Three people, including a transgender woman, were attacked in Portland, Oregon, in what police say may be a bias crime.
The assault happened in a downtown parking lot around 2:30 a.m. Thursday, and the assailants had fled by the time officers arrived, Portland police said in a statement.
“There were elements of the crime that possibly met the criteria for a Bias Crime,” Portland police said in the statement, which also asked anyone with information to come forward.
In Oregon, bias crimes are defined as any criminal act in which a person is targeted because of race, color, religion, sexual orientation, disability, gender identity or national origin, Portland police said.
KGW reported that Thursday’s incident occurred a week after another transgender woman, Marla Standing-Owl, said she was attacked while driving for the ride-sharing service Lyft on Sept. 6 in Portland.
Standing-Owl said she was attacked by a male customer she picked up from a hotel who was drunk and told her “you’re nothing but a man.”
“I told him I don’t need bigotry in my car and that’s when he snapped,” she told the station. Standing-Owl said that the man punched her repeatedly while she was driving and that she pulled over and used pepper spray on the assailant before he ran off.
Every year, the San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH) publishes a comprehensive report on HIV incidence and prevalence in the city, showing HIV trends to guide the public health response. Continuing a downward trend since the peak of the HIV epidemic in the 1990s, the most recent report with 2018 data shares a historic milestone reached by the city: Fewer than 200 HIV diagnoses occurred in San Francisco.
A total of 197 people were diagnosed with HIV last year in San Francisco. This is a 13% decline from 227 diagnoses made in 2017, and a 62% decline from 523 infections ten years ago in 2008. The peak number of HIV diagnoses in San Francisco occurred in 1992 with 2,327 diagnoses.
Most people (94%) living with HIV are aware of their status, and 91% of people newly diagnosed with HIV in 2018 entered care within one month. It is estimated that 74% of people with a last known address in San Francisco who are living with HIV were virally suppressed in 2017.
“I am really delighted that we in San Francisco, since the 1980s, have been at the forefront of pushing for innovative ways to change policies, new sciences and technologies to help us get to this milestone,” said Mayor London Breed at a press conference at Zuckerberg San Francisco General’s Ward 86. “This shows that when we work together with the community, with our policy makers, with our public health experts, and our nonprofits we can make a difference and save people’s lives.”
“We are pleased, but not satisfied,” said Diane Havlir, MD, who spoke on behalf of the Getting to Zero consortium. “We’re not satisfied because we had nearly 200 new diagnoses of HIV in our city—and it’s a preventable disease.”
Differences by Race and Ethnicity, Housing Status and for People who Inject Drugs
People of color, people experiencing homelessness and people who inject drugs continue to experience higher diagnosis rates, lower viral suppression rates and lower survival rates.
People of color are disproportionately affected by HIV
African American and Latinx men had the highest diagnosis rates (145 and 89 per 100,000), and rates increased from previous years. Diagnosis rates for white men have declined steadily since 2012. Among women, African Americans had a much higher diagnosis rate (35 per 100,000) than women of other races.
Overall, 74% of people living with HIV in San Francisco were virally suppressed, while viral suppression rates were lower for African Americans (68%), trans women (68%), women (66%), people who use injection drugs (65%), men who have sex with men who inject drugs (68%) and trans women who inject drugs (64%).
“San Francisco continues to make unprecedented progress towards ending the HIV epidemic,” said Joe Hollendoner, CEO of San Francisco AIDS Foundation. “However, we continue to see racial disparities related to HIV health outcomes. To end HIV transmission and AIDS-related deaths, the public health system needs to address the systemic racism that is inhibiting our progress.”
“We have to double down on these gaps that we’re seeing,” said Havlir. “We need to listen, and we need to deploy new innovative approaches with tools that have. With PrEP. And with upcoming tools like long-acting injectable [HIV] therapies which could make it a lot easier for some of our populations.”
Homelessness compounds HIV risk and severity of health outcomes
As the number of new HIV diagnoses shrinks year after year in San Francisco, and the number of people experiencing homelessness grows, a higher proportion of HIV diagnoses are occurring among people without access to medical care, social support and prevention resources—in particular people without housing.
In 2018, 20% (40) of new HIV diagnoses were among people without housing compared to 10% (29) in 2015. There were 8,011 people experiencing homelessness in San Francisco in January 2019, according to the 2019 San Francisco Homeless Point-in-Time Count and Survey, a 14% increase since 2013.
