Jo Yurcaba

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Acceptance significantly reduces suicide risk for intersex youths, report finds

LGBTQ youths who are also intersex — an umbrella term that describes those whose reproductive or sexual anatomy does not fit the typical definitions of “male” or “female” — have a higher risk of suicide when compared to LGBTQ youths who are not intersex, according to a new report.

But researchers say there is hope, because the data also show that one thing can help significantly reduce the risk: acceptance.

The Trevor Project, a national youth suicide prevention and crisis intervention group, released the research Friday in a report that explores the mental health and well-being of intersex LGBTQ youths.

It found that the intersex respondents face disproportionately high rates of mental health challenges. For example, 48 percent of LGBTQ intersex youths surveyed as part of the Trevor Project’s 2021 National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health reported that they seriously considered suicide in the previous 12 months, compared to 41 percent of LGBTQ youths who are not intersex. 

Nearly one-fifth (19 percent) of LGBTQ intersex youths reported that they had attempted suicide in the previous 12 months, compared to 14 percent of LGBTQ youths who are not intersex. That rate was even higher for younger LGBTQ intersex youths: Nearly 1 in 4 (24 percent) youths 13 to 17 years old reported having attempted suicide in the previous 12 months, compared to 14 percent of LGBTQ intersex youth ages 18 to 24. 

“We already know that the rates of mental health challenges are higher for LGBTQ youth compared to cisgender, straight youth, so when we compare intersex youth to the already high rates among LGBTQ youth, we know that they’re increasingly high,” said Myeshia Price, a senior research scientist at the Trevor Project.

The research found that there are a few risk factors for poor mental health among LGBTQ intersex youths. For example, 18 percent reported having been subjected to conversion therapy, a discredited practice that seeks to change someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity, with 12 percent reporting that the efforts were aimed at changing their gender identities.

LGBTQ intersex youths who said someone had tried to persuade them to change their sexual orientations or gender identities reported more than twice the rate of previous-year suicide attempts (22 percent) compared to intersex youths who did not (9 percent).

The report noted, however, that the recommended “treatment” for intersex people often includes medical procedures and socialization from a young age that could be considered conversion therapy.

“For intersex people, this may happen in such a systemic way, involving every person in the youth’s life, and starting from birth, that intersex youth may not even be aware that it is happening,” the report says. “This may lead intersex youth to under-report their experiences with conversion therapy and other change efforts by adults in their lives.”

In response to activism by intersex people, some doctors have recently started re-evaluating standard medical protocol, which has historically included surgery and hormonal therapy to change intersex youths’ appearances. Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, Lurie Children’s Hospital in Boston and New York City Health + Hospitals announced this year that they would stop performing some intersex surgery on children.     

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Price said part of the reason the Trevor Project focused the research on mental health is that intersex youths are often medicalized from birth and that as a result most of the available research focuses on how medical procedures affect them.

“I think it’s important to understand that intersex youth are so much more than their bodies,” Price said. “By understanding them as individuals and as people we believe that this report gives more attention to things that may be more important to them than the sort of medicalized approach to looking at who they are.”

The report found that other risk factors for poor mental health include discrimination, housing instability and food insecurity. More LGBTQ intersex youths reported having experienced discrimination based on their sexual orientation or gender identities (64 percent) in the previous year compared to LGBTQ youth who are not intersex (59 percent). Those who reported having experienced discrimination reported twice the rate of attempting suicide (22 percent) compared to LGBTQ intersex youth who had not experienced it (11 percent).

More LGBTQ intersex youths reported having faced food insecurities in the previous year and/or homelessness, including from being kicked out or having run away, when compared to LGBTQ youths who are not intersex. Those who reported food insecurities and/or homelessness reported nearly three times the rate of previous-year suicide attempts, at 30 percent and 34 percent, respectively, compared to those who did not report food insecurities or facing homelessness, at 12 percent and 10 percent.

The report recommends policies, both in schools and for government-issued identification, that are not built on the sex or gender binary of male and female, because both intersex and many transgender youths do not fit into those categories. 

“We talk about gendered bathrooms and locker rooms and the sports-participation binary and documents that only allow for male or female sex or markers, and these are all sort of inherently excluding the reality that intersex people exist in the first place,” Price said. Sports policies that allow anyone to participate, gender-neutral bathrooms and inclusive sex-education curriculums that recognize intersex people signal to youths “that we see you, we know you’re here and we accept you for who you are,” Price said. 

Price added that the report offers hope, because it found that acceptance and affirmation significantly reduce the risk of suicide for LGBTQ intersex youths. Those who had at least one parent who was accepting of their sexual orientations or gender identities had 55 percent and 45 percent lower odds, respectively, of having attempted suicide in the previous year. Transgender and nonbinary intersex youths whose pronouns were respected by all of the people they live with had 64 percent lower odds of reporting suicide attempts. 

“The best thing that we could do for intersex youth is to be accepting and provide that protective and supportive environment for them,” she said.

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Transgender people in ‘survival mode’ as violence rises, anti-trans bills become law

Last Saturday, Que Bell led a vigil for Transgender Day of Remembrance, an annual observance to honor the memory of transgender homicide victims that began in 1999.

Bell has led these vigils before. He is the executive director of the Knights and Orchids Society, a nonprofit group based in Selma, Alabama, that supports Black transgender, queer and gender-nonconforming people, and he has been an advocate for more than a decade. But this year will be different. 

“​​This is literally the first time that I’ll have to write down my best friend’s name for a TDOR celebration,” Bell said, using the initialism for Transgender Day of Remembrance. “It’s really going to hit differently.”

Bell’s best friend, Mel Groves, died Oct. 11 after having been shot multiple times. Groves, 25, a Black transgender man, was studying plant and soil science at Alcorn State University in Lorman, Mississippi. Just before he died, he was about to become the full-time community garden manager for the Knights and Orchids Society.

Mel Groves, a farmer from Jackson, Miss.
Mel Groves, a farmer from Jackson, Miss.Courtesy Mel Groves

But on Saturday, Bell will light a candle in Groves’ memory. 

Groves is one of at least 47 transgender or gender-nonconforming people — and one of 28 Black trans people — to have died by violence in 2021, which has surpassed 2020 to become the deadliest year on record for trans people, according to the Human Rights Campaign, which has been tracking fatal anti-trans violence since 2013. A disproportionate number of the deaths have been in the Southeast.

State legislatures across the country this year have also considered a record number of anti-transgender bills — more than 100 — many of which target trans youths, specifically trans girls. Advocates say the rhetoric coming out of legislatures is connected to the violence, because it describes transgender girls as boys and vice versa and, in many cases, characterizes trans people as “predators”on sports teams or in bathrooms. 

Transgender Day of Remembrance is also known as Transgender Day of Remembrance and Resilience — the latter part an effort to remind people that while trans people face disproportionate discrimination and violence, they are also leading grassroots efforts to make things better for their communities. 

Deadnaming, misgendering and clearance rates

Bell said that he and Groves’ friends and family ultimately want the person who killed Groves brought to justice but that he doesn’t have confidence in the police investigation.

