An analysis of a decade’s worth of CNN, MSNBC and Fox News coverage by The GDELT Project shows the flatlining focus on LGBT+ issues on all three networks coinciding with the 2016 election, when Trump began to dominate the news agenda.
The analysis, drawing on transcripts from the Television News Archive, looked at the frequency with which terms like gay, lesbian, transgender, LGBT and queer are mentioned.
The analysts wrote: “Starkly apparent is that mentions have almost disappeared across all three stations since November 2016.”
According to PinkNews‘ analysis of the data set, between July 2009 and July 2016 – when Donald Trump became the Republican nominee – around 0.43 percent of MSNBC airtime, 0.32 percent of CNN airtime, and 0.20 percent of Fox News airtime was dedicated to discussions including the LGBT+ keywords.
Since August 2016, however, coverage has declined by three-quarters, with only 0.06 percent of MSNBC airtime, 0.08 percent of CNN airtime and 0.07 percent of Fox News airtime including the same keywords.
The frequency of LGBT+ keyphrases has declined significantly since Donald Trump began to dominate the news agenda
The percentages are likely to significantly underestimate the total amount of coverage dedicated to LGBT+ issues, as the data only records blocks of time where specific key phrases are used.
However, the analysts said that it would be “highly unusual for all three stations to change their terminology overnight and especially coincidental that this abrupt transition occurred immediately after Trump’s election”.
Coverage has flatlined since the 2016 election
Prior to Trump taking office, coverage saw occasional spikes that appear to correlate with the 2012 election and showdowns at the US Supreme Court on issues including marriage equality.
However, Trump’s anti-LGBT+ policies and an impending Supreme Court showdown over whether LGBT+ people are legally protected from discrimination appear to have generated little additional attention by comparison.
Despite the lack of coverage on TV news channels, Google search data from the same time period shows a steady increase in interest of LGBT+ issues.
The GDELT Project noted: “The most likely explanation is that in a world defined by chaos, television news has simply shifted its coverage priorities. Though this has substantial ramifications with respect to raising awareness of LGBTQ issues.”
Ed Buck, a Democratic donor and activist whose West Hollywood apartment was the scene of two methamphetamine overdose deaths since 2017, was arrested on Tuesday after investigators said a third man suffered an overdose in his home last week.
Mr. Buck, 65, who has not faced charges for the earlier overdoses but was subject to a wrongful-death lawsuit, was charged on Tuesday with battery causing serious injury, administering methamphetamine and maintaining a drug house. He faces up to five years and eight months in prison.
The charges relate only to the most recent incident on Sept. 11, when the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office says Mr. Buck injected a 37-year-old man with methamphetamine in Mr. Buck’s home. The man, who was not identified, survived the overdose.
Buck, who was arrested at his home Tuesday, should be held on $4 million bail because he is a “violent, dangerous sexual predator” who “mainly preys on men made vulnerable by addiction and homelessness,” prosecutors said in a motion. Buck took advantage of his position of power and offered drugs, money and shelter to mainly addicted and homeless men in exchange for participating in sexual fetishes, including a fetish that involved administering dangerous doses of drugs, the motion said.
Buck came under investigation in January after 55-year-old Timothy Dean was found dead of an accidental methamphetamine overdose in his apartment. It was the second such death in two years, following the July 2017 death of Gemmel Moore, 26. Both men were black. Buck, who is white, was not charged and critics later questioned if wealth, race or political ties influenced the investigations.
Moore’s mother filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Buck, 65, in February alleging that he injected her son with a lethal dose of crystal methamphetamine. The complaint describes Buck as a wealthy white man who “had a predatory and injurious system of soliciting Black men and watching them cling to life.”
Both Moore and another man found dead at Buck’s house, Timothy Dean, were black. The lawsuit accuses him of wrongful death, sexual battery and assault and says he was not prosecuted “because he is white, and because Mr. Moore was Black.”
