One of President Donald Trump’s judicial nominees has said that gay judges shouldn’t hear LGBT cases – because they’re biased.
Howard C. Nielson Jr.’s comments came after the 2010 Hollingsworth v. Perry case which made same-sex marriage legal in California.
Nielson argued that the chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Vaughn Walker, should have recused himself because he was in a same-sex relationship.
The revelations were released by the Alliance for Justice (AFJ), a group which monitors the judiciary.
They raised concerns over Nielson’s nomination in a new report.
It showed that Nielson said it was “extremely problematic that Judge Walker is a practising homosexual himself”.
Howard C. Nielson Jr (Cooper & Kirk)
Nielson, who Trump nominated to be a judge on the U.S. District Court of Utah in September, put forward a motion which targeted Walker for his sexuality.
In it, he argued that Walker “had a duty to disclose not only the facts concerning his relationship, but also his marriage intentions”, the report said.
Only if Walker “disavowed any interest in marrying his partner could the parties and the public be confident that he did not have a direct personal interest in the outcome,” Nielson added.
The motion was rejected.
Nielson is vehemently opposed to LGBT rights, having argued in the past that sexual orientation is a choice.
He also opposed the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges ruling which legalised same-sex marriage nationwide.
He said that marriage should remain between a man and a woman because “in particular, through the institution of marriage, societies seek to increase the likelihood that children will be born and raised in stable and enduring family units by both the mothers and fathers who brought them into this world,” the AFJ report said.
Corey Johnson was elected City Council speaker in an overwhelming vote Wednesday, capping months of maneuvering that will make him the city’s second-most-powerful elected official.
Johnson — a Manhattan Democrat who is gay and HIV positive — was chosen in a 48-1 vote. Councilwoman Inez Barron, who mounted her own last-minute bid for speaker to protest the lack of black candidates, was the lone no vote.
The new leader is expected to pose a challenge to Mayor de Blasio — saying he won’t hesitate to push through bills over the mayor’s veto, which never happened under his predecessor — although their progressive ideological views largely align. He takes over from Melissa Mark-Viverito, who left the job because of term limits.
The Massachusetts native, 35, recalled moving to New York at age 19, with two bags and no idea where he was going to live.
“I want New York to be a place where you can still be 19 years old and come here and still survive. And it’s becoming more and more difficult if you don’t come from a wealthy family to be able to do that,” he said.
“It should be a place where you can come as a young person and stay here and go to school and get a good job.”
Johnson worked aggressively to shore up support in what had once been a wide-open field of eight candidates. He was all but assured of the job after he got the blessing of the Queens and Bronx Democratic parties, particularly Queens boss Joe Crowley, who reclaimed his traditional role as Council kingmaker four years after being shut out when Mark-Viverito was selected for the job.
Many of his first seven rivals quickly dropped out, though Councilman Jumaane Williams (D-Brooklyn) did not concede before Wednesday, and his last opponent, Barron (D-Brooklyn), mounted her challenge late last month.
Johnson stressed he will be “independent” of the mayor — and unlike de Blasio, supports congestion pricing, as well as giving more city money to the MTA if there are assurances on how it will be spent. He also said there’s little appetite on the Council to revive Hizzoner’s push to ban horse carriages.
“I’m fine with overriding vetoes,” he told reporters after the vote. “I’m more than willing to do that.”
The biggest controversy over Johnson’s selection centered around race, with some Council members and civil rights groups objecting to giving the job to a white man. Three of the four citywide officials are now white and male.
“Black, Latino and Asians are the majority in this city, yet we have never, ever had a black speaker,” Barron said on the steps of City Hall Wednesday, before nominating herself for the job. “It’s our turn now.”
Barron blasted it as “unconscionable” that the Democratic Party in 2018 would “conspire” to block a black candidate from capturing the job. But while several members applauded her bid, she did not garner any votes from the 51-member Council besides her own.
Johnson receives applause after he was elected Council Speaker on Wednesday.
Williams, who is also rumored as a possible primary challenger to Gov. Cuomo, opted to skip the vote and instead attend Cuomo’s State of the State speech in Albany. Debi Rose (D-Staten Island) was the other Council member not in attendance.
Another black candidate for the post, Brooklyn Councilman Robert Cornegy, stayed in the race for more than a week after the deal to anoint Johnson. Cornegy objected to the selection of a white candidate, but he eventually offered his support — and seconded Johnson’s nomination Wednesday.
