LGBTQ Nation

/ /

Why is Ron DeSantis’s surgeon general trying to lower public trust in the monkeypox vaccine?

,

Joseph Ladapo — Florida’s surgeon general appointed by the state’s anti-LGBTQ Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis — is trying to make people distrust the monkeypox vaccine, stating that there is “little data” on it, which is misleading.

Ladapo’s position is hardly surprising considering that he spent years spreading COVID-19 disinformation and echoing DeSantis’ distrust in vaccines.

On Tuesday, DeSantis criticized the Democratic governors of California, Illinois, and New York for declaring states of emergency over monkeypox. The declarations give their governments greater ability to mobilize resources against the virus. (U.S. President Joe Biden declared a national state of emergency for monkeypox on Thursday.)

DeSantis said the governors were using the emergency declarations to stoke fear, control people, and “restrict your freedom.”

Ladapo backed up DeSantis’ words, stating, “It’s just kind of remarkable to see some of the headlines — the headlines that very clearly are trying to make you afraid of monkeypox or fill-in-the-blank. You know, because if you’re not afraid of this there will be something else after that and something else after that.”

“These people are determined to make you afraid and do whatever it is they want you to do. And, um, you know, I hope that more and more people choose not to do that,” he added.

Then after revealing that Florida had distributed 8,500 monkeypox vaccines, Lapado said, “You should know that there’s actually very little data on this vaccine.”

To understand why Lapado’s claim is misleading, a little background is necessary.

As of Tuesday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported 6,326 monkeypox cases within the United States. The Florida Department of Health shows 525 monkeypox cases statewide, The Florida Phoenix reported.

The U.S. has purchased seven million doses of Bavarian Nordic’s Jynneos vaccine to prevent a worse monkeypox outbreak. The vaccine, which was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in September 2019, is based on the smallpox vaccine, which has been around since 1796.

The Jynneos vaccine is made from a virus that is closely related to, but less harmful than, monkeypox viruses. It does not cause disease in humans and cannot reproduce in human cells.

A study of 400 individuals found that the Jynneos vaccine was as effective against monkeypox as the ACAM2000 smallpox vaccine, which the FDA approved in 2007.  The safety of Jynneos was assessed in more than 7,800 individuals who received at least one dose of the vaccine, the FDA said. Previous studies have shown that smallpox vaccines are 85% likely to provide a high level of immunity against monkeypox for up to two years, according to the MIT Technology Review.

Ladapo’s authority on vaccines is highly questionable at best.

In July 2020, near the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, he appeared in a 43-minute viral video as part of a group called America’s Frontline Doctors. The group, which had no epidemiologists or immunologists qualified to speak on infectious diseases, promoted the anti-malaria medication hydroxychloroquine as a “cure” for COVID-19, even though no studies substantiated that claim. The video also said that face masks do not slow the virus’s spread and that COVID-19 is less deadly than the flu. Both claims are untrue.

The video also featured Dr. Stella Immanuel, a pediatrician and religious minister who gained notoriety in 2020 for her bizarre theories, including that “demonic seed” causes endometriosis and ovarian cysts. Immanuel explained on her church’s website that demons insert sperm into sleeping individuals when they have sex in their dreams.

The doctors’ recorded speech was organized by the Tea Party Patriots, a right-wing group backed by wealthy Republican donors. Lapado has written numerous op-eds repeating the video’s false claims.

The video received millions of views when then-President Donald Trump, his son Donald Trump Jr. and other right-wing media figures shared it on social media. Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter all removed the video for violating their policies on sharing COVID-19 misinformation.

In October 2020, Ladapo signed the Great Barrington Declaration, a statement that called for developing societal herd immunity to COVID-19 through natural infection. In response, 80 medical researchers signed an open letter published in The Lancet, a leading medical journal, calling the declaration’s theory “a dangerous fallacy unsupported by scientific evidence.”

