GLAAD and Georgia Equality, the state’s largest LGBTQ advocacy organization, are condemning GOP primary winner Marjorie Taylor Greene for racist and anti-LGBTQ views, as well as her embrace of dangerous conspiracies.
Greene defeated John Cowan in the Republican primary runoff on Tuesday, after moving to the district following a previous failed run for Congress.
Georgia Equality and the Southern Poverty Law Center have been tracking Greene’s anti-LGBTQ and racist history since she launched her political career in 2019.
Here’s some of what they and others found to help inform your coverage of Greene’s general election campaign:
Posting on Facebook about a Drag Queen Story Time event at an Alpharetta library: “Trans does not mean gender change, it just means a gender refusal and gender pretending. Truth is truth, it is not a choice!!!”
Recording a 90-minute video at the story time event, where Greene staged a confrontation with library staff and called the event “an attack on our children” while calling the host, who performs as Miss Terra Cotta Sugarbaker, an “abomination”
Recording and posting multiple Facebook videos about an “Islamic invasion” after two Muslims won office and describing Black Americans as “slaves” to the Democratic party, comparing Black Lives Matter activists to neo-Nazis and denying there are racial disparities in the U.S.: “Guess what? Slavery is over,” Greene says in a video. “Black people have equal rights.”
Theorizing that the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history in Las Vegas in 2017 was a plot against the Second Amendment and calling a Parkland school shooting survivor “Little Hitler”
Greene has also embraced the far-right beliefs of “QAnon,” the pro-Trump conspiracy theory movement identified by the FBI as a potential domestic terrorism threat. Its followers are tied to two murders, a kidnapping, vandalism of a church and a heavily armed standoff near the Hoover Dam.
Of QAnon and the sprawling, unproven and unbalanced online conspiracies promoted by the anonymous “Q,” Greene said, “Q is a patriot” and that she hoped the chatter was educating Pres. Trump. “There’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take this global cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles out, and I think we have the president to do it,” Greene said in a YouTube video.
While Greene’s views are extreme, divisive and uninformed, party leaders and other candidates for office are lining up to support her:
Pres. Trump praised Greene as a “future Republican star”
White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and House Freedom Caucus leader Rep. Jim Jordan have backed Greene and other Freedom Caucus members maintained their endorsement after the racist videos were revealed
Georgia Republican Senate candidates Kelly Loeffler and Doug Collins both called to congratulate Greene, offering no criticism of her racist language and beliefs
Republican TV analyst Amanda Carpenter suggested party leaders should not seat Greene in Congress if she wins the general election. While that may not be possible, GOP leaders say there’s no plan to limit her visibility or power. House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy’soffice says Greene would be welcomed into the GOP conference and given seats on congressional committees.
About Georgia Equality: Celebrating its 25th year, Georgia Equality is the state’s largest advocacy organization working to advance fairness, safety and opportunity for Georgia’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender communities and our allies. For more information, please visit www.GeorgiaEquality.org or connect with Georgia Equality on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
The oldest and largest Pride festival in China, ShanghaiPRIDE, has announced that it is “taking a break from scheduling any future events”, in a huge blow to the country’s LGBT+ community.
When ShanghaiPRIDE began in 2009 there were 3,000 people in attendance, marking the first time a large LGBT+ Pride festival had ever been held in mainland China.
The organisation has evolved and grown over the last 12 years, introducing year-round events including a Rainbow Bike Ride, Pride Run, conferences and panels.
But on Thursday, August 13, organisation released a “goodbye announcement” titled “The End of the Rainbow” in which it wrote: “ShanghaiPRIDE began in 2009 as a small community event in celebration of acceptance and diversity.
“We hoped to instil a sense of belonging in anyone who sought it and nurture an environment of inclusion and love.
“Over the past 12 years, we worked hard to enrich the culture and diversity of this city that we love so much: we showcased inspired artwork, theatre and films; we fostered connections through job fairs and group open days; we offered a platform for individuals to share authentic stories about their lives; we threw parties that brought people together; and we hosted forums to trade wisdom on how to make Shanghai a more vibrant, inclusive place.”
