Out gay Rep.-elect George Santos (R-NY) has admitted lying to voters about some parts of his resume, but didn’t address other alleged falsehoods in his backstory. He also said he wouldn’t give up his seat even though Democrats have said that he should.
“My sins here are embellishing my resume. I’m sorry,” he said on Monday, according to the New York Post, adding, “I am not a criminal… This [controversy] will not deter me from having good legislative success. I will be effective. I will be good.”
Among the falsehoods he fessed up to is the fact that he never graduated from Baruch College. “I didn’t graduate from any institution of higher learning. I’m embarrassed and sorry for having embellished my resume,” he said. “I own up to that … We do stupid things in life.”
The news you care about, reported on by the people who care about you.
He also admitted that he never worked for Citigroup and Goldman Sachs. He now claims that, while working as vice president for a company called Link Bridge, he helped make “capital introductions” between clients and investors who were at Goldman Sachs and Citigroup.
“I will be clearer about that,” he said. “It was stated poorly.”
Indeed, his campaign website had “poorly” stated that he “began working at Citigroup as an associate and quickly advanced to become an associate asset manager in the real asset division of the firm.” Link Bridge didn’t respond to media requests for clarification.
He also admitted that he was indeed married to a woman from 2012 until they divorced in 2017. He had told USA Today in October that he had “never had an issue with my sexual identity in the past decade.”
He didn’t mention his ex-wife ever during his two election bids. “I’m very much gay,” he said on Monday. “I’m OK with my sexuality. People change. I’m one of those people who change.”
The publication The Daily Beast failed to find a marriage record for Santos to the man he currently refers to as his husband.
When asked about why he doesn’t reside at the Queens, New York address in his district where he was registered to vote, the Post reported, “Santos also admitted to lying when he claimed that he owned 13 different properties, saying he now resides at his sister’s place in Huntington but is looking to purchase his own place.”
He also threw his own dead grandmother under the bus when asked about the claim that his grandparents escaped the Nazi Holocaust. Genealogical records threw doubt on this claim, suggesting they might have resided in Brazil rather than having fled from Europe. He now says the claim came from his deceased grandmother’s stories.
Even though he has previously identified as a nonobservant Jew in the past, he now says that he never claimed he was Jewish (but rather Jew-ish), noting that his grandmother told him that she converted from Judaism to Catholicism.
He also explained his claim that he lost four employees in the 2016 Pulse Nightclub shooting. The New York Times found that none of the shooting’s 49 victims seemed to be associated with any of his businesses. He now says that, at the time of their deaths, the four “employees” were in the process of being hired for his company (which he didn’t name) when they died in the shooting. He provided no additional information to back up his claim.
Numerous discrepancies in Santos’ past remain. No records seem to back up his claim that his mother escaped the south tower of the World Trade Center during the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. No records seem to back up his claim that he founded a charity called Friends of Pets nor that he attended New York University.
The New York Times also noted that, even though he denied ever having cashed stolen checks in Brazil, he didn’t explain why Brazilian court records alleged otherwise. Nor did he explain how he was able to lend himself $700,000 to his congressional campaign despite owing landlords and creditors thousands in the past.
Democrats like outgoing House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) and upcoming House Democratic Minority Leader, Representative Hakeem Jeffries (NY) have said that Santos isn’t fit to serve in Congress and should resign.
“George Santos should resign as congressman-elect,” tweeted Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas). “If he refuses, Congress should expel him. He should also be investigated by authorities. Just about every aspect of his life appears to be a lie.”
“George Santos admits his life story is a complete fabrication,” said Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY). “His pitiful confession should not distract us from concerns about possible criminality and corruption.”
However, Santos has refused and Republican Congress members have stayed silent about his falsehoods. In fact, the Post cited an “unnamed senior GOP leadership aide” who said that Republicans joked about all of Santos’ discrepancies.
“As far as questions about George in general, that was always something that was brought up whenever we talked about this race,” the aide told the Post. “It was a running joke at a certain point. This is the second time he’s run and these issues we assumed would be worked out by the voters.”
Nevertheless, New York State Attorney General Tish James is reportedly looking into whether Santos broke any laws through his past claims.
Ireland has been ranked the worst place in the EU for accessing trans healthcare, with the system being “bogged down by waiting times” cited as an area of concern.
Transgender Europe (TGEU), a network of more than 200 trans-rights organisations, found of 27 EU member states, Ireland had the worst provision of healthcare for trans people, with Malta coming out on top.
The countries, laid out on a colour-coded map, were ranked by six criteria, with Ireland scoring just one point out of a potential 12.
The countries were ranked on the types of trans healthcare available, if a psychiatric diagnosis is required before hormonal treatment or surgery, waiting times, if any group is excluded or made to wait longer to access trans healthcare, and the ages of those allowed hormones and puberty blockers.
Ireland’s single point was given for the provision of trans healthcare, however, it scored worst in the EU on waiting times.
TGEU claimed that in Ireland, trans people could expect to wait “between two-and-a-half and 10 years from requesting to see a specialist in trans healthcare to seeing one”.
TGEU said in a statement: “Access to trans-specific healthcare varies widely in the EU.
