Alabama governor Kay Ivey signs sweeping legislation banning gender-affirming healthcare for trans youth and prohibiting discussions of LGBT+ topics in schools.
The Republican governor signed into law two controversial bills, House Bill 322(HB 322) and Senate Bill 184 (SB 184), just a day after the state legislature approved both measures.
SB 184 makes it a felony for anyone to provide gender-affirming care – including puberty blockers, hormone therapy or gender-affirming surgeries – to trans youth. Anyone convicted under the proposed legislation face a 10-year prison sentence and a steep $15,000 fine, ABC Newsreported.
The bill also means that Alabama is now the first state in the US to impose felony criminal penalties on medical professionals who offer gender-affirming treatment to trans youth, according to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). The HRC also warned the bill would also require school personnel to out trans youth to their parents.
HB 322 – which has been dubbed by LGBT+ advocates as a ‘Don’t Say Gay or Trans’ bill – originally started as legislation that would ban trans K-12 students from using multi-person bathrooms, changing rooms and locker rooms that correspond with their gender identity.
But then Republican lawmakers amended the bill to also ban classroom discussions on gender identity or sexual orientation from kindergarten through fifth grade or in a “manner that is not age-appropriate”.
The Alabama bill goes further than Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law, which prevents discussions on LGBT+ issues between kindergarten and third grade. Any discussion on LGBT+ topics in older grades in Florida classrooms must be “age appropriate”.
“I believe very strongly that if the good Lord made you a boy, you are a boy and if he made you a girl, you are a girl,” she said. “We should especially protect our children from these radical, life-altering drugs and surgeries when they are at such a vulnerable stage in life.”
She also went on to declare that “men use the men’s room” and “ladies use the ladies’ room” in Alabama. Ivey added that HB 322 would “ensure our elementary school classrooms remain free from any kind of sex talk”.
She then claimed that it is “misleading” to call it a ‘Don’t Say Gay or Trans’ bill because she said it is ensuring that young children are not being taught about sex.
“We are talking about five-year-olds for crying out loud,” she said. “We need to focus on what matters – core instruction like reading and math.”
Carmarion D Anderson-Harvey, Alabama state director for the HRC, condemned Ivey for choosing to “score political points with radical, far-right voters over the welfare” of trans youth and their families in Alabama.
“The governor and her fellow anti-equality legislators in the state capitol have recklessly passed a bill that goes directly against the best advice of the medical community and intrudes on the rights of parents and families to make their own medical decisions,” Anderson-Harvey said.
She added that Republican lawmakers have also “successfully criminalised” life-saving care that trans youth “need desperately” as well as the “incredible” medical professions who help these young people “each and every day”.
“In doing so they have jeopardised the future of these doctors, families and transgender youth who are all considering what their livelihoods will be in Alabama,” Anderson-Harvey said.
She continued: “The legislative package passed yesterday and signed today is the most anti-transgender legislative package ever passed, combining elements of infamous laws like HB 2 in North Carolina, Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay or Trans’ law and even Texas’s cruel executive action from earlier this year.
“Shame on Governor Ivey for being such a political coward that she puts children in harm’s way just to serve her own career.”
A bar serving LGBTQ New Yorkers has closed after an arson attack over the weekend, the New York City Police Department confirmed Wednesday.
At approximately 9 p.m. on Sunday, a man walked into the Rash Bar in Brooklyn’s Bushwick neighborhood with a bottle of flammable liquid, poured it on the bar’s floor, lit a match and set the venue ablaze, according to the NYPD. Police said the suspect fled as the bar became engulfed in flames.
Jake Sillen, one of the bar’s owners, told NBC News on Wednesday that they are still in shock.
“It’s so hard to believe and process,” said Sillen, 26, who is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns. “It’s more confusing than anything.”
The Rash Bar in Brooklyn’s Bushwick neighborhood.Rash Bar / via NBC New York
Three people — a bartender, DJ and security guard — were inside when the venue was set on fire. A 25-year-old female was transported to nearby Wyckoff Heights Medical Center with minor burns, while another victim was evaluated on the scene for minor burns to the shoulders, the NYPD said.