People without housing are also much less likely to be virally suppressed. Only 33% of people experiencing homelessness were virally suppressed, compared to 74% of people overall.
“We know that many elements that are key to success, for people living with HIV, are challenging if you don’t have a place to live,” said Monica Ghandi, MD, MPH, medical director of the SFGH HIV clinic. “That would be like making and keeping appointments. Where you store your medications, and where you keep them safe. Maintaining safe sex, and healthy eating. All of these barriers to taking your medications every day are amplified 100-fold if you don’t have a home.”
“Our focus on disparities really has to focus on ensuring that we reach people where they are,” said Hyman Scott, MD, MPH from Bridge HIV at SFDPH. “There are no ‘hard to reach’ populations—there are just ‘hard to deliver’ services. We need to re-think the way we approach some of these services that we deliver.”
HIV and people who inject drugs
People who inject drugs account for 25% of new HIV diagnoses, (10% are men who have sex with men who inject drugs; 1% are trans women who inject drugs; 14% are other people who inject drugs), a proportion which has risen over the years.
In addition to accounting for a higher proportion of HIV diagnoses, injection drug use is associated with worse health outcomes: People who inject drugs are less likely to be virally suppressed and have lower three-year survival rates after an AIDS diagnosis.
The percentage of people who are diagnosed with HIV who inject drugs is rising steadily every year, while reductions are seen in other populations including men who have sex with men.
“San Francisco has a robust syringe access program, which has kept HIV transmission rates low among people who inject drugs, but it’s not sufficient to eliminate HIV transmission among people who inject,” said Laura Thomas, director of harm reduction policy at San Francisco AIDS Foundation. “Housing instability and displacement make it challenging for people who use substances to always do so safely. That’s why it’s so important for us to establish safe injection sites in our city.”
“Unless we invest in expanding low barrier substance use and mental health counseling services like those offered at our Harm Reduction Center and at the Stonewall Project, I worry that increased HIV infection trends like those we’re seeing with people who inject drugs will continue,” said Mike Discepola, MA, senior director of behavioral health services and the Stonewall Project at San Francisco AIDS Foundation. “We will not get to zero new infections in San Francisco unless we focus services on our most vulnerable populations. This includes those who inject and use drugs, are experiencing homelessness or have untreated mental health concerns.”
An Aging HIV Population
With nearly 16,000 people living with HIV in San Francisco, two-thirds (10,691 people) are age 50 and older.
“We know that this is the generation that didn’t plan to live,” said Vince Crisostomo, manager of theElizabeth Taylor 50-Plus Network at San Francisco AIDS Foundation. “They didn’t plan financially, they didn’t set up 401Ks. But, they did live. And service providers need to be thinking about how to adjust services to meet the needs of these long-term survivors. How can we provide culturally competent services for people of older age who are living with HIV?”
“To end the epidemic we cannot leave anyone behind,” said Hollendoner. “We must achieve this ambitious goal together and prove to the world that it can be done.”
Guided by a new 5-year strategic plan, San Francisco AIDS Foundation charts a course for improving the sexual health outcomes of people of color and other priority communities, establishing safe injection sites, creating a comprehensive network of health and wellness services for people over age 50 who are living with HIV, and living our values of racial justice.
Across the internet, companies buy ad space that appears alongside news, entertainment and sports articles. These purchasing decisions are made, in part, with ad verification partners that compare the articles’ content with “block lists” of thousands of terms that advertisers want to avoid associating their brand with, like “shooting,” “kill” and “attack.”
It doesn’t matter if the article is positive (“City’s murder rate down to historic low”) or negative (“Gruesome murder shocks city”), because both articles would be banned by a keyword block list.
But a new study from CHEQ, which runs a competing ad verification service, found that nearly two thirds of all nonpornographic and nonexplicit LGBTQ news content is banned by these lists, because the lists often contain neutral LGBTQ terms like “lesbian” and “bisexual.” Both PinkNews, a U.K.-based LGBTQ news site, and The Advocate, a U.S.-based LGBTQ news site, saw 73 percent of their positive or neutral content blocked by these lists.
