Student athletes in Florida could be forced to turn in information about their menstrual history after an athletics association’s medical panel doubled down on its recommendation.
The move comes after a suggestion that the association’s board adopt a national sports registration form – which makes menstrual information mandatory.
Questions listed on the form include asking if players have had a period, when they first got their period, the date of their most recent one was and the regularity of their cycle during the previous 12 months.
Notably, the main difference between the national form and Florida’s system, as the Palm Beach Post reports, is where the information is stored.
The national form states that the part detailing athletes’ medical history – including their menstrual history – should not be turned into schools but remain with their physician.
However, the FHSAA’s sports medicine committee recommended that all pages of the form be handed over to their schools.
The committee argues that school staff need all the information they can get on their athletes, in case of a medical emergency.
The committee’s recommendation now goes to the FHSAA’s board of directors, which is due to meet at the end of next month.
The questions could pose legal consequences
The questions and the recommendation about where the information will go has come under fire from parents, medical professionals and abortion rights campaigners in recent weeks and months.
Such information could thus be used by courts to convict students if they have an abortion after the 15-week limit.
Parents have also spoken out against the risk of children’s medical information being leaked or stolen in the event of a data breach.
As the Palm Beach Post reported, huge swathes of student athletes’ registration forms have already been moved online and are stored by a third party.
Dr. Michael Haller, a paediatric endocrinologist based in Florida city of Gainesville, said: “I don’t see why [school districts] need access to that type of information. It sure as hell will give me pause to fill it out with my kid.”
A trans woman in Xenia, Ohio, is facing three counts of public indecency for using her local women’s YMCA changing room, despite having permission to do so and breaking no laws.
Rachel Glines, 31, will attend court on 6 February after charges were brought against her following complaints filed by YMCA members on several occasions in 2021 and 2022.
Local TV station WHIO-7 reported that the charges stem from three or more complaints made by YMCA users who “reported seeing a naked male in the female’s locker room”. Glines is yet to have gender-affirming surgery.
Included is a complaint filed in November, when a mother-of-two told local police there was a trans woman using the women’s changing room.
She claimed that the woman was – as many usually are in such situations – “completely exposed to the rest of the locker room area”, local TV station WKEF reported.
YMCA of Greater Dayton told WHIO-7 that it would comply with legal mandates while endeavouring to protect the privacy of its members.
It said: “Under no circumstance will we investigate an individual’s birth identity and then assign individuals to locker rooms.
“That would be counter to the law, counter to respect for all people and it is not who or what we are as an organisation.”
Experts have called the case “unique” and said it will be “difficult” to convict the trans woman because no laws were broken.
Last month, Xenia City Council president Will Urschel told citizens: “I encourage you with your families to just let people be aware of what’s going on with the restroom there.”
But a spokesperson for the council informed PinkNews: “Comments made by the individual council member… were his own and were not authorised by or on the behalf of the rest of the city council, the mayor, the city manager or the law director.
“Despite what has been reported, the law department has no plan or intention of bringing charges against the YMCA as the required level of culpability is not met, based on the facts as presented,” the spokesperson went on and insisted that neither the city council nor any member of the council had any part in filing the charges.
YMCA says trans women can use women’s spaces
Thaddeus Hoffmeister, professor of law at the University of Dayton, told WKEF: “It’s going to be difficult to convict this person of public indecency. My understanding is that the YMCA granted this person permission.
“They identify as a woman, they went into the women’s bathroom. YMCA says trans individuals could go to the bathroom they identify in. I don’t see them breaking the law.”
He added: “Some states have gone so far as to say, you must use the bathroom or locker room that is for your birth and what gender you were recognised at birth. Now that’s different, if a state passes that law. Ohio hasn’t passed that law.”
LGBTQ+ advocates have said the case is increasing discrimination in Ohio.
Karen Shirk, president of PFLAG Dayton, an LGBTQ+ organisation supporting Glines, informed the station: “Nobody knows what really happened in this case, and what the reality is.
“We do know it has increased hate and increased discrimination, and suppressed love and care and acceptance.”
PFLAG remains hopeful that the Xenia community will come together and fight injustice.
Shirk added: “I love Xenia because in all of the times I’ve been there, [it’s] been a community that supports one another. Even this person they’re talking about has family, has friends, that live in our community.”
PinkNews has contacted YMCA of Greater Dayton for comment.
