The congressional GOP’s campaign arm is asking other Republican and conservative groups to attack Gina Ortiz Jones, the Democratic candidate for a key swing House seat in Texas, for being gay. A NRCC website outlining its preferred attacks on candidates instructs outside groups to include reminders of Jones’ sexual orientation in digital and TV advertising and mailers, highlighting an image of Jones with her partner.
The NRCC website, DemocratFacts.org, is a way for the committee to communicate its preferred messaging to Republican super PACs and other conservative groups without running afoul of campaign finance laws barring direct coordination. But of the dozens of candidates covered by DemocratFacts, Jones appears to be the only one pictured with their spouse or partner.
The allegations — that the young, gay mayor had used his position of power to sexually proposition vulnerable college students — spread quickly through his western Massachusetts district, leading one member of Holyoke’s city council to call for his resignation.
But less than a week later, The Intercept published explosive reports alleging that members of the College Democrats at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where Morse once worked, had schemed for months to create a sex scandal to derail Morse’s progressive challenge to incumbent Rep. Richard Neal, with whom the students reportedly wanted to secure an internship.
Two debates later, and a week before the Massachusetts Democratic primary, Morse says he has been vindicated, and that he is raising more money through donations than at any point so far in his campaign.
“A number of folks are seeing it for what it is, in terms of the the language and response to the accusations being rooted in age-old homophobic tropes and the constant overpolicing of the personal lives, the sex lives, of gay men and members of the queer community,” Morse told NBC News.
Relationships with ‘teenagers’
The Aug. 7 article in UMass Amherst’s paper, the Daily Collegian, reported that the school’s College Democrats chapter had sent a letter to Morse saying he was disinvited from their future events because the Holyoke mayor used apps such as Grindr, Tinder and Instagram to meet college students “who were as young as 18 years old,” reportedly making them feel uncomfortable.
The next day, Masslive.com reported on allegations that Morse had relationships with “teenagers,” and UMass Amherst posted a statement saying it was “launching an immediate review of the matter” and had no plans to hire Morse back as a lecturer in the political science department, where he worked from 2014 to 2019. The College Democrats of Massachusetts published a letter on Twitter on Aug. 9, saying Morse “abused his power for sexual relationships” and confirmed they sent a similar emailed statement to the candidate himself.
The LGBTQ Victory Fund condemned Sullivan, saying it “believes the use of the word ‘teenagers’ is meant to purposely evoke homophobic stereotypes of gay men as pedophiles.”
“The architects of these efforts knew this is where the conversation would lead – with no regard for the homophobia it would unleash,” the group said, asking those supporting Sullivan’s motion to “ask themselves whether he would treat a straight candidate the same way.”
Sullivan did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment. However, he told Masslive last week that he is seeking a Holyoke City Council vote on an investigation into the allegations against Morse.
In response to a request from NBC News about the Daily Collegian’s role in the first days of the controversy and the source of the letter from the College Democrats to Morse, which the paper was the first to report on, a spokesperson shared this statement on Tuesday: “The letter was provided by a member within a chapter of the College Democrats of Massachusetts, who was granted anonymity. As newspaper policy, we do not comment further on sourcing.”
Two days after the first story broke, Morse posted a statement on Twitter saying accusations that he abused his position were “false.”
“I have never, in my entire life, had a non-consensual sexual encounter with anyone,” he wrote. “I have never used my position of power as Mayor or UMass lecturer for romantic or sexual gain, or to take advantage of students. I have never violated UMass policy.”
Morse decided to stay in the race, saying he trusts the voters of Massachusetts’ 1st Congressional District to make up their own minds as to whether homophobia influenced the alleged scheme.
“If voters aren’t seeing the homophobia, they are certainly seeing the establishment — they are seeing a powerful incumbent at risk of losing a seat and the people around him willing to do whatever it takes for him to hold onto power,” Morse said.
But just as quickly as the scandal had appeared, it seemed to disappear: A new report cast strong doubts on the original College Democrats letter five days after it made news.
