The course targeted girls who “think they might be gay, bisexual or transgender”.
The advertisement for the workshop has since been removed from the church website, although it says it is going ahead.
After the church declined to cancel the event, hundreds of people turned out to protest on Thursday night – and send a message to the teens that they are fine just they way they are.
(Metro-Detroit Political Action Network)
Speaking to BTL, protest organiser Brianna Dee Kingsley said: “Conversion therapy is what it is, and Metro City Church is trying to repackage it as conversation therapy.
“But the basic premise is you are broken and you need to be fixed and that something is wrong, and we stand against that – we are here to show support for the LGBTQIA community.”
Several survivors of gay cure therapy also attended the protest.
One protester said: “I went through conversion therapy at a local church when I was 15.
At Transamerica, our passion is empowering people to add more years to their lives, and more life to their years. Let’s charge forward with a healthy account balance and a healthy heart to match.
“I wanted to come out and basically make sure these kids know that there are people out there outside of your parents’ house and outside of your parents’ religion who will be there for you.
“I want them to know that they don’t have to give in to what their parents say – they can make it through this even though it’s probably hard right now going through all this.”
And Oakland University professor Char Davenport pointed out the lack of legislation banning gay cure therapy across much of the US – despite the discredited practise being condemned by hundreds of medical bodies.
Suddenly, Good Internet is Also Affordable Internet. Discover Why People Love Sonic Today
People who can get Sonic service, get it. See if Sonic’s world of fast Internet & award-winning customer service is available for you.
Ad by Sonic Internet
Davenport said: “This protest, yes it’s about this church, and it’s about these kids – but let me tell you that this is a much bigger issue than this street corner.
“Only nine states and the District of Columbia have banned this practice. We can make a difference here in Michigan, and we’re going to make a difference here in Michigan. So pay attention, and you’re going to be a part of it.”
A second protest is planned for next week.
The church’s pastor Jeremy Schossau defended the workshop in a sermon subsequently posted to YouTube.
He said: “We’ve seen this movement in culture, particularly younger people, where they are just struggling – and our culture is cheering that struggle on.
“For me, I believe it’s in the wrong direction. Unashamedly. We believe God is the creator of men and women, and that God created men to be men and women to be women, and defined their completeness in one another.
“Not man with man, or woman with woman, but with the opposite. That is God’s design. For those of us who want to follow the God of the Bible, that’s what we believe. It is not a hate-filled thing.”
He added: “Some of you are aware that a couple weeks ago we offered a workshop on the idea of sexual identity for young girls.
“It is obvious that so many young people struggle with their sexual identity, and the direction they want to go with their life.
“We see this more and more, and it has not escaped the church – this is a problem even within the church, and I do say the word ‘problem’, because God does not want us to live confused, he wants us to be whole and complete.
“God doesn’t want us to live broken. We are a Bible-believing, traditionally-minded Christian church that wants to engage the world.”
He denied that the practise was hateful because “this church believes in loving sinners”, and went on to claim parents have a “duty” to fix their children’s sexuality.
He said: “I think it is very clear in scripture that God wants men and women to be married in a monogamous, loving thing called marriage. All of this sexual movement comes from brokenness.
“We’ve been told that parents have no right to intervene in the development of their 12-year-old children. I think it’s not only a right, it’s a duty, and a responsibility.”
GLAAD, the media monitoring organization that advocates for proper treatment and representation for LGBTQ+ people in media, is now calling upon the media for increased and more accurate coverage of violence against transgender people, especially women of color.
After the death of Christa Leigh Steele-Knudslien, the first transgender casualty of 2018 and a victim of domestic abuse, GLAAD released a statement on their website elucidating both their mission and expectations for the media’s coverage of transgender murders:
“[GLAAD is calling on the media to] report on the brutal violence perpetrated against transgender people, particularly transgender women of color. With violence against transgender people at an all-time high and rising, national media coverage is severely lacking.”
