A Moscow man was abducted and taken to Chechnya where he was interrogated for information on LGBT+ activists, the Russian LGBT Network reports.
On Wednesday (25 August), the group said that a Dagestan native named Ibragim Selimkhanov was approached by four Chechen-speaking men near a subway station in the city’s Novogireyevo District on 15 May.
The men, who were wearing civilian clothes, forced him into a car and took his passport, phone and apartment keys. He was driven to the airport and ordered onto a plane which took him to the Chechen capital of Grozny.
On arrival he was handed over to the local police, who reportedly threatened and exerted psychological pressure on him while seeking the information about the emergency assistance programme run by the Russian LGBT Network, Radio Free Europe said.
The group provides a vital lifeline to the LGBT+ community in the North Caucasus, a region notorious for persecuting queer people as part of a horrifying “gay purge”.
Chechen officials deny that any LGBT+ people exist there, let alone a gay purge; however, their claims are countered by dozens of harrowing reportsfrom refugees who have been imprisoned, beaten, tortured and seen others killed in gay concentration camps.
After a few days in custody Selimkhanov was freed by his captors and taken to his mother, who lives in Grozy.
He remained under permanent surveillance by Chechen authorities but managed to quietly leave the house and escape to Moscow, where he filed a complaint with police.
According to the Caucasian Knot, a news outlet that covers the Caucasus region, the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation refused to investigate his complaint.
A similar ordeal was reported in May this year when officials detained and interrogated the family of two gay brothers who fled the region.
20 of the brothers’ relatives were held in the village of Komsomolskoye in the Urus-Martan district of Chechnya and were interrogated for hours about the whereabouts of the men and their parents, according to local media reports.
As the nation battles new variants of the Covid-19 virus, LGBTQ Americans have felt the economic brunt of the pandemic harder than the general public, according to a new report from the U.S. Census Bureau.
It found 19.8 percent of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender adults lived in a household where there was a loss of income in the past month, compared to 16.8 percent of non-LGBTQ adults.
Economic disparities between LGBTQ and non-LGBTQ people existed long before the pandemic, says M. V. Lee Badgett, a professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, but have grown more pronounced.
A report from the Center for LGBTQ Economic Advancement and Research, for example, indicated that, in 2019, nearly 1 in 5 (19.8 percent) LGBTQ households were unsure they could pay their bills that month, compared to 14 percent of non-LGBTQ households.
But according to the new data, collected from 64,562 households between July 21 and Aug. 2, more than a third (36.6 percent) of LGBTQ people had difficulty paying household bills in the last week, compared to roughly a quarter (26.1 percent) of cisgender heterosexuals.
That growing inequality is evident in other areas, too: Food securityis a reference to the ability to access sufficient, safe and nutritious meals that meet dietary preferences and needs for an active and healthy life.
According to the census survey, LGBTQ households are now nearly twice as likely to experience food insecurity as heterosexual families, 13.1 percent to 7.2 percent.
Williams Institute data from 2014 suggests the difference was much smaller then, with 18 percent of lesbian, gay and bisexual adults reporting that they or someone in their family went without food for an entire day in the past month. That’s compared to 14 percent of all people who were food insecure, according to U.S.Department of Agriculture figures for that year.
“If we’re starting out on unequal footing, it’s just going to get worse with a pandemic. It’s going to reach into economically vulnerable populations and hit them harder,” said Badgett, author of “The Economic Case for LGBT Equality.” “And groups with health disparities, like LGBTQ people, are also going to be hit worse.”
In a statement, Jay Brown, senior vice president for programs, research and training at the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy group, said the Census Bureau’s findings “highlight what we have long known — LGBTQ+ Americans disproportionately bear the brunt of economic hardships, from food insecurity to unemployment.”
The group’s research shows that, during the current crisis, LGBTQ people, especially queer people of color, are consistently more likely than the general population to have their work hours cut or to face unemployment.
In part, that’s because LGBTQ people are more likely to be employed in the food service industry, hospitals, retail and education: According to a 2020 HRC Foundation brief, 40 percent work in those industries, all significantly impacted by shutdowns and more likely to expose workers to the virus.
