A Kansas City suburb has agreed to ban controversial conversion therapy for LGBTQ youth.
The Kansas City Star reports that licensed medical or mental health professionals face a $1,000 fine for trying to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity under the ban that the the Prairie Village, Kansas, City Council approved 11-1 on Monday.
The ban does not prohibit churches or religious leaders from speaking with youth about their sexuality or gender identity.
Councilwoman Inga Selders thanked the LGBTQ advocacy group Equality Kansas, which has pushed for an end to the practice, emphasizing the harm conversion therapy does to minors.
Lawrence and Roeland Park also banned the practice in Kansas. Missouri cities with conversion therapy bans include Kansas City, North Kansas City, St. Louis, St. Joseph and Columbia.
Councilwoman Sheila Myers cast the lone “no” vote. She previously suggested the ban wasn’t needed because it is unclear if any professionals in Prairie Village are practicing conversion therapy.
The American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association found that conversion therapy lacks scientific evidence and can harm young LGBTQ people by contributing to depression and mental health issues.
Apple CEO Tim Cook and retired NBA All-Star Dwyane Wade joined Utah leaders Wednesday to announce the completion of a local advocacy group’s campaign to build new homes that provide services for LGBTQ youth in the U.S. West.
Encircle, a non-profit providing mental health services for LGBTQ youth, has surpassed its goal of raising $8 million to build eight new homes with locations in Arizona, Idaho, Nevada and Utah aimed at providing safe spaces and preventing teen suicide.
“Encircle’s mission is very personal to me because I see myself in so many of these young people,” Cook told reporters at a press briefing Wednesday. “It’s not easy when you’re made to feel different or less than because of who you are or who you love. It’s a feeling that so many LGBTQ people know far too well.”
The group kicked off the initial campaign in February with donations from Apple and Utah Jazz owners Ryan and Ashley Smith.
Wade, who joined the Utah Jazz ownership group in April, shared his experience as the parent of a transgender child and voiced his support for Encircle’s mission.
“I stand here as a proud parent of a beautiful daughter that’s a part of the LGBT-plus community,” Wade said. “I don’t have all the answers. I don’t know everything, but I’m willing to listen.”
Encircle has locations in Salt Lake City, Provo and St. George, Utah. Construction has begun on locations in Heber, Logan and Ogden, as well as in Las Vegas.
The group is based in Provo, Utah, which is also home to Brigham Young University. Jeffrey Holland, a top leader for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, recently called on the church-owned university to uphold its commitment to the faith’s fundamental teachings, including its stance against same-sex marriage.
The ensuing controversy showed that tensions remain between the LGBTQ community and the state’s predominant faith.
Church scholars say the Salt Lake City-based faith taught that homosexuality could be “cured” in the 1970s. The church has since said homosexuality is not a sin, though it remains opposed to same-sex marriage and intimacy.
Texas officials removed two webpages in late August that provided resources for LGBTQ youths — including a link to a suicide prevention hotline — a few hours after criticism from one of Gov. Greg Abbott’s Republican primary challengers.
The candidate, Don Huffines, who owns a real estate development company in the Dallas area, wrote Aug. 31 on Twitter: “It’s offensive to see @GregAbbott_TX use our tax dollars to advocate for transgender ideology. This must end.”https://iframe.nbcnews.com/gi7itgd?app=1
He described a webpage on the Department of Family and Protective Services’ website titled “gender identity and sexual orientation.”
“They’re talking about helping ‘empower and celebrate lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, asexual, allied,’ nonheterosexual behavior, and it goes on and on,” Huffines said in a video. “I mean, really? This is Texas. These are not Texas values. These are not Republican Party values. But these are obviously Greg Abbott’s values.”
In a separate tweet the same afternoon, Huffines linkedto a webpage for Texas Youth Connection, a program run by the Department of Family and Protective Services, which included a link to the Trevor Project, a nonprofit LGBTQ youth suicide prevention and crisis intervention group, and other LGBTQ rights groups. https://iframe.nbcnews.com/C3LZcyj?app=1
“This is the webpage where @GregAbbott_TX’s political appointees are promoting transgender ideology,” Huffines wrote.
