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Sex workers and strippers explain how COVID has forced them to gamble with their safety

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Sex workers and strippers explained how the pandemic has forced them into unsafe working conditions and hit them financially.

United Sex Workers is a trade union branch organising for better working conditions and to change the sex work industry from within. Among its aims is to establish ‘worker’ status for strippers and sex workers, which bestows basic employment rights such as sick pay and annual leave.

Its work has become even more important during the pandemic, which has seen strip clubs fall quiet and close down, and has seen sex workers often forced to gamble with their safety in order to make a living.

While some people have been able to work remotely during the pandemic, many people’s livelihoods depend on in-person contact.

To make matters worse, sex workers are classed as self-employed, meaning they can’t access sick pay or other benefits. The result is that many sex workers are left struggling to make ends meet if they test positive for COVID-19.

That puts sex workers in a uniquely difficult position – how do you stay afloat when you have no guaranteed income and no safety net to fall back on?

We spoke to members of United Sex Workers to find out what it’s been like to work in the sex industry since the arrival of the Omicron variant. They spoke about financial instability, the fear that comes with being exposed to COVID-19, and working with riskier clients in a bid to make ends meet.

Surnames have been withheld to protect identities.

Audrey

December is always a slow month, yet the Omicron wave reduced it to a glacial pace. When I tested positive for COVID over Christmas it meant I had to take 10 full days off work, which only increased the anxiety I felt about not being able to make rent. When you’re self-employed, 10 days of work can mean the difference between paying bills or subsisting on super noodles. I had to take on potentially dangerous clients I would have usually refused to see just to make ends meet, alongside juggling the health anxiety of being so close to strangers in the middle of a global pandemic. 

Being a hooker, I was unable to access any financial support from the government earlier in the year, and any savings I had at the start of the pandemic are now long gone, so all I can do is continue to see clients and hope I don’t fall ill again. The longer the pandemic stretches on, the more terrified I am of never being able to financially recover. I often wonder if this perpetual anxiety is how it would feel if sex work were criminalised; having to take riskier bookings due to there being less clients, knowing that with each booking I’m gambling with my own safety.  

Ava

My work phone was quieter than usual and I needed to take any booking I could. This meant that I screened less than usual and men tried to push my boundaries a bit more I think because they knew I was desperate for the money.

This is what it might be like if we have the Nordic model, the nicer clients will behave and not come out and the bad clients will still be there and they will know that we need the money and push us.

Amelie 

Omicron has hit the stripping industry really hard. November and December is usually the best time of the year for dancers, but this year it has been very quiet. We saw a massive decline in the number of customers visiting our clubs, as Christmas parties and stag dos were often cancelled. This, combined with the arrival of COVID passports has made it incredibly hard for strippers to make a decent amount of money. A lot of us also tested positive for COVID and have had to self-isolate and miss out on work. Due to being self-employed, we had no access to sick pay.

The last two years have been incredibly hard for the industry. A number of clubs did not get any financial support as a result of their local authority discriminating against them simply because of the nature of those establishments. This has led to the closure of some clubs which did not manage to make it through the pandemic. Some of them tried to recoup their financial losses through higher house fees, fines given to the workers for very arbitrary reasons, and booking more dancers than they usually would, making it harder for everyone to make money.

Many strippers are queer, and a significant proportion of the customer base also is.

Some cities such as Bristol, Edinburgh and Blackpool have used those difficult times to try and introduce nil-caps, essentially a ban, on strip clubs. Blackpool has unfortunately been successful, although the process they went through to achieve this was more than questionable. No decision has been made in Bristol and Edinburgh so far. Those decisions from local authorities have received a massive backlash from the industry itself, with us dancers in Bristol organising ourselves with the Bristol Sex Workers Collective and advocating against the ban, arguing it would push the industry underground and make us unsafe. We have been supported by our trade union United Sex Workers, which is also campaigning against nil-caps.

These caps would not only endanger the dancers, who would lose safe and regulated workplaces, but it would also be a huge loss for the LGBTQ+ community. Many strippers are queer, and a significant proportion of the customer base also is. Closing them down would once again be removing safe spaces for the community, due to the high security presence in those venues and the very strict licensing. 

Alice 

I tested positive for COVID along with many others in the week leading up to Christmas. This meant that I had to isolate and therefore couldn’t work. It was very stressful to be sat at home with no income worrying that if there was another lockdown I could be facing even more losses and that I could struggle to pay my rent and bills. There’s no furlough pay and no sick pay if you’re a sex worker. I just wish that we had access to these basic rights so that we can feel protected and supported along with other workers.

