The National LGBTQ Task Force, NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ Journalists, and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) have launched a Spanish-language stylebook for journalists reporting on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people. First published by NLGJA and NAHJ in 2005, “El Manual de Estilo Sobre la Comunidad Lesbiana, Gay, Bisexual y Transgénero” is available online here.
“We’re honored to partner with NLGJA and NAHJ in publishing this critical resource to help guide journalists in their reporting on issues affecting LGBTQ people,” said National LGBTQ Task Force Executive Director Rea Carey. “Now more than ever, as we learned all too well from last November’s election, accurate and fair reporting is essential.”
The Spanish-language stylebook includes guidance as well as a glossary of terms to use and avoid when reporting on LGBTQ people. Earlier today, representatives from NLGJA, NAHJ, and the National LGBTQ Task Force took part in a live-recorded panel to discuss the stylebook that can be viewed on Facebook.
“NLGJA’s mission is to foster fair and accurate coverage of LGBTQ issues and people, and we’re very excited to make that mission more inclusive and accessible through ‘El Manual de Estilo Sobre La Comunidad Lesbiana, Gay, Biexual y Transgénero.’ NLGJA is grateful for the cooperation and collaboration of NAHJ and the Task Force in bringing this new resource to life,” said NLGJA Executive Director Adam Pawlus.
The collaborative publication is a result of ongoing efforts to educate journalists on LGBTQ cultural competence, which includes workshops at the annual NLGJA National Convention, NAHJ’s Excellence in Journalism Conference, and the National LGBTQ Task Force’s Creating Change Conference. The 2017 NLGJA National Convention will take place in Philadelphia on September 7-10 and the 2017 Excellence in Journalism Conference is set for September 7-9 in Anaheim, California. The 30th annual Creating Change Conference will take place in Washington, D.C. on January 24-28, 2018.
“In 2005, I served as Co-Chair of the NAHJ GLBT caucus, so this really is a full circle moment for me. NAHJ and NLGJA continue to provide GLBT resources in Spanish and English to our members and journalists across the country. We are elated that The Task Force has facilitated this opportunity for us,” said NAHJ President Brandon Benavides.
Today, the Trump Administration submitted to Congress a report of the list of categories of data it plans to collect for the 2020 Census and the American Community Survey (ACS). In this morning’s version of the Administration’s report, while it conspicuously excluded lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBTQ) people on the list of “planned subjects” for the nation’s decennial census and longer form survey, “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” were included as “proposed” subjects in the appendix—indicating that data collection on these categories may have been in the works in an earlier version. Last year, a number of federal agencies urged the Census Bureau to collect sexual orientation and gender identity data, explaining that the information was critical to their ability to implement and enforce the law.
“Today, the Trump Administration has taken yet another step to deny LGBTQ people freedom, justice, and equity, by choosing to exclude us from the 2020 Census and American Community Survey. LGBTQ people are not counted on the Census—no data is collected on sexual orientation or gender identity. Information from these surveys helps the government to enforce federal laws like the Violence Against Women Act and the Fair Housing Act and to determine how to allocate resources like housing supports and food stamps. If the government doesn’t know how many LGBTQ people live in a community, how can it do its job to ensure we’re getting fair and adequate access to the rights, protections and services we need?” said Meghan Maury, Criminal and Economic Justice Project Director, National LGBTQ Task Force.
This decision is part of a string of actions by the Trump Administration to remove sexual orientation and gender identity questions from federal surveys and to stall assessment of programs targeting the LGBTQ community. The Census does collect data on same-sex couples through its “relationship to householder” question; this results in a very narrow depiction of the needs and experiences of our community.
“We call on President Trump and his Administration to begin collecting sexual orientation and gender identity data on the American Community Survey as soon as possible and urge Congress to conduct oversight hearings to reveal why the Administration made the last-minute decision not to collect data on LGBTQ people,” said Maury.
