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.
A judge violated ethics rules by insisting he did not want to oversee same-sex adoptions, officials have concluded.
Judge Mitchell Nance, who presides over family court in Kentucky’s 43rd Judicial District, caused a storm earlier this year after he banned cases involving gay families from his courtroom.
Judge Nance’s order registered an “conscientious objection to the concept of adoption of a child by a practising homosexual”, seeking to recuse himself from such cases on the grounds of “matters of conscience”.
The judge claimed he cannot hear the cases because he believes there is no circumstance in which “the best interest of the child [would] be promoted by the adoption by a practicing homosexual”.
A probe into his conduct by the Kentucky Judicial Conduct Commission this week established that he had violated ethics rules.
The judge was handed a reprimand, having already confirmed that he will ‘voluntarily’ resign from the bench over the row.
The state judicial commission had pursued ethics charges against Nance, accusing him of violating the judicial code of conduct.
This bars judges from overtly “showing bias or prejudice based on race, sex, religion, national origin, disability, age, sexual orientation or socioeconomic status”.
He was also accused of failing to act in a way that “promotes public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary”.
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Responding to the charges previously, Nance’s lawyers confirmed that he would be resigning rather than face punishment.
The complaint against the judge was pursued by the Fairness Campaign, a Kentucky LGBT group. It was joined by Lambda Legal, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Kentucky and University of Louisville Law Professor Sam Marcosson.
Speaking to the Herald Leader, Chris Hartman of the Fairness Campaign said: “I think that we’ve got justice here
“Judge Nance has proven he cannot be entrusted with decisions that affect his diverse constituency and their families.
“I hope it sends a message that fairness and justice must be applied equally, and that judges whose conscience conflicts with their duties must resign the bench if they cannot deliver that basic fairness and justice.”
The judge had insisted previously that he had not discriminated against gay couples because the order was “preemptive”.
The judge explained he wanted to make clear in advance that he would not take such cases, adding: “It’s preemptive in nature… I wanted to preempt there from being any uncertainty if the situation arose.”
Judge Nance was backed by anti-LGBT groups.
The anti-LGBT Family Foundation of Kentucky said: “If we are going to let liberal judges write their personal biases and prejudices into law, as we have done on issues of marriage and sexuality, then, in the interest of fairness, we are going to have to allow judges with different views to at least recuse themselves from such cases.
“When adoption agencies abandon the idea that it is in the best interest of a child to grow up with both a mother and a father, people can’t expect judges who do believe that to be forced to bow the knee.”
The group insisted the judge was correct to “recuse himself if he believes his views might bias a cas.
It added: “We can’t imagine how the groups now trying to unseat him claim to be in favor of tolerance and diversity while at the same time trying to hound from office public officials who don’t agree with their politically correct ideology.”
“If the Judicial Ethics Commission rules against Nance, it will be the second time in recent months which it has ruled against a judge for doing what the law requires judges to do.”
A federal appeals court has denied the Trump administration’s request to further delay enlistment of new transgender service members in the armed forces. The ruling comes in the American Civil Liberties Union’s case, Stone v. Trump.
The trial court prohibited the government from implementing President Trump’s unconstitutional ban on transgender people serving in the military on November 21. Two other federal district courts have entered similar injunctions, and the government has filed motions to stay those injunctions before three federal courts of appeals. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit is the first court of appeals to rule on the stay requests.
Josh Block, senior staff attorney with the ACLU LGBT & HIV Project, had this reaction:
“We are happy that the court saw through the government’s smokescreen and rejected its request to further delay the policy allowing transgender people to enlist. The military has already developed comprehensive guidance to prepare for a January 1 start date, and the government failed to offer any credible reason why transgender people should be barred from enlisting if they can meet the same rigorous standards that apply to everyone else.”
A new study has revealed that lesbian, gay, bisexual and questioning teens are at least four times more likely to be suicidal than their heterosexual peers.
