SGN May 18, 2018 - Section 1

Celebrating 44 Years!

Issue 20 Volume 46

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Seattle Gay News

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HRC celebrates pro-equality champions in Pennsylvania primary

Ingersoll Gender Center Meet our new team and learn about our expanded services!

U.S. Senator Bob Casey – Photo courtesy of U.S. Senate

PHILADELPHIA – [On May 15], the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) civil rights organization, released the following statement celebrating the victories of pro-equality candidates Sen. Bob Casey; Reps. Brendan Boyle (PA-2), Dwight Evans (PA-3),

Matt Cartwright (PA-8), and Michael Doyle (PA-18); and Chrissy Houlahan.

“HRC was proud to mobilize our members and supporters across the Keystone State to turn out for these proequality champions, and we look forward

see PENNSYLVANIA page 5

Ingersoll Gender Center staff – Photo by Naomi Ishisaka

Dear SGN: For the first few months of 2018 we have been hard at work here at Ingersoll building our new staff team and expanding our services for transgender and gender nonconforming community members. As you may know we relocated to our new and

expanded location at 911 E Pike Ste #221 just east of Broadway a few months ago. We are reaching out today to thank you for your overwhelming support this year and keep you up-to-date on all of the amazing things happening at Ingersoll.

see INGERSOLL page 4

LGBT youth report Discrimination in Oklahoma Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin signs anti-LGBTQ significant mental health bill into law; SB 1140 is now the first anti-LGBTQ challenges, HRC study says state bill signed into law in the country this year

Image courtesy of HRC

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer LGBT youth face significant mental health challenges, according to a new study released on May 15 conducted by the

University of Connecticut for HRC. The 2018 LGBTQ Youth Report surveyed over 12,000 teens aged 13 to 17, from all US states plus the District of Columbia. Accord-

see LGBTQ YOUTH page 11

Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin – Photo by Sue Ogrocki / AP

OKLAHOMA CITY – [On May 11], the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) civil rights organization, condemned Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin for signing the anti-LGBTQ bill SB 1140, a bill

that would allow child welfare organizations – including adoption and foster care agencies – to turn away qualified Oklahomans seeking to care for a child in need, including LGBTQ couples, interfaith couples, single parents,

see OKLAHOMA page 4

2 Seattle Gay News

May 18, 2018

Celebrating 44 Years!

Seattle Gay News F O U N D ED 1974 MEMBER

2018

1707 23rd Avenue Seattle, WA 98122 (206) 324-4297 sgn2@sgn.org sgn.org

Deadlines Classifieds | Thursday at Noon Calendar | Tuesday at 6pm Display Ads Space Reservation | Monday at 5pm Ad Copy (non-camera ready) | Tuesday at 5pm Ad Copy (camera-ready) | Wednesday at 5pm Letters to the Editor | Tuesday at 5pm Obituaries | Call the SGN office All others | Tuesday at 5pm

Editor in Chief George Bakan Copy Editor Rick McKinnon (since Dec 2013) Advertising George Bakan • Maggie Bloodstone MK Scott National Advertising Rep. Rivendell Media (212) 242-6863 Staff Writers Mike Andrew • Sara Michelle Fetters Miryam Gordon • Albert Rodriguez

2nd annual SnoHomo Pride Festival to be held in Snohomish WA on June 3 Come celebrate the diversity of human life at the second annual SnoHomo Pride Festival! This year’s festivities will be on June 3rd from 11am to 5pm at Willis Tucker Park, 6705 Puget Park Drive, Snohomish, WA 98296.

This family-friendly event will feature entertainment, DJ music, food trucks, improv comedy, face painting, community booths, vendors, guest speakers, youth water playground, and more! We welcome all genders, orientations, families, allies, and community leaders.

SnoHomo Pride Fest is proud and grateful to be sponsored by Pride Foundation, First Financial Northwest Bank, 1st Security Bank, The Everett Clinic, and Snohomish County Parks & Recreation.

SnoHomo Pride Festival’s mission is to honor the diversity of human life, promote equal rights, increase the visibility of LGBTQ+ people, and have fun doing it.

Visit http://www.facebook.com/SnohomoPride/ for more information.

Courtesy of SnoHomo Pride

Contributing Writers Rev. Barbara Allen • Ron Anders Madelyn Arnold • Alice Bloch Maggie Bloodstone • Beau Burriola Sharon Cumberland • Jessica Davis Tina Gianoulis • Anthony Greer Milton W. Hamlin • Nevin Jefferson Richard Kennedy • Shaun Knittel Liz Meyer • Jason A. Miller Jesse Monteagudo David Nguyen aka Teriyaki Temple Rod Parke • Don Paulson Jerry Peerson • Tim Peter • Jessica Price Scott Rice • Leslie Robinson MK Scott • Mark Segal • Gaysha Starr Sarah Toce • Paul Torres • Janice Van Cleve Ed Walsh • James Whitely Scott Wittet • Rex Wockner Cartoonist Ken Campbell Calendar Editor Rick McKinnon Classifieds Rick McKinnon Photographers Nate Gowdy • Joseph P. Herron Shaun Knittel • James Whitely Production Mike Pham Website Designer Barry Thorsness / Digital Team Works Seattle Gay News is published by Frogs and Ink, Inc. © 2018. Frogs and Ink, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reprints by permission.

Publication of names, photographs, or likeness of any person, organization, event or business in this publication cannot be taken as any indication of the sexual orientation of the person, organization, event or business.

Opinions expressed in bylined articles, columns, and letters are those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect the views of the staff or management of this paper.

Seattle Gay News welcomes unsolicited material, including letters to the editor, but reserves the right to edit or reject material. All rights revert to authors upon publication.

We assume no liability for loss or damage of materials, solicited or not. We invite feedback, please write.

And please play safe.

It is our policy that no money shall be refunded if you choose to cancel your ad. Credit will be given for the balance owed.

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In Loving Memory Of Steve Foiles • Scott Roger Alpert Cookie Andrews-Hunt James Leland Moore Randy Peters • Lee Richeson Shaun Shelton • Jim Tully James Arnold

Queer Pride on Whidbey announces 5th Annual Parade on June 16 Queer Pride on Whidbey (QPOW) hosts the 5th Annual Queer Pride Parade on Whidbey, Saturday, June 16th at 2pm in Downtown Langley, WA. Celebrating the LGBTQ+ community of Whidbey Island, the group and parade continue to identify as a “Queer” Pride event to be inclusive to community members who live outside binary gender (trans, nonconforming, genderfluid, agender) and sexual (pansexual, asexual, etc.) identities.

