hour later, but Simonis said they only made matters worse.
According to Simonis, the medical team did not properly flush their eyes, mouth and nose with pressure. Rather they splashed saline solution from an IV bag into the affected areas. Simonis also said the medical team did not remove their contact lenses, even though they repeatedly asked them to do so.
During the hour before Simonis said federal officers insisted they lay on their side during the hour before they received medical treatment. They said this caused the mace to pool in their nasal passages, rather than drain away. The medical team also held Simonis on their side as they began treatment, which caused their nose to become full of water, which exacerbated their breathing issues caused by the mace and subsequent panic attacks.
“It was basically like my head was being shoved under a pool for a minute,” Simonis said. They described the act as “being water-boarded.”
Simonis asked repeatedly for additional medical attention, including treatment for open cuts on their body. They were denied additional help.
“It’s really sad — as the daughter, granddaughter and niece of firefighters — to be saying this, but I am horribly disappointed and appalled at the actions of Portland Fire and Rescue,” Simonis said.
Throughout the time Simonis was in federal custody, they said they were repeatedly misgendered. The agents exclusively referred to Simonis, who identifies as nonbinary and has two forms of identification legally identifying them as a woman, as “sir.” Simonis said they also repeatedly corrected the officers, who did not respect their gender identity.
Despite the fact Simonis’ driver’s license and passport both identify them as a woman, the medical services receipt also listed their gender as male. Simonis also believes their identification had been reviewed, as the contents of their bag had been shifted when their possessions were returned to them.
Simonis was then taken to the adjacent Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse after two hours in the Edith Green-Wendell Wyatt Federal Building, and was held in a cell without access to a lawyer, phone call, sanitizer or water.
Prior to being placed in the cell, a male U.S. Marshal patted them down. Simonis requested a female agent for the procedure, but was told by an agent, “they don’t do that here.”
Simonis was still separated from their service dog when they were at the courthouse, and did not have access to their medication. Simonis said agents threatened to take their dog to a shelter, telling them their dog “would not be there when you get out.”
Simonis was released on petty charges roughly six hours later. They are still awaiting a court date for failure to comply with a lawful order and assaulting, resisting or impeding officers.
Officials with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Federal Protective Service and Department of Homeland Security did not respond to the Blade’s requests for a comment. Portland Fire Rescue and the Mark O. Hatfield Courthouse have also not returned requests for comment.
Simonis has not proceeded formally with charges but plans to in the near future. They are planning to pursue a variety of legal actions, including individual and class action lawsuits.
“I have been getting all of my legal ducks in a row … while also trying to heal and support the movement,” they said.
Simonis said they are also experiencing a variety of physical and emotional injuries from the event, including nerve damage in both hands after being handcuffed for two hours in metal cuffs latched too tightly.
“I told them repeatedly that my hands were going numb, and they repeatedly ignored me,” they said.
After they were released from federal custody, Simonis was diagnosed with neuropathy in both hands. Simonis said they still have not regained full mobility or feeling in their hands and the injuries have made it difficult to complete day-to-day activities, including walking their dog and typing on their computer.
Simonis is also experiencing heightened PTSD symptoms. They also said they are currently dealing with insomnia, dissociation of different parts of the body, manic episodes, a lack of appetite and suicidal thoughts.
Simonis said they are also dealing with hyper-vigilance. Simonis said they are often afraid passing cars are unmarked and being used by federal officers.
“I am literally evaluating every car that drives by me. Hypervigilance is an understatement,” they said.
While they took a week off from participating in the protests, Simonis has been dropping off chalk in Portland for passersby to write messages on the sidewalk, because “that’s what I was arrested for doing.”
“I thought the best way to respond to the absurdity of being arrested for chalking on a city sidewalk by federal agents was to provide chalk for the rest of my community members to use, in a federally kidnappable way on our city sidewalk,” they said.
Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D-Va.) is leading a group of congressional lawmakers in formal comments against a proposed Trump administration rule allowing homeless shelters to refuse to accept transgender people consistent with their gender identity.
“It is absolutely shameful that in the midst of a pandemic and with a record number of Americans unemployed, when access to safe housing is more important than ever, the administration is focused on attacking the basic rights of transgender Americans,” Wexton said Thursday in a Zoom call with reporters.
Formally made public July 24 in the Federal Register, the proposed rule allows homeless shelters with single-sex facilities to place transgender people consistent with sex assigned at birth, rather than gender identity.
The proposal downplays the idea such actions would be discriminatory by setting up a referral system: Single-sex homeless shelters can send transgender people to other shelters, for these single-sex shelters to house transgender people according to sex assigned at birth.
As pointed out by Katelyn Burns at Vox, the proposed rule has detailed language to aid homeless shelters in determining whether an individual is transgender, such as making assumptions based on ‘height’, ‘facial hair’ and whether or not they have ‘an Adam’s apple.’
Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) said on the conference call Carson years ago promised only delays in implementing an Obama-era rule against anti-transgender discrimination in homeless shelters, but then reversed himself by saying changes are coming, just being withheld, because members of Congress won’t like them.
“Secretary Carson’s words proved prophetic as under his and President Trump’s leadership, the administration moved to completely gut core housing discrimination protections, such as HUD’s disparate impacts and affirmative fair housing rules,” Quigley said. “That wasn’t enough. HUD has announced a new proposed rule that would enable shelters to discriminate against trans individuals based on shelter staff suspect an individual’s biological sex may be different from the way they self-identify.”