Florida ranks third among U.S. states with the highest numbers of COVID-19 infections and related deaths. DeSantis has signed orders expanding exemptions for people who don’t want to get vaccinated against COVID-19 vaccines and to prevent schools and local governments from instating face mask mandates in Florida.

/ /

Police are four times more likely to stop transgender people for “reasonable suspicion”

,

A new draft report from the California Attorney General’s office indicates transgender people in the state are stopped by police at vastly different rates than cisgender men and women.

The report is based on data reported from 58 of the state’s largest law enforcement agencies and shows transgender people were stopped because of “reasonable suspicion” alone —instead of a specific violation or clearly unlawful behavior — in nearly half the stops.

For transgender people, the proportion of “reasonable suspicion” stops was 44%, or four times the ratio for cisgender people.

The data includes all people stopped by police, regardless of whether the officers were responding to a potential offense they observed or to a call for service.

California requires police departments to report the demographic data of every driver, bicyclist, or pedestrian they stop, including perceived race, gender, and approximate age.

The new state data shows that transgender women are stopped due to an officer’s “reasonable suspicion” in more than 45% of encounters when they were stopped in 2021. Trans men were stopped for the same reason 43% of the time.

Interactions with police officers were also more likely to lead to more drastic outcomes – with transgender people more likely to be searched, handcuffed, and arrested – and to have lethal and non-lethal force used against them.

Reasonable suspicion is a legal standard that requires officers to articulate why they believe a person is likely engaged in a crime. Probable cause, the standard required to arrest someone, has a higher bar.

Under the 2015 Racial and Identity Profiling Act, or RIPA, law enforcement agencies with 334 or more officers were required to report data to the state for 2021. The reporting requirement expands to all police agencies for data collected this year.

Alex Binsfeld, legal director at the Transgender Gender-Variant & Intersex Justice Project, an advocacy group in San Francisco, told the San Francisco Chronicle that gender biases result in officers focusing on transgender people because they don’t fit their notions of how a woman or man ought to look.

“It’s in effect a way to enforce Western gender binary norms on appearance, that you will be punished if you are not gender binary in your appearance,” they said. “Policing of trans folks at these disparate rates has led advocates to argue it’s a status crime.”

Cisgender people, who made up the overwhelming majority of the total number of stops statewide, were stopped for traffic violations the majority of the time. Cisgender women were stopped because of an officer’s “reasonable suspicion” in less than nine percent of encounters; cisgender men were stopped because of an officer’s suspicion in 11% of encounters.

Out of 3.2 million total stops, transgender people accounted for 4,740.

Transgender advocates scored a major victory in July when Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed S.B. 357, a bill repealing a notorious “walking while trans” law. Effective January 1, the bill repeals a 1995 law that prohibits loitering in public places with the “intent to commit prostitution.” The voided statute allows police to cite people they find suspicious due to factors like how they dress or where they stand on the street.

State Sen. Scott Wiener, the San Francisco Democrat who sponsored S.B. 357, said the sweeping loitering law causes innocent people to get swept up in the criminal justice system and makes sex workers less safe because they fear seeking out law enforcement.

“Even one arrest can have such profound implications for someone’s life,” Wiener said. “It’s one step; there’s certainly more work to do.”

/ /

Florida instructs schools to ignore federal protections for transgender kids

,

Florida’s Department of Educations has instructed the state’s public and private schools to ignore federal guidance on protecting transgender students from discrimination.

In a memo sent to school administrators on Thursday, Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. said the new federal protections under Title IX “are not binding law, do not create any new legal obligations, and should not be treated as governing law.”

“The Department will not stand idly by as federal agencies attempt to impose a sexual ideology on Florida schools that risk the health, safety, and welfare of Florida students,” the memo continues.

Last month, the Biden Administration proposed changes to the legal interpretation of Title IX which would help prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The proposed changes mostly undo rollbacks of Title IX rights during the Trump administration.

“As we celebrate the 50th Anniversary of this landmark law, our proposed changes will allow us to continue that progress and ensure all our nation’s students — no matter where they live, who they are, or whom they love — can learn, grow, and thrive in school,” U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in June.