The statement continues: “The media must do a better job of reporting these murders and bringing needed attention to a community under vicious and violent attack.
In order for people to be aware of the horrific violence affecting the community, the public needs to know it is happening. The media has a responsibility to communicate about the deadly realities faced by transgender people.”
In addition to the necessity of increased reporting of violence against transgender people, GLAAD is also making clear that media outlets must respect the victims by using proper pronouns and names:
“Respect and use the lived identity, name, and pronoun of the victim. Report on each victim with dignity and respect, portraying them as a person, not just a statistic.
Disregarding the victim’s gender identity and misgendering them in news reports adds further insult to injury, compounding the tragedy by invalidating who the victims were.”
For guidelines on properly and respectfully reporting on transgender people, GLAAD offers their guides entitled “GLAAD’s Doubly Victimized: Reporting on Transgender Victims of Crime” as well as “GLAAD’s Media Reference Guide.” GLAAD also directs readers to contact them if they see a news story “which misgenders a transgender victim and/or publishes details about their personal life irrelevant to their murder,” at the email address transgender@glaad.org.
GLAAD reported that in 2017, 26 transgender people were killed in the United States and nearly all of the victims were transgender women of color. The organization cites that this due in part to transgender women living “at the dangerous intersections of transphobia, racism, sexism, and criminalization which often lead to high rates of poverty, unemployment, and homelessness.”
So far, GLAAD has posted the names of two known transgender women who have been murdered in 2018; Christa Leigh Steele-Knudslien, 42, who was killed on January 5 in North Adams, Massachusetts and Viccky Gutierrez, who was killed on January 10 in Los Angeles, California.
To learn more about individual transgender victims of violence, more information can be found at https://mic.com/unerased.
LGBTQ community protest against discrimination in Ecuador with “public kiss” demonstration (Photo by JUAN CEVALLOS/AFP/Getty Images)
LGBTQ+ people are being forced into “gay cure” rehab clinics and subjected to rape and beatings in Ecuador.
Campaigners in the country have called on the government to investigate into over 100 clinics in which they believe human rights violations are being carried out against LGBTQ people.
Ecuadoran LGBTQ people demonstrate in front of the government palace in Quito against human rights abuses of gays in 1998.
(Photo by GUILLERMO LEGARIA/AFP/Getty Images)
An estimated 200 clinics are operating in the country.
Four people have come forward so far to tell of the horrifying abuse they were subjected to between 2014 and 2016 under the guise of “rehab”.
The victims say that they were beaten, placed in solitary confinement, chained to their beds for days at a time, force-fed concoctions of medicines and raped as a “corrective” measure by fellow patients and staff.
Some were also forced to wear makeup and high heels.
Ane Barragan, a coordinator at Causana Foundation, who have campaigned against gay “cure” therapy for over a decade, said that the treatment LGBTQ people were put through in an attempt to “convert” them was some of the worst they had known.
They added that it was an issue because the clinics in which the “conversion therapy” was happening were not be regulated or monitored.
It is believed that most of the victims are being admitted to the clinics by their parents under the guise that they are entering drug or alcohol rehab clinics.
Treatment costs $1,500 a month and they are usually held against their will for at least three months.
Cayetana Salao, of the LGBTQ rights group Taller de Comunicacion Mujer, said: “Corrective therapy, in mostly private and clandestine alcohol and drug addiction clinics, continues in Ecuador. It’s a reality.”
They added that of the six cases investigated by the state since 2012, no one has been found guilty or punished for the alleged violations.
“We call on the judiciary to move these cases forward and hold those people responsible to account,” Salao added.
(Photo: NELSON ALMEIDA/AFP/Getty Images)
Ecuador is one of three countries, alongside Malta and Brazil, which have banned the practice.
Homosexuality was legalised in 1997, and same-sex civil unions have been legal for over a decade.