It can often feel like joy and optimism went on sabbatical around 2015 and have yet to reappear. Counter that despair with the Black Trans Femmes in the Arts, a young organization building community and mobilizing resources for underrepresented artists. Since its founding in 2019 by Jordyn Jay, the grassroots organization has raised over a million dollars to support Black trans artists. Members of the collective have appeared on HBO Max’s Legendary, staged exhibitions at Los Angeles’s Armand Hammer Museum, and performed on Broadway.
Jay says their organization is necessary because disparities of funding and safe spaces, and the general inaccessibility of art education, contribute to a lack of representation for Black trans women in the arts.
Jay states that, “Today, BTFA addresses all of those concerns by providing funding for projects led by Black trans femmes artists via BTFA Productions, providing artists with free studio space in New York City at BTFA Studios, creating programming for Black trans femmes to support their development as artists, businesspeople, and individuals, and connecting Black trans femmes to the resources needed to survive and thrive.”
Black trans femmes have contributed so much to American (and world) culture and BTFA’s ultimate goal is to allow these women to “take ownership of their cultural production” and continue to create without limitations.
Find out more about BTFA, and contribute to their cause, at btfacollective.org.
M23 rebels in Congo’s North Kivu province have displaced a number of transgender people and left them even more vulnerable to persecution.
M23 rebels last November approached Goma, the province’s capital city, and forced around 180,000 people to leave their homes. Jérémie Safari, coordinator of Rainbow Sunrise Mapambazuko, a Congolese LGBTQ and intersex rights group, told the Washington Blade that residents of the Kibumba camp where displaced people have settled have refused to assist trans people and have accused them of being sorcerers.
“Trans people went (through) war like everyone else,” said Safari. “In the Kibumba camp where the displaced have settled, the local community there has refused trans people access, accusing them of being sorcerers, bad luck charms and of being the origin of the war following their evil practice.”
Safari said other displaced people who did not want trans women in the camp have attacked them. Safari said these trans women currently sleep in the street in Kibumba without food.
Safari, in addition, said the government has done little to help these displaced trans people, even though consensual same-sex sexual relations are not criminalized in the country.
“The displaced people received help but not the trans people since they do not live in the camp and also the government is still extremely hostile towards LGBTIQA+ organizations in the DRC (Democratic Republic of the Congo). No LGBTQA+ organization can be legally recognized by the Congolese State,” said Safari.
Safari saidRainbow Sunrise Mapambazuko currently needs funds to provide housing, food and medicine to the displaced trans people.
“If we could have $7,000 (U.S. dollars) firstly for their survival, since we are afraid of their life and their health which is in danger, that would be of immense help,” said Safari.
The M23 since last May has demonstrated increased firepower and defensive capabilities that have enabled the group to overrun U.N.-backed Congolese troops and hold territory.
The U.N. says the fighting between Congolese troops and M23 rebels has forced nearly 200,000 people to flee their homes.
Human Rights Watch has called upon the U.N., the African Union and governments to publicly denounce M23 abuses found to have been committed by other combatants, maintaining sanctions against senior M23 commanders and expanding them to those newly found responsible for serious abuses and senior officials from across the region complicit in them. Human Rights Watch also said any political settlement should not include amnesty for those responsible for human rights abuses and prevent responsible M23 commanders to integrate into the Congolese armed forces.
“The government’s failure to hold M23 commanders accountable for war crimes committed years ago is enabling them and their new recruits to commit abuses today. Civilians in eastern Congo should not have to endure new atrocities by the M23,” said Thomas Fessy, a senior DRC researcher at Human Rights Watch.
M23 sprung from elements within the Congolese army in 2012.
The rebel group claims it is defending the rights of Congolese Tutsi and originally comprised of soldiers who participated in a mutiny from the Congolese army in April-May 2012. They claimed their mutiny was to protest the Congolese government’s failure to fully implement the March 23, 2009, peace agreement — M23 derives from this date — that had integrated them into the Congolese army.
The Congolese army and the U.N. Force Intervention Brigade defeated M23 in November 2013, and its members fled to Rwanda and Uganda. The group re-emerged in November 2021.
A trans boy has been forcibly removed from an Israeli school following months of disgusting anti-trans pressure by parents.
The country’s Education Ministry announced on Tuesday (24 January) the student was to be removed from a religious school in central Israel midway through the academic year.
The parents of the child told Israel’s public broadcaster they planned to appeal the decision and that it was a punishment for “who he is”.
