The UCLA–Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science Center for AIDS Research has received a five-year, $11 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. A priority of the award is to fund research addressing health inequities that have fueled the spread of HIV in marginalized communities.
The Center for AIDS Research will strengthen and amplify the impact of ongoing research at both UCLA and Charles R. Drew University, as well as forming new partnerships with community groups across Los Angeles and in nations that are severely affected by HIV. Its aim is to prevent new HIV infections, reduce deaths among people who are living with HIV and develop strategies for eradicating HIV.
The partnership will be directed by Dr. Judith Currier, chief of the UCLA Division of Infectious Diseases; Dr. LaShonda Spencer, professor of clinical pediatrics and internal medicine at Charles R. Drew; and Jerome Zack, chair of the UCLA Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics. The Center will support investigators at UCLA’s Westwood campus and affiliated sites including the Lundquist Institute at Harbor–UCLA Medical Center and the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, as well as Drew CARES, the MLK Oasis Clinic and the PUSH Coalition, a group of organizations involved in HIV services that are located on or near the Charles R. Drew campus.
“We are thrilled to have the opportunity to leverage the resources provided by the Center for AIDS Research to expand the support for HIV/AIDS research across Los Angeles and build new partnerships among investigators at all of the partner sites and communities most impacted by HIV,” Spencer said.
The partnership will support equity in health care in part because Charles R. Drew engages a primarily minority population — 80% of its students and 71% of faculty members are from communities of color — and its scholars are committed to health equity in underserved populations through education, research and clinical service. The partnership also will promote opportunities for early-stage investigators to learn from more experienced HIV researchers, and for senior faculty to learn from younger scholars about community-engaged research, as well as increasing diversity among HIV researchers.
The center’s four primary aims will be:
Provide scientific leadership and institutional infrastructure.
Mobilize and coordinate multidisciplinary, state-of-the-art research.
Develop the next generation of basic, behavioral and clinical scientists in the field of HIV/AIDS, with a focus on promoting diversity in HIV research.
Expand community-based research with populations that are disproportionately affected by HIV in Los Angeles and beyond.
Have you ever felt like you could identify with certain aspects of one gender but don’t connect to it fully? Do you feel as if you only partially identify with your gender? If you answered yes to these questions, you just might be demigender.
Read on to learn more about this gender identity, including how it differs from other identities under the non-binary umbrella.
Demigender: Meaning And Place In The LGBTQ Spectrum
You won’t find a “demigender” definition in the Merriam-Webster dictionary or Dictionary.com unfortunately. This is because “demigender” is a relatively new term that has only gained popularity over the last few years. Of course, that’s not to say that this gender identity is new or made up – we just didn’t have the words to describe this particular gender identity before.
According to Tumblr blog demigenders.com, the term “demigender” describes someone who identifies partially with one gender. It doesn’t matter how much a person identifies with a particular gender, as long as they identify with it to some capacity.
Some believe that demigender is a subset of bigender, which is defined as someone who identifies with two genders at once. However, others may argue that, while bigender people tend to feel like they are a combination of two distinct genders, some demigender people may only partially identify with one gender.
Several terms that fall under the demigender blanket, include:
Demigirl: This is someone who identifies partially as a girl or woman.
Demiboy: This is someone who identifies partially as a boy or man.
Demienby: This is someone who identifies partially as non-binary or “enby”.
Demifluid: Similar to gender-fluid people, demifluid people may feel like part of their gender identity fluctuates from one gender to another.
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Understanding Sexual Orientation And Gender Identity
To better help you understand what all these terms mean, here’s a short guide to some key concepts everyone should know about. Let’s talk about the differences between sexual orientation and gender identity.
Sexual orientation describes the types of people you’re sexually attracted to (e.g. gay, straight, lesbian, bisexual, pansexual, etc.).
Gender identity describes your internal conception of your gender or how you perceive your maleness, femaleness, in-between-ness, or lack of gender altogether.
