anti-LGBTQ discrimination Archives | Page 2 of 6

Hundreds of LGBTQ Advocates Lobby Lawmakers for Protections

VCU CNS | February 7, 2020

Topics: Adam ebbin, anti-LGBTQ discrimination, Barbara Favola, danica roem, Day of Action, Department of Education, Eileen Filler-Corn, Emma Yackso, Equality Virginia, General Assembly 2020, hate crimes, Jennifer Boysko, Library of Virginia, Mark Levine, Mark Sickles, Patrick Hope, Scott Surovell, Side By Side, transgender students, Vee Lamneck, Virginia Values Act

Equality Virginia and the Commonwealth’s LGBTQ community continue to lobby state legislators for important LGBTQ protections. Now that Democrats control the General Assembly, they’re having some success.

The day after hundreds lobbied lawmakers on behalf of LGBTQ rights during Equality Virginia’s Day of Action, two significant bills advanced in the General Assembly to further protections for the state’s LGBTQ residents.

The House passed a bill from Del. Mark Levine, D-Alexandria, on Wednesday to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in employment, housing, insurance, and banking.

A Senate bill that adds gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, and disability as reportable hate crimes, introduced by Sen. Barbara Favola, D-Arlington, reported from committee. The bill would also guarantee that victims would be able to bring civil action to recover damages against their offender.

Vee Lamneck, executive director of Equality Virginia, was “cautiously optimistic” at the start of the legislative session, but said Tuesday during the organization’s annual lobby event that there is much to celebrate.

Equality Virginia lobbied their lawmakers to support LGBTQ bills during their Day of Action. League of Women Voters members Lois Page and Lynn Johnston regularly attend the weekly roundtables. Photo: Vee Lamneck, Equality Virginia

Lamneck noted that most of the bills supported by Equality Virginia, a group that advocates on behalf of the LGBTQ community, are still alive and advancing. Last session, most of those bills failed to pass from Republican-led subcommittees.

“This legislation will ensure that people are not discriminated against in housing, employment, public spaces, and credit,” Lamneck said.

LGBTQ youth showed up to make their voices heard too. Side by Side, a group dedicated to creating supportive communities for LGBTQ youth, helped sponsor the event.

“We want them to see that it’s easy and accessible, and what it’s like to actually be involved in the legislative process,” said Emma Yackso, director of youth programs and services for Side by Side. “A lot of them for many, many reasons don’t feel like they belong in government, don’t feel like their voices are actually ever going to be listened to.”

Groups visited legislators to discuss LGBTQ-related causes such as conversion therapy, housing instability, religious liberty, protection from discrimination, and the vulnerability of African American transgender communities.

“We know that people who live at the intersection of multiple marginalized identities often face the most discrimination, harassment, and, unfortunately, sometimes violence as well,” Lamneck said.

The lobbying event was followed by an afternoon of workshops at the Library of Virginia and a reception to thank lawmakers.

*Equality Virginia hosted their Day of Action at the Library of Virginia on Tuesday to promote LGBTQ bills and rights. Photo: Maia Stanley, Capital News Service*

Some of the legislation that has advanced in the General Assembly — mostly with bipartisan support — includes two bills introduced by Sen. Jennifer Boysko, D-Fairfax. Senate Bill 657 would make it easier to change a person’s name and gender on a birth certificate. SB 161 would make the Department of Education create and implement policies concerning the treatment of transgender students in public schools; a duplicate bill in the House also passed.

The Senate also passed SB 245, introduced by Sen. Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax, which would ban the practice of conversion therapy in Virginia on patients under age 18. A similar bill introduced by Del. Patrick Hope, D-Arlington, recently passed the House. On Tuesday, the House passed a health care bill introduced by Del. Danica Roem, D-Prince William, that prohibits discrimination based on gender identity or status as a transgender individual.

