Brian Hagedorn declared victory Wednesday over fellow Appeals Judge Lisa Neubauer in a close race for Wisconsin Supreme Court even as both sides were preparing for a potential recount.
If the result holds, conservatives would likely keep control of the court for at least four years. “We made history,” Hagedorn said in a news conference. “We made history in a significant way and our margin of victory looks to be insurmountable.”
Hagedorn led Neubauer 50.25% to 49.75% with nearly all of Tuesday’s votes unofficially counted — at a margin that allows a recount. The results won’t become official until a canvass of the votes. The Associated Press has not yet declared a victor. Even as Hagedorn claimed victory, Neubauer prepared to seek a recount in the race.
Hagedorn, who is running for the state Supreme Court, wrote a blog beginning in 2005 in which he addressed readers as “fellow soldiers in the culture wars” while posting sometimes provocative comments on homosexuality and abortion.
For example, Hagedorn twice wrote that a landmark gay rights ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court striking down a Texas anti-sodomy law could lead to the legalization of bestiality, sex with animals, in America. “The idea that homosexual behavior is different than bestiality as a constitutional matter is unjustifiable,” he wrote in October 2005.
Utah has finally added hate crime protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
The Republican Governor of Utah, Gary Herbert, signed a bill on Tuesday (April 2) that expands state hate crime statute to add protections for LGBT+ people for the first time.
The bill passed after decades of stalled progress in the state, which had been one of 15 with no state-level provisions for anti-LGBT hate crimes.
However, the proposal passed after the Mormon Church, which dominates politics in the state, signalled that it would not resist the change.
LGBT+ rights group Equality Utah said the moment represents “an impressive leap forward for our state.”
The group added: “This was an intersectional victory, with multiple ethnic, faith and community organisations coming together to denounce hate crimes in Utah.
“Prosecutors now have the tools they need to bring justice to victims who are targeted for who they are.”
Lawmakers in the Utah House of Representatives (Creative Commons/Scott Catron)
Their comments were echoed by state senator Derek Kitchen, a Democrat and the only openly gay member of the Utah legislature.
According to AP, Kitchen said: “This bill comes at such an important time in our community. Everywhere we look we seem to be seeing more hate, more violence, more directed remarks.
“The thing with hate crimes is there are two victims: the person that was harmed, and the community they represent.
“It’s the community at large that we’re also trying to protect.”
Utah lawmakers hail LGBT-inclusive hate crime law
The bill’s Republican sponsor Lee Perry also spoke about a gay cousin who had been beaten for his sexuality.
He said: “This represents him. This is to protect him.”
Governor Herbert said: “Everybody, every person, every individual in our society, is worthy of dignity, respect and love.
“Today I signed S.B. 103, which will protect Utahns of all races, creeds, religions, and orientations from hate crimes. Let there be peace on Earth, and let it begin with us.”
A federal law signed by President Barack Obama in 2009, the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, allowed federal criminal prosecution of hate crimes motivated by the victim’s actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity.
LGBT people are typically depicted as city and coastal dwellers. And those who live in rural America are often characterized as people yearning to escape rural life for more acceptance in urban areas.
But a new study from the Movement Advancement Project, a think tank that advocates for LGBT equality, shatters that stereotype.
Between 2.9 million and 3.8 million LGBT people live in rural America, that’s up to 5 percent of the rural population and up to 20 percent of the LGBT population. For the most part, they chose that life for the same reasons other Americans do: tight-knit communities with a shared sense of values that typically revolve around places like the church, schools or local businesses.
Same-sex parents, like many other parents, also gravitate to life outside the cities. The report says that “the highest rates of parenting by both same-sex couples and LGBT individuals are in the most rural regions of the country.” It points to data from The Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law that says 24 out of the 30 states where same-sex couples are raising children are mostly rural in the Midwest, the South and the mountain regions of America.
“The most important goal was to work against the stereotype that LGBT people only live in the cities or on the coast and to shine a light on the millions of LGBT people living in rural America,” said Logan Casey, a policy researcher for the Movement Advancement Project. “They are a fundamental part of the fabric of rural communities across the country.”Discrimination against LGBT people is not unique to rural areas. But the impact is different. – Logan Casey, Movement Advancement Project
LGBT people face the same challenges that others in rural America face: limited access to health care, housing shortages, a growing opioid epidemic and job loss.
But being LGBT can make those challenges more difficult.
