A conservative Christian group in the US has urged a district judge to block trans women from using a faith-based women’s shelter.
Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) sued the city of Anchorage in Alaska to stop the authorities from applying a gender identity law to the Hope Center women’s shelter.
The ADF – which has been labeled an anti-LGBTI ‘hate group’ by some rights organizations – argues that issues of privacy and religious freedoms are at risk.
The case was brought about after a trans woman was turned away from the shelter last year.
ADF attorney Ryan Tucker argued that a number of women who used the shelter had been survivors of abuse or violence, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports.
He went on to say that allowing biological men to stay in the same shelter would be highly traumatic for some of the women, adding that some ‘would rather sleep in the woods’ in sub-zero temperatures rather than use the shelter which allowed trans women.
Tucker argued that there were other shelters available for biological men in the city.
ADF protesting marriage equality at the Supreme Court | Photo: Facebook/Alliance Defending Freedom
The shelter operators filed a lawsuit against the Equal Rights Commission last year after a trans woman complained that she was turned away in August last year.
The shelter argues that this was not because of her gender identity, but because she was intoxicated and had been fighting in a different shelter.
The operators say they are suing to clear their names of any wrongdoing.
Assistant municipal attorney Ryan Stuart countered that the legal moves were premature as the Equal Rights Commission had not finished their investigation.
The investigation is currently on hold, in part because of the shelter’s lack of cooperation, Stuart added.
The ADF is a controversial organization in the US, and in the past have argued that LGBTI rights infringe on religious freedoms.
They have been labeled a hate group by legal advocacy organization, The Southern Poverty Law Center, who say the ADF wants to push transgender people ‘back into the shadows’.
LGBTI rights group the Human Rights campaign described the ADF as ‘one of the nation’s most dangerous organizations working to prevent equality for LGBT people’.
The group is most commonly known for defending Jack Philips, a Colorado baker who refused to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple.
The case went to the US Supreme Court, which sided with the baker. However, the court ruled in a limited capacity and said that their ruling might not apply to other cases.
This case is another instance of trans rights recognition, which has become a major talking point in the US.
There have been many recent arguments over whether trans people can use toilets in line with their actual gender, and whether trans women prisoners should be housed in male or female correctional facilities.
Conflict over trans rights has increased amid the deeply polarised climate of Donald Trump’s presidency.
A 17-year-old boy has been charged with the murder of 24-year-old transgender woman Dejanay Stanton in Chicago.
The teenager, who was charged as an adult, was identified in local news outlets such as the Chicago Sun Times as Tremon T. Hill.
Speaking at a bail hearing on Sunday (January 13), prosecutors said Hill knew Stanton and the two had been involved in a sexual relationship since July.
Investigators found a text Hill sent Stanton the morning of her death, asking her to meet him in a lot in the 4000 block of South Calumet Avenue, where her body was found later that day.
“This young lady was special and so innocent. One of the sweetest presence I’ve seen and known!”
— Dejanay Stanton’s friend Trisha Holloway
The more than 400 messages exchanged between the two between July and the day of Stanton’s murder also indicated Hill was uneasy with Stanton being a trans woman.
Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney Britt Steinberg said that, at one point, Hill asked Stanton to delete photos of him from her phone, which she did, and told her their relationship was making him feel suicidal.
Steinberg also said a police search of Hill’s home found pants with “small red stains” and other clothing matching the outfit he was wearing on the day of the murder, as filmed by surveillance cameras.
Judge Mary C. Marubio ordered Hill to be detained without bail, but the teen is scheduled for a review of his bail on Monday (January 14).
Several friends of Stanton welcomed news of the arrest on social media, hoping that the trial would bring justice to the victim and her family.
The murder of transgender Chicago woman Dejanay Stanton
Stanton’s body was found laying on the ground outside of her car, which was left with its doors open and a bag and mobile phone inside, on August 30 morning. She had a gunshot wound to the head.
Her family and friends held a vigil in her honour and dozens of people left tributes on social media remembering the young woman, who also had a Facebook account under the name De’janay Lanorra.
Friends described her as a sweet, kind and loving person. “This young lady was special and so innocent. One of the sweetest presence I’ve seen and known!” her friend Trisha Holloway wrote.
