National
National news in brief
Civil unions bill in Colo., amendment push in N.C. and more
Colo. senator introduces civil unions bill
DENVER — A Colorado state senator introduced a civil unions bill on Feb. 14. “Civil unions will allow committed couples to share in the responsibilities and protections in Colorado law that most families take for granted,” Sen. Pat Steadman said in a press release. He said he considered the less-than-equal argument many gays make against civil unions but said everyday matters like medical care and inheritance are too vital to ignore, according to reports from the Colorado Independent. Coloradans voted in 2006 to ban same-sex marriage but polls show deep support in the state for civil unions.
San Francisco mural draws controversy
SAN FRANCISCO — A proposed mural on San Francisco’s Polk Street in the city’s Tenderloin neighborhood has drawn controversy, a California NBC affiliate reported. Artists who unveiled a sketch of the mural were met with backlash at a community meeting last month. Attendees didn’t like the quality of the art and content that alluded to the neighborhood’s gay history. The artists said the Lower Polk Neighborhood Association hired them to paint a gay history mural. Before the ’70s, when the Castro emerged as the city’s gay area, Polk Street was the center of gay life. Some who objected say the era is too rife with well-documented incidents of police harassment and brutality to warrant a nostalgic mural.
Anti-gay marriage amendment filed in N.C.
RALEIGH, N.C. — A North Carolina state senator this week filed a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. The text of the proposed amendment, which has not yet been filed in the House, would ban any recognition of any “domestic legal union” other than a marriage between an opposite-sex couple, Q Notes, a Charlotte-based LGBT newspaper reported. If approved by the legislature, the amendment would appear on the November 2012 ballot. Three-fifths of both the House and Senate must approve the amendment before it can appear on the ballot; the governor has no veto authority on amendments. Republican state Sen. James Forrester of Gaston County filed the amendment. The state has laws against same-sex marriage but not a constitutional amendment.
Alaska regents vote to ban anti-gay bias
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The University of Alaska Board of Regents voted last week to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation, with its president saying the state may have been the only one in the nation not to have sexual orientation specifically listed as a protection in a public university policy, the Associated Press reported this week. The proposal, approved 8-2, adds sexual orientation to university policy that bans discrimination.
Gays barred from Creation Museum ‘date night’
PETERSBURG, Ky. — A “date night” event at the Kentucky-based Creation Museum was disrupted earlier this month when a male couple was denied admission, the Associated Press reported. A friend of one of the men who was barred entry, told the AP no one in their group was gay but Joe Sonka, the man who was not allowed in, had blogged in January that a “flamboyantly” gay couple should attend the tour and told security guards he was waiting for his “date” who was male. Mark Looy, chief communications officer for the Creation Museum, said it was clear from promotional material that the event was for straight couples only and said it presented the “biblical view of marriage.”
Facebook adds two relationship status options
SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook recently began offering users new ways to describe their romantic situation by adding “in a civil union” and “in a domestic partnership” to its official list of relationship statuses, according to reports from many news outlets this week. In the past, Facebook’s 600 million users were offered choices including “single,” “in a relationship” and “it’s complicated.” The decision to include the options came after Facebook negotiated with users and rights advocacy groups, a company rep told the San Francisco Chronicle. Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes is openly gay. The option is available in the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and France.
Kansas student op-ed draws controversy
WICHITA, Kan. — Gay rights advocates in Kansas are calling for Wichita school leaders to “undo the damage and hurt” caused by a student newspaper column that they say promotes violence against gays, according to a report from the Wichita Eagle, a regional paper. The opinion column, published Feb. 11 in the editorial section of the Messenger, East High School’s student newspaper, says same-sex relationships “just are not normal” and “should be frowned upon.” Its author, an East High student, also cited a Bible verse that says men who lie with other men have “committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death.” District officials, the newspaper’s faculty adviser and student editors say the column constitutes free speech and is protected by the First Amendment and the Kansas Student Publications Act. Jessica Thomas, a senior at East High and one of the newspaper’s three editors, said she and her colleagues “knew the column could possibly be controversial.” “We don’t necessarily agree or disagree. It’s one person’s personal opinion,” she said. Kansas law “very tightly restricts” teachers’ or school administrators’ ability to interfere with what students want to publish, Frank LoMonte, executive director of the Student Press Law Center in Washington, told the Eagle. The Kansas Student Publications Act says “material shall not be suppressed solely because it involves political or controversial subject matter.” A journalism teacher said it met the criteria for free speech. But Michael Jones, an editor for the national website Change.org, wrote in a blog post last week that the East High column “suggested it would be moral to execute an entire population of students.”
U.S. Federal Courts
Federal judge blocks Trump passport executive order
State Department can no longer issue travel documents with ‘X’ gender markers
A federal judge on Friday ruled in favor of a group of transgender and nonbinary people who have filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump’s executive order that bans the State Department from issuing passports with “X” gender markers.
The Associated Press notes U.S. District Judge Julia Kobick in Boston issued a preliminary injunction against the directive. The American Civil Liberties Union, which represents the plaintiffs, in a press release notes Kobick concluded Trump’s executive order “is likely unconstitutional and in violation of the law.”
“The preliminary injunction requires the State Department to allow six transgender and nonbinary people to obtain passports with sex designations consistent with their gender identity while the lawsuit proceeds,” notes the ACLU. “Though today’s court order applies only to six of the plaintiffs in the case, the plaintiffs plan to quickly file a motion asking the court to certify a class of people affected by the State Department policy and to extend the preliminary injunction to that entire class.”
Former Secretary of State Antony Blinken in June 2021 announced the State Department would begin to issue gender-neutral passports and documents for American citizens who were born overseas.
Dana Zzyym, an intersex U.S. Navy veteran who identifies as nonbinary, in 2015 filed a federal lawsuit against the State Department after it denied their application for a passport with an “X” gender marker. Zzyym in October 2021 received the first gender-neutral American passport.
The State Department policy took effect on April 11, 2022. Trump signed his executive order shortly after he took office in January.
Germany, Denmark, Finland, and the Netherlands are among the countries that have issued travel advisories for trans and nonbinary people who plan to visit the U.S.
“This ruling affirms the inherent dignity of our clients, acknowledging the immediate and profound negative impact that the Trump administration’s passport policy would have on their ability to travel for work, school, and family,” said ACLU of Massachusetts Legal Director Jessie Rossman after Kobick issued her ruling.
“By forcing people to carry documents that directly contradict their identities, the Trump administration is attacking the very foundations of our right to privacy and the freedom to be ourselves,” added Rossman. “We will continue to fight to rescind this unlawful policy for everyone so that no one is placed in this untenable and unsafe position.”
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.
‘Bad Books’ a timely look at censorship in local library
Spring updates to sell your home for pride and profit
‘Pronoun Trouble’ reminds us that punctuation matters
Federal judge blocks Trump passport executive order
Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington to celebrate Spring Affair honorees
Gay Venezuelan makeup artist remains in El Salvador mega prison
HIV/AIDS activists protest at State Department, demand full PEPFAR funding restoration
US lists transgender Brazilian congresswoman’s gender as ‘male’ on visa
Two charged with assaulting, robbing gay man at D.C. CVS store
White House sues Maine for refusing to comply with trans athlete ban
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El Salvador5 days agoGay Venezuelan makeup artist remains in El Salvador mega prison
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State Department3 days agoHIV/AIDS activists protest at State Department, demand full PEPFAR funding restoration
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Brazil4 days agoUS lists transgender Brazilian congresswoman’s gender as ‘male’ on visa
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District of Columbia5 days agoTwo charged with assaulting, robbing gay man at D.C. CVS store