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Orban Delivers Anti-LGBTQ Speech To Standing Ovations At CPAC

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The Hungarian prime minister, who is much beloved by American conservatives due to his institution of authoritarian “illiberal democracy” in his home country, won cheers from the right by attacking same-sex marriage and LGBTQ youth, among other targets.

Authoritarian dictator Viktor Orbán, the prime minister of Hungary, was invited to speak to CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference. On Thursday he delivered an anti-LGBTQ attack on same-sex marriage and same-sex families, echoing the false “groomer” claims increasingly prevalent on the right by demanding same-sex couples must “leave our kids alone.”

“Hungary shall protect the institution of marriage as a union of one man and one woman,” he decreed, to cheers.

“Family ties shall be based on marriage or the relationship between parents and children. To sum up, the mother is a woman. The father is a man. And leave our kids alone. Full stop. End of discussion,” he declared, as the crowd roared with applause and gave him a standing ovation.

CPAC, run by Matt Schlapp, will also host top Republicans during this week’s conference, including Donald Trump. It is among the more far-right of the many conservative conferences, but not the only one.

NPR notes that Orbán delivered a speech last week that was “widely decried as racist, even by one of his top aides. She resigned in protest.”

Written by David Badash, The New Civil Rights Movement. Image via NCRM.

Biden Order: It Is the Policy of the U.S. Gov’t. to ‘Defend the Rights and Safety of LGBTQI+ Individuals’

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President Joe Biden has declared it is the policy of the United States Government to defend the “rights and safety” of LGBTQI+ individuals in a historic executive order that encompasses several executive branch agencies and extends that policy into international areas. It effectively directs the federal government to use its resources to work to ban dangerous and harmful “conversion therapy” — not just in the U.S. but “around the world,” and to support and protect LGBTQIA+ youth and older LGBTQIA+ individuals in areas including health care, education, housing, and justice.

“LGBTQI+ individuals and families still face systemic discrimination and barriers to full participation in our Nation’s economic and civic life,” states President Biden’s executive order, which he signed at a White House LGBTQ Pride Month celebration Wednesday. “These disparities and barriers can be the greatest for transgender people and LGBTQI+ people of color. Today, unrelenting political and legislative attacks at the State level — on LGBTQI+ children and families in particular — threaten the civil rights gains of the last half century and put LGBTQI+ people at risk. These attacks defy our American values of liberty and dignity, corrode our democracy, and threaten basic personal safety. They echo the criminalization that LGBTQI+ people continue to face in some 70 countries around the world.”

“The Federal Government must defend the rights and safety of LGBTQI+ individuals,” President Biden states in his massive 3000-word “Executive Order on Advancing Equality for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex Individuals,” under the “Policy” section.

“It is therefore the policy of my Administration to combat unlawful discrimination and eliminate disparities that harm LGBTQI+ individuals and their families, defend their rights and safety, and pursue a comprehensive approach to delivering the full promise of equality for LGBTQI+ individuals.”

The order attempts to override state-level attacks on the LGBTQ community by directing the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services to “protect LGBTQI+ individuals’ access to medically necessary care from harmful State and local laws and practices,” and “promote the adoption of promising policies and practices to support health equity, including in the area of mental health care, for LGBTQI+ youth and adults.”

Going even further, the order directs “the Secretary of State, in collaboration with the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of HHS, and the Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development,” to “develop an action plan to promote an end to” the use of conversion therapy “around the world.”

While not as encompassing as the Equality Act would be — it does not specifically mention areas like credit and banking — the order almost reads like policy an administration would make if the Equality Act had been passed and signed into law, something the administration has stated it continues to push for.

Written by David Badash, The New Civil Rights Movement. Image via NCRM.

Republican Lawmakers Across The Nation Are Attacking LGBTQ Rights

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In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis last month signed into law a bill that would prevent LGBTQ+ discussions in schools and will discourage classroom conversation about gender identity and sexual orientation in primary grade levels.