It’s important to note that gender and sexual orientation are independent of one another – how you perceive yourself doesn’t affect who you’re attracted to. For example, if you’re a trans man, it doesn’t automatically mean you’re attracted to women.
People who are cisgender are those whose gender identity aligns with their sex assigned at birth. Those who are trans experience a disconnect between their gender identity and their sex assigned at birth – as such, many trans people undergo different forms of transitioning to become more comfortable in their own skin.
Finally, people who are non-binary are those who don’t subscribe to the idea that there are only two options when it comes to gender. Instead of seeing gender as male or female, non-binary people experience gender as a spectrum where they can exist somewhere in the middle or even outside of it altogether.
Demigender is a gender identity that falls under the non-binary umbrella, which also includes pangender, gender-fluid, and agender people.
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What Pronouns Do Demigender People Use?
There is no single set pronoun for people who identify as demigender. This is because a person’s preferred pronouns will depend entirely on what feels right for them. Thus, it’s never safe to assume someone’s pronouns based solely on their appearance or behavior.
When meeting new people, it’s always best to offer your pronouns as you introduce yourself. This lets the other person know that you’re open and receptive to hearing about their gender and that you’re conscientious enough to respect their pronouns.
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How Do You Know If You’re Demigender?
So, how do you know if “demigender” is the right fit for you? You’ll have to be patient as you explore your gender identity, as it is not something that happens overnight.
Here are some signs that can help you figure out if you are demigender:
You question your gender often and feel as if you don’t fully identify with your sex assigned at birth.
You can partially identify with another gender.
You can’t relate to how your friends experience their relationships with their gender. You feel like something is “missing” and you can’t talk about how you feel without being the odd man out.
You experience gender dysphoria, a sense of distress or discomfort over the mismatch between your sex assigned at birth and your gender identity.
You find yourself searching for people like you who may not experience gender to the same degree or intensity as others.
You are always second-guessing how you feel.
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What Is The Demigender Flag?
Feeling like a proud demigender person already? Get to know the ultimate symbol of demigender pride: demigender flags.
Yes, flags, plural. There is more than one demigender flag for each subset identity:
The demigirl flag, designed by Tumblr user Transrants, consists of two dark gray stripes, two light gray stripes, two pink stripes, and one white stripe in the middle.
The demiboy flag is similar to the demigirl variation, except that it has blue stripes in place of pink stripes.
The demi-nonbinary flag has yellow stripes instead of pink or blue stripes.
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The Bottom Line
Demigender people feel only a partial connection to a gender. For example, demigirls may embrace some aspects of femininity while rejecting others. If this sounds like how you feel about your own gender identity, don’t worry, you’re not alone – there are plenty of people who identify as demigender out there.
If you ever need someone to talk to about your experiences as a demigender person, you can look up online groups, Instagram pages, and hashtags about demigender pride on social media.
In a landmark settlement, a Maine assisted living facility has agreed to establish policies and procedures to ensure it is a welcoming place for LGBTQ seniors, after a 79-year-old transgender woman levied an accusation of discrimination.
When Marie King filed her complaint with the Maine Human Rights Commission in October, alleging that the Sunrise Assisted Living facility in the town of Jonesport refused her admission as a resident because she is transgender, it was believed to be the first complaint of this kind in U.S. history.
The settlement does not set a binding legal precedent. But legal experts nevertheless expect it to raise awareness that nursing homes and other assisted living facilities must abide by various state and federal laws barring them from discriminating against transgender people. The settlement also provides a roadmap for how such facilities can better serve the needs of LGBTQ seniors.
This development comes as more openly transgender adults are expected to enter their senior years — demographic growth in line with the overall increase in people older than 65, according to the Williams Institute. Research indicates that trans seniors are more likely than the general older population to need housing in assisted living facilities, in part because they are more prone to be alienated from family members, be in poorer health and live on lower incomes.