Queer is a common umbrella term encompassing the many gender identities and sexual orientations that exist beyond cis-gender and heterosexuality. (Cis-gender is defined as an individual who identifies with the sex they were assigned at birth).

LGBTQ+ community members and allies, as well as local businesses and organizations supporting the LGBTQ+ community, are encouraged to participate by registering to walk or ride in the parade.

Pre-registration for this year’s Queer Pride Parade on Whidbey is available online at www.qpowhidbey.com/register. Day-of registration is also available at the former LMS Bus Parking Lot at 565 Camano Avenue, Langley WA. Day-of registration and parade assembly begin at 12-noon on Saturday, June 16th. Registration and participation in the parade are always free.

The parade route travels up Sixth Street, right on Anthes Avenue, right on First Street and forward onto Cascade, ending back at the start.

Nominations are being accepted for Royal Family Members to ride in the honorary QPOW Royal Family float. Deadline for nominations is June 1st. Submit at www.qpowhidbey.com/royal-family There will be a volunteer meeting for folks interested in helping with the parade logistics on Sunday, June 10th at the old Bayview School Building (5611 Bayview Rd. Langley WA 98260) from 4pm-5pm.

QPOW is still seeking approximately 15 volunteers to join their team.

QPOW is led this year by Skylar Newkirk, licensed social worker and transgen-

Visit us online www.sgn.org

der advocate, and backed by a planning group lovingly referred to as Team Fabulous. New this year! QPOW is now part of CascadiaNow!’s non-profit family, and as a fiscally sponsored project, donations to our event our tax-deductible.

For more information, folks can visit www. qpowhidbey.com or the Facebook page www. facebook.com/queerpridewhidbey

May 18, 2018

Seattle Gay News 3

Courtesy of Queer Pride on Whidbey

INGERSOLL continued from cover

For those of you who were able to make it to our Transgender Day of Visibility Open House at the end of March you know how excited we are about this new and expanded work. Most importantly, have you had a chance to meet our amazing new staff? To learn more about our talented staff who are here to help you, visit http://ingersollgendercenter.org/who-we-are/our-people/ We are driven by our vision of a world that nurtures healthy communities free from violence, centers self-determination for all people, and celebrates all gender identities and expressions. To that end we have been hard at work doubling down our commitment to providing spaces for community connec-

tions, expanding access to gender affirming healthcare and addressing economic injustices our communities face.

We are happy to share that in 2018 we are able to offer the following new and expanded services to our community members: • Community Financial Assistance – Ingersoll can now support community members with direct financial assistance. We can help you amend your identity documents with a new name or gender marker, access gender affirming clothes for an upcoming interview or transition on the job and emergency HRT support. Want to learn more or get community financial assistance? Email us at support@ingersollgendercenter.org or call us at (206) 849-7859.

• Support Navigating the Healthcare System – We know that accessing reliable

and competent gender affirming healthcare is harder than it needs to be. We’re here for you. Ingersoll can help you find a gender affirming healthcare provider, register for health insurance and navigate health insurance details. To learn more, email us at health@ingersollgendercenter.org or call us at (206) 849-7859.

• Support with Housing and Employment Challenges – Need support finding stable and safe housing? Transitioning at work or having a hard time finding work?

We’re here to help. Reach out to us via email at jobs@ingersollgendercenter.org or give us a call at (206) 849-7859 to get one-on-one support.

• Expanded Drop-In Hours – Come visit us! Need support in accessing a resource or getting a referral? Looking for an affirming space to connect with commu-

nity members? Our office is open for drop-in hours on Mondays at 1pm - 4pm and Saturdays at 1pm - 5pm. To learn more, you can email us at support@ingersollgendercenter. org or give us a call at (206) 849-7859.

Community support over the last four decades has made all of this possible and we could not be more excited to be doubling down on the work to address issues impacting our communities. We hope we see you at our peer-led Support Group (http://ingersollgendercenter.org/ what-we-do/peer-support-group), at our drop-in hours or out and about this Pride season!

In solidarity, Your friends at Ingersoll Gender Center

HRC responds to appointment of anti-LGBTQ extremists Tony Perkins and Gary Bauer to US Commission on International Religious Freedom WASHINGTON, DC – [On May 16], the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) civil rights organization, responded to the TrumpPence administration’s appointment of Tony Perkins and Gary Bauer to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom.

“Tony Perkins and Gary Bauer have devoted their careers to limiting the legal rights of LGBTQ people to live their lives openly and honestly,” said Charlotte Clymer, HRC’s Press Secretary for Rapid Response.

“In their America, LGBTQ people would be forced to hide who they are or face criminal sanction, their relationships would be unrecognized, their children could be taken away, and LGBTQ youth would face harmful conversion therapy. For decades, these men have led the opposition to equality, and now they couch their anti-LGBTQ policy agenda under the guise of religion. For the TrumpPence White House to nominate them to this position is insulting to our core American values and ignores the reality of the vast majority of Americans who believe religious freedom and equality are not only compatible but essential in 21st century America.”

Tony Perkins, president of the SPLCdesignated hate group the Family Research Council, has led a career of attacks on LGBTQ people and has become quietly

OKLAHOMA continued from cover

married couples in which one prospective parent has previously been divorced, or other parents to whom the agency has a religious objection. The bill is now the first antiLGBTQ state bill signed into law in the country this year.

“It is shameful that Gov. Mary Fallin has signed into law a patently discriminatory law that targets children,” said JoDee Winterhof, Senior Vice President of Policy and Political Affairs at the Human Rights Campaign. “Gov. Fallin has cemented her legacy, siding with discrimination and the legislature in throwing kids under the bus to create a ‘license to discriminate’ against LGBTQ Oklahomans. With this action, Oklahoma has the negative distinction of being the only state[s] to sign an antiLGBTQ bill into law this year. Oklahoma’s leaders must live with that, and live with the reputational fallout that it may bring. This is wrong.”

4 Seattle Gay News

which has been universally dismissed by medical experts as ineffective and potentially abusive. He unsuccessfully attempted to include language in the platform that explicitly shames same-sex parents.

Gary Bauer is another Trump-Pence appointee to the commission and past president of the notoriously anti-LGBTQ Family Research Council. He has claimed LGBTQ advocates are aiming to “throw dissenters in jail” and would try to criminalize Christianity and take children away from dissenting parents. In 2012, he was widely mocked for an ad during the presidential campaign that claimed President Obama was attempting to “force gay marriage on the country.”

