Same-sex married couples may get a tax break from Democrats’ $1.75 trillion social and climate spending plan.
The latest iteration of the Build Back Better Act would let taxpayers who were legally married under state law before 2010 claim federal tax benefits that are unavailable under current rules.
Essentially, the revision would let couples file amended tax returns for years as early as 2004. They could file a joint federal return as a married couple, and claim refunds and credits that may result in a net tax benefit.
“It’d be pretty significant for some folks,” said Jeffrey Levine, an accountant and certified financial planner at Buckingham Wealth Partners in Long Island, New York.
Democrats’ legislation, which the House aims to pass this week, may change, and its ultimate success isn’t guaranteed.
United States v. Windsor
The current gap in tax rules for some same-sex married couples dates to a Supreme Court decision in 2013, United States v. Windsor, which struck down part of the Defense of Marriage Act.
The ruling required the federal government to recognize same-sex marriagesin states where they were legal.
Following the Windsor case, the IRS issued guidance that let taxpayers amend their tax returns with respect to their marital status, but only generally back to 2010, according to a Nov. 3 summary of the Build Back Better Act.
However, same-sex marriage was legal in five states (Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont) plus Washington, D.C., before 2010, according to the Pew Research Center. (Massachusetts became the first state to legalize the unions, in 2003, after its Supreme Judicial Court ruled that the state constitution gives gay and lesbian couples the right to marry. The U.S. Supreme Court later legalized same-sex marriage nationwide, in 2015, in Obergefell v. Hodges.)
Gay and lesbian couples who legally wed before 2010 would be able to file an amended tax return if Congress passes the Build Back Better Act with the provision intact.
“This is a fair thing to do,” said Steve Wamhoff, director of federal tax policy at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. “People were married [but] the federal government wasn’t recognizing their marriages.”
While fair in terms of tax policy, it’s questionable whether many couples would make the effort to redo their tax returns and take advantage of new rules, Wamhoff said.
Marriage penalty
It’s also not a given that all married couples would benefit from filing a joint return instead of as single taxpayers.
Same-sex couples who’d benefit most from new rules would likely be those in which one spouse is a high earner and the other has little to no income, Levine said.
That’s largely due to the so-called marriage penalty, which is most common when each spouse earns a similar income.
For example, in 2004, single taxpayers were in the 28% tax bracket if their income exceeded $70,350. However, instead of a level twice that amount, married couples filing a joint tax return hit the 28% rate once income exceeded $117,250.
That basically meant married couples jumped into that tax rate more easily with respect to their income. (There’s still a marriage penalty, but a federal tax law in 2017 temporarily eased it.)
Married couples may also be able to claim certain tax benefits unavailable to single filers, Levine said.
For example, if a higher-earning spouse had paid for medical or education expenses for the other spouse pre-2010, the high earner couldn’t claim medical or education tax breaks for those costs on their individual return, Levine said. They’d perhaps be able to do so on a married-joint return.
An Oregon man has been charged with a federal hate crime after using the internet to target and brutally assault a gay man because of his sexual orientation. Daniel Andrew McGee, of Springfield, has been charged by criminal complaint with a hate crime. The complaint alleges that McGee attempted to kill the victim.
According to court documents, McGee and his victim met using Grindr, a social media and networking application designed for, and used primarily by, gay men.
On July 5, after agreeing to meet, McGee entered his victim’s apartment and proceeded to assault the man with a wooden club over a period of several minutes.
Despite the victim’s pleas for McGee to stop, McGee continued striking the man repeatedly in the head with the club. The victim sustained life-threatening injuries and was transported to a local hospital.
Further investigation revealed that, in the weeks leading up to the attack, McGee used the internet to search for and view graphically violent anti-gay material, including videos of anti-gay attacks.
McGee also used the internet to plan the assault, purchasing the weapon and other materials online. In addition, McGee searched online for suggestions about how to get away with murder and how murderers avoid getting caught.
On Nov. 15, McGee was arrested by the FBI and made his initial appearance in federal court before a U.S. Magistrate Judge. He was ordered detained pending further court proceedings.
Nevada Democrat Kimi Cole wants to become the country’s first openly transgender politician elected to a statewide office.