Marie King, 79, filed a complaint in March alleging that a long-term care facility in Maine discriminated against her for being transgender.Susan R. Symonds
At a video conference meeting based in Augusta on Monday, the Maine Human Rights Commission approved the terms of the settlement negotiated by the commission, the Boston-based GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) and the Adult Family Care Homes of Maine, which runs nine assisted living facilities in the state, including Sunrise.
“I’m thrilled to see this positive outcome,” King said in a statement issued through her attorneys at GLAD. “I believe the new policies will keep others from experiencing mistreatment and will help people understand that transgender people are only seeking to be treated with dignity and respect like anyone else.”
Adult Family Care Homes of Maine did not admit guilt as a part of the settlement and continues to deny having discriminated against King. It has pledged to adopt a comprehensive policy barring discrimination against transgender people. The company will also require all of its staff attend a training, conducted by SAGECare, an LGBTQ+ cultural competency program run by SAGE, on serving this population. The nonprofit organization focuses on improving the lives of LGBTQ+ seniors.
Chris Erchull, a staff attorney at GLAD, said that many staffers of such facilities lack the education and awareness pertaining to transgender adults and their needs, and are unsure how to comply with the law.
“This is a groundbreaking case because it spells out for people what the minimum requirements of the law are and how to make sure that they comply with it,” Erchull said.
“By no means do I think this is an isolated incident,” Karen L. Loewy, senior counsel at Lambda Legal, said of King’s case.
The Williams Institute, a think tank at the UCLA School of Law, estimates there are at least 771,000 LGBTQ adults over 65 in the United States, including 171,100 transgender seniors.
“Our research has shown that LGBT older adults face barriers to receiving formal health care and social support that heterosexual, cisgender adults do not,” said Ilan Meyer, a Williams Institute researcher. “Hopefully, other residential facilities will also implement policies consistent with this settlement.”
Nearly half of U.S. states, including Maine, bar discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity in both housing and public accommodation — legal categories that apply to assisted living facilities.
In the spring of 2021, a social worker at Pen Bay Medical Center, where King was receiving medical care, sought a placement for her at Sunrise. Initially, a social worker at the long-term care facility said there were vacancies. But according to King’s complaint, when the Sunrise social worker learned she was transgender, she said they could not admit her because they did not want to place her with a cisgender woman roommate.
On March 14, 2022, the Maine Human Rights Commission voted 3 to 2 that King had reasonable grounds to claim that Sunrise discriminated against her on the basis of her gender identity, transgender status and sex, all of which are protected under the Maine Human Rights Act. This opened the door for the commission to potentially file a lawsuit.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is in the process of conducting its own investigation to determine if Sunrise’s alleged refusal to admit King as a resident violated the sex discrimination provisions of the Affordable Care Act. Courts have interpreted the 2010 law as barring discrimination based on gender identity in health care settings that receive federal funds, including assisted living facilities.
Additionally, the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2020 Bostock v. Clayton decision established protection for LGBTQ people against workplace discrimination.
In an emailed statement to NBC News, John K. Hamer, an attorney at Rudman Winchell in Boston, which represents Adult Family Care Homes of Maine, said that the Sunrise social worker told King’s social worker that Sunrise “was not an appropriate place for Ms. King” because of the possibility that a cisgender woman roommate “was not comfortable having a transgender roommate.”
“However,” Hamer stated, “Sunrise Assisted Living would not have denied Ms. King residency based on her transgender status had she applied for residency. Ms. King just never applied.”
He added that Sunrise “is happy to work with GLAD to enhance its existing policies and to provide training to ensure that such a miscommunication does not happen again.”
As a part of the settlement, the facility has agreed to provide a $1,000 payment to King and an $8,500 payment to GLAD for attorneys fees.
Aaron Tax, managing director of government affairs and policy advocacy at SAGE, said that the details of King’s case “speak to the need for comprehensive, explicit national civil rights protections” for LGBTQ older people.
Sarah Warbelow, legal director at the Human Rights Campaign, pointed to survey data indicating that 70% of Americans support nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ Americans. She said that the Maine settlement “really represents what people think should be happening: that LGBTQ folks have access to remedies when they experience discrimination.”