There are other factors, including that the LGBTQ population tends to be younger and is less likely to have robust support systems than their cisgender heterosexual counterparts. But Badgett said “we don’t have great data” yet to determine how much of an impact those factors might have.
Badgett underscores the Census Bureau finally incorporating sexual orientation and gender identity on an economic survey is a positive sign.
“Mostly they just appear in health surveys,” she said. “Going forward, this indicates we’ll get richer data on LGBTQ economics.”
The important thing is to ensure assistance programs are available to help everyone, Badgett said, “that LGBTQ people can access [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programs] and food banks, and that service providers are fully inclusive and not turning them away, either intentionally or accidentally.”
Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday met with two LGBTQ rights activists in Vietnam.
Harris’ office said Chu Thanh Hà Ngoc, a transgender activist, and Đoàn Thanh Tùng, an LGBTQ advocate, participated in a “roundtable discussion with the vice president and Vietnamese social advocacy organizations” that took place at the U.S. Chief of Mission’s home in Hanoi, the Vietnamese capital.
“It is critical that if we are to take on the challenges we face that we do it in a way that is collaborative, that we must empower leaders in every sector, including of course government but community leaders, business leaders, civic society if we are to maximize the resources we collectively have,” said Harris.
Harris specifically noted the Vietnamese Health Ministry “helped craft the draft — and draft — the (country’s) transgender rights law” that took effect in 2017.
“Transgender people deserve and need equal access to healthcare services,” she said. “This is an issue that we still face in the United States, and it is an issue here in Vietnam, I know. And we will work together and support you and the work you are doing in that regard.”
Ann Marie Yastishock, the U.S. Agency for International Development’s mission director in Vietnam, moderated the roundtable.
It took place on the last day of Harris’ trip to Southeast Asia that began on Sunday in Singapore, one of the dozens of countries in which consensual same-sex sexual relations remain criminalized. The trip also coincided with growing calls for the U.S. to evacuate LGBTQ Afghans from Afghanistan after the Taliban regained control of the country.
Ted Osius, who co-founded GLIFAA, an association of LGBTQ employees of Foreign Service agencies, was the U.S. ambassador to Vietnam from 2014-2017. The late-U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 2015 presided over the Hanoi ceremony during which Osius and his husband, Clayton Bond, renewed their wedding vows.
President Biden in February signed a memorandum that committed the U.S. to promoting LGBTQ rights abroad.
Visibles Executive Director Daniel Villatoro and Ingrid Gamboa of the Association of Garifuna Women Living with HIV/AIDS were among the members of Guatemalan civil society who participated in a roundtable with Harris in June when she was in Guatemala City. USAID Administrator Samantha Power also met with LGBTQ activists in Guatemala and El Salvador when she was in the countries at around the same time.
As young people across America prepare to return to class — some in person, some remotely — the Biden administration issued a message for transgender students.
In a joint video Thursday, Suzanne Goldberg, the acting assistant secretary of education for civil rights; Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke; and Dr. Rachel Levine, the assistant secretary of health and human services for health, outlined the federal government’s support for transgender students even as their community is under siege on the state level, where more than 130 anti-trans bills in 36 states have been introduced this year alone, according to the Human Rights Campaign.https://iframe.nbcnews.com/UjuZokP
In the video, Goldberg, a lesbian, discussed the concerns many students have about returning to class, from making friends to keeping up with academic demands.
“If you’re a transgender student, perhaps you’re worried about simply being accepted and safe and being treated with respect as you head into the new school year,” she said.
Clarke, the first woman to lead the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, praised the work by many teachers and administrators nationwide to create safe and inclusive environments for LGBTQ students.
But, she added, “we also know that’s not the reality for all transgender students, including perhaps some of you.”
“In some places, people in places of authority are putting up obstacles that would keep you from playing on the sports field, accessing the bathroom and receiving the supportive and lifesaving care you may need,” Clarke said. “We’re here to say, ‘That’s wrong — and it’s against the law.’”
