A school district in Nebraska is facing a lawsuit after a high school shut down its newspaper because students produced an LGBTQ+ edition.
The lawsuit states that Grand Island Northwest Public Schools and its superintendent violated the First Amendment rights of students by axing the Viking Saga in May 2022.
The newspaper had been running for 54 years.
As reported by the Associated Press, legal action has been brought by the Nebraska High School Press Association, and former Grand Island Northwest High School journalist Marcus Pennell.
The student newspaper staff were made aware that the publication was being pulled three days after they published the June edition of the Viking Saga, which was a special LGBTQ+ print for Pride Month.
The June newspaper included an article titled ‘Pride and prejudice: LGBTQIA+’ which examined the history of Pride Month, and included a piece about Florida’s oppressive ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill.
On 22 May 2022, an email from a school employee said the print edition had been axed because “the school board and superintendent are unhappy with the last issue’s editorial content”.
However, in November, the teacher in charge of running the school’s journalism offering confirmed the paper would return in the spring but under the helm of another teacher, and in digital form only.
‘I was crushed’
Despite this move to somewhat revive the publication, legal action is still being pursued over the decision to cancel the Viking Saga in the first place.
When the return of the paper was announced, the Associated Press reported that an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union said “attempts to quash student journalism and student opinions violate students’ rights to freedom of speech and equal protection”.
Marcus Pennell said: “It is hard to find words for what it felt like watching people who were supposed to be supporting our education instead silence us for covering issues impacting our lives.
“I was crushed.”
Pennell, who is trans, alleges in the lawsuit that he and other staff could not use their chosen name or preferred pronouns in their bylines.
Speaking with Local4Pennell said: “I just don’t want other students to have to go through what I did.
“I’m sure after all this happened all the LGBT students at Northwest don’t feel safe writing about their lives or the issues that matter to them, so anything I can do to kinda increase their inclination to share their stories.”
The lawsuit is seeking a declaration that the school district broke the law, alongside unspecified damages.
Statement from Kasey Suffredini (he/him), Vice President of Advocacy and Government Affairs for The Trevor Project:
“These latest report findings punctuate much of what we already know about the dangerous and discredited practice of so-called conversion ‘therapy’: it doesn’t work, it is associated with poor mental health outcomes and increased suicide risk, and tragically — it’s still happening.
“Our research has found that 17% of LGBTQ youth in the U.S. reported being threatened with or subjected to conversion therapy — including more than 1 in 5 transgender and nonbinary youth. In addition to being dangerous and detrimental for the young people who undergo it, the harms associated with conversion therapy — such as substance abuse and suicide attempts — cost the U.S. billions of dollars each year.
“As we continue to defend LGBTQ young people, especially trans young people, against a record number of political attacks at the state level, we are grateful to the federal government for sending a powerful message to every LGBTQ young person that they should be proud of who they are and deserve access to affirming environments and care. We are committed to building upon this momentum to protect LGBTQ young people from conversion therapy in every state, and create a safe, accepting world for the transgender community.”
Statement from Mathew Shurka (he/him), Co-Founder of Born Perfect:
“This landmark report is based on a comprehensive survey of existing research, including many new studies and data that have been generated in the eight years since HHS first issued a report on this topic. As the report confirms, conversion therapy causes lasting harm to LGBTQ young people, including by separating them from their families and, for many youths, putting them at risk of depression and suicidality.
“Both as a survivor who was subjected to conversion therapy for five years as a minor and as an advocate on this issue, I am grateful to HHS for compiling this important report and for providing this critical information to families, providers, and policymakers. It is past time for these deadly practices to end.”
Key Takeaways from the Report:
No available research supports the claim that sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) change efforts are beneficial to children, adolescents, or families.
Available research indicates that SOGI change efforts are not effective in altering sexual orientation. Further, no available research indicates that change efforts are effective in altering gender identity.
Available research indicates that SOGI change efforts can cause significant harm.
SOGI change efforts are inappropriate, ineffective, and harmful practices that should not be provided to children and adolescents.