The proposed rule also disregards the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, which determined anti-transgender discrimination is a form of sex discrimination, thus illegal in the workplace under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The rule has applications to all federal laws against sex discrimination, including the Fair Housing Act.
HUD justifies the legality of the proposed rule by asserting homeless shelters aren’t under the purview of the Fair Housing Act, although one legal expert said on the conference call that analysis is incorrect.
Sasha Buchert, senior attorney with Lambda Legal, said the proposed rule is “on very shaky legal ground” not just because of the Supreme Court decision, but also rulings from appellate courts, state and local measures against anti-trans discrimination and questions under the U.S. Constitution.
“If you spend five minutes going through the case law, courts apply a case-by-case analysis when deciding whether or not the Fair Housing Act applies to shelters,” Buchert said. “It’s a legal question as to whether they’re considered dwellings, and there are at least two circuit courts that have held that shelters are considered dwellings under the Fair Housing Act, and therefore subject to that, so their analysis is just wrong.”
The Trump administration has previously disregarded public comments against anti-transgender policy. HHS made final a rule under Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act enabling health care providers and insurance companies to refuse service to transgender people despite more than 120,000 comments in opposition to the proposal.
Wexton, nonetheless, said public comments against HUD’s anti-trans rule are still important for other reasons.
“Public comment is always important because even if it’s ignored by the administration, it is something that can be pointed to in the lawsuit that will inevitably arise out of this rulemaking to not be allowed to go forward,” Wexton said. “It is important that the public be heard and make sure that people make their voices known that they object to this discriminatory rule.”
In terms of legislative actions against the proposed rule, Wexton cited legislation she sponsors called the Ensuring Equal Access to Shelter Act, which she said has passed the House Financial Services Committee, but has yet to come up for a floor vote.
Quigley said legislation that would defund the rule is also part of pending T-HUD appropriations legislation, but that hasn’t obtained a vote in the Senate, nor is it clear whether President Trump would sign it into law.
Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Pa.) said on the conference call the Equality Act — which has passed the House, but has been bottled up in the Senate — would also reaffirm discriminatory measures against transgender people in housing are illegal.
“Here we are, 430 days since the House passed the Equality Act, and this rule is just one more demonstration of why we need [Senate Majority Leader] Mitch McConnell to take it up and we need to push it through the Senate,” Scanlon said.
Publication of the proposed rule in the Federal Register officially started the clock for a 60-day comment period. Assuming the Trump administration sticks with the measure as proposed, it’s expected to be made final in the fall.
The U.S. House voted Thursday to approve an amendment introduced by Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) to defund President Trump’s transgender military ban as part of major defense spending legislation.
Lawmakers approved the amendment by voice vote as part of a block of amendments the House Rules Committee approved for consideration during debate over the fiscal year 2012 defense appropriations bill.
Jennifer Dane, executive director of the Modern Military Association of America, said in a statement after vote undoing the transgender ban would foster an inclusive military.
“As our nation faces seemingly unprecedented challenges, it’s crucially important that the military return to an inclusive policy that allows any qualified patriot to serve,” Dane said. “With this vote, the U.S. House of Representatives just sent a powerful message that bigotry and discrimination should have no place in our armed forces. We urge the full Congress to ensure this critically important amendment is passed.”
The vote comes nearly three years after President Trump tweeted out the policy on July 26, 2017, saying he’d bar transgender people from serving from the military “in any capacity.” Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, has said he’d reverse the ban upon his election and allow transgender people to serve openly in the military.
Asked this week by the Washington Blade whether he’d reconsider the transgender military ban, Trump claimed he couldn’t hear the question. The White House has subsequently the Trump administration has no plans to change the policy.
The vote marks the third time the House under Democratic control has voted against the transgender military ban. The chamber also approved a resolution introduced by Rep. Joe Kennedy III (D-Mass.) against the policy and a Speier amendment to the fiscal year 2021 defense authorization bill that would reverse the ban, although that language didn’t make it into final package approved by Congress.
Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) has proposed a pair of amendments to major defense spending legislation that would undo the Trump administration’s ban on transgender service members and LGBTQ Pride flags at U.S. military installations.
As noted Thursday on the House Rules Committee website, Speier along with other Democrats proposed the measures to the fiscal year 2021 defense appropriations bill. The House Rules Committee is set to meet Monday to consider which amendments to include.
One amendment seeks to prohibit use of funds to implement a ban on military service of transgender Americans, the other prevents the Defense Department from spending funds to implement its ban on display of the LGBTQ Pride flags.
Speier proposes her amendment on nearly three-year anniversary of President Trump announcing on Twitter he’d ban transgender people from serving in the military in any capacity. White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany dodged questions earlier this month on the policy, but insisted Trump has a pro-LGBTQ record.
The measure to undo the ban on LGBTQ Pride flags comes after Defense Secretary Mark Esper issued guidance last week indicated only designated flags, including U.S. flags and state flags, to be flown at military installations. The intent of the memo seemed aimed at banning Confederate flags, but the Pentagon confirmed to the Washington Blade it would also ban Pride flags.
Speier has sought before to undo the transgender military ban through an amendment to the fiscal year 2020 defense authorization bill, although the measure ended up being stripped from the final package in conference committee.