Amy

At the start of COVID, I managed to take a few months off sex work because I had a few days work each week in a civvie job. When money got tight I started seeing clients again and, perhaps due to their mental health being bad, and mine too, the sessions were so difficult, with clients pushing boundaries or being more emotionally intense than usual and less respectful of boundaries. 

Touch also felt strange after so long avoiding human contact. I was missing the people I wanted to be close to so much, so the touch from those I didn’t love felt stifling. I also think, as sex work is so stigmatised and I have internalised some of that, I was worried about spreading COVID that I’d picked up via clients, as if this somehow was worse than if I’d picked it up working in an office.

You can join the United Sex Workers trade union or find out more about the work they do here. 

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Champion bodybuilder and first Black gay man to win Mr America dies

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Chris Dickerson, who holds the duel honour of being the first Black man to win the Mr America contest and first openly gay man to win Mr Olympia, has died aged 82.

Dickerson was a powerhouse of the bodybuilding community and broke barriers. He died on 23 December at a hospital in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with his friend Bill Neylon confirming the cause of death as a heart ailment, the Washington Post reported.

Neylon – a retired amateur bodybuilder who trained alongside Dickerson – said his friend had lived in a rehab centre after he had been hospitalised for a broken hip in 2020, had a heart attack and COVID-19.

He told the New York Times that Dickerson “brought class and dignity and culture to bodybuilding”.

Chris Dickerson’s storied career spanned over three decades, and he won over 50 titles. He ended his career having won four major bodybuilding titles: Mr Olympia, Mr America, Mr Universe and the Pro Mr America.

Dickerson trained in opera and dance before beginning to lift weights to build up his chest and expand his vocal range.

He was named Mr America in 1970, becoming the first Black winner of the bodybuilding competition. He was also one of the first Black men to win the Mr Universe competition in 1982.

Dickerson was also gay, which was widely known in bodybuilding circles by the late 1970s. But he didn’t publicly discuss his sexuality at the height of his career, the New York Times reported.

Dickerson acknowledged that being gay and Black was a barrier for him in the bodybuilding world.

In a 2009 paper published in Iron Game History: The Journal of Physical Culture, Chriis Dickerson recalled facing homophobic and racist prejudice at the Mr Olympia competition in 1980.

Dickerson narrowly lost the top title to Arnold Schwarzenegger.

He said the promoter of the Mr Olympia contest was a “real low life, a bigot, who had a real dislike for me – partly on racial grounds and partly for my sexual orientation”.

The paper alleged the promoter also told another official that “Chris couldn’t win because he was a f*g”.

Chris Dickerson came in second again in 1981 before finally taking the Mr Olympia title in 1982 aged 43. He was the oldest Mr Olympia champion at the time.

In the 1970s, Dickerson modelled nude for Jim French, a photographer who specialised in erotic imagery of gay men. He also posed in a t-shirt for a portrait by Robert Mapplethorpe in 1982.

Samir Bannout, Dickerson’s friend and the 1983 Mr Olympia champion, told the Washington Post that Dickerson was “one of the nicest people in the entire sport”.

“He had no chip on his shoulder,” Bannout said. “When he won the Mr Olympia, he was still a normal guy.”

Bannout described the gay bodybuilder as “masterful” and as someone who had “more confidence than anyone out there”.

Chris Dickerson was the youngest of triplets. His brothers died before him, the New York Times reported.

Dickerson left no immediate survivors.

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Winter Olympics poised to be gayest ever as another queer athlete qualifies

Another queer Team USA athlete has just qualified for the Winter Olympics – skeleton slider Andrew Blaser.

Blaser beat out skeleton veterans Austin Florian and John Daly to become the only man on the Team USA skeleton team for the 2022 games in Beijing.

It’s the first time that the US is sending only one male skeleton athlete to the Olympics – so no pressure at all.

The truly terrifying winter sport involves sledders plummeting head-first down a steep and perilous icy track on a tiny sled. According to the Olympics website, it is considered to be the “world’s first sliding sport”.

He joins other queer Team USA Olympians including figure skaters Jason Brown, Amber Glenn and Timothy LeDuc – who’ll be the first openly non-binary athlete to compete in the Winter Olympics.