After the second man’s death in January, I reported that local LGBT activists had besieged law enforcement with demands for action.
Right wing sites had a field day with the story, running images of Buck with prominent Democrats including Hillary Clinton, Rep. Ted Lieu, and Rep. Adam Schiff.
The LGBT Pride March in Honduras’s San Pedro Sula, which drew 450 people, was the uplifting culmination of a week of Pride activities that also included more sober reflections, such as a candlelight vigil for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people killed in Honduras.
LGBT activists led the August 24 march with a banner that read, “Honduras inhabitable LGBTI,” meaning “Honduras unlivable [for] LGBTI.” Despite the activists’ courage and pride, which I also observed at Tegucigalpa’s march on the International Day against Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia in May, violence against LGBT people does make Honduras unlivable for many.
In a country where many cannot safely express their sexual orientation or gender identity publicly, it is hard to measure how much violence LGBT people in Honduras suffer. The Honduran government told Human Rights Watch it has no data on how many victims of violence are LGBT.
Absent official statistics, Lesbian Network Cattrachas maintains an observatory tallying cases of violence against LGBT people based on media monitoring and direct reports. According to Cattrachas, in 2018, 25 LGBT people were killed: 16 gay men, 5 trans people, and 4 lesbian women. And the situation appears to be worsening: the number of killings tallied between January and August of 2019 – 13 gay men, 7 trans people, and 6 lesbian women – already outpaces the entire year of 2018. San Pedro Sula is located in the region where Cattrachas has documented the highest rates of violence against LGBT people.
Hondurans endure extraordinary levels of violence regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. Gang violence abounds – in some cases Human Rights Watch investigated, LGBT victims may have simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time. But in other instances, violence appears targeted. Shakira, a trans woman also known by her nickname La Loba (the Wolf), was killed on June 9 in Choloma, 10 miles north of San Pedro Sula. A person who saw Shakira’s body told me her face was mutilated with a rock, her penis was cut off, and a note was left by her body that said, “[this] is the first one, two more to go.”
In the face of such violence, a pride march is an act of defiance.
Every year, the San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH) publishes a comprehensive report on HIV incidence and prevalence in the city, showing HIV trends to guide the public health response. Continuing a downward trend since the peak of the HIV epidemic in the 1990s, the most recent report with 2018 data shares a historic milestone reached by the city: Fewer than 200 HIV diagnoses occurred in San Francisco.
A total of 197 people were diagnosed with HIV last year in San Francisco. This is a 13% decline from 227 diagnoses made in 2017, and a 62% decline from 523 infections ten years ago in 2008. The peak number of HIV diagnoses in San Francisco occurred in 1992 with 2,327 diagnoses.
Most people (94%) living with HIV are aware of their status, and 91% of people newly diagnosed with HIV in 2018 entered care within one month. It is estimated that 74% of people with a last known address in San Francisco who are living with HIV were virally suppressed in 2017.
“I am really delighted that we in San Francisco, since the 1980s, have been at the forefront of pushing for innovative ways to change policies, new sciences and technologies to help us get to this milestone,” said Mayor London Breed at a press conference at Zuckerberg San Francisco General’s Ward 86. “This shows that when we work together with the community, with our policy makers, with our public health experts, and our nonprofits we can make a difference and save people’s lives.”
“We are pleased, but not satisfied,” said Diane Havlir, MD, who spoke on behalf of the Getting to Zero consortium. “We’re not satisfied because we had nearly 200 new diagnoses of HIV in our city—and it’s a preventable disease.”
Differences by Race and Ethnicity, Housing Status and for People who Inject Drugs
People of color, people experiencing homelessness and people who inject drugs continue to experience higher diagnosis rates, lower viral suppression rates and lower survival rates.
People of color are disproportionately affected by HIV
African American and Latinx men had the highest diagnosis rates (145 and 89 per 100,000), and rates increased from previous years. Diagnosis rates for white men have declined steadily since 2012. Among women, African Americans had a much higher diagnosis rate (35 per 100,000) than women of other races.