Diaz claims that allowing transgender girls to use the restrooms and locker rooms of their gender and to participate in school sports as their gender would jeopardize “the safety and wellbeing of Florida students” and risk violating Florida law. In 2021, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed a bill to ban transgender girls from playing school sports.

“While Governor DeSantis and Commissioner Diaz are intent on weaponizing state agencies in their war on transgender youth, the fact remains: the U.S. Department of Education has said unequivocally that students are to be protected from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity,” Equality Florida press secretary Brandon Wolf said in a statement.

“The DeSantis Administration repeatedly puts the political ambitions of the Governor over the wellbeing of Florida’s students and the result is a state that is increasingly more hostile toward and unsafe for young people. LGBTQ students exist. The federal government has recognized that they are protected from discrimination. Even as the Governor attempts to bolster his right-wing bona fides by hurtling our state toward full-tilt authoritarianism, school districts across Florida should remain committed to protecting all students.”

DeSantis has declared an all-out war on Florida’s LGBTQ community. In March, he signed the state’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill into law, prohibiting any mention of LGBTQ topics in schools.

Last month, he signaled that he is open to using Florida’s child protective service laws to terminate the parental rights of adults who take their kids to see drag shows, and his administration is trying to get a drag bar’s liquor license revoked for allowing children to attend a drag show.

/ /

Her business was targeted by rightwingers for hosting drag queens. Now the city is going after her.

,

A bakery in a Chicago-area suburb that has been the target of vandalism and harassmentdue to a planned family-friendly drag event has now been ordered to stop hosting public events.

In a video posted to Facebook over the weekend, UpRising Bakery and Café owner Corrina Sac said that she had received a letter from Village of Lake in the Hills officials threatening fines and the revocation of her business and liquor licenses if she continues to host events.

Subscribe to our newsletter to stay up-to-date with the latest LGBTQ news

“I feel like this is discrimination and a conspiracy to interfere with my business,” Sac said. “Unfortunately, when the attention waned from all the hate this week, they shifted gears and started victim blaming me after we were attacked by a known domestic terrorist who committed hate crimes against us just one week ago.”

Sac says she was first informed that her business was not zoned for entertainment purposes at a Thursday meeting, which she described as “very threatening.” She says city officials also expressed concerns over public resources being used to protect UpRising Bakery after it was the target of a hate crime late last month.

“This issue is about a business conducting activities it was never permitted to conduct,” Village of Lake in the Hills officials said in a statement. “This zoning designation prohibits entertainment in large part due to the close proximity to residential neighborhoods and shared tenant parking.”

In a letter to village attorney Bradford S. Stewart, the ACLU of Illinois accused the city of unconstitutional retaliation against UpRising Bakery.

“We dispute the letter’s characterization of UpRising programs as ‘entertainment events’ that are prohibited in a B-2 zoning district,” writes senior staff attorney Rebecca K. Glenberg. “Even if that characterization is correct, however, the Village’s sudden determination to enforce the code against UpRising or Ms. Sac based on their exercise of First Amendment rights constitutes unconstitutional retaliation.”

UpRising Bakery became the target of repeated harassment last month after announcing a planned “child-friendly” drag event. “One morning I came in and there was a bag of feces outside,” Sac told Chicago’s ABC7 News. “There was a letter taped to the door that said pedophiles work here.”

The event had to be cancelled after the bakery was vandalized. On July 23, Lake in the Hills Police arrested 24-year-old Joseph I. Collins after he allegedly shattered windows and spray-painted hateful messages on the bakery.

The UpRising Bakery incident is just the latest in a series of attacks and disruptions at drag events this summer, stoked by anti-LGBTQ rhetoric online and from Republican lawmakers. Social media accounts like Libs of TikTok have been spreading misleading accounts of family-friendly drag events along with accusations of “grooming” aimed at LGBTQ people, leading to far-right hate groups like the Proud Boys showing up at drag story hour events at libraries and at other LGBTQ events around the country in recent weeks.

