Sofia Lotto Persio

/ /

Gay Lawyer Files $26M Lawsuit Over Claims He Sought Relationship with Al-Qaeda Client

An Illinois-based lawyer is seeking $26 million in a defamation lawsuit against his co-counsel in the representation of a Guantanamo Bay inmate, an alleged mastermind of the 9/11 terror attacks.

Tim Jon Semmerling claims that Chicago defence attorney Cheryl Bormann outed him to the client, alleged Al-Qaeda camp trainer Walid bin Attash, telling him the lawyer was seeking an intimate relationship with him.

The lawsuit complaint, filed on September 29 in an Illinois district court and seen by PinkNews, also names Department of Defense employees and members of the defence team Michael Schwartz, Brigadier General John G. Baker, Major Matthew H. Seeger and Edwin Perry as having taken part in a “character assassination” against Semmerling and his work, accusing them of having intentionally afflicted him emotional distress.

People walk past a guard tower outside the fencing of Camp 5 at the US Military’s Prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba on January 26, 2017. (Thomas Watkins/AFP/Getty)

According to complaint, Semmerling worked on the defence team as a mitigation specialist between June 10, 2011 and October 23, 2015. Both Semmerling and the rest of the defence counsel were aware that the attorney’s sexual orientation should remain secret as their client “would not tolerate people on the team” who were either gay, served in Iraq and Afghanistan, or were Jewish.

Semmerling claims he was not sure what had happened when he was dismissed from the team until April 28, 2016, when he said he learned that Bormann and Schwartz had told the rest of the defence counsel that they outed him as gay to bin Attash. They allegedly falsely told the client that Semmerling was “infatuated” with him and “was pursuing a homosexual interest” with him.

The complaint claims that Semmerling’s firing was “wrongful” and the result of a “personal vendetta” from the rest of the team, and it implies that it followed bin Attash expressing dissatisfaction with the work of the counsel, except for Semmerling.

Walid bin Attash (Public domain)

Bin Attash, one of five Guantanamo inmates facing trial for their alleged role in the 9/11 attacks, had requested to represent himself a few days’ before Semmerling’s dismissal. According to a Reuters report dated October 19, 2015, bin Attash told the judge via an interpreter he no longer trusted his Pentagon-paid legal team. The judge refused bin Attash’s request a few weeks later.

Semmerling alleges that being outed to the enemy combatant has affected his physical and emotional wellbeing, as well as having had an impact on his career.

“They have hurt my career, these people, they have made sure I can never go back by outing me to Guantanamo Bay to work with any of the people down there,” Semmerling said in an interview to Fox32 Chicago in February.

/ /

Virgin Launches First Fully LGBT-staffed Flight in the World

Titus Burgess will host the Proud Flight (Virgin Atlantic)

Titus Burgess will host the Proud Flight (Virgin Atlantic)

The world’s first known flight fully staffed by LGBT+ people is due for take off from London Heathrow Airport in June 2019.

The LGBT+ pilots and cabin crew will head the one-off ‘Pride Flight’ to New York, which is the first American city to host the World Pride event next year, on June 28—the day marking 50 years since the beginning of the Stonewall riots.

Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Holidays teamed up with NYC & Company, New York City’s official marketing, tourism and partnership organisation, to bring the Pride celebrations to 38,000 feet above the ground.

Broadway actor and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt star Tituss Burgess (Virgin Atlantic)

They have enlisted Broadway actor and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt star Tituss Burgess to be the master of ceremonies during the flight, which promises to feature on-board entertainment including an on-board DJ, drag queen bingo, a Judy Garland singalong and inter-seat speed dating.

“At a time when we’re seeing the rights of minority groups under threat, it is more important than ever we stand up and make our voices heard,” Burgess said.

“The LGBT+ community has made enormous strides over the last 50 years, and I’m so proud to partner with Virgin Holidays and Virgin Atlantic to mark this occasion in style and celebrate the hard-won freedoms from those who came before us,” he said.

Fred Dixon, president and chief executive of NYC & Company, said the World Pride event is expected to attract more than three million visitors to the Big Apple in 2019, and promises to be “one of the largest LGBTQ events in history.”