Other LGBT+ athletes heading for the Winter Olympics, according to OutSports, also include British curler Bruce Mouat, Australian snowboarder Belle Brockhoff, French figure skater Kevin Aymoz and Dutch speedskater Ireen Wüst – the most decorated Olympic speedskater ever.

The LGBT+ sports website says that the Beijing Games will include more out athletes than any before it.

Also heading for Beijing are ice dancers Guillaume Cizeron (France) and Paul Poirier (Canada), and Canadian figure skater Eric Radford.

Only 15 openly LGBT+ athletes competed at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

Skeleton returned to the Winter Olympics in 2022, having last appeared on the program 54 years prior in 1948. Blaser is the first out gay man to represent Team USA in the sport.

He previously told OutSports that there have been several times where he considered walking away from the sport.

But looking back at all his accomplishments in skeleton, he realised he could succeed.

“I have had so many moments where I have ‘quit’ mentally and thought I was done and walking away,” Blaser said. “Looking back at every conversation with every coach where I was defeated or thought it couldn’t be done, now I know that it can be done.”

Blaser started as a track and field athlete, even competing at the University of Idaho as a pole vaulter and hurdler.

After college, Blaser wanted to pursue a career as a bobsledder but tried skeleton after coaches said he’d be better suited to the super face ice sport. But Blaser initially hated the sport and quit before eventually returning to go pro.

When he’s not training, Andrew Blaser enjoys travelling, camping and singing. His favourite movies include Love Actually and Mean Girls, according to his Team USA profile.

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Religions around the world are contributing to transphobic violence, activists warn

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A group of activists invite social media to join their campaign to ‘disrupt the religious violence trans people experience every day’.

Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi and J Mase III edited the Black Trans Prayer Book to dismantle toxic religious practices that alienate people in the LGBT+ community. The anthology is composed of work by Black trans, non-binary and gender non-conforming people.

In 2019, the pair hosted their first annual event for the #TransphobiaIsASin Campaign. The online campaign highlights religious violence that impacts trans, non-binary and gender non-conforming people worldwide – especially those from Black, Indigenous and other marginalised communities.

Now, on Saturday (15 January), Dane and Mase will launch their fourth iteration of the campaign. In it, they are inviting anyone that is “invested in ending religious (ie: all) violence against Trans, Non-Binary and Gender Expansive Peoples”.

“Anti-trans religious violence does not just look like demonising trans people within worship spaces,” they said. “It is the theology that finds its way to the tongues of politicians who create anti-trans policies.”

They continued: “It manifests as the framework that blooms violence against trans people on the street, in their families, and in community at large.”

In a post on social media, Dane and Mase explained they want to “call attention to, and disrupt the religious violence trans people experience everyday”.

They have invited anyone interested in taking part to take a photo holding up a sign with one of the following lines: “Transphobia is a Sin”, “Transphobia is Haram”, “Trans People are Divine” or “Trans People Exist Because Our Ancestors Existed”.

The photo should be posted to social media on or close to Saturday, and it should use the hashtag “

Mase told them that the book came into existence as they wanted to do “some intentional work on creating spiritual space” for people within their community.

“That included Black trans people who are part of religious communities as well as Black trans folks who’ve been run out of religious communities,” Mase said.

He added that they knew this wasn’t a job just for him and Dane. So the pair gathered a “crew of people from all over the US and beyond” to offer their insights for the interfaith, multi-dimensional work.

Dane said her main takeaway from the book was: “Wow, Black trans people are just amazing”.

“Black trans people are the leaders this world has been looking for,” she explained. “It’s time some of these cis folks, especially the white ones, get out the way.”

Dane continued: “Get out the way and pour resources into the community.

“The solutions for liberation that the world has been seeking have already been theorised.

“Now it’s time for the world to actually honour the role that Black trans people have always been destined to play: healing the world, prophesying a future and birthing liberation.”

Dane and Mase will also close out the new campaign with a workshop on how to heal from religious trauma which is set to take place on 18 January.

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LGBT+ activist flees Jordan and is finally ‘supported, seen and heard’ in Australia

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After an 18-month fight, an LGBT+ activist who fled Jordan is finally “supported, seen and heard” in their new home in Australia.

AlShaima Omama AlZubi, 25, who identifies as a non-binary lesbian, has been a “victim of rape, sexual assaults, torture, forced marriage, forced conversion therapy, forced hospitalisation, and forced veiling abuse that dates back to their childhood”, according to Amnesty.

