Therapy that seeks to change minors’ sexual orientation or gender identity is now illegal in Colorado. Gov. Jared Polis, the first openly gay man ever elected governor in the U.S., signed the ban into law on Friday.
“Colorado has joined a growing list of states that have banned so-called conversion therapy. It’s a horrific practice that has long been widely-discredited by medical and mental health professionals and has scarred many survivors for life,” Polis said in a statement emailed to NBC News. “Today Colorado took an important step forward in recognizing our diversity as a strength. These bills truly underscore the idea that Colorado is a state where everyone can be their true selves and live the life they want.”
Colorado is now the 18th U.S. state — and the fourth this year — to ban the controversial practice. Just this week, Maine’s governor signed a ban.
Research shows so-called conversion therapy, which treats being gay or transgender as a mental illness, increases the risk of suicide, drug abuse and depression among teens. A long list of health associations, including the American Medical Association and the American Psychological Association, have spoken out against the practice, which is also known as “reparative therapy” or “ex-gay therapy.”
In the statement shared with NBC News, Polis said he’s thrilled to launch LGBTQ Pride Month in June by outlawing what he called a “tortuous practice” harming children.
Polis also signed into law on Friday a bill making it much easier for transgender Coloradans to update the gender on their birth certificates, identification documents and driver’s licenses.
Daniel Ramos, executive director of One Colorado, a statewide LGBTQ advocacy group, applauded the “strong bipartisan support” both bills received, which he said “further demonstrates that LGBTQ equality should be a nonpartisan issue.”
“Colorado will continue to make history as our country’s first openly gay Governor, Jared Polis, signs our pro-equality agenda into law to send a strong message that Colorado is a state that is open to all,” Ramos continued.
A transgender woman from El Salvador seeking asylum in the U.S. died on Saturday in a Texas hospital four days after being released from custody, officials and advocates said.
Johana Medina Leon, 25, complained of chest pains and was brought to Del Sol Medical Center in El Paso, Texas, on Tuesday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement said. That same day, ICE said she was processed for release on parole. Medina Leon died on the first day of pride month.
“This is yet another unfortunate example of an individual who illegally enters the United States with an untreated, unscreened medical condition,” said Corey A. Price, field office director for ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) in El Paso.
Del Sol Medical Center in El Paso, Texas, U.S.Dan Dalstra / Reuters file
Allegra Love, the executive director of the Sante Fe Dreamers Project, a nonprofit that provides free legal service to immigrants, said Medina Leon did nothing “illegal” when she fled to the U.S following Department of Homeland Security protocol
“She didn’t violate a single law coming to the U.S. to ask for political asylum,” Love said.
Medina Leon, who was known to friends as Joa, had been detained in the U.S. since mid-April. On May 18, Medina Leon received a positive credible fear finding, ICE said. Advocates told NBC News Leon was seeking asylum in the U.S. as a transgender woman.
Medina Leon was being held at Otero County Processing Center, a private detention center in New Mexico where the ACLU and the Santa Fe Dreamer Project recently alleged poor treatment of and “unconscionable conditions” for LGBTQ immigrants. In a letter sent to ICE, the groups said “ICE’s practices at Otero have created an unsafe environment” for the LGBTQ detainees in Otero.
Medina Leon fell while in ICE Custody, where she also tested positive for HIV.
In a Facebook post about Medina Leon’s death, Diversidad Sin Fronteras, an advocacy group for LGBTQ refugees, said that Medina Leon had pleaded to ICE for medical attention. She “became extremely ill and unconscious” the group said.
Kris Hayashi, the executive director of the Transgender Law Center, said in a statement the group is “devastated and outraged, but not surprised” by the news of Leon’s death.
Referring to the deaths of both Hernandez and Medina Leon, Hayashi wrote, “these deaths are a direct result of U.S. government policy, and will continue unless we force dramatic change.”
In the wake of Hernandez’s death in ICE custody, activists and advocates have been sounding alarms on the treatment of LGBTQ migrants in ICE Custody.
