The Spahr Center would like to give our clients an update on the novel Coronavirus, now known as COVID-19. This situation is evolving rapidly and we understand it may be causing concern.
As of this morning, one resident of Marin has been diagnosed with Covid-19 following recent travel. One other patient with the Covid-19 is currently isolated at a hospital in Marin County, county officials announced recently.
This patient was not infected in Marin. Health experts agree that the measures taken so far have helped to limit spread of the virus, but they are nevertheless predicting that there will be further community spread of COVID-19 in the United States.
People aged 60 and over, and people living with HIV who are not virally suppressed, are at higher risk of acquiring Covid-19. The Spahr Center feels it can best meet its mission to assure the well-being of LGBTQ+ people and people living with HIV, as well as do its part to help stop Covid-19 early, by taking the following immediate steps:
1. Until further notice, we are cancelling all group meetings for HIV clients and seniors on an in-person basis. However, participants are encouraged to check in by telephone by calling our conference call line at their regular meeting time: 605.313.4100, passcode 346591. A Zoom account is being set up in order to hold video conferencing in the near future.
2. Until further notice, we encourage clients to come in to our office only if their visit requires signing or exchanging essential documents. We will be conducting as many other appointments as possible by telephone.
3. The Pantry remains open on its regularly scheduled days: Wednesday through Thursday.
4. THE SPAHR CENTER WILL MAKE ANY NECESSARY ARRANGEMENTS TO PROVIDE OUR REGULAR SERVICES TO ANY CLIENT WHO DECIDES IT IS BEST FOR THEM TO STAY HOME DURING THIS PERIOD, TO INCLUDE PANTRY DELIVERIES. IF YOU NEED ANY SERVICES, please call us at 415.457.2487
The Marin County Office of Education in partnership with the Marin County Department of Public Health and Kaiser Permanente will be holding a community meeting tonight, March 9, at 6 pm. Folks are encouraged to attend virtually via Facebook live. Click here to join. Here are some good strategies for reducing your risk of becoming infected with any respiratory virus, including COVID-19:
Wash your hands frequently with soap and water for at least 20 seconds.
Use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer when soap and water are not available.
People who are sick should always cover their coughs and sneezes using a tissue or the crook of their elbow; wash your hands after using a tissue to wipe your nose or mouth.
People who feel sick should stay home from work or school until they are well.
Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth with your unwashed hands.
Maintain good social distancing – six feet from others – when you can.
Avoid shaking hands and hugging. Elbow and hip bumps are encouraged.
The Spahr Center continues to be in touch with the Marin County Health & Human Services Agency, which is also working closely with regional, state and federal agencies to respond to this situation. We will continue our monitoring, and advise our clients and supporters of any changes in the status of COVID-19 as we are advised of them. Please feel free to direct any questions to Leslie Gallen at 415.886.8553
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam on Thursday signed three pro-LGBTQ measures into law.
House Bill 145 sponsored by state Del. Marcus Simon (D-Falls Church), and Senate Bill 161 sponsored by state Sen. Jennifer Boysko (D-Loudoun County) require the Department of Education to develop model policies ensuring transgender students are treated fairly, respectfully and according to best practices.
“All Virginia students deserve to learn in a safe, healthy, and welcoming environment,” said Boysko in press release. “I was proud to carry this incredibly important bill, and I’m thrilled to see it signed into law.”
School boards must now adopt such policies for the 2021-2022 school year.
Northam also signed a bill expanding the definition of a hate crime to include sexual orientation and gender identification among other protected classes into law. The bill was sponsored by state Del. Rip Sullivan (D-Fairfax County).
“Attacking someone because of who they are, who they love, or where they’re from is wrong,” said Northam. “Those actions are intended to send a chilling message that a person is not welcome, and that is exactly the opposite of what we stand for in Virginia. Hate has no place here. I am proud to sign this bill.”
State Del. Danica Roem’s (D-Manassas) legislation allowing localities to ban discrimination in housing, employment, public accommodations, credit, or education based on sexual orientation or gender identity also passed into law.