AlZubi, an LGBT+ and women’s rights defender, comes from a powerful family, with many members working for Jordan’s government, and whose “influence extends across Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq”.

They first fled to Turkey from Jordan in July 2020, and later made it to Lebanon, planning to travel onwards to Australia on a humanitarian visa.

But in December, 2021, they were stripped of their passport and detained by Lebanese authorities for five days, who told them there was an Interpol Red Notice out of their arrest. During this time, Amnesty suspected that the Jordanian embassy in Lebanon was working on having them repatriated.

Finally, after tireless work by NGOs and Australian diplomats, AlZubi was able to board a flight to Australia on 30 December.

Speaking to SBS News, they said that since arriving, they have begun seeing a therapist and are finding their place within the local LGBT+ community.

They said: “Now I feel supported, seen, heard and treated like a human being regardless of my beliefs, gender identity, and sexual orientation.

“[I want to] move on in my life, continue my education, [and have] a great career and independence.

“Finally I have the chance to be myself without people shaming me and trying to kill me for it.”

In a message “to all of the women and the LGBTIQ+ community in the Middle East”, they added: “There’s always a way to be free. We just need the right people to help us.

“Never be ashamed of being yourself, never be sorry for who you are. Don’t let religion or anyone control your being. No one on Earth can be you.”

While homosexuality was decriminalised in Jordan in 1951, LGBT+ people face frequent harassment, discrimination and violence.

There are no laws to protect queer people from discrimination, no recognition of same-sex relationships, and one 2019 study found that 93 per cent of Jordanians believe that society should not accept homosexuality.

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Many US states still criminalize HIV transmission. NJ is about to break away

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New Jersey is set to decriminalise HIV transmission, ending an historic law that “fuels stigma”.

Under current New Jersey law, a person who engages in sexual penetration by any body part without disclosing they are HIV-positive could face up to five years in prison.

For other sexually-transmitted infections, the sentence is limited to 18 months.

On Monday (10 January), state senators voted 26-11 to pass a bill, S-3707, that would put an end to this.

The bill would still criminalise the transmission of non-airborne infectious or communicable diseases, but will no longer target those living with HIV or STIs.

“This legislation is a step in the right direction [to] removing the stigmatisation that surrounds individuals living with HIV,” said Senate majority leader Teresa Ruiz, one of the bill’s co-sponsors.

“The criminal code is meant to punish actions that harm others, not discriminate against people living with a chronic health condition.”

New Jersey state senator Teresa Ruiz speaks at the 25th Anniversary of Kid Witness News. (Paul Zimmerman/Getty Images for Kid Witness News)

Co-sponsor senator Joe Vitale said the bill would bring New Jersey in line with “what we now know about the transmissions of certain diseases, especially in light of the advances in treatment”.

It’s a law that has been a “huge priority” for activists, he said.

“I am thankful to the advocates who brought this issue to our attention, not only for leading the way on solid public health policy,” Vitale added, “but also in serving those in need in New Jersey.”

‘Criminalisation does not prevent HIV transmission’

Even activists across the pond celebrated the news, who said that such laws are based on long-outdated conceptions of what HIV is and deepen animosity.

Matthew Hodson, a British HIV activist and executive director for NAM aidsmap, which monitors HIV criminalisation law, told PinkNews: “Criminalisation of HIV creates barriers to HIV testing and treatment, which only serves to increase opportunities for HIV to be transmitted.

“Criminalisation does not prevent HIV transmission.

“There is a shameful history of such laws being used against people in cases where not only has HIV not been passed on but there was no actual possibility of HIV being passed on.

“Criminalisation fuels stigma and is often used against those who are already marginalised or vulnerable, including against LGBT people in countries with state-sanctioned homophobia.

“It is encouraging that several states in the US have recently updated or repealed their legislation relating to HIV criminalisation and that president Joe Biden has spoken out against such laws.”

A history of the US criminalising the transmission of HIV

At least 35 US states, many in the Midwest and Deep South – still have laws on the books that criminalise “HIV exposure”, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A 2017 analysis of 393 HIV-related convictions in Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri and Tennessee found the average sentence was nearly eight years in prison for having sex without first informing their partner of their status.

In Arkansas, ‘intentional HIV exposure’ carries a minimum of six years and a maximum of 30 years alongside thousands of dollars in fines.

People convicted of ‘intentional exposure’ in South Dakota and Louisiana are also required to register as sex offenders, the Center for HIV Law and Policy says.

