The US district judge made the ruling in the case of four trans Wisconsin residents, who were challenging a 1997 provision that excluded coverage of “transsexual surgery” for Medicaid recipients.
Judge William Conley said on Friday, August 16, that the state’s Medicaid programme was discriminating against trans people by not covering trans healthcare.
The four trans people who filed the lawsuit argued that gender-affirming healthcare for trans people was medically necessary due to the medically recognised condition of gender dysphoria.
“There is now a consensus within the medical profession that gender dysphoria is a serious medical condition, which if left untreated or inadequately treated can cause adverse symptoms, such as anxiety, depression, serious mental distress, self-harm and suicidal ideation,” Conley wrote in his judgment, according to the Wisconsin State Journal.
In the 38-page ruling, Conley said that trans people in Wisconsin were being discriminated against on the basis of sex under the federal Affordable Care Act.
Conley’s ruling follows a temporary injunction against the provision that he issued last year.
Insurance companies that manage state Medicaid plans also “acknowledge that gender-confirming hormone and surgical treatments for gender dysphoria can be medically necessary”, Conley said.
Wisconsin is among nine US states that have explicit Medicaid exclusion for trans healthcare, according to the ruling, which also estimates the cost of gender-affirming treatments covered by Medicaid to be between $300,000 and $1.2 million per year.
Wisconsin spends $3.9 billion a year on its Medicaid programme.
Trump proposing nationwide rollback of trans healthcare.
On May 24, the Trump administration filed a 204-page proposed regulationthat would roll back healthcare protections for trans people.
The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published the document proposing eliminating gender identity as one of the factors in healthcare and government policy.
The regulation would reverse changes made by the Obama administration and came as another knock to the transgender community.
He was known as the “I-95” killer and evaded police for nine months by using stolen identification documents, before finally being caught.
Bowles was given the death penalty following a 1996 trial, but the sentence was reversed by the Florida Supreme Court. He was sentenced to death again in 1999.
Bowles has been on death row for 20 years.
Between March and November 1994, Bowles killed six gay men – attacking them because of their sexuality.
Bowles confessed to all six murders after police caught him in 1994, saying that he was tired of running.
The first was a 59-year-old gay man, Walter Hinton, who Bowles had been living with in Florida, having met him at a bar. Bowles beat and choked the man until he bled to death, and then fled to Washington DC having stolen his victims credit cards and car.
He killed again, and in the following eight months continued to murder gay men and evade police using their stolen ID documents.
Bowles’ victims included John Hardy Roberts, 59, David Harman, 38, Milton Bradley, 72, Alverson Carter Jr, 47, and Albert Morris, 38. All of those he killed were gay men.
Police eventually caught him at an office for day labourers, at that time only suspecting him of the first murder. But Bowles confessed to the rest.
In interviews with police, Bowles described a violent upbringing that led to him leaving home at 14 and working as a sex worker to support himself.
He was first arrested in 1982, at the age of 20, for brutally attacking his then-girlfriend. He was sentenced to six years in prison and released after serving three.
Bowles told police that after leaving prison, he moved to Daytona Beach, Florida, where he moved in with a girlfriend and resumed sex work. According to Bowles, his girlfriend became pregnant but had an abortion after she learned that he was a sex worker.
Bowles’ told police this meant he blamed gay men for the abortion, and this led him to his murderous rampage.
His moved in with his first victim, Hinton, after the breakup of his relationship following the abortion.
Unless there is a last-minute appeal in his case, he will be executed on Thursday.
According to its website, the “radically inclusive” Metropolitan Community Church of Albuquerque celebrates “all forms of self-expressions, identities and orientations”.
Andy Najar, a member of the congregation who has been attending for more than 30 years, told KOB4: “I think it’s really sad.
“Really the first time, I thought, oh, maybe it was just a mistake or some kids playing around, but after six times you really feel you’re taking it personally, this is a hate crime, let’s try to figure this out.”
“We really celebrate diversity in our community because we’re all different,” Najar added.
The pastor, Judith Maynard, said: “After six attacks, I do feel it’s targeted. It’s just the times we live in.”
KOB4 reported that the rocks used to smash the windows are being stacked inside the church to symbolise the strength of the mostly LGBT+ congregation.
