Greetings! Whether you joined us last night for our Holiday Virtual Year End Event or have attended our Holiday San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus in the past you know that one of our long-standing traditions is the “passing of the Basket!” Your generosity over the years continue to amaze us as you reach into your pockets to donate what you can to our mission. Since we can’t gather in person, this year we are “passing the basket” virtually to you here today! If you can reach into your pocket and contribute to our work we would be so appreciative. Your help can make a big difference in the lives of the clients we service on a daily basis. Thank You & Happy Holidays from the Face to Face Family!
Malcolm Kenyatta, Pennsylvania state representative and “rising star” of the Democratic party, played a crucial role in officially ousting Donald Trump from office.
Kenyatta was one of 538 electors who officially gave Trump his marching orders when the Electoral College confirmed Joe Biden as president-elect on Monday (14 December).
Biden won 306 electoral votes compared to the outgoing president’s measly 232, putting some of the final nails in the coffin of Trump’s desperate bid to subvert the will of the American people.
The results will now be sent to Washington DC, where they will be tallied in a joint session of Congress on 6 January, presided over by the outgoing vice president Mike Pence.
In Pennsylvania, Malcolm Kenyatta led his state’s delegation by making an official motion for the electors to cast their votes for Biden.
He celebrated the incredible moment on Twitter, writing: “HUGE HONOUR. I just made the official motion to deliver Pennsylvania’s 20 electoral votes to Joe Biden!”
Kenyatta has been called one of the “rising stars” of the Democratic party, and was one of the 17 people selected to deliver a keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in August.
Speaking at the event, where he appeared with his fiancé, Kenyatta said: “Joe Biden was the first national figure to support me and my family.”
His fiancé, Matthew Miller, added: “I appreciate you, man.”
Speaking to LGBTQ Nationearlier this year, Kenyatta, who is the first gay Black man to be seated in the Pennsylvania General Assembly, reflected on the many ways in which “systems are broken” in the United States.
“As somebody who inhabits all of these intersections, growing up in an incredibly poor neighbourhood to a working poor family, as one of only two openly LGBTQ members of the Pennsylvania General Assembly and the only one that’s a person of colour, I see all the different ways that frankly our systems are broken,” he said.
Hungary amended the definition of family in its constitution Tuesday to allow an effective ban on adoption by same-sex couples, another win for the ruling conservatives but decried by one pro-LGBTQ group as “a dark day for human rights.”
The nationalist Fidesz party of Prime Minister Viktor Orban has worked to recast Hungary in a more conservative mold since winning a third successive landslide in 2018, and anti-gay verbal attacks and legislation have become common.
In recent years Orban, facing a unified opposition for the first time, has doubled down on propagating his increasingly conservative ideology, deploying strong language against immigrants and Muslims who he says could upend European culture.
Adam Hanol and Marton Pal play with their four year old adopted son Andras at a playground in Budapest on Nov. 19, 2020.Krisztina Frnyo / Reuters file
The new Hungarian constitution defines family as “based on marriage and the parent-child relation. The mother is a woman, the father a man.” It also mandates that parents raise children in a conservative spirit.
“Hungary defends the right of children to identify with their birth gender and ensures their upbringing based on our nation’s constitutional identity and values based on our Christian culture,” it says.
Hungary has never allowed gay marriage but still recognizes civil unions. Adoption by gay and lesbian couples was possible until now if one partner applied as a single person.
Although there are exceptions when single people or family members can adopt children, “the main rule is that only married couples can adopt a child, that is, a man and a woman who are married,” Justice Minister Judit Varga wrote.
The legislation passed on Tuesday follow the passing of a new law earlier this year banning gender change in personal documents and ideological battles over children’s books showing diversity positively.
Nearby Poland’s ruling nationalist PiS party also made homophobia a key plank of its campaign in an election this year, endorsing “LGBT-free zones” despite European Union criticism.
As per the new law, single people in Hungary must get their adoption requests approved by the family affairs minister, a post held by ultra-conservative Katalin Novak, who promotes the traditional family model.
“Do not believe that us women should continuously compete with men,” Novak said in a video published on Monday. “Do not believe that in every waking moment we must measure up and have at least as high positions or as large salaries as (men).”