For over a decade, the National LGBTQ Task Force has been at the forefront of national data collection advocacy efforts by urging the President, Congress, and the Census Bureau to collect data that accurately reflects the country’s population of LGBTQ people. In 2010, the National LGBTQ Task Force launched the “Queer the Census” campaign calling on LGBTQ people to urge the Census Bureau to count them in the 2010 Census. More than 100,000 LGBTQ people placed a “Queer the Census” sticker on their 2010 Census envelops, asking the federal agency to count them and collect data on LGBTQ people. Since 2014, Maury has served on the National Advisory Committee on Racial, Ethnic, and Other Populations, where she provides advice to the Census Bureau on this and various other data collection issues.
Gay marriage has been a hot topic in and out of courtrooms for the past several years.
Another issue is being fixed to help those who lost loved ones before the epic court ruling.
Florida widows and widowers whose spouses died before the U.S. Supreme Court declared state bans on same-sex marriage unconstitutional can have the death certificates of their loved ones changed without having to go to court, a federal judge ruled Thursday.
The decision in favor of gay widows and widowers is the latest ruling from U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle against the state on the issue of same-sex marriages and was hailed as a major victory by Lambda Legal, which represented the plaintiffs in a class-action suit filed in 2015.
The plaintiffs sought to have the death certificates of their spouses show they had been married, but the state argued that Florida law prohibited officials from changing the documents without a court order.
“Not so,” Hinkle wrote in Thursday’s eight-page opinion.
Hinkle’s ruling came more than two years after he struck down Florida’s voter-approved ban on gay marriage in November 2014. Cementing Hinkle’s decision in a landmark case known as Obergefell v. Hodges, the U.S. Supreme Court months later ruled that same-sex couples have a fundamental right to marry.
While Florida officials complied with the Obergefell decision by including the names of same-sex spouses on death certificates for people who died after the June 2015 ruling, the state maintained that the Office of Vital Statistics required a court order to amend the documents of those who had died prior to the decision.
But Hinkle disagreed.
“As a matter of federal constitutional law, a state cannot properly refuse to correct a federal constitutional violation going forward, even if the violation arose before the dispute over the constitutional issue was settled,” he wrote. “If the law were otherwise, the schools might still be segregated.”
The state “must correct a constitutional error that affected a death certificate’s information on both marital status and a spouse’s identity,” he ordered.
Hinkle’s ruling requires state officials to amend death certificates without a court order “if the decedent was a party to a same-sex marriage that was recognized as lawful in the jurisdiction where it was entered” and the surviving spouse provides documentation, such as an affidavit, showing that the marriage wasn’t recognized or the same-sex partner wasn’t identified.
The plaintiffs include Hal Birchfield, who married James Merrick Smith in New York in 2012, and Paul Mocko, who married William Gregory Patterson in California in 2014. Smith died a year after he and Birchfield were married, and Patterson died the same year he wed Mocko. The two men filed the class action lawsuit on behalf of other similarly situated surviving spouses in Florida.
“The state of Florida discriminated against us and disrespected our relationship in life and even in James’ death, but this decision will ensure that I and all the other surviving same-sex spouses will finally have accurate death certificates that honor our
Today, Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin signed SB 17 into law, a measure that allows student groups at colleges, universities, and high schools to discriminate against LGBTQ students.
SB 17 undermines inclusive “all comers” policies at public colleges, universities, and now high schools, by allowing student organizations to discriminate against students under the guise of religion. Many public colleges and universities have long had “all-comers” policies that require student organizations receiving financial and other support from the institution not to discriminate against students based on race, sex, religion, sexual orientation or gender identity. These policies are important because they allow all members of the student body to participate in students groups and prevent such groups from discriminating against students with state funding. The Supreme Court upheld these all-comers policies as constitutional in the Christian Legal Society v. Martinez decision in 2010.
“Gov. Bevin’s shameful decision to sign this discriminatory bill into law jeopardizes non-discrimination policies at public high schools, colleges, and universities,” said HRC Legal Director Sarah Warbelow. “No student should fear being excluded from a school club or participating in a school activity because they are LGBTQ. While of course private groups should have the freedom to express religious viewpoints, they should not be able to unfairly discriminate with taxpayer funds.”