“As a City founded on diversity, inclusivity and a welcoming spirit, we’re extremely pleased to host World Pride 2019—the first time the big event will be held in the United States, while at the same time marking the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising,” he added.

On-board entertainment will include on board DJ, Drag-Queen Bingo, Judy Garland singalong and inter-seat speed dating. (Virgin Atlantic)

Ticket prices start at £380 for the flight-only Economy Light experience, but holiday packages including accommodation at a New York hotel start at £699 per person.

Virgin will donate a portion of ticket sales to The Attitude Magazine Foundation to promote community initiatives in the UK, as well as arrange fundraising and raffle activities on board.

“We take our commitments to diversity and inclusion seriously, but you can rest assured we have a lot of fun along the way,” said Mark Anderson, global LGBT lead for Virgin Group and executive vice president at Virgin Atlantic, promising “a show-stopping, ground- breaking, one-of-a-kind experience.”

Virgin is the latest company announcing special initiatives for the half-century anniversary of the 1969 riots that gave birth to the gay rights movement.

In September, American baseball team the New York Yankees revealed plans to spend $50,000 on scholarships, which will act “as a springboard for young LGBTQ student community members,” to mark the occasion.

/ /

Government Risks ‘Neglecting Needs of LGBT Youth’ in Sex Education

Campaigners have expressed concern with the findings of the first round of public consultation on what schools should be teaching in the Relationships Education and Relationship and Sex Education (RSE) curricula.

The consultation, which runs until November 7, 2018, was called following government plans to introduce the mandatory subjects in schools across the country by September 2020.

Then-Education Secretary Justine Greening promised the revised curricula would be inclusive of LGBT issues, although the draft guidance published under her successor Damian Hinds in July leaves schools “free to determine how they address LGBT specific content,” even if the ministry’s recommendation is that the teaching “is integral throughout the programmes of study.”

Campaigning group Level Up believes this position risks excluding LGBT+ students “from the information they need to have happy, healthy relationships,” particularly following the review of the open consultation’s responses so far, which the group obtained following a Freedom of Information request.

The findings from the Ipsos MORI executive summary show that the vast majority of respondents to the consultation are adults (15,528 of the total 17,852) and only 13 percent came from young people—a majority of these were cast by people aged 15-18 years old.

The report also indicates that “opinions were split regarding when children should be taught about LGBT relationships,” with several respondents believing that it wasn’t appropriate to teach about these issues at primary school.

This is despite “relationships with family” emerging as the most popular topic of discussion for pupils taught about Relationships Education, which is meant to encompass an understanding of different kinds of family compositions.

In secondary education, the report noted “teaching about gender and sexual identity was seen as important. Other themes that emerged were marriage, sexual health, contraception, safe online relationships, mental health and physical health.”

But as Level Up campaigners noted, there is a big discrepancy in responses with regards to the importance of marriage as part of the RSE teachings—only 3 percent of young people who responded to the survey wanted information on marriage, compared to 39 percent (5,746) of adult respondents who stated that commitment is the most important subject area, with an emphasis on traditional marriage.

In comparison, 31 percent of young people who answered the consultation stated that teaching about gender and sexual identity in SRE would contribute to “raising awareness and acceptance” of LGBT+ youth.

“We would encourage schools to ensure RSE truly represents LGBT identities and communities because that’s the only way it will be relevant, effective and truly inclusive of all students,” said Lisa Hallgarten, Head of Policy and Public Affairs at Brook, a charity working to provide wellbeing and mental health support for young people.

Bryony Walker, Campaign Director at Level Up, encouraged young people to submit their responses to the open consultation through the organisation’s website. 

“I grew up in a violently homophobic home, I would do anything to turn by the clocks and get a decent sex education at school for me and my brothers and sisters. And now’s our chance,” she said. “Providing young LGBTQ+ people with the information they need to have happy healthy relationships is essential, not optional.”