“For instance, Malta has implemented a model of healthcare that is grounded in self-determination and based on informed consent… In Ireland, the system is bogged down by waiting times of over seven years to see a healthcare professional.”
“At the same time, the need for trans-specific healthcare and the very existence of trans identities are also facing growing attacks from anti-gender and anti-rights groups,” TGEU said.
“This constitutes a real threat to the delivery of accessible, affordable, and quality depathologised trans-specific healthcare and risks undoing the decades of progress that the community has fought hard to achieve.”
Trans and Intersex Pride Dublin (TIPD) told PinkNews in a statement: “We are not shocked by the news that Ireland has the lowest score in Europe for trans healthcare. Trans people have been saying this for years. Trans healthcare is only getting worse.
“With only one clinic in Ireland for trans adults, the current waiting list to be seen is estimated to be six years or more. When you’re finally seen, you’re put through a dehumanising and humiliating assessment and asked invasive questions.
“Trans people have reportedly been denied HRT due to numerous reasons, such as having a diagnosis of autism, ADHD, or a personality disorder, for being on social welfare or not answering those highly sexualised questions ‘the right way.’”
TIPD added that due to “failures” of trans healthcare provision, trans people are left with the alternatives of private clinics, crowdfunding, receiving care abroad, or even “self-administering” hormones purchased online.
“Trans and Intersex Pride Dublin advocates for the implementation of an informed consent-based model and for gender-affirming care to be GP-led,” the group added.
“Trans people should be empowered to make decisions about their transition themselves.”
Long Beach voters ushered in two historical election firsts for the region during this year’s election.
Robert Garcia, the current mayor of Long Beach, is set to become the first openly gay immigrant in the U.S. house of Representatives, after a decisive showing from voters in the 42nd Congressional District, which includes Long Beach and southeastern Los Angeles County, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Garcia has declared victory in the heavily Democratic district. He tweeted that he received an “incredibly gracious call from President Joe Biden. … He’s in great spirits and feeling good. I told him I’m ready to get to work.”
Having to leave his seat as mayor, Long Beach voters made history and elected its first Black mayor, Rex Richardson. During his 53% lead in the election, he stated that he was confident in his path to the seat.
This year’s midterm elections have made history in California. Voters elected the first Latino to represent California in the U.S. Senate, Alex Padilla, and the first Asian American to become mayor in San Bernardino, Helen Tran.
The LGBTQ Victory Fund called Garcia’s win important for representation and the future.
“With anti-LGBTQ and anti-choice legislation currently moving through Congress, the stakes of this election could not have been higher — and California voters delivered,” said Annise Parker, the president and chief executive of LGBTQ Victory Fund and former mayor of Houston. “His win tonight will inspire countless other LGBTQ and first-generation Americans to pursue careers in public service.”
Garcia, married to Matthew Mendez Garcia, a professor of political science at Cal State Long Beach, came to the U.S. from Peru with his mother, and gained citizenship later as an adult. He is a two-times elected mayor of Long Beach at the age of 44.
Garcia lost his mother and stepfather to COVID-19, but went on to lead an aggressive vaccination campaign headed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, according to the LA Times.
Trans men in India are often made to feel invisible – but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist, and that they can’t thrive.
In 2014, India’s Supreme Court ruled that trans people should be recognised as a “third gender”, and that they should not be denied fundamental human rights.
However, some still struggle to access education, healthcare, and employment. In 2019, a law was passed to prohibit discrimination in these areas, but requires trans people to provide proof of gender-affirming surgery before they can gain legal recognition, something activists have said goes against the 2014 ruling.
The law also makes abusing trans people a crime punishable by up to two years in prison – but this is a much lesser penalty than those given to other abusers, and violence and hate crimes remain pervasive.
In many conversations around trans people in India, trans men are omitted. They are often invisible, and isolated – many are forced to leave their families due to the stigma and prejudice that continues to persist.
But despite this, trans men emerge strong. These three have earned prominent positions in public and private sectors, breaking barriers and opening the doors of education and employment to the community, to help them lead a life of dignity and respect that they rightly deserve.
Adam Harry was 11 years old when he took his first flight.
He loved the experience so much that he decided to become a pilot when he grew up. His parents, from the southern Indian state of Kerala, took out a loan to send him to a flying school in South Africa. But they were less supportive when he came out as trans.
“I was born in a conservative, middle-class, Muslim family, and growing up, it was extremely difficult for me to express my identity because I wasn’t even allowed to wear a pair of jeans at home,” he tells PinkNews.
“During my school days, I didn’t have the vocabulary to express my identity, especially in Malayalam, which is my mother tongue.”
“When I was in the ninth grade, I came across an article about the [2014 Supreme Court ruling on trans rights] and then I read more articles about transgender people in India. That is when I started exploring my identity and I realised that I am a trans man.”
After Adam came out, his family stopped funding his education.
Adam Harry. (Supplied)
“I was home-bound for a year, which was extremely tumultuous,” he says.
“My family believed that I could be cured and took me for conversion therapy.”
After this traumatic experience, Adam decided to flee. After one failed attempt, he got out of the family home on his second try.
