Nashville Explosion: Lesbian Cop Hailed as Hero

Gay Legislator Sam Park: Georgia's Other Political Hero

Baby There's COVID Outside

Supreme Court Hands Down Victory to Indiana Lesbian Couples

Sedition: Randy Rainbow Parody

Rocking the Runoff: Broadway Stars Sing Georgia on My Mind

Trump's Judicial Appointments Will Impact LGBTQ Rights Beyond Presidency

LGBTQ Nation: Pandemic Hitting LGBTQ Families Harder Than Straight People

Culinary Icon James Beard: Gay Male Julia Child

Happiest Season: New LGBTQ Holiday Movie

Mary Lambert: Seasonal Depression

Switzerland Approves Marriage Equality

Buttigieg is Nation's First Openly Gay Presidential Candidate Nominee

Supreme Court Declines to Roll Back Marriage Equality

Jeopardy Game Show Contestant: First Out Transgender Winner

Joe Biden Wins Presidency: LGBTQ Folks Can See the Sun Again

The Inauguration We Can’t Enjoy
LGBTQ Reaction to Biden's Inauguration

Former Presidents Obama, Bush and Clinton: Peaceful Transfer of Power

Biden Issues Order Against Anti-LGBTQ Discrimination
Most Pro-Equality President in History: Biden’s Ambitious LGBTQ Agenda

Biden to Soon Reverse Trans Military Ban
Biden Administration to be Most LGBTQ-Inclusive in US History
Biden Picks Pete Buttigieg for Secretary of Transportation

Trans Physician Rachel Levine: Biden's Choice for HHS Assistant Secretary

Jeff Marootian: Biden's New Environmental Advisor is Gay

2020 Out 100 List

2020 The Musical: Fallon and Rannells

Look Back at 2020: The Year That Changed Everything

GLAAD: Top LGBTQ Milestones of 2020

New Year Event: Ringing in 2021 With Billy Porter

Saying Goodbye to 2020: F-Bomb Warning

Victories for the LGBTQ Community in 2020

Advocate: Trans People Lost to Violence in 2020

Current LGBTQ News

LGBTQ Leaders: Biden's Victory and Trump's Defeat

Joe Biden: First President Entering the White House Supporting Marriage Equality

What Vice President Kamala Harris Means to Marginalized People

Van Jones on CNN: Character Matters

Election 2020: Reasons to be Optimistic

New LGBTQ State Lawmakers Who Won Their First Elections

LGBTQ Political Victories: Meet the 2020 Rainbow Wave

Sarah McBride: Makes History as First Openly Trans State Senator

Pete Buttigieg: Help is on the Way for LGBTQ Voters

Kamala Harris: Why LGBTQ People Should Vote for Biden

Jonathan Capehart's Commentary: Media's Post Trump Future

Jody Davis: Veteran, Nurse, Transgender

Gay Man Carlos Elizondo Named Biden's WH Social Secretary

Joe Biden's Platform for LGBTQ Voters

In December 2020, the Supreme Court has denied Indiana’s petition to hear a case involving the rights for same-sex spouses to appear on their children’s birth certificates, leaving in place an appeals court decision in favor of listing the wife of a woman who gives birth on their child’s birth certificate.

A month earlier, Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill asked the Supreme Court to deny same-sex couples the same right of presumed parenthood that opposite-sex couples enjoy. When a child is born to a married, opposite-sex couple, the mother’s husband is presumed to be the father and is listed on the birth certificate, even if there is no proof that he is the child’s biological father, and even if the couple knows he is not because they used a sperm donor.

But the case gave the Supreme Court the opportunity to overturn Pavan and start chipping away at Obergefell‘s right to marriage equality by denying certain rights that opposite-sex couples enjoy. The state of Indiana argued that states have the right to maintain the “biological distinction between males and females” and presume that a mother’s husband is her child’s father.

Since the Supreme Court has moved significantly to the right since 2017, Indiana’s attorney general might have thought that the high court would take him up on the offer to overturn the previous LGBTQ victories. But it did not. LGBTQ advocates like Shannon Minter of the National Center for Lesbian Rights are relieved that the Court did not take up Box v. Henderson.

Two Twitter Messages:

Both Biden and Harris are longtime LGBTQ allies and ran the most pro-LGBTQ campaign in history. They have promised to lobby Congress for passage of the Equality Act, address the epidemic of violence against transgender Americans, appoint equality-minded judges, and more. On other issues, they support reproductive rights, expansion of the Affordable Care Act to make health insurance more widely available, environmental protections, and other progressive moves.

Biden was a US senator from Delaware from 1973 until becoming Obama's vice president in 2009. While he took some negative positions on LGBTQ rights at some points, such as voting for the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996, he became a strong supporter of LGBTQ equality. He notably came out for marriage equality as he and Obama were seeking reelection in 2012, a few days before Obama did the same. As vice president, he successfully pressed Congress to pass a hate-crimes law that covers crimes against LGBTQ people. As a senator, he supported the Equality Act's predecessor, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, although it never became law.

Harris is currently a US senator from California, having previously been the state's attorney general and, before that, San Francisco district attorney. As San Francisco DA, she established a hate-crimes unit, and as attorney general, she led efforts to abolish gay and trans "panic" defenses in criminal trials. In the latter position, she also refused to defend Proposition 8, the voter-passed measure that revoked marriage equality in California, and her position was key to it being struck down in court.

[Source: Trudy Ring, Advocate, Nov 2020]

More than 80% of LGBTQ voters say they were more motivated to vote this year, according to a poll by the LGBTQ organization GLAAD. Many say they feel like their lives depended on this vote.

However, as it turns out, the LGBTQ community is not a monolithic voting bloc. We've all heard of the Log Cabin Republicans, a group of LGBTQ Republicans, which always seemed like a contradiction in terms. While it might be difficult to imagine, we are now learning that the number of LGBTQ people who voted for Donald Trump in the 2020 US presidential election more than double compared to four years ago, exit polls suggest. And according to exit polls conducted by Edison Research for the National Election Pool, the sturdy trend that LGBTQ people vote Democratic has remained, but more voted for Trump this time around than in 2016.

A mere 14 per cent LGBTQ people voted for the Trump-Pence ticket in 2016, even despite the pair’s anti-LGBTQ track records. Come 2020, and that figure has doubled to 28 per cent who voted for the Trump-Pence ticket, even despite the absolute onslaught of anti-queer attacks by the administration.

Around 61 per cent of LGBTQ voters went for Biden at the ballots. The study found that of the 15,590 voters interviewed, around seven per cent were LGBTQ. The exit poll comes after survey-takers in September found around 45 per cent of queer men intended to vote Trump.