Numerous raids were carried out on the “gay cure” clinics between 2012 and 2015 under the guidance of former health minister Carina Vance, who is openly gay.
The crackdown saw over 116 clinics raided and over 100 clinics shut down as a result.
However, within months the clinics had re-opened under different names.
Vance explained that the clinics “have a lot of power” and it is a “lucrative” business with lots of “economic interests”.
“There are families using these so-called services and this has to do with a prevalent, a very homophobic … a sexist society,” Vance said. “Cultural change is very difficult to produce.”
Maria Jose Espin, head of technical management at the health ministry’s regulatory agency, ACESS, said that these “establishments do not exist”.
“There are no de-homosexualization clinics. They shouldn’t exist,” she said.
She was sent to a “conversion” clinic 10 hours away from her home.
She said: “I’d told my family two months before that I was a lesbian and they’d been threatening me ever since.
“I was full of fear. I knew the principal ‘therapy’ at these clinics was rape.
“They told me I was bad, I was hurting my family, I was being manipulated by my girlfriend, that God made woman for men.
“I knew the same would happen to me if I didn’t comply.
“So I did everything they asked me, everything I could to survive until I could escape or someone saved me,” she said.
Ms Constante said she has not spoken to her family since.
“The first time I saw my father, at my work, I was terrified, I ran away and hid. They’ve never said sorry, never shown any regret. I’m still scared and I don’t trust them,” she added.
A trans prisoner in Missouri has won a landmark court case meaning that she will be able to access gender-affirming treatments.
Jessica Heckling has been n the Potosi Correctional Center since she was sentenced to life in prison without parole in 1995.
At just 16-years-old, was convicted of first-degree murder and armed criminal action after she shot an killed a man during a drug-related incident.
Sponsored Content
At that time, Hicklin was beginning to come to terms with her trans identity but because of former rules held by the Missouri Department of Corrections, she had been unable to access many of the treatments and procedures in order to transition.
Because she had not been diagnosed with gender dysphoria before being sentenced, she was denied access because of the “freeze frame” policy.
The policy has been coined “unconstitutional” by Hicklin’s lawyer, Demoya Gordon of Lambda Legal, and they hope that the court ruling will come as a significant blow to it.
“If they can’t justify not doing this for her, how that can they justify not doing this for anybody else. This should be the knife to the heart of the policy,” Gordon added.
Hicklin was diagnosed with severe anxiety and depression the longer she was forced to live as male.
Despite doctors recommendations, the prison denied her hormone therapy, access to women’s commissary items and regular hair removal.
However, the 38- year-old has now won her right to access these potentially life-saving items after she won a court case against the Missouri DOC.
Speaking about the ruling, Hicklin said it has been “life-saving”.
She told BuzzFeed: “It’s like you’re out in the middle of the ocean, your boat capsized, and you’re just hoping that you’ll see a boat on the horizon and that you’re not going to drown, but how do you keep treading water?
“It’s like this lawsuit was a flare. That’s really how I’ve felt, like we filed this lawsuit and it’s in the courts, there’s no indication of whether anybody saw it and I’m just drowning, and wondering why I’m still treading water. So obviously the feeling is, the boat showed up. There is life now.
“For me this is life-saving, and I know for sure if I’m talking to someone, it’s going to be life-saving for them. It’s like you’re drowning and somebody throws you the life vest,” she said.
She added that straight after she found out the ruling she almost could not believe she had won.
“I kept going, like, Are you kidding me? I get to be the woman I am? Even just trying to explain it my eyes are fogging up. I have so much hope for the future now,” she said.
She went on to explain that even being able to wear female underwear will create an incredible sense of affirmation because for a long time all she could feminise was her hair.
“All my life it’s been the only expression of womanhood I had was my hair and I’m looking forward to having [women’s] underwear that’s me… I will be the only one who knows that I have it but it’s a sign of me. And just to be able to say I dress like a woman, because I am one.”