Tony Perkins (l) and Gary Bauer – Photo courtesy of HRC

prolific in the Trump-Pence White House.

Perkins has openly bragged about having been to the White House more times in the last 18 months than in the entire eight years of George W. Bush’s presidency. Since last July, Perkins has worked behind the scenes to ban transgender people from the military.

He authored a letter signed by prominent members of the evangelical community calling on Trump and Pence to reverse Obama-

era guidance permitting transgender people to openly serve. He then co-authored a report with Pence and others intended to justify a subsequent directive by Trump to ban transgender people from serving.

Tony Perkins has been credited with helping write what is widely considered the most anti-LGBTQ Republican Party platform in history, including thinly veiled support for so-called “conversion therapy,”

“While we are deeply disappointed that Gov. Fallin choose to sign discrimination into law, we are more concerned about the children – desperately looking for homes – that will be harmed by this disgraceful legislation,” said Troy Stevenson, executive director of Freedom Oklahoma. “And the countless young people who will be stigmatized by state-sanctioned hate. Make no mistake, we will fight for the most vulnerable Oklahomans targeted by this law. Our message to Gov. Fallin and the lawmakers who championed this travesty is simple: we’ll see you in court!”

Earlier this session, HRC joined Freedom Oklahoma and child welfare advocates in Oklahoma City to call out this bill and its dangerous implications for youth waiting for homes in Oklahoma. HRC and Freedom Oklahoma also released a video featuring an Oklahoman and former foster youth who opposes this bill.

Many of the country’s top child welfare organizations have spoken out in opposition to the bill, including the Child Welfare League of America, the North American

Council on Adoptable Children, the National Center for Adoption and Permanency, the Foster Club, and Voice for Adoption. This bill most harms children in the system who are awaiting placement in qualified, loving homes and are instead denied placement with a family due to a lack of prospective parents.

Experts agree that child welfare services should be guided by the overarching principle that guides all family law: all determinations should be in the best interest of the child; this bill violates that principle.

A group of Oklahoma-based and national faith leaders also wrote a letter of opposition.

The HRC recently released a report, titled “Disregarding the Best Interest of the Child: License to Discriminate in Child Welfare Services” [https://assets2.hrc.org/ files/assets/resources/licenses-to-discriminate-child-welfare-2017.pdf], detailing the harms of efforts to write anti-LGBTQ discrimination by child welfare agencies into law. Statistics suggest that an estimated two million LGBTQ adults in the US are interested in adoption, but the LGBTQ

May 18, 2018

The Human Rights Campaign is America’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people.

HRC envisions a world where LGBTQ people are embraced as full members of society at home, at work, and in every community.

Courtesy of the HRC

community often remains an untapped resource when it comes to finding families for children and youth in foster care.

Research consistently shows that LGBTQ youth are overrepresented in the foster care system, as many have been rejected by their families of origin because of their LGBTQ status and are especially vulnerable to discrimination and mistreatment while in foster care. SB 1140 will only exacerbate these challenges faced by LGBTQ young people.

The Human Rights Campaign is America’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people.

HRC envisions a world where LGBTQ people are embraced as full members of society at home, at work, and in every community.

Courtesy of the Human Rights Campaign

Celebrating 44 Years!

Antonio wins Ohio State Senate primary; 10 LGBTQ candidates move on to November

Rick Neal – Photo courtesy of Rick Neal

State Rep. Nickie Antonio – Photo courtesy of Rep. Antonio

Rebecca Howard – Photo courtesy of Rebecca Howard

Melinda Miller – Photo courtesy of Melinda Miller

WASHINGTON – This November, Ohioans have the opportunity to elect their first openly LGBTQ member of Congress with Rick Neal in Ohio’s 15th Congressional District. A total of 10 LGBTQ candidates advanced to the general election in congressional, state House, Senate, and local races across the Buckeye State.

Key highlights follow: Nickie Antonio, who in 2010 became the first LGBTQ candidate elected to the Ohio House of Representatives, won a Democratic primary Tuesday for a seat in the Ohio Senate.

Antonio was one of 10 LGBTQ Ohioans

who won primary elections on Tuesday, a day that also saw LGBTQ allies Richard Cordray and Betty Sutton win the Democratic nomination for governor and lieutenant governor with 62% of the vote in a sixcandidate race.

In addition to Antonio, Democrat Rebecca Howard was unopposed for her party’s nomination in Ohio House District 53, which includes Hamilton, Oxford, and other parts of Butler County.

Democrat Zach Dickerson won his party’s nomination in Ohio House District 42, which includes Dayton’s south suburbs.

He collected 56.5% of the vote, according

to final, unofficial totals. Democrats John McManus (House District 41, Dayton and Kettering), Jeremy Blake (House District 71, Newark), Garrett Baldwin (House District 85, Urbana and Bellefontaine), and Taylor Sappington (House District 94, Athens and Nelsonville) were unopposed for their party nominations.

Democrat Melinda Miller was unopposed in the Democratic primary in Ohio Senate District 31, which includes Newark.

Democrat Lis Kenneth Regula was unopposed for the Democratic nomination for Portage County auditor in northeast Ohio.

In Ohio’s 15th Congressional District,

openly gay Democrat Rick Neal of Columbus won his party’s nomination to challenge four-term Republican US Rep. Steve Stivers in November. Neal, a former foreign aid worker, won 64% of the vote against Rob Jarvis, a high school teacher from Nelsonville. “Tonight, we made history,” said Neal, who could become Ohio’s first openly gay member of Congress.

Courtesy of the Democratic National Committee

LGBTQ state legislative candidates win big in Pennsylvania; primary victories for incumbents in Oregon and Idaho Six of seven Victory Fund-endorsed candidates win primaries Tuesday night

Malcolm Kenyatta – Photo courtesy of Malcolm Kenyatta

Kristin Seale – Photo courtesy of Kristin Seale

Oregon Governor Kate Brown – Photo courtesy of State of Oregon

Rep. John McCrostie – Photo courtesy of Idaho Legislature

WASHINGTON, DC – Pennsylvania candidates Malcolm Kenyatta and Kristin Seale are on track to make history after winning their primaries on [May 15].

Malcolm [Kenyatta] will become the first openly LGBTQ person of color to serve in the Pennsylvania state legislature if elected in November, and Kristin Seale will become the first queer state legislator. Brian Sims, the first and only openly LGBTQ state legislator in Pennsylvania, won his race unopposed. Six of seven Victory Fund–endorsed

candidates with primaries [on May 15] won their races.