Philadelphia’s Little Pete’s is disappearing from Center City sooner than anyone thought. Although developers for the hotel that will replace the iconic diner at 17th and Chancellor had set August 31 as the deadline for vacating the space, owner Pete Koutroubas has decided to shut down earlier. He’s also throwing a farewell party. As reported by Philly Chit Chat, the last day of operation for Little Pete’s will be Monday, May 29 — Memorial Day. On the following Tuesday, Koutroubas is planning a block party to thank his many customers.
And here’s why the diner has a place in LGBT history:
We know the term ‘sit-in’ as just one aspect of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. In Philadelphia, four years before Stonewall, a different sit-in took place. Dewey’s was, at the time, a chain of coffee shops across the city. The 13th Street Dewey’s, open all night, was known as “the fag Dewey’s,” where queer customers mingled with cops needing coffee, a cross-section of life on 13th Street.
The other Dewey’s, however, were determined not to follow suit. The 17th Street Dewey’s, just off Rittenhouse Square (today the site is known as Little Pete’s) was open about refusing gay customers and those wearing non-conformist clothing, which is to say non-gender-conforming clothing.
More than 150 people – black, white, gay, lesbian and transgender – took part in the first protest on Sunday, April 25th, 1965. Three protesters were arrested. The Janus Society, a local gay-rights group, spread leaflets in support, and a second sit-in occurred on Sunday, May 2. The establishment, in the end, agreed to end their discrimination.
The American Civil Liberties Union has today demanded documents from four federal agencies concerning a potential executive order that would sanction religiously motivated discrimination against LGBT people, members of minority faiths, women, and people seeking reproductive health care.
“The American people deserve to know whether this administration plans to protect the rights of all Americans or whether it will sanction discrimination,” said Louise Melling, deputy legal director for the ACLU. “The ACLU fights every day to defend religious freedom, but religious freedom does not mean the right to discriminate against or harm others. If President Trump signs an executive order that authorizes discrimination against women and LGBT people, we will see him in court.”
The Freedom of Information Act requests were filed with the Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, Justice, and Treasury and seek any communications regarding the drafting of an executive order that would attempt to grant broad religious exemptions to organizations from rules barring discrimination. A draft version of the order leaked last month.
Among other items, the draft order would insert broad exemptions into existing nondiscrimination protections under the Affordable Care Act requiring employers to offer insurance coverage for contraception, authorize federally funded child welfare organizations to make decisions based on religious directives regardless of the best interests of the child, and allow federal employees, contractors, and grantees to discriminate against same-sex couples, transgender people, and women seeking reproductive health care.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) conserves America’s original civic values working in courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in the United States by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
Through the generous support of the Ford Foundation, 23 organizations in nine Deep South states heavily impacted by HIV/AIDS will receive critical support to fight the HIV epidemic by addressing the disparities and social injustices that fuel the epidemic. By adopting an intersectional approach, Southern REACH grantees will advance the rights, health and dignity of people affected by HIV in their communities.
The South is home to just 37% of the total U.S. population, yet almost half (49%) of all new HIV diagnoses happen in Deep South states. Further, many people living with HIV face overwhelming challenges such as racism, poverty, lack of access to education, HIV-related stigma, homophobia, transphobia, fear of deportation and lack of access to insurance and specialized HIV. These issues won’t be solved without strategic, effective advocacy that reaches far beyond constituencies historically focused on HIV.
That’s why the AIDS United Southern REACH (Regional Expansion of Access and Capacity to Address HIV/AIDS) grantees will tackle things differently. REACH grantees will address HIV-related disparities where public health and social justice intersect. This includes focusing on key areas such as community organizing and mobilization, meaningful involvement of people living with HIV in policymaking and the integration of HIV into key social and racial justice frameworks.
“The HIV epidemic continues through complex and deep-rooted social and economic inequities,” said Jesse Milan, Jr., AIDS United president & CEO. “We cannot end the epidemic and advance the lives of people living with HIV without addressing the disparities experienced by racial, gender and sexual minorities, and nowhere are these disparities more pronounced than in the U.S. South. This is difficult work, but AIDS United and the Ford Foundation are proud to be at the forefront of this movement.”