Hickins said that the freeze frame policy, which has stopped her from furthering her transition for such a long time, is often not an “official written police” and so it’s difficult to know how many US prisons are enforcing the “antiquated” policy.
“They don’t adhere to either modern medical practice or standards of human decency,” she said.
The prisoner added that before the ruling she was scared every day that they would not win the case.
She said: “I wanted to have hope that it was going to happen and when it didn’t I had to convince myself every night when I went to bed, how am I going to go on, how am I going to keep doing this?
“I was just explaining to my therapist the other day, I can’t even take myself in the mirror anymore. And to think I’ll actually be happy to look in the mirror, that’s actually going to be me, not this other person.”
Donald Trump’s budget plans include a massive slash to HIV funding.
The GOP billionaire has come under fire from LGBT groups following the release of his 2019 budget plans released on Monday.
The budget includes cuts to domestic HIV/AIDS programs, despite the growing needs, including elimination of Special Programs of National Significance (SPNS).
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) civil rights organization, issued the following statement in response to the Trump-Pence Administration’s dangerous and irresponsible FY 2019 proposed budget.
David Stacy, HRC’s Government Affairs Director, said: “Budgets reflect your values. The Trump-Pence budget released today shows a callous disregard for critical programs that impact LGBTQ Americans.
“The elimination or slashing of programs related to the Affordable Care Act, HIV/AIDS, and international humanitarian projects are a direct threat to the safety and well-being of LGBTQ people here and around the world. Congress must reject these harmful proposals.”
Asia Russell, Executive Director of the Health Global Access Project (Health GAP), said: “President Trump’s proposal to cut over a billion dollars from the U.S. global HIV response in fiscal year 2019 shows how very out of touch he is with the American people and their values.
“Americans from across the political spectrum and every part of the country support the U.S. government’s long-standing leadership in funding life-saving HIV treatment and prevention programs in sub-Saharan Africa and across the developing world.
Yes, legendary TV star, Ted Danson drinks Smirnoff. To anyone who’s been living under a rock, Ted is very famous. Most parents would totally, probably know who he is.
“If this budget passes as proposed, Donald Trump’s legacy will be millions of new and unnecessary infections and deaths – and a massive resurgence in the AIDS pandemic.
“This is not a time to back down. U.S. funding for global AIDS programs has been critical in reducing deaths and new infections to the point where defeating AIDS is within reach. But after several years of flat funding from Congress, the response is running out of gas. At the very moment we should be on the brink of ending AIDS, Trump’s deadly budget would shift the global AIDS response into reverse.
“Congress should treat this proposal the way they treated the President’s first budget – by declaring it dead on arrival. Instead, Congress should uphold American leadership in the fight against HIV by providing urgently-needed funding increases for PEPFAR and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in the coming fiscal year.”
The budget claims: “At the funding level requested in the Budget, the United States would provide sufficient resources to maintain all current patient levels
on HIV/AIDS treatment.
“U.S. efforts to control the HIV/AIDS epidemic are a direct reflection of U.S. leadership abroad and the goodwill, compassion, and generosity of the American people.”
All members of the council were informed of their dismissal by a letter sent via courier.
Six people had already resigned from the Council en masse in June, saying that Trump and his administration “do not care” about the cause.
The move came after the quiet closure of the White House Office of National AIDS Policy, which was shuttered as part of the Presidential transition and never re-opened as Trump failed to appoint a new director.
The White House was slammed by GLAAD over its inaction.
GLAAD tweeted: “It’s time to stop being dismissive of questions about the firing of members of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV and AIDS. It’s time for this administration to prioritize issues related to HIV and AIDS.”
Chicago-based HIV activist Scott A Schoettes, a former member of the council, previously laid into the decision.
He tweeted: “Remaining #HIV/AIDS council members booted by @realDonaldTrump. No respect for their service. Dangerous that #Trump and Co. (Pence esp.) are eliminating few remaining people willing to push back against harmful policies, like abstinence-only sex ed.”