Advocates also celebrated that two bills referred to as the Virginia Values Act have made it to the floors of their respective chambers: SB 868, introduced by Sen. Adam Ebbin, D-Alexandria, and HB 1663, introduced by Del. Mark Sickles, D-Fairfax. Both would prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in housing, credit transactions, employment and public spaces.

“We speak with many individuals from across the Commonwealth who have shared with us their experiences of discrimination,” Lamneck said. “And not just that, but the fact that they live in fear, day to day experiencing discrimination. And so the Virginia Values Act will have a profoundly positive impact on the community.”

Deanna Bayer (left), volunteer for the Day of Action, and Dorthy Kelley (right), an employee of Equality Virginia, greet participants for workshops and events. Photo: Maia Stanley, Capital News Service

Gov. Ralph Northam and Speaker of the House Eileen Filler-Corn, D-Fairfax, attended an evening reception to wrap up the Day of Action.

“This session we are going to ensure it is no longer legal in Virginia to discriminate against someone because of who they love,” Filler-Corn tweeted. Two House bills that add gender, disability, gender identity, and sexual orientation as reportable hate crimes and a House bill replacing terms such as “husband and wife” with gender-neutral terms have yet to advance through their respective committees prior to crossover day on Feb. 11.

Written by Maia Stanley, Capital News Service. Top Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash.

White House Livestreams Pastor Saying ‘Demonic Spirit’ Causes Homosexuality

New Civil Rights Movement | January 27, 2020

Topics: anti-LGBTQ discrimination, Church of God In Christ, Jerry Wayne Taylor, livestreams, Mike Pence, White House YouTube channel

The anti-LGBTQ remarks occurred during a livestream of an event where Vice President Mike Pence spoke at a Memphis church. The White House’s YouTube channel broadcast the whole thing.

Vice President Mike Pence traveled to Tennessee this weekend to deliver a speech at a predominantly Black Memphis-area church, just one day before the nation celebrated Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. But it’s not Pence’s remarks that are making headlines. Instead, those of Bishop Jerry Wayne Taylor, who attacked gay people during his sermon – which the White House streamed live – are drawing criticism.

Bishop Taylor, the pastor and founder of the Holy City Church of God In Christ (COGIC), told his 800-member congregation, the Vice President, and the 67,000 people who have viewed the sermon on the White House’s YouTube channel, that homosexuality is caused by “a demonic spirit,” and is wrong because of people’s “plumbing,” while making a gay panic “joke,” as LGBTQ Nation reported.

“We got to expose what the devil is doing,” Bishop Taylor insisted, claiming the devil is “trying to destroy the foundation of marriage,” and “destroy the reproductive process.” The references are to same-sex marriage, and presumably to contraception and abortion, all issues his church opposes.

“Two men can’t have a baby,” Taylor continued, trying to make his case, while ignoring modern medicine and that same-sex couples can and do adopt, giving children in need loving homes. “Two women can’t have a baby.”

“It’s a demonic spirit that causes another woman to want to lie with another woman,” Taylor professed. “It’s a demonic spirit that causes another man, a man to be attracted to another man.”

“And then the man gets attracted to me and he’ll get in trouble – don’t put your hands on me,” he said, mocking gay people as his congregation laughed at his gay panic “joke.”

“God didn’t make us for that. He made a man to be a man. Somebody said, ‘If you want to know what God made you, when you go to the bathroom just check your plumbing.’ What kind of plumbing are you using?”

Not only did the White House live-stream the entire sermon, it included the video in its YouTube channel.

Neither a warning nor an apology is included.

The Vice President has not made any apologies either.

Watch (relevant remarks begin around the 2:42:53 mark):

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

The Fairness For All Act: Why Does A Supposedly Pro-LGBTQ Bill Face Such Fervent LGBTQ Opposition?

Marilyn Drew Necci | December 10, 2019

Topics: anti-LGBTQ discrimination, Chris Stewart, Civil Rights Act, Equality Act, Fairness For All Act, Human Rights Campaign, LGBTQ adoption, US Congress

Utah Republican Chris Stewart’s new “compromise” bill, the Fairness For All Act, doesn’t really hold up to scrutiny.

