Irish lawmakers are set to make transgender people a protected class in the country, making it easier for anyone who targets them to be charged with a hate crime.
The Irish Cabinet has approved a bill that says anyone who is convicted of purposefully inciting hatred or violence against a person due to their gender identity or expression could face up to five years in prison, reported The Irish Times.
The updates to Irish hate crimes law – which also included making disabled people a protected class – were reportedly made based on international best practices.
To protect freedom of speech, the bill also says that “communication” solely involving the criticism or discussion of a protected class will not be considered enough to incite violence or hate.
The law will also reportedly include a “demonstration test” that assesses whether a crime is considered a hate crime based on whether a perpetrator expressed hatred about someone’s identity while committing a crime against them.
Other “protected characteristics” already established in the nation include nationality, religion, race, ethnicity, color, sexual orientation, and national origin.
In a Now This Presidential Forum, President Biden lambasted state lawmakers who want to ban gender-affirming health care.
Biden was being interviewed by trans TikTok star Dylan Mulvaney, who has been publicly documenting her transition with a series called Days of Girlhood.
Mulvaney asked Biden if states should have the right to ban gender-affirming health care.
“I don’t think any state or anybody should have the right to do that,” Biden responded. “As a moral question and as a legal question, I just think it’s wrong.”
He continued, “Sometimes they try to block you from being able to access certain medicines, being able to access certain procedures… No state should be able to do that in my view. I feel very very strongly that you should have every single solitary right including use of your gender identity bathrooms in public.”
Mulvaney then talked about how Republicans basically blame the trans community for the downfall of society and how dangerous that sentiment is to the mental and physical health of trans people.
She asked how Democratic leaders can more effectively advocate for trans people.
“Being seen with people like you,” Biden said. “I mean it. I genuinely mean it. People fear what they don’t know…and when people realize, ‘oh this is what you’re telling me to be frightened of? This is the problem?’ People change their minds. People just don’t know enough to know, and it’s not because of intellectual incapabilities. It’s just lack of exposure.”
Republicans across the country have continued to introduce bills seeking to outlaw gender-affirming care for trans youth. In August, anti-LGBTQ Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) also introduced a bill at the federal level that would make providing gender-affirming care for transgender minors a class C felony.
For the second time, a Trump-appointed judge has upheld the legality of Florida’s Don’t Say Gay law.
Lambda Legal, the Southern Legal Counsel, and the Southern Poverty Law Center joined together with a group of LGBTQ students and their families to advocate for a preliminary injunction on H.B. 1557 – which prohibits K-3 teachers from talking about sexual orientation and gender identity issues with their students. The lawsuit argued that the law restricts free speech and encourages bullying.
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But U.S. District Judge Wendy Berger dismissed their request.
“Plaintiffs have not directed this Court to any fact that would lead a reasonable person to believe that the law prohibits students from discussing their families and vacations at school or even on a school assignment,” Berger reportedly wrote in the decision, “or that it would prohibit a parent from attending a school function in a ‘pride’ t-shirt or generally discussing their family structure in front of other people.”
Lambda Legal staff attorney Kell Olson called Berger’s decision “wrong on the law and disrespectful to LGBTQ+ families and students.”
“H.B. 1557 suppresses wholesale the speech and identities of LGBTQ+ students and their families. It sends a message of shame and stigma that has no place in schools and puts LGBTQ+ students and families at risk,” Olson continued.
“The students and families at the heart of this case have experienced more bullying in the months since the law went into effect than ever before in their lives, but the court dismissed their experiences of bullying as ‘a fact of life.’ The court’s decision defies decades of precedent establishing schools’ constitutional obligations to protect student speech, and to protect students from targeted bullying and harassment based on who they are.”
Berger acknowledged some of the plaintiff’s bullying worries but said that “it is simply a fact of life that many middle school students will face the criticism and harsh judgment of their peers.”
“Indeed, middle school children bully and belittle their classmates for a whole host of reasons,” Berger continued, “all of which are unacceptable, and many of which have nothing to do with a classmate’s gender identity.”
A challenge to the Don’t Say Gay law was dismissed by another Trump-nominated judge, Allen Cothrel Winsor, in early October.
The Don’t Say Gay law, which went into effect on July 1, continues to make its mark on Florida schools.
Based on the law, the Florida Board of Education recently instituted a new rule that says any K-3 teacher who is found to have taught their students about LGBTQ issues can have their licenses suspended or revoked.
