US vice president Mike Pence addressed a fundraiser for an anti-LGBT hate group that has linked gay people to paedophiles, a week after the White House denied he is homophobic.
On Thursday, September 13, Pence was the headline speaker at the black tie gala for evangelical group Concerned Women of America, which lobbies against LGBT+ inclusion.
Anti-extremism watchdog Southern Poverty Law Center notes that the grouphas claimed that “gay marriage entices children to experiment with homosexuality”, and that “homosexuality carries enormous physical and mental health risks”.
The CWA has claimed: “Homosexual activists use same-sex ‘marriage’ as a political juggernaut to indoctrinate young children in schools to reject their parent’s values and to harass, sue and punish people who disagree.”
The $100-a-head gala was hosted at the Trump International Hotel in Washington DC, and was also addressed by Second Lady Karen Pence and anti-LGBT+ Republican Mike Huckabee.
He said: “The source of our prosperity is that foundation of faith and ideals of the American people, things the CWA has been all about from the beginning. President Trump has been busy strengthening the constitutional foundation and the commitment to those ideals from day one.
“I promise you, this is an administration that will always defend the freedom of religion of every American.
“The president promised back in 2016 to defend your right to fully practice your religion as individuals, as business owners, and as academic institutions, and that’s exactly what we’ve done.”
Former Welsh rugby captain Gareth Thomas has revealed he is HIV positive – and hopes coming forward with his diagnosis can help break the stigma for others living with the virus.
Thomas is thought to be the first UK sportsman to go public about living with the condition, and has revealed that he was driven to suicidal thoughts after being told he had the illness by a doctor during a routine sexual health check up.
The former British Lions captain, 45, who will be a TV pundit in the upcoming Rugby World Cup, added that he “broke down” when he got the news of his diagnosis. Speaking to the Sunday Mirror, he said: “I’ve been living with this secret for years. I’ve felt shame and keeping such a big secret has taken its toll.”
The former Cardiff Blues player won 103 caps and scored 41 tries for Wales between 1995 and 2007, and he is 13th on the all-time international test try-scoring list.
Last November, he was attacked in Cardiff city centre in a homophobic hate crime, but asked South Wales police to deal with the 16-year-old assailant by way of restorative justice.
The sportsman now takes one tablet containing four medications each day, and doctors have said his condition is under control to the point that it is considered “undetectable” and cannot be passed on. Mr Thomas said that his partner – Stephen – who he met after his diagnosis and married three years ago, does not have HIV.
Gareth spoke about his HIV status for the first time in a video he posted on his Twitter page, revealing “evil” people had “made his life hell” by threatening to go public with his condition without his consent.
He explained: “I want to share my secret with you. Why? Because it is mine to tell you. Not the evils that make my life hell by threatening to tell you before I do. And because I believe in you and I trust you. I’m living with HIV.
“Now you have that information, that makes me extremely vulnerable but it does not make me weak.” He added: “Even though I have been forced to tell you this, I choose to fight to educate and break the stigma around this subject.”
A married gay couple are taking legal action against a Trump administration policy that has hindered their baby daughter’s fight for US citizenship.
Roee and Adiel Kiviti, who are both US citizens, ran into trouble with the State Department after welcoming baby Kessem via a surrogate in Canada earlier this year.
The couple are both listed on Kessem’s Canadian birth certificate, but the State Department treats the children of same-sex couples as “born out of wedlock,” only recognising her link to biological father Adiel.
The out-of-wedlock status has hindered the application for the birthright citizenship that she would be entitled to if her parents were recognised as a married couple.
A lawsuit filed on behalf of the couple on Thursday (September 12) says that the State Department’s “unjust policies and practices… unconstitutionally disregard the dignity and equality of the marriages of same-sex couples, and unlawfully discriminate against children simply because their married parents are a same-sex couple.”
Trump administration treating gay couple’s family as ‘second-class citizens’
Roee and Adiel Kiviti said: “The focus here is our little girl whose rights are being infringed upon by our government.
“Every parent wants to protect their child, to give them assurances of tomorrow, and this policy isn’t letting us do that. Our daughter will know her story.