Last Friday, Utah Republican Congressman Chris Stewart introduced a new bill in the House Of Representatives. Entitled the Fairness For All Act, the bill seeks to ban discrimination against LGBTQ people in employment, housing, education, and public accomodations. However, the same day it was released, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) posted an article on their blog entitled “The Fairness For All Act is an Affront to Existing Civil Rights Protections.” If your first thought is, “Wait, what?” you’re certainly not alone.

However, examination of the fine print contained in the Fairness For All Act, as well as the context in which was introduced, starts to make all of this much clearer. And as it turns out, HRC is right, as they so often are.

Rep. Stewart’s bill is a response to the Equality Act, a bill that passed in the Democratic-majority House Of Congress mainly along party lines (five Republicans also voted for it). That bill’s purpose was straightforward: end the ongoing confusion over whether or not the 1964 Civil Rights Act’s prohibition of discrimination on basis of “sex” did or did not cover LGBTQ people facing discrimination on the basis of their gender identity or sexual orientation. The Equality Act would add discrimination on basis of gender identity and sexual orientation to the Civil Rights Act’s list of prohibited discriminations, and also ensure that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act could not be used as a justification for such discriminations.

The Equality Act, which enjoys widespread popular support as well as the support of LGBTQ advocates, has not been able to gain traction in the Republican-controlled US Senate. And now Stewart’s Fairness For All Act is being presented as a more acceptable alternative, one that could potentially gain bipartisan support and enshrine LGBTQ anti-discrimination protections into our country’s law.

However, the Fairness For All Act, while adding the same sort of protections to federal law that the Equality Act would ensure, carves out a significant exception for religious organizations, as well as allowing small businesses like the infamous anti-LGBTQ wedding cake bakers to engage in discrimination against LGBTQ people on the basis of religious freedom. The act would not curtail any aspect of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and would allow religious higher education facilities like Brigham Young University to retain tax-exempt status despite vocally opposing marriage equality.

Another way in which the act would allow for anti-LGBTQ discrimination, according to the Washington Blade, is its requirement that a business must have “15 or more employees for each working day in each of 20 or more calendar weeks in the current or preceding calendar year” before anti-LGBTQ discrimination prohibitions apply. That means you can still be discriminated against legally in any business that has 14 or less employees; for example, if you need your car repaired, the fact that the average repair shop has around five full-time employees means that you’re likely to be at the mercy of the notoriously right-wing car industry, which would be well within its rights to offer you higher rates or substandard repair due to your sexual orientation or gender identity.

*Car repair. Photo by Maxime Agnelli on Unsplash*

Yet another way is in its exemption of religiously-affiliated adoption agencies, thereby allowing organizations who only wish to allow adoption by hetero couples to continue refusing adoptions by same-sex couples.

Backers of the Fairness For All Act include the Mormon church, as well as several other religious organizations and the editorial page of the conservative Washington Examiner. “I’m excited about the solutions that are embodied in the legislation, because I think that those are the exact ideas that we’re going to need to pass federal civil rights for LGBTQ people,” Tyler Deaton, senior adviser at the American Unity Fund, told Vox.

However, LGBTQ advocacy organizations like HRC, GLAAD, and Lambda Legal, as well as other advocacy organizations including the NAACP, the National Fair Housing Alliance, the National Partnership For Women and Families, and several others released a joint statement on Friday, December 6 condemning the Fairness For All Act.

In the statement, the groups called the Fairness For All Act “an affront to existing civil rights protections that protect people on the basis of race, sex, and religion and creates new, substandard protections for LGBTQ people with massive loopholes and carve-outs, and upends critical federal programs that serve children in need.” They also argued that “Our nation’s existing civil rights framework already strikes the right balance when it comes to the government’s interest in protecting religious freedom and advancing nondiscrimination, and it is wrong to put into law a different system of protections for LGBTQ people and their families. This legislation would create a “double whammy” for anyone at the intersection of multiple marginalized identities: a Black lesbian or Transgender Jewish woman, for example, could see many of her existing rights erased or rolled back, ostensibly to protect her.”