First, in small communities, there’s a ripple effect, so if LGBT members are discriminated against, it can quickly spread through the community and vice versa. There are also fewer protections in rural areas.
“Discrimination against LGBT people is not unique to rural areas. But the impact is different,” Casey said.
He says that in places where there are fewer doctors and employers, it makes the impact of discrimination more acute. If the local clinic decides it won’t treat an LGBT person or if an employer won’t give an LGBT person a job, alternatives are almost impossible to find. That’s not the case in cities.
So it’s incredibly important, the study says, to improve life for all rural Americans such as creating better access to health care, employment and the Internet, as well as by protecting the most vulnerable by passing “LGBT-inclusive nondiscrimination protections at the federal, state, and local level,” and by stopping or rolling back religious exemption laws “that may allow service providers to discriminate.”
“When you don’t have those non-discrimination protections, it disproportionately impacts LGBT people in rural areas,” Casey said. “LGBT people throughout the country shouldn’t have to choose between these basic rights and protections and where they call home.”
The study comes as Congress debates the federal Equality Act. It was reintroduced last month. The act would amend civil rights laws to include protections for LGBT people against discrimination in key parts of their lives like employment, housing, public accommodations and federally funded programs.
Mayoral candidate Satya Rhodes-Conway has achieved victory in her bid to become mayor of Madison, Wisconsin. In doing so, she becomes the first openly gay mayor of the US city, and only the second woman.
Democrat Rhodes-Conway, 47, a former three-term Madison City Council member, ousts incumbent Paul Soglin.
Soglin, 73, served as mayor from 1973-1979, 1989-1997, and from 2011 until now. He was Madison’s longest-serving mayor and it was his 22nd year in the office.
Rhodes-Conway’s victory was called around 9.25pm local time Tuesday. She had 62% of the vote with 92% of precincts counted (47,915 votes to Soglin ‘s 29,1500).
New Madison mayor: ‘Full of hope for our city’
Rhodes-Conway campaigned on a platform of developing affordable housing, improving Madison transportation with rapid transit, tackling systematic racial inequities and addressing climate change.
In her victory speech at Prism Dance Club, Rhodes-Conway paid tribute to Harvey Milk as an inspiration. She also said, ‘I am full of hope for our city!’
Her victory comes on the same night as another LGBTI candidate made history in Chicago. Lori Lightfoot became the first black, lesbian to be elected mayor of the Illinois city. Lightfoot becomes the highest-ranking LGBTI mayor in American history.
Other LGBTI candidates to achieve success in local elections yesterday included Democrat Jolie Justus in Kansas City. She secured the top spot in the run-off for Mayor. The mayoral election will take place there on June 18.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) tweeted on Tuesday (2 April) for the releaseof whistleblower and activist Chelsea Manning.
A federal judge jailed Manning in March for refusing to testify in a federal investigation. While details of the investigation remain under seal, Manning confirmed authorities asked her about WikiLeaks.
‘These secret proceedings tend to favor the government,’ she told reporters outside the courthouse before the hearing. ‘I’m always willing to explain things publicly. I’ve given voluminous testimony; I’ve given voluminous information.’
In her tweet, Ocasio-Cortez wrote authorities ‘trapped’ Manning in solitary confinement and described it as ‘torture’. She also wrote the authorities should release Manning on bail.
Solitary confinement as ‘torture’
According to Chelsea Resists, a support committee for Manning, she has been held in solitary confinement for 16 days as of 23 March.
They provided a screenshot of a statement describing ‘Administrative Segregation’, in which inmates are in their cells ‘for a maximum of 22 hours a day’.
The committee also states Manning can make phone calls and move outside of her cell during the hours between 1 and 3 am.
Further in the statement, they quote Juan Mendez, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and a professor on human rights at American University.
‘I have defined prolonged solitary confinement as any period in excess of 15 days,’ he wrote.
In his research, he has come to define solitary confinement as a form of punishment that can constitute torture.
He continued, describing the negative effects of solitary confinement: ‘This definition reflects the fact that most of the scientific literature shows that, after 15 days, certain changes in brain functions occur and the harmful psychological effects of isolation can become irreversible. Prolonged solitary confinement must be absolutely prohibited, because it always amounts to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, and may even constitute torture.’
The statement concludes with various health problems Manning has faced while in confinement.
Disputes from the sheriff
Dana Lawhorne, the sheriff of Alexandria, Virginia, where Manning is being held, disputed these claims to CNN. She claimed the reports were ‘not accurate or fair’.
