Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam on Thursday signed three pro-LGBTQ measures into law.
House Bill 145 sponsored by state Del. Marcus Simon (D-Falls Church), and Senate Bill 161 sponsored by state Sen. Jennifer Boysko (D-Loudoun County) require the Department of Education to develop model policies ensuring transgender students are treated fairly, respectfully and according to best practices.
“All Virginia students deserve to learn in a safe, healthy, and welcoming environment,” said Boysko in press release. “I was proud to carry this incredibly important bill, and I’m thrilled to see it signed into law.”
School boards must now adopt such policies for the 2021-2022 school year.
Northam also signed a bill expanding the definition of a hate crime to include sexual orientation and gender identification among other protected classes into law. The bill was sponsored by state Del. Rip Sullivan (D-Fairfax County).
“Attacking someone because of who they are, who they love, or where they’re from is wrong,” said Northam. “Those actions are intended to send a chilling message that a person is not welcome, and that is exactly the opposite of what we stand for in Virginia. Hate has no place here. I am proud to sign this bill.”
State Del. Danica Roem’s (D-Manassas) legislation allowing localities to ban discrimination in housing, employment, public accommodations, credit, or education based on sexual orientation or gender identity also passed into law.
“No matter where in the commonwealth you live, you should be free from discrimination,” said Virginia’s first openly trans delegate. “Allowing localities to include sexual orientation and gender identity in their nondiscrimination policies means they can make a statement of affirmation about their values at the local level while we continue to make Virginia a more inclusive commonwealth statewide.”
She added, “I’m proud both localities I represent have leaders who are eager to take action based on this legislation and thank the governor for signing this bill into law.”
Democratic presidential candidate Joseph Biden unveiled on Thursday a comprehensive plan to advance LGBTQ rights, pledging to support policies and legislation against anti-LGBTQ discrimination and to protect LGBTQ human rights advances across the globe.
“As president, Biden will stand with the LGBTQ+ community to ensure America finally lives up to the promise on which it was founded: equality for all,” the plan says. “He will provide the moral leadership to champion equal rights for all LGBTQ+ people, fight to ensure our laws and institutions protect and enforce their rights, and advance LGBTQ+ equality globally.”
Leading with a quote from Biden on “Meet the Press” in 2012, when he famously came out in favor of marriage equality, the 17-page plan draws heavily on the advancement of LGBTQ rights during the Obama administration when Biden was vice president.
“During the Obama-Biden administration, the United States made historic strides toward LGBTQ+ equality — from the repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ to Biden’s historic declaration in support of marriage equality on ’Meet the Press’in 2012 to the unprecedented advancement of protections for LGBTQ+ Americans at the federal level,” the plan says.
Biden’s plan is consistent with priorities on LGBTQ rights Biden has articulated on the campaign trail, including making the Equality Act, international LGBTQ human rights and banning conversion therapy nationwide his top priorities.
But the plan goes into further detail, pledging to apply laws against sex discrimination to cases of anti-LGBTQ discrimination, creating a third-gender option on U.S. government documents and reversing Trump administration policies enabling anti-LGBTQ discrimination in the name of religious freedom.
Drawing on Biden’s expertise in foreign policy, the plan goes into significant detail on the candidate’s pledge to advance LGBTQ human rights overseas, asserting Biden spoke out against anti-LGBT abuses in Chechnya, El Salvador, Malaysia and Uganda.
“As president, Biden will restore the United States’ standing as a global leader defending LGBTQ+ rights and development and work closely with our partners and like-minded governments to ensure that violence and discrimination against LGBTQ+ individuals do not go unchecked,” the plan says.
The plan makes protecting human rights generally a priority, but also promises to protect human rights specifically by reappointing a special envoy to advance international LGBTQ rights, forming a coalition of countries to advance international LGBTQ rights and guiding the GLOBE Act into passage.
Biden unveils the plan after enjoying a remarkable comeback in the Democratic primary on Super Tuesday, when he routed his remaining opponents and disrupted the media narrative that Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) was a lock on the presidential nomination.
Ahead of the primary, Biden won support from LGBTQ leaders, including former Human Rights Campaign president Chad Griffin and Jim Obergefell, the plaintiff in the lawsuit that led the U.S. Supreme Court to rule in favor of same-sex marriage nationwide.
In response to a Blade inquiry on how the plan came together and if Griffin had a hand in writing it, a Biden campaign spokesperson said “the plan was crafted inclusive of voices across the LGBTQ+ community, from thought leaders, organizations, every day people, and more.”
Sanders, who is now Biden’s sole competition for the Democratic presidential nomination, isn’t referenced in the plan. A look at Sanders’s website reveals a page dedicated to LGBTQ issues, which articulates bullet-points for policy and recalls the Vermont independent’s record in support of LGBTQ rights, including his vote in 1996 against the Defense of Marriage Act. (Biden as a U.S. senator voted for the anti-gay bill.)
But President Trump is another matter. Biden blames the Trump administration for going backwards on LGBTQ rights after the Obama era, accusing Trump and Vice President Mike Pence of having “given hate against LGBTQ+ individuals safe harbor and rolled back critical protections for the LGBTQ+ community.”
“Hate and discrimination against LGBTQ+ people started long before Trump and Pence took office,” the plan says. “Defeating them will not solve the problem, but it is an essential first step in order to resume our march toward equality.”