/ /

Chile Approves New Gender Identity Law in ‘Great Victory for Trans People’

Chilean deputies for the Frente Amplio party, celebrate as they hold a giant fake Chilean Identity card reading "My identity, my right", after voting a gender identity law, during a session at the Deputies Charmber, of the National Congress in Valparaiso, Chile, on September 12, 2018. (Francesco Degasperi/AFP/Getty)

Chilean deputies for the Frente Amplio party, celebrate as they hold a giant fake Chilean Identity card reading “My identity, my right”, after voting a gender identity law, during a session at the Deputies Charmber, of the National Congress in Valparaiso, Chile, on September 12, 2018. (Francesco Degasperi/AFP/Getty)

Chile has passed a new gender identity law that will allow transgender people aged 14 years and above to change their name and gender in official documents.

The process will take place at a civil registry and will not require surgical or medical intervention, although minors will have to obtain permission from a parent or guardian and from a family court.

The law was first approved by a large majority of 26 in favour and 14 against in the Senate last week and landed in the country’s Congress on Wednesday (September 11), where it passed a 95-46 vote marking the end of a five-year-long fight by transgender rights activists.Chilean president Sebastián Piñera now has 30 days to sign the law.

“We celebrate! The Chamber of Deputies voted and dispatched the gender identity law, which we sponsored more than five years ago. A great victory for TRANS people!” the Chilean non-governmental organisation Fundación Iguales, which champions LGBT+ rights, tweeted following the vote.

One of the law’s most controversial elements was the inclusion of minors, with LGBT+ activists lamenting the age limit of 14 in the bill. The legislation originally included children younger than 14 years of age, but a vote on this provision failed to reach the necessary majority.

“Today is bittersweet since the discrimination against those under 14 will translate into more suicides,” Rolando Jimenez, one of the founders of the Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation, was quoted as saying in the Associated Press (AP).

Two conservative lawmakers who voted against the law have instead vowed to challenge the inclusion of any person below 18 years of age in the bill.

Sergio Bobadilla and Juan Antonio Coloma claimed the project “undermines the right of the biological identity of minors” and have said they will present that argument in front of the country’s Constitutional Court, AP reported.

Daniela Vega, delivers a press conference after a meeting with Chilean President Michelle Bachelet on March 6, 2018. (Pablo Vera/AFP/Getty)

Chilean transgender actor and singer Daniela Vega, the star of the 2018 Oscar-winning film A Fantastic Woman, celebrated news of the vote writing a poetic post on Instagram on Thursday, in which she remembered those who have died without seeing the law becoming reality, as well as celebrating a more hopeful future.

She wrote: “The testimony and the body as a declaration of rebellion. But you cannot be rebellious without first being worthy and dignity is not a faith, it is a right. Do not fear children, there will be arms that contain your beautiful nature.

“To wall in the door is not going to darken the horizon, because it will be you, children who will govern your biography. The art, infinite key of immovable locks. The will, motor of the future that appears more hopeful today.

“There are those who did not see this day, this dawn, their bodies, dignified by the memory of rebellion, of dignity. Love, motor of experience. Love, endorsement of infinite space.

“To live, to resist, to move in the calendar. The time and objectivity of feeling it happen. To have today, the right to live in, to belong. Future body, white canvas of new struggles, new utopias, new spaces, of movement, of dignity.”

/ /

Lesbian Declared Married to her Partner of 50 Years, Who Died in May

(Bonnie Foerster/Facebook)

(Bonnie Foerster/Facebook)

A lesbian is now officially married to her longtime partner, who died months ago.

Utah Judge Patrick Corum declared 74-year-old Bonnie Foerster legally wed to her “soulmate” and common law partner Beverly Grossaint, who died in May at the age of 82, just a few weeks after the couple celebrated their five-decade anniversary together.

Foerster was crying tears of joy following the rare ruling on August 21. “I’m numb from happiness. I’m married,” she said, quoted in The Salt Lake Tribune. “I’m a married woman. I’ve waited 50 years,” she added.The couple met in New York in 1968, after Foerster left her abusive husband. “I met her with two black eyes and broken ribs and so on and so forth, had sunglasses on,” she told local publication News4Utah ahead of the ruling.

“She told me to take the damn sunglasses off and looked into my eyes and said she could see my soul.

“I fell in love. She was my soulmate. When she met me we were both lost and we became Bonnie and Bev…Bev and Bonnie for 50 years.”

