Pioneering LGBT activist Oscar Cazorla was killed in his home in Juchitan, in Oaxaca, Mexico, on Saturday (February 9).
According to the Oaxaca police, who have opened a murder investigation, the 68-year-old died from a blow to the heart inflicted by a sharp object.
Cazorla was well known in Mexico’s southern state of Oaxaca for advocating for the rights of those identifying as muxes, a third, non-binary gender that has been celebrated in the culture indigenous to the Istmo de Tehuantepec since pre-Hispanic times.
In 1976, the slain LGBT+ activist was one of the founders of the Vela de las Autenticas Intrepidas Buscadores del Peligro—which roughly translates as the Vigil of the Authentic, Fearless, Danger Seekers—an annual celebration that promotes the respect of muxes in Juchitan—a town of 75,000 that is home to an estimated 5,000 muxes, as AFP reported in 2017.
Cazorla’s killing shocked the local community, who are mourning the activist. “The Authentic, Fearless, Danger Seekers are in mourning. You left us with the broken heart. Rest in peace. My brother Oscar Cazorla Lopez,” wrote the group’s president Felina Santiago Valdivieso, on Facebook.
Speaking to CNN Espanol, Santiago Valdivieso called for a thorough investigation into Cazorla’s murder, as no one has been arrested in connection with the death.
“He was a very happy person who welcomed anyone in his home with a smile. We cannot imagine who may have killed him,” they told the broadcaster.
Santiago Valdivieso also denounced an increase in homophobic and transphobic violence in the past four years against their community. “We are involved in a wave of violence affecting large parts of Mexico,” they said.
International institutions condemn the murder of LGBT+ activist Oscar Cazorla
International institutions also condemned Cazorla’s murder. Jan Jarab, the UN Human Rights Office’s representative in Mexico, said in a statement: “We condemn this terrible crime that affects the entire Muxe community and all human rights defenders in Oaxaca.”
Jarab continued: “In recent years, hate crimes and killings of LGBT+ rights defenders have occurred in different parts of the country without being adequately investigated. This pattern of impunity must be overcome and, for that, Oscar’s murder must be clarified, through a diligent investigation that considers all possible hypotheses, including the possibility of a hate crime or retaliation for his human rights defence activities.”
A statement from the European Union, Norway and Switzerland condemned both Cazorla’s death and that of journalist Jesús Eugenio Ramos Rodríguez, who was shot dead in the state of Tabasco on the same day as the LGBT+ activist’s murder.
The statement, issued on Tuesday (February 12), read: “We express our condolences and our deep solidarity with the family and friends of the victims. The deaths of Ramos and Cazorla demonstrate once again the worrisome degree of violence and intimidation faced by many journalists and defenders in Mexico.”
More than half of all lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (or questioning), and other LGBTQ+ people in the U.S. report they’ve been singled out — through harassment, name-calling, or violent acts — because of their sexuality, according to a 2017 survey conducted by the Harvard TH Chan School of Public health. Of LGBTQ+ community members who attended or applied to college, 20 percent say they felt discriminated against while on campus.
Members of the LGBTQ+ community are three times more likely to experience mental health issues, such as depression or anxiety, than others, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Also, LGBTQ+ youth between the ages of 10 and 24 are four times more likely to attempt suicide than straight and cisgender youth.
Bullying, assault, lack of family and community support, and many other factors contribute to these increased rates of depression and suicidal thoughts in LGBTQ+ community members. This guide is meant to provide resources and information to help those community members as well as to assist those close to them in understanding how to be allies.
LGBTQ+ community members experience bullying at a higher rate than straight and cisgender people. Here are resources to help stop bullying and harassment.
Organize: The U.S. Department of Education in 2011 mandated that all schools must allow students to form GSA clubs (originally called Gay-Straight Alliance clubs).
Know the laws: Stopbullying.gov published this breakdown of federal laws, including civil rights laws, that protect LGBTQ+ community members.
Talk to someone: The Trevor Project provides 24-hour phone, text, and online chat services to anyone experiencing a mental crisis.
It Gets Better Project: LGBTQ+ people share their stories to empower and uplift youth who’ve experienced discrimination based on their gender or sexual identity.
