Category: Top Stories

Nearly 20 years after the Supreme Court struck down laws criminalizing consensual same-sex activity, the legacy of sodomy bans is still felt across the United States.

In 1993, then-18-year-old Randall Menges was charged under Idaho’s “crimes against nature” law for having sex with two 16-year-old males. All three worked and lived at Pratt Ranch, a cattle ranch in Gem County that doubled as a live-in foster program for troubled teenagers.

Menges was convicted despite police reports indicating the activity was consensual, and the age of consent in Idaho when a defendant is 18 is 16 years old. After serving seven years in prison, he was placed on probation and required to register as a sex offender.

Today, what Menges did wouldn’t be considered an arrestable offense. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2003 that laws criminalizing consensual sodomy or oral sex were unconstitutional. But Idaho still requires people convicted of sodomy or oral sex before the Lawrence v. Texas ruling to be on the state sex offender registry.

His attorney, Matt Strugar, has challenged a similar statue in Mississippi and is representing Menges and a John Doe in a suit against Idaho’s sodomy ban.

Idaho, South Carolina and Mississippi still require people who were convicted of consensual sodomy before the Supreme Court’s decision in Lawrence to register as sex offenders, Strugar said, even though the court said what they did wasn’t a crime. There are probably hundreds of people in Menges’ predicament, and forcing them to register as sex offenders is a violation of their right to due process and equal protection under the 14th Amendment, he added.

“I’m outraged that in 2021 that we have what is essentially a registry of gay sex,” Strugar said.

Hoping to start a new life, Menges moved to Montana in 2018.

“I love the mountains and taking care of horses,” he said. “And I thought the fewer people I had to deal with the better.”

Even before the Montana Legislature officially repealed the state’s ban on same-sex activity — which the Lawrence ruling declared unconstitutional — in 2013, people convicted under the statute weren’t required to register as sex offenders. But a law passed in 2005 mandates that individuals on a registry in another state must register as sex offenders if they move to Montana.

Menges filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana in December, challenging the constitutionality of Montana’s policy. In filings shared with NBC News, he said being on the registry “has damaged dozens of employment opportunities and personal relationships.”

No one believes him about why he has to register as a sex offender, he told NBC News. “If they find out, I lose their friendship,” he said. “Even girlfriends, they don’t buy it.”

The same month he filed his suit, Menges said he was turned away from a homeless shelter in Boise, which he returned to temporarily in 2020.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Montana did not return a request for comment on the case. In opening arguments March 30, Montana Assistant Attorney General Hannah Tokerud argued Menges was trying to get a Montana court to weigh in on Idaho law.

According to the Missoulian, she said the case doesn’t hinge on the validity of that statute, but rather “it hinges on whether he is required to register in Idaho.”

“Montana requires Menges to register not because of his criminal offense,” the state wrote in a motion to dismiss in January, “but because Montana gives credit to other states’ determinations about convicted offenders who are required to register.”

“Idaho has determined that Menges must register, and thus, when Menges moved to Montana he was required to register,” the state wrote.

But Strugar said Montana is trying to “pass the buck” to another state while continuing to enforce what he calls an “unlawful” policy.

Menges isn’t seeking to overturn his conviction, he said — the statute of limitations passed a year after his conviction. He just wants to be free of the shadow that’s been cast over his life.

“If someone’s not a molester or a rapist, they shouldn’t be subjected to what I have,” Menges said. “If we can change the law, at least it’ll have been worth it.”

Ultimately he’d like to return to Montana, where the cost of living is lower and he can work with horses.

“I’ve had a passion for horses since I was 6. I’d like to get my equine veterinary nursing degree and take care of them, maybe for a rodeo or for private individuals,” he said. “I just want to go where I want and make the choices I want without this hanging over me.”

A bill that would ban books that promote “LGBT issues and lifestyles” in public schools in Tennessee is inching closer to becoming law.