When the Jackson Police Department first reported on Groves’ death, it used his legal name and misgendered him, causing local news outlets to repeat the mistakes. Groves’ loved ones had to reach out while grieving his loss to ask news outlets to update their stories to reflect who Groves actually was. Some updated their stories; others said they couldn’t change them without confirmation from law enforcement authorities or Groves’ immediate family.  https://iframe.nbcnews.com/nt4ufYW?_showcaption=true&app=1

A week after Groves died, Jackson police provided the same statement to NBC News that they first issued, which used his birth name (also known as deadnaming) and misgendered him. The police department hasn’t responded to a request for comment about whether it plans to update the statement.  

Bell said police officials need to be more educated about what the trans community faces; otherwise, he said, they will be unable to solve the case. He recalled one officer’s public statement that he would investigate Groves’ death just like any other. 

“That is totally avoiding the issue,” Bell said. “I want you to be knowledgeable enough to know that, when something happens to trans people, how your department should be reacting to it and how you can help, versus being so defensive about acknowledging that this happened because it was a trans issue.”

Bell said police need to understand that anti-trans violence is connected to discrimination and higher rates of homelessness, among other issues that trans people face, or “we’re never going to be able to solve the problem.”

Image: Jaida Peterson, a transgender woman, was found dead in a hotel room in Charlotte, N.C., on April 4, 2021.
Jaida Peterson, a transgender woman, was found dead in a hotel room in Charlotte, N.C., on April 4, 2021.AP / NBC News

Anti-trans fatal violence cases nationwide appear to have a lower average clearance rate — the percentage of cases in which someone has been arrested, charged and turned over to a court for prosecution — than fatal violence cases in general, said Brendan Lantz, an assistant professor of criminology and criminal justice at Florida State University.

Lantz and his research team at the university’s Hate Crime Research and Policy Institute are creating the first database to track fatal violence against the transgender community. Although the Human Rights Campaign and other nonprofit groups track such deaths, the database Lantz’s team is creating, which will date to 2012, also tracks characteristics of the offenses, victims’ background information, perpetrators’ information, handling by police departments (including whether victims were misgendered or deadnamed) and whether cases have been solved, among other information.

TransAmerica

JUNE 17, 202152:10

Preliminary data, which Lantz said are subject to change, show that the nationwide clearance rate for fatal anti-trans violence is about 44 percent, which is well below the national average of 60 percent to 70 percent. 

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Early patterns also show that there’s “very likely a correlation between the prevalence” of deadnaming or misgendering by police and the likelihood of clearing a case, he said. 

Evidence is important when police are trying to solve a homicide, he said, “and if we’re not even using the correct name, obtaining that evidence isn’t particularly easy to do, right?”

“Witnesses are less likely to come forward, and a lot of issues enter the equation,” he said.

Transgender rights groups say anti-trans sentiment, reflected in bills considered in dozens of states, affects how trans people are treated, including by police. Police initially misgendered victims and used their birth names in reporting on 30 of the 46 known deaths, an NBC News analysis found.

Since 2013, about 80 percent of trans people in deaths involving trans people with available data were initially misgendered by the media or law enforcement, according to a report released Wednesday by the Human Rights Campaign. An NBC News analysis of this year’s cases found that victims in 73 percent of investigations were misgendered or deadnamed by police, compared to 59 percent of cases in which someone was arrested and charged. 

‘A sense of survival mode’

Trans advocates say some policymakers and national advocacy organizations are quick to suggest police reform as a solution. 

But while many of them agree that improving police competence and investigations is important, they say the strategy addresses the issue only after the fact — when people have already died. 

That leaves many in the transgender community feeling unsafe, which has led some of them to take their safety and well-being into their own hands.

“When you get tired of depending on a system to protect you that you know was not designed to protect you or to support you, you realize that you’re literally wasting time and resources putting money into a system that is not going to change,” Bell said. “So instead … we decided to start investing in the things that we could tangibly change.”

Advocates like Bell say community organizations should be given more resources and support, because they know how to best keep their people safe and help them thrive — by providing them with gender-affirming health care, as the Knights and Orchids Society does, or housing, as a number of trans-led groups across the country do.

Mariah Moore, a national trans rights activist and a co-director of the House of Tulip, a nonprofit collective creating housing solutions for trans people in Louisiana, said: “It’s so important that we support community-led initiatives, because those folks leading those initiatives are actually folks who have that lived experience and are able to speak to the needs and actually distribute those resources directly to impacted community members.”  

Trans United Leading Intersectional Progress, or TULIP, is a nonprofit collective creating housing solutions for trans and gender-nonconforming people in Louisiana.
Trans United Leading Intersectional Progress, or TULIP, is a nonprofit collective creating housing solutions for trans people in Louisiana.House of Tulip

Bell echoed that sentiment with respect to funding for nonprofit groups. He said that many people support and know of national advocacy organizations but that the groups aren’t providing emergency housing or money for trans people.

“I’m committed to this work to always keep trans folks safe,” he said, adding that he has been evicted twice in the past because he has provided a place for people experiencing homelessness to stay, some of them as young as 13. 

“That comes out of a sense of survival mode,” he said. “I don’t have a lot, but what I do have I want to share with the folks who are like me who also don’t have.”

In neighboring Georgia, Toni-Michelle Williams, the executive director of the Atlanta-based Solutions Not Punishment Collaborative, a Black trans- and queer-led organization that builds community safety through organizing and leadership training, said the group has supported more than 160 people through its Taking Care of Our Own Fund, which provides funding for emergency bail, housing, health care and other needs. 

The group provided the support with less than 3 percent of $15 million, Williams said, which represents this year’s budget increasefor the Atlanta Police Department. 

“Just imagine what we could do for our communities — Black trans and queer folks, sex workers, formerly incarcerated people — with at least 3 percent of that funding,” she said. “I definitely just want to encourage people to continue to push and to join our side around what it means to reallocate funding from these large institutions that have so many resources. Our communities are in need of them.” 

Looking ahead, Bell said he’s determined “not to lose another Mel.”

“I want to do everything I can to make sure that we don’t have any more Mel Groves — that we don’t have another person who slips through the cracks, that for whatever reason we have the resources to make sure that folks have a fighting chance,” he said.

A memorial was held for Mel Groves in Jackson, Miss., last week.
A memorial was held for Mel Groves in Jackson, Miss., in October.Courtesy TC Caldwell/The Knights and Orchids Society.

He added that he feels as though he has done a disservice to trans people who have been killed in the past. “Because what I don’t want people to remember about Mel is that he was the 39th person murdered,” Bell said. “And that’s often what happens when we lose somebody, is that the tragedy of their death is highlighted over their legacy, their purpose and all the good things that they have contributed to the world during their time.” 

He wants people to remember that Groves was a promising scientist and that his professors bragged about him and his research after his death. He loved Nat King Cole, he had a smile that made people want to talk to him, and he always offered to share food with his friends. 

