Out Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) could face an uphill battle if she runs for reelection in 2024.
A new Public Policy Polling poll found that a mere 27% of voters in the state of Arizona view Sinema favorably and want her to run for reelection. 50% of voters in the state view her unfavorably and 54% say she shouldn’t run again.
She began her career as a member of the Green Party. Now the party doesn’t matter. It’s just all about the green.
Sinema announced in December that she was leaving the Democratic Party after spending years as a moderate foil to major Democratic initiatives. Her departure opened up the question of whether she would run again in 2024, with many wondering whether she could win as an independent against possibly both Democratic and Republican challengers or if she would serve as a spoiler, splitting Democratic votes in the purple state and helping a Republican candidate win.
The poll found that she would have very little chance of winning.
When people were asked who they would vote for – Sinema; Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), the likely Democratic nominee; or a Republican candidate – she did not do very well. For example, the poll asked about the scenario where failed Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake is the GOP nominee in a three-way election against Gallego and Sinema, and only 14% of people said they would vote for Sinema (35% said Lake and 42% said Gallego). The results were about the same when other possible Republican nominees – like financier Jim Lamon and Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb – were substituted for Lake.
Sinema’s opposition to Democratic legislation, her unwillingness to consider filibuster reform – which doomed the pro-LGBTQ+ Equality Act – and her lack of support for downticket Democrats made her very unpopular among her party in Arizona, leading many to speculate that she went independent since she probably would have lost the Democratic primary for her Senate seat in 2024.
An AARP poll last September found that 37% of likely Arizona voters had a favorable view of her, showing a 10-point drop in the last seven months, which includes her announcement of going independent.
A federal appeals court just told a public school teacher that he does not have a constitutional right to misgender transgender students.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, based in Chicago, ruled that Brownsburg, Indiana orchestra teacher John Kluge could not use his religion as an excuse to violate the school’s policy on transgender students.
“School will be a more comfortable environment” without the conservative Christian teacher.
Kluge said that he was forced to resign in 2018 because he didn’t want to follow Brownsburg High School’s policy on transgender students. The policy said that trans students who submit written consent from a doctor and a parent must be referred to with their correct names and pronouns.
Kluge said that, as a Christian, he had to call those students by the names they were given at birth.
“I’m being compelled to encourage students in what I believe is something that’s a dangerous lifestyle,” he said at the time. “I’m fine to teach students with other beliefs, but the fact that teachers are being compelled to speak a certain way is the scary thing.”
Kluge said that he had an agreement with administrators to refer to all students by their last names and avoid pronouns entirely. He was supposed to say that he was trying to sound like a sports coach if anyone asked why he was using last names.
It turned out he couldn’t maintain that level of artifice in his speech and used first names anyway when he was talking to cisgender students. Trans students noticed that he avoided talking to them altogether.
According to one filing in the case, a trans student said Kluge’s behavior made him “feel alienated, upset, and dehumanized. It made me dread going to orchestra class each day.”
The principal met with Kluge and said that his behavior was “creating tension in the students and faculty.” He resigned but later changed his mind and sued the school district in 2019, claiming that his religious freedom was violated.
In 2021, a federal judge in Indianapolis ruled against him. Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson said that when he’s in the classroom he is no longer just a private citizen but a representative of his employer.
Kluge argued that he needed a reasonable accommodation to do his job, like how other employers might be required to adjust uniform rules for Jewish or Sikh employees. But for an accommodation to be reasonable, he would have to be able to adequately perform his job duties.
And Magnus-Stinson wasn’t convinced that the accommodation he requested – referring to students by their last names – was reasonable. She cited testimony from two trans students, Aidyn and Sam, who said Kluge’s behavior “made them feel targeted and uncomfortable.”
“Aidyn dreaded going to orchestra class and did not feel comfortable speaking to Mr. Kluge directly,” Magnus-Stinson wrote in her decision. “Other students and teachers complained that Mr. Kluge’s behavior was insulting or offensive and made his classroom environment unwelcoming and uncomfortable. Aidyn quit orchestra entirely.”