HB 800 would prohibit public schools in Tennessee from using books or teaching materials that “promote, normalise, support or address controversial issues” – like LGBT+ issues or lifestyles or gender identity – are “inappropriate”.

The bill said the promotion of “LGBT issues and lifestyles” should face the same restrictions “placed on the teaching of religion in public schools”. It added that educational materials that promote LGBT+ issues and lifestyles in public schools offends a “significant portion of students’ parents and Tennessee residents with Christian values”.

Republican congressman Bruce Griffey, who introduced the bill, spoke in favour of the bill before other lawmakers at the state capitol. He said he doesn’t want the “state of Tennessee teaching my daughters about sex and lifestyle changes”. Griffey added: “The state of Tennessee is not allowed to teach my Christian values that I think are important and they should learn so I teach those at home.

“If those are not a part of the school curriculum, I don’t see how LGBTQ and other issues of social lifestyles should be part of the curriculum.

“So what this bill simply seeks to do is to limit that so neither side has an unfair advantage over the other regarding what’s being taught in schools to our children.”

The bill passed the Tennessee House education instruction subcommittee by a 6-3 vote, and it will now inch closer to becoming reality. If the bill does eventually get passed into law, it would go into effect in July and would be implemented in schools for the 2021-2022 school year.

In an opinion piece for The Tennessean, Patrick R Grzanka, an associate professor of psychology from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, said HB 800 would “erase LGBT people and issues from public school curricula completely, scrubbing them from human civilization”.

He wrote: “Alan Turing and the history of modern computing? Gone. LGBT activists and the development of antiretroviral drugs to combat the AIDS pandemic? Nope.

“Bayard Rustin’s role in the civil rights movement? Not allowed. Who knows what this even means for literature, music, and art, but I think it’s safe to say that Virginia Woolf and James Baldwin are out.”

Like LGBTQ Pride organizations in several of the nation’s largest cities, D.C.’s Capital Pride Alliance is planning to hold several virtual Pride events during the traditional Pride month of June and is considering at least one in-person event for October — a smaller Pride parade.

Also like other cities, the traditional June Capital Pride Parade and Festival, which have attracted more than 250,000 participants and spectators in past years, have been cancelled this year following last year’s cancellation, according to Capital Pride Executive Director Ryan Bos.

Bos said a “reimagined” parade called Paint the Town With Pride is being planned for June 12 that will consist only of asking LGBTQ residents and supporters to decorate their homes or businesses with creative outdoor displays or signs with LGBTQ Pride messages. He said the locations of the displays will be released by Capital Pride so people can visit the sites while complying with COVID safe-distancing rules.

Bos said Capital Pride will organize a possible Pride Brigade of peoples’ vehicles to travel together across the city to view the displays on June 12. He said the displays are planned to be in place through the month of June to enable people to visit the sites when convenient for them. Detailed plans for D.C.’s Pride events can be viewed at capitalpride.org.

D.C.’s two main Black Pride events — a conference and outdoor festival that have drawn more than 3,000 participants up until 2019 and that traditionally take place during Memorial Day weekend — have been cancelled this year for the second year in a row.

According to Kenya Hutton, deputy director of the D.C.-based LGBTQ organization Center for Black Equity, which coordinates Black Pride events in about 45 cities across the country, said D.C.’s Black Pride will hold several virtual events over Memorial Day weekend, with details available on its Facebook page.

He said some in-person Black Pride events have already been held and others are scheduled to take place in states that have relaxed COVID restrictions. Among them was an outdoor Pride event in St. Petersburg, Fla., that took place in January.

On the other side of the country, Christopher Street West-Los Angeles Pride, which has organized one of the nation’s largest Pride celebrations each year since the early 1970s, states on its website that it will hold this year’s celebration June 11-13. But like several other large U.S. cities, it has yet to announce what type of events it will offer.

“Stay tuned for announcements about what we’re [safely] planning,” the website statement says.

L.A. Pride spokesperson Chris Prouty, similar to officials with Pride organizations in other cities, told the Blade that L.A. Pride organizers are carefully watching the unfolding developments associated with the COVID-19 pandemic to determine what type of events might be possible in June.