The result, according to CHEQ, is that for LGBTQ news sites, the majority of their content may be unavailable for mainstream advertising. “This is severely damaging publishers’ ability to monetize premium content,” the report states, “making minority news and opinion unviable.”
“In the end, blocked words/blacklists hurt us all,” Orlando Reece, CEO of The Advocate’s parent company, Pride Media, told NBC News in an email. “We create content from an LGBTQ+ lens and use words that our community (as the general community) do not find offensive, such as ‘lesbian,’ ‘queer,’ etc. These words are part of our lives and how we communicate and identify with one another. Brand safety needs to be a conversation involving people, not technology that is ill-equipped for today’s digital publishing landscape.”
Reece also said the ad-blocking appears to be worsening. He said Pride Media sometimes works with ad-buying agencies and brands to clean up these “blacklists” before something is published, but they don’t always have the opportunity.
“Some agencies’ blacklists are agency-wide and they cannot be adjusted,” Reece explained. “In those instances we request a switch from blocking tags to monitoring tags, and this helps clean up the situation.”
The CHEQ report comes amidst a crisis in LGBTQ news content. Just this past year, LGBTQ-dedicated news sites GayStarNews and Into shut down, and other mainstream sites that consistently shone a light on LGBTQ issues laid off staff.
Daniel Avital, CHEQ’s chief strategy officer, said these advertisers are often progressive and seek to reach LGBTQ consumers, but a “technology deficit” is to blame.
“Companies struggle to determine the good stuff from the bad stuff, then the only recourse you have is to blacklist all of it,” Avital told NBC News.
Avital said he spoke to the founders of GayStarNews, who confirmed that declining ad revenue “was one of the key reasons” they shut down this year.
“If you’re an LGBTQ content creator, then you seem to be having a much harder time over the past two years to get ad dollars,” he said.
Surprisingly, the report notes, these block lists even affect sports sites, because they often use words like “shoot” for basketball. Sports site Bleacher Report had 67 percent of its neutral or positive stories blocked by these lists, according to CHEQ’s report.
Avital said the majority of major U.S. advertisers use these “crude” block lists, which range in size from a few hundred to thousands of blacklisted terms. But since the bidding for internet ads is automated and happens nearly instantaneously, smaller brands still bid for ads to appear in the space that larger brands pass on.
“What happens is the price of this inventory just goes down, because the big advertisers aren’t bidding for it, so the next in line gets it,” Avital explained. “So, if you’re able to monetize the content, you’re monetizing it for a much lower price than you would otherwise.”
Exposure to “conversion therapy” — efforts by a secular or religious professional to change a transgender person’s gender identity — is associated with thoughts of and attempts at suicide, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal JAMA Psychiatry.
Dr. Jack Turban, the study’s lead author and a resident physician in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, said it was the first study “to show that gender identity conversion efforts are associated with adverse mental health outcomes, including suicide attempts.”
Turban said that previous reports showing the negative effects of conversion therapy, also known as “ex-gay therapy” or “reparative therapy,” have focused on efforts to change a person’s sexual orientation.
But this was novel, he said, because of its large sample size — over 27,000 transgender people responded to the survey — and its broad approach to identifying past efforts to change participants’ gender identity.
Seventy-one percent of respondents recalled speaking to a religious adviser or secular therapist about their gender identity, and of those, roughly 20 percent said these interactions involved efforts to change their gender identity from transgender to cisgender.
“The rate of previous suicide attempts among transgender people in the United States is extremely high, with 41 percent reporting that they have had that experience,” said study co-author Dr. Alex Keuroghlian, director of the National LGBT Health Education Center at The Fenway Institute and the Massachusetts General Hospital Psychiatry Gender Identity Program.
“What this new study shows is that transgender people who are exposed to conversion efforts anytime in their lives have more than double the odds of attempting suicide compared with those who have never experienced efforts by professionals to convert their gender identity, he said.
Turban said one of the most alarming findings from the study was the even higher risk of psychological distress for those who reported exposure to conversion therapy during childhood. Those who were subjected to the practice before age 10 were four times more likely to report lifetime suicide attempts than the general transgender population, according to the findings.
“This is important because some experts continue to advocate for gender identity conversion efforts for young children,” Turban said in a statement. “We hope our findings contribute to ongoing legislative efforts to ban gender identity conversion efforts.”
