After a virtual Democratic convention that didn’t showcase the party’s diversity so much as simply present it as a matter of fact, the Trump campaign responded on Saturday with the creation of 13 new coalitions to make the point that, as the campaign put it, “President Trump Delivers Success for All Americans, Regardless of Background.”
The new affinity groups included what appeared to be an L.G.B.T.Q. coalition, “Trump Pride,” as well as groups for truckers, gun owners, firefighters, and Albanian and Ukrainian Americans.
Also on the list: Assyrians for Trump, Chaldeans for Trump, German Americans for Trump, Italian Americans for Trump, Medical Professionals for Trump, Polish Americans for Trump and Serbian Americans for Trump.
The former head of the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum has agreed to pay a $1 million settlement for his role in a massive state pension fund pay-to-play scandal. Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced the deal with Bill White on Thursday.
Cuomo charged that White acted as an unlicensed paid middleman for investment companies seeking lucrative state pension fund business during disgraced former Controller Alan Hevesi’s tenure.
White “secretly” received more than $570,000 in fees from the deal, Cuomo said. He also not only gave $10,000 to Hevesi’s 2006 reelection campaign, but bundled $50,000 in donations from two Guggenheim principals.
They are throwing a $5 million fund-raiser for President Trump this winter, and are quick to make it known that they have the president’s sons’ cellphone numbers on speed dial. They have poured more than $50,000 of their own money into supporting the president, who smiles in photos on the bookshelves of their home.
But Bill White and his husband, Bryan Eure, are not red state evangelicals or die-hard right-wingers. In fact, for years, they were key players among a cohort that Mr. Trump loathes: Manhattan’s liberal elite.
The couple say they have been condemned not just for hypocrisy, but for what has been seen as a betrayal of their own community, by backing a man who has scaled back L.G.B.T. protections. They dismiss such concerns. “I don’t like identity politics,” Mr. Eure said.
The “anti-gay” white couple who stood outside their mansion and pointed guns at Black Lives Matter protesters will “definitely” speak at the Republican Party convention this month.
Mark and Patricia McCloskey, who are both personal injury lawyers, made headlines around the world after they were filmed pointing guns at Black Lives Matter protesters from the steps of their palatial mansion in Portland Place, Missouri.
On Monday, August 17, the McCloskey’s lawyer told the New York Times that the couple would “definitely be speaking” at the Republican National Convention (RNC).
Albert Watkins said in an interview that Mark McCloskey, who threatened Black Lives Matter protesters with an AR-15, would speak at the Republican convention with his handgun-toting wife, Patricia, by his side.
However, Watkins added that Patricia was not expected to speak as “she is not built for this”.
The lawyer said that the couple would take part in a video presentation at the RNC, and added: “They, like many Americans, are horrified, if not mortified, at the prospect of their constitutional rights being compromised by the constitutional rights of others.
According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, they once sued their neighbourhood’s trustees to demand they enforce a document called the Trust Agreement, which prohibited unmarried people from living together.
Neighbours said it was because the McCloskeys “didn’t want gay couples living on the block”.
As the McCloskeys unsuccessfully appealed the case all the way to the state Supreme Court, trustees voted to impeach Patricia, accusing her of being anti-gay in 1992.
However, during a deposition in 2002 Mark refuted the claims, and said: “Certain people on Portland Place, for political reasons, wanted to make it a gay issue.”
The lead U.S. foreign aid agency has proposed a new policy on gender and women’s empowerment that eliminates any mention of transgender people or contraceptives, running counter to its own long-standing practices in deciding what programs to support.
The draft policy released by the U.S. Agency for International Development on Wednesday was billed as an update and replacement to the original 2012 policy, released under the Obama administration. Though written subtly, the agency’s gender policy is parsed closely by experts and grantees as a clue to the kind of initiatives the agency will prioritize, and it guides USAID’s grant-making and development work worldwide.