Gloria Allen, a Black transgender icon and activist who dedicated her life to Chicago’s trans community, died on Monday at the age of 76.
Allen — also known as “Mama Gloria” — is believed to have died peacefully while asleep in her Chicago apartment at an LGBTQ senior residence home, according to a statement from Luchina Fisher, who directed a documentary about Allen in 2020.
Allen transitioned in the 1950s, prior to the modern LGBTQ rights movement that began with the 1969 Stonewall riots and long before the term “transgender” became mainstream. In a previous interview with NBC News, she credited her coming out to the love and support of her mother, Alma, a showgirl and former Jet magazine centerfold, and her grandmother, Mildred, a seamstress for cross-dressers and strippers.
“I didn’t have all the tools that they have out today for the younger people. So I had to do my thing, and I did it. I walked with my head up high due to my family,” she said, noting there weren’t any community centers or resources for LGBTQ people that she could readily access. “I didn’t know anything about lesbians and gays, because we didn’t have any rights back then.”
Allen worked at the University of Chicago Hospital as a licensed practical nurse and then in private homes as a nurse’s aide. But she was best known for her work in transgender activism.
More than a decade ago, as a trans elder, Allen started a charm school at Center on Halsted in Chicago to educate trans youth about etiquette and proper behavior. Her school inspired the 2015 play “Charm,” written by Philip Dawkins, which ran in Chicago, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, New York and Washington, D.C.
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Allen then rose to national prominence nearly two years ago, when she became the subject of a documentary feature “Mama Gloria.” The documentary showcased the intersection of race- and gender-based oppression, and it showed how trans people can thrive when they are loved and supported by their families.
“I want the world to know I have a life, and I have a right to be here on this planet,” Allen told NBC News shortly after the documentary’s release. “I’m happy to tell my story.”
Fisher paid tribute on Tuesday to Allen and her accomplishments for trans rights.
“Mama Gloria Allen always called me her angel. But she was my angel,” Fisher wrote on Twitter. “These last four years have been life-changing. I will carry her love and spirit with me always. RIP #mamagloria“
A Texas judge on Friday temporarily blocked the state from investigating families of transgender children who have received gender-confirming medical care, a new obstacle to the state labeling such treatments as child abuse.
The temporary restraining order issued by Judge Jan Soifer halts investigations against three families who sued, and prevents any similar investigations against members of the LGBTQ advocacy group PFLAG Inc. The group has more than 600 members in Texas.
“I do find that there is sufficient reason to believe that the plaintiffs will suffer immediate and irreparable injury if the commissioner and the (Department of Family and Protective Services) are allowed to continue to implement and enforce this new Department rule that equates gender confirming care with child abuse,” Soifer said at the end of a roughly 40-minute hearing.
The ruling comes about a month after the Texas Supreme Court allowed the state to investigate parents of transgender youth for child abuse while also ruling in favor of one family that was among the first contacted by child welfare officials following order by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.
“That families will be protected from invasive, unnecessary, and unnerving investigations by DFPS simply for helping their transgender children thrive and be themselves is a very good thing,” Brian K. Bond, executive director of PFLAG National, said in a statement. “However, let’s be clear: These investigations into loving and affirming families shouldn’t be happening in the first place.”
The latest challenge was brought by Lambda Legal and the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of the families of three teenage boys — two 16-year-olds and a 14-year-old — and PFLAG. An attorney for Lambda Legal told the judge that the 14-year-old’s family had learned after the lawsuit’s filing that the state’s investigation into them had been dropped.
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Spokespeople for Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday afternoon.
A judge in March put Abbott’s order on hold after a lawsuit brought on behalf of a 16-year-old girl whose family said it was under investigation. The Texas Supreme Court in May ruled that the lower court overstepped its authority by blocking all investigations going forward.
That lawsuit marked the first report of parents being investigated following Abbott’s directive and an earlier nonbinding legal opinion by Paxton labeling certain gender-confirming treatments as “child abuse.” The Texas Department of Family and Protective Service has said it opened nine investigations following the directive and opinion.