In the 2020-21 legislative session, more than 75 bills were introduced that would bar trans students from playing school sports. Such measures have become law in nine states, according to the Movement Advancement Project.
“We know you are resilient,” Goldberg said, “and we hope you will find support where and when you need it. But we also want you to know the Department of Education and the entire federal government stand behind you. Your rights at school matter. You matter.”
Goldberg said trans students who faced discrimination should file complaints with the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, and Clarke confirmed that the Justice Department would investigate such allegations.
“We want you to know that we are looking out for you,” Clarke said. “And we’re looking out for your civil rights.”
“It is critical to support trans youth and their parents and families to help them achieve the good health and well-being that everyone deserves,” she said.
It isn’t the first time the White House has reached out to trans youths: In an executive order released on his first day in office, President Joe Biden extended federal nondiscrimination protections to LGBTQ Americans, writing, in part, “Children should be able to learn without worrying about whether they will be denied access to the restroom, the locker room, or school sports.”
In his first address to Congress in April, Biden said, “To all the transgender people at home, especially the young people, I want you to know the president has your back.”
Referring to that “unequivocal message,” Levine said she wanted transgender students to know “that I’ve got your back, too — and I’ll do everything I can to support and advocate for our community.”
Clarke cited the Justice Department’s challenges to bans on transgender girls’ competing in female sports in West Virginia and on gender-confirming treatment for minors in Arkansas, saying, “We stand behind you and are ready to act to defend your rights.”
Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, praised the video for “sending a strong and meaningful message to transgender students across the country — and especially in places where they have come under attack by politicians.”
“It’s so important for transgender kids to know that they are not alone and that the president of the United States has their back,” Heng-Lehtinen said. “President Biden and his administration are working to make sure transgender youth have an opportunity to be safe, to learn and to be healthy. They are incredible allies.”
Melanie Willingham-Jaggers, interim executive director of GLSEN, a LGBTQ student advocacy nonprofit group, said that she also welcomed such a “bold, affirming message” and that she wanted “further policy action to back up this commitment.”
“The administration must set a clear precedent, not only for federal agencies, but for state and local leaders, and ensure that transgender youth are safe, supported and empowered in our school communities,” Willingham-Jaggers said. “Individual educators and school leaders can step up in the meantime and make thoughtful connections with the transgender students in their schools to show them that they are valued and that they belong.”
Dana Van Gorder joined the agency as its Interim Executive Director in February of 2019. In June of the same year, the Board of Directors appointed him our permanent Executive Director. On December 31 of 2021, after 2 years and 10 months of strong stewardship of the agency, Dana will retire at 65 years of age. Under Dana’s leadership, The Spahr Center has grown its HIV, LGBTQ+ youth and senior and advocacy programs; doubled its annual budget; increased its visibility and community support; strengthened its relationship with public policy makers; and created a visionary Strategic Plan to guide its work for the next five years. We are grateful for the knowledge, skill, dedication and spirit he has brought to this work. Dana deserves his retirement after a career of effective service to the LGBTQ+ and HIV communities beginning in 1981.
He has been a Legislative Aide to two openly gay and lesbian elected officials, helped guide campaigns to defeat three ballot measures seeking to quarantine people with HIV, staffed two International Conferences on AIDS, guided LGBTQ+ services for the San Francisco Department of Public Health, lobbied in Sacramento to ensure a strong state response to HIV, served as the Executive Director of a leading national HIV patient advocacy group, and is the founder of the San Francisco LGBTQ+ Community Center. He has accomplished much for both communities to which he proudly belongs. I asked Dana to comment for this letter about his thoughts on leaving the agency. This is what he had to say:
“What a complete honor and joy it has been to become friends with wonderful clients and community members, serve a strong Board, support a highly capable staff, nurture generous donors, and partner closely with supportive County officials. Together, we have ensured that the LGBTQ+ and HIV communities of Marin enjoy greater health and well-being, a stronger sense of community with one another, more visible public support, and increased empowerment. In December, I will leave my position proud of what we have built, happy to have come anywhere close to sustaining the legacy of the great Jane Spahr, and thrilled that The Spahr Center is positioned for even stronger stewardship.”