“The black community is the base of the Democratic Party. And we were given short shrift,” said the Rev. Jacques Andre DeGraff, associate pastor of Harlem’s Canaan Baptist Church, who backed Cornegy.
Johnson said he understood the racial concerns, and would make sure leadership and powerful committee posts go to a diverse group of pols.
“I am never going to compare my experience to that of a person of color in New York City,” he said. “When I walk into a Duane Reade, I don’t get followed around by someone because they think I’m going to shoplift.”
Johnson, who has spoken openly about his past struggles with alcohol and drug addiction, has chaired the health committee for the last four years, and represents Chelsea, the Village and Hell’s Kitchen.
The future speaker first made headlines while still in high school, when he came out as gay while co-captain of his football team.
With his mother, Ann, looking on Wednesday, he said he was “suicidal, despondent, and I didn’t want to live” when he first told her he was gay.
Then he had to tell his 82-year old, Mass-attending Irish Catholic grandfather.
“He said, ‘Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, I thought you were going to tell me you were a Republican. You can be gay, but you have to be a Democrat,” he recalled his grandfather saying.
Besides supporting congestion pricing to raise money for the crumbling subway, Johnson — who has never owned a car, but will get a car and driver with the post — said he’ll continue to ride the trains regularly as speaker.
“I actually like the subway when it works,” he said. “It’s good people watching.”
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and Equality Pennsylvania today released new polling data conducted by Hart Research Associates one year out from the 2018 midterm elections, showing that likely voters across Pennsylvania overwhelmingly support LGBTQ-inclusive policies and are less likely to vote for a candidate who does not. HRC is on the ground in Pennsylvania, a priority state through HRC Rising — the largest and earliest grassroots expansion in its 37-year history.
“A year out from the midterm elections, the data clearly show that Pennsylvanians overwhelmingly support LGBTQ equality,” said JoDee Winterhof, Senior Vice President for Policy and Political Affairs. “Just as they have in North Carolina last year and Alabama earlier this month, Pennsylvania voters will stand up to reject candidates who target LGBTQ people. These polling results make it clear — hate is not a winning political strategy.”
”This polling data reaffirms what we’ve been seeing for the past year as we talk to our members in every single county across the state,” said John Dawe, Interim Executive Director at Equality Pennsylvania. “As the the LGBTQ community was repeatedly attacked with hateful legislation and policies during the past year, the number Pennsylvanians standing up and making LGBTQ issues a priority in their activism also grew exponentially.”
Following the defeat of anti-LGBTQ politicians like former North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory and Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, the new polling makes clear that voters in Pennsylvania resoundingly reject elected officials who attack and discriminate against the LGBTQ community. Almost half of voters (46 percent) say they would feel less favorably toward an official who opposes LGBTQ equality, versus 11 percent who say it would make them more favorable toward the official. This 35 point margin demonstrates just how toxic it is to attack LGBTQ people for perceived political gain.Voters will no longer tolerate discrimination against their family, friends and neighbors.
Pennsylvania voters also oppose the Trump-Pence administration’s efforts to roll back LGBTQ equality, with 53 percent opposing Trump’s efforts to ban qualified transgender people from serving in the United States armed forces. By a wide 22 point margin, voters also oppose laws granting business owners a dangerous license to discriminate.
Overall, Pennsylvania voters support LGBTQ equality and protections for LGBTQ people such as banning so-called “conversion therapy” and prohibiting discrimination against prospective LGBTQ parents and kids in foster care and adoption. Other key findings from the poll:
71 percent of Pennsylvania voters support LGBTQ employees having access to paid family and medical leave, without fear of losing a paycheck or their job for the birth or adoption of a child, or to care for a sick family member.
59 percent of Pennsylvania voters support allowing LGBTQ people to legally adopt children.
56 percent of Pennsylvania voters support making it illegal to discriminate against LGBTQ people in employment.
53 percent of Pennsylvania voters support making it illegal to discriminate against LGBTQ people in housing.
Pennsylvania voters also support passing the Equality Act by a 56 to 25 percent margin. This crucial federal legislation would provide consistent and explicit non-discrimination protections for LGBTQ people across key areas of life, including employment, housing, credit, education, public spaces and services, federally funded programs, and jury service.