‘Dark day for human rights’
Rights groups denounced the changes and called on European leaders to raise their voices.
“This is a dark day for Hungary’s LGBTQ community and a dark day for human rights,” said David Vig, director of Amnesty Hungary.
Masen Davis, executive director at Transgender Europe, said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen should pay attention to the issue as the EU reviews Hungary’s rule of law record and a connected punitive legal procedure.
Hungary and Poland last week escaped the immediate prospect of losing EU funding because of rights transgressions seen as contrary to the European mainstream, leaving potential counter-measures weakened and delayed in time.
“We are deeply concerned for the health and safety of trans children and adults in Hungary in such a hostile climate,” Davis said.
Katrin Hugendubel, advocacy director at international gay rights group ILGA, said the changes meant “LGBTI children will be forced to grow up in an environment which restricts them from being able to express their identities.”
Horizons Foundation, the world’s first LGBTQ community foundation, today released preliminary findings from its October 2020 survey, which was distributed to organizations on its mailing list to identify the effects of the pandemic on nonprofits. Thispreliminary analysis focused on a subset of respondents that included only Bay Area LGBTQ organizations, 61 of which took the survey.
· Due to the pandemic, more than half of LGBTQ orgs (52%) have needed to reduce programs already, with an additional 18% reporting it as a possibility in the next year. At the same time, 39% report an increase in demand for services, which rises to 58% among LGBTQ POC organizations.
· 80% of organizations report a decrease in revenue; 29% report a decrease by half or more. A higher number of organizations (88%) with budgets under $250,000 report decreases in revenue of 10% or more, compared to 39% of organizations with budgets over $1 million.
· 58% of organizations report a decrease in revenue from individuals, while 21% have seen an increase. 76% of organizations with budgets under $250,000 report a decrease, compared to 38% of organizations with budgets over $1 million.
· The majority of organizations received some sort of COVID-specific funding from foundations and/or the government: 62% received a grant from Horizons; 42%, another foundation; 29%, the city/county; 14%, the state; and 51%, the federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).
· While all organizations with budgets over $1 million received a PPP loan, only 19% of organizations with budgets under $250,000 received one.
“These results are not surprising, given what we’ve seen across the community,” said Roger Doughty, Horizons’ President. “But that makes them no less concerning — and we know what we must do to strengthen our vital community organizations,” said Roger Doughty, Horizons’ President. “Individual donors, foundations, and the government must increase resources for Bay Area LGBTQ nonprofits, especially smaller ones and those focused on people of color.”
To strengthen organizations affected by the pandemic and its economic fallout, Horizons has awarded over $1 million in COVID-related emergency grants to Bay Area LGBTQ organizations; helped hundreds of organizations raise over $1.6 million through Give OUT Day, the foundation’s national day of LGBTQ giving; and launched a first-of-its-kind, no-interest loan program for local LGBTQ nonprofits.
About Horizons Foundation
Horizons Foundation (www.horizonsfoundation.org) envisions a world where all LGBTQ people live freely and fully. The world’s first community foundation of, by, and for LGBTQ people, Horizons invests in LGBTQ organizations, strengthens a culture of LGBTQ giving, and builds a permanent endowment to secure our community’s future for generations to come. In 2020, Horizons is celebrating its 40th anniversary. Watch this video to learn more about Horizons’ four-decade history.
The first shipment of COVID-19 vaccine has arrived in Los Angeles County, which again broke a record for coronavirus hospitalizations this weekend as San Francisco County reported its highest number of COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began.
Statewide, more than 30,000 confirmed coronavirus cases were reported Sunday, making California’s total at 1,551,766. Millions of Californians in the majority of the state are under stay-at-home orders.
In Los Angeles County, the nation’s most populous, more than 4,000 people were hospitalized for COVID-19, according to figures released Sunday afternoon. More than one-fifth of hospitalized patients are in intensive care units.
The county’s new figures break the previous record set only the day before, with 3,850 patients in a hospital, and follows the trend of hospitalizations increasing nearly every day since Nov. 1.
LA County Health Director Barbara Ferrer warned on Monday — when hospitalizations were 2,988 — that the county could see the statistic to climb to 4,000 within two weeks. It happened in six days.