Overall, 74% of people living with HIV in San Francisco were virally suppressed, while viral suppression rates were lower for African Americans (68%), trans women (68%), women (66%), people who use injection drugs (65%), men who have sex with men who inject drugs (68%) and trans women who inject drugs (64%).
“San Francisco continues to make unprecedented progress towards ending the HIV epidemic,” said Joe Hollendoner, CEO of San Francisco AIDS Foundation. “However, we continue to see racial disparities related to HIV health outcomes. To end HIV transmission and AIDS-related deaths, the public health system needs to address the systemic racism that is inhibiting our progress.”
“We have to double down on these gaps that we’re seeing,” said Havlir. “We need to listen, and we need to deploy new innovative approaches with tools that have. With PrEP. And with upcoming tools like long-acting injectable [HIV] therapies which could make it a lot easier for some of our populations.”
Homelessness compounds HIV risk and severity of health outcomes
As the number of new HIV diagnoses shrinks year after year in San Francisco, and the number of people experiencing homelessness grows, a higher proportion of HIV diagnoses are occurring among people without access to medical care, social support and prevention resources—in particular people without housing.
In 2018, 20% (40) of new HIV diagnoses were among people without housing compared to 10% (29) in 2015. There were 8,011 people experiencing homelessness in San Francisco in January 2019, according to the 2019 San Francisco Homeless Point-in-Time Count and Survey, a 14% increase since 2013.
People without housing are also much less likely to be virally suppressed. Only 33% of people experiencing homelessness were virally suppressed, compared to 74% of people overall.
“We know that many elements that are key to success, for people living with HIV, are challenging if you don’t have a place to live,” said Monica Ghandi, MD, MPH, medical director of the SFGH HIV clinic. “That would be like making and keeping appointments. Where you store your medications, and where you keep them safe. Maintaining safe sex, and healthy eating. All of these barriers to taking your medications every day are amplified 100-fold if you don’t have a home.”
“Our focus on disparities really has to focus on ensuring that we reach people where they are,” said Hyman Scott, MD, MPH from Bridge HIV at SFDPH. “There are no ‘hard to reach’ populations—there are just ‘hard to deliver’ services. We need to re-think the way we approach some of these services that we deliver.”
HIV and people who inject drugs
People who inject drugs account for 25% of new HIV diagnoses, (10% are men who have sex with men who inject drugs; 1% are trans women who inject drugs; 14% are other people who inject drugs), a proportion which has risen over the years.
In addition to accounting for a higher proportion of HIV diagnoses, injection drug use is associated with worse health outcomes: People who inject drugs are less likely to be virally suppressed and have lower three-year survival rates after an AIDS diagnosis.
The percentage of people who are diagnosed with HIV who inject drugs is rising steadily every year, while reductions are seen in other populations including men who have sex with men.
“San Francisco has a robust syringe access program, which has kept HIV transmission rates low among people who inject drugs, but it’s not sufficient to eliminate HIV transmission among people who inject,” said Laura Thomas, director of harm reduction policy at San Francisco AIDS Foundation. “Housing instability and displacement make it challenging for people who use substances to always do so safely. That’s why it’s so important for us to establish safe injection sites in our city.”
“Unless we invest in expanding low barrier substance use and mental health counseling services like those offered at our Harm Reduction Center and at the Stonewall Project, I worry that increased HIV infection trends like those we’re seeing with people who inject drugs will continue,” said Mike Discepola, MA, senior director of behavioral health services and the Stonewall Project at San Francisco AIDS Foundation. “We will not get to zero new infections in San Francisco unless we focus services on our most vulnerable populations. This includes those who inject and use drugs, are experiencing homelessness or have untreated mental health concerns.”
An Aging HIV Population
With nearly 16,000 people living with HIV in San Francisco, two-thirds (10,691 people) are age 50 and older.
