Jim Obergefell, who was at the center of the 2015 Supreme Court case that legalized marriage equality in the United States, announced Tuesday that he is running for a seat in the Ohio House of Representatives.
“We should all be able to participate fully in society and the economy, living in strong communities with great public schools, access to quality healthcare, and with well-paying jobs that allow us to stay in the community we love, with the family we care about,” Obergefell said in a statement.
Obergefell, 55, was not involved in politics before the Supreme Court case. In 2015, a Washington Post profile described him as “a soft-spoken real estate broker with little previous interest in political activism.”
On Martin Luther King Jr Day, we revisit the legendary civil rights leader’s relationship with LGBT+ rights.
Dr King’s legacy is towering and complex. He devoted his life to – and was ultimately murdered for – advancing the rights of Black Americans, rallying against the “three major evils” – racism, poverty and war. But when looking back at his life and work, it is of course natural to wonder about the things that largely went unsaid. For many, queer Black folk in particular, his stance on LGBT+ rights is a topic of much conversation.
During his lifetime, Martin Luther King Jr was not a vocal advocate for gay rights (he was assassinated a year before Stonewall, in 1968), nor did he speak out against them. One of the rare (if not only) examples of him discussing sexuality publicly comes from an advice column written in 1958, in which an anonymous boy who felt “about boys the way I ought to feel about girls” asked Dr King what he could do, or where he could “go for help”.
“Your problem is not at all an uncommon one,” Dr King replied. “However, it does require careful attention. The type of feeling that you have toward boys is probably not an innate tendency, but something that has been culturally acquired.
Martin Luther King Jr speaking before crowd of 25,000 on March 25, 1965. (Stephen F. Somerstein/Getty)
“Your reasons for adopting this habit have now been consciously suppressed or unconsciously repressed. Therefore, it is necessary to deal with this problem by getting back to some of the experiences and circumstances that lead to the habit.
“In order to do this I would suggest that you see a good psychiatrist who can assist you in bringing to the forefront of conscience all of those experiences and circumstances that lead to the habit. You are already on the right road toward a solution, since you honestly recognise the problem and have a desire to solve it.”
Were such words written in 2020, they would rightly be condemned. Do they indicate that Dr King saw homosexuality as something that could, in this boy’s case at the very least, be fixed? It seems so. Attitudes like this were hugely prevalent at the time, with the LGBT+ community under constant attack from the government and by society.
However, they were usually combined with an aggression and a hate that was entirely absent in Dr King’s response. It’s possible that he both believed this boy’s sexuality could be changed, and truly believed in equality for all, with no exception.
The opinions of those who knew and loved him, however, suggest he was no homophobe.
Bayard Rustin on Martin Luther King Jr: ‘He would not have had the prejudicial view’
Bayard Rustin, the legendary organiser of the 1963 March on Washington, became one of Dr King’s most trusted advisors while he was organising the Montgomery bus boycott and was influential in his adoption of non-violence tactics. He was also a gay man.
1964: Martin Luther King Jr (r), Bayard Rustin (l), and Bernard Lee (c). (Getty)
In 1987, almost 20 years after Dr King’s assassination, Rustin approached the subject of his attitudes towards gay people in an essay.
“It is difficult for me to know what Dr King felt about gayness except to say that I’m sure he would have been sympathetic and would not have had the prejudicial view,” he wrote.
“Otherwise he would not have hired me. He never felt it necessary to discuss that with me.”
Rustin said this his own gayness “was not problem for Dr King but a problem for the movement”, explaining that eventually some of the reverend’s inner circle eventually “came to the decision that my sex life was a burden” and “advised him that he should ask me to leave”.
“I told Dr King that if advisors closest to him felt I was a burden, then rather than put him in a position that he had to say leave, I would go,” he continued.
“He was just so harassed that I felt it was my obligation to relieve him of as much of that as I could.” After the split, Rustin said, King “continued to call on me, over and over”.
Dr King’s widow, Coretta Scott King, certainly believed his central mission was inclusive of LGBT+ rights, even if he remained quiet.