In July, HRC announced HRC Rising, the earliest, largest grassroots expansion in its 37-year history ahead of 2018 midterms. This historic campaign to win equality in states from coast-to-coast, resist the politics of hate, fight anti-LGBTQ legislation, and fuel pro-equality candidates and initiatives, will include six priority states: Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Ahead of the 2018 midterm elections, HRC has identified more than 2,005,000 Pennsylvanians as likely “Equality Voters” — those who are strong supporters of policies that advance LGBTQ equality, including marriage equality and other measures prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.
President Trump fired the remaining members of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, known as PACHA, without explanation by FedEx letter on Wednesday.
Six members of the commission had already resigned over the summer, claiming the Trump administration’s actions would harm people with HIV, including its failure to name a director of the Office of National AIDS Policy. But several of the remaining members had time left in their terms.
Scott A. Schoettes, a Chicago-based HIV/AIDS activist and a council member who resigned last summer, tweeted yesterday that the remaining council members had been fired for calling President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence “dangerous.” “Remaining #HIV/AIDS council members booted by @realDonaldTrump. No respect for their service,” Schoettes wrote. “Dangerous that #Trump and Co. (Pence esp.) are eliminating few remaining people willing to push back against harmful policies, like abstinence-only sex ed,” he added.
Gabriel Maldonado, CEO of LGBT and HIV/AIDS group Truevolution and a remaining member of the advisory board, told the Washington Blade that the reasons for the mass termination were unclear. “I can only speculate,” Maldonado said. “Like any administration, they want their own people there. Many of us were Obama appointees. I was an Obama appointee and my term was continuing until 2018.”
Maldonado said “ideological and philosophical differences” may have come into play, citing a recent report that the Centers for Disease Control could no longer use words like “diversity” and “transgender” in budget documents. “Much of my advocacy and policy references surrounded vulnerable populations, namely, the disproportionate impact of HIV and AIDS to people of color, gay men, transgender women,” Maldonado said. “A lot of those key vulnerable populations are not being prioritized in this administration.”
PACHA was created in 1995 and advises the president on treatment and prevention of HIV. In September, Trump signed an executive order extending PACHA and 31 other presidential advisory boards for another year. Wholesale turnover on the board isn’t unprecedented — the Obama administration fired all of George W. Bush’s appointees before replacing them with his own. But Maldonado said that several members were sworn back in for terms earlier this year under Trump.
Trump’s proposed 2018 budget would have included major cuts to HIV/AIDS policy, including $150 million in HIV/AIDS programs at the CDC and $1 billion in global aid to fight the epidemic. But Congress opted to continue funding the programs at their previous levels.
Walmart is facing a lawsuit from a former employee who says she faced horrific discrimination at work because she is transgender.
The Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund has today filed a federal lawsuit against Walmart on behalf of a North Carolina transgender woman.
The employee alleges she faced faced workplace discrimination at a Sam’s Club store in Kannapolis, North Carolina.
Sam’s Club is a membership-only retail warehouse chain owned by a subsidiary of Walmart.
According to the lawsuit, Charlene Bost endured a shockingly hostile work environment during her time at the company, from 2011 through her firing in 2015.
Ms Bost says that after she transitioned, co-workers and supervisors began discriminating against her because of her sex. She was repeatedly subjected to a barrage of hostilities which included being wrongfully disciplined and repeatedly called by the wrong name and pronouns.
The lawsuit says Walmart employees took to “misgendering Ms. Bost directly by addressing her as ‘Sir’ or ‘man’ or by her former male name, or mocking her by calling her ‘Ma’am’ or ‘Madam’ in a sarcastic tone of voice, or pretending confusion by calling her both ‘Ma’am’ and ‘Sir’ in succession.
She was also branded a “faggot” by colleagues, “while humiliating Ms. Bost by treating her as a freak”.
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The court heard that on one occasion, a customer in Walmart filed a complaint after overhearing workers referring to Ms Bost as a “faggot”.
Ms Bost says bosses failed to step in to stop the tirade of harassment.
She said: “Despite excelling at my job, Sam’s Club treated me with cruelty and disrespect, simply for being a woman.
“I am bringing this lawsuit because transgender people must have the same opportunities to work hard, earn a living and contribute to our communities, free from bias. No one should ever be confronted with the prejudice I experienced on the job.”
TLDEF contends that the discrimination violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the North Carolina Equal Employment Practices Act.
In August the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) found evidence that Ms Bost was subjected to discrimination and a hostile work environment because of her sex and determined this violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The determination was one of two successful EEOC decisions secured by TLDEF against Walmart this year that led the Human Rights Campaign to suspend Walmart’s Corporate Equality Index (CEI) rating, despite the company’s trans-inclusive corporate policies.