And in September, the Miami-Dade School Board voted against recognizing October as LGBTQ History Month over fears that it would violate the Don’t Say Gay law.
Gerald Bostock – the namesake for the 2020 historic Supreme Court decision in Bostock v. ClaytonCounty that made anti-LGBTQ discrimination illegal in the workplace – has finally settled his own discrimination lawsuit.
Bostock spent over ten years working for Clayton County, Georgia as an advocate for victims of child abuse and neglect. He was abruptly fired in 2013, six months after he joined a gay softball league and subsequently endured homophobic comments from colleagues. When he was let go, his employer cited “conduct unbecoming a county employee” as the reason. Bostock believes his termination was directly related to his sexual orientation.
In conjunction with two others, Bostock’s case led the Supreme Court to declare that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 – which bans workplace discrimination on the basis of sex – applies to LGBTQ people.
That victory, however, did not mean Bostock’s personal case against Clayton County was over. Once the Supreme Court declared anti-LGBTQ discrimination against employees to be illegal, he then had to go back to court to determine whether or not he was actually the victim of it.
The case was settled on October 5, according to court documents obtained by Law & Crime, though the terms of the settlement are not yet public.
The Supreme Court’s decision in Bostock v. Clayton County has already had significant ripple effects.
In its wake, President Biden signed two executive orders that said federal agencies should “fully implement” the decision by applying the reasoning that anti-LGBTQ discrimination inherently involves sex discrimination.
His actions included Title IX’s protections in education. The decision has been used to protect LGBTQ students in court.
Famed trans activist Gavin Grimm, for example, won in federal court against a Virginia school district that banned him from the boys’ bathroom. The court said that based on the reasoning in Bostock, the school was in violation of Title IX.
Also using Bostock, The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled in 2020 that another transgender boy, Drew Adams, had to be allowed to use boys’ restrooms.
Another federal judge cited Bostock when blocking a Trump administration rule that would have made it easier for medical professionals to claim a religious exemption and refuse to treat transgender people.
And this year, out Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel (D), and the ACLU cited Bostock in their case before the Michigan Supreme Court which led to the decision 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.
Almost a decade after a Black gay man was beaten so severely that he lost sight in one eye, a judge has awarded him $4.5 million for the pain and suffering caused.
“It’s been nine years,” the victim, Taj Patterson, told The New York Daily News. “A lot of back and forth. A lot of legal scenarios I didn’t understand. It was a long process.”
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In 2013, Patterson was walking in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, when he was attacked by a dozen men who were part of an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood watch group.
The men accused Patterson of vandalizing cars, even though they had not filed a police report and police found the claim of vandalism to be unfounded.
The men beat Patterson while saying, “Stay down, fa***t, stay the fuck down.” He was left blind in one eye.
As Patterson told it to McClatchy News, the neighborhood watch group had received reports that a Black person had been vandalizing cars, and “I guess they took it upon themselves to apprehend the first Black person they saw.”
“I was a 22-year-old kid going out for a friend’s birthday,” Patterson said. “I didn’t think my life would change so drastically so quickly.”
Several months later, five men were indicted. Charges were dismissed against two of them, and two of them pleaded guilty and got community service. One of their cases, that of Mayer Herskovic, went to trial in 2017, but the case fell apart when several eyewitnesses recanted their testimony.
The judge did end up convicting Herskovic, but the appeals court ultimately threw it out.
Patterson then filed a lawsuit against the NYPD and the city of New York for allegedly giving his attackers preferential treatment.
And now, he is finally receiving some justice. Judge Miriam Sunshine awarded Patterson $3 million for past pain and suffering and $1.5 million for future pain and suffering.
“There is no numerical value you can place on someone’s eyesight or their limbs or their body in general,” Patterson said, adding that he “was violated in a very major way.”
“With that said, I’m glad that it’s all over after almost a decade.”
Thirty-one-year-old Clayton Hubbird has been charged with first-degree reckless homicide and use of a dangerous weapon for killing Regina “Mya” Allen.
August 29 video footage from a BP gas station showed that Allen and Hubbird briefly talked inside the station before she stepped into the passenger’s seat of his black Chevy Tahoe SUV, police told FOX6. When the two arrived at Allen’s apartment complex, a witness told police that he saw them arguing in the vehicle before hearing a gunshot.