“We know that this is the generation that didn’t plan to live,” said Vince Crisostomo, manager of theElizabeth Taylor 50-Plus Network at San Francisco AIDS Foundation. “They didn’t plan financially, they didn’t set up 401Ks. But, they did live. And service providers need to be thinking about how to adjust services to meet the needs of these long-term survivors. How can we provide culturally competent services for people of older age who are living with HIV?”
“To end the epidemic we cannot leave anyone behind,” said Hollendoner. “We must achieve this ambitious goal together and prove to the world that it can be done.”
Guided by a new 5-year strategic plan, San Francisco AIDS Foundation charts a course for improving the sexual health outcomes of people of color and other priority communities, establishing safe injection sites, creating a comprehensive network of health and wellness services for people over age 50 who are living with HIV, and living our values of racial justice.
The Arizona Supreme Court has ruled the City of Phoenix cannot apply its LGBT-inclusive Human Rights Ordinance to penalize a local business for refusing to make custom-made invitations for a same-sex wedding, delivering a victory for groups seeking to justify anti-LGBT discrimination in the name of “religious freedom.”
In a 4-3 decision written Justice Andrew Gould, the court determines the guarantee of freedom of religion and speech under the Arizona state constitution permits Joanna Duka and Breanna Koski, owners of Brush & Nib Studios, LC, to deny services to same-sex couples.
“Duka and Koski’s beliefs about same-sex marriage may seem old-fashioned, or even offensive to some,” Gould writes. “But the guarantees of free speech and freedom of religion are not only for those who are deemed sufficiently enlightened, advanced, or progressive. They are for everyone.”
The court issued its determination based on Article 2, Section of the Arizona Constitution, as well as Arizona’s Free Exercise of Religion Act. The court didn’t issue the decision on grounds of the First Amendment under the U.S. Constitution, even though the anti-LGBT legal firm Alliance Defending Freedom, which is defending the business, argued the case on those grounds.
The ruling finds freedom of speech under the Arizona state constitution is broader than the freedom of speech afforded under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
“In examining the text of Arizona’s free speech clause, we first observe that whereas the First Amendment is phrased as a constraint on government…our state’s provision, by contrast, is a guarantee of the individual right to ‘freely speak, write, and publish,’ subject only to constraint for the abuse of that right,” Gould writes. “Thus, by its terms, the Arizona Constitution provides broader protections for free speech than the First Amendment.”
The ruling marks another win for anti-LGBT groups seeking to justify the detail of services to LGBT people in the name of religious freedom. Last month, the U.S. Eighth Circuit of Court of Appeals found in the Telemedia Media Case business could invoke a First Amendment right to refuse to make video for same-sex weddings.
Jonathan Scruggs, senior counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, crowed in victory in a statement following the the decision from the Arizona Supreme Court in favor of the business owners.
“Joanna and Breanna work with all people; they just don’t promote all messages,” Scruggs said. “They, like all creative professionals, should be free to create art consistent with their convictions without the threat of government punishment. Instead, government must protect the freedom of artists to choose which messages to express through their own creations. The court was right to find that protections for free speech and religion protect the freedom of creative professionals to choose for themselves what messages to express through their custom artwork.”
According to Alliance Defending Freedom, the owners of Brush & Nib Studios, LC were under threat of up to six months of jail time, $2,500 in fines, and three years of probation for each day the city would find them in violation of the law.
Writing the dissent in the case was Justice James Baker, who determined the City of Phoenix has a compelling interest in enforcing its ordinance against business seeking to deny wedding-related services for same-sex couples.
“Our constitutions and laws do not entitle a business to discriminate among customers based on its owners’ disapproval of certain groups, even if that disapproval is based on sincerely held religious beliefs,” Baker writes. “In holding otherwise, the majority implausibly characterizes a commercially prepared wedding invitation as ‘pure speech’ on the part of the business selling the product and discounts the compelling public interest in preventing discrimination against disfavored customers by businesses and other public accommodations.”