/ /

Michigan Supreme Court rules that anti-LGBTQ discrimination is illegal in historic victory

,

Michigan’s Supreme Court has ruled that businesses, landlords, and others cannot discriminate based on sexual orientation or gender identity, even though the state’s civil rights legislation doesn’t specifically mention those categories.

The landmark 5–2 decision establishes that the bans on discrimination on the basis of “sex” in the state’s 1976 Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act (ELCRA) cover sexual orientation and gender identity.

In 2015, Michigan Democrats introduced bills that would have added explicit protectionsfor sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression into the ELCRA. The bills were blocked by Republican leaders. Michigan’s Supreme Court declined to hear an appealfrom Fair and Equal Michigan to have the 1976 law revised to include protections against anti-LGBTQ discrimination in 2021.

Writing for the majority this week, Justice Elizabeth Clement, a Republican, said, “Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation necessarily constitutes discrimination because of sex.”

“Regardless of whether one defines ‘sex’ expansively or narrowly, the result of the textual analysis is the same: discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation necessarily involves discrimination because of sex in violation of (state law),” Clement continued.

“Our residents deserve to live in a state that recognizes the value of diversity and rejects the notion that our own civil rights law could be used as a tool of discrimination. This ruling is not only a victory for the LGBTQ+ community, but for all Michigan residents, and one that’s long overdue,” said Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel in a statement.

Arguing before the court in March, Nessel and the American Civil Liberties Union cited the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2020 ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County which affirmed that Title VII’s ban on employment discrimination due to sex also protects LGBTQ people.

The case before the state supreme court involved two Michigan businesses that refused to serve LGBTQ people: Rouch World, a wedding venue that refused to host weddings for same-sex couples, and Uprooted Electrolysis, a hair removal service that refused to serve a transgender client.

The Michigan Civil Rights Commission voted in 2018 to interpret the state’s ban on discrimination on the basis of sex to include discrimination against LGBTQ people. Following Michigan Department of Civil Rights investigations, both businesses filed lawsuits claiming that serving LGBTQ violated their religious freedoms.

In 2020, a Michigan Court of Claims judge held that ELCRA does not cover protections for gay and bisexual people due to a previous state supreme court decision in Barbour v. Department of Social Services, where the court ruled that the state’s ban on discrimination because of sex does not ban discrimination against gay and bisexual people. In his summary judgement, however, Judge Christopher M. Murray said that following Bostock Michigan’s civil rights legislation was similar enough to apply the same reasoning to the case involving anti-transgender discrimination.

“We are encouraged that the Michigan Court of Claims has ruled the word ‘sex’ in ELCRA encompasses gender identity, but we will continue to argue that the U.S. Supreme Court was right to conclude, as did the Michigan Civil Rights Commission, that ‘sex’ in this context is also inclusive of sexual orientation,” Michigan Department of Civil Rights Chair Stacie Clayton said at the time.

This week’s ruling establishes that ELCRA covers discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer individuals as well as transgender people.

/ /

83 conservative organizations claim same-sex marriage bill will legalize polygamy & incest

,

A coalition of 83 conservative groups sent a letter to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Tuesday urging him to block the Respect for Marriage Act.

“H.R. 8404 would require federal recognition of any one state’s definition of marriage without any parameters whatsoever. This would include plural marriages, time-bound marriages, open marriages, marriages involving a minor or relative, platonic marriages, or any other new marriage definition that a state chooses to adopt, including through undemocratic imposition by a state Supreme Court,” the group, led by the Alliance Defending Freedom, claims.

“We call on you to reject H.R. 8404 and to urge your colleagues to thoroughly abandon this harmful and unnecessary legislation,” the letter, signed by Family Research Council president Tony Perkins, Focus on the Family president Jim Daly, and others, concludes.

In a separate letter, the Conservative Action Project claims that the Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 case that established the constitutional right to same-sex marriage in the U.S., “unleashed religious freedom violations across the land, launching a new era of harassment and coercion of millions of Americans who hold a sincere religious belief or moral conviction that marriage is, or ought to be, between one man and one woman.”