Claire Bendiner, a co-owner of Rash, had just stepped outside when the fire broke out.
“Everyone rushed out,” Bendiner told NBC New York. “The side door has a glass front, and I looked over and saw flames to the top of ceiling. It was crazy, it happened so fast.”
The bar was left unrecognizable and torched, NBC New York reported.
Bendiner, who uses they/them pronouns, said the suspect boldly left behind evidence.
“He left the gas canister inside. Kind of calmly placed it on the bar counter. Wasn’t knocked over or anything,” they told NBC New York.
Police are reviewing surveillance footage that shows someone filling up a gas can minutes before the fire.
‘Easy target’
Police are still investigating a motive for the incident, and no arrests have been made. The bar’s owner declined to comment on the suspect’s intentions but noted that serving a large LGBTQ clientele makes the space vulnerable.
“I don’t want to jump to any conclusions, because we don’t know anything about the person that did this,” Sillen said. “It could easily turn out to be a motive that we aren’t expecting.”
“It’s easy to see why our space would be an easy target for someone looking to do harm to the queer community,” they said, adding that in Rash Bar, “people feel safe to be themselves, and it’s a shame that anybody would do anything to threaten this.”
Since the bar opened nearly five months ago, it has become a staple in LGBTQ nightlife and a refuge for queer young adults and performers. It is also known for being packed late into the night, according to NBC New York.
This is not the only reported incidenttargeting bars in or near the Bushwick neighborhood that are popular with the city’s LGBTQ community: In February, someone threw a pepper-bomb spray on the dance floor at a party for the Black queer community at Nowadays, and last summer there was a wave of attacks at Happyfun Hideaway.
“We, definitely in the last year, have seen a rise in anti-LGBT violence,” Sillen said, noting that more people are taking cars to and from parties. “The streets haven’t been as safe as they were three or four years ago.”
As of Wednesday afternoon, the bar owners had raised $52,000 of their $200,000 goal on GoFundMe to help reconstruct the damaged building and care for the injured employees. Sillen said they are thankful for the outpouring of support.
“What we’re doing is important, and no matter what, we will be reopening,” Sillen said. “We’ve never once thought about that not being a possibility.”
Sillen, who is still on edge after the fire, said they have a message for the arsonist.
“Turn yourself in,” Sillen said. “You’ve harmed so many people. Not just physically, but the waves that this is going to create — between the loss of income, wages and just the space for as long as it’s going to be gone. … It’s a lot of loss.”
Student organizer and activist Will Larkins decided that since LGBTQ American history is not taught in Florida’s public schools, he took it upon himself to explain the events of the Stonewall Uprising to his 4th period U.S. history class at Winter Park High School.
Although Larkins’ lesson was only, in his words, a 5 minute PowerPoint presentation for the history class of which he posted an excerpt on Twitter, there was a resulting torrent of hateful comments some of which took aim at the fact that Larkins gave his PowerPoint presentation in a rather fetching red dress.
The actions that the 17-year-old junior and president of the WPHS Queer Student Union took to educate his fellow students was lauded by several notable LGBTQ+ activists and allies including Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting survivor and co-founder of the “March For Our Lives” movement David Hogg; Brandon J. Wolf, Press Secretary for Equality Florida; Janessa Goldbeck, the CEO of the Vet Voice Foundation; and countless hundreds of others.
Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, has finally been attracting some attention for her ultra-conservative views. Mostly, the focus has been on the extraordinary conflict of interest she represents for her husband, and she hands out awards to people appearing before the court and advocates for issues her husband will be deciding on.
But this week, Thomas surprised even her fiercest critics by engaging in what can only be called treason. In a series of emails released to the House committee studying the January 6th insurrection at the Capitol, Thomas called for the overturning of the election results with a religious fervor second only to Trump himself.