Stanton’s murder took place on the same day as that of another young trans woman, 18-year-old Vontashia Bell. Their deaths marked the 17th and the 18th known killing of a transgender person in the US in 2018.
Black queer activist LaSaia Honey Wade remembered both women in a touching statement on Facebook.
“My sisters are being killed, Vontashia Bell in Shreveport, LA and Dejanay Stanton here in Chicago tonight we mourn, we cry and we tell the ancestors to now watch over them. My heart is hurting so much,” she wrote.
Commenting on the two killings, LGBT+ rights group Human Rights Campaign said in a statement: “The deaths of Dejanay Stanton and Vontashia Bell underscore the urgent need to address the epidemic of violence against the transgender community across the U.S.”
A new study suggests that 1 in 5 non-binary people in the U.S. are denied healthcare due to their gender identity.
The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine in December, described a need for medical professionals to improve the care of non-binarypatients.
“As our society’s concept of gender evolves, so does the visibility of contemporary nonbinary people,” said researchers at the start of the paper.
“Yet many members of the medical community may not know how to interact with nonbinary patients respectfully or recognize their unique needs and barriers to care.”
The paper, Persons of Nonbinary Gender — Awareness, Visibility, and Health Disparities, states that 19 percent of non-binary patients were refused medical treatment because of their gender identity. In the past year, 22 percent of these individuals avoided medical care due to fears of discrimination.
“Our findings really highlight that there’s a lot of scepticism and hesitancy around nonbinary and gender nonconforming patients to engage with healthcare professionals,” said Walter Liszewski, MD, University of Minnesota Medical School Dermatology Resident and author of the article.
The research also identified how non-binary individuals were more likely to have higher rates of psychological stress, higher rates of domestic abuse, higher rates of poverty and higher rates of unemployment compared to patients who don’t identify as non-binary.
Liszewski suggested that the health disparities could be associated with the levels of discrimination faced by non-binary patients by medical professionals.
“The medical literature in the medical communities is not keeping up to date with society,” Liszewski said.
“My hope is that physicians who read the article will become aware of nonbinary patients, and realize we need to do a better job of allowing these individuals to access quality healthcare.”
The study is released after legislation came into effect in New York City allowing residents to select a third gender on their birth certificates. California also recently adopted a self-ID gender recognition law allowing transgender and non-binary people in the state to update the gender listed on their state ID cards and driver’s licences.
Many medical forms still only provide male or female gender options, which can not only cause distress to non-binary patients but can also result in medical professionals misgendering them.
Despite this progress, the Trump administration announced in October it was considering re-defining gender as a “biological, immutable condition determined by genitalia at birth,” which led to protests from activists.
HIV positive people with an undetectable viral load cannot sexually transmit HIV. That’s the unequivocal conclusion from one of the leading health agencies in the US.
Researchers from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) undertook a review of recent research. Their conclusion is simple: Undetectable = Untransmittable (U=U). It’s the same message now backed by over 300 health agencies all around the world.
The results of the NIAID review were published yesterday in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). One of the reports co-authors is NIAID Director, Dr Anthony Fauci. He is widely regarded as one of the world’s leading HIV experts.
In a statement, NIAID called evidence for Undetectable = Untransmittable ‘overwhelming’. Not only does getting those diagnosed with HIV on to Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) ensure their long term health. But it also significantly reduces HIV transmission rates. This is because those with the virus suppressed in their body cannot pass it on.
The authors pointed to research that looked at over 77,000 examples of condomless sex between serodiscordant male couples. One half of the couple had HIV and the other did not. There was not a single transmission of the virus from the HIV positive person to the negative person.
Those taking medication must stick to their medication regimes.
It can take up to six months of ART treatment to bring viral load down to undetectable levels (less than 200 copies of HIV per ml of blood).
Those with HIV should have their viral load tested every 3-4 months for the first two years of treatment. If their viral levels remain suppressed, this can extended to every six months.
They noted that adhering to medication was essential. ‘When ART is stopped, viral rebound usually occurs within 2 to 3 weeks.’
‘The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that of the individuals with HIV in the United States in HIV clinical care in 2015, approximately 20% had not achieved viral suppression at their last test.
