National
Suicides draw attention to anti-bullying bills
Experts say laws can reduce harassment in schools
The widely reported suicides of four gay male teenagers in September that have been linked to school bullying or harassment has heightened interest in two separate bills in Congress aimed at curtailing anti-LGBT bullying and discrimination in the nation’s public schools.
A third bill expected to be introduced next month by Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) would require colleges and universities to develop campus anti-bullying and anti-harassment policies that cover LGBT students.
“For those of us who work in education policy our focus is making the education case for these bills,” said Eliza Byard, executive director of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, known as GLSEN.
“And unfortunately we’re doing that now in a context where recent tragedies have made the cost of not acting absolutely clear to everyone,” Byard said.
She was referring to the September suicides of four gay youths ranging in age from 11 to 18 that authorities and family members said followed unrelenting bullying and harassment of three of the teens by their middle school or high school classmates.
The fourth youth, 18-year-old Tyler Clementi of New Jersey, jumped to his death from the George Washington Bridge.
Clementi, a freshman at Rutgers University, apparently became distraught when his roommate planted a video camera in his dorm room without his knowledge that captured him in a sexual encounter with another male. The roommate broadcast the encounter live over the Internet.
The Safe Schools Improvement Act, which was introduced in the House in May 2009 and in the Senate in August of this year, would require school districts receiving federal funds to adopt policies prohibiting bullying and harassment. The policies must apply to bullying and harassment targeting people on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity as well as other categories such as race, religion, gender and ethnicity.
Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.) introduced the bill in the House, where 125 members signed on as co-sponsors. Six of the 125 are Republicans. Sen. Robert Casey (D-Pa.) introduced the bill in the Senate, where 12 senators — 11 Democrats and one independent — signed on as co-sponsors.
In January of this year, Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.), who is gay, introduced into the House the Student Non-Discrimination Act. The bill would prohibit sexual orientation or gender identity related discrimination against students in public schools that receive federal funding.
“For the purpose of this act, discrimination includes, but is not limited to, harassment of a student on the basis of actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity of such student or of a person with whom the student associates or has associated,” the bill states.
The bill also allows an “aggrieved individual” to take legal action in a judicial proceeding to seek enforcement of the bill’s provisions barring sexual orientation or gender identity discrimination. It says the party taking legal action could be awarded compensatory damages and reimbursement of court costs for filing such an action.
In May, Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) introduced an identical version of the bill in the Senate. Twenty-five senators, 24 Democrats and one independent, signed on as co-sponsors. The House version of the bill pulled in 125 co-sponsors, 123 Democrats and two Republicans.
Both the Safe Schools Improvement Act and the Student Non-Discrimination Act have been referred to the House and Senate education committees.
Lara Cottingham, a spokesperson for Polis, said the congressman was hopeful that a legislative hearing on the Student Non-Discrimination Act would be held next year. She said no date has been set.
“Every day, students who are, or are perceived to be, lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) are subjected to pervasive discrimination, including harassment, bullying, intimidation and violence, which is harmful to both students and our education system,” Polis said in a statement at the time he introduced the bill.
“While civil rights protections expressly address discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, disability or national origin, they do not explicitly include sexual orientation or gender identity and, as a result, LGBT students and parents have often had limited legal recourse for this kind of discrimination,” he said.
“The Student Non-Discrimination Act establishes a comprehensive federal prohibition of discrimination in public schools based on actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity and provides victims with meaningful and effective remedies, modeled after Title IX,” he said.
Lautenberg announced last week that he plans to introduce an anti-bullying bill covering colleges and universities when Congress returns from its recess in November. He made the announcement on the Rutgers University campus in New Brunswick, N.J., during a forum called to discuss issues surrounding the suicide of Clementi.
He said his bill would require colleges and universities receiving federal funds to adopt a code of conduct that prohibits harassment and bullying. He said the bill would also call on colleges and universities to put in place procedures for addressing complaints about harassment and bullying and would provide federal grants to fund college programs aimed at preventing harassment and bullying.
Byard of GLSEN said studies show that LGBT students enrolled in schools that have adopted anti-bully and harassment policies are less likely to encounter bullying.
“LGBT students in a school with such a policy in place are less likely to be victimized themselves, are more likely to report that faculty actually intervened when things happen, and are themselves more likely to be in a better place in terms of their own well being and their future educational aspirations,” she said.
Most, but not all, D.C. area senators and House members have signed on as co-sponsors for the Student Non-Discrimination Act. Co-sponsors include Congressional Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), Reps. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Jim Moran (D-Va.), Sens. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), and Sen. Benjamin Cardin (D-Md.).
Reps. Donna Edwards (D-Md.) and Frank Wolf (D-Va.), and Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Jim Webb (D-Va.) have not signed on as co-sponsors of the bill.
Cardin, Moran and Norton are the only D.C. area members of Congress that became co-sponsors of the Safe Schools Improvement Act.
Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), the House Majority Leader, doesn’t co-sponsor bills according to a longstanding practice of House members who hold the posts of Majority Leader and Speaker of the House.
State Department
HIV/AIDS activists protest at State Department, demand full PEPFAR funding restoration
Black coffins placed in front of Harry S. Truman Building
Dozens of HIV/AIDS activists on Thursday gathered in front of the State Department and demanded the Trump-Vance administration fully restore President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief funding.
Housing Works CEO Charles King, Health GAP Executive Director Asia Russell, Human Rights Campaign Senior Public Policy Advocate Matthew Rose, and others placed 206 black Styrofoam coffins in front of the State Department before the protest began.