“Representative Brian Sims has been our lone LGBTQ voice in the state legislature – standing up to bigoted colleagues and putting forward pro-equality legislation – but he won’t be alone much longer,” said Mayor Annise Parker, president and CEO of the LGBTQ Victory Fund. “With tonight’s victories, we are poised to triple the number of openly LGBTQ state legislators in Pennsylvania – an important step in

moving equality forward in the state. While these out leaders will be champions for our community, their campaign platforms are about improving the lives of all Pennsylvanians. That is why they won tonight, and why they will win in November.”

Malcolm Kenyatta was awarded “Spotlight” status by the Victory Fund in April, a designation given to state or local candidates in history-making races.

Beyond Pennsylvania, three Victory Fund–endorsed incumbents won their

primaries: Oregon governor Kate Brown, Oregon state Rep. Karin Power, and Idaho state Rep. John McCrostie.

PENNSYLVANIA

the general election. Sen. Casey has long been a strong supporter of LGBTQ equality. He is the lead sponsor of the Safe Schools Improvement Act, which would require school districts to adopt codes of conduct prohibiting bullying and harassment, including on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, and religion. Casey is also a co-sponsor of the Equality Act, crucial federal legislation that would finally guarantee comprehensive protections for LGBTQ people under our nation’s civil rights laws. A longtime opponent of equality, Rep. Lou Barletta has earned a zero on the HRC’s Congressional Scorecard each Congress since he was elected. His record includes opposing marriage equality,

supporting a license to discriminate against LGBTQ people, and a lack of support for the Equality Act. Following [the May 15] primary, the HRC will be examining races up and down the ballot to determine additional endorsements for the 2018 general election. In Pennsylvania, the HRC has identified more than 2,005,000 “Equality Voters” – voters who support LGBTQ-inclusive policies, including marriage equality, equitable family law, and laws that would prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. The HRC has prioritized investments and organizing in Pennsylvania in the 2018 cycle, and has already put staff and resources on the ground in the state. Last year, the HRC

announced a coast-to-coast campaign called HRC Rising, which represents the largest grassroots expansion in the organization’s 38-year history.

May 18, 2018

Seattle Gay News 5

continued from cover

to carrying this momentum to the general election in November,” said HRC Pennsylvania State Manager Allison VanKuiken.

“As Donald Trump and Mike Pence ramp up their attacks on the LGBTQ community, it’s more important than ever to elect candidates who will pull the emergency brake on a harmful administration, and reject antiequality politicians like Lou Barletta, who will only double down on their discriminatory agenda.”

In the US Senate race, the HRC has endorsed incumbent Sen. Bob Casey, who will be facing Rep. Lou Barletta in

Visit us online www.sgn.org

The LGBTQ Victory Fund works to change the face and voice of America’s politics and achieve equality for LGBTQ Americans by increasing the number of openly LGBTQ elected officials at all levels of government. victoryfund.org Courtesy of the LGBTQ Victory Fund

The Human Rights Campaign is America’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people.

HRC envisions a world where LGBTQ people are embraced as full members of society at home, at work and in every community.

Courtesy of the HRC

TLC condemns Trump Bureau of Prisons move exposing Trans people to violence OAKLAND, Calif. – Late Friday [May 11], BuzzFeed reported that the Trump administration erased federal Bureau of Prisons rules intended to address the health and safety of incarcerated transgender people. These rules, grounded firmly in the Prison Rape Elimination Act signed by George W. Bush, were an attempt to reduce the violence, harassment, abuse and sexual assault that transgender and gender-nonconforming (TGNC) people regularly experience at terrifying rates in prisons and jails.

“This is a cruel, politically motivated rollback that will have devastating consequences for the well-being of transgender people in prison,” said Kris Hayashi, Transgender Law Center’s executive director. “This administration is targeting our communities in some of the areas where they are already the most vulnerable. These attacks on trans immigrants, on our access to healthcare, trans youth, and now on trans people who are incarcerated are particularly deplorable.”

According to a 2014 Bureau of Justice Statistics report, 40% of transgender people in prison reported being sexually assaulted or abused between 2011 and 2012. The 2015 US Transgender Survey found that transgender people were five times more likely to be sexually assaulted by facility staff than non-transgender people in jails and prisons, and transgender people were over nine [times] more likely to be sexually assaulted by other inmates. Lambda Legal’s 2012 survey of transgender prisoners, “Protected and Served,” found that 57% of respon-

Photo courtesy of Pat Sullivan / AP

dents reported being verbally assaulted or harassed and 12% reported being physically assaulted by staff in the previous five years.

In all cases where the race of participants was considered, these rates were dramatically higher for transgender people of color.

“This has been an awful week,” added Isa Noyola, Transgender Law Center’s deputy director, who met last week with a group of trans people seeking asylum in the United States. “At the border, in prison, and in the streets, the state clearly sees us as disposable.”

“We already receive countless horrifying

reports of abuse and mistreatment of transgender people on the inside,” said Lynly Egyes, Transgender Law Center’s director of litigation. “Rolling back these measures undermines the very mission of the Prison Rape Elimination Act and is guaranteed to subject trans people to even more violence.

We are exploring all options, including litigation, to fight this direct attack on transgender people in prison.”

Transgender Law Center operates a Legal Helpline for TGNC people experiencing discrimination.

The Transgender Law Center (TLC) is the largest national trans-led organization advocating self-determination for all people.

Grounded in legal expertise and committed to racial justice, the TLC employs a variety of community-driven strategies to keep transgender and gender-nonconforming people alive, thriving, and fighting for liberation. transgenderlawcenter.org Courtesy of the Transgender Law Center

HRC commemorates International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia

WASHINGTON – [On May 17], the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) civil rights organization, marked the observance of the 2018 International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia (IDAHOTB) by spotlighting global challenges to LGBTQ equality and calling out the Trump-Pence administration for turning a blind eye to the oppression and abuse of LGBTQ people around the globe.

Millions of LGBTQ people around the world are gaining visibility and fighting for their rights, but many live in fear and isolation – and under the rule of governments that criminalize their very identities. In most countries, LGBTQ people continue to lack fundamental rights and protections, and are at risk of discrimination and violence.

Simply being LGBTQ is punishable by death in as many as 10 countries, and transgender people face an epidemic of violence and murder – including here in the US. From the HRC’s Global Fellows Program to the organization’s #EyesonChechnya campaign, the HRC is taking action to help end homophobia, transphobia, and biphobia worldwide.