‘CDC also noted that 40% of the individuals in HIV clinical care that same year did not maintain viral suppression for more than 12 months.’
They say lack of access to consistent healthcare, among other factors, can impact viral load.
‘In summary, even though the clinical data underpinning the concept of U = U have been accumulating for well over a decade, it is only recently that an overwhelming body of evidence has emerged to provide the firm basis to now accept this concept as scientifically sound.’
It says U=U has implications on prevention. There are also legal implications. Currently, more than 20 states in the US make it a crime for someone with HIV to have sex without informing their partner they have the virus.
They also think promoting the U=U message may remove, ‘the sense of fear and guilt that a person may be harming someone else, as well as the feeling of self-imposed and external stigma that many people with HIV experience.’
Among those to welcome the report was Bruce Richman, Founder of Prevention Access.
Richman tweeted, ‘This is huge news and validation of #UequalsU from the greatest minds In the field and the world’s #3 medical journal!’
Matthew Hodson, Executive Director of NAM/AIDSmap told Gay Star News, ‘Dr Anthony Fauci is the most senior American scientist working on HIV. His unequivocal support of the U=U message is welcome.
‘HIV stigma remains a public health crisis resulting – in extreme cases – in murder and suicide. The understanding that someone with HIV on effective treatment does not pose a transmission risk has the power to dispel much of the fear that results in stigma.
‘It should now be a public health duty to inform all of us who are living with the virus, and all of those whom we may encounter, that effective treatment prevents transmission.’
Police were called to a shooting at 11pm on January 6, where they found Martin with a fatal gunshot wound in a car in a ditch.
The paper did not mention Martin’s gender.
However, LGBT+ activists in Montogmery told Attitude that she was a trans woman.
Meta Ellis and Harvey McDaniel, who work for Montgomery Pride United, told the publication that they have been in touch with police about using Martin’s correct gender.
The actual number, however, could be higher as there is no official data collection on crimes against trans people, and trans murder victims have been known to be misgendered by local press.
In November, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) released a report looking at the high levels of violence against America’s transgender community.
It found that 74 percent of identified transgender murder victims were misgendered (referred to using their birth gender) or deadnamed (referred to using their birth name) in initial police or media reports surrounding their deaths.
“Transgender people face devastating levels of discrimination and harassment in the workplace,” reads the report.
“These barriers are even higher for Black transgender people, who have double the unemployment rate of all transgender people, and four times that of the US general population.
“Transgender people face devastating levels of discrimination and harassment in the workplace.”
“With limited access to workplaces that are affirming and inclusive, transgender and gender-expansive people are put at greater risk for poverty, homelessness and involvement with criminalised work.
“Together, these factors put transgender people at an increased risk of violence and danger.”
Last year, the HRC Foundation and the Trans People of Color Coalition released a report documenting violence against trans gender people. It found that 2017 was the deadliest year on record for transgender people, particularly for trans women of colour.
A Canadian tech company has come under fire for allegedly providing filtering software censoring LGBTI content to anti-LGBTI governments.
LGBTI advocacy group All Out has teamed up with Mexican organization R3D, which defends human rights in the digital world, to shed a light on the issue.
The two have joined forces to urge Canadian company Netsweeper to stop providing LGBTI censorship filters to homophobic governments. Moreover, the LGBTI group wants to ensure that tech companies don’t use such technologies to violate human rights.
Activists started an online petition to put an end to this LGBTI-related content censorship. They addressed Perry J. Roach, Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Netsweeper Inc.
They also reached out to the Canadian government, which agreed to review their recommendations.
‘Helping countries like the UAE censor LGBTI content online, including life-saving information on HIV prevention, is a gross violation of international human rights guidelines,’ Senior Campaigns Manager at All Out Yuri Guaiana told Gay Star News.
‘We are glad the Canadian government agreed to review our recommendation that any additional financial support to Netsweeper will be made conditional on their commitment to human rights.’
Guaiana furthermore said that more than 27,000 people have signed the petition so far. They are asking Netsweeper to stop providing these filters censoring content identified as ‘Alternative Lifestyles’.
‘We’ll keep demanding that,’ Guaiana also added.
This is not the first time Netsweeper has faced criticism.