‘Our facility does not have “solitary confinement” and inmates housed in administrative segregation for safety and security reasons still have access to social visits, books, recreation, and break time outside their cells,’ she said.
Lawthorne also added ‘(the) federal government has never suggested to us how to treat any inmate and it is unfair to imply that there is a “conspiracy” of any kind’.
In 2013, the government convicted Manning in a court-martial trial for violations of the Espionage Act when she was an analyst in the United States Army. She disclosed over 700,000 military and diplomatic documents, both classified and unclassified, to WikiLeaks.
Initiated in 2006, WikiLeaks operates in publishing news leaks and secret information from anonymous sources.
Manning received a 35-year prison sentence before President Obama commuted her sentence in 2017.
Authorities also charged WikiLeaks’ founder, Julia Assange, in a separate case that remains under seal. He currently has asylum at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.
Lori Lightfoot won a resounding victory Tuesday night to become both the first African-American woman and openly gay person elected mayor of Chicago, dealing a stinging defeat to a political establishment that has reigned over City Hall for decades.
After waging a campaign focused on upending the vaunted Chicago political machine, Lightfoot dismantled one of its major cogs by dispatching Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, whose candidacy had been hobbled in part by an anti-incumbent mood among voters and an ongoing federal corruption investigation at City Hall.
Lightfoot’s campaign, which started last May as a long-shot bid to replace the city’s clouted politics with inclusive change, took the former federal prosecutor and first-time candidate from toiling in relative political obscurity to toppling the head of the Cook County Democratic Party.
From DNC Chairman Tom Perez:
“Congratulations to Chicago Mayor-elect Lori Lightfoot on her historic victory tonight. In 2018, trailblazing candidates made history, and broke records across the nation. With Lori’s election, that trend shows no signs of stopping.
“As the first openly LGBTQ woman of color to be elected mayor in any of America’s 100 largest cities and the first black woman to serve as Mayor of Chicago, Lightfoot is an inspiration to thousands of LGBTQ people of color who have a new role model in elected office.
“This historic win reaffirms that our diversity is our greatest strength, and that our elected leaders should reflect the diversity of the communities they represent. I look forward to working with Mayor-elect Lightfoot as she fights to build a brighter future for all. The people of Chicago will be well served with her leadership.”
A majority of Americans say they are comfortable with or enthusiastic about a gay presidential candidate, according to a survey.
A poll by NBC and the Wall Street Journal, published in March, found 68 percent are either enthusiastic (14 percent) or comfortable (54 percent) with a candidate who is gay or lesbian.
Seventy-five percent of American voters under 35 now say they would be enthusiastic or comfortable with a gay presidential candidate, according to the poll.
According to the poll, 56 percent of voters above the age of 65 are now either enthusiastic about or comfortable with the possibility.
A previous survey conducted in 2006 shows Americans’ attitudes towards a gay presidential candidate have changed drastically over the last decade.
More than 50 percent of Americans either had “reservations” about or were “very uncomfortable” with a gay person running for president.
Only 47 percent of those under 35 said they were comfortable with or enthusiastic about a gay presidential candidate in the 2006 survey. Thirty-one percent of voters above 65 said the same.
Mayor of South Bend, Indiana Pete Buttigieg (Official photo)
Gay mayor Pete Buttigieg announced his candidacy for US president earlier this year and in March, jumped to third place in polls in the key primary state of Iowa.
An Emerson poll released on Sunday (March 24) shows Buttigieg polling at 11 percent in the crucial state of Iowa, behind only former Vice President Joe Biden on 25 percent and Senator Bernie Sanders on 24 percent.
Buttigieg, who would become the first openly gay man to hold the office of US President if elected, started as a long-shot candidate in the Democratic primaries, but the Indiana mayor has built support in recent weeks.
The Emerson poll places Buttigieg ahead of many of the more established candidates in the race, with Senators Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker on 10 percent, 9 percent and 6 percent respectively.
He came out in 2015 in a column in the South Bend Tribune during his second re-election campaign, writing: “Today it remains legal in most parts of Indiana (though not South Bend) to fire someone simply for being gay, and bullying still contributes to tragically high suicide rates among LGBT teens.”
He added: “Putting something this personal on the pages of a newspaper does not come easy. We Midwesterners are instinctively private to begin with, and I’m not used to viewing this as anyone else’s business.
