Michigan’s Supreme Court has ruled that businesses, landlords, and others cannot discriminate based on sexual orientation or gender identity, even though the state’s civil rights legislation doesn’t specifically mention those categories.
The landmark 5–2 decision establishes that the bans on discrimination on the basis of “sex” in the state’s 1976 Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act (ELCRA) cover sexual orientation and gender identity.
In 2015, Michigan Democrats introduced bills that would have added explicit protectionsfor sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression into the ELCRA. The bills were blocked by Republican leaders. Michigan’s Supreme Court declined to hear an appealfrom Fair and Equal Michigan to have the 1976 law revised to include protections against anti-LGBTQ discrimination in 2021.
Writing for the majority this week, Justice Elizabeth Clement, a Republican, said, “Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation necessarily constitutes discrimination because of sex.”
“Regardless of whether one defines ‘sex’ expansively or narrowly, the result of the textual analysis is the same: discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation necessarily involves discrimination because of sex in violation of (state law),” Clement continued.
“Our residents deserve to live in a state that recognizes the value of diversity and rejects the notion that our own civil rights law could be used as a tool of discrimination. This ruling is not only a victory for the LGBTQ+ community, but for all Michigan residents, and one that’s long overdue,” said Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel in a statement.
Arguing before the court in March, Nessel and the American Civil Liberties Union cited the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2020 ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County which affirmed that Title VII’s ban on employment discrimination due to sex also protects LGBTQ people.
The case before the state supreme court involved two Michigan businesses that refused to serve LGBTQ people: Rouch World, a wedding venue that refused to host weddings for same-sex couples, and Uprooted Electrolysis, a hair removal service that refused to serve a transgender client.
The Michigan Civil Rights Commission voted in 2018 to interpret the state’s ban on discrimination on the basis of sex to include discrimination against LGBTQ people. Following Michigan Department of Civil Rights investigations, both businesses filed lawsuits claiming that serving LGBTQ violated their religious freedoms.
In 2020, a Michigan Court of Claims judge held that ELCRA does not cover protections for gay and bisexual people due to a previous state supreme court decision in Barbour v. Department of Social Services, where the court ruled that the state’s ban on discrimination because of sex does not ban discrimination against gay and bisexual people. In his summary judgement, however, Judge Christopher M. Murray said that following Bostock Michigan’s civil rights legislation was similar enough to apply the same reasoning to the case involving anti-transgender discrimination.
“We are encouraged that the Michigan Court of Claims has ruled the word ‘sex’ in ELCRA encompasses gender identity, but we will continue to argue that the U.S. Supreme Court was right to conclude, as did the Michigan Civil Rights Commission, that ‘sex’ in this context is also inclusive of sexual orientation,” Michigan Department of Civil Rights Chair Stacie Clayton said at the time.
This week’s ruling establishes that ELCRA covers discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer individuals as well as transgender people.
Morning turned into afternoon. A scorching sun blanketed the concrete of the local sports hall belonging to the community of Zolochiv, a frontline village just minutes from the Russian border.
There, over the course of several hours, the International Committee for the Red Cross, with the help of local residents, unloaded over 20 tons of supplies for the besieged townsfolk. The town’s mayor, Viktor Kovalenko, who for the preceding five months valiantly rallied the community against Russian aggression, oversaw the delivery.
An unassuming bisexual journalist who had returned to the city where she was born just days prior reported on the mission. Natalie Vikhrov shadowed Kovalenko and his team, covering the delivery and interviewing members of the community’s health, humanitarian, and security apparatuses. She was there, next to the mayor, as the Red Cross pulled away and the Russian rockets fell.
As Kovalenko barked out orders and headed into the bomb shelter to help lead the response against the early afternoon attack, she stayed by his side.
As a bisexual woman, Vikhrov has learned how to “make tough decisions.” Born in Kharkiv when Ukraine was still a part of the Soviet Union, Vikhrov’s working class parents made the decision to leave for Adelaide, Australia when she was 8 years old. As the USSR crumbled around them, her parents “wanted a better life for me and my sister.”
Now comfortable with using both queer or bisexual to describe her sexuality, in high school “it didn’t click,” for her that she was sexually different in any way.
“We didn’t have the access to the resources and communities that we have now, as a teenager in Adelaide I didn’t feel I had access to anything that helped me figure out my sexuality,” Vikhrov told LGBTQ Nation.
