GLAAD celebrates the passage of Senate Bill 1346, which would eliminate the stigma of being LGBTQ in the state’s education curriculum – including courses covering HIV and AIDS. The bill overwhelmingly passed in both the state’s House and Senate chambers and was quickly signed into law today by Republican Governor Doug Ducey.
Before today’s vote, Arizona state law forbade any proactive and positive conversation on the LGBTQ community in classrooms. Arizona was one of seven states in the nation to have this anti-LGBTQ policy in state law – until today. Senate Bill 1346’s. passage now advances LGBTQ acceptance in the state, which currently has about 249,000 Arizonans identifying as LGBTQ.
“Arizona students should never be taught to hate a marginalized group, and LGBTQ youth should never be subject to harassment, discrimination, or erasure just because of who they are,” said Zeke Stokes, Chief Programs Officer for GLAAD. “We applaud today’s strong, bipartisan action that sends a message of love and acceptance to LGBTQ youth.”
Arizona Republican State Senator Kate Brophy McGee added, “It has been an honor to work alongside my good friend Daniel Hernandez on LGBTQ legislation for the past two years. This repeal is a huge step forward and could not have happened without Daniel’s resolute leadership. We worked together with so many others in a truly bipartisan manner to get this done. It is a joyful new day for Arizonans.”
Arizona Republican State Representative TJ Shope said, “I was proud to be a part of a positive effort to change Arizona law in order to make all students feel more welcomed in Arizona’s classrooms. In sponsoring the amendment to SB 1343 that repealed A.R.S. 15-716, we have not only moved our state forward, we have also saved our state’s taxpayers countless amounts of dollars defending the indefensible. I was proud to work on this with my friend, Rep. Daniel Hernandez, and I hope this leads us to more bipartisan efforts in all of the issues we face as a state.”
“The repeal of No Promo Homo is not a victory for one person or for one group. This is something that all of us share in because we were able to come together in a bipartisan way to ensure that Arizona students never have to feel like they stigmatized for who they are,” said Arizona State Representative Daniel Hernandez.
GLAAD, the world’s largest LGBTQ media advocacy organization, today called on the American Museum of Natural History to immediately cancel an upcoming event featuring Brazilian President and notorious anti-LGBTQ activist Jair Bolsonaro that’s to be held on the museum grounds. According to The Gothamist, the Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce plans to hold a gala event to name Bolsonaro its “Person of the Year” at the Museum.
“It’s dangerous for a respected attraction like the American Museum of Natural History to provide a national platform for a foreign leader who is known for targeting and attacking marginalized communities, especially LGBTQ people,” said Sarah Kate Ellis, President and CEO of GLAAD. “Parents and current members of the Museum like me should not stand idly by while the Museum grants visibility to someone who supports the assault of young children just for potentially being LGBTQ. The Museum should re-examine serving as the home for Bolsonaro’s honor, and instead, send a message to LGBTQ Brazilians as well as its LGBTQ members by canceling the event.”
Brazilian President has a horrific and barbaric anti-LGBTQ record, and since his election last year, President Bolsonaro – like the Trump Administration – has systematically tried to eraseLGBTQ families from the fabric of Brazil. Just recently, President Bolsonaro even praised the anti-LGBTQ efforts made by President Trump and his administration since taking office in 2017 – a total of 103 attacks on LGBTQ Americans overall.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION: Anti-LGBTQ History of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro
Said he’d prefer his son die in an accident than be gay (Rough translation: “There are certain things that I say are as death. It would bring me disgust, would make me sad, and I even think that he, himself, would abandon me in that case. To me, it is death. And more: I’d rather he died in an accident than show up with some guy. To me, he really would have died.” Original interview, in Portuguese, can be found here: https://web.archive.org/web/20110709235317/http://playboy.abril.com.br/entretenimento/entrevista/jair-bolsonaro/
Reiterated his preference for a dead son over a gay son: “I prefer, rather, a son run over by a convoy to a homosexual son. If my son were “gay,” he would be dead to me.”
Supported a father who beat his 8-year-old son to death for showing effeminate traits, suggesting that beating the child would have prevented him from being gay.
Has bragged that “if I see two men kissing on the street, I’m going to hit them.”
Said: “If a gay couple came to live in my building, my property will lose value. If they walk around holding hands, kissing, it will lose value! No one says that out of fear of being pinned as homophobe.”