Rather than treating the public outing of a child with respect, parents instead chose to stage an anti-LGBTQ+ protest outside of the school.
This group of transphobic parents, who routinely disregarded the feelings of the child, then began desperate attempts to try and force him out of school.
Some parents failed to move their children to different schools, while others sent multiple complaints to school administrators.
Some began to make assertions that their own children had suddenly started to develop “many psychological issues” by merely being around the trans boy, while others even claimed their children had started to “wet the bed”.
A “breakaway” classroom outside of the school was then created by rabbi Eliyahu in January following the Hanukkah break.
During a collective video call with the parents, Eliyahu said: “You are the spearhead to this very important battle and we must all mobilise and stand behind you.”
Finally, after multiple complaints and attempts to prevent a trans child from simply existing, the Education Ministry decided to remove the boy from school.
It denied accusations of transphobia in making the move, saying: “This is a complicated, unique, and sensitive case – and the ministry and the educational team is working only for the good of the student.”
It could not share information about whether the child would be moved to another school due to child privacy laws.
‘Very serious harm to a small boy’
LGBTQ+ rights group Hoshen said in a statement: “This ministry decided that political and social considerations are more important than the safety and wellbeing of a small boy.
“You promised above all that there would be no harm to LGBTQ+ people, and this morning, you allowed very serious harm to come to a small boy.”
Prime minister Netanyahu had insisted that he would not allow harm to come to LGBTQ+ people after the appointment of Israel’s first gay speaker caused controversy among anti-LGBTQ+ politicians.
Last week, Microsoft announced that the company plans to axe 10,000 workers, amounting to approximately 5% of its staff. This mass layoff follows a current pattern of instability within the tech sector that includes the collapse of the cryptocurrency company FTX and Elon Musk’s cataclysmic overhaul of Twitter following his acquisition of the social media monolith in October.
This “dot com bust 2.0,” as some financial analysts refer to it, reflects a downward spiral in the US tech industry, which hemorrhaged $7.4 trillion in 2021. While this negative trend affects workers on multiple levels, from corporate recruiters to software engineers, it disproportionately affects the LGBTQ+ community, women, and people of color.
Massive layoffs result in a freeze on new hires, which impacts not only workers but also corporate recruiters. According to data analysis performed by the career site Zippia, nine percent of people working in corporate recruitment identify as LGBTQ+ (compared to a 2021 Gallup Poll assessment that 7.1% of Americans, in general, identify as LGBTQ+.) To Colin Smith, a former corporate recruiter based in Washington, DC, this profession attracts members of the queer community because of their distinct culture.
“I think that with the adversity that LGBT people face, it sort of allows them to be better communicators,” explained Smith during a recent phone interview. I think, generally speaking, communication is something that LGBT people just excel on. I really enjoyed being able to help people make their lives better with a better job situation.”
Even more than the LGBTQ+ community, this hiring freeze disproportionately affects women of all gender identities and sexual orientations in corporate recruitment. According to the Zippia analysis, 62.5% of all corporate recruiters identify as female. With the flurry of firings at not only Microsoft, but also those recently announced by tech giants Amazon, Lyft, and Google’s parent company Alphabet, the resulting hiring freezes would likely affect over 100,000 women working in this field.
And recruitment isn’t the only area in the tech industry where female employees face challenges. For Justin Fanok, a former software engineer who most recently worked for Plex Systems, one of the biggest problems he’s witnessed women face is the stifling of their professional input.
“I’ve only ever had a few females that I’ve worked with in the tech field, and that’s few and far between,” said Fanok. “It’s almost like their perspectives kind of gets shut out. A lot of times, it’s the person with a loud voice who ends up being heard. The type of voices that get heard and listened to are typically male.”
The tech industry’s discrimination toward women has also been observed by Dr. Ali Mushtaq, a sociologist and adjunct professor at Chapman University. Being ignored is just one of the many challenges faced by women in this field, specifically those that identify as trans.
“I think tech, in general, is a culture that’s more accepting of LGBTQ people than a lot of other industries. But then at the same time, you’re still dealing with questions about trans inclusion issues,” said Mushtaq, “you’re dealing with various aspects of micro-aggressions, you’re dealing with the employee lifecycle, retention, advancement, being able to go into higher leadership positions, questions like, ‘are we able to open up gender-neutral bathrooms?’ And then questions about whether or not sexuality affects they’re able to get promoted within these workspaces.”
