The first National Park Service visitor center focused on teaching LGBTQ history will open right next door to New York City’s historic Stonewall Inn.
Pride Live, the LGBTQ advocacy group spearheading the project, announced Tuesday that the Stonewall Inn — the site of a June 1969 uprising that’s widely considered a major milestone in the modern gay rights movement — will be reunited with its neighboring building in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village neighborhood to “commemorate the events of the Stonewall Rebellion in their authentic locations,” according to a news release.
The Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center will provide an “immersive experience” to visitors with tours, exhibits, lectures and visual displays centered around LGBTQ culture and history. Park rangers for the Stonewall Inn, which was designated as a national monument by President Barack Obama in 2016, will also work out of the center.
Ann Marie Gothard, a member of Pride Live’s board of directors, told NBC News the visitor center came out of a desire to both “capture the essence” of the era when the uprising took place and connect young people with the legacy of Stonewall. She said part of the purpose of the center will be to include and “motivate the next generation of leaders.”
“If you’ve ever gone down and kind of just observed tourists visiting Stonewall Inn, you’ll see that individuals of a certain age, because it’s a bar, are not allowed to go in,” she said. “So we really want to create a space that’s welcoming for all, whether you represent the gay community or you’re an ally.”
Get a head start on the morning’s top stories.SIGN UPTHIS SITE IS PROTECTED BY RECAPTCHA PRIVACY POLICY | TERMS OF SERVICE
The original Stonewall Inn consisted of what is now two separate buildings: 53 Christopher St., where the current bar is located, and 51 Christopher St., where the visitor center will be. Gothard said Pride Live is convening a group of experts and historians to look into how the two buildings were separated.
The announcement comes during Pride Month, which is celebrated every year in June by LGBTQ people around the world in part to commemorate the 1969 Stonewall uprising. On June 28, 1969, when police attempted to raid the establishment — a common occurrence at that time, when it was illegal to serve alcohol to “homosexuals” — they were met with fierce resistance, sparking a dayslong rebellion and what many consider to be a watershed moment in the history of queer liberation.
The next year, 1970, saw the first annual Pride march in New York City, what was then called the Christopher Street Liberation Day march. In the decades since, many have come to acknowledge Stonewall as hallowed ground and a symbol in the fight for LGBTQ rights.
In a statement Tuesday, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called the visitor center an important memorial to commemorate “an iconic and pivotal moment” in U.S. history. He said he was proud the first center of its kind will open up in New York.
The nearly 3,700-square-foot building is set to open in summer 2024.
The Biden administration proposed a dramatic overhaul of campus sexual assault rules on Thursday, acting to expand protections for LGBTQ students, bolster the rights of victims and widen colleges’ responsibilities in addressing sexual misconduct.
The proposal, announced on the 50th anniversary of the Title IX women’s rights law, is intended to replace a set of controversial rules issued during the Trump administration by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.
The proposal is almost certain to be challenged by conservatives, and it is expected to lead to new legal battles over the rights of transgender students in schools, especially in sports.
The Supreme Court must revisit and overrule past landmark decisions that legalized the right to obtain contraception, the right to same-sex intimacy and the right to same-sex marriage, conservative Justice Clarence Thomas wrote Friday.
Thomas, in a concurring opinion to the court’s precedent-breaking decision overturning Roe v. Wade and wiping out constitutional protections for abortion rights, said that he would do away with the doctrine of “substantive due process” and explicitly called on the court to overrule the watershed civil rights rulings in Griswold v. Connecticut, Lawrence v. Texas and Obergefell v. Hodges.
Griswold was a 1965 Supreme Court decision that established the right for married couples to buy and use contraceptives. It became the basis for the right to contraception for all couples a few years later. Lawrence was a 2003 Supreme Court decision that established the right for consenting adults to engage in same-sex intimacy. Obergefell was a 2015 Supreme Court decision to establish the right for same-sex couples to be married.
The legal reasoning in all three monumental decisions — as well in the two decisions, Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, that had prior to Friday established a legal right to abortion care — relied heavily on the doctrine of substantive due process.