“Help This Great President stand firm, Mark!!!,” Thomas wrote to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. “You are the leader, with him, who is standing for America’s constitutional governance at the precipice. The majority knows Biden and the Left is attempting the greatest Heist of our History.”
At another point, Thomas took a swan dive into the deep end of the conspiracy pool. “Biden crime family & ballot fraud co-conspirators (elected officials, bureaucrats, social media censorship mongers, fake stream media reporters, etc) are being arrested & detained for ballot fraud right now & over coming days, & will be living in barges off GITMO to face military tribunals for sedition,” she told Meadows.
Thomas also floated a favorite Q-Anon theory that Trump-inspired watermarked ballots were part of a “white hat sting operation in 12 key battleground states.” Such ballots exist only in fever swamp fantasies.
Thomas had previously admitted to attending the pro-Trump rally on January 6, but said she had “no role” in planning it and left before attendees stormed the Capitol.
But that bland admission wildly minimized just how involved Thomas was in pushing the lie that the election was stolen. Within days of the election, she was telling Meadows “Do not concede. It takes time for the army who is gathering for his back.”
Thomas was also promoting Sidney Powell, the loose cannon attorney who along with Rudy Giuliani led Trump’s legal team brigade and became a punchline for her “release the Kraken” shenanigans.
The texts are disturbing, all the more so because there are undoubtedly more than the 29 that the committee has. (Meadows has since stopped cooperating with the committee.) But what is especially disturbing is the worldview that Thomas and Meadows display.
It’s not just that Thomas is a far-right agitator. She’s advocating for a special kind of ultra-right philosophy: Christian nationalism.
Overturning a legitimate election was not a political cause for Thomas and people like her. It was a theological one.
“This is a fight of good versus evil,” Meadows wrote to Thomas. “Evil always looks like the victor until the King of Kings triumphs. Do not grow weary in well doing. The fight continues.” (Meadows is a fervent evangelical.)
Thomas responded, “Thank you!! Needed that! This plus a conversation with my best friend just now… I will try to keep holding on. America is worth it!”
The fact that someone embedded at the very heart of the political establishment–the wife of a Supreme Court justice–not only believes in bizarre conspiracies but actually advocated for undermining a free and fair election is mind-boggling. It also indicates just how far the GOP political establishment has veered from any sense of normalcy and ethics.
Speaking of ethics, Justice Thomas has besmirched the entire Supreme Court by refusing to recuse himself from everything his wife has touched. That includes Trump’s challenge to the election, which Justice Thomas was the only justice willing to consider.
In any other job, Thomas would be facing a reprimand at a minimum and perhaps a pink slip. Of course, the Supreme Court is immune to normal HR policy, including conflict of interest policies. It’s all up to the individual justices. Justice Thomas insists that Mrs. Thomas’ beliefs don’t influence him, and we’re supposed to take his word for it. After this latest revelation, that’s a pretty big pill to swallow.
Former US vice president Mike Pence has launched a list of policy suggestions ahead of the midterms and of course, plenty of them are anti-LGBT+.
Pence recently published his “Freedom Agenda” – his blueprint for Republicans to win future elections, which reads like a prelude to a 2024 run.
It’s essentially a Republican bingo card, with everything from pulling taxpayer funding for abortions to banning “anti-American, racist ideologies like Critical Race Theory” in schools.
Tightening border controls was also top of the list. And guns. A lot on guns, as well as stopping the government from “interfering with our First Amendment right to free exercise of religion”.
On women’s sports, Pence said that athletes should compete for their “God-given gender” to “preserve and protect female athletic competition”.
He also believes that doctors should be free to refuse to provide gender-affirming healthcare.
Pence wants Republican candidates to fight for faith-based adoption and foster agencies to have the right to discriminate LGBT+ couples.
“End the assault on faith-based adoption and foster care agencies that will only place children into families with one male father and one female mother,” the plan states.
A number of anti-LGBT+ former White House staffers from the Trump administration helped draft the plan, which included adviser Kellyanne Conway and former education secretary, Betsy DeVos.