Biden also seeks to one-up Trump on one of his few initiatives seen to help LGBTQ people: Ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the United States. In his State of the Union addresses before Congress, Trump has pledged to beat the HIV/AIDS epidemic by 2030, but Biden sets a goal instead of 2025.
“Biden has fought for access to treatment for people with HIV/AIDS and funding for HIV/AIDS research, and he helped pass and expand the Global AIDS program (PEPFAR),” the plan says. “As president, he will re-commit to ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic by 2025.”
Key to Biden’s plan is updating the National AIDS Strategy, which was first developed during the Obama administration, fully funding the Ryan White Health Care Program and making PrEP more available for HIV prevention.
Biden’s plan is along the lines of LGBTQ platforms unveiled by other Democratic candidates who have since dropped from the presidential race, including Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), former Rep. Beto O’Rourke and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg.
Seven of the Democratic candidates, including Biden, also fleshed out their LGBTQ rights proposals in response to a questionnaire from the Human Rights Campaign, so much of Biden’s vision for LGBTQ rights was already known.
However, despite some calls to issue a thorough plan on advancing LGBTQ rights, Biden didn’t lay out his agenda until today, when the other candidates with now defunct campaigns did so late last year.
One slight difference between Biden’s plan and others is the gay blood ban, which was eased during the Obama administration from a lifetime to ban on donations to a ban on blood from men who’ve had gay sex within the past year before a donation.
Warren pledged to “lift this ban completely” and Buttigieg sought to “end the blanket ban on blood donation from people including gay and bisexual men,” but Biden, consistent with guidance from the Human Rights Campaign, more modestly promises to work with the Food & Drug Administration to “ensure regulations are based on science, not fiction or stigma.”
(UPDATE: Sanders set up a contrast with Biden on the gay blood ban via an email to the Blade from Sarah Ford, a Sanders campaign spokesperson.
“It’s an outrage that homophobia and stigma has prevented gay and bisexual men from donating blood like everyone else,” Ford said. “As President, Bernie would end the ban, period.”)
Biden’s plan also makes no mention of any of the LGBTQ-related cases before the Supreme Court. (Warren had mentioned the Title VII cases in her plan, but Buttigieg did not. Sanders’s website also makes no mention of the cases.)
Currently, the Supreme Court is weighing whether anti-LGBTQ discrimination is a form of sex discrimination, thus illegal under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Other litigation will determine whether religious schools have a First Amendment right to hire based on their religious beliefs, which would mean they could discriminate against LGBTQ teachers, and whether faith-based adoption agencies have a right consistent with their beliefs to refuse child placement into LGBTQ homes.
The results of these cases will shake up the terrain on LGBTQ rights tremendously, especially if the Supreme Court grants a First Amendment right to discriminate, but Biden’s plan doesn’t mention them or how those rulings would fit with his strategy.
There were no differences in cognitive impairment between HIV-negative cannabis users and non-users, which suggests that cannabis may prevent neurocognitive impairment from HIV.
“Recent research shows that cannabinoids have anti-inflammatory properties,” said Watson. “We hypothesized that some degree of cannabis exposure may be protective for brain health in certain contexts. While in the general population, heavy cannabis use is associated with null or negative cognitive outcomes, we were interested in whether cannabis would show different effects on cognition in a disease like HIV, which is characterized by a weakened immune system and persistent inflammation.”
A total of 952 adults participated in the study (679 who were living with HIV, 273 who were HIV-negative). People with a history of non-HIV-related neurological, medical or psychiatric disorders affecting brain function were not included in the study. People with a substance use disorder (other than cannabis) in the past year, and people who tested positive for substances other than cannabis on a urine toxicology screen were also not included in the study.
The researchers assessed lifetime cannabis use and cannabis use in the previous year, categorizing study participants based on HIV status and cannabis exposure. People in the cannabis group had both a history of substantial cannabis use and cannabis use in the previous year. People in the cannabis-negative group did not use cannabis in the previous year and did not have a history of substantial use. Participants completed neurocognitive tests to assess cognitive functions including verbal fluency, learning, memory, attention, motor skills and more.
Participants ranged in age from 18 to 79 years. Most were men (76%) and identified as gay or bisexual (71%).
After controlling for race/ethnicity, current major depressive disorder and history of substantial methamphetamine use, the researchers found a significant relationship between cannabis use and neurocognitive impairment that varied by HIV status.
Rates of neurocognitive impairment among HIV-negative people were similar regardless of cannabis exposure (between 25% and 30%). However, among people living with HIV, rates of neurocognitive impairment were much higher among non-cannabis users (nearly 50%), while rates were much lower among cannabis users (about 30%).
“Our results are consistent with the idea that under some circumstances, cannabis might be neuroprotective,” the authors said. “Given our findings did not differ in virally suppressed people living with HIV, the anti-inflammatory effects of cannabis may be important for people living with HIV who are both detectable and undetectable.”
Watson explained that the majority (70%) of neurocognitive deficits observed in people living with HIV are considered mild enough that people may not notice impairment, although even these milder forms of neurocognitive impairment may influence everyday life.
“Some research from our lab has shown that these mild impairments are linked to difficulties with medication management, employment, and other important functional and medical outcomes,” she said.
Further research is needed to clarify what aspects of cannabis are therapeutic or not therapeutic—including the effect of dose, frequency of use and type of cannabis product. Watson stated that their findings have several limitations.
“Our study was retrospective and did not capture detailed information about cannabis use such as potency, nor did we capture important factors such as psychosocial context, including motivations for cannabis use. There also may be other negative health consequences of heavy long-term cannabis smoking such as chronic bronchitis which are important to keep in mind.”