Cole, who chairs the Nevada Democratic Rural Caucus, announced plans to run for lieutenant governor in Nevada on Wednesday at an event in the state capital.
“I don’t want to make a big issue about my background as such,” Cole said Thursday in an interview with The Associated Press, noting the barrier-breaking potential of her candidacy. “We have really pressing issues in this country. To be able to assess them, address them and take care of them is going to take a lot of conscientious effort.”
There are more than 40 transgender politicians serving in elected office as state lawmakers, judges and city council members, according to a tally from Victory Institute, a group that works to elect LGBTQ politicians. None as of yet have won a statewide race.
Cole, a former construction manager who lives in Carson City, entered politics a decade ago after coming out publicly as transgender and experiencing firsthand what it felt like to be seen differently by the public.
“All of a sudden I was being treated differently or being treated poorly. People steered away from me and everything. That’s when it really hit me like a brick: How does anybody that looks different or talks different deal with life?” Cole said.
Cole has since served as chair of the Douglas County Democrats and volunteered to assist people experiencing homelessness and addiction. Cole has also worked to encourage presidential candidates to pay attention to rural Nevada, despite the fact that Republicans dominates elections outside the state’s major cities.
Nevada has not had a lieutenant governor since Democrat Kate Marshall resigned to accept a White House appointment in August. Gov. Steve Sisolak, who has the power to appoint a successor, has not filled the position.
Three Republicans — former state treasurer Dan Schwartz, perennial candidate Mack Miller and Las Vegas city councilman Stavros Anthony — and one other Democrat, Henderson Mayor Debra March, have announced plans to run for Lieutenant Governor. March was endorsed by the state Democratic Party in August.
Cole said she understands the attention paid to a transgender candidate’s personal story but plans to focus the campaign on kitchen table equity issues like housing affordability and transportation. However, Cole still acknowledges the importance of visibility to many in the transgender community.
“So many people have come up to me and just told me that, by doing what I do and living vocally and openly, it has inspired them … to feel really good about their lives and how they’re living,” Cole said.
Once last week’s victors are sworn in, the United States will have elected more than 1,000 concurrently serving LGBTQ officials for the first time in history, according to the political action committee LGBTQ Victory Fund.
At least 237 lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer candidates were on the ballot — an 18.5 percent increase since the last off-year election, in 2019, according to the Victory Fund.
Races were still being called Tuesday afternoon, but in many states, LGBTQ candidates celebrated historic firsts.
Six out LGBTQ candidates won their races for the New York City Council, which means the number of out representatives on the 51-person council increased from four to six. According to the Victory Fund, it’s the largest group of out LGBTQ council members ever elected in a city, with the previous record being five also in New York.
Crystal Hudson.Katrina Hajagos
Democrats Crystal Hudson and Kristin Richardson Jordan — who will represent District 35 in Brooklyn and District 9 in Upper Manhattan, respectively — will be the first two Black out LGBTQ women elected to the council. Tiffany Cabán and Lynn Schulman — both Democrats who won seats representing District 22 and District 29, respectively, in Queens — will be the first out LGBTQ women elected to a public office that represents Queens, according to the Victory Fund.
In the Midwest, Rebecca Maurer, a Democrat, defeated a 16-year incumbent and became the first out LGBTQ woman elected to the Cleveland City Council, and Gabriela Santiago-Romero, also a Democrat, became the first LGBTQ councilwoman in Detroit and the first Latinx out LGBTQ woman elected in the entire state of Michigan.
Christopher Coburn.Leanna Joy Photography
Across the country, in Montana, Democratic candidate Christopher Coburn became the first Black out LGBTQ person ever elected in the state when he won his race for the Bozeman City Commission, according to the Victory Fund.
Trans candidates also won a number of races Tuesday. Dion Manley became the first trans person elected in the state of Ohio after winning his race for the Gahanna-Jefferson school board in Gahanna, just outside of Columbus.
Xander Orenstein.Bex Tasker
Xander Orenstein, who uses gender-neutral pronouns, became the first nonbinary person elected to a judicial position in the United States after winning their race for the Allegheny County Magisterial District Court in Pennsylvania. They ran unopposed in the general election after defeating incumbent Anthony Ceoffe in the primary by 40 votes.