Claimed LGBT rights activists wants to recruit children for sex: “They want to reach our children in order to turn the children into gay adults to satisfy their sexuality in the future. So these are the fundamentalist homosexual groups that are trying to take over society.”
Referred to a rival political party as “a party of dicks and faggots”.
Implied that President Dilma Rousseff is a lesbian, demanding that she “admit your love with homosexuals”.
Called Eleonora Menicucci, the Minister for Women’s Policy, “a big dyke”.
Said he’d “rather have a son who is an addict than a son who is gay”.
Said he does not have a gay child because his children are well educated.
Insisted gay parents sexually abuse their children: “I make a connection between homosexuality and pedophilia because many of the children who will be adopted by “gay” couples will be abused by these homosexual couples.”
Marriott International, among many big corporations, has gone on record in support of the LGBTQ community. Its CEO, Arne Sorenson, has been one of the most vocal defenders of LGBTQ rights in recent years as corporations have been pulled more squarely into divisive social and legal battles related to LGBTQ discrimination.
But now Marriott is among the corporations facing backlash over an event that will honor Brazil’s new and controversial president, Jair Bolsonaro, who has a history of homophobic comments. He also has made incendiary comments about gender, indigenous groups and torture.
The Marriott Marquis in New York City will be hosting the Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce 2019 Person of the Year Award Gala Dinner, honoring Bolsonaro. The event attracted major corporate sponsors, including Delta Air Lines, UnitedHealth Group, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America.
Additional sponsors include HSBC, Citigroup, JPMorgan, UBSand Bank of New York Mellon, Santander, BNP Paribas and Forbes’ local licensee Forbes Brasil, whose publisher said it has been a media sponsor of the event for five years and will continue to sponsor it to strengthen ties between Brazil and the U.S.
Bain & Co. pulled out of event sponsorship on Tuesday, as did the Financial Times. Delta told CNBC on Tuesday afternoon that it had pulled out of event sponsorship.
Bolsonaro is reportedly receiving the reward for his prioritizing of Christian values and family. He’s been president of Brazil since January and has been a vocal opponent of same-sex marriage, homosexuality and abortion. According to the New York Times, which cataloged some of his controversial comments, Bolsonaro said he would “rather have a son who is an addict than a son who is gay” and that he was “proud to be homophobic.”
The event has been a magnet for controversy — the Marriott Marquis is not its first choice of location. It was originally planned to take place at The American Museum of Natural History’s Hall of Ocean Life. Yet pressure from environmental and LGBTQ groups resulted in the museum’s withdrawal.
Marriott’s Sorenson was among the first CEO “activist” leaders when he took on Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer in 2014 over legislation perceived as discriminatory. Brewer vetoed the legislation. Sorenson also said at the time of the 2017 battle over the North Carolina bathroom bill perceived as discriminating against LGBTQ rights, “I have personally received hundreds of emails in the last week complaining about the position I have taken with respect to the law in North Carolina. I think the way the law was passed was trying to drive a wedge between people who think and believe different things, as opposed to building a bridge. We end up creating a polarized and exclusionary environment with laws like that,” he told CNBC.
When North Carolina’s bathroom bill became a focal point for corporate social activism, Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank of America spoke out, with its CEO Brian Moynihan telling shareholders, “We’ve been steadfast in our commitment [against] discrimination. We have been a leader in LGBT practices since the [19]90s.”
Delta has spoken out against anti-LGBTQ legislation — often referred to by backers as “religious freedom” bills — in recent years, including bills introduced in its home state of Georgia. The airlines’ decision to end discounts to NRA members, another hot-button social issue for corporations, led the state legislature to even attempt to punish the airline by removing a tax break.
MARRIOTT, CREDIT SUISSE DEFEND DECISION
Marriott is sticking by its decision to host the event for Bolsonaro.
“Diversity and inclusion are part of the fabric of our hotel’s culture and operations. We have welcomed all for over 90 years and focused on putting people first. We are required by law to accept business even if it conflicts with our values,” said a Marriott spokesperson to CNBC. “Acceptance of business does not indicate support, or endorsement of any group or individual.”
Openly gay New York State Senator Brad Hoylman told the Daily News “The only award President Bolsonaro should be receiving is bigot of the year. [It is] incredibly offensive that a business in my Senate district, which has a large LGBTQ population, would host a man who once said he’d rather have a dead son than a gay man.”
