On Tuesday, Oct. 19 the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to expand mental health treatment and other supportive services for LGBTQ people, both inside and out of county jails.
The movement’s lead author, supervisor Sheila Kühl, said this will also address concerns that a large number of women, including pregnant or elderly women, have been unnecessarily imprisoned.
“The county needs to pay close attention to the sexual orientation and gender identity of the people in custody, because without knowing who they are, they cannot effectively meet their needs. “Because,” Kühl added. The motion calls for the implementation of a series of recommendations detailed in a report issued by the county’s Gender Response Advisory Board.
There are about 1,300 inmates held daily at Century Regional Detention Facility, the county’s women’s jail in Lynwood.
A 2020 RAND Corporation analysis estimated that roughly one-third of women in county jail have mental health issues and that nearly three-quarters of those women could be safely treated outside a jail setting.
However, releasing them would require significantly ramping up the number of available inpatient and outpatient beds in the community.
Reliable data on the LGBTQ+ population in Los Angeles County jails is not currently available, but a national survey indicates that roughly one-third of women behind bars across the country identify as lesbian or bisexual. The board motion also calls for additional data gathering.
Women are the fastest growing population in U.S. prisons and jails, and an estimated 86% of women in jail nationwide have been victims of sexual violence, according to the Vera Institute of Justice.
Supervisor Holly Mitchell, who co-authored the motion, recalled voting more than 20 years ago on a state public safety bill aimed at “stopping belly chaining and shackling pregnant women who are in active labor as they are being transported from prison or jail to deliver. Just barbaric ideology, barbaric practice.”
Mitchell also pointed out the racial inequities evident in the disproportionate number of Black women jailed for crimes largely rooted in issues of substance abuse and poverty.
“Black women comprise only 9% of all the women in L.A. County, yet they make up 33% of jail bookings among women,” Mitchell said. “The racial and gender inequities in our jail system are real and must be addressed.”
The Kuehl/Mitchell motion also referenced a goal to shut down Men’s Central Jail without a replacement as central to that vision, although that particular objective is opposed by both Sheriff Alex Villanueva — who runs the jails — and Supervisor Kathryn Barger.
Both Barger and the sheriff agree that the dangerously decrepit jail must be closed, but believe a replacement is needed to house and treat inmates who cannot be safely released, particularly given the current lack of community infrastructure.
Germany’s political parties negotiating coalition agreements to create a new government should make a commitment to change the law on legal gender recognition, so that it is based on self-determination, not so-called expert reports, Human Rights Watch said today. While the parties try to reach agreements on key issues such as climate, foreign policy, migration, and the economy, they should also address the current pathologizing and onerous procedure for transgender people to modify their registered name and gender. “Germany’s current procedure for gender recognition is out of tune with developments in international law and medical science,” said Cristian González Cabrera, LGBT rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. “All political parties should agree to a change to the status quo in the next legislative session and make the procedure straightforward, nonjudicial, accessible, and based on self-determination for all trans people.”
Germany’s Transsexuals Law (Transsexuellengesetz) specifies that to have the name and gender with which they identify legally recognized, trans people need to provide a local court (Amtsgericht) with two expert reports. The reports must attest to “a high degree of probability” that the applicant will not want to revert to their previous legal gender. The law does not have a minimum age at which a trans person can seek legal gender recognition, an aspect of the law that should be retained.
According to a 2017 report from the Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, applicants consider the assessment process humiliating. Some applicants said that to secure the necessary reports, they had to disclose immaterial details from their childhood and their sexual past, and even undergo physical examinations. The report found that the legal procedure can take up 20 months and costs an average of €1,868 (approx. US$2,160).
The political parties most likely to form a coalition government following Germany’s September elections are the Social Democratic Party (SPD), the Union parties’ (CDU/CSU), the Free Democratic Party (FDP), and the Greens. These parties have made previous unsuccessful legislative attempts to reform Germany’s legal gender recognition procedure under the current government.
The SPD, the junior partner in the current ruling coalition, announced in January 2021 that negotiations broke down as the Union parties opposed a process based solely on self-determination. The Greens and the FDP, both in the opposition in the last legislative period, each presented bills to reform the Transsexuals Law, which the parliament rejected.
A growing number of countries around the world have removed burdensome requirements to legal gender recognition, including medical or psychological evaluation. Countries including Argentina, Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Norway, Portugal, and Uruguay center individual autonomy over gender identity, providing for simple administrative processes based on self-declaration. Costa Rica and the Netherlands have taken steps toward removing gender markers on identity documents altogether.