On Aug. 12, The Intercept reported on leaked chat logs showing these students conspiring in 2019 to gin up a sex scandal in order to harm Morse’s candidacy — and help his opponent, incumbent Democratic Rep. Richard Neal. The Intercept — which did not name the source of the leaked chat logs and private Instagram messages, some of which were included in the article — reported that these young Democrats hoped that by sabotaging Morse’s campaign they would endear themselves to Rep. Neal, first elected in 1988 and, as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, one of the most powerful incumbent Democrats in Congress.
Two days later, UMass Amherst — which bans faculty from sexual relationships with students “for whom the faculty member has any responsibility for supervision, evaluation, grading, advising, employment, or other instructional or supervisory activity” —announced it had hired an independent attorney to investigate the scandal.
The College Democrats of Massachusetts did not respond to NBC News’ request for comment, but in a statement to HuffPost, which was shared on Twitter, the College Democrats of Massachusetts denied any wrongdoing and said the letter to Morse “was not politically motivated” and “had nothing to do with any of our members’ professional ambitions or personal politics.” In its Aug. 9 letter shared on Twitter before the Intercept reported on its chat logs, the student group said suggestions that its decision to break ties with Morse had anything to do with his sexual orientation are “untrue, disingenuous, and harmful.”
In a statement, Rep. Neal said, “any implications that I or anyone from my campaign are involved are flat wrong and an attempt to distract from the issue at hand.”
Morse, however, maintains this was “a coordinated political attack with the intention of harming our campaign at a pivotal moment.”
“There were students that Congressman Neal involved that were trying to curry favor with a powerful incumbent to secure a job, and this goes to the height of the Massachusetts Democratic Party,” Morse told NBC News.
The Intercept reports revitalized his campaign by changing the narrative and fueling a surge of campaign donations. On Sunday, Morse appeared to acknowledge this by sharing a picture of himself on Twitter carrying a bag emblazoned with The Intercept’s logo: “New tote.”
The mayor and his message
Since declaring his candidacy last year, Morse has taken an anti-incumbent progressive message to voters in the Bay State’s first district, which covers part of the central Connecticut River Valley and the hilly western Berkshires area.
“On every issue Congressman Neal doesn’t understand the urgency of the moment,” Morse said. “From criminal justice, climate change, to the influence of money in politics.”
“He’s using his power to benefit the corporate and special interests that have invested millions in his campaign, and he’s not using his power to help the people, places, and communities in western and central Massachusetts,” Morse added.
His message echoes those that helped propel figures such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ritchie Torres to primary victories in solid blue districts, and one Morse hopes will win in his Sept. 1 primary.
A poll conducted this month put Morse within five points of Neal, with 13 percent of voters undecided — well within the striking distance that other Democratic challengers from the left had before winning in their primaries.
Morse, who at 31 is among the first of a generation of LGBTQ politicians who came of age using common dating apps such as OkCupid, Tinder and Grindr, said he “will never apologize for being young and gay and single and using gay dating apps and having consensual relations with other adult men.”
“I think my decision to stay in this race and fight and be open and honest about my life and my personal life I think will make it more likely that other young people, other queer people, other single people feel like they, too, can run for office,” he said.
A teacher in Texas has reportedly been placed on administrative leave after she allowed students to submit their pronouns and posted LGBT+ rights and Black Lives Matter images on her virtual classroom.
An image of Roma High School English teacher Taylor Lifka’s remote learning site was posted online Friday (August 21) by Marian Knowlton, a Republican candidate for Texas’ 31st district who took offence at her efforts to include trans students, women, students of colour and queer kids.
It shows an avatar of the teacher standing infront of posters advocating for Black Lives Matter and LGBT+ rights, among other human rights causes.
“Many of you know that I am concerned about what the children of Texas are learning in our schools,” Knowlton wrote.
The Republican said she had received the screenshot from a “concerned educator” shown it by a parent who had removed their child from Lifka’s English class.
Knowlton continued: “This is the virtual classroom that each student visits every day. They are welcomed by an LGBT ‘diversity is welcomed’ poster, a feminism poster that translates to ‘Girlfriend, your struggle is my struggle’, a photo of radical protesters (one of whom looks like an ANTIFA member) and propaganda that promotes the radical marxist movement ‘Black Lives Matter’.
“In addition, this teacher asks which pronoun they prefer! This is from a public school in one of the counties in House District 31!”