“No matter where in the commonwealth you live, you should be free from discrimination,” said Virginia’s first openly trans delegate. “Allowing localities to include sexual orientation and gender identity in their nondiscrimination policies means they can make a statement of affirmation about their values at the local level while we continue to make Virginia a more inclusive commonwealth statewide.”
She added, “I’m proud both localities I represent have leaders who are eager to take action based on this legislation and thank the governor for signing this bill into law.”
A new study from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has shown that LGBT+ youth are more than three times as likely to attempt suicide than their straight counterparts.
The AAP used Youth Risk Behavioral Surveillance data from six states that collected data on sexual orientation, and four that collected data on sexual contacts, between 2009 and 2017.
Although the number of suicide attempts among sexual minority people under the age of 18 had decreased over the eight-year period, the study showed in 2017 they remained more than three times as likely to try to take their own lives.
In 2009, 26.7 per cent of queer youth reported a suicide attempt within the last year, compared with 6.3 per cent of straight young people. In 2017, it remained as high as 20.1 per cent, compared with 5.9 per cent of straight youth.
It also found that young people did not necessarily need to identify as a sexual minority to have an increased risk of suicide attempts.
Those who had experience same-sex sexual contact within the last year were still more than twice as likely to attempt suicide than those who had only had opposite-sex sexual contact.
The authors concluded that “more research is needed, particularly on policies, training practices and interventions to promote sexual minority health in education and health care institutions”.
There is an increasing amount of research on LGBT+ suicide and suicide attempts.
Researchers surveyed 1,148 transgender teens and 972 cisgender teens aged 14 to 18 across the United States, and found that trans teens “twice as likely” to attempt suicide compared to cisgender, heterosexual teens.
Another study, published in 2019, found that “transgender people who are exposed to conversion efforts anytime in their lives have more than double the odds of attempting suicide compared with those who have never experienced efforts by professionals to convert their gender identity”.
However, further research has shown that when LGBT+ young people are accepted and their identities are embraced, their risk of attempting suicidesignificantly decreases.
If you are struggling with your mental health and are based in the US, you can contact The Trevor Project Lifeline for free on 1-866-488-7386 (open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week).
In the UK, you can call the Samaritans for free on 116 123 (open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week) or call the LGBT Foundation helpline on 0345 3 30 30 30 (open Monday to Friday between 10am and 6pm).
Federal inspections of the U.S. government’s only dedicated detention unit for transgender immigrants last year found hundreds of unanswered requests for medical attention, poor quarantine procedures and deficient treatment for mental illnesses and other chronic diseases, Reuters has learned.
Details of the inspections of the transgender unit at the Cibola County Correctional Center in New Mexico, which have not been reported previously, were contained in internal reports from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) health corps and a U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) civil rights office.
The problems, which led to the transfer of all detainees to other facilities in January, were described to Reuters by congressional aides who were briefed on the documents and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The reports come to light as Democrats in Congress accuse ICE of not living up to the agency’s own standards for caring for detained transgender immigrants.
April Grant, an ICE spokeswoman, did not comment directly on the specifics outlined by the congressional aides but confirmed that a December 2019 report by the ICE health corps found “several health care-related deficiencies” at the center, such as failing to complete laboratory orders or arrange for HIV patients to see infectious disease specialists within 30 days of arrival.
Grant said many of those problems were addressed in December, for instance by speeding up backlogged lab orders and educating staff on detention standards and medication policies.
However, the concerns led to the transfer of all of the approximately two dozen detainees in the transgender unit, as well as other chronically ill detainees in the general population. About half were sent to a facility Aurora, Colorado, and the others to one in Tacoma, Washington, according to transgender detainees, former detainees and their advocates.
At Cibola, some told Reuters, detainees had made desperate attempts to get adequate care.
“Every time we felt sick the first step was to raise a request, but they never answered,” said Kelly Aguilar, a 23-year-old transgender woman from Honduras who said she had been detained at Cibola for two years before being transferred to Aurora.
“When people had fevers, headaches, stomach problems, we just tried to help each other by giving sips of water or buying pills in the commissary, but a lot of times we didn’t have money.”
ICE was not able to immediately comment on individual cases described in this story.
Amanda Gilchrist, a spokeswoman for CoreCivic Inc (CXW.N), the private prison company that operates Cibola and holds immigrant detainees under an ICE contract, said the company was “committed to providing a safe environment for transgender detainees” including training staff about preventing abuse and harassment.
