Today from San Francisco: What happens next in LGBT civil rights?

Posted on 04 Sep 2015 at 3:54pm

Scott Shader

Hi there. It’s me again, checking in from the National Gay and Lesbian Journalist Association conference in San Francisco. I just wanted to share a little bit of what was talked about in today’s morning plenary session, titled: Life After Marriage: What’s Next.

Scott Shafer, host of “The California Report” on KQED Public Radio, moderated the discussion that included as panelists National Center for Lesbian Rights ExecutiveDirector Kate Kendall, San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrrera and Isa Noyola, program manager with the Transgender Law Center.

Unfortunately, the plenary — scheduled to be an hour and 15 minutes long — got off to a late start and so lasted less than an hour. That meant that a lot of relevant topics were left undiscussed. The fact that the first several minutes were taken up talking about a marriage equality issue — Kim Davis in Rowen County, Ky. — also cut short the time spent on what comes next.

But the discussion that did take place on where we, as an LGBT rights movement, go from here was informative, to say the least.

Isa Noyola

The most important discussion, I think, centered on the T in our LGBT community: The LGB parts of our community cannot get so flush with excitement and satisfaction over winning the marriage equality battle — not counting, of course, holdouts like Kim Davis and the inevitable rash of “religious freedom” bills we are likely to see in state legislatures and probably Congress, too — cannot just walk away and leave our transgender brothers and sisters in the dust of our success.

Noyola began her remarks by reading the names of the 18 trans women murdered so far this year in the U.S., helping drive home her point that while society may be changing when it comes to sexual orientation, the inequalities and injustices are still strong, violent and deadly when it comes to issues of gender identity.

Reading those names, Noyola said, :helps me ground myself and brings us to the heart of the situation our trans communities are facing. … The trans communities have had to swallow a bitter pill for years around our rights and our place in [LGBT] communities.”

Noyola, Kendall andHerrera all warned that trans people remain the most marginalized and endangered segment of our LGBT communities as a whole. And something I read in the “Street Sheet” newspaper, a publication of the Coalition on Homelessness, served to underscore even more strongly that transgender people are lagging far behind the rest of the community in terms of rights and protections.

Kate Kendall

According to the newspaper, which based some of its article on results of a recent National Transgender Discrimination Survey, trans people are homeless at a higher right, especially trans women of color, and trans people are about 4 times more likely to have a household income below $10,000 annually. And a separte study showed that one in five California transgender people experienced homelessness after identifying as transgender.

Trans people have a harder time finding jobs because of anti-trans bias. They are targeted more often for violence. And they are an easy target for politicians pandering to right-wing conservatives who want somebody to blame for whatever is bothering them at the moment.

As a result, so called “bathroom bills” have become all the rage. We saw more than a few of them in Texas during the last legislative session, and now opponents of Houston’s Equal Rights Ordinance are breaking out the “men in the women’s restrooms” boogey-man to try and defeat HERO at the polls in November.

Even here in oh-so-liberal California, the threat of a bathroom bill is raising its ugly head.

The key to victory, Kendall said, is education, and, all three panelists agreed, not leaving our transgender brothers and sisters behind. We as LGB people have got to fight as hard for the rights of transgender people as we fought for marriage equality.

Dennis Herrera

The other main “what’s next” topic was the revamped version of the old “Employment Non-Discrimination Act.” Now known as The Equality Act, this piece of legislation would ban anti-LGBT discrimination not just in employment, but also in public accommodations, housing, credit and other areas.

Kendall said that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who represents California’s 12th District in Congress, recently told supports of the Equality Act that the bill’s chances in the Republican-dominated Congress, as it stands now, are slim. But just introducing and pushing the measure now will help build the framework necessary to get protections enacted at the state level in the more than 30 states where anti-LGBT discrimination is still legal (including Texas).

Kendall stressed that the Equality Act definitely does include protections based on gender identity and gender expression, unlike ENDA, which at times in its history has been notorious for excluding transgender protections.