Currently 18 states, along with the District of Columbia, ban the practice of conversion therapy on minors. And nearly every major health association — including the American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics — has spoken out against the practice.
“The term ‘conversion therapy’ is a misnomer,” Keuroghlian noted. “It suggests that conversion efforts are a legitimate therapeutic practice, even though we are finding that this practice is associated with significantly increased risk of harm, including serious psychological distress and potentially fatal suicide attempts.”
The study found no difference in the outcome based on whether the effort to change a person’s gender identity was conducted by a religious adviser or secular professional. According to the findings, the vast majority of conversion therapy is conducted by secular professionals, like psychologists or counselors, with religious efforts accounting for roughly a third of all conversion therapy efforts reported by this cohort.
“Current training of mental health clinicians in the U.S. does not usually include gender-affirming care as standard curriculum,” Keuroghlian said. “We hope this study will inspire clinical training programs to revise their standard curricula.”
“All clinicians need to be trained in concepts and terminology related to gender identity, how stigma is related to mental health disparities and best practices for gender affirmation grounded in scientific evidence,” he added.
This latest study builds on previous work published last month by Turban, Keuroghlian and their colleagues that found nearly 200,000 transgender people in the United States have been exposed to conversion therapy at some point in their lives.
A black transgender woman was found dead in her burning car in South Florida in what is being investigated as a homicide, authorities said.
It is the 18th killing of a transgender person in the U.S. this year.
The body of Bee Love Slater, 23, was discovered in Clewiston on Sept. 4, according to the Palm Beach Post.
Hendry County Sheriff Susan Harrell told NBC News in a statement that authorities could not initially identify the body “due to the burns and lack of identification available.” A medical examiner later identified the body through dental records, Harrell said.
The body of transgender woman Bee Love Slater was found in a burned car in Clewiston, Florida.via WBBH
According to The Advocate, investigators said Slater’s death was one of the most brutal murders they had seen.
Authorities have not said if they think Slater’s gender identity played a role in her death, the Palm Beach Post reports. Investigators are not releasing how she died.
Her death is the 18th killing of a transgender person in the United States this year, according to the Human Rights Campaign, which tracks the deaths of transgender people. A majority of those killed have been black transgender women.
George Wallace, executive director of LGBT+ Center Orlando, told NBC News in a statement Thursday that transgender women of color “are killed at a higher rate than that of their peers.”
“I find it sad and upsetting that our trans brothers and sisters continue to be targets of hate and intolerance,” Wallace said. “I wish I had a solution, but we must continue advocating and educating.”
Slater’s friend, Jackson, who asked to be referred to by his last name, told the Palm Beach Post that Slater underwent surgery this year. But, he said, she was verbally harassed and bullied online and had expressed concerns about her safety.
“We have more questions than answers,” Jackson said of her death.
The American Medical Association in June announced it efforts to bring national attention to what it called “the epidemic of violence against the transgender community, especially the amplified physical dangers faced by transgender people of color.”
A lesbian couple who asked to hold their wedding at a California winery were turned down because of the owner’s “religious beliefs.”
One of the brides posted her correspondence with the winery on Facebook to call for a boycott after its “overt homophobia”.
The email from Viaggio winery’s weddings and events director read: “While Viaggio Winery welcomes your business, we have never hosted a same-sex marriage.
“[The owners] understand that California statutory law prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation, and they don’t like to think they would ever discriminate on that basis even if a law allowed them to do so.
“However, the owner also has a very strong personal religious belief regarding marriage, which is for marriage to be between heterosexual couples only. They believe that the United States Constitution and the California Constitution protect these religious beliefs and their right to express them.”
It then said that the owners would be willing to let the couple hold their reception there and take photos in their wedding dresses, as long as the ceremony was not on their property.
Responses to the Facebook post included: “The nerve thinking you and your beautiful bride would want to spend a dime there, or expose your family and friends to such a bigoted environment, after being told of the owner’s ‘feelings.’”
Another person said: “As a Christian I am so sick and tired of people using Jesus as a cover or an excuse for their homophobia. While they offer to take your money. How generous.”
The winery owners Teri and Larry Lawrence are also real estate agents.
According to her biography on the couple’s real estate website, Lawrence is “an active member of Eagle Forum of Sacramento, where she keeps abreast of current events regarding the family and business affairs”.