And now Kluge has lost his appeal.
“Kluge’s last-names-only practice stigmatized the transgender students and caused them demonstrable emotional harm,” Circuit Court Judge Ilana Rovner wrote in the court’s opinion.
One judge dissented because it was unclear whether the school tried to mitigate the negative impacts of the “last name only” policy. He also said that a jury should have decided the original case.
Kluge was represented by the anti-LGBTQ+ and Souther Poverty Law Center-designated hate group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF). ADF lawyer Rory Gray said he’s not sure whether they will appeal.
“The Seventh Circuit’s ruling shows why the Supreme Court needs to fix the standard for accommodating religious employees,” he said.
Kluge initially tried to say that his objection to using the correct names and pronouns for trans students was that transgender people face a high suicide rate. A study at the University of Texas at Austin, though, showed that transgender youth who are able to go by their real names are less likely to have suicidal thoughts and to attempt suicide.
“He said that he doesn’t want to condone students going down a path where 20 percent of trans people try to kill themselves but I don’t think he recognizes the people like him and doing things like this are the reason that 20 percent of trans people try to kill themselves,” one of his former students, Aidyn Sucec, said.
“I know he thinks he’s doing the right thing but he’s not listening to the actual people this affects.”
Editor’s note: This article mentions suicide. If you need to talk to someone now, call the Trans Lifeline at 1-877-565-8860. It’s staffed by trans people, for trans people. The Trevor Project provides a safe, judgement-free place to talk for LGBTQ youth at 1-866-488-7386. You can also call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.
A new poll found that a majority of Democratic, independent, and even Republican likely voters believe that there is “too much legislation” aimed at reducing LGBTQ+ rights at the state level.
The progressive polling firm and think tank Data for Progress conducted a survey of 1220 participants and asked about the 429 bills presented at state legislatures attacking LGBTQ+ rights. Most of the bills are aimed at transgender youth, and 17 have already become law this year.
Republican lawmakers have worked round the clock to pass oppressive bills targeting gender-affirming care, bathroom usage, drag shows, and trans students.
72% of Democratic voters agreed with the statement that there is “too much legislation. Politicians are playing political theater and using these bills as a wedge issue,” and only 20% agreed that it’s “the right amount of legislation. Politicians are dealing with a real danger that needs to be addressed.” 65% of independent voters agreed that there is too much anti-LGBTQ+ legislation this year.
The more surprising result – considering how the vast majority of lawmakers voting for these bills are Republicans – was that 55% of Republican voters agreed that there is too much anti-LGBTQ+ legislation. Only 33% said that there is the “right amount” of such bills.
The survey also asked if people believed that being transgender is a “natural phenomenon that has occurred throughout history” that’s “normal” or if they believed that being trans is a “new phenomenon created by our modern woke culture” that will “harm our children.” Most Democrats (78%) and most independents (58%) agreed that being trans is natural. Only 34% of Republicans agreed that being trans is natural, while a majority (55%) said that it’s a new phenomenon.
While Republicans lag on that issue, Data for Progress noted that a majority of all likely voters (57%) said that being trans is natural, which could indicate that attacks on trans youth might not be the potent electoral winner that many Republican strategists believe it is.
While state Republican lawmakers have been introducing anti-transgender legislation for over a decade, there was an explosion of such legislation in 2021, just several weeks after Donald Trump’s loss in the general election. Democrats accused Republicans – many of whom had never shown any concern for the state of girls’ and women’s sports – of using transgender kids to distract from the GOP’s less popular positions on the COVID-19 pandemic and the economy.
Part of the reason that such a strategy could work is that transgender people make up a small percentage of the population and many people don’t think they know anyone who is transgender. Only 36% of Democrats, 39% of independents, and 25% of Republicans said that they know someone who is trans or nonbinary, and a majority of each group said that they didn’t.