There are other issues that will be moving to the frontburner now that marriage equality is the law of the land. Things like LGBT families, adoption, immigration, LGBT prisoners, and more. But perhaps the best place to start is with the Equality Act and definitely by remembering to never leave the T behind.

— Tammye Nash | Follow Me on Twitter!

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Happy Labor Day

Posted on 04 Sep 2015 at 3:10pm

By Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson

Traditionally, Labor Day is a time in our country when we acknowledge the contributions to our economy and our way of life made by the American worker. For some, it is a time of large parades, family picnics, football games and rest.

Congress recognized the necessity of having a holiday during which the activities of laborers were highlighted. In June of 1928, legislation was passed in Washington that signaled out the first Monday in September as a national holiday.

Labor Day has its origins in the late 1800s with the activities of union members and their leadership that demanded better working conditions, increased wages and union representation. More than twenty states recognized a day to “honor labor” before the Congress acted.

During Labor Day forums and meetings, a number of issues are considered by members of organized labor. They include the unemployment rate, providing workers with a “livable wage” and closing the gap between the wages paid to women and those paid to men.

As a member of Congress, I have fought for the American worker. I have proposed legislation designed to close the “gender gap” in wages and have backed legislation that would increase the number of jobs in our economy and job training.

This year, Labor Day comes at a time marked by significant progress. According to the Department of Labor, there are approximately 138 million people who are employed in our country. In July of this year, our economy created 215,000 new jobs.

The job growth in our economy has been steady. July marked the 58^th consecutive month of job growth. The economy, according to many experts, is as healthy as it has been during the last 15 years. Yet, we still face a number of challenges.

It is vitally important that during our celebration, we remember those men and women who have not been able to find jobs due to a lack of opportunity or a lack of training. We must do all that we can to work collectively address the problems that impede the ability of every American to secure jobs that offer a livable wage and make it possible for families to feed and provide schooling for their children.

We must also remember that we have an obligation to prepare our young people for a 21^st century world of work, where an emphasis is placed on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM-related) academic disciplines. To do less would be to fail them, and ourselves.

I will continue the fight to secure funding for STEM-related programs, just as I have done in the past.

I will continue to support legislation and policies that close the gender-based pay gap, support families and offer better training programs. I will continue my efforts to secure a “livable wage” for all American workers and honor the dignity and sacrifices of American workers.

— David Taffet | Follow Me on Twitter

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Rep. Cecil Bell uses big words in statement about Kim Davis

Posted on 04 Sep 2015 at 2:59pm

Rep. Cecil Bell, R-Magnolia

Rep. Cecil Bell, R-Magnolia, and author of numerous bills this past legislative session that would’ve barred Texas from recognizing marriage equality, issued a statement today, Friday, Sept. 4, condemning the arrest of Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk for refusing to issue marriage licenses.

Davis, a Democrat who refused to issue licenses on religious grounds and was arrested yesterday, was a victim of the Supreme Court’s Obergefell decision legalizing marriage equality nationwide, Bell said.

The text, found below, speaks for itself:

The lawless, unconstitutional edict of the US Supreme Court in Obergefell striking down state constitutional marriage amendments does not place the antithetical into law as the judiciary branch does not hold the authority to make law. SCOTUS, in striking down DOMA, ruled that the lawmaking authority regulating and defining marriage is held by the legislatures of the separate states.

Of the fifty states in our Union…

- eleven have laws enabling the licensing of same sex marriage

- in three of those states, the people voted to enable same sex licensing

- in eight of those states, that was done without a public vote, by legislative action.

Thirty nine states (78%) have no laws to grant officials the authority to issue marriage licenses to homosexuals and I will continue to stand for our sovereignty and against federal overreach.