Appearing on Fox News Digital, Pence said: “Elections are about the future, and frankly the opposition would love nothing more for conservatives to talk about the past or to talk of the mess they’ve made in the present.”
“I think it’s of equal importance we focus on conservatives at every level.”
Pence’s plan comes as conservative state legislators in dozens of states are proposing or passing laws targeting the trans community, many prohibiting trans youth from participating in girls’ sports.
Mike Pence speaks during the Advancing Freedom Lecture Series at Stanford University with a speech on ‘How to Save America From the Woke Left’. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Just four months into 2022, more than half of US states have already sought to introduce anti-trans sports bills, according to legislative trackers.
Speaking of problems that don’t exist, Pence also urged Republican candidates to campaign to “make in-person voting the primary method of voting”, following Trump’s baseless and debunked claims of mail-in voter fraud in 2020.
Forcing voters to bring identification with them to vote is another one of Pence’s bright policy ideas. Voter identification laws, voting rights advocates say, deprive countless Americans of the chance to vote.
Researchers have found that more disadvantaged groups are less likely to have ID, while one in 10 US citizens have no ID at all.
A 2018 report revealed that Pence played a pivotal role in dismantling civil rights protections for LGBT+ people during the Trump years, alleging that Pence was behind an executive order that aimed to legalise forms of religious discrimination against queer people.
The order bore a startling similarity to a bill Pence signed as Indiana governor in 2015 that allowed faith-based businesses to discriminate against LGBT+ customers.
Last month, a group of parents in Orlando, Florida, demanded “consequences” against sixth grade science teacher Robert Thollander. His crime? Thollander acknowledged his marriage at school.
“He married a man. This alone is not an issue. Sharing the details … with all his 6th grade students is the issue,” the parents wrote in a letter sent to their children’s school board, which was shared with NBC News. “It was not appropriate. Many of these students felt very uncomfortable with the conversations and shared this with their families.”
Had Thollander just “said he will be out for a few days because he was getting married, no problem,” the letter continued, “but to discuss the details and create an uncomfortable situation for the students with no benefit to teaching his subject matter is inappropriate.”
Sixth grade science teacher Robert Thollander.Courtesy Robert Thollander
Thollander denied having discussed his marriage since he and his husband tied the knot in March of last year, aside from acknowledging it when he was asked. No action was taken against him by school leaders, who defended him several days later with a letter of their own, he said.
Nevertheless, the incident prompted Thollander to make this school year his last after 11 years of working in Florida as a teacher.
“A lot of trust is given to teachers, and it made it seem like I wasn’t trusted because there’s something wrong with me for being gay,” he said. “It makes it seem like being gay is something vile or disturbing or disgusting when it’s described as making children uncomfortable knowing that I’m married to a man. It hurt.”
While the Orlando parents did not succeed in having Thollander disciplined or ousted, he and other LGBTQ teachers in the state worry that newly signed state law — titled Parental Rights in Education but dubbed by critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” law — will galvanize parents to take similar action against them. In fact, Thollander said he believes the parents who complained about him were emboldened by the bill even before it was signed into law.
With the new law in place, teachers fear that in talking about their families or LGBTQ issues more broadly, pointed letters will be the least of their worries.
The law, HB 1557, bans “instruction” about sexual orientation or gender identity “in kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed it into law Monday. Parents will be able to sue school districts for alleged violations, damages or attorney’s fees when the law goes into effect July 1.
Lawmakers who support the law have repeatedly stressed that it would not prohibit teachers and students from talking about their LGBTQ families or bar classroom discussions about LGBTQ history, including events like the 2016 attack at the Pulse nightclub, a gay club in Orlando. Instead, they argue, it is about giving parents more jurisdiction over their children’s education.
But legal experts have said the broad language of the law could open districts and teachers to lawsuits from parents who believe any conversation about LGBTQ people or issues is “inappropriate.”