The research in the Journal of Adolescent Health investigated how sexual orientation and traumatic experiences affect suicidal feelings and attempts in teenagers.
The study asked questions to 5,000 students from 97 high schools in Nevada, United States.
A risk of suicide was linked with childhood experiences of trauma, known as adverse childhood experiences (ACEs).
These traumatic experiences included sexual assault, domestic violence and physical harm from a parent.
The study discovered that LGB people without traumatic experiences were four times more likely to be suicidal or have attempted suicide than their heterosexual peers.
The study also found that LGB and questioning people were more likely to have experienced trauma or significant upset in their childhoods.
Over 50% of LGB students said they had been through two or more traumatic incidents, compared to around 25% of heterosexual students.
LGB and questioning students with one incident of trauma were nearly seven times more likely to be suicidal than heterosexual students with one incident.
LGB students who had three or more significant traumatic experiences were 14 times more likely to think about suicide or be suicidal than heterosexual students.
Kristen Clements-Nolle of the University of Nevada, the lead author on the study, highlighted the need for research on teen suicide in a statement to Reuters Health.
She said: “It is imperative that we identify adolescent populations at greatest risk to guide our prevention efforts.
“Furthermore, cumulative exposure to ACEs greatly increased suicide risk behaviours among sexual minority adolescents.
She continued: “for example, compared with heterosexual students with no exposure to ACEs, LGB/not sure students with two or more ACEs had approximately 13 times higher odds of attempting suicide in the past year.”
The 2014 study discovered that lesbian and bisexual girls are more likely to report planning suicide, having suicidal thoughts and self-harming than their male peers.
Bisexual and lesbian girls were approximately half as likely to have been treated by a medical professional as a result of a suicide attempt.
Neither of the 2014 or 2017 studies investigated transgender, genderqueer or intersex youths.
The Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus slammed the Trump administration for continuing to censor and erase transgender and allied voices from public discourse at the Department of Health and Human Services, which has reportedly withheld more than 10,000 public comments from a proposal with life and death consequences for the transgender community.
“The Trump administration has all but conceded that they cannot win a public debate on the merits and so has resorted to erasing opposition voices from the public sphere,” said LGBT Equality Caucus Executive Director Roddy Flynn. “This disturbing development comes just days after reporting that agencies within HHS were banning staff from even using the word ‘transgender.’ It seems this administration is not content with just giving a stamp of government approval on discrimination or banning transgender patriots from the military, they are intent on entirely erasing the community from public life.”
In October, the Trump administration sought public comment on a proposal to reduce HHS regulations for religious and faith-based groups, a move that could impact transgender American’s access to health care. While HHS received 10,729 comments on the proposal, it only published 80 comments. The comments published largely support the rule on the grounds that it rolls back nondiscrimination healthcare protections for transgender Americans.
Wednesday, Dec. 20, at 11 AM, the National LGBTQ Task Force and the National Partnership for Women & Families are partnering with LGBTQ, reproductive rights, and scientific advocates to demonstrate at the Department of Health and Human Services and to say women, the transgender community, scientific community, and progressive allies will stand united in a visual protest against the Centers for Disease Control’s action. Note that there will not be a speakers program – this demonstration a visual representation and activists will be taking to social media under the hashtags. #CDC7Words, and #ScienceNotSilence.
The U.S. Treasury Department on Wednesday imposed new sanctions on five Russians and Chechens, including the head of the Russian republic of Chechnya, for alleged human rights abuses.
Head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov delivers a speech during a rally in support of Muslim Rohingya following the recent violence, which erupted in Myanmar, in the Chechen capital Grozny, Russia September 4, 2017. REUTERS/Said Tsarnayev
The new sanctions blacklisted Ramzan Kadyrov, the Chechen leader and a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Treasury Department said in a statement.
U.S. authorities accused Kadyrov of overseeing “an administration involved in disappearances and extrajudicial killings”.
On a conference call with reporters Wednesday, a senior U.S. State Department official said that “one or more of Kadyrov’s political opponents were killed at his direction.”