In San Francisco County, health officials reported 323 new cases on Saturday, the highest number of new coronavirus infections there yet. San Francisco emerged as a leader in the state’s response to the pandemic early on but has since moved to battling its own cases.
The record-breaking figures in Los Angeles and San Francisco counties come as more than 325,000 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine are on the way to California.
The first shipments of the Pfizer vaccine left Michigan early Sunday for 145 distribution centers nationwide. States will get vaccines based on their adult population and additional shipments are coming this week.
The vaccine is heading to hospitals and other sites across the country that can store it at extremely low temperatures — about 94 degrees below zero. Pfizer is using containers with dry ice and GPS-enabled sensors to ensure each shipment stays colder than the weather in Antarctica.
In California, counties will have specific allotments that will be distributed to hospitals determined by state health officials to have adequate storage capacity, serve a high-risk health care population and have the ability to vaccinate people quickly. Priority will be to inoculate health care workers on the front lines of a pandemic that has infected more than 16 million people and claimed nearly 298,000 lives in the U.S. alone.
Represented in those U.S. deaths include a disproportionate number of people of color.
In Santa Clara County in Northern California, volunteers have begun a door-to-door coronavirus testing pilot program in a majority Latino community that has become a virus hot spot. Officials started handing out self-testing kits in the East San Jose neighborhood of Silicon Valley’s San Jose last week, where 55% of the population is Latino and officials say many residents cannot easily access testing sites.
But for many, the vaccines are still out of reach. The priority will be for health care workers to be inoculated first.
Gov. Gavin Newsom tweeted that a group of medical experts convened by Western states met Saturday to discuss the vaccine and confirm that it is safe for public use. Newsom said distribution could begin as early as Sunday.
Medical facilities at military bases in Alameda and San Diego will be among the first sites to receive vaccines, the U.S. Department of Defense announced earlier this month.
The vaccines are coming as the situation grows more dire by the day nationwide and in California, with the holiday season well underway. Public health officials are afraid the already surging infection rates and hospitalizations will continue to climb as people ignore precautions to gather for the holidays.
On Saturday, the number of available ICU beds in San Joaquin Valley plummeted to zero for the first time.
A number of organizations, schools and businesses with either a history of anti-LGBTQ advocacy or policies that explicitly discriminate against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer individuals have received millions in pandemic relief funding, according to an NBC News analysis of data released last week by the Small Business Administration.
The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) — which was intended to help small businesses amid the Covid-19 crisis — gave nearly $5.3 billion in the potentially forgivable loans to 5,160,000 recipients, with the average loan being $101,409.
The lion’s share of that money went to the American Family Association, which received nearly $1.4 million in Paycheck Protection Program funds. The Mississippi-based organization uses its resources, in part, to combat what it calls the “homosexual agenda.” Through its One Million Moms initiative, the organization rallies its supporters to boycott brands and media outlets that promote “homosexuality and transgenderism.”
Cassie Miller, a senior research analyst at the SPLC, criticized the Trump administration for “letting millions of Americans and small businesses suffer” while providing “financial support to groups that tear at the fabric of our democracy.”
“Extremist movements thrive in climates of political uncertainty,” she said. “Now, the government is doing even more to help hate groups by handing them millions of dollars in forgivable loans.”
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The American Family Association, Ruth Institute and Pacific Justice Institute did not respond to NBC News’ requests for comment on the SPLC’s “hate group” designation and how they used their Paycheck Protection Program funds. The other four groups all disputed being labeled a “hate group,” and two of them shed light on how they used their relief loans.
The American College of Pediatricians said it used the loan to “fund the covered payroll period as designated.” It called the SPLC’s hate group designation a “mischaracterization” of its organization and pointed to its detailed response to the criticism. Liberty Counsel, which said it used its funds to avoid laying off any of its 35 employees, accused the SPLC of wanting to “destroy those with whom they disagree.”