The report also includes recommendations about how families, policymakers, and healthcare providers can support LGBTQ youth, including by ensuring that transgender youth can receive the medically necessary care they need.
Research from The Trevor Project cited in the report:
A 2020 peer-reviewed study published in the American Journal of Public Health found that youth who reported undergoing conversion therapy were more than twice as likely to report having attempted suicide and more than 2.5 times as likely to report multiple suicide attempts in the past year.
A 2020 peer-reviewed study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health found that transgender and nonbinary youth were 2 to 2.5 times as likely to experience depressive symptoms, seriously consider suicide, and attempt suicide compared to their cisgender LGBQ peers.
A 2020 peer-reviewed study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, found that transgender and nonbinary youth who report experiencing discrimination based on their gender identity had more than double the odds of attempting suicide in the past year compared to those who did not experience discrimination based on their gender identity.
A 2021 peer-reviewed study published in LGBTQ Health found that LGBTQ youth who reported high levels of sexual orientation acceptance from any adult had nearly 40% lower odds of a past-year suicide attempt compared with LGBTQ peers with little to no acceptance.
A 2021 peer-reviewed study published in Transgender Health found that transgender and nonbinary youth who reported gender identity acceptance from adults and peers had significantly lower odds of attempting suicide in the past year.
A 2021 peer-reviewed study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health found that gender-affirming hormone therapy is significantly related to lower rates of depression, suicidal thoughts, and suicide attempts among transgender and nonbinary youth.
A 2022 peer-reviewed study published in JAMA Pediatrics found the practice of conversion therapy on LGBTQ youth, and its associated harms – such as substance abuse and negative mental health outcomes, including depression, anxiety, and suicide attempts – cost the U.S. an estimated $9.23 billion, annually.
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Born Perfect is a survivor-led campaign created by the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) in 2014 to end conversion therapy by passing laws across the country that protect LGBT children and young people, fighting in courtrooms to ensure their safety, and raising awareness about the serious harms caused by these dangerous practices. http://bornperfect.org/
If you or someone you know needs help or support, The Trevor Project‘s trained crisis counselors are available 24/7 at 1-866-488-7386, via chat at TheTrevorProject.org/Get-Help, or by texting START to 678678.
Stefan Grygelko, better known as his drag persona Heklina, has died, his longtime friend Joshua Grannell (Peaches Christ) wrote on Facebook April 3.
The two were in London where they were appearing in the “Mommie Queerest” show there, Grannell wrote, adding that he had gone to pick up Heklina that day.
“I do not know the cause of death yet,” Grannell wrote. “I know this is shocking news and I am beyond stunned, but I wanted to let folks know what has happened. Heklina is not just my best friend, but a beloved icon of our community.”
The news shocked and saddened his friends back in San Francisco, with fellow drag queen Sister Roma writing on their Twitter account that she was “absolutely devastated” to learn of the passing of his friend and collaborator for two-plus decades.
“She is one of the funniest people I’ve ever known. This is a nightmare,” wrote Roma, a member of the drag philanthropy group the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, in a tweet.
Oasis, the LGBTQ nightclub in which Heklina was once a part-owner, expressed its sadness and said it would open at 4 p.m. Monday.
“We are shocked and devastated to learn of the passing of Heklina today,” the club wrote. “Oasis will be open at 4 p.m. for drinks, stories, and community, if you’d like to come by. Sending love to all.”
Gay former state assemblymember Tom Ammiano told the B.A.R. he will miss the drag artist.
“A true professional [and] with drag under attack her passing is especially wounding,” wrote Ammiano, who also served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and school board. “As an aside, she bartended at events for folks with special needs at the Oasis [and] as a former special education teacher, I loved her for that.”
As Heklina, Grygelko was known for founding the old Trannyshack drag show in 1996 at the old Stud bar. (The name of the show was later changed to “Mother.”)
At the start of each Trannyshack, San Francisco’s outlandish, no-holds-barred Tuesday night drag show, a snippet of the old “Muppet Show” theme music warned “it’s a kind of torture, to have to watch the show,” as the Bay Area Reporter reported in 2008.