McConnell has yet to take a stance on the Respect for Marriage Act, which House Democrats passed last week with the support of 47 Republicans. The bill is intended to enshrine the right to same-sex as well as interracial marriage into law following the Supreme Court’s decision striking down Roe v. Wade and Justice Clarence Thomas’s call for the court to reconsider Obergefell v. Hodges.

Senate Democrats need to pick up 10 Republican votes in order to pass the law, and several key GOP lawmakers have signaled their support for the bill. Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Rob Portman (R-OH) have said they will vote for it, while Sens. Thom Tillis (R-NC), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), and Ron Johnson (R-WI) have all signaled that they will likely vote for the bill. Along with McConnell, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) hasn’t said whether or not he will vote for it.

The letters to McConnell are aimed at countering efforts on the part of progressive and LGBTQ organizations to sway Republican senators.

Proponents of the legislation are hopeful that they stand a chance of securing 10 Republican votes, due in part to the strong support for marriage equality across party lines. According to a 2022 Gallup poll, 71% of Americans support the right to same-sex marriage. A 2021 poll found that 55% of Republicans are in favor of marriage equality.

/ /

These 6 Texas lawsuits could radically impact LGBTQ rights

,

Former Texas solicitor general Jonathan Mitchell is representing clients in six separate lawsuits in the state targeting LGBTQ rights. As The Dallas Morning News reports, the cases are currently making their way through state and federal courts and could have dire consequences for LGBTQ rights throughout the U.S.

Mitchell is credited with coming up with the Texas law that allows private citizens to sue those who help pregnant people access abortions. In a 2021 Supreme Court brief, he argued that the decisions that legalized same-sex relations and same-sex marriages in all 50 states should both be overturned along with Roe v. Wade, a sentiment echoed by Justice Clarence Thomas in his concurrence in the court’s recent decision striking down Roe.

In 2018, he opened his one-man law firm with the express purpose of bringing cases involving religious freedom, abortion, and affirmative action before the Supreme Court’s new conservative majority.

Two of the lawsuits Mitchell has filed involving LGBTQ rights concern same-sex marriage. Dianne Hensley v. State Commission on Judicial Conduct and Brian Keith Umphress v. David Hall, et al., were brought by Texas officials who do not want to perform same-sex marriages because they say it violates their religious beliefs. Umphress explicitly argues that “there is no constitutional right to same-sex marriage” and that the Supreme Court should revisit Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 decision establishing marriage equality in the U.S.

Another case involving so-called religious freedoms argues that private insurers should not have to cover certain preventive medical care, specifically PrEP. Mitchell’s clients in John Kelley, et al., v. Xavier Becerra object to the Affordable Care Act’s mandate that insurance providers cover such medication.

“The PrEP mandate forces religious employers to provide coverage for drugs that facilitate and encourage homosexual behavior, prostitution, sexual promiscuity, and intravenous drug use,” the lawsuit states. “It also compels religious employers and religious individuals who purchase health insurance to subsidize these behaviors as a condition of purchasing health insurance.”

Again citing religious liberties, Braidwood Management v. EEOC targets the Supreme Court’s 2020 ruling barring discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, arguing that religious employers should be able allowed to hire and fire employees based on their sexuality and gender identity. The case is currently in federal court where a Texas judge agreed with Mitchell. The EEOC is currently fighting that decision in the federal appeals court.

Mitchell also represents defendants in Leila Green Little, et al. v. Llano County. The plaintiffs in the suit say local leaders violated their First and Fourth amendment rights by removing LGBTQ books from the local library’s children’s and young adult sections. A win for the plaintiffs could discourage similar book bans.

In Patrick Von Dohlen, et al. v. city of San Antonio, private citizens are suing the city for violating Texas’s “Save Chick-fil-A” law, which prohibits the state government from taking “adverse actions” against businesses for their contributions to or memberships in religious organizations. Mitchell’s clients claim the city violated the law when it banned the fast food franchise from opening in the San Antonio International Airport due to its history of supporting anti-LGBTQ causes and organizations.