Last year, Citizen Lab, a security and human rights research group run out of the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto, published a report on the use of Netsweeper in 10 countries cited for systematic human rights problems. They analyzed activities in countries such as Afghanistan, Bahrain, India, Kuwait, Pakistan, Qatar, Somalia, Sudan, UAE, and Yemen.
‘Netsweeper’s services can easily be abused to help facilitate draconian controls on the public sphere by stifling access to information and freedom of expression,’ said Ronald Deibert, who runs Citizen Lab.
The report also explains how the technology provided by Netsweeper works.
The software blocks Google searches for LGBTI-related keywords and non-pornographic websites by mischaracterizing them as sexually explicit.
A federal appeals court has sided with President Trump on his attempt to ban transgender people from the military, marking the first court victory for the administration on the anti-trans policy as litigation against it moves through the courts.
In a five-page decision, a three-judge panel on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals overturns a preliminary injunction issued by U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly barring the Trump administration from banning transgender service members.
Although the D.C. Circuit has lifted one preliminary injunction against the transgender military ban, three more orders against the policy remain in effect. Transgender people will be able to continue to serve in the U.S. armed forces as litigation moves forward in the courts.
The unsigned ruling was a per curiam decision, which means it was unanimous. The three-judge panel consisted of U.S. Circuit Judge Stephen Williams, a Reagan appointee; U.S. Circuit Judge Thomas Griffith, a George W. Bush appointee; and U.S. Circuit Judge Robert Wilkins, an Obama appointee.
The opinion indicates Wilkins and Griffiths plan to issue a longer opinion at some time in the future and Williams plans a concurring opinion.
The order might also not be the D.C. Circuit’s final word on the transgender military ban. The opinion itself notes “today’s decision is not a final determination on the merits,” but a decision on a whether a preliminary injunction should remain in place as litigation continues.
Cited as the D.C. Circuit’s reason for lifting the order is the plan issued by former Defense Secretary James Mattis seeking to implement Trump’s 2017 tweet and subsequent order against allowing transgender people to serve “in any capacity” in the military.
The court concludes Kollar-Kotelly “made an erroneous finding that the Mattis Plan was not a new policy” because she ignored certain nuances about the plan.
“The government took substantial steps to cure the procedural deficiencies the court identified in the enjoined 2017 Presidential Memorandum,” the order says. “These included the creation of a panel of military and medical experts, the consideration of new evidence gleaned from the implementation of the policy on the service of transgender individuals instituted by then-Secretary of Defense Ash Carter (‘the Carter Policy’), and a reassessment of the priorities of the group that produced the Carter Policy.”
The Mattis plan allows transgender people to continue to serve in the military if they “have been stable for 36 consecutive months in their biological sex” and do not seek transition-related case, such as gender reassignment surgery, are not diagnosed with gender dysphoria or came out as transgender during the period of open service under former Defense Secretary Ashton Carter during the Obama administration.
Although transgender advocates have made the case gender dysphoria is a defining characteristic of being transgender and thus the policy amounts to a full-fledged ban, the court disputes that notion.
“We can find nothing in the record to support this definition of being transgender, as all of the reports supporting both the Carter Policy and the Mattis Plan defined transgender persons as ‘identifying’ with a gender other than their biological sex,” the order says. “Indeed, those reports repeatedly state that not all transgender persons seek to transition to their preferred gender or have gender dysphoria.”
The order also cites legal precedent requiring courts to give deferences to the military on whether individuals are eligible for combat.“We must recognize that the Mattis Plan plausibly relies upon the ‘considered professional judgment’ of ‘appropriate military officials,’ and appears to permit some transgender individuals to serve in the military consistent with established military mental health, physical health and sex-based standards,” the order says.
The ruling was handed down in the case of Doe v. Trump, the case against the transgender military ban filed by the National Center for Lesbian Rights and GLBTQ Advocates & Defenders.
Shannon Minter, legal director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights, said in a statement the ruling is “a devastating slap in the face to transgender service members who have proved their fitness to serve and their dedication to this country.”
“We will keep fighting this cruel and irrational policy, which serves no purpose other than to weaken the military and punish transgender service members for their patriotism and service,” Minter said.