When a spokesperson for Diversidad Sin Fronteras visited Medina Leon in the hospital, she said we was deeply cornered about the young women’s fate. “I said that what happened a year ago to Roxana in the month of May could happen to JOA right in there. And it did.”
Love, of Sante Fe Dreamers Project, told NBC News, “I give an interview a week about the medical conditions for trans women,” which she described as alarming and dangerous.
“If anyone wants to pretend to be shocked, did you miss a year ago when a trans woman died in custody in Albuquerque?”
Maine banned gay conversion therapy for minors on Wednesday, joining more than a dozen other states that have outlawed the controversial practice.
Democratic Gov. Janet Mills signed the bill Wednesday, and it will take effect 90 days after the Legislature adjourns next month.
Conversion therapy aims to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. Under the new law, professionals, including school psychologists, pharmacy technicians and social workers, who have advertised, offered or administered conversion therapy to a child could face discipline from licensing boards.
Maine joins 16 other states and the District of Columbia that have banned the practice. Supporters decry it as a harmful and note the American Psychological Association opposes the therapy.
“Conversion therapy is a harmful, widely discredited practice that has no place in Maine,” Mills said. “By signing this bill into law today, we send an unequivocal message to young LGBTQ people in Maine and across the country: We stand with you, we support you, and we will always defend your right to be who you are.”
A law against conversion therapy was signed recently in Massachusetts, while states including North Carolina are considering such legislation this year.
“With this law, Maine is taking seriously its responsibility to ensure youth and parents who seek support are not subjected to fraudulent and dangerous practices under the guise of therapy,” said Mary Bonauto, the Civil Rights Project director for GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders.
Maine’s former Republican governor vetoed a similar measure last year, but the bill has gained momentum this year under a Democratic-led Legislature. Republicans argued that the bill was unnecessary, while also contending that it would prevent parents from seeking religious counselors for their children.
“There have not been any recorded cases of this happening in Maine,” said state House Republicans spokesman John Bott.
Republicans failed to pass an amendment to exclude talk therapy and counseling from counting as conversion therapy.
Maine’s law exempts treatment that offers acceptance, support and understanding while being neutral on sexual orientation and gender identity.
According to Michael Williams, much better known as “Sister Roma,” the story of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence began in San Francisco on Easter Day of 1979. Back then, just a year before the city’s gay community was struck by the AIDS epidemic, four friends found themselves fed up with what Roma called the “Castro clone look.”
“Gay men in San Francisco in the 70s all presented very masculine, leather jackets, moustaches, sort of like the Marlboro Man, you know?” Roma told NBC News. “So they were very fed up with that, and they thought, ‘Let’s put on these nun’s habits and sort of go out and screw with people and see what happens.’”
As they strolled from the Castro to the city’s gay beach, Roma said, “everywhere they went the reaction was just insane — people had never seen anything like men, most of them with facial hair, in nun’s habits.” They realized they were onto something, so they came up with a name for their group: The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.
Now four decades later, The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence were clearly ahead of their time, and many of their campy “dragtivism” tactics have inspired others, Roma said. “Little did they know it, but these four queers who went out in these nuns habits actually changed the world,” she said.
“One of the original sisters was Bobbi Campbell, who was Sister Florence Nightmare, who was a registered nurse,” Roma said.
Campbell became well known across America as the self-designated “AIDS poster boy,” a role he took on in an effort to destigmatize the disease.
“The sisters took a very pragmatic, responsible attitude towards the virus, and said, ‘We need to protect the community,’” Roma said. “So the sisters produced a safer sex pamphlet called Play Fair that we still produce today, that was the world’s first-ever safer sex pamphlet.”
In the early 1980s, The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence hosted some of the world’s first fundraisers for AIDS victims, many of whom faced financial ruin as the then-unknown pathogen ravaged their bodies. “The sisters were at the forefront of the fight against HIV/AIDS before anyone knew what the disease was,” Roma said.
Members of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, San Francisco’s beloved sect of cross-dressing nuns, attend The Hunky Jesus Competition event at Dolores Park in San Francisco on April 1, 2013. John S Lander / LightRocket via Getty Images file
At each anniversary every 10 years, the sisters have had a different focus. In 1989, Roma launched the “stop the violence” campaign, which addressed an uptick of homophobic hate crimes in San Francisco at that time.