“As the pandemic continues to affect the way all organizations plan for events, CSW/LA Pride is committed to producing a safe but impactful Pride 2021 for the communities we serve,” Prouty said. “We’re developing a variety of programming that will be announced soon and will continue to include input from local health officials, community-based organizations and non-profits,” he said. “We encourage other Prides across the country to do the same.”

The San Francisco LGBT Pride Parade and Celebration organization announced on March 24 that it will hold several smaller in-person events throughout the month of June. But similar to last year, its traditional Pride Parade and celebration at the city’s Civic Center, which in past years have drawn thousands of participants, were cancelled this year.

“Knowing how deeply people miss being together, we’ve worked tirelessly with our partners at City Hall, public health, and elsewhere to ensure a number of incredible, safe experiences,” said San Francisco Pride Executive Director Fred Lopez. Among the outdoor in-person events planned are two evenings of film screenings on June 11-12 at the San Francisco Giants baseball stadium.

In a break from its Pride events in past years, in which thousands of LGBTQ visitors from other cities and states attended San Francisco Pride, organizers this year have bluntly asked people from outside the Bay Area to stay away.

“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does not yet recommend leisure travel, and the organization’s leadership respectfully asks visitors from outside the region to reconsider their attendance,” San Francisco Pride organizers said in a statement.

Heritage of Pride, the group that organizes most but not all of New York City’s LGBTQ Pride events, has announced several Pride events throughout the month of June, including a virtual Pride March on June 27 with “to be determined in-person elements.” In years prior to COVID restrictions, the New York City Pride March has drawn many thousands of participants.

The organization’s traditional Pride Rally will take place virtually on June 25 featuring prominent LGBTQ speakers, according to a statement released by Heritage of Pride. Its traditional PrideFest and Pride Island events “will also return on June 27, with further details to be revealed at a later time,” the statement says. It says at least three other events, including a Human Rights Conference, will be held virtually.

Reclaim Pride Coalition, a separate New York City organization, announced it will hold its 3rd Annual Queer Liberation March for Pride on Sunday, June 27. The in-person march will include safety precautions, mask distribution for those who don’t have a mask, and other risk reduction strategies, organizers said in a statement.

“The struggle for Queer Liberation cannot wait for the passing of the pandemic, as COVID-19 has made surviving even more difficult for far too many of our most marginalized community members,” one of the organizers said in the statement.

The Baltimore-based Pride Center of Maryland has announced the 45th Annual Baltimore Pride Festival will take place over the weekend of June 18. The announcement says the event will consist of an “innovative Pride celebration that will incorporate virtual and social-distance considerate, intimate in-person experiences to make Baltimore proud,” but no further details were given.

Annapolis Pride, Inc. announced in early March that its second annual Annapolis, Md., Pride Parade and Festival was scheduled to take place Saturday, Oct. 30, 2021. The group indicated that as of March, the two events would take place outdoors and in-person rather than virtually.

Delaware Pride, the organization that puts on that state’s main Pride events in the state capital in Dover, announced in March that it decided to reschedule its traditional June Pride event until Saturday, Oct. 2. The main Pride event has traditionally been held on the grounds of Legislative Hall at the state capital building.

David Mariner, executive director of CAMP Rehoboth, the LGBTQ community center and advocacy group in Rehoboth Beach, Del. said there were no current plans for a Pride event in Rehoboth. He said many of Rehoboth’s large number of LGBTQ residents and visitors usually attend the Delaware Pride events in Dover.

In Virginia, the Fairfax County Pride event held in past years called NOVA Pride, which has drawn crowds from the D.C. Northern Virginia area, will not take place this year due to COVID restrictions, according to Bruce Hightower, president of the Arlington Gay and Lesbian Alliance, who said he spoke with one of NOVA Pride’s lead organizers.

A spokesperson for the annual Virginia Pride event held in Richmond could not immediately be reached to obtain plans for the Richmond Pride.

