Another historic royal wedding is set to take place this summer – the family’s first same-sex nuptials.
Lord Ivar Mountbatten, a cousin of Queen Elizabeth II, first made history when he announced he was gay in 2016 and became the first member of the royal family to do so.
Following his announcement, Lord Mountbatten revealed he was in a relationship with James Coyle, who he will marry during the summer.
The wedding will be made even more special because Lord Mountbatten’s ex-wife will play a special part in the ceremony, it was revealed at the weekend.
Penny, with whom Lord Mountbatten has three daughters, told the Daily Mail she will be the one walking her ex-husband down the aisle.
“It was the girls’ idea,” she said. “It makes me feel quite emotional. I’m really very touched.”
Lord Mountbatten’s first royal wedding, which he referred to as “the best day of my life,” was attended by the Queen’s youngest son, Prince Edward and his wife Sophie, who have extended their blessing to the happy couple.
Speaking to the Mail, Lord Mountbatten said his royal relatives know of the plans and are “really excited for us.”
“Sadly they can’t come to the wedding. Their diaries are arranged months in advance and they’re not around, but they adore James. Everyone adores him,” he told the newspaper.
As for the plans for the big day, James revealed that the ceremony, taking place in the private chapel on Lord Mountbatten’s estate in Devon, will be small and intimate, with just close friends and family in attendance followed by a bigger reception of 120 guests.
Of the couple’s decision to marry and have a wedding, Lord Mountbatten said he wants to do it for his partner.
“For me, what’s interesting is I don’t need to get married because I’ve been there, done that and have my wonderful children; but I’m pushing it because I think it’s important for him,” Lord Mountbatten said. “James hasn’t had the stable life I have. I want to be able to give you that.”
Although the Queen has not commented on her cousin’s upcoming nuptials, she has previously made statements in support of LGBT rights. During her speech at the State Opening of Parliament in 2017, she said: “My government will make further progress to tackle the gender pay gap and discrimination against people on the basis of their race, faith, gender, disability, or sexual orientation.”
On May 19 2018, Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, made history when she married Prince Harry and became the first mixed-race woman to marry into the British royal family.
The hostile immigration restrictions introduced by the Trump administration have “terrified” LGBT+ asylum claimants, says the head of a top US NGO.
The revised version of Trump’s travel ban has spelt disaster for people residing in the US who are from one of the six countries that made the final cut in the discriminatory bill.
For the likes of Mohamed, time is running out.
The gay man from Syria applied for asylum in 2014 and has still not been granted a working visa renewal.
“The number of LGBT people who make it through the system alive and request resettlement is small, it does not even reach the tip of the percentage of LGBTQI people that are represented in the international population,” Neil Grungas, executive director of the Organization for Refuge, Asylum and Migration told TeleSUR.
“People are just absolutely terrified to come out, and rightly so, they will be dead, they will be dead if they come out,” Grungas said. “The consequence is severe hardship for people who’ve already fled some horrific trauma.”
Even before the visa restrictions came into play, LGBT+ refugees were frequently turned down for a valid visa owing to factors such as lack of employment, family ties, and low homeownership rates, reported TeleSUR.
President Donald Trump attempted to ban people seeking refuge in the US from entering the country from seven countries.
The nations, which have a Muslim-majority population, were subject to a travel ban.
The consequences of this executive order reverberated internationally.
More than 700 travelers were detained, and up to 60,000 visas were “provisionally revoked” after the order was issued.
According to a study conducted by the Williams Institute in 2015, an estimated 190,000 undocumented adult LGBT immigrants from Latin America — mostly from Central America — are also residing in the United States.
They face heightened levels of harassment, discrimination, physical and psychological abuse, often even from their family and community, reported TeleSUR.
Gay employees at the creative company Mother have created a T-shirt printed using their blood to protest the gay blood donation ban in the US.