“In the future, we would like to be able to define what levels of cannabis exposure are linked to optimal brain and cognitive health, and what levels may be detrimental,” said Watson. “It is likely that beneficial effects are limited to certain dose and frequencies of use, and also vary by cannabis compound (e.g., THC vs. CBD vs. CBC).” At this point, we don’t want the take-away to be, ‘If you have HIV, you can use cannabis and that’s going to be really good for your brain health and cognition.’ We need to do much more research before we can make more specific recommendations regarding the impact of cannabis use on the brain in HIV disease.”
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The fight for the Democratic nomination is now set: Joe Biden vs. Sen. Bernie Sanders. Contrary to Sanders’s view, it is not a fight over who is more progressive, rather it is a fight over big promises that might never be kept and a more rational progressive way to move us forward and recover from four years of chaos under Donald Trump.
The fight is also over which nominee will help down-ballot Democrats the most. Who can help the members of the House of Representatives in swing districts keep their seats? Who can help Democratic United States Senate candidates in purple states win their races to rid us of ‘Moscow Mitch?’ There are hundreds of bills passed by the current Democratic House waiting to be passed again, this time with a Senate that will also pass them and send them on to a Democratic president who will sign them into law. So the nominee must be the person who can best make that happen.
Both candidates are flawed yet both are better than the sexist, racist, homophobic pig in the White House. But from here through Milwaukee where Democrats choose their candidate let’s not continue to say “blue no matter who” and sit back on our hands. Instead let’s decide that yes blue but know who it is matters. Many including me don’t like that the two potential nominees are old white men. But then so is the president so we need to deal with it. One way to do that is have the nominee select a younger woman of color as a running mate.
It is amazing to me that young people so enthusiastically support a nearly 80-year-old white man who just had a heart attack on the campaign trail. They clearly believe his promises of free healthcare, free college, forgiving their college debt and in essence having government provide for all of them regardless of their own or their parent’s economic circumstance.
What they overlook is that Sanders won’t be able to do most of that even if elected president, as no president can wave a magic wand and get things done. Just look at the failures of Trump who was elected because he promised to open the coal mines, reopen factories, build a wall on our southern border and a host of other things he has not been able to do. His voters fell for his promises in the same way so many young people are falling for Sanders’s promises.
If the young people supporting Bernie would take a moment to look at his 30-year record in Congress they would know the word compromise is not in his vocabulary. That is not a positive trait and has resulted in his never being able to pass any major legislation. He has never introduced legislation to move forward equality for women, the LGBTQ community, African Americans or any minority.
Biden has made mistakes but has a record of moving us forward. He was wrong on Anita Hill and was wrong on the Iraq War. What he did right was be an early fighter for taking big money out of politics and climate control. He passed the Violence Against Women Act and took on the National Rifle Association, winning twice. First with passage of the Brady background check bill, and then with the passage of bans on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.
So Super Tuesday is now history. We move forward with a two-man race: Biden vs. Sanders. So far, 38 percent of the delegates have been awarded and no one is near the 1,991 needed to become the nominee. Next we should see Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Michael Bloomberg, both with no chance of being the nominee, do the smart thing and drop out.
Former US open-runner Scott Piercy lost several major endorsement deals Thursday for sharing a homophobic meme targeting former Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg and referencing far-right conspiracy theory QAnon.
Golf apparel brands Titleist and FootJoy, both owned up retailer Acushnet Holdings Co, alongside Swedish fashion house J Lindeberg, all dropped Piercy, Reuters reported.
Three major brands shut down deals with Scott Piercy following homophobic meme.
It featured a crude cartoon news report, styled like American broadcaster CNN, with a ticker that read: “Peter pulls out early from behind.”
With the “QNN” branding, Pepe the Frog newsreader and link to QMAP – a hub for the pro-Trump conspiratorial network – the meme drew mass criticism from sporting pundits and LGBT+ activists alike.
Backlash bubbled, and Scott Piercy attempted to tamper down criticism and issued an apology on a subsequent Instagram story, screenshots posted to Twitter Tuesday show.
“Whenever I post,” he wrote, “my intent is NEVER to offend. I want to apologise if any of my recent [sic] story posts have been offensive.
“I will do better!”
But the apology did little to minimise detractor’s fury. Titleist confirmed Tuesday it terminated Piercy’s contract, with FootJoy following.
Speaking to Morning Read, the 41-year-old acknowledged his “terrible lack of judgement” at sharing the meme.
Shortly after, clothing maker J Lindeberg issued a statement Thursday saying it had ended its contract with Piercy, too.
“When we choose our ambassadors, we choose individuals we know will represent us well on and off the golf course,” the statement read.
“The claims from Scott Piercy were unacceptable and far from our views and beliefs.
“We, J Lindeberg, as a company do not stand by the statements made by Piercy and we want to make sure our customers, employees, and other ambassadors know we support all communities and have no room for hate or discrimination in our company.”
Moreover, the star may face disciplinary action from the PGA Tour, according to ESPN, which said in statements it is “disappointed in the lack of judgement used” and that representatives had “addressed with Scott directly”.
In a recent article published in AJPH, researchers from the Center for Latino Adolescent and Family Health at New York University promote and share startling data about the impact of HIV on Latinx communities in the U.S., pointing to a neglected and accelerating public health crisis.