Gould takes another approach to the Masterpiece Cakeshop decision, asserting the decision would an allow religious and speech exemptions to a non-discrimination ordinance.
“Masterpiece Cakeshop did not hold that public accommodations laws were immunefrom free exercise exemptions; rather, it clearly contemplated that someexemptions, if narrowly confined, were permissible,” Gould writes. “And while we must, in determining whether plaintiffs’ invitations are entitled to an exemption from the ordinance, consider the impact on the City’s nondiscrimination purpose, we must also consider the effect of compelling plaintiffs to create these invitations.”
Justin Unga, deputy campaign director for the Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement the ruling was “an alarming decision that puts the state’s people, reputation, and economy at risk.”
“For years, Arizona’s economic councils, lawmakers, and leaders from every community, including faith and business leaders, worked together to build an Arizona that is open to everyone and attracts investments from across the country,” Unga said. “Not only does this decision affect countless LGBTQ Arizonans, it sends a message about inclusivity to businesses and institutions seeking to invest in states that welcome all people. Today’s decision could also open the door for discrimination against other communities protected by the ordinance including religious minorities and women.”
Julie Watters, a spokesperson for the City of Phoenix, said in a statement the Phoenix “is still a legal, valid law and remains in effect” and the ruling is limited to a solitary business.
“The Arizona Supreme Court made a very narrow ruling that one local business has the right to refuse to make custom wedding invitations for same-sex couples’ weddings that are similar to the designer’s previous products,” Watters said. “This ruling does not apply to any other business in Phoenix. The city of Phoenix has had an anti-discrimination ordinance since 1964 to protect all residents and believes that everyone should be treated equally.”
In response to a Blade inquiry on whether the city will be filed before the U.S. Supreme Court, Watters said “everything is currently being evaluated by our legal team.”
Alessandra Soler, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona, echoed the sense the ruling was limited. The ACLU filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case.
“While today’s limited decision from the Arizona Supreme Court is disappointing, it does not grant businesses a license to discriminate,” Soler said. “Discrimination has no place in our state, and we call on all local businesses to make it clear that they are open to all. We’ll keep fighting to ensure protections for LGBT Arizonans so that no one can be fired from their job, denied a place to live, or be turned away from a business simply because of who they are and who they love.”
Rep. Greg Stanton (D-Ariz.), who served as Phoenix’s mayor when the city passed its Human Relations Ordinance in 2013, also condemned the decision.
“This is a shameful day for Arizona,” Stanton said. “Four years after the U.S. Supreme Court held that same-sex couples have a fundamental right to marry, the state Supreme Court has decided that cities cannot safeguard those same couples from active and harmful discrimination by corporations. This is backwards, dark-ages thinking.”
Months after joining the gay-friendly Hotlanta Softball League, Gerald Bostock was out of a job in a Georgia county government office and was convinced he had become the victim of workplace discrimination based on his sexual orientation.
Proud of his job as an advocate for children caught up in the juvenile justice system in Clayton County in suburban Atlanta, Bostock said he was shocked when he was abruptly fired in 2013, an action that figures prominently in a major LGBTQ rights fight coming before the U.S. Supreme Court next month.
“I was devastated. I had just lost the job I had loved – my passion. I lost my source of income. I lost my medical insurance,” Bostock, 55, said in an interview at the house he shares with his partner in Doraville, located just northeast of the capital city of this southern U.S. state.
A rainbow-colored gay pride flag flutters outside.
Bostock, who was recovering from prostate cancer at the time, was escorted out of the Clayton County Youth Development and Justice Center building after being fired, and never returned. “I don’t even remember driving home,” Bostock said.
He believes that joining the league drew attention to his sexual orientation and that his firing was motivated by anti-gay sentiment. The county has denied it discriminated against Bostock and defended its decision to fire him.
The Supreme Court is set to hear arguments on Oct. 8 in three related cases including Bostock’s on whether gay and transgender people are protected from workplace discrimination by a landmark civil rights law.