Today, the HRC also launched a new Spanish-language video calling attention to challenges in Latin America and elsewhere around the world. The video features HRC Global Innovator Alba Lucía Reyes, who lost her 16-year-old son to suicide in August 2014. Sergio faced unrelenting bullying by his peers and school officials in Colombia.

Motivated by this tragedy, Reyes became an LGBTQ advocate and founded the Sergio Urrego Foundation – named after her son – to prevent suicide and promote protections for LGBTQ students. Watch the video [at https://youtu.be/es1g692Uix0].

“While the global LGBTQ community

is filled with innovative advocates advancing equality, the Trump-Pence administration has failed to stand up in support of LGBTQ people around the world – from Chechnya to Egypt and far too many other places,” said Ty Cobb, director of HRC’s global department. “This International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, it is imperative that world leaders commit to stepping up and doing more to protect the human rights of all people. Alba Lucía Reyes’ heartbreaking story should be a wake-up call for those who have been sitting on the sidelines as LGBTQ people suffer the very real consequences of homophobia, transphobia, and biphobia.”

Last week, the HRC and the Middle East Institute – the oldest Washingtonbased institution dedicated solely to the study of the region – co-hosted a panel on LGBTQ communities in the Middle East and the challenges and opportunities they face. Societies across the Middle East are still grappling with the convulsions of the Arab Spring protests, which sparked questioning of social norms across a wide variety of issues, including gender and sexuality. Since the 2011 uprisings, the LGBTQ community in the region has found itself at the heart of a widening social fissure between religious conservatives and secular democratic aspirants. While there has been progress in some areas, including a growing awareness and visible activism in Lebanon and Tunisia, there has also been a crackdown in places like Iraq and Egypt – where LGBTQ people face increasing danger and restrictions on their rights.

Video of that panel discussion is available [at https://youtu.be/G0jfVVwkNBE].

Over the last year, the HRC has also led an #EyesOnChechnya campaign to place a stronger spotlight on the continued persecu-

6 Seattle Gay News

May 18, 2018

tion of gay and bisexual men in Chechnya.

Just yesterday, the Russian government astonishingly repeated the Chechen dictator Ramzan Kadyrov’s bizarre claim that there are no gay people in Chechnya and denied that there had been any anti-LGBTQ human rights violations in Chechnya last year – despite widespread reports of abuses, eyewitness accounts, and international condemnation. the HRC has repeatedly called on administration officials to act and raise these attacks with Russian counterparts – to no avail. Earlier this spring, HRC President Chad Griffin wrote to Donald Trump urging him to speak up and condemn the atrocities as “crimes against humanity.” Both Trump and Pence have remained unconscionably silent.

HRC Global also works to advance equality around the world by bringing established and emerging LGBTQ leaders to Washington, DC, as HRC Global Fellows for short and long-term professional development opportunities. These Global Fellows work alongside HRC staff and LGBTQ and human rights activists around the world to help leverage the HRC’s domestic work in the international sphere, end discrimination against LGBTQ people, and realize a world that achieves fundamental fairness and equality for all.

The HRC also brings together advocates from around the world for the exchange of ideas and practices for advancing LGBTQ equality at the HRC’s annual Global Innovative Advocacy Summit. Through the Global Fellows program and Global Innovative Advocacy Summit, the HRC’s global alumni network includes advocates from more than 70 countries.

Some of the numbers and trends the HRC is monitoring across the globe include the following:

Marriage equality is now legal in 25 countries; 72 countries currently criminalize samesex relationships, and in up to 10 countries, same-sex relationships may be punishable by death; more than 2,600 murders of transgender people were recorded between 2008 and 2017, according to data from the Trans Murder Monitoring project; and a disturbing trend is emerging across the globe as governments in Lithuania, Nigeria, and Russia are silencing equality advocates and organizations with so-called “anti-propaganda” laws.

IDAHOTB celebrates the anniversary of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) resolution to declassify same-sex attraction as a mental disorder in 1990. The move followed a similar decision by the American Psychiatric Association in 1973. The WHO’s monumental change created a shift in how many LGBTQ people were treated.

In 2004, LGBTQ activists gathered for the first time to mark this date with rallies in support of equality. The anniversary is now marked by celebrations, governmental proclamations, and renewed efforts to end the discrimination and violence that LGBTQ people throughout the world still face.

The Human Rights Campaign is America’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people.

HRC envisions a world where LGBTQ people are embraced as full members of society at home, at work, and in every community.

Courtesy of the HRC

Celebrating 44 Years!

CALL FOR ARTISTS New Seattle AIDS Memorial Seeks Lead Design Team Artist

Deadline for Submission is May 29, 2018

SEATTLE, WA (April 24, 2018) The AMP: AIDS Memorial Pathway, community-driven and -funded, will use public art to create a physical place for remembrance and reflection; utilize technology to share stories about the epidemic and the diverse community responses to the crisis; and provide a call to action to end HIV/AIDS, stigma, and discrimination.

A passionate group of volunteers and community leaders, including people living with HIV, people of color, and members of the LGBTQIA+ community, have begun work on The AMP in partnership with the City of Seattle.

The City’s Office of Arts & Culture is conducting a national search to select the project’s lead design team artist(s), who will work with a design team of developers, architects, landscape architects, technology artists/consultants, and others to develop, plan, and scope artworks and art concepts for a community-driven memorial project honoring the impact of the AIDS epidemic on Seattle and King County.

Through extensive collaboration with the design team, careful consideration of the sites, deep investigation of the history of AIDS and those most impacted by the disease, and thorough engagement of the impacted communities, the lead design team artist(s) will scope and propose future public art projects at multiple sites in

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and around Cal Anderson Park in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, the historic and cultural center of the AIDS epidemic in King County. The memorial artworks will be integrated into both Cal Anderson Park and the Capitol Hill Transit-Oriented Development, a series of residential and commercial buildings and open spaces adjacent to the park.

An independent creative digital team, with whom the selected lead design team artist(s) will work, will be contracted separately to construct an integral Augmented/Extended Reality (A/XR) component. The A/XR technology will be instrumental to fulfilling the project goals, and this lead artist position will collaborate with the A/XR digital team to integrate art experiences into this technology platform.

Each part of The AMP should evoke different responses and provide varied experiences, while also acknowledging that they are part of a larger memorial. Participants will find themselves in an atmosphere conducive to remembrance and reflection and be led to gain awareness of the varied communities’ responses to AIDS. Through these direct experiences, the art will address social and cultural concerns in which humans face the hardships of fear, discrimination, and the bewildering loss of loved ones. AIDS was and is a crisis that affects all people, and it is a priority that this project

be accessible to the widest possible range of communities.