“The sustained, widening, and largely unrecognized HIV disparity among US Hispanics/Latinos is a pressing public health emergency,” the authors wrote.
“When we think about the Latino/Hispanic community, I think there’s a tendency for things to go unrecognized,” said Vincent Guilamo-Ramos, PhD, MPH, LCSW, ANP-BC, AAHIVS, the lead author. “Latino/Hispanic HIV incidence has been going up both in terms of new diagnoses and also estimated incidence of new infections, and those increases haven’t really been fully recognized. This article was a way of drawing attention and saying, ‘Hey, we need some focus here as well’ because with focus comes the possibility of actually having some of the progress that’s been made elsewhere also benefit the Latinx community.”
Guilamo-Ramos and colleagues highlight three key Latinx sub-populations most affected by HIV: young Latinx men who have sex with men; trans Latina women; and, recent Latinx immigrants. Annual HIV infections among Latinx gay men have increased by 30% since 2010, an estimated one in four trans Latinas is living with HIV, and at least one in three new HIV diagnoses among Latinx individuals in 2017 were among individuals born outside the U.S. (with the majority of infections happening in the U.S.).
What is surprising, said Guilamo-Ramos, is the existence of “HIV transmission clusters” that have been identified by the CDC. In these networks of individuals who are connected socially, sexually or through drug use, HIV transmission is occurring at rates up to 33 times the national average.
“What emerges is that they are heavily composed of young people, persons of color, who are Latino and also men who have sex with men,” said Guilamo-Ramos.
Identifying the unique challenges faced by these individuals—for example, HIV-related stigma, language barriers, mistrust of health systems and lack of culturally appropriate care—is essential so that local and national programs can address needs.
“PrEP has the potential to have a dramatic impact on the communities that are disproportionately impacted,” said Guilamo-Ramos. But at this point, one unintended consequence of PrEP is that in some ways it’s exacerbating disparities because white communities are achieving fairly high levels of PrEP coverage while communities of color including Latino communities are not. The idea of PrEP as the way forward is very important.”
On a structural level, lack of insurance-related access to health care remains the most significant barrier to HIV prevention and care. Latinx individuals, including those born outside the U.S., are the most uninsured and underinsured racial/ethnic group in the U.S.
With approximately 59 million Latinx residents in the U.S.—and a population expected to double by 2060—effective HIV public health responses tailored to Latinx communities are much needed.
“Failure to address gaps in the national response to the Hispanic/Latino HIV crisis has significant population-level implications for the fight against HIV/AIDS,” the authors said.
The authors outline a few priority areas for the CDC plus federal, state and local partners, including reducing HIV stigma by normalizing HIV prevention and treatment, ensuring cost-free access to HIV treatment for undocumented immigrants, collaborating with Latinx community leaders, and more.
“I want folks to know that on the policy level, we’ve got to create bridges for Latino communities to be able to access culturally competent care, and think about how to better engage a Latino community along that whole continuum,” said Guilamo-Ramos.
En un artículo reciente publicado en AJPH, investigadores del Centro de Salud para Familias y Adolescentes Latinos en la Universidad de Nueva York promueven y comparten datos alarmantes acerca del impacto del VIH en las comunidades latinas en los EUA, indicando una crisis de salud pública desatendida y en aceleración.
“La sostenida y creciente disparidad en el VIH y en gran parte no reconocida entre los hispanos y latinos en los EUA es una emergencia de la salud pública”, escribieron los autores.
“Cuando pensamos en la comunidad latina/hispana, pienso que hay una tendencia a que las cosas pasan sin reconocerse”, dijo el autor principal, Vincent Guilamo-Ramos, PhD, MPH, LCSW, ANP-BC, AAHIVS. “La incidencia del VIH latino/hispano ha estado aumentando tanto en cuanto a nuevos diagnósticos como en la incidencia estimada de nuevas infecciones, y esos aumentos no se han reconocido completamente. Este artículo fue una manera de llamar la atención y decir, ‘Miren, necesitamos enfocarnos un poco aquí también’ porque con enfoque viene realmente la posibilidad de que algo del progreso que se ha tenido en otras partes también beneficie la comunidad latina.
Guilamo-Ramos y sus colegas destacan tres sub-poblaciones latinas clave más afectadas por el VIH: hombres jóvenes y latinos que tienen relaciones sexuales con hombres; mujeres trans y latinas; e inmigrantes latinos recientes. Infecciones anuales por VIH entre hombres gay y latinos han aumentado un 30% desde 2010, se estima que una de cuatro trans latinas vive con el VIH, y por lo menos uno de tres nuevos diagnósticos de VIH entre personas latinas en 2017 estaba entre las personas nacidas fuera de los EUA (con la mayoría de las infecciones ocurriendo en los EUA).
Lo que extraña, dijo Guilamo-Ramos, es la existencia de “grupos de transmisión del VIH” que el CDC ha identificado. En estas redes de personas que están conectadas social o sexualmente o por el consumo de drogas, la transmisión del VIH ocurre a tasas de hasta 33 veces el promedio nacional.
“Lo que surge es que están compuestos considerablemente de personas jóvenes, personas de color, que son latinas y también hombres que tienen relaciones sexuales con hombres”, dijo Guilamo-Ramos.
Es imprescindible identificar los desafíos únicos que afrontan estas personas – por ejemplo, el estigma relacionado con el VIH, las barreras lingüísticas, la falta de confianza en los sistemas de salud y falta de cuidados culturalmente apropiados – para que programas locales y nacionales puedan tratar las necesidades.