“But it’s clear to me that at a moment like this, being more open about it could do some good. For a local student struggling with her sexuality, it might be helpful for an openly gay mayor to send the message that her community will always have a place for her.
“And for a conservative resident from a different generation, whose unease with social change is partly rooted in the impression that he doesn’t know anyone gay, perhaps a familiar face can be a reminder that we’re all in this together as a community.”
Using data from the 2015–2017 Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey, the Trevor Project released a new report about the health of bisexual youth in the United States.
On the whole, they found bisexual youth reported higher rates of suicide ideation, bullying, and other negative experiences.
In the CDC’s data, as re-stated in the report, 7% of youth identified as bisexual, compared to 2% as gay or lesbian and 4% as not sure.
Between their fellow peers in the LGBTI community, and heterosexual peers, there exists a disparity. Researchers found this both in mental health and victimization.
What they experience
Overall, bisexual youth reported higher rates of various mental health struggles than all their peers.
When asked if they felt sad or hopeless, ever seriously considered suicide, or attempted suicide, bisexual youth had the highest affirmative responses.
A majority of bisexual youth (66%) reported feeling hopeless or sad. In comparison, 27% of straight youth reported this, as well as 49% of gay/lesbian youth.
When it comes to suicide ideation, 48% of bisexual youth have ‘seriously considered it’. 27% have actually attempted suicide.
Among gay and lesbian youth, these numbers are 37% and 19%.
Further, bisexual youth also have the highest rates of reporting bullying (on school and online). They also report the highest rates of experiencing ‘forced’ sexual intercourse.
21% say they’ve been forced into sexual intercourse, and another 36% and 30% say they’ve been bullied at school and online, respectively.
Stigma around bisexuality
As Amy Green, Director of Research for The Trevor Project, noted, bisexual youth are ‘more likely to experience victimization, depressed mood, and suicide attempts than their straight, lesbian, and gay peers’.
‘These disparities are likely related to increased minority stress faced by bisexual youth who may be stigmatized by both straight and gay/lesbian communities,’ she continued.
There is stigma surrounding the bisexual community based on negative stereotypes and myths. Some of these myths include bisexual people not being able to make up their mind or being promiscuous.
Green said: ‘Enhancing youth coping skills and social support can mitigate the link between stigmatization and negative outcomes, which is why The Trevor Project’s crisis services operates 24/7 to provide that support to bisexual youth as well as all LGBTQ youth in crisis.’
If you or someone you know is feeling hopeless or suicidal, contact The Trevor Project’s TrevorLifeline 24/7/365 at 1-866-488-7386. Counseling is also available via chat every day atTheTrevorProject.org/Help, or by texting 678-678.
The U.S. House voted Thursday morning to rebuke President Trump’s transgender military ban by approving a non-binding resolution with bipartisan support.
The resolution, which was introduced by Rep. Joseph Kennedy III (D-Mass.), was approved by a vote of 238-185 after an hour of debate on the House floor in which lawmakers denounced the Trump administration’s policy as discriminatory.
On the House floor, Kennedy said his resolution reinforces the American idea that “equal has always been our nation’s North Star” despite a history that has included slavery and racial segregation.
“Today, this House has a chance to not repeat the mistakes of our past, to move one step closer to that sacred promise, by telling brave trans men and women in uniform that they cannot be banned from military service because of who they are,” Kennedy said.
Five Republicans voted for the resolution against the transgender military ban: Reps. Will Hurd (Texas), John Katko (N.Y.), Trey Hollingsworth (Indiana), Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa) and Tom Reed (N.Y.). Another Republican — Rep. Justin Amash (Mich.) — voted present.
(Initially, as the vote was being tallied, a total of six Republicans were recorded as having voted in favor of the resolution. But, just before the vote was made final, that number dropped to five. It’s unclear which Republican switched his or her vote before it was recorded.)
The House approves the resolution shortly after the Defense Department unveiled its plan to begin the transgender military ban on April 12. Although federal courts had initially blocked the administration from enacting the policy, the orders were lifted in the accordance with guidance from the U.S. Supreme Court effectively green-lighting the ban as litigation proceeds against it.
Also speaking out in favor of the resolution was House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), who last week announced he would bring the measure to a House floor vote.
“The Trump administration’s ban on transgender people serving in our military is discriminatory, that it denigrates the service of patriotic Americans,” Hoyer said. “That is the facet of their character, they are patriotic and they want to serve, and the service judges them able to do so. The resolution, millions of Americans understand, undermines our national defense at a time of serious global threats, and the this resolution rightfully calls on the Trump administration not to implement such a ban on April 12.”
