President Trump fired the remaining members of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, known as PACHA, without explanation by FedEx letter on Wednesday.
Six members of the commission had already resigned over the summer, claiming the Trump administration’s actions would harm people with HIV, including its failure to name a director of the Office of National AIDS Policy. But several of the remaining members had time left in their terms.
Scott A. Schoettes, a Chicago-based HIV/AIDS activist and a council member who resigned last summer, tweeted yesterday that the remaining council members had been fired for calling President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence “dangerous.” “Remaining #HIV/AIDS council members booted by @realDonaldTrump. No respect for their service,” Schoettes wrote. “Dangerous that #Trump and Co. (Pence esp.) are eliminating few remaining people willing to push back against harmful policies, like abstinence-only sex ed,” he added.
Gabriel Maldonado, CEO of LGBT and HIV/AIDS group Truevolution and a remaining member of the advisory board, told the Washington Blade that the reasons for the mass termination were unclear. “I can only speculate,” Maldonado said. “Like any administration, they want their own people there. Many of us were Obama appointees. I was an Obama appointee and my term was continuing until 2018.”
Maldonado said “ideological and philosophical differences” may have come into play, citing a recent report that the Centers for Disease Control could no longer use words like “diversity” and “transgender” in budget documents. “Much of my advocacy and policy references surrounded vulnerable populations, namely, the disproportionate impact of HIV and AIDS to people of color, gay men, transgender women,” Maldonado said. “A lot of those key vulnerable populations are not being prioritized in this administration.”
PACHA was created in 1995 and advises the president on treatment and prevention of HIV. In September, Trump signed an executive order extending PACHA and 31 other presidential advisory boards for another year. Wholesale turnover on the board isn’t unprecedented — the Obama administration fired all of George W. Bush’s appointees before replacing them with his own. But Maldonado said that several members were sworn back in for terms earlier this year under Trump.
Trump’s proposed 2018 budget would have included major cuts to HIV/AIDS policy, including $150 million in HIV/AIDS programs at the CDC and $1 billion in global aid to fight the epidemic. But Congress opted to continue funding the programs at their previous levels.
NEW SENIOR CENTER LGBTQI PROGRAMS: With the help of an LGBTQI Giving Circle grant, Sonoma County Adult and Aging Services was able to provide the staff of three Sonoma County senior centers — Finley Community Center’s Senior Wing in Santa Rosa, Vintage House in Sonoma, and the Sebastopol Area Senior Center — with cultural competency training in LGBTQI aging issues in 2016-2017. All three have since added new special programs for LGBTQI seniors including “Aging Gayfully” classes (see below). The Sebastopol Area Senior Center has also scheduled an exciting February field trip to the GLBT History Museumin San Francisco as well as committed to continuing their extremely popular bi-monthly LGBT Seniors Dance (next one February 24th) and their very informative on-line LGBTQI Eldership Resource Center.
NEW “AGING GAYFULLY” CLASSES: I am so grateful and excited that the three free “Aging Gayfully” classes offered last fall by Santa Rosa JC’s Older Adults Programs will resume January 17th & 18th at the three senior centers for the Spring Semester (see attached flyer). These classes are an outgrowth of the 8-week workshops that were given at a number of Sonoma County locations under an earlier grant from the LGBTQI Giving Circle. I hope you will check out the attached flyer and consider contributing your life stories as well as your humor and insights to our fun and informative weekly discussions. Continuation of this unique opportunity for us to gather depends on adequate enrollment so come to one of the first class meetings and check it out!
NEW NORTH BAY RAINBOW NETWORK: Many members of our community were affected by last October’s fires, some severely with the loss of housing, income. vital healthcare equipment or pets and others perhaps less severely but perhaps left with physical or emotional health challenges from the stress of responding to the crisis and/or prolonged evacuation. A group of concerned individuals has formed the North Bay Rainbow Network to (1) create greater awareness of fire recovery organizations of the fires’ impact on our community and (2) to connect affected community members with these organizations who can help in a variety of ways. While the website (www.northbayrainbownetwork.org) is still under construction, there will soon be a survey that you can complete to let us know how you were affected and your needs. Perhaps this could continue to be a virtual way for us to connect with needs and resources!