Minter told the Blade the legal team is considering asking the D.C. Circuit for an en banc rehearing, adding, “This is not a final decision on the merits, and we are very confident of our ability to make our case in the district court as the case proceeds.”
Jennifer Levi, director of the Transgender Rights Project for GLBTQ Advocates & Defenders, said in a statement the opinion is “based on the absurd idea that forcing transgender people to suppress who they are in order to serve is not a ban.”
“It ignores the reality of transgender people’s lives, with devastating consequences and rests on a complete failure to understand who transgender people are,” Levi said. “It is also destabilizing to the military to so dramatically reverse a policy that has been in place for over 2 years that senior military officials acknowledge has operated with no problems.”
Asked for a reaction from the Trump administration to the D.C. Circuit decision, Kelly Laco, a Justice Department spokesperson, replied, “DOJ is pleased. Thanks!”
The D.C. Circuit issues the order less than a month after hearing oral arguments on whether to dissolve Kollar-Kotelly injunction against the transgender military ban. At the time, the three-judge panel didn’t give a clear signal on which way they’d rule on the issue.
The order is handed down as the Justice Department has two requests pending before the U.S. Supreme Court seeking intervention in three transgender military cases, including Doe v. Trump. The other two cases are Karnoski v. Trump and Stockman v. Trump, which are pending before the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
One request calls on the Supreme Court to take the rare step of granting review of the cases on an interlocutory basis to allow enough time for justices to issue final decision on the policy before the end of the year. The other seeks a stay on the preliminary injunctions against the policy, which would essentially allow the Trump administration to bar transgender service members as litigation moves forward.
Minter said the D.C. Circuit decision moots the Justice Department’s request for cert before judgment and a stay in the Doe v. Trump case, but doesn’t directly affect the Trump administration’s requests before the Supreme Court in other cases.
With respect to those cases, Minter said the D.C. Circuit decision “may weigh against the court granting cert” because the Trump administration urged the Supreme Court to consolidate all of them.
“It does not directly affect the government’s motion for stays of the injunctions in Karnoski and Stockman, though it certainly raises the stakes of that request, since the injunction in Doe has now been dissolved by the D.C. Circuit,” Minter added.
Husband and wife Jake and Hannah Graf are both trans | Photo: Paul Grace
18 December 2018 19:07 GMT
Six leading publications aimed at lesbian and bisexual women have issued a joint statement in support of trans people.
Representatives of DIVA, Curve, Autostraddle, LOTL, Tagg and Lez Spread The Word signed the statement.
They state, unequivocally, ‘That trans women are women and that trans people belong in our community.
‘We do not think supporting trans women erases our lesbian identities; rather we are enriched by trans friends and lovers, parents, children, colleagues and siblings.’
It said it was issuing the statement in the wake of anti-trans reporting across much of the media. There have also been a number of lesbians who have spoken out against trans rights.
Pride protest over trans rights
Last summer, lesbian protestors briefly halted the Pride in London march. Among their objections, the protestors claimed that some younger, butch lesbians were rushing to identify as trans men instead of embracing their lesbian identities.
They also objected to trans women with penises gaining access to female-only spaces such as changing rooms.
In the press, many media commented on the UK’s recent consultation on changing gender recognition laws. Even the left-wing Guardian was criticized for an editorial cautioning against changing the law.
‘We strongly condemn writers and editors who seek to foster division and hate within the LGBTQI community with trans misogynistic content, and who believe “lesbian” is an identity for them alone to define,’ says the statement.
‘We condemn male-owned media companies who profit from the traffic generated by these controversies.’
Trans rights advocates march at Glasgow Pride, 14 July 2018 | Photo: David Hudson
‘Concerned about the message these so-called lesbian publications are sending to trans women’
The statement continues:
‘We also strongly condemn the current narrative peddled by some feminists, painting trans people as bullies and aggressors – one which reinforces transphobia and which must be challenged so that feminism can move forward.
‘We are really concerned about the message these so-called lesbian publications are sending to trans women and to young lesbians – including trans lesbians – and we want to make in clear this is not in our name.
‘As the leading publications for queer women, we believe it is our responsibility to call out scaremongering conspiracy theories levelled at the trans community, and make it clear that DIVA, Curve, Autostraddle, LOTL, Tagg and Lez Spread The Word will always be safe spaces for the trans community.