A spokesperson for Chicago’s Pride Fest 2021 said the annual two-day street festival held in the city’s well known LGBTQ neighborhood of Boys Town had been scheduled for June 19-20 but has been postponed due to city COVID restrictions. The spokesperson, Esmeralda Bravo, said organizers are working closely with city officials to determine the best date to reschedule the event, which could be in August or September.

In Florida, statements released by organizers of Miami Beach Pride and the Stonewall Pride Parade and Street Festival in Wilton Manors, the small LGBTQ-friendly city located just outside Fort Lauderdale, say both will be in-person events. The Wilton Manors parade and festival are scheduled for June 19. Miami Beach Pride says it will hold several events from Sept. 10-19, with the largest being a festival in Lummus Park that’s expected to draw 125,000 participants.

However, organizers of the Miami Beach Pride say a “contingency hybrid event plan is also in place should the planned [festival] event be disrupted by unknowns due to COVID-19.” The contingency plan calls for a significantly reduced number of attendees for the festival and other possible restrictions required by Miami Beach officials.

Boston Pride, the organization that had hoped to host Boston’s 50th anniversary Pride events in June, announced the events in June had to be postponed due to COIVD restrictions. The group said in a statement that it was working with city officials to reschedule the Pride events, which include a parade and festival, for the fall “if all conditions are in place for such events.”

For the second year in a row, Seattle Pride has renamed itself “Virtual Pride 2021” due to COVID restriction on large gatherings, organizers said on the group’s website. It is scheduled to take place online with several events, including entertainment performances, scheduled for June 26-27.

“While we are all missing the Parade, Virtual Pride is our opportunity to commemorate the past, celebrate new wins for equality, and get encouragement for the work yet to come, and quite frankly it’s going to be a hell of a lot of fun,” organizers said on the event’s website. “Stay tuned for your link to register for this FREE event,” the organizers said.

InterPride, a coalition of LGBTQ Pride organizations in the U.S. and in other countries, is in the process of compiling a comprehensive list of virtual and in-person LGBTQ Pride events in 2021 that’s expected to be completed in a few weeks. Julian Sanjivan, the group’s co-president, said the list will be available on the website: interpride.org.

The Nebraska Supreme Court has ruled that a lesbian couple can legally adopt a 3-year-old child who has lived with them since birth, overturning a lower court’s decision rejecting their petition.

In July 2020, Dixon County Judge Douglas Luebe said that he had no jurisdiction to grant an adoption to the couple — identified by the American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska as K.H. and M.V., who asked to keep their names anonymous — because they were listed in their petition as “wife and wife,” according to the Nebraska Supreme Court. In his order, Luebe referred to a version of Black’s Law Dictionary that defined “wife” as “a woman who has a lawful living husband.”

On Friday, the Nebraska high court rejected Luebe’s reasoning, maintaining that state adoption laws allow any married couple to adopt, provided both partners were listed on the adoption application.

Justice William B. Cassel wrote in a unanimous decision that Nebraska adoption law permits any minor child to be adopted by any adult person or persons. “The only caveat contained in the statute is that if the person had ‘a husband or wife,’ the husband or wife had to join in the petition.”

K.H. and M.V, who married in California in 2008, sought to adopt a child born to M.V.’s sister in 2017, according to court documents. The child’s biological mother had already relinquished her rights and the father never sought custody.

They filed for adoption in Dixon County Court in May 2020, but Luebe dismissed their request after calling a special hearing on legal issues raised by their petition, The Star Herald reported, during which he described himself as “old-fashioned.”

He determined the “plain, ordinary language” of Nebraska adoption law would not permit a “wife and wife” to adopt and warned that any other conclusion would transform the court into an “imagination station.”

Luebe did not respond to a request for comment but a spokesperson for the Nebraska Supreme Court told NBC News that Nebraska judges are prohibited from commenting on specific cases.