NEW OPENING DOORS FOR LGBTI SENIORS COALITION: To continue the work that has been done under two previous LGBTQI Giving Circle grants, Sonoma County Adult and Aging Services has contracted with my colleague Nancy Flaxman to facilitate a series of meetings of representatives from senior service agencies in the county and help them develop strategies for increasing our accessibility to services and community support with greater confidence and comfort.
NEW LGBTQI SENIOR DISCUSSION GROUP: A new Russian River group was started in 2017 and meets the 2nd Saturday from 12:30 – 2 pm in the Marshall House at the Russian River Senior Resource Center in Guerneville. Volunteer-led LGBTQI senior discussion groups also continue to meet in Santa Rosa (fourth Tuesdays 1-3 pm at the Glaser Center) and in Sonoma (third Fridays 10 am – noon at Vintage House). For home-bound or transportation-limited LGBT seniors, the Senior Center Without Walls also offers a semi-monthly LGBT Telephone Chat Group.
NEW SENIOR RESOURCE GUIDE: The Sonoma County 2018 edition should be coming out soon and will continue to have the special section of resources for LGBTQI seniors that was included for the first time just two years ago. I think of that section as “The Lavender Pages” when it comes to locating resources that can help with our LGBTQI-related aging challenges.
NEW LGBTQI ORAL HISTORY PROJECT: This exciting inter-generational project is sponsored by the organization Listening For a Change with funding from the LGBTQI Giving Circle. The project invites LGBTQI youth to videotape interviews with LGBTQI elders and vice versa. Don’t miss the opportunity to participate in this unique project! See attached flyer for Spring workshop dates.
NEW INTER-GENERATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES: With Positive Images continuing its innovative work with youth and now the expansion of LGBTQ Connection into Sonoma County, there were a number of inter-generational events planned and hosted by LGBTQI youth in 2017 that gave those of us who helped pioneer our rights movement an opportunity to see what the younger generation is doing to further our work. Look for more of these events in 2018!
NEW LGBTQ+ SUMMIT: The first free annual gathering for Sonoma County LGBTQ+ individuals and allies of all ages was held in September under sponsorship of Positive Images with partial funding by the LGBTQI Giving Circle. It was such a huge success that another is being planned for this coming September. Don’t miss it!
NEW SONOMA COUNTY PRIDE EVENTS: Already in the planning and promising to be bigger and better than ever, somark your calendars for the first weekend in June for an all-age county-wide celebration! The Sonoma Valley LGBT Seniors Group will also be hosting a Gay Pride Tea Dance for older adults on Thursday, June 7th at Vintage House.
NEW LGBTQI FILM FESTIVAL: In 2017 OutWatch Film Festivalpartneredwith the Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival to bring us some short films of interest to our community and then, in spite of the fires, went ahead with their popular annual fall festival bringing us another great selection of films that mirror our lives and donating festival profits to our community’s fire victims. We look forward to more great films in 2018!
CONTINUING ON-LINE AND MEDIA SUPPORT: Our go-to website for news and LGBTQI events will continue to be www.gaysonoma.com with its special section for Seniors and station KRCB will continue to bring us current news and interesting interviews that address our community’s issues on its Outbeat Radio program.
CONTINUING CONNECTION OPPORTUNITIES: LGBTQI adults can continue to access informal networks such as Sonoma County Gaydar and LGBTQ Meetups.
Walmart is facing a lawsuit from a former employee who says she faced horrific discrimination at work because she is transgender.
The Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund has today filed a federal lawsuit against Walmart on behalf of a North Carolina transgender woman.
The employee alleges she faced faced workplace discrimination at a Sam’s Club store in Kannapolis, North Carolina.
Sam’s Club is a membership-only retail warehouse chain owned by a subsidiary of Walmart.