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‘Hidden Mercy’ shines light on nuns, priests who responded to AIDS with compassion

In 1986, the Vatican released a letter condemning homosexuality with what The New York Times called a “pointed allusion to AIDS.” 

A year later, nearly 48,000 Americans had died from the disease. 

Even as the death toll rose, the Roman Catholic Church reinforced its stance and also opposed the gay and lesbian rights movement more generally, creating an ongoing tension. Despite this, some nuns and priests went against those teachings and worked behind the scenes to care for and sit at the bedsides of people dying from AIDS-related illnesses.

A new book, “Hidden Mercy: AIDS, Catholics, and the Untold Stories of Compassion in the Face of Fear,” by Michael O’Loughlin, uncovers those stories. 

O’Loughlin, a journalist who lives in Chicago, writes in the first chapter that for as long as he can remember, he’s been on a search. “I am gay and I am Catholic,” he wrote. “And I struggle continuously to reconcile those two parts of my identity.” 

Image: Micheal O'Loughlin
Micheal O’Loughlin.Courtesy M. Klein

He wanted to speak with people who had lived through similar struggles, and in 2015 a friend who was a priest suggested that he speak to gay Catholics who lived through the height of the AIDS crisis in the United States. He ran with the idea and began tracking down scientists and doctors involved in AIDS work — nuns and priests who served as caretakers to the ill, and activists, including those from the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, or ACT UP.

He said he chose to focus on stories of compassion because he is interested in “people who had a lot to lose by taking on the power structure of the church but still did the right thing.”

“So, the priests who minister to gay men dying from AIDS, some of whom come out as gay themselves, and challenge the churches to be more welcoming and accepting,” he said. “The nuns who are really scrappy people who find the resources to learn all they can about HIV and AIDS and then do their own ministry. The gay Catholics who find themselves caught between their inclination to be part of the gay activism world but also remain part of the church.” 

He said he kept asking himself, “How do they make this work?”

“I’m drawn to those stories because there’s something universal about summoning the courage to do the right thing when it would be much easier to do nothing,” he said, adding that this courage “applies to all sorts of situations even today.”

The book doesn’t attempt to “rewrite history” and also recounts how church leaders advocated against LGBTQ rights. But at the same time, O’Loughlin said he wanted to make sure the people who did extraordinary things and cite their Catholic faith as their motivation were also part of that history. 

He noted that many of the people he spoke with said their journeys were complicated. Over 10 years, Sister Carol Baltosiewich, a nun and nurse from a small city in southern Illinois, traveled to Kansas City, Chicago and eventually New York City to care for people living with AIDS. She told O’Loughlin that she didn’t know any gay people before she began her AIDS work, and she had to reconcile the church’s teachings with her drive to care for people.

O’Loughlin said that it was at times painful for the people he interviewed, including Baltosiewich, to take a hard look at their prejudices and biases before their experiences changed them. 

“When she began to learn about HIV and how it was affecting the gay community, it was sort of this whole new culture,” O’Loughlin said. “It was this clash between what she had known and something that was foreign to her, so she eventually learned and grew, but I think that some people are maybe hesitant to look honestly at that time, because there was so much stigma and shame that even the most well-intentioned people really couldn’t free themselves without making a conscious decision, which she did ultimately, but many people were just kind of in this culture that looked with such hostility at the LGBT community.”

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Some of the people O’Loughlin spoke to experienced that hostility themselves. The Rev. William Hart McNichols, a Jesuit priest and an artist who attended the Pratt Institute in New York City, ministered to people dying from AIDS-related illnesses. In 1989, McNichols came out as gay publicly in a chapter for a book published by New Ways Ministry, a group that ministers to gay and lesbian Catholics. 

He asked the permission of his Jesuit superiors at the time, and they told him that it was his choice to make, but that if he came out he wouldn’t be able to work at a Jesuit high school, college or parish. As an illustrator who worked in a hospital, he wasn’t offended by the response and decided to write the chapter. 

O’Loughlin said the LGBTQ people he interviewed all made a decision at some point to stay in the church “no matter how strong the headwinds they faced,” because it was their church, too. 

“Once people made that decision, there seemed to be something — whether it was grace or just stubbornness — that kept them involved,” he said. “And that kind of spoke to me as I continue to figure out what place I have in the church and as I interview dozens and dozens of LGBT people every year going through something similar, that you have to make that decision to stay and then be prepared to fight to keep your place in an institution that isn’t always welcoming.”

O’Loughlin wrote Tuesday in an op-ed for The New York Times that conducting interviews for his book had a “profound effect” on his faith, so much so that he wrote a letter to Pope Francis to tell him about the book and the conversations he had.

In August, the pope wrote back. The letter was written in Spanish but was translated to English.

“Thank you for shining a light on the lives and bearing witness to the many priests, religious sisters and lay people, who opted to accompany, support and help their brothers and sisters who were sick from H.I.V. and AIDS at great risk to their profession and reputation,” Pope Francis wrote. 

The pontiff added, “Instead of indifference, alienation and even condemnation, these people let themselves be moved by the mercy of the Father and allowed that to become their own life’s work; a discreet mercy, silent and hidden, but still capable of sustaining and restoring the life and history of each one of us.”

O’Loughlin wrote that the letter won’t heal old or new wounds — the church still won’t bless same-sex marriages and teaches that homosexuality is immoral — but that it gave him hope that church leaders “will be transformed” in how they see LGBTQ people and “others whose faith is lived on the margins.”

Regardless of whether that happens, O’Loughlin said one of his goals for the book is to show LGBTQ people struggling with their faith that they aren’t alone, and that there are many people who came before them. 

“By meeting people and learning about the struggles and learning the history, I’ve realized that this is not new at all,” O’Loughlin said. “The reality is, people have been grappling with these questions for forever … and there’s a lot of wisdom in these stories that have helped me realize I’m not alone at all.”

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After election, more than 1,000 LGBTQ officials will serve in the U.S.

Once last week’s victors are sworn in, the United States will have elected more than 1,000 concurrently serving LGBTQ officials for the first time in history, according to the political action committee LGBTQ Victory Fund. 

At least 237 lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer candidates were on the ballot — an 18.5 percent increase since the last off-year election, in 2019, according to the Victory Fund.

Races were still being called Tuesday afternoon, but in many states, LGBTQ candidates celebrated historic firsts.

LGBTQ candidates celebrate historic election firsts across the country

NOV. 4, 202102:37

Six out LGBTQ candidates won their races for the New York City Council, which means the number of out representatives on the 51-person council increased from four to six. According to the Victory Fund, it’s the largest group of out LGBTQ council members ever elected in a city, with the previous record being five also in New York. 

Crystal Hudson.
Crystal Hudson.Katrina Hajagos

Democrats Crystal Hudson and Kristin Richardson Jordan — who will represent District 35 in Brooklyn and District 9 in Upper Manhattan, respectively — will be the first two Black out LGBTQ women elected to the council. Tiffany Cabán and Lynn Schulman — both Democrats who won seats representing District 22 and District 29, respectively, in Queens — will be the first out LGBTQ women elected to a public office that represents Queens, according to the Victory Fund. 