The call is open to established professional artists living in the United States who are over 18 years of age. The AMP encourages diversity in its collection. Artists whose work is well represented in the city’s collection are eligible to apply, but the artist selection panel will consider artistic diversity as one factor in the selection process. Students are not eligible to apply.

The deadline for submission is Tuesday, May 29, 2018, 10:59pm PDT. The AMP and the Office of Arts & Culture will share additional background information about this project, information about the selection process, and review the application process on Thursday, May 10, 2018, 12:30pm PDT. Those interested in participating in this online workshop should RSVP via email with “add me to the online workshop” in the subject line to kristen.ramirez@seattle.gov by May 3, 2018.

Information about the project’s history, site selection, current status, and additional details about the Call and a link to it are all available at TheAMP.org.

The AMP: AIDS Memorial Pathway is supported by the City of Seattle, the Seattle Parks Foundation, Pride Foundation, and individual donors.

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New Trans military ban filing from NCLR, GLAD would accelerate final court ruling to permanently stop the Trump-Pence ban

WASHINGTON, DC – Transgender military ban plaintiffs in Doe v. Trump, the first lawsuit to challenge the Trump-Pence ban, filed a cross-motion for summary judgment last night in US District Court for the District of Columbia. The plaintiffs’ motion asserts that undisputed facts show the ban, including the March 23 Mattis implementation plan, violates their Equal Protection and Due Process rights, and that the court should provide permanent declaratory and injunctive relief to prevent the Trump-Pence ban from ever being implemented.

The plaintiffs’ motion describes the ban as the only military “policy that excludes people from military service based on their membership in a class rather than on an individual’s fitness to serve” and calls out that “no other military policy excludes a class of persons from an equal opportunity to enlist or serve in the US Armed Forces.”

It also characterizes the March 23 “Mattis Plan” and panel report as “most notable for what it fails to do”: it does not and could not show that transgender people are not capable of meeting existing military standards for service. Instead, the “Mattis Plan” and panel report makes sweeping generalizations, relying on false stereotypes about mental health and deployability.

Plaintiffs also filed a separate motion last night opposing the administration’s motions to dismiss the case and to dissolve the nationwide preliminary injunction issued October 30, 2017, by District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the US District Court for the District of Columbia.

“The government’s own documents, newly obtained by discovery, show the March 23 ‘Mattis Plan’ is the same unconstitutional, categorical ban of all transgender people from military service that President Trump announced on Twitter,” said Jennifer Levi, GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) Transgender Rights Project Director. “There is no reason to treat transgender people so unfairly. The Plaintiffs seek nothing more than to be held to the same standards applied to all other servicemembers.”

“By the military’s own count, thousands of transgender servicemembers are currently serving – one of our Doe plaintiffs has in fact served multiple tours of duty abroad, two in Iraq,” said Shannon Minter, National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) Legal Director. “The ban erodes military readiness and would be the only military policy to exclude otherwise qualified people for who they are rather than their fitness to serve.”

Arguments from the plaintiffs’ filings: The Trump-Pence transgender mili-

LGBTQ YOUTH continued from cover

ing to HRC, it is the largest survey of LGBT teens ever conducted in the US. The respondents self-identify as LGBTQ and were asked over 150 questions from April to December 2017.

Of the respondents, 34% identify as Trans or nonbinary, 34% identify as Bisexual, and 37% identify as Gay or Lesbian.

An astounding 85% of them rate their average stress at 5 or higher on a 1-to-10point scale. Fully 95% report having trouble sleeping at night.

Although 77% reported feeling depressed in the week before being interviewed, only 41% received counseling in the last year.

“My fear keeps me from seeing a coun-

tary ban harms military readiness by irrationally excluding qualified transgender servicemembers.

The Trump administration’s March 23 “Mattis Plan” excludes transgender people from service based on their transgender status, rather than on any medical basis.

The “Mattis Plan” is the same categorical ban on trans service tweeted by President Trump despite its alleged “exception” for transgender people who serve in their birth sex. Just as a policy requiring Muslims to serve in the military only if they renounce their faith would be a ban on military service

disorders, but the military does not exclude women from service.

Defendants’ unit cohesion arguments boil down to a claim that, “simply by existing as such, transgender people undermine sexbased standards.” If “that claim were sufficient to justify barring transgender people from military service, it would also justify their exclusion from any, and all, institutions that maintain sex-based criteria for facilities, including schools, workplaces, public accommodations, and beyond” – something courts across the country have repeatedly dismissed.

Image courtesy of NCLR

by Muslims, a policy requiring transgender individuals to serve in their birth sex is a ban on military service by transgender people. It is also similar to the earlier failed argument, uniformly rejected by courts, that laws limiting marriage only to male-female couples did not discriminate against gay people because a gay person could marry a person of the opposite sex.

The Trump administration’s own documents, obtained through discovery, show that that the process leading to the “Mattis Plan” was specifically undertaken to produce a policy consistent with Trump’s complete ban on transgender service.

Rather than providing a valid reason to treat transgender people differently, the plan relies on gender stereotypes and sweeping generalizations about the roles and capabilities of transgender people.

Excluding qualified, fit candidates from service based on sweeping group-based generalizations is irrational. For example, depression, anxiety, and suicide are more common among white people than black people, but the military does not bar white people from service. And women are twice as likely as men to suffer from anxiety

Background: June 30, 2016: The United States Department of Defense (DOD) adopted a policy permitting transgender people to serve in the military based on a nearly two year DOD review determining that there was no valid reason to exclude qualified personnel from military service simply because they are transgender.

July 26, 2017: President Trump tweeted that “the United States Government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the US Military.”

August 9, 2017: NCLR and GLAD filed Doe v. Trump, the first lawsuit filed to stop the ban, challenging its constitutionality and requesting that the court issue a nation-

selor about things like my anxiety and depression,” one respondent explained.

“I don’t know how they’d react [to my LGBTQ identity], so I’d rather go online to talk to my other queer friends about it.”

LGBT young people of color face even greater challenges, the survey found. Four out of five said they experience racism in their day-to-day lives, and only 11% believe other people regard their race positively.

“Being black already makes life hard,” one person said. “Adding being gay on top of that is extremely difficult.”

For Trans youth, over half (51%) can never use bathrooms or locker rooms that correspond with their gender identity. Most of them (58%) say this is because they don’t feel safe, while 46% say they don’t know if the school allows access to gender-appropriate restrooms. Seventeen percent say they

know the school does not allow them to use appropriate restrooms.