“As I have previously explained, ‘substantive due process’ is an oxymoron that ‘lack[s] any basis in the Constitution,’” he wrote. He later called it a “legal fiction” that is “particularly dangerous.”
Substantive due process is a term in constitutional law that essentially allows courts to protect certain rights, even if those rights are not explicitly enumerated in the Constitution. It has been interpreted in many cases to apply to matters relating to the right to privacy — including over matters like love, intimacy and sex — which is not explicitly mentioned in the Constitution.
Conservative jurists have long dismissed the legal reasoning that supported that interpretation of substantive due process. And Thomas, a member of the bench’s conservative wing, made that clear in his writings in Friday’s decision.
“In future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell. Because any substantive due process decision is ‘demonstrably erroneous,’ we have a duty to ‘correct the error’ established in those precedents,” Thomas wrote.
And because the court, in its ruling Friday, drew heavily on that very idea — that substantive due process is not in the Constitution — Thomas concluded that almost all other precedents that relied on the doctrine should also be overturned.
“I join the opinion of the Court because it correctly holds that there is no constitutional right to abortion. Respondents invoke one source for that right: the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee that no State shall ‘deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.’ The Court well explains why, under our substantive due process precedents, the purported right to abortion is not a form of ‘liberty’ protected by the Due Process Clause. Such a right is neither ‘deeply rooted in this Nation’s history and tradition’ nor ‘implicit in the concept of ordered liberty,’” he wrote.
Thomas then went even further, writing that the court, after overruling those particular decisions, should eliminate “substantive due process” altogether.
Get the Morning Rundown
Get a head start on the morning’s top stories.SIGN UPTHIS SITE IS PROTECTED BY RECAPTCHA PRIVACY POLICY | TERMS OF SERVICE
“In future cases, we should ‘follow the text of the Constitution, which sets forth certain substantive rights that cannot be taken away, and adds, beyond that, a right to due process when life, liberty, or property is to be taken away,’” he wrote. “Substantive due process conflicts with that textual command and has harmed our country in many ways.”
“Accordingly,” he added, “we should eliminate it from our jurisprudence at the earliest opportunity.”
Thomas, who joined the court in 1991 as only the second Black justice in Supreme Court history, dissented in both the Lawrence and Obergefell decisions.
In Friday’s opinion, Thomas made no mention of Loving v. Virginia, the landmark 1967 ruling by the Supreme Court that struck down laws prohibiting interracial marriage. That decision relied in part on the substantive due process doctrine — and was cited in several subsequent decisions that did as well, including Obergefell in 2015.
But Thomas, whose wife is white — meaning their interracial marriage could have been deemed in illegal in certain states had the court not ruled the way it did in Loving — did not mention the 1967 decision as one that should be revisited.In their own opinions, Justices Samuel Alito and Brett Kavanaugh both referred to Loving, writing that it should not be revisited despite its reliance on substantive due process.
President Joe Biden, speaking to the nation following the ruling Friday afternoon, specifically addressed Thomas’ analysis, saying it paves an “extreme and dangerous path” that the “court is now taking us on.”
“I’ve warned about how this decision risks a broader right to privacy for everyone,” Biden said. “That’s because Roe recognized the fundamental right to privacy and has served as a basis for so many more rights that… we’ve come to take for granted, that are ingrained in the fabric of this country: the right to make the best decisions for your health, the right to use birth control, a married couple in the privacy of their bedroom for God’s sake, the right to marry the person you love.”
“Justice Thomas said as much today. He explicitly called to reconsider the right of marriage equality, the right of couples to make their choices on contraception,” Biden added.
Thomas’ opinion also attracted the ire of prominent civil rights groups, as well as Jim Obergefell, the plaintiff in the 2015 decision that Thomas wants the court to overturn.
“The millions of loving couples who have the right to marriage equality to form their own families do not need Clarence Thomas imposing his individual twisted morality upon them,” Obergefell told NBC News in a statement. “If you want to see an error in judgment, Clarence Thomas, look in the mirror.”
Sarah Kate Ellis, head of the LGBTQ advocacy group GLAAD, called Thomas’ opinion “a blaring red alert for the LGBTQ community and for all Americans.”