“In 1989, queer people were still really fighting for equality and just desiring to be recognized as equal people in the world,” Roma said. “So it was a very basic fight, and we were also crippled with HIV and AIDS, which many people saw as a disease that was killing all the right people.” That year, The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence also became an official nonprofit organization.
For their 20th anniversary in 1999, the Sisters closed Castro Street for a massive celebration. “That seemed like a no-brainer to us, but apparently it was quite a major issue for a lot of people in San Francisco, who still at the time … thought that we were very sacrilegious,” Roma said. But support from local politicians got them through the day, and they hosted their street fair, where the Sisters emceed a “hunky Jesus” competition that continues to this day.
Members of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, San Francisco’s beloved sect of cross-dressing nuns, attend The Hunky Jesus Competition event at Dolores Park in San Francisco on April 1, 2013. John S Lander / LightRocket via Getty Images file
Because of publicity generated by the opposition, “it was one of the largest celebrations that we had, probably ever in our history,” with around 20,000 to 30,000 people filling Castro street, Roma said.
The Trump administration plans to launch a new panel to offer “fresh thinking” on international human rights, a move some activists fear is aimed at narrowing protections for women and members of the LGBT community.
The new body, to be called the Commission on Unalienable Rights, will advise Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, according to a notice the State Department quietly published Thursday on the Federal Register.
“The Commission will provide fresh thinking about human rights discourse where such discourse has departed from our nation’s founding principles of natural law and natural rights,” states the notice, which is dated May 22.
The State Department’s media contact for the new commission is former Fox News contributor Kiron Skinner. As many of you surely know, “natural law” is often cited by hate groups in legal briefs opposing LGBT rights.
Gay borrowers are more likely to be denied mortgage loans, and those that do get approved pay higher interest rates and fees, according to a new study from Iowa State University.
Despite being “less risky overall,” same-sex borrowers are 73 percent more likely to be denied when applying for a mortgage loan, according to the report. When they are approved, the study found they have mortgage interest rates that are 0.02 to 0.2 percent higher on average — potentially adding tens of thousands of dollars to their repayments over the lifetime of the loan.
The study, published earlier this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests there may be systemic housing discrimination against gay and lesbian borrowers.
“Our investigation on mortgage performance reveals that same-sex applicants are less likely to prepay mortgages and are no more likely to default than their peers, indicating that they are less risky to lenders,” the report states. “Given the absence of evidence that suggests that same-sex status is a reliable signal for loan underperformance, potential disparate lending practices against sexual orientation might exist in the mortgage market.”
Lei Gao, one of the study’s authors, said he became interested in the experience of same-sex borrowers in the mortgage market after observing the experience of his gay neighbors in Georgia, one of the 26 states across the United States that does not have statewide housing protections for LGBTQ people.
“Their housing purchase experience and my selling experience basically taught me about this,” Gao explained, noting that it seemed “they were treated differently than some other neighbors.”
Since mortgage applications do not ask prospective borrowers about their sexual orientation, the researchers inferred borrowers’ sexuality through the gender disclosure of the applicant and co-applicant. Their data correlated with LGBTQ population estimates conducted by Gallup and the University of California, Los Angeles’ Williams Institute.
While Gao said it may be “premature to conclude that there exists discrimination against same-sex couples” in the mortgage lending market, he said the report’s findings should “raise enough concerns and call for a further full-scale investigation.”
“The potentially existing lending discrimination might just reflect a corner of the iceberg,” he told NBC News.
In the report, Gao and his co-authors state that their findings “have direct implications for the urgency of protecting the LGBT community regarding fair credit accessibility.”
Currently, the Fair Housing Act of 1968, federal legislation passed to end racial and religious segregation in home rentals and purchases, does not ban discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. The Equality Act, a federal bill reintroduced in Congress last month, would modify the existing law to do so.
