The American Academy of Pediatrics reaffirmed its support for gender-affirming medical care for transgender children on Thursday, even as the treatments face a growing push for bans and restrictions from Republican lawmakers across the U.S.
The board of directors for the group, which represents 67,000 pediatricians, unanimously voted to reaffirm its 2018 position on the treatments. The board also voted to provide additional documents to support pediatricians, including clinical and technical reports, and to conduct an external review of research regarding the care.
“The additional recommendations also reflect the fact that the board is concerned about restrictions to accessing evidence-based health care for young people who need it,” Mark Del Monte, the academy’s CEO, said in a statement released by the group, calling the restrictions enacted by states “unprecedented government intrusion.”
“We therefore need to provide the best and most transparent process possible,” he said.
At least 21 states have now enacted laws restricting or banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors, and most of those states face lawsuits. A federal judge struck down Arkansas’ ban as unconstitutional, and federal judges have temporarily blocked bans in Alabama and Indiana.
The judge who struck down Arkansas’ ban cited the position of the groups in his ruling against the ban. Arkansas has appealed the judge’s decision.
People opposed to such treatments for children argue they are too young to make such decisions about their futures.
Every major medical group, including the academy and the American Medical Association, has opposed the bans and has said the treatments are safe if administered properly.
The academy and the AMA support allowing children to seek the medical care, but they don’t offer age-specific guidance.
Kevin Maxen, associate strength coach for the Jacksonville Jaguars, came out on Thursday and is believed to be the first openly gay NFL coach, as reported by WFSB.com. Hailing from Southbury, Connecticut, and an alumnus of Pomperaug High School, Maxen’s journey from a star football player to an NFL coach is marked by determination and hard work.
Maxen said, as quoted by Outsports, “I don’t want to feel like I have to think about it anymore. I don’t want to feel like I have to lie about who I am seeing or why I am living with someone else. I want to be vocal in support of people living how they want to live, but I also want to just live and not feel fear about how people will react.”
As a former Pomperaug High School Panthers captain, Maxen’s leadership skills and talent on the field were evident from an early age, graduating with the Class of 2011. Not only was he known for his prowess in football, but he was also recognized as the “most artistic” by his senior class, demonstrating a multifaceted personality beyond the sports arena.
Maxen’s success also extended to the baseball field, where he played a pivotal role in helping the Panthers achieve an impressive 26-2 record during his senior year. His dedication to sports continued as he played college ball at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury, honing his skills and preparing for the path that lay ahead.
According to ESPN, Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan said, “Kevin is a Jacksonville Jaguar through and through, and a key member of our football team and community. “I look forward to seeing Kevin next week at training camp and hope that he comes to work each day during camp and through the season feeling confident, free, and at peace.”
Maxen said on Friday that the support he received from both the NFL and the people around the country was “Out of this world.” as quoted by Outsports.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has ruled in favor of three transgender students who were forbidden by their schools from using bathrooms matching their gender identities. The circuit court upheld a lower court’s preliminary injunction that said the schools have to let trans students use facilities associated with their genders.
“Students who are denied access to the appropriate facilities are caused both serious emotional and physical harm as they are denied recognition of who they are,” said ACLU of Indiana lawyer Kenneth Falk. “They will often avoid using the restroom altogether while in school. Schools should be a safe place for kids and the refusal to allow a student to use the correct facilities can be extremely damaging.”
The case involves three trans boys in Martinsville, Indiana and Terre Haute, Indiana, who need access to the boys’ room at their middle and high schools.
One of the boys, identified as A.C. in court documents, is 13 and knew he was a boy since age eight. When he started seventh grade at John R. Wooden Middle School, his stepfather asked that he be allowed to use the boys’ rooms. The school refused and said that A.C. has to use either the girls’ room or a unisex bathroom in the health clinic.
Since he wasn’t out as trans to his classmates, he didn’t want to use the girls’ room. The only accommodation he got was that he wasn’t punished for tardiness when he used the health clinic bathroom. The school suggested he go entirely to online classes just to keep him out of the boys’ restroom.