The joke belied the fact that the performances were more than just boys in dresses lip-synching to pop ballads or camp classics. The weekly shenanigans often masked what in reality was a uniquely queer riff on the political, social, racial, and gender controversies of the day.
Heklina invited not just drag queens — many of whom went on to become stars in their own right — but also female performers, known as faux queens, and drag kings to share her stage. By doing so, Heklina threw out the rulebook on what it meant to be a drag performer.
Adriana Roberts, a trans woman and an early Trannyshack performer, penned a tribute on Facebook.
“She was a Master Class in successful Nightlife Production: wrangling order from chaos, managing a stage, managing a crowd, putting down hecklers, assembling trusted crews, booking budding queens, promoting events, following one’s heart — but also always being aware of what actually sells,” Roberts wrote. “And she did it all with snark, wit, and balance for over 25 years.”
Roberts, a former production designer at the B.A.R., wrote, “Coming from a punk rock ethos, she created a space that welcomed performers from across the gender spectrum, at a time when drag was VERY codified into TIRED (her words) tropes of men in sequined gowns doing diva lip-syncs. None of us realized it at the time, but she helped revolutionize the concept of what drag could be, breaking its mold years before the rest of the world caught on.”
As the B.A.R. noted in a March 2022 article, since the early 1990s, Heklina had been a mainstay in Bay Area queer nightlife. From the first irreverent drag nights at The Stud, to Trannyshack’s expansion at DNA Lounge that included annual contests, Heklina has often hosted the most prominent drag and nightlife events which included her own numbers.
In 2015, along with D’Arcy Drollinger and other investors, Heklina opened Oasis in South of Market; the same building that once housed the original Oasis. The new nightclub has become popular for not only drag shows and DJed dance nights, but comic plays and musicals, cabaret concerts and community fundraisers. Heklina later sold her share of Oasis ownership and moved to Palm Springs, while still keeping a foothold in the Bay Area’s nightlife scene.
And, of course, Heklina was known for her deadpan line delivery as Dorothy (Bea Arthur’s character) in stage productions of episodes of the classic sitcom “The Golden Girls.” The long-running show became an annual holiday tradition in San Francisco.
State Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) issued the following statement Monday afternoon:
“I am absolutely devastated. Heklina was an icon in the truest sense — funny, caring, outrageous, and brave. I first saw Heklina perform when I was a young gay man in the 1990s, new to San Francisco. Over the years, I got to know her and helped her find a space for Oasis. I’ve rarely worked with someone as fierce, creative, and dedicated.
“Heklina created events and community spaces that spun glitter and giant wigs and raucous jokes into a feeling of home. She was fiercely outspoken and always stood up for her friends and community. She was the soul of San Francisco, and it’s hard to imagine the city without her.
“Heklina was also a staunch defender of drag — which is under extreme attack right now — and created opportunities for young drag queens to find their space. While we grieve, we must honor her memory by remembering the joy she brought us and the importance of the art form to which she dedicated her life.”
Nguyen Pham, Board President of San Francisco Pride said in an emailed statement:
“Personally, I’ve been honored and grateful to have engaged with Heklina directly, as well as attended her spectacularly memorable productions, numerous times over the years. I know that her unique brand of radically inclusive drag art has evoked so much pure joy from countless community members and allies for many generations. She was unstoppable and a master without parallel.”
A federal judge has ordered government officials in Llano County, Texas to return books with LGBTQ+ and anti-racist themes to the county’s public libraries after conservative officials removed them.
Seven Llano County citizens sued county officials when local officials removed 12 titles from county libraries. The books included Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teen by Jazz Jennings, In the Night Kitchen by gay children’s book author Maurice Sendak, It’s Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex, and Sexual Health by Robie H. Harris, and They Called Themselves the K.K.K.: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group by Susan Campbell Bartoletti.