The 23 grantees were selected out of a highly competitive pool of applicants that came from HIV, reproductive justice, housing and other social movements. Each grantee has demonstrated the ability to make significant change in their community and a deep commitment to cross-movement collaboration. Grantees are focused on important issues such as protecting and advancing health care access, expanding legal services in the areas of housing and employment discrimination and combatting unjust HIV criminalization laws.
“It’s clear that we need to work together across movements to strengthen our collective efforts to advance equity and social justice,” said Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation. “I believe that Southern REACH, a program that we have supported for over 10 years, is a galvanizing force in the region. We are proud to support those in the vanguard of the struggle, especially in the American South where discrimination and harmful laws and policies are so pervasive,” said Walker.
Vermont tops a new ranking of states by the portion of adults in 2015 and 2016 who identify themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) at 5.3%. Massachusetts (4.9%), California (4.9%), Oregon (4.9%) and Nevada (4.8%) round out the top five.
The District of Columbia’s 8.6% LGBT exceeds that of any of the states. States with the lowest percentage of LGBT-identifying residents include South Dakota (2.0%), North Dakota (2.7%), Idaho (2.8%), South Carolina (3.0%) and Montana (3.0%).
These figures are based on combined 2015 and 2016 data from more than 400,000 interviews and update Gallup’s state-level estimates from 2012. Consistent with Gallup research showing national increases in the percentage of adults identifying as LGBT from 3.5% in 2012 to 4.1% in 2016, the vast majority of states and the District of Columbia (42 out of 51) also report increases. However, most of the state-level changes are not statistically significant.
LGBT Identification Highest in the Pacific Region
At 4.9%, the Pacific region, which includes the West Coast, Alaska and Hawaii, has the highest portion of LGBT-identifying adults among eight regions in the U.S. The Pacific region also had the largest percentage-point increase (0.7 points) from 2012/2013 to 2015/2016. This change nudged it ahead of New England (4.5%), which reported a more modest 0.2-point increase.
The Middle Atlantic and Rocky Mountain regions also reported large increases (each 0.5 points) in the portion of adults identifying as LGBT. Among all regions, the West Central region continues to have the lowest percentage who identify as LGBT, but also showed a relatively large gain from 2.9% to 3.4%.
Percentage of U.S. Adults Identifying as LGBT, by Region
Region
2012-2013
2015-2016
Change
%
%
pct. pts.
Pacific (Calif., Ore., Wash., Hawaii, Alaska)
4.2
4.9
+0.7
New England (Maine, N.H., Vt., Mass., R.I., Conn.)
West Central (Wis., Minn., Iowa, Mo., N.D., S.D., Neb., Kan.)
2.9
3.4
+0.5
Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index
Multiple Factors Help Explain the Increases
A variety of factors influence changes in the portion of adults identifying as LGBT over time. Gallup research documents ongoing increases in the social acceptance of LGBT individuals in the U.S. Growing public acceptance can affect, and likely increase, the willingness of LGBT individuals to identify as such on surveys.
Nationally, virtually all of the increases in LGBT identification over the past five years are among millennials. Their coming of age at a time of greater social acceptance toward LGBT individuals may contribute to disproportionate increases in LGBT identity across states. As the youngest millennials reach 18 and enter Gallup’s national adult surveys, their influence on the national survey estimates increases proportionally. A third factor could be mobility: LGBT individuals, in theory, could be more likely to move to parts of the country with greater social acceptance. Other research, however, suggests that the chances of moving away from where one lived as a teenager do not vary much by sexual orientation. As a result, it’s unlikely that mobility plays a strong role in explaining differences in LGBT identity by state or region over time.
State-level rankings by the portion of adults identifying as LGBT clearly relate to the regional differences in LGBT social acceptance, which tend to be higher in the East and West and lower in the South and Midwest. Nevada is the only state in the top 10 that doesn’t have a coastal border. States ranked in the bottom 10 are dominated by those in the Midwest and South.
