California’s pandemic-inspired move toward mailing a ballot to every registered, active voter will become a permanent part of the state’s political landscape, an embrace of an extended and flexible voting process instead of the traditional focus on a single day of voting in person.
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature Monday on Assembly Bill 37 makes California the eighth state in the nation with a law on the books requiring every voter to be mailed a ballot. The new law is part of an evolution of voting in the state over the last two decades, an effort to provide voters more options for when and where to cast their ballots.
“Data shows that sending everyone a ballot in the mail provides voters access. And when voters get ballots in the mail, they vote,” Assemblyman Marc Berman (D-Palo Alto), the bill’s author, said during a Senate committee hearing in July.
The law takes effect in January and will require ballots to be mailed to all voters for statewide elections in June and November. AB 37 also applies to local elections, potentially improving turnout in community contests but also increasing costs, given that vote-by-mail ballots are provided with prepaid postage.
“Last year we took unprecedented steps to ensure all voters had the opportunity to cast a ballot during the pandemic and today we are making those measures permanent after record-breaking participation in the 2020 presidential election,” Newsom said in a written statement.
Cheers rang out, hugs were exchanged and rainbow-colored flags waved overhead across Switzerland as the Swiss resoundingly voted to allow same-sex couples to marry, final results of a nationwide referendum showed Sunday.
Official results showed the measure passed with 64.1 percent of the vote while more than half of all voters approved in each of Switzerland’s 26 cantons, or states. The vote — years in the making — is set to bring the Alpine nation into line with many others in Western Europe and wraps up an often tense campaign between rival sides.
Justice Minister Karin Keller-Sutter said on Twitter that the government would implement the decision quickly and, under current plans, the new rules can take effect on July 1.
Switzerland’s parliament and the governing Federal Council — on which she sits — had supported the “Marriage for All” measure, which marks a key step for greater rights for gays and lesbians in Switzerland. The country has authorized same-sex civil partnerships since 2007.
“With this, all couples will in the future be treated equally before the law: all can enter into a civil marriage, with the same rights and obligations,” Keller-Sutter wrote.
Download the NBC News app for breaking news and politics
Passage is set to put same-sex partners on an equal legal footing with heterosexual couples by allowing them to adopt children and facilitating citizenship for same-sex spouses. It will also permit lesbian couples to utilize regulated sperm donation.
“This is a historic day for us and for Switzerland, this is a great step forward, something we have been waiting for for years,” said Laura Russo, co-president of the Geneva Federation of LGBT Associations, at a gathering of joyous supporters of the measure along a Geneva pedestrian street. “This initiative was begun in 2013; we had to wait 8 years for the vote to happen — and here, this is a big ‘Yes.’”
Opponents believe that replacing civil partnerships with full marriage rights would undermine families based on a union between a man and a woman.
Benjamin Roduit of the Christian Democratic People’s Party, which spearheaded the effort to stop same-sex marriage, claimed at least some success in raising awareness about his party’s positions despite the defeat at the ballot box.
“On our side we have tried to draw attention to the central problem, the one of children and medically assisted procreation,” he said. “On that point, I think we have succeeded in raising awareness among the Swiss people and we will still be here when other steps will be proposed.”
The campaign has been rife with allegations of unfair tactics, with the opposing sides decrying the ripping down of posters, LGBT hotlines getting flooded with complaints, hostile emails, shouted insults against campaigners and efforts to silence opposing views.
Switzerland, which has a population of 8.5 million, is traditionally conservative and only extended the right to vote to all women in the country in 1990.
Most countries in Western Europe already recognize same-sex marriage, while most of those in Central and Eastern Europe don’t permit wedlock between two men or two women.
The UK has been singled out for its “baseless and concerning” anti-trans rhetoric in a damning report on rising hate against LGBT+ people in Europe.
The extensive report was published by the Council of Europe, the continent’s leading human rights organisation, on Tuesday (21 September).
It describes “a marked increase” in anti-LGBT+ hate speech and hate crime and condemns “with particular force the extensive and often virulent attacks” on LGBT+ rights in the UK, which is named alongside Hungary, Poland, Turkey and the Russian Federation.