Kim Davis and the other clerks who have stood for their religious freedoms and for state and citizen sovereignty are not guilty of violating any state or federal law. Again the Court’s ruling does not create law or an ability to force conformity to the will of the Court. We are not a krytocracy which is a people governed by Judges. The US Supreme Court’s wanton abandonment of law and constitutional authority in the reprehensible act of “striking down” state marriage amendments where law abiding citizens exercised the sovereign power of the ballot and of the separate states does establish a conundrum. Absent enabling legislation within a state, except as defined under current law, no marriage license, death certificate, birth certificate or other such document can be legally issued. No constitutional authority exists to force the Court’s vile and decrepit will on the people. Conversely, in cases like that of Ms. Davis, the absence of law leaves these overreaching federal judges clearly guilty of legislating from the bench.

The efforts to eliminate state sovereignty are far broader than the moral dilemma of homosexuality.

The quiet acceptance of unconstitutional atrocities across our state and across the separate states of our nation is abominable. I stand for Texas, for Texans and with the citizens of the separate states for the constitutional restoration of state sovereignty.

GOD BLESS TEXAS! GOD BLESS THE USA!

Cecil Bell, Jr.

Texas State Representative

Bell fueled rumors earlier this year he would mount a challenge to Speaker Joe Straus, a moderate Republican. But he instead rolled out PACT for Constitutional Restoration Of State Sovereignty to keep elected officials accountable to the Constitution.

No word yet if he thinks the 13 bills he passed this session also usurp the law.

— James Russell | @james4texas

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Same-sex marriage is destroying opposite-sex divorce

Posted on 04 Sep 2015 at 2:34pm

Judge Jeffrey Atherton

Same-sex marriage may not be destroying marriage as we’ve known it since Biblical times, but it is destroying divorce, at least in Chattanooga, Tenn.

A Tennessee judge refused to grant a straight couple a divorce, at least in part, because of same-sex marriage. Judge Jeffrey M. Atherton cited from the Obergefell decision when denying a couple in their 60s a divorce after 20 years of marriage:

“The Tennessee Court of Appeals has noted that Obergefell v. Hodges, affected what is, and must be recognized as, a lawful marriage in the State of Tennessee. This leaves a mere trial level Tennessee state court judge in a bit of a quandary. With the U.S. Supreme Court having defined what must be recognized as a marriage, it would appear that Tennessee’s judiciary must now await the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court as to what is not a marriage, or better stated, when a marriage is no longer a marriage. The majority’s opinion in Obergefell, regardless of its patronizing and condescending verbiage, is now the law of the land, accurately described by Justice Scalia as a naked judicial claim to legislative — indeed, super-legislative — power.”

Clearly the judge doesn’t care for the Obergefell decision, and decided to make a point of it by denying the couple a divorce because, he claims, the federal government preempts states from regulating marriage.

No word from him whether he plans to dismiss all divorces that come before his court.

— David Taffet | Follow Me on Twitter

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Cocktail Friday: Smoke & Sophistication

Posted on 04 Sep 2015 at 1:53pm

CViche©Marple_98 It’s Labor Day Weekend, the last gasp of summer. So how about trying something to soothe your life, courtesy of the folks at C’Viche down on Greenville Avenue? They know something about tequila there, and the one they came up with is called Smoke and Sophistication. (“Sip slowly, but deliberately,” they recommend.)

1 oz. Bruxton Espadin Mezcal

1 oz. Aperol

1 oz. sweet vermouth

Making it: Pour the mescal, Aperol and vermouth over ice in a rocks glass. Stir with a spoon approximately 30 seconds. Zest an orange peel and twist into the drink.

— Arnold Wayne Jones | Follow Me (CriticalMassTX) On Twitter!

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Proposed rule under Affordable Care Act would bar discrimination based on gender identity

Posted on 04 Sep 2015 at 10:09am

New rules released today by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Civil Rights would protect from discrimination based on gender identity in healthcare and insurance.

The regulations include everything from routine medical exams to transition-related care.

Many health system voluntarily cover these services already, but the proposed rule would fill a crucial need in healthcare for transgender individuals, said Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality.

“The Department of Health and Human Service’s proposed rules have the potential to be life-saving for transgender people. The medical and scientific consensus for years has been that transition-related care is medically necessary and should be covered by insurance,” she said.