TLDEF Executive Director Jillian Weiss said: “The EEOC put its weight behind this case and our federal lawsuit is the next step on the road to justice for Ms. Bost.
“This case makes clear that workplace discrimination against transgender individuals violates the law and will not be tolerated. It also sends a strong message to Walmart that good corporate policy alone will not suffice. It must be backed by strong enforcement mechanisms that reach the shop floor.”
“We stand with TLDEF and our fellow North Carolinian, Ms. Bost, in their pursuit of this discrimination case,” said Ames Simmons, Director of Transgender Policy for Equality North Carolina. “Mistreating trans employees is illegal and unacceptable. Sam’s Club must be held accountable.”
This case is Charlene Bost v. Sam’s East, Inc. and Wal-Mart Associates, Inc. It was filed in the United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina.
TLDEF Senior Staff Attorney Donna Levinsohn is representing Ms. Bost in partnership with Robert Elliot of the North Carolina law firm of Elliot Morgan Parsonage, PLLC.
A spokesperson for the company said: “Wal-Mart maintains a strong anti-discrimination policy. We support diversity and inclusion in our workforce and do not tolerate discrimination or retaliation of any kind.
“We disagree with the claims raised by Ms. Bost. Her termination was for performance reasons. We will respond as appropriate with the court.”
There is no federal law that explicitly bans discrimination against LGBT people, so the case relies on an interpretation of a civil rights provision outlawing discrimination based on sex.
Such interpretations have been hotly contested in the past few months.
Under the Trump administration, Attorney General Jeff Sessions has argued that the Civil Rights Act provisions should be narrowly interpreted to refer to discrimination against men or women, whereas Obama-era officials had argued that it logically also provided protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
A court had been hearing the case of Donald Zarda, a late former skydiving instructor who alleged that Altitude Express Inc fired him because of his sexuality.
In a surprise intervention, federal government officials sided with the employer – arguing that it is entirely legal to discriminate against gay employees on a federal level.
Zarda’s lawyers had cited civil rights protections from the 1960s in their case.
But the Department of Justice now insists that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlaws discrimination in employment based on sex, does not provide any protection for gay people.
s.
Mooppan insisted: “Employers under Title VII are permitted to consider employees’ out-of-work sexual conduct.
“There is a commonsense, intuitive difference between sex and sexual orientation.”
The DOJ had insisted: “Discrimination based on sexual orientation does not fall within Title VII’s prohibition on sex discrimination because it does not involve “disparate treatment of men and women”.
“Rather than causing similarly situated ‘members of one sex [to be] exposed to disadvantageous terms or conditions of employment to which members of the other sex are not exposed’, differential treatment of gay and straight employees for men and women alike.”
The DOJ also argued somewhat circularly that it was clear that existing civil rights law doesn’t protect gay people, because Congress remains opposed to “proposed legislation that would prohibit discrimination in employment based on sexual orientation”.
The mission of the Gay Travel Awards is to recognize and promote select LGBTQ welcoming properties, events, destinations and travel-related companies around the globe. These distinguished organizations lead by example and help to inspire other companies and brands around the world to follow their spirit of inclusiveness and acceptance.
This year, the 23 winners were selected from over 100 nominees. The Gay Travel Awards support and promote LGBTQ travel and tourism by identifying and rewarding select organizations which exemplify a spirit of inclusiveness, acceptance, exemplary customer service and hospitality excellence.
Stephen Prisco, Vice President, GayTravel.com
“The Gay Travel Awards support and promote LGBTQ travel and tourism by identifying and rewarding select organizations which exemplify a spirit of inclusiveness, acceptance, exemplary customer service and hospitality excellence,” said Stephen Prisco, Vice President of this year’s sponsor, GayTravel.com.