King said more than an estimated 100,000 people with HIV/AIDS will die this year if PEPFAR funding is not fully restored.
“If we continue to not provide the PEPFAR funding to people living in low-income countries who are living with HIV or at risk, we are going to see millions and millions of deaths as well as millions of new infections,” added King.
Then-President George W. Bush in 2003 signed legislation that created PEPFAR.
The Trump-Vance administration in January froze nearly all U.S. foreign aid spending for at least 90 days. Secretary of State Marco Rubio later issued a waiver that allows the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS relief and other “life-saving humanitarian assistance” programs to continue to operate during the freeze.
The Washington Blade has previously reported PEPFAR-funded programs in Kenya and other African countries have been forced to suspend services and even shut down because of a lack of U.S. funding. Two South African organizations — OUT LGBT Well-being and Access Chapter 2 — that received PEPFAR funding through the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in recent weeks closed down HIV-prevention programs and other services to men who have sex with men.
Rubio last month said 83 percent of USAID contracts have been cancelled. He noted the State Department will administer those that remain in place “more effectively.”
“PEPFAR represents the best of us, the dignity of our country, of our people, of our shared humanity,” said Rose.
Russell described Rubio as “ignorant and incompetent” and said “he should be fired.”
“What secretary of state in 90 days could dismantle what the brilliance of AIDS activism created side-by-side with George W. Bush? What kind of fool could do that? I’ll tell you who, the boss who sits in the Harry S. Truman Building, Marco Rubio,” said Russell.
U.S. Military/Pentagon
Pentagon urged to reverse Naval Academy book ban
Hundreds of titles discussing race, gender, and sexuality pulled from library shelves
Lambda Legal and the Legal Defense Fund issued a letter on Tuesday urging U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to reverse course on a policy that led to the removal of 381 books from the Nimitz Library of the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md.
Pursuant to President Donald Trump’s executive order 14190, “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling,” the institution screened 900 titles to identify works promoting “diversity, equity, and inclusion,” removing those that concerned or touched upon “topics pertaining to the experiences of people of color, especially Black people, and/or LGBTQ people,” according to a press release from the civil rights organizations.
These included “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” by Maya Angelou, “Stone Fruit” by Lee Lai, “The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas, “Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong” by James W. Loewen, “Gender Queer: A Memoir” by Maia Kobabe, and “Democracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul” by Eddie S. Glaude, Jr.
The groups further noted that “the collection retained other books with messages and themes that privilege certain races and religions over others, including ‘The Clansman: A Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan’ by Thomas Dixon, Jr., ‘Mein Kampf’ by Adolf Hitler, and ‘Heart of Darkness’ by Joseph Conrad.
In their letter, Lambda Legal and LDF argued the books must be returned to circulation to preserve the “constitutional rights” of cadets at the institution, warning of the “danger” that comes with “censoring materials based on viewpoints disfavored by the current administration.”
“Such censorship is especially dangerous in an educational setting, where critical inquiry, intellectual diversity, and exposure to a wide array of perspectives are necessary to educate future citizen-leaders,” Lambda Legal Chief Legal Officer Jennifer C. Pizer and LDF Director of Strategic Initiatives Jin Hee Lee said in the press release.
Federal Government
White House sues Maine for refusing to comply with trans athlete ban
Lawsuit follows months-long conflict over school sports in state
The Justice Department is suing the state of Maine for refusing to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order banning transgender athletes from participating in school sports, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced on Wednesday.
DOJ’s lawsuit accuses the state of violating Title IX rules barring sex discrimination, arguing that girls and women are disadvantaged in sports and deprived of opportunities like scholarships when they must compete against natal males, an interpretation of the statute that reverses course from how the law was enforced under the Biden-Harris administration.
“We tried to get Maine to comply” before filing the complaint, Bondi said during a news conference. She added the department is asking the court to “have the titles return to the young women who rightfully won these sports” and may also retroactively pull federal funding to the state for refusing to comply with the ban in the past.
Earlier this year, the attorney general sent letters to Maine, California, and Minnesota warning the blue states that the department “does not tolerate state officials who ignore federal law.”
According to the Maine Principals’ Association, only two trans high school-aged girls are competing statewide this year. Conclusions from research on the athletic performance of trans athletes vis-a-vis their cisgender counterparts have been mixed.
Trump critics and LGBTQ advocates maintain that efforts to enforce the ban can facilitate invasive gender policing to settle questions about an individual athlete’s birth sex, which puts all girls and women at risk. Others believe determinations about eligibility should be made not by the federal government but by school districts, states, and athletics associations.
Bondi’s announcement marked the latest escalation of a months-long feud between Trump and Maine, which began in February when the state’s Democratic governor, Janet Mills, declined to say she would enforce the ban.
Also on Wednesday, U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon said the findings from her department’s Title IX investigation into Maine schools — which, likewise, concerned their inclusion of trans student-athletes in competitive sports — was referred to DOJ.
Earlier this month, the Justice Department pulled $1.5 million in grants for Maine’s Department of Corrections because a trans woman was placed in a women’s correctional facility in violation of a different anti-trans executive order, while the U.S. Department of Agriculture paused the disbursement of funds supporting education programs in the state over its failure to comply with Title IX rules.
A federal court last week ordered USDA to unfreeze the money in a ruling that prohibits the agency from “terminating, freezing, or otherwise interfering with the state’s access to federal funds based on alleged Title IX violations without following the process required by federal statute.”
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