According to the lawsuit, Charlene Bost endured a shockingly hostile work environment during her time at the company, from 2011 through her firing in 2015.
Ms Bost says that after she transitioned, co-workers and supervisors began discriminating against her because of her sex. She was repeatedly subjected to a barrage of hostilities which included being wrongfully disciplined and repeatedly called by the wrong name and pronouns.
The lawsuit says Walmart employees took to “misgendering Ms. Bost directly by addressing her as ‘Sir’ or ‘man’ or by her former male name, or mocking her by calling her ‘Ma’am’ or ‘Madam’ in a sarcastic tone of voice, or pretending confusion by calling her both ‘Ma’am’ and ‘Sir’ in succession.
She was also branded a “faggot” by colleagues, “while humiliating Ms. Bost by treating her as a freak”.
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The court heard that on one occasion, a customer in Walmart filed a complaint after overhearing workers referring to Ms Bost as a “faggot”.
Ms Bost says bosses failed to step in to stop the tirade of harassment.
She said: “Despite excelling at my job, Sam’s Club treated me with cruelty and disrespect, simply for being a woman.
“I am bringing this lawsuit because transgender people must have the same opportunities to work hard, earn a living and contribute to our communities, free from bias. No one should ever be confronted with the prejudice I experienced on the job.”
TLDEF contends that the discrimination violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the North Carolina Equal Employment Practices Act.
In August the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) found evidence that Ms Bost was subjected to discrimination and a hostile work environment because of her sex and determined this violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The determination was one of two successful EEOC decisions secured by TLDEF against Walmart this year that led the Human Rights Campaign to suspend Walmart’s Corporate Equality Index (CEI) rating, despite the company’s trans-inclusive corporate policies.
TLDEF Executive Director Jillian Weiss said: “The EEOC put its weight behind this case and our federal lawsuit is the next step on the road to justice for Ms. Bost.
“This case makes clear that workplace discrimination against transgender individuals violates the law and will not be tolerated. It also sends a strong message to Walmart that good corporate policy alone will not suffice. It must be backed by strong enforcement mechanisms that reach the shop floor.”
“We stand with TLDEF and our fellow North Carolinian, Ms. Bost, in their pursuit of this discrimination case,” said Ames Simmons, Director of Transgender Policy for Equality North Carolina. “Mistreating trans employees is illegal and unacceptable. Sam’s Club must be held accountable.”
This case is Charlene Bost v. Sam’s East, Inc. and Wal-Mart Associates, Inc. It was filed in the United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina.
TLDEF Senior Staff Attorney Donna Levinsohn is representing Ms. Bost in partnership with Robert Elliot of the North Carolina law firm of Elliot Morgan Parsonage, PLLC.
A spokesperson for the company said: “Wal-Mart maintains a strong anti-discrimination policy. We support diversity and inclusion in our workforce and do not tolerate discrimination or retaliation of any kind.
“We disagree with the claims raised by Ms. Bost. Her termination was for performance reasons. We will respond as appropriate with the court.”
There is no federal law that explicitly bans discrimination against LGBT people, so the case relies on an interpretation of a civil rights provision outlawing discrimination based on sex.
Such interpretations have been hotly contested in the past few months.
Under the Trump administration, Attorney General Jeff Sessions has argued that the Civil Rights Act provisions should be narrowly interpreted to refer to discrimination against men or women, whereas Obama-era officials had argued that it logically also provided protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
A court had been hearing the case of Donald Zarda, a late former skydiving instructor who alleged that Altitude Express Inc fired him because of his sexuality.
In a surprise intervention, federal government officials sided with the employer – arguing that it is entirely legal to discriminate against gay employees on a federal level.
Zarda’s lawyers had cited civil rights protections from the 1960s in their case.
But the Department of Justice now insists that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlaws discrimination in employment based on sex, does not provide any protection for gay people.
s.
Mooppan insisted: “Employers under Title VII are permitted to consider employees’ out-of-work sexual conduct.
“There is a commonsense, intuitive difference between sex and sexual orientation.”