1964: Coretta Scott King and her husband Martin Luther King 09 December in Oslo where he received the Nobel Peace Prize. (Getty)
Coretta Scott King was a tireless gay rights campaigner
In 1998, addressing a Lamda Legal anniversary luncheon, Mrs King said: “I still hear people say that I should not be talking about the rights of lesbian and gay people, and I should stick to the issue of racial justice.
“But I hasten to remind them that Martin Luther King Jr said: ‘Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.’ I appeal to everyone who believes in Martin Luther King Jr’s dream to make room at the table of brother- and sisterhood for lesbian and gay people.”
Mrs King was a tireless LGBT+ rights campaigner, coming out in support of the groundbreaking Gay and Civil Rights Act that would have banned anti-gay discrimination in many public arenas in 1983.
Until her death in 2016 she continued to fight for LGBT+ equality: calling on then-president Bill Clinton to stop the gay military ban in 1993 and condemning George W Bush in 2004 for his anti-marriage equality stance.
Declaring marriage equality a civil rights issue at the time, she said: “With this faith and this commitment we will create the beloved community of Martin Luther King Jr’s dream, where all people can live together in a spirit of trust and understanding, harmony, love and peace.”
On the other hand, there are those who have positioned Dr King’s legacy as against LGBT+ rights. Most notable, his own daughter, Bernice King, said in 2004 her father “did not take a bullet for same-sex unions” while campaigning against marriage equality (though it appears she has since changed her own position, having welcomed the 2015 Supreme Court ruling on the matter).
Those who believe Dr King would have supported the community have dismissed Bernice King’s words, noting that she would have been approaching five-years-old when her father died and therefore, couldn’t possibly know his view on the matter.
Ultimately, it’s impossible to know what Dr King’s true position was. The fights for queer liberation and Black liberation have overlapped and diverged and various points in history – and continue to do so to this day. Neither community (not its intersection) is a monolith, and no person is all good or all bad.
It’s impossible to say exactly how Martin Luther King Jr felt about LGBT+ people and their rights simply because he isn’t around to tell us. On the evidence and testimonies available, it seems his thinking was flawed, but not malign, and he may well have considered himself empathetic to the community. Ultimately, the biggest crime is that he isn’t around to tell us today.
American Idol star Clay Aiken has launched a second congressional bid after being inspired to fight hate perpetuated by North Carolina’s top lawmakers.
Aiken was the runner-up on the second season of American Idol in 2003. Afterwards, he launched a music and acting career – even appearing as acontestant on Celebrity Apprentice hosted by former president Donald Trump.
In 2014 he turned his attention to politics, winning the Democratic primary in North Carolina’s second congressional district, but he was defeated in the general election by Republican incumbent Renee Ellmers.
Now he’s running for Congress again. But this time, Aiken, who has referred to himself as a “loud and proud Democrat”, is running to represent the newly drawn sixth district. He is hoping to replace representative David Price, who was first elected in 1986 and said he would not seek re-election in October.
Aiken told Variety that he wasn’t initially planning to run for congress again, but he changed his mind after hearing a homophobic speech by North Carolina’s lieutenant governor Mark Robinson.
He described how “several people” asked if he would be interested in running for Price’s seat after the long-time politician announced he would be retiring from the role in 2022.
“I told them, you know, I’m keeping an eye on it, but I’m not really necessarily thinking about running right now,” he recalled.
“He gave a speech in which he said: ‘What is the purpose of homosexuality? What purpose do homosexuals serve?’” Aiken said.
He continued: “I watched that sort of with just dumbstruck awe that someone could be so ignorant.
After watching it, I said, you know, ‘I got your purpose, bitch. I will show you’.”
Clay Aiken onstage during the opening curtain call for “Ruben & Clay’s First Annual Christmas Show” on 11 December 2018. (Getty/Walter McBride)
Aiken described himself as a “North Carolinian” his entire life, adding his family has “been here since the 1700s”. He said Robinson’s anti-LGBT+ hatred made him “really think about the reputation” the state has “gotten over the past several years”.
“In my entire life, I’ve never known a time when this state has had a reputation that wasn’t progressive and welcoming and friendly,” he added.
He added that some friends wouldn’t want to visit because they didn’t feel “comfortable in North Carolina”. Aiken said he was “sick” that his beloved state has such a reputation, and he isn’t “willing” to let it continue any longer.