Kadyrov reacted to news of the sanctions with his usual defiance.
“A sleepless night is waiting for me,” Kadyrov wrote, apparently sarcastically, on his Instagram social media account. “I can be proud that I‘m out of favor with the special services of the USA. In fact, the USA cannot forgive me for dedicating my whole life to the fight against foreign terrorists among which there are bastards of America’s special services.”
He also wrote that he would not be visiting the United States.
The U.S. Treasury Department imposed the sanctions, which freeze the banks accounts of those targeted, under a 2012 law known as the Magnitsky Act.
The Magnitsky Act imposed visa bans and asset freezes on Russian officials linked to the death in prison of Sergei Magnitsky, a 37-year-old Russian auditor and whistleblower. The act also seeks to hold responsible those U.S. authorities allege orchestrated or benefited from the death of Magnitsky.
“Treasury remains committed to holding accountable those involved in the Sergei Magnitsky affair, including those with a role in the criminal conspiracy and fraud scheme that he uncovered,” Director of the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control John Smith said in a statement.
Magnitsky was arrested and died in a Moscow jail in 2009 after discovering a $230 million tax fraud scheme, according to U.S. authorities. Supporters of Magnitsky say the Russian state murdered him by denying him adequate medical care after he was imprisoned on tax evasion charges. The Kremlin denies the allegation.
In addition to Kadyrov and one other Chechen official, the Treasury’s action on Wednesday targeted three Russians that U.S. authorities say were involved in the complex tax fraud scheme that Magnitsky exposed.
The Magnitsky sanctions have been a point of tension between Moscow and Washington, even before Russia’s annexation of Crimea sent relations spiraling. In retaliation for the Magnitsky Act, Putin signed a bill halting U.S. adoptions of Russian children.
It had been unclear to sanctions experts whether President Donald Trump’s administration, which has signaled a desire to rebuild ties with Moscow, would continue to target people under the law.
The Magnitsky Act attracted greater public attention when it emerged that the president’s son Donald Trump Jr., had met with a Russian lawyer and a lobbyist – both strident opponents of the law – in New York ahead of the 2016 U.S. elections. When asked about the June 2016 meeting, Trump Jr. later said they discussed the adoptions issue.
On a conference call with reporters on Wednesday, State Department officials said that despite the new sanctions the Trump administration wants a constructive relationship with Moscow.
“We believe a Russia that takes care of the human rights of its own citizens will be an even more effective partner,” a senior State Department official said.
After the LGBT community celebrated Doug Jones’ senate win last week in Alabama, beating homophobic and accused sexual predator Roy Moore, the queer community celebrated something else. Internet detectives discovered Jones had a gay son, Carson Jones, and a new Instagram hunk was born.
We had the opportunity to ask Carson Jones some questions about his father’s win, if he’s single or taken and what his DM box is looking like these days now that he has a whole lot more thirsty followers … including us.
Hornet: Since we first blogged about you, your Instagram following has grown by more than 15,000 followers. How does it feel to have such a strong following now and what are you going to do with your platform?
Carson Jones: It was honestly kind of overwhelming as the followers started to climb really quickly. But I have had so many really nice people reach out with words of encouragement and support. So many people have just simply said “Thank you” and all of that really means a lot. Moving forward, I probably will get a bit more vocal about issues. But honestly who knows what the future holds at this point.
What do you know now that you didn’t know at the start of your father’s campaign?
Alabama really can change. I was definitely very pessimistic before the victory and while I saw Alabama changing, it was very very slow. This victory was just so monumental that it really demonstrates that my home state can and will be a place that puts people first.
Do you ever see yourself becoming more involved with politics yourself, especially since there are so few LGBT out politicians in office?
I honestly have no idea what the cards will hold later on. I absolutely love what I do now as a zookeeper and really can’t ever imagine leaving the field. This has been my passion since I was about five years old and I’m finally getting to do some really amazing things with animals and to inspire conservation action. But all that being said, I’ve always been interested in politics, so nothing is getting ruled out for sure.