Sexual Assault/Discrimination and the LGBTQ+ Community
Sex-based discrimination: The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission website explains what sex discrimination is and how to prevent it.
The Healthcare Equality Index offers an up-to-date list of LGBTQ+-supportive health care policies and organizations.
Americanprogress.org published this article outlining the challenges facing LGBTQ+ people when looking for health care and offers suggestions and solutions.
What Is an Ally and How Can Allies Help?
An ally is anyone who actively supports and stands up for LGBTQ+ community members’ rights. This could mean not tolerating bullying or prejudice when confronted with it, attending activism events, speaking out in support of LGBTQ+ people, or any other action that creates a safe space. Here are a few specific ways to help people in the LGBTQ+ community:
Educate yourself: The Human Rights Campaign Foundation published this informative guide to help support LGBTQ+ individuals.
Display safe space materials: The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) offers a kit especially made for schools to let LGBTQ+ students know they’re supported.
Join or start a group or club: GSA clubs are run by students and allow members and visitors to support LGBTQ+ community members through activities, discussions, and self-expression.
How to Create Safe Schools and Campuses
Inclusive campuses: This Higher Education Today page offers resources for professors and other educators who want to make safe spaces for LGBTQ+ students.
Stomp Out Bullying: This page lists information and resources to help high school administrators recognize and prevent bullying and harassment.
Stop the Hate: This Campus Pride project supports colleges and universities in preventing discrimination and bullying.
More Impactful Resources
National LGBTQ Task Force: Mobilizes activists to promote inclusion and acceptance of LGBTQ+ community members.
Today, a federal judge ordered the U.S. Department of Defense and Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan to halt discharge proceedings against HIV-positive members of the U.S. Air Force. The order came in the case of Roe and Voe v. Shanahan, filed by Lambda Legal and OutServe-SLDN, with partner law firm Winston & Strawn, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
The two Airmen serving as plaintiffs, who filed pseudonymously, were given discharge orders at the end of last year after being found “unfit for continued military service” despite compliance with medical treatment and physical fitness requirements.
Despite support from their medical providers and commanding officers, the first of these Airmen was to be separated from service in just ten days. In granting the preliminary injunction, the judge ruled the plaintiffs were likely to succeed in preventing their discharge through the lawsuit and rejected the Trump Administration’s motion to dismiss.
“This is a major victory in our fight to ensure everyone living with HIV can serve their country without discrimination,” said Scott Schoettes, Counsel and HIV Project Director at Lambda Legal.
“These decisions should be based on science, not stigma, as today’s ruling from the bench demonstrates. Despite President Trump’s promise to improve the lives of people living with HIV at the State of the Union this month, his Administration continues to defend these policies and others discriminating against people most impacted by HIV. Lambda Legal will keep fighting until these brave and qualified Airmen can serve without limitation.”
Drag queen Bella Aldama reads to a large group of kids and parents during Drag Queen Story Hour16 February 2019 17:44 GMTRafaella Gunz
An estimated 500 people showed up to attend a San Francisco-based Drag Queen Story Hour on Monday, 11 February.
This huge gathering at the Brentwood Community Center showed support for the event after a small group of anti-LGBTI protesters deemed the event ‘inappropriate’ for children.
Contra Costa County Libraries, who hosted this event, was not expecting such a huge turnout. At the event, drag queen Bella Aldama read children’s stories to the youngest guests.
‘The Contra Costa County Library is proud of the event,’ spokeswoman Brooke Converse told SFGate. ‘Our mission is about bringing people and ideas together. We want to be representative and inclusive of everyone in our very diverse county and community.’
Yet, unfortunately, some members of the community were not thrilled about this type of event, hence the protest. When East County Today, a local East Bay website, posted news of the event they were bombarded with Facebook comments — some of which were positive, but many of which were critical.
‘I never received this response in the other events,’ Aldama told KTVU at the time. ‘I have never seen so many negative comments in one day.’
Considering many iterations of Drag Queen Story Hour have gone on for months both in California and across the country, it is unclear why this particular event received so much controversy.
Nevertheless, Converse said that most of the feedback before the 11 February event was supportive.
‘The biggest surprise has been how much positive feedback we’ve received,’ she told KTVU. ‘For every negative comment, there have been multiple comments in support.