Coming out “gradually” in her mid 20’s, Vikhrov also found her career goals change in the last year of college when a professor suggested she look into journalism as a profession. She began to pursue a master’s degree in Journalism, eventually taking a position with The Bunyip, a South Australian newspaper.
Remaining with them for almost five years, covering local community and political affairs, the daughter of both Ukraine and Australia “always wanted to cover international news and foreign affairs, but it felt like a distant dream.”
Although coming from Kharkiv and speaking Russian at home as a child, Vikhrov didn’t “have many memories of my childhood in Kharkiv” and ultimately felt “more Australian than Ukrainian.”
Then in 2014 the Maidan Uprising swept across Ukraine, Vikhrov got her first “taste of reporting on foreign affairs” when she left Australia for London to report on the story. With support from the paper, she moved there in 2015. In London, for the first time, she came out as bisexual, moving past the transitory wording of “bicurious.”
For Vikhrov there just wasn’t ”a reason to come out earlier.”
Natalie Vikhrov, interviews Sergy, who runs the Humanitarian Aid center in Zolochiv.
“Not every person’s experience is linear,” she said. “When people know their sexuality quite clearly, it is a different experience than being bisexual. For me [labels] are to explain to the world that I’m interested in both men and women. It’s just to notify people that I date women too. It’s more for other people, but labeling myself is for the outside world vs anything it did for my own self.”
“You continue the process of coming out with every new person you meet, and every new place you go. It’s completely valid for people to understand their sexuality and explore it.”
Vikhrov’s journey accelerated in the middle of 2016 when she made the leap from London to Kyiv, taking employment with the Kyiv Post, and bringing her back to live in her native nation for the first time since she left more than two decades prior.
Once she had full-time employment in Ukraine secured, Vikhrov began to look more closely at the LGBTQ community in Ukraine and “felt there was a gap in coverage.”
“I wanted to fill that gap,” she said, so she became a freelancer. It allowed her to explore the trials, tribulations, and victories of Ukrainians who weren’t as commonly visible in the media.
Having seen friends get physically hurt at the hands of anti-LGBTQ activists over the years, Vikhrov is “quite aware that there is still work to be done” for queer acceptance but acknowledges that “Ukraine needs to focus efforts on the war at the moment.”
Three days after the full-scale invasion commenced, she left the capital for Moldova before arriving in London once more, noting she “didn’t have security, a driver, a team behind me. I’m a freelancer on my own.” Yet, once more she returned to Ukraine, arriving again in May.
Why did she come back?
“I did it because it’s my job and because it was something I felt I need to do. I’ve been covering this country for years and I wanted to show what was happening here, what Ukrainians were going through.”
She then shared what has been the key driver of her life’s philosophy, and what originally led her overseas.
“I believe in approaching things that scare you, and part of why I ended up here was because I took a direction that scared me, and that’s important.”
A Republican lawmaker attended his gay son’s wedding just three days after joining the majority of his GOP colleagues in voting against a House bill that would codify federal protections for same-sex marriage.
The gay son of Rep. Glenn Thompson, R-Pa., confirmed to NBC News on Monday that he “married the love of [his] life” on Friday and that his “father was there.” NBC News is not publishing the names of the grooms, neither of whom is a public figure.
Thompson’s press secretary, Maddison Stone, also confirmed the congressman was in attendance.
“Congressman and Mrs. Thompson were thrilled to attend and celebrate their son’s marriage on Friday night as he began this new chapter in his life,” Stone said in an email, adding that the Thompsons are “very happy” to welcome their new son-in-law “into their family.”
Gawker was the first to report on the nuptials in an article published Thursday, the day before the ceremony, though it was not reported whether the lawmaker would attend.
In an email last week to the local newspaper Centre Daily, Stone called the Respect for Marriage Act “nothing more than an election-year messaging stunt for Democrats in Congress who have failed to address historic inflation and out of control prices at gas pumps and grocery stores.”
Thompson, who represents the state’s 15th congressional district, was one of 157 House Republicans who voted against the bill on Tuesday. However, 47 of his GOP colleagues joined Democrats to pass the bipartisan measure following fears that existing same-sex marriage protections could be in the crosshairs of the conservative-leaning Supreme Court.
The Respect for Marriage Act is now being considered by the Senate, where 10 GOP lawmakers must join all 50 Democrats to send the legislation to the desk of President Joe Biden. One of five Republican senators who has already confirmed a yes vote on the bill is Rob Portman of Ohio, who declared his support for same-sex marriage in 2013 after his son came out as gay.