What has your personal experience been with dating apps like Hornet?
I mean like pretty much every gay guy my age, I have definitely had my fair share of positive and negative experiences with the “app culture” in the gay community. I kind of go through periods where I am using them constantly for a few weeks and then forget all about them for a while and then go back to them. It’s a cycle.
Are you single or taken?
(Laughs) I’m very much single.
What do you look for in a partner?
Just getting started dipping my toe in the dating pool which has been exciting but also terrifying. I mean, I’m looking for what I think most people are: someone handsome and charming but also someone genuine and real. Someone that is engaged with the world around them and supportive when I binge eat Chinese food at 3:00 a.m. after a night out on the town. (Laughs)
If you could sit in a room with some of the men and women who voted for your father, what’s the first thing you would say to them?
It would just be thank you, thank you, thank you. It was amazing to stand in the stage behind my dad on election night and see supporters in the audience bawling at how happy this victory was for them. It really makes you understand how important this election really was. This victory isn’t my dad’s victory, this is their victory and I would tell them that.
If you could say one thing to your 16-year-old self, what would it be?
I think my 16-year-old self was way too tightly strung. I’m still an A-type personality, but 16-year-old Carson took that way too far. So I would simply say, “Chill out. Everything is going to work out.”
What’s the craziest DM you got from a new follower this week?
Honestly, everyone has been surprisingly tame. No dick pics or anything. Lots of marriage proposals but also a lot of really amazing supportive messages. I definitely get a lot of “ZADDY” comments. I honestly had no idea what that meant and had to look it up. And now my close friends are trolling my Instagram and commenting “ZADDY” everywhere. (Laughs)
So what’s next?
Finishing grad school is the top priority. I’ll be done in May and then I’ll see where that takes me. Hopefully a really amazing zoo wants to hire me on full-time and I can really get going with my career. But I also just want to take some time and travel and relax. It has been a crazy year to say the least, so if more naps could be in my future in 2018 … that would be perfect.
The Trump administration has banned multiple divisions within the Department of Health and Human Services including the Centers for Disease Control from using certain words or phrases in official documents being drafted for next year’s budget. The banned words are “Vulnerable,” “entitlement,” “diversity,” “transgender,” “fetus,” “evidence-based” and “science-based.”
Rush Holt, chief executive of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, said: “Among the words forbidden to be used in CDC budget documents are ‘evidence-based’ and ‘science-based.’ I suppose one must not think those things either. Here’s a word that’s still allowed: ridiculous.”
“To pretend and insist that transgender people do not exist, and to allow this lie to infect public health research and prevention is irrational and very dangerous, and not just to transgender people,” Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality told the Washington Post.
David Stacy, the Human Rights Campaign’s (HRC) director of Government Affairs said HRC would fight the ban, “The Trump-Pence administration’s effort to eliminate entire communities from its vocabulary is a dangerous attack on LGBTQ people, women, and fact-based policy making. The move is reminiscent of a time not long ago when the government tried to ignore the reality of the HIV and AIDS crisis to the detriment of millions. This kind of erasure has potentially catastrophic consequences beyond the words used by the CDC — it could impact the very programs most vital to the health of women, transgender people, and others. But we will not be erased. The Human Rights Campaign will fight this and other politically-motivated policies, and this decision will ultimately backfire on the Trump-Pence administration.”
Shin Inouye, director of communications and media relations of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, issued the following statement on news of the ban,
“President Trump and his administration have launched the latest salvo in their all-out war on truth and science. This latest tactic could be taken from a George Orwell novel, or taken by an oppressive authoritarian regime. Banning the use of words like transgender, science-based, and diversity will only harm the public health as the CDC carries out its important mission.
“We applaud the journalists who have brought this latest abuse to light. Trump may decry these stories as fake, but these reports show the continuing disdain of this administration to facts. The public relies on our government to provide accurate information, and these steps undermine that important trust.”