A debate in Congress
Revelations about the medical concerns at Cibola come as Democrats in Congress are scrutinizing care for the approximately 100 self-identified transgender detainees in U.S. facilities, a small portion of migrants in immigration custody. Many are awaiting resolution of asylum claims.
Democratic lawmakers are pushing ICE to enforce the agency’s existing detention standards for transgender immigrants laid out in a 2015 memo. The memo, signed by former ICE Director Thomas Homan during the Obama administration, offers such protections as allowing immigrants to be housed according to their gender identity (transgender women with other women, for instance), as well as to be given access to medically necessary hormone therapy and mental health care.
Homan told Reuters it had proven difficult to find facilities willing to modify their contracts to adopt the transgender care standards. Currently none have done so.
Some ICE facilities, like Cibola, are operated by private prison companies. Others are run by federal, state or local governments. In December, Democrats directed ICE, in legislative guidance that accompanied a spending package, to adhere to the memo – but ICE rebuffed the request at the end of January, according to a congressional aide. The legislative guidance from Democrats is “not legally binding upon the agency,” according to an ICE statement that was provided to Congress and seen by Reuters.
Legislative guidance accompanying spending bills is commonly followed by government agencies, former federal officials and legal experts say.
Grant said several of the country’s more than 200 immigration detention centers have “informally” implemented aspects of the 2015 memo. She said ICE is continuing to look for facilities willing to run a dedicated transgender housing unit and “remains optimistic that some locations will sign the formal contract modification.”
Sharita Gruberg from the Washington D.C.-based liberal nonprofit Center for American Progress, one of the groups that filed complaints with ICE about the treatment of transgender detainees, said the transfers only shuffled the problems to other facilities.
“Congress is asking ICE to adopt its own standards for care,” she said. But “instead of complying with their own standards and complying with congressional direction, they went with secret option number three of just transferring (detainees) to other private prisons.”
Since taking office in 2017, U.S. President Donald Trump has rolled back protections for transgender people in the U.S. military, public schools and federal prisons.
Trump also has made an immigration crackdown – including increased detention of unauthorized immigrants – an important part of his presidency and his 2020 re-election campaign.
From hope to disappointment
ICE opened the dedicated transgender unit at Cibola in 2017 after a similar facility in California ended its contract with the agency.
Some detainees told Reuters that arriving at Cibola initially seemed a respite, allowing them to live among others like them, without the fear of abuse they had suffered in their home countries and other U.S. detention centers.
Zsa Zsa, a 54-year-old Jamaican who asked that her last name be withheld, said that after stints at ICE facilities in the general population of male detainees in San Diego and El Paso, she felt safer at Cibola. But soon, she said, she came to believe that the medical care in Cibola was “very poor.” She said she repeatedly tried and failed to get a specific medication to control her high blood pressure, becoming dizzy from lack of treatment.
Honduran detainee Shantell Hernandez, 29, said she had asked repeatedly for hormones at Cibola, but to no avail. It took her transfer to detention in Washington to get the medication she said she needed.
Before that, she said, “They never gave them to me.”
Between March 12 and 20, every household in the United States will receive an invitation to participate in the 2020 Census – a survey conducted each 10 years with the goal of counting every person residing in the United States. It will be possible to participate in the Census online, by mail, or by telephone. The Spahr Center wants to encourage all LGBTQ+ people and people living with HIV to participate in this count. Our community’s future depends upon the Census in three important ways!
Democracy – the Census determines how many representatives each state has in Congress, and drives redistricting at the federal, state, and local level. California does not want to lose representatives who support LGBTQ+ and HIV needs. It is important to make sure that every LGBTQ+ person and person living with HIV is fully counted so that we can keep building political power.Funding – the Census drives over $675 billion in federal funding each year for programs and services that our community disproportionately needs. A complete count today means more services for our communities for the next ten years.Civil rights – Census data are used to enforce nondiscrimination protections, as well as other civil rights like access to voting. Especially as the Supreme Court and Congress weigh in on sexual orientation and gender identity protections in coming years, we need to make sure our community members respond to the Census so we can enforce the rights we’ve won.