A few hours later, both pages had been removed.
“The Texas Youth Connection website has been temporarily disabled for a comprehensive review of its content,” a message on the website says. “This is being done to ensure that its information, resources, and referrals are current.”
Patrick Crimmins, the director of communications for the Department of Family and Protective Services, said in an email Tuesday that the review of the webpages “is still ongoing” and would not provide further comment about why the pages were removed.
Abbott’s office has not returned a request for comment.
The Houston Chronicle reported Tuesday that emails obtained through a public records request show that agency officials discussed removing the gender identity and sexual orientation webpage in response to Huffines’ tweet.
Just 13 minutes after Huffines’ video went up, Marissa Gonzales, the department’s media relations director, emailed a link to Crimmins with the subject line “Don Huffines video accusing Gov/DFPS of pushing liberal transgender agenda,” the Chronicle reported. She wrote in the body of the email: “FYI. This is starting to blow up on Twitter.”
Crimmins emailed Darrell Azar, the department’s web and creative services director. He asked who runs the page and wrote, “Darrell — please note we may need to take that page down, or somehow revise content,” according to the Chronicle.
Azar responded that the webpage came from the department’s Preparation for Adult Living program, which supports older teens placed in foster care by the state. He wrote that the content Huffines criticized is “only a few years old” but that the adult living program has posted “content related to LGBTQ for as long as I can remember,” according to the Chronicle.
Huffines took credit for the pages’ removal in a tweet Tuesday.
“Greg Abbott was using taxpayer dollars to advocate for transgender ideology and the Human Rights Campaign,” he wrote. “Our campaign made him stop.”https://iframe.nbcnews.com/2Dukul1?app=1
Many advocates spoke outagainst the pages’ removal in August, but even more people, including elected officials, condemned the decision in response to the Chronicle’s article.https://iframe.nbcnews.com/Maxrkow?app=1https://iframe.nbcnews.com/BIGR3m4?app=1
Former San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro, who was secretary of housing and urban development in the Obama administration, said the decision to remove the webpages was “disgusting.”
“Greg Abbott is so scared of losing his primary, he’s sabotaging an LGBTQ youth suicide prevention hotline to kowtow his extremist base,” he wrote Tuesday. https://iframe.nbcnews.com/BTMcnyY?app=1
Ricardo Martinez, the CEO of the LGBTQ advocacy group Equality Texas, said in an emailed statement that LGBTQ children are overrepresented in foster care and “face truly staggering discrimination and abuse.”
“The state is responsible for these kids’ lives, yet it actively took away a resource for them when they are in crisis,” he said. “What’s worse, this was done at the start of Suicide Prevention and Awareness Month. LGBTQ youth who have been in foster care report three times greater likelihood of attempting suicide in the past year (according to a Trevor Project research brief). Again and again this year, we are simply asking that these kids’ lives not be politicized.”
Texas has considered more than 50 bills this year that target LGBTQ youths, particularly transgender youths, according to Equality Texas.
While advocates have defeated all of the bills so far, the Legislature recently began a third special legislative session — the fourth legislative session overall this year — and it is considering a number of anti-transgender bills again.
Advocates have said the rhetoric in the bills has a negative effect on the mental health of LGBTQ youths statewide.
From Jan. 1 to Aug. 30, crisis calls from LGBTQ young people in Texas increased by 150 percent compared to the same period last year, according to data shared last week by the Trevor Project.
If you or someone you know is in crisis, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255 or text HOME to 741741 to reach a trained counselor at the Crisis Text Line. You can also visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for a list of additional support networks.
An LGBTQ nonprofit on Monday released its annual Worst Listnaming 180 colleges and universities as “the absolute worst, most unsafe campuses for LGBTQ youth.”
Campus Pride, which advocates for LGBTQ inclusivity and safety at U.S. colleges and universities, added 50 universities to the list since last year — the most extensive update since the list started in 2015, according to the organization.
The list includes colleges and universities that have either received or applied for a religious exemption to Title IX, a federal law that protects students from discrimination in federally funded schools, or have a “demonstrated history of anti-LGBTQ policies, programs and practices,” according to a news release.