Thu Nguyen, a Democrat, became the first nonbinary person elected in the state of Massachusetts after winning their race for Worcester City Council, according to the Victory Fund. Orenstein and Nguyen will add to the small pool of nonbinary elected officials serving in the United States, which currently stands at 11.
Though most of Tuesday’s LGBTQ victors are registered Democrats, not all are. Don Guardian became the first out LGBTQ Republican state legislator in New Jersey when he won his election to the General Assembly. New Jersey — until Guardian is sworn in — is one of just six states in the entire country without any LGBTQ people currently serving in the Legislature, according to the Victory Fund.
Andrea Jenkins, vice president of the Minneapolis City Council, speaks to community members on June 7, 2020, in Minneapolis.Jerry Holt / Star Tribune via AP
Some LGBTQ incumbents won re-election Tuesday night, including Danica Roem, a member of the Virginia House of Delegates, and Andrea Jenkins, who was re-elected to the Minneapolis City Council. Roem became the first out transgender person to serve in a state legislature after her win in 2017 and is now the longest-serving out trans state legislator in U.S. history, after winning re-election for a second time. Jenkins in 2017 became the first Black trans woman elected to public office.
Annise Parker, Houston’s first openly LGBTQ mayor and the current president and CEO of the LGBTQ Victory Fund, said she has mixed feelings about the outcome of election night. She noted the Victory Fund works with LGBTQ candidates at every level of office, but it focuses more than other national organizations on down-ballot candidates for school board and city council, for example.
“Those candidates had a really good night, just as they did last year, but the closer you get to the top of the ticket where national politics come into play, the more problematic it is,” she said.
Two Victory Fund-endorsed candidates lost their races in the Virginia House of Delegates: Del. Joshua Cole, a Democratic incumbent, lost his race to Republican challenger Tara Durant, and Douglas Ward, a Democratic challenger, lost his race to Republican incumbent Michael Webert.
She said “culture war” issues played a significant role in the races in Virginia, and in many other areas of the country, and that some candidates don’t know how to respond to them.
Danica Roem.Julia Rendleman for The Washington Post via Getty Images file
For example, she said Republican Glenn Youngkin, the projected winner of Virginia’s race for governor, emerged victorious by “hitting Trump themes without including Trump.” LGBTQ issues played a significant role in his campaign: Youngkin faced criticism last month for saying that, though he doesn’t personally supportmarriage equality, he would respect that it is legal in Virginia. He also expressed his opposition to trans girls playing on girls sports teams at school — an issue that has led to 10 states restricting transgender students’ sports participation — and supported Tanner Cross, a Virginia school teacher who was suspended (and later reinstated) after saying he would refuse to use pronouns consistent with transgender students’ gender identities.
“It is easier to convince someone to vote out of fear than out of positive conviction,” Parker said. She said the technique is not new and that LGBTQ candidates and pro-LGBTQ candidates have to know how to redirect the conversation — especially going into the 2022 midterm elections, as these issues are likely to gain traction.
She pointed to Roem, who has run against candidates who have used anti-trans rhetoric three times now, and she’s won every time.
“Danica is focused on the things that matter most to her constituents — bread and butter, basic legislative issues — and does not allow herself to get sidetracked into this culture war red meat stuff,” Parker said.
What started as an ordinary Wednesday night in Norfolk, Virginia, turned to tragedy when a gunman shot five women, killing three and injuring two. Among the victims was a lesbian couple attempting to save their teenage daughter.
Nicole Lovewine, 45, and her partner, Detra Brown, 42, were enjoying an evening with friends after coming home from work when the shooting took place, reports The Virginian-Pilot. As they spoke with other adults, approximately a dozen children played nearby, some using a trampoline that Lovewine had bought after a nearby recreation center shut down.
Then, at around 6 p.m., a car pulled up. The newspaper reports that the rear door swung open and Lovewine’s 19-year-old daughter, who was pregnant, jumped out. Shortly after, a man — Ziontay Palmer, 19 — reportedly exited from the passenger side. That’s when shots were fired.
When the shooting stopped, Lovewine and Brown — as well as 44-year-old Sara Costine — were dead. Lovewine’s daughter and a 39-year-old woman were injured and taken to the hospital. Both are expected to recover, according to the newspaper.