After the passage of the Fair Housing Act in 1968, racial and religious housing discrimination became illegal, but it didn’t disappear overnight. Since 1991, the Justice Department has employed “testers” to determine whether landlords, sellers and agents are discriminating against protected classes, the Justice Department writes on its website. “This information may indicate whether a housing provider is complying with fair housing laws.”
More Americans identify as bisexual in a trend led by young women of color, new study shows.
According to the latest biannual General Social Survey (GSS), more than 3% of people in the US identify as bisexual. Significantly, those attracted to and/or dating both genders in 2008 were just 1%.
Sociologists D’Lane Compton and Tristan Bridges have commented on the survey, pointing out that the number of bisexuals seems to increase every year. On the other hand, the number of those identifying as gay or lesbian is stationary.B
They also highlighted that the rise in bisexuals is almost entirely due to women. As more and more young women identify as bi, men dating both genders haven’t increased in number.
More specifically, the upswing has been concentrated among young women of color — black women, especially.
The two sociologists further noted that the data collected by GSS mirrored those by a Gallup survey.
‘Gallup reported that much of the change in LGBT identification between 2012 and 2016 could be accounted for by young people, women, college-educated people, people of color, and those who are not religious,’ the two wrote.
The GSS survey also shows that the number of those identifying as gay or lesbian has decreased between 2016 and 2018.
Homosexuals were nearly 2.5% in 2016, whereas this percentage dropped to slightly more than 1.5% in 2018.
Student activists, Michael Gutierrez and Kaelin Walker, have been the integral voices for the fight against the appointment of Dr. Wilson and ensuring equality for LGBTQ+ students at UTEP.
“The fight isn’t over. This isn’t a done deal,” Kaelin tells GLAAD. “I find it sad that people are looking at it as if it is a done deal. It’s not. We’re not done.”
Michael and Kaelin will continue their optimism after the appointment of Dr. Wilson. Wilson’s appointment does not mean that they lost, it means that the fight for equality and acceptance continues.
GLAAD spoke to Michael and Kaelin last week to talk about the union amongst students, the future of UTEP, and the continuous battle with faculty and staff.
How do you feel about the nomination of Dr. Heather Wilson?
Michael: Oh I’m very I’m very concerned. We just met with her — I met with her personally twice. I had time to ask her questions and she dodged every single one of them. Meeting her twice — it was not what I hoped for. It was very disappointing and to say the least. I’m not looking forward to whatever is going to happen.
Kaelin: As for myself, as a member of the LGBTQ+ community, as an immigrant, and as a person of color — I am extremely concerned. I only got to see her once and I didn’t get to ask any questions because we ran out of time. I actually thought that she was going to be better at sweet talking us and saying the stuff we wanted to hear but she actually wasn’t, which kind of to my dismay but also to my to my pleasure.
What do you plan to do moving forward to keep the pressure on Dr. Wilson?
Michael: I heard the news live this morning it didn’t come as a surprise to me — I personally do not accept Wilson as president, but the reality is she’s president. Moving forward I am going to get involved more within UTEP. I will also be getting those who oppose Wilson to run for positions within UTEP. (Student Government Association, Alumni Association, etc.) For those who are in fear Wilson will be held accountable we the student body will look out for one another. The fight is not over, and our voice is stronger than ever.
Kaelin: I am currently running for Vice President of External Affairs for the UTEP’s SGA. If I win the position, I will make sure to stand for Diane Natalicio’s mission of access and excellency when I represent UTEP on a regional level. I also want to develop a communication between myself and Wilson and work on turning her into an involved ally to LGBTQ+ people and the Hispanic community of UTEP. If she cannot rise to the challenge, then she doesn’t belong here and I will keep protesting her.
What steps are student activists at UTEP taking and how are you all collaborating on campus?
Michael: We are all coordinating with each other — we are making our voice heard. We’ve been flooding everybody’s phones, we have been flooding everybody’s e-mails. We recently created We the Students Coalition, which is a group of student students and student organizations within campus. And we are doing things that activists do: We are protesting, we are doing phone banks, we are just trying to make our voices heard. And the community has been with us. The community has backed us 100 percent the way through. The only ones that haven’t been behind our back, I feel, is our university. And I think that’s because they just want us to be silenced… They just want us to accept Dr. Heather Wilson and we’re not going to.