The Eagle Forum of Sacramento says it opposes same-sex marriage, abortion, sex education that does not teach abstinence or “‘New World Order’ interventions”.
Lawrence later provided a statement to FOX40 in which she said she had changed her mind about allowing same-sex couples to marry at the winery.
She said: “I realise now that contrary to my intent, this was hurtful to the people involved. Our staff, our customers, and our community have helped me see that I was wrong.”
The couple found another venue and are now happily married.
Over the years, HIV has evolved into a chronic condition necessitating life-long medication. Now, researchers are studying the efficacy and acceptability of long-acting HIV medications that may keep thevirus under control for a month or longer. Can long-acting therapies provide an alternative to daily dosing? And, what do people who stand to benefit from this way of dosing think about the possibility of not having to take daily oral medications?
“HIV has been part of my life for 33 or 34 years, and medication for almost 20,” said Efrén Solanas, a long-term survivor in the Bay Area. “I’ve been taking pills for so long, that routine is completely integrated into my life. Wherever I go, I take my pills. But not having to get prescriptions filled, worry about copays, or remember when I’ve taken my pills would definitely be an attractive option. It would be amazing to not have to worry about those things.”
Long-acting medications may be especially helpful for people who struggle with the routine of a daily pill.
“It’s not difficult to take daily medications, but it is inconvenient,” said Guillermo Velez, a San Franciscan who seroconverted in 1995 and started taking antiretrovirals in 1996. “Sometimes I just forget. By the fifth day of the week, sometimes I think, ‘Did I take my medication yesterday?’ Instead of dosing again, I just skip a day.”
Over more than 20 years of taking antiretrovirals, Velez has experienced horrendous side effects, complicated regimens and inconvenient dosing. “It’s always a trade-off,” he said. “These medications made us miserable, but they kept us alive. Over the years, meds have gotten better. To think that a new medication is effective, and also delivered once a month by injection—that would be such a convenience. You wouldn’t need to worry about keeping the medication stocked, or filling those medication trays.”
At the IAS 2019 conference in July, Miranda Murray presented encouraging results from a study that looked at the acceptability of a long-acting cabotegravir/rilpivirine injection among people living with HIV.
A total of 611 people were randomly assigned to continue daily oral HIV medications or switch to once-monthly injections. The researchers were interested in the experiences of people who switched to the injections, and assessed things like injection pain, overall acceptability of the treatment and if they would recommend the injections to other people living with HIV.
Overall, participants gave high acceptability ratings to the long-acting injections. Over the course of the study, people who received the monthly injections had a 13.7-point improvement in acceptability scores (from baseline to week 48).
There were very few discontinuations throughout the course of the study, and only four people (out of 303) had injection site reactions that led to withdrawal.
Most participants (90%) reported that injection site reactions (e.g., swelling) were either “totally acceptable” or “very acceptable.” 86% of participants said that pain from injections were either “totally acceptable” or “very acceptable.”
Compared to people in the study who took daily oral medications, people who received the once-monthly injections scored more positively things like willingness to continue with the treatment, flexibility of treatment, convenience and willingness to recommend treatment.
“This indicates that the long-acting treatment meets participants’ expectations and supports the therapeutic potential of monthly dosing,” said Murray.
In April 2019, ViiV Healthcare applied for marketing approval to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the FDA has set a target approval date of December 29, 2019. If approved, this treatment regimen would be the first-ever long-acting HIV treatment for people living with HIV.
Lynn Starkey worked at Roncalli High School in Indianapolis for nearly 40 years. In May, however, the Roman Catholic school fired Starkey as a guidance counselor after officials discovered that she is married to a woman.
In July, Starkey, 63, sued the school and the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, claiming, in part, that they discriminated against her on the basis of her sexual orientation.
Lynn Starkey is suing a Roman Catholic high school and the Archdiocese of Indianapolis after she was fired as a guidance counselor because she is married to a woman. Delaney and Delaney LLC
In May, the school’s principal notified Starkey, who has been married to her spouse since 2015, that her contract would not be renewed, stating in a letter that civil unions are in violation of her contract and “contrary to the teaching of the Catholic Church.”
The archdiocese — which is also being sued by a gay teacherwho was recently fired from a different Catholic school in Indianapolis — claims that it has a “constitutional right to hire leaders who support the schools’ religious mission.”