In the Midwest, Rebecca Maurer, a Democrat, defeated a 16-year incumbent and became the first out LGBTQ woman elected to the Cleveland City Council, and Gabriela Santiago-Romero, also a Democrat, became the first LGBTQ councilwoman in Detroit and the first Latinx out LGBTQ woman elected in the entire state of Michigan.

Christopher Coburn.
Christopher Coburn.Leanna Joy Photography

Across the country, in Montana, Democratic candidate Christopher Coburn became the first Black out LGBTQ person ever elected in the state when he won his race for the Bozeman City Commission, according to the Victory Fund. 

Trans candidates also won a number of races Tuesday. Dion Manley became the first trans person elected in the state of Ohio after winning his race for the Gahanna-Jefferson school board in Gahanna, just outside of Columbus. 

Xander Orenstein.
Xander Orenstein.Bex Tasker

Xander Orenstein, who uses gender-neutral pronouns, became the first nonbinary person elected to a judicial position in the United States after winning their race for the Allegheny County Magisterial District Court in Pennsylvania. They ran unopposed in the general election after defeating incumbent Anthony Ceoffe in the primary by 40 votes. 

Thu Nguyen, a Democrat, became the first nonbinary person elected in the state of Massachusetts after winning their race for Worcester City Council, according to the Victory Fund. Orenstein and Nguyen will add to the small pool of nonbinary elected officials serving in the United States, which currently stands at 11.

Though most of Tuesday’s LGBTQ victors are registered Democrats, not all are. Don Guardian became the first out LGBTQ Republican state legislator in New Jersey when he won his election to the General Assembly. New Jersey — until Guardian is sworn in — is one of just six states in the entire country without any LGBTQ people currently serving in the Legislature, according to the Victory Fund.

Andrea Jenkins, vice president of the Minneapolis City Council, speaks to community members on June 7, 2020, in Minneapolis.
Andrea Jenkins, vice president of the Minneapolis City Council, speaks to community members on June 7, 2020, in Minneapolis.Jerry Holt / Star Tribune via AP

Some LGBTQ incumbents won re-election Tuesday night, including Danica Roem, a member of the Virginia House of Delegates, and Andrea Jenkins, who was re-elected to the Minneapolis City Council. Roem became the first out transgender person to serve in a state legislature after her win in 2017 and is now the longest-serving out trans state legislator in U.S. history, after winning re-election for a second time. Jenkins in 2017 became the first Black trans woman elected to public office.

Annise Parker, Houston’s first openly LGBTQ mayor and the current president and CEO of the LGBTQ Victory Fund, said she has mixed feelings about the outcome of election night. She noted the Victory Fund works with LGBTQ candidates at every level of office, but it focuses more than other national organizations on down-ballot candidates for school board and city council, for example. 

“Those candidates had a really good night, just as they did last year, but the closer you get to the top of the ticket where national politics come into play, the more problematic it is,” she said.

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Two Victory Fund-endorsed candidates lost their races in the Virginia House of Delegates: Del. Joshua Cole, a Democratic incumbent, lost his race to Republican challenger Tara Durant, and Douglas Ward, a Democratic challenger, lost his race to Republican incumbent Michael Webert.

She said “culture war” issues played a significant role in the races in Virginia, and in many other areas of the country, and that some candidates don’t know how to respond to them.

Image: Danica Roem
Danica Roem.Julia Rendleman for The Washington Post via Getty Images file

For example, she said Republican Glenn Youngkin, the projected winner of Virginia’s race for governor, emerged victorious by “hitting Trump themes without including Trump.” LGBTQ issues played a significant role in his campaign: Youngkin faced criticism last month for saying that, though he doesn’t personally supportmarriage equality, he would respect that it is legal in Virginia. He also expressed his opposition to trans girls playing on girls sports teams at school — an issue that has led to 10 states restricting transgender students’ sports participation — and supported Tanner Cross, a Virginia school teacher who was suspended (and later reinstated) after saying he would refuse to use pronouns consistent with transgender students’ gender identities.

“It is easier to convince someone to vote out of fear than out of positive conviction,” Parker said. She said the technique is not new and that LGBTQ candidates and pro-LGBTQ candidates have to know how to redirect the conversation — especially going into the 2022 midterm elections, as these issues are likely to gain traction. 

She pointed to Roem, who has run against candidates who have used anti-trans rhetoric three times now, and she’s won every time. 

“Danica is focused on the things that matter most to her constituents — bread and butter, basic legislative issues — and does not allow herself to get sidetracked into this culture war red meat stuff,” Parker said.

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United States issues its 1st passport with ‘X’ gender marker

The United States has issued its first passport with an “X” gender marker, which denotes that someone is neither exclusively male nor female, the State Department said Wednesday.

This marks a milestone for nonbinary and intersex Americans, who make up an estimated 1.2 million and 4 million Americans, respectively, according to the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law, and interACT, an intersex advocacy group. An increasing number of intersex, nonbinary and gender-nonconforming people have come out in recent years, but most of them have been unable to obtain IDs that accurately reflect who they are due to a patchwork of state laws across the country.

The State Department said that it expects to be able to offer the “X” designation to more people early next year.

The U.S.’ special diplomatic envoy for LGBTQ rights, Jessica Stern, called the moves historic and celebratory, saying they bring the government documents in line with the “lived reality” that there is a wider spectrum of human sex characteristics than is reflected in the previous two designations.

“When a person obtains identity documents that reflect their true identity, they live with greater dignity and respect,” Stern said.

The department did not announce to whom the passport was issued. A department official declined to say whether it was for Dana Zzyym, an intersex Colorado resident who has been in a legal battle with the department since 2015, saying the department does not usually discuss individual passport applications because of privacy concerns.

Zzyym (pronounced Zimm) was denied a passport for failing to check male or female on an application. According to court documents, Zzyym wrote “intersex” above the boxes marked “M” and “F” and requested an “X” gender marker instead in a separate letter.

Zzyym was born with ambiguous physical sexual characteristics but was raised as a boy, according to court filings. Zzyym later came out as intersex while working and studying at Colorado State University, and uses gender-neutral pronouns. The department’s denial of Zzyym’s passport prevented them from being able to travel to a meeting of Organization Intersex International in Mexico.

The State Department announced in June that it was moving toward adding a third gender marker but said it would take time because it required extensive updates to its computer systems. A department official said the passport application and system update with the “X” designation option still need to be approved by the Office of Management and Budget, which approves all government forms, before they can be issued.

The department now also allows applicants to self-select their gender as male or female, no longer requiring them to provide medical certification if their gender does not match that listed on their other identification documents.

The United States joins a handful of countries, including Australia, Canada, Germany, India, Nepal and New Zealand in allowing its citizens to designate a gender other than male or female on their passports.

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Stern said her office planned to talk about the U.S.′ experience with the change in its interactions around the world and she hopes that might help inspire other governments to offer the option.

“We see this as a way of affirming and uplifting the human rights of trans and intersex and gender-nonconforming and nonbinary people everywhere,” she said.