We know that our community may be conflicted about whether to participate, but the Census will not include questions about sexual orientation or gender identity (though same-sex couples can choose to self-identify). All Census answers are confidential, protected by federal law and cannot be shared with any other federal or local agency or private individuals. Please be aware that Census 2020 will NOT ask about citizenship or immigration status. The Spahr Center will have more information and guidance about Census 2020 in coming weeks, including the availability of Census Assistance Centers where you can ask questions and complete the survey. We are available to answer any questions you may have at 415.886.8551 or info@thespahrcenter.org in the meantime, prepare to QUEER THE CENSUSstarting on April 1, 2020!
The 2020 Census is hiring! To learn more, go to https://2020census.gov/en/jobs.html The Spahr center is a Community Outreach Agency for Census 2020, funded by United Way of the Bay Area.
Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency over the novel coronavirus after a California man died after falling ill with the virus while on a cruise ship.
Officials are trying to locate hundreds of other Californians who disembarked from the Grand Princess ship in San Francisco last month after a trip to Mexico. Officials want to determine whether they also might have contracted the virus.
That same ship, after a subsequent trip to Hawaii, canceled its stop in Baja California and was scheduled to return early to San Francisco on Wednesday, but it was being held off the coast so public health officials could screen everyone onboard, the governor said.
Some passengers on the vessel — both current and those exposed earlier — told The Times the response by the company and health officials has been filled with missteps. In particular, passengers interviewed by the Times said the company, Princess Cruises, was lax on health screening protocols prior to boarding and withheld information about the risks they faced, even as the ship’s condition became international news.
The virus has now been reported in 12 counties in the state and has sickened more than 50 people.
Newsom said he felt confident that the state could prevent the virus from being spread by passengers of the cruise who already had returned to California.
“We have the resources,” Newsom said. “We have the capacity. By this evening, we will have contacted every county health official that has someone who came off this cruise. They will have their contact information and begin a process to contact those individuals.”
Newsom said his emergency declaration is intended to help California prepare for and contain the spread of the coronavirus by allowing state agencies to more easily procure equipment and services, share information on patients and alleviate restrictions on the use of state-owned properties and facilities.
“This proclamation, I want to point out, is not about money,” Newsom said of the emergency declaration. “It’s about resourcefulness. It’s about our ability to add tools to the tool kit.”
Placer County public health officials announced that patient who had tested positive for COVID-19 after returning from a cruise to Mexico last month died. The individual, later identified as a 71-year-old Rocklin resident, had underlying health conditions and was the county’s second confirmed case of COVID-19, reported Tuesday night. Officials said close contacts of the patient were being quarantined and monitored for the illness.
The person’s likely exposure occurred during travel on a Princess Cruises ship that departed Feb. 10 from San Francisco and sailed to Mexico, returning Feb. 21, officials said.
The patient tested positive Tuesday and had been placed in isolation at Kaiser Permanente Roseville Medical Center.
The person probably had minimal community exposure between returning from the cruise and arriving at the hospital by ambulance Thursday, health officials said. Ten Kaiser Permanente healthcare workers and five emergency responders, who were exposed before the patient was put in isolation, are now in quarantine.
None of those 15 workers is exhibiting symptoms, officials said.
It’s possible that other cruise passengers may have been exposed, officials said. Placer County Public Health is working closely with Sacramento County Public Health and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to identify and contact other cruise passengers.
By one estimate, more than 50% of the roughly 2,500 passengers who traveled from San Francisco to Mexico and back on the cruise ship with the Placer County victim are Californians, Newsom said.
“We extend our deepest condolences to the loved ones of this patient,” Placer County health officer Dr. Aimee Sisson said. “While we have expected more cases, this death is an unfortunate milestone in our efforts to fight this disease, and one that we never wanted to see.
“While most cases of COVID-19 exhibit mild or moderate symptoms, this tragic death underscores the urgent need for us to take extra steps to protect residents who are particularly vulnerable to developing more serious illness, including elderly persons and those with underlying health conditions.”
Sisson said the resident first developed symptoms while on the cruise and continued to show symptoms while traveling through the Port of San Francisco.