The Republican further sought to stir tensions by claiming: “Our education system has been radicalising our children for years and it continues to do so, from elementary through higher education. This is not an isolated occurrence, it is a national pattern.
“A concerted effort to teach children what to think, not how to think. Leftist indoctrination.”
According to The Monitor, Roma Independent School District (ISD) did not name Lifka, but said in a statement Tuesday (August 25): “After reviewing the complaints, the district is working closely with the teacher to find a resolution that will ensure all parties involved reach an outcome that best benefits the expectations of our parents and needs of our students.
“The teacher is not being reprimanded in any way for her work or decisions.”
However, a Change.org petition, which has now been signed by more than 15,000 people, is calling for the LGBT-inclusive Texas teacher to be reinstated.
The petition reads: “Please sign this petition to let the school district know that inclusivity and acceptance are not taboo ideas that deserve censorship; that high school students can and should be allowed to discuss the realities of the world instead of being sheltered inside a sanitised bubble; and that by reprimanding the teacher for trying to create a safe space for her students, the school is not being neutral, but is actively taking a stance that is antithetical to justice.”
Cissie Graham Lynch, the granddaughter of late evangelical pastor Billy Graham and daughter of evangelist Franklin Graham, gave a primetime speech at the Republican National Convention aimed at boasting about President Donald Trump’s policies that protect so-called religious liberty.
During her speech, she referred to transgender girls as “boys” while discussing policies that aim to accommodate transgender people based on their gender identity.
“Democrats pressured schools to allow boys to compete in girls sports and use girls locker rooms,” she said.
There were no efforts to “pressure” schools. However, there have been legal battles provoked by conservatives after largely Democratic lawmakers passed various measures to accommodate transgender Americans.
In a statement shared with NBC News, the Human Rights Campaign, the country’s largest LGBTQ rights group, called Lynch’s remarks “dehumanizing and demeaning.”
“What is particularly shameful is the targeting of some of the most vulnerable in our community: transgender kids,” HRC President Alphonso David said. “Cissie Graham Lynch’s comments were despicable and must be widely condemned by anyone who claims to be an ally of LGBTQ people.”
A growing number of conversion therapy survivors are sharing their trauma on TikTok amid growing efforts to outlaw the discredited practice.
Nearly 700,000 Americans have undergone conversion therapy, half when under 18, according to the UCLA’s Williams Institute. The so-called therapycan range from counselling or “praying away the gay” to torturous electric shocks, but all forms have been rejected by every mainstream health organisation for decades.
Now survivors are shedding light on the secretive practice, sharing support and advice for others who may be forced to undergo what they did.
30-year-old Mike Dorn began talking about his experience when the US went into lockdown. “I was going through a pretty dark time being at home all the time and I knew that I needed to talk about it,” they told Reuters.
They were forced to endure conversion therapy at age 15 when their conservative Christian parents shipped them off to a “disciplinary camp” in California.
In a series of six videos they recounted how they were isolated, broken down, told they would go to hell, forced to dig holes and shoved if they disobeyed orders.
“I was physically abused if I said anything or did anything they didn’t approve of,” they said. “I was verbally abused almost every second of every day, because if they weren’t going to put the fear of God into you, you weren’t going to change.”
Mike’s videos have been viewed 1 million times and they’ve been overwhelmed with thousands of messages of support. Roughly half were from countries including Britain, Mexico and Indonesia, most of whom went through conversion therapy as teens.
“A lot of people were messaging me, and it was this form of love and support and family that I’ve never experienced before,” they said.
Another conversion therapy victim, 20-year-old Merry, shared her story in hopes she could help others. One of her videos, “How to survive conversion therapy”, has been watched more than 500,000 times since December.
“Don’t tell them anything about your past,” she warns in the video. “Anything traumatic in your life, you do not get to tell them about… They are going to get inside your head and convince you that that is why you are gay.”
Her videos instantly resonated with viewers and after she posted the first one she began receiving five or six messages a day. She now estimates she’s been contacted by about 50 at-risk people and 20 survivors from their teens to late 40s.
After a virtual Democratic convention that didn’t showcase the party’s diversity so much as simply present it as a matter of fact, the Trump campaign responded on Saturday with the creation of 13 new coalitions to make the point that, as the campaign put it, “President Trump Delivers Success for All Americans, Regardless of Background.”
