Trailblazing BMX rider Chelsea Wolfe is going to the Tokyo Olympics, becoming the first trans athlete to join the Team USA roster.
Wolfe will travel to Tokyo as a reserve athlete, according to Huffington Post, and will only compete if one of the two qualifying riders – Hannah Roberts and Perris Benegas – drops out.
The athlete, who has spoken openly about her trans identity and her Olympic dreams, said it is still “taking a bit to register” that she’s going to Tokyo.
Writing on Instagram, she reflected on how she has gone through “so much work” and come “so many obstacles” to get to this point.
“I am positively a different person than when I set off on this journey and I’m so grateful for every experience along the way and I’m so excited and honored to keep working so I’m ready to shred in Tokyo in case I’m needed,” Wolfe wrote.
Wolfe also shared a glimpse of her Olympics uniform which is, of course, red, white and blue and has her surname emblazoned on the back. She also showed off a mountain of Team USA merch.
Chelsea Wolfe clinched the reserve spot on Team USA after she took fifth place in the final standings at the UCI Urban World Championships earlier this month. The win put her in third overall in the USA rankings, which boosted her into the alternate spot for the Olympic Games in Tokyo.
Lawyers, politicians, academics and activists have banded together to tell Boris Johnson exactly how to legislate for a ban on conversion therapy after his claim it is “technically complex”.
In March this year, following the resignation of three members of the government’s own LGBT+ advisory board, Johnson promised to “stamp out” conversion therapy, but claimed that a ban would be “technically complex to deal with”.
Four monthson, there has been no progress aside from the announcement of a consultation which will take place before a ban is introduced, with no timeline, aiming to “protect the medical profession, defend freedom of speech, and uphold religious freedom”.
o help Johnson with his “technically complex” task – one which has managed with relative ease by many other countries around the world – a group of lawyers, academics, parliamentarians and campaigns have come together.
The Ban Conversion Therapy Legal Forum, convened by campaigner Jayne Ozanne and chaired by barrister and House of Lords member Baroness Helena Kennedy, “brings together some of the most senior legal minds in the UK”.
Its many members include Robin Allen QC, Stonewall CEO Nancy Kelley, Mermaids legal and policy advisor Lui Asquith, legal academics from the universities of Liverpool, Leeds, Kent, Nottingham Trent and Manchester, and the LGBT Caucus leaders for Labour, the Conservatives and the Lib Dems.
Conservative MP and new “special envoy” on LGBT+ rights Lord Herbert, who was appointed by Johnson in May, is also “working closely” with the group of experts.
The forum, which held its inaugural meeting on Monday (28 June), has already released a statement advising Johnson on how best to ban conversion therapy.
It explained that the “best way of banning conversion therapy is by using a combination of both civil and criminal remedies”, and added: “Legislation banning conversion therapy must be human rights compliant. The rights of victims and potential victims of conversion therapy must be prioritised.
“The way in which conversion therapy denies human dignity and demeans its victims amounts to degrading and inhuman treatment. And by denying their identity, it also destroys their private life. By definition, conversion therapy is discriminatory.”
The Ban Conversion Therapy Legal Forum acknowledged that a ban “may fall within the scope of other human rights, most notably freedom of religion and belief, as well as freedom of expression”.
But, it explained: “The harm caused to LGBT+ people by conversion therapy will justify restrictions on those rights, but the Forum is clear that the interferences with those rights should go no further than end the harm done to LGBT+ people by conversion therapy.”
The forum offered to “work with the Government to ensure that the ban on conversion therapy works in a variety of settings, and that no one is excluded from its protection”.
Baroness Kennedy, the forum’s chair, added in a statement: “It is critically important that there is legislation to ban conversion therapy and that it provides full protection to all LGBT+ people in accordance with human rights principles.
“That is why I am pleased to join a broad group of people with expertise who can assist the government and ensure there are no loopholes which can be used to continue this deeply harmful practice.”
New Jersey has adopted a policy that requires state prisons to house transgender people according to their gender identity rather than their sex assigned at birth.
The policy change is part of a settlement the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey announced Tuesday, and it puts the state among the handful of others with similar policies.
The ACLU of New Jersey and attorney Robyn Gigl of GluckWalrath LLP sued the N.J. Department of Corrections and its officers in August 2019 on behalf of a trans woman who went by the pseudonym Sonia Doe in court documents.
Prior to Doe’s lawsuit, the department’s policy was to house people according to their genitalia, according to Tess Borden, an ACLU of New Jersey staff attorney on the case.