Nicolette Solomon said Florida’s new education bill was “the straw that broke the camel’s back.Courtesy Nicolette Solomon
Nicolette Solomon, 28, taught fourth grade in Miami-Dade County for more than four years. As HB 1557 passed through the Legislature, she quit. Solomon, a lesbian, said that after months of having taught virtually through the coronavirus pandemic, the law was “the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
“The law would erase me as an LGBTQ teacher,” she said. “Nobody would be able to know, which then puts me in the closet, and I’m there seven hours a day, if not more, five days a week. I wouldn’t be able to be who I am.”
“And I don’t think I can bear to see the students struggle and want to ask me about these things and then have to deny them that knowledge,” she added. “That’s not who I am as a teacher.”
Some Florida teachers also worry that the law will worsen the disproportionate rates of bullying, harassment and mental health issues plaguing their LGBTQ students.
A survey last year by The Trevor Project, an LGBTQ youth suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization, found that 42 percent of the nearly 35,000 LGBTQ youths who were surveyed seriously considered suicide within the previous year. More than half of transgender and nonbinary youths who were surveyed seriously considered suicide, it also found.
“Will other students interpret that as ‘Hey, now I have a pass to bully or mistreat certain students?’” asked Brian Kerekes, who teaches math at a high school in Osceola County, referring to the law. “It’s not out of the realm of imagination that that could now be an issue.”
A separate survey conducted by The Trevor Project last year found that LGBTQ youths who reported having at least one LGBTQ-affirming space reported lower rates of attempting suicide.
With that in mind, he said, Kerekes asks his students for their preferred pronouns at the beginning of every school year. He also places other LGBTQ-affirming symbols in his classroom, including a rainbow Pride flag and a sign that says “safe space.”
“Our students need to see that the educators in their community are as diverse as the rest of that community. They need educators that look and resemble them,” said Kerekes, who is gay. “We want them to know that we see them and respect them so that they can focus on what it is that they’re learning in class and not have to worry about how they’re going to be treated because of who they are.”
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Building successful teacher-to-student relationships has become increasingly important in recent years, Kerekes said, in light of remote learning during coronavirus lockdowns and the rise in school shootings nationally.
With the passage of the new Florida law, Kerekes worries that most teachers will now “hesitate to be the advocates and the mentors” for LGBTQ kids who may confide in them.
Supporters of the measure say exposing kids to LGBTQ symbols and identities is part of the problem.
DeSantis, who is widely seen as considering a run for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, said Monday that the law will ensure “that parents can send their kids to school to get an education, not an indoctrination.”
Tiffany Justice.Leah Voss / TCPALM / USA Today Network file
Tiffany Justice, who served on a Florida school board for four years and co-founded a national network of about 80,000 parents, Moms for Liberty, agreed, saying the law is needed to fight a “transgender contagion” sweeping the country.
“This is parents pushing back,” Justice, a mom of four school-aged children, said. “They’ve had enough. We’ve seen enough nonsense. The kids are not learning to read in schools, and what I have said before is ‘Before you activate our children into social justice warriors, could you just teach them how to read?’”
She added, “Teachers really need to get back and focus on what they’re supposed to be teaching in schools.”
Michael Woods, a special education teacher in Palm Beach County, said legislators and parents are looking for a “solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.”
“Teachers do not go out of their way to create these moments where we’re ‘indoctrinating’ students,” said Woods, who is gay. “If I could indoctrinate a student, it would be to bring a pencil and a piece of paper, and if I was really good at ‘indoctrinating,’ I would be able to get them to do their homework.”
Some educators are also concerned about a section in the law that will require them to notify parents of a child’s “mental, emotional, or physical health or well-being … unless a reasonably prudent person would believe that such disclosure would result in abuse, abandonment, or neglect.”
Michael Woods is a special education teacher in Palm Beach County, Florida.Courtesy Michael Woods
Critics have said the provision will force teachers to “out” their LGBTQ students to their parents, potentially leaving them vulnerable to rejection at home.
From her first week on the job, Solomon said, “so many kids” throughout her elementary school — even those she did not teach directly — came out to her.