The company, which has offices in New York and London, launched the Blood is Blood T-shirt to highlight the discrimination LGBT people face when donating blood.
The front of the T-shirt reads: “This shirt is printed with the blood of gay men.”
On the back, a longer piece of text states the US Food and Drug Administration’s current guidelines for donating blood are “outdated” and propagate stigma.
The T-shirts will be sold at gender-neutral retailer The Phluid Project, with proceeds going to Callen-Lorde Community Health Center, a LGBTQ service provider in New York.
The ink for the shirt was created by British artist Stuart Semple.
It was launched for Pride month and World Blood Donor Day.
Under US federal law, men who have sex with men (MSM) cannot give blood for 12 months from their last sexual encounter.
The law came into effect in 2015, when the FDA overturned a lifetime ban on accepting blood donations from MSM, which was introduced in 1983 during the AIDS epidemic.
The Blood is Blood website reads: “Due to the stigma of another era, members of the community can’t be proud of their own blood. The Food and Drug Administration claims that the blood of men who have had sex with men in the last 12 months is ‘too risky’ to donate.”
“Instead of making the call based on real risk-factors, the regulation discriminations based on sexual orientation.”
“If the FDA changed its risk-assessment, it is estimated that an additional 360,600 men would likely donate 615,300 additional pints of blood each year, possibly saving the lives of more than 1.8 million people.”
Gay men will be allowed to give blood three months after having sex, rather than a year, as per the previous guidelines.
Dr Gail Miflin, medical and research director at NHS Blood and Transplant, said the change was based on the latest available medical and scientific evidence.
“We have one of the safest blood supplies in the world. Anyone may require a blood transfusion in the future and so it’s in all our interests to ensure that we work hard to keep blood safe for patients,” Miflin said.
“This starts with selection of donors before they give blood. Everyone must answer questions on their health and lifestyle before they donate and answering these questions correctly is crucial, in order to keep blood safe.”
If you’re like me, the news of the past week about the Trump administration’s policy of separating kids from their parents at the border has you both livid and emotionally drained. What’s worse is that every time you think the story is as bad as it could possibly get, it sinks deeper and deeper. Children changing diapers of even younger children. Border guards taunting – in Spanish – a room full of crying kids, saying that all they need is a conductor for their orchestra. Trump openly using these children as pawns in negotiations with Congressional Democrats over immigration reform and his never-happening border wall. Jeff Sessions saying that what we’re doing isn’t as bad as the Third Reich, since the United States is keeping people out while the Nazis were keeping the Jews in.
At the rate we’re going, just wait a few hours and the story is going to be even more dismal than it was before. It’s almost as if this is Trump’s strategy – to wear us all down to the point that we are completely immobilized.
So don’t let this happen. Work against the feeling of uselessness and futility. Fight back, now more than ever. Here’s five easy ways how:
1. Call your Representative and Senators It’s basic civics – each and every one of us has one Representative in the House and two Senators. Find their phone numbers easily here. And then get on the phone. If your Representative has spoken out against separating kids, let them know you support them. If your Senators have signed onto the bill that would ban this practice, applaud them.
But if any of the three has not, memorize that phone number and call it over and over – and then over again. Let them know you vote, you have a long memory, and you will never forget where they stand on the issue of whether children should be ripped from their parents arms.
Do this everyday between now and whenever this shameful policy ends. And text all your friends to do the same. If your Representative’s and Senators’ morality won’t make them do the right thing, maybe fear of their job will.
2. Volunteer There are certain skills that are desperately needed in border communities. Are you an immigration attorney? Do you know Spanish or another language that can help with refugees? These are probably the most sought-after forms of assistance, and if you have one of those skills, there’s a list of organizations to contact here.
But it doesn’t end there. Maybe you don’t live anywhere near the border and you don’t have these skills, but you can certainly help to make the lives of immigrants in your community better. There are shelters, community centers, and service agencies for immigrants around the country. Contact your local one and see how you can help. Maybe you won’t be focused on the children at the border right now, but you’d be doing your part to make America more hospitable to immigrants, which will ultimately help every immigrant, no matter where they are.