The measure, nicknamed by critics the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, drew condemnation from the Walt Disney Co., was labeled as “discriminatory” and “a form of bullying” by the White House, and prompted calls from some in the film industry to boycott making movies in Florida.

But Florida is just one of many states where Republicans have proposed measures aimed at curbing LGBTQ+ rights. In 2021 there was a flurry of anti-LGBTQ legislation, making it the worst year since 2015 for anti-LGBTQ legislation, according to the Human Rights Campaign. 

Last year, 17 anti-LGBTQ bills passed in state legislatures in Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee and West Virginia.

“There’s no doubt that this (Florida law) is the tip of the iceberg at stripping away rights for LGBTQ people and for LGBTQ families,” said Darren Vance, executive director at Rainbow Families, a non-profit focused on supporting and educating the LQBTQ community in Washington. 

Vance is a part of the LGBTQ+ community, along with his 17-year-old son, who identifies as queer. He said the Florida statute is more destructive and far-reaching than many understand.

“Jumping to the most horrific end is it will increase LGBTQ youth suicide. Like that’s it, that’s the bottom line,” Vance said.

Congressional Republicans defended Florida’s new law.

“What I think we got to make sure our teachers are focused on (is) reading, writing, arithmetic and that’s what they ought to be doing,” Sen. Rick Scott, R-Florida, told CNS.

But congressional Democrats said the Florida bill was too broad and could cause parents to file lawsuits. 

Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Maryland, said that schools should provide a “productive, nurturing learning environment” for students regardless of their backgrounds, race, gender identity or sexual orientation.

“This bill not only isolates LGBTQ students but also denies all students comprehensive and inclusive education,” Van Hollen told CNS. “I will keep fighting to ensure schools are welcoming of all students, while working to pass the Equality Act to ensure LGBTQ Americans are afforded equal rights under the law.” 

The Equality Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, sexual orientation and gender identity in employment, housing, accommodations and education. It passed the House is February of last year but has not moved in the Senate.

Meanwhile, GOP efforts to curb LGBTQ+ rights continue to spread as the 2022 midterm elections approach.

In February, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, sent a directive to state health agencies stating that delivering gender-affirming medical treatments to transgender youths is considered child abuse under Texas law. The order requires medical professionals and teachers to report parents who aid their children in receiving this care.

The Biden administration may challenge Abbott’s directive.

“HHS will take immediate action if needed (in Texas),” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement last month. “I know that many youth and their supportive families are feeling scared and isolated because of these attacks. HHS is closely monitoring the situation in Texas, and will use every tool at our disposal to keep Texans safe.”

Meanwhile, some of the Republican Party’s candidates falsely are accusing Democrats of being part of an effort to “groom” young people to become gay or transgender.

In Michigan, Republican State Sen. Lana Theis attacked Democratic State Sen. Mallory McMorrow in a fundraising letter, claiming that the latter wanted to “groom and sexualize kindergarteners.”

McMorrow’s outraged response delivered in the Michigan Senate has gone viral.

“Call me whatever you want. I know who I am,” the Democrat said. “I know what faith and service mean, and what it calls for in this moment. We will not let hate win.”

Cathryn Oakley, the state legislative director and senior counsel at the Human Rights Campaign, said she has seen an increase in anti-LQBTQ+ legislation in the past few years. 

“You know, legislation often moves in sort of trends around the country,” Oakley said. “And part of that is because the vast majority of the anti-LGBTQ legislation that is introduced in state legislatures comes from the same sources.”

Tania Cordova, an advocate for Casa Ruby, the only LGBTQ bilingual and multicultural organization in Washington, knows what it means to be discriminated against due to a lack of resources, Cordova said. 

“I think that when I was a kid, I couldn’t express myself because there was not education about gender identity. And I mean, who’s going to determine how you’re going to identify yourself?” Cordova said. 

Cordova said she now empowers children who may not be able to empower themselves.   