‘Forty years ago, to be a lesbian was to be questioned and persecuted. Today things are better for cis lesbians but there are still places where to be a lesbian is impossible.
‘So it is for trans men and women, as well as non-binary people, many of whom identify as lesbian, bisexual, gay or queer. We know something of these struggles. And just as they and other allies have supported us, so we must support those among us who are trans, or risk ending up on the wrong side of history.
‘The sooner we stop focussing on what divides us and instead focus on our commonalities, the stronger we will be to confront the other injustices imposed on us.
‘We won’t be divided.’
Toxic ‘debates’ and tackling hurtful systems
Signing the statement are: Carrie Lyell (Editor, DIVA magazine); Linda Riley (Publisher, DIVA magazine); Riese Bernard (Co-founder and editor-in-chief, Autostraddle); Merryn Johns (Editor, Curve); Silke Bader (Publisher, Curve and LOTL); Eboné F. Bell (Editor-in-chief, Tagg Magazine); and Florence Gagnon (Founder and president, Lez Spread The Word).
Lyell told Gay Star News why she hoped to happen going forward.
‘I hope the LGBTQI community can move past these toxic “debates” about what it means to be a woman or to be a lesbian and to actually get down to tackling the structures and systems that really hurt us. We can’t do that if we aren’t united.’
She also spoke of the importance of speaking out.
‘We can’t achieve equality without visibility, and therefore it’s so important that trans people and their allies are louder than our detractors.’
Apple has removed a religious app from its online store which portrayed being gay as an ‘addiction’, ‘sickness’ and ‘sin’.
Religious group, Living Hope Ministries created and owns the LHM Men’s Network app . It was pulled after a gay-rights organization petitioned against it.
Truth Wins Out, which says it fights ‘anti-gay religious extremism,’ launched the petition last Thursday, US news site NBC reported.
The Living Hope Ministries is a nonprofit that says it serves ‘those who are seeking sexual and relational wholeness through a more intimate relationship with Jesus Christ.’
Living Hope Ministries’ executive director Ricky Chelette. Photo YouTube
Executive director Ricky Chelette told NBC that the group developed its app three years ago. He said the group is a ‘discipleship ministry’ and ‘very much like a church.’
We help people understand who they are in Christ,’ Chelette told NBC News on Sunday. ‘We only help those individuals who are seeking us.’
Truth Wins Out alleged that the app sought for LGBTI youth ‘to change from gay-to-straight through prayer and therapy
In 2014, Tim Cook became the first ceo of a Fortune 500 company to come out publicly
The petition had 356 supporters and Truth Wins Out thanked Apple and its ceo Tim Cook for removing the offending app.
‘We thank Apple for exemplifying corporate responsibility and taking swift action to remove a dangerous app that stigmatizes and demeans LGBT people,’ said Truth Wins Out executive director Wayne Besen.
‘Ex-gay programs are consumer fraud and cause significant harm to the people they purport to help.’
Truth Wins Out said it will seek to have the Living Hope Ministries app removed from other platforms, such as amazon.com, that still host it.
Some people think you can’t be gay and Christian. What better way to prove them wrong than with a list of LGBTI saints?
The Catholic Church doesn’t want you to read this. They’ve deliberately erased many gay saints from official lists.
And we have to admit it is difficult to find hard historical evidence about most saints. Many of the stories about them are little more than legends.
But if you start looking, there are lots of LGBTI saints and martyrs. Here are just a few of the most famous:
St Joan of Arc
The 1999 movie The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc.
Jeanne d’Arc is not just the most famous LGBTI saint but the most famous saint full-stop.
Joan was just a French peasant. But an angel appeared to her in a vision and told her God wanted her to lead the French fight against the English in the Hundred Years War.
She persuaded the French Prince Charles to let her lead his army, even though she had no military training. And, dressed as a male soldier, she achieved a momentous victory over the English at the city of Orléans in 1429.
Thanks to her, the prince was crowned King Charles VII. But Joan was then captured by the English.
They decided she was a heretic and a witch and burnt her at the stake. She was just 19.
Some refuse to accept Joan was LGBTI.
Was she a trans warrior or did she only cross-dress in male armor through necessity? Either way, she would be part of our gay, trans and gender-fluid family today.