“She will know how she came into this world, she will know about all of the loving people who helped us become a family, and she will know how her parents fought for her rights and for the rights of other families.”
The legal action is supported by Immigration Equality and LGBT+ non-profit Lambda Legal.
Aaron C. Morris of Immigration Equality said: “This is a fight for marriage equality. It is a fight for the fundamental right of citizenship.
“By refusing to recognise their rights as a married couple, the State Department is treating Roee and Adiel as second-class citizens and treating Kessem as if she is not a citizen at all.
“The administration has made abundantly clear it will ignore the law and Constitution. We will not stand for it.”
‘Cruel and un-American’ policy denies rights to baby of US citizens
Omar Gonzalez-Pagan of Lambda Legal said: “Kessem was born to two dads. By refusing to recognize Kessem as a US citizen at birth, the Department of State seeks to erase her family ties and to disrespect Roee’s and Adiel’s marriage.
“This is not only unlawful, it is also cruel and un-American.
“The Supreme Court has repeatedly affirmed that same-sex couples are entitled to the same constellation of benefits linked to marriage as different-sex couples.
“The government cannot refuse to recognize Roee’s and Adiel’s marriage, nor Kessem’s citizenship at birth. We will fight for the dignity of all LGBT families.”
Roee and Adiel were both born in Israel. Roee has been a naturalised US citizen since 2001, but Adiel had only lived in the US for four years and ten months when Kessem was born, which is below the five-year requirement for birthright citizenship.
Speaking to The Daily Beast, Roee said: “This is about singling out LGBT Americans—this is about telling gay and lesbian parents, ‘OK, you got marriage, but we know that you’re different. We know that you are not like us, and we’re going to treat you differently’.
“Today it’s our family—tomorrow it’s going to be someone else’s family.”
Adiel added: “We have no other choice but to fight for justice for Kessem.”
Federal investigators are probing the conduct and practices of Mithril Capital, a venture capital firm co-founded by Peter Thiel, Recode has learned.
US officials — including the FBI — have in recent months questioned some people close to Mithril regarding concerns of possible financial misconduct at the firm, according to people familiar with the matter who insisted on anonymity given its sensitivity. Mithril confirmed in a statement that its lawyers are in touch with government authorities.
Mithril’s leader, Ajay Royan, has worked with Thiel for almost two decades and has used that relationship to raise over $1 billion. And while the probe is in the early stages, it threatens to destabilize the world of Thiel, who heads an enormously influential network of tech investors, startup founders, and political allies across Silicon Valley.
There’s much more at the link.
Thiel is the billionaire co-founder of PayPal and currently sits on Facebook’s board.
In 2016, he spoke in support of Trump at the Republican National Convention and donated heavily to Trump’s campaign.
He is perhaps most infamous outside of the business world for having sued Gawker into oblivion for outing him.
Dan Bishop, the North Carolina legislator and lead sponsor of the notorious ‘bathroom bill’, has won a congressional seat in a narrow victory over his Democratic opponent.
A special district election was held as the 2018 election was nullified due to allegations of voter fraud on behalf of the Republican candidate Mark Harris, an anti-LGBT+ minister.
Harris stepped down and Bishop ran in his place with a campaign supporting Trump’s border wall, gun ownership, Christian values and a ban on late-term abortions.
Bishop won the Republican stronghold by just under two points – 50.6 percent to 48.8 percent – having gained supporters in the staunchly Conservative state over his backing of the ‘bathroom bill’.
Also known as HB2, the bathroom bill was signed into law in North Carolina in 2016, forcing trans people to use toilets in accordance with the gender marked on their birth certificate.
The legislation was widely denounced as discriminatory and prompted a huge backlash from businesses and celebrities, including Ringo Starrand Bruce Springsteen.
A federal lawsuit was launched by civil rights groups,and the law was struck down in July this year with a judge ruling that trans and non-binary people in North Carolina must be allowed to use the public bathrooms of their choice.
The Human Rights Campaign and CNN will host Power of Pride, a Democratic presidential town hall focused on LGBTQ issues in October.