National LGBT groups praised the proposed rule.

Julie Gonen, policy director the National Center for Lesbian Rights, called the rule a bold move.

“We applaud the agency for taking such a strong position and developing regulations that are consistent with the goal of Section 1557, which is to eradicate discrimination in healthcare. The protections outlined in the proposed regulations would ensure that transgender people —including youth — who are routinely denied this care despite decades of clinical experience and medical literature demonstrating its medical necessity can get the healthcare they need to live full, authentic, and healthy lives,” she said in a statement.

“LGBT people have too often faced healthcare and coverage systems that provide inequitable and hostile treatment on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity,” said David Stacy, government affairs director the Human Rights Campaign. “This proposed regulation will help address some of these disparities and is vitally important to help end discrimination against transgender and gender nonconforming people in healthcare and insurance.”

Both, however, urged the department to also banning discrimination based on sexual orientation by health providers and insurance as well.

“We are pleased the administration has finally proposed these critical protections, and we urge HHS to fully implement the promises of the Affordable Care Act by including both gender identity and sexual orientation as protected characteristics in the final rule,” Stacy added.

President Obama signed the ACA into law on March 23, 2010. Included in the sweeping law was Section 1557, the first federal civil rights law to prohibit sex discrimination in health care.

Public comment period closes Friday, November 6.

— James Russell | @james4texas

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Justice Department urged to ensure same-sex couples receive marriage licenses

Posted on 04 Sep 2015 at 9:59am

220px-Mark_Pocan,_official_portrait,_113th_Congress

U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis.

Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., urged Attorney General Loretta Lynch to ensure same-sex couples face no barriers to receiving marriage licenses. The statement came after Kim Davis, a Kentucky county clerk, has denied issuing marriage licenses on religious grounds.

“The Supreme Court once again demonstrated marriage equality is the law of the land,” Pocan said in a statement. “The unconstitutional actions by this county clerk underscore the need for the Department of Justice to take any and all necessary steps to ensure same-sex couples have immediate and complete access to their fundamental right to marry. States and localities failing to comply with the Constitution should be met with swift action by the federal government including the loss of federal dollars.”

Pocan, who is gay, was one of 56 members of Congress to send a letter to Lynch in July requesting her office take any necessary actions to ensure couples are not denied marriage licenses.

Davis, a Democrat, was jailed on contempt of court charges after refusing to allow her deputy clerks to issue licenses after calls by Kentucky’s governor and attorney general to issue licenses. A same-sex couple that has continuously been denied marriage licenses by her office filed the latest lawsuit yesterday.

— James Russell | @james4texas

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Everybody must get stoned

Posted on 04 Sep 2015 at 8:00am

Yet another right-wing preacher incites anti-gay violence with his interpretation of scripture

Maybe you have heard of Ben Bailey, pastor of Central Church of Christ in McMinnville, Tenn. Apparently, Pastor Bailey has a direct connection to the “mindset of God,” and through this holy hotline has determined that gay people should be stoned to death.

To be precise Pastor Bailey recently said, in a video posted on YouTube, that “The scripture says … that [homosexuality] is vile, unnatural and deserving of a penalty. … It’s an abomination that under the Old Testament deserved stoning.”

Now, it would be un-Christian of me to answer his angry words with more anger. But as a Christian, I have to ask the pastor how he has redacted his scriptures. Apparently, he has taken a black pen and crossed out a whole lot of a book that he claims to take literally.

As “editor in chief” of a book he claims is God’s inerrant word, Pastor Bailey has taken on a great responsibility.

It is old news that the dozens of rules and regulations in scripture are rarely followed today. I could quote dozens of “laws” that Pastor Bailey most likely breaks every day –including that Sunday dinner at Red Lobster.

Anyone who takes scripture seriously, and not literally, understands it is filled with discrepancies and outmoded rules and regulations from centuries ago that make no sense today.

What Pastor Bailey glosses over is the theological importance of the books of what we call the Bible in favor of a “cherry picked” mythical code that aligns with his political and personal beliefs. But I digress.