The individual called 911 and was taken to the hospital Thursday, then tested for COVID-19 on Sunday. The results returned positive Tuesday, and the patient died Wednesday morning, Sisson said.
Placer County has six pending tests for COVID-19, and Sisson said she expects to see cases of community transmission soon.
“I urge Placer County residents to be vigilant and to take steps to protect themselves,” Sisson said. “Wash your hands. Wash your hands. Wash your hands…. We are not at the point where I would consider canceling events, closing schools or requiring widespread distancing measures, but we do want the public to prepare for that possibility.”
Sisson recommended that residents have two weeks of supplies on hand in case they are asked to quarantine.
Rocklin Fire Chief Bill Hack said emergency responders are wearing protective masks and goggles when responding to 911 calls until it is clear whether a person has respiratory symptoms that could indicate COVID-19. Three of the five emergency responders who have been quarantined related to the Placer County death are Rocklin city firefighters.
“They’re obviously being hyper-vigilant that if they start to become symptomatic they know what to look for and they know what steps to take,” Hack said. “They’re in good spirits at this point.”
Placer County is requesting that any other individuals who were on the Grand Princess cruise to Mexico self-quarantine.
Princess Cruises said it was notified by the CDC that it is investigating a small cluster of cases in Northern California among guests who sailed on the Grand Princess Mexican voyage.
The company said 62 guests on that voyage remain onboard for the trip to Hawaii that was returning to San Francisco after canceling its stop in Ensenada, Mexico.
Eleven passengers and 10 crew members on the boat were showing symptoms Wednesday, the governor said. “That number may significantly understate” the scope of infection, he said, or “it may indeed be abundance of caution.”
The state will contact every county health official with passengers in their area by Wednesday night, he said.
Newsom addressed the death shortly after the announcement.
“Jennifer and I extend our deepest condolences to the family and loved ones affected by this death in Placer County,” he said in a statement. “The state is working with federal officials to follow up on contact tracing of individuals that may have been exposed to provide treatment and protect public health.
“This case demonstrates the need for continued local, state and federal partnership to identify and slow the spread of this virus. California is working around the clock to keep our communities safe, healthy and informed.”
Newsom previously requested that the Legislature make $20 million available for the state to respond to the coronavirus and announced the California Department of Public Health is dipping into its reserves of millions of N95 masks to distribute to healthcare workers on the front lines of the coronavirus fights.
Newsom said Wednesday that a coronavirus lab test is now considered an essential benefit covered by government-sponsored health plans and private insurers. The governor added he is also extending price gouging protections in response to Amazon vendors’ taking advantage of people seeking hand sanitizer and other in-demand goods.
Los Angeles County, meanwhile, declared a health emergency Wednesday as the number of coronavirus cases in the county increased to seven, including six new patients.
None of the new cases are believed to be “community spread,”officials said. All individuals were exposed to COVID-19 through close contacts with others who were infected.
The additional cases were confirmed Tuesday night. Officials said three of the new cases were travelers who had visited northern Italy, two were family members who had close contact with a person outside of the county who was infected, and one had a job that put them in contact with travelers.
One patient has been hospitalized, and the others are isolated at home.
Additionally, the cities of Pasadena and Long Beach are declaring public health emergencies related to the novel coronavirus. There are currently no confirmed cases of the virus in either city.
The county’s move comes as the government has increased testing, which officials have warned will result in the identification of a significant number of new cases.
L.A. joins a growing number of California jurisdictions to take health-emergency action, which is designed to better marshal resources from across government agencies and give the fight against the virus more focus.
“I want to reiterate this is not a response rooted in panic,” L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger said at a news briefing. “We need every tool at our disposal.”
Supervisor Hilda Solis acknowledged the ongoing spread of misinformation about the virus and xenophobia toward Asian communities.
“There’s been too much misinformation spreading around,” Solis said. “As we expected, it’s cultivating fears and leading to racial profiling.”
Los Angeles County will increase its capacity for testing of the virus at its public health laboratory. Officials will begin daily radio briefings for the public, post new guidelines for schools and colleges, and over the next week will send “technical assistance teams” to make site visits to temporary housing facilities including homeless shelters.