The updated policy has been in the works for months and has been the subject of much scrutiny and internal controversy. It states its goal as “a prosperous and peaceful world in which women, girls, men, and boys enjoy equal economic, social, cultural, civil, and political rights and are equally empowered to secure better lives for themselves, their families, their communities, and their countries.”
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USAID did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Perhaps the starkest difference is how the old and new policies refer to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people — indeed, whether those populations are mentioned at all. The 2012 policy mentions LGBT people twice — once in a footnote and once in a reference to partnering with LGBT advocates to advance gender equity. It also used the phrase “gender identity” eight times, in recognition of the transgender experience, in which a person’s assigned sex does not accord with their own gender identiity.
The new policy doesn’t use the acronym LGBT or its more inclusive variants or the words “lesbian,” “gay,” “bisexual,” “transgender” or “identity” at all.
“It sends a message when an overarching umbrella policy that is supposed to inform all of USAID’s practices and initiatives is missing those factors,” said Gayatri Patel, director of gender advocacy at CARE, a humanitarian organization, though she added it is difficult to know yet how the new policy will impact future USAID programming.
That omission sparked an internal email exchange among USAID officials this week, which was seen by ProPublica. A USAID official passed along a comment from a colleague, noting the exclusion of those words. In a response sent around an hour later, Timothy Meisburger, USAID’s director of the Center of Excellence on Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance, wrote that while staff should feel free to comment on the policy, they should “keep in mind that the policies of the current Administration may differ from those of previous Administrations, and that it is our duty as civil servants to faithfully execute the policy of the current Administration.”
Meisburger, a political appointee who joined the agency in 2017, did not respond to a text message and email requesting comment.
In a section on inclusivity, the 2012 policy is specific, saying it applies to people “regardless of age, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability status, religion, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, geographic area, migratory status, forced displacement or HIV/AIDS status.”
The new policy is far more vague, saying in its inclusivity section that the agency wants to ensure “all people, including those who face discrimination and thus may have limited access to a country’s benefits, legal protections, or social participation, are fully included and can actively participate in and benefit from development processes and activities.”
In a section on maternal health, the new draft policy mentions only “fertility awareness” and “healthy timing and spacing of pregnancies” as family planning methods, even though USAID has funded the provision of contraceptives in developing countries for decades. The 2012 policy discussed the global lack of access to contraceptives.
That change is in line with the Trump administration’s yearslong effort to advance its socially conservative views on family planning in the global arena.
“For the gender policy to be silent on that is another glaring omission,” Patel said.
Gender experts and advocates said the new policy falls far short of providing the up-to-date technical expertise that the agency needs to grapple with gender issues in development.
Officials at USAID warned that favoring Christian groups in Iraq could be unconstitutional and inflame religious tensions. When one colleague lost her job, they said she had been “Penced.”
“The field has progressed in the eight years since 2012,” said Susan Markham, USAID’s former senior coordinator for gender equality and women’s empowerment. “But this document does not do that. It is not based on technical advances or knowledge. It’s clearly a political document about the word gender.”
The proposed USAID policy also adopts the phrase “unalienable rights,” which did not appear in the 2012 version. That phrase mirrors the State Department’s Commission on Unalienable Rights, a panel launched by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in 2019.
When he unveiled the commission’s draft report in July, Pompeo derided the “proliferation of rights.” Critics say establishing such a hierarchy of rights endangers the lives and safety of vulnerable groups like LGBT people and women around the world. The commission’s draft report asserted that the two foremost unalienable rights, in the view of America’s founders, were the right to property and religious liberty, and describes same-sex marriage as a “divisive social and political” controversy.
The new policy is in tension with another set of USAID rules, the Automated Directives System, which lays out the agency’s organization and functions. A section of that rulebook dealing with gender, updated in 2017, addresses lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people and emphasizes the importance of gender identity when conducting analysis.
