A 35-year-old transgender person was fatally shot on the East Side of Detroit.
According to the Detroit Free Press, the unidentified person was found around 6 AM on Friday, 7 December. No other details about the victim have been released at this time.
The body was found on E. McNichols Road, between Brush and Omira. The street remains closed for the investigation.
Police are currently investigating the incident, but do not consider it a hate crime.
Authorities are looking into a claim by a man who was allegedly robbed in the area and fired a self-protection shot. He was unsure who the bullet hit. While both these incidents took place close to each other, police are investigating them separately.
Police have a 46-year-old male in custody, according to ABC7 Detroit.
‘I would say that crimes committed against the (LGBT) community are down,’ said Cpl. Danielle Woods, the Detroit police LGBT Liaison.
Woods’ role in the department is to provide ‘sensitivity, awareness, and terminology training.’
Thankfully, ABC7 Detroit and the Detroit Free Press did not misgender or deadname the victim. Unfortunately, not every news outlet provides the same attention to detail for transgender murder victims. For instance, initial reports of last year’s death of trans woman Stephanie Montez identified her as a ‘man in a dress.’
The Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS is set to hold a meeting in March, even though the council still has no members nearly a year after President Trump terminated its remaining advisers without explanation.
The meeting will be open to the public, the notice says, except the sessions will include a closed session on March 14 “for administrative briefings to be presented to the new council members.”
Created in 1995 by President Clinton, PACHA is charged with advising the president on policy and research to promote effective treatment and prevention for HIV — maintaining the goal of finding a cure. The council served as an advisory body during the Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations, but has largely been inactive in the Trump era.
As first reported by the Washington Blade, Trump terminated all remaining members of PACHA in December 2017 via a letter delivered by FedEx. Since that time, the council has been vacant, the administration has announced no new members and its fate has remained unclear.
In June 2017, six advisers on the panel resigned over Trump’s perceived inaction in addressing the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Top of the list of concerns was Trump’s refusal to appoint a director for the White House Office of National AIDS Policy, which is a position that remains unfilled to this day.
Kaye Hayes, executive director of PACHA, said in response to a Blade inquiry on how the council can meet without any members HHS is “pleased the first meeting of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS has been scheduled.”
“We do not have a final list of members to share at this time,” Hayes added.
Carl Schmid, deputy director of the AIDS Institute, said he understands the administration is vetting “potential new members going through clearance and ethics for conflicts of interest, etc.”
Facebook released a new set of community guidelines this week centered around ‘sexual solicitation’. The guidelines specifically harm LGBTI users, by disallowing them from discussing their identities.
In justifying the new community guidelines, Facebook wrote in its policy rationale that the discussion of drawing ‘attention to sexual violence and exploitation’ is important, but it wants to ‘draw the line’ at content encouraging or coordinating ‘sexual encounters between adults’.
The rationale for the new rules | Photo: Facebook
The community guidelines then go on to detail what kind of content users are no longer allowed to post.
Some of this banned content includes mentioning ‘sexual preference/sexual partner preference’ and ‘commonly sexualised areas of the body such as the breasts, groin or buttocks’.
Further, these standards apply to all of the companies Facebook owns, including Instagram and Facebook Messenger.
‘For example, on Messenger, when you send a photo, our automated systems scan it using photo matching technology to detect known child exploitation imagery or when you send a link, we scan it for malware or viruses,’ a spokesperson told Bloomberg.
What people are saying
People are upset at social media companies’ decision to start censoring such content for numerous reasons. While drawing a hard line on exploitative content is good, blanket censoring harms marginalized groups like LGBTI people.
Users are taking to Twitter and elsewhere to express their discontent. Making rules like these both continue to take away spaces for LGBTI users, as well as equate LGBTI identities with harmful sexual content.
Due to work and influence from pro-life and conservative figures, the Trump administrationhas created uncertainty around the future of HIVresearch.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has a contract with the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF). The school’s work relies on using fetal tissue for research into diseases like AIDS and Parkinson’s.
Now, however, the future of this research is uncertain due to pro-life advocates against research using fetal tissue.