Still, the negative comments were enough for the Brentwood police department to provide six uniformed officers to oversee the event. Thankfully, though, everything ran smoothly.T
Aldama was able to brush off the negative vibes, too.
‘There is nothing wrong with reading a children’s book that display diversity and different gender identities,’ Aldama told East County Today at the event. ‘We are all different, and everyone deserves respect and love. We are not trying to teach or brainwash anybody. Drag is just a form of gender expression.’S
San Francisco Mayor London Breed says that she’s signed legislation giving the go-ahead to Eagle Plaza, a long planned new park in west SoMa nearly four years in the making.
The designs for the 12,500-square-foot space include a prominent Leather Pride flag to acknowledge SoMa’s history with the LGBTQ and leather communities. The Eagle Plaza name derives from the nearby San Francisco Eagle gay bar.
Upon signing, Breed said in a public statement that Eagle Plaza “will be a place where we can recognize the Leather community and all LGBTQ people for their contributions to Western SOMA and our city, while also creating a much-needed new open space for all of our residents in the neighborhood.”
People with HIV/AIDS in Venezuela are dying because of an acute lack of available antiretroviral drugs in the country, according to service providers and activists with whom the Washington Blade has spoken in recent days.
César Sequera, founder of Alianza Lambda de Venezuela, a Venezuelan LGBTI advocacy group, told the Blade on Feb. 8 during a telephone interview from the country’s Vargas state that he has been able to obtain antiretroviral drugs from non-governmental organizations or from donations he received from outside the country. Sequera, who is also a priest at an Anglican church outside of the Venezuelan capital of Caracas, acknowledged “there are other people who aren’t receiving them.”
“The situation is critical and alarming,” he told the Blade.
Hendriel Briceño, a 26-year-old public university professor who lives in Caracas, tested positive five years ago.
He told the Blade during a WhatsApp interview on Feb. 8 that he did not take antiretroviral drugs for a year “because there weren’t any.” Briceño said he currently has a month’s supply.
“We have a very serious situation,” said Eduardo Franco, secretary of Red Venezolana de Gente Positiva, a Caracas-based HIV/AIDS advocacy group, during a telephone interview on Monday.
Sequera, Briceño and Franco all told the Blade that Venezuela’s worsening economic and political crises have further exacerbated the country’s HIV/AIDS crisis.
A report from the International Council for AIDS Service Organizations (ICASO), Aid for AIDS International, Global Development and three Venezuelan organizations — Asociación Civil Impacto Social, Alianza Venezolana para la Salud and Sociedad Venezolana de Salud Pública — cites statistics from the Pan-American and World Health Organizations, the Venezuelan Ministry of Health and other agencies that note 25,000 more people died from HIV between 2010-2018. The statistics also indicate the number of people with HIV increased from 97,000 to more than 120,000 during the same period.
PAHO, WHO and UNAIDS representatives traveled to Caracas last June in order to observe the Venezuelan government’s efforts to combat HIV, tuberculosis and malaria. The organizations subsequently announced a plan to combat the diseases that includes input from Venezuelan health care providers, NGOs and government representatives.
“The plan was subsequently presented to the national authorities who gave approval of the document, as well as to State coordinators, the Venezuelan Society of Infectious Diseases, Pulmonology, Pediatrics and Gynecology/Obstetrics,” reads the plan of which the Blade obtained a copy.
The Global Fund board of directors on Sept. 24, 2018, approved $5 million “to help alleviate the gaps in the provision of HIV treatment in Venezuela.”
The PAHO Strategic Fund received $4.9 million to purchase antiretroviral drugs. Venezuelan NGOs received the remaining $100,000 from UNAIDS in order to oversee the distribution of the medications to people with HIV/AIDS.
The first shipment of the antiretroviral drug Tenofovir, Lamivudine and Dolutegravir (TLD), which contained 100,000 bottles, arrived in Venezuela on Dec. 23, 2018. A second shipment of TLD with 200,000 bottles arrived in the country on Jan. 16.
Red Venezolana de Gente Positiva and more than two dozen other Venezuelan HIV/AIDS service and advocacy organizations in a Feb. 4 letter to Health Minister Carlos Alvarado said none of the bottles from the two shipments had been distributed from a warehouse that is located on a military base in Miranda state. The letter also notes “millions and millions of pills of antiretroviral drugs are stored and withheld without justification” at the warehouse.