The new affinity groups included what appeared to be an L.G.B.T.Q. coalition, “Trump Pride,” as well as groups for truckers, gun owners, firefighters, and Albanian and Ukrainian Americans.
Also on the list: Assyrians for Trump, Chaldeans for Trump, German Americans for Trump, Italian Americans for Trump, Medical Professionals for Trump, Polish Americans for Trump and Serbian Americans for Trump.
The former head of the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum has agreed to pay a $1 million settlement for his role in a massive state pension fund pay-to-play scandal. Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced the deal with Bill White on Thursday.
Cuomo charged that White acted as an unlicensed paid middleman for investment companies seeking lucrative state pension fund business during disgraced former Controller Alan Hevesi’s tenure.
White “secretly” received more than $570,000 in fees from the deal, Cuomo said. He also not only gave $10,000 to Hevesi’s 2006 reelection campaign, but bundled $50,000 in donations from two Guggenheim principals.
They are throwing a $5 million fund-raiser for President Trump this winter, and are quick to make it known that they have the president’s sons’ cellphone numbers on speed dial. They have poured more than $50,000 of their own money into supporting the president, who smiles in photos on the bookshelves of their home.
But Bill White and his husband, Bryan Eure, are not red state evangelicals or die-hard right-wingers. In fact, for years, they were key players among a cohort that Mr. Trump loathes: Manhattan’s liberal elite.
The couple say they have been condemned not just for hypocrisy, but for what has been seen as a betrayal of their own community, by backing a man who has scaled back L.G.B.T. protections. They dismiss such concerns. “I don’t like identity politics,” Mr. Eure said.
The “anti-gay” white couple who stood outside their mansion and pointed guns at Black Lives Matter protesters will “definitely” speak at the Republican Party convention this month.
Mark and Patricia McCloskey, who are both personal injury lawyers, made headlines around the world after they were filmed pointing guns at Black Lives Matter protesters from the steps of their palatial mansion in Portland Place, Missouri.
On Monday, August 17, the McCloskey’s lawyer told the New York Times that the couple would “definitely be speaking” at the Republican National Convention (RNC).
Albert Watkins said in an interview that Mark McCloskey, who threatened Black Lives Matter protesters with an AR-15, would speak at the Republican convention with his handgun-toting wife, Patricia, by his side.
However, Watkins added that Patricia was not expected to speak as “she is not built for this”.
The lawyer said that the couple would take part in a video presentation at the RNC, and added: “They, like many Americans, are horrified, if not mortified, at the prospect of their constitutional rights being compromised by the constitutional rights of others.
According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, they once sued their neighbourhood’s trustees to demand they enforce a document called the Trust Agreement, which prohibited unmarried people from living together.
Neighbours said it was because the McCloskeys “didn’t want gay couples living on the block”.
As the McCloskeys unsuccessfully appealed the case all the way to the state Supreme Court, trustees voted to impeach Patricia, accusing her of being anti-gay in 1992.
However, during a deposition in 2002 Mark refuted the claims, and said: “Certain people on Portland Place, for political reasons, wanted to make it a gay issue.”
The lead U.S. foreign aid agency has proposed a new policy on gender and women’s empowerment that eliminates any mention of transgender people or contraceptives, running counter to its own long-standing practices in deciding what programs to support.
The draft policy released by the U.S. Agency for International Development on Wednesday was billed as an update and replacement to the original 2012 policy, released under the Obama administration. Though written subtly, the agency’s gender policy is parsed closely by experts and grantees as a clue to the kind of initiatives the agency will prioritize, and it guides USAID’s grant-making and development work worldwide.
The updated policy has been in the works for months and has been the subject of much scrutiny and internal controversy. It states its goal as “a prosperous and peaceful world in which women, girls, men, and boys enjoy equal economic, social, cultural, civil, and political rights and are equally empowered to secure better lives for themselves, their families, their communities, and their countries.”