He felt “depressed, humiliated, and angry” at school and tried to avoid going to be bathroom, which became a major distraction.
The school district actually had a policy to allow some trans students to use the appropriate bathrooms at the district high school, but they told him they couldn’t accommodate him because he’s in middle school.
The other two plaintiffs are 15-year-old twins B.E. and S.E. at Terre Haute North Vigo High School, who both transitioned socially when they were 11. They both also have a colon condition that requires them to take laxatives and have regular access to bathrooms.
They started using the boys’ restrooms in 2021 and no students had a problem with them doing so, the court documents say. But school employees who knew they were trans admonished them. Their mother met with the vice principal, and she was told that the twins had to use the girls’ facilities or a bathroom in the health office.
Since they weren’t out as trans at school, they worried about upsetting the other girls by using the girls’ facilities, and the health office was often locked during parts of the day and far away. B.E. had an accident once because he couldn’t get to the health office in time.
The school’s transgender bathroom policy took numerous factors into consideration and the school’s administration said that trans students needed unspecified surgical changes before they could use the correct bathroom. Gender-affirming surgery is banned for trans people under the age of 18 in Indiana.
The court took into account the fact that Title IX bans discrimination on the basis of sex in schools that receive federal money, which is most of them. Citing the 2020 Supreme Court decision in Bostock v. Clayton Co. that found that job discrimination against LGBTQ+ people necessarily takes sex into account and is therefore prohibited under Title VII, the appeals court ruled that the trans boys are likely to succeed in their case and that preventing them from using the correct bathroom while the case works its way through the court system could cause irreparable harm.
“Litigation over transgender rights is occurring all over the country, and we assume that at some point the Supreme Court will step in with more guidance than it has furnished so far,” Judge Diane Wood wrote for the court in her opinion.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas sued the Texas Attorney General and other defendants on Wednesday to prevent Senate Bill 12 from taking effect on September 1. It would ban drag performances in most public venues if permitted to move forward.
In the ACLU’s lawsuit, the group asserts that SB 12, which includes a ban on drag performances, violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments and threatens Texans’ livelihoods and free expression. For artists and those who support them, the ban targets any performance that could be construed as “sexual” and imposes criminal penalties, including a year in jail.
Many constitutionally protected performances could be censored by this law, such as touring Broadway plays and professional cheerleading routines or karaoke nights and drag shows, the ACLU said in a statement.
Among the plaintiffs represented by the organization are The Woodlands Pride, Abilene Pride Alliance, Extragrams, LLC, 360 Queen Entertainment LLC, and drag artist Brigitte Bandit.
Both LGBTQ+ nonprofits promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in their communities. Two drag production and entertainment companies that have already been impacted adversely by the ban and an Austin-based drag artist who performs, hosts, and produces drag shows, join the case to comprise the plaintiffs.
“The Texas Drag Ban is stunningly broad in scope and will chill entire genres of free expression in our state,” said ACLU of Texas attorney Brian Klosterboer. “This law flies in the face of the First Amendment. No performer should ever be thrown in jail because the government disfavors their speech, and we are asking the Court to block this affront to every Texan’s constitutional rights.”
“Texas queens and kings from across our great state have been targets of threats and misinformation as a result of the anti-drag law,” Bandit, the drag artist, said. “We must reject their attempts to divide us and continue to come together in our truth and power to support each other as Texans should. Our community will not be used as a scapegoat or a distraction by politicians who do not know who we are or what we do. State leaders should focus on legitimate issues, not political stunts. I dream of a state that’s better for us all, no matter who we are, how we live, or who we love. Long live Texas drag!”
President of fellow plaintiff organization, The Woodlands Pride, Jason Rocha, noted the importance of the lawsuit.
“Censoring drag is censoring free speech,” said Rocha said. “The Woodlands Pride was formed to help amplify the voices and representation of all, specifically the LGBTQIA+ community. Drag is a symbol of expression, and the freedom to express yourself is quintessential to human nature. We know this ban is aimed specifically at our community. Our freedoms to exist, express, and speak are at stake.”