Ohio and Tennessee enforce this requirement regardless of intentionality, while in Arkansas it is not a statutory requirement but a court may order it.

A man holding a PrEP tablet.
A man holding a PrEP tablet. (Daniel Born/The Times/Gallo Images/Getty)

At least six states even have laws that enhance sentences for sexual offences if the person convicted is living with HIV, the Movement Advancement Project found.

The Movement Advancement Project said nearly three in every 10 LGBT+ people live in a state with such outdated law in place. Such laws are often used to punish people who have done no harm, the American Academy of HIV Medicine has warned.

Michigan, for example, exempts those living with HIV who have sex without disclosing their status as long as they are on viral suppression medication.

Both the HIV Medicine Association and the Infectious Diseases Society of America have urged state legislators to peel back such laws, calling them “unjust and harmful”.

Many states scrambled to roll out laws criminalising people living with HIV amid the paranoia of the early HIV epidemic, when acquiring the virus was considered a death sentence.

Now, things have changed, to say the least. Scientists know so much more about the virus and how it spreads, and great leaps in antiretroviral treatments mean that those living with HIV live long, healthy and happy lives.

Science in no way supports laws that single out people living with HIV, and activists have argued that these laws are tinged with racism and transphobia.

People living with HIV are more likely to be trans, Black and Latinx, meaning that they are disproportionately targeted by the laws, Lambda Legal and Injustice Watch have found. Some prosecutors even weaponise hateful stereotypes of these demographics to justify the charges.

If New Jersey repeals its law, it would join Illinois and Texas in throwing out entirely their HIV-specific criminal laws.

Missouri, California, Iowa, North Carolina, Nevada, Virginia and Michigan, meanwhile, have all softened their anti-HIV laws since 2014, according to the CDC.

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Florida gay rights activist found dead in landfill

A gay rights advocate who was integral in legalizing same-sex marriage in Florida was found dead in a landfill in what is being investigated as a homicide, authorities said Wednesday.

Jorge Diaz-Johnston, 54, the brother of former Miami Mayor Manny Diaz, had been last seen alive Jan. 3, Tallahassee police said. Shortly after a missing person alert was issued for him Saturday, his body was found in a trash pile at a landfill in Baker, Florida, about 60 miles west of the Alabama border, according to the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office.

Don Johnston, Jorge Diaz
Don Johnston and Jorge Diaz wait to speak to the media and supporters after a court hearing on same-sex marriage in Miami on July 2, 2014.J Pat Carter / AP file

Diaz, who served as mayor of Miami from 2001 to 2009, released a statement on Twitter confirming his brother’s death.

“I am profoundly appreciative of the outpouring of support shown to me, my brother-in-law Don, and my family after the loss of my brother, Jorge Diaz-Johnston,” he wrote. “My brother was such a special gift to this world whose heart and legacy will continue to live on for generations to come.”https://iframe.nbcnews.com/jv8Jwwr?_showcaption=true&app=1

While he had a high-profile brother, Diaz-Johnston made a name for himself. In 2014, he and his husband, Don Diaz-Johnston, and five other same-sex couples sued the Miami-Dade County clerk’s office after they were barred from getting married.

“For us, it’s not just only a question of love and wanting to express our love and have the benefits that everyone else has in the state, but it’s an issue of equality, and it’s a civil rights issue,” Jorge Diaz-Johnston told NBC Miami at the time.

Florida Federal Judge Issues Ruling Allowing Gay Marriages Across The State
Same-sex couples who had challenged the wedding ban celebrate after Circuit Court Judge Sarah Zabel lifted the stay, allowing gay couples to marry Jan. 5, 2015, in Miami.Walter Michot / Pool via Getty Images file

In January 2015, a Miami-Dade circuit court judge ruled in the couples’ favor, legalizing same-sex marriage in the South Florida county more than a year before the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide. 

Elizabeth Schwartz, who represented the six couples in the case, called Diaz-Johnston’s death “heartbreaking.”

“They fought so hard for their love to be enshrined and to be able to enjoy the institution of marriage, and for the marriage to end in this way — in this gruesome, heartbreaking way — there are no words,” she told NBC Miami. 

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Shortly after winning their case, Jorge and Don Diaz-Johnston married in March 2015, according to public records. Coupled with an image of his husband grinning at the camera over dinner, Don Diaz-Johnston addressed his death on Facebook.