The Board and I will communicate regularly to you about the results of our search for a powerful and effective new Executive Director. In the meantime, we welcome your questions and comments, and your continued support of our lifesaving and life-affirming work.
James Hormel, the first openly gay U.S. ambassador and a philanthropist who funded organizations to fight AIDS and promote human rights, has died. He was 88.
Hormel died Friday at a San Francisco hospital with his husband, Michael, at his side and while listening to his favorite Beethoven concerto, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, praised Hormel as a civil rights pioneer who lived “an extraordinary life.”
“I will miss his kind heart and generous spirit. It’s those qualities that made him such an inspirational figure and beloved part of our city,” she said.
In 1997, then-President Bill Clinton nominated Hormel to become U.S. ambassador to Luxembourg. Conservative Senate Republicans blocked the nomination. But two years later, Clinton used executive privilege to appoint him during the Congressional recess.
“The process was very long and strenuous, arduous, insulting, full of misleading statements, full of lies, full of deceit, full of antagonism,” Hormel said during a West Hollywood, California, bookshop visit in 2012 to promote his memoir, “Fit to Serve.”
He never received confirmation through a Senate floor vote but “ultimately a great deal was achieved,” he told the audience. “Ultimately, regulations were changed in the State Department. Ultimately, other openly gay individuals were appointed without the rancor that went into my case.”
U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, who is openly gay, has said that as a teenager he was inspired by Hormel’s confirmation fight.
“I can remember watching the news,” he said after his nomination by President Joe Biden. “And I learned something about some of the limits that exist in this country when it comes to who is allowed to belong. But just as important, I saw how those limits could be challenged.”
Hormel held the ambassadorship from June 1999 through 2000.
Clinton and his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, said they were deeply saddened by Hormel’s death.
“Jim devoted his life to advancing the rights and dignity of all people, and in his trailblazing service in the diplomatic corps, he represented the United States with honor and brought us closer to living out the meaning of a more perfect union,” the Clintons said in a statement.
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who officiated at Hormel’s wedding to his husband, said Hormel “made it his mission to fight for dignity and equality for all” and noted his philanthropic contributions to health, artistic and educational organizations.
“When the AIDS epidemic descended upon San Francisco, he called on our conscience and rallied the city to help our neighbors suffering from the ferocious disease,” Pelosi said in a statement. “His work served as a model for national policy to defeat HIV/AIDS and improve the lives of all affected.”
Hormel was an heir to the Hormel Foods fortune. Born in Austin, Minnesota, Hormel married his college sweetheart, Alice McElroy Parker, and had five children before divorcing in 1965. He moved to San Francisco in 1977.
He was a former dean of students at the University of Chicago law school, where he received a degree.
Hormel co-founded the Human Rights Campaign and helped fund many activities geared to arts, education and human rights, including a gay and lesbian center at the San Francisco Public Library; the National AIDS Memorial Grove; the American Foundation for AIDS Research; and the American Conservatory Theater.
In addition to his husband, Hormel is survived by five children, 14 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
Two newlywed women were found fatally shot at their southeastern Utah campsite, officials said, days after telling friends they were worried about a “creepy guy” who had been lurking nearby.
The bodies of Crystal Michelle Turner, 38, and wife Kylen Carrol Schulte, 24, were discovered Wednesday off La Sal Loop Road in Moab, Utah, about 260 miles southeast of Salt Lake City, according to a statement from the Grand County sheriff.
Kylen Schulte and Crystal Turner.Courtesy Bridget Calvert
“At this time the Grand County Sheriff’s Office is conducting an on-going homicide investigation,” the statement said. “We are currently following up with any and all leads that come to our attention during this investigation and will continue to be available to people who come forward with information. The Grand County Sheriff’s Office believes there is no current danger to the public in the Grand County area.”
