Escalating the fight over Chick-fil-A’s religious rights, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued San Antonio on Monday as part of his investigation into the city’s decision to reject the chicken chain as an airport vendor.
The lawsuit, filed in state district court in Travis County, seeks a court order requiring San Antonio to turn over emails and other internal communications in which council members and city employees discussed the Chick-fil-A contract with each other and outsiders.
On Monday, Paxton repeated allegations that San Antonio politicians had engaged in religious discrimination, adding that Chick-fil-A’s leaders are “well-known for their personal belief in the Christian faith and traditional understanding of marriage.”
Last month both chambers of the Texas legislature passed the so-called “Save Chick-Fil-A” bill which would ban local governments from taking “any adverse action” against businesses based on their support for a religious group. Gov. Greg Abbott is expected to sign the bill. Also last month the Trump administration’s FAA opened its own probe.
On Wednesday (5 June), the Trump Administration implemented a new policy ending research done by government scientists using fetal tissue. This severely limits research done on HIV.
According to the Washington Post, the Administration also canceled a university’s multi-million dollar laboratory contract. The university used fetal tissue in testing new HIV treatments.
‘Promoting the dignity of human life from conception to natural death is one of the very top priorities of President Trump’s administration,’ the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said in a statement.
The tissue used in such research comes from elective abortions. Many scientists and researchers say there are no other alternative approaches to the research at this time.
This is political, not scientific
The HHS’ decision is a political one. It stems from the lobbying of the anti-abortion bloc, who cite moral qualms with using fetal tissue in research.
Trump’s Administration first threatened this research last December.
It then suspended a study looking into a ‘cure’ for HIV because of its use of human fetal tissue.
‘This is a pro-life, pro-science administration,’ HHS Assistant Secretary for Health Brett Giroir told Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) at the time.
Currently, funding for nongovernmental research using fetal tissue will not be disturbed. Going forward, however, the HHS said applications for federal funding will face an ethics review.
The reason for the review is due to ‘the serious regulatory, moral, and ethical considerations involved’.
A continuing epidemic
Globally, 36.9 million people were living with HIV in 2017. That same year, 1.8 million people became newly infected and another 940,000 died from AIDS-related illnesses.
In the US, 1.1 million people currently live with HIV.
Since the peak of the epidemic in the mid-1990s, both new infections and related deaths have decreased. Still, it has taken the lives of over 35 million people worldwide since then and continues to be a worldwide health crisis.
YouTube have insisted that a right-wing influencer who targeted a journalist for years with homophobia did not violate the website’s hate speech policies.
Carlos Maza, a videographer for US news site Vox, publicly complained about the persistent abuse from a right-wing YouTuber, Steven Crowder.
The Twitter thread went viral, prompting the Google-owned platform to review Maza’s claims. However, the company concluded that Crowder’s comments did not violate guidelines.
What happened?
In a winding Twitter thread posted last week (31 May), Maza sketched out a situation that has spanned years involving homophobic and racist epithets thrown in videos.
This included when the host attacked Maza as a ‘gay Mexican,’ ‘lispy queer,’ and a ‘token Vox gay atheist sprite.’
‘Since I started working at Vox,’ Maza wrote, ‘Steven Crowder has been making video after video “debunking” Strikethrough.
‘Every single video has included repeated, overt attacks on my sexual orientation and ethnicity.
‘I’ve been called an anchor baby, a lispy queer, a Mexican, etc. These videos get millions of views on YouTube.
‘Every time one gets posted, I wake up to a wall of homophobic/racist abuse on Instagram and Twitter.’
Moreover, Mazos compiled an extensive report cataloguing Crowder’s actions, including a compilation video, and the times he had red flagged it to YouTube. Crowder, who has over three million subscribers, is also behind the ‘socialism for fags’ t-shirts.
‘Videos […] posted don’t violate our policies’
The pressure piled online, spurring YouTube to issue a public statement on Twitter.
YouTube said: ‘Thanks again for taking the time to share all of this information with us. We take allegations of harassment very seriously–we know this is important and impacts a lot of people.
‘Our teams spent the last few days conducting an in-depth review of the videos flagged to us, and while we found language that was clearly hurtful, the videos as posted don’t violate our policies.’