The council notes that these attacks “deliberately mis-characterise the fight for the equality of LGBTI people as so-called ‘gender ideology’ and seek to stifle the identities and realities of all those who challenge the social constructs that perpetuate gender inequalities and gender-based violence in our societies.
“These attacks are harmful to women as well as LGBTI people,” it adds.
The UK is specifically mentioned throughout the report, which makes particular reference to the growing problem of anti-LGBT+ hate speech on social media.
The 18-page report dedicates an entire, shameful section to the UK’s rise in anti-trans rhetoric, noting with concern how it often questions the very existence of gender as a category of protection under international human rights law.
This dangerous discourse has been “gaining baseless and concerning credibility” at the expense of trans people’s civil liberties and women’s and children’s rights, it warns.
“At the IDAHOT Forum 2021, minister for women and equalities [Liz Truss] stated, in contradiction with international human rights standards with respect to the rights of trans people: ‘We do not believe in self-identification.’
“Such rhetoric – which denies trans identities – is being used to roll back the rights of trans and non-binary people and is contributing to growing human rights problems.”
The report notes that UK hate crime statistics show a sharp increase in transphobic crimes since 2015, though though only 1 in 7 victims report them, and many trans people now fear for their safety.
“There is intense and ongoing social, political and legal debate about what constitutes harmful discourse when it comes to trans people and their rights,” it continues, “and arguments defending freedom of expression have been – and are still being – used as a tool to justify transphobic rhetoric, further penalising and harming already marginalised trans people and communities.
“It is also becoming increasingly difficult for individuals and organisations to publicly affirm young trans people without being subject to hostility and disproportionate questioning from wider society.
“The ‘gender-critical’ movement, which wrongly portrays trans rights as posing a particular threat to cisgender women and girls, has played a significant role in this process.”
The council also identifies several “vitriolic media campaigns” in which trans women have been “vilified and misrepresented” and says that trans healthcare is also being “erroneously portrayed” as a form of LGB conversion therapy.
Despite this concerning track record, the UK government plans to encourage other countries to tackle LGBT+ inequality at its first global LGBT conference, ‘Safe to Be Me,’ next year.
The event promises to bring together elected officials, policy makers, and the international LGBT+ community to “protect and promote” the rights of LGBT+ people around the world.
PinkNews has reached out to Liz Truss’ office for comment.
Hundreds of students marched out of school in protest after a lesbian teacher was allegedly escorted off campus amid a row over “safe space” stickers on classroom doors.
Crowds of students were seen pouring out of MacArthur High School in Irving, Texas on Wednesday (22 September) in response to the school’s alleged “targeted discrimination” against LGBT+ children and teachers.
Many wore heart-shaped rainbow stickers on their faces and clothes, the symbol teachers used to show their classes were a safe space for LGBT+ students – until several weeks ago, when those stickers suddenly disappeared.
“I was freaked. The kids were freaked out,” said Rachel Stonecipher, an English teacher and sponsor of the campus’ Gay Straight Alliance, speaking to DFW News. “I was a little scared too because I’m the only openly, very obviously gay teacher, lesbian teacher.”
Stonecipher was among teachers who emailed asking for an explanation. A staff memo from the new principal said the school wanted “to set a different tone this year,” explaining: “The district’s position is that our responsibility is to make campuses a safe zone for all students, not just in our classrooms, but on every inch of our campus.”
Tensions grew as the school administration began “randomly” questioning students who attended the Gay Straight Alliance club.
Sophomore Alyssa Harbin described a “long, drawn out interrogation” that lasted 45 minutes – and although she was assured she hadn’t done anything wrong, the students who were questioned appeared to have one thing in common.
“All of these randomly selected people have been to at least one Gay Straight Alliance meeting making it feel extremely targeted,” she said at a meeting with school board members, as reported by DFW News.
Stonecipher told WFAA: “There’s a lot of hurt, confusion, and fear from students who feel like the administration has a problem with them for being LGBTQ+. It was emotionally terrible for them.”