Frankie Miranda was in kindergarten the first time he was called a fa—t. Growing up in Puerto Rico, he was bullied by other students and sexually assaulted by a teacher. Once, he confided in a middle school teacher that he had feelings for other boys. The teacher told him to go home and pray to Jesus.
Today, Miranda is the first openly gay president of the Hispanic Federation — one of the nation’s largest Latino advocacy organizations — and is drawing upon his experiences to help push back against recent laws and policies that target LGBTQ people.
Miranda is part of a broader movement among Latino advocates and leaders that is raising awareness of the shared struggles of Latino and LGBTQ communities, as conservative governors and state legislatures continue to promote anti-LGBTQ measures.
Miranda, 51, believes that measures like Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law and the state’s restriction on gender-affirming care for minors will actually hurt children. For example, he said, children will not report bullying or hazing. “The laws are creating fear and misinformation for parents and are designed to demonize some of the most vulnerable people in our community,” he added.
Under Miranda’s leadership, the Hispanic Federation has created the $1 million Advance Change Together Initiative, which is funding groups working to protect Latino LGBTQ rights. “The purpose of the Initiative is to empower under- resourced local organizations, so they can continue their work,” Miranda said. “We need to show that our community supports LGBTQ rights.”
‘We know what discrimination is’
A 2022 Axios/Ipsos Poll found that 62% of Latinos say they are comfortable around people who identify as LGBTQ. A Gallup survey released that same year found that about 11% of Latino adults identify as LGBT, compared with 6% of Americans overall.
For Pride Month 2023, the League of United Latin American Citizens — the nation’s oldest Latino civil rights organization — issued a call for state legislative bodies to protect and defend the rights of LGBTQ citizens. Jesse Garcia, who served as LULAC’s past LGBTQIA+ chairperson, said, “State legislatures have the power … to stop recent legislation attacking youth in schools, drag performers, and families making their own health decisions.”
“We know history. We know how to organize. We know what discrimination is,” LULAC”s Jesse Garcia says about the group’s call to defend LGBTQ rights. Courtesy Jesse Garcia
Since Garcia started the group’s first “Rainbow Council” in Dallas in 2006, LULAC has passed national resolutions on everything from repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” to opposing conversion therapy to supporting marriage equality.
Now a LULAC member in Washington D.C., Garcia is proud of his role in the group’s advocacy efforts.
“LULAC has always had openly gay members, and they were loved and beloved. We just had to have conversations at the local and national level,” he said. “But LULAC members are civil rights people. We know history, we know how to organize. We know what discrimination is.”
Latinos have a long tradition of LGBT activism. In 1961, Jose Sarria became the first openly gay candidate to run for public office, when he ran for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. In 1969, Sylvia Rivera helped lead the Stonewall riots in New York City, considered the birth of the LGBT rights movement. In 1987, Cesar Chavez — one of the first national civil rights leaders to support gay rights — served as a grand marshal of the Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights.
More recently, Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., the first openly gay Afro Latino to be elected to Congress in 2020, drew on his firsthand experiences to put LGBTQ issues in the legislative forefront. “As a child of the Bronx who grew up in public housing, I was often too scared to come out of the closet in my youth,” he states in his website. “I feel the weight of history on my shoulders. I know firsthand the discrimination members of the LGBTQ+ community face, and am determined to make positive change for my community.”
Torres’ first bill to pass the House ensures that LGBTQ-owned businesses have equal access to capital and credit, and he voted for the Respect for Marriage Act, which protects same-sex marriage rights.
‘We don’t want any of that with our kids’
But the increasing visibility of transgender, nonbinary and gender nonconforming people has generated some backlash among Latinos in the faith community. A majority of Latino Catholics (66%) as well as Latino Protestants (81%) believe there are only two genders, according to a June Public Religion Research Institute survey.
Pastor Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, said Latinos are “vehemently opposed to any teaching of gender and sexuality in elementary and primary schools.” Courtesy Samuel Rodriguez
Samuel Rodriguez is president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, a national organization representing Latino evangelicals.