Officials urged the public to frequently wash their hands, opt for verbal salutations in place of hugs and handshakes and try to maintain a distance of six feet from strangers.
“We have to be prepared. We have to protect the well-being of our loved ones and our neighbors,” Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said.
Officials said they had tested more than two dozen people for COVID-19 before these recent test results came back positive and reiterated that there had been no sign of community spread in the county.
“I want to reassure everyone — we are not there today,” L.A. County Department of Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said.
The screener, who is attached to the CDC, last worked Feb. 21 at LAX and, after developing potential symptoms, alerted medical professionals and authorities. The person was formally identified Tuesday as having the COVID-19 virus and so far has a mild case and is isolated at home.
Family members of the person have also been tested, according to one of the sources. So far, nothing has been done to change intake at the airport. Sources say the person was wearing protective clothing during the screening process.
Marin County health officials Tuesday declared a local health emergency despite there being no cases of coronavirus reported among county residents. San Francisco, which has no reported cases, and Orange County, which has three cases, declared health emergencies last week.
The move comes amid more sobering news about the spread of the virus in the United States, including nine deaths in Washington state, a new quarantine in the suburbs of New York City and a warning that more cases are on the horizon.
“I want them to be prepared for the reality that they, there are going to be more cases in the community,” said Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the CDC. “But I want them to continue their daily lives. I want them to be mindful of the opportunity again to prepare themselves and their families.”
The World Health Organization announced Tuesday that the global mortality rate from coronavirus had risen to 3.4%, with more than 3,000 fatalities. The death rate so far is many times higher than the mortality rate of the seasonal flu, which is 0.1%. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that is at least partly because COVID-19 is a new disease, and no one has built up an immunity to it.
Still, he and other health officials said there was still time to slow the spread of the virus.
Officials say they have learned the coronavirus is less transmissible than the flu, which is often spread by people who are infected yet don’t have symptoms. That doesn’t seem to be the case for COVID-19, he said.
“There are not yet any vaccines or therapeutics … which is why we must do everything we can to contain it,” Tedros said.
Earlier reports had pointed to a mortality rate of about 2% for COVID-19. Experts say they suspect all analyses so far have overestimated the disease’s fatality rate because milder cases are largely not being diagnosed. In 80% of people, the disease causes only mild illness, experts say.
More than 50 people in California have the virus, with new cases reported in Berkeley and Santa Clara, Placer and Orange counties. Kaiser Permanente announced late Tuesday it was treating a patient in Los Angeles.
The city of Berkeley said its case involved an individual who visited a country with an outbreak. That person has remained at home in a self-imposed quarantine since returning.
“While the risk of infection remains low, the expanded presence of the virus in our community is a reality we should all prepare for,” said Berkeley’s public health officer, Dr. Lisa Hernandez. “There are steps that all of us in the community can take now to improve basic hygiene and also prepare for a wider spread in the future.”
In Orange County, two cases are pending confirmation from the CDC. The cases involve a man in his 60s and a woman in her 30s who had both recently traveled to countries with widespread transmission, according to the Orange County Health Care Agency.
Santa Clara County announced three more cases of coronavirus Wednesday, bringing the total count there to 14 — the highest number of cases in the sate.
One is a man who’s currently hospitalized. The source of his exposure to the virus is currently under investigation. Two other men are close contacts of an existing case.
California is also speeding up testing of possible coronavirus patients. This more aggressive testing, Newsom said, “may lead to a more rapid increase in the number of confirmed cases reported. That is not necessarily a sign that the rate of infection is increasing, but that our ability to test more people more rapidly is leading to better detection.”
Dr. Mike Ryan, who runs WHO‘s emergencies program, pushed back against officials who wanted to “wave the white flag” and surrender to the disease’s hold. China took drastic steps to fight the virus, he said, and case numbers are now on the decline there.
Countries such as China and South Korea “implemented very, very strong measures that have affected their own economies and their own societies,” Ryan said. “It’s really a duty of others to use the time that has been bought.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said there remained many unknowns about the virus, including the degree to which people who do not express symptoms can transmit it to others. He said doctors know that it happens but have not yet gauged the extent, a key piece of data that will help determine decisions on how to contain it.