“Catholic schools exist to communicate the Catholic faith to the next generation,” the archdiocese said in a statement sent to NBC News. “To accomplish their mission, Catholic schools ask all teachers, administrators and guidance counselors to uphold the Catholic faith by word and action, both inside and outside the classroom.”
The issue of gay educators being fired by or excluded from employment at religious schools is not new, and since 2014, several cases have come before the courts. It’s also not unique to Indianapolis or Catholic institutions. In January, Karen Pence, the vice president’s wife, said she would return to teaching at a Christian school at Virginia that refuses to hire LGBTQ employees or to educate LGBTQ students.
So, is this legal? While the majority of Americans across all religious groups support employment nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ people, according to a recently released PRRI public opinion poll, the law is less straightforward.
“The law is in flux,” said Jenny Pizer, law and policy director for Lambda Legal, an LGBTQ civil rights organization. “There are some principles we are sure of and some that are still being developed and sorted out in the courts and state and federal legislatures.”
In order to understand the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer workers employed by religious organizations, one must consider both federal and state law, the Constitution and executive orders.
Federal Law
Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibits employers from discriminating on the basis of race, color, religion, sex and national origin. However, it contains “multiple overlapping exemptions” when it comes to religion, according to Marcia McCormick, a professor of law and gender studies at Saint Louis University.
For one, any employer can discriminate on the basis of religion if religion is considered necessary for the exercise of the job, McCormick explained. For example, a Kosher butcher shop may want to hire only Jewish butchers.
Religious schools can discriminate in hiring in some circumstances. “They get singled out as getting this one provision that talks about schools being able to discriminate if the curriculum is directed toward the propagation of a particular religion,” McCormick said. A school run by Southern Baptists that seeks to encourage more people to convert to the faith could, according to this section of Title VII, hire only Southern Baptists.
Other kinds of religious organizations are also allowed to prefer co-religionists in their hiring — a Catholic charity is allowed to prefer Catholics in the hiring process. However, while religious organizations have leeway when it comes to hiring people of their own faith, they are not supposed to discriminate on the basis of other protected characteristics like sex, race or national origin, McCormick explained.
“That is where there is a big potential clash,” she said, adding that the issue for LGBTQ workers is twofold.
“Title VII has an expansive definition of religion — not just of beliefs but also practices,” she explained. “There are a lot of rules in a lot of religions about how people ought to behave when it comes to what it means to be male and female, or to sexual or romantic activity.”
Then, she added, there is the issue of the definition of “sex” in Title VII. If it is interpreted to include sexual orientation and gender identity, then LGBTQ workers can seek employment protection under federal civil rights law. They have done so in many cases, but the circuit courts are split on the issue. Luckily for Starkey, Indianapolis is covered by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which has ruled in the case of Hively v. Ivy Tech Community College that sex discrimination encompasses discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
The Supreme Court, however, is scheduled to take up three cases this year that could have a major impact on LGBTQ workers’ nondiscrimination protections.
Title VII’s Ministerial Exception
In Starkey’s case, the archdiocese appears to be drawing on what is called the ministerial exception to Title VII under the First Amendment, which guarantees free exercise of religion.
In 2012, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued an evangelical Lutheran church and a school in Michigan on behalf of a former employee, Cheryl Perich, a “called” teacher that underwent theology training and was considered to be in a ministerial position. Perich was diagnosed with narcolepsy and took disability leave as a result. When she was ready to return the work, the church told her she no longer had a job. The EEOC lost the case before the Supreme Court.
Pizer said this case “validated the ministerial exception, which lower courts had said existed but the Supreme Court had not spoken to.” The exception applies only to employees serving a ministerial function, but it affords the religious employer tremendous protection against claims of discrimination.
Maggie Siddiqi, director of the Center for American Progress’ Faith and Progressive Policy Initiative, told NBC News that in recent cases, employers are claiming that many different types of employees serve ministerial functions.
“That is really expanding the definition beyond its original intent,” which can “open the door for discrimination against all of these employees,” Siddiqi said.
Religious Freedom Restoration Act
An individual or a business may also claim protections under the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act, a federal law that prohibits the government from discriminating on the basis of religion.