Dr. James Dobson, who founded Focus on the Family, offers a prayer before an appearance by President Donald Trump at a campaign rally on Feb. 20, 2020, in Colorado Springs, Colo.David Zalubowski / AP file
At least four other organizations that received Paycheck Protection Program funding — Concerned Women for America, Dr. James Dobson Family Institute, Family Leader and First Liberty Institute — have a demonstrated track record of anti-LGBTQ advocacy or espousing an anti-LGBTQ ideology, though they have not been designated “hate groups” by the SPLC. These organizations received nearly $2 million in pandemic relief money combined.
The Dr. James Dobson Family Institute, Concerned Women for America and Family Leader did not respond to NBC News’ requests for comment on how they used the aid and their response to assertions that their organizations have a track record of anti-LGBTQ advocacy. First Liberty Institute’s general counsel, Mike Berry, sent a brief response saying his organization “advocates for the religious liberty of people of all faiths” and said “First Liberty repaid, with interest, all PPP funds by June 30.”
Two private schools that made national news over the past two years due to their anti-LGBTQ policies — and their high-profile conservative backers — were also on the Paycheck Protection Program recipient list.
Immanuel Christian School, a private K-10 in northern Virginia where Vice President Mike Pence’s wife, Karen Pence, teaches, received $724,900 in aid funding. As NBC News reported last year, the school explicitly bars its employees from engaging in or condoning “homosexual or lesbian sexual activity” and “transgender identity.” And in its parent agreement, the school states that it may “refuse admission” or “discontinue enrollment” of a student whose household condones “sexual immorality,” such as “homosexual activity or bi-sexual activity.”
Trinity Schools, a group of private Christian schools where newly confirmed Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett was once a trustee, received over $1 million. As The Associated Press reported in October, the schools effectively bar admission to children of gay parents and make it clear that openly LGBTQ teachers are not welcome in the classrooms.
Immanuel Christian School did not respond to NBC News’ request for comment. Trinity Schools President Jon Balsbaugh sent an email saying his institution used the funds to “ensure that economic disruption of our employees and staff due to the pandemic would be lessened” and said Trinity Schools does not “unlawfully discriminate with respect to race, color, gender, national origin, age, disability, or other legally protected classifications under applicable law.”
Several companies and organizations that have been at the center of high-profile lawsuits regarding their policies of excluding LGBTQ people have also received Paycheck Protection Program funding.
Catholic Social Services, which received over $2 million, is at the center of a case currently before the Supreme Court. Fulton v. City of Philadelphia stems from the faith-based child welfare agency’s policy of not considering same-sex couples as potential parents for foster children.
R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes, which received more than $150,000, was part of a landmark Supreme Court case that resulted in the justices ruling that workplace discrimination based on a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity violates federal civil rights law. The Michigan funeral home’s involvement in the case stemmed from its termination of an employee after she came out as transgender. In November, the business agreed to pay $250,000 to the estate of the terminated employee, who died earlier this year, to settle the lawsuit.
Roncalli High School, which received nearly $1.8 million, was sued by two lesbian guidance counselors last year who said they were terminated when the school discovered they were married to women. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Indiana, which oversees the school and was also named in the women’s suits, received over $2.4 in pandemic relief funds. In response to the lawsuits, which are still active, the Indiana archdiocese told NBC News last year that it has “a constitutional right to hire leaders who support the school’s religious mission.”
Catholic Social Services, R.G. & G.R Harris Funeral Homes, Roncalli High School and Arlene’s Flowers did not respond to requests for comment.
‘Warped priorities’
Kyle Herrig, president of government watchdog Accountable.US, said it’s “shameful” that the Trump administration provided pandemic relief funds to “organizations promoting bigotry, intolerance, and hate” with “so many small businesses forced to shutter since the start of the pandemic.”
“It is hard to find a clearer example of the Trump administration’s warped priorities than allowing countless mom-and-pop shops to go under without proper relief while bailing out wealthy and well-connected anti-LGBTQ enterprises on Americans’ dime,” he said in an email.
Justin Nelson, co-founder and president of the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce, shared a similar view.
“I think it’s ridiculous,” he said, “that the Small Business Administration led by the Trump administration would put the needs of avowed anti-LGBT organizations before hardworking small-business owners.”
Nelson said he’s seen first hand how LGBTQ-owned small businesses have struggled during the pandemic and how many have been unable to receive government relief.