Allen reportedly stumbled out of the vehicle and exclaimed, “I’m shot!” before dialing 911 for emergency services. When police arrived, she told an officer that she had met the man who shot her at a gas station. She later died from her injuries, barely a month before her 36th birthday.
On August 30, police found the SUV parked in Wauwatosa, a city about seven miles east of Milwaukee. Investigators found ammunition and firearm magazines in Hubbird’s bedroom.
Police issued a warrant for Hubbird’s arrest on September 6.
Hubbird appeared in court on October 2, and cash bond was set at $250,000, according to FOX6.
Friends remembered Allen as full of laughter.
“I remember seeing her, and I was jut like, amazed by her, her beauty and the way that she carried herself,” said Ananna Sellers, a member of a Wisconsin Black trans leaders coalition called The Black Rose Initiative. “I really did have a soft spot in my heart for Mya.”
Sellers added, “Whenever something happens to a girl like us, it’s always got something to do with [being trans] to some capacity.”
Thirty-one trans people have been murdered so far this year, according to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). A majority of the individuals murdered have been Black trans women. The number is likely an undercount seeing as some trans people are misgendered by their families, police, or media after death while others are never identified at all.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has released an anti-trans campaign ad as part of his reelection campaign.
The ad features former University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines, who has been vocal in opposing trans swimmer Lia Thomas’s participation in women’s NCAA competitions. Gaines tied with Thomas for fifth place in the 200-meter freestyle at this year’s NCAA championships.
In the ad, Gaines claimed that “for girls across America” the dream of being a successful athlete is “being taken away by men competing in women’s sports.” At that moment, a photo of Thomas appears on the screen.
“Sadly, few stood up for me,” Gaines said. “But Rand Paul is not afraid to fight for fairness for women and girls.”
Rand Paul then speaks to approve the message “because I’ll always fight for fairness.”
Gaines has been speaking out against trans athletes for a long time and has become a mouthpiece for anti-trans Republicans.
In 2021, she appeared in an attack ad put out by the Republican Governor’s Association against Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly (D) after she vetoed bills banning trans girls from women’s sports.
“I was forced to share a locker room with a biological man. It was uncomfortable and it was wrong.” Gaines said in the ad.
“This has to stop,” she concluded. “If Laura Kelly can’t protect women, she shouldn’t be governor.”
Gaines also recently joined Herschel Walker, Georgia’s anti-LGBTQ Republican Senate nominee, at a rally where Walker voiced his belief that trans kids will not get into heaven.
This is also far from the first time Paul has taken a stance against the trans community.
Last year, Paul went on an anti-transgender tirade when questioning Admiral Rachel Levine, who was at the time President Biden’s nominee for assistant secretary of health. She now holds the position.
Paul decided to rant about how gender affirming health care for transgender kids should be banned instead of left up to families and doctors. He peddled lies about transgender health care and the treatments available to trans youth and peppered Levine with questions about trans identities, declaring that transitioning is a “temporary, superficial fix for a very complex identity issue.”
“You give a woman testosterone enough that she grows a beard,” he said, “you think she’s going to go back to looking like a woman when she stops the testosterone?”
In 1994, a Missouri high school teacher named Rodney Wilson – the first out public school teacher in the state – wanted to give students better access to LGBTQ history as well as more role models with whom they could identify.
He established a planning committee with LGBTQ leaders from around the country, and from there, Gay and Lesbian History Month was born.
The group selected October for what would ultimately become LGBTQ History Month because school would be in session. October is also when we celebrate National Coming Out Day (on the 11). The two LGBTQ marches on Washington in 1979 and 1987 also took place in October.
After its founding, organizations like the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, GLAAD, and the Human Rights Campaign endorsed Gay and Lesbian History Month, and in 1995, the National Education Association passed a resolution officially recognizing it as a commemorative month.
In 2006, the civil rights organization Equality Forum became the official organizer and promoter of the month. Each year, Equality Forum selects 31 icons to honor, one for each day.
Today, as conservatives continue their widespread attacks on the rights of LGBTQ students, LGBTQ History Month feels more important than ever, serving to remind LGBTQ young people that they are part of a long, storied history of strength, resilience, and bravery.
What is LGBTQ History Month?
LGBTQ History Month is celebrated both nationally and internationally and has become a crucial tool in ensuring that queer history is shared, taught, and celebrated, as it is rarely included in school curricula.