“They want to go to someone like a teacher who they might not know for the rest of their lives or someone who they know won’t judge them or won’t tell anybody,” she said. “They’re kids. They can’t just call a therapist and make an appointment.
“I don’t want to be in that situation where, instead of helping the students, I’m going to be hurting them,” she added.
On Monday, the American Federation of Teachers, the country’s second largest teachers labor union, slammed the measure, calling it an “assault” on students and teachers.
“Make no mistake, this bill will have devastating real-world consequences—especially for LGBTQIA+ youth who already experience higher rates of bullying and suicide,” Randi Weingarten, the group’s president, said in a statement. “And for teachers and school staff who work tirelessly to support and care for their students, this bill is just another gross political attack on their professionalism.”
U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona met in private with LGBTQ students and their family members Thursday to discuss the impacts of the law.
Earlier in the week, Cardona issued a statement saying the Education Department would “monitor” the law upon its implementation and “evaluate whether it violates federal civil rights law.”
In the meantime, Thollander will be putting his new real estate license to work, and Solomon will be working on her newly launched LGBTQ family-focused podcast, “Flying the Coop.”
“I would teach in another state, but I cannot teach in Florida,” Solomon said. “It’s just so horrible.”
Beyond Florida, legislators in several other states — including Georgia, Tennessee, Kansas and Indiana — are weighing measures similar to the Florida law, which Justice said was “just the beginning.”
“We’re not stopping here,” Justice said. “If they think they have a problem with HB 1557 in Florida, wait until it’s in all 50 states. And we won’t stop until it is.”
Rainbow flags could be taken from fans at the World Cup in Qatar to protect them from being attacked for promoting gay rights, a senior leader overseeing security for the tournament told The Associated Press.
Major General Abdulaziz Abdullah Al Ansari insisted that LGBTQ couples would be welcomed and accepted in Qatar for the Nov. 21-Dec. 18 FIFA showpiece despite same-sex relations remaining criminalized in the conservative Gulf nation.
But Al Ansari is against the overt promotion of LGBTQ freedoms as symbolized by the rainbow flag that FIFA and World Cup organizers had previously said would be welcome across Qatar’s eight stadiums.
“If he (a fan) raised the rainbow flag and I took it from him, it’s not because I really want to, really, take it, to really insult him, but to protect him,” Al Ansari told the AP. “Because if it’s not me, somebody else around him might attack (him) … I cannot guarantee the behavior of the whole people. And I will tell him: ‘Please, no need to really raise that flag at this point.’”
Al Ansari is director of the Department of International Cooperation and Chairman of the National Counterterrorism Committee at the Ministry of Interior where he discussed World Cup planning for an hour with the AP.
“You want to demonstrate your view about the (LGBTQ) situation, demonstrate it in a society where it will be accepted,” he said. “We realize that this man got the ticket, comes here to watch the game, not to demonstrate, a political (act) or something which is in his mind.
“Watch the game. That’s good. But don’t really come in and insult the whole society because of this.”
FIFA President Gianni Infantino said this week in Doha that “everyone will see that everyone is welcome here in Qatar, even if we speak about LGBTQ.”
Al Ansari said he is not telling LGBTQ fans to stay away from Qatar or warning them of facing prosecution.
“Reserve the room together, sleep together — this is something that’s not in our concern,” he said. “We are here to manage the tournament. Let’s not go beyond, the individual personal things which might be happening between these people … this is actually the concept.
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“Here we cannot change the laws. You cannot change the religion for 28 days of World Cup.”
When it was pointed out that visiting fans and teams could take offense to the comments, Al Ansari said he did not view himself as being discriminatory.
“I am risking … a minority view against a majority,” he said. “We have to be close to the problem before it erupts and gets out of control. … If somebody attacks you, then I have to get involved and it will be too late.”
FIFA chief social responsibility and education officer Joyce Cook told the AP in 2020 that “rainbow flags, T-shirts will all be welcome in the stadium — that’s a given. They understand very well that is our stance.” World Cup chief executive Nasser Al-Khater also said “we will respect” FIFA guidelines on allowing rainbow flags.