“It’s imperative that the companies and organizations associated with this event first understand the egregious anti-LGBTQ record and rhetoric of the Brazilian President and then stand by LGBTQ people in Brazil and everywhere by withdrawing their support,” said Sarah Kate Ellis, President and CEO of GLAAD to CNBC. “His brand of anti-LGBTQ activism is actively [hurting] LGBTQ Brazilians and companies that host or participate in this celebration of him need to take a stand.”
A spokesperson for Credit Suisse, one of the event sponsors, said the bank, “like other major banks who operate in Brazil, has taken a table at this year’s event, as we have for the past 15 years.”
Representatives for UnitedHealth, Morgan Stanley, HSBC, Bank of America, Citi, JPMorgan, UBS, Bank of New York Mellon and Forbes could not provide a comment by press time.
A gay man from Chechnya with HIV who asked the Washington Blade not to reveal his identity was leaving a gay bar in Moscow on May 13, 2018, when a group of six men approached him and attacked him. A video from a nearby surveillance camera that he saved to his cell phone shows one of the men punching him in the face.
“He hit me right in the eye,” the man told the Blade on April 23 during an emotional interview in Dupont Circle. “People were standing right here.”
The man, who spoke to the Blade through a gay Russian friend who acted as an interpreter, said during the interview that doctors at a hospital and at a private eye clinic to where he was brought refused to treat him because of his HIV status. The man told the Blade he eventually “bumped into” an Armenian plastic surgeon who placed a titanium mesh around his injured eye ball a month after the attack.
“He caught up with me in the corridors of the hospital and he said what I see tells me that you absolutely need surgery and I can do it for you,” said the man. “He did it.”
The man had been living in Moscow for more than a year when the men attacked him. He flew to Miami on Nov. 10, 2018, and has been living in New York since last December.
“For the longest time, I didn’t want to move to the U.S. because I thought back in Russia I could lay low and disappear from society’s life and somehow the threat to my persona would evaporate overtime,” said the man. “That is why I moved from Chechnya to Moscow and I started experiencing how difficult it is to live outside of your own society.”
Chechnya ‘not safe for gay people’
Chechnya is a predominantly Muslim, semi-autonomous Russian republic in the North Caucasus.
Novaya Gazeta, an independent Russian newspaper, in 2017 reported Chechen authorities had arrested more than 100 men because of their sexual orientation. The Russian LGBT Network, a Russian advocacy group, in January said at least two people have been killed and upwards of 40 people have been detained in the latest anti-LGBTI crackdown in Chechnya that began shortly after the man with whom the Blade spoke arrived in the U.S.
A report the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, a Vienna-based group of which the U.S. is a member, released late last year documents extrajudicial killings and other human rights abuses against LGBTI Chechens. President Trump has not publicly condemned the crackdown, but the State Department in January described the reports over additional arrests and deaths as “deeply disturbing.”
The man with whom the Blade spoke said he “stopped going to Chechnya” two years ago because he had begun to receive death threats.
He said he closed his business in Grozny, the Chechen capital. The man added the rest of his family remains in Chechnya.
“It’s not safe for gay people,” he said. “In Chechen society, the topic of sex in general is a taboo. Therefore gay people in Chechen society are never accepted and completely rejected.”
“There are countries in this world where gay people are persecuted, but in these countries’ case the society admits the fact that they have gay people amongst them,” added the man. “Chechnya is the only place on earth that completely rejects the whole fact of the possible existence of gay people.”
Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, a close Kremlin ally who is among the Chechen officials sanctioned by the U.S., in 2017 said during an interview with HBO’s “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel” his republic doesn’t “have any gays.” Russian President Vladimir Putin has either downplayed or dismissed the reports about the anti-LGBTI crackdown in Chechnya.
The Kremlin’s LGBTI rights record, which includes a 2013 law that bans so-called gay propaganda to minors, and Russia’s interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, continue to spark criticism around the world. The man with whom the Blade spoke said he felt targeted in Moscow because he is gay and Chechen.
“The problem is the threat to life is not just inside Chechnya,” he said. “It travels all over the Russian Federation and beyond into other countries of the world where the Chechen diaspora exists.”
The man with whom the Blade spoke said he was afraid to report any threats he received to the police because it would be “like committing suicide for us.” He also said he was afraid to reach out to LGBTI activists in Moscow and elsewhere, in part, because he was worried other Chechens would learn about him.
“We Chechens are afraid of other Chechens the most,” the man said.