ShanghaiPRIDE said that while Pride celebrations mean different things for different people, “for us, it has always been about showing our community that not only is there nothing wrong with who we are, but that our identities and the people that we love are worth celebrating”.
It ended its statement by saying: “ShanghaiPRIDE regrets to announce that we are cancelling all upcoming activities and taking a break from scheduling any future events.
“We love our community, and we are grateful for the experiences we’ve shared together. No matter what, we will always be proud – and you should be, too.”
A drag queen performs with dancers onstage at the ShanghaiPRIDE 2018 opening party. (JOHANNES EISELE/AFP via Getty)
According to Radii, ShanghaiPRIDE co-founder Charlene Liu added: “This decision was difficult to make, but we have to protect the safety of all involved.
“It’s been a great 12-year ride, and we are honoured and proud to have traveled this journey of raising awareness and promoting diversity for the LGBTQ community.”
The cancellation of all ShanghaiPRIDE events will be a huge blow to the LGBT+ community in China, which is already struggling.
Queensland has become the first Australian state to ban the torturous practice of conversion therapy after lawmakers voted on Thursday to make it illegal.
Under the new law, any Queensland therapists who use methods such as exorcism, hugging, behavioural management or marriage to “heal” LGBT+ people would face up to 12 months in prison, or 18 if the person is a minor.
It is the first law of its kind in Australia, targeting a practice that health minister Steven Miles called “harmful, deceptive and unethical”.
“No treatment or practice can change a person’s sexual attraction or experience of gender,” he said.
“Survivors of conversion therapy report experiencing deep feelings of shame, alienation and hopelessness. [These] often result in symptoms of depression, anxiety and thoughts of suicide.
“Expert bodies around the world strongly oppose the use of conversion therapy. It’s time to send a clear message that it’s unacceptable. An ideology that treats LGBT+ people as broken or damaged has no place in our community.”
The state’s LNP Opposition voted against it, with shadow health minister Ros Bates complaining that it “would turn doctors into criminals”.ADVERTISING
She also raised concern that the draft bill lacked clarity over practices relating to gender dysphoria, but Miles assured parliament that new amendments “removed any doubt” over “evidence-based and other clinically appropriate practices”.
He clarified that the bill outlaws any practices “based on the premise that being [LGBT+] or intersex is a defect or disorder”, so it wouldn’t effect anyone who provides actual support to those undergoing or considering a gender transition.
Several conversion therapy survivors have said they are “extremely concerned” that Queensland’s legislation doesn’t go far enough as it only effects health professionals, who rarely offer conversion therapy.
“Overwhelmingly, the bulk of harm occurs over time in informal settings… not in therapeutic contexts,” SOGICE Survivors and Brave Network said in a joint statement to Reuters.
“Health professionals are only very rarely involved in conversion practices in 2020, and therefore must not be the sole focus of any legislation or response.”
Greens MP Michael Berkman supported the bill but echoed these concerns.
“The bill focuses solely on health practitioners, failing to address the fact the bulk of conversion therapy is most likely occurring in informal and religious settings,” QNews reported him saying.
“The ban on this type of therapy should be extended to religious institutions. Funding for specialised support for survivors should also be prioritised.”
Separate legislation to “modernise and strengthen” Queensland’s sexual consent laws is also set to be introduced to Parliament this week.
When former Vice President Joe Biden announced the historic selection of Sen. Kamala Harris of California as his running mate, he added a candidate to the ticket with a pro-LGBTQ political record that goes back to 2004.
“It’s clear the Biden-Harris ticket marks our nation’s most pro-equality ticket in history,” Alphonso David, president of the Human Rights Campaign, the country’s largest LGBTQ rights group, said in a statement.
Harris first ran for elected office as San Francisco district attorney in 2004 when LGBTQ rights were firmly established in local law — but still highly contentious nationally.