The DOJ had insisted: “Discrimination based on sexual orientation does not fall within Title VII’s prohibition on sex discrimination because it does not involve “disparate treatment of men and women”.
“Rather than causing similarly situated ‘members of one sex [to be] exposed to disadvantageous terms or conditions of employment to which members of the other sex are not exposed’, differential treatment of gay and straight employees for men and women alike.”
The DOJ also argued somewhat circularly that it was clear that existing civil rights law doesn’t protect gay people, because Congress remains opposed to “proposed legislation that would prohibit discrimination in employment based on sexual orientation”.
The mission of the Gay Travel Awards is to recognize and promote select LGBTQ welcoming properties, events, destinations and travel-related companies around the globe. These distinguished organizations lead by example and help to inspire other companies and brands around the world to follow their spirit of inclusiveness and acceptance.
This year, the 23 winners were selected from over 100 nominees. The Gay Travel Awards support and promote LGBTQ travel and tourism by identifying and rewarding select organizations which exemplify a spirit of inclusiveness, acceptance, exemplary customer service and hospitality excellence.
Stephen Prisco, Vice President, GayTravel.com
“The Gay Travel Awards support and promote LGBTQ travel and tourism by identifying and rewarding select organizations which exemplify a spirit of inclusiveness, acceptance, exemplary customer service and hospitality excellence,” said Stephen Prisco, Vice President of this year’s sponsor, GayTravel.com.
A complete list of this year’s categories and winners are listed alphabetically below:
Bed & Breakfast of the Year – Worthington Guesthouse – Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Car Rental – Advantage Rent A Car
Casino Resort – Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood, FL
Destination Domestic – Orlando, FL
Destination International – Vienna
Fan Favorite Hotel – Nikki Beach Resort Koh Samui
Gay Bar of the Year – Palace Bar – Miami Beach, FL
Gay Pride of the Year – New York City
Hotel Collection of the Year – Starwood Hawaii
Hotel Luxury, Europe – St. James’ Court, London
Hotel Luxury, Mexico – The St. Regis Mexico City
Hotel Luxury, US – Rancho Valencia – Rancho Santa Fe, CA
Hotel, Wedding Resort – Ritz-Carlton Amelia Island
LGBT Cruise Operator – Atlantis
LGBT Tour Operator – Toto Tours
LGBT Travel Agency – Cruising with Pride
Ocean Cruise Line – Royal Caribbean International
Romantic Hotel or Resort – Castlehotel Schönburg
Spa of the Year – Meadowood Napa Valley
Summer Event – Gay Wine Weekend
Travel App – Hopper
Value Hotel – Doubletree by Hilton Orlando Downtown
Winter Event – Whistler Pride
GayTravel connects the LGBTQ community with gay-friendly destinations, hotels, cruises, tours, events, entertainment, attractions, clubs and restaurants throughout the world. Their mission is to provide the community with safe, welcoming and unique recommendations to ensure that every vacation is both pleasurable and memorable.
The psychological and social risks that adolescents experience can have a lasting impact on adulthood.
When those risks include drug use, mental distress and exposure to violence, they may engage in unsafe sexual behavior that increases their chance of HIV infection, according to a new longitudinal study by the University of Michigan.
“Our findings support the notion that the increasing frequency of psychosocial risk factors experienced during adolescence may have effects on HIV risk behaviors decades later,” said study lead author David Cordova, U-M assistant professor of social work.
Cordova and colleagues conducted the study from September 1994 to May 2013 in Flint, Mich. The participants involved 850 students, mainly African-American, who were asked about their sexual behaviors, mental health, being a victim or witness of violence, and social conditions (family, peer and community factors) beginning at age 14. They were assessed six times during the study until age 32.
One out of four respondents who had a relatively higher frequency of co-occurring psychological and social risk as adolescents were more likely to report unprotected sex with recent partners, as well as sexual intercourse with someone they just met in adulthood.