“There are just no words for the loss of my beloved husband Jorge Isaias Diaz-Johnston,” he wrote. “I can’t stop crying as I try and write this. But he meant so much to all of you as he did to me. So I am fighting through the tears to share with you our loss of him.”https://iframe.nbcnews.com/oZecGrV?_showcaption=true&app=1

The current mayor of Miami, Daniella Levine Cava, acknowledged Diaz-Johnston’s role in advancing LGBTQ rights in the city.

“In Jorge Diaz-Johnston, we lost a champion, a leader, and a fighter for our LGBTQ community,” she wrote on Twitter. “His tragic loss will be felt profoundly by all who loved him, as we honor his life and legacy.”

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Activist Jim Obergefell Launches Run For Ohio House

The Huffington Post reports:

Jim Obergefell, who was at the center of the 2015 Supreme Court case that legalized marriage equality in the United States, announced Tuesday that he is running for a seat in the Ohio House of Representatives.

“We should all be able to participate fully in society and the economy, living in strong communities with great public schools, access to quality healthcare, and with well-paying jobs that allow us to stay in the community we love, with the family we care about,” Obergefell said in a statement.

Obergefell, 55, was not involved in politics before the Supreme Court case. In 2015, a Washington Post profile described him as “a soft-spoken real estate broker with little previous interest in political activism.”

Read the full article.

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S.D. Gov. Kristi Noem releases national ad targeting transgender student athletes

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem released a national advertisement on Thursday promoting legislation that targets transgender youths.

Without saying the word “transgender” or “trans,” the ad promotes a bill that Noem, a Republican, introduced last month. The measure would prevent trans girls from playing on any female sports teams at school, including club teams. 

Noem, the first woman to serve as South Dakota governor, said it would be “the strongest law in the nation protecting female sports.”

“In South Dakota, only girls play girls’ sports,” the ad begins. “Why? Because of Gov. Kristi Noem’s leadership. Noem has been protecting girls’ sports for years and never backed down.”https://iframe.nbcnews.com/Qt6aXee?_showcaption=true&app=1

Noem wrote on Twitter that the ad, which promotes her 2022 re-election campaign, will appear on prime-time national news shows Thursday evening.

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In March, Noem vetoed a similar bill that would limit trans women and girls from competing in female sports leagues, citing “significant unintended consequences.” 

But last month, she made an about-face, introducing the new bill, which mandates that students compete on sports teams that match the sex listed on their birth certificates “issued at or near the time of the athlete’s birth.” 

“Common sense tells us that males have an unfair physical advantage over females in athletic competition,” the governor said in a statement at the time. 

LGBTQ advocates denounced Thursday’s ad.

Student reacts to bills targeting transgender athletes: ‘It so clearly sends the message that we are not welcome here’

JUNE 21, 202103:50

“I am certain that Governor Noem would much rather talk about this issue than her pandemic response,” said Gillian Branstetter, a longtime trans advocate and the media manager for the National Women’s Law Center. “We have significantly larger problems, for example, problems that exist! Those would be good problems to solve as opposed to conjuring fictional ghosts of a changing society and attempting to exploit people’s ignorance.”

Major sports organizations, including the NCAA and the International Olympic Committee, allow transgender and nonbinary athletes to compete on teams that correspond to their gender identity under certain conditions. The IOC updated its guidelines on transgender athletes in November, removing policies that required competing trans athletes to undergo what it described as “medically unnecessary” procedures or treatment.

However, South Dakota and 29 other states introduced restrictions on trans athletes last year, according to the Human Rights Campaign, an advocacy group. Ten states have passed laws restricting trans athletes, with nine doing so last year. 

Since the start of the new year, state lawmakers in at least seven states have proposed laws that would limit the rights of transgender and nonbinary youths. Several of those measures mirror Noem’s bill, blocking trans students from competing on school sports teams that align with their gender identity.

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In a win for trans veterans, VA adds gender identity to medical records

Veterans’ health records can now include their gender identity, the Department of Veterans Affairs announced Wednesday.

The department said it began including gender identifiers in its national medical record system last month “to help VA providers better understand and meet the health care needs of Veterans,” including transgender and gender-diverse veterans.

It added the categories “transgender male, transgender female, non-binary, other or does not wish to disclose” as options in its gender identity field. Nonbinary refers to an individual whose gender identity is neither exclusively male nor female. 

Denis McDonough, the secretary of veterans affairs, said in a statement that the VA’s goal “is to align the department’s policies and procedures with the president’s vision for a more inclusive government.” 