At 180 schools, the list is the longest it has been in its six-year history.
“These aren’t just bad campuses or the worst campuses — these campuses fundamentally are unsafe for LGBTQ students, and, as a result, they’re fundamentally unsafe for all students to go to,” Shane Windmeyer, founder and executive director of Campus Pride, said. “They promote an environment of hostility, of discrimination, harassment, toward a group of people, and who wants — when you’re trying to be educated — to have that type of negative learning environment?”
Seattle Pacific University made the list of worst colleges for gay students for the first time.Mat Hayward / Getty Images file
Windmeyer said that part of the reason this year’s update to the list was significant is because of changes the Trump administration made to the Title IX religious exemption process. Under President Barack Obama, religious schools had to submit a letter outlining why they needed an exemption to Title IX. The Trump administration changed that rule so that religious schools were automatically exempt from Title IX, which allowed them to continue receiving federal funds while, for example, enforcing a rule that prohibits students from engaging in gay sex or same-sex relationships.
The Trump administration also stopped publishing an online list of schools that have requested an exemption from Title IX. Campus Pride referred to that list while creating its Worst List.
Windmeyer said the Biden administration has republished previous lists of schools that applied for title IX religious exemptions, but it hasn’t clarified or changed the Trump administration policy undoing the application requirement.
Before Biden took office, Campus Pride relied on student reports and news articles, Windmeyer said. This year, the group used the list of schools that requested exemptions to Title IX and court documents.
In 2019, 41 campuses filed an amicus brief in Bostock v. Clayton County in support of employers who argued that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 didn’t protect LGBTQ employees from discrimination. The Supreme Court sided with the employees.
Windmeyer said Campus Pride also included the 29 religious colleges and universities named in a class action lawsuit against the Department of Education alleging that the religious exemption is unconstitutional and that it allows religious schools that receive federal funds to discriminate against LGBTQ students.
“Religious organizations and colleges were emboldened during the Trump administration,” Windmeyer, who noted that all 180 schools on the list this year are religiously affiliated, said. “Biden has still yet to clarify if Title IX exemptions are mandatory or if he has an executive order that is going to make them mandatory, which I feel that if a campus is going to openly discriminate, then it should be mandated that they tell students and that they have a Title IX exemption on file with the federal government.”
The Worst List is in alphabetical order rather than rank, but some schools have appeared on it more often than others.
David Shill, a 22-year-old junior at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, said he isn’t surprised that his school is on the list again because “things haven’t changed.”
BYU, which is owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as the Mormon Church, forbids same-sex dating. Though it doesn’t specifically mention transgender students in the student handbook, the church counsels against medical transition for trans people; otherwise they face restricted participation in the church or even excommunication.
Shill, the president of BYU Pride, which is not officially supported by or recognized by the university, said that homophobia is “usually assumed” on campus. He mentioned a video taken in August in which a student defaces pro-LGBTQ chalk art on BYU’s campus anduses an anti-gay slur. In March, when about 40 students lit up the iconic 380-foot-tall “Y” on the mountain east of campus with rainbow lights, Shill said LGBTQ students faced cyberbullying.
“My first week back on campus I really felt like, wow I will never belong here,” Shill said. “And just seeing straight couples being couples on campus and like holding hands or hugging … that coupled with the attitudes of some of my professors and classmates, just the whole day, it was hard to be here.”
A representative for BYU did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A number of schools are on the list for the first time, including Seattle Pacific University, a private Christian university named in the class action lawsuit against the Department of Education. Affirm, a group of SPU students, alumni, faculty and staff dedicated to ending anti-LGBTQ policies and culture at the university, began organizing in the spring in response to the university’s involvement in two lawsuits — the class action and a suit brought by a teacher in April who says he was denied a full-time job because he is gay.
In a statement emailed to NBC News, Affirm’s members said they are “saddened but not surprised” by SPU’s addition to the 2021 Worst List.
“For an institution that advertises our community as a place promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in the name of Christ’s love, this sobering call from Campus Pride tells us in no uncertain terms how we have failed,” Affirm’s members said. “We must rebuild our existing campus structures, remove discriminatory university policies, and foster novel spaces where LGBTQ+, BIPOC, and AAPI folk are welcomed and celebrated for the priceless gifts they bring our community.”