Proportion of U.S. Adults Who Are Millennials (Born 1980-1998) and Proportion Who Say Gay and Lesbian Relationships Should Be Legal, by Region
Millennials
Legality of gay/lesbian relations
% of population
% should be legal
New England
31
92
Middle Atlantic
33
77
East Central/Great Lakes
30
63
West Central
31
75
Southeast
31
58
Southwest
34
51
Rocky Mountain
33
66
Pacific
35
83
Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index (Millennials); May 4-8, 2016, Values and Beliefs Survey (Legality)
However, regional changes over time in LGBT identification may be affected both by levels of LGBT acceptance and the demographic composition of regional populations. Analyses of Gallup’s 2016 Values and Beliefs poll find that the New England and Pacific regions rank highest in LGBT acceptance but differ in the age composition of the population. More than a third of adults in the Pacific region (35%) are millennials, compared with 31% in New England — figures that, by population demographic standards, represent a relatively large difference. This difference may explain why, despite high levels of social acceptance in both regions, increases in LGBT identity are larger in the Pacific region than in New England.
The presence of large portions of millennials in the population does not perfectly predict the magnitude of increases in LGBT identity. Among regions, the Southwest has a relatively large proportion of millennials in its population (34%) but is also the region least likely to say that gay and lesbian relationships should be legal. This relatively low level of acceptance may be a factor in explaining the relatively low level of change in LGBT identity despite having a large younger population.
Bottom Line
State and regional changes in the level of LGBT identification defy simple explanation. However, it does appear that variation among states and regions in population demographics, especially age, and LGBT social acceptance (or stigma) interact to affect the willingness of adults to identify as LGBT.
Percentage of U.S. Adults Identifying as LGBT by State, 2015-2016
Do you, personally, identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender?
2015-2016
Sample size
%
District of Columbia
8.6
1,746
Vermont
5.3
2,200
Massachusetts
4.9
15,193
California
4.9
69,467
Oregon
4.9
11,859
Nevada
4.8
5,888
Delaware
4.7
1,976
New Hampshire
4.6
3,129
Washington
4.6
17,782
New York
4.5
41,203
Maine
4.5
4,094
Colorado
4.3
13,844
Florida
4.2
42,605
New Mexico
4.2
5,790
Indiana
4.1
15,642
Rhode Island
4.0
2,395
Arizona
4.0
17,402
Minnesota
4.0
13,176
Georgia
4.0
20,999
Illinois
3.9
22,199
Maryland
3.9
12,532
Hawaii
3.8
2,121
Michigan
3.8
19,860
Ohio
3.8
25,535
Louisiana
3.7
9,958
Texas
3.6
53,349
Pennsylvania
3.6
32,473
New Jersey
3.6
18,575
Nebraska
3.6
5,646
Wyoming
3.5
2,202
Oklahoma
3.5
10,689
North Carolina
3.5
23,169
Connecticut
3.5
7,984
Virginia
3.4
20,357
Wisconsin
3.4
14,078
Missouri
3.4
13,632
West Virginia
3.4
4,635
Utah
3.3
8,349
Kentucky
3.3
10,804
Iowa
3.2
8,064
Mississippi
3.2
6,783
Tennessee
3.1
17,050
Kansas
3.1
7,024
Alaska
3.0
2,225
Alabama
3.0
12,133
Arkansas
3.0
7,938
Montana
3.0
4,235
South Carolina
3.0
11,166
Idaho
2.8
4,858
North Dakota
2.7
2,079
South Dakota
2.0
2,160
Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index
Survey Methods
These results of estimates are based on telephone interviews with a random sample of 473,243 U.S. adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, collected from June 1, 2012, through Dec. 30, 2013, and 710,252 adults collected from Jan. 1, 2015, through Dec. 30, 2016, as part of the Gallup Daily tracking survey and the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index survey. The data include 14,487 respondents from 2012/2013 and 23,483 from 2015/2016 who said yes when asked, “Do you, personally identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender?” The margin of error for each region varies from ±0.1 to ±0.4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level and varies among states from ±0.2 to ±1.6 percentage points, depending on sample size. All reported margins of sampling error include computed design effects for weighting at the state level.