‘Those memories still haunt me’
Doe was housed in four different men’s prisons over 18 months, according to her complaint, which stated that she was incarcerated for “offenses stemming from her addiction” to painkillers. During that time, she alleged, corrections officers misgendered her, denied her female commissary items and didn’t protect her from other inmates who harassed her. She alleged that three officers also physically assaulted her in May 2019 after she corrected them for misgendering her.
The department, in response, charged and found her guilty of assault and forced her to spend 270 days in isolation, among other sanctions, according to the ACLU of New Jersey.
A few weeks after Doe’s lawyers filed the complaint, the department transferred her to the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women.
Chris Carden, a public information officer for the department of corrections, told NBC News in an email that it “views this settlement agreement as significant steps in the right direction.”
“While the Department did have existing processes in place, the policy outlined in this settlement is an update to those processes,” he wrote. “Anyone incarcerated under NJDOC care may at any time provide information regarding their gender identity to the NJDOC. The Department then takes careful measures to ensure they are properly housed in-line with their gender identity and their housing preferences, while ensuring both their safety and the security of the institution. Overall, the steps being taken support the important cultural changes being made throughout the Department.”
As part of the settlement, which the ACLU of New Jersey filed in the Mercer County Superior Court on Tuesday, the department will adopt an agencywide policy meant to protect people in state custody who are transgender, intersex and nonbinary, according to a press release.
In addition to the policy change, the department will pay Doe $125,000 in damages and will pay her attorney fees.
Sonia Doe.ACLU of New Jersey
“When I was forced to live in men’s prisons, I was terrified I wouldn’t make it out alive,” Doe said in a statement. “Those memories still haunt me. Though I still have nightmares about that time, it’s a relief to know that as a result of my experience the NJDOC has adopted substantial policy changes so no person should be subjected to the horrors I survived.”
New Jersey is now one of a handful of states that have passed laws or implemented policies requiring that inmates be housed according to their gender identity. Borden said the state’s policy goes further than most others, though, because it includes provisions that will help the department of corrections implement the policy.
“The purpose section includes the word ‘dignity’ — that it’s the purpose of this policy in the New Jersey Department of Corrections to recognize the dignity of transgender, intersex and nonbinary people in its custody,” she said. The policy also requires officers to use a trans inmate’s proper pronouns, including gender-neutral pronouns such as they/them, and the gender neutral honorific “Mx.” instead of “Mr.” or “Mrs.”
“It is a commitment, on paper, to really affirm trans lives and the lives of nonbinary and intersex folks in DOC custody as well,” she said.
‘A new era in New Jersey prisons’
One of the key components of the new policy created as part of the settlement establishes a presumption that people in state custody will be housed in line with their gender identity, and a “commitment that placement in line with gender identity will never be considered a management or security problem solely due to the person’s gender identity,” according to the ACLU of New Jersey.
California, Massachusetts and Connecticut also have policies in place that establish a presumption that trans inmates will be housed according to their gender identity, though Borden said there are carve-outs in all of those states that allow officials to go against that policy if they have a “security or management” concern.
New Jersey’s policy will also establish intake and identification procedures that include questions about gender identity and pronouns, and it will recognize self-attestations, which means someone doesn’t have to prove their gender identity through invasive searches or other means.
The policy will also prohibit staff harassment and discrimination based on a person’s actual or perceived gender identity, and will guarantee gender-affirming undergarments, clothing and other personal property, among other policy changes.
There’s also language in the policy that states an incarcerated person’s own views of their health and safety will be taken into account. Borden noted that some trans men, for example, may feel safer in a women’s prison, and this part of the policy would allow for that flexibility.
Finally, the settlement will require the department to actually implement the policy by distributing it to all staff, requiring them to sign a form acknowledging that they’ve read it and holding additional training for some high-level staff members.
“Having a policy that now explicitly recognizes the dignity of transgender, intersex, and non-binary people begins a new chapter at the DOC,” Gigl said in a statement. “While we know trans, intersex, and nonbinary people still face extraordinary risk of harm, it is our hope that this policy will shepherd in a new era in New Jersey prisons of protecting and affirming transgender, intersex, and nonbinary people’s lives.”
‘A step in the right direction’
Borden said Doe feels that the victory isn’t just for her, but for many other trans people who have been in similar situations.
A 2015 survey by the National Center for Transgender Equality and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force found that 21 percent of transgender women confined in men’s facilities reported suffering physical abuse while in prison, and 20 percent reported sexual violence.
More than one-third (37 percent) of survey respondents who were taking hormones before their incarceration said they were prevented from taking their hormones while incarcerated.
The settlement and resulting policy change are part of a larger shift by the department since the Department of Justice found last year that conditions at the Edna Mahan facility violated the Constitution, Borden said.