Officials at USAID have repeatedly pushed back release of the revised gender policy. It was originally slated for release in late 2019, said three people familiar with the process, and was delayed in part by the coronavirus pandemic. The policy rewrite has also been shrouded in secrecy, with outside advocates and even gender experts within the agency getting little chance to offer input until the very final stages.
Members of the public have until early next week to submit comments on the draft.
One official involved in the policy update process was Bethany Kozma, the USAID deputy chief of staff. Before joining the Trump administration in 2017, Kozma advocated against Obama-era guidelines that schools allow transgender students to use bathrooms that match their gender identity. During her time in the administration, she has played a key role in advancing conservative causes globally, such as opposing references to sexual and reproductive health in United Nations documents.
In the last few months, USAID’s leadership has been seeded with several right-wing political appointees, including Mark Kevin Lloyd, a Tea Party activist with a history of making and sharing anti-Islamic comments, who was named the agency’s new religious freedom adviser; Kozma, who was elevated to a higher position as the agency’s deputy chief of staff; and Merritt Corrigan, the agency’s former deputy White House liaison, who had made repeated anti-LGBT statements on social media. Corrigan left USAID this month after she unleashed a tirade against the agency on Twitter, though she later claimed she did not send those tweets.
Two officials in Uganda are facing charges of torture and inhuman and degrading treatment in connection with the arrest of 20 men from an LGBT+ shelter.
In March harrowing footage emerged of a “bogus” coronavirus raid on the the Children of the Sun Foundation LGBT+ shelter in Kampala. The men were seen being whipped, chained, interrogated and publicly humiliated by a municipal mayor.
While some were released on health grounds, the majority spent almost 50 days in jail, during which time they were denied HIV medicine, legal counsel, and the ability to apply for bail.
The case attracted the attention of international human rights activists, and after sustained pressure the men were finally freed with all charges dropped and an order to be compensated US$1,341 each by the Ugandan government.
A criminal case is now underway thanks to the Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum (HRAPF), which initiated private proceedings after local police refused to take it on.
In a press release, the group decried the “myriad of forms of violence, ranging from taunting, flogging, scalding, subjection to corporal punishment, as well as denial of access to food, sanitary facilities and medication”.
According to 76 Crimes the Chief Magistrates Court of Wakiso has now issued a summons to the town councilman who headed the raid and beatings, Hajj Abdul Kiyimba, as well as prison officer Philimon Woniala.
“We believe that because the [prisoners] were perceived as LGBT+, the accused chairman and prisons officer and others who may torture, believe they can get away with such acts with impunity,” said Melanie Nathan, executive director of the African Human Rights Coalition.
“It is time to set an example – that even though LGBT+ people are criminalised under the penal codes of Uganda, there is no exception or excuse to torture any individual under any circumstances.”
She reiterated the unwarranted nature of the arrests, stating that while the men weren’t technically arrested for being gay, “if they were not perceived as such, they would not have been targets for arrest at all.”
She continued: “All said and done if ever there is a case exposing the exploitation of criminalisation of gay people, [this] is that case.”
The civil case against Kiyimba, Woniala and the state will be heard on September 23.
Expanded evacuation warnings in northwestern Sonoma County
Cal Fire officials have issued new warnings advising a wider area of residents in northwestern Sonoma County to be prepared to evacuate. The warnings include the following areas:
Walbridge fire (Northern Forestville/ Zone 4B1)
All areas south of River Road from Martinelli Road to Trenton Road
West of Covey Road
North of Front Street / Hwy. 116
East of Martinelli Road
Walbridge fire (Zone 2K2)
All areas south of Highway 101
East of the Russian River to the Windsor Town limits
North of where Windsor River Road dead ends extending west to the Russian River.
Meyers fire (Zone 1E3)
All areas south of the Russian River
West of Bohemian Hwy.
North and East of Coleman valley Road and Willow Creek Road
Meyers fire (Zone 1E1)
All areas south and west of Willow Creek Road
North of Coleman Valley Road and Wright Hill Road
East of the California Coastal National Monument (Bureau of Land Management property)
Lightning strikes caused 60 fires in Sonoma, Napa, Solano and Yolo counties, according to Cal Fire
At a press conference at the Napa County Fairgrounds Wednesday, Cal Fire revealed staggering numbers that help put the scope of the LNU Lightning Complex into context.