Of course, quite a few conservative groups hate the Fairness For All Act too, including the Heritage Foundation, who say the bill does not “promote the common good,” according to Vox. If anything, this proves that weakening our own rights in order to placate the conservatives of the country will gain us little in the eyes of many who are dead set on opposing our civil rights. Therefore, if we’re going to push for anything, it seems worthwhile to push for legislation that protects LGBTQ people in as many situations as possible, rather than accepting a watered-down compromise that will leave us open to quite a bit of discrimination even if it is signed into law by Donald Trump.

Top Photo: Chris Stewart’s press conference announcing the Fairness For All Act, via the Seventh Day Adventist Church of America/Twitter

Father Praises Utah School for Firing Teacher Who Went on 10 Minute Rant Telling His Son ‘Homosexuality Is Wrong’

New Civil Rights Movement | December 6, 2019

Topics: Alpine School District, anti-LGBTQ discrimination, Dancing With The Stars, Louis van Amstel, Thanksgiving

Former Dancing With The Stars choreographer Louis van Amstel explained that the teacher’s rant was triggered when his son mentioned his two dads during a Thanksgiving lesson on gratitude.

A Utah father is praising his son’s school after the boy and his classmates were forced to endure a 10-minute anti-gay rant from a substitute teacher claiming “homosexuality is wrong.”

Louis van Amstel, a professional choreographer who has appeared on Dancing With the Stars, explained in a Facebook video that the teacher “asked all the kids what they’re thankful for” before the Thanksgiving holiday for a lesson on gratitude.

Van Amstel says his son said “he’s thankful that he’s finally being adopted by his two dads.” He says the substitute teacher gave her “very clear opinion that ‘two men is wrong, homosexuality is wrong.’”

ABC News reports “three students went to notify the school’s principal, according to van Amstel. The three students had asked her to stop multiple times, but she refused, he said.”

The school, Deerfield Elementary School in Cedar Hills, Utah, notified van Amstel immediately after the incident, and said they’d removed the teacher from the classroom.

“I am so proud of Daniel’s school,” van Amstel says. “Not only did they let go of the teacher, but they said this woman is never going to teach in this school ever again.”

Alpine School District confirmed to ABC News that the teacher had been fired.

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

Pence Brags About Trump Allowing Adoption Agencies ‘Right’ to Ban LGBTQ Parents

New Civil Rights Movement | November 15, 2019

Topics: adoption, anti-LGBTQ discrimination, Department of Health and Human Services, Mike Pence, religious freedom, Roger Severino, Trump administration

“We will stand for the freedom of religion,” Vice President Mike Pence said, defending the Trump administration move to allow adoption agencies to discriminate against same-sex couples.

Vice President Mike Pence this week attended a federal government event during which he bragged about the Trump administration’s latest attack on LGBTQ people. The vice president (video below) heralded a fast-tracked proposed policy from the Dept. of Health and Human Services that would reverse an Obama-era rule barring discrimination by adoption and foster care agencies against LGBTQ people and same-sex couples.

The proposed rollback of that rule is expected to go into effect in just a few weeks, granting government protection to religious, faith-based, or any other adoption organization that wishes to claim a moral opposition to LGBTQ people from facing a loss of federal funding.

“We will stand for the freedom of religion and we will stand with faith-based organizations to support adoption,” Vice President Pence told supporters at an HHS event Tuesday, as he pounded his fists on the podium, to cheers.

“I couldn’t be more proud that at President Trump’s direction and with the strong support of leaders across foster care, adoption, and our faith communities, we’ve taken decisive action,” Pence bragged.

That “decisive action” literally reduces the pool of prospective parents for large numbers of children who don’t have parents or homes.