Maynard said: “It’s just a visual so show that we forgive, that we’re stronger than a little rock. Together our faith makes us stronger.
“This community is a great community and we’ll get through this.”
The Metropolitan Community Church was founded 45 years ago by reverend Troy Perry, a Pentecostal minister who was kicked out of his former church after members discovered that he was gay.
It started out as a gathering of just 12 people in Perry’s living room, and has now grown to 160 affiliated churches around the world.
Perry has published two books, The Lord is My Shepherd and He Knows I’m Gayand Don’t Be Afraid Anymore, detailing the story behind the congregation.
Berlin police say a central memorial to the gay victims of the Nazis has been vandalized.
The concrete memorial in Berlin’s Tiergarten park, near the memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, features a window into which visitors can look and view a video of a same-sex couple kissing.
Police said Monday that security guards reported that overnight the window had been painted over.
Palestinian police have banned events organized by the LGBTQ rights organization alQaws because they go against “traditional Palestinian values,” the rights group said in a statement Sunday.
“AlQaws condemns the use of prosecution, intimidation and threats of arrest, be it by the police or members of society,” the group wrote on Facebook. “We have always been public and accessible about our work, through maintaining an active website, social media presence and engagement in civil society. However, we have never received threats to this extent before.”
AlQaws for Sexual & Gender Diversity in Palestinian Society emerged as a project in 2001 and formalized in 2007, according to its website. As part of the group’s work, it regularly holds events throughout Palestinian territories and offers support for LGBTQ people through hotlines and partnerships with other civil rights groups.
The statement from the Palestinian police announcing the ban came after alQaws held an event in Nablus, a city in the northern West Bank, in early August. The organization had plans to hold another event there at the end of the month.
Police said Sunday they would “pursue this gathering” and seek charges against anyone involved in it, according to The Associated Press. The Palestinian police are under the Western-backed Palestinian Authority, which governs parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Word of the gathering had sparked fierce debate on social media, with some Palestinians defending the activists and others condemning them for violating religious and traditional norms.
“We have never received threats to this extent before,” alQaws said in its Facebook statement. However, it acknowledged that the “crackdown against the fight for sexual and gender liberation is not new.”
“Throughout modern history, it has served as a powerful card for oppressive regimes and governments,” the group stated. “Sadly, the PA statement and subsequent public responses are well-honed tactics in the game of political gain and smoke-screening, not limited to the Palestinian Authority or to this particular event.”
Despite the crackdown, however, the alQaws said it will continue to work to combat the “social violence against LGBT Palestinians.”
Neither alQaws nor the Palestinian police immediately responded to NBC News’ request for comment.
Sa’ed Atshan, an assistant professor of peace and conflict studies at Swarthmore College and author of “Queer Palestine and the Empire of Critique,” said the Palestinian police’s statement about alQaws is an attempt to “score morality points.”
By focusing on LGBTQ people, Atshan told NBC News, the Palestinian Authority can distract everyday Palestinians away from “its impotence in the face of the occupation.”
Being openly LGBTQ in Palestine, though, isn’t easy regardless, according to Atshan. He said unless you’re from a wealthy or secular family or live in a city, it can be difficult being out.
“While increasing numbers of LGB Palestinians are identifying as such, and slowly trans folks in Palestine are coming out, it is still tremendously difficult to live one’s life authentically, particularly as a trans person,” he explained.
Atshan also noted there seems to be an increase in anti-LGBTQ public expressions in Palestinian territories.
“This is a serious problem in our society,” he said, “and we have not grappled with the long-entrenched and ingrained homophobia in our society in a serious or robust, large-scale manner yet.”
And authorities seem to be leading the charge.
“The Palestinian Authority’s police have also been inciting surveillance and violence against LGBTQ Palestinians from their own families, neighbors and co-workers, with a spike now in social media posts calling for assaults against queer people in the West Bank,” Atshan explained.
Homosexuality is taboo in Arab countries, many of which criminalize it. Approximately 70 countries around the world — most in Africa and the Mideast — criminalize homosexuality.