Police report that Lovewine and Brown ran outside to render aid when they were shot and killed by Palmer.
“As the community was trying to render aid, this coward shoots them,” said Norfolk Police Chief Larry Boone, per 13 News Now.
“We need to start speaking up because this, I’ve never seen this in my 30 years career — five women shot at one time,” he said.
Palmer, who was in a relationship with Lovewine’s daughter, is now in police custody, charged with three counts of second-degree murder, two counts of malicious wounding and several firearm charges. He is being held without bond after his arraignment Thursday in Norfolk General District Court.
Boone adds that police believe this was a domestic issue.
Robin Gauthier, executive director of Samaritan House, a domestic violence support group, told the 13 News Now that she was surprised to see bystanders get hurt, as she’s rarely seen that happen in her 20 years helping domestic violence victims.
“Just a real disturbing trend that the bystanders are also getting hurt or killed,” she said. “It concerns me because people aren’t going to want to help the victims if they are in danger.”
“This is an epidemic and we have to pay attention to our African American women,” Gauthier said. “This is serious. They’re getting killed.”
Lovewine leaves behind four children, three boys and a girl, according to WTKR. The community is grieving the losses of the three who died.
“They loved to dance,” Burt McManus — bartender and manager at 37th & Zen, where the couple were regulars — told the news station. “That’s what I really loved about them. They would love to come and sing karaoke. They came out every Wednesday, like our shrimp night. They were just a big part of our community.”
“I can see them rushing to the scene, probably, even if it wasn’t her daughter because that’s who they were. If something’s happening, they’re going to go see what’s up,” McManus said.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender American Indian and Alaskan Native (AIAN) adults have higher levels of mental health issues, physical abuse and economic instability than their non-LGBTQ peers, according to a new report.
The study, released last month by the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law in advance of Native American Heritage Month in November, found 42 percent of AIAN LGBTQ adults have been diagnosed with depression, compared to less than a quarter of non-LGBTQ Native people and just 6.7 percent of the general U.S. population.
AIAN LGBTQ adults, particularly women, are also more likely to engage in high-risk health behaviors, including heavy drinking, according to the findings.
Three-quarters of respondents reported not having had enough money to make ends meet in the prior year, compared to less than half of non-LGBTQ AIAN people. And nearly half reported a major financial crisis in the prior year, compared to just 11 percent of heterosexual, cisgender Indigenous people.
“The complex picture of health and economic vulnerabilities of AIAN LGBT people is likely a product of factors shared with all Indigenous peoples, such as the impact of historical trauma, and those shared across LGBT people, such as anti-LGBT stigma,” said lead author Bianca D.M. Wilson, a senior scholar of public policy at the Williams Institute and the report’s lead author, told NBC News.
In the report, Wilson stated that, “It is critical that policies and service interventions consider the LGBT status and multiracial identities of AIAN adults.”
‘Pushed out to the fringes’
Somáh Haaland, who is queer and nonbinary and uses gender-neutral pronouns, is the media coordinator for the Pueblo Action Alliance. Haaland also lives with clinical depression.
“The unique intersection of being Native and queer can feel incredibly isolating, both in a displaced urban setting and in our own communities,” they told NBC News.
Haaland said queer Indigenous friends have spoken to them about feeling “like they have to chose one marginalized identity over the other because existing as both simultaneously feels like it is not physically safe or feasible for their mental health.”
“In white queer spaces they experience racism and disconnection, while at home or on their reservation they may feel like being out could exclude them from cultural activities or simply being in community with their people,” said Haaland, whose mother is Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland.
“Being queer and being Indigenous are both beautiful identities to carry that are sacred when they intersect … But we often must fight twice as hard just to show that we are worthy of living and thriving.”
SOMÁH HAALAND, PUEBLO ACTION ALLIANCE
The Williams Institute study found that violence aimed at LGBTQ American Indians and Native Alaskans was prevalent: More than half of all respondents reported having been physically or sexually assaulted at some point, and 81 percent reported verbal abuse.
Pamela Jumper-Thurman is a retired research scientist in the ethnic studies department at Colorado State University and has researched HIV/AIDS education, substance abuse and mental health in American Indian communities for three decades. Jumper-Thurman said she’s not surprised by the findings.