After winning that election, she established a hate crimes unit to investigate and prosecute anti-LGBTQ violence. In 2006, Harris organized a conference in California that brought together over 100 officials from across the U.S. to discuss strategies to end the use of the so-called gay and transgender panic defense. In 2014, California became the first state to ban the practice in law, and in 2018, Harris and other senators introduced a bill to prohibit the practice nationally.
Harris announced her campaign for California attorney general days after the 2008 passage of Proposition 8, a successful California ballot measure that banned same-sex marriage in the state. While serving as California’s top prosecutor — a job she held for six years — she declined to defend the ban in court. In 2013’s Hollingsworth v. Perry ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a 2010 federal court decision invalidating Proposition 8, and gay marriages resumed in the state.
Shortly after it was announced that Biden, the presumptive 2020 Democratic presidential nominee, had chosen Harris as his running mate, Matt Hill, a gay Biden staffer, shared a clip from “The Case Against 8,” a documentary about Proposition 8, showing the moments in 2013 when Harris, then-California’s attorney general, found out about the high court’s decision.
After she was elected to the Senate in 2016, Harris continued to staunchly support LGBTQ rights, frequently co-sponsoring pro-equality legislation and speaking out against the violence faced by transgender women.
After her selection as Biden’s running mate on Tuesday, Harris made immediate waves when she announced her chief of staff would be Karine Jean-Pierre — an out lesbian, a former Obama White House staffer and a spokesperson for the progressive group MoveOn. Jean-Pierre is the first Black person to serve as a chief of staff for a vice presidential candidate.
During the 2020 Democratic primary campaign, where Harris was among the field of presidential hopefuls, her LGBTQ platform stood out for promising to appoint a White House chief advocate for LGBTQ affairs “to ensure that LGBTQ+ Americans are represented in hiring and policy priorities across the government.”
But during the primary, Harris, Biden and over a dozen other Democratic hopefuls were remarkably unified in their positions on many LGBTQ issues, which included ending the transgender military ban and religious exemptions to anti-discrimination laws, and reversing policies that discriminate against LGBTQ people in adoption and housing.
The Biden-Harris LGBTQ platform promises to make major changes in areas where LGBTQ people are not fully protected by the law — like housing, military service and health care.
During the Democratic primary, candidates were all unified in their vow to sign the Equality Act, a bill that would update many nondiscrimination laws to explicitly include lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people.
The Biden-Harris campaign’s LGBTQ campaign platformconsolidates many of those threads into the strongest presidential platform in support of LGBTQ rights.
Although Harris has been a staunch LGBTQ supporter since she entered politics in 2004, Biden, like nearly all American politicians at that time, did not support LGBTQ rights when elected to the Senate in 1972 the way he does today. Biden, along with the vast majority of the Senate, voted for the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996, which defined marriage in federal law as a union between one man and one woman, but by the 2010s his views had changed.
Most famously, while serving as vice president, Biden in May 2012 pre-empted the Obama administration’s official policy in support of same-sex marriage by endorsing the unions during an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“I am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women and heterosexual men and women marrying one another are entitled to the same exact rights, all the civil rights, all the civil liberties,” Biden said at the time.
Three days later, President Barack Obama endorsed same-sex marriage.
An ‘incredibly meaningful’ pick
Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., called Harris “well qualified and well prepared” to be vice president.
Takano, who is gay, said her selection is “incredibly meaningful to the LGBTQ community, and as a Japanese American I am also proud to have someone of Asian heritage on the ticket.”
“Senator Kamala Harris is revered in the LGBTQ community for her leadership as Attorney General during the litigation of Proposition 8 and her fervent refusal to defend an unjust law,” he said in an email. “Joe Biden selecting her as his running mate reflects the deep value that both candidates share regarding equality for LGBTQ people.”
Pete Buttigieg, the openly gay former presidential hopeful who frequently campaigned on his experience as a mayor and gay man in “Mike Pence’s Indiana,” tweeted, “It feels good to visualize the moment when Vice President Mike Pence is replaced by Vice President Kamala Harris.”