The brief was submitted in a case concerning Aimee Stephens, a transgender woman who was fired from a Detroit funeral home after she informed her employer that she was beginning her gender transition. The case, R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, et al., is one of three cases concerning LGBTQ workers’ rights that the Supreme Court is expected to hear this fall.
The brief, submitted by Solicitor General Noel J. Francisco and other Department of Justice attorneys, argues that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin, “does not bar discrimination because of transgender status.”
“In 1964, the ordinary public meaning of ‘sex’ was biological sex. It did not encompass transgender status,” the brief states. “In the particular context of Title VII — legislation originally designed to eliminate employment discrimination against racial and other minorities — it was especially clear that the prohibition on discrimination because of ‘sex’ referred to unequal treatment of men and women in the workplace.”
If the Supreme Court sides with the Trump administration, it will be overturning a decision by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which sided with Stephens in March 2018.
“Discrimination against employees, either because of their failure to conform to sex stereotypes or their transgender and transitioning status, is illegal under Title VII,” Judge Karen Nelson Moore wrote in the 6th Circuit’s decision. “The unrefuted facts show that the Funeral Home fired Stephens because she refused to abide by her employer’s stereotypical conception of her sex.”
Moore added that requiring the Christian business owner, Thomas Rost, “to comply with Title VII’s proscriptions on discrimination does not substantially burden his religious practice.”
Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the conservative legal group thathad petitioned the high court to hear the Stephens case, said the lower court overstepped its bounds by “redefin[ing]” the term “sex” in Title VII to “mean something other than what Congress clearly intended.” Just hours before the Trump administration submitted its brief, ADF submitted one of its own, arguing that “judicially rewriting sex discrimination in Title VII will spill over into other federal laws that prohibit sex discrimination.”
“It will deny women and girls fair opportunities to compete in sports, to ascend to the winner’s podium, and to receive critical scholarships,” the ADF brief states. “It will also require domestic-abuse shelters to allow men to sleep in the same room as female survivors of rape and violence. And it may dictate that doctors and hospitals provide transition services even in violation of their religious beliefs.”
In addition to Stephens’ case, the Supreme Court is set to hear two cases dealing with workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Those cases — Zarda v. Altitude Express and Bostock v. Clayton County — will be consolidated.
The Trump administration has made its position clear on the scope of sex discrimination in Title VII, so Friday’s amicus brief did not come as a surprise to those following the cases. In July 2017, the Department of Justice submitted an amicus brief with the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in the Zarda case opposing the extension of Title VII discrimination protections on the basis of sexual orientation. And in October 2018 — prior to the Supreme Court decision to hear the Stephens case — the DOJ filed a brief with the high court siding with the funeral home. In the Stephens case, the federal government is pitted against itself, since the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is a defendant in the case.
The Supreme Court will hear the cases next term, which begins in October.
Nearly 200,000 transgender people in the United States have been exposed to so-called conversion therapy at some point in their lives, according to a study published Thursday by The American Journal of Public Health.
“Conversion therapy” refers to efforts to change an LGBTQ person’s gender identity or sexual orientation and has been condemned by nearly every major health association, including the American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Using data from the National Center for Transgender Equality’s 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey and UCLA’s Williams Institute, researchers from Harvard and The Fenway Institute estimated that 187,923 trans people across all 50 states — or approximately 13.5 percent of the country’s estimated 1.4 million self-identified trans individuals — have been subjected to attempts to change their gender identity by a “professional,” such as a psychologist, counselor or religious adviser.
“Our research team was extremely concerned to find that this practice, which is widely discredited by major medical organizations, was so prevalent,” Dr. Jack Turban, a resident physician in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and the study’s lead author, told NBC News in an email.
The researchers broke down the data in several ways, including by state. Respondents in Wyoming, South Dakota and Montana were the most likely to experience gender conversion therapy in their lifetime, with more than 20 percent of respondents in each state reporting they had experienced gender conversion therapy methods.
In addition to examining lifetime exposure of psychological attempts to change a person’s gender identity from transgender to cisgender (PACGI), researchers also examined exposure to such conversion efforts from 2010-15, “to capture the diagnostic change from ‘gender identity disorder’ to ‘gender dysphoria’” by the American Psychiatric Association.