Mr Schoettes accused Trump of “executing a purge” by eliminating the council in combination with other policies. It was reported earlier this month that federal agencies had been banned from using the word ‘transgender’.
In an open letter, the six members of the council who had already quit explained that they had dedicated their lives to fighting HIV and AIDS, but felt that the Trump administration was preventing them from doing this successfully.
They wrote: “As advocates for people living with HIV, we have dedicated our lives to combating this disease and no longer feel we can do so effectively within the confines of an advisory body to a president who simply does not care.”
“The Trump Administration has no strategy to address the on-going HIV/AIDS epidemic, seeks zero input from experts to formulate HIV policy, and—most concerning—pushes legislation that will harm people living with HIV and halt or reverse important gains made in the fight against this disease.”
(Getty)
While Democratic candidates for President Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders both met with HIV advocates and proposed an action plan on the issue, Donald Trump did not.
The letter also raised objection to Trump’s healthcare policies.
The letter stated: “We know who the biggest losers will be if states are given the option of eliminating essential health benefits or allowing insurers to charge people with HIV substantially more than others.
“It will be people—many of them people of color—across the South and in rural and underserved areas across the country, the regions and communities now at the epicentre of the U.S. HIV/AIDS epidemic.
“It will be young gay and bisexual men; it will be women of colour; it will be transgender women; it will be low-income people. It will be people who become newly infected in an uncontrolled epidemic, new cases that could be prevented by appropriate care for those already living with the disease.”
The group concluded the letter by saying that the resignation was not an easy decision, but one that must be made.
“The decision to resign from government service is not one that any of us take lightly. However, we cannot ignore the many signs that the Trump Administration does not take the on-going epidemic or the needs of people living with HIV seriously.”
The bulk of the cuts are proposed to the President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), which was set up by former President George W Bush to tackle the AIDS crisis, and is one of the largest providers of funding for global projects battling the spread of HIV/AIDS.
Former President Bush, who is often praised for setting up PEPFAR despite his broadly regressive stances on LGBT issues, penned an op-ed for the Washington Post warning against any cuts.
He wrote: “My administration launched PEPFAR in 2003 to address the HIV/AIDS pandemic that threatened to wipe out an entire generation on the continent of Africa. Nearly 15 years later, the program has achieved remarkable results in the fight against
“Nearly 15 years later, the program has achieved remarkable results in the fight against disease. Today, because of the commitment of many foreign governments, investments by partners, the resilience of the African people and the generosity of the American people, nearly 12 million lives have been saved.
He added: “As the executive and legislative branches review the federal budget, they will have vigorous debates about how best to spend taxpayers’ money — and they should.
“Some will argue that we have enough problems at home and shouldn’t spend money overseas. I argue that we shouldn’t spend money on programs that don’t work, whether at home or abroad.
“But they should fully fund programs that have proven to be efficient, effective and results-oriented.
“Saving nearly 12 million lives is proof that PEPFAR works, and I urge our government to fully fund it. We are on the verge of an AIDS-free generation, but the people of Africa still need our help.
“The American people deserve credit for this tremendous success and should keep going until the job is done.”
The Education Department has told BuzzFeed News it won’t investigate or take action on any complaints filed by transgender students who are banned from restrooms that match their gender identity, charting new ground in the Trump administration’s year-long broadside against LGBT rights.
It’s the first time officials have asserted this position publicly as an interpretation of law. No formal announcement has been made.
For nearly a year, the Trump administration took a less clear stance, with officials saying they were studying the issue. When the Education Department and Justice Department withdrew Obama-era guidance on transgender restroom access in February 2017, Trump’s officials said in a memo and court filings that they would “consider the legal issues involved.” Then last June, the Education Department issued another memo saying it was “permissible” for its civil rights division to dismiss a trans student’s restroom case. However, in those statements, officials never cemented their intent to reject all restroom complaints issued by trans students.