3. Donate This one is simple. If you have money, there are organizations that need it to help the children at the border. Even if you don’t normally feel like you have enough money to donate to charities on a regular basis, now is the time to dig deep and find what you can. After all, if you’re reading this, you probably have more to give than the families in need at the border have.
There are all sortsof lists already on the internet of places to donate money. Pick an organization – or several – that strike a chord with you and send them what you can, even if it’s just $5 or $10.
4. Protest There’s been so much to protest since January 20th, 2017, that it may seem that we’re suffering from protest fatigue. But, people coming together and collectively putting their bodies on the line is always a proven way to get attention and bring about change.
There have already been many local protests, and now it’s going national. June 30th is the national day of protest against the separation policy, with the main protest happening in Washington, D.C. from 11a.m. to 2 p.m. When we look back on this moment in history, you don’t want the answer to the question, “Where were you?” to be, “At home, doing nothing.”
5. Vote Despite the many ongoing efforts to cut it back, we are still a representative democracy, which means that the people who make decisions are ultimately accountable to us. In particular, the Republicans who have been silent about the atrocity happening at our border need to be held accountable. However, that only happens if we vote.
But here’s the part of democracy and voting that too many people don’t fully appreciate – voting happens more than once every four years. In fact, here in Pennsylvania, where I live, everyone should be voting twice a year, every year. We have elections for some combination of local state, and national offices every single November, which means there’s a primary for those offices every single May. Twice a year, every year. That’s the mantra here.
Every state is different though, so our Pennsylvania mantra might not apply where you live. But everyone in this country has elections at least every two years and possibly more. Find out when every single election that you can vote in is, and then vote in every single one – primary and general. If there is an election that you are eligible to vote in but don’t, you’re doing this resistance thing entirely wrong.
Hopefully, there will be a day sometime soon when our immigration policy is not this gut-wrenchingly cruel – but the only way to make sure that happens is to take action. The lives of some of the most helpless children on earth depend on it.
A leading lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender refugee organisation is rallying to ask Canada to invite more LGBT+ asylum seekers into the country.
Rainbow Railroad, an organisation in Canada, saved the lives of 206 LGBT+ asylum claimants in 2017.
After working with some of the most vulnerable claimants on record, the charity wants the Canadian government to step up and save more lives.
“It’s fitting that World Refugee Day falls during Pride Month,” said Rainbow Road executive director Kimahli Powell.
“LGBTQI asylum seekers are often forced to flee their home, family and country because of who they are and who they love.”
Rainbow Railroad has helped 450 LGBTQI people in dangerous situations find safety since it was founded in 2006.
“This is a chance to put the spotlight on the global refugee crisis, and remember that LGBTQI refugees are particularly vulnerable to violence and abuse,” said Powell in a statement.
In 72 countries, queer and trans people can face criminal charges under colonial-era anti-gay laws that can result in life in prison, according to ILGA’s 2017 report.
As the case of Bruce McArthur proves, the spotlight is on Canada to provide as much support and safety for refugees as possible.
The suspected serial killer was said to have targeted vulnerable asylum claimants who had moved over to the country to start a new life.
Queer Sri Lankan asylum claimant Skandaraj Navaratnam, gay Aghanistani Majeed Kayhan and gay Turkish man Selim Esen are just a few of the LGBT+ men allegedly targeted by McArthur.
Bisexual asylum applicants also face particular difficulties in securing residency in the nation.
Researcher Sean Rehagg found that bisexual applicants made up 7 percent of the claims, and the success rate of bisexual applicants was 25 percent, while LGBT+ applicants that identified other than bisexual had a 49 percent success rate.
The U.S. on Tuesday announced it has withdrawn from the U.N. Human Rights Council.