“PrEP tiene la posibilidad de tener un impacto dramático en las comunidades que están desproporcionadamente afectadas”, dijo Guilamo-Ramos. Pero hasta ahora, una consecuencia no intencionada de PrEP es que en algunas maneras está agravando las disparidades porque las comunidades blancas están recibiendo niveles de cobertura de PrEP bastante altos mientras que las comunidades de color incluyendo las comunidades latinas no. La idea de PrEP como el camino hacia delante es muy importante”.
A nivel estructural, la falta de acceso a la atención médica asociada al seguro sigue siendo la barrera más importante a la prevención y al cuidado de VIH. Las personas latinas, incluyendo las nacidas fuera de los EUA, son el grupo étnico/racial menos asegurado y más subasegurado de los EUA.
Al haber aproximadamente 59 millones de residentes latinos en los EUA – y una población que se espera que se duplique para el 2060 – son muy necesarias las respuestas eficaces a la salud pública de VIH personalizadas a las comunidades latinas.
“El no tratar las brechas en la respuesta nacional a la crisis del VIH hispana/latina tiene importantes implicaciones a nivel de población en la lucha contra el VIH/SIDA”, dijeron los autores.
Los autores destacaron unas cuantas áreas de prioridad para el CDC más los socios federales, estatales, y locales, incluyendo reducir el estigma del VIH normalizando la prevención y tratamiento de VIH, asegurar el acceso libre de costos al tratamiento del VIH para inmigrantes no documentados, colaborar con líderes de la comunidad latina, y más.
“Quiero que la gente sepa que a nivel de políticas, tenemos que crear puentes para que las comunidades latinas puedan acceder a cuidados culturalmente competentes, y pensar en cómo mejor incluir a la comunidad latina en todo ese continuo”, dijo Guilamo-Ramos.
A new study from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has shown that LGBT+ youth are more than three times as likely to attempt suicide than their straight counterparts.
The AAP used Youth Risk Behavioral Surveillance data from six states that collected data on sexual orientation, and four that collected data on sexual contacts, between 2009 and 2017.
Although the number of suicide attempts among sexual minority people under the age of 18 had decreased over the eight-year period, the study showed in 2017 they remained more than three times as likely to try to take their own lives.
In 2009, 26.7 per cent of queer youth reported a suicide attempt within the last year, compared with 6.3 per cent of straight young people. In 2017, it remained as high as 20.1 per cent, compared with 5.9 per cent of straight youth.
It also found that young people did not necessarily need to identify as a sexual minority to have an increased risk of suicide attempts.
Those who had experience same-sex sexual contact within the last year were still more than twice as likely to attempt suicide than those who had only had opposite-sex sexual contact.
The authors concluded that “more research is needed, particularly on policies, training practices and interventions to promote sexual minority health in education and health care institutions”.
There is an increasing amount of research on LGBT+ suicide and suicide attempts.
Researchers surveyed 1,148 transgender teens and 972 cisgender teens aged 14 to 18 across the United States, and found that trans teens “twice as likely” to attempt suicide compared to cisgender, heterosexual teens.
Another study, published in 2019, found that “transgender people who are exposed to conversion efforts anytime in their lives have more than double the odds of attempting suicide compared with those who have never experienced efforts by professionals to convert their gender identity”.
However, further research has shown that when LGBT+ young people are accepted and their identities are embraced, their risk of attempting suicidesignificantly decreases.
If you are struggling with your mental health and are based in the US, you can contact The Trevor Project Lifeline for free on 1-866-488-7386 (open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week).
In the UK, you can call the Samaritans for free on 116 123 (open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week) or call the LGBT Foundation helpline on 0345 3 30 30 30 (open Monday to Friday between 10am and 6pm).
The Arizona House of Representatives on Wednesday approved a controversial measure that bans transgender students from joining sports teams that do not align with their “biological sex.” The bill, which was passed by a deeply divided house with a majority Republican 31-29 vote, will now be sent to the state Senate. State Rep. Nancy Barto (R-AZ) proposed the measure, which will mandate public and private schools—including colleges in universities—to designate sports teams as either male or female based on how the law defines “biological sex.” Barto’s initial proposal required students to present a doctor’s statement that details their “internal and external reproductive anatomy” and “normal endogenously produced levels of testosterone.”
Democrats condemned the practice as invasive and Rep. Daniel Hernandez (D-AZ) called it the “show me your genitals law.” The revised bill will require students who want to participate in sports to take a genetic test. “We’re policing gender,” said Minority Leader Charlene Fernandez (D-AZ). “We’re trying to decide if that person is feminine enough or not feminine enough and we’re using that to justify subjecting our transgender athletes to additional barriers to participating in sports.”
Federal inspections of the U.S. government’s only dedicated detention unit for transgender immigrants last year found hundreds of unanswered requests for medical attention, poor quarantine procedures and deficient treatment for mental illnesses and other chronic diseases, Reuters has learned.
Details of the inspections of the transgender unit at the Cibola County Correctional Center in New Mexico, which have not been reported previously, were contained in internal reports from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) health corps and a U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) civil rights office.
The problems, which led to the transfer of all detainees to other facilities in January, were described to Reuters by congressional aides who were briefed on the documents and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The reports come to light as Democrats in Congress accuse ICE of not living up to the agency’s own standards for caring for detained transgender immigrants.