As much as Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has netted an, albeit, slim majority of the queer male vote, securing 51 per cent, it signaled to pollsters how the president’s brand of bullish showmanship has roiled the political landscape. Indeed, the LGBTQ voting bloc has long been reliably Democratic. The poll conducted by queer dating app Hornet found that, overall among its users, around 66 per cent prefer Biden while 34 per cent support Trump.

 

But for queer Americans, pollsters said, the statistics were far tighter together. Just less than half of queer men said they do not support Trump, and a slim 11 per cent said they generally disagree with his stances.
 

USA Toda: Gay Voters for Trump

NPR: What is at Stake for LGBTQ Voters?

Discussion: Can You Be Gay and Republican?

NBC News: Gay Republicans Backing Trump

Pink News: Number of LGBTQ Voters for Trump Doubles

Log Cabin Republicans

Among GLAAD’s findings:

--89% of non-LGBTQ respondents and 78% of LGBTQ respondents believe it is illegal to evict someone from housing because they are LGBTQ and 91% of non-LGBTQ respondents believe it should be illegal.
--80% of non-LGBTQ respondents and 65% of LGBTQ respondents believe it is illegal to turn people away from a restaurant or other place of business because they are LGBTQ and 90% of non-LGBTQ respondents believe it should be illegal.
--78% of non-LGBTQ respondents and 70% of LGBTQ respondents believe it is illegal to deny employment benefits (pension or health insurance) to an employee’s same-sex partner and 86% of non-LGBTQ respondents believe it should be illegal.
--59% of non-LGBTQ respondents and 50% of LGBTQ respondents believe it is illegal to deny transgender people the right to use the restroom that aligns with their gender identity and 61% of non-LGBTQ respondents believe it should be illegal.

 

The study, which surveyed a nationally representative sample of 2,506 American adults, was conducted before the groundbreaking Supreme Court decision in June 2020 to prohibit discrimination in the workplace for LGBTQ people. Still, in many spheres of life, LGBTQ people are not afforded the same privileges as their counterparts. Ellis and many other LGBTQ advocates also fear that the appointment of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court may further impede queer and trans people from obtaining necessary legal protections.

What federal protections aren't available to LGBTQ people? A vast majority of federal protections, contrary to public belief, are unavailable to LGBTQ people. That includes prohibiting transgender people to serve in the military, trans students accessing the bathroom that corresponds to their gender identity, married same-sex couples accessing partner health care benefits, and equal access to housing. And crucially, the Department of Justice, reported earlier this year, has yet to enforce the June workplace discrimination ruling within federal agencies.

But even as lower courts use the ruling to extend some of these benefits to the LGBTQ community (trans students in five states, for example, are now able to use the bathroom that aligns with their gender identity after a federal court applied the Supreme Court ruling to the case) a patchwork of policies can never quite measure up to comprehensive protections on a national level.  “Our rights have only been secured through Supreme Court decisions, so our rights are decided by nine judges, whether or not we exist as second-class citizens,” Ellis said.

[Source: Joshua Bote, USA Today, Oct 2020]

Most Americans Wrongly Believe LGBTQ People Have Legal Protection From Discrimination

Over 100 Members of Congress Tell Trump to End Harmful Anti-LGBTQ Policies

Supreme Court Rules in Favor of LGBTQ Rights in Landmark Decision

Supreme Court Rules LGBTQ Discrimination is Illegal

Current LGBTQ News

Landmark Decision: US Supreme Court Rules in Favor of LGBTQ Rights

Jim Parsons and Husband: Coronavirus Couple

Vile List: Trump's Record on LGBTQ Rights

Americans by Janelle Monae

Landslide Win: Gay Democrat Who Was Criticized for Doing Drag

First Congregation to Split From Methodist Church Over LGBTQ Rights

Michelle Bachman: Bizarre Remarks and Outright Lies

Trans Rights Victory: Virginia's Trans Bathroom Policy Unconstitutional

Democratic National Convention Features LGBTQ Speakers

Billy Porter and Stephen Stills Perform at Dem National Convention

Gay Democratic Rising Stars Speaking at National Convention

Record Number of LGBTQ Speakers at Dem National Convention

LGBTQ Candidates to Watch in the Upcoming Election

Matthew Shepard (1976-1998) was a student at the University of Wyoming who was beaten, tortured, and left to die near Laramie on the night of October 6, 1998. He was taken by rescuers to a hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado, where he died from severe head injuries six days later.

It's been 22 years since then. This is a sad and tragic reminder. Let us acknowledge this horrific and inhumane act and denounce the hateful and ignorant attitudes that provoke people to commit atrocities against innocent people. And let us honor our courageous brother Matthew who was cruelly and unjustly murdered for no other reason than being gay. May he rest in peace.
 

Matthew Shepard Foundation

Biographical Notes: Matthew Shepard

Matthew Shepard Interred at National Cathedral

22 Years Later: Matthew Shepard's Death Still Haunts Wyoming

Matthew Shepard: The Murder That Changed America

Architect of the legal fight for women's rights in the 1970s, Ginsburg subsequently served 27 years on the nation's highest court, becoming its most prominent member. Her death will inevitably set in motion what promises to be a nasty and tumultuous political battle over who will succeed her, and it thrusts the Supreme Court vacancy into the spotlight of the presidential campaign.

Her death raises fears that any replacement appointed by Donald Trump will increase the court’s conservative majority. She was one of four reliably liberal justices, with Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor. A few days prior to her passing, she had dictated this statement to her granddaughter Clara Sera: “My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.” Ginsburg’s death will have profound consequences for the court and the country. Inside the court, not only is the leader of the liberal wing gone, but with the Court about to open a new term, Chief Justice John Roberts no longer holds the controlling vote in closely contested cases.” And Trump is expected to put forth a nominee very quickly.

Advocate: Civil Rights Champion Ruth Bader Ginsburg Dies

CNN: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Dies at 87

NPR: Champion of Gender Equality Ruth Bader Ginsburg Dies

Slate: What Justice Ginsburg Would Want America to Do Now

ABC News: Supreme Court Powerhouse Ginsburg Dies at 87

Duda won reelection by demonizing LGBTQ people and campaigning against adoption and marriage rights. The phrase “LGBT are not people, they are an ideology” was a campaign staple. Duda, who said that this “LGBT ideology” was more destructive than communism, also pledged to ban same-sex marriage, adoption by same-sex couples, as well as the teaching of LGBTQ issues in schools.