And knowing a trans or nonbinary person decreases the chance that someone will see them as a threat. Among likely voters who know someone trans or nonbinary, 78% said that trans people are not a threat to straight families and 66% said that they’re not a threat to children. Among people who don’t know anyone who is trans, though, those numbers dropped to 52% and 41%, respectively.
Most Democratic voters (54%) and independent voters (63%) believe that Democratic elected officials should be doing more to fight anti-LGBTQ+ legislation. The survey didn’t ask what they believe Democrats should be doing.
When it comes to drag bans, a majority of Democrats (68%) and independents (55%) said that they had seen a drag performance either live or on TV. 53% of Republicans, though, said that they have never seen a drag performance at all.
A Nebraska state senator is causing waves in the state legislature after a scathing speech where she told her Republican colleagues that she is done being polite with them since they’re attacking her family. Namely, her 12-year-old son, who is transgender.
“My son is trans,” said state Sen. Megan Hunt (D), vowing to filibuster every bill the legislature takes up until a trans medical ban proposed by a Republican is withdrawn. “And this bill, colleagues, is such an affront to me personally and would violate my rights to parent my child in Nebraska.”
Despite Democrats’ filibuster that has shut down the legislature, the GOP won’t give in and move on.
She was referring to L.B. 574, which would ban doctors from providing gender-affirming care to transgender people under the age of 19. The measure includes puberty blockers, meaning that trans youth would have to go through puberty associated with the wrong gender and live with its permanent effects if this bill passes.
The bill is called the “Let Them Grow Act,” a reference to how Republicans believe that gender-affirming care is dangerous – but only when transgender youth accesses it. The bill bans certain procedures for transgender youth but explicitly allows them if they’re performed on intersex youth in order to appear more like the sex a doctor assigns to them at birth.
The American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association, and the American Academy of Pediatrics have all rejected claims that gender-affirming care harms transgender children or adults.
“If this bill passes, all your bills are on the chopping block, and the bridge is burned,” Hunt said in her speech.
“People have said, ‘What if we go after your bills? What if we put a bunch of bills introduced by progressives up on the agenda? Are you going to filibuster those, too?’ Yes, because we’re not like you,” she said. “We have a principle and a value that actually matters that much to us that we’re willing to stand up for.”
“You really don’t get it. You’ve crossed a line and you’ve gone too far.”
Then she said she was done even pretending to be polite with people who want to take health care away from her son.
“Don’t say hi to me in the hall, don’t ask me how my weekend was, don’t walk by my desk and ask me anything. Don’t send me Christmas cards ― take me off the list,” Hunt said. “No one in the world holds a grudge like me, and no one in the world cares less about being petty than me. I don’t care. I don’t like you.”
“This hateful bill is not about policy,” she added on Twitter. “It is a basic human rights issue. The vote today will show us exactly which senators value the dignity, autonomy, and personhood of Nebraskans. Do not cross this line. Do not violate our rights.”
On the heels of the White House vocally condemning a call to eliminate transgender people, President Joe Biden called out Florida for attacking transgender youth.
“What’s going on in Florida, is as my mother would say, close to sinful,” Biden told out actor Kal Penn on The Daily Show in an interview that will air later today.
The White House press secretary was done being talked over by Simon Ateba.
“It’s just terrible what they’re doing,” he continued. “It’s not like you know, a kid wakes up one morning and says, ‘You know, I decided I want to become a man,’ or ‘I wanna become a woman.’”
“They’re human beings! They love, they have feelings, they have inclinations- I mean, it just to me is, it’s cruel.”
Biden said Congress needs to “pass legislation like we passed on same-sex marriage.”
“You mess with that, you’re breaking the law, and you’re going to be held accountable.”
Florida has passed a number of laws and rule changes attacking transgender people’s rights, including a ban on trans youth participating in school sports and a ban on gender-affirming health care for transgender youth. The state is considering several more this year, including one that would allow the state to take away trans kids from their affirming families, even if they’re just on vacation in the state.