Cal Fire Unit Chief Shanna Jones said the lightning strikes of Sunday and Monday caused approximately 60 fires in Sonoma, Napa, Lake, Solano and Yolo counties. As of Wednesday morning, she said, the blazes making up the LNU complex (at least seven individual fires have been identified and named) had burned more than 42,000 acres.
“The resources out on these fires now are same that have been out there 72 hours,” Jones said, highlighting how overextended firefighting crews are.
Chief Sean Kavanaugh of Cal Fire Incident Management Team 2, who is leading the defensive effort in the five counties, confirmed that 50 homes have been destroyed throughout the fire zone, and another 50 damaged. Kavanaugh anticipated those numbers climbing throughout the day.
Jeremy Rahn, Cal Fire’s lead public information officer for the LNU complex, added statewide numbers, statistics that help to explain why crews here have been able to contain so little of the devastation in the North Bay. Those numbers include:
* 10,849 lightning strikes across the state
* 367 new fires over three days
* 6,900 fire personnel from state and local agencies making up the effort
Kavanaugh said California has requested 375 engines from out-of-state agencies, as well as hand crews.
Cal Fire has established a public hotline for seeking information on the LNU Lightning Complex: 707-967-4207.
Voting is now open for the 2020 History Makers Award!
The people nominated represent an incredible range of advocates, organizers, artists, community builders and more who have all made history. We are excited to have such incredible public engagement and look forward to highlighting the finalists and more folks from throughout our history at Reunion: Making History on Friday, October 16.
Click on the button below to cast your vote on the finalists and let your voice be heard. Voting closes on Tuesday August 25, 2020.
This process uses approval voting, so you can support as many people as you believe are deserving of an award. Anyone who wishes to vote is eligible. After August 25th, the top vote recipients will be presented to the GLBT Historical Society’s Board of Directors for final confirmation. The list of honorees will be announced publicly by Tuesday, September 1 and to members and gala registrants in advance. Click here to become a member, or here to register for the live broadcast on October 16th, as well as sneak peeks of early content along the way.
Interested in becoming a Sponsor or a Virtual Table Captain? Click on the buttons below to learn more about how you can get involved and help us raise funds to continue preserving and sharing our irreplaceable history.
Footage which has alarmed LGBT+ activists in northern Belgium shows a group of boys barricading a street in broad daylight before pinning their victim down, hurling homophobic insults and violently punching them.
A week on since the video, of an attack in Leuven, went viral on Twitter, an investigation by Het Laatste Nieuws found that the perpetrators are tied to a gang called “Criminal Justice” who “hunt” queer people while proudly broadcasting their attacks onto social media.
Via Telegram, the group reportedly chat to around 600 other members who revel in seeing LGBT+ people being pummelled live on camera, chat logs seen by the outlet showed, with the 12 August clip being just one of a horrid array of incidents of violence.
Victim of anti-LGBT+ Belgium gang: ‘I had to get on my knees and apologise.’
Reporters found that the Telegram group is clogged with messages glorifying violently attacking LGBT+ people, while others actively search online for new victims. One message read: “Gays must be slaughtered.”
Around 400 photographs and video recordings are on the chat, the outlet said, including the Leuven attack, and allegedly include incidents in Blankenberge, Antwerp and Roeselare.
Attackers said they were willing to use knives and firearms, the chat logs showed, while testimonies from victims have described the Criminal Justice playbook as once of humiliation and psychological abuse.
One victim told HetLaatste Nieuws that in Groenplaats, Antwerp, he and a friend were targeted by the group. “A little further down the road from us, two men were playing loud music,” he said.
“When we left, they suddenly started to chase us. And a little later I was threatened via Instagram.