According to the Washington Post, the contract between NIH and UCSF typically follows a year renewal with $2 million in funding. The researcher who runs the UCSF lab, however, said the lab received only a 90-day contract.
She was also told the money would be cut entirely.
Since taking office, anti-abortion activists have been vocal in asking Trump and his administration to ban research involving fetal tissue.
Several lawmakers reportedly targeted UCSF specifically, asking Trump to cut their funding.
Numerous drugs aimed at treating and preventing HIV have been tested as UCSF. Their research is done via incubating human T cells in mice, and NIH has supplied all the funding.
The tissue comes from elective abortions and many scientists and researchers say there are no other alternative approaches to this research at this time.
The Health and Human Services Department (HHS) of the federal government has also reportedly been holding meetings discussing the government’s stance on supporting research involving fetal tissue.
They have met with people such as patient advocates, scientific societies, ethicists, and abortion opponents.
‘This is a pro-life, pro-science administration,’ HHS Assistant Secretary for Health Brett Giroir told Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC).
HHS spokeswoman Caitlin Oakley said future funding remains uncertain as the administration assesses its stance on fetal tissue research.
Transgender Miss Universe contestant Angela Ponce has said that her victory would send a message to the contest’s former owner, US President Donald Trump.
Angela Ponce is set to represent Spain in the Miss Universe 2018 pageant, which is set to be held in Bangkok, Thailand, on December 17.
Her participation is particularly poignant as the contest was owned by Donald Trump until 2015, when he offloaded the business in the run-up to his run for president.
Speaking to TIME, the 27-year-old Miss Spain said: “I’m showing that trans women can be whatever they want to be: a teacher, a mother, a doctor, a politician and even Miss Universe.”
Addressing the Trump administration’s anti-transgender actions, Ponce said her victory would be an important symbol in a contest many still associate with the leader.
“If they give me the crown, it would show trans women are just as much women as cis women.”
— Miss Spain Angela Ponce
She said: “More than a message to him, it would be a win for human rights. Trans women have been persecuted and erased for so long.
“If they give me the crown, it would show trans women are just as much women as cis women.”
Ponce added that she would still have competed in the contest if she had been allowed to when it was owned by Trump.
Transgender Miss Universe contestant Angela Ponce said she wanted to “give a lesson to the world of tolerance and respect towards oneself and towards others.”
The beauty queen said: “I would. I like to think that most people who don’t understand me, it’s not because they’re bad people.
“It’s because no one taught them about diversity. What you don’t talk about doesn’t exist—even though trans people have been here since there were people on earth.”
The contestant has had a long road to the pageant, competing in 2015’s Miss World Spain contest, only to find out the rules barred transgender women.
She said: “It wasn’t easy… I found out on the day of the competition that their rules didn’t allow a transgender woman to win. It crushed me.
“I had to go on and perform, and it felt horrible. But after I got to the Miss Universe final, Miss World changed their rules too. I changed the rules.”
Ponce, who lives in the Spanish city of Seville, wrote on Instagram after her win: “My goal is to be a spokesperson for a message of inclusion, respect and diversity not only for the LGBTQ+ community, but also for the entire world.”
Miss Universe Canada faced legal action in 2012 when model Jenna Talackova was blocked from competing for being transgender.
Young black American gay and bisexual men are 16 times more likely to acquire HIV than white gay and bisexual men, according to a new study.
Northwestern University found black 16-29-year-old men who have sex with men (MSM) are the most at risk of HIV. This is despite reporting fewer sexual partners, more frequent testing and safer sex practises.
Researchers said this is because of ‘more dense and interconnected social and sexual networks’ within the black community.
There are also disparities with access to healthcare after an HIV diagnosis.
The study warned if the trend persists, one in two black men will acquire HIV at some point. This compares to one in five Hispanic men and one in 11 white men.
Senior study author Brian Mustanski said: ‘Black young MSM engage in fewer risk behaviors but have a much higher rate of HIV diagnosis.
‘Their social and sexual networks are more dense and interconnected, which from an infectious disease standpoint, makes infections transmitted more efficiently through the group.’
He then added: ‘That, coupled with the higher HIV prevalence in the population, means any sexual act has a higher chance of HIV transmission.’