“Venezuelan civil society organizations working on HIV are writing to you to demand your urgent intervention in the release and delivery of antiretroviral medicines that will save the lives of more than 70,000 people living with HIV and AIDS in Venezuela,” reads the letter.
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) on Feb. 6 wrote in a tweet that “apparently (President Nicolás) Maduro is blocking $5 million Global Fund shipments of HIV and AIDS medicine from Venezuela.”
“This is a death sentence to those who depend on anti-virals (sic) for survival,” said the Florida Republican.
A Rubio spokesperson on Monday told the Blade she did not “have any additional information” about the antiretroviral drug shipment.
The Venezuelan government has said a lack of working trucks has prevented it from distributing the drugs throughout the country.
ICASO Executive Director Mary Ann Torres, who is originally from Venezuela, on Tuesday told the Blade during a telephone interview from Toronto the Venezuelan Ministry of Health indeed only a handful of trucks that are working. She said officials distributed some of the drugs in Valencia, a city in Carabobo state, after the open letter to Alvarado and Rubio’s tweet.
‘The government doesn’t care’
Venezuela, which has the world’s largest known oil reserves, was once Latin America’s most prosperous country. Venezuela’s worsening economic and political crisis has prompted millions of Venezuelans to migrate to neighboring Colombia and other countries in recent years.
Juan Guaidó, president of the Venezuelan National Assembly, last month declared himself president after the country’s disputed presidential election that took place in May 2018. The U.S. is among the countries that have officially recognized Guaidó as Venezuela’s interim leader.
Briceño said he has seen well-dressed people in Caracas “picking through the garbage” for food.
One source who asked the Blade not to identify them by name because of safety concerns said three condoms and a bottle of lubricant costs a month’s salary for someone who is making minimum wage. Madonna Badillo, a transgender woman of indigenous descent who lives in the Colombian city of Maicao, which is a few miles from the country’s border with Venezuela on the Guajira Peninsula, told the Blade last March during an interview at her home that Venezuelan women sell their hair to wigmakers for less than $10 “out of necessity.”
“One of the things I have seen is the government doesn’t care,” Torres told the Blade. “It’s a mixture of bad policies. It’s a mixture of ideology over evidence.”
Torres said other issues that have contributed to the crisis include corruption and the mismanagement of Venezuela’s nationalized oil and mining industries.
“It’s not about sanctions,” she told the Blade. “It’s about the mismanagement of a country and a government that is over-powerful and over-present everywhere. They have left the infrastructure to be destroyed completely. You see pictures of the hospitals and you understand why health is the way it is. Everything is falling apart.”
Sequera noted some Venezuelans still support Maduro, despite the deepening crisis. He also told the Blade there will be “a civil war” in the country if the U.S. stages a military intervention to oust Maduro.
“The entire population will come out on the street,” said Sequera.
Humanitarian aid is ‘urgently needed’ in Venezuela
Rubio is among those who have sharply criticized Maduro for preventing humanitarian aid from the U.S. from entering Venezuela. Media reports note Guaidó on Tuesday told supporters at a Caracas rally the aid would be brought into the country on Feb. 23.
Torres told the Blade that humanitarian aid is “urgently needed” in Venezuela. She also said the country needs to be completely rebuilt.
“The problem is the reconstruction won’t start with Maduro in power just because he doesn’t accept there is a problem,” said Torres.
The U.S. Senate confirmed William Barr on Thursday as President Trump’s next U.S. attorney general — a move that has made LGBT rights supporters wary amid indications he’d continue anti-LGBT policy at the U.S. Justice Department.
The Senate confirmed Barr on a largely party-line 54-45 vote, although Sens. Doug Jones (D-Ala.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) broke with Democrats to vote for the nominee and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) broke with Republican to vote against him. Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) didn’t vote.
Each of the 2020 presidential candidates or potential hopefuls in the Senate — Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) — voted against Barr.
Many Democrats expressed concern about Barr over a 2018 memo he wrote asserting a more limited authority for Special Counsel Robert Mueller as well as the nominee’s refusal to make public Mueller’s upcoming report on the Russia investigation.