Gender identity disorder was historically used by mental health professionals to diagnose trans individuals despite objections from advocates, who argued that the term further stigmatized trans people by assigning them a lifelong mental health diagnosis. Gender dysphoria, which is used to describe the emotional distress over “a marked incongruence between one’s experienced/expressed gender and assigned gender,” has been deemed the more accurate terminology by the APA since 2010.
Researchers found that 5 percent of trans people reported exposure to conversion therapy from 2010 to 2015. The number of individuals varied across states, but similar to the lifetime exposure results, respondents from South Dakota (16.3 percent) and Wyoming (9.1 percent) were the most likely to experience gender conversion therapy at some point during this five-year period.
Most major medical organizations, including the American Medical Association, have labeled gender identity conversion efforts as unethical and state that they can lead to adverse mental health outcomes.
Trans individuals suffer elevated risks of anxiety and depression compared with the general U.S. population, according to experts. In an earlier study, Turban looked at such mental health outcomes for transgender individuals and determined that exposure to conversion therapy is “associated with severe mental distress, suicide ideation and suicide attempts.”
Turban said he hopes his findings will highlight the magnitude of this controversial practice for state legislators who are considering legislation to ban the practice on minors.
“In the past, some state legislators have argued that such bans are not necessary because gender identity change efforts do not occur in their state,” Turban said.
He cited as an example former Maine Gov. Paul LePage, who vetoed a 2018 bill to ban conversion therapy in the state because he said there was “no evidence” that the practice was employed.
“Our findings show that this is false,” Turban said. “Transgender people in every U.S. state reported exposure to gender identity change efforts.”
In the last 30 months, 13 laws have been passed protecting minors against conversion therapy. Currently 18 states, along with the District of Columbia, ban the practice on minors.
Six months ago, five service members made history on Capitol Hill by becoming the first openly transgender witnesses to testify before Congress.
Alongside them was another witness who wasn’t transgender, but a member of the LGBT community who presented expert testimony affirming their capacity to serve as President Trump threatened to expel them from the military under his proposed ban.
Jesse Ehrenfeld, an anesthesiologist and expert in LGBT medical issues, said otherwise qualified individuals shouldn’t be barred from military service simply because they’re transgender.
“I would like to say unequivocally for the record that there is no medically valid reason, including a diagnosis of gender dysphoria, to exclude transgender individuals from military service,” Ehrenfeld told the House Armed Services Personnel Subcommittee.
In an interview Tuesday with the Washington Blade, Ehrenfeld acknowledged his personal experience helped influence his advocacy for transgender people in the military.
After all, he’s a gay man who’s able to serve as a commander in the Navy and be open about his sexual orientation thanks to repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,”
“Being an LGBTQ person, you know, I have faced discrimination at various points in my life,” he said. “Certainly the ability to stand up for what is right, I think, in part comes from those experiences growing up as a gay person, and certainly, as a physician, I have certain opportunities to try to stand up for the community.”
Ehrenfeld, 40, has a long record prior to his congressional testimony of being on the forefront of advocating for transgender people in the military — both in the Obama and Trump administrations.
A crucial moment came in 2015, when Ehrenfeld as a commander in the Navy, was deployed to Afghanistan where he provided care at the NATO Role III Multinational Medical Unit.
Then-Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, newly confirmed in his role as defense chief, took questions from service members at a military town hall in Kandahar about their concerns in the field.
Ehrenfeld’s question: Do you support allowing otherwise qualified transgender people to serve openly in the armed forces?
At the time, transgender people were barred from service as a result of a medical regulation instituted in the 1980s that was based on an outdated understanding of individuals with gender dysphoria.
“I don’t think anything but their suitability for service should preclude them,” Carter replied, adding he hasn’t studied the issue a lot since he became secretary of defense, but was “open-minded” about “what their personal lives and proclivities are, provided they can do what we need them to do for us.”
Days later during the White House news conference, the Washington Blade took the opportunity to ask whether President Obama shared Carter’s views on transgender service. Then-White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest affirmed that was the case.
“I can tell you the president agrees with the sentiment that all Americans who are qualified to serve should be able to serve, and for that reason, we here at the White House welcome the comments of the secretary of defense,” Earnest said.