The move toward straightforward administrative procedures based on self-declaration reflect science-based and human rights standards. The World Professional Association for Transgender Health, an interdisciplinary professional association with over 700 members worldwide, has found that medical and other barriers to gender recognition for transgender people, including diagnostic requirements, “may harm physical and mental health.” The most recent International Classification of Diseases, which will come into effect in January 2022, formally depathologizes trans identities.
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Germany is a party, provides for equal civil and political rights for all, everyone’s right to recognition before the law, and the right to privacy. The United Nations Human Rights Committee, in charge of interpreting the ICCPR, has called on governments to guarantee the rights of transgender people, including the right to legal recognition of their gender, and for countries to repeal abusive and disproportionate requirements for legal recognition of gender identity.
The European Court of Human Rights ruled in Goodwin v. United Kingdom(2002) that the “conflict between social reality and law” that arises when the government does not recognize a person’s gender identity constitutes “serious interference with private life.” The European Union’s LGBTIQ Equality Strategy (2020-2025) also upholds “accessible legal gender recognition based on self-determination and without age restriction” as the human rights standard in the member bloc.
As a member of the Equal Rights Coalition, the Global Equality Fund, and the UN LGBTI Core Group, Germany plays an important role in advocating for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) rights beyond its borders. In March 2021, the federal government pledged to do more through a LGBTI Inclusion Strategy, which, among its many goals, aims to further Germany’s role in promoting LGBTI people’s rights at international and regional human rights institutions.
“While Germany remains at the forefront of advancing the rights of LGBTI people overseas, its outdated approach to legal gender recognition for trans people taints its domestic human rights record,” González said. “In current coalition negotiations, Germany’s lawmakers should seize the opportunity to ensure that Germany’s transgender residents have their rights fully respected in law and make Germany a leader when it comes to gender diversity at home and abroad.”
The first known Ugandan trans woman to receive a national ID card with an ‘F’ marker wants to “shed the sad African trans narrative”.
Cleopatra Kambugu always knew she was different. Growing up in Kampala, Uganda, in a family of 15, she describes her early life as challenging.
“People always called me ‘boy-girl’ or ‘shemale’,” she tells PinkNews. Her transness was always clear to her and to those around her, but she was held back by a lack of knowledge and terminology.
Now 35, Cleo Kambugu is a leading trans activist working towards social justice and equality for trans, intersex and non-binary people, as well as sex workers. In 2016, she became the subject of a film titled The Pearl of Africa, “a story of love, hate and being transgender”.
When the Ugandan government passed its Anti-Homosexuality Act in 2013, prohibiting same-sex sexual relations, Kambugu was outed by a tabloid newspaper. She fled to neighbouring Kenya for safety.
Following her move, she joined an activist-led foundation called Uhai Eashrithat provides funding for sexual and gender minorities based in East Africa. Within the first year of her joining, Kambugu facilitated the success of a grant transfer of $200,000 to an Ugandan movement in support of bringing down the Anti-Homosexuality Act. It was annulled three months later.
“This ushered a new era of donors believing that education and litigation advocacy can change things,” she beamed.
“The trans community in Uganda have done a lot of work to shift social norms around sexuality and gender. So, while some folks might not like trans people, they at least know who they are.”
Off the back of the film’s success, Kambugu became a global trans activist travelling to and from Africa – so much so that her passport ran out and she had to move back to Kampala to renew it, in 2017.
“I was flustered at the thought,” she said. “I wanted to avoid excessive questioning so declared my identity beforehand.”
She sought pro-bono advice from a community lawyer with the Human Rights Advocates Program, who enlightened her about the Registration of Persons Act. The law means that, to change a gender marker on identification documents, a person must have signed permission from both parents and the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development.
“From that, I went in and requested that my case be handled by the highest person at the Ministry of Internal Affairs that dealt with passports and advice, which I secured,” she said.
To her surprise, there were no complications. The minister mentioned needing some time to consult with a legal tribunal to ensure he could not be reprimanded for what he was about to do. After a few days, Kambugu was called in and handed a new passport with the gender marker ‘F’.
Securing her passport in 2018 was just the beginning, especially since in Uganda, more value is placed on the national ID card. Without one, citizens are unable to interact with the government, vote, access health care or own any property.
“It comes with another set of barriers,” she said, “your local council has to approve of who you are post-transition and your parents too – despite your age.”
Luckily, Kambugu spent seven years working with her family as she transitioned, so they agreed to sign for her ID.
On 27 September, Kambugu logged into Instagram to announce through a heartfelt post, that after a year-long wait (due to COVID) she had become the first trans woman to obtain an Ugandan national ID card in her correct gender.