“We will never go back to the dark days of being shut out of hospital rooms, left off of death certificates, refused spousal benefits, or any of the other humiliations that took place in the years before Obergefell,” Ellis said in a statement. “And we definitely will not go back to the pre-Lawrence days of being criminalized just because we are LGBTQ.”
“But that’s exactly what Thomas is threatening to do to the country,” Ellis added.
Students at a Washington state high school Monday staged a walk-out in solidarity with a trans student, who was beaten in the school’s hallways the week before.
The walk-out prompted a threat by another student “to aim a machine gun” at the rallying students, according to Kalama police. The Kalama Middle and High Schools, which share a campus, were put into lockdown.
Last week, a transgender student was assaulted in the school’s halls just as students were leaving for the day.
Witnesses say another student repeatedly kicked the transgender student, who is a boy, with steel-toe boots, while yelling homophobic and transphobic slurs.
“The student had been on the ground, begging him to stop and he just kept going,” said Katrina Rick-Mertens, a sophomore at the school and rally organizer.
The victim was subsequently treated in hospital and has returned to class, according to the school district.
At Monday’s walkout, the boy threatening “to aim a machine gun” at protesters made the comment to another student not affiliated with the protest. That student, who says he didn’t see a gun, reported the comments to school officials.
Police say they located the student and took him into custody.
The attack, walkout, and subsequent threats followed reported inaction by the school against what students say is the growing influence of hate groups. Students have posted Nazi imagery in the school, which is just across the state border from Portland, and on social media.
According to parent Melissa Cierley, bullying at the high school is endemic.
“There’s a certain population that seems to be able to get away with whatever they want,” she said.
Her daughter Lillie says she’s been the victim of sexually harassing insults and threats, and things thrown at her like books, staplers, or “anything they can get their hands on.”
Cierley and Rick-Martens say while they tell school administrators about the bullying, they’re never told about anything being done about the incidents, only to see the bullying continue.
“It’s just really heartbreaking to not be taken seriously,” Cierley says.
“You’d think that after so many students go to them about hate speech and going to them that we need these bullies to stop, that they would do something. We shouldn’t have to come to this point to rally together for them to listen to us,” Rick-Mertens said.
“If students are saying that they feel like this, they feel like there is a problem, then there is truth to that,” Kalama School District Communications Manager Nick Shanmac said. “As a school, as a district, we need to be listening.”
Rick-Mertens posted on Instagram after the rally: “Remember, staying silent only helps the oppressor and never the victim. Use your voice for good.”
In Birmingham, Alabama, families, and friends of students of Magic City Acceptance Academy attended the charter school’s inaugural graduation ceremony. MCAA is a charter school that promises an “LGBTQ-affirming learning environment” for students who “have dropped out, are not thriving at traditional schools.”
Although the classes are small, 12 seniors graduated this year, the hearts of the school’s community remain large as crowds of families cheered on the graduates with lots of pride, appreciation, and love.
In its early stages, MCAA overcame three rejections from the Alabama Public Charter School Commission. However, the school won its approval and opened its doors in 2021 in the Birmingham suburb of Homewood with 250 students in grades six through 12.
Mike Wilson, the school’s principal, noted that when students first arrived at MCAA, they were “wrapped up in their trauma.” The students came from environments where they’d been bullied and marginalized. At the Academy, the staff and faculty worked to educate and empower their students.
One graduating senior, Clover, said it wasn’t until they came to the Academy that they saw their grades improve. Along with good grades, Clover has also created strong bonds with other students that they never thought they’d have.
Clover’s mother, Rachel, said that from the beginning of the school year she’s seen a change in her child. Previously, Clover was “miserable” in school, and there weren’t many options. But when Rachel discovered MCAA, she thought it could be a solution. And she was right.
MCAA creates an environment that focuses on both the mental and social development of students by creating a trauma-informed space. Trauma-informed care helps professionals change their focus away from asking questions like “what’s wrong with you?” and instead asks questions like “what happened to you?”
Along with trauma-informed care, MCAA also focuses on social justice initiatives, restorative justice, and social and emotional learning, while also providing strong academics.