The couple celebrated their 50-year anniversary in April (Bonnie Foerster/Facebook)

In the span of the following half-century, Foerster and her partner stayed by each other’s side for good or ill, in happiness or sadness.

In court, Foerster recalled marching with her partner, a veteran of the Women’s Army Corps, in the first gay pride parade in New York City in 1970.

“We had people throw garbage at us,” Foerster recalled, quoted in The Salt Lake Tribune. “We went home, took showers and got clean. Those people still have garbage in their hands.”

The couple moved to Utah in 1979 to care for Grossaint’s sick mother. The pair also looked after each other’s health—Grossaint was Foerster’s caretaker as she battled breast and cervical cancer, as well as undergoing 29 back surgeries and suffering from a macular degeneration that left her legally blind.

Foerster was also diagnosed with a rare bone infection called osteomyelitis, which caused her two have both legs amputated in April 2016.

By that point, Grossaint had developed health problems of her own—lung disease emphysema and chronic heart failure—and Foerster was her main caretaker for the three years prior to her death, ultimately caused by pneumonia.

The pair met in New York in 1968 (Bonnie Foerster/Facebook)

The idea of a post-mortem marriage recognition came from Roger Hoole, the couple’s attorney. “I knew that in Utah you can marry somebody within a year of after the marriage ends even though it ended in the death of one of the partners,” he told News4Utah.

Foerster is now planning a party to celebrate the wedding and the couple’s anniversary on September 15, according to the local news outlet. The marriage date has however yet to be decided.

Hoole had petitioned for the date to be July 26, 2015—when the Supreme Court ruled marriage equality law of the land, but Judge Corum argued that they could be considered married since December 20, 2013—when Utah legalised same-sex marriage—or even 1968, when the couple began living together, although this would entail a more complex legal process.

According to the judge, this was the Utah’s second posthumous same-sex marriage in Utah, following the case of a woman who married her partner, who died in a car crash.

A similar case in France made worldwide headlines in 2009, when a woman became the legal wife—and widow—of her fiancée, who had proposed to her two days before he was killed in a road accident.

In China, the dead can also marry the dead in so-called ghost marriages, a 3,000-year-old tradition that survives to this day.

/ /

Fortune 500 list now features openly lesbian CEO for the first time

A Fortune 500 company has named an openly gay woman to the role of president and CEO.

Effective August 1, Beth Ford will take the reins of food and agricultural cooperative Land O’Lakes, Inc., ranked 216 in the annual ranking of the largest companies in the US compiled by the American publication Fortune.

She joined the company in 2011 and has more than 20 years’ experience specifically in the areas of technology and research and development. The company statement announcing her appointment on Thursday made no reference to her appointment breaking new ground for the LGBT+ business community, although it stated that the new CEO is married to a woman: “Ford and her spouse, Jill Schurtz, have three teenage children and live in Minneapolis.”

Chief Executive Officer of Time Inc., Laura Lang speaks during a Fortune 500 event on May 7, 2012 in New York City (Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Time)

Ford joins a small club of openly gay business leaders running a Fortune 500 company. “By Fortune’s count, Ford will be the third openly gay CEO of a Fortune 500 company and the first woman,” the publication wrote—Apple’s Tim Cook and the Dow Chemical Company’s Jim Fitterling being the other two.

“Ford said it didn’t even come up in her discussions with the board. But she conceded that ‘it’s not nothing,’” Fortune’s article read.

“If it gives someone encouragement and belief that they can be their authentic self and live their life and things are possible, than that’s a terrific moment,” Ford told the publication, adding that she remembers what it was like not to be out in her workplace when she was in her 20s.

“I think I’ve been fortunate since my mid-30s of being just who I am,” Ford said, adding: “Work is hard enough, and then when you have to feel as though you can’t be who are, that’s got to be incredibly difficult.”

NEW YORK, NY - DECEMBER 09: Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, visits an Apple store where third grade children from PS 57 James Weldon Johnson Leadership Academy are learning how to code through Apple's "Hour of Code" workshop program on December 9, 2015 in New York City. Cook said he hoped that teaching coding to children would become standard in education throughout the United States. (Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images)
Apple’s Tim Cook and the Dow Chemical Company’s Jim Fitterling are the only other two openly gay business leaders running a Fortune 500 company (Andrew Burton/Getty Images)

In a separate statement to CNN, Ford said: “I am extraordinarily grateful to work at a company that values family, including my own.”