“I don’t think in giving me this ID they were making a statement. Just this year, [the government] were just discussing the sexual offence bill to re-criminalise homosexuality,” she said.
Many African cultures believe that a name can path out your child’s future, so when she discovered that Cleopatra meant “father’s glory”, it felt like a beautiful way to honour her close paternal relation. Likewise, her last name, Kambugu, her grandfather’s name, means a perennial weed that is difficult to eradicate because of its resilience and stubbornness.
“I want to spend the next 35 years of my life shedding the sad African trans narrative. We don’t just carry tragic stories,” she said, “I am a molecular biologist, geneticist, activist, imaginative, daring, different, audacious and an Aries.”
Four men were brutally beaten with sticks and banished for being gay in Tamale, Ghana, capturing the rising tensions – and fears – over an anti-LGBT+ bill.
The men, according to graphic video footage seen by activists, were violently battered by a Choggu community leader as a crowd gathered to watch on Tuesday (19 October).
According to Pulse, a Ghanian news outlet, a gay couple in the town attacked his ex-partner with a machete.
The pair were later interrogated, where the local authorities came to realise the men were gay, the outlet claimed, and named two other gay men involved in the scuffle.
They were then handed to the town’s chief, Naa Alhassan Mohammed, for further “interrogation” by Choggu elders.
But this included the men being thrashed by one of the town’s elders, Rightify Ghana, one of the country’s most outspoken LGBT+ groups which obtained footage of the beating, told PinkNews.
Mohammed fined the four suspects GH¢1200 and a ram each to “pacify the gods”.
In his ruling, Mohammed described homosexuality as “against the land and Islam”, adding that “if [Choggu] was in an Islamic state, they would have stoned them to death”.
“What they have done is desecrating the land and it against the gods,” he said. “May God expose all those in this act.”
‘For just trying to live, these gay men were beaten,’ says Ghana activist group
The four men have since been turned to the Tamale police and charged, with a court date set for 4 November, Rightify Ghana added.
“For just trying to live, exist and thrive, these four gay men were beaten and fined by the people and Chief of Chogu, before turning them over to the Tamale police, and now the police have already sent them to court,” Rightify Ghana said in a statement.
The group added that the chief banished the four men from the town.
For Rightify Ghana, such hostility against queer people has only worsened in recent months as a backbitingly anti-LGBT+ bill is being rammed through parliament by a bloc of homophobic lawmakers and backed by religious leaders.
Samuel Nartey George, one of the lawmakers bringing forward a law to ban the promotion of LGBT+ rights. (Facebook)
From those providing or receiving gender-affirming healthcare to those who are an ally, the legislation would threaten countless members and supporters of the LGBT+ community with three to five years in prison.
Simply holding hands or kissing a member of the same gender on the cheek would be criminalised.
After all, the bill is named after the National Coalition for Proper Human Sexual Rights and Family Values – one of Ghana’s most vicious anti-LGBT+ groups.
Lawmakers have brought the bill forward at breakneck speed since it was announced in March this year by parliamentarian Samuel Nartey George.
“Before the far-reaching anti-LGBTQ bill was sent to parliament, we were recording human rights violations,” Rightify Ghana said.
“However, the situation has worsened as our fears about the bill have started happening. Many more people are facing physical attacks, evictions have doubled, also we are seeing arbitrary arrests.”
“The anti-LGBTQ bill, even though not passed, has emboldened homophobes to mobilise against LGBTQ Ghanaians,” it added.
“The situation is especially worse for LGBTQ persons who live in rural communities, who face almost twice the risk of those in the larger cities.”
More than 60 House Democrats are calling on Secretary of State Antony Blinken to lift the State Department’s blanket ban on U.S. diplomats lobbying for gay marriage in an official capacity.
The lawmakers’ request comes after testimony in June from Scott Busby, the acting principal deputy assistant secretary in the State Department’s Bureau on Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, revealed that the department’s official policy is to not “advocate for or against same-sex marriage overseas.”
In a letter addressed to Blinken on Wednesday, the group of lawmakers said the policy was “outdated” and should be “rescinded as a matter of urgency.”
“We do not ask the State Department to speak to marriage in every country or context,” the representatives wrote. “But we do ask the Department to provide the opportunity to U.S. personnel to defend our values and the dignity of our LGBTQI families at appropriate moments when the power of our example might make a meaningful difference.”
The effort, which has the support of 61 Democrats, is being led by members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, including Rep. Joaquin Castro of Texas, Rep. Dina Titus of Nevada and Rep. David Cicilline of Rhode Island,who is one of the 11 openly LGBTQ members of Congress.
The U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in 2015, and 28 other countries have done the same, including in Asia and Central America.