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley told reporters during a press conference at the State Department that Cuba, Venezuela, China, the Democratic Republic of Congo and other countries “with unambiguous and abhorrent human rights records” are members of the council. She also accused the council of having a “chronic bias against” Israel.
“America has a proud legacy as a champion of human rights, a proud legacy as the world’s largest provider of humanitarian aid, and a proud legacy of liberating oppressed people and defeating tyranny throughout the world,” said Haley. “While we do not seek to impose the American system on anyone else, we do support the rights of all people to have freedoms bestowed on them by their creator. That is why we are withdrawing from the U.N. Human Rights Council, an organization that is not worthy of its name.”
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also spoke to reporters.
“We have no doubt that there was once a noble vision for this council,” he said. “But today, we need to be honest – the Human Rights Council is a poor defender of human rights.”
Pompeo added the council “has become an exercise in shameless hypocrisy — with many of the world’s worst human rights abuses going ignored, and some of the world’s most serious offenders sitting on the council itself.”
Council has emerged as LGBTI rights champion
The U.N. created the council in 2006.
The U.S. joined the council in 2009 after former President Obama took office. The council over the last decade has become an increasingly vocal champion of LGBTI rights.
The council in 2011 narrowly approved an LGBTI rights resolution. It adopted a resolution against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in 2014.
The council in 2016 approved the creation of the U.N.’s first-ever position to combat anti-LGBTI violence and discrimination. Cuba and Venezuela are among the countries that voted for the resolution.
The U.S. last September voted against a council resolution that includes a provision condemning the death penalty for those found guilty of committing consensual same-sex sexual acts. An American official told the Washington Blade the U.S. backed language in the resolution “against the discriminatory use of the death penalty based on an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity, while also requesting changes to make the larger resolution in accordance with U.S. law” that says the death penalty is legal.
The Human Rights Campaign and the Council for Global Equality are among the organizations that told Pompeo in a letter they are “deeply disappointed” with the Trump administration’s decision to withdraw the U.S. from the council.
“This decision is counterproductive to American national security and foreign policy interests and will make it more difficult to advance human rights priorities and aid victims of abuse around the world,” they said.
Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Ron Dermer on Tuesday applauded the decision when he spoke at his embassy’s annual Pride reception in D.C. U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) — who was born in Havana before the 1959 Cuban revolution brought Fidel Castro to power — also praised Haley and Pompeo.
Tuesday’s announcement coincides with growing global outrage over the Trump administration’s policy of separating immigrant children from their parents when they enter the U.S. from Mexico.
U.N. experts have sharply criticized the U.S. over its response to Hurricane Maria that devastated Puerto Rico last September.
The Trump administration’s overall LGBTI rights record also continues to spark outrage among activists.
“Without a history of progress on LGBTIQ human rights at the Human Rights Council we would have no progress to speak of within the U.N. system today,” said OutRight Action International, a global LGBTI advocacy group, in a statement. “Withdrawing from the council sends a message to other countries that its acceptable to walk away from the system when it doesn’t suit you to be there.”
“Imagine, what would happen if all countries walked away from the U.N. because of disagreements,” asked the organization.
Haley at the State Department press conference stressed the administration has “used America’s voice and vote to defend human rights at the U.N. every day, and we will continue to do so.”
“Even as we end our membership in the Human Rights Council, we will keep trying to strengthen the entire framework of the U.N. engagement on human rights issues, and we will continue to strongly advocate for reform of the Human Rights Council,” she said. “Should it become reformed, we would be happy to rejoin it.”
Ireland is to issue an apology for historical persecution under anti-gay laws.
The Republic of Ireland only decriminalised homosexuality in 1993, five years after its archaic sodomy law was found to be incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.
Prior to decriminalisation, laws dating from the nineteenth century made “buggery” an offence punishable by imprisonment, and gay men in the country lives under a culture of fear.