The bill comes at a time when 71% of Americans, including a majority of Republicans, supports same-sex marriage, according to aGallup poll last month.
More than 20 Republican attorneys general filed a lawsuit Tuesday against President Joe Biden’s administration over a Department of Agriculture school meal program that prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
The challenge, led by Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery, claims that the federal government is attempting to force states and schools to follow anti-discrimination requirements that “misconstrue the law.”
The coalition of attorneys general are hoping for a similar result to a separate challenge from earlier this month when a Tennessee judge temporarily barred two federal agencies from enforcing directives issued by Biden’s administration that extended protections for LGBTQ people in schools and workplaces.
The judge sided with the attorneys general, ruling that the directives infringed on states’ right to enact laws, such as banning students from participating in sports based on their gender identity or requiring schools and businesses to provide bathrooms and showers to accommodate transgender people.
“This case is, yet again, about a federal agency trying to change law, which is Congress’ exclusive prerogative,” Slatery said in a statement. “The USDA simply does not have that authority. We have successfully challenged the Biden Administration’s other attempts to rewrite law and we will challenge this as well.”
In May, the USDA announced that it would include discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity as a violation of Title IX, the sweeping 1972 law that bars sex-based discrimination in “any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” The directive requires states to review allegations of discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation, as well as update their policies and signage.
The agency warned that states and schools that receive federal funds, which include the national school lunch program overseen by the USDA, have agreed to follow civil rights laws. Although the agency says it wants voluntary compliance, it also has promised to refer violations to the Department of Justice. It is not clear whether the federal government would hold back funding for school meal programs as part of its enforcement.
The directive followed a landmark civil rights decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2020 that, under a provision called Title VII, protects gay, lesbian and transgender people from discrimination in the workplace.
According to the lawsuit, the attorneys general allege that the USDA’s new directive is based on a “misreading” of the Supreme Court’s ruling and did not provide states and other groups the opportunity to provide public comment.
The attorneys general involved in the lawsuit filed Tuesday are from Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia.
A spokesperson for the USDA did not immediately return a request for comment.
Either America is a country where fundamental rights are guaranteed, or we are a nation where your rights depend on who you are and your zip code. Those are the stakes right now, as an emboldened far-right political movement attacks federal protections for the rights to vote, access abortion care, marry the person you love, and more.
It’s a critical step forward, then, to see the U.S. House’s strongly bipartisan passage of the Respect for Marriage Act. The bill, which heads to the Senate, would ensure federal recognition of marriages between same-sex couples and interracial couples.
The bill’s passage comes after Justice Clarence Thomas’s chilling sentences declaring not just the Obergefell ruling ensuring the freedom to marry but also Griswold’s guarantee of contraception and Lawrence’s right to consensual same-sex relationships to be “demonstrably erroneous decisions.” He all but invited challenges to these historic precedents.
The Respect for Marriage Act evokes an earlier time in the long fight to win marriage equality. I have been replaying vivid memories of traveling the South a decade ago with our team at the Campaign for Southern Equality, standing with hundreds of same-sex couples who courageously requested marriage licenses in their hometowns to call for marriage equality, knowing they’d be denied. We worked with families in small towns like Morristown, Tenn., and cities like Mobile, Ala. I think about those who were plaintiffs in lawsuits striking down marriage bans in state after state. Those brave efforts worked — changing hearts, minds, laws, and our nation. Public support for the freedom to marry has grown steadily to now-historic levels, with polling tracking support at 71 percent. So many Americans have a close friend or family member who is LGBTQ+ and show their support everywhere from the kitchen table to the voting booth.
Despite this resounding public support, the LGBTQ+ community has been subject to a ceaseless assault from a far-right, Christian nationalist movement that exerts tremendous political power at every level of the American government. This movement has, through a mix of methodical strategy and deliberate chaos, seized the reins of the U.S. Supreme Court and almost every state legislature in the South. If they prevail in having Obergefell or other landmark precedents revisited or overturned, so many families and marriages would be at risk.