The town hall will take place on Thursday, October 10, the night before the 21st annual National Coming Out Day, at The Novo in Los Angeles. It will air live on CNN. Confirmed participants will include former Vice President Joe Biden, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, former Secretary Julian Castro, Senator Kamala Harris, Senator Amy Klobuchar and Senator Elizabeth Warren.
This marks the first time a Democratic presidential town hall will be devoted solely to LGBTQ issues and will be the first time a major cable news network will air a presidential event focused on LGBTQ issues.
HRC President Alphonso David said in a statement: “For nearly 40 years, the Human Rights Campaign has fought to realize a world in which LGBTQ people are safe, equal and free in every aspect of our lives. Today, at a time when our most basic civil rights and democratic values are under attack, our work has never been more urgent. We are eager to hear from this field of Democratic presidential candidates about how they plan to win full federal equality, defend the fundamental equality of LGBTQ people, and protect the most vulnerable among us — both here in the United States and around the globe — from stigma, institutional inequality, discrimination, and violence.”
The audience will include HRC members, supporters and community leaders. Tickets are invitation only.
Over the years, HIV has evolved into a chronic condition necessitating life-long medication. Now, researchers are studying the efficacy and acceptability of long-acting HIV medications that may keep thevirus under control for a month or longer. Can long-acting therapies provide an alternative to daily dosing? And, what do people who stand to benefit from this way of dosing think about the possibility of not having to take daily oral medications?
“HIV has been part of my life for 33 or 34 years, and medication for almost 20,” said Efrén Solanas, a long-term survivor in the Bay Area. “I’ve been taking pills for so long, that routine is completely integrated into my life. Wherever I go, I take my pills. But not having to get prescriptions filled, worry about copays, or remember when I’ve taken my pills would definitely be an attractive option. It would be amazing to not have to worry about those things.”
Long-acting medications may be especially helpful for people who struggle with the routine of a daily pill.
“It’s not difficult to take daily medications, but it is inconvenient,” said Guillermo Velez, a San Franciscan who seroconverted in 1995 and started taking antiretrovirals in 1996. “Sometimes I just forget. By the fifth day of the week, sometimes I think, ‘Did I take my medication yesterday?’ Instead of dosing again, I just skip a day.”
Over more than 20 years of taking antiretrovirals, Velez has experienced horrendous side effects, complicated regimens and inconvenient dosing. “It’s always a trade-off,” he said. “These medications made us miserable, but they kept us alive. Over the years, meds have gotten better. To think that a new medication is effective, and also delivered once a month by injection—that would be such a convenience. You wouldn’t need to worry about keeping the medication stocked, or filling those medication trays.”
At the IAS 2019 conference in July, Miranda Murray presented encouraging results from a study that looked at the acceptability of a long-acting cabotegravir/rilpivirine injection among people living with HIV.
A total of 611 people were randomly assigned to continue daily oral HIV medications or switch to once-monthly injections. The researchers were interested in the experiences of people who switched to the injections, and assessed things like injection pain, overall acceptability of the treatment and if they would recommend the injections to other people living with HIV.
Overall, participants gave high acceptability ratings to the long-acting injections. Over the course of the study, people who received the monthly injections had a 13.7-point improvement in acceptability scores (from baseline to week 48).
There were very few discontinuations throughout the course of the study, and only four people (out of 303) had injection site reactions that led to withdrawal.
Most participants (90%) reported that injection site reactions (e.g., swelling) were either “totally acceptable” or “very acceptable.” 86% of participants said that pain from injections were either “totally acceptable” or “very acceptable.”
Compared to people in the study who took daily oral medications, people who received the once-monthly injections scored more positively things like willingness to continue with the treatment, flexibility of treatment, convenience and willingness to recommend treatment.
“This indicates that the long-acting treatment meets participants’ expectations and supports the therapeutic potential of monthly dosing,” said Murray.
In April 2019, ViiV Healthcare applied for marketing approval to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the FDA has set a target approval date of December 29, 2019. If approved, this treatment regimen would be the first-ever long-acting HIV treatment for people living with HIV.