LGBT rights supporters, however, had different reasons to oppose his confirmation.
Sarah Kate Ellis, CEO of GLAAD, was among the LGBT rights supporters who expressed concern over Barr’s anti-LGBT record.
“There’s little doubt that William Barr will carry on this administration’s ongoing efforts at rolling back the progress LGBTQ Americans have made in recent years,” Ellis said. “This confirmation today reminds us once again that the Trump administration is no friend to us.”
During his confirmation hearing, Barr hinted he’d continue the anti-LGBT policies of Jeff Sessions, who resigned on the behest of Trump following the mid-term elections after he recused himself from the Russia investigation.
Barr’s answers suggested he’d continue to uphold the Justice Department’s view that LGBT people aren’t protected under Title VII of the Civil Rights of 1964, which bars sex discrimination in the workforce. Additionally, Barr suggested he’d uphold religious freedom even at the expense of anti-LGBT discrimination.
But Barr also said during his confirmation he’d have “zero tolerance” for hate crimes, including those committed against LGBT people, and make investigating and prosecuting them a “priority” as attorney general.
Sharon McGowan, chief strategy officer for the LGBT group Lambda Legal, said in a statement must uphold civil rights as attorney general.
“As attorney general, William Barr will be responsible for defending the civil rights of all people, not just the wealthy and the powerful,” McGowan said. “From his first day on the job, he must make clear that, unlike his predecessor, he will not use the Department of Justice as a weapon of discrimination and bigotry. He must bring new leadership to the Department of Justice, and get it back in the business of defending civil rights and equal justice under law for all people.”
But Barr, who also served as attorney general 30 years ago during the administration of George H.W. Bush, also has a record troubling to LGBT rights supporters.
The Trump appointee once made anti-gay comments expressing concerns about greater tolerance for the “homosexual movement” in the United States than the religious community in a 1995 article for “The Catholic Lawyer,” a conservative Catholic publication for St. John’s University School of Law,
“It is no accident that the homosexual movement, at one or two percent of the population, gets treated with such solicitude while the Catholic population, which is over a quarter of the country, is given the back of the hand,” Barr once wrote. “How has that come to be?”
During his tenure at the Justice Department under Bush, Barr also acted to keep in place an administrative ban on people with HIV from entering the United States. Barr implemented a policy using the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay to detain people with HIV from entering the United States, including Haitians seeking asylum in the country.
Despite this record, one longtime gay friend of Barr’s, former Time Warner general counsel Paul Cappuccio, has come to his defense. Upon Barr’s nomination, Cappuccio told the Blade, “He’s not going to ever let people be discriminated against, OK?”
David Stacy, government affairs director for the Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement Barr’s confirmation spells trouble for LGBT people.
“William Barr has made clear that as attorney general he would not defend and uphold civil rights laws for all Americans — including LGBTQ people,” Stacy said. From his deeply disturbing opposition to nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ people to his record of undermining HIV and AIDS prevention, treatment and awareness — Barr would perpetuate Jeff Sessions’ work to license discrimination and double down on the Trump-Pence administration’s harmful attacks on the LGBTQ community.”
As legislative sessions continue across the country, South Dakota is leading the way with anti-LGBT bills through its recent advancement of a ‘Don’t Say Trans’ bill — but at least 78 anti-LGBT measures have been introduced in other states.
The South Dakota House of Representatives on Monday approved House Bill 1108 by a vote of 39-30. The legislation bars public school teachers in grades K-7 from instructing students about gender dysphoria, or the experience of being transgender.
Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, said in a statement the bill is “a harmful effort to harm transgender youth that will have ramifications for every South Dakotan.”
“The people of South Dakota know their state cannot stay true to South Dakotan values with a bill like this one on the books,” Keisling said. “If passed, the legislature will have delivered a self-inflicted wound against the entire state.”
The bill now heads to the South Dakota Senate. If the legislation is approved there, it will head to the desk of Gov. Kristi Noem. The Washington Blade has placed a request with Noem’s office seeking comment on whether she’d sign or veto the bill.
But the “Don’t Say Trans” legislation is one of three anti-transgender bills pending in South Dakota, according to the Equality Federation.