This past Friday, out White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre condemned attacks on transgender people’s rights as “shameful, hateful, and dangerous.”
She pointed to far-right Daily Wire host Michael Knowles, who called for “transgenderism” to be “eradicated from public life entirely” at last week’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).
“Look, it started with a speaker at a conservative conference calling for the eradication of transgender people, language that not a single national Republican leader has condemned,” Jean-Pierre said.
“In Iowa and Tennessee, Republicans are now calling for legislation to attack gay marriage and protections for same-sex couples. In Florida — just Florida alone — Republicans introduced 20 bills — 20 bills — on a single day to roll back the rights of LGBTQ community. One of those bills would give the state the right to remove kids from their parents just because that kid is transgender.”
She noted that there have been hundreds of bills attacking LGBTQ+ people filed in state legislatures across the country.
“So, so far this year, we have seen more than 450 anti-LGBTQ bills introduced at the state level — you’ve heard me say that before — amounting to a record number of anti-LGBTQ bills in our country’s history. Guys, today is day 70. It is day 70 of 2023.”
“The same leaders that tout freedom apparently don’t extend their love for freedom if they disagree with who you are, who you love, or how you parent.”
In the last three decades, some of the most egregious attacks on equality — the Defense of Marriage Act, Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, not to mention the infamous 1950 “Employment of Homosexuals and Other Sex Perverts in Government” report — came from Congress. Some of the most significant advances – passage of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act in 2009 and the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell in 2010 – also came from Congress.
And while the Supreme Court found in 2015 that some federal jobs protections against discrimination based on sex also protect LGBTQ+ people, the community is still fighting for the Equality Act, which would enshrine legal protections in civil rights law.
But Congress is unlikely to provide much help in 2023 now that Republicans have taken a narrow majority in the House of Representatives. Not only has the GOP historically opposed equality legislation, but many of the Republicans who won their midterm elections did so by weaponizing antipathy towards LGBTQ+ people, advocating for laws banning transgender people access to gender-affirming care, demagoguing equal treatment of transgender students in schools, slurring LGBTQ+ teachers and doctors as “groomers.”
And elections have consequences.
Former Congressman Mondaire Jones (D-NY) sat down with LGBTQ Nation to discuss the possibilities for change in Congress in the coming two years. Jones was first elected in 2020 and is one of the two first-out LGBTQ+ Black members of Congress; he lost his seat in 2022. He co-introduced the Respect for Marriage Act in Congress to ensure same-sex couples continue to have the rights associated with marriage should the Supreme Court overturn the marriage equality case Obergefell v. Hodges.
Jones helped get former President Donald Trump impeached for a second time after his supporters rioted in the Capitol in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. During his time in Congress, he supported the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. He pushed for even tougher democratic reforms, including automatic voter registration, public financing of elections, and an end to partisan gerrymandering.
So it’s no surprise that Congressman Jones’s message now is that getting better people elected is the key to moving Congress toward equality.
LGBTQ NATION: As the president prepares to address the nation, what are the most vexing problems facing the LGBTQ+ community?
Mondaire Jones: The Supreme Court of the United States — specifically, the far right, six-three supermajority on the Court — continues to pose the greatest obstacle to the lives and livelihoods of community members.
Justices of the US Supreme Court pose for their official photo at the Supreme Court in Washington, DC on October 7, 2022. (Seated from left) Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John Roberts, Associate Justice Samuel Alito and Associate Justice Elena Kagan, (Standing behind from left) Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett, Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch, Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. Photo by Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images.
This majority is on a rampage against our rights. We see that in a case that will undermine the ability of same-sex couples not to be discriminated against in the marketplace [he was referring to 303 Creative v. Elanis], where the First Amendment is being weaponized to allow people to be bigoted.