Since the video started getting some attention, Pastor Bailey is saying that the quotes in his video were not what they seemed. He told a news outlet, “We do not believe in stoning homosexuals. The Bible doesn’t teach that; I don’t believe that and I didn’t teach that in the video.”

He follows that with a statement that he supposedly never said, “The Bible clearly teaches that homosexuals will not go to heaven.” This aligns with his “cherry picking” technique, because he clearly said both of those things.

His willingness to break that commandment about “not bearing false witness” apparently is not a problem for the good reverend. Apparently lying is just fine — until you get caught.

The good news is that Pastor Bailey’s hatred and lies were not well received by the public.

The fact remains, though, that his remarks are potentially incendiary and do promote violence against the LGBT community. And at a time when such hatred and violence already seem to be on the increase, it seems an “un-Christian” attitude to espouse.

This Tennessee preacher — who is, according to his church’s website, a Texas native, by the way — joins a chorus of voices that are only thinly veiling their violent rhetoric after the Supreme Court ruling this summer legalizing same-sex marriage. These folks are even claiming it is their right to spew as much hatred as they can in the name of religion.

And I agree.

If your religion is one of hatred and condemnation, it is your right to say so. But your rights end when it comes to putting that hatred and condemnation into violent action.

And when you are claiming that you know “God’s mindset,” you are treading a thin line between free speech and inciting violence.

I fully expect some ugly consequences from these kinds of diatribes, and I sincerely feel that this pastor and others like him need to be held accountable for any violence undertaken by their flocks. If one of them attacks LGBTQ people, the pastor is guilty of accessory to the crime in my book.

I doubt any prosecutor would agree, but it’s my right to say what I think.

Meanwhile, I have one more request for this preacher: Stop calling yourself Christian. You certainly do not speak any words that are attributed to Jesus, and to suggest that his ministry was non-inclusive and intolerant is beyond a misreading of the Gospels; it is heresy.

Perhaps, Pastor Bailey needs to remember that famous quote from John 8:7: “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.

Hardy Haberman is a longtime local LGBT activist and board member for the Woodhull Freedom Alliance. His blog is at DungeonDiary.blogspot.com.

This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition September 4, 2015.

— Craig Tuggle

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Hey from San Francisco and the NLGJA convention

Posted on 03 Sep 2015 at 7:12pm

Lobby of the Westin St. Francis

So, today I am in San Francisco. I have never been here before, and I would LOVE to have a chance to spend the next three days wandering this city with my camera. BUT such is not to be.

I am here to attend the 25th anniversary of the National Gay and Lesbian Journalist Association’s National Convention and LGBT Media Summit. That’s LGBT journalists working in mainstream media and in LGBT media.

The convention is taking place at the Westin St. Francis Hotel, in Union Square in downtown San Francisco. It is gorgeous, by the way. And right now it is full of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender journalists.

This, as I said, is the 25th anniversary, and the convention has returned here to San Francisco, where the first NLGJA Convention was held way back in 1990. So this year’s theme is Coming Home. And a lot of folks have “come home” to the convention this year. There are some big names in the journalism biz here for this event.

The first NLGJA convention I attended was back in the early-mid-1990s in New York City. The next year (I think), I went to Miami for the convention. This is the first one I have been to since then. And let me tell you, things have changed.

There are all kind of corporate sponsors this year. Toyota. Nissan. And, my favorite, Coca-Cola.

Anyway. I am in San Francisco this weekend. So watch for updates and photos and anything I decide to share. Because I am in San Francisco. And the weather is wonderful; wish you were here.

— Tammye Nash | Follow Me on Twitter!

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Davis mug shot from Carter County, Ky. jail

Posted on 03 Sep 2015 at 4:48pm

Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis’ mug shot taken at Carter County jail.

Carter County is about 30 miles from Ashland, where the federal court is located.

In sending her to jail, U.S. District Judge David Bunning said, “Oaths mean things.”

— David Taffet | Follow Me on Twitter

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