“And that p**ses me the hell off,” he said. “Because this area is not like that, and the fact that people outside of this state have this opinion or this perception of North Carolina based on people like Mark Robinson and Madison Cawthorn.”
A group of North Carolina voters have launched a bid to keep Cawthorn, a Republican congressman, off the ballot in this year’s midterm elections, citing his alleged involvement in the 6 January Capitol riot.
Cawthorn claimed the election was stolen from Trump during the “Save America Rally” before the riot and has been accused of firing up the crowd, The Guardian reported.
A group of voters have said that Cawthorn can’t run for Congress because he fails to comply with an amendment in the Constitution.
The 1868 amendment says no one can serve in Congress if they have “previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress … to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same”.
In the video announcing his congressional run, Clay Aiken condemned Cawthorn and Robinson as “white nationalists” and “hateful homophobes”.
He also acknowledged it wasn’t a “North Carolina thing” before showing images of reviled GOP representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene (Georgia) and Lauren Boebert (Colorado).
Nearly seven years after the Supreme Court ruled same-sex marriage the law of the land, New Jersey enacted a law Monday to protect this relatively new right throughout the Garden State.
Prior to the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Obergefell v. Hodges — which legalized sex-marriage nationwide in 2015 — New Jersey’s state courts had already struck down a same-sex marriage ban in 2013.
But as a majority of the Supreme Court’s conservative justices appeared open to overturning Roe v. Wade last month, new fears that the court could also make an about-face on the Obergefell ruling have prompted some lawmakers to enshrine same-sex marriage into state law.
“We’ve been fighting for marriage equality for decades, and to turn back the clock would be devastating,” New Jersey Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle, who co-sponsored the newly passed bill, told NBC News. “I can’t emphasize enough the fact that we need to safeguard it in light of what’s happening on a federal level today.”
Both chambers of the New Jersey Legislature passed the bill last month, and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, signed it into law Monday.
“Despite the progress we have made as a country, there is still much work to be done to protect the LGBTQ+ community from intolerance and injustice,” Murphy said in a statement. “New Jersey is stronger and fairer when every member of our LGBTQ+ family is valued and given equal protection under the law.”
Last month, the Supreme Court heard 90 minutes of oral arguments concerning a Mississippi law that would ban almost all abortions in the state after 15 weeks of pregnancy. A majority of the court’s conservative justices appeared prepared to uphold the law and possibly overturn Roe v. Wade — the 1973 landmark decision holding that women have a constitutional right to have an abortion before fetal viability, usually around 24 weeks.
The prospect of the 1973 ruling being overturnedhas prompted fears among lawmakers and LGBTQ advocates that the justices might also walk back precedent on a range of other cases, including Obergefell.
Before the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide, 37 states and U.S. territories had already legalized marriage equality. But of those, only 19 had legalized the nuptials through state legislation, according to an NBC News analysis. Therefore, if the Supreme Court were to overturn Obergefell, same-sex marriage would be prohibited in the majority of the country and vulnerable in states where it was not written into law.
“The Supreme Court right now is showing us that nothing is guaranteed,” West Virginia Del. Cody Thompson said. “A lot of things that we take for granted right now, that we think are enshrined and are safe, ultimately now we’re realizing are not safe and are not necessarily always going to be there for us unless we remain vigilant.”
In response to the court’s oral arguments on reproductive rights, Thompson and fellow West Virginia Del. Danielle Walker — who are the Legislature’s only out LGBTQ lawmakers — said they will introduce a bill this month to codify same-sex marriage into law, similar to the legislation New Jersey enacted this week. West Virginia legalized same-sex marriage through litigation in 2014, but it never enshrined the right through legislation.
While the court’s seeming willingness to overturn Roe v. Wade has sparked fears among some state lawmakers, lawyers who argued in favor of gay rights in landmark LGBTQ cases shot down the notion that the high court would overturn the same-sex marriage decision even if given the opportunity to do so.