“I got the freedom to be myself. But it came with its own implications. I didn’t have anything. But later, I found myself a shelter and worked at a juice bar.”
Adam was able to get a private pilot licence, and funding from the Kerala state government to finish his studies and get a commercial licence.
“The real struggle began when I enrolled in aviation in India,” Adam explains.
“I was forced to hide my identity during my medicals. They didn’t have any proper guidelines for transgender people and because of that I was declared unfit to fly for six months [because of his hormone replacement therapy].”
After Adam spoke out and shared his story with the world’s media, new guidelines were issued.
They state that any individual who identifies as transgender must have completed more than five years of gender-affirming hormone therapy to be declared medically fit. They must also pass a further mental health screening that all aspiring pilots are required to undertake.
Adam is closer to piloting his first commercial flight than ever before. But he will still have to undergo a psychological and psychiatric evaluation from an endocrinologist, and an examination to check if he has undergone surgery within a year of application.
“There are still many obstacles that I and so many transgender people face even today,” he reflects.
“Society needs to treat everybody equally, regardless of their gender, caste, or colour. There’s a lot of work that’s needed to be done in terms of the progress of the LGBTQ+ community in India. We need proper guidelines including education, employment, and health.”
Krishna Panchani, a government official based in Gujarat, came to terms with his identity when he was in the seventh grade.
Krishna Panchani. (Supplied)
“I realised that the sex I was assigned at birth didn’t match with my inner self – I felt different,” he tells PinkNews.
“I’ve struggled a lot to come to terms with my identity both in the past and even today. My family didn’t accept me in the past, and they don’t want to accept me even today.”
Tired of “being policed”, Krishna left the family home and eventually took a job as a principal in a government school in a remote village. But because of his appearance, he says, people looked at him “with aghast”.
“The people in the village would stare at me and talk about me. Some people also thought that a person like me would ruin their children if I taught them. When some officers from outside came for a visit, they said my dress code wouldn’t work because it didn’t come across as ‘civilised’. But, I decided not to give up.”
Tired of the transphobia around him, Krishna decided to confront the system.
“I read all the books about rules and regulations and I realised that it was mentioned nowhere that you had to follow a certain dress code. I took that and challenged them – and I won. The government accepted me and they said: ‘We see your work, the clothes you wear don’t matter.’ But despite that, people continued to talk about me behind my back.”
Today, Krishna says he has “good status” in society, with a good job and a loving partner.
He adds: “I am different, but I am not wrong. People need to accept us with an open heart and need to treat us like everyone else. Include us in the mainstream, don’t sideline us. We all have the same heart, then why treat us differently? We also have dreams, desires, and hopes and we deserve to fulfil them. If we get wider support, our struggles will slowly fade away which will in turn make our lives easier.”
Jay Anand, a musician based in Bangalore, had grappled with his gender since the age of four.
Jay Anand. (Supplied)
As a child, he would go to sleep every night imagining how life would be if one day he woke up as a boy.
“I was in a relationship at the age of 13 and that was my first time accepting who I am in front of another individual,” he tells PinkNews.
Jay socially transitioned in 2020. Before that, for the first decade of his career, he lost countless gigs because he didn’t conform to the idea of a “female-fronted act – someone who would doll up”. He also missed important networking opportunities because of his own inhibitions about being visible in public.
“However, over the years, I have become a little less afraid of being myself in front of everyone and having hard conversations,” he says.
Now, Jay is a successful musician – he even recorded a song for a Netflix movie,Looop Lapeta. He’s taken control of his own life, and he wants others to be able to do the same.
“We have had enough of allowing people to make decisions for us,” he says.
“Experts need to work in collaboration with individuals to formulate better policies, practices, frameworks, and healthcare for trans people — I hope for that change in the future.
“And it’s time we stop waiting around for someone to do it for us. LGBTQ+ individuals need to come together and make it happen. And I will tell you, this has already begun.”
Aditya Tiwari is an award-winning writer and queer activist. He tweets at@aprilislush.
Fabu Olmedo is so nervous about clubs and restaurants in Paraguay that before a night out she often contacts one to make sure that she’ll be let in and won’t be attacked or harassed.
Olmedo doesn’t know if she can go out in public safely because daily life is hard for transgender people in the capital, Asunción. Now, a new group of allies in Latin America is trying to make life better by changing minds in this socially conservative and often highly religious region.
Founded in 2017, the Latin American Movement of Mothers of LGTB+ Children lobbies governments to eliminate prejudical laws and better enforce existing bans on violence and discrimination.
It’s a difficult fight that will require patience and a years of effort but the mothers are working together to help others in their position, and function as a refuge for LGBTQ children whose families are not as supportive.
Members of the Latin American Movement of Mothers of LGTB+ Children during a march in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Nov. 5. Natacha Pisarenko / AP
“It’s all about recognizing the strength and power that we have as mothers to accompany our kids and help other families,” said Alejandra Muñoz, 62, of Mexico City. Her son Manuel came out 11 years ago and suffered so much bullying at school that he spent recesses with the teachers.
“He’s constantly at risk of being yelled at or worse in the street because of his sexuality,” she said.
Olmedo, 28, said that in July she was barred from an Asunción nightclub with her friends.