Retired National Football League player Ryan O’Callaghan has said he thinks there is “at least one” gay or bisexual player on every NFL team, but that they do not come out for fear of losing sponsorships or even their jobs.
O’Callaghan came out as gay in 2017, and is soon to release a book titled My Life on the Line: How the NFL Damn Near Killed Me and Ended Up Saving My Life in which he talks about being closeted in the NFL.
He told Reuters: “I can promise you there’s plenty of closeted NFL players.
“I think it’s safe to say there’s at least one on every team who is either gay or bisexual. A lot of guys still see it as potentially having a negative impact on their career.”
Between 2006 and 2011, O’Callaghan played for the New England Patriots and the Kansas City Chiefs, and he said he regularly hears from other plays who are too scared to come out.
He continued: “I just don’t think people understand the reality. We can still get fired for being gay or denied services for being trans.”
Ryan O’Callaghan #75 of the Kansas City Chiefs in action against the Denver Broncos in 2010. (Dilip Vishwanat/Getty)
Former NFL player Ryan O’Callaghan thought of taking his own life before he came out.
He said the NFL has done some things to alleviate the fear felt by LGBT+ players, such as sponsoring New York Pride, but that more needs to be done with contract guarantees and representation.
“It’s going to take a high profile player who’s playing currently, coming out, to really make a difference,” he added.
When O’Callaghan first came out, he told Outsports that while he was still closeted he thought of taking his own life after his football career was over.
He said: “My plan was to end my life after football. I thought that would be it, and I could never be an out gay man.
“I’m just glad there were people who pushed me in the right direction, and I could get help.”
He has since started the Ryan O’Callaghan Foundation “to provide scholarships, support and mentorship for LGBTQ+ athletes, students and youth”.
Lynn Starkey worked at Roncalli High School in Indianapolis for nearly 40 years. In May, however, the Roman Catholic school fired Starkey as a guidance counselor after officials discovered that she is married to a woman.
In July, Starkey, 63, sued the school and the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, claiming, in part, that they discriminated against her on the basis of her sexual orientation.
Lynn Starkey is suing a Roman Catholic high school and the Archdiocese of Indianapolis after she was fired as a guidance counselor because she is married to a woman. Delaney and Delaney LLC
In May, the school’s principal notified Starkey, who has been married to her spouse since 2015, that her contract would not be renewed, stating in a letter that civil unions are in violation of her contract and “contrary to the teaching of the Catholic Church.”
The archdiocese — which is also being sued by a gay teacherwho was recently fired from a different Catholic school in Indianapolis — claims that it has a “constitutional right to hire leaders who support the schools’ religious mission.”
“Catholic schools exist to communicate the Catholic faith to the next generation,” the archdiocese said in a statement sent to NBC News. “To accomplish their mission, Catholic schools ask all teachers, administrators and guidance counselors to uphold the Catholic faith by word and action, both inside and outside the classroom.”
The issue of gay educators being fired by or excluded from employment at religious schools is not new, and since 2014, several cases have come before the courts. It’s also not unique to Indianapolis or Catholic institutions. In January, Karen Pence, the vice president’s wife, said she would return to teaching at a Christian school at Virginia that refuses to hire LGBTQ employees or to educate LGBTQ students.
So, is this legal? While the majority of Americans across all religious groups support employment nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ people, according to a recently released PRRI public opinion poll, the law is less straightforward.
“The law is in flux,” said Jenny Pizer, law and policy director for Lambda Legal, an LGBTQ civil rights organization. “There are some principles we are sure of and some that are still being developed and sorted out in the courts and state and federal legislatures.”
In order to understand the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer workers employed by religious organizations, one must consider both federal and state law, the Constitution and executive orders.
Federal Law
Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibits employers from discriminating on the basis of race, color, religion, sex and national origin. However, it contains “multiple overlapping exemptions” when it comes to religion, according to Marcia McCormick, a professor of law and gender studies at Saint Louis University.