“I appreciate that you have legislatures who are trying to step in and do what they can to update their laws,” said Mary Bonauto, who argued on behalf of same-sex couples in Obergefell and now serves as the civil rights project director at GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, or GLAD. “We all just have to be careful to avoid giving credence to the idea that reversing Obergefell is inevitable. We are not expecting this. It would be outrageous.”
Bonauto added that Obergefell was “constitutionally correct” because the court has repeatedly made clear that “marriage is a choice for the individual to make and not the government” and is “part of equality.”
Over the last several decades, the court has struck down laws when states tried to prevent people from marrying on the basis of their race, criminal history and their ability to pay child support payments.
Paul Smith, who argued in favor of gay rights in Lawrence v. Texas, which struck down state laws criminalizing consensual same-sex activity in 2003, agreed with Bonauto, saying it is “unlikely” that the court would overturn Obergefell because it is “incredibly popular.”
Support for same-sex marriage among Americans reached an all-time high last year, according to a June Gallup Poll, with 70 percent of Americans — including a majority of conservatives — in favor of it.
“The court would be shooting itself in the foot if it were to do this,” Smith said.
Regardless, in 2020, following the Supreme Court’s rejection of an appeal from Kim Davis, a former Kentucky county clerk who denied marriage licenses to same-sex couples, two of the court’s conservative justices, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, issued a blistering rebuke of the Obergefell ruling and signaled that they would be open to reversing it.
The justices said Davis “may have been one of the first victims of this Court’s cavalier treatment of religion in its Obergefell decision, but she will not be the last,” adding that the high court “has created a problem that only it can fix.”
Some legal experts pointed to this statement and some of the court’s more recent rulings involving same-sex couples as evidence that marriage equality remains vulnerable.
In 2018, the court issued a narrow ruling in favor of a Colorado baker who refused to make a cake for a same-sex wedding in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission. And last year, in Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, the court ruled in favor of a Catholic adoption agency that wanted an exemption from Philadelphia’s nondiscrimination law, which would have required the agency to allow LGBTQ couples to adopt.
“The justices have been asked to chip away at the equality and liberty of same-sex couples in a variety of different contexts, and the Supreme Court has not done an adequate job in recent years of rebuffing those efforts,” said Camilla Taylor, director of constitutional litigation for LGBTQ civil rights organization Lambda Legal. “And so, certainly our opponents feel like they have an open invitation right now.”
On January 6, 2021, Trump supporters who believed that President Joe Biden had secretly and successfully stolen millions of ballots across multiple states to usurp the presidency stormed the Capitol with the intent of stopping Congress from accepting the states’ election results.
The crowd chanted for the death of Mike Pence – who was presiding over the Senate that day – and fashioned a makeshift noose as elected officials were swept to safety by the Secret Service and Capitol Police.
He has been charged with unlawfully entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds as well as violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol Grounds.
After the charges were announced, Shroyer released a video claiming his innocence and that he was merely at the Capitol as a journalist.
Yet the complaint filed against him quotes his appearance in a video that day saying, “Today we march for the Capitol because on this historic January 6, 2021, we have to let our Congressmen and women know, and we have to let Mike Pence know, they stole the election, we know they stole it, and we aren’t going to accept it!”
Mark Sahady
Mark Sahady is the Vice President of the far-right conservative group Super Happy Fun America (SHFA) and was arrested after the riots for entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disruptive and disorderly conduct in a restricted building or grounds, and disorderly conduct in a Capitol building.
On its website, SHFA describes itself as “a right of center civil rights organization focusing on defending the Constitution, opposing gender madness and defeating cultural Marxism.”
It’s tagline: “It’s Great to be Straight.”
In 2019, Sahady was an organizer for the group’s infamous Straight Pride Parade in Boston, the city where he would be arrested in January 2021.
Gina Michelle Bisignano
Gina Bisignano, allegedly at the MAGA riots Screenshot/Twitter
Gina Michelle Bisignano, a Trump supporter who made headlines in 2020 for shouting anti-gay slurs at an anti-mask protest, was arrested last January for participating in the Capitol riots.
“You’re a faggot,” Bisignano, said in the viral video from December 2020. “I said it. I don’t give a shit. You’re disgusting. You’re a New World Order Satanist.”