For the past three weeks, BuzzFeed News called and emailed Education Department officials attempting to pinpoint the agency’s position.
Finally on Thursday, Liz Hill, a spokesperson for the agency, responded “yes, that’s what the law says” when asked again if the Education Department holds a current position that restroom complaints from transgender students are not covered by a 1972 federal civil rights law called Title IX.
Asked for further explanation on the department’s position, Hill said Friday, “Title IX prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, not gender identity.”
She added that certain types of transgender complaints may be investigated — but not bathroom complaints.
“Where students, including transgender students, are penalized or harassed for failing to conform to sex-based stereotypes, that is sex discrimination prohibited by Title IX,” Hill said. “In the case of bathrooms, however, long-standing regulations provide that separating facilities on the basis of sex is not a form of discrimination prohibited by Title IX.”
The Education Department’s stance conflicts with two federal appeals courts.
Catherine Lhamon, who led the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights during the Obama administration, said the new school-restroom policy is legally dubious.
“Until now, the official position of the Department has been that Title IX protects all students and that they were evaluating how that protection applies to the issue of bathroom access,” she said in an email to BuzzFeed News. “This new categorical bar of civil rights protection for transgender children required to attend schools every day ignores the text of the law, courts’ interpretation of the law, the stated position of the Department to date, and human decency.”
The Education Department’s stance conflicts with two federal appeals courts, which held that Title IX guarantees transgender students’ access to restrooms matching their gender identity. Lower courts have been divided on the matter.
Although Hill said “the law says” transgender student restroom complaints aren’t covered by Title IX, the law does not say that.
Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 says it bans discrimination “on the basis of sex” in publicly funded education settings. Does that exclude transgender restroom disputes? The plain text of the law, as some federal judges have noted, does not answer the question. It’s ambiguous, they say. The term “sex” — including in the law concerning separate restrooms — is not defined as referring to gender identity or a person’s sex as identified at birth.
But insofar as Title IX needs clarity, the highest courts in the United States to contemplate the law’s scope found it does, in fact, confer transgender students the right to use public school restrooms matching their gender identity.
The exact meaning of Title IX is ambiguous: It bans discrimination “on the basis of sex.”
Federal appeals courts for the 6th Circuit and 7th Circuit both suspended school restroom policies, ruling that transgender students were likely to prevail at trial using claims under Title IX.
Most recently, in May 2017, a unanimous three-judge panel for 7th Circuit wrote in Whitaker v. Kenosha Unified School District that a “policy that requires an individual to use a bathroom that does not conform with his or her gender identity punishes that individual for his or her gender non‐conformance, which in turn violates Title IX.”
Harper Jean Tobin, policy director for the National Center for Transgender Equality, told BuzzFeed News, “It marks a shift in position for the Education Department that is particularly remarkable in light of case law.”
For the department to neglect those decisions, Tobin said, is to “ignore the law in favor of their ideology.”
Hill did not answer questions about how the department reconciles its position with conflicting circuit court rulings, or why it won’t accept the complaints arising even from students inside those circuits (which encompass Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee, and Wisconsin).
In May 2016, the Obama administration issued guidance that said Title IX ensures transgender students can use restrooms and other school facilities in accordance with their gender identity. (A district court suspended that guidance after a challenge led by the state of Texas.) But even before it had guidance on the matter, the Obama administration enforced this view of Title IX in 2013.
With Trump in office, the Justice Department and Education Department sent a Dear Colleague letter to local officials in February 2017 rescinding Obama-era guidance. But the Trump administration letter did not assert a position on what Title IX required, instead announcing that officials were going to “more completely consider the legal issues involved.” It made similar statements in briefs filed at the Supreme Court and US District Court in North Carolina.
In June 2017, Candice Jackson, acting head of the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, issued a memo that said it would be “permissible” for a complaint concerning a restroom to be dismissed. But that memo did not assert any interpretation of the law or a general rule for handling such complaints.