“Latinos are vehemently opposed to any teaching of gender and sexuality in elementary and primary schools,” Rodriguez said, adding that there are many Latinos involved in the campaigns opposing LGBT and gender instruction in public schools. “We don’t want any of that with our kids.”
To Rodriguez, Latinos are often left out of the debate over LGBT and family issues. “We always hear the extreme voices on the right and on the left, because they’re the loudest voices.” “We are people of faith and familia, and we love and respect all people,” Rodriguez said.
He thinks there should be more room for diverse opinions in the public discourse. “If we are going to have Pride Month at Target, that’s great — but why can’t we have Traditional Family Month? That is simply equity.”
‘We are never safe’
Gia Pacheco, program director for Organizacion Latina Trans in Texas said it is “a sad reality” that “there are no safe spaces for trans people in Texas, including in queer spaces.” Pacheco pointed out that the Pulse nightclub mass shooting in Florida took place in a gay club.
The current political climate, according to Pacheco, has made OLTT’s work especially challenging.
“As a trans person, no matter how comfortable we might get, we are never safe,” said Pacheco, whose organization provides emergency shelter and temporary housing for LGBTQ people in vulnerable situations. OLTT is also the only shelter in Texas, according to Pacheco, that is “openly, happily” taking in transgender people. It also offers assistance to transgender migrants and Latinx people seeking gender-affirming care.
“Trans people are the first to fight for everyone’s rights, but always the last to receive them,” said Pacheco, adding that despite the challenges, the group remains committed to its work.
“No matter how many laws they pass, no matter how many bones they break, transgender individuals will always be here — and our community will still grow,” Pacheco said.
Conservative political strategies “are using trans issues as a wedge issue with Latinos, as a divide-and-conquer tactic,” said author and scholar Juana Maria Rodriguez, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley who teaches ethnic, gender and women’s studies.
“The right wing has latched onto transgender issues because they recognize that gay and lesbian rights have garnered traction. They (conservatives) have lost that war,” Rodriguez said. “So they’re trying to divide both the Latino and the gay community by throwing trans people under the bus.”
The boycotts of Bud Light and Target over their support for the LGBT community, reflect “one of the most extreme backlashes we’ve seen since the AIDS era,” Rodriguez said.
The UC Berkeley professor is not surprised that Latino advocacy groups are embracing LGBTQ rights. “It really comes down to family. Latinos love their families, and most of us have had una prima que nunca se casó (a cousin who never married) or a tía (aunt) who everyone knew was queer.”
Still, Rodriguez is concerned that the controversies over LGBTQ issues will harm Latino kids. “The right wing is targeting our love for our children — and trying to make us afraid of the LGBT community.”
Looking ahead, Frankie Miranda from the Hispanic Federation is optimistic about more “intersectionality” between Latino and LGBT groups.
“Our communities are not separate,” he said. “And the policies that are happening now, in some states, are trying to push us back into an era that I know well, an environment that can be toxic and damaging for many children.”
“But data shows that Latinos overwhelmingly support marriage equality and LGBTQ rights,” Miranda added. “We just need to be sure that we are communicating and continuing the conversations, so that everyone is treated with respect and dignity.”
A European man has been in a state of remission from HIV infection for nearly two years after receiving a stem cell transplant to treat blood cancer. If enough time passes with no signs of viable virus, he could join the rarefied club of five people who are considered either definitely or possibly cured of HIV.
All six people had HIV when they received stem cell transplants to treat blood cancers such as leukemia or lymphoma. But unlike the five other cases, this new one involves a person whose donor did not have a rare genetic abnormality that generates resistance to HIV in the immune cells that the virus targets for infection.
The man’s case will be presented next week at the International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Science in Brisbane, Australia. This major biennial gathering of scientists will also hear noteworthy presentations regarding post-treatment control of HIV in infant boys, circumcision’s impact on HIV risk in gay men, and the relationship between HIV and mpox (formerly known as monkeypox).