It’s unclear how the policy change will affect state laws that do not recognize “X” gender markers. Twenty states and D.C. allow residents to use an “X” marker on their driver’s licenses, according tothe Movement Advancement Project, a nonprofit think tank.

States also have a mix of laws that regulate how someone can request a gender marker change on an ID. Twenty-two states allow people to decide what gender markers are appropriate for them — which is now the policy that the State Department will use — according to MAP.

That process, known as self-attestation, allows trans and nonbinary people to keep themselves safe, said Arli Christian, a campaign strategist for the American Civil Liberties Union, which has been pressuring the Biden administration to allow “X” gender markers on passports and advocates for laws that allow people to attest to their own gender.

“That is hands down the best policy for ensuring that all people have the most accurate gender marker on their ID,” Christian said.

The remaining states either require medical provider certification in order to update a gender marker, a court order and proof of genital surgery or they have an unclear law.

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Texas agency removes webpages with resources for LGBTQ youths

Texas officials removed two webpages in late August that provided resources for LGBTQ youths — including a link to a suicide prevention hotline — a few hours after criticism from one of Gov. Greg Abbott’s Republican primary challengers.

The candidate, Don Huffines, who owns a real estate development company in the Dallas area, wrote Aug. 31 on Twitter: “It’s offensive to see @GregAbbott_TX use our tax dollars to advocate for transgender ideology. This must end.”https://iframe.nbcnews.com/gi7itgd?app=1

He described a webpage on the Department of Family and Protective Services’ website titled “gender identity and sexual orientation.” 

“They’re talking about helping ‘empower and celebrate lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, asexual, allied,’ nonheterosexual behavior, and it goes on and on,” Huffines said in a video. “I mean, really? This is Texas. These are not Texas values. These are not Republican Party values. But these are obviously Greg Abbott’s values.”

In a separate tweet the same afternoon, Huffines linked to a webpage for Texas Youth Connection, a program run by the Department of Family and Protective Services, which included a link to the Trevor Project, a nonprofit LGBTQ youth suicide prevention and crisis intervention group, and other LGBTQ rights groups. https://iframe.nbcnews.com/C3LZcyj?app=1

“This is the webpage where @GregAbbott_TX’s political appointees are promoting transgender ideology,” Huffines wrote.

A few hours later, both pages had been removed. 

“The Texas Youth Connection website has been temporarily disabled for a comprehensive review of its content,” a message on the website says. “This is being done to ensure that its information, resources, and referrals are current.”

It provides links to the Texas Youth Helpline and the department’s Preparation for Adult Living program. The page on sexual orientation and gender identity now shows an error message.

Patrick Crimmins, the director of communications for the Department of Family and Protective Services, said in an email Tuesday that the review of the webpages “is still ongoing” and would not provide further comment about why the pages were removed. 

Abbott’s office has not returned a request for comment.

The Houston Chronicle reported Tuesday that emails obtained through a public records request show that agency officials discussed removing the gender identity and sexual orientation webpage in response to Huffines’ tweet. 

Just 13 minutes after Huffines’ video went up, Marissa Gonzales, the department’s media relations director, emailed a link to Crimmins with the subject line “Don Huffines video accusing Gov/DFPS of pushing liberal transgender agenda,” the Chronicle reported. She wrote in the body of the email: “FYI. This is starting to blow up on Twitter.”

Crimmins emailed Darrell Azar, the department’s web and creative services director. He asked who runs the page and wrote, “Darrell — please note we may need to take that page down, or somehow revise content,” according to the Chronicle.

Azar responded that the webpage came from the department’s Preparation for Adult Living program, which supports older teens placed in foster care by the state. He wrote that the content Huffines criticized is “only a few years old” but that the adult living program has posted “content related to LGBTQ for as long as I can remember,” according to the Chronicle. 

Huffines took credit for the pages’ removal in a tweet Tuesday. 

“Greg Abbott was using taxpayer dollars to advocate for transgender ideology and the Human Rights Campaign,” he wrote. “Our campaign made him stop.”https://iframe.nbcnews.com/2Dukul1?app=1

Many advocates spoke out against the pages’ removal in August, but even more people, including elected officials, condemned the decision in response to the Chronicle’s article.https://iframe.nbcnews.com/Maxrkow?app=1https://iframe.nbcnews.com/BIGR3m4?app=1

Former San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro, who was secretary of housing and urban development in the Obama administration, said the decision to remove the webpages was “disgusting.”

“Greg Abbott is so scared of losing his primary, he’s sabotaging an LGBTQ youth suicide prevention hotline to kowtow his extremist base,” he wrote Tuesday. https://iframe.nbcnews.com/BTMcnyY?app=1

Ricardo Martinez, the CEO of the LGBTQ advocacy group Equality Texas, said in an emailed statement that LGBTQ children are overrepresented in foster care and “face truly staggering discrimination and abuse.” 

“The state is responsible for these kids’ lives, yet it actively took away a resource for them when they are in crisis,” he said. “What’s worse, this was done at the start of Suicide Prevention and Awareness Month. LGBTQ youth who have been in foster care report three times greater likelihood of attempting suicide in the past year (according to a Trevor Project research brief). Again and again this year, we are simply asking that these kids’ lives not be politicized.”

Texas has considered more than 50 bills this year that target LGBTQ youths, particularly transgender youths, according to Equality Texas.

While advocates have defeated all of the bills so far, the Legislature recently began a third special legislative session — the fourth legislative session overall this year — and it is considering a number of anti-transgender bills again. 

Advocates have said the rhetoric in the bills has a negative effect on the mental health of LGBTQ youths statewide.

From Jan. 1 to Aug. 30, crisis calls from LGBTQ young people in Texas increased by 150 percent compared to the same period last year, according to data shared last week by the Trevor Project. 

If you or someone you know is in crisis, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255 or text HOME to 741741 to reach a trained counselor at the Crisis Text Line. You can also visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for a list of additional support networks.

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‘Worst List’ names 180 colleges that are ‘unsafe’ for LGBTQ students

An LGBTQ nonprofit on Monday released its annual Worst Listnaming 180 colleges and universities as “the absolute worst, most unsafe campuses for LGBTQ youth.” 

Campus Pride, which advocates for LGBTQ inclusivity and safety at U.S. colleges and universities, added 50 universities to the list since last year — the most extensive update since the list started in 2015, according to the organization.

The list includes colleges and universities that have either received or applied for a religious exemption to Title IX, a federal law that protects students from discrimination in federally funded schools, or have a “demonstrated history of anti-LGBTQ policies, programs and practices,” according to a news release.

At 180 schools, the list is the longest it has been in its six-year history.

“These aren’t just bad campuses or the worst campuses — these campuses fundamentally are unsafe for LGBTQ students, and, as a result, they’re fundamentally unsafe for all students to go to,” Shane Windmeyer, founder and executive director of Campus Pride, said. “They promote an environment of hostility, of discrimination, harassment, toward a group of people, and who wants — when you’re trying to be educated — to have that type of negative learning environment?”