A complete list of this year’s categories and winners are listed alphabetically below:
Bed & Breakfast of the Year – Worthington Guesthouse – Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Car Rental – Advantage Rent A Car
Casino Resort – Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood, FL
Destination Domestic – Orlando, FL
Destination International – Vienna
Fan Favorite Hotel – Nikki Beach Resort Koh Samui
Gay Bar of the Year – Palace Bar – Miami Beach, FL
Gay Pride of the Year – New York City
Hotel Collection of the Year – Starwood Hawaii
Hotel Luxury, Europe – St. James’ Court, London
Hotel Luxury, Mexico – The St. Regis Mexico City
Hotel Luxury, US – Rancho Valencia – Rancho Santa Fe, CA
Hotel, Wedding Resort – Ritz-Carlton Amelia Island
LGBT Cruise Operator – Atlantis
LGBT Tour Operator – Toto Tours
LGBT Travel Agency – Cruising with Pride
Ocean Cruise Line – Royal Caribbean International
Romantic Hotel or Resort – Castlehotel Schönburg
Spa of the Year – Meadowood Napa Valley
Summer Event – Gay Wine Weekend
Travel App – Hopper
Value Hotel – Doubletree by Hilton Orlando Downtown
Winter Event – Whistler Pride
GayTravel connects the LGBTQ community with gay-friendly destinations, hotels, cruises, tours, events, entertainment, attractions, clubs and restaurants throughout the world. Their mission is to provide the community with safe, welcoming and unique recommendations to ensure that every vacation is both pleasurable and memorable.
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) has announced key national and in-state staff to lead HRC Rising, a bold, proactive grassroots campaign to accelerate progress in states from coast-to-coast, resist the politics of hate, fight anti-LGBTQ legislation, and fuel pro-equality candidates and initiatives in 2018, 2020 and beyond.
HRC has begun recruiting at least 45 full-time political, field, grassroots organizing, volunteer engagement, communications, and digital staff for this earliest, largest grassroots deployment in its 37-year history. Today, HRC announced the first 12 staff, who will join more than two dozen existing staff working on the HRC Rising initiative. They will immediately begin working with HRC’s 32 existing, volunteer-led, local steering committees to expand local partnerships, recruit volunteers, mobilize constituents, register voters and grow the organization’s grassroots army to flex political muscle in legislatures and at the ballot box.
In Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, HRC is making an especially strong, early push to organize against the Trump-Pence agenda and support pro-equality candidates in coming elections. Newly hired State Managers will manage state staff and volunteers, and work with state and local organizations and partners in coalition to bolster efforts to advance equality, defend the LGBTQ community against attacks, and deliver wins for pro-equality candidates in order to lay the groundwork for future legislative victories. As part of HRC Rising, HRC will also expand its public education and programmatic initiatives to raise awareness about the scope and consequences of inequality and engage a broader swath of the public in our efforts to empower and improve the lives of LGBTQ people everywhere. This will include education about the lack of federal non-discrimination protections that leave LGBTQ people in 31 states at risk of being fired, denied housing, and denied services for who they are or whom they love.
The launch of HRC Rising comes after a year in which HRC significantly expanded its grassroots engagement and proved that the ten million LGBTQ voters in America — five percent of all voters — are one of the most important and effective voting blocs in the nation. Over the last year, HRC has refined its digital outreach, organizing and targeting, including the development of an “Equality Support” model. HRC can now target with a high degree of accuracy not only LGBTQ voters but allies — “equality voters” — who are likely to oppose candidates who attack the civil rights of LGBTQ people.
“The defeat of Pat McCrory in North Carolina and Roy Moore in Alabama show anti-equality politicians everywhere that ‘Equality Voters’ are a powerful voting bloc that can determine elections,” said JoDee Winterhof, HRC Senior Vice President of Policy and Political Affairs. “With so much at stake in 2018, it was more important than ever for us to make this crucial investment in on-the-ground staff a year before the election. Their work mobilizing, activating and harnessing the energy of our grassroots army of more than three million members will truly make the difference come November, and we’re excited for them to join the team as we enter the next stage in the fight for full LGBTQ equality.”
Geoff Wetrosky, former National Campaign Manager for the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), has been named Campaign Director for HRC Rising. Wetrosky has a decade’s worth of on-the-ground experience working on Democratic presidential, gubernatorial, US Senate, US House, and municipal-level campaigns in 11 different states. Long-time HRC Senior Regional Field Director Lynne Bowman, who has overseen HRC’s field efforts in the midwest and northeast since 2012, and Jonathan Shields, who helped lead HRC’s election efforts in North Carolina and across the country in 2016, have joined Wetrosky as Deputy Campaign Directors. Wes Schrock, who most recently built and executed the Democratic Party’s national volunteer program for Virginia’s 2017 elections, is serving as Campaign Coordinator.