We must all be clear-eyed that we are entering a new chapter in the movement for LGBTQ+ equality. We’re already seeing the damage, especially in the South, which has been and will likely continue to be the epicenter for these attacks. Nearly every Southern state has passed laws targeting transgender youth for discrimination and exclusion. Parents who advocate for their trans children are being investigated as “child abusers.” The Texas attorney general has vowed to defend a 50-year-old law criminalizing homosexuality. A South Carolina congressional candidate called for LGBTQ+ people to be charged with treason. Even simple civic affirmations of LGBTQ+ people, such as Pride Month proclamations, are being censored.
We must harness the power of the supermajority of Americans who support LGBTQ+ equality. A record number of communities in the South have passed nondiscrimination ordinances, there is strong bipartisan support for LGBTQ+ protections, and countless Southern families are responding with love when a child comes out. For me, this is a source of very real hope.
The variety of hope I feel is not the buoyant stuff made of easy promises of what can be. It is, rather, hope that’s like a muscle you train until it’s strong enough for the work ahead, the kind made of prayer, grit, and crystal-clear resolve.
The stakes for our country could not be higher. Now is the time for us to take swift action in every part of our lives:
Individuals should take legal steps to protect themselves and their families and make concrete, detailed plans around access to health care, including transgender health care and reproductive health care.
Communities should mobilize funding, volunteers, and infrastructure for frontline work to support communities under attack.
At the state level, we should focus efforts on repealing “latent” laws, from so-called sodomy laws to marriage bans, that could be revived to challenge LGBTQ+ people.
Nationally, we must demand that Congress codify in federal law the freedom to marry who you love, abortion access for all, and the right to contraception — including urging the Senate to pass the Respect for Marriage Act.
We know what is possible if we prevail — and we also know what happens if we do not. This work is our charge. It is the work of our lifetimes. And it will take all of us.
Rev. Jasmine Beach-Ferrara is the executive director of the Campaign for Southern Equality. She and her family live in Asheville, N.C.
Republican governor Ron DeSantis has filed a complaint against a Miami restaurant after a video showed kids at a drag brunch event.
The Florida governor spoke about the video – which sees a child walking with a drag artist – at a Wednesday (27 July) news conference, saying that an investigation by the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation was conducted.
“They actually had agents going to this place and effectively just gathering information, getting intelligence, seeing what’s going on,” he said. “And what they found was not only were there minors there, the bar had a children’s menu. And you think to yourself, ‘Give me a break, what’s going on?’”
An administrative complaint accusing the restaurant of disorderly conduct was filed by the department on Tuesday (26 July), with reports that NBC Newshad obtained the complaint on Thursday (28 July). According to a tweet by activist Erin Reed, the complaint referenced a 1947 ruling that “men impersonating women in a suggestive fashion” is against the law.
“They are building the framework to go after all drag, and likely all trans people,” Erin continues in her tweet.
Clinical instructor Alejandra Caraballo also tweeted saying that the complaint was “setting the stage” for the revitalisation of “anti-‘crossdressing’ laws”.
“This is the foundation to target all visibly trans and queer people in Florida and use the state to enforce rigid gender norms,” she continued.
The complaint reportedly says that the video shows “what appears to be a transgender dancer” walking with a young girl around the restaurant while wearing a “‘g-string’-style bikini bottom”. The complaint also uses he/him pronouns despite saying that the dancer was “female in appearance”.
The original clip was posted on TikTok but had been shared by the notorious Twitter account LibsofTikTok which often shares videos ridiculing LGBTQ+ teachers and other marginalised groups. Those who are targeted by the account often receive an influx of death threats and harassment.
The Washington Post released an exposé on 19 April revealing the account owner to be Chaya Raichik, who attended the Capitol insurrection in January 2021. Reports later in the month suggested that Raichik had a long-running online friendship with Desantis’ press secretary Christina Pushaw around a month after he signed Florida state’s hateful ‘Don’t Say Gay’ legislation.
Since then, Ron DeSantis has turned his sights onto drag performances after Texas lawmakers planned to ban kids from attending drag shows on 6 June. The Florida politician then proposed a similar bill and also suggested that parents who take their kids to drag shows could be investigated.
During an 8 June news conference, he said that he had asked staff to look into a proposal, characterising drag as “really, really disturbing” and “inappropriate” for children to be at the show.
“We’re going to look to see what can be done under existing statutes, but I do think targeting these kids with all this stuff,” he said. “It used to be kids would be off-limits, used to be everybody agreed with that. And now, it just seems like there’s a concerted effort to be exposing kids more and more to things that are not age-appropriate. I think our state, Florida, we need to be a family-friendly state.”