“All Veterans, all people, have a basic right to be identified as they define themselves,” McDonough said, according to the news release. “This is essential for their general well-being and overall health. Knowing the gender identity of transgender and gender diverse Veterans helps us better serve them.”

Trans veterans said though it might seem like a small change, it’s meaningful and will make it easier for them to get health care.

Image: Landon Marchant, an Air Force veteran, said they are “completely and utterly blown away” that the VA added a gender identity field to medical records.
Landon Marchant, an Air Force veteran, said they are “completely and utterly blown away” that the VA added a gender identity field to medical records.Mackenzie Hunter

Landon Marchant, who uses gender-neutral pronouns and left the Air Force in 2011 on an honorable discharge, said they are “completely and utterly blown away” that the department made gender identifiers on medical forms a priority. “Changing health databases and medical records is not as easy as updating a form in Excel,” they said.

Marchant said without a field for gender identity on their medical forms, they often have to go through unnecessary details about their medical history every time they see a new provider, which they described as exhausting. They were assigned female at birth, transitioned in 2012 and updated all of their gender markers to male. But they identify as nonbinary and use gender-neutral pronouns, which can confuse providers who aren’t competent in trans care.

They said they saw a social worker recently who assumed they were “unstable” in their gender identity because they use gender-neutral pronouns. 

“And then she proceeded to tell the rest of my psychiatric care team that, and I had to go sort that out,” Marchant said, adding that these types of misunderstandings are common. “People assume they know my pronouns, people assume things about me because they see me passing as male, and then I have to go explain, actually, I also need routine female reproductive care and all of these other aspects of medical care.” 

Marchant said many of those miscommunications could be avoided if providers could look at their file and see gender identity, sex assigned at birth and pronouns, which they said would give providers a more “complete picture.” The new VA policy doesn’t mention the addition of a section for pronouns, but a VA spokesperson said it is developing a pronoun field to add to its health record system.

“In direct communication, VA policy requires staff to use a Veteran’s chosen pronoun,” the spokesperson said in an email. “Staff are also required to use a Veteran’s preferred name, and that information is incorporated into our health record systems.”

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Avalisa Ellicott, communications director for advocacy group Transgender American Veterans Association, said including gender identity will make medical record systems more consistent. Previously, she said, some providers would only see a patient’s legal name instead of their chosen name, and they would accidentally use the wrong name, an action known as deadnaming. Trans people who are deadnamed or misgendered will be less likely to get care, Ellicott said.

“If you go to an appointment for your hormone therapy, and the person refers to you by your deadname and is using the wrong pronouns, how likely are you to continue going back to that place?” she said. “So people were going out within their own communities and finding other people and paying more money and not receiving the benefits that they worked hard for.”

She said the policy change is just one of many efforts by President Joe Biden’s administration to support trans service members and veterans and, in some cases, undo Trump administration policies. Just after he was inaugurated, Biden reversed Trump’s ban on trans people enlisting and openly serving in the military. In June, the VA announced it would start the yearslong process of creating a federal rule to offer gender-affirming surgeries for trans veterans.

Sheri Swokowski, who lives in Madison, Wisconsin, and served in the Wisconsin National Guard as a federal civil servant and on active duty, said adding gender identity to health records is a great step forward, but she’s worried about how long it will take for every part of the VA to enact the change.

Sheri Swokowski served in the Wisconsin National Guard for more than 30 years.
Sheri Swokowski served in the Wisconsin National Guard for more than 30 years.Courtesy Sheri Swokowski

“It’s kind of a crapshoot,” she said. “All of the VA organizations that are out there are all led by different individuals and are all located in different parts of the country. Some parts of the country are less accepting of transgender people and older people.” 

Swokowski said rather than creating more policies to foster a safe environment for trans veterans, she hopes the VA will enforce the military’s values of treating everyone with dignity and respect. 

In addition to enforcing its current values and rules, Ellicott said the VA should institute mandatory training for all medical professionals.

“There are a lot of courses and classes that are optional,” Ellicott said of trans-specific medical training. “I think mandatory training on trans-related health care, and just how to interact with trans people, would do a lot for the VA and do a lot for our veterans.” 

She said including gender identity on forms is an important change, even if it’s small, because then providers can’t ignore who someone is. 

“It’s a way to highlight that this is important for veterans, and this is important for people to feel comfortable coming to the VA for care,” she said.

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