Additionally, the lawsuit alleged that county officials suspended access to e-books in order to block other titles, dissolved the county’s existing library board, and replaced the board with an “advisory board” containing appointed members who favor book bans. Officials also closed the advisory board’s meetings to the public and staff librarians, CNN reported. The officials’ actions violated county residents’ constitutional rights to free speech and due process, the lawsuit said.
The county had removed the books after community groups complained that they contained “pornographic filth” that promoted “acceptance of LGBTQ views.” Bonnie Wallace, one of the newly appointed advisory board members, even suggested allying with local pastors to “organize a weekly prayer vigil on this specific issue…. May God protect our children from this FILTH.”
The lawsuit stated, “Public libraries are not places of government indoctrination. They are not places where the people in power can dictate what their citizens are permitted to read about and learn. When government actors target public library books because they disagree with and intend to suppress the ideas contained within them, it jeopardizes the freedoms of everyone.”
The lawsuit identified Llano County Judge Ron Cunningham, the county’s commissioners, the library system director, and four library board members as defendants. The defendants said that the books were eliminated as part of the county’s regular “weeding” process.
Last Saturday, federal Judge Robert Pittman ordered the defendants to return the books to the shelves within 24 hours and to update the county libraries’ online cataloging system to show that the books are publicly available. The county is also barred from removing any additional books while the legal case remains open.
In his decision, Pitman said there was no evidence that the removed books were even part of the county’s “weeding” process before the county received complaints about them. Pitman also notes that the 12 books removed contain themes and content that are also contained in numerous books that have nonetheless remained available within the county’s three library branches for years.
“Although libraries are afforded great discretion for their selection and acquisition decisions, the First Amendment prohibits the removal of books from libraries based on either viewpoint or content discrimination,” Pitman said in his decision.
Ellen Leonida, an attorney representing the plaintiffs, said, “The government cannot tell citizens what they can or can’t read. Our nation was founded on the free exchange of ideas, and banning books you disagree with is a direct attack on our most basic liberties.” She called Pitman’s ruling a “ringing victory for democracy.”
A second suspect was arrested and charged with murder in connection with a string of drug-facilitated robberies of men who visited gay bars in New York City that included two deaths, two senior law enforcement officials told NBC News on Monday.
Robert Demaio, 34, was charged with murder, robbery, grand larceny, identity theft and conspiracy in connection with the death of John Umberger, a 33-year-old political consultant, and in a separate incident in which an unidentified victim did not die, the officials said.
Umberger and Julio Ramirez, a 25-year-old social worker, were both found dead after visiting gay bars in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood last spring. Both had left the bars with at least one unknown person before their bank accounts were drained of thousands of dollars using facial recognition access on their phones, according to their family members.
Last month, the medical examiner’s office ruled their deaths as homicides caused by a “drug-facilitated theft.” Multiple drugs were found in their systems, including fentanyl, lidocaine and cocaine.
John Umberger and Julio Ramirez were drugged and killed in separate incidents following visits to New York City gay bars.Linda Clary; Family photo
The two law enforcement officials said that police obtained security video showing Demaio and Jayqwan Hamilton — one of three suspects police have named in connection to the homicides of Umberger and Ramirez — entering and leaving Umberger’s temporary residence in Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
Through a search warrant, police also recovered two videos from Demaio’s phone that showed Demaio at the site of Umberger’s death, the officials added. In one of the videos, according to the two officials, Umberger appears to be unconscious, lying face up on a bed at his temporary New York City residence.
“It speaks volumes of the heartlessness of these people,” Umberger’s mother, Linda Clary, said of the videos. “That’s what I find very troubling and why I don’t think these people should be allowed to be amongst us.”
Demaio’s detention follows the arrest of Jacob Barroso on Saturday. Barroso, 30, was charged with murder, robbery, grand larceny and conspiracy in connection with Ramirez’s death and in a separate incident where the victim survived, police said Sunday.
Barroso was arraigned Monday in Manhattan Criminal Court on murder and robbery charges. He pleaded not guilty ,and the judge set bail at $3 million.