Ian Palmquist, senior director of programs for the Equality Federation, said Tuesday in a conference call with reporters South Dakota is a place for central concern in 2019 for LGBT advocates keeping an eye on anti-LGBT bills.
In addition to the “Don’t Say Trans” bill, another bill allows parental refusal for transition-related care for children, and another limits transgender participation in school sports.
In total, Palmquist counted 78 bills pending in state legislatures across the country seeking to undermine LGBT rights. That number is actually down from the 2016 session, when more than 200 such bills were introduced in state legislatures.
“So we’re not near that at this point, although, of course, bill introductions really aren’t finished in state legislatures all over the country yet,” Palmquist said.
Of the 78 state anti-LGBT bills, Palmquist said there are 18 bills in 10 states that are specifically anti-transgender. Those bills, Palmquist said, range from limiting access to transition-related health care and defining gender to what was assigned at birth.
Two of those bills seek to deny transgender people access to the restroom consistent with their gender identity, which is a reduction from years past. Palmquist attributes that to the massive backlash over House Bill 2 in North Carolina and the defeat of anti-trans efforts in Massachusetts.
Another category of legislation is “religious freedom” bills seen to enable anti-LGBT discrimination. Palmquist identified 18 bills in this category.
In this category are bills in Colorado, Kentucky and Tennessee that would allow taxpayer-funded religiously affiliated adoption agencies to refuse child placement with a family inconsistent with their religious beliefs, such as LGBT homes. (Three states have enacted these laws just last year.)
“That kind of legislation really puts young people at risk, leaving them in the system, keeping them from loving and caring families that could be taking care of them,” Palmquist said.
With Republicans in control of the Tennessee Legislature and the governor’s mansion, LGBT rights advocates have expressed particular concern about the anti-LGBT adoption bills pending before that state.
There are two anti-LGBT adoption bills before Tennessee: HB0836 would allow adoption agencies to deny placement in an LGBT home and SB0848 would bar state and local governments from penalizing such agencies.
“These measures represent state-sanctioned licenses to discriminate,” GLAAD CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said in a statement. “This effort in Tennessee is part of a coordinated campaign across the country to turn back the progress LGBTQ people have made, and the fair-minded people of Tennessee will see right through this charade, which harms families and children by hiding behind the false guise of protecting religion.”
In seven states, Palmquist said “religious freedom” bills have been introduced along the lines of the law Mike Pence signed as Indiana governor in 2015 allowing refusal of service to LGBT people. However, Palmquist said they’re fewer in number than in years past.
“We’re seeing fewer religious exemption bills that would cover broad areas of the law and seeing more bills introduced that are focused narrowly on very specific areas of government work,” Palmquist said.
Rebecca Isaacs, executive director of the Equality Federation, identified as a source for these anti-LGBT bills “Project Blitz,” a 148-page plan promoted by the Congressional Prayer Caucus Foundation that provides the model for the legislation.
“In 2018 alone, more than 70 of these Project Blitz-related bills — including anti-LGBTQ bills, bills that would undermine reproductive health care, attempting to inject religion into public schools — these were bills that were introduced in state legislatures across the country, so it’s really something to look out for,” Isaacs said.
But despite these efforts, Isaacs said on the conference call “people are really looking to the states” to advance LGBT rights in the face of a hostile Trump administration and uncertain Supreme Court.
As examples of victories, Isaacs cited Massachusetts voters’ decision to reject at the ballot last year a referendum seeking to undermine the state’s transgender non-discrimination law in addition to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signing into law bans on conversion therapy for youth and anti-transgender discrimination.
“In 2019, we expect we’ll be educating people more about the harms of conversion therapy, more education about why we need non-discrimination protections in employment and public accommodations, and again why it’s important to continue working on HIV and ending discriminatory laws against people living with HIV,” Isaacs said.
As of right now, 30 states have no laws or incomplete laws against anti-LGBT discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodation, but 45 bills have been introduced in 18 states seeking to enact those protections, according to the Equality Federation.
In the wake of New York approving its transgender discrimination law, Issacs said eyes are on Virginia to determine whether it’ll pass a law against anti-LGBT discrimination. Palmquist admitted efforts are complicated in Virginia by high-profile scandals engulfing each of the three top public officials in that state.