Thinking back on that moment, Ehrenfeld said he was “frankly very nervous” to speak out but was “delighted” with Carter’s response.
“His message that fitness for duty should be the primary driver of the ability to serve is one that I think serves our military well,” Ehrenfeld said.
What motivated Ehrenfeld to ask the question? Ehrenfeld said it was based on his experience serving with Air Force Staff Sgt. Logan Ireland, a transgender service member who was deployed with him in Afghanistan. Since that time, Ireland has been at the forefront of advocacy for transgender people in the military.
The two met, Ehrenfeld said, shortly after he arrived in Afghanistan and Ireland sought medical care at the facility where Ehrenfeld was working.
“Frankly, I was a bit shocked to meet this person because I knew of the restrictions on transgender service and the last place I expected to find a transgender person was deployed with me in Afghanistan,” he said.
An estimated 14,700 transgender people are now serving in the military. Although the Obama administration would shortly after change the policy to allow transgender service, Trump would change that months after taking office and institute a ban.
“There are mountains of transgender troops and even more transgender veterans who are able to and have done that job quite well,” Ehrenfeld said. “It’s unfortunate that we have discriminatory policies that are preventing them from doing their job.”
After the exchanges at the military town hall and the White House, the wheels were in motion for a year-long study at the Defense Department on transgender military service.
For the Obama administration study, Ehrenfeld said he provided input based on his medical expertise and had conservations with defense officials as the process was happening.
On June 30, 2016, Carter announced at the Pentagon the ban would be lifted. Ehrenfeld said he was present at the Defense Department and it was among the “proudest moments” of his career.
“I understand how we’ve taken a few steps backwards since but at the time it represented such progress with incredible ramifications for transgender people and LGBTQ people all across our nation, not just those serving,” Ehrenfeld said.
Ehrenfeld, who earned his medical degree from the University of Chicago and his master’s in public health at Harvard University, bolsters his advocacy with his impressive credentials in medicine.
Motivated to enter the field of medicine at an early age, Ehrenfeld said in his college days at Haverford College he sought to shadow physicians in their work.
“I love taking care of patients in the operating room, getting them through complex surgeries, watching them walk out of the hospital is one of the most fulfilling things that I get to do on a weekly basis,” he said.
A researcher in the field of biomedical informatics, Ehrenfeld is a professor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where he serves as director for the Center for Evidence-Based Anesthesia.
His LGBT work in the medical field goes beyond transgender military service. Nine years ago, he co-founded the Program for LGBTI Health at Vanderbilt for work on health disparities facing LGBT people.
The research, Ehrenfeld said, seeks to modify and improve electronic health records to serve the needs of LGBT patients and care protocols for transgender people.
“A lot of that work is ongoing,” Ehrenfeld said. “We continue to partner with colleagues, not just at Vanderbilt but across the country to help advance the evidence base that can lead to the best practice for LGBTQ patients.”
Sean Cahill, director of health policy research at the Boston-based Fenway Institute, said he worked with Ehrenfeld on LGBT data collection in health care.
“Jesse Ehrenfeld has been an effective advocate for LGBT health equity within the American Medical Association and the broader health professional sector,” Cahill said. “Jesse has helped enlist broad, mainstream support for sexual orientation and gender identity data collection in Electronic Health Records, for SOGI nondiscrimination in health care and for coverage of transgender health care needs.”
In 2018, Ehrenfeld was given the inaugural NIH Sexual & Gender Minority Research Award for that work.
Now chair of the Board of Trustees for the American Medical Association, Ehrenfeld also works on behalf of U.S. physicians to conduct medical advocacy, which he said includes reducing HIV/AIDS stigma and working to ensure all Americans, including LGBT people, have access to affordable health care.
“We’re committed to helping to achieve equity through health care, and that has to be done by raising awareness about the importance of health equity to patients and communities but also working at the system level to identify and eliminate those disparities,” he said.
With all those hats, Ehrenfeld said a typical week consists of seeing patients in the operating room — mostly for anesthesia for non-surgical procedures — as well as being active in Vanderbilt’s LGBT health programs, where he researches information technology to reduce health care disparities.