In 71 other nations, however, same-sex relations are criminalized, according to Human Dignity Trust, a global advocacy group for LGBTQ rights. In 11 of those countries — including Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and Iran — homosexuality is punishable by death, according to the group.
The lawmakers acknowledged in their letter that while many countries “are not at the point” to legalize gay unions, “where marriage is a significant public issue abroad, we trust you would want your Administration to be standing on the right side of history.”
Mark Bromley, chair of the Council for Global Equality, a Washington-based advocacy group that promotes LGBTQ rights abroad, agreed, saying that U.S. diplomats should be advising international lawmakers on passing same-sex marriage in countries where it is a “real possibility,” including Japan, Chile and the Czech Republic.
“It might have made sense 20 years ago, but now we’re at a point where there are countries where having the U.S. speak up and explain our own path to marriage equality could make a difference,” Bromley said.
However, he added that the State Department’s policy “came from a good place,” arguing that in countries where homosexuality is still criminalized, talks of gay marriage may disincentivize lawmakers from legalizing same-sex relations.
“What the embassies have to do first and foremost is listen to the LGBTQI community and ask them, ‘What can we do that would be helpful or not helpful?'” Bromley added.
During his 2020 presidential campaign, Joe Biden pledged to advance global LGBTQ rights and reverse the Trump administration’s “utter failure to defend American diplomats who speak out for LGBTQ+ rights abroad.”
In February, the president issued a memorandum to “promote and protect the human rights” of LGBTQ people around the world. The memorandum also directed U.S. agencies to review and rescind “inconsistent directives” that counter the administration’s objective to expand LGBTQ rights globally.
The State Department did not respond to NBC News’ request for comment regarding the letter from House Democrats.
A survey asking students if they think “queers” should be allowed to use the school restroom with “normal people” circulated at an Illinois high school this week, the latest of a recent slew of reported attacks on LGBTQ students across the country.
The survey was distributed at Anna-Jonesboro Community High School in Anna, Illinois, on Wednesday by an unidentified number of students who called themselves the “Anti-Queer Association,” according Rob Wright, the school’s superintendent.
It asks students to vote either “(YES) I WANT QUEERS TO GO IN THE BATHROOM” or “(NO) I DON’T WANT QUEER KIDS TO GO TO THE BATHROOM WITH US NORMAL PEOPLE.”
A survey made its way around a Southern Illinois high school asking if students want “queers” to be able to use school bathrooms.via WPSD
Wright told NBC News that only a few copies of the poll were handed out before the school discovered them Wednesday morning, but an image of the survey was posted on Facebook. He added that the number of students involved in the debacle was “very limited” and that disciplinary measures were taken against them.
“I really can’t give any specific information regarding any individual students or what those measures were taken, but I can tell you that this type of harassment is taken very seriously by the district,” Wright said. “We’re not going to tolerate it under any circumstances.”
The Rainbow Cafe LGBTQ Center in nearby Carbondale, Illinois, shared a post on Facebook letting local queer youth know they are supported and the center is “working with statewide agencies to determine the best course of action.”
Michael Coleman, a board member of the Rainbow Cafe LGBTQ Center, told WPSD-TV, an NBC affiliate that covers Southern Illinois and the surrounding area, that students had been reaching out to the center in response.
“They really feel very unsafe in that environment in Anna-Jonesboro and that they felt that nothing was going to get done,” Coleman said. “That by us taking that stand, that initiative, they really feel like it’s not going to happen anymore.”
At a high school near Jacksonville, Florida, several weeks ago, students were accused of harassing classmates in a gay-straight alliance club and stomping on Pride flags. In Georgia last month, a high schooler was charged with attacking another student draped in a Pride flag in a school cafeteria. And this month, students at a high school in Missouri held a peaceful protest following what a parent described as a bullying incident of a gay student that led to a physical altercation.
These reports come as Thursday marked Spirit Day 2021, an annual celebration where people show their support against the bullying of LGBTQ youth by wearing the color purple.
Recent surveys also show that bullying of LGBTQ students remains a pervasive issue in the U.S.
A study this year by The Trevor Project, an LGBTQ youth suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization, found that 52 percent of LGBTQ middle and high schoolers reported having been bullied in person or online in the past year. Transgender youths reported higher rates of bullying than cisgender gay, lesbian and bisexual youths — 61 percent and 45 percent, respectively.
And 29 percent of LGBTQ middle schoolers in the survey who were bullied attempted suicide in the previous year, compared to 12 percent of those who said they were not bullied, The Trevor Project found. Over 34,000 LGBTQ youths were surveyed for the study last year.