Duda’s rhetoric has trickled down to local leadership, Philippe Dam, the advocacy director for Human Rights Watch, told NBC News. Local politicians, empowered by sentiment from the top, have established LGBTQ-free zones throughout the country. Unsurprisingly, the LGBTQ advocacy group ILGA has said Poland is the worst country in Europe for LGBTQ rights.

While Donald Trump tweeted congratulations to his “friend,” Duda, opposition lawmakers took the opportunity to rebuke the authoritarian leader. “The President of Poland should defend the rights of all citizens,” Magda Biejat, one of the protesting MPs, wrote on Twitter with photos from the protest

.

European Parliament member Robert Biedroń also tweeted a photo, adding the MPs were protesting “in defense of people’s freedom and dignity.” Earlier this year, British embassy staff called out Poland’s anti-LGBTQ policies by wearing rainbow face masks at work all day.

[Source: Bill Browning, August 2020 , LGBTQ Nation]

Poland Elects Harsh Anti-LGBTQ President

Pro-LGBTQ Protest at Polish President's Inauguration

Exodus of LGBTQ Community After Anti-LGBTQ President is Re-Elected

Re-Election of Homophobic President: LGBTQ People Flee Poland

Poland Won't Let EU Force It Into Legalizing Same Sex Marriage

Mood Grows Hostile for LGBTQ People in Poland

This year, saying the company is in “active negotiations” and will reveal “more details soon,” a representative from the Hallmark Channel announced that some of the movies included in its annual “Countdown to Christmas” and “Miracles of Christmas” holiday programming will include LGBTQ characters, actors, and storylines. The network was met with pushback recently when none of the announced titles in its 2020-2021 slate of holiday films seemed to include queer themes or characters.

“He dedicated his life and career to caring for the sickest patients,” Sister Helen Amos, chair of the hospital’s board of trustees, and David Maine, president and CEO, said in a joint statement. “When the global pandemic came down upon us, Joe selflessly continued his work on the front lines — deeply committed to serving our patients and our city during this time of great need.”

“His memory will live on as an example to us all,” the hospital said. Costa had worked for Mercy for 23 years, becoming chief of critical care in 2005. He is survived by his husband of 28 years, David Hart.

His tragic death should serve as a reminder of the seriousness of the pandemic. "This is real. This was a 56-year-old healthy man. He knew how to be careful. He knew how to take good care of himself, and he still passed away from this disease,” said one of his colleagues. “This could happen to anybody.” Costa is among over 850 health care workers in the US who have died of COVID-19.
 

NBC News: Copronavirus Kills Hospital ICU Chief Who Cared for Pandemic Patients

Huff Post: Doctor Who Died From COVID-19 Selflessly Cared for the Sickest Patients

Advocate: Baltimore ICU Doctor Dies of COVID-19 in His Husband's Arms

Mary Trump, the lesbian niece of Donald Trump, has been revealing more details about the president’s inner workings on a promotional tour for the book. She sat down with Rachel Maddow and spoke candidly about Donald Trump’s history of racist and anti-Semitic rhetoric. When asked by Maddow if she’s ever heard the president say the n word, Trump replied, “Of course I did,” adding, “I don’t think that should surprise anybody given how virulently racist he is today.” She also replied “yes” when Maddow asked if she’d heard the president use anti-Semitic slurs.

Mary Trump also said that she never came out to her grandmother (Donald’s grandmother) because she heard her call Elton John a faggot. “I realized it was better that she didn’t know I was living with a woman.”

She said that her uncle Donald is “clearly racist,” in part because he grew up in a family with “a knee-jerk anti-Semitism and knee-jerk racism,” she said. "It was sort of normal to hear them use the n-word or use anti-Semitic expressions.”

Mary Trump currently lives in New York City with her wife and daughter.
 

[Source: Alex Bollinger, LGBTQ Nation, July 2020]

Mary Trump: Growing Up Gay in an Anti-Everything Family

Donald Trump's Lesbian Niece Writes Tell-All Book

Mary Trump: Confirms Donald Trump's Racism in New Book

ABC News: Mary Trump Interviewed by George Stephanopoulos

Mary Trump on Rachel Maddow Show: Uncle Donald's Racism

Community leaders in Fire Island, New York, are speaking out after photos and videos showing mask-less beachgoers congregating en masse (as well as one vacationer who claimed to have COVID-19 symptoms but flouted social distancing anyway) went viral over the July 4th weekend.

Fire Island has been a popular seaside destination for members of New York’s LGBTQ community, along with many out-of-state travelers, since the 1920s. Given that New York City was the initial US epicenter for the coronavirus pandemic, many of the resort town’s nightlife venues and other businesses remain closed, while those that have reopened require the season’s influx of visitors to adhere to strict social distance measures.

On Fourth of July weekend, however, the photos and videos began circulating on social media that showed hundreds of shirtless mask-less revelers ignoring COVID-19 regulations and partying together on beaches and by the pools of private homes.

Outrage Over Gay Beachgoers at Fire Island

Gay Revelers at Fire Island Spark Outrage and Worry

Outrage in NYC: 100s of Gay Men Flaunt COVID 19 Precautions at Fire Island Party

July 4th Holiday Weekend: Increasing COVID 19 Infections

Thousand Break Social Distancing Rules

CNN: Anger Erupts Over Face Mask Requirement

NBC News: Surge in Coronavirus Cases Not Surprising

Coronavirus Hot Spots: Record Number of Cases

Warning: 16 Friends Test Positive for COVID-19 After Night Out

Summer Activities: Experts Rate the Risks

Future of Fun in a Pandemic World

Supreme Court: Employer Who Fires Someone for Being LGBTQ Defies the Law

Supreme Court Landmark Decision: Illegal to Discriminate Based on Sexual Orientation
Pete Buttigieg: Supreme Court Ruling is a Big Step Forward

AP: LGBTQ Community Applauds Supreme Court Ruling

LGBTQ Nation: Supreme Court Rules in Favor of LGBTQ Rights in Landmark Decision

Advocate: Supreme Court Rules LGBTQ Discrimination is Illegal

Stars React to Supreme Court Ruling on LGBTQ Rights

ABC News: Historic Ruling on LGBTQ Employment Discrimination

America's Reaction: Supreme Court Ruling in Favor of LGBTQ Worker's Rights

NBC News: In Landmark Case, Supreme Court Rules in Favor of LGBTQ Worker Protection

Huff Post: Supreme Court Says Firing Someone for Being Gay is Wrong

CBS News: Supreme Court Ruling Protects LGBTQ Workers

“Today, we must decide whether an employer can fire someone simply for being homosexual or transgender. The answer is clear. An employer who fires an individual for being homosexual or transgender fires that person for traits or actions it would not have questioned in members of a different sex. Sex plays a necessary and indistinguishable role in the decision, exactly what Title VII forbids,” the decision reads. “An employer who fires an individual merely for being gay or transgender violates Title VII.”