Pence and Harris have starkly different track records when it comes to LGBTQ rights, with Pence, the former Indiana governor, having signed the 2015 Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which was controversial for protecting anti-LGBTQ discrimination. The two are set to debate on Oct. 7.
Speaking on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Monday, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, the first Black woman and first lesbian to be mayor of that city, said there’s “a tremendous level of excitement” around the selection of Harris.
“This has been a very, very difficult time for people around the country, and we need something to rally around, and I think her addition to the ticket really gives people that thread of hope that we have all been looking for,” Lightfoot said, adding that her 12-year-old daughter was “beside herself with joy.”
Not everyone across the LGBTQ spectrum, however, is applauding Biden’s choice of Harris.
Ashlee Marie Preston, a Black trans advocate who supported Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts during the primaries, said many Democrats like her “are experiencing a flux of emotions right now” because of their view that Biden and Harris represent the “tough on crime” culture, which Preston described as particularly harmful to transgender people of color, who according to the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey are likelier to experience police harassment, incarceration and abuse while in detention.
“This won’t be a cake walk for them,” Preston said. “We need to see that their loyalty to systems that crush vulnerable communities has been dissolved. Politicians can change, as can their policies. But we’re still waiting on proof of such evolution, or at least a straightforward conversation on the matter.”
A gay couple in Montpellier, France were beaten and had their home pillaged by a gang of youths in “a scene of incredible violence”.
The incident occurred when two teenagers saw a gay couple smoking cigarettes from their window.
They approached the men and asked them: “Are you queer?” according to local media reports.
When the men said they were, the teenagers hurled insults at them and allegedly threatened to kill them.
The two teenagers briefly left, but quickly arrived back with two other people. A physical fight broke out, with one of the assailants sustaining an injury in the process.
The gang of youths then pushed their way into the gay couple’s home where they broke the front door and smashed their windows using beer bottles.
The gay couple, along with two neighbours who tried to intervene, ended up hiding in the bathroom while the youths trashed the apartment.
Local media said the youths destroyed the apartment in what was described as a “scene of incredible violence”.
They proceeded to steal a video game console, a pair of shoes and an Armani watch – but police quickly caught up with the assailants.
They were tracked down that night at a trolley station and were arrested. They now face charges of theft, destruction of property, making death threats, as well as a potential hate crime charge.
The group of youths – one of whom was an adult while the rest were minors – were all from the Paris area and were holidaying in Montpellier when the incident occurred.
Montpellier is well known among France’s LGBT+ community as one of the most accepting and welcoming cities in the country for queer people.
The city was home to France’s first ever same-sex wedding in 2013 when Vincent Autin and Bruno Boileau tied the knot.
Kamala Harris’ chief of staff has been named as Karine Jean-Pierre, a proud Black lesbian and political heavyweight.
Jean-Pierre is a Haitian-American political campaigner, activist and lecturer who has worked on presidential campaigns for John Edwards, Martin O’Malley and former US president Barack Obama.
The political powerhouse was announced as the chief of staff to the vice presidential candidate yesterday (August 11) just hours before it was announced that Harris was officially on the ticket. She becomes the first Black person to serve as chief of staff to a vice presidential candidate.
Confirming the news on Twitter, Jean-Pierre said she was “incredibly proud” to be working to elect Biden and Harris.
“Let’s go!” she added.
Kamala Harris’ chief of staff Karine Jean-Pierre is a powerful LGBT+ advocate.
Karine Jean-Pierre has long been a vocal advocate for LGBT+ rights and equality.ADVERTISING
She is well-known as a political pundit thanks to appearances on NBC News and MSNBC.
Jean-Pierre served as national public affairs officer for progressive policy advocacy group MoveOn, and briefly went viral in June 2019 when, during a campaign event, she protected Kamala Harris from a stage invader.
In 2011 she spoke about her experiences working in politics as an openly gay woman.
Shortly after she left her position in the Obama administration, she told The Advocate: “What’s been wonderful is that I was not the only; I was one of many.
“President Obama didn’t hire LGBT staffers, he hired experienced individuals who happen to be LGBT.