It remains unethical for a person with HIV who does not already qualify for a stem cell transplant due to cancer to undergo such a treatment in hopes of curing the virus, given such treatment’s considerable toxicity. Scientists generally expect that any success in the effort to develop a widely scalable HIV cure therapy will likely take decades.
Nevertheless, Dr. Sharon Lewin, president of the IAS and director of the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity in Melbourne, Australia, called the new viral remission case “great news.” Such case reports, she said, “help in many ways in the work toward a cure.”
The ‘Geneva Patient’
The man newly in remission from HIV has been dubbed the Geneva Patient, after the Swiss city where he has received his treatment. He is in his early 50s, was diagnosed with the virus in 1990 and began taking antiretroviral treatment in 2005. In 2018, he was diagnosed with a rare blood cancer known as an extramedullary myeloid tumor. He was treated with radiation, chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant.
His case has been overseen by a research team led by Asier Sáez-Cirión, head of the viral reservoirs and immune control unit at the Institut Pasteur in Paris.
HIV is vexingly difficult to cure. This is in large part because even when suppressed by antiretrovirals, the virus hides in nonreplicating immune cells, known collectively as the viral reservoir. Such standard HIV treatment only works on cells that are actively producing new viral copies. So the virus remains under the radar of antiretrovirals within these latently infected cells, each of which can take months or even years to return to a replicating state.
Since the first such case was announced in 2008, three people have definitely been cured and two additional people, pending more time passing without a viral rebound, have possibly been cured of HIV.
Prior to the Geneva Patient’s case, a handful of other people with HIV who developed cancer also received stem cell transplants from donors without the rare genetic mutation conferring natural resistance to the virus. But none from this group went more than 10 months after stopping antiretroviral treatment without a resurgent virus. Hopes that they had been cured were dashed.
The man in Switzerland has now spent 20 months with no viral rebound, having been taken off of antiretrovirals in November 2021. Sáez-Cirión and his colleagues have conducted a battery of ultrasensitive tests in search of HIV in his body and have only been able to detect trace amounts of defective virus. But they still cannot rule out that the man retains even a single cell infected with viable virus, one that could spring to action at any moment and repopulate the body with HIV.
“The possibility of viral rebound is indeed a concern,” Sáez-Cirión said. “The virus may persist in rare infected blood cells or anatomical sites that we have not analyzed.”
It remains unclear why the Geneva Patient’s case has been so successful, at least thus far, while others who received similar treatment were not so fortunate.
Dr. Steven Deeks, a leading HIV cure researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, who was not involved in the study of the Geneva Patient, said the details of the case “suggest that what we once assumed was impossible might in fact be possible.”
Speculating about the drivers of this man’s lengthy HIV remission, Deeks said, “Eliminating most if not all of the reservoir with chemotherapy was certainly the key intervention.” Deeks also noted the man’s repeated episodes of what is known as graft-versus-host disease, a powerful and potentially dangerous immune reaction that occurs as a consequence of a stem cell transplant. This might have also played a crucial role, Deeks said, “as the newly rebuilt immune system may have been attacking and clearing the old immune system, including any residual T cells harboring HIV.”
Sáez-Cirión said it is also possible that the immunosuppressive drugs that the Geneva Patient continues to receive to prevent graft-versus-host disease may be preventing any residual HIV from replicating.
Post-treatment control of HIV
Researchers in sub-Saharan Africa have identified a handful of boys born with HIV who did not experience viral rebound even after their antiretroviral treatment was interrupted for extended periods.
This finding comes from a study of 281 mothers in South Africa who had passed HIV to their newborns. The infants were all put on antiretrovirals immediately after birth. But the investigators eventually discovered that the caretakers of five boys had not provided them with HIV treatment for periods spanning three to 10 months, and yet each of these children maintained an undetectable or very low viral load.
Four of the boys were immediately put back on HIV treatment. However, one other has been kept off of treatment and has now passed 19 months without a viral rebound. Three of the others have been enrolled in a study in which their treatment will once again be interrupted, but under close monitoring.