“In the cities, they may have access to a sense of community, but on the reservations and the rural surrounding areas, they can be ostracized, made fun of and pushed out to the fringes,” she said of LGBTQ American Indians. “They have to be very careful about who they’re out to.”
Tribes are sovereign nations with their own laws and regulations, she added. “If LGBTQ people get assaulted or beaten up in a hate crime on tribal land, it’s often not prosecuted.”
Data on LGBTQ American Indians is extremely limited, but a 2010 survey conducted for the New York State Department of Healthfound nearly 1 in 3 (29.4 percent) reported experiencing hate violence — the highest rate of any LGBTQ demographic in the report.
State initiatives, like anti-discrimination and hate-crime laws and inclusive education programs, often don’t apply on reservations. Even same-sex marriage is not uniformly recognized.
A 2015 report from the National Congress of American Indians found 54 percent of gay and lesbian AIAN students reported being subject to physical violence because of their sexual orientation, and more than 1 in 3 said they missed class at least once in the last month for fear of being bullied or harassed.
“LGBTQ kids don’t have a place to go,” Jumper-Thurman said. “They don’t have family acceptance, and they may not even have a group of friends they feel comfortable with.”
Haaland shared a similar sentiment.
“Being queer and being Indigenous are both beautiful identities to carry that are sacred when they intersect,” they said. “But we often must fight twice as hard just to show that we are worthy of living and thriving.”
Working toward solutions
Jumper-Thurman recently worked with the Family Acceptance Project at San Francisco State University on a series of posterstargeting American Indian families and communities to help support LGBTQ and two-spirit youth. (The phrase “two-spirit” started as an umbrella term in the 1990s for the understanding of gender beyond male and female that many tribes historically embraced before colonization but has come to encompass a diversity of sexual orientations and gender identities.)
Courtesy Family Acceptance Project
The posters show how negative reactions to a child’s sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression can have a detrimental impact on their well being.
“You’re part of a group already dealing with racism and historical trauma and, within that group — if you’re queer — you can be alienated from your community and even your family,” said Sharon Day, a member of the Ojibwe nation and executive director of the Indigenous Peoples Task Forcein Minneapolis. “For people living on reservations, these are small, rural communities that are slower to change.”
Day was one of two children to come out in her family. In 1987, she helped organize the Basket and the Bow, the first national gathering of gay and lesbian American Indians, held at the Minneapolis American Indian Center. (The annual event was later renamed the International Two-Spirit Gathering.)
Today, the Indigenous Peoples Task Force offers a variety of programs but works extensively in HIV education and testing, harm reduction and suicide prevention among Native youth.
Suicide is the second-leading cause of death for Native youths ages 10 to 24, according to the National Indian Council on Aging. A study last year by The Trevor Project found LGBTQ AIAN young people were two-and-a-half times more likely to report a suicide attempt in the past year than their non-Native peers (33 percent to 14 percent).
Sharon Day. Courtesy Sharon Day
Both Day and Jumper-Thurman say acceptance of LGBTQ members varies greatly from tribe to tribe and often depends on religion.
“The communities that have been heavily Christianized are the ones where there’s a lot of inequality and discrimination,” Day said. “In the Ojibwe creation story, men and women came into the world simultaneously. We didn’t come from Adam’s rib. That came with the settlers.”
In the South, especially, Christianity is a big part of Native American life, according to Jumper-Thurman.
“There’s just a lot of religious overtones that have infiltrated and changed the culture so much that being LGBT is seen as a bad thing in their eyes,” she said.
The Williams Institute survey found more than 60 percent of AIAN LGBTQ adults reside in the Western and Southern United States.
“In the South, the Church of Christ and Southern Baptist Church are pretty pervasive,” Jumper-Thurman said. “These are not gay-friendly churches, and they’re the ones that have a lot of sway in those areas. In the area where I lived, there were more churches in town than anything else. They may preach in the native language, but they still preach the dogma of white, homophobic Christianity.”
Day founded the Indigenous Peoples Task Force after her brother, Michael, tested positive for HIV in 1987 and they discovered a near total lack of HIV education and prevention programs aimed at the American Indian community.
“We aim to be a safe space, and LGBT people are integrated into everything we do,” Day said.