We know that the Court is going to come for marriage equality. As proud as I am of having introduced legislation with Jerry Nadler that passed last year called the Respect for Marriage Act, it’s not lost on me that the Respect for Marriage Act still would not ensure marriage equality in every state in the union for same-sex couples.
More than protecting members of the LGBTQ+ community against discrimination, we’ve got to have our eyes set on creating equity, whether that is in the healthcare context, the housing context, or the student debt context, where members of the community disproportionately experience hardship. That was my project when I wrote a letter to CMS and the CDC asking them to require both public and private insurers to cover an injectable form of PrEP called Apretude at no cost-sharing to the patient.
LGBTQ NATION: What do you see as fighting for queer rights and 2023? What does that mean, and what does that entail?
MJ: Because of the Republican majority in the House of Representatives and too few Democrats in the United States Senate willing to get rid of the filibuster, we have to turn to state-level progress in beating back renewed assault on the LGBTQ+ community, such as these so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bills in Florida and elsewhere.
We also have to call on the Biden administration to use its executive authority to make discrimination less prevalent and to create equity.
LGBTQ NATION: So you brought up state-level legislation where things aren’t looking that good for us over the past few years. At least a hundred bills have been introduced to curtail rights. What can we do to stop that?
MJ: The good news is that we have won public opinion over the past decade when it comes to the community’s entitlement to the same rights and liberties that our cisgender, heterosexual counterparts enjoy.
However, because of an electoral system plagued by voter suppression, voter disenfranchisement, and unlimited spending by corporate special interests, the people we see in power often do not reflect the country’s mood.
We have to continue to build and renew the movement for liberation through organizing at the grassroots level and defeating those who are hostile to the humanity of our community.
While also making sure we take back the House and keep the Senate and the White House in the 2024 elections because only the Democratic majority in this country can be trusted to protect the LGBTQ+ community.
“We have to continue to build and renew the movement for liberation through organizing at the grassroots level and defeating those who are hostile to the humanity of our community.“Mondaire Jones
LGBTQ NATION: So you’re saying it comes down to who’s elected, but what does the community do once we have a group of people in Congress? You were in Congress. What did you see LGBTQ+ activists doing that maybe could have been more effective?
MJ: Well, I appreciate this question.
Several high-profile LGBTQ+-focused organizations spend more time patting themselves on the back for the work that they do and dining with their major donors than they are focused on electing champions to office and pressuring elected officials to enact the bold reforms that we urgently need.
Consider how long it took for certain organizations to come out for the filibuster reform, as we initially needed to pass the Equality Act and the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. Consider how few organizations have supported my legislation with [Rep.] Jerry Nadler and [Rep.] Hank Johnson to expand the Supreme Court.
On a member level, I experienced very little outreach from some of the biggest LGBTQ+ rights organizations. And I was one of only nine openly gay members of the House. So we’ve got work to do.
LGBTQ NATION: You brought up democracy issues. You worked on the second impeachment of Donald Trump, which followed the January 6 Insurrection. How do you see the vitality of our democracy affecting LGBTQ+ issues in the coming years?
MJ: The crisis of our democracy is the biggest existential threat. If we do not have a truly representative government, if we do not have a pro-equality majority in both chambers of Congress and the White House, then we are going to continue to see this Supreme Court whittle away at our rights, including rights that were just gained over the past decade. And we’ll have no recourse because we won’t be able to pass legislation.
So we have to end partisan gerrymandering of congressional districts so that extremists like [Rep.] Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and [Rep.] Jim Jordan (R-OH) cannot coast to victory simply because they prevailed in the Republican primaries, despite their abuse being outside the mainstream. We have to get big money out of politics by enacting a system of public financing of congressional elections, which is what H.R. 1, which became known as the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act, would do.
We must enact automatic and same-day voter registration and do away with the voter suppression we’ve seen in places like Georgia, Florida, Texas, and Arizona. All these things will help us build a truly multiracial democracy in which we will have pro-equality majorities in state houses and Congress.
Volunteers hand out information about candidates while people stand in line to vote in Raleigh, North Carolina, on November 5, 2022.