“Those who adopted the Civil Rights Act might not have anticipated their work would lead to this particular result. Likely, they weren’t thinking about many of the Act’s consequences that have become apparent over the years, including its prohibition against discrimination on the basis of motherhood or its ban on the sexual harassment of male employees.”

“But the limits of the drafters’ imagination supply no reason to ignore the law’s demands,” Gorsuch continued. “When the express terms of a statute give us one answer and extratextual considerations suggest another, it’s no contest. Only the written word is the law, and all persons are entitled to its benefit.” The ruling was decided by a 6-4 vote. Gorsuch was joined by Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, and Chief Justice John Roberts.

Some who responded reminded us that this was just another step in the long road to full equality. Pete Buttigieg said, "As of sunup this morning, many parts of America did not fully protect queer Americans from workplace discrimination, despite the Civil Rights Act. This is a major step. Make no mistake—a federal Equality Act is still urgently needed. The struggle for equality did not end with marriage, nor did it end today. Conversion therapy persists. Black trans women are at grave risk daily. The administration is rolling back protections at every turn." And Senator Tammy Baldwin said, "The SCOTUS 6-3 decision is a huge step forward for LGBTQ equality in America. But we must keep marching for full equality for every LGBTQ American across our country and work to pass the Equality Act in the Senate."

[Source: LGBTQ Nation, June 2020]

SCOTUS Pro-LGBTQ Ruling: Activists, Politicians, Celebs Rejoice

It Seems Almost Unreal: LGBTQ People Respond to Supreme Court Ruling

NPR: Supremes Court Delivers Major Victory to LGBTQ Employees

Advocate: The Gay and Trans People Who Took Their Cases to the Supreme Court

LA Times: Supreme Court Ruling Protects LGBTQ Rights

ABC News: Supreme Court Bans LGBTQ Employment Discrimination

Reuters: Supreme Court Endorses LGBTQ Worker Protections

CBS News: Existing Federal Civil Rights Laws Protect LGBTQ Workers

Advocate: Kavanaugh and Alito Dissenting

Supreme Court's Pro-LGBTQ Ruling: And Right Wingers Are Freaking Out

Trump's 20 Second Response to the Supreme Court Ruling

With hundreds of gay pride celebrations around the world canceled or postponed due to COVID-19, event organizers are teaming up for virtual alternatives. Facing a wave of cancellations amid the global pandemic, LGBTQ activists are scrambling to reimagine gay pride events, some of which are among the biggest in-person gatherings in the world. With more and more in-person pride events being canceled and postponed daily, organizers are forced to be innovative and are exploring other options.

The LGBTQ community is creative and strong, with a long history of turning tragedy and struggle into triumph and affirmation. Look no further than the anti-racism demonstrations across the country in recent days as evidence that making history oftentimes means making people uncomfortable. This year is no different. Activists, artists, drag performers, politicians, filmmakers, community members, fitness gurus and more have all found ways to reimagine Pride as a virtual gathering that leaves no one behind. And the silver lining is that you don’t need to be a local to represent like one.

This year’s Pride festivities will look a whole lot different than the colorful crowds of parades past, but the annual celebration of the LGBTQ community and commemoration of the Stonewall Riot continues. Virtual events in June bring the joyous spirit of Pride into your living room through Zoom dance parties and archival film. Although there won’t be any elaborate floats this year, many cities are sponsoring a slew of virtual events kicking off on June 1. This year’s Pride will look much, much different. Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, there’s just no way to facilitate in-person festivals for the foreseeable future.

He grew frustrated with what he saw as gay men’s apathy towards the HIV pandemic as well as the government’s inept response. In 1987 he helped co-found ACT-UP, a direct action organization focused on changing the public health reaction to HIV and public perception of people living with the virus.

In 1988, Kramer called Director of the National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci a “killer” and “an incompetent idiot” for his reaction to HIV. “Once you got past the rhetoric, you found that Larry Kramer made a lot of sense, and that he had a heart of gold,” Fauci said. He said that Kramer played an “essential” role in getting the FDA to make the process for approving new drugs faster.

He was the author of many works, including the 1978 novel Faggots and The Normal Heart, a 1985 play about the early years of the AIDS crisis. Kramer was working on another play before his death, An Army of Lovers Must Not Die, which was partly about the coronavirus pandemic. “It’s about gay people having to live through three plagues,” he explained. The three plagues were HIV, COVID-19, and aging.

ACT UP NY tweeted that Kramer’s “rage helped inspire a movement.”

Larry Kramer, Gay Author and AIDS Activist, Dies

Remembering AIDS Activist Larry Kramer

Larry Kramer: Grow Up, Fight for Your Rights, Be Proud of Being Gay

Iconic Gay Activist Passes Away at 84

Larry Kramer: Hero, Mentor, Prophet

Larry Kramer's Loud and Proud Activism Remains Necessary

Peter Staley's Honest Eulogy of Larry Kramer

Larry Kramer: Fire, Passion, Anger

Larry Kramer, Playwright and Activist, Dead at 84

Dr. Anthony Fauci Remembers Larry Kramer

Larry Kramer Was Not Kind and Cuddly, He Was Effective

Larry Kramer's Historic Plague Speech: Anger is Essential

Larry Kramer: True LGBTQ Radical

The issue took center stage in Costa Rica’s 2018 presidential election after the Inter-American Court of Human Rights earlier that year issued an opinion that countries like Costa Rica, which had signed the American Convention on Human Rights, had to move immediately to legalize gay marriage. It helped propel President Carlos Alvarado to victory over an evangelical candidate, Fabricio Alvarado, who had campaigned against it.

A campaign celebrating the achievement called “I do” planned a series of events including hours of coverage on state television and messages from celebrities, including Michelle Bachelet, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Gia Miranda, director of the “I do” campaign, said, "It gives us so much joy." She said it would help decrease discrimination and make the country more prosperous and attractive to tourists.

Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Uruguay have already implemented marriage equality. Mexico allows same-sex marriages in 18 of 33 states its capital.

[Source: Javier Cordoba, HuffPost, May 2020]

Same Sex Marriage Now Legal in Costa Rica

The pioneer would have stood out in any era. But in the 1950s, when Little Richard came to prominence, he was like no other. With his ferocious piano playing, growling and gospel-strong vocals, pancake makeup, and outlandish costumes, Little Richard tore down barriers starting in the 1950s. That is no small feat for any artist — let alone a black, openly gay man who grew up in the South.