“More than 100,000 foster children are awaiting adoption, according to government data, but a constellation of religious agencies refuse to consider same-sex parents when placing these children,” NBC News reports. “Shortly before the end of his second term, President Barack Obama changed nondiscrimination rules governing adoption agencies to expand the definition of groups protected against discrimination to include LGBTQ people. Trump’s proposed rule change will undo that.”

In fact, same-sex couples have far higher rates of adopting and fostering children than their different-sex couple peers.

“A 2018 report from the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law found that 1 in 5 of the estimated 114,000 same-sex couples raising children in the United States are raising adopted or foster children — significantly higher than the 3 percent of heterosexual couples doing so,” reported NBC News.

The latest discriminatory HHS rule Vice President Pence bragged about comes from Roger Severino, HHS’s Director of the Office of Civil Rights. Severino is known as a “radical” anti-LGBTQ religious right activist who previously served as CEO and counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a religious right non-profit that opposes separation of church and state. He also once served as the Director of the DeVos family’s Center for Religion and Civil Society in the Institute for Family, Community, and Opportunity.

Written by David Badash, The New Civil Rights Movement. Photo via NCRM. Video via Washington Blade/Facebook. Hat tip: Towleroad

UPDATE: Kenick El To Resign From Virginia Beach Human Rights Commission

Marilyn Drew Necci | October 30, 2019

Topics: anti-LGBTQ discrimination, Hampton Roads Business OutReach, Hampton Roads LGBTQAI Interfaith Group, Kenick El, LGBT Life Center, Michael Berlucchi, Michelle Martinez, social media, Virginia Beach Human Rights Commission

Virginia Beach Human Rights Commission member Kenick El called homosexuality “an abomination to the Human Race” and referred to trans women as “men in dresses” in a Facebook post last week, which brought widespread condemnation.

UPDATE, October 30: LaKendrick Coburn El, who also goes by Kenick El, announced Friday that he would resign from the Virginia Beach Human Rights Commission after the widespread public outcry condemning an anti-LGBTQ post he made on Facebook last week.

“Everybody’s human rights is to be respected,” El said Friday, according to WTKR. “We are to love one another, we are to show mercy and forgiveness to one another, and that’s why I am committed to resigning on October 31 at the end of the commission meeting after I share my views with my colleagues.”

The commission had scheduled a special meeting for Thursday, October 31 after news broke of El’s social media post. El says he will resign from the commission following the meeting.

During a press conference on Thursday, Virginia Beach Mayor Bobby Dyer addressed El’s comments, and called it inappropriate for him to continue serving on the city’s Human Rights Commission.

“We believe the public comments of Brother LaKendrick Coburn El are contrary to these base goals that are the core of the Human Rights Commission, and it is no longer appropriate for him to serve in this capacity,” Dyer said, according to WTKR.

The Virginia Beach Human Rights Commission also released a statement saying that El was speaking for himself, and that his words did not represent the commission. “The Human Rights Commission is a very diverse group of individuals who come together for common good and equality for all,” the statement read in part. “However, each commissioner has individual beliefs, and we do not always agree.”

Original October 24 article follows:

News broke yesterday that Kenick El, a member of Virginia Beach’s Human Rights Commission, made homophobic and transphobic comments in a Facebook post, calling homosexuality “an abomination to the Human Race” and referring to transgender women as “men in dresses.”

El’s post was in response to a news article posted in October of 2017 by Fox News, with the headline “Transgender Wyoming woman convicted of sexually assaulting 10-year-old girl in bathroom.” The incident involved a transgender woman named Michelle Martinez, who, according to the Fox News article in question, “is a family friend.” Fox News reported that Martinez “invited the girl into the bathroom of a home on March 23, and touched her breasts and genitalia before penetrating her.”

Now, of course, that’s ugly and upsetting, and nothing any self-respecting member of the LGBTQ community would want anything to do with. However, this incident has been used by right-wing blogs like Louder With Crowder and The Daily Wire as an argument against transgender people being allowed to use the appropriate bathrooms. Those blogs tend to leave out that the incident occurred in the bathroom of a private residence, and that Martinez had been a family friend — one with a prior record of violence, as she’d previously been charged with aggravated assault in an incident in which she beat her boyfriend with a metal broomstick.