They became even more alarmed when they saw Stonecipher being escorted off campus last week, and they say they haven’t seen her since. As the students marched out of class on Wednesday many carried signs with the teacher’s name, expressing their support for her.
“It’s not fair that, one, I have to fight for this, two, we had to go to this level, and it’s not even the first six weeks [of term],” one told WFAA.
So many students walked out of school that Irving Police were called to the campus. The school told Iriving Weekly that it was aware of the walkout and ensured that “all students are safe”.
“We value each student and strive to provide a welcoming and inclusive environment for every student, employee and family,” the Irving School district added in a statement.
“To ensure that all students feel safe regardless of background or identity, the district has developed guidelines to ensure that posters, banners and stickers placed in classrooms, hallways or offices are curriculum driven and neutral in viewpoint.”
When questioned by local media, neither Stonecipher nor the district could answer questions about the teacher’s removal or employment status. In a statement to CBS11, a spokesperson said it is policy that “teachers shall not use the classroom to transmit personal beliefs regarding political or sectarian issues.”
Students are taking a stand against anti-LGBT+ school policies
The walkout at MacArthur High School is the latest in a series of protests against anti-LGBT+ policies in schools. All across the US, queer students and allies have been taking a stand against alleged discrimination against LGBT+ students and teachers.
Many centre on religious schools, like the Catholic Bishop Amat Memorial High School in California, where around 200 students walked out of class after teachers threatened to out a gay classmate to her parents if she didn’t attend counselling.
Another walkout happened in Valor Christian High School in Denver when a gay volleyball coach was allegedly forced to resign after school officials learned of his sexuality.
In June students, parents and alumni of Niles New Tech in Michigan staged a protest outside their school to draw attention to homophobic bullying that had gone largely unchallenged by officials.
And earlier this month more than a hundred students of Winterset High School in Iowa walked out of class to protest the suspension of a teacher who revealed he was bisexual. They also launched a Change.org petition in his defence, which gained over 4,000 signatures.
Many schools remain committed to their anti-LGBT+ policies and continue to fight their cases in long and bitter lawsuits. But the increasing pushback from student bodies and the media attention that accompanies it means they’re unable to keep these battles out of the public eye as they once could.
On an overcast day in late August, a line of homeless people gathered eagerly outside Sara D. Roosevelt Park in New York City’s Lower East Side.
Four volunteers were rapidly pulling backpacks out of a U-Haul and handing them to those in line. In just 45 minutes, the volunteers from Backpacks for the Street, a mobile nonprofit group that provides vital supplies to those without homes, handed off 165 backpacks — a new daily record.
“I think the need is growing more and more,” said Jeffrey Newman, 53, who, along with his husband, Jayson Conner, 44, started the volunteer group in 2018. “People are getting kicked out of the hotel shelters,” he added, referring to an emergency hotel shelter program that ended over the summer.
Newman, a retired businessman, said he runs Backpacks for the Street around the clock, while Conner, who works at a local restaurant, joins him on his days off. The couple decided to start the group after volunteering at a soup kitchen for several years.
Since then, the group has grown to at least 80 volunteers and has given out 32,000 backpacks stuffed with 50 items, including hand sanitizer, masks, toiletries and socks. The backpacks also contain a slip of paper with instructions on how to get vaccinated and a card with Newman’s personal cellphone number, so clients can reach him directly for help. The group also connects people with free programs available to the homeless.
Jeffrey Newman hands out a backpack.Backpacks for the Street
“If we get out there and we show the people how to get to these organizations, these programs, show them what is out there, that is part of the solution to get them off the street,” Newman said.
Demand for help is surging, according to him. Since Covid-19 arrived in the city in March 2020, the group has given out 25,000 backpacks. But while the homeless are eager to grab up backpacks, some are less enthusiastic about getting a vaccine.
“There’s a lot of misinformation out there, a lot of confusion about vaccines, and trying to conquer that is a task unto itself,” Newman said.