The gay man from Chechnya with HIV with whom the Washington Blade spoke in D.C. on April 23, 2019, currently lives in New York. (Photo by Daniel Schwen; courtesy Wikimedia Commons)
The man said a man in New York who is associated with RUSA LGBT, a group of LGBTI Russian speakers and their supporters, began to send “uncontrolled threats” to him after he criticized him for an “offensive and racist” Facebook post that he also described as xenophobic.
He said RUSA LGBT banned him from their event at a gay bar in Manhattan and sent him a cease and desist letter, which he claims is not valid, on April 12 that he showed to the Blade. Yelena Goltzman, founder and co-president of RUSA LGBT, in a lengthy statement denied the man’s allegations.
“The cease and desist letter was, in fact, sent to one of the people in the conflict on the advice of the attorney and the police who were called to the scene after his fourth unprovoked and unwelcomed visit to the workplace of RUSA LGBT’s co-president and as a consequence of his unrelenting harassment on social media,” Goltzman told the Blade on Tuesday.
Goltzman said Facebook “took down his posts about RUSA LGBT and warned him of further consequences.”
“Despite this, he continues to slander and harass RUSA LGBT leaders,” she said. “Unfortunately, we see the information he provided to you may further advance his harassment and slander against our group.”
Goltzman on Wednesday in a follow-up text message to the Blade said the man who the asylum seeker has accused of harassing him “is not a volunteer or a leader of RUSA LGBT and does not represent RUSA LGBT in any way.” The man with whom the Blade spoke on April 23 continues to dispute RUSA LGBT’s claims against him.
In the meantime, his asylum interview took place on Monday in New York. The man told the Blade he hopes “to realize my dream of being free and equal among equals, a worthy citizen and partner” if he were to receive asylum in the U.S.
“I know that in this country I can do this,” he said. “I hope that in the United States law, order and society will not allow any discrimination or threats against me from anyone, regardless of their position in society.”
“I want to start a new life in which there will be no place for xenophobia, transphobia, HIV stigma, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism from anyone,” added the man.
Association Shams, a notable LGBTI rights group in Tunisia, is facing closure after a legal challenge by the government.
Shams have condemned the move, describing it as discriminatory and ‘judicial harassment’ by the government.
The group has been operating in Tunisia since 2013 and is one of the most prolific LGBTI rights organizations in the Arabic world.
Shams say this is the seventh time the government has been tried to shut them down. Though the authorities failed to do so in a 2016 lawsuit, they are currently appealing the decision.
A hearing is set for Friday (3 May), which could determine the future of the group.
The group says that in this occasion is more serious as the authorities are invoking Shira law in their appeal.
Tunisia maintains laws prohibiting male homosexual sex. Despite this, the country also has a thriving LGBTI community.
‘The judicial harassment against our association has no legal basis’
The government claims that Shams’ operations violates the Law on Associations.
They argue that the Shams’ objective to protect sexual minorities goes against ‘Tunisian society’s Islamic values, which reject homosexuality and prohibit such alien behavior’.
The authorities also say that since there is a law banning homosexuality, allowing LGBTI rights group such as Shams to operate freely goes against the law.
Mounir Baatour, the president of Association Shams, hit out at the government’s latest legal challenge.
‘The judicial harassment against our association has no legal basis and reflects the homophobia of the Tunisian state and its will to discriminate and stigmatize the LGBT community, which is already marginalized,’ Baatour told the Guardian.
‘Such harassment makes our work difficult and creates a climate of tension and fear among the team working for our association.’
Reversing Tunisia’s anti-sodomy law
Shams is working to reverse Article 230 of Tunisia’s Penal Code of 1913. People convicted of sodomy face up to three years of imprisonment under the law.
The group registered with the government in 2015, as an organization supporting sexual and gender minorities.
Though the government filed a complaint about the group in 2016. A court ordered Shams to suspend activity for 30 days.
However, the court later lifted the suspension and ruled that Shams was not violating the law.
Though the authorities’ attempts to clamp down on LGBTI activists, Tunisia’s LGBTI scene is thriving.
The country’s four officially recognized LGBTI organizations all emerged following the 2011 revolution.
In January last year, the country’s first LGBTI film festival was hosted in capital city, Tunis. The festival was organized LGBTI rights organization Mawjoudin (We Exist).
However, Shams reports that the number of people arrested under Article 230 increased significantly in 2018.
The groups said that 127 arrests were made last year, compared with 79 in 2017. There have been at least 22 arrests this year.