“I never know exactly what’s going to happen,” he said. “I have some vague idea of what might transpire, but it’s that variety that kind of keeps me going.”
Other work in LGBT advocacy includes appearing with his partner in a 2015 TV ad produced by Freedom to Marry promoting same-sex marriage and being a former chair of the Massachusetts Log Cabin Republicans from 2009-2010.
One other distinction pops out on his list of accolades. In 2016, Ehrenfeld won an Emmy nomination for “TransMilitary,” a film directed by Fiona Dawson that documents the lives of transgender people in the military, including Ireland.
“I’m very proud of that particular nomination because of what it represents,” Ehrenfeld said. “It represented work and ideas on the film ‘TransMilitary’ trying to capture authentically the lives of deployed and actively serving transgender service members. And I was able to work with a production team to capture a lot of footage and photos.”
Meanwhile, anti-LGBT groups continue their work seeking to undermine transgender people, such as by stating — contrary to evidence — transgender identity isn’t based on science and biological sex is the only reality.
One such mailing came this week from the National Organization for Marriage, a group formed to fight same-sex marriage.
Under the subject line “Science Deniers,” the e-mail compares biological characteristics, between men and women, such as differences in sensory abilities, and behavioral differences to conclude transgender advocates are promoting a “completely false ideology.” The National Organization for Marriage then asks for donations to allow the group to continue its message.
Ehrenfeld said his affirmations of transgender people are based on science.
“I think when we have individuals that try to bend facts, we point them back to what the evidence speaks to and we know, acknowledging that individuals gender and sexual identities don’t always fit neatly into binary paradigms,” he said.
Likely as a result of anti-transgender sentiments such as these, the change allowing transgender people to serve openly in the military wouldn’t last. In 2017, President Trump announced via Twitter after meeting with unnamed military experts he’d ban transgender people from the armed forces.
“I was actually seeing patients that day,” Ehrenfeld said. “Unfortunately, it’s been a continuous fight ever since to regain the ground that has been lost.”
Although defense officials were reportedly surprised by the tweets, then-Defense Secretary James Mattis was concurrently conducting a study at the Pentagon re-evaluating transgender military service. Months later, Mattis produced an implementation plan severely restricting the ability of transgender people to serve in the armed forces.
Unlike the Carter study, Ehrenfeld said he didn’t provide input for the Mattis study, nor was he asked for his expertise.
The courts initially blocked the Trump administration’s policy, but the U.S. Supreme Court lifted those orders, essentially allowing the ban to go into effect. The Pentagon implemented its restrictions on transgender military service on April 12.
With the ban in place, transgender advocates continue the battle for a change to allow service members once again to serve regardless of their gender identity. At the top of their list to make that happen is removing Trump from the White House when he seeks re-election in 2020.
Ehrenfeld, however, cautioned restoring transgender military service might not be as simple as electing a having a new president.
“I don’t think it is necessarily,” Ehrenfeld said. “There are legal challenges that are a part of the equation and certainly, there’s no guarantee a new administration would change the policy or change course. Again, I don’t have a crystal ball to be able to predict what it would take to get us to a better policy position, but certainly those are the kinds of things that I think are in the mix.”
Gal Mayer, president of GLMA: Health Professionals Advancing LGBTQ Equality, called Ehrenfeld a “national leader” for LGBT health whose rise coincides with the medical field’s growing support for policies addressing LGBT health equity.
“Jesse Ehrenfeld is a national leader for LGBTQ health who embodies the qualities GLMA hopes to foster: A health professional who dedicates their practice and academic research to advocating for the health and well-being of LGBTQ people,” Mayer said.
In a little-noticed development, U.S. Park Police have made at least 26 arrests during the past year in Meridian Hill Park in D.C. of men seeking other men for a sexual encounter after they allegedly act in a way that violates the law, according to a Park Police spokesperson.
Sgt. Eduardo Delgado, a Park Police public information officer, told the Washington Blade the 26 arrests made in the park since Aug. 7, 2018 involve charges of one or a combination of Disorderly Conduct, Lewd Acts, Unlawful Entry, and Simple Assault (Sexual).