Researchers collected data from 1,015 men who have sex with men living in the Chicago metropolitan area.
Jesse Milan Jr. is the president and CEO of AIDS United.
He said in a statement to Gay Star News: ‘This report demonstrates what we already knew to be true – that HIV has never affected all populations equally, having its greatest impact on society’s most marginalized communities.
‘The alarming disparities that we’ve seen in black gay and bisexual men have been so for decades. Despite recent progress in some populations, HIV continues to have a devastating and disproportionate impact on communities of color, especially black gay and bisexual men and transgender women.
‘We have to do more to bend this curve. It’s a moral imperative and its essential to ending the HIV epidemic in the U.S.
‘We cannot end this epidemic without addressing the stigma, racial and socio-economic factors that fuel it,’ he said.
A university in New Jersey, USA, has decided that a Chick-fil-A restaurant will not be built on campus because of the chain’s anti-LGBT+ views.
Students at Rider University reportedly voted for the Chick-fil-A branch as their top choice for a new food outlet on campus in a poll in spring.
However, in an open letter to students, the university’s president and vice-president said that Chick-fil-A had been removed from the list of options for the new campus restaurant because of its poor record on LGBT+ issues.“Although it was included in previous surveys, Chick-fil-A was removed as one of the options based on the company’s record widely perceived to be in opposition to the LGBTQ+ community,” said president Gregory Dell’Omo and vice-president for student affairs Leanna Fenneberg.
“That decision required a difficult assessment of competing interests.
“We sought to be thoughtful and fair in balancing the desire to provide satisfying options for a new on-campus restaurant while also being faithful to our values of inclusion.”
Rider University has issued a letter saying that a Chick-fil-A outlet will not be built on campus. (Rider University/Facebook)
Chick-fil-A denied that the company is against LGBT+ people.
“Chick-fil-A was removed as one of the options based on the company’s record widely perceived to be in opposition to the LGBTQ+ community.”
—Rider University
In a statement to WIVB, a Chick-fil-A spokesperson said: “Chick-fil-A is a restaurant company focused on food, service and hospitality, and our restaurants and licensed locations on college campuses welcome everyone.
“We have no policy of discrimination against any group, and we do not have a political or social agenda.”
Chick-fil-A has previously been criticised for donating large sums of money to anti-LGBT+ groups and opposing equal marriage,
In 2012, it emerged that Chick-fil-A had donated millions of dollars to anti-gay groups, including the Family Research Council, ‘gay cure’ group Exodus International and Focus on the Family.
CEO Dan Cathy later confirmed the company was opposed to marriage equality and “guilty as charged” for backing “the biblical definition of a family.”
Cathy told Baptist Press at the time: “We are very much supportive of the family – the biblical definition of the family unit. We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives. We give God thanks for that.”
In June, Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter, came under fire for supporting fast food chain Chick-fil-A.
Dorsey had tweeted a payment that he made to the restaurant using Square, a mobile payment service he owns.
In April last year, students at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh protested the arrival of a Chick-fil-A branch on campus.
Student senator Niko Martini told The Duquesne Duke: “Chick-fil-A has a questionable history on civil rights and human rights.
“I think it’s imperative [that] the university chooses to do business with organisations that coincide with the [university’s] mission and expectations they give students regarding diversity and inclusion.”
Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equalirt Index takes the ethical guesswork out of Black Friday.
As quickly as Thanksgiving comes and leaves us stuffed and merry, the madness of Black Friday descends upon us. There’s nothing quite as American as the gluttony of Black Friday. With the objective being getting as many deals, deals, deals as possible, it can be easy to forget to consider where one’s dollar is going. Who’s corporate pockets are we fattening?
Every year, Human Rights Campaign releases a Buyers Guide index to hundreds of Fortune 500 companies. The guide assesses whether the companies are committed to LGBTQ-inclusive workplace practices and policies.
“Our annual Buying for Workplace Equality guide provides quick, user-friendly help in selecting everything from groceries to cars, allowing fair-minded consumers to use their wallets to resist attacks on the LGBTQ community by supporting brands committed to fully inclusive workplaces,” said Deena Fidas, Director of HRC Foundation’s Workplace Equality Program. “ Every year we hear from members of the LGBTQ community and many other consumers who want to choose brands that align with their priorities of workplace fairness. Using the Buying for Workplace Equality guide this holiday season helps ensure that their dollars go to businesses that support equality.”