Abbott’s directive and the attorney general’s opinion go against the nation’s largest medical groups, including the American Medical Association, which have opposed Republican-backed restrictions filed in statehouses nationwide.
The Human Rights Campaign announced Wednesday that companies wishing to keep their title next year of “Best Place to Work for LGBTQ+ Equality” will need to advance the community’s rights in the public sphere.
Writing in The Advocate, HRC interim President Joni Madison said her organization would no longer automatically award the distinction to firms achieving a top score in the Corporate Equality Index, the group’s tool to measure companies’ support for LGBTQ workplace inclusion.
“Corporate social responsibility today is about going beyond HR plans and benefits,” she wrote in an op-ed. “It’s about the business companies do and how their values carry through everything they do — from internal policies to products to politics.”
For the 2023 index, companies will still be able to achieve a top score of 100 based on the group’s existing set of criteria for measuring internal LGBTQ inclusion. However, the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy group said it will only recognize employers as the “Best Places to Work for LGBTQ+ Equality” if they exceed its index’s benchmarks.
“Companies earning this distinction must have a 100 on the CEI and will need to be bar setters for how companies can do even more — from taking a stand in the public square against elected officials harming LGBTQ+ youth to mitigating the harm of their products and services on our community,” Madison wrote. “Importantly, to receive this award, they will need to be nominated by their workers.”
HRC published its first Corporate Equality Index in 2002. Back then, it rated companies on a set of seven factors, which included having written nondiscrimination policies protecting LGBT employees, offering health insurance coverage to employees’ same-sex domestic partners and engaging in “respectful and appropriate” marketing to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.
Only 13 of the 319 rated employers achieved a top score of 100 in the inaugural index. The median score for rated companies was 57 that year.
This year, 1,271 employers actively participated in the index survey, which now uses an expanded set of criteria to assess companies. A top score was achieved by 842 participants, or two-thirds of respondents.
Yet, the recent wave of legislation targeting LGBTQ individuals, in particular transgender youth, has once again forced the group to move the bar higher for companies that wish to achieve the status of “Best Place to Work for LGBTQ+ Equality.”
One company that claims this title is the Chicago-based financial services firm Morningstar, which has maintained a top score in the index since 2018.
“We’re proud Morningstar has earned designation as among the ‘Best Places to Work for LGBTQ+ Equality’ for five years in a row, and we certainly aspire to keep the streak going,” said David Williams, chief design officer for Morningstar and executive sponsor of the Out@Morningstar Employee Resource Group. “As a ratings agency ourselves, we recognize the power of ratings to drive transparency and accountability.”
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Morningstar pointed to its support for the Equality Act as further proof that it is committed to LGBTQ equality beyond its own walls. If passed by Congress, the Equality Act would extend federal protection from discrimination and segregation to LGBTQ individuals.
But the change to the index also comes at a time when the corporate world has come under increased scrutiny for its alleged duplicity when it comes to advancing LGBTQ equality, particularly in the political realm.
Earlier this year, the Human Rights Campaign deducted 25 points from Fox Corp.’s index score of 100 following Fox News’ coverage of Florida’s controversial Parental Rights in Education bill, dubbed by critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
“Fox News has a history of sharing misinformation and disinformation about the LGBTQ+ community,” Aryn Fields, the organization’s senior press secretary, told Deadline at the time. “We can no longer allow Fox Corporation to maintain its score if Fox News personalities and contributors continue to deny the existence of transgender people, minimize the violence transgender individuals face, refer to parents of LGBTQ+ youth as perverts, or equate leaders of LGBTQ+ diversity and inclusion efforts with sex offenders.”
Beyond the Human Rights Campaign, organizers of Pride events have also reconsidered their relationships with corporate sponsors who make campaign contributions to politicians advancing legislation that, advocates say, would harm the LGBTQ community. Last month, Pride Northwest in Portland, Oregon, rejected sponsorship money from JPMorgan Chase after an investigation by Popular Information revealed that the firm made political contributions to anti-LGBTQ politicians through its corporate PAC.