In a poignant move today, the government of Taoiseach Leo Varadkar is set to issue an apology to men who were persecuted under the laws.
The move has a particular resonance as Varadkar is the country’s first openly gay leader, taking office in June 2017.
The leader is expected to give a speech before the Dáil today on a Labour Party motion on the issue, tabled by Senator Ged Nash.
The motion is supported across parties.
Nash told HotPress: “This historic motion represents an important reckoning with our past. The State inherited draconian laws we applied over many decades to persecute and prosecute gay men merely for being who they were.
“It took until 1993 for Irish law makers to show the moral courage to banish these cruel, antiquated and inhumane laws from our statute books.
“Apart altogether from those who were convicted of offences that no longer exist, the chilling effect of having such harsh and discriminatory laws in place had a negative impact on progress towards equality for the LGBTI community.
“Incalculable harm and hurt was caused to countless thousands of citizens of this Republic who were deterred by those laws from being open and honest about their identity with themselves, their family and with society.
“This prevented citizens from engaging fully in civic and political life and deprived society of their full contribution. They were badly wronged by this country, and they and their families are owed an apology.
“I look forward to this powerful statement being made in both Houses of the Oireachtas next Tuesday and I am hopeful that support will be garnered from across the political spectrum.”
Nash added: “The Labour Party is continuing to work with government to identify ways in which convictions received by men for engaging in sexual activities which are no longer offences can be set aside or disregarded in a legally secure manner.
“As a country, we have made very significant progress on LGBT rights in recent years. However, we still have some way to go before we achieve full equality for LGBTI citizens in Ireland.”
“This motion also represents an opportunity for the Oireachtas to unite to affirm that Ireland should be a country where all LGBTI citizens are free to fully express their identities without fear, prejudice or discrimination and that we put global LGBTI rights at the very centre of our foreign policy.”
Three well-known LGBTI rights advocates in the Mexican state of Guerrero were killed over the weekend.Authorities on Sunday found the bodies of Rubén Estrada, Roberto Vega and Carlos Uriel López in Taxco, a city between the state capital of Chilpancingo and Mexico City that is popular with tourists.
Estrada, 35, was the main organizer of Taxco’s annual Pride march and a local gay beauty contest. Vega and López, who was his partner, were also activists.
Gaby Soberanis, president of Diversidad Guerrero, an LGBTI advocacy group that is based in the resort city of Acapulco, on Monday told the Washington Blade during a telephone interview that Estrada, Vega and López were at a local nightclub early Sunday morning when a group of men tried to extort money from them.
Soberanis said Estrada, Vega and López refused to give them any money. She told the Blade the men returned, forcibly removed them from the nightclub and placed them into a van.
Authorities found their bodies a few hours later on a dirt road near the main highway between Mexico City and Acapulco.
A local newspaper published a picture of one of the murdered activists who appeared to have been shot in the back of the head. Another local media report indicates Estrada, Vega and López had been tortured before they were killed.
“We are sad, depressed,” Soberanis told the Blade. “They were young. They had a future ahead of them. The entire state’s LGBTI rights movement is sad, is in mourning.”
Other activists across Mexico also mourned their deaths.
“The loss is for a society that demands equality, freedom and an end to violence,” said Lol Kin Castañeda, a lesbian activist who is a member of the Mexico City Constituent Assembly in a tweet that tagged Guerrero Gov. Héctor Astudillo. “We demand justice.”
Local media reports say the manner in which Estrada, Vega and López were killed indicates they were victims of criminal gangs that operate throughout Guerrero.
“I don’t know if it was a hate crime based on homophobia,” Soberanis told the Blade.
The Blade has reached out to the Guerrero Ministry of Public Safety for comment.
Violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity remains commonplace throughout Mexico.