But Al Ansari’s comments about the confiscation of fans’ rainbow flags have created confusion for activists, including Chris Paouros, a member of the English Football Association’s inclusion advisory board and trustee with the anti-discrimination group, Kick It Out, which want a safe and inclusive tournament.
“This inconsistency and the continued lack of detail in terms of how that will be provided beyond the rhetoric of ‘everyone is welcome’ is concerning to say the least,” Paouros said.
The FARE network, which monitors games for discrimination, called for the freedoms of fans to be respected at the World Cup.
“The idea that the flag, which is now a recognized universal symbol of diversity and equality, will be removed from people to protect them will not be considered acceptable, and will be seen as a pretext,” FARE executive director Piara Powar said. “I have been to Qatar on numerous occasions and do not expect the local Qatari population or fans visiting for the World Cup to be attacked for wearing the rainbow flag. The bigger danger comes from state actions.”
A Mormon leader has reaffirmed the faith’s opposition to same-sex marriage and “changes that confuse or alter gender” at a biannual conference.
Dallin H Oaks, the second-highest-ranking leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (also known as the Mormon church), told conference attendees at the church’s headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah, that it would not be altering its stances on same-sex marriage or gender identity.
Oaks, according to AP, explained that the highest level of salvation “can only be attained through faithfulness to the covenants of an eternal marriage between a man and a woman”.
>”That divine doctrine is why we teach that gender is an essential characteristic of individual pre-mortal, mortal and eternal identity and purpose.”
He added that the Mormon church “opposed changes that confuse or alter gender or homogenise the differences between men and women” and stated that “confusing gender, distorting marriage, and discouraging childbearing” was the devil’s work.
AP reported that the conference also covered the war in Ukraine, with a leader saying all war is “horrifying”.
Russell M Nelson, the church’s president-prophet, said: “I weep and pray for all who are affected by this conflict. The church is doing all we can to help those who are suffering and struggling to survive.”
In a letter announcing his resignation, Green said: “While most members are good people trying to do right, I believe the church is actively and currently doing harm in the world.
“I believe the Mormon church has hindered global progress in women’s rights, civil rights and racial equality, and LGBTQ+ rights.”
Shortly after his resignation, Green announced that he would donate $600,000 (around £457,000) to LGBT+ rights group Equality Utah.
Despite Viktor Orbán winning re-election in Hungary, Budapest Pride refuses to be defeated.
Using anti-LGBT+ hate and propaganda as some of the cornerstones of his campaign, Viktor Orbán and his right-wing party, Fidesz, secured a fourth term in Sunday’s (3 April) general election.
The Fidesz government has become increasingly hostile to the queer community, banning same-sex adoption, ending legal gender recognition for trans people, and restricting content that depicts LGBT+ people.
On the same day as the election, Orbán sought to cement his latest attack on LGBT+ rights with a loaded referendum on inclusive education and trans kids. Though 90 per cent of voters backed Orbán’s position, there were not enough votes for it to become legally binding.
The election result was, understandably, troubling for LGBT+ Hungarians. Ahead of the vote, Vice interviewed a gay writer who was fleeing the country with his partner. He’s not the only person left feeling like there’s no alternative.
But Budapest Pride is determined to stay and fight.
“Don’t forget: you are not alone,” it wrote on Facebook.
“Hungary is not open to hate-mongering against LGBT+ people.”
Johanna Majercsik, a spokesperson for Budapest Pride, told PinkNews that the organisation is determined to continue its work, even in the face of government crackdowns.
“We talked a lot, but no one is packing,” she said. “As a team, we think that this is our responsibility. If something is ruined, or if someone ruins it, we don’t just leave it behind.”
Budapest Pride added in a statement: “Whatever policy the current government of Hungary follows, if they value our work or try to shut us down, we will be here and work for the interest of LGBTQ people.”