“We intend to fight this case vigorously,” his attorney, David Krauss, said.
Several family members and friends of the defendants crowded into the courtroom Monday afternoon. Outside the courtroom, one of Barroso’s supporters said he was “not a murderer. You guys got this backwards. We will prove his innocence.”
Several family members and friends of Ramirez were in the courtroom for the proceeding, and the victim’s mother was seen crying.
On Friday, police said they believe Demaio, Barroso and Hamilton are among those responsible for a broader “citywide robbery pattern” that includes at least 17 victims. The incidents — which include Ramirez’s and Umberger’s robberies and deaths — occurred from Sept. 19, 2021, to Aug. 28, the spokesperson said.
An additional suspect was arraigned Monday afternoon on robbery, grand larceny and identity theft charges in connection with the string of robberies. Andre Butts, 28, was captured on security video buying sneakers with Ramirez’s credit card, according to prosecutors from the Manhattan district attorney’s office. Butts, who was arrested Friday and pleaded not guilty, is being held on $100,000 bail after he tried to flee during his arrest, prosecutors said.
An indictment naming Hoskins, 31, and four other unidentified co-conspirators outlined a pattern where victims were “incapacitated to the extent that their ability to perceive events became diminished,” so that the suspects could then steal their victims’ cellphones and credit cards and use the physical cards and information stored on the victims’ phones to transfer money to themselves and make purchases.
The New York City Police Department previously confirmed to NBC News that there are multiple groups of criminals committing these types of crimes against men visiting the city’s gay bars. Police also said that comparable crimes were being committed against patrons of bars without any LGBTQ affiliation.
One separate group is suspected of committing similar crimes on 26 victims, two law enforcement officials told NBC News last week. Fashion designer Kathryn Marie Gallagher, whose death in July was ruled a drug-facilitated homicide by the medical examiner’s office, was one of the subsequent group’s victims, the officials said.
Last week, the New York City medical examiner’s office also confirmed that it is investigating “several additional deaths in similar circumstances” to those of Ramirez and Umberger. It is unclear, however, if they were found dead after visiting gay bars or whether they were connected with Demaio, Barroso and Hamilton.
A spokesperson for the medical examiner’s office said they “could not comment further due to the ongoing criminal investigations.”
A new national survey has reassuring findings that Americans of almost all religions and no religion are growing ever more supportive of LGBTQ rights.
For instance, eight in 10 Americans (80 percent) in the Public Religion Research Institute survey support laws against discrimination in jobs, public accommodations and housing against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. Even 62 percent of white evangelical Protestants, tied with Hispanic Protestants, favor such nondiscrimination laws. Jehovah’s Witnesses were at the bottom of the barrel, yet half support nondiscrimination protections. Interestingly, in states showing the lowest level of support for nondiscrimination (Alabama, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota), two-thirds of state citizens themselves are against such discrimination, showing that state legislatures are not keeping up with demographics. (Scroll to Figure 5 to see where your state falls on this issue.)
In what seems contradictory, given widespread disapproval of discrimination by places of public accommodation, Americans are slightly less supportive of LGBTQ rights when it comes to a business owner refusing to serve LGBTQ individuals. This is a hot-button issue — with a case, 303 Creative, involving such discrimination by a website designer awaiting a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court. Nevertheless, nearly two-thirds (65 percent) of Americans oppose permitting businesses to discriminate against LGBTQ customers on religious grounds.Those most willing to discriminate are Mormons (only 46 percent oppose such discrimination) and white Protestants (only 37 percent support LGBTQ rights to service). The political parties are polarized over this question, with nearly nine-in-10 Democrats and about two-thirds of independents opposing religiously based refusals, but 57 percent of Republicans supporting them.
The 2015 Obergell v. Hodges Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage is threatened by the current extremist-majority Supreme Court, making the survey’s findings on marriage equality very timely. On this subject as well, the institute similarly found that overall, 68 percent of Americans support same-sex marriage. In fact, support for same-sex marriage is steadily increasing in the United States, up from 58 percent in 2016 to 69 percent today.