Fauci said that Chinese data are believed to be accurate and that the spread of the virus there is slowing thanks to “draconian” methods that would never occur in the United States, including stringent travel and public gathering restrictions.
“They have taken social distancing to its furthest extreme,” he said.
President Vladimir Putin has proposed amending the Russian constitution to spell out that marriage means a union between a man and a woman and nothing else, a senior politician was cited as saying on Monday by the RIA news agency.
Putin, who has aligned himself with the Russian Orthodox Church and sought to distance Russia from liberal Western values, has proposed a shake-up of Russia’s political system that critics say may be designed to extend his grip on power after 2024, when he is due to leave the Kremlin.
He and his supporters see that overhaul as an opportunity to modify the constitution to enshrine what they see as Russia’s core moral and geopolitical values for future generations.
Putin on Monday submitted his constitutional proposals to parliament just before the deadline, RIA cited Pyotr Tolstoy, deputy chairman of the lower house, as saying.
“For me, the most important one is his proposal to enshrine in basic law the concept of marriage as a union between a man and a woman,” Tolstoy added.
Putin said last month Russia would not legalize gay marriage as long as he was in the Kremlin. He said he would not let the traditional notion of a mother and father be subverted by what he called “parent number 1” and “parent number 2.”
Homosexuality in Russia, where the influence of the socially conservative Orthodox Church has grown in recent years, was a criminal offense until 1993, and classed as a mental illness until 1999.
Under Russian law, only heterosexual couples can adopt children in Russia.
Western governments and human rights activists have criticized the Russian authorities for their treatment of LGBTQ people. Gay British singer Elton John was among those to speak out against a 2013 law that banned the dissemination of “gay propaganda” among young Russians.
Under the law, any event or act regarded by the authorities as an attempt to promote homosexuality to minors is illegal and punishable by a fine. The law has been used to stop gay pride marches and to detain gay rights activists.
Putin has said he is not prejudiced against gay people, but that he finds a Western willingness to embrace homosexuality and gender fluidity out of step with traditional Russian values.
One out of every 10 people voting in today’s presidential primaries identifies as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, according to the NBC News Exit Poll conducted in 12 of the 14 Super Tuesday states across the country.
Reflecting changing generational attitudes about sexuality and gender identity, LGBT Democratic voters are substantially younger than today’s electorate as a whole. A third of LGBT people voting on Super Tuesday are younger than 30 years old, while 65 percent of the LGBT voters today are under 45.
LGBT Super Tuesday voters are a strikingly liberal group: Exactly half of LGBT voters today call themselves “very liberal” and another 30 percent say they are “somewhat liberal.” Just 4 percent of LGBT Democratic voters say they are conservative.
Just over a year after launching his historic campaign for the White House, Pete Buttigieg on Sunday announced the suspension of his presidential campaign, saying that the best way to advance his campaign’s goal of defeating Donald Trump “is to step aside and help bring our party and our country together.”
“By every historical measure, we were never supposed to get anywhere at all,” the former South Bend, Indiana, mayor said to a cheering crowd of supporters Sunday night, before turning to the still-unseen impact of his historic candidacy.
“We send a message to every kid out there wondering if whatever marks them out as different means they are somehow destined to be less than,” Buttigieg said. “To see that someone who once felt that exact same way can become a leading American presidential candidate with his husband by his side.”
For many LGBTQ advocates, Buttigieg’s run served as a historical counterpoint to the notion that Americans would never vote for a gay president — and a sign that many more LGBTQ candidates would seek elected office.
Roberta Kaplan, the attorney who defended lesbian widow Edie Windsor in United States v. Windsor, the landmark Supreme Court case that gutted the Defense of Marriage Act in 2013, found that there was much to marvel at in Buttigieg’s run.
“If you had asked me after we won the Windsor case seven years ago whether I thought an openly [gay] candidate could credibly run for president in 2020, I would have said you were nuts,” Kaplan tweeted.
Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of national LGBTQQ advocacy group GLAAD, said Buttigieg’s historic campaign “showed the world that Americans are ready to accept and embrace qualified LGBTQ public leaders.”