Likewise, the same people who claim she was a virgin admit she liked to share her bed with other young women. And that sounds pretty lesbian to us.
St Sebastian
Gerrit van Honthorst’s depiction of Saint Sebastian.
St Sebastian is the original gay icon. This near-naked, young, muscled man – tied to a post and pierced with arrows – is one of the most famous images in fine art.
He was the commander of a company of archers in the imperial Roman bodyguard. And he was known to be ‘close’ to his male superiors. But he had a secret.
To rescue two other Christian soldiers, he ‘outed’ himself as Christian too. The Emperor Diocletian ordered that he should be shot to death by his fellow archers.
Strangely, that didn’t kill him. The pious St Irene saved him and treated his wounds. But Diocletian caught up with him. He ordered a second execution and Sebastian’s fellow soldiers beat him to death.
There’s no single reason why he became the unofficial gay patron saint. It’s a mix of his rumored sexuality, his ‘coming out’ story and his iconic homoerotic image penetrated with arrows. And homosexuality was once considered an illness while St Sebastian was known to save plague victims.
St Wilgefortis
Conchita (right) brought fresh attention to St Wilgefortis.
Legend says Wilgefortis was the daughter of a king in Portugal who took a vow of chastity.
When her father tried to force her into marriage with the king of Sicily she prayed for help. God saved her by giving her a beard and the Sicilian king refused to marry a bearded wife.
So she is a trans male saint.
Sadly, there is no happy ending. Her father got so angry he crucified her.
Her only reward is to become the patron saint of difficult marriages. After all, it’s a particularly difficult marriage that ends in crucifixion. In Spain she is called Librada because she helps women who want to be ‘liberated’ from difficult husbands.
The Catholic Church plays down St Wilgefortis. But after Conchita – another bearded lady – won the Eurovision Song Contest in 2014 for Austria, depictions of the saint gained short-lived cult status.
St Perpetua and St Felicity
George Hare’s 1890 painting Victory of Faith depicted Perpetua and Felicity in prison.
This North African lesbian couple are the patron saints of same-sex relationships.
Perpetua was 22-year-old noblewoman with a newborn baby. Felicity, who was pregnant, was her slave.
Roman soldiers arrested them in around 203AD because they were Christians. They comforted each other in prison and Perpetua wrote a jail diary, describing the visions she had while inside.
Felicity worried that she wouldn’t be martyred because Roman law forbade the execution of pregnant women. But she gave birth to her daughter in time.
The day came for games to celebrate the birthday of the Emperor Septimus Severus. As part of the entertainment, the pair were taken into the amphitheater in Carthage, North Africa, along with a group of male Christians.
Gladiators whipped them. Then boar, a bear, and a leopard were set on the men, and a wild cow on the women. That still wasn’t enough to kill them and they gave each other the kiss of peace before a swordsman finished them off.
Perpetua’s diary became the ‘Passion of St Perpetua, St Felicitas, and their Companions’. The story was so popular in North Africa that St Augustine ordered people not to treat it like it was part of the Bible.
St Paulinus
St Paulinus processed through the streets of Nola, near Naples, Italy.
If you’ve ever heard a bell ringing to call you to church, you’ve got the bisexual St Paulinus to thank. He invented that tradition.
He had previously been a married Roman senator. But after his wife died, he became bishop of Nola in Italy from 395AD to 431AD.
When the Vandals raided the region, a poor widow came to Paulinus asking him to help her son who the Vandals had carried off.
He had spent all his money paying ransoms for other captives. So he went to Africa to offer himself to the Vandals in return for the widow’s son. They agreed and made Paulinus a gardener. But when the Vandal king realized his son-in-law’s slave was the Bishop of Nola, he set him free.
What’s not well known is Paulinus also wrote love poems to his boyfriend, Ausonius. In one, he promised there love would last even after his death. And he added:
Thee shall I hold, in every fiber woven, Not with dumb lips, nor with averted face Shall I behold thee, in my mind embrace thee, Instant and present, thou, in every place.
He is still honored every year in Nola when his statue is paraded through the streets. American descendants of Italians from Nola also honor him in the same way in Brooklyn.