LGBTQ Nation: Yes, it seems like something like the Equality Act is off the table for at least the next two years because of Republican control of the House, even though- I mean, I wish I had looked this up before now, the Equality Act polls pretty well. [A 2021 HRC poll found that 70% of American voters support the Equality Act.]
MJ: Of course it does! Look, just consider what happened last night. A Republican majority in the House of Representatives voted to gut the IRS by 87,000 agents. That is not economic populism, which is what that party says it ran on in 2022. That is a thinly veiled attempt to help billionaire tax cheats evade accountability.
That is something that, in a normal political environment, would be toxic and devastating for a party at the voting booth. However, because our democracy is so rigged in favor of corporate special interests and the super-wealthy, it is something that Republicans can get away with.
We have people in government who are not actually responsive to what their constituents want. Still, because of redistricting and specifically partisan gerrymandering, because of just the outsized role that wealthy people have in our system of campaign finance, aided in part by Citizen United, we see this.
“My project will be to ensure that Democrats take back the branches of government in 2024.”Mondaire Jones
LGBTQ NATION: A lot of the blame, then, for the lack of progress to be expected goes to Republicans, but is there something the Democratic Party should have been doing to get a majority that it hasn’t been doing?
MJ: Absolutely. We had majorities in both chambers of Congress, and [Sen.] Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) and [Sen.] Joe Manchin (D-WV) thought it was robbery to make an exception to the filibuster to pass democracy reforms, voting rights legislation, and the Equality Act. That was an abdication of their responsibility as legislators.
That is not to excuse the unanimous opposition by Republicans. It is to say that we’ve got some Democrats who are not where they need to be when it comes to the bold changes necessary to actually improve the lives of the American people.
The president only came out for an exception to the filibuster to pass voting rights legislation in December 2021.
LGBTQ NATION: You know what it’s like for LGBTQ+ people in Congress. Over the past few years, we’ve seen that most of the attacks have fallen on transgender people’s shoulders, specifically transgender minors. How good are your former colleagues at being familiar with essential issues for transgender people? Is there a good sense of understanding in Congress about their lives?
MJ: No, not particularly. My experience is that even the LGBTQ+ members in Congress, including myself, are continuing to learn about these issues. It would be awesome to have some trans people in Congress to bring that perspective.
And, of course, we’ve seen tremendous progress on these issues within the Democratic Party over the past several years. We see that in the inclusion of language specific to the trans community in the Equality Act and other legislation that we have passed. I’m very proud of having helped lead that.
But I know that the trans experience is not fully understood in Congress.
A transgender rights rally in Philadelphia.
LGBTQ NATION: What can LGBTQ+ people realistically expect on progress on our equality from Congress in the next two years?
MJ: I’m sad to say that because of the loss of the House to Republicans in November 2022, we cannot expect that Congress will pass the Equality Act to prohibit discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community in all facets of our society.
We will see the trans community vilified by House Republicans and Senate Republicans, even in the minority. We will continue to see LGBTQ+ individuals referred to, horrifically, as groomers and a Congress that will not respond meaningfully to the inevitable future violence against the community, especially gun violence.
That is the consequence of not having enough good people in the United States Congress.
So my project will be to ensure that Democrats take back the branches of government in 2024.
A transgender man won a $20,000 settlement in a lawsuit against the fast food chain Shake Shack after he faced a month of transphobic harassment on the job with no support from his employer.
The man, who has not been identified in the media, worked at Shake Shack in 2020 in Oakland, California. He said that he was harassed daily and referred to as female.
He told his supervisors about the harassment and instead of helping him they told him to “explain his gender to co-workers rather than rely on management to correct discriminatory behavior,” according to the California Civil Rights Department, which helped him with his lawsuit. The supervisors said it was his responsibility to convince his coworkers to stop harassing him.
His lawsuit says that after a month he grew “frustrated by management’s failure to address his concerns” and quit.