“These folks are worried about keeping the lights on,” he said. “We had a number of businesses that applied, and only a small number that received funding.”
Nelson, whose organization works with thousands of LGBTQ-owned businesses around the country, said it’s frustrating to see large, well-funded organizations with anti-LGBTQ track records collect large sums of relief funding while thousands of small businesses have had to close their doors permanently. He noted that his chamber did not apply for a Paycheck Protection Program loan so as not to take away resources from the businesses most in need.
The Small Business Administration said in a statement that it does not comment on individual borrowers or loans. An agency spokesperson said the agency designed a “robust loan review process to ensure that only eligible borrowers received loans that fully complied with the program requirements” but added that just because a loan was issued, doesn’t mean the recipient was eligible or that the loan will ultimately be forgiven.
In a landmark change to existing policy, the United Kingdom will allow sexually active gay and bisexual men to donate blood, with the new criteria focusing on individual behaviors and lifting the outright ban on blood from men who have sex with men.
“This is such a fundamental change and victory,” Ethan Spibey, a blood donation advocate, said. “It’s a groundbreaking, pioneering new policy for gay and bi men in the U.K.”
Under the new guidelines, donors who have had only one sexual partner for more than three months will be eligible to give blood. A health check questionnaire completed prior to donating will be used to assess eligibility and safety. The criteria will apply to all people interested in giving blood, regardless of their gender, their partner’s gender or the sexual activity in which they engage.
The new criteria was born out of a report by the “For Assessment of Individualised Risk” (FAIR) steering committee, a collaboration of British blood services and LGBTQ nonprofits. After two years of research, the group proposed a move to identify a wider range of risk behaviors that apply to all donors, according to the U.K.’s Department of Health and Social Care.
Sexually active gay and bisexual men who fall under the new guidelines will be able to donate blood in England by summer 2021. The rollout plans for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are not yet known.
“Patients rely on the generosity of donors for their lifesaving blood and so we welcome the decision to accept the FAIR recommendations in full,” Su Brailsford, associate medical director at the U.K.’s National Health Service Blood and Transplant (NHSBT), the governmental body that will implement the new guidance, said in a statement.
The existing British policy requires men who have sex with men to abstain from oral and anal sex with another man for three months prior to donating. This is similar to the current policy in the United States, which earlier this year had changed the donation deferral period from 12 months of abstinence to three and had once been a lifetime ban on any man who ever had sex with another man since 1977. The policies date back to the 1980s during the early days of the HIV/AIDS crisis. However, the blood shortage caused by the coronavirus pandemic has reignited calls for a change to these policies. The ban prevented sexually active gay and bisexual men from donating plasma to a coronavirus research trial in the U.K. over the summer.
“The U.K. is seen as leading in this policy area,” Spibey said. “We genuinely believe this will impact thousands here and millions around the world.”
Spibey is the founder of FreedomToDonate, a coalition of nonprofits working to change policy so men who have sex with men are more easily able to donate blood. His team sits on the FAIR working group to push forward this policy. He said his organization regularly speaks with teams in the U.S. working to adjust blood donation policies there to an individualized risk assessment format.
The new guidelines will still ban individuals who have a known exposure to a sexually transmitted infection and those who use pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), the HIV prevention medication. Spibey said his organization got the U.K. government to agree to reconsider the guidelines regarding PrEP as soon as more U.K.-based research on the medication is published.
“Gay and bi men have that recognition to make that small but lifesaving gesture,” Spibey said of the new donation rules. “That recognition and that inclusion is hugely significant.”
Sonoma County on Saturday will join five other Bay Area counties that have issued stay-home orders to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
The stay-home order will take effect at 12:01 a.m. Saturday, the county announced on its website Thursday afternoon, citing rising COVID-19 case numbers and hospitalizations.
Under the order, residents will be directed to stay at home except for work, shopping, outdoor recreation or other essential activities, such as medical appointments, allowed under the state’s regional shelter-in-place order. All sectors, other than retail and essential operations, were ordered to close. The new restrictions will remain in place until 11:59 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 9, 2021.