“We feel suffering from oppression and discrimination, but at least now we have to empower ourselves to be the advocates for those little ones who sometimes don’t have the voice to defend themselves,” Cordova said.

Written by Devin Rank and Julia Rosier, Capital News Service. Photo by Cecilie Johnsen on Unsplash.

Equality Virginia’s Week Of Action In Support Of Hanover LGBTQ Youth Begins Tonight

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It’s been a tough time for the LGBTQ community around the United States lately — especially for LGBTQ youth. From Florida’s infamous “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which attempts to restrict all discussion of non-hetero sexual orientations and non-cis gender identities from Florida public schools (and make teachers criminally liable if they do speak about these things) to the push in Texas to prosecute as child abusers parents and medical professionals who’ve affirmed the identities of trans youth, we’re seeing all kinds of terrible things around the country.

Here in Virginia, many of us thought we were out of the woods when, after the 2019 state election, Democrats gained control of the Governor’s mansion and both Houses of the General Assembly. A variety of pro-LGBTQ bills were passed into law during the sessions that followed, most prominently the Virginia Values Act. In addition to outlawing discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity in the realms of housing, employment, and public accomodation, the Virginia Values Act required Virginia’s Department of Education to craft a model policy for local school boards to implement in order to protect transgender and non-binary students within all of the different school systems in the commonwealth.

Here’s the problem — those policies had to be implemented by different school boards at the county and city level, all across the state. And while some school districts did so without complaint, others in more conservative areas of the state have continually refused to do so, even when not doing so put them in violation of state law.

Loudoun County’s initial refusal to implement a policy to protect transgender and non-binary students got more attention over the past couple of years, but there’s another place that has also refused to do so, and they’re a lot closer to us right here in Richmond. I am, of course, talking about Hanover County, just 20 minutes up the road from Richmond. Over a year after their deadline, Hanover County is still talking about whether and how they will implement the policy. And on March 8, the Hanover County School Board voted to allow Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) to make a presentation to the school board saying how they think the school board should handle this situation.

If you’ve been paying attention to the activities of anti-LGBTQ hate groups over the past decade or so, you know that this is a bad situation. From attempting to re-criminalize sexual acts between LGBTQ adults to arguing that LGBTQ people have a “gay agenda” to destroy Christianity, these people are way out there on the anti-LGBTQ limb. Their big push in recent years has been to push “religious freedom” as an argument in favor of allowing goods and services, and even medical care, to be denied people based on their LGBTQ status. They also, as a matter of fact, played an important role in the kerfuffle over Loudoun County’s transgender student policy. The Southern Poverty Law Center is right: these people hate us.

Thankfully, we do still have powerful allies that are on the side of Hanover County’s LGBTQ youth. Tonight, Equality Virginia is kicking off a Week Of Action to push back on Hanover County’s decision to work with ADF. They’ll be hosting a virtual community meeting at 6 pm, featuring representatives from ACLU of Virginia, Side By Side, He She Ze and We, and the Hanover chapter of the NAACP, as well as students, parents, and teachers from Hanover County. They’ll be passing on the info you need to know exactly what’s going on in Hanover County, and how we can all help Hanover’s trans and non-binary youth.

This meeting is free for all who wish to attend, but you must register in advance to be part of it. You can do so by clicking here. Do it! The youth of Hanover are counting on you.

Top Photo by daniel james on Unsplash.

Texas AG Ken Paxton Sues Biden Admin Over LGBTQ Policies

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Paxton claims (falsely) that the policies “put women and children at risk,” relying on the tired anti-LGBTQ accusations that queer and trans people are sexual predators. The result of the lawsuit could have nationwide implications for LGBTQ employment rights.

Texas Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, running for re-election, on Monday sued the Biden administration in litigation falsely attacking LGBTQ people.