Kaelin: What we’re doing is our best to convince them. And that’s that’s all we can do. I think we’re doing a pretty good job of making our voice heard.
During a press conference at UTEP, Dr. Wilson said her “general approach with respect to LGBTQ issues is to treat everyone with dignity and respect.” How do you feel about that statement?
Kaelin: She has demonstrated that she does not respect LGBTQ+ people. How can you vote against the basic civil rights of these people and then say that you plan on treating them in the future with dignity and respect? You know that’s like I don’t want you to have all the rights that I do. She doesn’t respect LGBTQ+ people — even her anti-LGBTQ+ actions took place as recently as last year in 2018. During her time as Secretary of the U.S. Air Force, where she enforced the trans military ban, that’s not treating people with dignity and respect. I don’t see her changing anytime soon without a big push.
UTEP students protesting in March, 2019. Image credit: Isaac Uribe.
What can this mean for the future of UTEP and the future of LGBTQ+ students?
Michael: I like thinking the best set of things, but this time I’m not too sure when it comes to the future of LGBTQ+ people in UTEP. I don’t know. To be completely honest, the second time I met with her, I asked her a question — I asked her — will you work with me to ensure transgender non-binary individuals receive the dignity and safety they deserve and expecting an in-depth response. Dr. Wilson just simply replied “yes” and just moved on quickly. So I think I deserved more than a “yes.” I think my community deserves more than a “yes.” It just shows me that I don’t know the future for my community but I’m going to try my hardest to make sure that we are protected and nothing happens to us.
Kaelin: As for the future of UTEP, the current standing president right now, Diana Natalicio, has encouraged us by saying, she gave a speech the other day and I was I was lucky enough to be there. She said it’s up to the students, it’s up to the faculty, it’s up to the community to fight for our mission to make sure that we never compromise our community and our beliefs no matter who’s presiding over us and I wholeheartedly, I’m going to take that and run like hell with it. As for the future of LGBTQ+ students I hope, at UTEP, just from what I what I’m feeling right now from amongst the community is that we are not going to stop being heard and we’re not going to hide into the woodwork now that she’s here and if she gets appointed, we’re not hiding. We’re not being silenced or being made invisible.
These replies have been edited and shortened for clarity.
Harold Daniel is a GLAAD Campus Ambassador and senior at Florida International University studying broadcast journalism. He currently serves as an intern for Good Morning America on ABC.
57% of LGBTI people lose a friend or family member after coming out, Gay Star News has found.
This heartbreaking statistic adds to previous research about isolation and loneliness in the LGBTI community.
Also, three-quarters (72%) of GSN readers said they ‘always’ or ‘sometimes’ felt lonely.
In contrast, only 20% said they rarely or didn’t ever feel lonely.
GSN readers were polled before and during Digital Pride, the global online movement that takes place on 29 April to 5 May.
Unlike any other Pride event in the world, you can take part in Digital Pride whoever and wherever you are.
Even if you are from a country where being LGBTI is criminalized or leaves you in danger – it’s a Pride festival you can be a part of.H
Loneliness and isolation are serious issues in the LGBTI community | Photo: Flickr/Alachua County
Thousands of people voted in the straw poll available on social media and the website.
Many said they felt it was difficult to make LGBTI friends.
We also asked whether GSN readers have ever felt lonely in a relationship.
We also asked about their friendships.
Loneliness affects us all
Tris Reid-Smith, editor-in-chief of GSN, said: ‘You can be lonely if you live in an isolated place, where you are the only LGBTI person you know. But equally you can live in the world’s biggest city and still feel isolated as an LGBTI person.
‘Loneliness affects us all at some point in our lives.
‘That’s particularly important in a community like ours where people are also more likely to suffer from poor mental health.
‘But there is also something we can do about it.
‘We hope Digital Pride will spark a conversation about how to tackle loneliness and isolation in our community. And we hope it will inspire people to reach out to a friend or acquaintance they think may be lonely or isolated. Digital Pride is a Pride designed to inspire change and that change is something you can start to make happen today.’