Men have also reportedly experienced degrading treatment while in custody.
A recent Michigan settlement that bans state contracts with foster and adoption agencies that refuse to work with LGBTQ couples has sparked backlash.
On Monday, April 15, The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty filed a lawsuit in federal court on behalf of St. Vincent Catholic Charities and two adoptive families it’s served.
The lawsuit, alleging the new rules violated the group’s First Amendment rights, was filed against the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Director Robert Gordon, Children’s Services Agency Director Herman McCall, Attorney General Dana Nessel, the federal Health and Human Services department and its secretary, Alex Azar.
“Faith-based agencies like St. Vincent consistently do the best work because of their faith, and we need more agencies like them helping children — not fewer. The actions by the Attorney General of Michigan do nothing but harm the thousands of at-risk children in desperate need of loving homes,” Mark Rienzi, Becket’s president, said in a statement.
The lawsuit was brought following Nessel’s announcement in March that taxpayer-funded adoption agencies with religious objections to placing children in homes of same-sex couples will no longer be able to cite their faith as a legitimate reason to opt out of providing that service.
Nessel settled a lawsuit with the ACLU of Michigan – that the ACLU of Michigan filed – that challenged the state’s practice of allowing state-contracted, taxpayer-funded foster care and adoption agencies to use religious criteria to exclude same-sex couples.
The plaintiffs, Kristy and Dana Dumont and Erin and Rebecca Busk-Sutton, wanted to become foster parents with the intention of adopting children who are wards of the state, but they were turned down by two faith-based agencies Bethany Christian Services and St. Vincent Catholic Charities. The adoption agencies have contracts with the state of Michigan to act on behalf of the state but turned the plaintiff’s down because of their own religious objections to accepting same-sex couples.
“Discrimination in the provision of foster care case management and adoption services is illegal, no matter the rationale. Limiting the opportunity for a child to be adopted or fostered by a loving home not only goes against the state’s goal of finding a home for every child, it is a direct violation of the contract every child placing agency enters into with the state,” said Nessel at the time.
According to MDHHS, each agency was providing foster care case management or adoption services for one or more children referred to them by MDHHS. Because the plaintiffs were not seeking direct-placement or private adoption services and because they were not referred to the agencies through MDHHS, the agencies could not reject them under existing state law.
When Nessel took office in January, she reviewed the facts of the case with her team of legal experts and determined that MDHHS could be subject to liability on the claims of the plaintiffs. As a result, Nessel strongly recommended resolving the case on terms consistent with the law and existing agency contracts and that best serve the health, safety and well-being of children in need of state-contracted foster care case management and adoption services. The plaintiffs and the attorney general’s office, on behalf of its client MDHHS, entered into negotiations and agreed to settle the case. According to reports, as of February, Bethany Christian Services, Catholic Charities and St. Vincent were responsible for more than 1,600, or 12 percent, of the state’s 13,000-plus foster care and adoption cases. Faith-based agencies have said they will shut down their adoption and foster care services rather than violate their religious beliefs. Kelly Rossman-McKinney, a spokesperson for Nessel, told MLive, “We have not had a chance to review the complaint. Based on the information provided during the plaintiffs’ counsel’s press conference, it appears that the plaintiffs’ attorneys do not understand the settlement agreement.” Rossman-McKinney explained, according to the MLive report, that “the state does not take action against faith-based adoption agencies that don’t take a state referral. If the agency accepts a state referral, however, the agency cannot refuse to provide the child with foster care or adoptive services that conflict with its religious beliefs.”
A group of trans women has realized its dream and will open their own hotel in Kerala, India.
The women planned to open the hotel called Hotel Ruchimudra in the state capital of Kochi in south east India.
Aditi Achuth, Saya Mathew, Preethi Alexander, Pranav, Ragaranjini and Meenakshi received US$14,320 in local government funding to set up the hotel.
The six women decided to start their own business to help promote a more positive representation of trans people in Kerala.
‘The major aim of ‘Ruchimudra’ is to change the negative attitude of the society towards transgenders,’ she told Mathrubhumi.
Along with the local government funding, the women also received funding from a charity. But the funding only covered some of the renovation costs of the four storey building. So the women decided to complete a lot of the work themselves in order to save money.
The building will house the hotel along with other support services for trans people. Those services will include counseling, office co-working space, shelter and yoga.
Kerala is one of the most progressive states in India when it comes to trans issues.