Starting with “Tutti Frutti” in 1956, Little Richard cut a series of unstoppable hits. “Long Tall Sally” and “Rip It Up” came our later that same year. “Lucille” hit the charts in 1957, and “Good Golly Miss Molly” in 1958.

Little Richard is credited with opening doors and bringing the races together. His music and social influence crossed many boundaries. And he knew his power. "They saw me as something like a deliverer, a way out," he once said. "My means of expression, my music, was a way in which a lot of people wished they could express themselves and couldn't." He also emphatically explained, "I created rock n roll! I'm the innovator! I'm the emancipator! I'm the architect! I am the originator! I'm the one that started it!" Little Richard was among the first class of inductees into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame.

He was born Richard Wayne Penniman in 1932, in Macon, Georgia. The third of 12 children, he clashed with his moonshine-selling father and was ordered out of the family home as a teenager. Aside from music, Little Richard's most noted ambivalence was in his attitude toward his sexuality. In the early days, he covered by exaggerating his freakishness and accentuating his flamboyance. He later called homosexuality "unnatural." And then he said he was "omnisexual." A decade later, he admitted he always knew he was gay.
 

CNN: Little Richard, Flamboyant Architect of Rock n Roll, Dead at 87

NPR: Little Richard, King and Queen of Rock n Roll, Dead at 87

Tutti Frutti: Little Richard Performs at Rock n Roll Hall of Fame

Rolling Stone: Little Richard, Founding Father of Rock n Roll, Dead at 87

LGBTQ Nation: Queer Entertainer Little Richard Was Anti-Gay in His Later Years

Biographical Notes: Little Richard

Bri and Lindsey Leaverton, a lesbian couple in Texas, got married at a drive-in movie theater. They met in 2018 and planned to get married in early April 2020. But the global pandemic threw a monkey wrench in their wedding plans. “We had this beautiful wedding planned at this historic mansion in Austin and as virus started expanding more rapidly and we were having these orders put into place, we quickly realized we weren’t going to be able to have the wedding we planned,” Bri explained. They canceled the wedding to wait out the pandemic. Then a family member was diagnosed with COVID-19. “In that moment we realized no one is promised tomorrow, and we didn’t want to wait a year,” Lindsey said. So got creative about their wedding plans and chose a venue that was conducive to social distancing, a drive-in movie theater.

A gay San Francisco couple, César Salza and Kyle Hill were ready to get married. The couple had a license, supportive family, and plans for a gorgeous ceremony. But when the coronavirus pandemic hit and the world was locked down, the two had to change their plans. The men were married in a friend’s backyard in a socially distant ceremony witnessed by a handful of friends. Everyone had to wear face masks - including the grooms. “We had planned on something in June but we realized quickly with COVID-19 that it wouldn’t be possible,” Hill explained. The men invited seven guests (plus the grooms and officiant) to keep the number in attendance at 10 as required by social distancing guidelines. “The pandemic couldn’t stop us,” Salza wrote on Instagram.

And, in New York City, a lesbian couple, Reilly Jennings and her fiancee Amanda, opted for a ceremony in the middle of the empty street with guests looking on from the sidewalks and from parked cars.
 

Lesbian Couple Gets Married in the Street: Guests Watch From Cars and Sidewalk

Organizations who work with AIDS/HIV patients are painfully aware of the impact that a global pandemic can have on the dissemination of misinformation and the politics of blame. Many today remember when certain groups described AIDS as God's punishment for gay people. The current coronavirus pandemic is bringing out many of those same voices of ignorance and hate.

The truth is, of course, that LGBTQ people are not to blame for the current pandemic. And so declares global health groups like UNAIDS and MPact Global Action. They have expressed concern that LGBTQ people have been stigmatized and subjected to violence during this time. These and other global health organizations are calling out violence against LGBTQ people motivated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Joint United Nations Programme on AIDS and MPact Global Action for Gay Men’s Health and Rights expressed concern that LGBTQ and intersex people “are being singled out, blamed, abused, incarcerated and stigmatized as vectors of disease.”

“We are receiving reports that government and religious leaders in some countries are making false claims and releasing misinformation about COVID-19 that has incited violence and discrimination against LGBTQ people,” George Ayala, executive director of MPact, said.

Leslie Jordan is just what we need during a crisis. He has been a real hero and comforting on-line presence during the Coronavirus pandemic.  Beloved actor Leslie Jordan has become an Instagram and YouTube sensation since adjourning to an Airbnb not far from his mother and sisters in Tennessee in March 2020. The actor who rose to fame playing Karen Walker’s nemesis Beverly Leslie on Will & Grace catapulted from about 80K Instagram followers to 3 million in the span of a month thanks to his homespun videos in which he exercises with a back scratcher, then uses it as a baton, does yoga (as only he could), and engages in “pillow talk” dishing about Hollywood luminaries.

“I’ve gone viral,” Jordan laughs in an interview with Advocate Magazine. "I'd do an exercise video because there are so many gay men with these perfect abs and they do exercise videos. So I did an exercise video where my stomach looked like my water's about to break,” Jordan says about his inspiration for one of the videos that kickstarted his Inta-success.

At 64, Jordan has been out his career (his IMDB credits total 126 and date back to the early '80s), if not, really, his entire life. Recently, he's starred in American Horror Story: Coven and The Cool Kids. “I fell out of the womb and into my mother’s high heels,” he says about his never having that coming-out moment in Hollywood. Because of Jordan’s storied career and his commitment to lifting spirits with his talent and humor at a time when people need it most, The Advocate has created a digital cover to honor him. Jordan has made plenty of virtual appearances since he became a social media star, including appearing on The View. He says he's proud to have been a part of Will & Grace and that show’s role in shifting perceptions around LGBTQ people, although he adds that no one ever sets out to try to make history. Next up, Jordan is slated for Fox’s Mayim Bialik and Swoosie Kurtz starrer Call Me Kat in which Bialik is a beleaguered daughter who works in a cat café owned by Jordan's character Phil, a role that was originally written as a woman by the name of Phyllis.

[Source: Tracy Gilchrist, Advocate, April 2020]

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Shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) like masks are so severe in the United States that health workers treating contagious patients have appealed for help on social media under the hashtag #GetMePPE.

The quilt was set to go on display in San Francisco this month but the exhibition was postponed when coronavirus lockdown rules were put in place and volunteers decided to turn their skills to making masks instead.

The washable masks are made from fabric that would have been used to sew new patches of the quilt together and will be used by clients and staff of Bay Area Community Services (BACS), a local non-profit that provides housing to homeless people.

Some 400 masks have been sewn already, with volunteers vowing to sew hundreds more. “Sewing masks for BACS helps me have hope,” McMullin said.“It will make a difference.”
 