Bisignano owns Gina’s Eyelashes and Skincare salon in Beverly Hills and was taken into custody by the FBI on charges of civil disorder, destruction of government property, and aiding and abetting in connection with the January 6 riots at the Capitol.
“Everybody, we need gas masks, we need weapons,” a woman believed to be Bisignano shouts on a megaphone in a video posted to social media during the riots. “We need strong, angry patriots to help our boys, they don’t want to leave. We need protection.”
In another video, a woman who identifies herself as Bisignano at the MAGA riots said, “I’m a patriot!”
Suzanne Ianni
Screenshot, NBC10 Boston
Suzanne Ianni, the operations director of Super Happy Fun America, was arrested for entering a restricted building or grounds as well as disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.
The international news agency Agence France Presse captured photographs of Ianni inside the Capitol on January 6, MetroWest Daily News reported in July. Ianni also reportedly helped organize 11 buses of protestors that traveled from Massachusetts to Washington to denounce President Joe Biden’s victory.
Kevin Tuck
Pastor Kevin Tuck Screenshot
After police officer Kevin Tuck was charged for participating in the riots, he began ranting on YouTube about how he believes it’s unjust that people are getting arrested for rioting in Congress.
“Patriots were fed up – fed up,” he said about that day, calling himself “Pastor Kevin.”
“Patriots are being arrested left and right for trespassing. You’ve got to be kidding me.”
He told conservatives to “rise up” and said that the GOP is supporting “alternative lifestyles.”
“The Republican Party is weak,” he said. “We need to rise up and be conservative again. Do you remember what conservative means, Republicans? Hear me out: We are embracing the homosexual lifestyle as if this is normal.”
“Was that your motivation for going to Washington?” she asked. He said he couldn’t answer without talking to his attorney first.
Prosecutors say that Tuck texted his family immediately after the insurrection: “We stormed the Capitol, fought the police, took the flag. It is our flag.”
Tuck was charged with obstruction of an official proceeding, aiding and abetting, entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, entering and remaining in the Gallery of Congress, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building.
Pioneering Chinese-American gay rights activist and social worker Jim Toy, widely considered to be the first gay man to come out publicly in Michigan, has died at the age of 91.
Toy died on 1 January, according to Washtenaw county commissioner Jason Morgan, who shared the news on social media.
“Jim Toy was and will always be a champion for LGBTQ rights and the our community,” said Morgan. “He was a mentor, friend and someone I admired. I am honoured to have known Jim.”
Morgan added that Toy helped pass LGBT+ protections throughout Washtenaw county, founded the first on-campus LGBT+ resource centre at the University of Michigan, and spent his life fighting for LGBT+ equality – so much so, that he was the namesake of the The Jim Toy Community Center, a resource for the community in Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti, and greater Washtenaw County.
Toy came out as gay at a rally in Detroit in 1970, where he was representing the Detroit Gay Liberation Front, of which he was a founding member.
In 2015, Toy described this moment to the Ann Arbor News: “Our speaker at the anti-Vietnam War rally in Detroit said he wasn’t going to speak, so finally I spoke, and I came out. That was April 15, 1970.”
Toy was a trained clinical social worker, who graduated from the University of Michigan and then worked at the university, first as a diversity coordinator and then helping to establish the university’s human sexuality office – the first on-campus centre in history dedicated to supporting people from sexual-minority groups.
He also founded the Ann Arbor Gay Hotline in 1972, wrote the city’s sexual orientation non-discrimination policy, and in 1971 was appointed to the Diocesan Commission on Homosexuality by the Episcopal Diocese of Michigan – helping to inspire more support for LGBT+ people within Christian churches.
A regular at political rallies and a trailblazer for gay rights, Toy said in 2020: “I am committed to making as much trouble as I can to create and maintain justice.”
Remembering Jim Toy, many spoke to how he had advocated for the gay community since the 1970s, when he raised awareness of anti-gay discrimination and wrote policies to protect the gay community.
Congresswoman Debbie Dingell said Toy was a “champion for equality”.
“He was a trailblazer not only for LGBTQ rights in Michigan but across the country. And he was a dear friend to me and John. Throughout his life, he worked to ensure that Ann Arbor and Washtenaw County communities were safe spaces where residents could live with pride in who they are and without fear of discrimination.