The Justice Department said in October that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1965, which bans sex discrimination in the workplace, does not protect transgender people.
But it did not make such a clear statement on the education law. Rescinding the school guidance created the absence of a position for recipients of federal education money.
Officials at the Education and Justice Department’s did not answer questions from BuzzFeed News about when they stopped considering transgender student restroom complaints as a matter of policy and how many of those complaints have been rejected.
A Justice Department official told BuzzFeed News on Friday, “The Department of Justice cannot expand the law beyond what Congress has provided. The Department of Justice remains firmly committed to protecting the civil and constitutional rights of all Americans, and will aggressively enforce all civil rights laws enacted by Congress.”
But Lhamon disagreed, given her view that Title IX doesn’t actually tie the administration’s hands.
“That interpretation represents an appalling abdication of federal enforcement responsibility, inconsistent with the law and with courts’ interpretation of the law, and totally lacking in human compassion for children in school, whom the Department is charged to protect,” she said.
But it was Radford who earned first place, taking the gold alongside teammates Gabrielle Daleman, Patrick Chan, Kaetlyn Osmond, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir.
The 33-year-old, who also used Hometown Glory to win gold at the 2016 World Championships, posted on Twitter about breaking this huge barrier at the Pyeongchang Games.
He wrote: “This is amazing!
(Twitter/rad85e)
“I literally feel like I might explode with pride. #Olympics #outandproud #🏳️🌈”.
At the time, he said: “I used to joke around that I’m the ultimate pair-boy.
“I never had to worry about developing an off-ice relationship.”
Spend a Lot of Time on the Internet? You Need Good Internet Service. Sonic Delivers.
People who can get Sonic service, get it. See if Sonic’s world of fast Internet & award-winning customer service is available for you.
Ad by Sonic Internet
(Getty)
Radford will compete again in the pairs tournament, while Rippon will perform another men’s single.
Speaking after his performance, Rippon said: “I want to throw up. I want to go over to the judges and say, ‘Can I just have a Xanax and a quick drink? I’ll be fine.’ But I kept it together.”
An anti-LGBT+ Christian group has purchased a former gay bar – with the intent of converting it into a church.
The popular Bretz Nightclub in Toledo, Ohio, which was one of the oldest LGBT venues in the area, closed suddenly in December.
The vacated venue was purchased for $148,000 in January by the extreme evangelical group, The Greater Toledo House of Prayer.
In a statement on its website, the hateful organisation says: “In October 2017, the ministry became aware that the Adams St. building was available for sale, then toured the building and determined the space would work well for the group”.
The statement claims that the building was purchased purely because of a “lack of space” in its current offices, and denies reports that the group had anything to do with the nightclub’s closure.
(Bretz Nightclub/Facebook)
The group supports what it describes as “basic christian values” including prohibitions on “homosexuality, bisexuality, bestiality, incest, gender identity different than the birth sex chromosomal level”.
In its ‘Statement of Beliefs’ the organisation also says that “God wonderfully and immutably creates each person as male or female”, labelling any deviation from the binary as “a rejection of the image of God”.
The extreme Church is an affiliate of the Kansas-based International House of Prayer, which supports hate legislation against LGBT people, including supporting a law in Uganda calling for gay people to be put to death.
(Bretz Nightclub / Facebook)
The Greater Toledo House of Prayer also has links to another Christian group, called Agora Toledo, which had planned in 2014 to purchase a former abortion clinic in the area, and to construct a memorial to the unborn in its place.
However, the plans did not materialise, and the ex-abortion clinic is still standing.
Stakeholders in the Adams Street district, where the nightclub was based, have reacted with dismay to the news, saying they were “heartbroken” at the closure.
They added that the venue had been “a staple in our community and a home for the LGBT community for decades”.