/ / /

Trans people in Southern states have to travel & pay more just to get medical care, study finds

,

Nearly 50 percent of transgender people travel outside of their state of residence to get gender-affirming genital surgeries, according to a new study from Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU). The percentage could increase as more states put bans against gender-affirming healthcare for trans people in place, the study’s authors say.

The study, published Wednesday in JAMA Surgery, looked at 771 transgender patients who had a vaginoplasty or phalloplasty between 2007 and 2019. It found that 49 percent left their state of residence to get the procedure. People who lived in southern states were more likely to have to leave their home states in order to receive the surgery.

That’s because there’s a lack of surgeons who provide such care in the South. A 2020 studyfound that just 11 doctors in the South could provide such surgeries, and four of the doctors resided in Florida.

The number of such doctors could decrease as more Southern states ban gender-affirming care for trans youth. Genital surgeries aren’t typically performed on young trans people, but some doctors could choose to locate their practices outside of states with such bans in place because the bans increase doctors’ legal and financial liabilities if they treat young patients.

Of additional concern, the OHSU study found trans people who left their states to get surgery ended up paying up to 50 percent more in out-of-pocket medical expenses than those who were able to obtain surgeries in their home states. This included costs for post-surgical visits and foll0w-up care.

Only one of the 771 patients included in the study had their surgery paid for by their commercial health insurance provider, The Hill noted. This suggests that the life-saving surgical procedures may not be affordable for many trans people. Trans people living in transphobic states will face even greater financial and time costs just to receive gender-affirming care.

“We already knew that traveling for health care requires patients to take time off work and pay for travel and lodging on their own, and that it can make receiving follow-up care from qualified providers who are familiar with each patient’s unique needs challenging,” Jae Downing,  the study’s lead author, said in a press release.

“This study helps quantify how severely we need more gender-affirming surgeons,” Geolani Dy, an assistant professor of urology and plastic and reconstructive surgery at OHSU School of Medicine, added.

/ /

GOP Congressman sued for implying opponent is gay in vile campaign mailers

,

A Republican Congress member from Arizona is getting sued for using a picture of his male primary opponent with a male friend and implying that they are a gay couple.

The lawsuit involves a mailer sent by the campaign for Rep. David Schweikert (R-AZ) as well as some street signs about one of his primary opponents, Republican and car insurance company founder Elijah Norton. The mailers and signs used a 2018 picture of Norton with his friend Leslie Hammon, 34, where they’re outside of a bar and have arms around each other’s shoulders. Hammon is gay.

Related: Gay congressional candidate falsely accused of being a “pedo sex poet” by desperate Republicans

“Elijah Norton Isn’t Being Straight With You,” the caption read.

Hammon’s face was blurred out in the mailer and signs, but he’s saying that his image was illegally used.

Hammon and Norton met years before Norton ran for office through his then-girlfriend.

“Although Hammon and Norton are friends, they are not and have never been in any romantic or sexual relationship,” the lawsuit says.

“The letter said I’m a private citizen. Please leave me out of this,” Hammon said. “My mental health has taken a pretty rapid decline. I had to take a leave from work for a couple weeks.”

Hammon also took issue with the implication that “someone who is gay is unfit for office,” according to AZ Central.

He said that people at his work recognized him in the photo on the street signs earlier this year.

“It’s extremely unsettling because I am openly out,” he told 12 News. “But at what point is my privacy going to be respected?”

He said that he sent a cease and desist letter to Schweikart in June but he got no response. Instead, in late June, the campaign sent out mailers with the same image and caption as the street signs had. Hammon believes that they sent around 50,000 such mailers.

Now Hammon is suing for defamation.

“Schweikert’s advertisements are intended to convey, and clearly do convey, a message that gay people do not belong in Congress or any other public office,” the lawsuit states. “They also clearly convey the patently false assertion that Hammon and Norton are currently or have previously been in a romantic or sexual relationship.”