Drug cartels and criminal gangs that operate throughout Guerrero have made it one of the most violent states in the country. An advisory the State Department issued on March 16 urges U.S. citizens not to travel to Guerrero and the states of Colima, Michoacán, Sinaloa and Tamaulipas “due to crime.”
A group of 43 college students known as “normalistas” disappeared in Iguala, a city that is roughly an hour south of Taxco in Guerrero, on Sept. 26, 2014.
From left: Rubén Estrada, Roberto Vega and Carlos Uriel López were murdered in Taxco, Mexico, on June 17, 2018. An activist in the state of Guerrero with whom the Washington Blade spoke said Estrada, Vega and López were killed after a group of men tried to extort money from them at a local nightclub. (Photo courtesy of Gaby Soberanis/Diversidad Guerrero)
Mexican authorities have accused former Iguala Mayor José Luis Abarca and his wife, María de los Ángeles Pineda, of masterminding the kidnapping. The Associated Press reports Abarca allegedly ordered local police officers to turn the students over to members of a local criminal group who killed them.
The election to choose the successor to President Enrique Peña Nieto, who cannot run for a second term under the Mexican constitution, will take place on July 1. Violence and corruption are among the top issues for Mexican voters.
Tres conocidos activistas LGBTI asesinados en Guerrero
Tres conocidos activistas LGBTI en el estado mexicano de Guerrero fueron asesinados durante el fin de semana.
Autoridades el domingo descubrieron los cadáveres de Rubén Estrada, Roberto Vega y Carlos Uriel López en Taxco, una ciudad entre la capital estatal de Chilpancingo y la Ciudad de México que es popular con turistas.
Estrada, 35, era el principal organizador de la marcha anual del Orgullo de Taxco y un concurso de belleza gay local. Vega y López, quién era su pareja, también eran activistas.
Gaby Soberanis, presidenta de Diversidad Guerrero, un grupo LGBTI basado en Acapulco, el lunes dijo al Washington Blade durante una entrevista que Estrada, Vega y López estaban a una discoteca local temprano el domingo por la mañana cuando un grupo de hombres trató de extorcionar el dinero de ellos.
Soberanis dijo que Estrada, Vega y López se negaron darles ningún dinero. Ella dijo al Blade que los hombres regresaron, los sacó por la fuerza de la discoteca y los pusieron en una camioneta.
Autoridades encontraron sus cadáveres unas horas después en un camino de terracería cerca de la carretera principal entre la Ciudad de México y Acapulco.
Un periódico local publicó una foto de uno de los activistas asesinados quién parecía haber recibido un disparo en la parte posterior de la cabeza. Otro informe de la prensa local indica que Estrada, Vega y López habían sido torturados antes de ser asesinados.
“Estamos tristes, deprimidos,” Soberanis dijo al Blade. “Eran jóvenes. Tenían una carrera futura. Toda la diversidad en el estado está triste, está de luto.”
Otros activistas en México también están de luto por sus muertes.
“La pérdida es para una sociedad que exige igualdad, libertad y fin a la violencia,” dijo Lol Kin Castañeda, una activista lésbica quien es miembra de la Asamblea Constituyente de la Ciudad de México en un tweet al gobernador de Guerrero Héctor Astudillo. “Exigimos justicia.”
Informes en la prensa local dicen que la manera en que Estrada, Vega y López fueron asesinados indica que son víctimas del crimen organizado.
“No sé si era un crimen de odio por homófobia,” Soberanis dijo al Blade.
El Blade se ha comunicado con la Secretaría de Seguridad Pública de Guerrero para comentar.
Violencia basada en la orientación sexual y la identidad de género sigue ser común por México.
Los cárteles y grupos del crimen organizado que operan por Guerrero se lo ha hecho uno de los estados más violentos en el país. Un aviso que el Departamento de Estado (EEUU) emitió el 16 de marzo insta a los ciudadanos estadounidenses de no viajar a Guerrero y los estados de Colima, Michoacán, Sinaloa y Tamaulipas.