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 bars employers from discriminating against employees on the basis of sex as well as race, color, national origin and religion. At issue in these three cases is whether the protections against sex discrimination cover gay and transgender people.
Bostock, after losing in lower courts, is asking the conservative-majority Supreme Court to let him bring a federal discrimination lawsuit against the county seeking monetary damages over his firing.
A ruling in favor of Bostock would give gay and transgender workers greater protections, especially in the 28 states including Georgia that do not have comprehensive measures on the books against employment discrimination. A ruling against him would mean gay and transgender people in those states would have few options if they encounter workplace discrimination.
Republican President Donald Trump’s administration, reversing the government’s position taken under Democratic former President Barack Obama, has joined conservative religious groups in arguing that Title VII does not offer protections relating to sexual orientation or gender identity.
“I’m willing to be the one to stand up so that anyone that wants to work or has the ability to work can do so without living in fear of being fired for who you are or who you love,” Bostock said.
Bostock worked for Clayton County for a decade – managing a program to recruit volunteers to help represent the interests of children in the criminal justice system – until being fired after he started participating in the recreational softball league for fun. The league was formed in 1981 as a “safe inclusive environment” for LGBT people to play softball.
Soon after joining the Hotlanta league, Bostock said, he heard at least one senior staff member in his office make negative comments about his sexual orientation.
Three months later, the county launched an audit of the program he managed. Bostock said the audit looked in part at his expenditures to take prospective volunteers out for dinner, including other participants in the Hotlanta league.
‘Non-discriminatory reasons’
A spokesman for Clayton County declined to comment on the firing, citing the ongoing litigation. But lawyers for the county said in court papers he was dismissed for “legitimate, non-discriminatory reasons” based on the audit.
“The county denies that Bostock’s sexual orientation was a motivating factor in its decision to conduct an audit of the program he managed or its decision to terminate his employment after the audit was completed,” the lawyers added.
The two other cases the Supreme Court will hear raise similar issues.
One involves a now-deceased New York skydiving instructor named Donald Zarda who was fired by his employer in 2010 after revealing he was gay. The other involves a Detroit funeral home’s bid to reverse a lower court’s ruling that it violated the Civil Rights Act by firing a transgender funeral director named Aimee Stephens after Stephens revealed plans to transition from male to female.
Big business, typically eager to avoid liability in employment disputes, is backing the LGBTQ plaintiffs in the three cases. More than 200 companies, including Amazon, Alphabet Inc’s Google and Bank of America Corp, joined a friend-of-the-court brief asking the justices to rule in favor of the plaintiffs.
The current patchwork of state and local anti-discrimination laws harms the ability of businesses to recruit and retain top talent, the companies argued.
“Businesses and their employees all benefit from the consistency and predictability that uniform federal law provides nationwide,” the companies said in their brief.
The definition of ‘sex’
The legal fight centers on the definition of “sex” in the Civil Rights Act.
The plaintiffs and civil rights groups have argued that discriminating against gay and transgender workers is based on their sex and, thus, unlawful. The Trump administration and the three employers accused of discrimination have argued that Congress did not intend for Title VII to protect gay and transgender people when it passed the law.
“The courts don’t get to rewrite the law. They get to apply it,” said John Bursch, a lawyer with the conservative Christian legal group Alliance Defending Freedom, who will argue at the court on behalf of employer R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes Inc in the transgender case.
The Supreme Court delivered a landmark gay rights decision in 2015 legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide. But its dynamics on LGBTQ issues have changed following the 2018 retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy, a conservative who backed gay rights in several major cases and wrote the same-sex marriage ruling.
The Title VII cases represent the court’s first major test on gay and transgender rights since Trump appointed conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh to replace Kennedy on a court with a 5-4 conservative majority, with the four liberal justices sympathetic to LGBTQ rights. Kavanaugh, whose approach to gay rights is unclear, could provide a pivotal vote.