According to a study by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) foundation, nearly half (46 percent) of LGBT+ employees in the US hide their sexuality at their place of employment.

The LGBT+ rights group congratulated Ford on her appointment. “Her authentic leadership as an out lesbian is well-known in the LGBT corporate community, and the fact that she is assuming this role as an out lesbian sends an especially powerful message,” says Deena Fidas, HRC director of workplace equality, told CNN.

“This is not a story of someone getting into the higher echelons of leadership and then coming out, this is someone walking into this role with her full self,” Fidas added.

/ /

Episcopal Church Allows Same-sex Marriage in All Churches Regardless of Bishops’ Views

The Episcopal Church has passed a resolution that will allow same-sex couples to get married in their diocese of choice, regardless of the bishop’s view on same-sex weddings.

The resolution B012 was approved with an overwhelming majority on Friday, July 13, during the Episcopal Church General Convention in Austin, Texas—a triennial event. In 2015, after the historic Supreme Court ruling recognising same-sex marriage across the US, the General Convention too voted on allowing same-sex weddings.

The resolution passed, but it gave bishops the power to refuse a couple on the basis of their theological views on marriage, and force other members of the clergy in that diocese to follow their line. Overall, eight dioceses were effectively refusing same-sex couples the right to marry.

Friday’s resolution removes that hurdle, placing the decision to marry a same-sex couple in the hand of the local priest. Members of the clergy can make the personal decision to not wed gay or lesbian couples—but they will have to tap another priest or bishop willing to perform the sacrament using gender-neutral liturgies.“We are fond of saying around the Episcopal Church that all are welcome, and all means all, y’all,” said the chair of the General Convention’s Task Force on the Study of Marriage, East Carolina Deputy Joan Geiszler-Ludlum, ahead of the vote in support of the resolution, quoted in the Episcopal News Service.

The US Episcopal Church, led by Bishop Michael Curry who gave a memorable, fiery sermon during Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding, is one of a handful of Christian denominations supporting LGBT inclusion—the Unitarian Universalist Association and the United Church of Christ are two of the others—which resulted in the church being shunned by the global Anglican Communion. The Scottish Episcopal Church too faced similar punishment from the Anglican Communion for recognising same-sex marriages.

A Filipino priest performs Christian rites during a mass ‘wedding rites’ on June 28, 2015 in Manila, Philippines. (Photo by Dondi Tawatao/Getty Images)

The resolution approval on Friday marked a victory for the All Sacrament for All People group, which has been campaigning for full marriage equality across the dioceses for the past three years, when Bishop Joseph Bauerschmidt of the Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee enforced the opposition to same-sex marriage in his diocese.

The All Sacraments for All People campaign produced a moving video in which families affected by bishops’ negative decision on same-sex marriage told their stories, calling on the convention to make the necessary changes.

“I think it’s a wonderful compromise, which respects the dignity of the bishop and his position, but still allows marriage for all in their home congregations,” Connally Davies Penley, a member of the All Sacrament for All People, told the Tennessean.

The resolution will only come to effect on the first Sunday of the Advent, December 2. In the meantime, Bishop Bauerschmidt told the Tenneassean, “there is much to work out.”

/

Janet Mock Makes History as First Trans Woman of Color Directing a TV Show

Activist and writer Janet Mock made history on Sunday, when the episode of Pose she wrote and directed aired on FX to virtually unanimous acclaim.

Mock became the first transgender person of colour to direct a TV show. “Love is the Message” was the sixth episode of the show’s inaugural season, for which Mock also worked as a writer—the first trans woman of colour to write for television—and producer. Set in the late 1980s, Pose focuses on life and society in New York City, from its iconic ball culture to the rise of the Donald Trump-like billionaires, against the backdrop of the AIDS crisis.

The musical drama series was created by acclaimed director, screenwriter and producer Ryan Murphy and features the largest transgender cast on television while also featuring trans talent behind the scenes—Transparent writer and producer Our Lady J also wrote and produced for Pose.