A representative for SPU declined to comment.
Malone University, in Canton, Ohio, is also on the list for the first time.
This month, Karyn Collie, an associate biology professor at Malone, announced that she would be leaving the university because she’s marrying a woman next summer. She told The Canton Repository that she was hoping she and the school could find a way for her to stay employed, but that she was instead asked to resign. When she was hired, she signed a set of principles called the Community Responsibilities, which prohibit homosexual activity, according to the Repository.
Collie was a popular professor, and the news led to backlash from students, including a sit-in during a weekly worship service, the Repository reported.
A representative for Malone has not returned a request for comment, but Malone President David King told the Repository that Collie isn’t the first professor to leave due to a conflict with the university’s Community Responsibilities. He also said that only employees are expected to adhere to them, and that students are not.
“All students are welcome here, no matter what their story is, whether they have a faith journey or not,” King said.
But Campus Pride points out on its Worst List that the school’sCommunity Agreement for Sexual Conduct, which all members of the Malone community commit themselves to, states that “Sex should be exclusively reserved for the marriage relationship, understood as a legal, lifelong commitment between a husband and wife.”
Windmeyer said that he hopes the Biden administration will mandate that all campuses have to apply for the Title IX religious exemption. “I think that’s the bare minimum our federal government can do to protect these LGBTQ young people,” Windmeyer said. “The President says, ‘trans people, queer people,LGBTQ people, we’ve got your back.’ Well, you need to start here with our LGBTQ young people.”
Many students, like Shill at BYU, don’t want to leave and think their schools can become better. He said BYU Pride is working with the university to change the Honor Code so that queer students can date, and the group is encouraging the university to develop a discrimination office that students and faculty can go to when they experience discrimination.
The group would also like to be able to have queer activities on campus, or put rainbow lights on the “Y” without approval. “Those kind of things like where BYU no longer is silencing us, and pushing us off campus,” he said. “Let us come on campus and be as gay as we want to be without having to hide it all.”
A survey asking students if they think “queers” should be allowed to use the school restroom with “normal people” circulated at an Illinois high school this week, the latest of a recent slew of reported attacks on LGBTQ students across the country.
The survey was distributed at Anna-Jonesboro Community High School in Anna, Illinois, on Wednesday by an unidentified number of students who called themselves the “Anti-Queer Association,” according Rob Wright, the school’s superintendent.
It asks students to vote either “(YES) I WANT QUEERS TO GO IN THE BATHROOM” or “(NO) I DON’T WANT QUEER KIDS TO GO TO THE BATHROOM WITH US NORMAL PEOPLE.”
A survey made its way around a Southern Illinois high school asking if students want “queers” to be able to use school bathrooms.via WPSD
Wright told NBC News that only a few copies of the poll were handed out before the school discovered them Wednesday morning, but an image of the survey was posted on Facebook. He added that the number of students involved in the debacle was “very limited” and that disciplinary measures were taken against them.
“I really can’t give any specific information regarding any individual students or what those measures were taken, but I can tell you that this type of harassment is taken very seriously by the district,” Wright said. “We’re not going to tolerate it under any circumstances.”
The Rainbow Cafe LGBTQ Center in nearby Carbondale, Illinois, shared a post on Facebook letting local queer youth know they are supported and the center is “working with statewide agencies to determine the best course of action.”
Michael Coleman, a board member of the Rainbow Cafe LGBTQ Center, told WPSD-TV, an NBC affiliate that covers Southern Illinois and the surrounding area, that students had been reaching out to the center in response.
“They really feel very unsafe in that environment in Anna-Jonesboro and that they felt that nothing was going to get done,” Coleman said. “That by us taking that stand, that initiative, they really feel like it’s not going to happen anymore.”
At a high school near Jacksonville, Florida, several weeks ago, students were accused of harassing classmates in a gay-straight alliance club and stomping on Pride flags. In Georgia last month, a high schooler was charged with attacking another student draped in a Pride flag in a school cafeteria. And this month, students at a high school in Missouri held a peaceful protest following what a parent described as a bullying incident of a gay student that led to a physical altercation.