For one, any employer can discriminate on the basis of religion if religion is considered necessary for the exercise of the job, McCormick explained. For example, a Kosher butcher shop may want to hire only Jewish butchers.
Religious schools can discriminate in hiring in some circumstances. “They get singled out as getting this one provision that talks about schools being able to discriminate if the curriculum is directed toward the propagation of a particular religion,” McCormick said. A school run by Southern Baptists that seeks to encourage more people to convert to the faith could, according to this section of Title VII, hire only Southern Baptists.
Other kinds of religious organizations are also allowed to prefer co-religionists in their hiring — a Catholic charity is allowed to prefer Catholics in the hiring process. However, while religious organizations have leeway when it comes to hiring people of their own faith, they are not supposed to discriminate on the basis of other protected characteristics like sex, race or national origin, McCormick explained.
“That is where there is a big potential clash,” she said, adding that the issue for LGBTQ workers is twofold.
“Title VII has an expansive definition of religion — not just of beliefs but also practices,” she explained. “There are a lot of rules in a lot of religions about how people ought to behave when it comes to what it means to be male and female, or to sexual or romantic activity.”
Then, she added, there is the issue of the definition of “sex” in Title VII. If it is interpreted to include sexual orientation and gender identity, then LGBTQ workers can seek employment protection under federal civil rights law. They have done so in many cases, but the circuit courts are split on the issue. Luckily for Starkey, Indianapolis is covered by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which has ruled in the case of Hively v. Ivy Tech Community College that sex discrimination encompasses discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
The Supreme Court, however, is scheduled to take up three cases this year that could have a major impact on LGBTQ workers’ nondiscrimination protections.
Title VII’s Ministerial Exception
In Starkey’s case, the archdiocese appears to be drawing on what is called the ministerial exception to Title VII under the First Amendment, which guarantees free exercise of religion.
In 2012, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued an evangelical Lutheran church and a school in Michigan on behalf of a former employee, Cheryl Perich, a “called” teacher that underwent theology training and was considered to be in a ministerial position. Perich was diagnosed with narcolepsy and took disability leave as a result. When she was ready to return the work, the church told her she no longer had a job. The EEOC lost the case before the Supreme Court.
Pizer said this case “validated the ministerial exception, which lower courts had said existed but the Supreme Court had not spoken to.” The exception applies only to employees serving a ministerial function, but it affords the religious employer tremendous protection against claims of discrimination.
Maggie Siddiqi, director of the Center for American Progress’ Faith and Progressive Policy Initiative, told NBC News that in recent cases, employers are claiming that many different types of employees serve ministerial functions.
“That is really expanding the definition beyond its original intent,” which can “open the door for discrimination against all of these employees,” Siddiqi said.
Religious Freedom Restoration Act
An individual or a business may also claim protections under the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act, a federal law that prohibits the government from discriminating on the basis of religion.
RFRA comes up in the case of R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes Inc. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, one of the three LGBTQ workers’ rights cases currently before the Supreme Court. The case involves 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.
In district court, the funeral home claimed that to employ Stephens violated the owner’s sincerely held religious beliefs, and for the EEOC to compel him to employ Stephens was an overreach of government authority in contravention of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The Circuit Court sided with Stephens, but the Supreme Court will have the last word in the matter.
State Law
In the absence of a federal law that explicitly protects workers from anti-LGBTQ discrimination, a worker can seek redress in state law. Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia have passed measures prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, according to the Movement Advancement Project, an LGBTQ think tank. Three additional states offer some form of LGBTQ workplace protections.
However, more than 20 states — including some of those with explicit state-level LGBTQ worker protections — have religious freedom laws or religious exemptions to their nondiscrimination protections. Indiana, where Roncalli High School is, has such a law. In fact, in 2015, then-Gov. Mike Pence signed Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which spawned significant criticism by those who said it would open the door to anti-LGBTQ discrimination.
Executive Orders & Department Rules
In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed Executive Order 11246 barring federal contractors who do over $10,000 of business with the government in one year from discriminating on the basis of race, color, religion sex or national origin. In 2002, President George W. Bush issued an executive order that added a religious exemption to the measure, using language lifted from Title VII. In 2014, President Barack Obama added sexual orientation and gender identity to the list of protected characteristics in Johnson’s original order, affording specific protections to LGBTQ workers, but Obama left intact Bush’s protections for religious organizations.