RFRA comes up in the case of R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes Inc. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, one of the three LGBTQ workers’ rights cases currently before the Supreme Court. The case involves Aimee Stephens, a transgender woman who was fired from a Detroit funeral home after she informed her employer that she was beginning her gender transition.
In district court, the funeral home claimed that to employ Stephens violated the owner’s sincerely held religious beliefs, and for the EEOC to compel him to employ Stephens was an overreach of government authority in contravention of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The Circuit Court sided with Stephens, but the Supreme Court will have the last word in the matter.
State Law
In the absence of a federal law that explicitly protects workers from anti-LGBTQ discrimination, a worker can seek redress in state law. Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia have passed measures prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, according to the Movement Advancement Project, an LGBTQ think tank. Three additional states offer some form of LGBTQ workplace protections.
However, more than 20 states — including some of those with explicit state-level LGBTQ worker protections — have religious freedom laws or religious exemptions to their nondiscrimination protections. Indiana, where Roncalli High School is, has such a law. In fact, in 2015, then-Gov. Mike Pence signed Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which spawned significant criticism by those who said it would open the door to anti-LGBTQ discrimination.
Executive Orders & Department Rules
In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed Executive Order 11246 barring federal contractors who do over $10,000 of business with the government in one year from discriminating on the basis of race, color, religion sex or national origin. In 2002, President George W. Bush issued an executive order that added a religious exemption to the measure, using language lifted from Title VII. In 2014, President Barack Obama added sexual orientation and gender identity to the list of protected characteristics in Johnson’s original order, affording specific protections to LGBTQ workers, but Obama left intact Bush’s protections for religious organizations.
In 2017, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued “religious liberty” guidance that elaborates principles such as “religious employers are entitled to employ only persons whose beliefs and conduct are consistent with the employers’ religious precepts.”
This month, the Department of Labor released its own proposed rule expanding religious exemptions available to government contractors and sparking outcry from many LGBTQ advocates. The rule expands the types of organizations eligible for exemptions to “employers that are organized for a religious purpose, hold themselves out to the public as carrying out a religious purpose, and engage in exercise of religion consistent with, and in furtherance of, a religious purpose,” and also allows employers to “condition employment on acceptance of or adherence to religious tenets without sanction by the federal government, provided that they do not discriminate based on other protected bases.”
The Trump administration claims that religious organizations need extra protections from nondiscrimination law, because not having them prevents these organizations from seeking federal contracts.
“It’s not just that they are changing a rule,” Pizer said regarding the impact of the rule, “but the way the change is being done is an explicit signal that this administration favors religious interests over the equality interests of LGBT people and women.”
What’s Next?
The Supreme Court will hear three cases in October that are expected to have a considerable impact on LGBTQ workers’ rights. Two of the cases deal with sexual orientation, the other with gender identity. In the meantime, the Department of Justice made clear in briefs filed this month that LGBTQ workers should not be covered by Title VII protections. In doing so, the DOJ puts itself at odds with the EEOC and the majority of Americans.
Democrats in Congress have responded by reintroducing the Equality Act, a piece of federal legislation that would add sexual orientation and gender identity to the list of classes protected against discrimination by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and does not allow religious exemptions to civil rights law under Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
Activists have won a long battle to stop an anti-LGBT+ church operating out of Texas a public school, after protesting every week for more than a year.
Celebration Church, which is openly anti-LGBT+, had been renting space at the Austin Independent School District’s (AISD) Mueller Performing Arts Centre for its services.
Protest organiser and pastor for the AntiFascism NonChristian Church, Candace Aylor, said in a press release: “This was the goal, getting bigots out of public spaces. It goes against our closely held beliefs to abide bigotry and oppression, especially when openly, publicly permitted.
“What we learned today, what we confirmed from what those freedom fighters of the civil rights era taught us, is that direct action protests works.”
The protests were made up of AntiFascism NonChristian Church, as well as other organisations including PFLAG Austin.
Activists protested for more than a year. (AntiFascism NonChristian Church/ Facebook)
Anti-LGBT+ Celebration Church says it is moving out because its congregation has grown.
The church claims the reason for it no longer renting the public school space is that the congregation has grown, and it needs to move to a new building.
According to the Austin Chronicle, church spokesperson Christine Haas said: “Celebration Church has entered into a purchase agreement to buy a building in the Koenig Lane area.