These reports come as Thursday marked Spirit Day 2021, an annual celebration where people show their support against the bullying of LGBTQ youth by wearing the color purple.
Recent surveys also show that bullying of LGBTQ students remains a pervasive issue in the U.S.
A study this year by The Trevor Project, an LGBTQ youth suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization, found that 52 percent of LGBTQ middle and high schoolers reported having been bullied in person or online in the past year. Transgender youths reported higher rates of bullying than cisgender gay, lesbian and bisexual youths — 61 percent and 45 percent, respectively.
And 29 percent of LGBTQ middle schoolers in the survey who were bullied attempted suicide in the previous year, compared to 12 percent of those who said they were not bullied, The Trevor Project found. Over 34,000 LGBTQ youths were surveyed for the study last year.
Wright said private bathrooms are available for students in the school’s principal and nurses offices. He added that counseling has always been and will remain available for students who inquire for it.
“We see this in the real world with adults having a hard time expressing their differences in an appropriate manner,” Wright said. “We have to start doing that with our students at this age, too, and know that everybody’s welcome and everybody deserves to be treated with respect and dignity.”
erry McAuliffe described Republican Glenn Youngkin as the “most homophobic” and most “anti-choice candidate” in Virginia history during an Oct. 21 telephone interview with the Washington Blade.
“I’m running against the most homophobic, anti-choice candidate in Virginia history,” said McAuliffe. “I ran against Ken Cuccinelli. That’s saying something.”
McAuliffe, a former chair of the Democratic National Committee, in 2013 defeated Cuccinelli, Virginia’s then-attorney general who vehemently opposed LGBTQ rights, in that year’s gubernatorial race. Youngkin, the former co-CEO of the Carlyle Group, a private equity firm, is running against McAuliffe in the race to succeed current Gov. Ralph Northam.
State Del. Hala Ayala (D-Prince William County) is running for lieutenant governor, while Attorney General Mark Herring is seeking re-election. They are running against Republicans Winsome Sears and Jason Miyares respectively.
The entire Virginia House of Delegates is also on the ballot on Nov. 2. The outcome of those races will determine whether Democrats maintain control of the chamber.
Youngkin remains opposed to marriage equality
The Associated Press a day after McAuliffe spoke with the Blade published an interview with Youngkin in which he reiterated his opposition to marriage equality, but stressed it is “legally acceptable” in Virginia and he would “support that” as governor.
The anti-LGBTQ Family Research Council, which the Southern Poverty Law Center has categorized as an extremist group, earlier this month endorsed Youngkin. The Human Rights Campaign and Equality Virginia’s political action committee are among the groups that have backed McAuliffe.
HRC in 2019 named the Carlyle Group as a “Best Place to Work for LGBTQ Equality” in its annual Corporate Equality Index. McAuliffe scoffed at this recognition.
“They should have checked with their co-CEO who’s against marriage equality,” he told the Blade. “That would have been the first place I would have gone to ask.”
‘I’ve always been out front fighting to protect everybody’
McAuliffe’s first executive order as governor after he took office in 2014 banned discrimination against LGBTQ state employees. He also vetoed several anti-LGBTQ religious freedom bills, created Virginia’s LGBTQ tourism board and became the state’s first governor to declare June Pride month.
McAuliffe noted to the Blade that he is also the first governor of a southern state to officiate a same-sex wedding. The lesbian couple whom he married has recently appeared in one of his campaign ads.
“I spent four years vetoing every single legislation Republicans brought forth and came across my desk that would have discriminated against the LGBTQ community,” said McAuliffe. “I’ve always been out front fighting to protect everybody.”
McAuliffe noted that CoStar, a D.C.-based commercial real estate company, moved more than 1,000 jobs to Richmond from Charlotte after then-North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory signed House Bill 2, which banned trans people from using public restrooms consistent with their gender identity and prohibited municipalities from enacting LGBTQ-inclusive nondiscrimination measures. McAuliffe described HB 2 to the Blade as the “anti-gay bill.”