However, YouTube’s harassment an cyberbullying policy explicitly bars ‘content that makes hurtful and negative comments/videos about another person.’
In addition, the twitter account added: ‘As an open platform, it’s crucial for us to allow everyone–from creators to journalists to late-night TV hosts–to express their opinions w/in the scope of our policies.
‘Opinions can be deeply offensive, but if they don’t violate our policies, they’ll remain on our site.’
Harassment is ‘never ok’
Furthermore, a Google spokesperson gave Gay Star News background behind the investigation.
They explained that, in the videos flagged by Maza, ‘Crowder has not instructed his viewers to harass Maza on YouTube or any other platform and the main point of these videos was not to harass or threaten, but rather to respond to the opinion.’
But while the company did not directly comment on Crowder or his followers’ activity, they did express that ‘certain behavior,’ such as ‘doxxing’ and ‘encouraging viewers to harass,’ is ‘never ok.’
Carlos Maza slams YouTube
Following the investigation, Mazos hit out at the site.
He said: ‘I don’t know what to say. YouTube has decided not to punish Crowder, after he spent two years harassing me for being gay and Latino.
‘To be crystal clear: YouTube has decided that targeted racist and homophobic harassment does not violate its policies against hate speech or harassment.
‘That’s an absolutely bats**t policy that gives bigots free license.’
Moreover, Maza called out at the platform for sporting a rainbow-striped logo to celebrate Pride month.
The body of a black transgender woman pulled from White Rock Lake in northeast Dallas on Saturday evening “showed obvious signs of homicidal violence,” the Dallas police chief said.
Jason Haslett aka Chynal Lindsey.Dallas Police Dept.
“We are concerned,” Dallas Police Chief U. Reneé Hall told reporters at a news conference Monday. “We are actively and aggressively investigating this case and we have reached out to our federal partners to assist us in these efforts.”
Police released photos of Lindsey, who was also known as Jason Haslett, “as a female and as her born gender” at her family’s request, Hall said. Normally, the department would not do so, she said.
Lindsey is at least the sixth black transgender woman who has been killed nationwide in 2019, according to the Human Rights Campaignadvocacy group.
Less than two weeks ago, Dallas police announced they were investigating if the shooting deaths of two transgender women and the stabbing of a third, who survived, are connected. In those incidents, two of the victims had been in a similar part of Dallas, and all three either got into a car with someone or allowed someone into their car before the attacks.
Muhlaysia Bookervia Facebook
Muhlaysia Booker, 23, was found shot to death May 18. Police have not identified a suspect in her slaying.
Booker’s death came little more than a month after she survived a brutal beating in Dallasfollowing a minor traffic accident that was captured on cellphone video and went viral. Edward Thomas, 29, was charged with assault in the April beating. He is not being held in jail, and police have said there is no evidence connecting him with Booker’s killing.
On May 21, police said that Booker’s slaying was one of those that bore similarities to recent attacks on transgender women in Dallas.
“These cases, although not directly related at this time, do have some similarities the public needs to be aware of,” Maj. Vincent Weddington told reporters at a news conference that day.
Weddington said police were working with federal law enforcement officers to determine if any of the attacks should be considered hate crimes.
In October 2018, a transgender woman was found shot to death in a vehicle parked in southeast Dallas, police said.
In April, a woman survived after she was repeatedly stabbed in south Dallas. She provided information about her attacker, but police have not released a detailed description of the man.
Bud Light has released a limited-edition rainbow coloured aluminium bottle to raise funds for GLAAD to celebrate World Pride.
The bottles will be available in bars across the United States during the month of June, and Bud Light will donate $1 to GLAAD for each case sold up to $150,000.
Bud Light debuted the bottles at the GLAAD Media Awards, which took place last weekend in New York City. The campaign marks the latest in a 20 year partnership between Bud Light and GLAAD.
Bud Light is ‘for everyone to enjoy’
Andy Goeler, vice president of marketing for Bud Light, said the company has been supporting the LGBT+ community since the 1980s.