A man was shot and killed by a Walgreens security guard for being black and gay, the man’s sister has claimed.
Jonathan Hart was shot in the back of his neck and killed in December 2018.
Armed guard Donald Vincent Ciota II suspected Hart of shoplifting.
However, Hart’s sister Psykssyanna believes her brother was a victim of racism and homophobia.
A suit filed with the Los Angeles County Superior Court states Hart was ‘maliciously, wrongfully, internationally, negligently and/or carelessly’ shot and killed.
Ciota, Walgreens and two security companies are named in the suit.
What allegedly happened in that Walgreens store
Ciota, 28, allegedly confronted Hart and two of his friends inside the Hollywood, California store.
It is also alleged Ciota thought Hart was stealing.
The two men then got into a physical fight. Ciota then allegedly pulled out a gun and shot Hart as he fled.
Carl Douglas, an attorney for the man’s family, said Hart, who was in his early 20s, gay and homeless, was hit in the neck and died hours later at the hospital.
The complaint denies Hart was shoplifting. It also accuses Ciota of targeting Hart because of his race and sexual orientation.
According to the lawsuit, Hart and his friends had allegedly complained to a Walgreens employee. Apparently, prior to the shooting Ciota was acting in a ‘aggressive and hostile manner’.
Ciota, who had a Taser and a gun, allegedly grabbed his weapon, yelled ‘freeze’ and then fired a shot, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit states: ‘Jonathan committed no crime or other act against defendant Ciota, or any other person, to justify the use of deadly force against him.
‘He was unarmed and did nothing to cause defendant Ciota to believe he was confronting an imminent threat to his life or anyone else’s life.’
Charged with one count of murder
Ciota was charged in January with one count of murder.
In response, he pleaded not guilty during a court appearance.
Records, according to NBC, show Ciota is being held at a Los Angeles jail on $3 million bail.
Walgreens said any suggestion customers are racially profiled is ‘false and contrary to our deep commitment to inclusive diversity’.
The company added: ‘At the time this tragic incident occurred, we immediately terminated the security company that employed the guard involved.
‘We are fully committed to providing a safe environment for our employees and customers in the communities we serve.’
The U.S. House is expected to hold a floor vote next week on the Equality Act, legislation that seeks to ban anti-LGBT discrimination, a senior Democratic aide told the Washington Blade on Monday.
The official announcement on the vote, the aide said, was set for Friday, which is the normal day for when the next week’s schedule is announced in the House.
The floor vote on the Equality Act, legislation that was introduced for the first-time ever this year with a Democratic majority in the House, will mark the first-time ever either chamber of Congress has considered the pro-LGBT legislation.
The floor vote is expected shortly after the House Judiciary Committee reported out the legislation without any Republican support. Additionally, no GOP amendments were adopted to the legislation.
With 240 co-sponsors, including three Republicans, the bill should easily surpass the 218-vote threshold in the House necessary to approve legislation. (The next step, passing the bill in the Senate where the Republican majority controls 53 seats is another matter, as is President Trump signing the legislation into law.)
However, Republicans in the House have an opportunity to thwart the bill with a motion to recommit, a legislative maneuver that forces a vote on an amendment the majority would otherwise not allow to come up. It remains to be seen what the nature of the motion to recommit will be for the Equality Act.
For example, during the vote on gun background checks, Republicans claimed victory on a motion to recommit requiring the notification of U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement when an undocumented immigrant fails a background check when attempting to buy a firearm. A similar motion to recommit on the Equality Act could complicate the effort to prohibit anti-LGBT discrimination.
Introduced by Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I. and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), the Equality Act would amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Fair Housing Act to ban anti-LGBT discrimination in employment, housing, public accommodations, jury service, education, federal programs and credit.
The bill also seeks to update federal law to include sex in the list of protected classes in public accommodation in addition to expanding the definition of public accommodations to include retail stores, banks, transportation services and health care services. Further, the Equality Act would establish that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act — a 1994 law aimed at protecting religious liberty — can’t be used to enable anti-LGBT discrimination.
The House is advancing the Equality Act shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court announced it would take up legislation seeking clarifying on whether the existing on prohibition on sex discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 applies to cases of anti-LGBT discrimination. A decision in those cases isn’t expected until June 2020.
Graphic new evidence has emerged of the torture of gay men at the hands of authorities in Chechnya. The new evidence comes from the most recent crackdown of the LGBTI community.