The head of the World Health Organization on Wednesday advised men at risk of catching monkeypox to consider reducing their sexual partners “for the moment” following the U.N. health agency declaring the escalating outbreaks in multiple countries to be a global emergency.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said 98% of the monkeypox cases detected since the outbreaks emerged in May have been among gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men. He called for those at risk to take steps to protect themselves.
“That means making safe choices for yourself and others, for men who have sex with men,” Tedros said. “This includes, for the moment, reducing your number of sexual partners.”
Infectious individuals should isolate and avoid gatherings involving close, physical contact, while people should get contact details for any new sexual partners in case they need to follow up later, the WHO chief said.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not suggested that men who have sex with men reduce their sexual partners, only that they avoid skin-to-skin contact with people who have a rash that could be monkeypox.
WHO officials emphasized that monkeypox can infect anyone in close contact with a patient or their contaminated clothing or bedsheets. The U.N. health agency has warned that the disease could be more severe in vulnerable populations like children or pregnant women.
To date, more than 19,000 cases have been reported in more than 75 countries; deaths have only been reported in Africa.
“We know very clearly that one of the main modes of exposure for this particular illness is through direct contact, close contact, skin to skin contact, possibly even face to face contact, exposure to droplets or virus that may be in the mouth,” Dr. Rosamund Lewis, WHO’s technical lead for monkeypox, said.
Andy Seale, a WHO adviser on HIV, hepatitis and sexually transmitted infections, said experts have determined the current monkeypox outbreak is “clearly transmitted during sex,” but he said they have not yet concluded whether it’s a sexually transmitted infection.
Dr. Hugh Adler, who treats monkeypox patients in the U.K., said monkeypox was being transmitted during sex and that sexual networks and anonymous sex with untraceable partners were facilitating its spread.
“It’s just as likely that monkeypox was always capable of transmitting and presenting like this, but it hadn’t been formally reported or so widespread before,” he said.
Last week, British authorities issued new guidance advising doctors that people with just one or two lesions might be infectious with monkeypox, potentially complicating efforts to stop transmission.
The European Union’s health commissioner urged the bloc’s 27 member nations Wednesday to step up their efforts to tackle outbreaks in the EU, which she called “the epicenter of detected cases.”
In a letter to European health ministers obtained by The Associated Press, EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides called for a “reinforced, concerted and coordinated action.”
“There is no time for complacency and we need to continue working together to control the outbreak,” she wrote.
There is still hope that Democrats can convince ten Republican senators to join them in codifying marriage equality, even though two Republicans once considered amenable to voting for it have come out against it.
Four Republicans have so far said they will support the measure: sponsors Susan Collins of Maine and Ohio’s Rob Portman; Sen. Thom Tillis from North Carolina, who said he’s a probable vote; and Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin.
Johnson said in a statement Thursday, “Even though I feel the Respect for Marriage Act is unnecessary, should it come before the Senate, I see no reason to oppose it,” according to CNN.
In addition, Alaska’s Sen. Lisa Murkowski says she generally supports the measure but is reviewing the proposed bill. “I have long made known public my support for marriage equality,” she said, the Hill reports.
Eight to 10 Republicans are also possible yes votes, according to the Hill.
The two GOP senators who were once seen as possible supporters of the legislation, Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, announced Wednesday they would not support it.
Graham said he’d defend the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as the union between one man and one woman. “I’m going to support the Defense of Marriage Act,” he said.
Graham’s remarks on marriage sparked concern among many, according to The Advocate‘s sibling publication Out.
During his tenure in Congress, Graham has long been one of the most anti-LGBTQ+ members and has refuted rumors of being gay.
Cornyn, on his part, said the bill wasn’t anything but a stunt by Democrats to shift concerns over inflation, the outlet reports. “This is a contrived controversy in pursuit of a political narrative that somehow that decision by the Supreme Court is in jeopardy. I don’t believe it is, and this is an effort to try to stoke the fires of political activists and scare them with a narrative that I think is a false narrative,” Cornyn said.
He added that Supreme Court’s 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges ruling upholds the 14th Amendment’s protection of same-sex marriages, which he said probably wouldn’t change.
Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, who has sided with Democrats in the past, agrees with Cornyn’s position.
“We all know what the law is. I haven’t given consideration to that legislation, in part because the law isn’t changing and there’s no indication that it will,” he said, according to Insider. “And clearly, the legislation from the House is unnecessary, given the fact that the law is the same, and we’ll take a look at it as it comes our way.”