“My hope is that this policy is a step in the right direction in New Jersey’s commitment to keeping people in this prison safe,” she said.
A top Italian archbishop has spoken out against the Vatican’s unprecedented decision to interfere on Italy’s proposed anti-homophobia law.
The Vatican sparked widespread outrage after issuing a nota verbale opposing the bill – which would extend anti-discrimination protections to women, LGBT+ people and those with disabilities – on the basis that it would supposedly breach a 92-year old treaty with Italy.
Speaking at the Be pop! cultural review in Rome, archbishop Vincenzo Paglia admitted that the Holy See’s resistance to the bill was a “mistake” and acknowledged that homophobic discrimination is “obvious” to see.
“That the problem exists is obvious; that it must be fought is even more obvious still,” said Paglia, as reported by Crux. The anti-homophobia law “brings to light a very important issue that must be faced,” he added.
The archbishop, who is head of the Pontifical Academy for Life and president of an Italian government commission on care for the elderly, criticised the Vatican’s controversial interference in the law as well as the writing of the law itself, saying “the mistake was on both sides”.
“The law as I’ve read and studied it is poorly done,” he said. “It identifies a problem but doesn’t help to resolve it. It’s more of a manifesto, and as a manifesto, it’s fine, but if you have to translate it into legislative language, it must be precisely written.”
Yet the Vatican never should have involved itself in the matter, as the debate over the bill “is a problem regarding only the Italian republic”.
“It has nothing to do with the concordat,” Paglia said, referring to the 1929 Lateran Pacts, which established the Vatican City State as a sovereign entity and which governs relations between the Holy See and Italy.
“So, to me, that note, in my opinion, should not have been written. Absolutely,” he said.
Italian prime minister shuts down Vatican interference
The scandal is thought to be the first time the Holy See has ever issued a nota verbale to the Italian government to object to pending legislation. The bill in question was named the “Zan bill” after Alessandro Zan, the openly gay Italian politician who introduced it.
The Vatican’s secretary of state, cardinal Pietro Parolin, defended the controversial move, saying it was not about interfering with international politics but about highlighting bigger problems the Zan bill could lead to if it is passed.
Mexico’s national football team has begged fans to stop the homophobic chanting that’s led to FIFA banning spectators from two World Cup qualifier matches.
FIFA slapped the sanctions on the Mexican soccer federation (FMF) last month after several matches were marred by fans chanting “p**o”, a homophobic slur that’s plagued Mexican football for years.
“If we don’t have a chance to participate in the World Cup, that’s going to be awful for everybody – for us, the federation, for the players and for the fans and supporters as well,” Torrado told The Tennessean. “So we need them to continue supporting us, but in a good way.”
He said the team are living through “a tough moment” as FIFA investigates alleged homophobia at four recent games in the US, three of which were halted by officials because of fan behaviour.
As well as a spectator ban FIFA also fined the FMF $65,000, prompting the organisation’s president, Yon de Luisa, to issue a stern warning to fans.
“What for some seemed to be fun, I have news for you. It isn’t,” he said at a news conference on 18 June. “Because of it we’re kept out of the stadium and kept away from our national team. Please stop. Stop now.”
His words were echoed by team manager Gerardo “Tata” Martino, who also urged fans to clean up their language.
“We’re living through a hard situation,” he said. “I want to stress to the fans, come to the stadium. Come enjoy yourselves. We will put on a good show for you. But support us and respect the opponent.”
With tensions running high ahead of the CONCACAF Gold Cup on 10 July, the national team has tweeted out yet another warning to fans.
The tweet, featuring the hashtag #SupportWithoutOffending, highlights the escalating sanctions if the offensive chant is used, starting with a fan being ejected to players having to leave the field to a possible forfeit of the match.
“Because of one word, we could all be silenced,” the video says. “A World Cup means a lot to all of us. It is a passion for millions of us. Let’s not let the actions of a few ruin it for all of us.
The leader of the Fort Lauderdale Gay Men’s Chorus has spoken of their shock and grief after one of their members killed another in a horrific crash at a Florida Pride.
James “Jim” Fahy, 75, was killed and two others were injured when a pickup truck driven by a fellow chorister suddenly accelerated and rammed into spectators at Pride parade in Wilton Manors, Florida on 19 June.
Speaking to Local 10 Newson Tuesday (29 June), chorus director and founder Dr Gary Keating recalled the horrifying moment when tragedy struck.
“The truck took off, it knocked me down, I saw it go across the street and then when I recovered from that, that’s when I got up and went and saw what had happened with the truck,” he said.