Trump, strongly supported by evangelical Christian voters, has undermined gay and transgender rights since taking office in 2017. His administration has supported the right of certain businesses to refuse to serve gay people on the basis of religious objections to gay marriage, restricted transgender service members in the military and rescinded protections on bathroom access for transgender students in public schools.
Now working as a mental health counsellor at nearby Georgia Regional Hospital, Bostock said he will not give up his fight for gay rights even if the Supreme Court rules against him.
“I’m a firm believer,” Bostock said, “in throwing positivity out into the universe.”
US vice president Mike Pence addressed a fundraiser for an anti-LGBT hate group that has linked gay people to paedophiles, a week after the White House denied he is homophobic.
On Thursday, September 13, Pence was the headline speaker at the black tie gala for evangelical group Concerned Women of America, which lobbies against LGBT+ inclusion.
Anti-extremism watchdog Southern Poverty Law Center notes that the grouphas claimed that “gay marriage entices children to experiment with homosexuality”, and that “homosexuality carries enormous physical and mental health risks”.
The CWA has claimed: “Homosexual activists use same-sex ‘marriage’ as a political juggernaut to indoctrinate young children in schools to reject their parent’s values and to harass, sue and punish people who disagree.”
The $100-a-head gala was hosted at the Trump International Hotel in Washington DC, and was also addressed by Second Lady Karen Pence and anti-LGBT+ Republican Mike Huckabee.
He said: “The source of our prosperity is that foundation of faith and ideals of the American people, things the CWA has been all about from the beginning. President Trump has been busy strengthening the constitutional foundation and the commitment to those ideals from day one.
“I promise you, this is an administration that will always defend the freedom of religion of every American.
“The president promised back in 2016 to defend your right to fully practice your religion as individuals, as business owners, and as academic institutions, and that’s exactly what we’ve done.”
Many of you know Jim Foster and the amazing work he has done in our community (described below). He was recently diagnosed with Gulliane Barre’ Syndrome, a debilitating immune disease that has taken away many of Jim’s physical abilities. Jim has a long recovery period ahead and needs our support.
We are raising money to help Jim cover his medical and living costs.
Please join us Saturday September 28 1-3:30pm at Santa Rosa High School for food and an exciting program celebrating JIM, and help us thank Jim by raising money during this difficult chapter of his life.
In 1990 Jim Foster and Beverlee Laird co-founded Positive Images, an organization that provides emotional support and mentorship for LGBTQI youth as well as community education on homophobia and transphobia (https://posimages.org). Nancy Vogl joined PI in 2000 and together, they led as Co-Directors. Jim retired in 2015. In that time hundreds, if not thousands of Sonoma County queer youth have benefited from Jim’s vision and work.
Jim also dedicated 20 plus years to running the peer counseling program at Santa Rosa High School and helped countless others through his psychotherapeutic practice and his largess of mentorship and guidance.
Jim has worked in the Peace Corps, and had also traveled to Africa to volunteer his services.
Jim Foster has given so deeply to our community. Now is a time in which we can give back and honor this elder who has given so much. Any amount helps!
If you would like to donate prior to the event, you may donate:
A married gay couple are taking legal action against a Trump administration policy that has hindered their baby daughter’s fight for US citizenship.
Roee and Adiel Kiviti, who are both US citizens, ran into trouble with the State Department after welcoming baby Kessem via a surrogate in Canada earlier this year.
The couple are both listed on Kessem’s Canadian birth certificate, but the State Department treats the children of same-sex couples as “born out of wedlock,” only recognising her link to biological father Adiel.
The out-of-wedlock status has hindered the application for the birthright citizenship that she would be entitled to if her parents were recognised as a married couple.
A lawsuit filed on behalf of the couple on Thursday (September 12) says that the State Department’s “unjust policies and practices… unconstitutionally disregard the dignity and equality of the marriages of same-sex couples, and unlawfully discriminate against children simply because their married parents are a same-sex couple.”