“His candidacy came after decades of LGBTQ Americans fighting to be heard, be visible, and have a place in the American experience,” Ellis said. “Pete’s success will no doubt lead to more LGBTQ candidates in political races large and small.”
Alphonso David, president of the Human Rights Campaign, the country’s largest LGBTQ rights group, praised Buttigieg for a run that centered around “his ideas, not his sexual orientation.”
“History will remember him for never backing down from a fight and never settling for less,” David said.
Tim Miller, a gay former Republican who was “shocked” by Pete’s improbable run, said he was “sad to see him go.”
“I hear from a lot of closeted young gays, I presume because I’m a visible Republican-type, and his campaign really had an impact on them,” Miller told NBC News.
“I think it also shows that we aren’t all the way there,” Miller continued. “Had Pete been straight or older, we may have seen more of the consolidation around him after Iowa that Biden is getting today.”
An NBC News THINK op-ed by Joe Cabosky, a journalism professor at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, argued that polls showing 76 percent of Americans open to voting for a gay president were in fact a sign of Buttigieg’s uphill battle: He couldn’t earn the votes of 24 percent of Americans just because of his sexuality.
For former Houston Mayor Annise Parker, now the president and CEO of the Victory Fund, an LGBTQ organization dedicated to training and electing LGBTQ political candidates, Buttigieg’s strong run for president marked a high point in the organization’s political activism and a “revolution” in American politics.
“We do not do policy, we do not do allies — we only support LGBTQ individuals,” Parker said Monday.
And even then, Victory does not endorse just any LGBTQ office seeker. The candidate has to have a path to victory. Buttigieg, the first viable LGBTQ presidential candidate, was Victory’s first-ever presidential endorsement.
“We didn’t endorse Pete when he put his exploratory committee together, we didn’t endorse Pete when he formally entered the race,” Parker said. “We didn’t endorse Pete until six months after he started down this path, and by then he had demonstrated over and over again his viability.”
For Victory Fund’s “back bench” — candidates or elected officials in lower offices or those who seek to run for office one day — there has been a noticeable “Pete effect,” Parker said.
“When our candidates see that, they think, ‘He can do it, I can do it, too,'” she said.
On Sunday, Miss Staten Island is taking a walk — and a stand. Madison L’Insalata — who exclusively revealed to The Post she is bisexual — plans to deck herself out in rainbow gear when she marches in the Staten Island St. Patrick’s Parade.
Organizers have again banned the Pride Center of Staten Island from marching and L’Inslata wants to show her support for the LGBTQ community. “There’s no rule against me wearing a rainbow,” said L’Insalata, 23, who has never before publicly discussed her sexual orientation. “I want people to see the colors and ask questions.”
Larry Cummings, a representative for the parade’s organizing committee, did not respond to The Post’s requests for comment. But he told the Staten Island Advance last week: “Here’s the deal, it’s a non-sexual identification parade and that’s that. No, they are not marching. Don’t try to keep asking a million friggin’ questions, OK?”
The head organizer of Staten Island’s annual St. Patrick’s Parade has banned all pageant winners from marching, the Advance has learned. As a result, the decision has thwarted Miss Staten Island’s controversial plans to march in support of the LGBTQ community, after the Pride Center of Staten Island had again been excluded from participating.
Madison L’Insalata, Miss Staten Island 2020, announced publicly Saturday she’s bisexual, and would be wearing a rainbow colored scarf while waving from the back of a convertible along the parade route in West Brighton.
Hours after her announcement made headlines, parade head Larry Cummings placed a call to pageant director Jim Smith to inform him all pageant winners, the cars they were set to ride in and the drivers were banned from the parade for “safety” reasons, Smith said.
Amid a wave of controversy against the LGBTQ community, Councilman Joseph Borelli (R-South Shore) said his display of a tiny pride flag pin got him booted from marching in the Staten Island St. Patricks Parade on Forest Avenue on Sunday.
Borelli, wearing a small rainbow flag lapel pin on his jacket, was told by one of the parade marshals that he couldn’t march, said the councilman.
“They [the parade marshals] physically blocked me,” said Borelli, who had planned to march in the parade despite many of the Island’s politicians decision to either not march or boycott the event. “They [the parade marshals] physically blocked me, my wife and two boys in strollers.”