To date, about 62 percent of adults in New York City are fully vaccinated, with an additional 7 percent receiving at least one dose, according to data provided by the city. But relatively few of the city’s estimated 60,000 homeless are fully inoculated despite free vaccines available at walk-in clinics and mobile vaccine centers throughout the city: At least 11,300 homeless New Yorkers (about 19 percent) have been fully vaccinated through the Department of Social Services’ vaccination efforts and the city’s mobile vaccination program through the end of August, according to spokespersons for the Department of Social Services and NYC Test & Trace Corps.
With so few homeless people fully vaccinated, Newman fears the worst.
“I think that we’re going to see a tremendous amount of homeless getting sick, if not worse,” he said, “more so because they don’t even know much about the delta [variant].”
New York City was already in the midst of a homelessness crisis before becoming ground zero for the coronavirus last year. To date, over 34,000 New York City residents have lost their lives to Covid, the majority of deaths occurring prior to the rollout of free vaccines in the spring.
The true number of homeless New Yorkers who have died from Covid is unknown. As of the end of February, the New York City Department of Homeless Services documented 113 deaths of homeless people from Covid, 101 of whom died in shelters. Newman said he suspects the actual number is probably much higher, with deaths among the unsheltered likely attributed to other factors, such as extreme cold. At least a dozen of his nonprofit’s regular clients died from the coronavirus, he said, including a few who were personal friends.
As the highly contagious delta variant spreads, now making up at least 97 percent of cases in the city as of last month, Newman is desperately working to educate the homeless about vaccines and get them to vaccination centers. But he said vaccine misinformation is running rampant on the streets, with many homeless believing vaccines are “some evil thing.”
So far, he and his husband have helped more than 160 individuals receive shots, driving them to nearby walk-in centers. But fighting vaccine hesitancy is tough, he said. To incentivize them, the group offers $25 McDonald’s gift cards, and volunteers share their own stories about getting the vaccine.
Newman, who is HIV-positive and vaccinated, said that sitting with clients and talking to them one-on-one about getting inoculated — showing them “I walk the walk, I talk the talk” — often persuades those who are fearful. And since the couple have developed a bond with their homeless clients over the years, many trust them.
The city is also working on getting more homeless vaccinated. According to Adam Shrier, press secretary for the NYC Test & Trace Corp, the mobile vaccination program began sending six vans to “canvas streets, subway stations and parks” at the beginning of September.
Newman fears it won’t be enough.
“It breaks my heart more than anything else,” he said, though he vowed to continue doing what he can to help.
United States Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield is among those who participated in a Wednesday event on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly that highlighted efforts to decriminalize consensual same-sex sexual relations.
Thomas-Greenfield in her remarks during the largely virtual U.N. LGBTI Core Group event noted consensual same-sex sexual relations remain criminalized in more than 70 countries.
“For millions of people it is illegal for them to be who they are, to love who they love. We need to repeal and eliminate these laws,” she said. “For our part, the United States is using our diplomacy, our foreign assistance and every tool we have to protect human rights, empower civil society and support local LGBTQI movements.”
The U.S. is one of 35 countries that are members of the Core Group.
Wednesday’s event also highlighted efforts to decriminalize transgender people and repeal laws that specifically target them.
“We need more countries to join this committed group,” said Thomas-Greenfield. “Together, let’s do everything we can to protect human rights and promote equality for all.”
Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo; Nepalese Ambassador to the U.N. Amrit Bahadur Rai; New Zealand Ambassador to the U.N. Craig Hawke; Australian Permanent U.N. Representative Mitch Fifield; Brazilian Ambassador to the U.N. Rolando Costa Filho; Canadian Ambassador to the U.N. Robert Keith Rae; Assistant U.N. Secretary General for Strategic Coordination Volker Türk; Argentine Foreign Affairs Minister Santiago Cafiero; Dutch Foreign Affairs Minister Tom de Bruijn; Japanese Foreign Minister Jun Shimmi; Norwegian Foreign Affairs Minister Ine Eriksen Soreide; Salvadoran Foreign Affairs Minister Alexandra Hill Tinoco; Costa Rican Vice Multicultural Affairs Minister Christian Guillermet-Fernández; Finnish Foreign Affairs Ministry Johanna Sumuvuori; Nick Herbert of the British House of Lords; European Union Equality Commissioner Helena Dalli; Swedish Foreign Affairs Minister Ann Linde; Icelandic Foreign Affairs Minister Gudlaugur Thór Thórdarson; Maltese Equality, Research, Innovation and the Coordination of Post COVID-19 Strategy Minister Owen Bonnici; Mexican Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights Undersecretary Martha Delgado; Italian Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Benedetto Della Vedova; Chilean Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Carolina Valdivia; German MP Michael Roth; Irish State for Overseas Development Aid and Diaspora Minister Colm Brophy and Danish Development and Nordic Cooperation Minister Flemming Møller Mortensen participated in the event that Reuters U.N. Bureau Chief Michelle Nichols emceed.