In opening arguments, the couple’s attorney, Matthew Munderloh, said K.H. and M.V had filled out all the required relinquishments and consent forms and completed a required home study and background checks.

Even if the “plain language” of the law didn’t permit them to adopt the child, Munderloh added, “the Constitution and Obergefell v. Hodges and its progeny require an interpretation that would allow the adoption to proceed.”

Sara Rips, LGBTQIA+ legal and policy counsel for the ACLU of Nebraska, joined in representing K.H. and M.V in their appeal. She was pleased the opinion came from Cassel, a textualist known to value the letter of the law.

She was also surprised at how quickly the ruling came in.

“They heard oral arguments on March 4 and issued an opinion on March 26 — which is unheard of,” Rips said. “Normally you expect two to three months.”

She added that the decision would help strengthen the understanding, both in Nebraska and nationwide, that not only is marriage equality the law of the land “but that all the rights that come with marriage apply equally.”

“They build on top of each other — when you win cases like this, you make it more clear LGBTQ rights are not a passing fad,” Rips said. “The more time that passes, the more cases that build up an institution, the more support you have that institution is not going away. You build that foundation brick by brick, case by case.”

Dixon County is a fairly rural section of northeast Nebraska, with less than 5,700 residents, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and Rips said her clients didn’t set out to become LGBTQ activists.

“They just want to adopt this child,” she said. “They want to be helpful, but they just want to be parents to a kid. That’s the most Nebaska thing — they don’t want this to be a big deal.”

In 2017, the Nebraska Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s ruling striking down a state policy prohibiting “persons who identify themselves as homosexuals”from becoming foster parents or adopting wards of the state. In his opinion, Justice John Wright slammed the policy as “legally indistinguishable from a sign reading ‘Whites Only’ on the hiring-office door.”

Rips said Friday’s ruling is further proof Nebraska is moving toward being more inclusive and accepting of the LGBTQ community.

“I know I have plenty of years of work ahead of me,” she said, “but we’ll get there.”

The Montana legislature advanced a bill Wednesday (31 March) that would give the all-clear for entities to discriminate against LGBT+ people on the basis of “religious freedom”.

The Montana Religious Freedom Restoration Act, otherwise known as Senate Bill 215, is on track to head to the desk of Republican governor Greg Gianforte– and he’s already signalled his intent to sign it.

The bill, dubbed “dangerous” by activists, would enable service providers to deny queer residents certain goods and aid, from ordering a cake at a bakery to accessing PrEP. Supporters say this would increase legal protections for religious expression.

“The free exercise of religion [is] a fundamental right,” the proposed legislation states.

Such restrictions could soon become a reality after the House voted 61-39 to pass the legislation in its second hearing, The Montana Free Press reported.

Montana lieutenant governor, Kristen Juras, previously flagged the administration’s support of SB215, stressing that the bill is “not a license to discriminate against the LGBT [sic],” the newspaper previously reported.

But the proposals have deeply alarmed state and national advocacy groups.

Not only would the bill allow bakeries, bride salons and photo studios to decline to serve a queer person, it would also drastically curb access to healthcare, the American Civil Liberties Union of Montana warns on its website.

Religious workplaces could refuse contraceptives coverage on their healthcare plans, pharmacies could deny birth control subscriptions, therapists could turn away LGBT+ patients and authorities could reject providing security at Pride parades, activists claim.

According to Human Rights Campaign, a top advocacy group, the bill is “so sweeping and so dangerous that under it, LGBT+ Montanans could be denied access to PrEP and PEP and other life-saving medications by pharmacies”.

“Under this bill, businesses could refuse to comply with investigations into child labour laws.”

It comes just days after Montana’s Senate inched closer to banning trans athletes from taking part in high school and college sports, AP reported.

But in an attempt to forestall federal reprisal, lawmakers amended the proposal so it would automatically be voided if the Department of Education withholds federal education funding from the state if passed.

It comes after sprawling and historic executive order signed by president Joe Biden on his first day of office that prohibited discrimination on the basis of gender identity.