In addition, they were more likely to use illegal drugs prior to sex, and had at least four sexual partners. This segment was more vulnerable to HIV risk than those who were part of the low frequency of risk group, which had fewer instances of drug use, violence and mental distress during adolescence.
Since the study mainly involved African-American respondents, the findings may not be generalized to all adolescent populations, Cordova said.
The paper’s other authors are U-M researchers Justin Heinze, Hsing-Fang Hsieh, Ritesh Mistry and Marc Zimmerman; Christopher Salas-Wright of Boston University; and Stephanie Cook of New York University.
Over 21,000 AT&T wireless workers have reached a precedent-setting tentative agreement that, in addition to curbing outsourcing and raising pay, wins the widest-reaching protections for transgender employees of any telecom industry contract. The tentative agreement, secured by the Communications Workers of America (CWA), provides the first-ever enforceable protections against discrimination based on gender identity in 16 states where no statewide non-discrimination law covering this category exists—proving the power of union bargaining in addressing workplace discrimination in all forms.
The tentative agreement – which also includes the first-ever commitment that AT&T will send a guaranteed percentage of customer service calls to union-represented call centers, rather than contractors – is enforceable across the 36 states covered by CWA’s bargaining unit. Many of these states have laws in place allowing companies to terminate employees for their gender identity or expression. In a bold step to address this inequity, the agreement’s language establishes full LBTGQ protections that provides a vital supplement to anti-discrimination laws by outlining a clear process for redressing discrimination through the union grievance and arbitration process.
“We stand in solidarity and unity with LGBTQ members of the CWA family. Their fight for equality and a workplace free of discrimination and harassment is our fight too and we are proud to carry the torch on their behalf,” said Dennis G. Trainor, Vice President of CWA District One. “This contract shines a light on the union power to drive progress—proving that no problem is too daunting to go unchallenged. Let this be a signal to opponents of LGBTQ equality, who are nearly always opponents of workers’ rights too: we stand strong together and will tear down all obstacles to full equality.”
According to the U.S. Transgender Survey conducted by the National Center for Transgender Equality, the unemployment rate for transgender people is three times the national average and nearly 1 in 3 transgender people who had worked in the previous year reported mistreatment on the job that was directly related to their gender identity or expression. Unions play a key role in reversing this trend in states and among companies lacking comprehensive non-discrimination policies.
CWA has historically stood up for LGBTQ people in the workplace by pushing massive corporations to adopt more progressive and inclusive workplace policies. In 2013, CWA endorsed public and private trans-inclusive health insurance coverage. In 2015, CWA broadly endorsed a resolution to support comprehensive civil rights legislation to protect LGBTQ people from discrimination in employment, housing, credit, education, government-funded activities and public accommodations and resolved “to be active in the struggle for equality inside and outside the workplace until all barriers to full participation in society are removed.”
In addition to the new AT&T wireless agreement, CWA has negotiated gender identity protections in other AT&T contracts covering wireline workers in the Southeast and in a legacy national contract.
“This contract shows a real commitment to the dignity and respect of working people, specifically transgender working people—a community that has long fought for equality in the workplace,” said Jerame Davis, executive director of Pride@Work, a nonprofit organization that represents LGBTQ union members and their allies. “CWA is a strong ally in the fight for LGBTQ equality and has demonstrated that by negotiating this provision that makes it possible for thousands of AT&T workers to go to work knowing they have affirmative protection against discrimination or retribution—many for the very first time. Unions have long fought for economic, social and workplace equality and, CWA has always been a leader among union in the fight for LGBTQ equality.”
CWA’s tentative agreement with AT&T provides 10.1% in raises over the course of the contract and shifts $2,500 from commission to base pay for retail workers. Under the new agreement, AT&T wireless retail workers would be paid an average $19.20 per hour by the end of the four-year contract, about 74% more than the national average pay for retail workers. This comes as a recent report by the Center for Popular Democracy finds that only 8% of U.S. retail workers are paid at least $15/hour, have paid leave and full-time hours.