These findings add to what we already know about LGBTI loneliness.
The need for support has remained the same across decades
Natasha Walker, the co-chair of Switchboard, said: ‘These statistics solidify a lot of what we already know working within the LGBTI support sector – that loneliness is a pressing issue for people who identify as LGBTI.
‘Looking back throughout our 45 years as a helpline, despite the changes in legislation, the changes in societal and cultural attitudes, the changes within the LGBTQ+ communities…the phone calls for support have remained constant.
‘Whether it was 1975, 1988 or 2003 we received calls from people questioning their identity, with themes of shame, confusion and loneliness. Themes which remain constant in the calls we take today in 2019.’
A Stonewall spokesperson also commented on the findings.
‘Simply being lesbian, gay, bi or trans, shouldn’t mean you’re more likely to experience poor mental health and loneliness,’ they said.
‘Unfortunately, these findings and our own research show this is the case for many in the community.
We know that half of LGBTI people (52%) have experienced depression. Three in five (61%) reported having episodes of anxiety in the last year.
‘The discrimination and rejection LGBTI people can experience from friends and family can lead to disproportionate feelings of loneliness and isolation. Across Britain and worldwide, we want to help create a world where every LGBTI person is supported to lead a happy, healthy life.’
Something has to change
Ian Howley, Chief Executive of LGBT HERO, the parent organisation of GMFA and OutLife, reacted to the findings.
He said: ‘These findings prove again and again that not enough is being done to tackle the high numbers of LGBTI people who are experiencing these issues.
‘Tackling isolation and loneliness is important. It can lead to people making unhealthy choices such as drinking alcohol more, using hard drugs, engaging in chemsex and partaking in riskier sex.
‘But it can also lead to extreme cases of anxiety, depression, self-harm and even suicide. All the statistics also prove the longer someone feels isolated or lonely, the higher the rate they will experience mental illness issues or even consider taking their own life.
‘To me it’s unacceptable that just because we are LGBTI that this is something we have to experience.
‘We as a community need to come together and figure out what realistically can be done to challenge the issues raised here.
‘Nobody should feel isolated in the LGBTI community and there’s more we can all do to stop this.
‘But right now we need to find a way to support those who are currently feeling isolated or lonely while laying down the foundations to eradicate this for future generations.’
New research has found that US states which legalised gay marriage before the 2015 Supreme Court ruling became more accepting of LGBT+ people at a quicker rate.
The study led by psychologist Eugene Ofosu found that “while anti-gay bias has been decreasing over time,” it did so “at roughly double” the speed after states introduced equal marriage.
“However, following the passing of legislation perceived as supportive of this marginalised population, on average, anti-gay bias declined at a steeper rate.
“Following the passing of legislation, anti-gay bias declined at a steeper rate.”
—A study led by Eugene Ofosu
“Our work highlights how government legislation can inform individuals’ attitudes, even when these attitudes may be deeply entrenched and socially and politically volatile.”
States forced to adopt gay marriage experienced ‘backlash’
The exceptions to the trend were states which had resisted equal marriage, but were made to adopt it after the Supreme Court ruled that they must.
Equal marriage was a state issue until June 26, 2015, when the court ruling on Obergefell v. Hodges legalised it across the entire US.
States whose hands were forced experienced a “backlash”, apparently reflecting the “sense of symbolic threat” to their conservative values.
Ofosu and his team analysed approximately one million responses over a 12-year period to the Project Implicit website, which is designed to reveal a person’s unconscious bias.
They also looked at data from more than 10,000 participants in the American National Election Studies, which asked people to rate how warmly they felt about LGBT+ people.
The surveys were conducted “across all 50 states before, during, and after same-sex marriage legislation,” in 2008, 2012 and 2016.
The president has faced widespread criticism from LGBT+ campaigners and allies over the ban, which came into effect on April 13.
In March, a study found that there was a rise in hate crimes in counties which hosted Trump rallies in the run-up to his election in 2016.
The researchers noted that there was no concrete link between Trump’s rhetoric and the rise in crimes, but said that attempts to dismiss the figures as “faux hate crimes” were unrealistic.