In the tech sector’s current climate of mass layoffs, the higher one’s level within a company usually equates to a lower chance of termination. Since minorities such as women and workers who immigrated to the United States for employment face a more difficult struggle for career advancement, they are far more likely to be laid off. For those who moved from culturally misogynistic and homophobic countries, losing their work visas means returning to potentially dire consequences.
“I had a friend who worked at Warner Brothers,” continued Mushtaq. “He just got laid off and now he’s gonna have to go back to India in a month. That’s an example we don’t necessarily think about because a lot of us are citizens. You’re looking at the way in which minorities and women are put in positions where they’re sort of dispensable, or they’re more on the lower rung.
“So what ends up happening is, those positions are the first thing cut by management. And so those people are going to be the ones first to get fired. So it does affect people of color and gender minorities more disproportionately, and absolutely will probably hurt them, especially within this industry. Ultimately, I think that there needs to be more support and more mentorship for people in tech, especially if you’re a woman or a person of color, to access a lot of positions.”
One such program is LaunchCode, a St. Louis-based nonprofit offering free tech education and job placement for people of all races, genders, and sexual orientations. Maggie Techner, a teacher in this organization who identifies as a gay woman, shared an experience similar to the one expressed by Mushtaq.
“We did have a student that was from Ukraine in my last class. And she was here on a visa from Ukraine before the war started, and then lost touch with her family and was trying to take this class as well as deal with all of that back home. And that’s just things that you don’t even think about being an extra stressor on some of these kids.”
If Techner’s Ukrainian student were to lose her visa, she would return to a war-scarred country where over 7,000 civilians have been killed since Russia invaded nearly a year ago. And the situation is even direr for queer Ukrainians, evidenced by the tragic story of Alexander.
Alexander was fleeing the decimated city of Kherson when Russian soldiers detained him, according to the UK-based independent media outlet openDemocracy. While going through messages on his phone, the soldiers discovered he was gay and sent him to the notorious Olenivka prison in the Donetsk region. Prison administrators disclosed Alexander’s sexual orientation to the other inmates, which put a target on the young man’s back.
“The prisoners began to harass me,” Alexander said. “For a while, I resisted, but after a few days, I was forced to do what they said. Almost every evening, 10 to 15 men raped me, until I was released by the representatives of the administration.”
For the many white cis-het tech bros who risk losing their jobs in the “dot com bust 2.0,” the consequence is unemployment. But for some, specifically queer immigrants, this downward trend in the US tech sector is a matter of life or death.
First Baptist Church — a megachurch in Jacksonville, Florida — is forcing its members to sign a “Biblical Sexuality Agreement,” an anti-LGBTQ+ statement that denies the existence of trans people, opposes same-sex marriage, and calls same-sex intercourse ungodly.
The statement reads: “As a member of First Baptist Church, I believe that God creates people in his image as either male or female, and that this creation is a fixed matter of human biology, not individual choice. I believe marriage is instituted by God, not government, is between one man and one woman, and is the only context for sexual desire and expression.”
Members will need to sign the statement by March 19 or else be removed from the church, First Coast News reported.
In a September 2021 video, the church’s senior pastor Heath Lambert said that the entire congregation needed to sign the statement to “shine a bright light of clarity in these dark and confusing times.” He also it was necessary to “protect against those who would take us to court to require us to change our policies for people who disagree with our biblical convictions.”
There are no instances of queer people or their allies taking churches to courts to force them into changing their anti-LGBTQ+ policies. Any lawsuits against religious organizations have had to do with their continuing discriminatory social policies while accepting taxpayer funds.
In the video, Lambert said that LGBTQ+ acceptance stems from a “deeply confused culture” and that LGBTQ+ activists and allies “are seeking to eradicate any opposition to their extremist agenda.”
“They will not rest until their confusion has permeated every area of society and silenced every voice of opposition,” Lambert said in the video. “They have sought to shame, silence, convert and punish — even through the force of law — anyone who does not agree with their new and extreme agenda.”
He then spread numerous falsehoods repeated by anti-LGBTQ+ hate groups.
He said that “fathers are going to jail for failing to support the sex change operation of their teenage daughters.” He’s likely referring to an unnamed father in Canada who was jailed for violating a court order not to speak to the media about his legal battle to stop his 15-year-old from taking hormone blockers. The court said his media interviews endangered the child’s and their guardians’ safety. No “sex change” operation was involved in the case though.