For the first time at any wireless company in the country, workers have won guaranteed customer service work at U.S. call centers, representing an 80% increase in the share of total call volume over the current levels. AT&T wireless workers have also won first-time job security protections that require AT&T to find them a new job if their call center or retail store closes. Combined with better, more stable pay and reduced intrusive surveillance at work, the proposed agreement dramatically improves the quality of workers’ lives on the job.
Catholic Bishops in the US are behind a new campaign encouraging parents to reject their transgender children.
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a letter this week that brands transgender people “deeply troubling” and claims that changing gender is a “false idea”.
There is nothing in the Bible about transgender people or changing gender, but the Bishops have called for parents to refuse to allow kids to transition.
Studies have shown that an unaccepting or stifling environment drastically increases the likelihood that transgender youths will attempt suicide.
The letter says: “Children especially are harmed when they are told that they can ‘change’ their sex or, further, given hormones that will affect their development and possibly render them infertile as adults.
“Parents deserve better guidance on these important decisions, and we urge our medical institutions to honor the basic medical principle of ‘first, do no harm’.
“Gender ideology harms individuals and societies by sowing confusion and self-doubt.
“The state itself has a compelling interest, therefore, in maintaining policies that uphold the scientific fact of human biology and supporting the social institutions and norms that surround it. “
The letter adds: “The movement today to enforce the false idea—that a man can be or become a woman or vice versa—is deeply troubling.
“It compels people to either go against reason—that is, to agree with something that is not true—or face ridicule, marginalization, and other forms of retaliation.
“We desire the health and happiness of all men, women, and children. Therefore, we call for policies that uphold the truth of a person’s sexual identity as male or female, and the privacy and safety of all.
“We hope for renewed appreciation of the beauty of sexual difference in our culture and for authentic support of those who experience conflict with their God-given sexual identity.”
It also says: “We also believe that God created each person male or female; therefore, sexual difference is not an accident or a flaw—it is a gift from God that helps draw us closer to each other and to God. What God has created is good.
“God created mankind in his image; in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”
The advice is particularly harmful to families with transgender children, and represents a giant leap by the USCCB to a position that does not appear to be based on any scripture or pre-existing Catholic teaching.
Rev. James Martin, a highly-respected Jesuit priest, is the author of recently-published book Building a Bridge, which sets out a framework for the Catholic Church to begin to engage with the LGBT community with “respect, compassion and sensitivity”.
In the book, the priest draws on the Christian ideals of “respect, compassion, and sensitivity” as a model for how the Catholic Church should relate to the LGBT community, igniting anger from the anti-LGBT lobby which is dominant within the church.
In the wake of the book’s publication, hardline opponents of LGBT equality within the Church began a campaign targeting Rev. Martin – successfully convincing a string of global Catholic organisations to cancel planned events where he had been due to speak about unrelated subjects.
The Theological College in Washington DC, where the priest was due to give a lecture about the Bible, abruptly cancelled the event last week, after conservatives raised issues with Rev. Martin’s beliefs on LGBT issues.
The Order of the Holy Sepulchre in New York also cancelled a lecture by Rev. Martin, confirming that his invite “was in fact rescinded”.
Rev. Martin had also been set to travel to London to deliver the 2017 lecture for Cafod, the overseas aid agency of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales.
After the backlash the event was shelved entirely, with Martin confirming that “cancellation of the 2017 Cafod lecture, scheduled for October, was out of fears of the backlash to my book”.
In a statement to PinkNews Cafod claimed that the 2017 lecture was actually just ‘postponed’ until next year for scheduling reasons and that an invitation “still stands” for Rev. Martin to speak in future.
This is somewhat incongruous given Cafod supplied a completely different statement to the Catholic Herald that confirmed it had been “considering” the future of the event due to “strength of feeling [Martin’s book] generated in some quarters”.
In a statement, Rev. Martin said: “I want to say that I bear no ill will whatsoever to Cafod, the Order of the Holy Sepulchre or Theological College. All of them are fine Catholic institutions that serve, in their different ways, the People of God.”