The statement did not elaborate on why “there is no current danger to the public,” and a sheriff’s department representative could not be immediately reached for comment Monday.
Turner and Schulte lived a bohemian lifestyle, moving to various campsites, Schulte’s aunt, Bridget Calvert, told NBC News on Monday.
Friends and co-workers started worrying about them when Turner missed work and Schulte was a no-show at her job.
Days before going missing, Turner and Schulte met friends at a local bar and told them they were worried about someone camping nearby.
Kylen Schulte.Courtesy Bridget Calvert
“They said they needed to move their campsite because of some creepy guy at their campsite,” Calvert said. “These are outdoors girls, and they’re independent and confident. And for somebody to make them feel uncomfortable, it had to be a very valid discomfort.”
The couple, married just in April, enjoyed a carefree lifestyle moving around in their converted van.
“That’s how they lived. They enjoyed life and didn’t worry about material things,” Calvert said. “There’s no clear motive. The entire community loved them. They’re amazing people.”
Woody’s Tavern said Turner and Schulte were at that bar the weekend before their bodies were discovered and has turned over surveillance video to law enforcement.
“At no time were they approached by anyone except my staff and the entire time they were relaxed and enjoying their time with their friends and each other,” according to a statement from the tavern on Sunday. “These two women were very much in love with each other and their focus and attention were always on each other.”
Chinese tech giant Tencent’s WeChat social media platform has deleted dozens of LGBTQ accounts run by university students, saying some had broken rules on information on the internet, sparking fear of a crackdown on gay content online.
Members of several LGBTQ groups told Reuters that access to their accounts was blocked late on Tuesday and they later discovered that all of their content had been deleted.
“Many of us suffered at the same time,” said the account manager of one group who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the issue.
“They censored us without any warning. All of us have been wiped out.”
Attempts by Reuters to access some accounts were met with a notice from WeChat saying the groups “had violated regulations on the management of accounts offering public information service on the Chinese internet.”
Other accounts did not show up in search results.
WeChat did not immediately respond to emailed questions.
Homosexuality was classified as a mental disorder in China until 2001, when it became legal. However, this year, a court upheld a university’s description of homosexuality as a “psychological disorder.”
The LGBTQ community has repeatedly found itself falling foul of censors. The Cyberspace Administration of China recently pledged to clean up the internet to protect minors and crack down on social media groups deemed a “bad influence.”
“Authorities have been tightening the space available for LGBT advocacy and civil society generally. This is another turning of the screw,” said Darius Longarino, a senior fellow at Yale Law School’s Paul Tsai’s China Center, who focuses on LGBTQ rights and gender equality.
The loyalty of LGBTQ university groups to the government and Communist Party was discussed in meeting in May between student groups and university representatives of the Communist Youth League — a department in charge of student affairs run by the Chinese Communist Party, according to three sources with knowledge of the matter.
The sources declined to be identified or say at which universities the meetings took place but said LGBTQ student groups were asked if they were anti-Party or anti-China, and whether any of their funds had originated from abroad.
“We explained that our LGBT education work was within campus only,” one university student told Reuters. “After our meeting in May we were dismantled.”
LGBTQ student groups traditionally do not get the support of university authorities in their work to raise awareness of the community, even though they are not banned outright.
Last September, Marie Pinkney beat incumbent Delaware state Sen. David McBride in the Democratic primary by a solid margin, before going on to a decisive victory in the general election. Upon winning, Pinkney became not only the first openly queer woman to be elected to the Delaware Senate but one of dozens of LGBTQ female candidates who won their elections in the last cycle.
Pinkney, a social worker, said she was inspired to run because of her work with victims of gun violence and a lack of political will to pass effective gun control legislation.
“I didn’t know if I could actually win,” Pinkney said, “but then I looked at who my state senator was, and I realized he was a serious impediment to gun violence legislation passing or even getting to the floor. That was enough for me.”