[Source: Oscar Lopez, Thomson Reuters Foundation, Huffington Post, April 2020]

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Trailblazing lesbian activist Phyllis Lyon, an advocate for LGBTQ rights since the 1950s, died in April 2020 at age 95. "Lyon died peacefully at her home in San Francisco of natural causes,” according to The Bay Area Reporter. “Few individuals contributed more to issues impacting LGBTQ, women’s, civil rights and the rights of elder Americans than Ms. Lyon and her partner, Del Martin."

Lyon and Martin (who died in 2008) began their relationship in 1952 in Seattle, where they both worked on a magazine, and moved to San Francisco the following year. In 1955, they and three other lesbian couples founded the Daughters of Bilitis, the first lesbian political and social organization in the nation. In 1956, they began publishing The Ladder, a monthly magazine featuring political articles, poetry, and fiction for a lesbian audience. It continued publication until 1972.

"Founding the organization and the magazine were acts of immense political courage at a time of unchecked harassment and violence directed at homosexuals, largely at the hands of law enforcement and political officials,” the Reporter points out.

The women influenced political and religious leaders to become more supportive of LGBTQ people. They were active in San Francisco’s Alice B. Toklas Democratic Club, which helped persuade Dianne Feinstein, when she was mayor of the city, to sponsor legislation outlawing employment discrimination against gays and lesbians. They also fought for the decriminalization of homosexuality in California.

Martin and Lyon helped bring marriage equality to the state as well. They were among the couples who sued for equal marriage rights in the case that led the California Supreme Court to strike down the state’s ban on same-sex marriage in 2008. They married as soon as that ruling went into effect, in July of that year — the first same-sex couple married in San Francisco and, with Robin Tyler and Diane Olson of Los Angeles, one of the two first same-sex couples married in California. That November, voters passed Proposition 8 to temporarily revoke marriage equality in the state, but it was eventually struck down in court, and the marriages conducted pre-Prop. 8 remained valid. Martin died just two months later, with Lyon at her side.

They had been married once before, in 2004, when Gavin Newsom, then mayor of San Francisco, declared marriage equality in the city, and they were the first couple to receive a license. Courts later made the city cease performing same-sex marriages and invalidated the unions.

Marriage rights actually hadn’t been a high priority for Lyon and Martin, Lyon said in 2004, according to the Reporter. “We hadn’t given it much thought,” she said. “We were much more interested in making sure that gays and lesbians could have jobs and not get fired from them just because they were gays and lesbians. And the same with housing and the same with almost everything.” But their friend Kate Kendell (then executive director of the San Francisco-based National Center for Lesbian Rights) asked them to be the first same-sex couple married in the city, and they agreed. They were married in February 2004.

[Source: Trudy Ring, Advocate Magazine, April 2020]
 

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This is a challenging time (March 2020), as the US becomes the number one nation in the world reporting COVID-19 infection cases. People are dealing with quarantine, lost jobs, shuttered businesses, illness, and death. During this difficult time of crisis, the best and worst of people have been revealed. On the positive side, many celebrities and entertainers have stepped up to offer words of encouragement and acts of kindness. On the negative side, many conservative government officials and preachers have used this crisis as an opportunity to express ignorance and sow hatred. The moronic remarks and vitriol have included proclamations about divine retribution, suspicions and denials of the science of the pandemic, and paranoid expressions of partisan politics.

Meanwhile, doctors and other health care professionals are focusing on the important priorities of keeping people safe. Regrettably, there are those who are resorting to shameful scapegoating and are blaming the crisis on LGBTQ people, marriage equality, pride marches, and the gay agenda. All manner of misinformation is being disseminated in an effort to advance an agenda of hatred and division. Among those spewing toxic messages of bigotry are the likes of Evangelist Franklin Graham, Idaho Governor Brad Little, DC Pastor Ralph Drollinger, Talk Show Host Rush Limbaugh, Evangelist Pat Robertson, Former Judge Roy Moore, Evangelist Jerry Falwell Jr, and President Donald Trump.

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LGBTQ people have been blamed for hurricanes, earthquakes, terrorist attacks, and other disasters. And now they’re being blamed for the coronavirus outbreak.

Steven Andrew, pastor of the USA Christian Church has declared March 2020 to be Repent of LGBTQ Sin Month, and one of the reasons is the emergence of the coronavirus strain that’s so far infected 100,000 people around the world. Andrew said in a press release, “God’s love shows it is urgent to repent, because the Bible teaches homosexuals lose their souls and God destroys LGBTQ societies. Obeying God protects the USA from diseases, such as the coronavirus. Our safety is at stake, since national disobedience of God’s laws brings danger and diseases, such as coronavirus, but obeying God brings covenant protection. God protects the USA from danger as the country repents of LGBTQ, false gods, abortion and other sins.”

 

Other Christian right extremists have invoked anti-LGBTQ rhetoric in response to the coronavirus epidemic. In January 2020, Rick Wiles, a Florida minister and founder of a media outlet called TruNews, said the virus is a “plague” sent by God to wipe out LGBTQ people and other sinners.

Right-wing pastor EW Jackson told listeners of his radio show that the “homovirus” has infected America. Jackson was the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor of Virginia in 2013 and he ran in the Republican primary for US Senate in 2012 and 2018. He lost all three races. “The last thing in the world the black community needs is more destruction of the family, more attacks on the family, and that’s all this whole homosexual movement amounts to,” Jackson said. “It is a virulent, violent attack."
 

An Orthodox rabbi in Israel is blaming the outbreak of coronavirus strain COVID-19 on LGBTQ Pride. Rabbi Meir Mazuz delivered a screed against the celebration of LGBTQ identity at Kiseh Rahamim yeshiva in Bnei Brak, which he heads up. In the remarks, the prominent Sephardic religious leader called Pride "a parade against nature, and when someone goes against nature, the one who created nature takes revenge on him."

“It is regrettable that in times like these when the whole world comes together to eradicate coronavirus, Rabbi Mazuz finds it appropriate to blame the virus’s outbreak on the LGBTQ community," ADL said in a statement. "We harshly condemn his statements and urge him to apologize." In recent years, Mazuz has blamed Pride for various acts of terrorism and violence. Tel Aviv and Jerusalem both host major parades annually in Israel, which is considered the most LGBTQ-friendly nation in the Middle East.

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March 31 is International Transgender Day of Visibility (TDOV). It is a time to celebrate transgender people around the globe and the courage it takes to live openly and authentically, while also raising awareness around the discrimination trans people still face. TDOV has also been defined as an annual awareness day dedicated to celebrating the accomplishments of transgender and gender nonconforming people while raising awareness of the work that still needs to be done to achieve trans justice.