“There’s real consequences … to discriminatory actions and I will not tolerate any of it,” he said.
McAuliffe last month said during his first debate against Youngkin that local school boards “should be making their own decisions” with regards to the implementation of the Virginia Department of Education guidelines for trans and non-binary students. McAuliffe during his second debate against Youngkin stressed “locals” should provide input on the policy, but added “the state will always issue guidance.”
McAuliffe told the Blade he has “been so offended about how many folks have tried to really demonize our children here in this state.” McAuliffe referenced children with “self-identity issues” during the interview, but he did not specifically cite those who identify as trans or non-binary.
“We’ve got to help our children … we got to help our children who are desperately in need today,” he said. “And we got to show them that we’ll be there for them, as I say, no matter how they identify or who they love.”
Youngkin on Saturday during a campaign event in Henrico County said he would ban the teaching of critical race theory in Virginia schools. McAuliffe criticized his opponent on this issue when he spoke with the Blade.
“Critical race theory is not taught in Virginia, nor has it ever been taught,” said McAuliffe. “These are dog whistles that are used, and especially in the CRT, it’s a racist dog whistle and it just fits into this whole pattern of using our children as political pawns and I hate it.”
Youngkin ‘would drive businesses out of’ Va.
McAuliffe has continued to portray Youngkin as an extremist on other issues that range from abortion and vaccine mandates as polls suggest the race between the two has grown tight. McAuliffe also continues to highlight former President Trump’s support of Youngkin.
McAuliffe told the Blade that Youngkin is “100 percent against abortion” and said his opponent would “bring those Texas-style type abortion” laws to Virginia.
The law, which bans almost all abortions in Texas and allows private citizens to sue doctors and anyone else who helps a woman obtain one, took effect last month. The U.S. Supreme Court on Nov. 1 will hear oral arguments in a case that challenges the law.
“We always knew that the Supreme Court would be a backstop on women’s rights issues: Roe v. Wade. That is gone. It’s over,” said McAuliffe. “Donald Trump’s Supreme Court is going to overrule the basic tenants of Roe v. Wade.”
McAuliffe added the Supreme Court “is going to allow these states to roll back women’s reproductive rights, so that’s no longer a talking point.”
“This is reality,” said McAuliffe. “Every woman in Virginia needs to understand it.”
Terry McAuliffe has said Glenn Youngkin poses a threat to abortion rights in Virginia. (Photo courtesy of Terry McAuliffe for Governor)
Trump on Oct. 13 described Youngkin as a “great gentleman” when he called into the “Take Back Virginia Rally” in Henrico County that John Fredericks, host of “Outside the Beltway with John Fredericks” who co-chaired the former president’s 2016 campaign in Virginia, organized.
Participants recited the Pledge of Allegiance to an American flag that was present at the U.S. Capitol insurrection. Youngkin in a statement his campaign released said he “had no role” in the event and said it was “weird and wrong to pledge allegiance to a flag connected to January 6.”
“As I have said many times before, the violence that occurred on January 6 was sickening and wrong,” he said.
Twitter suspended the account of Indiana Rep. Jim Banks on Saturday after the Republican congressman intentionally misgendered Assistant Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine, the first transgender person to hold an office that requires a Senate confirmation.
Banks, who represents the northeastern corner of the state, was responding to the news that Levine became the first woman to be awarded the title of four-star officer, saying the title was taken and honor were taken by a “man.”
Twitter said the comment violated its hateful conduct policy, which prohibits the “targeted misgendering or deadnaming of transgender individuals.”
The platform temporarily locked Banks’ account, saying he would regain access upon deleting the tweet.
On his personal account, Banks decried his suspension, saying he was punished for “posting a statement of FACT.”
“I won’t back down,” Banks wrote. “I’ll be posting on my personal account for the time being.”
Levine, the nation’s most senior transgender official, became the first openly transgender four-star officer across any of the country’s eight uniformed services on Tuesday.
“This is a momentous occasion, and I am honored to take this role for the impact I can make and for the historic nature of what it symbolizes,” Levine said in a speech at her swearing-in ceremony
A Tennessee woman is suing the Department of Health and Human Services after a federally funded foster care agency rejected her application because she is a lesbian.