Once again, white evangelical Protestants are the odd ones out, with only about a third (38 percent) supporting marriage equality. Even so, support is growing among their ranks. In 2014, only a quarter of Mormons supported same-sex marriage, but today half do. The survey found that Hispanic Protestants, white evangelical Protestants and Jehovah’s Witnesses show lowest support for marriage equality, with 43 percent, 38 percent and 19 percent respectively supporting it. Meanwhile, the religiously unaffiliated show the greatest acceptance, with nine in 10 in favor of marriage equality. Support for same-sex marriage from white mainline Protestants and white Catholics has risen from about two-thirds to three-fourths.
Of note, while 10 percent of Americans identify as LGBTQ (3 percent gay or lesbian, 4 percent bisexual and 2 percent as something other), they are twice as likely as the general population to identify as religiously unaffiliated. The institute identifies 26 percent of the general population as unaffiliated, but 50 percent of LGBTQ are in that category. About two-in-10 non-Christians (including Unitarian Universalists, religiously unaffiliated, Buddhists, Jews, Muslims, Hindus and other non-Christians) identify as LGBTQ.
LGBTQ Americans are twice as likely to belong to Generation Z, with almost half of them under age 30. Although whites make up the majority of the LGBTQ community, LGBTQ individuals are less likely to be white than the population at large. And LGBTQ Americans are six times as likely to identify as Democrats than as Republicans.
The Public Religion Research Institute found that attitudes toward structural racism correlate closely with attitudes toward LGBTQ rights. “Americans who strongly favor protections for LGBTQ people score lower on the Structural Racism Index,” it says.
Similarly, Christian nationalism adherents are about five times as likely as Christian nationalism rejecters to support allowing religiously based service refusals. Americans who agree that in truly Christian households women must submit to a man’s leadership are (no surprise) about twice as likely to favor allowing religiously based service refusals as those who disagree with this idea (49 percent vs. 25 percent).
“These findings are extremely eye-opening in combating those religiously motivated state legislators, governors and members of Congress who are eager to take us back to the bad old days of closets and rampant homophobia,” says Annie Laurie Gaylor, FFRF co-president. “The religiously diverse American people have spoken — and huge majorities of us support LGBTQ rights.”
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a national nonprofit organization with almost 40,000 members and several chapters across the country. FFRF’s purposes are to protect the constitutional principle of separation between church and state, and to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism.
New Report by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research highlights the connection between lack of affordable housing, delayed access to healthcare and food insecurity
A new report published by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research highlights the strong connection between the lack of affordable housing and residents’ access to health care in California.
The study, based on responses to the 2021 California Health Interview Survey, reveals that 1 in 10 adults in the state, or approximately 3 million people, faced difficulties in paying for housing this year. Renters, in particular, were more vulnerable, with 18.6% reporting struggles to pay their landlords, compared to only 5% of homeowners who faced similar difficulties. Housing instability was also an issue for 4.4% of California adults.
The report indicates that these factors had a negative impact on people’s use of healthcare resources, with 33.6% of adults who experienced housing affordability issues delaying needed medical care. Additionally, 15.5% of adults who struggled to afford housing reported not having health insurance, compared to 6.8% of those who did not experience challenges with housing costs. Sean Tan, a senior public administration analyst at the center, explains that housing issues are public health issues because of how they affect people’s overall health and well-being. He notes that people struggling to pay for housing tend to cut back on health care and basic necessities, leading to poorer health outcomes.
The report also reveals disparities among different groups, with noncitizen residents, Black or African American adults, and Latinos being more likely to struggle with housing costs than white adults. Lesbian, gay, and bisexual adults and transgender or gender-nonconforming adults also reported higher rates of difficulty paying for housing.
“There is an urgent need to address the issue of housing affordability in California,” said Ninez Ponce, director of the center and principal investigator of the California Health Interview Survey. “State representatives and policymakers must prioritize California’s marginalized communities, who are struggling to gain access to basic human needs.”