Lambert falsely claimed that hormone-suppressing drugs are “stopping [grade schoolers’] entrance into puberty and permanently ending their ability to have children even before they leave childhood themselves.”
Hormone blockers are sometimes prescribed to minors with the approval of psychological and medical experts and the full informed consent of the child and their guardians. These medications temporarily prevent irreversible physical changes of puberty which can heighten gender dysphoria and mental distress in trans youth. These medications do not sterilize children, are entirely reversible, and have been safely administered to children with certain cancers for decades.
“We live in a day where schools allow men to undercut women by competing against them in sports,” Lambert added. But the very small number of trans female athletes aren’t “undercutting” women in sports, they’re merely asking for the right to participate like all other students, and, in most cases, they’re not dominating the competitions.
Lambert also accused city councils of “victimizing women by allowing men into their restrooms.” But there is no evidence that trans-inclusive restroom policies have ever increased sexual assaults against cisgender women. Anti-trans activists merely accuse trans people of being sexual predators as a way to deny them civil rights and encourage violence against them.
Lambert said that he and his church don’t hate “members of the sexual revolution.”
“They may think of us as their enemies, but that is not how we think of them,” he said. “To anyone watching this who disagrees with the biblical message on sexuality. I want you to know that we love you, and God does too. It’s that love which drives us to share truths that may be hard for you to hear.”
He also said the entire congregation needed to sign the statement to show “precious people in our church who have struggled with these issues of gender and sexuality” what to expect from the church’s ministry.
Editor’s note: This article mentions suicide. If you need to talk to someone now, call the Trans Lifeline at 1-877-565-8860. It’s staffed by trans people, for trans people. The Trevor Project provides a safe, judgement-free place to talk for LGBTQ youth at 1-866-488-7386. You can also call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.
Former President Donald Trump vowed in a video released Tuesday that, if re-elected, he would punish doctors who provide gender-affirming care to minors and push schools to “promote positive education about the nuclear family” and “the roles of mothers and fathers” as part of a wide-ranging set of policies to use federal power to target transgender people.
In the straight-to-camera video posted on his Truth Social platform, Trump said he would task several federal agencies to police and ultimately “stop” gender-affirming care for minors, which he equated to “child abuse” and “child sexual mutilation.”
He said he would also prohibit any federal agency from doing work to “promote the concept of sex and gender transition at any age,” not just for minors.
The proposals are likely to be met with staunch opposition from LGBTQ rights advocates, who are fighting similar ideas across the country, calling them detrimental to trans people.
Gender-affirming care, according to the Department of Health and Human Services, “consists of an array of services that may include medical, surgical, mental health, and non-medical services for transgender and nonbinary people.”
Trump’s proposals are among the most draconian compared to the many that have circulated in state capitols in recent years, going so far as to suggest that he would push for a federal law recognizing only two genders.
Trump said he would push Congress to pass a law banning gender-affirming care for minors nationwide; order the Department of Justice to investigate the pharmaceutical industry and hospitals to see if they “deliberately covered up horrific long-term side effects of sex transitions in order to get rich;” and cut off doctors from Medicare and Medicaid — a potential career-ender for many doctors — if they treat trans youth with hormones or surgery.
In addition, he said he would make it easier for patients who later regret receiving gender-affirming care as a minor to sue their doctors, calling the procedures “unforgivable.”
Trump also said his policy changes would extend to education.
He has already vowed to create a “new credentialing body for teachers” regarding the teaching of race history, but added that the panel will “promote positive education about the nuclear family, the roles of mothers and fathers and celebrating, rather than erasing, the things that make men and women different.”
He said his Department of Education would impose “severe consequences” on any teachers or school officials who “suggest to a child that they could be trapped in the wrong body,” which could include civil rights penalties for the individuals and a loss of federal funding for schools.
“The left-wing gender insanity being pushed at our children is an act of child abuse. Very simple. Here’s my plan to stop the chemical, physical and emotional mutilation of our youth,” Trump said.
Trump’s proclamation comes as he looks to reignite momentum for his second presidential campaign and as conservatives nationwide have become increasingly concerned about trans issues, especially gender-affirming care for minors.
The hardline stance is a departure for Trump, who distinguished himself from more traditional social conservatives in the 2016 Republican presidential primary by openly courting LGBT voters.