HRC also announced four State Managers: Pennsylvania State Manager Allison VanKuiken, Ohio State Manager Shawn Copeland, Wisconsin State Manager Wendy Strout, and Nevada State Manager Briana Escamilla. HRC is also hiring state managers in Arizona and Michigan, who will be on board early next year.
VanKuiken, the former deputy field director for Pennsylvania Competes, joins the team after serving as Equality California’s program director and brings extensive campaign experience in state races in Michigan. Copeland comes to HRC after years leading field campaigns in Ohio for organizations including the Progressive Turnout PAC, NextGen Climate Ohio and Equality Ohio. Strout has deep experience in Wisconsin’s nonprofit advocacy world, building Emerge America’s statewide program in Wisconsin, and most recently leading field work for the Wisconsin AFL-CIO. Escamilla joins HRC from the League of Conservation Voters, where she was Nevada field director, and has also worked for the Nevada State Assembly and the State Democratic Party.
The state managers will manage incoming regional organizing leads, oversee statewide recruitment, cultivate and train volunteer leaders, and mobilize “Equality Voters” ahead of crucial 2018 elections in their states.
HRC is also expanding its digital and communications operations, with staff dedicated to strategic work supporting these in-state teams. Ianthe Metzger, who previously worked at HRC, is leading communications for the six priority states. Prior to rejoining the team she worked at the PR firm BerlinRosen where her clients included Planned Parenthood, the Southern Environmental Law Center and the Democratic Attorneys General Association. Senior Manager of Online Strategy Jacob Shlomo and social organizers Curtis Clinch and Charles Girard will be expanding HRC’s digital communication with members in the six priority states. Shlomo most recently worked at digital strategy firm Mothership Strategies, Girard comes from the HRC Foundation’s Welcoming School program, and Clinch has an extensive background in public relations and marketing for nonprofits.
The psychological and social risks that adolescents experience can have a lasting impact on adulthood.
When those risks include drug use, mental distress and exposure to violence, they may engage in unsafe sexual behavior that increases their chance of HIV infection, according to a new longitudinal study by the University of Michigan.
“Our findings support the notion that the increasing frequency of psychosocial risk factors experienced during adolescence may have effects on HIV risk behaviors decades later,” said study lead author David Cordova, U-M assistant professor of social work.
Cordova and colleagues conducted the study from September 1994 to May 2013 in Flint, Mich. The participants involved 850 students, mainly African-American, who were asked about their sexual behaviors, mental health, being a victim or witness of violence, and social conditions (family, peer and community factors) beginning at age 14. They were assessed six times during the study until age 32.
One out of four respondents who had a relatively higher frequency of co-occurring psychological and social risk as adolescents were more likely to report unprotected sex with recent partners, as well as sexual intercourse with someone they just met in adulthood.
In addition, they were more likely to use illegal drugs prior to sex, and had at least four sexual partners. This segment was more vulnerable to HIV risk than those who were part of the low frequency of risk group, which had fewer instances of drug use, violence and mental distress during adolescence.
Since the study mainly involved African-American respondents, the findings may not be generalized to all adolescent populations, Cordova said.
The paper’s other authors are U-M researchers Justin Heinze, Hsing-Fang Hsieh, Ritesh Mistry and Marc Zimmerman; Christopher Salas-Wright of Boston University; and Stephanie Cook of New York University.
Over 21,000 AT&T wireless workers have reached a precedent-setting tentative agreement that, in addition to curbing outsourcing and raising pay, wins the widest-reaching protections for transgender employees of any telecom industry contract. The tentative agreement, secured by the Communications Workers of America (CWA), provides the first-ever enforceable protections against discrimination based on gender identity in 16 states where no statewide non-discrimination law covering this category exists—proving the power of union bargaining in addressing workplace discrimination in all forms.
The tentative agreement – which also includes the first-ever commitment that AT&T will send a guaranteed percentage of customer service calls to union-represented call centers, rather than contractors – is enforceable across the 36 states covered by CWA’s bargaining unit. Many of these states have laws in place allowing companies to terminate employees for their gender identity or expression. In a bold step to address this inequity, the agreement’s language establishes full LBTGQ protections that provides a vital supplement to anti-discrimination laws by outlining a clear process for redressing discrimination through the union grievance and arbitration process.
“We stand in solidarity and unity with LGBTQ members of the CWA family. Their fight for equality and a workplace free of discrimination and harassment is our fight too and we are proud to carry the torch on their behalf,” said Dennis G. Trainor, Vice President of CWA District One. “This contract shines a light on the union power to drive progress—proving that no problem is too daunting to go unchallenged. Let this be a signal to opponents of LGBTQ equality, who are nearly always opponents of workers’ rights too: we stand strong together and will tear down all obstacles to full equality.”