April Grant, an ICE spokeswoman, did not comment directly on the specifics outlined by the congressional aides but confirmed that a December 2019 report by the ICE health corps found “several health care-related deficiencies” at the center, such as failing to complete laboratory orders or arrange for HIV patients to see infectious disease specialists within 30 days of arrival.
Grant said many of those problems were addressed in December, for instance by speeding up backlogged lab orders and educating staff on detention standards and medication policies.
However, the concerns led to the transfer of all of the approximately two dozen detainees in the transgender unit, as well as other chronically ill detainees in the general population. About half were sent to a facility Aurora, Colorado, and the others to one in Tacoma, Washington, according to transgender detainees, former detainees and their advocates.
At Cibola, some told Reuters, detainees had made desperate attempts to get adequate care.
“Every time we felt sick the first step was to raise a request, but they never answered,” said Kelly Aguilar, a 23-year-old transgender woman from Honduras who said she had been detained at Cibola for two years before being transferred to Aurora.
“When people had fevers, headaches, stomach problems, we just tried to help each other by giving sips of water or buying pills in the commissary, but a lot of times we didn’t have money.”
ICE was not able to immediately comment on individual cases described in this story.
Amanda Gilchrist, a spokeswoman for CoreCivic Inc (CXW.N), the private prison company that operates Cibola and holds immigrant detainees under an ICE contract, said the company was “committed to providing a safe environment for transgender detainees” including training staff about preventing abuse and harassment.
A debate in Congress
Revelations about the medical concerns at Cibola come as Democrats in Congress are scrutinizing care for the approximately 100 self-identified transgender detainees in U.S. facilities, a small portion of migrants in immigration custody. Many are awaiting resolution of asylum claims.
Democratic lawmakers are pushing ICE to enforce the agency’s existing detention standards for transgender immigrants laid out in a 2015 memo. The memo, signed by former ICE Director Thomas Homan during the Obama administration, offers such protections as allowing immigrants to be housed according to their gender identity (transgender women with other women, for instance), as well as to be given access to medically necessary hormone therapy and mental health care.
Homan told Reuters it had proven difficult to find facilities willing to modify their contracts to adopt the transgender care standards. Currently none have done so.
Some ICE facilities, like Cibola, are operated by private prison companies. Others are run by federal, state or local governments. In December, Democrats directed ICE, in legislative guidance that accompanied a spending package, to adhere to the memo – but ICE rebuffed the request at the end of January, according to a congressional aide. The legislative guidance from Democrats is “not legally binding upon the agency,” according to an ICE statement that was provided to Congress and seen by Reuters.
Legislative guidance accompanying spending bills is commonly followed by government agencies, former federal officials and legal experts say.
Grant said several of the country’s more than 200 immigration detention centers have “informally” implemented aspects of the 2015 memo. She said ICE is continuing to look for facilities willing to run a dedicated transgender housing unit and “remains optimistic that some locations will sign the formal contract modification.”
Sharita Gruberg from the Washington D.C.-based liberal nonprofit Center for American Progress, one of the groups that filed complaints with ICE about the treatment of transgender detainees, said the transfers only shuffled the problems to other facilities.
“Congress is asking ICE to adopt its own standards for care,” she said. But “instead of complying with their own standards and complying with congressional direction, they went with secret option number three of just transferring (detainees) to other private prisons.”
Since taking office in 2017, U.S. President Donald Trump has rolled back protections for transgender people in the U.S. military, public schools and federal prisons.
Trump also has made an immigration crackdown – including increased detention of unauthorized immigrants – an important part of his presidency and his 2020 re-election campaign.
From hope to disappointment
ICE opened the dedicated transgender unit at Cibola in 2017 after a similar facility in California ended its contract with the agency.
Some detainees told Reuters that arriving at Cibola initially seemed a respite, allowing them to live among others like them, without the fear of abuse they had suffered in their home countries and other U.S. detention centers.
Zsa Zsa, a 54-year-old Jamaican who asked that her last name be withheld, said that after stints at ICE facilities in the general population of male detainees in San Diego and El Paso, she felt safer at Cibola. But soon, she said, she came to believe that the medical care in Cibola was “very poor.” She said she repeatedly tried and failed to get a specific medication to control her high blood pressure, becoming dizzy from lack of treatment.
Honduran detainee Shantell Hernandez, 29, said she had asked repeatedly for hormones at Cibola, but to no avail. It took her transfer to detention in Washington to get the medication she said she needed.
Before that, she said, “They never gave them to me.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency over the novel coronavirus after a California man died after falling ill with the virus while on a cruise ship.
Officials are trying to locate hundreds of other Californians who disembarked from the Grand Princess ship in San Francisco last month after a trip to Mexico. Officials want to determine whether they also might have contracted the virus.
That same ship, after a subsequent trip to Hawaii, canceled its stop in Baja California and was scheduled to return early to San Francisco on Wednesday, but it was being held off the coast so public health officials could screen everyone onboard, the governor said.
Some passengers on the vessel — both current and those exposed earlier — told The Times the response by the company and health officials has been filled with missteps. In particular, passengers interviewed by the Times said the company, Princess Cruises, was lax on health screening protocols prior to boarding and withheld information about the risks they faced, even as the ship’s condition became international news.
The virus has now been reported in 12 counties in the state and has sickened more than 50 people.
Newsom said he felt confident that the state could prevent the virus from being spread by passengers of the cruise who already had returned to California.