“The way we see it, our beer is for everyone to enjoy, so we are looking forward to seeing Pride bottles at bars throughout the month of June and beyond,” he said.
“With the release of these new bottles, we hope to create something that everyone can feel proud to hold during Pride month that also makes a positive impact for GLAAD’s initiatives and the LGBTQ+ community overall.”
“The way we see it, our beer is for everyone to enjoy, so we are looking forward to seeing Pride bottles at bars throughout the month of June and beyond.”
– Vice president of marketing for Bud Light, Andy Goeler
Meanwhile, Zeke Stokes, chief programs officer for GLAAD, welcomed the initiative.
‘Bud Light stood with the community at a time when many brands did not’
“For twenty consecutive years, Bud Light has partnered with GLAAD in its mission to accelerate acceptance of LGBTQ people.
“Bud Light stood with the community at a time when many brands did not, and their continued outspoken support sets the bar for other global brands.”
The bottles will make an appearance at The Governors Ball Music Festival in New York City.
Limited edition bottle released to raise funds for GLAAD and to mark World Pride
This is not the first time the beer brand has come out in support of the LGBT+ community. In 2013, the company supported the introduction of same-sex marriage in the US.
In 2016, the company released an advert which featured Amy Schumer and Seth Rogen which celebrated same-sex marriage.
A number of brands have appealed to the LGBT+ community with pride themed goods
A number of brands have tapped into Pride in recent years. Last month, beer company DC Brau announced that they will be releasing a limited edition can that honours Marsha P. Johnson for Washington DC Pride.
Johnson was an Arican-American transgender woman and drag performer who played a key role in the 1969 Stonewall Riots.
Meanwhile, Converse last month announced the release of its Pride collection for 2019. The soles of the shoes feature the rainbow colours, and the shoe also features the transgender flag colours.
Trans people have been beheaded, gunned down and stoned to death, according to a new report.
It highlights the 369 trans, non-binary and gender-variant people, at least, who were murdered in the 12 months from 1 October 2017 to 30 September 2018.
28 of the trans murder victims were reported to be teenagers, with some as young as 16.
There were five beheadings. Nine people were stoned to death.The majority of the people killed were trans women of color, often gunned down or beaten to death.
Brazil still has the most reported trans murders in the world
The Trans Day of Remembrance update has seen an increase of 43 cases compared to last year’s update, and 73 cases compared to 2016.
Brazil (167 murders) and Mexico (71), once again, lead the list of the most reported killings of trans women and men.
The United States has seen 28 trans people killed, an increase from last year’s 25.
Other killings have been reported in Pakistan, Colombia, France, the UK, and elsewhere around the world.
But these horrifying numbers are just the tip of the iceberg.
Beheaded, gunned down, and shot to death
Media organizations – including normally reputable names – are often guilty of misgendering the victims when they are trans, making it even more difficult to get a real sense of the problem.
And there are multiple countries, many in Africa, where we have little knowledge of the violence happening against trans people. The highest numbers have been found in countries with strong trans movements that carry out professional monitoring.
‘We cannot estimate a number, but indeed what we can register is just a small fraction,’ Lukas Berredo, from Transrespect vs Transphobia Worldwide, told Gay Star News.
The majority of the people killed, 62%, were sex workers.
Christa Leigh Steele-Knudslein, trans and intersex, was a LGBTI rights advocate living in Massachusetts. She was also a founder of the Miss Trans America beauty pageant.
She was found dead in her home on 5 January. Her husband confessed to striking his wife with a hammer before stabbing her in the back. Christa was 42.
Azul ‘Blue’ Montoro, a 26-year-old sex worker, was killed in Cordoba, Argentina.
She was stabbed 18 times in a friend’s apartment. She only died when the final stab, the 19th, came at her throat.
Fernando Lino da Silva, a 21-year-old, was a trans man living in Maceió, Brazil. He was just watching TV when he was shot to death.
Naomi Hersi, 36, was stabbed to death in a London hotel in March. Her murderer was recently jailed for 20 years.
Naomi Hersi
Hajira, in Pakistan, was tortured to death before she was beheaded. She had been dead for several days before being discovered.
A government contractor refused to bury the body. It is unknown why. It may because she was beheaded or she was a transgender woman.