In his facebook post, El was making the same argument — that this incident had some bearing on the safety of cisgender girls and women in public bathrooms used by trans people.

“This is why we need to stop giving men in dresses passes. I have daughters and I won’t accept them sharing a restroom with a grown man suffering from this mental illness. Men trying to be women and women trying to be men is really confusing our children and I’m tired of seeing this nonsense promoted to our children,” El wrote on Facebook. “Those that don’t make children can’t relate or understand the impact this behavior has on us with children and it’s really getting out [of] hand.”

He then continued on to a general condemnation of LGBTQ people, writing, “Homosexuality is an abomination to the Human Race and it corrupts the hermetic principle of gender by interfering with the laws of nature just to gratify the lower self. Enter the correct bathroom and stop pushing this agenda on our children.”

Usage of the phrase “hermetic principle of gender” refers to the religious tradition of hermeticism, which believes that there is, according to Wikipedia, “a single, true theology that is present in all religions and that was given by God to man in antiquity.”

Kenick El’s references to religion make sense in light of the fact that he is a clergyman himself. He’s currently Grand Sheik and Divine Minister of Unity Temple No. 14 — a Virginia Beach-based temple of the Moorish Science Temple of America. This offshoot of the Islamic faith is based on the principle that African Americans are descendants of the biblical kingdom of Moab, and shares common roots with the Nation Of Islam.

El’s comments have received widespread condemnation from political leaders and organizations around the Hampton Roads area. In a statement given to Outwire757, openly gay Virginia Beach City Councilman Michael Berlucchi stated, “The comments made by a member of our City’s Human Rights Commission have hurt my heart. I was saddened and disappointed to learn about them. I served on the Human Rights Commission for four years prior to becoming a member of our City Council. The Virginia Beach Human Rights Commission was founded to institute, conduct and engage in educational and informational programs for the promotion of mutual understanding and respect among citizens, and the fulfillment of human rights. It is my hope that every member of the Human Rights Commission would commit to uphold that mission when they accept the appointment. I am currently speaking with my colleagues at City Council, the Human Rights Commission, and members of our community to resolve this matter quickly.”

LGBTQ organizations in the Hampton Roads area, including the LGBT Life Center, Hampton Roads LGBTQAI Interfaith Group, and Hampton Roads Business OutReach (HRBOR), have called for El’s removal from the Virginia Beach Human Rights Commission in light of these statements. However, El told Norfolk’s 13NewsNow that “this has been blown out of proportion” and went on to say that “I don’t intend on quitting or resigning.”

“If you were offended by anything that I said, I assure you that I didn’t intend to. I’m just expressing my faith,” El told 13NewsNow. “I love everybody. Just because I told you the truth doesn’t mean I hate you. Just because we don’t agree doesn’t mean I hate you or I’m opposing you.”

Despite El’s Facebook comments, and his insistence in 13NewsNow’s interview that his expression of said believes simply constituted him “[telling] you the truth,” he has shown support in the past for the LGBTQ community in his role on Virginia Beach’s Human Rights Commission, previously voting in favor of a resolution that asked the General Assembly to ban conversion therapy.

In a subsequent Facebook post, according to Metro Weekly, El insisted that he was merely expressing his personal views on his personal Facebook page, and that those views didn’t interfere with his work on the Virginia Beach Human Rights Commission. However, as LGBT Life Center CEO Stacie Wall told 13NewsNow, “We believe that somebody who believes that, the way that he does, is not someone who would represent all Virginia Beach citizens.”

At this point, it remains to be seen how the government of Virginia Beach will handle this situation. For now, we can only hope that El’s views do not continue to hold influence over the actions of Virginia Beach’s Human Rights Commission.

Top Photo: Kenick El, via Facebook