Across the country and internationally there has been an increased visibility of the transgender and gender non-conforming (GNC) communities. Despite increased national media visibility, this year goes on record as one of the most dangerous years for transgender and gender non-conforming people, with alarming rates of violence, homicides, and suicides - specifically impacting trans women of color and youth.

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In February 2020, 67 years after that arrest and 33 years after his death, Rustin received a pardon from California Gov. Gavin Newsom. "Mr. Rustin was criminalized because of stigma, bias, and ignorance," Newsom said in the pardon. "With this act of executive clemency, I acknowledge the inherent injustice of this conviction, an injustice that was compounded by his political opponents' use of the record of this case to try to undermine him, his associates, and the civil rights movement."

Rustin's pardon is part of a new initiative from Newsom's office to grant clemency to people who were prosecuted in California for being gay, inspired by a push from leaders of the California Legislative Black Caucus and the California Legislative LGBTQ Caucus. "In California and across the country, charges like vagrancy, loitering, and sodomy have been used to unjustly target lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people," according to a news release from Newson's office. "Law enforcement and prosecutors specifically targeted LGBTQ individuals, communities and community spaces for criminal prosecution. Now, as a proudly LGBTQ-allied state, California is turning the page on historic wrongs."

Rustin led and organized some of the most pivotal protests of the civil rights movement. Most famously, he was the mastermind behind the 1963 March on Washington. He was the main person who pushed the movement (and Martin Luther King) toward nonviolent ideas and tactics. Rustin traveled to India in 1948 to learn more about pacifist ideas and helped introduce those teachings to King. Following the success of the Montgomery bus boycott in 1956, Rustin became a close confidant and advisor to King. Rustin played a significant role in the formation of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Though former President Barack Obama awarded Rustin the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013, he remains much less known when compared to his civil rights movement peers. Some academics argue this is due to the homophobia of the time.

[Source: CNN, February 2020]
 

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49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo gives Sowers a lot of credit for the work she’s done with the team’s receivers. “She been tremendous,” Garoppolo explained. “Katie was here before I was, but just what she does with the receivers, all the skill positions guys, how she interacts with them. It’s special. She’s feisty, man. Katie is awesome out there. She’ll get after guys … It’s fun to be around.”

Before going into coaching, Sowers played pro ball and was part of the 2013 US Women’s National American Football team that won the International Federation of American Football’s world championship game by defeating Canada 64-0. A hip injury led her to retire in 2016, but she was invited to be an intern for the Atlanta Falcons, where she met Kyle Shanahan, who later hired her when he became the 49ers’ head coach. “Katie did a real good job for us in Atlanta, she’s done a really good job here,” Shanahan said.

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Kate McKinnon introduced DeGeneres by reminiscing about all that she has received and learned from the honoree, including her "sense of self." After McKinnon realized she was gay, she said that DeGeneres' coming-out gave her a "shot" at making it in the entertainment industry. "The only thing that made it less scary was seeing Ellen on TV," McKinnon said. "She really risked her entire life and her entire career in order to tell the truth, and she suffered greatly for it."

McKinnon's most memorable moment was when she explained, “In 1997, when Ellen’s sitcom was in the height of its popularity, I was in my mother’s basement lifting weights in front of the mirror and thinking, Am I gay? And I was, and I still am. But that’s a very scary thing to suddenly know about yourself. It’s sort of like doing 23andMe, and discovering that you have alien DNA. And the only thing that made it less scary was seeing Ellen on TV.”

"Of course attitudes change, but only because brave people like Ellen jump into the fire to make them change. And if I hadn't seen her on TV, I would have thought, 'I could never be on TV. They don't let LGBTQ people on TV,'" continued McKinnon. "And more than that I would've gone on thinking that I was an alien and that maybe I didn't even have a right to be here. So thank you, Ellen, for giving me a shot."
 

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Lil Nas X: Multiple Grammy Winner

Lil Nas X is officially a Grammy winner. The Black gay singer took home Best Music Video and Pop Duo/Group Performance for his massive country hit "Old Town Road" with Billy Ray Cyrus. Lil Nas X is one of the most-nominated artists at the 2020 Grammy Awards. He received six nods, including Album of the Year and Best New Artist. The gay artist also won the evening's red carpet. He arrived at the Staples Center in Los Angeles sporting a pink custom Versace ensemble referencing both kink and cowboy culture.

The agreement was reached by a 16-member group composed of representatives from different factions of the UMC, including the conservative Wesley Covenant Association and the LGBTQ-affirming Reconciling Ministries Network. Bishops from the US, Africa, Europe and the Philippines participated. The proposal, officially called the Protocol of Reconciliation & Grace Through Separation, still needs to be approved by delegates to the UMC’s General Conference, which is scheduled to take place in Minneapolis in May 2020.

The Wesley Covenant Association has already taken steps to form the new denomination, including drafting a book of doctrines. WCA president Rev. Keith Boyette, who participated in the mediation, said that conservatives in the UMC have long felt the church’s theological divisions were irreparable. “I believe this is a fair and equitable solution that puts decades of conflict behind us and gives us a hopeful future,” Boyette said. The agreement leaves open the possibility of multiple additional Methodist denominations forming.

The UMC has about 12.6 million members worldwide, including nearly 7 million in the US, where the denomination has its own universities, a publishing house and other ministries. American Methodists also hold a wide spectrum of political views: Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Elizabeth Warren identifies as Methodist, as does former Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Other mainline Protestant movements in the US (Anglican and Presbyterian, for example) have experienced schisms over the ordination and marriage of LGBTQ members, as well as over the ordination of women.

After years of grappling with the possibility of a schism over the welcoming of queer Christians, the UMC’s General Conference voted in 2019 to affirm existing church doctrine prohibiting same-sex marriage and the ordination of queer clergy and to impose harsher penalties on clergy who break the rules. Queer Methodists and their allies were deeply disappointed by the vote and immediately began seeking a new way forward.

[Source: Carol Kuruvilla, Huffington Post, January 2020]
 
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“Anti-LGBTQ attacks on our candidates almost universally backfired,” said Annise Parker, President and CEO of LGBTQ Victory Fund. She added: "LGBTQ candidates are winning elections in numbers and in parts of the country thought unthinkable a decade or two ago. LGBTQ people are in every community (we are people of color, women, immigrants, and people with disabilities) and we come from families both liberal and conservative. This beautiful diversity provides an opportunity to connect on some level with every single voter in America. That is the reason LGBTQ candidates are winning in unprecedented numbers, and this will only accelerate in the years ahead."