Thus, LGBTQ students are often unaware of the fact that many figures they study in school were in fact LGBTQ. They also miss out on learning about the LGBTQ rights movement and the many figures who have fought heroically for LGBTQ equality.
LGBTQ History Month is a way to encourage schools, media, and other institutions devoted to sharing knowledge to amplify the important stories of the LGBTQ community.
When is LGBTQ History Month Celebrated?
In the United States, LGBTQ History Month is celebrated every October. Canada and Australia also celebrate it this month. It is also recognized in the United Kingdom (in February), Hungary (in February), Finland (in November), and Berlin (in June).
And this past year in May, Cuba became the first country in Latin America to celebrate it. Italy also celebrated its first one this year in April.
LGBTQ History Month vs. Pride Month
LGBTQ History Month focuses on the achievements of the LGBTQ community. Pride Month in June, on the other hand, originated with the 1969 Stonewall Uprising and is about uplifting the LGBTQ rights movement.
Pride is more focused on rebellion and the continued fight for LGBTQ rights, whereas LGBTQ History Month focuses on honoring the past.
Pride is a protest, a battle cry, whereas History Month is a celebration.
How to Celebrate LGBTQ History Month
Celebrating LGBTQ History Month can take many forms, including:
Visit Equality Forum’s website dedicated to honoring queer icons and search their database of almost 500 LGBTQ people who have made history.
Help spread awareness and share stories on your social media pages that celebrate LGBTQ role models.
Find out if LGBTQ history is taught in your local public schools, and if not, advocate for change.
Make a donation to a worthy LGBTQ cause.
Iconic Queer Figures to Honor
There are endless LGBTQ figures to honor this month, but here a few icons to start with:
Bayard Rustin, who organized the March on Washington in 1963, where Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech took place
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has vetoed a bill that would have helped low-income LGBTQ people gain easier access to treatment and prevention services for sexually transmitted infections (STIs).
Newsom said he supported the STI Prevention & Treatment Fairness Act, but that there simply wasn’t enough funding to accomplish what it sought to do.
The bill, which was sponsored by Equality California, would have expanded access to STI health services to low-income people with confidentiality concerns (including LGBTQ people) through California’s Family Planning, Access, Care, and Treatment (PACT) program.
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But Newsom explained that the bill would expand the definition of “family planning” beyond the federal definition, “thereby creating a state-only program that creates significant ongoing General Fund cost pressure not accounted for in the budget.”
“With our state facing lower-than-expected revenues over the first few months of this fiscal year, it is important to remain disciplined when it comes to spending, particularly spending that is ongoing,” Newsom also noted in his veto message, adding that “Bills with significant fiscal impact, such as this measure, should be considered and accounted for as part of the annual budget process.”
Craig E. Thompson, CEO of the LGBTQ Health nonprofit APLA Health expressed disappointment in Newsom’s veto.
“As the latest data from the CDC makes clear, the STD epidemic is only growing worse in California and across the U.S. — with syphilis rates up nearly 28% in the last year alone,” Thompson told the Bay Area Reporter. “APLA Health will continue advocating for forward-thinking policy and funding initiatives to address this crisis, including ensuring that all LGBTQ+ Californians have access to convenient, low-cost sexual health services regardless of ability to pay.”
The NBA has fined basketball star Anthony Edwards $40,000 for using an anti-gay slur.
The player for the Minnesota Timberwolves found himself in hot water earlier this month after a video on his Instagram story depicted him mocking a group of men standing on the sidewalk. The video has since been deleted, but Edwards could reportedly be heard saying, “look at these queer a** n****rs.”
After backlash, he tweeted an apology, writing that what he said “was immature, hurtful, and disrespectful.”
“I’m incredibly sorry,” he continued. “It’s unacceptable for me or anyone to use that language in such a hurtful way, there’s no excuse for it, at all. I was raised better than that!”
NBA Communications confirmed Edwards’s fine in a statement released on social media which said he had used “offensive and derogatory language” and that “Edwards has acknowledged that his actions were inappropriate.”
Players have been fined before for using homophobic language.
In 2021, Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant was fined the largest amount permissible by the NBA for his direct messages to actor and comedian Michael Rapaport.
He used derogatory remarks — criticized as homophobic by some and acknowledged as “inappropriate” by Durant — toward Rapaport. As a result, the NBA announced a $50,000 fine levied against Durant, reportedly the most allowed under the collective bargaining agreement.