He said he couldn’t immediately determine if the arrests were made by plain clothes or uniformed officers, but said the arrests were prompted by complaints from the public about “lewd acts” in the park.
D.C. defense attorney John Albanes told the Blade that several of his fellow attorneys who represent clients arrested at Meridian Hill Park report that the men were arrested by undercover officers who pose as consenting prospective partners interested in a sexual tryst.
“I am on a D.C. Superior Court trial lawyers association listserv and recently several criminal defense attorneys on the email list have mentioned that they have had criminal cases involving essentially the same set of facts,” Albanes told the Blade in an email. “[U]ndercover plain-clothes Park Police officers entice men in Meridian Hill Park for purportedly consensual sexual activity and then proceed to arrest their targets for a crime (often misdemeanor sexual abuse),” according to Albanes.
“I find this pattern extremely disturbing and reminiscent of the Stonewall days when gay men were often the target of police discrimination. The tactics used in these cases just fly in the face of proper police work and should be exposed,” he said.
“The officers are posing as willing participants in a consensual encounter between adults,” Albanes said. “The target is deceived into thinking that what he is about to do is wanted. This raises serious doubts about whether the government can prove criminal intent.”
When asked about Albanes’ assessment of the Meridian Hill Park arrests, Delgado responded with a statement by email that did not address the claim by the defense lawyers that the arresting officers were “enticing” the arrested men into committing an illegal act.
“The U.S. Park Police receives complaints about lewd acts that occur within Meridian Hill,” Delgado said in his email. “As with any other complaint of illegal activity, we then take actions to stop it,” he said. “Plain clothes officers are just one method of enforcement sometimes used to deter, stop, and/or arrest violators within the parks.”
Albanes said he asked the defense lawyers representing some of the men arrested on sex-related charges at Meridian Hill Park to reach out to the Blade to talk about their cases, including whether prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office have moved the cases forward toward a trial or a possible plea bargain offer. He said some of the cases may also be prosecuted by the Office of the D.C. Attorney General, which handles some misdemeanor cases.
The Blade asked Albanes to inform the attorneys that it would continue its longstanding policy of not disclosing the names of those arrested in cases like this. However, none of the attorneys had contacted the Blade as of late Tuesday.
“While I am sorry to hear that, I am not surprised,” said Albanes. “I suspect the attorneys – in line with their ethical obligations – do not want to disclose client confidences without their informed consent,” he said, noting that many of the clients are most likely closeted gay men.
Meridian Hill Park, also known as Malcolm X Park, has been known for at least 50 years as a cruising spot for mostly African-American gay men. In past years, men who go to the park to seek other men for sexual encounters have told the Washington Post and the Washington City Paper that the cruising often takes place late at night in secluded areas of the park covered by shrubs, bushes and trees.
Similar to other cruising locations in the city, the men interviewed by the Post and City Paper have said they sometimes invited the person they met at the park to their homes or another private location and did not engage in sex in the park.
LGBT activists have said the number of arrests of gay men in public places like parks appears to have declined dramatically in recent years due to the proliferation of online gay meet-up sites and apps like Grindr, in which a sexual tryst can be arranged quickly without the risk of outdoor cruising.
Gay D.C. Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Rob Hudson, in whose Ward 1 ANC 1B Meridian Hill Park is located, said he had not been aware of the arrests there of gay men until the Blade contacted him about the development. He said he would make inquires with D.C. police and would raise the issue with fellow ANC members.
D.C. police spokesperson Alaina Gertz said D.C. police respond to 911 emergency calls at Meridian Hill Park but notify U.S. Park Police about such a call because Park Police have official jurisdiction over the park, which is considered to be on federal land.
The 12-acre park includes fountains and a highly acclaimed landscaping design modeled off of Italian and French estates. Those who patronize the park say its reputation as a gay cruising place is overshadowed by its more widely known reputation as a cultural melting pot made up of a diverse population that hangs out in the park.
An August 2015 feature story about the park in the Washington Post says that in a changing and sometimes divided city, Meridian Hill Parks serves as a “gathering place for all of the District’s disparate tribes: black and white, rich and poor, young and old, immigrant and local, gay and straight, boring and bizarre.”