As of a few weeks ago, Roe v. Wade was also the law of the land. In arguing for the legislation, Democrats raise the concurring opinion of Justice Clarence Thomas in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Americans’ right to abortion access. According to Thomas, the court should review its rulings protecting marriage equality and contraception.
Senate Republican Conference members and voters across the country changing their opinions on marriage equality, the Hill reports Portman, whose son is gay, saying.
“You look at the shifting sentiment about this issue throughout the country. I think this is an issue that many Americans regardless of political affiliation feel has been resolved,” he said.
“My own personal views on this haven’t changed from several years ago when I said people ought to have the opportunity to marry who they want,” Portman said. “I think its time has come.”
A coalition of 83 conservative groups sent a letter to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Tuesday urging him to block the Respect for Marriage Act.
“H.R. 8404 would require federal recognition of any one state’s definition of marriage without any parameters whatsoever. This would include plural marriages, time-bound marriages, open marriages, marriages involving a minor or relative, platonic marriages, or any other new marriage definition that a state chooses to adopt, including through undemocratic imposition by a state Supreme Court,” the group, led by the Alliance Defending Freedom, claims.
“We call on you to reject H.R. 8404 and to urge your colleagues to thoroughly abandon this harmful and unnecessary legislation,” the letter, signed by Family Research Council president Tony Perkins, Focus on the Family president Jim Daly, and others, concludes.
In a separate letter, the Conservative Action Project claims that the Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 case that established the constitutional right to same-sex marriage in the U.S., “unleashed religious freedom violations across the land, launching a new era of harassment and coercion of millions of Americans who hold a sincere religious belief or moral conviction that marriage is, or ought to be, between one man and one woman.”
McConnell has yet to take a stance on the Respect for Marriage Act, which House Democrats passed last week with the support of 47 Republicans. The bill is intended to enshrine the right to same-sex as well as interracial marriage into law following the Supreme Court’s decision striking down Roe v. Wade and Justice Clarence Thomas’s call for the court to reconsider Obergefell v. Hodges.
Senate Democrats need to pick up 10 Republican votes in order to pass the law, and several key GOP lawmakers have signaled their support for the bill. Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Rob Portman (R-OH) have said they will vote for it, while Sens. Thom Tillis (R-NC), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), and Ron Johnson (R-WI) have all signaled that they will likely vote for the bill. Along with McConnell, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) hasn’t said whether or not he will vote for it.
The letters to McConnell are aimed at countering efforts on the part of progressive and LGBTQ organizations to sway Republican senators.
Proponents of the legislation are hopeful that they stand a chance of securing 10 Republican votes, due in part to the strong support for marriage equality across party lines. According to a 2022 Gallup poll, 71% of Americans support the right to same-sex marriage. A 2021 poll found that 55% of Republicans are in favor of marriage equality.
The tasteless, anti-LGBTQI+ comic Dave Chappelle performed five shows at Luther Burbank Center for the Arts in Santa Rosa. It is difficult to believe the LBC staff and board were unaware of Chappelle’s numerous anti-LGBTQI+ comments that are well-documented and for which he has offered no apologies. Chappelle identifies as a so-called “TERF (Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist)” joining author J. K Rawlings in such dangerous hate speech. These people refuse to accept that we are in the position to declare our gender or lack thereof.
Netflix came under fire for producing and airing two Chappelle shows that feature anti-Trans comments. LGBTQI+ Netflix employees protested – some even quit. Days before the LBC shows comenced, a Minneapolis Chappelle show switched locations as a direct result of a protest organized after Chappelle referred to Monkeypox as “a gay disease.” Chappelle mocked the members of the local LGBTQI+ Community who brought about the move. The original venue apologized to the local LGBTQI+ Community for once welcoming Chappelle and his hate. Chappelle has never backed down, apologized or even reached out to better understand the concerns of he LGBTQI+ Community. Instead, he continues to mock our Community.
The Press Democrat revealed that mere weeks before the five July shows, Live Nation approached LBC with an offer LBC appears to have found unable to refuse. The LBC staff and board claim there was considerable conversation – considerable, but certainly brief and misguided. Did they notice how few dates Live Nation had booked for Chappelle? None in San Francisco or Oakland or Los Angeles. LBC thought they could sneak this past our Community. No doubt comedy venues in big cities find Chappalle as toxic as the LBC staff and board should have.