“I saw people on the ground, that’s what I remember. Jim was without question one of the most positive, energetic, alive people I’ve known in my lifetime, and I’ve known some pretty amazing people.”
The truck, part of the procession, was driven by 77-year-old Fred Johnson, a longtime member of the Fort Lauderdale Gay Men’s Chorus who was unable to walk in the march because of unspecified “ailments”.
Police say Johnson’s foot slipped and got stuck under the brake, pushing down to accelerate and fatally striking Fahy.
Local 10 News spoke with Chuck Gregory, a friend of Johnson’s, who says he is “devastated” by the tragic accident. “It just keeps going through his mind. He keeps seeing it like a movie,” he said.
Johnson hasn’t spoken publicly since the incident but has offered a statement of apology.
“This was a horrible accident and I offer my sincere regrets to all those who were impacted by this tragic event,” he said.
“I love my Chorus family and the community and would never do anything to intentionally harm anyone. Please know that I hold my fellow Chorus member, Jim Fahy, in my heart forever and offer my condolences to his friends and family.”
The choir are said to be united in their grief, but relying on one another to get them through their darkest hour. They plan to hold a celebration of life for Fahy on Wednesday (30 June), to remember his dedication to service and his volunteer work.
The Methodist Church has voted to allow same-sex marriage, and will now define marriage as between “two people”, rather than between “one man and one woman”.
In 2019, the Marriage and Relationships Task Group presented a report to the church’s annual conference, titled “God in Love Unites Us“.
The report put forward proposed resolutions same-sex marriage, and these were approved by all but one of the local Methodist synods.
On Wednesday (30 June), the 2021 conference gave final considerations on the resolutions, and officially voted to allow same-sex marriages to be conducted in Methodist churches.
The conference voted overwhelmingly for marriage equality, with 254 votes in favour and 46 against.
The church’s standing orders, or rules, are updated each year by the conference.
The section on marriage previously read: “The Methodist Church believes that marriage is a gift of God and that it is God’s intention that a marriage should be a life-long union in body, mind and spirit of one man and one woman.”
It has now been amended to read: “The Methodist Church believes that marriage is given by God to be a particular channel of God’s grace, and that it is in accord with God’s purposes when a marriage is a life-long union in body, mind and spirit of two people who freely enter it.
“Within the Methodist Church this is understood in two ways: that marriage can only be between a man and a woman; that marriage can be between any two people.
“The Methodist Church affirms both understandings and makes provision in its standing orders for them.”
In “affirming” both those who agree with and disagree with same-sex marriage in the church, the standing orders state that ministers or other officials will not be required to perform same-sex marriages “should it be contrary to the dictates of his or her conscience to do so”.
The first-ever Russian anti-homophobia campaign has bravely launched on the anniversary of a constitutional amendment that formally banned same-sex marriage in Russia.
The unflinching campaign is led by the Russian LGBT Network, which released a heartrending film depicting the love and struggle of two queer men through interpretive dance.
Simply titled “We Will Become Better,” the video was released in defiance of Russia’s notorious “gay propaganda” law, which criminalises any positive depiction of LGBT+ identities.
“This campaign is a precedent for Russia’s social advertising industry. It’s the first-ever project created by an LGBT+ organisation and a marketing agency,” said Alla Chikinda of the Yekaterinburg Resource Centre for LGBT people.
“The video has been produced by one of the country’s most successful ad agencies and it features a popular song, so it’s a big step towards recognising the importance of LGBT-oriented agenda.”
The poignant film follows two men, played by Nikita Orlov and Maxim Avdeev, as they navigate the pushes and pulls of love’s usual trials – made all the more difficult due to fear hostility outside the walls of their distant apartments in Moscow.
Expertly and sensitively performed, directed, styled and edited, the six-minute film uses split-screen imagery to show the dancers seemingly collide and interact, painting the ups and downs of their passionate relationship.
“These are two people that love each other and want to be together, but forbid themselves because of societal judgment, because of certain walls that are created around that relationship, and so unfortunately it cannot happen,” explains writer Evgeny Primachenko.
Beautiful film was inspired by Russia’s homophobic campaign ads
Primachenko was prompted to create the film in response to the homophobic campaign that drove last year’s constitutional reforms, a package of changes which included an amendment defining marriage as “a union between a man and a woman”.
A flood of state-endorsed anti-gay ads presented “the [LGBT+] community in an incredibly clichéd, offensive way – in an extremely negative light,” Primachenko remembers.
One manipulative video showed a gay couple adopting a child, with a flamboyantly camp “mother” trying to dress the cowering orphan in a glittery dress. “This is what will happen if you don’t vote for the constitution change,” the advert threatens.