The authors of the report suggest that addressing the issue of housing affordability in California will require a combination of measures, including strengthening renter eviction protections, funding more affordable housing developments, and eliminating barriers to building affordable housing. Ninez Ponce, the director of the center and principal investigator of the California Health Interview Survey, emphasizes the need to prioritize California’s marginalized communities, who are struggling to gain access to basic human needs.
As the International Group of Seven (G7) prepares for its May summit in Japan, peer nations are encouraging Tokyo to enact non-discrimination protections for sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristics. Ambassadors from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the European Union issued an official letter to Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio calling on him to take action.
“Japan can match its international advocacy for human rights with a domestic agenda that includes steps to protect its own LGBTQI+ communities, including enacting legal protections for its LGBTQI+ citizens,” the letter read.
In February, Fumio dismissed one of his aides for making disparaging remarks about same-sex relationships. The prime minister apologized, saying, “The remarks are totally inconsistent with government policy.”
The Japanese government is not hostile to the rights of LGBT people and has supported LGBT rights internationally. But the federal government falls short on ensuring LGBT people enjoy equal protection under Japanese law.
Japan offers no legal recognition of same-sex couples at a national level. Around 260 municipalities and 11 prefectures however have established a “partnership oath system,” or unofficial recognition for these couples, demonstrating widespread support for marriage equality across the country.
Japan lacks nondiscrimination protections for LGBT people, despite strong support for a national “Equality Act”. Japan also forces trans people who want to legally change their gender to appeal to a family court, undergo a psychiatric evaluation, and be surgically sterilized.
In November 2020, a nationwide public opinion survey found 88 percent of those polled “agree or somewhat agree” with the LGBT non-discrimination laws.
Hosting the G7 is an opportunity for Japan to live up to its pledges at the United Nations Human Rights Council and its ambitions to join the Council. In the 2022 joint communiqué by G7 leaders, including Japan, the governments pledged: “We reaffirm our full commitment to a sustained focus on realizing equality between women and men as well as transgender and non-binary people and to ensuring that everyone—independent of their gender identity or expression or sexual orientation—has the same opportunities and is protected against discrimination and violence.”
Prime Minister Fumio holds the keys to living up to these promises.
In journalism, words matter. They can heal, hurt or excite. Journalists report stories with facts and context that carries emotions and truth about an event.
The world is changing, and inclusion matters in the changing world. But what if, in the changing world, the journalists who report stories that shape our perspective about LGBTQ people do not use the appropriate terminology.
Three India-based news outlets, the News Minute, and partner organizations Queer Chennai Chronicles and queerbeat have started a new initiative to help Indian news media become more inclusive while covering LGBTQ stories.
The project will publish a guide, glossaries, workshops and fellowships for Indian journalists. The Google News Initiative is supporting the project in the country. According to the press release, the project will rollout in a phased manner, starting with the translation of the existing glossary of LGBTQ terms into local languages.
Mainstream newsrooms in India often misidentify LGBTQ people and use incorrect pronouns to describe them. They sometimes use inappropriate words to define an event that does not appropriately capture the emotions and events.
“It’s not just about covering pride or violence, but across beats,” Ragamalika Karthikeyan, editor of special projects and experiments at the News Minute, said at the virtual press conference while launching the project on Feb. 24. “How do we write about LGBTQIA+ with dignity and respect, how do we make sure that a person’s personhood is maintained, how do we make sure that a community is not disrespected in the course of our journalism? How do we make sure that stories that are disrespectful and dehumanizing queer persons don’t keep happening?”
In the next phase, the project will launch an LGBTQ media guide in six languages: English, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Hindi and Marathi. The reference guide’s goal is to help journalists use more appropriate words to more deeply and accurately cover stories about the LGBTQ community.