‘We’ve always been here’
Using data culled from the Gallup Daily Tracking Survey from 2012 to 2017, the Williams Institute estimates that 285,000 AIAN adults identify as LGBTQ. That’s roughly 6 percent of the total Native population — and slightly higher than the 5.6 percent of the general population that identifies as LGBTQ, according to a Gallup poll in February.
AIAN people who identify as part of the LGBTQ community tend to be younger, according the report, with 33 percent between the ages of 18 and 24, compared to just 15 percent of non-LGBTQ AIAN people in that age group.
“Social media has given the youth greater acceptance and more power to express who they are,” Day said. “Because they can belong to a community online, where they may not be able to in the real world. They can reach out to other people.”
For many years, identifying as gay meant leaving the reservation, Day said, for much the same reasons white people who came out left small towns — isolation, alienation and discrimination.
“In the last couple of decades, there are more queer [Native] people who are staying in their home communities,” she said. “Some of that has to do with changing attitudes. I think more and more we see people returning to the cultural values system of our past, and those values are to be kind and loving, to be courageous and honest, to be respectful, to seek wisdom and to be generous.”
“When we’re following that original system,” Day added, “it’s really difficult to not be accepting of other people.”
LGBTQ Natives, she said, “are starting to look at our history and say, ‘We’ve always been here. We’re part of the circle.’”
Haaland called the gender binary “a colonial construct based on European values.”
“Pre-contact, the Native people that we now label as queer and trans were often revered and had sacred roles in their communities,” they said. “It was not until colonialism that the European perspective of gender and sexuality was forced upon our people as a part of the bigger effort to control us and assimilate us into whiteness.”
Day said she tries to remind other American Indian and Alaskan Native people that “these are the values that have been with us since the beginning of time.”
“These are the original instructions,” she said, “and if we follow them it’s really hard to hate anybody.”
Navy veteran Rhett Chalk was rendered quadriplegic on Thanksgiving Day in 2003 after his knee — which he severely impaired while serving in Vietnam — gave out, causing him to suffer a life-changing spinal injury.
At the time, Chalk had been with his partner, Lawrence Vilord, for roughly 26 years. However, Vilord was barred from riding alongside Chalk in the ambulance or from consulting with his doctors because he was not his legal spouse or family member.
But that day, Vilord became the one who would care for Chalk until the veteran died in June 2020.
“Practically every night when I gave him a shower, religiously every night, he would say to me, without a doubt, ‘Thank God I have you in my life’ because he says ‘I would never have been able to survive; you’ve been my Rock of Gibraltar,'” Vilord, 77, told NBC News.
So when he was denied the full amount of enhanced Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC) benefits — which are granted to surviving spouses of disabled veterans — by the Department of Veterans Affairs last November, he said it frustrated him “to the point of no return.”
“It was just another nail in the coffin. It was another nail in my heart,” Vilord said. “It was just another thing to delegitimize who I was and who he was.”
He qualified for the VA’s standard Dependency and Indemnity Compensation benefits for surviving spouses, which amounts to $1,300 a month. Vilord and Chalk married in 2017 after the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Obergefell v. Hodges legalized same-sex marriage nationally in 2015.
However, because the pair were not married for at least eight years, Vilord was denied last October the VA’s enhanced benefits for survivors of certain veterans who are declared totally disabled at the time of death, for which Chalk qualified. The benefits would grant Vilord another $280 per month.
Vilord appealed his denial before the VA and in federal court last week, arguing that the rule effectively disqualifies all same-sex couples in nearly every state, including in his home state of Florida.
“Our argument though is that the mechanical application of that requirement does injustices in cases such as Mr. Vilord’s where he could not possibly have met the requirement,” said Tyler Patrick, one of the student members of the Veterans Legal Clinic at Harvard Law School, which is representing him. “It’s unconstitutional, not to mention nearly unjust, to deny him these benefits, these benefits that he is deserved after serving as his partner’s caretaker for 18 years, on the basis that Florida prevented him from marrying until 2015.”
“We argue that because the VA in making this determination looks to Florida state law, a state law which was unconstitutional and unconstitutionally as ruled in Obergefell prevented Mr. Vilord and Mr. Chalk from marrying, VA can’t then use that unconstitutional state law as the basis for its denial of his enhanced DIC benefits,” Patrick continued.