He added: “One of the many sad ironies of this episode has been that in each case the local ordinary was perfectly fine with my speaking – in London, New York and DC.
“Yet those who decided on the cancellations were ultimately influenced more by fear of protests and negative publicity than by the opinions of their ordinaries, in each case a cardinal.
“The situations were so terrifically fraught with fear for these organizations: fear of protests, fear of violence, fear of bad publicity, fear of angry donors, fear of lost donations, fear of offending, and on and on.
“When two of the organizers called me, I could hear the anguish in their voices.”
Addressing the anti-LGBT activists who had waged a campaign against him, he added: “So what do we do?
“Don’t give into them. To me, that’s an important lesson of the past few days. Don’t let them cow you.
“They’re like schoolyard bullies that keep taunting you? Well, you’re not 12 any longer. They can’t hurt you.
“And why let fear run your organization? It’s a sure way to disaster. And the PR from cancelling something is always worse. Don’t let them run things in your organization.”
He added: “If they are angry people, their anger comes from somewhere, which is ultimately sadder for them than for you. If they have a visceral hatred for LGBT people, it probably comes from a discomfort with their own complex sexuality, which is also sadder for them. ‘Hurt people hurt people’, as the saying goes.
“Often these sites or groups or individuals feel that they are being prophetic: i.e.,pointing out your supposed sins, completely contrary to Jesus’s command not to judge.
“Even more often, that prophecy morphs into pure hatred and obvious contempt and endless name calling. It’s called spite. But that doesn’t mean you yourself have to move towards hatred. That would be giving into the Evil Spirit.”
Others have been less forgiving.
Writing in America Magazine, San Diego Bishop Robert W. McElroy lashed out at those who had sought to censor Rev. Martin.
He wrote: “There has arisen both in Catholic journals and on social media a campaign to vilify Father Martin, to distort his work, to label him heterodox, to assassinate his personal character and to annihilate both the ideas and the dialogue that he has initiated.
“This campaign of distortion must be challenged and exposed for what it is—not primarily for Father Martin’s sake but because this cancer of vilification is seeping into the institutional life of the church.
“Already, several major institutions have canceled Father Martin as a speaker. Faced with intense external pressures, these institutions have bought peace, but in doing so they have acceded to and reinforced a tactic and objectives that are deeply injurious to Catholic culture in the United States and to the church’s pastoral care for members of the L.G.B.T. communities.”
Surprisingly, the active censorship of Rev. Martin has not aroused protests from any of the ‘free speech’ campaigners who have sprung up to defend far-right speakers on college campuses.
A federal appeals court has denied the Trump administration’s request to further delay enlistment of new transgender service members in the armed forces. The ruling comes in the American Civil Liberties Union’s case, Stone v. Trump.
The trial court prohibited the government from implementing President Trump’s unconstitutional ban on transgender people serving in the military on November 21. Two other federal district courts have entered similar injunctions, and the government has filed motions to stay those injunctions before three federal courts of appeals. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit is the first court of appeals to rule on the stay requests.
Josh Block, senior staff attorney with the ACLU LGBT & HIV Project, had this reaction:
“We are happy that the court saw through the government’s smokescreen and rejected its request to further delay the policy allowing transgender people to enlist. The military has already developed comprehensive guidance to prepare for a January 1 start date, and the government failed to offer any credible reason why transgender people should be barred from enlisting if they can meet the same rigorous standards that apply to everyone else.”
The Trump administration has banned multiple divisions within the Department of Health and Human Services including the Centers for Disease Control from using certain words or phrases in official documents being drafted for next year’s budget. The banned words are “Vulnerable,” “entitlement,” “diversity,” “transgender,” “fetus,” “evidence-based” and “science-based.”
Rush Holt, chief executive of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, said: “Among the words forbidden to be used in CDC budget documents are ‘evidence-based’ and ‘science-based.’ I suppose one must not think those things either. Here’s a word that’s still allowed: ridiculous.”