However, representatives of the entertainment district which housed the Bretz nightclub vowed that the area will remain “a place of love, understanding, and support and celebration”.
(Village on Adams / Facebook)
A neighbourhood Facebook page, made up of business owners from the Adams Street district, declared that their support for the LGBT+ community in light of the event, writing that “Toledo. Loves. Love”.
Local LGBT+ leaders are also planning to open an LGBT community centre near the anti-gay church, where the nightclub formerly stood, which would include a food pantry, health resources and suicide prevention resources.
A global study into the treatment of transgender people has revealed that three in five people deliberately misgender trans people in order to cause disrespect.
A study carried out by Ipsos looked into the treatment and social perception of transgender people across 16 countries.
Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Poland, Serbia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden and the US were all surveyed.
Ipsos found that Americans were most likely to misgender a person on purpose, followed by Australia, Canada and Britain.
They also found that only one in five people would be ok with using the gender-neutral pronoun “they”.
It should be noted that questions about pronouns were only given to people living in countries where English is the primary language.
However, Ipsos hope that they will soon “develop similar custom questions language-by language in the future”.
Regarding the “tolerance” of transgender people, six in ten said they believed that their country was becoming more accepting.
This belief was highest in Argentina where 78 percent of the population thought that they were becoming more tolerant of trans people.
Hungary, Poland and Japan were the least likely to say that their countries were becoming more accepting.
Spain, Argentina and Britain were the nations most likely to agree with the sentiment that trans people are brave with 74, 70 and 69 percent of survey respondents agreeing with the statement.
An average of half of all people surveyed said that they believed being transgender was natural.
People in Italy (11 percent), Spain (nine percent), Argentina (13 percent), and France (13 percent) are least likely to believe that transgender people have a form of mental illness. This compares to two in five people in Serbia (44 percent), Hungary (43 percent), and Poland (41 percent).
When breaking down the data, the US is the most likely to believe that transgender people have a mental illness amongst the western countries with 32 percent of those surveyed agreeing with the statement.
It was also the most likely western country to believe that trans people are committing a sin with their gender, with 32 percent of Americans agreeing to the statement.
US pharmacy giant Walgreens has updated its bathroom policy to be trans-friendly after a woman was denied access because an employee thought she was transgender.
Jessie Meehan helped implement a companywide policy which allows customers to use the bathroom that corresponds to their gender policy.
Meehan took on the task after she was told she could not use the female bathroom at the Walgreens on Sunset Boulevard.
She was in the store during the LGBTQ Pride festival and had purchased some items in the store.
However, she was told she looked to masculine to use it and a store manager told her that it was store policy to restrict bathroom access based on appearance.
Meehan, who is not transgender, was later told by a different manager that this was not true.
She did not fight to use the female bathroom and instead used the stall in the male bathroom.
“This was very humiliating,” she explained. “I felt extremely uncomfortable.”
Her complaint was not followed up to Walgreens, and so she reached out to ACLU and staff attorney Amanda Goad sent a letter to the company explaining that California law “protects every person’s right to access restrooms based on their gender identity in workplaces, schools and business establishments.”
Meehan did not seek out a financial settlement, as she was happy that the company changed its policy across all 8,100 stores.
She added that she was shocked that she had received the treatment because she see’s Walgreens as an ally.
“(It’s) A company that really supports progressive issues which I really respect a lot. I’ve supported that business and one of the reasons why is because I knew it was an LGBT company. If this happened there, god knows where else it happens,” she said.
The musician added that she had faced similar discrimination about her appearance for her whole life, but she finally decided to take a stand after the incident in Walgreens.
“I’ve been discriminated against my whole life based on my appearance based on looking too male.
“It’s the first time I actually said something about it or did something about it.
“I can imagine there are 100s of people who didn’t do anything about it,” she said.
The new Walgreens policy states: “All individuals have a right to use restroom facilities that correspond to the individual’s gender identity, regardless of the individual’s sex assigned at birth.”