St Francis of Assisi
Mickey Rourke as St Francis of Assisi in the movie Francesco.
St Francis is one of the best-loved religious figures in history, famous for hugging lepers and showing compassion to animals.
What you probably don’t know is he encouraged the other Franciscan friars in his 13th century cloister to call him ‘mother’.
Even more surprisingly, he allowed a widow to enter the all-male friary, renaming her ‘Brother Jacoba’.
And it is likely he had at least one same-sex relationship while in his 20s. His partner’s identity is hidden by history but is thought to be Brother Elias of Cortona.
Thomas of Celano, who knew Francis personally and wrote a biography of him in 1230 just four years after his death, wrote:
‘Now there was a man in the city of Assisi whom Francis loved more than any other…
‘He would often take this friend off to secluded spots where they could discuss private matters and tell him that he had chanced upon a great and precious treasure. There was a cave near Assisi where the two friends often went to talk about this treasure.’
St Sergius and St Bacchus
The Passion of Saints Sergius and Bacchus by Elastic Theatre.
Homophobic Christians tell us that same-sex marriage is against their faith. Trouble is they don’t know their own history. Step forward Saints Sergius and Bacchus.
Sergius was a commander in the Roman army in the third century and Bacchus was his second in command.
They were referred to in the earliest records of their story as ‘erastai’, the Greek word for ‘lovers’. And it’s believed they committed themselves to each other in a Christian ceremony called ‘adelphopoiesis’ or ‘brother-making’ which was a kind of same-sex marriage.
But their faith got them in trouble while they were stationed in Syria in 303AD. As Christians, they refused to sacrifice to Jupiter, the Roman’s chief god.
Officials arrested them, dressed them in women’s clothing and paraded them through the street to humiliate them into submission. But they resisted, chanting they were dressed as brides of Christ.
So the Romans turned to torture. They separated them and beat them so severely that Bacchus died.
That wasn’t the end of the story. That night Sergius had a vision.
Bacchus appeared to him in his soldier’s armor and with the face of an angel. He urged Sergius not to give in, saying they would live together as lovers forever in heaven. It’s a unique martyrdom story, because martyrs are always promised they will be with God in heaven, not with their lover.
Over the coming days, Sergius was tortured and finally beheaded.
Christians honored them as saints right up until 1969, the same year as the Stonewall Riots. The Catholic Church stripped them from the official list of saints, perhaps to starve the emerging gay rights movement of their power.
St Aelred
The Name of The Rose movie depicted medieval monastic life.
The patron saint of friendship was erotically attracted to men, and celebrated male relationships, throughout his life.
Aelred was the abbot of a Cistercian abbey in North Yorkshire, England for 20 years until his death in 1167. He wrote about the link between friendship and spirituality, saying ‘God is friendship’.
Aelred advocated chastity. But his passion for male relationships is clear when he wrote: ‘It is no small consolation in this life to have someone who can unite with you in an intimate affection and the embrace of a holy love…’
In the same passage he describes this relationship with another man as one where ‘the sweetness of the Spirit flows between you, where you so join yourself and cleave to him that soul mingles with soul and two become one.’
St Galla and St Benedicta
Women in the Dark Ages faced few choices, as depicted in The Last Kingdom.
Galla had been married but was widowed after just one year. Not wanting another relationship with a man, she grew a beard to ward them off.
And she went even further. St Galla founded a convent in Rome in the sixth century and fellow nun Benedicta moved in with her there.
Then Galla fell seriously ill and St Peter appeared to her in a vision, telling her to prepare for death. She was devoted to God so liked the idea of going to heaven. But she was also devoted to Benedicta and didn’t want to leave her behind.
So she prayed to Peter that Benedicta would swiftly follow her to the afterlife.
Admittedly, by modern standards, praying for your partner’s death seems a bit wrong. But Peter agreed.
Galla died in 550AD of breast cancer and Benedicta’s death came 30 days later, just as St Peter had promised.
Historical note on gay saints
To historians, we would point out there are around 10,000 Catholic saints (though there is no definitive figure). By any impartial standard, some of them are bound to have been LGBTI.
To Catholics, we would say that you accept a saint’s sanctity on the basis of faith, not scientific proof. So why would you not accept their sexuality on the same basis?