“Many times they let you in but there are violent people inside,” Olmedo said.
The Latin American Movement of Mothers of LGTB+ Children held its first in-person meeting in early November in Buenos Aires, where they attended the annual massive gay pride march on Nov. 5.
“Our main battle is to make sure our children enjoy the same rights in all of Latin America,” said Patricia Gambetta, 49, the head of the Latin American Movement of Mothers of LGTB+ Children, which has members in 14 countries and the goal of expanding to all the countries in the region.
The work of the mothers is often made more complicated by the enduring power of the Catholic Church, which teaches that gay acts are “intrinsically disordered.” The increasingly popular evangelical faith also often preaches against same-sex relationships.
There are stark differences in the acceptance of sexual minorities across Latin America. Argentina and Uruguay have been regional pioneers in marriage equality and transgender rights. Other countries in the region have yet to institute protections for the LGBTQ population.
Marriage equality became law in all of Mexico’s states last month. Honduras and Paraguay both ban same-sex marriage. In Guatemala, a conservative congress has repeatedly tried to pass legislation that would censor information about LGBTQ people. In Brazil, at the federal and state level there are bills and laws that either ban, or would ban, information about sexual orientation and gender identity, said Cristian González Cabrera, LGBT-rights researcher for Latin America and the Caribbean at Human Rights Watch.
And laws often fail to tell the full story.
“Irrespective of what legal regime a youth finds themselves in, prejudice and discrimination in the region continue to be commonplace,” González Cabrera said.
Vitinia Varela Mora said that her daughter, Ana María, decided to hide her lesbian identity after seeing other gay students bullied at her school in Tilarán, Costa Rica, which is about 124 miles (200km) from the capital, San José. She came out to her mother at 21.
In some countries, mothers who try to help their children deal with discrimination suddenly find themselves the subject of scrutiny.
Claudia Delfín tried to seek help in government offices for her transgender twins, who were facing bullying and discrimination in their school in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, when they were 16.
“They told me to go to church and look for a better path. They practically sent me to pray,” Delfín said.
Varela Mora of Costa Rica says it took her around two years to accept her daughter after the girl came out as a lesbian in what hit her mother like “a bucket of cold water.”
“There’s a lack of education, no one prepares you for this,” Varela Mora said. Now she tries to make up for that by supporting other mothers whose children have come out of the closet.
“It’s important for young people to feel they have a mom who understands them when they aren’t supported in their homes,” the 59-year-old woman said.
Groups of LGBTQ parents are “vitally important to show that regressive political projects do not respond to the needs of the region’s diverse communities,” González Cabrera of Human Rights Watch said.
Delfín said that she is one of two mothers in Santa Cruz who are activists fighting for their LGBTQ children. Elena Ramírez, Olmedo’s mom, also says that many trans children who are having trouble at home come to her for refuge.
“I’m a mom to all of them,” Ramírez, 66, said. “I know there are mothers that I will not be able to convince, but there are other children who really are in need.”
Gambetta says that all the mothers in the organization effectively end up training each other in their monthly virtual meetings.
“As mothers we have greater reach, we can raise more awareness,” Gambetta said. “When your family supports you, you’ve already won 99% of the battle.”
A trans royal reportedly fled from Qatar to the UK in 2015, fearing persecution in his home country.
According to leaked documents obtained by The Sunday Times, the unnamed royal is a trans man who escaped from his security during a family trip to London in 2015 and went into hiding with his girlfriend. He was then granted asylum in Britain.
The leaked documents showed that the royal told the Home Office that “growing up in Qatar has been the most difficult thing I have had to do”, because “I never wanted to be put in this body”.
He added: “I am born a female but was male on the inside. Being gay in Qatar is considered punishable by law and death. Qatar is extremely strict in Sharia.”
The leaked asylum application, which was reportedly granted in December 2015, contained an application for a name change, The Sunday Times reported.
Letters included in the Home Office application reportedly claimed the royal had been “depressed ever since I can remember simply because my outside never matched my inside”.
He added that he wanted to start a new life away from Qatar, “where I would have the life that I always wanted, which was to be a boy”.
He claimed that restrictions were placed on his freedom of movement by his family due to his identity.
“I felt as though my life had been thrown in the garbage. I never wanted to marry my male cousins like the rest of my family. I am terrified for what my brothers are about to unleash. I am scared,” the unnamed royal wrote.
LGBTQ+ rights in Qatar
In Qatar homosexuality is illegal, and being found guilty of same-sex relations can result in a lengthy prison sentence, while under Sharia law it is possible for men to face the death penalty if they are found to have engaged in same-sex intimacy.
Captains from seven European teams were to wear the OneLove armband but ultimately backed down. (Getty)
Former Wales captain Laura McAllister was asked to “take her rainbow hat off” – which was designed by LGBTQ+ football organisation The Rainbow Wall – before entering the World Cup stadium.
“I pointed out that FIFA had made lots of comments about supporting LGBT rights in this tournament, and said to them that coming from a nation where we’re very passionate about equality for all people, I wasn’t going to take my hat off,” McAllister told the outlet.
“They were insistent that unless I took the hat off we weren’t actually allowed to come into the stadium.”