Each sample of national adults includes a minimum quota of 60% cellphone respondents and 40% landline respondents, with additional minimum quotas by time zone within region. Landline and cellular telephone numbers are selected using random-digit-dial methods.
President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he had signed three executive orders that stand to significantly increase the criminalization and incarceration of some of the nation’s most vulnerable populations by broadening law enforcement agencies’ powers.
“Trump’s executive orders that expand the discretionary power of police enforcement are a clear attack on freedom, justice and equality. These new polices are intended to further criminalize, imprison, and deny justice to the nation’s most targeted populations including people of color, people living below the poverty line, and LGBTQ people,” said Rea Carey, National LGBTQ Task Force Executive Director.
A report published in 2014 shows that 73% of LGBTQ respondents had an interaction with police in the last five years. 21% of those respondents reported hostile attitudes from officers, 14% reported verbal assault by police, 3% reported sexual harassment and 2% reported physical assault by officers. Furthermore, in 2016, of the 963 people shot by police officers, about half of those people were people of color and almost 25% were Black—while Black people only make up 13% of the U.S. population.
“Law enforcement already has too much power, and too much discretion. We don’t need anything more to ‘stop crimes against law enforcement officers;’ in fact all 50 states have laws that make it a serious crime to assault or kill law enforcement officers. There is no evidence that these laws are under-enforced,” said Carey.
According to FBI data, LGBTQ people are the most likely group to experience a hate crime. Around 60% of LGBTQ people who experience hate violence are people of color. Of people who reported hate violence to police, 80% said the police were indifferent or hostile. Unsurprisingly, only 56% of survivors of hate violence report those incidents to police. In 2014, law enforcement agencies reported almost 5,500 incidents of hate violence against people of color, LGBTQ people, and religious minorities.
“Trump’s actions are yet another example of how laws intended to protect vulnerable populations are instead being manipulated to harm those who are intended to be protected. Hate crimes laws are intended to aid prosecutions for crimes that were under-charged or not charged at all. These Executive Orders will only increase policing and prosecutions of people of color, LGBTQ people, and lower-income people,” said Meghan Maury, National LGBTQ Task Force Criminal and Economic Justice Project Director.
A barrage of anti-LGBTQ bills are being pushed in the Oklahoma state legislature by anti-equality activists. With state lawmakers set to convene Feb. 6th for the 2017 legislative session, at least eight bills attacking LGBTQ Oklahomans and their families are already in the docket for consideration — the most of any state in the nation. HRC and Freedom Oklahoma are warning the state’s lawmakers to look to North Carolina as a warning, where a deeply discriminatory anti-LGBTQ law continues to wreak havoc on the people, reputation, and economy of the state.
The far reaching discriminatory bills in Oklahoma include a proposal restricting transgender people from using school facilities consistent with their gender identity; numerous pieces of legislation attempting to undermine marriage equality; legislation targeting LGBTQ youth; and proposals aimed at authorizing individuals, businesses, and taxpayer-funded agencies to refuse goods or services to LGBTQ people under the guise of religion.
“Passage of any of these discriminatory bills would be incredibly harmful to Oklahoma’s economy and result in multiple, expensive legal challenges,” said HRC Legal Director Sarah Warbelow. “These legislative proposals targeting LGBTQ people and their families are shameful, far-reaching, and blatant attacks on fairness and equality. North Carolina is a clear example of the consequences that come with ramming discriminatory legislation into law. Instead of plowing down the same destructive path, Oklahoma lawmakers must reject these vile proposals.”
“Once again, 3 of the 149 sitting Oklahoma lawmakers have proposed multiple anti-LGBTQ bills aimed at further marginalizing their lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans constituents,” said Freedom Oklahoma Executive Director Troy Stevenson. “To be clear, Senator Joseph Silk, Senator Josh Brecheen, and Representative Chuck Strohm have formed a small cabal of bias under the dome at the Oklahoma State Capitol, and we will do everything in our power to assure they fail in their attempt to harm our community and the economic stability or our state.”