“To pretend and insist that transgender people do not exist, and to allow this lie to infect public health research and prevention is irrational and very dangerous, and not just to transgender people,” Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality told the Washington Post.
David Stacy, the Human Rights Campaign’s (HRC) director of Government Affairs said HRC would fight the ban, “The Trump-Pence administration’s effort to eliminate entire communities from its vocabulary is a dangerous attack on LGBTQ people, women, and fact-based policy making. The move is reminiscent of a time not long ago when the government tried to ignore the reality of the HIV and AIDS crisis to the detriment of millions. This kind of erasure has potentially catastrophic consequences beyond the words used by the CDC — it could impact the very programs most vital to the health of women, transgender people, and others. But we will not be erased. The Human Rights Campaign will fight this and other politically-motivated policies, and this decision will ultimately backfire on the Trump-Pence administration.”
Shin Inouye, director of communications and media relations of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, issued the following statement on news of the ban,
“President Trump and his administration have launched the latest salvo in their all-out war on truth and science. This latest tactic could be taken from a George Orwell novel, or taken by an oppressive authoritarian regime. Banning the use of words like transgender, science-based, and diversity will only harm the public health as the CDC carries out its important mission.
“We applaud the journalists who have brought this latest abuse to light. Trump may decry these stories as fake, but these reports show the continuing disdain of this administration to facts. The public relies on our government to provide accurate information, and these steps undermine that important trust.”
A special issue of LGBT Health includes the latest research, clinical practice innovations, and policy aimed at addressing disparities and enhancing healthcare for older LGBT populations. A collection of informative and insightful articles that contribute to the understanding of factors that affect the health of older gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender Americans is published in LGBT Health, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The special issue is available free on the LGBT Health website.
Guest Editors Judith B. Bradford, PhD and Sean R. Cahill, PhD coordinated this special issue of LGBT Health. Included is an article entitled “Health Indicators for Older Sexual Minorities: National Health Interview Survey, 2013–2014,” in which Christina Dragon, MSPH, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (Baltimore, MD) and coauthors from NORC at the University of Chicago (Bethesda, MD), KPMG (McLean, VA), and The Fenway Institute (Boston, MA) explored differences between older sexual minorities and heterosexuals across multiple health indicators. The researchers found better outcomes or health-related behaviors among sexual minorities for some of the indicators, but sexual minorities were more than twice as likely to report binge drinking compared with their heterosexual peers.
Stuart Michaels, PhD, NORC at the University of Chicago, IL and colleagues from NORC and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services coauthored the article entitled “Improving Measures of Sexual and Gender Identity in English and Spanish to Identify LGBT Older Adults in Surveys.” They demonstrated that efforts to identify LGBT older adults may be hindered by language-related obstacles among non-LGBT Spanish speakers who might have difficulty understanding terms used to designate sexual identities.
In the article “Transgender Medicare Beneficiaries and Chronic Conditions: Exploring Fee-for-Service Claims Data,” a team of authors from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and NORC at the University of Chicago (Bethesda, MD), led by Christina Dragon, MSPH, report on differences in the chronic conditions burden between transgender and cisgender Medicare beneficiaries. Overall, transgender beneficiaries were found to have a greater burden of chronic conditions, and higher rates of asthma, autism spectrum disorder, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, depression, hepatitis, HIV, schizophrenia, and substance use disorders compared with cisgender beneficiaries. Transgender Medicare beneficiaries also had higher observed rates of potentially disabling mental health and neurological/chronic pain conditions.
“This special issue of LGBT Health highlights innovations in research, practice, and policy to improve healthcare and services for LGBT older adults. The articles in the issue contribute to our understanding of health disparities and resiliencies in these populations, and suggest ways to improve care and integrate support services to ensure healthy aging,” says Guest Editor Sean Cahill, The Fenway Institute. “The timing of this special issue is important, as the federal government is rolling back sexual orientation and gender identity nondiscrimination regulations and data collection. The special issue is dedicated to Judy Bradford, a leader in LGBT aging and LGBT health research, and to her vision of LGBT health and equality.”