PinkNews contacted the Home Office for confirmation of the royal’s story, which said it would not comment on individual cases.
Mary and Sharon Bishop-Baldwin were jubilant after winning a decadelong fight for the right to wed in Oklahoma.
But eight years after tying the knot — on the day they won their lawsuit challenging a state ban on gay marriage — and seven years after the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed same-sex couples’ constitutional right to marry, they no longer take their union for granted.
“The very fact we’re even having these conversations is really disheartening to me,” especially given a dramatic shift in public opinion over the past decade, with polls showing 70% of U.S. adults now favor same-sex marriage rights, said Sharon Bishop-Baldwin, 54.
But when the high court overturned Roe v. Wade, which had guaranteed abortion rights, Justice Clarence Thomas suggested in a concurring opinion that the decision upholding gay marriage should also be reconsidered. That prompted Democrats to act quickly to protect same-sex marriage while the party still holds the majority in both chambers of Congress.
The Senate passed the Respect for Marriage Act last week with support from 12 Republicans; it’s expected to easily win approval in the House before being signed by President Joe Biden.
At first, Sharon Bishop-Baldwin said, she thought the act was “lip service.” But she changed her mind because it would at least provide some protection.
“It’s ridiculous to think that anybody in this country who has legally married one place could suddenly be unmarried in another,” Bishop-Baldwin said.
When the couple filed their 2004 Oklahoma lawsuit, 76% of state voters had just approved a constitutional ban on gay marriage. Ten years later, the U.S. Supreme Court let stand a federal appeals court ruling that declared the state ban unconstitutional. A year later, the high court decided in another case that all states had to issue marriage licenses to gay couples.
“When we won, one of our lawyers said, ‘This is game, set, match, marriage’ … and that’s what we thought: We’re done,” said Bishop-Baldwin, who runs a small newspaper and met her wife in 1995 when both were editors at the Tulsa World.
The legislation wouldn’t codify, or enshrine into law, the Supreme Court decision requiring states to issue same-sex marriage licenses. But if that decision were overturned and states revived bans, they still would have to recognize same-sex marriages performed legally in other states.
“I can’t imagine that happening at the Supreme Court … but we have to be prepared,” said Mary Bishop-Baldwin, 61, who notes that Oklahoma’s ban is still on the books.
The possibility has created “a state of extreme anxiety and stress” among same-sex couples, said Jenny Pizer, chief legal officer at Lambda Legal, an LGBTQ civil rights group.
That’s especially true for those with children, she said. Currently, both spouses are considered legal parents, which is especially important if one of them dies or they divorce. “So this bill really does matter,” Pizer said.
Some also fear the high court or a future Congress could undo the federal legislation.
“Every time the House and Senate overturn, you’ll wonder what might happen this time,” said Dawn Betts-Green, 43, who lives in Birmingham, Alabama, with her wife, Anna Green, whom she married in Florida in 2016. “It’s honestly in the hands of whoever we elect, and that is scary.”
A scenario in which constitutional protections are overturned by the Supreme Court and the Respect for Marriage Act is overturned by the court or Congress might be a long shot, but “it is certainly possible for there to be a series of events that really took us back to that earlier time when it was incredibly difficult for families,” Pizer said.
“The idea of returning to those days, frankly, is terrifying,” she said.
Betts-Green and her wife hurried to complete paperwork, such as wills and powers of attorney, after Roe v. Wade was overturned, getting “all of our legal ducks in a row (because) they’re clearly coming for us,” she said, recalling a time when her wife was hospitalized in Florida — before they were married — and a nurse said Betts-Green would not be permitted to make medical decisions.
Marriage also provides many other legal protections, including the ability to claim survivor benefits from Social Security and to obtain health insurance through a spouse’s plan, and tax benefits, such as the ability to leave assets to a spouse.
The Respect for Marriage Act makes Betts-Green feel a little more secure, she said, though “I find it absolutely ridiculous that we’re having to go through this kind of thing in 2022, not only just for queer people, but also interracial marriages. It’s not 1941, but it certainly feels like we’ve gone back in time.”
The issue of same-sex marriage also is overshadowing other concerns, including anti-LGBTQ legislation and harassment of and attacks on LGBTQ people, most notably the recent shooting at a Colorado nightclub that killed five people, Betts-Green said.
“I’m constantly reminded that this is the least of our issues in a lot of ways,” she said.
Minneapolis legal aide Robbin Reed, a white woman who is married to a Black transgender man, supports the act but worries it could mean more danger from people who might be angered by its protections.
“The law won’t really change anything about my life … because there’s still so much to worry about,” said Reed, who has an 8-month-old child and performs with her husband in queer nightclubs. “This is a ridiculous situation to be in.”
The Bishop-Baldwins said they doubt the Supreme Court will strip away same-sex marriage rights, but are relieved there will be some protections in place just in case. Still, federal legislation shouldn’t even be required, they say.
“Is the Respect for Marriage Act good enough? No, of course not. Good enough should be” constitutional protection, said Sharon Bishop-Baldwin.
A trans woman won a major Delhi region for her party during an election on Wednesday (7 December).
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate Bobi won the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) election after votes were counted this week.