In 2017, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued “religious liberty” guidance that elaborates principles such as “religious employers are entitled to employ only persons whose beliefs and conduct are consistent with the employers’ religious precepts.”
This month, the Department of Labor released its own proposed rule expanding religious exemptions available to government contractors and sparking outcry from many LGBTQ advocates. The rule expands the types of organizations eligible for exemptions to “employers that are organized for a religious purpose, hold themselves out to the public as carrying out a religious purpose, and engage in exercise of religion consistent with, and in furtherance of, a religious purpose,” and also allows employers to “condition employment on acceptance of or adherence to religious tenets without sanction by the federal government, provided that they do not discriminate based on other protected bases.”
The Trump administration claims that religious organizations need extra protections from nondiscrimination law, because not having them prevents these organizations from seeking federal contracts.
“It’s not just that they are changing a rule,” Pizer said regarding the impact of the rule, “but the way the change is being done is an explicit signal that this administration favors religious interests over the equality interests of LGBT people and women.”
What’s Next?
The Supreme Court will hear three cases in October that are expected to have a considerable impact on LGBTQ workers’ rights. Two of the cases deal with sexual orientation, the other with gender identity. In the meantime, the Department of Justice made clear in briefs filed this month that LGBTQ workers should not be covered by Title VII protections. In doing so, the DOJ puts itself at odds with the EEOC and the majority of Americans.
Democrats in Congress have responded by reintroducing the Equality Act, a piece of federal legislation that would add sexual orientation and gender identity to the list of classes protected against discrimination by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and does not allow religious exemptions to civil rights law under Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
The last time someone spat at me in the street, it was the eve of Pride month and I’d just left an LGBT+ pub in east London.
I’d been to see a drag king show with a friend, and as we walked towards the bus stop a man approached us from behind, spat – twice – at us, and walked off.
“That dude was so gross,” I text my friend when I got back to mine. “Hope you got home alright?”
She replied, “Yeah. Asshole. It was because we’re both queer-presenting, right?”
Being spat at isn’t something I’d usually consider worth writing about. As many LGBT+ people could tell you, it’s not exactly uncommon.
When a lesbian couple were beaten up on a night bus in north London on May 30 – the night before I was spat at, in a street a few miles away – politicians were quick to condemn it.
It was “absolutely shocking,” said Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
Penny Mordaunt, the women and equalities minister, said, “[I’m] appalled to see this kind of homophobic violence in the UK.”
We live in a country where – during Pride month – Ann Widdecombe, an elected MEP, says on national television that science “may yet cure” homosexuality and Michael Gove’s Tory leadership bid is backed in a national newspaper by an openly anti-trans MP.
So, forgive me for not sharing Corbyn’s shock at a homophobic attack. As queer women were quick to point out, violence against lesbians has been happening for years .
As we approach the halfway line of Pride month, we mark the third anniversary of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida.
On June 12, 2016, 49 people were killed and 53 injured in what was (then) the US’s deadliest mass shooting. Those killed were overwhelmingly Latinx and queer.
Though what happened in Orlando was at a scale we haven’t seen since, the violence has not stopped.
On June 4, a mayor in Alabama suggested killing LGBT+ people, in a now-deleted Facebook post. When confronted by the media, he first denied writing it, then admitted to it but said he thought he was sending a private message to a friend.
That same day – June 4 – a gay man in Atlanta called Ronald “Trey” Peters was robbed and fatally shot by two men who shouted homophobic slurs at him.
“‘Give him the f***ing bag, f*g,’” one of the men shouted, before opening fire, according to a witness. Police are treating it as a hate crime – although Georgia doesn’t have hate-crime laws, so the homophobic nature of the attack won’t be reflected in the weight of the law used to prosecute his killers.
These violent incidents all happened in the first 12 days of Pride month this year – and sadly this is far from a comprehensive list.