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USAID did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Perhaps the starkest difference is how the old and new policies refer to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people — indeed, whether those populations are mentioned at all. The 2012 policy mentions LGBT people twice — once in a footnote and once in a reference to partnering with LGBT advocates to advance gender equity. It also used the phrase “gender identity” eight times, in recognition of the transgender experience, in which a person’s assigned sex does not accord with their own gender identiity.
The new policy doesn’t use the acronym LGBT or its more inclusive variants or the words “lesbian,” “gay,” “bisexual,” “transgender” or “identity” at all.
“It sends a message when an overarching umbrella policy that is supposed to inform all of USAID’s practices and initiatives is missing those factors,” said Gayatri Patel, director of gender advocacy at CARE, a humanitarian organization, though she added it is difficult to know yet how the new policy will impact future USAID programming.
That omission sparked an internal email exchange among USAID officials this week, which was seen by ProPublica. A USAID official passed along a comment from a colleague, noting the exclusion of those words. In a response sent around an hour later, Timothy Meisburger, USAID’s director of the Center of Excellence on Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance, wrote that while staff should feel free to comment on the policy, they should “keep in mind that the policies of the current Administration may differ from those of previous Administrations, and that it is our duty as civil servants to faithfully execute the policy of the current Administration.”
Meisburger, a political appointee who joined the agency in 2017, did not respond to a text message and email requesting comment.
In a section on inclusivity, the 2012 policy is specific, saying it applies to people “regardless of age, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability status, religion, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, geographic area, migratory status, forced displacement or HIV/AIDS status.”
The new policy is far more vague, saying in its inclusivity section that the agency wants to ensure “all people, including those who face discrimination and thus may have limited access to a country’s benefits, legal protections, or social participation, are fully included and can actively participate in and benefit from development processes and activities.”
In a section on maternal health, the new draft policy mentions only “fertility awareness” and “healthy timing and spacing of pregnancies” as family planning methods, even though USAID has funded the provision of contraceptives in developing countries for decades. The 2012 policy discussed the global lack of access to contraceptives.
That change is in line with the Trump administration’s yearslong effort to advance its socially conservative views on family planning in the global arena.
“For the gender policy to be silent on that is another glaring omission,” Patel said.
Gender experts and advocates said the new policy falls far short of providing the up-to-date technical expertise that the agency needs to grapple with gender issues in development.
Officials at USAID warned that favoring Christian groups in Iraq could be unconstitutional and inflame religious tensions. When one colleague lost her job, they said she had been “Penced.”
“The field has progressed in the eight years since 2012,” said Susan Markham, USAID’s former senior coordinator for gender equality and women’s empowerment. “But this document does not do that. It is not based on technical advances or knowledge. It’s clearly a political document about the word gender.”
The proposed USAID policy also adopts the phrase “unalienable rights,” which did not appear in the 2012 version. That phrase mirrors the State Department’s Commission on Unalienable Rights, a panel launched by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in 2019.
When he unveiled the commission’s draft report in July, Pompeo derided the “proliferation of rights.” Critics say establishing such a hierarchy of rights endangers the lives and safety of vulnerable groups like LGBT people and women around the world. The commission’s draft report asserted that the two foremost unalienable rights, in the view of America’s founders, were the right to property and religious liberty, and describes same-sex marriage as a “divisive social and political” controversy.
The new policy is in tension with another set of USAID rules, the Automated Directives System, which lays out the agency’s organization and functions. A section of that rulebook dealing with gender, updated in 2017, addresses lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people and emphasizes the importance of gender identity when conducting analysis.
Officials at USAID have repeatedly pushed back release of the revised gender policy. It was originally slated for release in late 2019, said three people familiar with the process, and was delayed in part by the coronavirus pandemic. The policy rewrite has also been shrouded in secrecy, with outside advocates and even gender experts within the agency getting little chance to offer input until the very final stages.
Members of the public have until early next week to submit comments on the draft.
One official involved in the policy update process was Bethany Kozma, the USAID deputy chief of staff. Before joining the Trump administration in 2017, Kozma advocated against Obama-era guidelines that schools allow transgender students to use bathrooms that match their gender identity. During her time in the administration, she has played a key role in advancing conservative causes globally, such as opposing references to sexual and reproductive health in United Nations documents.