The former Democratic donor from Manhattan said in 2016 that he was “fine” with same-sex marriage and would be a “real friend” of the LGBT community and has bragged about how he “did great with the gay population,” compared to other Republican presidential candidates.
Five Republican-leaning states have enacted bans or restrictions on gender-affirming care for minors over the past two years: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Tennessee, Utah.
Lawmakers in at least 21 states have proposed bills so far this year seeking to ban or restrict gender-affirming care for minors.
Judges have blocked the laws in Alabama and Arkansas from taking effect, pending the outcome of lawsuits.
The ACLU of Utah and the National Center for Lesbian Rights have told NBC News they plan to file suit against Utah within two weeks over its law, which was signed by the governor on Saturday.
In the last three decades, some of the most egregious attacks on equality — the Defense of Marriage Act, Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, not to mention the infamous 1950 “Employment of Homosexuals and Other Sex Perverts in Government” report — came from Congress. Some of the most significant advances – passage of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act in 2009 and the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell in 2010 – also came from Congress.
And while the Supreme Court found in 2015 that some federal jobs protections against discrimination based on sex also protect LGBTQ+ people, the community is still fighting for the Equality Act, which would enshrine legal protections in civil rights law.
But Congress is unlikely to provide much help in 2023 now that Republicans have taken a narrow majority in the House of Representatives. Not only has the GOP historically opposed equality legislation, but many of the Republicans who won their midterm elections did so by weaponizing antipathy towards LGBTQ+ people, advocating for laws banning transgender people access to gender-affirming care, demagoguing equal treatment of transgender students in schools, slurring LGBTQ+ teachers and doctors as “groomers.”
And elections have consequences.
Former Congressman Mondaire Jones (D-NY) sat down with LGBTQ Nation to discuss the possibilities for change in Congress in the coming two years. Jones was first elected in 2020 and is one of the two first-out LGBTQ+ Black members of Congress; he lost his seat in 2022. He co-introduced the Respect for Marriage Act in Congress to ensure same-sex couples continue to have the rights associated with marriage should the Supreme Court overturn the marriage equality case Obergefell v. Hodges.
Jones helped get former President Donald Trump impeached for a second time after his supporters rioted in the Capitol in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. During his time in Congress, he supported the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. He pushed for even tougher democratic reforms, including automatic voter registration, public financing of elections, and an end to partisan gerrymandering.
So it’s no surprise that Congressman Jones’s message now is that getting better people elected is the key to moving Congress toward equality.
LGBTQ NATION: As the president prepares to address the nation, what are the most vexing problems facing the LGBTQ+ community?
Mondaire Jones: The Supreme Court of the United States — specifically, the far right, six-three supermajority on the Court — continues to pose the greatest obstacle to the lives and livelihoods of community members.
Justices of the US Supreme Court pose for their official photo at the Supreme Court in Washington, DC on October 7, 2022. (Seated from left) Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John Roberts, Associate Justice Samuel Alito and Associate Justice Elena Kagan, (Standing behind from left) Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett, Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch, Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. Photo by Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images.
This majority is on a rampage against our rights. We see that in a case that will undermine the ability of same-sex couples not to be discriminated against in the marketplace [he was referring to 303 Creative v. Elanis], where the First Amendment is being weaponized to allow people to be bigoted.
We know that the Court is going to come for marriage equality. As proud as I am of having introduced legislation with Jerry Nadler that passed last year called the Respect for Marriage Act, it’s not lost on me that the Respect for Marriage Act still would not ensure marriage equality in every state in the union for same-sex couples.
More than protecting members of the LGBTQ+ community against discrimination, we’ve got to have our eyes set on creating equity, whether that is in the healthcare context, the housing context, or the student debt context, where members of the community disproportionately experience hardship. That was my project when I wrote a letter to CMS and the CDC asking them to require both public and private insurers to cover an injectable form of PrEP called Apretude at no cost-sharing to the patient.
LGBTQ NATION: What do you see as fighting for queer rights and 2023? What does that mean, and what does that entail?
MJ: Because of the Republican majority in the House of Representatives and too few Democrats in the United States Senate willing to get rid of the filibuster, we have to turn to state-level progress in beating back renewed assault on the LGBTQ+ community, such as these so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bills in Florida and elsewhere.
We also have to call on the Biden administration to use its executive authority to make discrimination less prevalent and to create equity.
LGBTQ NATION: So you brought up state-level legislation where things aren’t looking that good for us over the past few years. At least a hundred bills have been introduced to curtail rights. What can we do to stop that?