Wright said private bathrooms are available for students in the school’s principal and nurses offices. He added that counseling has always been and will remain available for students who inquire for it.
“We see this in the real world with adults having a hard time expressing their differences in an appropriate manner,” Wright said. “We have to start doing that with our students at this age, too, and know that everybody’s welcome and everybody deserves to be treated with respect and dignity.”
A gay man from Afghanistan who was burned by a Taliban member has said he is “shocked” by the lack of support and solidarity shown by the international LGBT+ community.
Sohil – whose surname has been withheld to protect his identity – is a young gay Afghan whose life was thrown into disarray when the Taliban seized power in August.
Afghanistan was never accepting of homosexuality, but he was in contact with a small network of other gay people. Now, they’re all “living in the shadows” – hiding themselves to evade capture and torture by the extremist group.
“Imagine you have all the great hopes for your life, you have everything, and then one day you wake up and everything is gone,” he tells PinkNews. “I lost my university, I lost my life, I lost my community. Even the boys I was in contact with, they are all living in the shadows. They are all hiding themselves.”
His daily life is very different to what it was before the Taliban took over. Sohil says he was just a “normal person” before extremists weaponised his sexuality. He was a medical student who had ambitions to get out of Afghanistan and build a life for himself. Now, he’s been forced to flee his home – he told his family his history of supporting human rights could make him a Taliban target.
“I live like a prisoner. I was living in my own house with my family. After the Taliban attacked me, I couldn’t live in my house because they would recognise my face and they knew who I am. Now I am living in a different home. My family doesn’t know about my sexuality. If I tell them I will lose their support too.”
Sohil is in danger every day he remains in Afghanistan. He was recently left traumatised after a Taliban member burned him with scalding water. The incident occurred when he went to a local government office in an effort to get a passport and a copy of his birth certificate.
“I was wearing just regular jeans and a T-shirt,” Sohil says. “Suddenly someone grabbed my hand. I was wearing a mask because I didn’t want anyone seeing my face. My heart was pounding. I saw there was a guy who had a gun on his shoulder.
“He asked me: ‘What are you doing here?’ I said: ‘I have come for my birth certificate.’ He said: ‘Why are you wearing that T-shirt? You’re wearing western clothes.’ I said: ‘It’s just normal clothes, everyone wears it.’ I knew that it wasn’t about my clothes. I know that he somehow had identified that I am not straight.”
Sohil continues: “He took me in his office and asked me again: ‘Why are you wearing this and why are you here?’ I said again: ‘I’ve just come for my ID card and my birth certificate.’ He said: ‘You’re lying.’ He slapped me on my face and I fell down on the ground. His two soldiers beat me. He asked again: ‘Who are you?’ I didn’t confess that I am one of the LGBT activists. He then beat me again and kicked me in my stomach.”
The attack escalated when the soldier picked up a teapot full of boiling water and went to pour it on Sohil’s face.
“I just turned my face and the tea fell down on my chest and my shoulder,” Sohil says. “Someone grabbed my hand and pushed me out of there somehow, I don’t know how. I was in so much pain and trauma. I couldn’t sleep for one week after that.”
Sohil is terrified for the future and he is desperate to get out of Afghanistan so he can start a new life away from the Taliban. He is shocked and disappointed that the rest of the world has left people like him to languish there, and he is frustrated by the lack of response from the global LGBT+ community.
“We don’t know if we will be alive tomorrow or not,” he says. “I think the whole world doesn’t think about that. I think our own LGBT+ community doesn’t think about that. In two months, no one contacted me… I had a hope that our LGBT+ community will help us but day by day, I am losing my hope. I don’t know what to do. I hoped that our LGBT+ community will help us, but there is no one standing for us. I used to stand for my guys in Afghanistan, now I want them to stand for us.”
He adds: “I am totally shocked, I had hoped the LGBTQ community will help us, they will listen to our voice, but they are totally gone. No one is listening, no one is looking out for us. In this time we need the most help, there is no one. I don’t know why, do people just forget about us?”
The situation for LGBT+ people in Afghanistan right now is “terrifying”, he says.
“They are searching for people like us that stand against the Taliban. All of my community have deleted their social media accounts. People have told me: ‘Please do not contact me, we are not safe. If someone finds out about our gender or sexuality we will be killed.’”
Los Angeles LGBT Center has opened a new facility in South Los Angeles to serve the health needs of LGBT Black and Latino communities.
On October 13th the Los Angeles LGBT Center opened the doors of Center South, a 5,500-square-foot community space located at 2313 W. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. near Leimert Park, which signifies the first-ever expansion of the world’s largest LGBT organization into South Los Angeles and champions its long-term commitment to care for LGBT people living throughout the city.