Seattle Pacific University
Seattle Pacific University made the list of worst colleges for gay students for the first time.Mat Hayward / Getty Images file

Windmeyer said that part of the reason this year’s update to the list was significant is because of changes the Trump administration made to the Title IX religious exemption process. Under President Barack Obama, religious schools had to submit a letter outlining why they needed an exemption to Title IX. The Trump administration changed that rule so that religious schools were automatically exempt from Title IX, which allowed them to continue receiving federal funds while, for example, enforcing a rule that prohibits students from engaging in gay sex or same-sex relationships.

The Trump administration also stopped publishing an online list of schools that have requested an exemption from Title IX. Campus Pride referred to that list while creating its Worst List.

Windmeyer said the Biden administration has republished previous lists of schools that applied for title IX religious exemptions, but it hasn’t clarified or changed the Trump administration policy undoing the application requirement. 

Before Biden took office, Campus Pride relied on student reports and news articles, Windmeyer said. This year, the group used the list of schools that requested exemptions to Title IX and court documents.

In 2019, 41 campuses filed an amicus brief in Bostock v. Clayton County in support of employers who argued that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 didn’t protect LGBTQ employees from discrimination. The Supreme Court sided with the employees.

Windmeyer said Campus Pride also included the 29 religious colleges and universities named in a class action lawsuit against the Department of Education alleging that the religious exemption is unconstitutional and that it allows religious schools that receive federal funds to discriminate against LGBTQ students.

“Religious organizations and colleges were emboldened during the Trump administration,” Windmeyer, who noted that all 180 schools on the list this year are religiously affiliated, said. “Biden has still yet to clarify if Title IX exemptions are mandatory or if he has an executive order that is going to make them mandatory, which I feel that if a campus is going to openly discriminate, then it should be mandated that they tell students and that they have a Title IX exemption on file with the federal government.”

The Worst List is in alphabetical order rather than rank, but some schools have appeared on it more often than others.

David Shill, a 22-year-old junior at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, said he isn’t surprised that his school is on the list again because “things haven’t changed.”

BYU, which is owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as the Mormon Church, forbids same-sex dating. Though it doesn’t specifically mention transgender students in the student handbook, the church counsels against medical transition for trans people; otherwise they face restricted participation in the church or even excommunication.

Shill, the president of BYU Pride, which is not officially supported by or recognized by the university, said that homophobia is “usually assumed” on campus. He mentioned a video taken in August in which a student defaces pro-LGBTQ chalk art on BYU’s campus anduses an anti-gay slur. In March, when about 40 students lit up the iconic 380-foot-tall “Y” on the mountain east of campus with rainbow lights, Shill said LGBTQ students faced cyberbullying.

“My first week back on campus I really felt like, wow I will never belong here,” Shill said. “And just seeing straight couples being couples on campus and like holding hands or hugging … that coupled with the attitudes of some of my professors and classmates, just the whole day, it was hard to be here.”

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A representative for BYU did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A number of schools are on the list for the first time, including Seattle Pacific University, a private Christian university named in the class action lawsuit against the Department of Education. Affirm, a group of SPU students, alumni, faculty and staff dedicated to ending anti-LGBTQ policies and culture at the university, began organizing in the spring in response to the university’s involvement in two lawsuits — the class action and a suit brought by a teacher in April who says he was denied a full-time job because he is gay.

In a statement emailed to NBC News, Affirm’s members said they are “saddened but not surprised” by SPU’s addition to the 2021 Worst List.

“For an institution that advertises our community as a place promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in the name of Christ’s love, this sobering call from Campus Pride tells us in no uncertain terms how we have failed,” Affirm’s members said. “We must rebuild our existing campus structures, remove discriminatory university policies, and foster novel spaces where LGBTQ+, BIPOC, and AAPI folk are welcomed and celebrated for the priceless gifts they bring our community.”

A representative for SPU declined to comment.

Malone University, in Canton, Ohio, is also on the list for the first time.

This month, Karyn Collie, an associate biology professor at Malone, announced that she would be leaving the university because she’s marrying a woman next summer. She told The Canton Repository that she was hoping she and the school could find a way for her to stay employed, but that she was instead asked to resign. When she was hired, she signed a set of principles called the Community Responsibilities, which prohibit homosexual activity, according to the Repository.

Collie was a popular professor, and the news led to backlash from students, including a sit-in during a weekly worship service, the Repository reported. 

A representative for Malone has not returned a request for comment, but Malone President David King told the Repository that Collie isn’t the first professor to leave due to a conflict with the university’s Community Responsibilities. He also said that only employees are expected to adhere to them, and that students are not.

“All students are welcome here, no matter what their story is, whether they have a faith journey or not,” King said.

But Campus Pride points out on its Worst List that the school’sCommunity Agreement for Sexual Conduct, which all members of the Malone community commit themselves to, states that “Sex should be exclusively reserved for the marriage relationship, understood as a legal, lifelong commitment between a husband and wife.”

Windmeyer said that he hopes the Biden administration will mandate that all campuses have to apply for the Title IX religious exemption. “I think that’s the bare minimum our federal government can do to protect these LGBTQ young people,” Windmeyer said. “The President says, ‘trans people, queer people,LGBTQ people, we’ve got your back.’ Well, you need to start here with our LGBTQ young people.”

Many students, like Shill at BYU, don’t want to leave and think their schools can become better. He said BYU Pride is working with the university to change the Honor Code so that queer students can date, and the group is encouraging the university to develop a discrimination office that students and faculty can go to when they experience discrimination.

The group would also like to be able to have queer activities on campus, or put rainbow lights on the “Y” without approval. “Those kind of things like where BYU no longer is silencing us, and pushing us off campus,” he said. “Let us come on campus and be as gay as we want to be without having to hide it all.”

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Lesbian sues federal government after being rejected by foster agency

A Tennessee woman is suing the Department of Health and Human Services after a federally funded foster care agency rejected her application because she is a lesbian.

Kelly Easter, who is from Nashville, wanted to apply to become a foster parent of an unaccompanied refugee children, according to her lawsuit, filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

The U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement directed her to Bethany Christian Services, the only entity participating in the program in her area and a sub-grantee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), which receives federal funds to provide foster care services.

Bethany had a longstanding policy of refusing to allow LGBTQ parents to apply to foster or adopt, which prevented Easter from applying last year. 

In March, Bethany ended that policy, but when Easter applied, she was rejected again. A representative for Bethany told her its East Nashville office is funded by USCCB, which prohibits LGBTQ couples from applying, according to the lawsuit.

Easter is suing the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the Administration for Children and Families and its Office of Refugee Resettlement. She and her legal counsel allege that HHS, “by sanctioning and enabling discrimination and favoring certain religious beliefs,” is violating the First and Fifth Amendments. 