Delaware State Sen. Marie Pinkney.via Marie Pinkney
As a complete newcomer to politics challenging one of the longest-serving lawmakers in Delaware history, Pinkney’s victory came as a surprise to observers. However, a new report from the LGBTQ Victory Institute, an organization that supports LGBTQ elected officials and political hopefuls, found that the odds aren’t good for those betting against queer female candidates.
A review of the win and loss records of all 1,088 candidates endorsed by the LGBTQ Victory Fund (the political action committee associated with the Victory Institute) from 2016 to 2020 found that queer cisgender women — including lesbian, bisexual and other nonheterosexual women — won 69 percent of the time, compared to 59 percent for queer cisgender men endorsed by the political action committee.
Victory Fund does not track candidates it does not endorse, but its analysis of the 2020 LGBTQ candidates (both endorsed and unendorsed) suggests its candidates are representative of the overall LGBTQ candidate population in terms of race, sexual orientation and gender identification.
Though they are more successful at the ballot box, queer cisgender female candidates were outnumbered by their male counterparts every year covered by the Victory Institute’s report. Queer cisgender women accounted for just 35 percent of Victory Fund-endorsed candidates since 2016, whereas cisgender male candidates accounted for 59 percent.
This means that even if lesbian, bisexual and other nonheterosexual cisgender women started to run at the same rate as their male counterparts, they would not reach electoral parity with queer cisgender men until 2037, the report stated.
“LGBTQ women face unique barriers to running for office — the same sexist campaign tactics and misperceptions of their own qualifications as other women, combined with anti-LGBTQ bias — yet overcoming those obstacles makes them strong contenders by the time they run,” Annise Parker, president and CEO of the Victory Institute and former mayor of Houston, told NBC News. “LGBTQ women candidates tend to wait to run for positions they are qualified — and often overqualified — to hold and perhaps don’t trigger the same negative stereotypes directed at LGBTQ men.”
“Their experiences as women and as LGBTQ people often make them better politicians, portraying an authenticity and sensibility that resonates with voters,” Parker continued. “LGBTQ women make fantastic candidates, and when we run, we win. But we will not achieve representation equitable to LGBTQ men until we start running in much higher numbers.”
Among all female candidates, existing research suggests women and men win elections at approximately the same rate and their representational deficit has more to do with barriers to seeking office in the first place. However, endorsements by groups like EMILY’s List and E-Pac (and Victory Fund) reportedly make a large difference in their likelihood of success.
Transgender female candidates were also more likely to succeed than their transmasculine counterparts, winning 54 percent of the time, compared to trans men’s 18 percent success rate, according to the Victory Institute’s report. Nonbinary and gender-nonconforming candidates performed even better, winning 64 percent of the time. But the number of transgender and nonbinary candidates is relatively small. Only 39 of the more than 1,000 candidates tracked by the Victory Institute were transgender women, and only 11 were transgender men. There were also only 11 nonbinary or gender-nonconforming candidates over the five-year period. That said, the 2020 election cycle saw the most trans, nonbinary and gender-nonconforming candidates.
Despite their electoral advantage, queer cisgender women are only 37 percent of LGBTQ elected officials, and transgender women are only 4 percent, according to the Victory Institute. Only 2 percent of LGBTQ elected officials are nonbinary or gender-nonconforming, and approximately 0.5 percent are transgender men. Even queer cisgender men, who make up 56 percent of LGBTQ elected officials, are severely underrepresented when compared to all elected officials.
LGBTQ elected officials represent approximately 0.19 percent of all elected officials nationwide, according to a previous Victory Institute report. To achieve proportionate representation of the United States’ estimated 18 million LGBTQ adults (roughly 5.6 percent of the adult population, according to the most recent Gallup poll), Americans would need to elect 28,128 more LGBTQ people to office — a significant jump from the current total of 974.
As to why she thinks LGBTQ women perform relatively well at the ballot box, Pinkney said LGBTQ people, along with other marginalized groups, generally understand the importance of maintaining a high level of preparedness and taking every opportunity to succeed.
“We don’t have the room for error. We don’t have the room to mess up and make those mistakes,” she said. “It comes off as excellence, but for most marginalized communities, it just feels like everyday operation.”