The grand opening community celebration included remarks by Center CEO Lorri L. Jean, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health – Division of HIV and STD Programs Director Mario J. Pérez, and Los Angeles Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson. Following the ribbon cutting ceremony, guests toured the facility and reveled in the daylong festivity which included food, refreshments, giveaways, a resource fair, and entertainment.
“We’re thrilled to be opening Center South, and we’re proud to be doing so with wonderful partners: Bienestar Human Services, Black AIDS Institute, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, and The Wall Las Memorias Project. Together, we will serve a wider array of folks here than we are now doing separately,” said Los Angeles LGBT Center CEO Lorri L. Jean. “Most importantly, among our areas of focus will be the people who are most vulnerable for new HIV infections: young gay and bisexual Black and Latino men and transgender women of color. We intend for Center South to be an especially welcoming place for them.”
Funded in part by the County Department of Public Health, Center South addresses the societal and health needs of LGBT people of color living in South Los Angeles by providing comprehensive programs and services, such as HIV testing; access to PrEP and PEP services; housing case management; mental health services; and a drop-in safe space which can also be used to host community events. A CyberCenter computer lab comprised of a new printer and eight new Lenovo desktop computers loaded with Office 2016 and Windows 10 software was generously funded by the David Bohnett Foundation.
“L.A. County’s Department of Public Health, Division of HIV and STD Programs (DHSP) has set out to support new and innovative programming to address multiple sociocultural, environmental, and economic challenges faced by young African American and Latino men who have sex with men,” said DHSP Director Mario J. Pérez. “On behalf of the residents of L.A. County, we are proud and pleased to support and welcome the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s new site in Leimert Park to realize this vision. It is our hope and commitment that the Center’s new programming will further advance efforts to stem the tide of HIV and STDs and help eliminate stubbornly persistent health inequalities.”
All of Center South’s programs and services will be provided to everyone for free or at low cost with a focus on serving the needs of young gay and bisexual men of color ages 12 to 29. According to the 2017 Los Angeles County Annual HIV Surveillance Report, South Los Angeles had the second highest rate of HIV diagnoses in the county. The rate continues to rise among young Black and Latino gay and bisexual men, and the rate among Black cisgender women are slowly increasing.
“Leimert Park has a thriving community of LGBTQ people of color, and I would like to welcome the Los Angeles LGBT Center to South Los Angeles as they continue their 50-year-plus history of life-changing and life-saving work,” said Los Angeles Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson. “The Center has provided safe spaces across L.A. for decades, and young Black and Latinx gay and bi (cis)men and women need that kind of support here in their neighborhood.”
The four partnering organizations aforementioned—Bienestar Human Services, Black AIDS Institute, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, and The Wall Las Memorias Project—will provide auxiliary programs and services to Center South clients, such as linkage to care for HIV testing, PrEP, and PEP; trainings on community organizing and social justice; and workshops to develop creative, impactful projects that educate communities about HIV. Additionally, local young gay and bisexual Black and Latino men are encouraged to join any of the social networking groups held at Center South, among them: Lit Life (which teaches sexual health and wellness), Positive Images (for those living with HIV), U/O Project (for those ages 16–29); and Continuum Project (which provides peer support to those between the ages of 18 and 65 who are at-risk for HIV).
“Today is the realization of a dream of many years, but this is just the beginning,” said Jean. “By working with our partner organizations and local community leaders, I have no doubt that, together, we will ensure that Center South becomes a vibrant, vital, and beloved part of our South Los Angeles community.”
Center South’s hours of operations are Monday thru Friday from 10 a.m.–7 p.m. In addition to Center South, the Los Angeles LGBT Center owns and/or manages nine other facilities throughout Los Angeles, among them: the flagship Anita May Rosenstein Campus; the McDonald/Wright Building; The Village at Ed Gould Plaza; Triangle Square; Center WeHo; and the partnership facilities of Mi Centro and the Trans Wellness Center.
On June 11, 2019, Botswana moved toward being a state that no longer held some of its citizens (and, by extension, visitors) as criminals if they identified within the LGBTQ spectrum. However, the government didn’t take too long before it declared its intention to appeal the High Court judgment that asserted that consensual same-sex sexual activity in private was not to be a criminal act.
The appeal hearing took place on Oct. 12.
There are some key things to understand about what the High Court did for people in Botswana. The judgment, written and delivered by Justice Leburu, not only put a clear delineation between the state’s powers to intrude in people’s private sexual lives, but it also stated that laws that served no purpose in the governance of the people they oversaw were most likely worthy of “a museum peg” more than being active laws of the land.