The Buying for Workplace Equality guide sorts businesses by sectors, assigning them a score ranging from zero to 100 based on LGBTQ workplace equality, as measured by HRC’s annual Corporate Equality Index and HRC-researched data.
Here’s a look at the top and bottom ranking companies in each of the 19 categories, with 100 being the highest score and 0 being the lowest. For more information and the full catalogue, visit www.hrc.org/apps/buyersguide.
Pharmaceutical company Gilead is ‘intentionally withholding’ a safer drug used for HIV treatments, a lawsuit claims.
The company holds the patent on Tenofovir Disoproxil Fumarate (TDF), an antiretroviral drug for people living with HIV. If routinely taken, this can regulate the viral load.
However, a lawsuit filed in US federal court on 17 November alleges that the company is withholding a new version of the drug with fewer side-effects to exploit patent laws.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) greenlit the new drug in November 2016.
According to the lawsuit, the company plans to sell a safer version of the drug called Tenofovir Alafenamide Fumarate (TAF). However, this will only happen when the patent on TDF expires in 2021.
Patent expiration means that cheaper, generic versions of the drug can be produced by other companies. If Gilead is timing the rollout for TAF to the patent expiration on TDF, they could continue to charge premium rates for the new drug.
The lawsuit claims that the company is ‘intentionally withholding [TAF] …from hundreds of thousands of patients in order to extend the profitability of the patent’. It says this has particularly impacted LGBTI individuals and ethnic minorities.
‘We are filing lawsuits on behalf of people with HIV who took one or more of Gilead’s TDF drugs—Truvada, Viread, Atripla, Complera, and Stribild—and then allegedly suffered kidney disease and/or bone density loss,’ the law firms announced on their website.
‘Gilead is accused of knowing that these drugs could cause serious side effects, but allegedly withheld a safer version of the medication (TAF drugs). Our law firms—Morgan & Morgan, Ben Crump Law, and Hilliard Martinez Gonzales—aim to hold Gilead accountable and recover money for people who claim they were harmed by these drugs.’
The Trump administration has quietly gutted transgender rights guidance for federal employees, telling agencies to treat people based on “biological sex.”
ThinkProgress reports that revisions were made to public guidance on the website of the government’s Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to remove transgender rights protections.
The previous guidance, drawn up under President Barack Obama, instructed federal agencies to “review their anti-discrimination policies to ensure that they afford a non-discriminatory working environment to employees irrespective of their gender identity or perceived gender non-conformity.”A revision apparently made in the last week removed all mention of the words “transgender” and “gender non-conforming” while inserting language to effectively reverse several of the inclusive policies.
The new guidance states that employees in gender-specific roles should be treated “in accordance with the individual’s biological sex,” where the previous materials said they should be treated as their preferred gender.
Guidance that directed employers to move away from “gender-specific dress and appearance rules” have also been changed to now state that agencies are “encouraged” to enact “policies [that] require employees to follow dress and appearance rules consistent with the professional standards of their occupation.”
The webpage also erases sections on the “core concepts” of gender identity and gender non-conforming identities.
The OPM webpage now states that agencies should update their diversity and inclusion policies “with the plain meaning of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.”
The reference to the “plain meaning” of the Civil Rights Act contradicts the widely-held Obama administration stance that civil rights laws banning discrimination based on sex also outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
The Trump administration has previously argued in court that the section should only be applied to direct gender discrimination.
The changes appear to substantiate reports of a leaked memo from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) setting out a new anti-transgender stance across the administration.
Speaking to reporters at the White House on October 22, he confirmed: “We’re looking at it. We have a lot of different concepts right now.
“They have a lot of different things happening with respect to transgender right now. You know that as well as I do and we’re looking at it very seriously.”
Asked if he would protect the LGBT+ community, he responded: “I’m protecting everybody.”
When a reporter told the leader that “transgender Americans say you’ve given up on them,” Trump replied: “You know what I’m doing? I’m protecting everybody. I want to protect our country.”