A significant source of ire for the lawmakers speaking out against the measure was President Trump’s tweets in 2017 declaring he’d seek to ban transgender people from military service “in any capacity.”
Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said before that tweet “there was no problem” allowing openly transgender people in the military — a practice that started during the final year of the Obama administration.
“He sent out a tweet saying we should ban transgender people from the military, and the military has had to backfill that tweet with a policy, and I feel bad for members of the military who have had to do that, who have to waste their time for the last year trying to accommodate the ignorance and bigotry of this presidential policy,” Smith said.
The number of lawmakers — all Democrats — who spoke out on the House floor in favor of the resolution by far exceeded the two lawmakers — both Republicans — who spoke out against against it.
Among them was Rep. Vicky Hartlzer (R-Mo.), who has a notoriously anti-LGBT record and two years ago introduced an amendment to the House floor seeking to ban the U.S. military from paying for transition-related care, including gender reassignment surgery. Even though Republicans at the time controlled the House, lawmakers voted down the amendment.
On the House floor, Hartzler said the transgender ban is justified because the military has broad exclusions on service based on a variety of medical conditions. (That ignores the conclusions from the American Medical Association that being transgender isn’t an impediment to military service.)
“Our all voluntary military is the greatest military force in the world and we must allow it…to make the best medical and military judgment about what medical conditions should qualify or disqualify an individual from serving,” Hartlzer said. “We should not carve out exceptions for an entire population. Military service is a privilege, not a right.”
Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), chair of the House Armed Services Committee, said lawmakers were “rather consumed by presidential tweets” and urged fellow House members to remember the six-month long study that began at the time of Trump’s tweets and resulted in the transgender military policy.
“Well before any presidential tweet, Secretary of Defense Mattis had put a delay on implementation of the policy that had previously been announced so there could be a six-month review,” Thornberry said. “And there was a six-month review with experts, with uniform, civilian people, from all the services, with medical experts, a whole variety of folks, and it is serious and thoughtful despite some of the characterizations that have been made from time to time.”
The vote in resolution comes in the same week that top defense officials spoke out on the transgender policy before Congress. During a House hearing on the annual defense Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan said the policy “applies standards uniformly.”
Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford — who said on transgender service anyone who meets the standards of service should be able to serve — spoke about the process that led to the current policy.
“The secretary included the leadership and medical experts, then based on the definition of physically, mentally, psychologically capable of deploying, performing in our occupational fields, with the caveat, without special accommodations, he proposed a revision to the 2017 policy,” Dunford said. “That was the process that was used to be able to do that.”
According to numbers first reported by USA Today and verified by the Pentagon, the U.S. military since 2016 has spent nearly $8 million for transition-related care for 1,500 transgender troops, which includes 161 surgical procedures. That’s a small fraction of the Pentagon’s annual budget of around $600 billion.
During testimony last month before Congress, five transgender service members said the time they needed to transition during service was minimal and took as little as a few weeks. Many said they transitioned on vacation or personal time.
The non-binding resolution approved the by the House doesn’t have the force for legislation. Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) have introduced bills in their respective chambers of Congress that would bar the U.S. military from discharging qualified individuals on the basis of transgender status. Speier has said she’d seek to amend the annual defense authorization bill with her measure.
US Education Secretary Betsy DeVos refused to directly answer a question about whether she opposed LGBT discrimination in schools at a House hearing on Tuesday (26 March).
Representative Mark Pocan asked notoriously anti-LGBTI DeVos: ‘Do you think it’s all right for a school to discriminate based on someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity?’
‘We have laws that cover … discriminatory efforts and our office for civil rights has continued to be very diligent in investigating any allegation of discrimination and will continue to do so’ DeVos replied.
When pushed for a ‘yes or no answer’ by Pocan, DeVos finally said ‘we follow the law’.
He asked whether schools that receive funding from the federal government would be punished if they allowed discrimination against LGBT students to occur.
‘Schools that receive federal funds must follow federal law,’ DeVos said.
DeVos’ family also has a long-standing history of supporting anti-LGBTI causes.
Through family foundations, they funded anti-LGBTI campaigns and organizations.
The benefactors include Focus On the Family. The organization’s website states ‘homosexual strugglers can and do change their sexual behavior and identity’.
They received a $10 million (€9.34 million, £7.98 million) donation from the DeVos family.