Only one in three say they are called by their true name in school, and only one in five are addressed with their proper pronouns in school.

Twenty percent reported they were forced to do sexual things they did not want to do during the previous year. Another 77% said they were targeted with unwanted sexual comments, jokes, and gestures.

Fully one half of all Trans girls say they’ve been physically threatened.

A total of 70% of respondents said they experienced bullying at their school.

“At my school, LGBTQ topics aren’t really discussed,” one student reported.

Only 27% feel they can “definitely” be themselves at school. Only 13% reported hearing positive messages about the

LGBTQ community, and only 26% feel safe in school.

Only 5% said teachers and school staff are LGBTQ allies and supportive of the community.

In spite of these statistics, just 19 states – including Washington state – plus the District of Columbia have laws protecting students from bullying. Another 13 plus DC have anti-discrimination laws specifically for schools.

The report ends with advice for schools and families about helping LGBTQ youth.

This includes listening and learning about LGBTQ issues, getting involved in the lives of LGBT teens, and watching for signs of bullying.

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With this filing, both the Trump administration and Doe v. Trump transgender military ban plaintiffs have now indicated to the court there are no factual disputes in this case that would need to be resolved by a trial. If Judge Kollar-Kotelly grants summary judgment in favor of the plaintiffs, the court would permanently block the Trump-Pence transgender military ban from taking effect.

wide preliminary injunction to stop it from taking effect while the case is being heard in court.

August 25, 2017: President Trump issued a memorandum ordering Secretary of Defense James Mattis to submit “a plan for implementing” the ban by February 21, 2018. Secretary Mattis delivered this (the “Mattis Plan” and panel report) to President Trump on February 22, 2018.

October 30, 2017: The United States District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that Doe v. Trump plaintiffs had established a likelihood of success on their claim that President Trump’s ban violates equal protection, that plaintiffs would be irreparably harmed without a preliminary injunction to stop the ban, and that the public interest and balance of hardships weighed in favor of granting injunctive relief and temporarily halting the ban while the case is heard by the court.

March 23, 2018: President Trump accepts the “Mattis Plan” and issues a memorandum in which he “revoked” his August 25 memorandum.

April 20, 2018: Defendants file a motion to dissolve the October 30 nationwide preliminary injunction enjoining the transgender military ban issued by the US District Court for the District of Columbia; a motion to dismiss Plaintiffs’ Second Amended Complaint; and a Motion for Summary Judgment.

May 11, 2018: Plaintiffs file their crossmotion for summary judgment, as well as motions in opposition to Defendant’s motions to dissolve the injunction and dismiss Plaintiffs’ complaint.

The NCLR and GLAD have been at the center of the legal fight challenging the Trump-Pence transgender military ban since filing Doe v. Trump, the first of four cases filed against the ban, on August 9, 2017.

The National Center for Lesbian Rights is a national legal organization committed to advancing the human and civil rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community through litigation, public policy advocacy, and public education. www.NCLRights.org Through strategic litigation, public policy advocacy, and education, GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders works in New England and nationally to create a just society free of discrimination based on gender identity and expression, HIV status, and sexual orientation. www.GLAD.org Courtesy of the National Center for Lesbian Rights

As California STD rates skyrocket, AHF highlights new “Gonorrhea Alert” billboards

LOS ANGELES – The AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) launched its latest national outdoor advertising and awareness campaign with new billboards raising an alarm and offering a “Gonorrhea Alert” about drug-resistant strains of the sexually transmitted disease – including a case of what has been referred to as “super gonorrhea” reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) by physicians in the United Kingdom earlier this year.

The new Gonorrhea Alert billboards, which [were] posted this past week in Los Angeles and are going up nationwide over the next two weeks, come on the heels of an alarming new report out by the California Department of Public Health this week showing all-time high numbers of STDs in California: • chlamydia, up 9% in 2017 in California from 2016 (218,710 cases, and the highest number since reporting began in 1990); • gonorrhea, up 16% in 2017 to 75,450 California cases, with 33% found among those under age 25; and • syphilis, up 20% to 13,605 cases – the highest number in California since 1987.

The artwork on the gonorrhea billboards feature a dramatic microscopic of image the Neisseria gonorrhea strain resistant to antibiotics. At first glance, the billboard art resembles a poster for a possible new Hollywood science-fiction movie. The billboards first appeared throughout Los Angeles starting the week of May 14th, and then will be posted over the next two weeks in more than a dozen other cities and communities nationwide where AHF has operations.

The “Gonorrhea Alert” campaign follows a prior “Syphilis Is Serious” AHF campaign launched earlier this year highlighting prevention and treatment of syphilis. Both campaigns drive the public to AHF’s www.FreeSTDCheck.org website to learn more about the diseases and find locations to access free STD testing and affordable care for the treatment of gonorrhea, chlamydia, and syphilis through AHF. Gonorrhea is one of the most commonly reported STDs in the United States, with more cases than syphilis but fewer cases than chlamydia. According to the CDC,

Image courtesy of AHF

there were close to half a million cases of gonorrhea (468,514) in the US in 2016, with at least 3.6% of that population showing resistance to antibiotics used to treat the infection. And while antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea is not a new public health issue, health care professionals no longer have a treatment replacement for the current dualtherapy or two-drug regimen, which makes cases of drug-resistant gonorrhea more concerning (see https://www.cdc.gov/std/ gonorrhea/arg/basic.htm for the CDC page on antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea information) – and so-called cases of “super gonorrhea” even more so.

“AHF has been sounding the alarm on rising STD rates through our outdoor advertising campaigns and Wellness Centers for several years now, including with our prior syphilis campaigns that made headlines around the world. Yet we continue to see an inadequate response from the CDC and the drug companies to address the growing public health threats posed by these infections, particularly those that may be medication resistant,” said AHF President Michael Weinstein. “We all need to keep making the public aware of and encourage sexually active individuals to get tested for STDs on a regular basis – and be treated, if and as necessary – and to also use tools like condoms to prevent or reduce the likelihood of infections.”

Below are the markets where the “DrugResistant Gonorrhea Alert” campaign will

run. As noted, Los Angeles will start the week of May 14th (with some LA locations already posted). Artwork in the other markets will [be] post[ed] toward the end of the month. In the markets outside of Los Angeles, the advertising mediums include the following: bulletins (billboards); “street furniture” (transit shelters and bus benches), and transit (station platforms, rails, and buses).