Under the order, retail operations will be allowed to continue at 20% capacity, or 35% capacity for stand-alone grocery stores. Restaurants will be able to offer take-out, pick up, or delivery. Schools that have received waivers will be allowed to continue operation. Outdoor services are allowed at places of worship.
Hotels, vacation rentals and other lodging will only be allowed to offer accommodations for essential workers or the purpose of isolating people to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Additionally, overnight stays at campgrounds will not be permitted.
The following operations will be required to cease both indoor and outdoor services:
Hair salons and barbershops
Personal care services
Movie theaters (except for drive-in theaters)
Wineries, bars, breweries and distilleries (except for operations related to production, manufacturing, distribution and retail sales for off-site consumption)
County’s Health Orders and Guidance are updated as needed based on changing State requirements and current local needs as determined by the County Health Officer. In order to see the most current orders that may supersede any previous order, please view local orders and guidance, and state orders.
Please read this Order carefully. Violation of or failure to comply with this Order is a misdemeanor punishable by fine, imprisonment, or both. (California Health and Safety Code § 120275, et seq.)
UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF CALIFORNIA HEALTH AND SAFETY CODE SECTIONS 101040, 101085, AND 120175, THE HEALTH OFFICER OF THE COUNTY OF SONOMA (“HEALTH OFFICER”) ORDERS:
Summary. To slow the spread of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (“COVID-19”), this Order of the Sonoma County Health Officer implements the restrictions on businesses and activities set forth in the December 3, 2020, Regional Stay at Home Order and the December 6, 2020 Supplement to Regional Stay at Home Order issued by the California Department of Public Health.
Effective Date and Time. This order takes effect at 12:01 a.m. on Saturday, December 12, 2020, and will remain in effect until 11:59 p.m. on Saturday, January 9, 2021, unless it is extended, rescinded, superseded, or amended in writing by the Health Officer or State Public Health Officer.
Basis for Order. Sonoma County is in the midst of a local, regional and statewide surge of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations that began in the middle of October 2020. On October 1, 2020, the seven-day average COVID-19 adjusted daily case rate was 13.3 cases per 100,000 people in the County. According to the most recently reported data, by December 9, 2020, the adjusted rate had nearly doubled, to 25.8 cases per 100,000 persons in the County. Hospitalizations of COVID-19 patients have also increased, from a seven-day average of 17.8 patients in County hospitals as of October 1, 2020, to a seven-day average of 49.1 patients in County hospitals as of December 9, 2020.Data reported by the State of California indicates that 10 percent to 30 percent of COVID-19 patients will require intensive care. Of 65 COVID-19 patients hospitalized in the County on December 9, 2020, 11 were in intensive care units (ICUs), and only 10 staffed ICU beds were available in the County for all patients, leaving the County with 18.2% percent available ICU capacity. Available ICU capacity in hospitals in the Bay Area region was 17.8 percent on December 9, 2020, and is projected to fall to 15 percent by December 14, 2020. If the current trends continue, according to State projections, Bay Area hospitals collectively may be operating at 91 percent of their full capacity by December 24, 2020, and by January 1, 2021, the demand for ICU beds may exceed the current supply.Surge plans are in place to convert non-ICU hospital beds to ICU beds if necessary, and move non-COVID-19 patients to temporary hospital facilities. However, due to limitations in the availability of qualified and trained medical personnel, expanding ICU capacity in this manner is not ideal from the standpoint of patient care. For this reason, the objective now is to manage existing ICU capacity so that all patients who need intensive care have access to an ICU bed. Reducing the number of transmissions of the COVID-19 virus is critical to meeting this objective.Gatherings of people – social or otherwise – pose risks of virus transmission, even with social distancing and the use face coverings, as neither is 100 percent effective in preventing transmission of the virus that causes COVID-19. The transmission risk is higher indoors than outdoors, but even outdoor gatherings can result in viral transmissions, particularly in locations where people remove their face coverings to eat or drink. Large gatherings are more risky than small gatherings, and prolonged interactions – i.e., longer than 15 minutes – are more risky than brief interactions.Reducing the maximum occupancy of businesses has been shown to reduce the risk of transmission of the COVID-19 virus. Based on models of the effect of occupancy limitations, researchers found that a substantial reduction in the maximum occupancy of a business substantially reduces virus spread but does not as sharply reduce the number of visits to the business. In the Chicago metropolitan area, for example, a cap on occupancy of businesses at 20 percent of the maximum was found to reduce the predicted number of new infections by more than 80 percent but there was a loss of only 42 percent of overall visits. Because of the current case and hospitalization rates, it is necessary to impose additional restrictions on businesses and personal activities.The California Department of Public Health issued a Regional Stay at Home Order on December 3, 2020, and a Supplement to Regional Stay at Home Order on December 6, 2020, which impose new restrictions on gatherings, travel, and business activities, effective regionally based when available ICU capacity drops below 15 percent. To protect the health and safety of County residents, it is necessary to implement the State Order restrictions before the State Order becomes effective regionally.