The trans politician won Sultanpur-A ward against Congress candidate Varuna Dhaka by 6,714 votes according to Indian Express.
Her win came just hours before it was announced that the AAP crossed the finish line with 134 seats, winning against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The win means that the AAP now holds a strong majority over the municipal corporation, which makes up one of the three municipalities in Delhi, overseeing the region.
Voters line up to cast their vote in the MCD elections. (Getty)
Sultanpur’s new representative, who is often nicknamed Bobi “Darling”, has routinely said she would work in cleaning up the corruption within the MCD and “beautify” the constituency.
“I want to dedicate my victory to the people who worked so hard for me,” she said.
“I would like to thank everyone. Now I just have to work for development in my area.”
A long-time social worker, Bobi originally ran as an independent candidate during the 2017 MCD election, but later joined up with the self-proclaimed “anti-corruption” party.
She is also well known for her work toward improving education and social mobility in and around Sultanpur.
Her victory was incredibly close during pollings, with BJP regularly overtaking AAP multiple times before votes were fully counted.
In the end, BJP failed to win the constituency and the wider election, finishing with 104 seats according to NDTV.
Bobi’s win is a huge step for LGBTQ+ representation
The victory is another huge step for LGBTQ+ rights and representation in India.
While the country has many rights in place for queer minorities, it still has a long way to go in actualising true equality.
Same-sex marriage is still forbidden, despite routine attempts by activists to reverse the government’s policy.
Lead petitioners Supriyo Chakraborty and Abhay Dange argued that not extending the rights of marriage to LGBTQ+ couples is an affront to their human rights.
The inability to marry means that the couple cannot adopt together, nor can they inherit each other assets.
Additionally, it means that hospital visits for medical emergencies could be refused since the two are not legally recognised as family.
Csillagi, who is nonbinary, lives in Oakland with their fiancée, stepson, and two cats. Originally from Texas, they explained transphobia and homophobia in their home state and others motivated them to start the project. “I was upset about the legislative attacks that were happening to trans people, queer people in the South … and I was racking my brain to figure out how to help my community — the queer community, and trans community, and the people hit the hardest, trans people of color.”
Once Csillagi decided to fundraise for trans organizations through tattoos, they had to create an appropriate image. After all, as they point out, “Not everyone wants to have a flag tattoo.”https://www.instagram.com/p/Cks_f1Trdf4/embed/captioned/?cr=1&v=14&wp=1080&rd=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.lgbtqnation.com&rp=%2F2022%2F11%2Foakland-tattoo-artist-funding-trans-initiatives-south-thousand-pansies%2F#%7B%22ci%22%3A0%2C%22os%22%3A1649%2C%22ls%22%3A1426%2C%22le%22%3A1620%7D
Because Csillagi specializes in realistic botanical tattoos, a flower was a natural choice (no pun intended). They say the pansy stood out in particular because the project could reclaim the word “pansy” from its historical use as a slur for effeminate and gay men while also honoring the drag balls of the U.S. “Pansy Craze” of the 1930s.
A Thousand Pansies also echoes the name of a campaign in the UK called The Pansy Project, created by Paul Harfleet. Harfleet plants pansies to mark sites of homophobic incidents. “It felt that it was also a continuation of, or a nod to the work he’s already done, which is so beautiful,” says Csillagi, who notes that Harfleet was “thrilled” when they told him about A Thousand Pansies.
Once Csillagi had landed on a fitting symbol, they designated the first group to benefit: The Knights & Orchids Society (TKO) in Alabama. TKO, which Csillagi calls “amazing,” is one of the country’s only Black, trans-led healthcare organizations. “More money is always needed [in the Bay Area], and there are some orgs that still need help,” says Csillagi. “But choosing to work with an organization from the South was purposeful in that there is not enough money being funneled that way.”
TKO serves 75 to 100 people yearly from its locations in Montgomery and Selma, says Director of Community Engagement TC Caldwell. However, it helps trans folks throughout the South, prioritizing the Black trans community.https://www.instagram.com/p/CkH2N_ILLr8/embed/captioned/?cr=1&v=14&wp=1080&rd=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.lgbtqnation.com&rp=%2F2022%2F11%2Foakland-tattoo-artist-funding-trans-initiatives-south-thousand-pansies%2F#%7B%22ci%22%3A1%2C%22os%22%3A1651%2C%22ls%22%3A1426%2C%22le%22%3A1620%7D
“We help our people move from surviving to thriving by providing holistic care,” Caldwell says. “Housing is holistic care. High-quality primary care and endocrinology is holistic care. Having access to food is holistic care. By removing barriers, we help our people to live full healthy lives.”
Caldwell says that A Thousand Pansies will help TKO continue its lifesaving work. “A Thousand Pansies is showing allies how to show up and help grassroots organizations like TKO. We don’t always have access to funders who could support our work due to being Black, trans, queer, and in the South.”
To get a pansy tattoo, participants must donate a minimum of $500 to TKO. (Outside of A Thousand Pansies, Csillagi’s first available appointments are in 2024.) In addition to the contributions required for tattoos, donations of any amount are accepted. Eventually, Csillagi plans to use this additional money for those who can’t afford to give $500 but would like their own pansy.