Kelly Easter, who is from Nashville, wanted to apply to become a foster parent of an unaccompanied refugee children, according to her lawsuit, filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
The U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement directed her to Bethany Christian Services, the only entity participating in the program in her area and a sub-grantee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), which receives federal funds to provide foster care services.
Bethany had a longstanding policy of refusing to allow LGBTQ parents to apply to foster or adopt, which prevented Easter from applying last year.
In March, Bethany ended that policy, but when Easter applied, she was rejected again. A representative for Bethany told her its East Nashville office is funded by USCCB, which prohibits LGBTQ couples from applying, according to the lawsuit.
Easter is suing the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the Administration for Children and Families and its Office of Refugee Resettlement. She and her legal counsel allege that HHS, “by sanctioning and enabling discrimination and favoring certain religious beliefs,” is violating the First and Fifth Amendments.
“By preventing children under their care and custody from being placed in homes of LGBTQ people based on USCCB’s religious beliefs, the Defendants — through USCCB and its subgrantees — not only discriminate against LGBTQ people, but also effectively disregard the non-Catholic identities and beliefs of many of the unaccompanied refugee children for whom they are responsible,” the lawsuit states. “This conduct potentially increases those children’s alienation and vulnerability, while denying them access to loving homes that could serve them best — all at federal taxpayers’ expense.”
A spokesperson for HHS’ Administration of Children and Families said in an email that it will respond to the lawsuit in time, as with any lawsuit naming the federal government.
“HHS is committed to protecting the rights of LGBTQ+ individuals and ensuring access to our programs and services,” the spokesperson said.
Easter said in a statement that she is “heartbroken.”
“It hurt to be turned away — twice — solely because of my identity,” she said, according to a news release. “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. How can the government tell me that my beliefs are wrong?”
She added that she’s “more concerned about the children.” She said the government is hurting them by denying them a loving home.
“I am qualified and can provide a safe and stable home for a child,” she said. “How is it better for them to stay in a group setting instead of a home with someone who can care for and support them adequately?”
Easter is represented by Lambda Legal, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State and the San Francisco-based law firm Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP.
Karen L. Loewy, senior counsel at Lambda Legal, said the government is excluding Easter from applying to provide a home to a child in need while also “funneling millions of dollars of taxpayer money into a child welfare organization that refuses to allow LGBTQ people to apply to be foster parents.”
“This kind of discrimination not only hurts the people turned away — it hurts the children in these programs by reducing the number of available homes, and depriving these children of the opportunity to be considered for placement in loving homes that may best serve their individual needs,” Loewy said, according to a news release.
Federal law currently prohibits federal contractors and federally funded programs from discriminating on the basis of sex, which has recently been interpreted by the Biden administration and by most courts to include sexual orientation and gender identity. But there are exemptions from federal law for contractors and service providers who feel that providing certain services would conflict with their religious beliefs.
Some states have tried to pass stricter laws to protect LGBTQ people who want to foster or adopt children. Tennessee is actually one of 27 states that have a statute, regulation and/or agency policy that prohibits discrimination in foster care based on sexual orientation and gender identity, but it’s also one of 11 states that permits state-licensed child welfare agencies to refuse to provide services to children and families, including LGBTQ people and same-sex couples, if doing so conflicts with their religious beliefs, according to the Movement Advancement Project, a nonprofit think thank.
Five states have regulations or policies that prohibit discrimination in foster care based on sexual orientation only, and 18 states have no explicit protections against discrimination in foster care based on sexual orientation or gender identity, according to MAP.
The Supreme Court ruled on the issue of religious exemptions for federally funded contractors in June, but it avoided addressing whether religious contractors have a right to refuse service, or, as advocates say, have a license to discriminate.
Instead, the court ruled that the city of Philadelphia violated the Free Exercise Clause and discriminated against a religious foster care agency in applying its licensing process, which allows contractors to request exemptions to parts of the contract.