The VA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Patrick also points to previous cases where LGBTQ widowers have successfully petitioned for Social Security survivors benefits, after arguing that they were prevented from marrying, and therefore qualifying, because of bans on same-sex marriage.
Last year, federal district courts in Arizona and Washington ruled that excluding same-sex partners from Social Security benefits was unconstitutional. Shortly after, the benefits were put in legal limbo after the Department of Justice under the then-Trump administration appealed the two rulings. However, the department and the Social Security Administration under the Biden administration dismissed the appeals earlier this month.
Patrick said Harvard Law School determined that Vilord is the first person to challenge the requirement, making it a precedent-setting case for LGBTQ widowers of disabled veterans.
Vilord says he hopes his case will help others earn the benefits that they deserve.
“I just feel that there’s got to be somebody else out there that this will make a difference for,” he said. “I may not need it, OK? It’s not going to make a huge difference in my life. It’s not a great deal of money. It’s just the principle behind it.”
Six boys and one non-binary student are suing a Texas school district after they were reportedly handed suspensions for having long hair.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Texas filed a lawsuit last week against the Magnolia Independent School District on behalf of the students, aged between seven and 17.
According to the ACLU, the district has been “engaging in explicit gender discrimination” by enforcing sex-specific dress and grooming rules for students, and “harshly punishing” them if they do not comply.
The Magnolia ISD handbook states that hair must “be no longer than the bottom of a dress shirt collar, bottom of the ear, and out of the eyes for male students”, and must “not be pinned up in any fashion nor be worn in a ponytail or bun for male students”.
No such rules exist for female students.
The lawsuit claims that multiple students have been placed in “in-school suspension” or a “disciplinary alternative education program” over the length of their hair.
According to the school district handbook, the “disciplinary alternative education program” is used for offences like making a false report of a terrorist threat or bullying another student to the point that they take their own life.
Brian Klosterboer, ACLU of Texas staff attorney, said in a statement: “At a time when students have already been through so much due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is outrageous that Magnolia ISD administrators are pushing students out of school because of their gender and hair.
“We have warned the district repeatedly that its gender-based hair policy violates the Constitution, but the district continues to derail students’ lives and deny their right to a public education free from discrimination.
“Magnolia ISD is failing to live up to its motto ‘to be the best district in the state of Texas,’ and the district needs to stop hurting its students.”
The 11-year-old non-binary plaintiff was ‘ostracised’ by the school district over their long hair
According to the lawsuit, the 11-year-old non-binary plaintiff, identified as TM, was sent to in-school suspension for nine days over their long hair.
“Sometimes TM expresses their gender identity more like a boy, but other times TM expresses their gender identity more like a girl,” the lawsuit reads.
“TM has worn long hair for the last couple years as a critical component of expressing their gender identity.
“If TM is forced to wear short hair based on gender stereotypes associated with their gender assigned at birth, TM will lose a vital part of who they are and sacrifice an essential element of their gender expression.”
It added that TM had been “ostracised and separated from their friends” by the in-school suspension, and it was only ended after their mother went to the press.
TM was granted a 60-day “pause” on the sex-based dress code being enforced, which will soon come to an end, putting them at “imminent risk of being sent back to [in-school suspension] and/or [disciplinary alternative education program]”.
According to Out, Magnolia ISD said in a statement that it “looks forward to the opportunity to respond” to the suit in court.
It continued: “This system of differentiated dress and grooming standards have been affirmed by courts and does not inhibit equal access to educational opportunities under Title IX.
“The rules are included in the student handbook each year and are similar to the codes of approximately half of the public school districts in Texas.”
On Tuesday (26 October), a judge temporarily blocked the school district’s enforcement of the sex-based grooming policy while legal proceedings are ongoing.
Meet Brandon Straka, a 44-year-old New York-based hairstylist and Trump lover that just plead guilty to a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge for his role in the January 6 Capitol Insurrection. In addition to begging his “followers” for money, Straka complains that he can’t seem to get a date.
Gee, we wonder why.