Dr. Gabriela Cromhout, a research clinician and doctoral candidate at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and one of the lead authors of the study, said three of the boys can be classified as so-called post-treatment controllers of HIV, because they had sustained an undetectable viral load for more than six months while off antiretrovirals.
In advance of their conference presentation, Cromhout and her colleagues did not, however, conduct any ultrasensitive tests to search for the residual presence of HIV in the children’s bodies. Such tests are ongoing.
Dr. Deborah Persaud, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the head of a major ongoing study seeking to cure HIV in infants, said, “This is an enormous advance for the field of HIV remission and cure.” However, Persaud, who was not involved in the South African study, said to back their findings, the study’s investigators would need to present data at the conference confirming that the five boys were infected and that they were indeed off antiretrovirals for the extended periods — data that Cromhout confirmed her team has on hand.
Circumcision and HIV risk
In the mid-2000s, a trio of randomized controlled trials in sub-Saharan Africa determined that circumcising men reduced the risk of female-to-male sexual transmission of HIV by about 50% to 60%.
Now, a research team in China is the first to have completed such a study of gay and bisexual men. They enrolled about 250 uncircumcised men who have sex with men who reported primarily being the insertive partner in intercourse (known as being the “top”). Half were randomly selected to be circumcised. After one year, five study participants contracted HIV, all of them in the control group. The study registered no significant differences in sexual behaviors between the two study groups that might have affected the men’s relative risk of HIV.
The difference in the HIV acquisition rate between the two study groups, the investigators calculated, was statistically significant.
On a media call Wednesday, Dr. Huachun Zou, a professor of epidemiology at the Sun Yat-sen University School of Public Health in Shenzhen, China, said larger studies may be necessary to fully establish whether circumcision reduces the risk of HIV among gay and bisexual men. But he said it is “very unlikely” that researchers will, indeed, launch such research because of the global popularity of the HIV prevention pill, known as PrEP, as a means of reducing risk of the virus among gay and bi men. He said PrEP is not, however, widely used in China, a nation that also has a low circumcision rate.
HIV and mpox hospitalization
This study looked at surveillance data from the World Health Organization regarding 82,290 mpox cases from 2022. There was information about the HIV status for 39% of these people, among whom 52% — 16,633 people, or 20% of the total — had that virus.
The study found that overall, having HIV was not associated with a greater likelihood of being hospitalized with mpox. However, being immunocompromised, including from HIV or from another factor, was tied to about two to four times the hospitalization risk, compared with being HIV-negative and having a healthy immune system.
Fifty-eight of the people with HIV died, as did four of the 15,371 people without HIV.
A Key West drag performer is running to unseat a Republican in the Florida state legislature, where GOP lawmakers have spent the last couple of years pushing their blatantly anti-LGBTQ+ agenda under Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).
As Florida Politics reports, Michael Elgin Travis has filed to challenge incumbent state Rep. Jim Mooney, a two-term Republican who represents Florida House District 120.
A ghost tour guide and bartender at Key West’s 801 Bourbon Bar, Travis also performs two nights each week in drag as Erika Rose at the Duval Street LGBTQ+ bar. If elected, Travis would be the first professional drag queen in the state’s legislature.
Travis said that he decided to run for office after traveling to Tallahassee along with hundreds of other drag performers and supporters in April to participate in a march and rally against Florida’s S.B. 1438. The law, which DeSantis signed in May, allows the state Department of Business and Professional Regulation to revoke the business licenses of any venues that allow minors to see “lewd” performances, even if their parents’ consent, as well as issue $5,000 and $10,000 fines against the business. Anyone who violates the law can be charged with a criminal misdemeanor. While the law does not specifically mention drag, it has been interpreted as targeting drag shows and performers, which anti-LGBTQ+ Republicans have characterized as “sexually explicit adult entertainment.”