Absent a more clear declaration from the Supreme Court, LGBTQ people like Easter have continued to wage their battles in court. Lambda Legal and Americans United are representing Fatma Marouf and Bryn Esplin, a same-sex couple, in the same district as Easter. The couple alleges that a sub-grantee of USCCB rejected them from applying to foster unaccompanied refugee children because they didn’t “mirror the Holy Family.”
Daniel Jenkins, 22, of Dallas was sentenced today for committing violent crimes as part of a conspiracy to target users of the dating app Grindr. Jenkins was sentenced to a federal prison term of 280 months for his involvement in the scheme to target gay men for violent crimes. He is the last of four defendants to be sentenced in this case.
According to documents filed in connection with this case, the defendant admitted that he conspired to and then targeted nine men in and around Dallas for violent crimes, including kidnapping, carjacking and hate crimes, because of his perception of the victims’ sexual orientation, that is, because he believed the victims were gay men.
Beginning on or around Dec. 6, 2017, members of the conspiracy used Grindr, a social media dating platform used primarily by gay men, to lure men to an apartment complex in Dallas. When the men arrived, the conspirators held the men at gunpoint and forced them to drive to local ATMs to withdraw cash from their accounts.
With his guilty plea on June 2, Jenkins admitted to joining the conspiracy to target gay men for violent crimes. Starting in December of 2017, Jenkins and a coconspirator created user profiles on Grindr and used the profiles to lure men they perceived to be gay to a location to rob them.
Jenkins further admitted that on Dec. 11, 2017, he and others lured multiple victims to the apartment complex, pointed a handgun at them, took their personal property and assaulted them, causing at least one victim physical injury.
Jenkins admitted that he knew that members of the conspiracy used gay slurs and taunted the victims, and that at least one member of the conspiracy attempted to sexually assault a victim. Jenkins also admitted to participating in the carjacking of at least one victim.
Jenkins was the last of four defendants to plead guilty in this case. Jenkins pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit hate crimes, kidnapping, and carjacking; one hate crime count; and one count of use of a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.
Jenkins’ coconspirators: Michael Atkinson, Pablo Ceniceros-Deleon and Daryl Henry, had previously pleaded guilty. Atkinson was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison, Ceniceros-Deleon was sentenced to 22 years in prison and Henry was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
The State of Texas has just been busted for deleting the existence of LGBTQ people from its official website.
The New York Timesreports that the state scrubbed a resources page for LGBTQ youth from its site after one of Gov. Greg Abbott’s Republican primary challengers called it “offensive” and not in line with good ol’ fashioned “Texas values.”
Candidate Don Huffines voiced his outrage over the page in a homophobic video posted to Twitter on August 31.
“They are promoting transgender sexual policies to Texas youth!” he raged. “I mean, really?! This is Texas! These are not Texas values. These are not Republican Party values. But these are obviously Greg Abbott’s values.”
Hours after Huffines posted the video, the page vanished.
To add insult to injury, the page, which provided information for LGBTQ youth who were feeling depressed, bullied, or suicidal, was removed at the start of Suicide Prevention and Awareness Month.
Patrick Crimmins, spokesman for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, claims it was taken down “as part of a review,” but leaked internal emails suggest officials took it down in response to Huffines’s comments.
“FYI. This is starting to blow up on Twitter,” department official, Marissa Gonzales, wrote shortly after the homophobic video went live.
A follow up email sent from Crimmins reads, “Please note we may need to take that page down, or somehow revise content.” One day later, an email was sent to the webmaster explaining that “the Texas Youth Connection (TYC) website has been temporarily disabled for a comprehensive review of its content.”
“This is being done to ensure that its information, resources and referrals are current,” it claimed.
Six weeks later, the “comprehensive review” still is not complete and Gov. Abbott’s office is refusing to comment on the matter.
In a statement, Ricardo Martinez, chief executive of Equality Texas, blasted the state for removing the page.
“State agencies know that LGBTQ+ kids are overrepresented in foster care and they know they face truly staggering discrimination and abuse,” Martinez said. “The state is responsible for these kids’ lives, yet it actively took away a resource for them when they are in crisis.”
As for Huffines, he appears to have moved on from attacking LGBTQ youth and is now on a crusade against mask mandates as the state continues to report some of the highest COVID-19 death rates in the nation.