Un grupo de 43 estudiantes conocidos como los ‘normalistas’ desaparecieron en Iguala, una ciudad que está casi una hora al sur de Taxco en Guerrero, el 26 de septiembre de 2014.
Autoridades mexicanas han acusado al exalcalde de Iguala José Luis Abarca y su esposa, María de los Ángeles Pineda, de orquestar el secuestro. El Associated Press reporta Abarca supuestamente ordenó a agentes de la policía local de entregar a los estudiantes a miembros de un grupo criminal quién los mataron.
La elección para elegir el sucesor del presidente Enrique Peña Nieto, quién no puede postularse para un segundo mandato bajo de la constitución mexicana, se celebrará el 1 de julio. La violencia y la corrupción están entre las principales preocupaciones para los votantes mexicanos.
The younger brother of the 19-year old youth charged with killing 17 people in the Feb. 14 school shooting in Parkland, Fla., has announced the formation of a national anti-bullying organization that he says will be supported by high school and middle school students from across the country.
Zachary Cruz, 18, told reporters at a June 14 news conference at the National Press Club in Washington that he hopes the newly launched organization, among other things, will be able to help troubled, isolated young people victimized by bullying like his brother, Nicholas Cruz, before they engage in destructive behavior that can endanger the lives of themselves and others.
“I cannot stand here today and defend my brother or make excuses for him,” Zachary Cruz said. “His story is complicated, tragic and can be told elsewhere,” he said. “However, I can say very clearly today that our schools all across the country have ticking time bombs in them. Bullying leads to abuse and violence and not the least isolation,” he said.
Zachary Cruz has said he believes the behavior of his brother Nicholas was shaped at least in part by bullying he suffered while in school, which Zachary Cruz believes resulted in Nicholas becoming isolated and highly troubled.
“If we don’t do something to bring isolated kids out of the shadows, if we don’t do something to help those kids build relationships with each other and with adults and ways to fit it,” he told the news conference, “then we can’t be surprised when the next bomb goes off.”
Cruz and Mike Donovan, president and CEO of Nexus Services, Inc., a Virginia-based immigrant oriented bail bond company that is funding the new group, said they have named the new organization, We Isolate No-One (WIN): The Zachary Cruz Foundation to End Bullying.
They said the nonprofit foundation has already begun operating a 24-hour anti-bullying hotline staffed by trained crisis responders employed by Nexus Services who will provide emergency assistance to bullying victims in crisis as well as report bullying cases to school principals.
Donovan told the news conference the trained hotline staff provides crisis counseling for Nexus’s clients from one of the company’s call centers in Harrisonburg, Va. He said it was an easy transition for them to take on the additional role in operating the anti-bullying hotline.
He said a nonprofit law firm funded by Nexus Services, called Nexus Derechos Humanos Attorneys, Inc., will follow up on the bullying incidents identified through the hotline or through WIN student chapters formed in schools to determine whether legal action should be taken if a school fails to appropriately respond to a bullying incident.
Attorney Mario Williams, Zachary Cruz and Mike Donovan at the National Press Club last week. (Blade photo by Lou Chibbaro Jr.)
According to Donovan, he and Nexus Services would be contributing between $800,000 and $1.2 million for the startup phase of WIN. Donovan, who’s gay and founded Nexus Services with his husband, has emerged as an LGBT rights advocate in Virginia.
Cruz said his main focus this summer will be to encourage students in high schools and middle schools throughout the country to get ready to form WIN chapters in their schools at the start of the new school year in late August.
“We will train to spot bullying, abuse and isolation and how to intervene to head off the problem,” Cruz told reporters at the news conference. “And all of this work will be peer to peer,” he said, adding that adults and school officials will play a supportive role.
“While it may seem like a lot for kids to handle, we’re the ones who see this behavior,” he said. “It can be handled by teachers, but kids know. Since we know, it’s our responsibility to make changes.”