A federal judge blocked the law from going into effect late last month, but S.B. 1438 is just one of the many laws aimed at limiting the rights of LGBTQ+ Floridians passed by the state legislature and signed by DeSantis in recent years. Travis also blasted the state’s infamous “Don’t Say Gay” law, which was recently expanded to ban discussion of LGBTQ+ topics at all grade levels in Florida schools. Travis called the law “nonsense.”
“That one drives me nuts,” he said.
The Key West Democrat faces an uphill battle in the race against Mooney. As Florida Politicsnotes, the incumbent won 60 percent of the vote against out Democrat Adam Gentle in the 2022 general election.
“Either way, I win,” Travis said of his prospects. “I’ll either win the election or inspire others and let them know they are valued.”
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov ordered the torture and murder of a popular Chechen singer because the Putin ally was personally insulted to have unknowingly shaken hands with the gay man, according to a new report.
Zelimkhan Bakaev went missing within hours after returning to Chechnya for his sister’s wedding in 2017. The popular singer had fled to Moscow due to the gay purge taking place in his home region. The new report from SK SOS said Kadyrov was aghast a photo existed of the two men shaking hands. SK SOS reports he ordered security forces to “deal with” Bakaev, who was tortured during much of the 13 hours he was in custody before he was executed.
The report also said Bakaev’s body was returned to his family with the order to “bury him like a dog.”
Months after Bakaev went missing, Kadyrov gave a speech to service members accusing Bakaev’s family of killing him because they learned he was gay.
“They told him, ‘Come over,’ and when he arrived, apparently his cousins or second cousins confronted him and said, ‘You’re gay,’” Kadyrov claimed in the 2018 speech.
Despite the denial of involvement, the speech was the first official admission that Bakaev was dead.
During this same period, Kadyrov denied gay people existed in the country. During an interview with HBO’s Real Sports in 2017, he took offense at questions from reporter David Scott on his nation’s imprisonment and killing of gay and bisexual men.
“We don’t have those kinds of people here,” Kadyrov responded after scolding Scott for asking the question. “If there are there take them to Canada… Take them far from us so we don’t have them at home… To purify our blood, if there are any here, take them.”
Recent polling shows that Americans increasingly support transphobic bathroom bills, but social science research suggests that this trend could be reversed if more Americans simply came to personally know transgender people.
In a poll released last October, approximately 52% of Americans said they support “bathroom bills” requiring trans people to use facilities matching the sex they were assigned at birth. This was 17% higher than the 35% who supported bathroom bills when the same question was asked in 2016, the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) reported.
This increase is most likely due to the recent wave of transphobic legislation and rhetoric by conservatives nationwide. As of July 28, 80 anti-trans bills have been passed in state legislatures in 2023 so far, according to the Trans Legislation Tracker, a 207% increase from the 26 transphobic bills passed in 2022. Many of these laws ban trans people from accessing correct bathrooms, gender-affirming care, or having their identities respected in public schools and other institutions.
However, a June 2023 PRRI survey found that people who know trans people are less likely to agree with transphobic political views. This illustrates a phenomenon known in social science research as “intergroup contact theory.”
The theory states that interpersonal contact with people who are different from one’s self leads to more positive attitudes about those people and a decreased belief in negative stereotypes about them, PRRI CEO Melissa Deckman wrote at The Hill.
For example, in the June 2023 survey, 70% of trans respondents and respondents who are personally close to a trans person said they opposed bans on gender-affirming care for trans children. Comparatively, only 52% of cisgender respondents and those who don’t personally know trans people said that they opposed the bans.
Approximately 35% of respondents who know a trans acquaintance agreed with the conservative view that “young people are being peer pressured into being transgender.” That percentage rose to 49% among respondents who don’t know any transgender people.
Similarly, 20% of respondents who are personally close to a trans person agree that it’s never appropriate to discuss that some people are trans in public schools — a view that has been pushed by the anti-LGBTQ+ group Moms for Liberty and other so-called “parents’ rights” groups. That percentage rose to 41% among respondents who don’t know any transgender people.
In short, the increase in transphobic rhetoric and legislation has been able to thrive because most Americans don’t know actual trans people.