“Pandering to homophobic narratives in the hopes of being re-elected is truly despicable and demeaning to the congressional office.”

“If your client… is concerned about privacy, I would suggest he not pose for photographs in public places such as bars,” said the lawyer for the pro-Schweikert PAC Americans for Accountability in Leadership. “But my client will not be deprived of its First Amendment rights.”

“This is harkening back to decades ago when gay people were afraid to come out of the closet,” said Bridget Sharpe, HRC’s Arizona state director.

This isn’t the first time that Schweikert has been accused of lobbing anti-LGBTQ insults at political opponents. In 2012, his campaign sent a mailer implying that his opponent bisexual, the Norton campaign said.

The mailer said of then-Rep. Ben Quayle (R-AZ): “He goes both ways.”

In 2014, Schweikert’s campaign sent an email to supporters that said “Politics Is Not for Pansies” in the subject line. Schweikert said that people were “freakishly sensitive” and that he wasn’t using the word as an anti-gay slur but claimed that he was literally referring to the flower.

Schweikert has gotten a score of “0” on the last three HRC Congressional Scorecards, showing his solid opposition to equality for LGBTQ people.

The Arizona primary is scheduled for August 2.

/ /

Iowa library closed after endless complaints about LGBTQ staff & theft of books

,

An Iowa library will re-open for limited hours of operation after a temporary closing due to ceaseless community complaints over LGBTQ books and staff members during the ongoing national debate over content in libraries and schools.

Over the past two years, the Vinton Public Library has seen two library directors leave their positions after facing criticism for Pride displays and other books that some in the community consider inappropriate or overly partisan. In early July, the library was forced to close after the departure of out gay interim director Colton Neely, who had taken over in June. The library will reopen Monday for limited hours with the help of part-time staff.

Some residents of Vinton, a small town northeast of Des Moines, accused the library of enacting a liberal agenda due to hiring openly LGBTQ staff and displaying LGBTQ books, according to Iowa independent newspaper The Gazette. Previous directors also faced criticism that library collection included books about President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris and not enough books about former president Donald Trump.

At a meeting in March, Vinton resident Brooke Kruckenberg argued that, “It appears that there is a slow, quiet agenda moving into our local library culture through the staff hiring decisions and the books that have crept in our children’s section of the library. I don’t believe the library is representing our town well with hiring a majority of staff who are openly a part of the LGBTQ community.”

Neely, who is gay, is just the latest Vinton Library employee to resign in the face of the controversy. Janette McMahon who left her position as library director in 2021 said that, “Not everyone was as supportive as others when the library needed to stand up for inclusion and diversity in its materials.”

McMahon claims that during her tenure people would check out books they found objectionable and simply not return them. “Which is theft of materials,” she said. “We know the folks that had them out had been making complaints to other city officials and people around me without going through an actual process.”

McMahon says she found the situation in Vinton so intolerable that she left the community entirely. “When I had had enough, we couldn’t function correctly as a library, so I decided to find a community that better fit me as a librarian and my standards for library ethics.”

Renee Greenlee faced similar backlash during her six-months as library director following McMahon’s departure.

Neely struck a note of optimism in June. “I think we got over the mountain of people accusing everyone on the staff for being on a liberal agenda,” he said at the time.

But while he considered applying for the director position, he opted instead to leave the library altogether due to the pressure he and his partner were facing.

He says the vitriol has worn him down. “I felt like nobody was really giving me that support,” Neely told the Des Moines Register following his resignation.

Though the Vinton library’s board of trustees has reiterated its commitment to diversity, longtime librarian Molly Rach sounded a note of warning at a recent public meeting.

“This community has now run out two highly qualified, highly credentialed library directors in less than two years,” she said. “This library is indeed going to suffer, but not because of diverse books or staff members who identify as LGBTQIA+, but because you are going to have a hard time finding anyone who’s willing to put up with being targeted by community members for simply doing their job.”

«‹ 42 43 44 45›»