MCAA has already seen the payoff of these focus areas during both the graduation ceremony and an eighth graders’ promotion ceremony where students seemed full of joy as they played with friends and went to teachers to offer them heartfelt goodbyes and handwritten letters.
The Academy has been a beacon of support within the community, already amassing its target enrollment of 350 students. The school plans on adding more staff in the future to meet the needs of more students.
MCAA comes at a time when bullying in schools have reached the need for intervention. The ACLU has stated it’s illegal under federal law for public schools to ignore anti-LGBTQ harassment of students.
“Public schools that fail to adequately protect LGBTQ students from severe bullying and harassment can be held liable under Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause. Cases thathave found school districts are liable for anti–LGBTQ bullying as a result of their deliberate indifference have led to damages awards and settlements as high as $1.1 million for students whose schools failed to protect them from anti–LGBTQ harassment,” an open letter to schools states.
It looks like MCAA is solving that problem and is a leader in education when it comes to anti-LGBTQ bullying initiatives.
Students and alumni at Seattle Pacific University have been staging a sit-in for weeks, protesting the private Christian university’s policy banning employees from being gay.
The protest culminated with students handing rainbow flags to SPU President Pete Menjares in exchange for their diplomas at their graduation ceremony.
The protests came in response to a decision by SPU’s board of trustees in May not to change the school’s “Employee Lifestyle Expectations,” which bar employees from engaging in “sexual behavior that is inconsistent with the University’s understanding of Biblical standards.”
According to the policy, that includes same-sex sexual activity.
“Employees who engage in any of these activities may face disciplinary action up to and including termination of employment with the University,” the policy states.
“The board made a decision that it believed was most in line with the university’s mission and statement of faith and chose to have SPU remain in communion with its founding denomination, the Free Methodist Church USA, as a core part of its historical identity as a Christian university,” SPU board chair Cedric Davis said in a statement last month. The Free Methodist Church USA, which according to The Guardian has contributed $324,000 to the university, had threatened to cut ties with the school if the policy was changed.
SPU has not filed for a religious exemption under Title IX, the federal education law barring discrimination based on sex, or Title VII, the law prohibiting employment discrimination based on sex, according to The Guardian. The Supreme Court ruled in Bostock v. Clayton Co.in 2020 that Title VII’s ban on discrimination based on sex outlaws anti-LGBTQ job discrimination as well, and President Joe Biden issued an executive order saying that Title IX’s protections include LGBTQ people as well.
A 2021 lawsuit brought by an SPU professor claiming the school had denied him tenure because he is gay was settled out of court. SPU’s faculty senate subsequently passed a vote of no confidence in the school’s board of trustees, which had upheld the anti-gay policy. In early June, the faculty senate passed a resolution in support of changing the policy to allow same-sex sexual activity within the context of marriage.
Summing up the protesters’ outrage, 22-year-old Leah Duff posed a question for SPU’s administration: “You’re going to charge me thousands of dollars every quarter to come here and to get an education, but you’re not going to provide me the education that I deserve as a queer person by having queer staff and faculty?” The Guardian reports. “You talk about being ecumenical, being so diverse. And it’s like, where is it?”
SPU student government president Laur Lugos says students plan to continue the sit-in well after graduation. As Lugos tellsThe Seattle Times, “Students have organized it and have been the ones putting it together, but the entire community is backing this and supporting this.”
At least three LGBTQ events were targeted by white nationalist groups last weekend, but organizers of Pride parades and festivals say they won’t give in to fear.
On Saturday, police arrested 31 people affiliated with the white nationalist group Patriot Front on suspicion of conspiracy to riot after they showed up near an annual “Pride in the Park” event in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, with gas masks and shields, police said.
Then, on Sunday — the six-year anniversary of the shooting at Pulse, an LGBTQ nightclub in Orlando, Florida — five men whom witnesses described as members of the Proud Boys disrupted a “Drag Queen Story Hour” at the San Lorenzo Library in California. On the same day, in Texas, about 30 protesters gathered outside a venue that hosted an adults-only drag brunch show to benefit two charities, the Star-Telegram reported.