“Often I think about Jim’s words, ‘I am committed to making as much trouble as I can to create and maintain justice.’ He fought with every bone in his body to support the LGBTQ community, to fight for marriage equality, to ensure protections for so many.
“Love continues to win because of the dedication that Jim put into his work. We owe so much to him and it’s on all of us to ensure his legacy continues. I’m thinking about his family, friends, and the Ann Arbor community as we mourn this great loss.”
A lawsuit filed last month revealed that at least 19 people are still required to register as sex offenders due to past convictions under South Carolina’s “buggery” law for having consensual gay sex.
The SC law, along with other states’ anti-sodomy laws, were made invalid in 2003, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Texas’ anti-sodomy law was unconstitutional. While pardons were granted for those targeted by the laws, the convictions still require them to remain on the sex offenders list in South Carolina and two other states — Mississippi and Idaho.
The lawsuit was filed by one of the men, who was convicted, along with his partner, in 2001 under the “buggery” law. His pardon came in 2006, but his life continues to be plagued by his status as a registered sex offender.
Twice a year, he’s required to report to the sheriff’s office and give detailed information about his life — his address, employment status, vehicle information, fingerprints, palm prints, and every online account he uses. At one point, he was denied a professional license because of his sex offender status.
Attorney Matthew Strugar of Los Angeles and attorney Allen Chaney from the ACLU of South Carolina filed the lawsuit on the man’s behalf Dec. 22 in the U.S. District Court of South Carolina, making it a federal complaint.
“The registration obligations, sort of, take over your life,” Strugar told the Post and Courier.
Even if the man was to move, reciprocity laws would require him to register as a sex offender in nearly every other state.
The lawsuit seeks to remove the man’s name from the sex offender registry, and also to stop the state from requiring anyone else convicted of sodomy offenses from having to register as sex offenders.
Trans people in Lithuania will finally be allowed to change their legal name without undergoing gender-reassignment surgery.
Justice minister Evelina Dobrovolska signed the order permitting legal name changes on 31 December.
However, trans people who wish to change their name on official documents will still have to obtain a certificate from a Lithuanian or EU healthcare establishment of “diagnosed transgenderism”.
The new regulation comes into force on 2 February and will be “an important step that will help Lithuania to ensure partial implementation of the ruling the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) issued more than a decade ago, as well as the consolidation of human rights standards”, the justice ministry said, according to Lithuanian news outlet Delfi.
Trans rights in Lithuania
In 2007, a 28-year-old trans man won his case against Lithuania in the ECHRover the state’s failure to provide him with legal documents in his correct gender.
The seven judges ruled that Lithuania had to implement new legislation on gender reassignment within three months or pay damages.
During the 2007 case, the Court observed that Lithuanian law had recognised trans people’s right to change not only their gender but also their civil status. However, there was a gap in the relevant legislation: the law regulating gender-reassignment surgery, although drafted, had yet to be adopted.
In the meantime, no suitable medical facilities were reasonably accessible in Lithuania.
Lithuania yet to introduce marriage equality
Under EU law all member states must “facilitate” LGBT+ citizens, meaning they must be kept free from discrimination.
Homosexuality was only decriminalised in the majority-Catholic country in 1993, and the constitution still defines marriage as between a man and a woman.
Gitanas Nausėda, president of Lithuania, has been vocal about his belief in what he calls traditional family values.
He has rallied against what he termed “genderist propaganda” and has said that marriage is between a man and a woman.
“As a president of the Lithuanian Republic, I will use my powers to make sure it is so,” he said at a rally in May 2021, as citizens protested against draft legislation that would permit same-sex civil unions.
So much happened this year that it’s hard to believe it was all contained within just 12 months, or that we’re finally actually going to get out of 2021. But here we are!
While this list could go on forever, here are the top ten biggest queer moments in news, for both better and worse.
President Biden repeals Trump’s trans military ban
President Biden wasted no time repealing former President Trump’s transgender military ban, signing an executive order on January 25 that he said would allow all “qualified Americans to serve their country in uniform.”