MJ: The good news is that we have won public opinion over the past decade when it comes to the community’s entitlement to the same rights and liberties that our cisgender, heterosexual counterparts enjoy.
However, because of an electoral system plagued by voter suppression, voter disenfranchisement, and unlimited spending by corporate special interests, the people we see in power often do not reflect the country’s mood.
We have to continue to build and renew the movement for liberation through organizing at the grassroots level and defeating those who are hostile to the humanity of our community.
While also making sure we take back the House and keep the Senate and the White House in the 2024 elections because only the Democratic majority in this country can be trusted to protect the LGBTQ+ community.
“We have to continue to build and renew the movement for liberation through organizing at the grassroots level and defeating those who are hostile to the humanity of our community.“Mondaire Jones
LGBTQ NATION: So you’re saying it comes down to who’s elected, but what does the community do once we have a group of people in Congress? You were in Congress. What did you see LGBTQ+ activists doing that maybe could have been more effective?
MJ: Well, I appreciate this question.
Several high-profile LGBTQ+-focused organizations spend more time patting themselves on the back for the work that they do and dining with their major donors than they are focused on electing champions to office and pressuring elected officials to enact the bold reforms that we urgently need.
Consider how long it took for certain organizations to come out for the filibuster reform, as we initially needed to pass the Equality Act and the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. Consider how few organizations have supported my legislation with [Rep.] Jerry Nadler and [Rep.] Hank Johnson to expand the Supreme Court.
On a member level, I experienced very little outreach from some of the biggest LGBTQ+ rights organizations. And I was one of only nine openly gay members of the House. So we’ve got work to do.
LGBTQ NATION: You brought up democracy issues. You worked on the second impeachment of Donald Trump, which followed the January 6 Insurrection. How do you see the vitality of our democracy affecting LGBTQ+ issues in the coming years?
MJ: The crisis of our democracy is the biggest existential threat. If we do not have a truly representative government, if we do not have a pro-equality majority in both chambers of Congress and the White House, then we are going to continue to see this Supreme Court whittle away at our rights, including rights that were just gained over the past decade. And we’ll have no recourse because we won’t be able to pass legislation.
So we have to end partisan gerrymandering of congressional districts so that extremists like [Rep.] Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and [Rep.] Jim Jordan (R-OH) cannot coast to victory simply because they prevailed in the Republican primaries, despite their abuse being outside the mainstream. We have to get big money out of politics by enacting a system of public financing of congressional elections, which is what H.R. 1, which became known as the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act, would do.
We must enact automatic and same-day voter registration and do away with the voter suppression we’ve seen in places like Georgia, Florida, Texas, and Arizona. All these things will help us build a truly multiracial democracy in which we will have pro-equality majorities in state houses and Congress.
Volunteers hand out information about candidates while people stand in line to vote in Raleigh, North Carolina, on November 5, 2022.
LGBTQ Nation: Yes, it seems like something like the Equality Act is off the table for at least the next two years because of Republican control of the House, even though- I mean, I wish I had looked this up before now, the Equality Act polls pretty well. [A 2021 HRC poll found that 70% of American voters support the Equality Act.]
MJ: Of course it does! Look, just consider what happened last night. A Republican majority in the House of Representatives voted to gut the IRS by 87,000 agents. That is not economic populism, which is what that party says it ran on in 2022. That is a thinly veiled attempt to help billionaire tax cheats evade accountability.
That is something that, in a normal political environment, would be toxic and devastating for a party at the voting booth. However, because our democracy is so rigged in favor of corporate special interests and the super-wealthy, it is something that Republicans can get away with.
We have people in government who are not actually responsive to what their constituents want. Still, because of redistricting and specifically partisan gerrymandering, because of just the outsized role that wealthy people have in our system of campaign finance, aided in part by Citizen United, we see this.
“My project will be to ensure that Democrats take back the branches of government in 2024.”Mondaire Jones
LGBTQ NATION: A lot of the blame, then, for the lack of progress to be expected goes to Republicans, but is there something the Democratic Party should have been doing to get a majority that it hasn’t been doing?
MJ: Absolutely. We had majorities in both chambers of Congress, and [Sen.] Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) and [Sen.] Joe Manchin (D-WV) thought it was robbery to make an exception to the filibuster to pass democracy reforms, voting rights legislation, and the Equality Act. That was an abdication of their responsibility as legislators.