Activist Janet Mock attends the TIME 100 Gala celebrating its annual list of the 100 Most Influential People In The World at Frederick P. Rose Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center on April 24, 2018 in New York City (Angela Weiss//AFP/Getty)

Mock, who was included in the prestigious Time 100 Most Influential People in the World this year for her work as an advocate for “marginalised communities everywhere,” had no previous experience directing or writing for television. She told Murphy she wanted this opportunity to “tell stories and to create the mirrors that I didn’t have growing up,” as she recalled in a recent article for Variety.

Murphy, who in 2016 launched the “Half” initiative to ensure at least half of the episodes produced by his company would be directed by women, people of colour and members of the LGBT+ community, recently told The New York Times it’s important to give people first chances. “That’s how you change the world,” he said.

He congratulated Mock’s directorial debut in a heartfelt message on Twitter on Sunday.  “I’m more proud of tonight’s episode of POSE co-written with the extraordinary Janet Mock than almost anything I’ve ever done. Janet directed this episode with class & heart. Again she breaks down walls & barriers & makes history as the first trans woman of color to direct an episode of TV,” he wrote, also congratulating the cast on their performances.

Janet Mock attends the FX ‘Pose’ Ball in Harlem on June 2, 2018 in New York City (Andrew Toth/Getty)

“I dedicate this episode to all those we have lost from AIDS. We need to remember, and never forget. Thank you Janet and the cast and crew for making me weep and yet cheer for what is possible when LOVE IS THE MESSAGE,” Murphy added, referencing the episode’s title.

Mock live-tweeted during the episode, sharing insights into her directorial decisions and highlights. “We are deserving of opportunity & more than capable,” she wrote in a post featuring a picture of herself taken on her first night as a director on the set.

/ /

LGBT Youth in Sports “Overwhelmingly” Remain Closeted

At least 80 percent of gay, lesbian, bisexual and queer teen athletes hide their sexuality from coaches, a report published last week by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) foundation and the University of Connecticut showed. The percentage of closeted student athletes increases to 82 percent among trans youth.

The study surveyed more than 12,000 teenagers in the US, aged between 13 and 17, who participated in HRC’s online 2017 LGBT+ Teen Survey. Researchers decided to focus specifically on the experience of LGBT+ youth in sports because of the positive social, psychological and physiological effects of engaging in physical activities that teen may miss out due to lack of acceptance.

Only 24 percent of the respondents say they play a school sport, compared to 68 percent of a national non-LGBT+ sample—that percentage of sports participation drops to 14 percent for non-binary youth and transgender boys and 12 percent for transgender girls.

“Sports are a transformative way for students to build social skills and community, but when too many LGBTQ student-athletes are blocked from being their true selves—we fail them. Coaches and administrators must do more to make every court, field, track and mat a welcoming place for all,” Ashland Johnson, HRC director of public education and research, said in a statement commenting on the study.

According to the survey, one of the main issues hindering LGBT+ teen athletes from fully expressing themselves is the locker room environment. “I don’t feel safe in the locker room” one respondent said, a feeling shared by 41 percent of transgender boys, 34 percent of transgender girls and 31 percent of the non-binary youth surveyed. “I was bullied for being transgender,” another anonymous respondent said.

Another issue hindering LGBT+ youth participation in sports is the widespread use of homophobic language, such as the use of the word “gay” in a derogatory manner. “The guys on sports team… call everything they don’t like ‘gay’,” one of the survey respondent was quoted as saying.

“When LGBTQ teens can be their true selves in athletics, it not only benefits that athlete, it benefits their team and community. This data is an important starting point to identifying ways schools can improve the experiences of their LGBTQ players,” Johnson said.

Jason Collins, a former NBA player who came out as a gay man in an article for Sports Illustrated in 2013, shared the research with his more than 100,000 Twitter followers. “Sports are for everyone, including #LGBTQ youth,” Collins, whose coming out represented a landmark moment in LGBT+ acceptance in sports as he was the first active male athlete in a major US professional team sport to do so, wrote in his tweet. “This data provides a unique opportunity to make sports more inclusive for all athlete,” he added.

1 2