In the hearing on Oct. 9, a full bench of five judges of the Court of Appeal was treated to the government’s case—as presented by advocate Sydney Pilane of the Attorney General’s Chambers—along with hearing the rebuttals from the legal counsel representing Letsweletse Motshidiemang, who brought the original case against the government, and LEGABIBO, an NGO admitted as amicus curiae, a friend of the court. The appeal, two years in the making, would have been expected to be based on facts rather than opinions of what could and could not be accepted by hypothetical Batswana. Pilane even went so far as to contest that President Mokgweetsi Masisi’s utterances about how people in same-sex relationships were “suffering in silence” were taken out of context as he was talking about gender-based violence and not endorsing their relationships.
The 2019 ruling of the High Court, the most supreme court of incidence in the country, not only declared people who were or had interest in engaging in consensual same-sex sexual activity not criminals, but it also allowed non-queer people to engage in sex acts that would otherwise be considered “against the order of nature” freely. The latter clause had often been interpreted as being solely about non-heterosexuals but on greater interrogation one realizes that any sex act that doesn’t result in the creation of a child was considered against this ‘order of nature’ and that nullified much of heterosexual sexual exploration—further painting these clauses as out of touch with contemporary Botswana as Leburu expressed.
In some of his appeal arguments, Pilane stated that Batswana “do not have a problem with gay people”, yet he based his contention on the fact that Batswana “respect the courts’ decisions;” as such they would not take up arms at the court’s decision to decriminalize consensual same-sex sexual activity. Pilane maintained that the decision to decriminalize should be left to the Parliament on the recommendation of the courts. The bench was swift to query whether a body of politicians elected by a majority would be the best representatives of a minority that was oppressed by laws that the very politicians benefitted from.
Botswana’s legal system allows for the High Court ruling to remain the law of the land until such a point as it’s struck down. The Court of Appeal ruling in favor of Batswana’s sexual liberties will be a nail in the proverbial coffin of residual colonial sex-related laws plaguing Botswana. This will not be the end by any means though. Where the attorney general can form a case stating that decriminalizing consensual same-sex relations could be likened to people locking themselves in their houses with animals and having their way with them, we know that mindset changes need to be prioritized to ensure that all Batswana understand their constitutionally protected rights to privacy, expression, and freedom of association as relates to their personal and sexual lives.
The 2010 Employment Act of Botswana already protects people from being discriminated against based on their sex or gender identity. The nation’s sexual violence laws were made gender neutral, thus covering non-consensual sex (rape) in all its possibilities. In upholding the ruling of the High Court, the Court of Appeal will allow the LGBTQ and SOGIESC (sexual orientation, gender identity and expression and sex characteristics) movements in Botswana some respite as attention is then channeled toward other pressing matters such as name changes, access to healthcare, and other culturally pertinent issues.
The Court of Appeal is expected to hand down a judgement following their deliberations in 4-6 weeks (mid to late November), however, this remains at their discretion. As it stands, since the High Court ruling in 2019, Botswana has experienced increased social accommodation for LGBTQ matters and figures—however, this is not to say there have not been any negative instances. With the continued sensitization, the expectation is that the courts, the government and NGO players will all contribute to a broad, national, culturing of LGBTQ rights in Botswana devoid of colonial residues.
erry McAuliffe described Republican Glenn Youngkin as the “most homophobic” and most “anti-choice candidate” in Virginia history during an Oct. 21 telephone interview with the Washington Blade.
“I’m running against the most homophobic, anti-choice candidate in Virginia history,” said McAuliffe. “I ran against Ken Cuccinelli. That’s saying something.”
McAuliffe, a former chair of the Democratic National Committee, in 2013 defeated Cuccinelli, Virginia’s then-attorney general who vehemently opposed LGBTQ rights, in that year’s gubernatorial race. Youngkin, the former co-CEO of the Carlyle Group, a private equity firm, is running against McAuliffe in the race to succeed current Gov. Ralph Northam.
State Del. Hala Ayala (D-Prince William County) is running for lieutenant governor, while Attorney General Mark Herring is seeking re-election. They are running against Republicans Winsome Sears and Jason Miyares respectively.
The entire Virginia House of Delegates is also on the ballot on Nov. 2. The outcome of those races will determine whether Democrats maintain control of the chamber.
Youngkin remains opposed to marriage equality
The Associated Press a day after McAuliffe spoke with the Blade published an interview with Youngkin in which he reiterated his opposition to marriage equality, but stressed it is “legally acceptable” in Virginia and he would “support that” as governor.