Acting OutRight Action International Executive Director Maria Sjödin and activists from Bhutan, Botswana, Guyana, Mozambique, Angola, Panamá and India took part. Victor Madrigal-Borloz, the independent U.N. expert on LGBTQ issues, and Nikkie de Jager, a Dutch U.N. goodwill ambassador known as NikkieTutorials who is trans, also participated.
“Decriminalization is a very basic demand,” said Sjödin. “Given how many countries have these laws on the books, it is still a priority.”
Herbert, who is British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s LGBTQ envoy, noted consensual same-sex sexual relations remain criminalized in 35 of the Commonwealth’s 54 countries. Herbert also announced the U.K. will give an additional $2.75 million to “support LGBT+ individuals in Commonwealth countries, including to those seeking to address outdated legislation that discriminates against women, girls and LGBT+ individuals.”
“We are clear that tackling discrimination is only one part of the issue,” said Herbert. “We must encourage countries as well to put in place laws that protect their LGBTI citizens going forward.”
President Biden in February signed a memorandum that committed the U.S. to promote LGBTQ rights abroad. The decriminalization of consensual same-sex sexual relation is one of the White House’s five global LGBTQ rights priorities.
“We request your attention to these matters and periodic updates on your progress as you continue to implement the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act and work to reduce the violence from xenophobia and hate in our country,” the letter stated.
A DOJ spokeswoman confirmed receipt of the letter.
Co-sponsored by Hirono and Meng, the legislation was signed May 20 by President Joe Biden after winning bipartisan support in Congress and directed the DOJ to expedite the review of Covid-19-related hate crimes that were reported to law enforcement agencies, to help them create ways to report such incidents online and to execute public outreach.
Though the Democratic lawmakers’ letter commended Garland’s efforts to combat hate crimes, it asked the DOJ to look further into establishing online reporting for both hate crimes and incidents. The letter referenced a recent analysis from reporting forum Stop AAPI Hate that revealed over 9,000 anti-Asian bias incidents over the course of roughly 15 months during the pandemic. Verbal harassment made up nearly two-thirds of the total incidents reported, while shunning made up almost 17 percent.
The lawmakers explained that though not all acts of discrimination would equate to a hate crime, “the impetus for these actions are the same—fear and xenophobia.”
“In order to meaningfully address the root causes of this bias and hostility, we need a clear and full picture of the scope of the problem,” the letter stated. “Data on hate crimes alone is insufficient.”
The letter also requested “the expansion of public education campaigns aimed at raising awareness of hate crimes” in different languages to encourage victims to come forward.
Hirono and Meng additionally called for the law to be applied to all hate crimes occurring during the coronavirus pandemic, citing antisemitic attacks in May following “an outbreak in violence between Israel and Hamas” and the deaths of at least 44 transgender or gender-nonconforming people in 2020, “some as the result of anti-transgender bias.”
The letter ended by sharing fears that as the pandemic continues, frustration over the virus “will undoubtedly resurface.”
“We fear the impact this could have on perpetuating hate-based violence against people,” the letter stated. “Full implementation of the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act will help stem the tide against further violence.”
California is banning state-funded travel to Ohio over the state’s new law allowing doctors to decline medical services to people on moral or religious grounds.