“Serving and working for president Obama where you can be openly gay has been an amazing honour.
“It felt incredible to be a part of an administration that priorities LGBT issues,” she added.
My daughter is going to ask me, ‘What were you doing?’
Jean-Pierre shares a daughter, Soleil, with her partner, CNN’s Suzanne Malveaux. She has credited Soleil with keeping her in politics after the disappointment of Donald Trump’s 2016 election win.
“I didn’t know what I was going to do after Hilary lost,” she told Shondaland.
“At that time, my daughter was two and the only president she knew was Obama, she’s even met him a few times. But when she’s 12, or whenever she learns about the president and wonders how this man got elected, she’s going to ask me, ‘What were you doing at the time?’
“And I want her to know that I fought and worked for an organisation that mobilised hundreds and thousands of people to do calls to actions and to get involved. I want her to know that I didn’t say silent.”
Harris ‘honoured’ to join Biden’s ticket as the vice-presidential candidate.
Harris was confirmed as Biden’s running mate yesterday following months of speculation about who would round out the Democratic ticket.
The decision makes Harris the first Black woman and the first Asian-American to run on a major party’s presidential ticket, despite the fact that she and Biden were briefly fierce rivals for the Democratic nomination.
“I have the great honour to announce that I’ve picked Kamala Harris — a fearless fighter for the little guy, and one of the country’s finest public servants — as my running mate,” Biden tweeted Tuesday (August 11).
He went on to note that Harris had worked closely with his late son, Beau, during her stint as California’s attorney general.
“I watched as they took on the big banks, lifted up working people, and protected women and kids from abuse,” he continued.
“I was proud then, and I’m proud now to have her as my partner in this campaign.”
Harris tweeted: “Joe Biden can unify the American people because he’s spent his life fighting for us. And as president, he’ll build an America that lives up to our ideals.
“I’m honoured to join him as our party’s nominee for vice president, and do what it takes to make him our commander-in-chief.”
The Human Rights Campaign was one of many groups to congratulate Harris, tweeting: “This fall, we have the opportunity to vote for the most historic, pro-equality ticket in history.”
Idaho officials’ latest attempt to ban transgender people from changing the gender on their birth certificates violates a court order issued two years ago, a federal judge said.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Candy Dale first ruled in 2018 that a law barring the birth certificate changes was unconstitutional, and she banned state officials from implementing it. Earlier this year, Republican lawmakers passed new legislation that did largely the same thing.
That law signed by Republican Gov. Brad Little went into effect on July 1. It set strict criteria for changing gender on a birth certificate, including a requirement that a person first obtain a court order, and only allowed people to seek the court order if the sex listed on their birth certificate was mistakenly entered, entered fraudulently or under duress.
As a result, the state Department of Health and Welfare created procedures to implement the new law, including revising an application form and the department’s instructions for changing the sex listed on a birth certificate.
In her order Friday, Dale said the new procedure does the same thing as the old one by effectively preventing transgender people from changing the sex on their birth certificates.
“The plain language of the statute, as quoted, forecloses any avenue for a transgender individual to successfully challenge the sex listed on their Idaho birth certificate to reflect their gender identity,” Dale wrote.
Lambda Legal represented two transgender women who filed the original lawsuit that led to Dale’s first ruling. The advocacy group successfully argued the state’s ban on birth certificate changes for transgender people violated their constitutionally protected right to privacy, liberty and freedom from compelled speech.
“It is astonishing that the Idaho Legislature and Gov. Little plowed forward with resuscitating this dangerous and archaic ban in direct defiance of multiple court orders that repeatedly ordered the government to stop discriminating against transgender people,” said Nora Huppert, an attorney with Lambda Legal. “What was discriminatory in 2018 remains discriminatory today.”
Spokespeople with the Department of Health and Welfare and the governor’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Another anti-transgender law passed this year also is being litigated. It bars transgender and intersex girls and women from competing in women’s sports. Boise State University student Lindsay Hecox is suing the state in federal court, contending the law is discriminatory and would prevent her from trying out for the women’s cross country team because she is transgender.