Last week, police also arrested a Canadian who allegedly threatened to shoot people at a West Palm Beach “Pride on the Block” event.
Organizers of Pride events across the country have said that, though the increase in harassment and threats have shaken them some, they will continue with their festivals and parades as planned. They anticipate leaning into safety and security protocols, which many say they’ve already beefed up as a result of the national climate surrounding the LGBTQ community.
North America’s biggest pride parade, the NYC Pride March, will return on June 26 — the first time it will be held in person since 2019, when it attracted an estimated 5 million attendees.
Dan Dimant, media director for Heritage of Pride, the group behind NYC Pride, said that based on the group’s safety guidelines it does not plan to make changes to the march.
“We are always in close coordination with local and federal authorities,” he said in a statement to NBC News. “This year our private security has a larger footprint than in previous years so that all of our attendees can enjoy a safe, fun, and memorable return to in-person Pride.”
Dimant also noted that the group’s staff and executive board undergo active shooter training annually.
Meanwhile, Chicago will hold a number of Pride events from June 18 to June 26. Following the incident in Coeur d’Alene, Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown “put those who might be planning something on notice” during a news conference Monday, according to NBC affiliate WMAQ-TV.
Brown said officers on a Joint Terrorism Task Force were working with the FBI and other federal agencies to gather intelligence ahead of the June 26 Pride parade.
“We are going to be vigilant to ensure that this event, as well as others, go off safely,” he said, according to WMAQ-TV. “And we’ll hold you accountable if you’re planning [and] if you’re doing anything to jeopardize the safety of others.”
Organizers of events in smaller, more conservative areas have also made preparations ahead of their events, though many of them said it’s common for them to have protesters.
Myndie VanHorn, the founder of LGBTQ group Chroma, in Lewiston, Idaho, about two hours south of Coeur d’Alene, said the group will hold its Celebrate Love event for the first time since 2019 on July 9.
Get the Morning Rundown
Get a head start on the morning’s top stories.SIGN UPTHIS SITE IS PROTECTED BY RECAPTCHA PRIVACY POLICY | TERMS OF SERVICE
“I’m a little apprehensive if I’m being honest,” she said.
VanHorn said the first Celebrate Love event, in 2016, was created as a response to the shooting at Pulse nightclub. She and other community members put it together in just eight days, so it wasn’t very big.
“I still received some death threats at that time,” VanHorn said. “I haven’t in the years following received anything like that, but this year feels a little different, especially with Coeur d’Alene and the 31 people arrested up there, so I’m a little apprehensive about it.”
She said she plans to sit down with a police chief at the Lewiston Police Department this week to talk about security, and that the department, as well as some state patrol officers, have attended all of the past events.
VanHorn said she was hesitant to speak about the event, which has drawn up to 800 people in the past, because she didn’t want to accidentally “invite hate,” but at the same time, “I don’t want to hide,” she said.
Michael Barnard, president and festival coordinator of Augusta Pride, in Augusta, Georgia, said he didn’t feel comfortable disclosing the details of the event’s security plan. He said that the group has prepared for every worst case scenario ahead of the Pride parade and festival on June 25, which in past years has attracted nearly 14,000 people.
“We have had protesters in the past — that’s common at any LGBT festival, especially in the South,” he said. “But for the most part, we’ve never had any incidents at our festival, and that’s 12 years running now.”
Eric Ward, extremism expert and executive director of the Western States Center, a nonprofit that advocates for inclusive democracy, said there are a few things that event organizers can do to help prevent harassment and violence, particularly from white nationalist groups that have recently targeted LGBTQ events. For example, they can pay attention to rhetoric online and be in touch with local human rights organizations who may monitor far-right groups in the area more closely.
But he said that preventing similar incidents to the one in Coeur d’Alene would require the federal government, including the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security, to invest more resources into monitoring online criminal activity.
“I think the lessons of Charlottesville still apply,” Ward said. “When we see heavy internet and social media rhetoric leading up to an event being organized by white nationalists, it should send signals to community leaders and national leaders that there is the potential for violence. When these individuals are organizing across state lines to assemble, that should be another one.”