That is not to excuse the unanimous opposition by Republicans. It is to say that we’ve got some Democrats who are not where they need to be when it comes to the bold changes necessary to actually improve the lives of the American people.
The president only came out for an exception to the filibuster to pass voting rights legislation in December 2021.
LGBTQ NATION: You know what it’s like for LGBTQ+ people in Congress. Over the past few years, we’ve seen that most of the attacks have fallen on transgender people’s shoulders, specifically transgender minors. How good are your former colleagues at being familiar with essential issues for transgender people? Is there a good sense of understanding in Congress about their lives?
MJ: No, not particularly. My experience is that even the LGBTQ+ members in Congress, including myself, are continuing to learn about these issues. It would be awesome to have some trans people in Congress to bring that perspective.
And, of course, we’ve seen tremendous progress on these issues within the Democratic Party over the past several years. We see that in the inclusion of language specific to the trans community in the Equality Act and other legislation that we have passed. I’m very proud of having helped lead that.
But I know that the trans experience is not fully understood in Congress.
A transgender rights rally in Philadelphia.
LGBTQ NATION: What can LGBTQ+ people realistically expect on progress on our equality from Congress in the next two years?
MJ: I’m sad to say that because of the loss of the House to Republicans in November 2022, we cannot expect that Congress will pass the Equality Act to prohibit discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community in all facets of our society.
We will see the trans community vilified by House Republicans and Senate Republicans, even in the minority. We will continue to see LGBTQ+ individuals referred to, horrifically, as groomers and a Congress that will not respond meaningfully to the inevitable future violence against the community, especially gun violence.
That is the consequence of not having enough good people in the United States Congress.
So my project will be to ensure that Democrats take back the branches of government in 2024.
In her first State of the State address, New York Governor Kathy Hochul made history with a commitment to direct state resources to help fund housing for older New Yorkers.
Hochul directed New York State’s Homes and Community Renewal agency (HCR) to provide funding specifically for affordable housing projects that are affirming for New Yorkers among the state’s 800,000+ older LGBTQ+ population.
Only two housing developments in New York serve the community: Stonewall House in Brooklyn and Crotona Pride House in the Bronx. Those projects were developed and funded by SAGE, the LGBTQ+ elders advocacy group, along with BFC Partners and HELP USA.
The two developments are models for reducing housing insecurity and providing community support, dramatically improving the lives of low-to-moderate income and formerly unhoused older New Yorkers.
The commitment by Hochul follows policy recommendations presented by SAGE and AARP in their 2021 report “Disrupting Disparities: Solutions for LGBTQ+ New Yorkers 50+.” The report illustrated that many older New Yorkers face structural disparities, including social isolation, higher rates of poverty, and challenges finding and affording housing.
While the demand for affirming housing is high — 90% of older LGBTQ+ Americans are extremely, very, or somewhat interested in obtaining it — supply is low: only 13 states and Washington, DC, have housing developments targeting older LGBTQ+ Americans.
By 2030, over 70 million people will be age 65+, with about 7 million of those part of the community. That subset already faces a higher poverty and homelessness rate even before housing insecurity is factored in.
Officials at SAGE see this as a good start.
“I am thrilled that Governor Hochul and her administration are committed to expanding equitable access to housing for New York’s LGBTQ+ elders,” said SAGE CEO Michael Adams. “LGBTQ+ elders of color, transgender and non-binary elders face the highest levels of financial insecurity, and we know first-hand that LGBTQ+ friendly elder housing is vital in improving their lives.”
“The communities created at Stonewall House and Crotona Pride House,” added Adams, “are proof that this kind of housing improves the quality of life of residents. With the critical support of the Governor, New York will be providing crucial resources to elders so they can age with the dignity and support they deserve.”
Among the affirming housing options across the U.S. are The John C. Anderson Apartments in Philadelphia, Town Square Apartments in Chicago, and Triangle Square in Los Angeles.
In Washington, a new communal residence called Mary’s House for Older Adults is scheduled to break ground in March, while a new project in Detroit, Raymond E. Shepherd House, just received some creative financing in the form of a brownfield grant from the Michigan Department of Environment.
And in California, a new complex in Sacramento is the latest addition to the state’s affirming housing projects. Lavender House, with 53 units in the midtown neighborhood of the state capital, was developed and is operated by the nonprofit Mutual Housing California. There were over 600 requests for applications, with tenants chosen by lottery.