The Ohio measure triggered a 2016 California law that requires the attorney general to prohibit state-funded travel to states that discriminate against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people, according to a Friday news release from California Attorney General Rob Bonta.
The ban takes effect Sept. 30, according to the release. Ohio will become the 18th state to which California won’t pay for travel, according to the release.
Ohio legislators tucked the provision into a massive budget bill, House Bill 110, that was recently passed.
The provision’s language is broad, allowing not just doctors but nurses, counselors, social workers, researchers, pharmacists and others to deny services if they have a “conscience-based objection” to the specific service requested.
The law allows health insurers to deny payment for services on the same grounds.
“Whether it’s denying a prescription for medication that prevents the spread of HIV, refusing to provide gender-affirming care, or undermining a woman’s right to choose, HB 110 unnecessarily puts the health of Americans at risk,” Bonta said in the news release.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s office didn’t immediately respond to an email Friday.
Ohio’s law provides that, “when possible and when the medical practitioner is willing, the medical practitioner shall seek to transfer the patient to a colleague who will provide the requested health care service.”
It also designates that emergency treatment doesn’t qualify for the objections.
In addition to Ohio, California has banned travel to Arkansas, Florida, Montana, North Dakota and West Virginia, Alabama, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee and Texas.
Tens of thousands of LGBT veterans forced from the military for their sexual orientation and given other-than-honorable discharges will be able to receive full Veterans Affairs benefits despite their dismissal status under a new move set to be announced Monday.
The change comes as the country approaches the 10th anniversary of repeal of the controversial “don’t ask, don’t tell” law which forced nearly 14,000 service members out of the ranks for admitting their sexual orientation.
But the impact of the new VA announcement goes further than just those individuals, to potentially include troops who served before and after the law who may have been given bad performance reviews or intimidated into leaving the military because of their LGBT status.
Outside advocates estimate as many as 100,000 over the last 70 years may have been involuntarily separated from the military based on their sexual orientation. Data on how many received other-than-honorable discharges is not available.
According to sources familiar with the pending announcement, VA officials plan a series of reviews of those veterans’ cases, with a presumption in favor of granting them benefits unless records give a clear reason to oppose that.
The announcement to be released on Monday — the anniversary of the DADT repeal — includes VA Secretary Denis McDonough asserting that department officials have the authority to award those individuals full VA benefits if their case warrants, regardless of the discharge status.
Individuals with dishonorable discharges or clear criminal history documented in their service records will still not be granted benefits under the new plan.
The military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy was in place from 1993 to 2011. It prohibited LGBT service members from publicly discussing or acknowledging their sexual orientation, with a penalty of dismissal from the ranks if the truth was discovered. Before that, all LGBT individuals were barred completely from serving.
Gay rights advocates for years have noted that both before and while the DADT policy was in place, many military commanders biased against LGBT troops often issued bad conduct dismissals to those individuals — citing issues like substandard fitness reports or poor performance — to cover up bigotry or frustration related to issues of sexual orientation.
That later prompted VA staff to deny benefits to those veterans, since their paperwork did not show honorable discharge status.
The new move will extend VA medical care, disability payouts, employment assistance and other benefits individuals previously blocked because of other-than-honorable discharges.
Department legal officials believe the change will not require any new legislative action or policy statements, because the department already has broad authority to interpret which veterans are eligible for department services.
White House officials are expected to mark the DADT repeal anniversary with an event on Monday. Exact timing on the VA announcement is unclear. VA officials declined comment on the pending news.
In the same brief, which calls for Roe to be overturned, Mitchell and co-counsel Adam Mortara, an anti-abortion activist and lawyer who clerked for the Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas, said such a decision could open the door for other “lawless” rights and protections to be reversed, including the right to have gay sex and the right to same-sex marriage.
The lawyers argued that while it was not necessary for the high court to immediately overrule the legal cases that enshrine those rights, “neither should the court hesitate to write an opinion that leaves those decisions hanging by a thread”.
Those cases (Lawrence, which outlawed criminal sanctions against people who engaged in gay sex, andObergefell, which legalized same-sex marriage) were “far less hazardous to human life”, they said, but just “as lawless as Roe”.