Two Namibian sprinters have been blocked from competing in the women’s 400m at the Olympics because their natural testosterone levels have been deemed too high.
Christine Mboma and Beatrice Masilingi, who are both cisgender women, were forced to undergo medical assessments while they were at a training camp in Italy.
The tests were requested by World Athletics, according to the Namibia Olympic Committee, and their results “indicated that both athletes have a natural high testosterone level,” a statement continued.
“According to the rules of World Athletics, this means that they are not eligible to participate in events from 400m to 1600m,” officials added.
“Both Christine and Beatrice will be able to compete in the 100m and 200m events,” the statement added.
NBCreported Mbomba ran 48.54 seconds to win a 400m race in Poland on Wednesday (30 June), which was an under-20 world record and the seventh-fastest 400m by a woman of all time, suggesting she may well have taken the gold medal.
Masilingi had the third-fastest time behind Mbomba and Shaunae Miller-Uibo of the Bahamas, the current Olympic champion.
Namibian sprinters hit by same rule that tried to force Caster Semenya to alter her body
World Athletics has previously been criticised over its rules for athletes with so-called “differences of sexual development” (DSD).
It introduced the current limits on testosterone levels for female athletes in 2018 before they came into effect a year later.
The rules apply for races between 400m and one mile and combined events over the same distances, and forces certain women to artificially alter their natural hormone levels should they wish to compete. The UN has condemned such practices as “unnecessary, humiliating and harmful”.
Most famously, the rule curtailed the career of Caster Semenya, a cisgender woman who is a two-time Olympic champion.
South African 800 metre Olympic champion Caster Semenya. (PHILL MAGAKOE/AFP via Getty)
Semenya has launched several legal appeals against the ban, calling the rules unfair and discriminatory. The Court of Arbitration for Sport rejected her challenge in May 2019. She appealed the decision to the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland, which ultimately rejected her case in September 2020.
In April, she admitted to the Guardian that the long legal battle has taken “the soul out of my body”. She added that she refused to undergo treatment to lower her natural testosterone level.
“They want me to take my own system down,” Semenya told the Guardian. “I’m not sick. I don’t need drugs. I will never do that.”
Spain has advanced a landmark bill that would allow trans adults to self-determine their gender – but activists say it doesn’t go far enough.
The Spanish government approved the draft bill on Tuesday (29 June). It would allow trans people over the age of 16 to update their gender marker and name on official documents without being forced to get a medical diagnosis.
Currently, trans people in Spain must have a gender dysphoria diagnosis or have been prescribed hormone therapy before they can legally change their name and gender on official documents.
Under the draft bill’s provisions, individuals aged between 14 and 16 would need parental approval to correct their gender marker or name. Those aged between 12 and 14 would need judicial authorisation.
Minors aged under 12 would only be allowed to register a new name, and would need to wait until they are older to update their gender marker.
Equality minister Irene Montero told reporters at a news conference that Spain was “making history” by passing the draft bill. She said the legislation represented a “giant step forward for LGBTI rights and particularly those of trans people” in the country.
She said: “I think we’re not just launching a clear message when it comes to the protection and defence of everyone … but also to Europe as a whole, which is that human rights and guaranteeing the freedom, dignity and happiness of everyone – whoever they are and whoever they love – are the foundations of the European project.”
The Associated Press reported that the bill would also ban gay and trans conversion therapy, bring forward fines and punishment for anti-LGBT+ attacks and overturn a ban that prevented lesbian couples from registering their children under both parents’ names.
Spain’s self-ID bill ‘is a brutal trim’
Mar Cambrollé, from the non-profit organisation Plataforma Trans, told the Associated Press that the bill falls flat in terms of protecting the rights of trans minors under 14 and guaranteeing the rights of non-binary and trans migrants.
“It’s a brutal trim from of what we had demanded for decades,” Cambrollé said.
Spain rejected a more expansive LGBT+ rights bill on 18 May, with the country’s Congress of Deputies voting 143-78.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported that this version of the bill would have “upheld children’s self-determination by allowing children and adolescents access to legal gender recognition”. HRW said the bill would have also allowed for non-binary and blank gender markers on official identity documents.
LGBT+ activists have put pressure on the government for months to pass expensive self-ID laws.
Earlier this year, dozens of trans rights campaigners launched a hunger strike to push for better trans rights legislation. Hundreds of people gathered with trans flags at the Congress of Deputies in Madrid, Spain in March, and 70 activists announced their intention to go on hunger strike.
The campaigners changed “trans law now” outside the political building and tweeted pictures from the frontlines. The group promised to continue until the Socialist and Podemos coalition introduced an inclusive LGBT+ rights bill.