“I agreed to talk to them, which I shouldn’t have done. They threatened me badly.
“I had to get on my knees and apologise. What if I hadn’t? Then I would have been beaten badly.”
More chat records show that those involved in the Leuven attack – where the perpetrators shouted the Moroccon anti-gay slur “zemmel” at the victim – believed the victims involved were gay.
The mother and father of hate crime victim Matthew Shepard gave their full blessing to Joe Biden at the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday night (August 18).
Judy and Dennis Shepard joined several of Biden’s former rivals, including Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar, in wholeheartedly pledging their support for Biden, announcing their state’s votes and helping to formally nominate the Democrat.
Speaking from their home in Wyoming, the couple praised Biden’s efforts in helping to extend federal protections to LGBT+ people like their late son.
“After our son’s death in Wyoming, Joe Biden helped pass the legislation to protect LGBTQ Americans from hate crimes,” Dennis Shepard said during the Democratic National Convention roll call.
“He understands more than most our grief over Matt’s death. But we see in Joe so much of what made Matt’s life special: his commitment to equality, his passion for social justice, and his boundless compassion for others.”
The votes announced by the Shepards — who were joined in the roll call by Indiana’s Pete Buttigieg, gay Maine state rep Craig Hickman and representatives for the other 53 states and territories — mean that Biden is now the official Democratic nominee, and Kamala Harris the vice presidential nominee.
Matthew Shephard murdered at 21.
Matthew Shepard was a 21-year-old gay college student who was beaten, tortured and left to die in an anti-gay hate crime in 1998. His killers claimed that they had only intended to rob him but were moved to murder when Shepard made sexual advances towards them.
The case became one of the most prominent examples of the “gay panic” defence being used in an attempt to justify a homophobic hate crime, and it sparked a campaign to extend protections towards the LGBT+ community.
There are six different indicators that can land a county on the watch list:
1. A seven-day average of fewer than 150 tests conducted per 100,000 residents
2. More than 100 cases per 100,000 residents over 14 days
3. More than 25 cases per 100,000 residents over 14 days AND a seven-day average of test positivity over 8%
4. A 10% increase in the three-day-average for hospitalizations
5. Having less than 20% of ICU beds available
6. Having less than 25% of ventilators available
All nine Bay Area counties remain on the list, which was previously frozen while state officials cleared a backlog of 300,000 unreported test results and disseminated new data to individual counties. While county websites still have yet to update case counts and test positivity from the past two weeks, the state’s site reports updated case figures from the past 14 days for each county.
The state site shows that not a single Bay Area county is close to coming off the list anytime soon, as all nine are well over the state’s threshold of 100 recorded cases per 100,000 residents over the past 14 days.
Here’s where all nine Bay Area counties currently stand:
Alameda
Cases over last 14 days: 216 per 100K residents
Other indicators marked: None
Contra Costa
Cases over last 14 days: 281 per 100K residents
Other indicators marked: None
Marin
Cases over last 14 days: 260.4 per 100K residents
Other indicators marked: None
Napa
Cases over last 14 days: 204.1 per 100K residents
Other indicators marked: None
San Francisco
Cases over last 14 days: 146.3 per 100K residents
Other indicators marked: None
San Mateo
Cases over last 14 days: 170.2 per 100K residentsMore for you
Other indicators marked: Only 11% of ICU beds available. Must have > 20% to satisfy criteria.
Sonoma
Cases over last 14 days: 266.6 per 100K residents
Other indicators marked: Only 4% of ICU beds available. Must have > 20% to satisfy criteria.
The watch list’s criteria has been criticized by Solano County health officer Dr. Bela Matyas, who said it may be impossible for his county to get off the watch list. Matyas said 95% of the county’s cases are coming from social gatherings and not reopened businesses.
“It is possible that our county may remain on the watch list for a very long time because we aren’t going to be able to change those behaviors adequately to reduce the numbers,” he said. “The cause of the outbreak is something we have very little control over.”