Paxton filed a lawsuit in a federal court seen as a friendly pipeline to the Supreme Court, over LGBTQ-related Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) guidance, and even used the litigation to prop up a far right wing conspiracy theorist, who is also running for re-election. EEOC Commissioner Charlotte Burrows and Attorney General Merrick Garland are named as defendants.

The EEOC “guidance misstates the law, increasing the scope of liability for the State in its capacity as an employer,” Paxton claims in the lawsuit, as Bloomberg Law reports.

But as Courthouse News’ David Lee reports, the Paxton lawsuit also relies on old, false, and bigoted tropes about transgender people, saying allowing them to use restrooms that correspond to their gender identity, “puts many women and children at risk.”

A June 2020 landmark Supreme Court found that sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination is sex discrimination. The Biden Equal Employment Opportunity Commission used that ruling to form policy that mandates workplace guidance, including on who can use which restrooms.

Curiously, and for no discernible reason, Paxton’s lawsuit also promotes the Texas Dept. of Agriculture (TDA), which is headed by conspiracy theorist Sid Miller.

“TDA has both unisex single-occupancy bathrooms and bathrooms that are designated by sex. It interprets ‘sex’ as referring to biological sex rather than gender identity,” the lawsuit says. “If any employee wanted to use the bathrooms designated for the opposite sex, TDA would reject such a request.”

Paxton has a long and ugly history of attacking transgender people.

Newsweek adds that Paxton’s lawsuit “says that the TDA interprets sex to mean biological sex, rather than gender identity. The complaint says, ‘If any employee dressed as a member of the opposite sex, TDA would consider such conduct to be a violation of its standards.’”

It also says the TDA would reject requests for “any employee wanted to use the bathrooms designated for the opposite sex” or any employee who “wanted TDA to require other employees to use pronouns based on gender identity.”

Written by David Badash, The New Civil Rights Movement. Image via NCRM.

Catholic Bishops Spend Nearly $240,000 to Fight Michigan Group’s Goal of Expanding Protections for LGBTQ People

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Attempts to expand LGBTQ rights in Michigan have run up against some well-funded opposition from higher-ups in the Catholic Church. But LGBTQ advocates in the state are not giving up.

Catholic Bishops in Michigan have spent over $238,000 – nearly a quarter of a million dollars – to fight a civil rights group’s goal of expanding protections for the state’s LGBTQ people via a proposed 2022 ballot initiative.

“Campaign finance reports filed on Monday show the Lansing-based Michigan Catholic Conference, which bills itself as ‘the official voice of the Catholic Church in Michigan on matters of public policy,’ has made $238,874.80 in direct and in-kind contributions to Citizens for Equality, Fairness and Justice, an organization formed in April that has actively opposed the LGBTQ initiative,” MiBiz’s Andy Balaskovitz reports. “The MCC made up nearly all of the committee’s $204,175 in direct contributions this funding cycle.”

The ballot initiative is supported by many major businesses. According to the group that initiated the ballot drive, Fair and Equal Michigan, business leaders including Jim Fitterling, Chief Executive Officer, Dow; Tim Cook, Chief Executive Officer, Apple; Andi Owen, President and Chief Executive Officer, Herman Miller; and Ron Bieber, President of the Michigan AFL-CIO, support the initiative.

“The Catholic Church’s opposition to LGBTQ equal rights is unfortunate, but it was not unexpected,” Fair and Equal Michigan spokesperson Josh Hovey told the Michigan Advance. “It is well known that they have been out of touch with the majority of voters in Michigan and across the country on this issue, and that we are thankful that campaign finance disclosure laws make their anti-equality position known to all.”

“At the end of the day,” Hovey added, “what opponents to our initiative are asking for is to continue being able to use religion as a license to discriminate.”

Currently, the ballot initiative is stalled. The Michigan Board of State Canvassers says Fair and Equal Michigan has not secured enough valid signatures to get the issue on the ballot. The group plans to appeal.

Written by David Badash, The New Civil Rights Movement. Image: Fair and Equal Michigan/Facebook