So far, Csillagi has tattooed 11 pansies (including one on themself), raising more than $5,000 for TKO. The pansy-bearers range from parents of trans kids to notable folks in the LGBTQ community, such as chef and activist Preeti Mistry and author and activist Mia Birdsong. When Piper Kerman, author of Orange Is the New Black, received hers, Bay Area station KQED was on site for an interview.
After they’ve received their pansy, each participant records a brief video with Csillagi. (You can see the videos on Instagram at @a1000pansies.) “Every person has a different story,” says Csillagi.
In Mistry’s post-tattoo video, Csillagi asks, “What does trans joy mean to you?” and Mistry responds, “Trans joy to me means being able to be yourself — not just be yourself but be able to be celebrated. I think that we live in a world where the idea of being tolerated is somehow enough, that some people in society only should be OK with just being tolerated, and … that is not where I want to be.”
A Thousand Pansies has just started, but Csillagi says that the goal is to spread 1,000 pansies by expanding the project beyond themself and the Bay Area. “Tattooers, makers, and artists joining in will be committing to doing this work with me, raising money for TKO and putting their skills to use on a community level, working to build a social justice movement that should have already been started,” they say.
Despite the project’s origin as a response to anti-LGBTQ legislation, Csillagi says they want A Thousand Pansies to focus on the positive. “I really want this project to be about joy and happiness, and not persecution and the awful things happening in the world.”
As monks chanted evening prayers in the dimly lit Saint John’s University church, members of the student LGBTQ organization, QPLUS, were meeting in a dedicated, Pride flag-lined lounge at the institution’s sister Benedictine college, a few miles away across Minnesota farmland.
To Sean Fisher, a senior who identifies as nonbinary and helps lead QPLUS, its official recognition and funding by Saint John’s and the College of Saint Benedict is welcome proof of the Catholic schools’ “acknowledging queer students exist.”
But tensions endure here and at many of the hundreds of U.S. Catholic and Protestant universities. The Christian teachings they ascribe to are different from wider societal values over gender identity and sexual orientation, because they assert that God created humans in unchangeable male and female identities, and sex should only happen within the marriage of a man and a woman.
“The ambivalence toward genuine care is clouded by Jesus-y attitudes. Like ‘Love your neighbor’ has an asterisk,” Fisher said that late fall evening.
Most of the 200 Catholic institutions serving nearly 900,000 students have made efforts to be welcoming while staying true to their mission as Catholic ministries, said the Rev. Dennis Holtschneider, president of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities.
Among Protestant institutions, a few are pushing the envelope, and most are hoping to stay out of the messiness, said John Hawthorne, a retired Christian college sociology professor and administrator.
“Denominations won’t budge, so colleges will need to lead the way,” Hawthorne added. Otherwise, they might not survive, because students are used to values far different from churches’ teachings, as highlighted by last week’s Senate passage of legislation to protect same-sex marriage.
“Today’s college freshman was born in 2004, the year Massachusetts legalized same-sex marriage,” Hawthorne said, suggesting there might not be enough conservative students in the future for some of the universities to survive.
The consequences extend beyond the experiences of current students, many of whom enroll not because of faith but academics, athletics or scholarships. Some will likely become church leaders in an already divided society, where the recent shooting at an LGBTQ club in Colorado was only the latest reminder of the threats against that community.
From right: Ryan Imm, Sean Fisher and Sam Schug on campus in St. Joseph, Minn., on Nov. 8, 2022. Giovanna Dell’Orto / AP
The majority of Christian colleges and universities list “sexual orientation” in their nondiscrimination statements, and half also include “gender identity” — far more than did so in 2013, said Jonathan Coley, a sociologist at Oklahoma State University who maintains a Christian higher education database of policies toward LGBTQ students.
But translating that into practice creates tensions affecting most campus life, including enrollment at single-gender institutions, housing, restroom design and pronoun use.
Backlash follows from opposing corners: At some conservative schools, some students and faculty have filed discrimination complaints, while at more affirming institutions, some parents and clergy argue that approach doesn’t align with their mission.
“We have to learn to live with this tension,” said the Rev. Donal Godfrey, chaplain at the University of San Francisco, a Jesuit institution in a city with a history of LGBTQ rights advocacy and a conservative Catholic archbishop opposed to same-sex marriage.
New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ Catholics, keeps a list of over 130 Catholic colleges it considers LGBTQ-friendly because they provide public affirmation, including courses and clubs, said its director, Francis DeBernardo.
“Catholic colleges and universities were … and still are the most LGBTQ-friendly places in the church in the United States,” DeBernardo added.
The Cardinal Newman Society, which advocates for fidelity to church teachings on all Catholic education issues, maintains its own list of recommended schools, a little more than a dozen the organization considers “faithful.”
“For these colleges, being ‘Catholic’ is not a watered-down brand or historical tradition,” Newman president Patrick Reilly said via email.
Other campus leaders see tension in Catholic teachings, which tend to skew conservative on human sexuality but progressive on social justice.
“It’s kind of a tightrope,” said John Scarano, campus ministry director at John Carroll University, a Jesuit school near Cleveland with “safe zone trainings” as part of its ministry to LGBTQ students.