“It is my conviction as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces that gender identity should not be a bar to military service. Moreover, there is substantial evidence that allowing transgender individuals to serve in the military does not have any meaningful negative impact on the Armed Forces,” the order reads.
Pete Buttigieg sworn-in as first gay Cabinet member confirmed by Senate
Mayor Pete made history this year as the first openly gay Cabinet member in U.S. history confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Buttigieg was selected by Biden to serve as the transportation secretary. He was sworn-in with his husband, Chasten Buttigieg, by his side. The two embraced at the completion of the swearing-in, which was conducted by Vice President Kamala Harris.
Rachel Levine makes history as first openly transgender federal official confirmed by U.S. Senate
Dr. Rachel Levine also made history as the first openly transgender federal official to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Levine, who was formerly the secretary of health in Pennsylvania, is now serving as the assistant secretary for health in the Department of Health and Human Services. She said she was “honored” to be sworn-in and that her “immediate focus” was to help get the pandemic under control, as well as “address the underlying issues it brought to the surface” in regards to inequities in mental health and drug addiction.
HUD withdraws Trump-era proposal to gut equal access
In April, the Department of Housing and Urban Development withdrew proposed changes to the Equal Access Rule that had been put forward by the Trump administration, thereby reasserting non-discrimination protections in HUD-funded housing and programs on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.
“Housing discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity demands urgent enforcement action,” said Acting Assistant Secretary of FHEO, Jeanine M. Worden, in a statement announcing the department’s plans back in February.
“That is why HUD, under the Biden Administration, will fully enforce the Fair Housing Act to prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation. Every person should be able to secure a roof over their head free from discrimination, and the action we are taking today will move us closer to that goal.”
U.S. expands birthright citizenship for babies born abroad to same-sex couples
In another landmark move by the Biden administration, the U.S. State Department expanded birthright citizenship for babies born to same-sex couples living abroad, regardless of whether or not an American parent is biologically related to said child. Under this policy, a child’s U.S. citizenship will be recognized, for babies born of both same-sex and opposite-sex parents, provided at least one of the parents is an American citizen.
Biden administration says Title IX protections apply to LGBTQ students
The Biden administration reversed another of the Trump administration’s stance when the Department of Education issued a notice of interpretation that, in its view, Title IX protects the rights of LGBTQ students against discrimination. The decision could impact the treatment of trans students when it comes to sports as well as the use of bathrooms and locker rooms. The administration cited the Supreme Court’s Bostock ruling that set the precedent that pre-existing federal civil rights law protects LGBTQ people under the prohibition of sex discrimination.
Congress votes to make Pulse Nightclub a national memorial
Congress passed a bill to make the site of the Pulse massacre a national memorial this year, and it was signed into law by President Biden over the summer. Biden was surrounded by survivors and family members of the mass shooting, which took 49 lives at the Pulse Nightclub, an LGBTQ venue.
“Just over five years ago, the Pulse Nightclub – a place of acceptance and joy – became a place of unspeakable pain and loss, and we’ll never fully recover from it, but we’ll remember,” he said.
Creation of new interagency working group for progress on transgender issues
The Biden administration announced at the end of Pride Month that it was forming a new White House-led Interagency Working Group on Safety, Inclusion, and Opportunity for Transgender Americans. The group includes participants from the Departments of Justice, Housing and Urban Development, Health and Human Services, Education, Homeland Security, Labor, Interior, Veterans Affairs, and Defense.
“The Interagency Working Group will review policies that are upstream drivers of violence and poverty for transgender individuals, including homelessness, employment discrimination, violence and abuse, and bullying and rejection at school. The Department of State and USAID will also participate to strengthen their efforts to protect transgender individuals from violence and discrimination around the world,” a White House fact sheet explained.
Record-breaking number of anti-LGBTQ bills
With progress comes the inevitable backlash, sadly, and 2021 proved that rule to be all too true. This year saw a record-number of anti-LGBTQ bills filed in state legislatures, as well as a record-breaking number of such bills passing. A great number of those were specifically targeted at the transgender community. Before Pride Month could even get underway, there were already more anti-LGBTQ laws passed than in any other year. They include laws against providing transgender youth with healthcare and banning trans kids from playing organized sports.