A draft bill before Russia’s parliament would significantly affect the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people, Human Rights Watch said today. Among the proposed amendments to the family code are changes to the legal gender recognition rights for transgender people that will negatively affect their ability to marry and raise children. The bill also contains a superfluous ban on same-sex marriage.
Under Russia’s current laws, transgender people can change their legal gender by taking steps that include a psychiatric evaluation and medical procedures. The proposed law provides that a person’s sex on their birth certificate cannot be changed, and that trans people who have changed their birth certificates under the current law would have to change them back to the sex they were assigned at birth. That is discriminatory in and of itself and would flagrantly violate the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), to which Russia is a party. The European Court of Human Rights has long ruled that a government’s refusal to alter the birth certificate of a person who has undergone gender reassignment violates their rights to privacy and personal autonomy under the Convention.
“The proposed amendments to the family code are intentionally regressive and harmful,” said Graeme Reid, LGBT rights director at Human Rights Watch. “Deliberately creating more barriers for legal gender recognition and parenting rights for transgender people only further marginalizes an already-embattled community.”
This discrimination is compounded by the proposed law’s explicit ban on same-sex marriage. Heterosexual trans people forced to list their birth-assigned sex on their birth certificates would most likely not be able to marry, as their marriages would be considered same-sex marriages. This would, in turn, prevent such couples from raising children as legally recognized co-parents.
The new law falls into a pattern of the Russian government increasingly using so-called “traditional values” to trample human rights, particularly for LGBT people, Human Rights Watch said.
Russia’s notorious anti-gay “propaganda” law has been used increasingly in recent years as a tool for outright discrimination. Under the law, adopted in 2013, portraying same-sex relations as socially acceptable in the public domain and in the presence of children is illegal.
The “propaganda” law has been used to target peaceful public protests, individuals’ social media posts, teachers, and Deti-404, a website providing psychosocial – mental health – support for LGBT youth. It has been used to justify a criminal investigation of social workers who allowed a gay couple, married abroad, to adopt children, forcing the family to flee to the United States. In 2019, a court censored LGBT social media groups, citing the law. The judge deemed this content responsible for “rejecting family values, promoting non-traditional sexual relations and fostering disrespect for parents and/or other family members.”
The social and legal environment in Russia already creates significant difficulties for transgender people with children. The proposed law further entrenches the widespread antipathy toward LGBT people by creating additional barriers to fundamental rights. Limiting transgender people’s ability to parent – as these proposed amendments to the family code would do – fails not only to uphold the rights of the parents, but also the rights of the children. International human rights law says the best interests of the child should be a primary consideration in all matters that involve them, including custody issues.
In 2010 the Council of Europe recommended that: “Taking into account that the child’s best interests should be the primary consideration in decisions regarding the parental responsibility for, or guardianship of a child, member states should ensure that such decisions are taken without discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.” The European Court of Human Rights is currently considering a case of a Russian trans woman who has been barred from visiting her children.
“These proposed amendments amount to a cruel solution in search of a problem,” Reid said. “Further restricting the rights of transgender people in the name of ‘traditional values’ in Russia does nothing but harm a group of vulnerable people.”
Two transgender teens sued Arizona’s Medicaid agency Thursday, alleging their civil rights are being violated by the state health insurance program’s ban on gender-affirming surgeries.
The suit, filed Thursday in an Arizona federal courthouse, seeks to establish a class action on behalf of the teens — known only as John Doe, 15, and D.H., 17, and other transgender Arizonan Medicaid recipients under age 21 who seek chest reconstruction as treatment for a diagnosis of gender dysphoria. The complaint estimates there are at least 100 Arizonans who would be affected by the suit.
The suit defines the class as “individuals who have been unable and will be unable” to obtain coverage through the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System “for medically necessary male chest reconstruction surgery because of the [ban], and as a result, have faced or will face delayed or denied access to these medically necessary treatments.”