Vanesa Campos was a sex worker in Paris. Immigrated from Peru two years before, she was shot by a mob as she tried to prevent one of her clients from being robbed.
Her killing sparked protests about the treatment of sex workers in France.
S. A. Sánchez López was murdered on 19 November last year. She was 41, deaf, and living in Nicaragua. She was beaten to death for ‘no reason’.
Devudamma Surya Naryana, 47, was electrocuted to death in her home in India.
And Nikolly Silva, a 16-year-old, was stoned to death at dawn in Cabo Frio, Brazil.
Why we remember
These are just a few names and faces of a list that can only begin to imagine the scope of transphobic murders that happen worldwide every year.
Trans people run the risk of losing their lives just for being who they are.
Berredo added: ‘Trans Day of Remembrance is a date in which we remember and honour the trans and gender-diverse people whose lives has been taken away from us.
‘It is a mourning day, and it is also a day to be together with our communities, to keep existing and resisting.’
A recent survey has found 0% of American Muslims identify as gay or lesbian.
The ISPU research interviewed 804 American Muslims.
They found not one identified as gay or lesbian.
Around 4% identified as bisexual and 2% said they were ‘something else’. Another 2% refused to answer the question’.D
There are, of course, LGBTI people who identify as Muslim in the United States.
CNN interviewed members of progressive mosques, like Masjid al-Rabia.
The mosque is intended to be women-centered, anti-racist, LGBTI affirming, and welcoming to many Islamic traditions.
Muslims for Progressive Values have eight ‘inclusive communities’ in the United STates.
Berkeley’s Qal-bu Maryam Women’s Mosque, described as the ‘first all-inclusive’ place of worship, opened in 2017.
Liberal Muslims say a future also looks good for LGBTI people of the Islam faith.‘
Dalia Mogahed, director of research for the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, said there is a ‘huge division’ right now.
‘There are a lot of different opinions and, frankly, there is a lack of space to discuss it,’ she said.
‘When you have a community that is so under the microscope and being subjected to litmus tests for civility and tolerance, people become afraid and self-censoring.’
And when asked about the 0% statistic, Mogahed said it can be read a different way.
If 92% of American Muslims identified as straight, she said, then the remaining 8% may be lesbian or gay, even if they’re reluctant say so.
‘The fact that there is a segment of Muslims who identify as something other than straight means that, even though they may not be acting on that inclination or orientation, they have negotiated a space where they can still be Muslim,’ Mogahed said.
‘There is enough space within the theology to be able to do that.’
According to a new survey of LGBTI attitudes in the US workplace, nearly half of all LGBTI employees fear being out will hurt their careers.
Glassdoor, a website specializing in workplace reviews, published the survey on Thursday (30 May).
The Harris Poll conducted the survey from 26 April – 6 May on behalf of Glassdoor, speaking to 6,104 US adults. A total of 515 identified themselves as LGBTI and employed in the survey.
Ultimately, respondents reported witnessing anti-LGBTI attitudes in the workplace, which affects their own anxieties about being out.
Bad attitudes lead to bad workplaces for LGBTI employees
Attitudes are different between LGBTI and non-LGBTI employees, which affect perceptions and feelings.
Over half (53%) of all LGBTI respondents said they’ve experienced or heard anti-LGBTI comments, while only 30% of non-LGBTI respondents reported the same.
Jesus Suarez, Glassdoor’s LGBTQ and Ally Employee Group Leader, stated: ‘Any employer that chooses to ignore implementing supportive working environments and policies risk missing out on hiring quality talent.’
Similarly, 70% of LGBTI employees said they would not apply to a company that doesn’t support its LGBTI staff. 46% of all employed adults (both LGBTI and non-LGBTI) said the same.
These environments — hearing negative comments and stress about company policies — affect LGBTI workers.
Nearly half (47%) said they believe being out would hurt their careers. The makeup of LGBTI employees who are out and not are close — 57% say they feel ‘fully’ out, while 43% said they are not.
What can be done
Naturally, LGBTI employees are more likely (68%) than non-LGBTI employees (48%) to believe their companies can do better. There is evidence to suggest this is true.