The anti-LGBTQ Family Research Council, which the Southern Poverty Law Center has categorized as an extremist group, earlier this month endorsed Youngkin. The Human Rights Campaign and Equality Virginia’s political action committee are among the groups that have backed McAuliffe.
HRC in 2019 named the Carlyle Group as a “Best Place to Work for LGBTQ Equality” in its annual Corporate Equality Index. McAuliffe scoffed at this recognition.
“They should have checked with their co-CEO who’s against marriage equality,” he told the Blade. “That would have been the first place I would have gone to ask.”
‘I’ve always been out front fighting to protect everybody’
McAuliffe’s first executive order as governor after he took office in 2014 banned discrimination against LGBTQ state employees. He also vetoed several anti-LGBTQ religious freedom bills, created Virginia’s LGBTQ tourism board and became the state’s first governor to declare June Pride month.
McAuliffe noted to the Blade that he is also the first governor of a southern state to officiate a same-sex wedding. The lesbian couple whom he married has recently appeared in one of his campaign ads.
“I spent four years vetoing every single legislation Republicans brought forth and came across my desk that would have discriminated against the LGBTQ community,” said McAuliffe. “I’ve always been out front fighting to protect everybody.”
McAuliffe noted that CoStar, a D.C.-based commercial real estate company, moved more than 1,000 jobs to Richmond from Charlotte after then-North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory signed House Bill 2, which banned trans people from using public restrooms consistent with their gender identity and prohibited municipalities from enacting LGBTQ-inclusive nondiscrimination measures. McAuliffe described HB 2 to the Blade as the “anti-gay bill.”
“There’s real consequences … to discriminatory actions and I will not tolerate any of it,” he said.
McAuliffe last month said during his first debate against Youngkin that local school boards “should be making their own decisions” with regards to the implementation of the Virginia Department of Education guidelines for trans and non-binary students. McAuliffe during his second debate against Youngkin stressed “locals” should provide input on the policy, but added “the state will always issue guidance.”
McAuliffe told the Blade he has “been so offended about how many folks have tried to really demonize our children here in this state.” McAuliffe referenced children with “self-identity issues” during the interview, but he did not specifically cite those who identify as trans or non-binary.
“We’ve got to help our children … we got to help our children who are desperately in need today,” he said. “And we got to show them that we’ll be there for them, as I say, no matter how they identify or who they love.”
Youngkin on Saturday during a campaign event in Henrico County said he would ban the teaching of critical race theory in Virginia schools. McAuliffe criticized his opponent on this issue when he spoke with the Blade.
“Critical race theory is not taught in Virginia, nor has it ever been taught,” said McAuliffe. “These are dog whistles that are used, and especially in the CRT, it’s a racist dog whistle and it just fits into this whole pattern of using our children as political pawns and I hate it.”
Youngkin ‘would drive businesses out of’ Va.
McAuliffe has continued to portray Youngkin as an extremist on other issues that range from abortion and vaccine mandates as polls suggest the race between the two has grown tight. McAuliffe also continues to highlight former President Trump’s support of Youngkin.
McAuliffe told the Blade that Youngkin is “100 percent against abortion” and said his opponent would “bring those Texas-style type abortion” laws to Virginia.
The law, which bans almost all abortions in Texas and allows private citizens to sue doctors and anyone else who helps a woman obtain one, took effect last month. The U.S. Supreme Court on Nov. 1 will hear oral arguments in a case that challenges the law.
“We always knew that the Supreme Court would be a backstop on women’s rights issues: Roe v. Wade. That is gone. It’s over,” said McAuliffe. “Donald Trump’s Supreme Court is going to overrule the basic tenants of Roe v. Wade.”
McAuliffe added the Supreme Court “is going to allow these states to roll back women’s reproductive rights, so that’s no longer a talking point.”
“This is reality,” said McAuliffe. “Every woman in Virginia needs to understand it.”
Terry McAuliffe has said Glenn Youngkin poses a threat to abortion rights in Virginia. (Photo courtesy of Terry McAuliffe for Governor)
Trump on Oct. 13 described Youngkin as a “great gentleman” when he called into the “Take Back Virginia Rally” in Henrico County that John Fredericks, host of “Outside the Beltway with John Fredericks” who co-chaired the former president’s 2016 campaign in Virginia, organized.
Participants recited the Pledge of Allegiance to an American flag that was present at the U.S. Capitol insurrection. Youngkin in a statement his campaign released said he “had no role” in the event and said it was “weird and wrong to pledge allegiance to a flag connected to January 6.”
“As I have said many times before, the violence that occurred on January 6 was sickening and wrong,” he said.