The claims say the state’s 1982 ban on “gender reassignment surgeries” violates the Affordable Care Act’s anti-discrimination provisions, the Medicaid Actand the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
According to the suit, the two came out as transgender years ago and since then have faced significant challenges as puberty began to change their bodies. It also states the reliance on chest binders to create a more masculine appearance forced D.H. to abandon his beloved hobby of dance and resulted in John Doe wearing a heavy hoodie through Arizona’s sweltering summers.
Both teens’ physicians recommended chest reconstruction surgery, and the state’s 1982 ban on Medicaid funding for “gender reassignment surgeries” means that as Medicaid recipients, they are ineligible for the medically necessary surgery even if a doctor recommends it, according to the suit.
Arizona is among 10 states across the U.S. that explicitly ban transgender health care coverage for Medicaid recipients, according to Movement Advancement Project, an LGBTQ think tank. Twenty-two states and Washington, D.C., explicitly cover this type of care, while 18 states have no explicit policy regarding trans health coverage.
Asaf Orr, an attorney working on the case and the director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights’ Transgender Youth Project, said there is “no legitimate justification for Arizona’s refusal to provide this critical care to transgender Medicaid recipients.”
“Instead, excluding that care creates unnecessary barriers that prevent transgender young people from thriving in every aspect of their lives and can cause lifelong harms,” he said in a statement.
In June’s landmark Supreme Court decision Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia, the high court found that the Civil Rights Act’s ban on employment discrimination “on the basis of … sex” also bans employment discrimination on the basis of sexuality and gender identity.
“In Bostock, the United States Supreme Court unequivocally held that the definition of ‘sex’ under federal law includes discrimination against transgender people,” Orr wrote in an email to NBC News. “By maintaining and enforcing a categorical exclusion for surgical treatment for gender dysphoria, AHCCCS is impermissibly discriminating against transgender Medicaid recipients on the basis of sex and, as a result, the Court should enjoin AHCCCS from denying coverage under that exclusion.”
The suit notes that Medicaid requires that recipients under age 21 receive “Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic and Treatment” so that major “medical, vision, dental, and hearing” problems are diagnosed and treated early in life. It then states that “[s]urgery to treat gender dysphoria, including male chest reconstruction surgery” is such a service.
Heidi Capriotti, a spokesperson for the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, declined to comment.
A trans asylum seeker has been violently murdered in Guatemala, after fleeing gang-related persecution in El Salvador.
The 27-year-old, who has not been named to protect her family, died last weekend.
The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said that her violent death “highlights the need for effective protection to be granted to people forced to flee their countries, including members of the LGBT+ community”.
UNHCR added that the woman had fled gender-based violence and persecution by gangs in her native El Salvador and applied for asylum in Guatemala in 2018.
“We express our deep condolences to the family and loved ones of this woman who was trying to rebuild her life in Guatemala after being forced to flee her country due to violence and persecution,” said Giovanni Bassu, UNHCR regional representative for Central America and Cuba.
The UNHCR urged Guatemala to bring those responsible for the killing to justice.
In neighbouring El Salvador, three policeman were jailed last month for the killing of trans woman Camila Díaz Córdova – the country’s first-ever conviction for a homicide where the victim was transgender.
Trans people in Central American countries face widespread discrimination, harassment and violence, with UNHCR partner COMCAVIS Trans saying that “the majority of LGBT+ people – particularly transgender women – are often initially forcibly displaced within their own country, escaping gang threats, murder attempts, and physical and sexual violence”.
“Many often endure years of violence and persecution before seeking asylum in other countries,” COMCAVIS Trans said.
In Guatemala, a homophobic president who is opposed to LGBT+ rights was sworn in in January.
Alejandro Giammattei, who is against same-sex marriage and abortion, gained a surprise victory in the August 2019 election.
He replaced outgoing president Jimmy Morales and will hold office or a four-year term.
The 63-year-old won the election last year for Vamos, a political party founded in 2017 by politicians, businessmen and military officers with a focus on battling poverty.
He promised yesterday to bring forward legislation that would declare street gangs terrorist groups and said he would promote the rule of law. He also committed to increasing employment.