But, beyond a warning, Ward had a message for the LGBTQ community: He said white nationalists don’t target the LGBTQ community because they see it as “weak or powerless.”
“It is targeted because that community has brought inclusion into America,” Ward said. “It has opened the space around equity and what it means to be an America that moves forward together across lines of difference. That is what frightens the Patriot Front, Proud Boys and other alt-right organizations.”
In line with that message, Barnard said that Augusta Pride will continue as planned because he’s seen the importance of having a place where people can go and feel accepted. At past festivals, he said the group hung a banner that attendees could sign, and one year he saw that someone wrote, “I came out today because of pride.”
“Remember, this is the one time that that one person that may not be out of the closet yet, that doesn’t know their place right now, can find the resources that they need,” he said. “So I hope that people are not scared and trust that we have our plans in place.”
HIV-positive 21-year-old Thokozani Shiri died in prison after officials neglected him and failed to provide life-saving medication, an inquest has found.
The inquest into Shiri’s death, which took place at Essex Coroners Court, concluded on Wednesday (8 June).
During both periods of time, the prison’s healthcare provider, Essex Partnership University Trust (EPUT), was aware that he was HIV-positive.
However during his first stretch at the prison, Shiri was not seen at an HIV clinic until six days before his release, and was not provided with any antiretroviral medication, a life-saving treatment which suppresses the virus and makes it untransmittable.
During his second stay at HMP Chelmsford, the prison again failed to provide him with the vital medication for months, he was only given it 19 days before he died.
Shiri tragically passed away from an HIV-related infection at Broomfield Hospital on 14 April 2019.
The inquest heard that before his death, Shiri told a prison officer that he “couldn’t breathe” and needed to go to a hospital, but an ambulance was not called until five days later. The prison officer he spoke to has still not been identified.
Shiri’s consultant, who had been treating him outside of prison, told the inquest: “HIV is very treatable. It shouldn’t have happened.”
The jury found that “five separate failings” had caused Shiri’s death, including the failure to provide his medication during both periods of imprisonment, and the failure to refer him to an HIV clinic.
When Shiri was finally taken to hospital, he was put into an induced coma before his mother was able to see him, and remained that way until his death. Despite being in the induced coma, he was kept in handcuffs and chained to his hospital bed.
In a damning report, the Prison and Probation Ombudsman Sue McAllister described Shiri’s care as “unacceptably poor”, and added: “This is a case in which a young man died a preventable death as a result of what I can only describe as neglect by healthcare staff, and whose mother was then treated with gross insensitivity by prison staff.”
The prison is in the process of completing a list of recommendations laid out in the ombudsman’s report.
Shiri’s family said in a statement provided by law firm Leigh Day: “Thoko was just like any young man – he loved life, his friends and family.
“He was exploring what the world had to offer him, but he ended up on the wrong side of the law, culminating in a short-term custodial sentence. As a family we had great hopes that this would allow him to reflect and look to a brighter future.
“This was not to be, as a short-term prison sentence turned into a death sentence. Thoko was denied very basic care that would have enabled him to live his life despite his long-term condition.
“We are saddened as we know that people with his condition do not have a reduced life expectancy and that, with basic management, his condition was not fatal.”
Deborah Gold, chief executive of National AIDS Trust, added: “Thoko’s death was heartbreaking and completely avoidable. This jury conclusion underlines how many crucial opportunities were missed leading to his entirely preventable death.
“It is shocking that a young man died whilst in the care of the state from a condition that is entirely treatable. Most people with HIV in the UK live long healthy lives.
“It is absolutely essential that all state places of detention including prisons and immigration detention centres, have robust systems in place to identify, treat and support detained people living with HIV.
“It is now incumbent upon all bodies responsible for the care and treatment of prisoners and detainees to ensure this happens. As Thoko’s death shows, failure to do so has devastating consequences.”
Anti-LGBTQ extremist Republican state Sen. Wendy Rogers (R) of Arizona has found a fellow traveler across state lines in Oklahoma: GOP state senate candidate Jarrin Jackson, who just released a video where he called gay men “the most disgusting, despicable, stupid thing ever.”