Palmquist said efforts are also underway to enact pro-LGBT bills seeking to ban conversion therapy. Bills along those lines are moving in Colorado and Minnesota, which are set to have committee hearings this week, Palmquist said.
Additionally, Palmquist said legislation is moving forward to seeking to bar “gay panic” as a legal defense against those accused of violent crimes. Nine states have introduced bills that prohibit the use of this kind of defense in their courts.
“This is obviously a ridiculous justification for committing a violent act, but we have seen it used in defenses around the country,” Palmquist said.
Palmquist said lawmakers have also introduced pro-trans bills in six states — Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, New Hampshire, New Mexico and New York — for legal documents, such as birth certificates and driver’s licenses.
These bills allow individuals to select a non-binary gender and to ease the requirement with which they can change their gender marker, which Palmquist said is “critically important for trans people.”
Five states, Palmquist said, are considering legislation permitting the teaching of LGBT history in schools. Other states, Palmquist said, are considering “equal-pay-for-equal-work” bills intended for women workers that would also include protections for LGBT people.
HIV-related bills are also present in state legislatures. Although some states, Palmquist said, are considering measures to decriminalize HIV and increase access to treatment and prevention, 10 states are also considering bills to further decriminalize HIV.
“These bills are based on flawed science, increased stigma and discourage people from getting tested — and they treat HIV differently from other communicable diseases,” Palmquist said.
Three LGB members of Congress led an effort on Wednesday in opposition to a Trump administration waiver allowing South Carolina adoption agencies to refuse child placement into LGBT homes.
In a letter dated Feb. 13, Reps. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.) and Angie Craig (D-Minn.) — the only openly gay members of the U.S. House who are parents — and bisexual Rep. Katie Hill (D-Calif.) led 95 House Democrats in denouncing the waiver, which allows the Greenville-based Miracle Hill Ministries to decline to place children with families contrary to its religious beliefs.
“We are writing to express our strong condemnation of this waiver because it will deny children the safe, loving and happy families they deserve and turn away qualified potential parents,” the letter says. “We strongly urge you to stop this despicable taxpayer-funded discrimination and uphold the essential non-discrimination protections that ensure that every child has a loving home.”
Last month, the Department of Health & Human Services announced it had granted South Carolina a request for a waiver from an Obama-era rule prohibiting adoption agencies that receive federal funds from discriminating on the basis of religion or sexual orientation. That decision brought an outcry from supporters of LGBT families.
The letter from 95 House Democrats to Secretary of Health & Human Services Alex Azar notes how the waiver could impact LGBT children in South Carolina seeking a home as well as the potential implications for LGBT kids in foster care nationwide.
“Permitting these agencies to use a litmus test to turn away qualified adoptive and foster parents reduces the number of loving families available to the over 4,000 children in South Carolina’s foster care system and the more than 400,000 children in foster care nationwide,” the letter says.
Stan Sloan, CEO of the pro-LGBT Family Equality Council, commended lawmakers for writing the letter in a statement.
“We are grateful to members of Congress for standing with the faith, child welfare, and LGBTQ communities to say ‘no’ to discrimination in foster care and adoption, thus ensuring that America’s 440,000 foster children are not needlessly denied the loving, supportive families they deserve,” Sloan said.
More action may come on this front from the Trump administration. At the National Prayer Breakfast, President Trump declared support for religiously affiliated adoption agencies seeking to place children into homes consistent with their religious beliefs.
“My administration is working to ensure that faith-based adoption agencies are able to help vulnerable children find their forever families while following their deeply held beliefs,” Trump said.
The Washington Blade has placed a request with HHS seeking comment on the letter and an inquiry on whether any more requests for waivers from the adoption regulation are pending before the department.
Thirteen same-sex couples demanding marriage equality filed lawsuits against the government at district courts across Japan on Valentine’s Day on Thursday, arguing that its refusal to allow them to marry is unconstitutional and discriminatory.
Each of the 26 plaintiffs is seeking 1 million yen ($9,000) in compensation, claiming that the government’s failure to recognize same-sex marriage has caused them emotional distress in what their lawyers say is the country’s first lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of such negligence.
The damages suits were jointly filed by the couples who are in their 20s through their 50s, and include Japanese and foreign partners, at the district courts in Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka and Sapporo.