Donovan told the Washington Blade after the news conference that he and Zachary Cruz are aware that there are other existing organizations, including LGBT organizations, that address the issue of bullying.
“We have to work collaboratively with other organizations,” he said. “The benefit of WIN is that it has a national footprint immediately,” he said, adding, “It makes a ton of sense for WIN to work hand in hand with other agencies and with other organizations.”
At least three national LGBT groups – the Tyler Clementi Foundation, the Trevor Project, and the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) — work in various ways on bullying matters pertaining to LGBT youth. GLSEN initiated school-based student organizations called Gay-Straight Alliances, known as GSA clubs that students have formed in high schools and middle schools across the country.
GLSEN spokesperson Joanna Cifredo told the Blade bullying is one of many issues that GLSEN addresses in its school related programs.
“Bullying is a national issue and it’s a crisis,” Cifredo said. “We welcome all organizations that want to address bullying. There’s plenty of work to go around.”
Zachary Cruz surfaced in the news earlier this year when he was arrested for trespassing on the grounds of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., where his brother Nicholas is charged with fatally shooting 17 students and staff members on Feb. 14.
An arrest report says Zachary Cruz told Broward County, Fla., Sheriff’s deputies he skateboarded onto the school grounds because he wanted to “reflect on the school shooting and soak it in.”
A short time later he pleaded no contest to the trespassing charge and was sentenced to six months’ probation.
Donovan said he first met Zachary Cruz when the law firm associated with Nexus Services challenged a decision by a judge to initially hold Cruz on a $500,000 bond for the trespassing charge that ordinarily would result in release on a $25 bond. With assistance and legal advice from the Nexus attorneys, Cruz requested and was granted from a judge a transfer of his probation obligation from Florida to Virginia, where Donovan offered him a job and a place to live and the chance to start a new life.
Cruz immediately impressed him, Donovan said, by expressing an interest in dealing with bullying and saying he wanted to form an organization to end bullying.
“And he was very clear that he believed that peer to peer work, that putting kids in charge of building better communities in schools was critically important,” Donovan recounted. “And he convinced me. Not only did he convince me that that was the right thing to do… But he convinced me that kids want that opportunity and it is our duty to empower them.”
Additional information about the Zachary Cruz WIN Foundation can be accessed at weisolatenoone.com.
FILE PHOTO: A four-year-old boy weeps in the arms of a family member as he and others were apprehended by border patrol agents after illegally crossing into the U.S. border from Mexico near McAllen, Texas, U.S., May 2, 2018. REUTERS/Adrees Latif
Amnesty International on Monday said that President Donald Trump is breaking U.S. and international torture laws by using “coercive” tactics that “intentionally” cause mental suffering on immigrant children that have been separated from their families.
In a statement released Monday, the human right organization called the Trump administration’s “no tolerance” policy for undocumented immigrant families “sickening.”
“This is a spectacularly cruel policy, where frightened children are being ripped from their parent’s arms and taken to overflowing detention centers, which are effectively cages,” Amnesty International Americas Director Erika Guevara-Rosas said. “This is nothing short of torture. The severe mental suffering that officials have intentionally inflicted on these families for coercive purposes, means that these acts meet the definitions of torture under both U.S. and international law.”
“There is no question that President Trump administration’s policy of separating mothers and fathers from their children is designed to impose severe mental suffering on these families, in order to deter others from trying to seek safety in the USA,” Guevara-Rosas added. “This is a flagrant violation of the human rights of these parents and children and is also a violation of U.S. obligations under refugee law.”
Amnesty said that the organization had interviewed 17 families who have been separated from their children and found that “all but three of them had entered the USA legally to request asylum.”
“Make no mistake, these family separations are a crisis of the government’s own making,” Guevara-Rosas explained. “The U.S. government is playing a sick game with these families’ lives by playing politics with what is a serious and mounting refugee crisis.”