It’s a match made in ultra-MAGA heaven.
“I endorse @JarrinJackson for State Senate in Oklahoma,” Rogers tweeted Monday. “Jarrin Jackson is a strong proponent of forensic audits… will secure our borders, protect our guns and defend children from the evil groomers.”
I endorse @JarrinJackson for State Senate in Oklahoma. Oklahoma is a deep red state and needs a fighter like Jarrin in office. Jarrin is a West Point graduate and an Afghanistan combat veteran. As a former infantry officer, he has the mentality for what is needed in (1/3) pic.twitter.com/W9Suq9Oaqp
Jackson, who describes himself as an “American Patriot, saved by the precious blood of Jesus Christ,” recently ranted about Pride Month in a video post: “Straight dudes find it disgusting whenever they see other dudes kissing. It is gross. Being gay is gay. It’s the most disgusting, despicable, stupid thing ever.”
In Arizona, Rogers’ agenda has focused on promoting election conspiracy theories and anti-trans legislation.
The first-term state senator proposed a bill to prohibit medical procedures that affirm gender identity for trans children. Health professionals would face a Class 4 felony mandating prison time. Another bill would require school employees to out transgender youth to their parents and ban health professionals from prescribing puberty blockers for them. A third bill introduced by Rogers would ban transgender girls from participating in school sports.
Rogers has also suggested we start calling Superman “Thooperman” – a gay lisp joke – when Clark Kent’s son was depicted as bisexual in a comic book.
Jackson was quick to celebrate the endorsement.
“Thank you, Senator Rogers. It is a true honor to have your endorsement. Nobody fights harder for #ElectionIntegrity. You inspire me. Amen.”
Jackson grabbed headlines in March when he shot up a printer disguised as a Dominion voting machine for a campaign ad. The machines have been central to election conspiracy theories.
This is Jackson’s third run for office. In 2016 and 2018, he ran in Oklahoma’s 2nd Congressional District for the U.S. House of Representatives, but lost both Republican primaries.
The Army vet and sometime pastor regularly rails against “Godless commies” and says he wants to “shoot them in the face.” Military tribunals should send communists to “burn forever in a lake of fire.”
Oklahoma has produced some of the most vociferously anti-LGBTQ Republican politicians in the nation. Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) signed a law last month that bans transgender girls from participating in school sports while surrounded by cisgender girls as a trans woman stood outside his office protesting.
Stuart Delery, a longtime advocate for LGBTQ rights, will be the first openly LGBTQ person to serve as White House counsel when he assumes the position next month, President Biden announced on Wednesday. Delery current serves as White House deputy counsel.
Delery was appointed acting associate attorney general, the Justice Department’s No. 3 position, in 2012, becoming the highest-ranking LGBTQ official in the department’s history, according to a White House official.
In his seven years at the department, Delery argued against the Defense of Marriage Act, which barred legal recognition of same-sex marriages, and went on to oversee the implementation of the Supreme Court’s landmark decision overturning the law.
Part of an administrative shake-up ahead of the midterms, the appointment is also one of a number of elevations of LGBTQ people to high-profile roles in the Biden administration. In early May, Bidennamed Karine Jean-Pierre as White House press secretary, making her the first openly gay person appointed to the position.
The administration also tapped Admiral Rachel Levine for assistant health secretary. After her confirmation in March 2021, Levine became the first openly transgender person confirmed by the Senate to a federal post.
Get the Morning Rundown
Get a head start on the morning’s top stories.SIGN UPTHIS SITE IS PROTECTED BY RECAPTCHA PRIVACY POLICY | TERMS OF SERVICE
The White House counsel, among other responsibilities, plays a major part in presidential appointments to the judiciary.
Dana Remus, who previously held the post, was key to confirming Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, as well as appointing scores of lower court judges from all sorts of backgrounds.
Don McGahn, who served in the role in the Trump White House, made history at the time by filling appellate court seats at record pace. His efforts were crucial to the confirmations of Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch.
Delery graduated from Yale Law School and clerked for Supreme Court Justices Sandra Day O’Connor and Byron White, according to a White House official. He lives in Washington with his husband and two children.