Two big Supreme Court rulings
Since we didn’t want to end this on a low note, the Supreme Court issued two big rulings impacting the LGBTQ community this year. In Arlene’s Flowers v. Washington State, where a florist refused to offer services to a same-sex couple for their wedding, the high court denied a review of the case, leaving a ruling in place by the Washington Supreme Court. That lower court decided the flower shop’s objection on faith-based groups did not grant it the right to discriminate.
In Fulton v. Philadelphia, the court considered whether a religiously-affiliated foster care agency could ignore a clause in its contract with the city of Philadelphia that stipulated that it could not discriminate against prospective parents based on religious grounds. The court issued a narrow ruling, similar to the one in the Masterpiece Cakeshop ruling, based on what the ACLU described as “a quirk in Philadelphia’s non-discrimination contract that the court interpreted as failing to treat all city contractors equally.” It did not make a ruling on the larger issue of the right to religious freedom versus the right to not be discriminated against.
From an-depth look at transgender men’s experiences in prison to Olympic diver Tom Daley’s viral knitting, here are 21 of our most clicked on LGBTQ news stories of the year.
Meet the queer teacher behind Bernie Sanders’ viral mittens
Jen Ellis, creator of the famous Sen. Bernie Sanders mittens, lives in Vermont with her 5-year-old daughter and her wife, Liz, and teaches second grade.Courtesy Jen Ellis
Vermont educator Jen Ellis uses her mittens to raise money for LGBTQ youth and show people the power of generosity. (Jan. 30)
Americans identifying as LGBTQ more than ever, poll finds
Pride flag fon July 10, 2021, in San Diego, Calif.Daniel Knighton / Getty Images file
Nearly 16 percent of Generation Z, those 18 to 23 in 2020, consider themselves something other than heterosexual, according to a Gallup poll. (Feb. 24)
Bisexual women with straight male partners least likely to be out
Evgeniy Fedorcov / Getty Images/iStockphoto
Bisexual women’s health and well-being may be affected by the gender and sexual orientation of their partner, according to a study published in the Journal of Bisexuality. (March 6)
America’s remaining lesbian bars are barely hanging on
Cubbyhole in the West Village, in New York City. Jamie McCarthy / Getty Images
“They provide a safe space, a place for camaraderie, a place for community and, of course, a place to get laid,” actor Lea DeLaria said of queer women’s bars. (April 4)
Cherry Grove: How a beach town became a gay ‘safe haven’
Maggie McCorkle and Audrey Hartmann in Cherry Grove, Calif., 1963.Cherry Grove Archives Collection
An exhibit at the New-York Historical Society features rarely seen photos of the LGBTQ community enjoying the freedom offered by Fire Island’s Cherry Grove, one of America’s first gay beach towns. (May 14)
Mark Wahlberg with Reid Miller in “Joe Bell.”Quantrell D. Colbert / Roadside Attractions
The movie, starring Mark Wahlberg, tells the complicated story of a father who wanted to memorialize his gay son while also spreading a message of acceptance. (July 22)
Remembering the ‘Saint of 9/11’ and the ‘Hero of Flight 93’
Father Mychal Judge, Mark Bingham.Getty Images/Courtesy Amanda MarK
Mark Bingham, a rugby player, reportedly confronted hijackers on United Flight 93, and the Rev. Mychal Judge died tending to victims at the World Trade Center. (Sept. 11)
Dr. Rachel Levine becomes nation’s first trans four-star officer
Rachel Levine appears during her confirmation hearing on Feb. 25, 2021. Caroline Brehman / Pool via Reuters
Levine was appointed to lead the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, making her the nation’s first openly transgender four-star officer. (Oct. 19)
Kavanaugh cites landmark gay rights cases in abortion argument
Brett Kavanaugh on Capitol Hill on Sept. 27, 2018.Tom Williams / Pool via Getty Images file
Lawyers who argued for LGBTQ rights in those landmark cases — Obergefell v. Hodges and Lawrence v. Texas — were conflicted on the validity of Justice Kavanaugh’s argument about abortion restrictions. (Dec. 3)