“We have the resources,” Newsom said. “We have the capacity. By this evening, we will have contacted every county health official that has someone who came off this cruise. They will have their contact information and begin a process to contact those individuals.”
Newsom said his emergency declaration is intended to help California prepare for and contain the spread of the coronavirus by allowing state agencies to more easily procure equipment and services, share information on patients and alleviate restrictions on the use of state-owned properties and facilities.
“This proclamation, I want to point out, is not about money,” Newsom said of the emergency declaration. “It’s about resourcefulness. It’s about our ability to add tools to the tool kit.”
Placer County public health officials announced that patient who had tested positive for COVID-19 after returning from a cruise to Mexico last month died. The individual, later identified as a 71-year-old Rocklin resident, had underlying health conditions and was the county’s second confirmed case of COVID-19, reported Tuesday night. Officials said close contacts of the patient were being quarantined and monitored for the illness.
The person’s likely exposure occurred during travel on a Princess Cruises ship that departed Feb. 10 from San Francisco and sailed to Mexico, returning Feb. 21, officials said.
The patient tested positive Tuesday and had been placed in isolation at Kaiser Permanente Roseville Medical Center.
The person probably had minimal community exposure between returning from the cruise and arriving at the hospital by ambulance Thursday, health officials said. Ten Kaiser Permanente healthcare workers and five emergency responders, who were exposed before the patient was put in isolation, are now in quarantine.
None of those 15 workers is exhibiting symptoms, officials said.
It’s possible that other cruise passengers may have been exposed, officials said. Placer County Public Health is working closely with Sacramento County Public Health and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to identify and contact other cruise passengers.
By one estimate, more than 50% of the roughly 2,500 passengers who traveled from San Francisco to Mexico and back on the cruise ship with the Placer County victim are Californians, Newsom said.
“We extend our deepest condolences to the loved ones of this patient,” Placer County health officer Dr. Aimee Sisson said. “While we have expected more cases, this death is an unfortunate milestone in our efforts to fight this disease, and one that we never wanted to see.
“While most cases of COVID-19 exhibit mild or moderate symptoms, this tragic death underscores the urgent need for us to take extra steps to protect residents who are particularly vulnerable to developing more serious illness, including elderly persons and those with underlying health conditions.”
Sisson said the resident first developed symptoms while on the cruise and continued to show symptoms while traveling through the Port of San Francisco.
The individual called 911 and was taken to the hospital Thursday, then tested for COVID-19 on Sunday. The results returned positive Tuesday, and the patient died Wednesday morning, Sisson said.
Placer County has six pending tests for COVID-19, and Sisson said she expects to see cases of community transmission soon.
“I urge Placer County residents to be vigilant and to take steps to protect themselves,” Sisson said. “Wash your hands. Wash your hands. Wash your hands…. We are not at the point where I would consider canceling events, closing schools or requiring widespread distancing measures, but we do want the public to prepare for that possibility.”
Sisson recommended that residents have two weeks of supplies on hand in case they are asked to quarantine.
Rocklin Fire Chief Bill Hack said emergency responders are wearing protective masks and goggles when responding to 911 calls until it is clear whether a person has respiratory symptoms that could indicate COVID-19. Three of the five emergency responders who have been quarantined related to the Placer County death are Rocklin city firefighters.
“They’re obviously being hyper-vigilant that if they start to become symptomatic they know what to look for and they know what steps to take,” Hack said. “They’re in good spirits at this point.”
Placer County is requesting that any other individuals who were on the Grand Princess cruise to Mexico self-quarantine.
Princess Cruises said it was notified by the CDC that it is investigating a small cluster of cases in Northern California among guests who sailed on the Grand Princess Mexican voyage.
The company said 62 guests on that voyage remain onboard for the trip to Hawaii that was returning to San Francisco after canceling its stop in Ensenada, Mexico.
Eleven passengers and 10 crew members on the boat were showing symptoms Wednesday, the governor said. “That number may significantly understate” the scope of infection, he said, or “it may indeed be abundance of caution.”
The state will contact every county health official with passengers in their area by Wednesday night, he said.
Newsom addressed the death shortly after the announcement.
“Jennifer and I extend our deepest condolences to the family and loved ones affected by this death in Placer County,” he said in a statement. “The state is working with federal officials to follow up on contact tracing of individuals that may have been exposed to provide treatment and protect public health.
“This case demonstrates the need for continued local, state and federal partnership to identify and slow the spread of this virus. California is working around the clock to keep our communities safe, healthy and informed.”
Newsom previously requested that the Legislature make $20 million available for the state to respond to the coronavirus and announced the California Department of Public Health is dipping into its reserves of millions of N95 masks to distribute to healthcare workers on the front lines of the coronavirus fights.
Newsom said Wednesday that a coronavirus lab test is now considered an essential benefit covered by government-sponsored health plans and private insurers. The governor added he is also extending price gouging protections in response to Amazon vendors’ taking advantage of people seeking hand sanitizer and other in-demand goods.
Los Angeles County, meanwhile, declared a health emergency Wednesday as the number of coronavirus cases in the county increased to seven, including six new patients.
None of the new cases are believed to be “community spread,”officials said. All individuals were exposed to COVID-19 through close contacts with others who were infected.
The additional cases were confirmed Tuesday night. Officials said three of the new cases were travelers who had visited northern Italy, two were family members who had close contact with a person outside of the county who was infected, and one had a job that put them in contact with travelers.