JPMorgan Chase is among the 842 employers that achieved a top score in the 2022 index. But it is far from the only large corporation to finance the campaigns of anti-LGBTQ politicians, according to Popular Information.
In a statement to NBC News, JPMorgan Chase affirmed its “unwavering commitment to members of the LGBT+ community” and stated that the company “continues to promote an inclusive society where everyone feels welcomed, equal and included.”
“In communities across the United States, LGBT+ people and their families are facing barriers to, and erosion of, equal rights and protections,” a spokesperson for the global financial services company said. “JPMorgan Chase opposes discrimination in any form, including homophobia and transphobia, as well as any public policies which could harm our employees, customers and the communities where we do business.”
While no one company spurred Human Rights Campaign to update the index, the organization maintains that the change aligns with the demands of employees and customers who support LGBTQ equality.
“Employees who see their company giving to extremist politicians, who see products being sold by their company that refute their existence, who hear lawmakers paint them as villains and are met by only silence from their companies, want ‘Best Place to Work’ to mean more,” Madison wrote in The Advocate. “We do too.”
Approximately 5 percent of young adults in the U.S. identify as transgender or nonbinary, and an increasing number say they know someone who is trans, according to data released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center.
Adults younger than 30 are more likely than older Americans to say their gender differs from their sex assigned at birth. The findings estimate that the total number of adults who identify as transgender or nonbinary (meaning they identify as neither exclusively male nor female) in the U.S. is 1.6 percent.
The new data, which was weighted to be representative of the entire U.S. adult population, comes from an online survey panel from mid-May of 10,188 randomly sampled people. The findings are part of a broader survey that will be released some point this summer about the general public’s “attitudes about gender identity and issues related to people who are transgender or nonbinary,” the report states.
Since 2017, the number of adults who say they know a trans person has been on a slight but steady increase, rising from 37 percent that year to 42 percent in 2021, and 44 percent this year. Although that number decreases as adults get older, a third of those 65 and older in the survey still said they know a transgender person.
More people know transgender people as friends than as co-workers or family members, according to the findings. A little over a quarter of adults said they have a friend who is trans, with roughly 1 in 10 having a trans co-worker or family member.
The survey also found 1 in 5 U.S. adults said they personally know a nonbinary person. A similar Pew survey from last year found an increase — from 18 percent in 2018 to 26 percent in 2021 — in the number of Americans who said they knew someone who preferred using gender-neutral pronouns.
The survey’s estimate of the percentage of trans and nonbinary people in the U.S. is notable because that figure has been historically difficult to gauge, as the Census Bureau has dragged its feet on updating its questions to be more inclusive. In 2016, researchsponsored by the Department of Labor uncovered obstacles to the feasibility of adding questions about sexual orientation and gender identity to the current population survey, though the Census Bureau took the historic step last year of adding those questions to its household pulse survey, which measures the impact of the pandemic on families.
A 2021 estimate from UCLA Law’s Williams Institute estimated the number of nonbinary adults in the U.S. to be 1.2 million, and a 2016 report from the institute placed the number of transgender adults in the U.S. at 1.4 million.
Results from an Ipsos global survey released last year, which drew on data from 19,000 people in 27 countries, found 4 percent of young adult respondents identified as as transgender, nonbinary, gender-nonconforming, gender-fluid or “in another way.”
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The new Pew results found that while it is more likely for a Democrat than a Republican to know a trans person (48 percent vs. 42 percent), the split has narrowed since last year.
In addition, the Pew researchers conducted six focus groups in March with 27 trans and nonbinary people of different ages and racial identities to discuss a range of topics, from access to gender-affirming care to social policy. Those discussions, which were not intended to be statistically representative of the entire population in the U.S., showed that historic challenges — including employment discrimination, bias and violence — appear to persist.