Earlier this year new reports revealed Chechnya had conducted another round up of LGBTI people in its ‘gay purge’. Authorities rounded up about 40 people and detained them at the Grozny Internal Affairs Department in the region’s capital. Two people died as a result of torture.
Chechnya, a Russian federal subject in the Northern Caucasus, began its ‘gay purge’ in 2017. It is a highly conservative majority-Muslim society and homosexuality is generally viewed as severely tainting family honor.
But a new report from Human Rights Watch (HRW) revealed the accounts of four men detained. The men were detained between three and 20 days. Police officials kicked them with booted feet, beat them sticks and polypropylene pipes. Three of them were tortured with electric shocks. One was raped with a stick.
First hand accounts
‘They screamed at me. One of them started kicking me, I dropped to the floor, flat on my stomach… Another one then beat me with a stick, from the waist down, he was hitting me very hard for some five minutes,’ said Anzor*, 29.
‘Then they made me kneel on the floor and put metal clips on my thumbs [the wires were hooked to a device delivering electric shocks], he turned the knob [of the device], first slowly and then faster and faster… With every turn, my hands bounced up and excruciating pain went through them…
‘He stopped when I screamed my heart was about to burst. They took the clips off and my hands were heavy and felt dead.’
Anzor described how police beat and humiliated him and Aslanbek in front of the other inmates:
‘They were three or five [police], I don’t quite recall but one of them, Maga, had a stick with a black handle,’ he said.
‘They yelled, “Where are the pansies?” [and] began to humiliate us, verbally, using obscene words, calling us fags, asking which one of us is active, which one passive, whether we derived pleasure [from having sex with a man].
‘And all the inmates were watching… They hit [us] on the head with their sticks… Then, they left but another three officers walked in.
‘They were coming in groups for a long time – smaller groups and bigger groups…[T]hey entertained themselves by mocking us, beating us.’
The other men described being deprived of food and water, with some chained to radiators in blacked-out rooms.
Family honor killings
They all said police interrogated them under torture. Police also demanded they identify other gay men in their social circles, in some cases showing them photographs. Police seized the detainees’ cell phones for the same purpose.
One man said the police handed him over to his family, exposing his sexual orientation and indirectly encouraging his family members to kill him. Some of those interviewed said this happened in at least two other cases. In at least three cases, police demanded large sums of money for the men’s release.
Impunity sanctions torture
‘There wasn’t anything remotely resembling an effective investigation into the anti-gay purge of 2017, when Chechen police rounded up and tortured dozens of men they suspected of being gay,’ said Rachel Denber, deputy Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
‘Impunity for the 2017 anti-gay purge has sanctioned a new wave of torture and humiliation in Chechnya.’
Three of the men said the police shaved off their beards and hair or forced inmates to shave each other’s heads.
Police officers also humiliated them by probing into the details of their lives, using homophobic slurs, exposing them as gay to other inmates, and forcing them to undress. Police also forced several of the presumed gay inmates to clean the toilet and wash floors and doors along a corridor, making it clear to them and the other inmates that the gay detainees were given ‘women’s work’ as a form of humiliation.
Chechen denials
Chechen authorities have continued to deny reports of the new wave of persecution.
‘This is an absolute lie… There were no detentions on grounds of sexual orientation in the indicated periods in the Chechen Republic,’ said presidential spokesperson, Alvi Karimov, in January.
Human rights groups and LGBTI advocates have called on Russian authorities to speak out or act against the ‘gay purge’. But Russian authorities have not commented on the allegations nor investigated.
In May 2018, Russia’s justice minister, Aleksander Konovalov, told the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC): ‘The investigations that we carried out… did not confirm evidence of rights’ violations, nor were we even able to find representatives of the LGBT community in Chechnya.’
International outcry has continued over Chechnya’s actions. In November 2018, 16 participating states of the Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe (OSCE) invoked the “Moscow Mechanism”. They also appointed a rapporteur to look into allegations of abuses in Chechnya.
In March, 30 countries supported a joint statement at the UNHRC. The statement expressed deep concern about reports of the persecution and called for a thorough and impartial investigation.
‘Russian authorities should immediately investigate the new wave of torture and humiliation by the Chechen police of men they believe to be gay and, finally, carry out an effective investigation into the purge of 2017,’ Denber said.
‘The investigations should be conducted at the federal level with security guarantees provided to victims and witnesses who come forward, and their families. Otherwise, we can expect further episodes of this depraved abuse.’