According to the U.S. Transgender Survey conducted by the National Center for Transgender Equality, the unemployment rate for transgender people is three times the national average and nearly 1 in 3 transgender people who had worked in the previous year reported mistreatment on the job that was directly related to their gender identity or expression. Unions play a key role in reversing this trend in states and among companies lacking comprehensive non-discrimination policies.
CWA has historically stood up for LGBTQ people in the workplace by pushing massive corporations to adopt more progressive and inclusive workplace policies. In 2013, CWA endorsed public and private trans-inclusive health insurance coverage. In 2015, CWA broadly endorsed a resolution to support comprehensive civil rights legislation to protect LGBTQ people from discrimination in employment, housing, credit, education, government-funded activities and public accommodations and resolved “to be active in the struggle for equality inside and outside the workplace until all barriers to full participation in society are removed.”
In addition to the new AT&T wireless agreement, CWA has negotiated gender identity protections in other AT&T contracts covering wireline workers in the Southeast and in a legacy national contract.
“This contract shows a real commitment to the dignity and respect of working people, specifically transgender working people—a community that has long fought for equality in the workplace,” said Jerame Davis, executive director of Pride@Work, a nonprofit organization that represents LGBTQ union members and their allies. “CWA is a strong ally in the fight for LGBTQ equality and has demonstrated that by negotiating this provision that makes it possible for thousands of AT&T workers to go to work knowing they have affirmative protection against discrimination or retribution—many for the very first time. Unions have long fought for economic, social and workplace equality and, CWA has always been a leader among union in the fight for LGBTQ equality.”
CWA’s tentative agreement with AT&T provides 10.1% in raises over the course of the contract and shifts $2,500 from commission to base pay for retail workers. Under the new agreement, AT&T wireless retail workers would be paid an average $19.20 per hour by the end of the four-year contract, about 74% more than the national average pay for retail workers. This comes as a recent report by the Center for Popular Democracy finds that only 8% of U.S. retail workers are paid at least $15/hour, have paid leave and full-time hours.
For the first time at any wireless company in the country, workers have won guaranteed customer service work at U.S. call centers, representing an 80% increase in the share of total call volume over the current levels. AT&T wireless workers have also won first-time job security protections that require AT&T to find them a new job if their call center or retail store closes. Combined with better, more stable pay and reduced intrusive surveillance at work, the proposed agreement dramatically improves the quality of workers’ lives on the job.
Catholic Bishops in the US are behind a new campaign encouraging parents to reject their transgender children.
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a letter this week that brands transgender people “deeply troubling” and claims that changing gender is a “false idea”.
There is nothing in the Bible about transgender people or changing gender, but the Bishops have called for parents to refuse to allow kids to transition.
Studies have shown that an unaccepting or stifling environment drastically increases the likelihood that transgender youths will attempt suicide.
The letter says: “Children especially are harmed when they are told that they can ‘change’ their sex or, further, given hormones that will affect their development and possibly render them infertile as adults.
“Parents deserve better guidance on these important decisions, and we urge our medical institutions to honor the basic medical principle of ‘first, do no harm’.
“Gender ideology harms individuals and societies by sowing confusion and self-doubt.
“The state itself has a compelling interest, therefore, in maintaining policies that uphold the scientific fact of human biology and supporting the social institutions and norms that surround it. “
The letter adds: “The movement today to enforce the false idea—that a man can be or become a woman or vice versa—is deeply troubling.
“It compels people to either go against reason—that is, to agree with something that is not true—or face ridicule, marginalization, and other forms of retaliation.
“We desire the health and happiness of all men, women, and children. Therefore, we call for policies that uphold the truth of a person’s sexual identity as male or female, and the privacy and safety of all.
“We hope for renewed appreciation of the beauty of sexual difference in our culture and for authentic support of those who experience conflict with their God-given sexual identity.”
It also says: “We also believe that God created each person male or female; therefore, sexual difference is not an accident or a flaw—it is a gift from God that helps draw us closer to each other and to God. What God has created is good.
“God created mankind in his image; in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”
The advice is particularly harmful to families with transgender children, and represents a giant leap by the USCCB to a position that does not appear to be based on any scripture or pre-existing Catholic teaching.