One patient has been hospitalized, and the others are isolated at home.
Additionally, the cities of Pasadena and Long Beach are declaring public health emergencies related to the novel coronavirus. There are currently no confirmed cases of the virus in either city.
The county’s move comes as the government has increased testing, which officials have warned will result in the identification of a significant number of new cases.
L.A. joins a growing number of California jurisdictions to take health-emergency action, which is designed to better marshal resources from across government agencies and give the fight against the virus more focus.
“I want to reiterate this is not a response rooted in panic,” L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger said at a news briefing. “We need every tool at our disposal.”
Supervisor Hilda Solis acknowledged the ongoing spread of misinformation about the virus and xenophobia toward Asian communities.
“There’s been too much misinformation spreading around,” Solis said. “As we expected, it’s cultivating fears and leading to racial profiling.”
Los Angeles County will increase its capacity for testing of the virus at its public health laboratory. Officials will begin daily radio briefings for the public, post new guidelines for schools and colleges, and over the next week will send “technical assistance teams” to make site visits to temporary housing facilities including homeless shelters.
Officials urged the public to frequently wash their hands, opt for verbal salutations in place of hugs and handshakes and try to maintain a distance of six feet from strangers.
“We have to be prepared. We have to protect the well-being of our loved ones and our neighbors,” Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said.
Officials said they had tested more than two dozen people for COVID-19 before these recent test results came back positive and reiterated that there had been no sign of community spread in the county.
“I want to reassure everyone — we are not there today,” L.A. County Department of Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said.
The screener, who is attached to the CDC, last worked Feb. 21 at LAX and, after developing potential symptoms, alerted medical professionals and authorities. The person was formally identified Tuesday as having the COVID-19 virus and so far has a mild case and is isolated at home.
Family members of the person have also been tested, according to one of the sources. So far, nothing has been done to change intake at the airport. Sources say the person was wearing protective clothing during the screening process.
Marin County health officials Tuesday declared a local health emergency despite there being no cases of coronavirus reported among county residents. San Francisco, which has no reported cases, and Orange County, which has three cases, declared health emergencies last week.
The move comes amid more sobering news about the spread of the virus in the United States, including nine deaths in Washington state, a new quarantine in the suburbs of New York City and a warning that more cases are on the horizon.
“I want them to be prepared for the reality that they, there are going to be more cases in the community,” said Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the CDC. “But I want them to continue their daily lives. I want them to be mindful of the opportunity again to prepare themselves and their families.”
The World Health Organization announced Tuesday that the global mortality rate from coronavirus had risen to 3.4%, with more than 3,000 fatalities. The death rate so far is many times higher than the mortality rate of the seasonal flu, which is 0.1%. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that is at least partly because COVID-19 is a new disease, and no one has built up an immunity to it.
Still, he and other health officials said there was still time to slow the spread of the virus.
Officials say they have learned the coronavirus is less transmissible than the flu, which is often spread by people who are infected yet don’t have symptoms. That doesn’t seem to be the case for COVID-19, he said.
“There are not yet any vaccines or therapeutics … which is why we must do everything we can to contain it,” Tedros said.
Earlier reports had pointed to a mortality rate of about 2% for COVID-19. Experts say they suspect all analyses so far have overestimated the disease’s fatality rate because milder cases are largely not being diagnosed. In 80% of people, the disease causes only mild illness, experts say.
More than 50 people in California have the virus, with new cases reported in Berkeley and Santa Clara, Placer and Orange counties. Kaiser Permanente announced late Tuesday it was treating a patient in Los Angeles.
The city of Berkeley said its case involved an individual who visited a country with an outbreak. That person has remained at home in a self-imposed quarantine since returning.
“While the risk of infection remains low, the expanded presence of the virus in our community is a reality we should all prepare for,” said Berkeley’s public health officer, Dr. Lisa Hernandez. “There are steps that all of us in the community can take now to improve basic hygiene and also prepare for a wider spread in the future.”
In Orange County, two cases are pending confirmation from the CDC. The cases involve a man in his 60s and a woman in her 30s who had both recently traveled to countries with widespread transmission, according to the Orange County Health Care Agency.
Santa Clara County announced three more cases of coronavirus Wednesday, bringing the total count there to 14 — the highest number of cases in the sate.
One is a man who’s currently hospitalized. The source of his exposure to the virus is currently under investigation. Two other men are close contacts of an existing case.
California is also speeding up testing of possible coronavirus patients. This more aggressive testing, Newsom said, “may lead to a more rapid increase in the number of confirmed cases reported. That is not necessarily a sign that the rate of infection is increasing, but that our ability to test more people more rapidly is leading to better detection.”
Dr. Mike Ryan, who runs WHO‘s emergencies program, pushed back against officials who wanted to “wave the white flag” and surrender to the disease’s hold. China took drastic steps to fight the virus, he said, and case numbers are now on the decline there.
Countries such as China and South Korea “implemented very, very strong measures that have affected their own economies and their own societies,” Ryan said. “It’s really a duty of others to use the time that has been bought.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said there remained many unknowns about the virus, including the degree to which people who do not express symptoms can transmit it to others. He said doctors know that it happens but have not yet gauged the extent, a key piece of data that will help determine decisions on how to contain it.
Fauci said that Chinese data are believed to be accurate and that the spread of the virus there is slowing thanks to “draconian” methods that would never occur in the United States, including stringent travel and public gathering restrictions.
“They have taken social distancing to its furthest extreme,” he said.