Trump administration treating gay couple’s family as ‘second-class citizens’
Roee and Adiel Kiviti said: “The focus here is our little girl whose rights are being infringed upon by our government.
“Every parent wants to protect their child, to give them assurances of tomorrow, and this policy isn’t letting us do that. Our daughter will know her story.
“She will know how she came into this world, she will know about all of the loving people who helped us become a family, and she will know how her parents fought for her rights and for the rights of other families.”
The legal action is supported by Immigration Equality and LGBT+ non-profit Lambda Legal.
Aaron C. Morris of Immigration Equality said: “This is a fight for marriage equality. It is a fight for the fundamental right of citizenship.
“By refusing to recognise their rights as a married couple, the State Department is treating Roee and Adiel as second-class citizens and treating Kessem as if she is not a citizen at all.
“The administration has made abundantly clear it will ignore the law and Constitution. We will not stand for it.”
‘Cruel and un-American’ policy denies rights to baby of US citizens
Omar Gonzalez-Pagan of Lambda Legal said: “Kessem was born to two dads. By refusing to recognize Kessem as a US citizen at birth, the Department of State seeks to erase her family ties and to disrespect Roee’s and Adiel’s marriage.
“This is not only unlawful, it is also cruel and un-American.
“The Supreme Court has repeatedly affirmed that same-sex couples are entitled to the same constellation of benefits linked to marriage as different-sex couples.
“The government cannot refuse to recognize Roee’s and Adiel’s marriage, nor Kessem’s citizenship at birth. We will fight for the dignity of all LGBT families.”
Roee and Adiel were both born in Israel. Roee has been a naturalised US citizen since 2001, but Adiel had only lived in the US for four years and ten months when Kessem was born, which is below the five-year requirement for birthright citizenship.
Speaking to The Daily Beast, Roee said: “This is about singling out LGBT Americans—this is about telling gay and lesbian parents, ‘OK, you got marriage, but we know that you’re different. We know that you are not like us, and we’re going to treat you differently’.
“Today it’s our family—tomorrow it’s going to be someone else’s family.”
Adiel added: “We have no other choice but to fight for justice for Kessem.”
Anne McGivern, 2016 women’s march organizer, LGBTQ rights activist, Corporate Trainer and Realtor passed away from cancer on August 31, 2019. She was 68 years old.
She is survived by Jess and Josh Koffel of Brussels, Belgium, the children of her heart, and dozens of friends who loved her though a life she called blessed.
“I survived cancer 20 years ago and every day since then has been a gift. I have never felt like I was battling cancer, I’ve had a full joyous life.” Her record of community service in Sonoma County spanned 30 years of volunteering for non-profit boards, passionate public speaking on behalf of LGBTQ rights and active participation in progressive politics. She successfully fought a discrimination case all the way to the CA. Supreme Court. She chaired Marriage Equality for two years. She valued kindness, service and integrity above all other things. She tirelessly gave her time to help those affected by the 2017 wildfires.
Anne was a private person, despite the fact that she had a large public persona. Many are surprised to learn that she was a poet, a dancer, a photographer, a folk-singer and guitarist, and a late blooming artist. She preferred books to tv, reading one or two books a week and inhaling two newspapers a day. She readily admitted to a serious ignorance of tv culture.
She enjoyed telling people how she had invited friends to a super bowl party, only to discover four days beforehand that she had no cable connection! She performed in two productions of the Vagina Monologues. She traveled the world treasuring the kindness she received. In keeping with Irish Tradition, she was a jokester and storyteller to the end. She danced like no one was watching.
Those who loved her praise her “kindness,” “character,” “generous heart,” “playful spirit.” She was “a brave champion for social justice,” “a bright ray of sunshine,” “beloved friend and champion of this world.” She is celebrated for her “fidelity to friends,” “courage,” and her ever present smile.” At her request, there are no services planned.
Donations in her name may be made to Planned Parenthood or National Center for Lesbian Rights.