Some participants said deciding whether to reveal their gender identities to other people can be a “constant calculation.” Many participants talked about hesitation in discussing their trans or nonbinary identities in work settings, for some because of a perceived lack of professionalism.
They also discussed financial barriers to medical treatments such as hormone therapy and surgery, with some leaning on “underground networks” for help. Some also described feeling a lack of connection with the larger LGBTQ community, while others felt more accepted.
The findings come amid a record surge in anti-LGBTQ legislation, particularly targeting the rights of trans people at the state level, with the Human Rights Campaign estimating that more than 320 anti-LGBTQ bills have been proposed in state legislatures so far this year.
Many of the participants said they did not become more certain of their gender identities until “well into adulthood.” A middle-aged trans man described not knowing “what trans was” until getting to college — “that was when I had a word for myself for the first time,” the participant said.
Many participants cited young people as a reason for optimism.
“They understand almost intrinsically so much more about these things than I feel like my generation did,” a nonbinary participant in their mid-30s said. “They give me so much hope for the future.”
The Defense Department has officially ended a 1980s-era policy that restricted HIV-positive service members from deploying overseas and being promoted into leadership and management positions.
The updated guidance officially took effect Monday, according to a memo addressed to military leadership from the office of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. A judge struck down the decades-old policy in early April.
U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema of Eastern Virginia found that the Pentagon’s classification of HIV as a chronic condition did not reflect modern scientific understandings of the virus.
In one of two orders, Brinkema banned the Pentagon from “separating or discharging” asymptomatic HIV-positive service members with undetectable viral loads solely because they have HIV.
The two cases involved three men who sued the military for discrimination based on their HIV statuses. One of the plaintiffs, Army National Guard Sgt. Nick Harrison, who was denied a promotion because of his HIV status, called the Pentagon’s reversal a “generally positive move,” but he said it came only after advocates were forced to resort to “kicking and screaming” in the court system.
“I would like to see them go further,” he said. “At this point, the decision is just basically doing what the judge told them to do. So there’s a lot more space for them to do more.”
Kara Ingelhart, a senior attorney at Lambda Legal, which represented the plaintiffs, said the move “makes perfect sense from a science-medical stigma standpoint but also a policy standpoint.”
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“The fact that the military, [which] is the largest employer in the world, not just the country, will no longer be able to treat, categorically, the service members living with HIV differently from others, it’s huge,” she said.
Since the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 passed, no employer other than the U.S. military has been legally permitted to discriminate against potential employees because they have HIV. But as noted in the memo Monday, the policy amendment does not change current Pentagon policy denying those with HIV from being able to enlist in the military.
According to the memo, current service members who display “laboratory evidence” of HIV infection will continue to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, including access to “appropriate treatment” and medical evaluations of “fitness for continued service in the same manner as a Service member with other chronic or progressive illnesses.”
They will not, however, be discharged solely based on their HIV statuses. Military leaders will convene a working group to “develop proposed standards” for case-by-case evaluations, which will consider how long service members must display undetectable viral loads and be symptom-free, the memo says.
The Human Rights Campaign, the country’s largest LGBTQ advocacy group, has long called for the policy reversal, which it listed among 85 recommendations it sent to the incoming Biden administration in November 2020.
“Research has shown for years now that antiretroviral therapy is highly effective in shrinking the risk of HIV transmission to essentially zero,” David Stacy, the campaign’s government affairs director, said in a news release. “To maintain a discriminatory policy against service members living with HIV without the backing of medical evidence was unsustainable, and we’re glad to see our military leaders recognize that.”
Stacy added that the campaign will continue to “push for the same policy to be applied to those who want to enlist.”
“This week’s announcement was a good first step, but as long as some people are still being discriminated against for no good reason, there’s still work to be done,” he said.
Late Wednesday night, Ohio Republicans passed a bill requiring certain high school and college athletes competing in women’s sports to have their genitals inspected to ensure that they are not transgender.
H.B. 61, known as the “Save Women’s Sports Act,” was intended to prevent transgender women and girls from participating in school athletics.