When parents and prospective students come to him undecided between John Carroll and Franciscan University, 100 miles away in Steubenville, Ohio, Scarano tells them, “Here, your Catholicism is going to be challenged” by different perspectives.
At the Franciscan-run school, “we don’t move away from the truth of the human person as discovered in Scripture, the tradition of the Church, and the teaching authority of the Church — this is our mooring, and we believe that to follow Christ is to be faithful to the Church’s teachings,” said the Rev. Jonathan St. Andre, a senior university leader.
The Steubenville institution strives to develop students’ “healthy sense of the gift of their human sexuality,” he added via email — but with no tolerance for harassment of those who disagree.
Students’ safety is a priority, said Mary Geller, the associate provost who oversees student affairs for the 3,000 undergraduates at Saint John’s and Saint Benedict, the single-sex institutions in Minnesota.
“We’re set up in the binary, but we know there are people coming to us who don’t live in the binary,” Geller said. They now admit students based on the gender they identify with, and consider transfers for those who transition.
That has enraged a few parents, like a father complaining “that we have students with male body parts in a female dorm,” Geller recalled. “I just said, ‘Sir, I don’t check body parts.’”
With the help of legal advocates, some students at evangelical and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints schools are suing.
Last year, 33 LGBTQ students or former students at federally funded Christian schools filed a class-action lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education, claiming the department’s religious exemption allows schools that receive federal dollars to unconstitutionally discriminate against LGBTQ students. The plaintiffs have grown to more than 40.
In May, the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights launched a separate investigation for alleged violations of the rights of LGBTQ students at six Christian universities — including Liberty University.
The independent evangelical university is one of several that have greatly expanded their rules prohibiting students from identifying as LGBTQ or advocating for such identities.
Liberty forbids LGBTQ affinity clubs, same-sex displays of affection, and use of pronouns, restrooms and changing facilities not corresponding to a person’s birth sex. As of this year, its student handbook, called “The Liberty Way,” bans statements and behaviors associated with what it calls “LGBT states of mind.”
“Liberty is very anti-gay,” said Sydney Windsor, a senior there who first decided to attend Liberty to quash her sexual attraction for women and now identifies as pansexual. “I found friendships ending and me getting bad grades because of differing opinions or things I said or posted. It’s years of irreversible trauma.”
At some evangelical schools, the argument has now moved from fighting over student’s sexual and gender equality to fighting for LGBTQ diversity in faculty and staff hiring.
This year, Eastern University, located in St. Davids, Pennsylvania, and affiliated with American Baptist Churches USA, amended its policies to allow for the hiring of faculty in same-sex marriages — one of only a handful of evangelical schools to do so.
“If we can get faculty to come out and to have queer people openly represented on campus, that would be really big,” said Faith Jeanette Millender, an Eastern University student who identifies as bisexual or queer and is active in the school’s LGBTQ group.
A high-stakes clash between students, faculty and the school’s board of trustees over hiring LGBTQ faculty is unfolding at Seattle Pacific University, a 131-year-old school affiliated with the Free Methodist Church.
The faculty held a vote of no-confidence in the board, one-third of which is appointed by the denomination, because it insists on keeping the policy barring people in same-sex relationships from full-time positions. Faculty and students have also sued the board in Washington State Superior Court for breaching its fiduciary duty, arguing the policy threatens to harm SPU’s reputation, worsen an already shrinking enrollment and possibly jeopardize its future.
“This entrenchment around human sexuality feels so incongruent with the on-campus experience and what we teach our students,” said Lynnette Bikos, professor and chair of SPU’s clinical psychology department and a plaintiff in the suit against the board.
Chloe Guillot, a 22-year-old graduate student at SPU who is one of 16 plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the school, said it was a matter of social justice.
“I’m wrestling with my own identity and I know how much Christianity has brought harm to communities, whether its people of color, women, or LGBTQ people,” Guillot said. “I have a responsibility to step into those spaces and be willing to fight back. As someone who is a Christian we need to hold ourselves accountable.”
In late November, a group of students and faculty decorated several campus buildings with rainbow-colored Christmas lights.
The administration has responded to one of the suits in a court filing saying that it expects students and faculty to “affirm the University’s statement of faith, and to abide by its lifestyle expectations, which together shape the vision and mission of the institution.”
Kathryn Lee, who came out as lesbian last year, while still a professor at Whitworth University, an evangelical school in Spokane, Washington, said debates over LGBTQ issues will persist for years.
“What’s unfortunate in my view is that in some people’s minds how do you define Christian education and it will be, ‘Oh, where are they on LGBTQ?’” she said. “I find that tragic.”
To students like Fisher in Minnesota, concrete actions will show if LGBTQ people can truly be welcomed on Christian campuses.
There are still too many incidents. Ryan Imm, a Saint John’s University junior and QPLUS leader who identifies as gay, recalled an anti-LGBTQ slur used on his residential floor. Sitting together in the QPLUS lounge, both students pointed to signs of hope — like the popular drag show at Saint Benedict.
“It’s almost like people forget there’s dissonance,” Imm said.