“I am yet to come across a journalist or a reporter who has had an issue with anyone being gay. I think the sensitivity comes in where it becomes a question of how to ask a question, so as not to offend,” said Abhijit Iyer-Mitra, a prominent and openly gay Indian defense and foreign analyst who also writes for Dainik Bhaskar, a Hindi newspaper, and is a member of a political think tank. “Even in Hindi newspapers, because I write for Dainik Bhaskar I have not come across a lack of sensitivity. I describe it more as disinterest in LGBTQ issues, and that suits me perfectly fine. I do not want more people to be aware of it. It is much easier to fight when people are not aware of things and have not made up their minds about it.”
The project also aims to start workshops for journalists in the country to sensitize and train them for covering LGBTQ issues more accurately and deeply. There are some fellowships also involved in the project for reporters interested in learning how to write LGBTQ stories sensitively.
“I think it is an applaudable initiative. We need to acknowledge the fact that vocabulary plays an important role in every news report, it is perhaps why time and again we have improvised. For example, in 2016, the Associated Press revised its style guide suggesting journalists to use ‘crash, collision, or other terms’ besides ‘accident’ in auto crash reporting (at least until culpability is proven),” said Heena Khandelwal, a journalist who is based in Mumbai. “Similarly, the initiative takes a step in ensuring that we use the terms/words/language that does not offend the community as well as empowers the vernacular reporters by looking for their alternatives in regional languages. The decision to turn it into a handbook will make it accessible to the journalist community at large.”
Khandelwal, while talking to the Washington Blade, said that she believes that there is also a need for more LGBTQ journalists in the newsroom.
“We cannot ask a man to not write about women’s issues, can we? Similarly, we cannot and must not ask heterosexual journalists to report about the LGBTQIA+ community and support the initiative by Newsminute so that it is done correctly. At the same time, we must include journalists from the LGBTQIA+ community to make our coverage more inclusive,” said Khandelwal. “There are so many aspects to their daily lives, struggles as well as achievements that heterosexual journalists would have a limited understanding of and by covering them, they would be widening the horizon of us writers as well as readers. Their inclusion would also make newsrooms more vibrant and a publication’s voice, not only when publishing a LGBTQIA+ story but otherwise as well, more inclusive.”
Khandelwal has covered LGBTQ-specific stories for Daily News and Analysis (DNA), the fastest-growing English newspaper in Mumbai.
Ankush Kumar is a freelance reporter who has covered many stories for Washington and Los Angeles Blades from Iran, India and Singapore. He recently reported for the Daily Beast. He can be reached at mohitk@opiniondaily.news. He is on Twitter at @mohitkopinion.
U.S. Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.), a co-chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus, issued a statement Thursday pledging to introduce the Equality Act during this Congress, legislation that would extend federal anti-discrimination protections to LGBTQ Americans.
The bill would prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in “employment, education, access to credit, jury service, federal funding housing, and public accommodations.”
Four previous versions were introduced in the House by Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) and in the Senate by U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) in 2015, 2017, 2019, and 2021. The Biden administration and congressional Democrats have signaled that the legislation remains a major priority despite the Republicans now exercising their majority control of the lower chamber.
With Cicilline’s planned departure from Congress on June 1 to lead the nonprofit Rhode Island Foundation, Takano thanked and credited his colleague “for his leadership on behalf of our community and stewardship of the Equality Act.”
Cicilline, who drafted the legislation and chaired the Equality Caucus in the last Congress before Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) took over this year, noted the heightened importance of the Equality Act’s passage amid the proliferation of anti-LGBTQ and especially anti-trans legislation.
“With homophobic and transphobic legislation being proposed in state legislatures across the country and here in Congress,” he said, “it is far past time we act to finally outlaw discrimination against the LGBTQI+ community by passing the Equality Act.”
The legislation is also backed by major LGBTQ advocacy groups including the nation’s largest, the Human Rights Campaign. “There is overwhelming support for this bill among the American people and the business community, and we will continue fighting until this bill is signed into law,” said the organization’s President Kelley Robinson.
Robinson also thanked Cicilline for his leadership on the bill and said the Human Rights Campaign looks forward to working with Takano, “an incredible champion for our community” who “is the perfect leader for this effort” to “build on he work Congressman Cicilline started and get the Equality Act signed into law.”