Under the Ohio High School Athletics Association’s (OHSAA) current guidelines, transgender women and girls must have completed a minimum of one year of hormone treatment and/or demonstrate that they do not possess physical or physiological advantages over “genetic females of the same age group.”
The new law would prohibit trans women and girls from competing with cisgender women and girls. What’s more, anyone would be able to accuse an athlete of being transgender, thus forcing her to undergo evaluations of her external and internal genitalia, testosterone levels and genetic makeup.
“This is truly bizarre medically and nonsensical, but looking at it practically, this bill means that if anyone decides to question a child’s true gender, that child must undergo a sensitive exam,” argues Democratic state Rep. Dr. Beth Liston.
Supporters of the new rules argue that trans women and girls possess unfair biological advantages over cisgender women and girls. Both Equality Ohio and OHSAA confirm that in the seven years since the current rules have been place, there has never been more than on transgender girl participating in girls’ high school sports in any given year.
What’s more, the new rules could have unintended consequences for cisgender girls “accused” of being trans as well. In addition to the invasive genital examinations, Bruno points out that, “Women will sometimes have more testosterone completely naturally than folks would prefer a transgender athlete to have. So they actually are functioning at a lower threshold for what they are allowed to have hormonally to compete.”
Though the bill was not on the state House legislators’ schedule, its language was included in an unrelated bill, H.B. 151, which would revise Ohio’s Teacher Residency Program. House Democrats and even some Republicans had not seen the bill at the time of the vote, according to local ABC affiliate News 5 Cleveland.
“Having this third bill now slipped into an unrelated bill at the last moment is just such an additional slap in the face to our entire community,” said Equality Ohio’s legislative policy director Maria Bruno. “I know that there are a lot of folks in the LGBTQ community who are sitting there asking themselves, ‘What did I do to them? because they keep coming after me’ and I can’t blame them for having that perspective. But the answer is nothing, just existing.”
A federal court in Georgia ruled Thursday that employers who categorically exclude gender-affirming medical care from health insurance coverage violate federal law.
Anna Lange, a transgender woman and sheriff’s deputy in Houston County, Georgia, sued in 2019 after she was denied coverage for a vaginoplasty in November 2018.
The Sheriff’s Office provides health care coverage to employees through the county plan, which, beginning in 1998, excluded coverage for talk therapy related to gender dysphoria, gender-affirming hormone therapy and gender-affirming surgeries, according to the opinion released Thursday.
Chief Judge Marc Treadwell, of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia, wrote in the opinion that the exclusion “plainly discriminates because of transgender status,” and as a result violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a federal law that prohibits employment discrimination based on race, sex, religion, national origin and other protected categories.
He pointed to evidence that showed Houston County’s health care plan, provided through Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, would provide hormone therapy for menopause and surgery for breast cancer, but it would not provide the same procedures as treatment for gender dysphoria.
“The undisputed, ultimate point is that the Exclusion applies only to transgender members, and it applies to Lange because she is transgender,” Treadwell wrote, citing a landmark Supreme Court decision in June 2020, which found that Title VII’s protection from discrimination based on sex also includes gender identity and sexual orientation discrimination.
The opinion also noted that, in 2016, Houston County’s insurance broker, who acted as a liaison between the county and Anthem, informed the county that Anthem would no longer categorically exclude coverage for treatments related to gender dysphoria as a result of the Affordable Care Act’s Section 1557, which prohibits discrimination based on sex and other characteristics.
“Despite Anthem’s recommendation to do so, the County chose not to accept the nondiscrimination mandate,” according to the opinion.
A representative for Houston County did not immediately return a request for comment.
Lange, who was represented in part by the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund, said in a statement that it’s “a huge relief to know that I can finally receive the medically necessary care that I was repeatedly and unfairly denied.”
“I can confidently move forward with my life knowing that gender affirming care is protected under federal law,” she said. “This decision is not only a personal victory, but a tremendous step forward for all transgender Southerners who are seeking insurance coverage for medically necessary care.”