“California law prohibits intentional misgendering in the workplace,” California Civil Rights Department director Kevin Kish said. “Intentional misgendering and other forms of discrimination based on gender identity and gender expression can be stressful and traumatic.”
After mediated talks, the agency said that Shake Shack agreed to improve their discrimination training for managers and employees and adopt more strict policies about discrimination and harassment. Shake Shack also agreed to report anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination and harassment complaints directly to the state for the next year and pay the former employee $20,000.
“Creating a welcoming and fulfilling environment for all our employees and guests is critical,” reads a statement from Shake Shack. “We are constantly taking steps to ensure our policies and culture reflect our commitment to diversity and inclusion in the workplace.”
A 13-year-old boy in France named Lucas died by suicide last Saturday, January 7 after facing anti-LGBTQ+ bullying at school. People close to his family say that the school did little to stop the bullying.
The student at the Louis Armand de Golbey middle school in the Vosges department was out as a member of the LGBTQ+ community, the French magazine Têtu reports.
“He was constantly harassed for the way he dressed, his mannerisms, his presence,” said Stéphanie, a family friend. “He didn’t hide himself and that bothered some people.”
She said Lucas was “always pleasant, caring, spontaneous, full of dreams and a life.”
Psychological help has been made available for students and teachers at the middle school who need it.
“There’s really a lot of emotion from adults who didn’t see anything, didn’t see that Lucas wasn’t doing well recently,” said Valérie Dautresme in a radio interview. She’s the academic services director for the National Education system in the Vosges department.
Dautresme said that Lucas and his mother reported homophobic insults since the start of the school year in September at a parent-teacher meeting.
“For us at this point, the situation had been resolved,” she claimed. “Lucas said that things were working themselves out and that he was no longer being insulted at school.”
Stéphanie contradicted Dautresme’s claim that the matter had been “resolved” and said that Lucas complained “again and again and again. His mother asked for help several times. The school, where he spent three-quarters of his time, didn’t react.”
She said that the family is going to file a formal complaint. The family’s lawyer, Catherine Faivre, said, “There is a whole chain of people with responsibilities who can be investigated and spoken with if, in effect, the elements of an infraction can be constituted.”
Louis Armand de Golbey middle school has been taking part in a national program to fight bullying in schools under the direction of National Education and Youth of France Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer. Staff members were to be trained in how to spot bullying and in a protocol on what to do if someone faces bullying.
A fundraiser was opened online to help the family that raised 7554 € ($8200). Lucas’s funeral is planned for Saturday, January 14. A vigil is being planned but the date has not yet been announced.
Editor’s note: This article mentions suicide. If you need to talk to someone now, call the Trans Lifeline at 1-877-565-8860. It’s staffed by trans people, for trans people. The Trevor Project provides a safe, judgement-free place to talk for LGBTQ youth at 1-866-488-7386. You can also call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.
Even though out Rep. George Santos (R-NY) just got sworn in as a member of Congress this past Saturday despite lying about his entire past to get into office, party leaders are already searching for someone to replace him, either in a special election or in 2024.
“The wheels are already spinning,” one unnamed GOP official told the Washington Times. “People are getting ready to start primaries.”
GOP leaders in New York are also getting ready for a possible special election if Santos ends his term in Congress early. Names being considered include New York Assemblyman Mike Durso (R), Nassau County Comptroller Elaine Phillips, and former New York Assemblyman Mike LiPetri (R), according to the Times.
After being elected to represent New York’s Third Congressional District and becoming the first out gay Republican elected to Congress, Santos’ life story came crumbling down as several newspapers reported he never went to the colleges he said he attended, never worked for the major banks he said he worked for, and that he had been lying about his family history as well. He has admitted to many of these lies, calling them “a little bit of fluff” on his resume.
He is also being investigated by authorities in Brazil for writing bad checks, something he reportedly confessed to in 2010.