Other Orders. To the extent that this Order conflicts with the Health Officer’s June 18, 2020, Order (C19-15), as amended, which authorizes businesses to operate in the County in accordance with State guidelines and restrictions applicable to the tier of the State Blueprint that the County is in, or any other Order issued by the Health Officer in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, this Order will control.
Enforcement. Pursuant to Government Code sections 26602 and 41601 and Health and Safety Code section 101029, the Health Officer requests that the Sheriff and all chiefs of police in the County ensure compliance with and enforce this Order. The Sheriff, chiefs of police, County Counsel, District Attorney, and city attorneys are empowered to ensure compliance with and enforce this Order within their jurisdictions. The violation of any provision of this Order constitutes an imminent threat and menace to public health, constitutes a public nuisance, and is punishable by fine, imprisonment, or both.
Justification. The Health Officer has determined that this Order, and its Prior Shelter Orders, were and are necessary because cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed throughout the County. COVID-19 is highly contagious and has a propensity to spread in various ways including, but not limited to, by attaching to surfaces or remaining in the air, resulting in physical damage and/or physical loss.
Public Distribution. Copies of this Order shall promptly be: (1) made available at the County Administration Center at 575 Administration Drive, Santa Rosa CA 95403; (2) posted on the County Public Health Department website (https://sonomacounty.ca.gov/Health/Public-Health/) and (https://socoemergency.org/); and (3) provided to any member of the public requesting a copy of this Order.
Severability. If any provision of this Order to the application thereof to any person or circumstance is held to be invalid, the reminder of the Order, including the application of such part or provision to other persons or circumstances, shall not be affected and shall continue in full force and effect. To this end, the provisions of this Order are severable.
Switzerland has taken a major step on the path to equality after its parliament voted overwhelmingly in favour of a law to pass same-sex marriage.
The council of states – the upper house of Switzerland’s legislature – voted by by 22 votes to 15 to approve landmark legislation to make same-sex marriage a reality. Just seven politicians abstained from the vote.
It’s a huge moment for a country that has lagged behind most of Europe when it comes to LGBT+ rights, and is the culmination of a seven-year campaign.
“We have been waiting for this for seven years,” Olga Baranova of the Marriage For All campaign told Le Temps. “The emotions are very strong.”
The bill first introduced by the Green Party in 2013, and several versions of the text have since been debated. One of the central questions was whether a constitutional change was required to make it happen or whether a change of law would be enough.
Article 14 of Switzerland’s constitution states that “the right to marry and to have a family is guaranteed.” Those in favour of a legal change argued there was no need to change this because it already accommodates marriages of any kind.
The majority council of states agreed and rejected a motion that would have required a nationwide constitutional referendum on marriage equality, which would have delayed the law even further.
The push for equality was helped in part by progressive parties’ electoral gains in October that shifted parliament more to the left.
It’s been a long time coming for the Swiss LGBT+ community, whose conservative country has been slow to enact positive change: the first law banning LGBT+ discrimination only passed as recently as this February.
It’s not the end of the road though, and the next battle will concern LGBT+ couples’ access to sperm donors.
While the vast majority of Swiss people are now in favour of same-sex marriage, the debate around insemination remains controversial and is likely to be the subject of a national referendum.
The Trump administration has issued new guidance on religious exemptions for federal contractors that critics say grants them carte blanche to discriminate against LGBTQ workers, women, religious minorities and others.
The Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs released Monday its final rule on exemptions to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and a related 1965 executive order instituting anti-discrimination requirements for federal contractors.
The provision expands exceptions to any contractors — for-profit or nonprofit — who “hold themselves out to the public as carrying out a religious purpose.”
“This rule is intended to correct any misperception that religious organizations are disfavored in government contracting by setting forth appropriate protections for their autonomy to hire employees who will further their religious missions,” it reads in part. According to the office, the new rule “reduces confusion” and reinforces existing statutes, including the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, 1993 legislation intended to prevent the federal government from “substantially burdening a person’s exercise of religion.”
“Religious organizations should not have to fear that acceptance of a federal contract or subcontract will require them to abandon their religious character or identity,” Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia said in a statement.
The U.S. government is the single largest customer in the world, awarding hundreds of billions of dollars in federal contracts each year to companies covering every facet of life, from military hardware to social services. Signed by President Lyndon Johnson in 1965, Executive Order 11246 prohibited businesses with government contracts over $10,000 from employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin. It did, however, stipulate religious organizations could prefer to hire ‘individuals of a particular religion.’”
In a subsequent order in 2014, President Barack Obama added gender identity and sexual orientation to the list of characteristics protected in EO 11246.
The Labor Department first proposed the new religious exemption guidelines in August 2019 and received more than 109,000 comments during the public comment period — including more than 90,000 from organized letter-writing campaigns.
Civil rights organizations blasted Monday’s final rule for disarming existing nondiscrimination protections with overly broad exemptions.
Alison Gill, vice president for legal and policy at American Atheists, called it “an absolute attack on religious equality and workers’ rights.”
Employees — especially those of government contractors — shouldn’t face a religious litmus test to get or keep their jobs, she said in a statement. “The American taxpayer should not be forced to fund discrimination, period.”
Jennifer Pizer, director of law and policy for LGBTQ legal organization Lambda Legal, said the new guidance is part of a decadeslong effort by Christian conservatives to remove anti-discrimination safeguards.
“The argument is, ‘If faith-based groups don’t receive government money with the freedom to act however they want to, then that’s discrimination. We must do it this way, and you must fund us,’” Pizer told NBC News.
Not long ago, she said, that suggestion would have been seen as a violation of the Constitution’s establishment clause, which prohibits the government from establishing an official religion or favoring one faith above others.
“But now it’s part of a growing victim narrative among the Christian right,” Pizer said. “It’s a flabbergasting alternate reality where white Christian society is somehow under attack by people who want equal rights.”
The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs guidelines “are not a surprise,” she added, “but they’re a profound affront to one of the basic principles our nation was founded on.”
With evangelicals among his strongest supporters, President Donald Trump has made religious freedom a key tenet of his administration: He’s issued executive orders protecting prayer in school and clergy who endorse political candidates from the pulpit. He also broadened the range of employers who can refuse to cover birth control under their health insurance policies. The Department of Justice under Trump issued amicus briefs supporting religious liberty in several Supreme Court cases, including Masterpiece Cakeshop v Colorado Civil Rights Commission, in which a Christian baker refused to sell a wedding cake to a gay couple, and the still-pending Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, which addresses whether faith-based child welfare agencies can turn away LGBTQ foster and adoptive parents and still receive taxpayer money.
In 2018, Trump announced a new White House faith and opportunity initiative, designed to “to remove barriers which have unfairly prevented faith-based organizations from working with or receiving funding from the federal government.”
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The Labor Department was among nine agencies that proposed subsequent guidelines to “safeguard the fundamental right to religious freedom by eliminating unfair and unequal treatment by the federal government,” according to deputy press secretary Judd Deere.
The Department of Education issued its final rule in September, while other agencies have yet to finalize their plans. The Labor Department policy announced Monday won’t take effect until Jan. 8, less than two weeks before Inauguration Day.
President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team declined to comment on whether it would overturn the new rule. However, in previously released policy statements, Biden has committed to restoring “full implementation” of President Barack Obama’s executive order prohibiting discrimination by federal contractors on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.
But even if they’re only in effect for a limited time, Pizer said, the policies “invite discrimination — and represent a real legal and political view that’s moving forward.”