Victory Fund says there are currently 765 openly LGBTQ elected officials serving nationwide.
 

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Among the 7,036 “single-bias hate crimes” reported in 2018 (that is, hate crimes in which a single perceived characteristic motivated the attacker) 16.7% happened due to sexual orientation bias and 2.2% occurred due to gender identity bias. An additional 59.6% occurred due to racism and 18.7% were motivated by religious-bias. These 7,036 single-biased hate crimes affected 8,646 victims total.

Of the 1,445 victims targeted due to sexual-orientation: 59.7 % were targeted for being gay men, 12.2% were targeted for being lesbian women, and 1.5% were targeted for being bisexual. Another 24.9% targeted LGBTQ people generally without listing a specific identity.

 

Of the 189 victims targeted for gender-identity, 160 were victims of anti-transgender bias and 29 were victims of anti-gender non-conforming (GNC) bias. This is an increase over the 131 reported anti-transgender or anti-GNC hate crimes in 2017.

[Source: Daniel Villarreal, LGBTQ Nation, November 2019]
 

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A key provision of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 known as Title 7 bars job discrimination because of sex, among other reasons. In recent years, some courts have read that language to include discrimination against LGBTQ people as a subset of sex discrimination.

Justice Neil Gorsuch, President Donald Trump’s first Supreme Court appointee, said there are strong arguments favoring the LGBTQ workers. But Gorsuch suggested that maybe Congress, not the courts, should change the law because of the upheaval that could ensue. “It’s a question of judicial modesty,” Gorsuch said.

Two other conservatives, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh, did not squarely indicate their views, although Roberts questioned how employers with religious objections to hiring LGBTQ people might be affected by the outcome.

The first of two cases involved a skydiving instructor and a county government worker in Georgia who were fired for being gay. The second case involves transgender people, and the audience in the courtroom included Stephens, transgender actor Laverne Cox and some people who had waited in line since the weekend to hear the court's arguments.

The Trump administration and lawyers for the employers hit hard on the changes that might be required in bathrooms, locker rooms, women’s shelters and school sports teams if the court were to rule that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 covers LGBTQ people. Lawmakers, not unelected judges, should change the law, they argued.

“Sex means whether you’re male or female, not whether you’re gay or straight,” Noel Francisco, Trump’s top Supreme Court lawyer said.

Justice Samuel Alito, a conservative, seemed to agree with that argument, saying Congress in 1964 did not envision covering sexual orientation or gender identity. “You’re trying to change the meaning of ‘sex,’” Alito said.

If the votes of some conservative justices seemed in doubt, the liberals’ views were clear.

“And we can’t deny that homosexuals are being fired merely for being who they are,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor said. “At what point do we say we have to step in?”

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg pointed out that the term sexual harassment was unknown in 1964, but now is considered sex discrimination.

Justice Elena Kagan suggested sexual orientation is a clear subset of sex discrimination, saying that a man who loves other men cannot be treated differently by an employer than a woman who loves men.

The cases are the court’s first on LGBTQ rights since Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement and replacement by Kavanaugh. Kennedy was a voice for gay rights and the author of the landmark ruling in 2015 that made same-sex marriage legal throughout the United States. Kavanaugh generally is regarded as more conservative. A decision is expected by early summer 2020, amid the presidential election campaign.

A ruling for employees who were fired because of their sexual orientation or gender identity would have a big impact for the estimated 8.1 million LGBTQ workers across the country because most states don’t protect them from workplace discrimination. An estimated 11.3 million LGBTQ people live in the US, according to the Williams Institute at the UCLA Law School.

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The case is about Aimee Stephens, who worked for Harris Funeral Homes for five years before announcing that she was transitioning in 2012. Her employer said that she was “violating God’s commands” and fired her two weeks later. She filed a complaint with the EEOC saying that she suffered from sex discrimination under the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and the EEOC agreed. And now the Supreme Court will hear her case.

Her argument is that the Civil Rights Act bans discrimination based on sex, and it’s impossible to fire a transgender person without considering their sex. Furthermore, even if one were to accept that “sex” only refers to sex assigned at birth, she was discriminated against because she was fired for not conforming to sex stereotypes associated with people assigned male at birth.

This is an argument that the Trump administration has been working against, even though the Obama administration was supportive. Donald Trump and Republicans in general oppose LGBTQ civil rights legislation, so of course they’re going to work against attempts to get those protections through the courts.

The brief’s argument is that Congress never intended for “sex” discrimination to preclude discrimination against transgender people, even if that’s what a plain reading of the text would suggest. They also say that Harris Funeral Homes developed policies (like bathroom usage and a dress code) based on sex assigned at birth, and Stephens refused to follow those policies.

It also repeatedly says that Stephens’s identity and gender are unimportant to the case, what’s important is that she was going to violate her employers’ dress code. The brief reduces being transgender to clothes and presentation, as if she’s a man playing dress-up.

The brief’s language uses outdated language, dishonors pronouns, and is steeped in the idea that sex assigned at birth is the only real identity someone can have, and being transgender is something on top of that. That is, Aimee Stephens is a gender non-conforming man, not a transgender woman, according to the Trump administration.

[Source: LGBTQ Nation, August 2019]
 

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American author Toni Morrison has died. The Nobel laureate (whose novels Beloved, Song of Solomon, and The Bluest Eye explored race in America) passed on August 5, 2019 in the Bronx at age 88.

Morrison was a towering figure in the literary community. She wrote 11 novels in her lifetime, and her honors included the Nobel Prize in Literature, the Pulitzer Prize, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Her work often centered on a Black female protagonist and featured predominantly African-American characters, which was a revolutionary point of view within her literary generation. In her writing and interviews, Morrison spoke truth to power, laying bare the impact of oppression and racism, as well as the power of words to fight them.
 

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The United States entered the competition as defending champions after winning the 2015 edition in Canada and successfully defended their title with a 2–0 victory over the Netherlands in the final. In doing so, they secured their record fourth title and became the second nation, after Germany, to have successfully retained the title.

If one person could embody all the pride, excitement, and swagger, it was US co-captain Megan Rapinoe, who battled the President of the United States even as she became the unparalleled star of the World Cup. Her boundless energy came across the Atlantic with her and was on display for all to see from the cable talk shows to the steps of New York’s City Hall.
 

Megan Rapionoe said, “There is nothing, nothing, that can faze this group. We’re chillin’. We got tea-sippin’. We got celebrations. We have pink hair and purple hair. We have tattoos and dreadlocks. We got white girls and black girls and everything in between. Straight girls and gay girls. It’s my absolute honor to lead this team out on the field. There’s no other place that I would rather be.”
 

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