In the last few months, USAID’s leadership has been seeded with several right-wing political appointees, including Mark Kevin Lloyd, a Tea Party activist with a history of making and sharing anti-Islamic comments, who was named the agency’s new religious freedom adviser; Kozma, who was elevated to a higher position as the agency’s deputy chief of staff; and Merritt Corrigan, the agency’s former deputy White House liaison, who had made repeated anti-LGBT statements on social media. Corrigan left USAID this month after she unleashed a tirade against the agency on Twitter, though she later claimed she did not send those tweets.
The mother and father of hate crime victim Matthew Shepard gave their full blessing to Joe Biden at the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday night (August 18).
Judy and Dennis Shepard joined several of Biden’s former rivals, including Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar, in wholeheartedly pledging their support for Biden, announcing their state’s votes and helping to formally nominate the Democrat.
Speaking from their home in Wyoming, the couple praised Biden’s efforts in helping to extend federal protections to LGBT+ people like their late son.
“After our son’s death in Wyoming, Joe Biden helped pass the legislation to protect LGBTQ Americans from hate crimes,” Dennis Shepard said during the Democratic National Convention roll call.
“He understands more than most our grief over Matt’s death. But we see in Joe so much of what made Matt’s life special: his commitment to equality, his passion for social justice, and his boundless compassion for others.”
The votes announced by the Shepards — who were joined in the roll call by Indiana’s Pete Buttigieg, gay Maine state rep Craig Hickman and representatives for the other 53 states and territories — mean that Biden is now the official Democratic nominee, and Kamala Harris the vice presidential nominee.
Matthew Shephard murdered at 21.
Matthew Shepard was a 21-year-old gay college student who was beaten, tortured and left to die in an anti-gay hate crime in 1998. His killers claimed that they had only intended to rob him but were moved to murder when Shepard made sexual advances towards them.
The case became one of the most prominent examples of the “gay panic” defence being used in an attempt to justify a homophobic hate crime, and it sparked a campaign to extend protections towards the LGBT+ community.
Three gay Democrats will jointly deliver the Democratic National Convention keynote address on Tuesday (August 18) — becoming the first LGBT+ people ever to do so.
The trio of rising stars are Pennsylvania representative Malcolm Kenyatta, Georgia rep. Sam Park, and Long Beach, California mayor Robert Garcia.
Usually the keynote speech is delivered by a single individual, but this year Kenyatta, Park, and Garcia will be among 17 Democratic trailblazers to share the address, offering “a diversity of different ideas and perspectives on how to move America forward”, a DNC spokesperson said.
By speaking in one of the most prestigious slots at the convention the three LGBT+ members will break new ground for queer representation in politics, but they already boast several historic firsts between them.
Park is the sole LGBT+ Asian-American lawmaker in the Georgia General Assembly. He regularly braves open homophobia as he works to pass progressive legislation in the Conservative stronghold state, including a bill to bring healthcare access to low-income households.
“It’s important for us to introduce and work on passing legislation we think would benefit the state to at least demonstrate to those we represent what exactly it is that we are fighting for,” he told NBC News.
“Being in the minority, it’s difficult to pass legislation, but that still doesn’t mean you can’t do it.”
Democratic National Convention 2020 keynote to also platform queer Latino and Black politicians.
Garcia, who is Latino, is the youngest mayor in Long Beach history as well as the first LGBT+ person ever to hold the position. Over the past few months he’s been leading the fight against coronavirus in his city, even as he lost his mother and stepfather to the deadly virus.
And Kenyatta is the first gay Black man to be seated in the Pennsylvania General Assembly.
“As somebody who inhabits all of these intersections, growing up in an incredibly poor neighbourhood to a working poor family, as one of only two openly LGBTQ members of the Pennsylvania General Assembly and the only one that’s a person of colour, I see all the different ways that frankly our systems are broken,” he told LGBTQ Nation earlier this year.
Kenyatta predicted the conference is going to be a “huge historic moment across the board”.
“Being a young person, a Black person, and a queer person — all those different intersections bring a certain perspective,” he told the Pennsylvania Capital Star.
“And I think it’s important because this president has tried very hard to divide folks up along race, class, gender and economic status. He is actively working to make life more difficult for the people he has sworn to serve. So all of the intersections that embody us are people Trump has gone after.”