‘Still today, 26 states do not protect LGBTQ employees at work,’ said Suarez.
‘Many employers have an opportunity to build or strengthen the foundation for an inclusive culture that encourages employees to bring their full selves to work.’
This reality further highlights the importance of things like the Equality Act, which, if passed, would provide federal protections for people based on their sexual orientation and gender identity in numerous locations, including the workplace.
Doctors should ditch the requirement for a mental health assessment of transgender teens and adults before prescribing them hormone treatment, argues an activist and bioethicist, drawing on their own personal experience in the Journal of Medical Ethics, MedicalXPress reports.
The practice is dehumanizing, unjustified and turns the process of transformation into the treatment of a mental illness, says Florence Ashley of McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
It should instead be replaced with informed consent, which respects a patient’s lived experience and autonomy, they insist, MedicalXPress reports.
The informed consent approach is becoming more common, they acknowledge. But many doctors still require an assessment and referral letter from a mental health professional in compliance with the World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH) Standards of Care, MedicalXPress reports.
The author says that their decision to take hormones was not made in haste, and they had socially transitioned months before opting for hormone treatment. Their university health clinic had adopted informed consent for transgender care, which allowed them to get a prescription for hormones without a referral letter, MedicalXPress reports.
But “many others are not so lucky,” they point out, adding that their own luck ran out when they had to get two referral letters for genital surgery.
The assessment of gender dysphoria — discomfort or distress caused by the mismatch between a person’s gender identity and his/her sex assigned at birth — left them “feeling exposed, naked and dehumanized,” because it was viewed as a mental flaw that needed fixing, MedicalXPress reports.
“Referral requirements for [hormone treatment] treat self-reports of gender dysphoria not as one would treat reports of normal mental experiences, but as one would treat reports of mental illnesses,” they write.
By requiring a mental health assessment instead of taking the transgender person’s word, doctors “deny the authority trans people have over their own mental health experiences,” they say.
“As being transgender is not a mental illness, treating gender dysphoria in this way is pathologizing and, because it pathologizes normal human variance, dehumanizing.”
A European study of nearly 1,000 gay male couples who had sex without condoms — where one partner had HIV and was taking antiretroviral drugs to suppress it — has found the treatment can prevent sexual transmission of the virus.
After eight years of follow-up of the so-called serodifferent couples, the study found no cases at all of HIV transmission within couples.
The study proves, the researchers said, that using antiretroviral therapy to suppress the AIDS virus to undetectable levels also means it cannot be passed on via sex, the researchers said.
“Our findings provide conclusive evidence for gay men that the risk of HIV transmission with suppressive ART is zero,” said Alison Rodger, a professor at University College London who co-led the research.
She said this “powerful message” could help end the HIV pandemic by preventing the virus’ transmission in high-risk populations. In this study alone, for example, the researchers estimate that the suppressive antiretrovial treatment prevented around 472 HIV transmissions during the eight years.
The study, published in the Lancet medical journal on Thursday, assessed the risk of HIV transmission between serodifferent gay male couples – where one partner is HIV-positive and one is HIV-negative – who do not use condoms.
Its findings add to an earlier phase of the study which looked at HIV transmission risk for serodifferent heterosexual couples in the same circumstances. It also found zero risk.
While 15 of the men among the 972 gay couples in this phase did become infected with HIV during the eight years of follow-up, genetic testing showed their infections were with strains of HIV acquired from another sexual partner.
Since the start of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, more than 77 million people have become infected with HIV. Almost half of them – 35.4 million – have died of AIDS.
Global health experts say the fight against HIV is at a precarious point, with the annual number of AIDS deaths falling and the number of people getting antiretroviral treatment rising, but the number of new infections is stubbornly high at around 1.8 million new cases a year worldwide.
Rachel Baggaley, the World Health Organization’s coordinator for HIV prevention and testing, said this latest study “adds to the clear and consistent evidence” that HIV transmission to sexual partners does not occur when someone with HIV is on antiretroviral therapy (ART) and their virus is suppressed.
“Increasing access to HIV testing (and) ART … remains critical for individuals and is central to the HIV public health response,” she said.