“By preventing children under their care and custody from being placed in homes of LGBTQ people based on USCCB’s religious beliefs, the Defendants — through USCCB and its subgrantees — not only discriminate against LGBTQ people, but also effectively disregard the non-Catholic identities and beliefs of many of the unaccompanied refugee children for whom they are responsible,” the lawsuit states. “This conduct potentially increases those children’s alienation and vulnerability, while denying them access to loving homes that could serve them best — all at federal taxpayers’ expense.”

A spokesperson for HHS’ Administration of Children and Families said in an email that it will respond to the lawsuit in time, as with any lawsuit naming the federal government. 

“HHS is committed to protecting the rights of LGBTQ+ individuals and ensuring access to our programs and services,” the spokesperson said.

Easter said in a statement that she is “heartbroken.”

“It hurt to be turned away — twice — solely because of my identity,” she said, according to a news release. “I’ve been a Christian since I was a little girl and my personal relationship with God is the most important thing to me. I also know that LGBTQ people can have thriving families and that they are as important and deserving as any other. How can the government tell me that my beliefs are wrong?”

She added that she’s “more concerned about the children.” She said the government is hurting them by denying them a loving home. 

“I am qualified and can provide a safe and stable home for a child,” she said. “How is it better for them to stay in a group setting instead of a home with someone who can care for and support them adequately?”

Easter is represented by Lambda Legal, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State and the San Francisco-based law firm Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP.

Karen L. Loewy, senior counsel at Lambda Legal, said the government is excluding Easter from applying to provide a home to a child in need while also “funneling millions of dollars of taxpayer money into a child welfare organization that refuses to allow LGBTQ people to apply to be foster parents.” 

“This kind of discrimination not only hurts the people turned away — it hurts the children in these programs by reducing the number of available homes, and depriving these children of the opportunity to be considered for placement in loving homes that may best serve their individual needs,” Loewy said, according to a news release.

Federal law currently prohibits federal contractors and federally funded programs from discriminating on the basis of sex, which has recently been interpreted by the Biden administration and by most courts to include sexual orientation and gender identity. But there are exemptions from federal law for contractors and service providers who feel that providing certain services would conflict with their religious beliefs. 

Some states have tried to pass stricter laws to protect LGBTQ people who want to foster or adopt children. Tennessee is actually one of 27 states that have a statute, regulation and/or agency policy that prohibits discrimination in foster care based on sexual orientation and gender identity, but it’s also one of 11 states that permits state-licensed child welfare agencies to refuse to provide services to children and families, including LGBTQ people and same-sex couples, if doing so conflicts with their religious beliefs, according to the Movement Advancement Project, a nonprofit think thank. 

Five states have regulations or policies that prohibit discrimination in foster care based on sexual orientation only, and 18 states have no explicit protections against discrimination in foster care based on sexual orientation or gender identity, according to MAP.

The Supreme Court ruled on the issue of religious exemptions for federally funded contractors in June, but it avoided addressing whether religious contractors have a right to refuse service, or, as advocates say, have a license to discriminate.

Instead, the court ruled that the city of Philadelphia violated the Free Exercise Clause and discriminated against a religious foster care agency in applying its licensing process, which allows contractors to request exemptions to parts of the contract.

Absent a more clear declaration from the Supreme Court, LGBTQ people like Easter have continued to wage their battles in court. Lambda Legal and Americans United are representing Fatma Marouf and Bryn Esplin, a same-sex couple, in the same district as Easter. The couple alleges that a sub-grantee of USCCB rejected them from applying to foster unaccompanied refugee children because they didn’t “mirror the Holy Family.”

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Same-sex couple sues Nebraska to be recognized as legal parents

Two Omaha women and their teenage sons have sued Nebraska’s health department for rejecting their request that both women be listed as legal parents on their sons’ birth certificates.

Erin Porterfield and Kristin Williams started their family in 2002 using assisted reproductive technology and each gave birth to one of their sons, who are now 16 and 18, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska, which is representing the couple with the Omaha law firm Koenig-Dunne.

Porterfield and Williams were never married and are now no longer together, but they both have a court order that establishes an in loco parentis relationship that grants them some, but not all, parental legal rights.

This summer, the couple requested that both of them be acknowledged on their sons’ birth certificates, but the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services denied their request last month, writing in a letter that the “only routes to legal parentage under Nebraska law are through marital presumption, adoption, or biological relationship.”

But the women say these options are unavailable to them. Nebraska case law prohibits second-parent adoption by an unmarried non-birth parent, according to the lawsuit.

Porterfield and Williams alleged in the lawsuit filed Monday that Nebraska law is discriminatory because it treats unmarried same-sex couples differently from unmarried different-sex couples, who “can establish parentage of their children through voluntary acknowledgment at any time after a child is born,” according to the lawsuit.

Erin Porterfield, back left, and Kristin Williams, back right, along with their children, Cameron Porter Williams, 16, front left, and Kadin Porter Williams, 18, at Omaha family law firm Koenig | Dunne in Omaha, Neb. on Aug. 4, 2021.
Erin Porterfield, back left, and Kristin Williams, back right, along with their children, Cameron Porter Williams, 16, front left, and Kadin Porter Williams, 18, at the family law firm Koenig | Dunne in Omaha, Neb., on Aug. 4.Rebecca S. Gratz for ACLU of Nebraska

The state health department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Being fully legally recognized as parents to both of their children would ensure that Porterfield and Williams can make decisions about their sons’ care, including those related to education or estate planning, according to the ACLU of Nebraska.

“While we spend our parenting time the same as most good parents — showing up for show choir and band competitions, making sure homework is done, teaching values and manners, and gently guiding our boys to be their truest selves regardless of cultural expectations — we haven’t had the luxury of peace of mind that should something happen to one of us our boys would seamlessly be afforded the government benefits other families take for granted,” Williams said, according to a press release.

The lawsuit also argued that the health department is violating the equal protection and due process clauses of the Constitution by refusing to apply state law in the same way for both same-sex and unmarried different-sex parents.

Currently, the health department offers a “voluntary acknowledgement of paternity” form that fathers can use to obtain full legal parenting rights. When Porterfield and Williams submitted their forms over the summer, they amended them to be gender-neutral and changed “paternity” to “parentage,” according to the ACLU of Nebraska.

The department denied these amended requests, and as a result, their lawsuit also seeks a declaration that the department will apply state law related to voluntary acknowledgement in a gender-neutral way.

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Angela Dunne, managing partner at the law firm Koenig-Dunne, said the case is an example of how families’ attempts to protect their parenting rights can be “thwarted by gender-specific language that does not support the ever-changing face of families.” 

“We have a biological mom and an in loco parentis mom, and we are legally unable to permanently preserve their legal rights to their children and the children’s legal rights to have two parents,” Dunne said in the press release. “We hope this lawsuit will remedy this deficiency and protect our legally vulnerable families.”

Nebraska is one of 35 states with a law that recognizes the nongestational parent — the parent who didn’t carry and give birth to the child — as a legal parent if the couple is married but don’t have a clear statute or established case law for unmarried couples, according to the Movement Advancement Project, a nonprofit think tank. Fifteen states and Washington, D.C., recognize the nongestational parent as a legal parent regardless of marital status.