In fact, only 6% to 11% of all respondents in the June 2023 survey said that they have a “close personal relationship” with a trans friend or family member. Comparatively, 40% to 59% of all respondents said that they have a “close personal relationship” with a gay, lesbian, or bisexual friend or family member.
But while the trans community may benefit politically in the long run by building closer relationships with cisgender people, that still presents some challenges. Foremost, some trans people may feel afraid of outing themselves to cis family members, neighbors, and co-workers who may be unsupportive or even hostile to trans individuals.
Lambda Legal, with partners McDermott Will & Emery and Merchant Gould P.C., filed a federal lawsuit against Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County late last week challenging the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department’s (MNPD) discriminatory policies and practices that reject all job applicants living with HIV.
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee on behalf of an anonymous plaintiff, John Doe, a 45-year-old Black man and decorated civil servant living with HIV who has worked as a Tennessee State Trooper and with the Memphis Police Department for several years. The plaintiff was previously offered a position in the MNPD, but his 2020 offer was later rescinded solely because of his HIV status.
“This lawsuit responds to a clear case of HIV and employment discrimination where the MNPD denied employment to a well-qualified applicant due only to his HIV status. This applicant was taking advantage of today’s medical advancements and treatments; there is absolutely no reason why his HIV status is at all relevant to his ability to perform the duties of a job in law enforcement, the military, or any other job. In this case, the discrimination is even more egregious since the plaintiff had been serving as a police officer in Tennessee for years with no issue. To the contrary, he has been recognized for his work.” said Greg Nevins, Senior Counsel and the Director of Lambda Legal’s Employment Fairness Project.
“There are many concerning aspects of this discriminatory policy but a particular one is the racial aspect. Nashville is a city where almost 60% of people living with HIV are Black, and black men, who face disproportionate access to preventative health care, are 3.1 times more likely to live with HIV than White males. Given this data, the MNPD’s discriminatory policy clearly has a disproportionate impact on Black people and people of color. Discriminating on the basis of HIV status brings up other potential intersectional issues of race, gender, sexual orientation and, of course, stigma,” said Jose Abrigo, HIV Project Director at Lambda Legal.
“McDermott Will & Emery is proud to serve as co-counsel with Lambda Legal and Merchant Gould on this important employment discrimination case,” said Lisa A. Linsky,McDermott Litigation partner, co-lead on the case and founder of McDermott’s LGBTQ+ Diversity, Equity and Inclusion committee. Our law firm has a rich history of pro bono work supporting marginalized communities and fighting unjust laws, and we are committed to ensuring justice for all Americans.”
The Police Department’s policy rejected the plaintiff’s application during the Civil Service Medical Officer’s exam process claiming that an applicant “must meet or exceed the medical standards set forth in the United States Army Induction Standards.” MNPD uses the Pentagon’s medical exam policies for hiring purposes. Lambda Legal is fighting this same hiring policy from the Pentagon in federal court in the lawsuit Wilkins v. Austin, related to the U.S. Armed Forces’ policy barring people living with HIV from enlisting.
However, since 2022, the Pentagon is no longer either discharging military members due to HIV or considering HIV status for deployment or commissions, following a landmark ruling in April 2022 that was not appealed. A Virginia federal judge ruled that, as to servicemembers living with HIV who are asymptomatic and virally suppressed, the military could not discharge them, refuse to commission them, or categorically bar their worldwide deployment based on their HIV status. This victory came in lawsuits Harrison v. Austin and Roe and Voe v. Austin – litigation Lambda Legal brought with its partners Modern Military Association, Winston & Strawn LLP, Peter Perkowski, Esq., and Scott Schoettes.
The lawsuit filed last week, John Doe v. Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County, Metropolitan Nashville Police Department argues that MNPD’s policies are unlawful and constitute a violation of federal law including, but not limited to, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.
This lawsuit is the latest in Lambda Legal’s long history of fighting HIV discrimination nationwide, starting in 1983 with People v. West 12 Tenants Corp., helping to establish the illegality of discriminating against people living with HIV.