Pretty much everyone knows Illinois is one of the most welcoming places for LGBTI people in the US.
From Boystown to a plethora of LGBTI-owned and friendly businesses across the state, it’s a place where people of all backgrounds live and thrive. To embrace the state’s diversity, the Illinois Office of Tourism created a new campaign to spread a message to the LGBTI community and the rest of the world: that Illinois is Amazing for All.
The six-foot-by-23 wooden sculpture became an instant hit with the 200,000 visitors at the two-day festival. The sculpture is now sitting in the heart of Chicago’s LGBTI district, Boystown, at the corner of Halsted and Newport.
But why did Hoffman want to join Illinois in sending this message to the LGBTI community? Gay Star News sat down with him to reveal all about the now-iconic sculpture.
So why did you want to create this artwork to encourage LGBTI people to visit Illinois?
My main belief is the importance of public art and how it changes lives when you come across it.
A little bit of my background: I make stickers saying ‘you are beautiful’, as well as other outdoor installations. I started those in 2002. And we’ve now printed five and a half million stickers, and done these sort of installations around the world.
The message is that no matter who you are, you can see these stickers and know ‘you are beautiful’. And I think that that’s an incredible message. I think that came from struggling with self-esteem and different issues growing up and stuff.
So Illinois Office of Tourism reached out, because especially in Chicago, this project is very prolific. They wanted to partner and collaborate on this other great message – that Illinois is Amazing for All.
What inspired the design for the #AmazingForAll sculpture?
Basically, I make things in two very distinct ways. One is that things blend in like signage and then the other way is a handwritten style. When you do it that way, there’s a human connection there. Like someone is literally saying something to you. Then when you blow that up in scale, it’s just really incredible.
The sign in construction | Photo: Matthew Hoffman, Instagram
It must have been incredible when you debuted at Northalsted Market Days. How was that feeling? What was it like to have thousands of people see it?
It’s my favorite thing. I’m definitely someone who wants people to experience the work I make. I really stay in the background with a lot of the stuff I do. I try to keep a lower profile just because I don’t want it to be attached to my baggage. Like, who’s this person and what it’s about. This is a message for you in that moment. And so enjoy it.
So it was super cool to just see people enjoy it. It’s one of those things that when you watch people walk by, they smile, then they run up to it. And they ask their friend or a stranger to get their photo taken in front of it. That’s a really incredible experience.
It’s cool because not everybody is going to see that in person. They are sharing it around the world so all sorts of people are able to see it on their feed.
Have you lived in Illinois long?
I was born in Ohio and then we moved around. I went to school in Indiana. Eventually I moved to Chicago in 2002. So I’ve lived in the Midwest my whole life and I’ve been here about 17 years.
What’s life in Illinois like for LGBTI people?
I feel like it’s open and inviting. I’m not talking firsthand – I’m straight – but it seems open everywhere. There are some areas that need to get better, but it’s great for a really good portion of the state, especially in Chicago. I think it’s great.
Where’s your favorite place to eat?
So I’ve got an 11 year old. Me and him generally like the worst places, you know. But there’s this one called – Rosati’s [a Chicago pizza restaurant]. Yeah, we go like almost every day.
The completed sculpture when it debuted at Northalsted Market Days | Photo: Illinois Office of Tourism
What’s one thing everyone should do in Chicago?
There are these great architecture boat tours. That sounds like a tough sell to some people. But it’s a great way to explore the city and learn about things. We take the boat tours every year. It’s pretty cool because it goes down the river through the whole city, you learn a lot about the history, and then it actually takes you out on the lake, which is pretty fun.
So what plans do you have for the future?
We just put up a couple ‘you are beautiful’ pieces on fences, and one on a building. And we are going to do more of those. And then we also have a space where we have our studio, with a store and a gallery in the front. It’s in the Avondale neighborhood at 3368 N Elston Ave.
So we’re doing everything that we can to be a part of the community and bring people in. Our next big show is 20 July. It’s called Beautiful Together. And we’re inviting like 200 different artists to make a ‘You are beautiful piece’ and add their voice to the message. So that’s kind of the next big, big thing as far as our fun summer installations.
This article was sponsored by the Illinois Office of Tourism.