Straka first waded into politics in 2018 by launching the #WalkAway campaign, an online push to convince queer Americans to not support Democratic politicians. Straka claimed that Democrats have never been friends to the LGBTQ community, despite Barack Obama and Joe Biden being the first sitting US President and Vice President to endorse marriage equality. Straka also ignores that the Republican party continues to show open hostility toward queer Americans.
Earlier this month, Straka entered his guilty plea with a federal court. He will face sentencing in December. LGBTQ Nation reports that just two days later, he emailed his #WalkAway mailing list asking them to send him money for his legal bills.
“Start posting positive things that you believe about me,” he wrote. “Push back against the one sided hate attacks that are happening right now. I still have nothing to say about my case, other than this- as it’s being widely (and likely INTENTIONALLY) misreported: I did NOT enter the Capitol building… Almost every story I’ve read so far says or implies that I went inside. I did NOT. The amount of hatred being leveled at me this week is unlike anything I’ve experienced the past 4 years. I feel like I’m being attacked by an army.”
“Tell your husbands, boyfriends, sons, and fathers to sign up for my emails,” he then added. “I only get about 1 out of 100 emails from men. lol. I love my women followers, but also want to hear from the guys that we’re all going to get through this in one piece.”
Once again: gee, we wonder why.
Straka goes on to claim that he’s been banned from most online vending platforms, including PayPal Venmo, and Stripe. He further says he has set up an account with a “conservative” processing company.
During the January 6 Insurrection, Straka live-tweeted from the riots, writing “Patriots at the Capitol – HOLD. THE. LINE!!!!” Later that same day, he added “So congress moves forward, Patriots storm the Capitol- now everybody is virtual signaling their embarrassment that this happened.”
Two days later, Straka deleted his social media accounts. Facebook also deleted his #WalkAway page, saying it violated the company’s ban on obscene or violent content. Later in January, the FBI arrested Straka after several videos of him surfaced at the Captiol shouting “We’re going in!” and “Go! Go!” Another video also apparently shows him encouraging an attack on a police officer, with Straka encouraging other insurrectionists to steal the officer’s riot shield.
In addition to his role in the Capitol insurrection and the #WalkAway campaign, Straka also became a viral story in 2020 when American Airlines banned him following his refusal to wear a mask on a flight.
The federal government is funding organizations that illegally discriminate against LGBTQ candidates to become foster care parents for unaccompanied refugee children, a lawsuit filed Wednesday alleges.
According to the 29-page complaint, Kelly Easter has been turned away twice from fostering a migrant child in the federal foster care program while living in Nashville, Tennessee.
The lawsuit alleges that Michigan-based Bethany Christian Services refused to permit Easter to be a foster parent late last year because she is a lesbian. Bethany is the only organization located near Easter that is participating in the federal program.
A few months after turning Easter away, Bethany’s leadership announced in March that it had changed its policy and would now be accepting applications from LGBTQ families, the lawsuit says.
But the agency told Easter she would have to drive to its office in Smyrna, Tennessee, a half-hour away, because its office located closer to her Nashville home is under contract with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, which won’t certify same-sex couples as foster parents.
Catholic Bishops receives federal funds to provide foster care services and Bethany receives money from the Catholic Bishops at its Nashville site. Bethany’s Smyrna site is funded through a different source.
“It hurt to be turned away – twice – solely because of my identity,” Easter said in a statement. “I’ve been a Christian since I was a little girl and my personal relationship with God is the most important thing to me. I also know that LGBTQ people can have thriving families and that they are as important and deserving as any other.”
The lawsuit, claiming First and Fifth Amendment violations, names the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Administration for Children and Families and the Office of Refugee Resettlement as defendants. The heads of each agency were also named, including HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra. The agencies did not immediately respond to email requests for comment on Wednesday.
“By preventing children under their care and custody from being placed in homes of LGBTQ people based on USCCB’s religious beliefs, the government … disserves and demeans LGBTQ children for whom they are responsible, stigmatizing them as less deserving and less worthy of respect than other children,” the lawsuit argues.
In a statement, a Bethany spokesperson said that the organization is “committed to welcoming and serving all individuals and families” and that “no one will be rejected because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.”
“We invite anyone who is interested in providing children with a safe, loving home to contact us and begin the licensing process today,” the organization added.
The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Washington D.C.