The amount of lying has led many to speculate that his political career may be short. If he doesn’t resign and if he isn’t forced to leave Congress, he could meet the same fate as the scandal-ridden former Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) did and lose in a primary challenge after his first term in Congress.
The Times says that unnamed “GOP officials in Washington who oversee House races” are working to find candidates to replace Santos should a special election be triggered by Santos resigning or being forced out of office. In such a special election, there wouldn’t be a primary. Committee members from each party would decide who their party’s candidate is.
Santos’s district – New York’s Third Congressional District – went for President Joe Biden in 2020, so having a strong candidate would be necessary for Republicans to keep the seat.
But Santos doesn’t appear ready to resign, taking being exposed as a fraud in stride and befriending his colleagues during his first week in the House. And while the House could vote to expel him, that rarely happens and would require Republican support, something unlikely to happen since Santos’s district could go to a Democrat.
While Republican leaders weren’t willing to go on the record on the matter, Democratic Rep. Gregory Meeks (R-NY) said that Democratic leaders are ready to find a candidate for a special election should Santos resign or be forced out.
“I’ve talked to Jay Jacobs who is the Democratic leader in Nassau County, and I will talk to our respective district leaders and they’ll decide the best candidate,” he said.
Santos is also under investigation by the Nassau County district attorney, the state of New York, and federal prosecutors in addition to Brazilian authorities.
With Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) announcing that she will not seek reelection in 2024, the internet is abuzz with speculation that out Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg could run and become the first out gay male U.S. senator.
“Inspired by a new generation of leaders, I have decided to pass the torch in the U.S. Senate. I am announcing today that I will not seek re-election and will leave the U.S. Senate at the end of my term on January 3, 2025,” Stabenow said in a statement.
Stabenow has served in the Senate since she won her first Senate election in 2000. Challenging her in the Democratic primary in 2024 would have been an uphill battle for any Democrat in the state. Still, now that she isn’t seeking reelection, the seat can be more easily won by other ambitious Democrats in the state.
Including Buttigieg.
Buttigieg started his political career as the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, a red state with few options for career advancement for an out gay politician. He ran for president in 2020, conceding in the primary and endorsing President Joe Biden. Biden took a liking to him and nominated him to head the Department of Transportation.
Since Buttigieg is widely believed to have presidential ambitions still, the question is what his next step will be. Being the first out gay Cabinet secretary has provided him with valuable D.C. experience, but the position of Transportation secretary isn’t a traditional stepping stone to the White House.
Last year the Buttigieges purchased property near Chasten Buttigieg’s hometown of Traverse City, Michigan, ostensibly to be closer to his parents as the family recently expanded with the adoption of their twins.
A Politico report in December said that Buttigieg’s allies in D.C. have established a dark money group and a PAC called Win the Era Action Fund and Win the Era with an eye to future campaigns. However, it’s not clear what he was planning on running for.
Stabenow’s announcement might answer that question, and social media speculated that he could run for the Senate seat.
“I am fully focused on serving the President in my role as Secretary of Transportation, and not seeking any other job. We are hard at work to rebuild the nation’s infrastructure, grow the economy, and create good-paying jobs,” Buttigieg said in response to the news about Stabenow, according to NBC reporter Henry J. Gomez.
“Senator Stabenow is a force in the Senate and fights every day to make life better for Michiganders and all Americans. I’ve been honored to work with her, and look forward to continuing to work with her during this Congress.”
So, for now, speculation is all there is that Buttigieg could throw his hat in the ring for the seat.
In her statement, Stabenow, 72, thanked the people of Michigan and said she would spend more time with her family.
“I am so grateful for the trust the people of Michigan have placed in me,” she said. “I am also deeply grateful to my incredible staff, who are the best team in the United States Senate. They continue to set the highest standards for service in Michigan and across our country.”
“When my term ends, I intend to begin a new chapter in my life that includes continuing to serve our State outside of elected office while spending precious time with my amazing 96-year-old mom and my wonderful family.”