Though fleeing is an understandable response, Majercsik believes most LGBT+ people will stay in the country despite the election result.
“Leaving is a privilege,” she said. “And not everyone wants to go either: many wouldn’t leave their friends and family, the language behind.”
Majercsik noted that although the referendum was “invalid”, the government will present it as a victory.
“And I can imagine that they will frame it so they portray us as frivolous people who think that the institution of the referendum is a joke.”
Right now, Budapest Pride is focusing on organising its annual march, planned for July 23, and on providing housing and help for refugees from Ukraine.
To mark the 12th anniversary of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) is hosting a weeklong celebration to praise its accomplishments. But in the name of health equity for transgender people, who are adversely affected by HIV/AIDS, HHS is also asking for more.
In a letter shared exclusively with LGBTQ Nation, the HIV/AIDS Bureau (HAB) of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) is asking the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program (RWHAP) to leverage its existing infrastructure and resources to not only continue providing direct HIV/AIDS care to transgender people, but to provide gender-affirming care as well.
Established thirty years ago, RWHAP serves low-income people with HIV. Today, approximately 50% of those diagnosed with HIV receive support through it annually.
Rates of HIV viral suppression among transgender patients of RWHAP are lower than the organization’s overall average – 84.5 percent versus 89.4 percent. As such, the letter says more must be done to ensure transgender people are not left behind.
“HRSA’s HIV/AIDS Bureau sent this to Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program service providers to reaffirm the importance of providing culturally-affirming health care and social services to the transgender community as a key component to improving the lives of transgender people with HIV and eliminating health disparities,” Dr. Laura Cheever, Associate Administrator of the HRSA HIV/AIDS Bureau, told LGBTQ Nation.
“While not a new policy or approach to the services delivered by the program, The letter builds on initiatives that support patient-centered, trauma-informed, and inclusive environments of care for Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program clients. The goal is to help reduce medical mistrust and other barriers to antiretroviral therapy adherence for transgender people with HIV.”
The letter asserts that “providing gender-affirming care is an important strategy to effectively address the health and medical needs of transgender people with HIV.” The program, it says, already serves about 11,600 trans people (2.1% of those served overall) that would benefit from these services.
It goes on to say that funds directed toward RWHAP are allowed to be used for certain types of gender-affirming care and support, including hormone therapy, behavioral and mental health services for those experiencing discrimination and/or gender dysphoria, and cost-sharing assistance for insurance coverage, which would give trans people greater access to the care they need. It also said several RWHAP AIDS Drug Assistance Programs already provide access to hormone therapy.
Because it is an outpatient ambulatory health care program, though, the letter says RWHAP cannot provide surgeries or inpatient care.
The letter also urges RWHAP to provide other types of support to transgender people living with HIV/AIDS, such as housing, case management, and treatment services for substance abuse.
The letter, signed by Cheever, emphasizes the need to “provide affirming, whole person care to transgender people with HIV.”
“This is true especially of Black and Hispanic/Latino/a transgender women who are disproportionally impacted by HIV and other intersecting social and health challenges,” it says.
“While transgender Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program clients receiving HIV medical care have reached higher viral suppression rates than the national average, we recognize that we need to do more to support this community,” Cheever said in a press release.
“To help achieve the goals of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy, including achieving health equity and ending the HIV epidemic, we will continue to support and share evidence based, evidence informed, and emerging interventions that focus on the specific needs of this community to improve the health and lives of transgender and gender diverse people with HIV.”
Also in recognition of the 12th anniversary of the ACA, HHS is hosting a weeklong celebration, with each day focusing on different communities the ACA has reached.
Today’s focus is “Celebrating Health of LGBTQI+ and Communities of Color.” According to HHS, the ACA has reduced the number of uninsured LGBTQ people by almost 50% since 2010.
Since taking office, the Biden administration has also restored an ACA provision banning discrimination in its health care programs on the basis of sex, which includes sexual orientation and gender identity.
HHS also said the ACA has also helped community organizations dedicate more resources to HIV/AIDS care through RWHAP.