Rev. James Martin, a highly-respected Jesuit priest, is the author of recently-published book Building a Bridge, which sets out a framework for the Catholic Church to begin to engage with the LGBT community with “respect, compassion and sensitivity”.
In the book, the priest draws on the Christian ideals of “respect, compassion, and sensitivity” as a model for how the Catholic Church should relate to the LGBT community, igniting anger from the anti-LGBT lobby which is dominant within the church.
In the wake of the book’s publication, hardline opponents of LGBT equality within the Church began a campaign targeting Rev. Martin – successfully convincing a string of global Catholic organisations to cancel planned events where he had been due to speak about unrelated subjects.
The Theological College in Washington DC, where the priest was due to give a lecture about the Bible, abruptly cancelled the event last week, after conservatives raised issues with Rev. Martin’s beliefs on LGBT issues.
The Order of the Holy Sepulchre in New York also cancelled a lecture by Rev. Martin, confirming that his invite “was in fact rescinded”.
Rev. Martin had also been set to travel to London to deliver the 2017 lecture for Cafod, the overseas aid agency of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales.
After the backlash the event was shelved entirely, with Martin confirming that “cancellation of the 2017 Cafod lecture, scheduled for October, was out of fears of the backlash to my book”.
In a statement to PinkNews Cafod claimed that the 2017 lecture was actually just ‘postponed’ until next year for scheduling reasons and that an invitation “still stands” for Rev. Martin to speak in future.
This is somewhat incongruous given Cafod supplied a completely different statement to the Catholic Herald that confirmed it had been “considering” the future of the event due to “strength of feeling [Martin’s book] generated in some quarters”.
In a statement, Rev. Martin said: “I want to say that I bear no ill will whatsoever to Cafod, the Order of the Holy Sepulchre or Theological College. All of them are fine Catholic institutions that serve, in their different ways, the People of God.”
He added: “One of the many sad ironies of this episode has been that in each case the local ordinary was perfectly fine with my speaking – in London, New York and DC.
“Yet those who decided on the cancellations were ultimately influenced more by fear of protests and negative publicity than by the opinions of their ordinaries, in each case a cardinal.
“The situations were so terrifically fraught with fear for these organizations: fear of protests, fear of violence, fear of bad publicity, fear of angry donors, fear of lost donations, fear of offending, and on and on.
“When two of the organizers called me, I could hear the anguish in their voices.”
Addressing the anti-LGBT activists who had waged a campaign against him, he added: “So what do we do?
“Don’t give into them. To me, that’s an important lesson of the past few days. Don’t let them cow you.
“They’re like schoolyard bullies that keep taunting you? Well, you’re not 12 any longer. They can’t hurt you.
“And why let fear run your organization? It’s a sure way to disaster. And the PR from cancelling something is always worse. Don’t let them run things in your organization.”
He added: “If they are angry people, their anger comes from somewhere, which is ultimately sadder for them than for you. If they have a visceral hatred for LGBT people, it probably comes from a discomfort with their own complex sexuality, which is also sadder for them. ‘Hurt people hurt people’, as the saying goes.
“Often these sites or groups or individuals feel that they are being prophetic: i.e.,pointing out your supposed sins, completely contrary to Jesus’s command not to judge.
“Even more often, that prophecy morphs into pure hatred and obvious contempt and endless name calling. It’s called spite. But that doesn’t mean you yourself have to move towards hatred. That would be giving into the Evil Spirit.”
Others have been less forgiving.
Writing in America Magazine, San Diego Bishop Robert W. McElroy lashed out at those who had sought to censor Rev. Martin.
He wrote: “There has arisen both in Catholic journals and on social media a campaign to vilify Father Martin, to distort his work, to label him heterodox, to assassinate his personal character and to annihilate both the ideas and the dialogue that he has initiated.
“This campaign of distortion must be challenged and exposed for what it is—not primarily for Father Martin’s sake but because this cancer of vilification is seeping into the institutional life of the church.
“Already, several major institutions have canceled Father Martin as a speaker. Faced with intense external pressures, these institutions have bought peace, but in doing so they have acceded to and reinforced a tactic and objectives that are deeply injurious to Catholic culture in the United States and to the church’s pastoral care for members of the L.G.B.T. communities.”
Surprisingly, the active censorship of Rev. Martin has not aroused protests from any of the ‘free speech’ campaigners who have sprung up to defend far-right speakers on college campuses.