Luther Burbank Center for the Arts found it necessary to confiscate all audience cell phones before the Chappelle shows. I have attended too many LBC concerts to count but have never had my cell phone taken away before a show. They must have done this so no footage of his anti-LGBTQI+ vitriol would find its way onto social media identifying LBC as the location. Sorry, LBC, you are now forever linked to anti-LGBTQI+ comments.
Should the North Bay’s LGBTQI+ Community allow hate speech and inflammatory comments to be staged in our backyard? Make no mistake – this is not an attack on free speech or about censorship. This is about making LBC aware that Trans people are harmed and even killed as a result of such despicable comments. 2021 saw a record number of Trans-folks murdered. So far this year 57 have been murdered in the United States alone. We once valued this venue, but it’s decision to allow Chapelle a forum for his hate is unacceptable. The LGBTQI+ Community finds Dave Chappelle comments offensive, inflammatory and even deadly.
Let’s stand up to Hate Speech and inform those in power at Luther Burbank Center for the Arts we will boycott the venue. Some shy away from boycotts. If you are amongst them, at least express your opinion by contacting the people listed below.
Let the Staff and Board of Luther Burbank Center for the Arts, its sponsors, those who share the Center’s campus, and elected officials know that such Hate results in harm to members of the LGBTQI+ Community. Email and call, as many as possible and as often as possible.
Call to Action: BOYCOTT Luther Burbank Center for the Arts for Bringing Anti-LGBTQI+ Hate to Sonoma County
The tasteless, anti-LGBTQI+ comic Dave Chappelle performed no less than five shows at Luther Burbank Center for the Arts in Santa Rosa. It is difficult to believe the LBC staff and board are unaware of Chappelle’s numerous anti-Trans comments that are well-documented and for which he has offered no apologies. Chappelle identifies as a so-called “TERF (Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist)” joining author J. K Rawlings in such dangerous hate speech. These people refuse to accept that we are in the position to declare our gender or lack thereof.
Netflix came under fire for producing and airing two recent Chappelle shows that feature anti-Trans comments. LGBTQI+ Netflix employees protested – some even quit. Recently, a Minneapolis Chappelle show switched locations as a direct result of a protest organized after Chappelle referred to Monkeypox as “a gay disease.” Chappelle mocked the members of the local LGBTQI+ Community who brought about the move. The original venue apologized to the local LGBTQWI+ Community for once welcoming Chappelle and his hate. Chappelle has never backed down, apologized or even reached out. Instead, he continues to mock our Community.
The Press Democrat revealed that mere weeks before the five shows, Live Nation approached LBC with an offer they seen unable to refuse. The LBC staff and board claim there was considerable conversation – considerable, but perhaps, but certainly misguiged. Did they notice how few dates Live Nation had booked for Chappelle. None in San Francisco or Oakland or Los Angeles. LBC thought they could sneak this past our Community. No doubt comedy venues in big cities find Chappalle as toxic as the LBC staff should have.
Imagine, Luther Burbank Center for the Arts confiscated cell phones at the Chappelle shows. I have attended too many LBC concerts to count but have never had my cell phone taken away before a show. They must have done this so no footage of his anti-LGBTQI+ vitriol would find its way onto social media identifying LBC as the location. Sorry, LBC, you are now forever linked to anti-LGBTQI+ comments. Did you think this community could be so easily duped?
Should the North Bay’s LGBTQI+ Community allow hate speech and inflammatory comments to be staged in our backyard? Make no mistake – this is not an attack on free speech or about censorship. This is about making LBC aware that Trans people are harmed and even killed as a result of such despicable comments. 2021 saw a record number of Trans-folks murdered. So far this year 57 have been murdered in the United States alone. We once valued this venue, but it’s decision to allow Chapelle a forum for his hate is unacceptable. The LGBTQI+ Community finds Dave Chappelle comments offensive, inflammatory and even deadly.
Let’s stand up to Hate Speech and inform those in power at Luther Burbank Center for the Arts we will boycott the venue. Some shy away from boycotts. If you are amongst them, at least express your opinion by contacting the people listed below.
Let the Staff and Board of Luther Burbank Center for the Arts, its sponsors, those who share the Center’s campus, and elected officials know that such Hate results in harm to members of the LGBTQI+ Community. Email and call, as many as possible and as often as possible.