“The growth of our congregation has allowed for this opportunity and we are very excited to have a permanent home for our Mueller Campus.”
However, one protester claimed in a post on Facebook: “They say they are leaving because they’ve grown, but the real reason is because when a group of protestors shows up every week to call them out on their hateful policies, they can’t grow (the protestors know because we counted their attendance every week).”
According to Austin newspaper the Statesman, the school district has not been able to prevent the church from using the space because their hands were legally tied, according to state law and the first amendment.
Instead, earlier this year the AISD used $10,000 of its income from the Celebration Church rental to fund student and staff participation in the Austin Pride Parade.
The Zero for Zeros campaign released today, a new round of companies who receive a perfect 100 rating from the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index (CEI), but use their corporate PACs to fund elected officials in Congress who lead opposition to LGBT equality. The list of anti-LGBT elected officials includes Reps. Steve King and Louie Gohmert as well as Senators Mike Enzi and Ted Cruz, among others. The campaign aims to pressure companies to review and end their financial support of these extreme anti-LGBT politicians.
Today’s companies are some of the biggest consumer names in the world and include:
● United Parcel Services
● Chevron Corp
● Northrop Grumman
● Pfizer
● General Motors
● Ecolab Inc
● Dow Chemical Co
● Exelon Corp
● Coca-Cola
● Johnson & Johnson
● Bayer AG
● Boston Scientific Corp● General Mills ● Procter & Gamble ● Cargill
● Nationwide Mutual Insurance● Cardinal Health ● Pepsico ● Diageo
● Best Buy ● Whirlpool Corporation● Merck
“Many of America’s biggest brands say they are proud supporters of their LGBT employees and customers, but at the same time, their corporate PACs are contributing to some of the most strident opponents of LGBT equality in Congress,” said Lane Hudson, Zero for Zeros’ campaign manager. “Those contributions enable the worst of the worst in Congress who work everyday to roll back the
progress we’ve fought hard to win, and who block critical protections for LGBT people like the Equality Act. Our ask is simple, these companies should end their corporate PAC contributions to the politicians who work everyday against equality. It is the right thing for their employees, their customers, and their brand.
Zero for Zeros found that 49 companies that received a 100% rating on the Human Rights Campaign’s CEI have donated to members of Congress that are the most outspoken against LGBT equality, earning a ZERO rating on the Human Rights Campaign’s Congressional Scorecard. These companies have contributed a total of $5,837,331 from their corporate PACs to the worst of the worst Members of Congress. Zero for Zeros is asking that the companies’ corporate PACs cease giving to these members of Congress. A summary of the contributions can be viewed on the Zero for Zero’s website.
“As a veteran of the financial industry and politics, I’ve worked to advance equality in corporate America and government. There is no logical rationale for a company that supports the LGBT community to support politicians that work against it,” said Charles Meyers, Chairman of Signum Global Advisors.
“As a corporate leader, my money goes to candidates that align with my values and the values of the company I lead. I would never contribute to candidates that not only don’t hold those values of equality and fairness, but who in fact work against them,” said Mitchell Gold, Co-Founder and Chairman of Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams.
The campaign has contacted the CEOs of each of these companies as part of the campaign. A diverse group of leading activists signed on in support of the campaign and is running digital ads anddigital video engaging employees and allies to join the campaign.
The full list of Zero for Zeros companies:
● Microsoft
● Facebook
● AT&T
● T-Mobile
● Google
● Intel
● Amazon
● Visa
● Mastercard
● Cisco Systems
● Dell Inc
● Oracle
● Sap America
● American Airlines
● Wells Fargo
● Morgan Stanley
● JPMorgan Chase
● Capital One FinancialCorp
● Citigroup
● Cigna Corp ● PNC Financial Services● KPMG ● Ernst & Young ● Deloitte ● PricewaterhouseCoopers● Massachusetts Mutual
Life Insurance ● BBVA Compass Bank● United Parcel Services
● Chevron Corp
● Northrop Grumman
● Pfizer
● General Motors
● Ecolab Inc
● Dow Chemical Co
● Exelon Corp
● Coca-Cola
● Johnson & Johnson ● Bayer AG ● Boston Scientific Corp● General Mills ● Procter & Gamble ● Cargill ● Nationwide Mutual