One law, the Uniform Parentage Act, addresses the differences in parentage laws across the country. It was updated in 2017, and state legislatures can choose to adopt it. 

Courtney G. Joslin, a law professor at the University of California, Davis, who was the primary drafter of the 2017 act, told NBC Newslast year that four states — California, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington — have enacted all or large portions of the latest law. Connecticut and Maine also voluntarily expanded their parentage laws earlier this year. These states offer nonbiological parents paths to parentage regardless of their marital status and don’t require parents to adopt their own children. 

Joslin said variations in state laws across the country can put same-sex couples in difficult situations. 

“It is incredibly hard for families to have their status potentially change as they move across state lines,” she said.

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N.C. lieutenant governor faces calls to resign for calling LGBTQ people ‘filth’

Multiple North Carolina state representatives are demanding that Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, a Republican, resign after a video surfaced showing him describing the LGBTQ community as “filth.”

The video, first shared by Right Wing Watch, a project of the progressive advocacy group People For the American Way, shows Robinson speaking at the Asbury Baptist Church in Seagrove during a visit in June, local NBC affiliate WRAL reported. 

“I’m saying this now, and I’ve been saying it, and I don’t care who likes it: Those issues have no place in a school. There’s no reason anybody anywhere in America should be telling any child about transgenderism, homosexuality — any of that filth,” he said.

He added: “And yes, I called it filth. And if you don’t like it that I called it filth, come see me and I’ll explain it to you. It’s time for us to stop letting these children be abused in schools, and it’s not going to happen till the people of God stand up and demand different, same ones that established those schools to begin with.”https://iframe.nbcnews.com/EKbaUyq?app=1

One of the words Robinson used — “transgenderism” — was adopted by anti-transgender activists to make being transgender sound like a condition, according to the LGBTQ media advocacy group GLAAD.

John Wesley Waugh, a spokesperson for Robinson, said in an email that the lieutenant governor’s comments “refer to education.” 

“Topics surrounding transgenderism and homosexuality should be discussed at home and not in public education,” Waugh said. “We must focus on reading, writing, and mathematics in North Carolina. Our students have struggled with these topics even before the pandemic. Our primary focus needs to be helping our students succeed, not on topics that should be discussed at home.”

When asked whether Robinson has a response to criticism that his comments were anti-LGBTQ regardless of the context, Waugh said Robinson “affirms every individual’s Constitutional right to identify or express themselves in anyway they desire.” 

He added, “He is the Lieutenant Governor for all North Carolinians and will fight for and protect the rights of all citizens. His comments were referring to teaching about these topics in the classroom, not about individuals of the LGBTQ community.”

Robinson is second in command in the state and would fill in should Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, leave the state or his position. Robinson narrowly defeated Democrat Yvonne Lewis Holley in 2020, with 51.6 percent of the vote compared to Holley’s 48.4 percent.

In a statement emailed to NBC News Friday, Jordan Monaghan, Cooper’s press secretary, called Robinson’s comments “abhorrent.”

“North Carolina is a welcoming state where we value public education and the diversity of our people. It’s abhorrent to hear anyone, and especially an elected official, use hateful rhetoric that hurts people and our state’s reputation,” the statement reads.

Some state senators have taken a harder line and are demanding that Robinson resign, calling his remarks discriminatory.

Sen. Jeff Jackson, a Democrat representing North Carolina’s 37th District — which includes the state’s most populous city, Charlotte — condemned Robinson’s comments in a series of tweets on Thursday and Friday. 

“There’s no debate here. This is open discrimination. It is completely unacceptable,” Jackson wrote, in part. “Mark Robinson should resign.”https://iframe.nbcnews.com/P9wSGmh?app=1

Jackson, who is running for the U.S. Senate in 2022, added that Robinson’s comments are part of a pattern. He said he’s made openly “hateful and discriminatory” comments about LGBTQ people and other minorities in the past, linking to an article from local news outlet the Cardinal & Pine.

The article includes 2016 comments that Robinson made after the shooting at the gay nightclub Pulse, in Orlando, Florida, in which 49 patrons — many of them young LGBTQ people — were killed and dozens more wounded before the shooter died in a shootout with law enforcement.

“First, let me say that I pray for the souls of all those killed, healing for all those wounded, and comfort for the family members of the terrorist shooting in Orlando,” Robinson wrote on his Facebook pageat the time. “However, homosexuality is STILL an abominable sin and I WILL NOT join in ‘celebrating gay pride’ nor will I fly their sacrilegious flag on my page. Sorry if this offends anyone, but I’m not falling for the media/pop culture ‘okey-doke.'”

State Sen. Wiley Nickel, a Democrat representing the state’s 16th District, which includes Raleigh and Durham, also called for Robinson to resign. 

“I stand with the LGBTQ Community and hope you will join me in condemning this hate speech from the most senior Republican elected official in our state,” Nickel wrote on Twitter Friday. https://iframe.nbcnews.com/HgiJl5B?app=1

Kendra Johnson, the executive director of Equality NC, an LGBTQ nonprofit, said the group condemns Robinson’s “dangerous rhetoric.”

“At a time when LGBTQ people, especially those with multiple layers of marginalization, need a supportive state, Robinson offered transphobia and homophobia instead,” Johnson said in an email. “No one who thinks like this should be in a position of power, and these discriminatory attitudes underscore the need for comprehensive nondiscrimination protections in North Carolina.” 

LGBTQ advocates have said that views like Robinson’s don’t represent the majority of North Carolinians. So far this year, 10 municipalities have passed measures that protect LGBTQ people from discrimination in public accommodations, employment and more. 

A 2019 poll from Public Policy Polling found that 67 percent of voters in North Carolina support such legislation, with 19 percent in opposition. 

Voters diverge more when broken down by political party. More than three-quarters of Democrats in the state support nondiscrimination legislation, while 12 percent oppose it. Among Republicans in North Carolina, those figures are 50 percent and 32 percent, respectively. 

Allison Scott, the director of impact and innovation at the Campaign for Southern Equality, an LGBTQ advocacy group based in North Carolina, said Robinson’s comments remind her of the insults the LGBTQ community regularly endured a decade ago.

“They are shocking in their brazen homophobia and transphobia and are as unacceptable now as they were 10 years ago,” she said. “Our state has been on a journey, and more than a dozen cities and counties have successfully passed protections for LGBTQ people. It’s time for all North Carolinians to come on this journey toward a future where no one faces discrimination or harassment because of who they are.”

Robinson’s comments specifically addressed LGBTQ-inclusive classrooms — a topic that has recently joined other education culture wars, with more school districts banning pride symbols and flags. Though, in recent years, advocates have called on educators to make an effort to be more openly supportive of LGBTQ people — whether that’s by including prominent LGBTQ figures in lessons or by displaying a Pride flag in the classroom — because they say it can benefit LGBTQ youth.

One 2019 survey from The Trevor Project, an LGBTQ youth suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization, found that queer youth with at least one accepting adult in their life have a 40 percent lower risk of attempting suicide.

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