Participating ‘Gonorrhea Alert’ campaign cities/locales: California • Los Angeles • Oakland Florida • South Beach, Miami • Miami • Broward County • Jacksonville Illinois • Chicago New York • Queens Nevada • Las Vegas Ohio • Cleveland • Columbus Texas • Dallas • Houston Washington, DC AHF has been promoting sexual health and STD screening through its innovative

billboard campaigns for the past several years in response to the overall skyrocketing rates of STDs nationwide, particularly among young people and men who have sex with men.

The “Gonorrhea Alert” billboard campaign is a follow-up and parallels AHF’s syphilis prevention and treatment billboard campaigns that have included “Syphilis Is Serious” billboards, which launched earlier this year, and the “Syphilis Explosion” outdoor advertising campaign, which first starting running in 2014. That campaign was followed by AHF’s “Syphilis Tsunami” campaign, which ran in Los Angeles in 2016.

To find locations for free STD/HIV screening, visit www.freestdcheck.org.

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest global AIDS organization, currently provides medical care and/or services to over 894,000 individuals in 39 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Asia/Pacific region, and Eastern Europe. To learn more about AHF, please visit our website, www. aidshealth.org; find us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/aidshealth; and follow us @aidshealthcare.

Courtesy of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation

Melissa Febos named winner of the Jeanne Córdova Prize for Lesbian/Queer Nonfiction

LOS ANGELES – Lambda Literary, the nation’s leading national nonprofit organization promoting LGBTQ literature, is pleased to announce that Melissa Febos has been named winner of the inaugural Jeanne Córdova Prize for Lesbian/ Queer Nonfiction.

Lambda Literary’s Jeanne Córdova Prize for Lesbian/Queer Nonfiction, in memory of the beloved activist and author, honors lesbian/queer-identified women and trans/gender-nonconforming nonfiction authors. The award goes to a writer committed to nonfiction work that captures the depth and complexity of lesbian/queer life, culture, and/or history.

Judges Lynn Harris Ballen, Judith Branzburg, and Claudia Rodriguez were unanimous in choosing Melissa Febos as the winner for this prize from among a large group of wonderfully talented lesbian/ queer nonfiction writers who submitted their work.

From the judges: “The fearless intimacy of Febos’ past writing captures depth and complexity through a lesbian/queer lens.

The raw and lyrical work in her upcoming collection of essays Girlhood –about

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The award includes a cash prize of $2,500. Febos will be recognized as the winner of the Córdova Prize at the 30th annual Lambda Literary Awards ceremony on June 4th in New York City.

Tickets to the awards gala can be purchased at Lambda’s website.

Melissa Febos – Photo courtesy of Lambda Literary

coming of age queer and female in America – illustrates that she continues to be committed to producing groundbreaking lesbian/queer nonfiction.”

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Melissa Febos is the author of the memoir Whip Smart (St. Martin’s Press, 2010) and the essay collection Abandon Me (Bloomsbury, 2017), which is a Lambda Literary Award finalist, a Publishing Triangle Award finalist, and an Indie Next Pick, and was named a Best Book of 2017

by Esquire, Book Riot, The Cut, Electric Literature, Bustle, Medium, Refinery29, The Brooklyn Rail, Salon, The Rumpus, and others. Her second essay collection, Girlhood (Bloomsbury), will be published in 2019. Her work has appeared in The Kenyon Review, Tin House, Granta, The Believer, the New York Times, the New York Times Book Review, Lenny Letter, The Guardian, Elle, Vogue, and elsewhere, and she is the recipient of prizes and fellowships from Prairie Schooner, Story Quarterly, the Bread Loaf Writers Conference,

the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, the Vermont Studio Center, the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Ragdale, the BAU Institute, and the MacDowell Colony.

An associate professor of creative writing at Monmouth University, she serves on the board of directors for VIDA: Women in Literary Arts and lives in Brooklyn.

Lambda Literary believes Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer literature is fundamental to the preservation of our culture, and that LGBTQ lives are affirmed when our stories are written, published, and read. LL’s programs include the Lambda Literary Awards, the Writers Retreat for Emerging LGBTQ Voices, LGBTQ Writers in Schools, Lambda LitFest LA, and the web magazine the Lambda Literary Review at www.

LambdaLiterary.org. For more information, call (323) 643-4281 or email admin@ lambdaliterary.org.

Courtesy of Lambda Literary

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British Labour Party ditches transphobes “They didn’t belong here anyway,” party official says

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer More than 300 women said they would quit Britain’s Labour Party May 1, in protest over leader Jeremy Corbin’s new pro-Trans policy.

The group were part of a small but vocal minority of Labour women who object to the party’s “all-women shortlists” being open to Trans women.

A “shortlist” is a list of potential parliamentary candidates from which a party ultimately chooses a candidate to run in a particular constituency. All-women lists are designed to ensure a gender-balanced parliamentary group.

The Labour platform, passed when Corbin assumed leadership of the party, states that Trans people who self-identify as women are welcome to join the shortlist even if they haven’t physically transitioned.

This has sparked opposition from some “essentialist” Labour women. The group Mayday4Women said they would leave the party if Trans women were included in the candidate lists.

“We are dismayed at the Labour Party’s support for sex as a self-identified characteristic for all-women shortlists,” the group wrote in a letter to the Times of London.

“We now face a situation in which any man can simply claim to be a woman and be included on all-women shortlists.

“Sex is not a self-defined characteristic, and it is disingenuous for Labour to pretend that it is. Self-identity – ‘I am what I say I am’ – reeks of male authority and male supremacy.

“It is for that reason that we – alongside 300 other women – are resigning from the

Trans Women’s Officer Lily Madigan and Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn – Photo courtesy of Lily Madigan / Facebook

Labour Party today [May 1],” the letter read.

In response, Lily Madigan, the first Transgender woman to become the Labour Party’s Women’s Officer, said “good riddance.”

“Women who don’t share our party’s fundamental values are right to leave,” she said.

“If some transphobes want to leave Labour because of its support of an evidently vulnerable and underrepresented group, they can be my guests.

“If hating people like me is more important than fighting to beat the Tories, they didn’t belong here anyway,” she added.

Madigan noted that Trans people face higher levels of discrimination all around, including minimal representation in Parliament, higher rates of sexual assault, belittling attitudes from men, and social media abuse.

“Labour are very clear that transphobia is against party rules. Labour’s most important principle is the pursuit of socialism and

everything that comes with that – chiefly, equality,” she said.

When Madigan first became a Women’s Officer for the Labour Party last year, she was targeted for abuse on social media. In response, the hashtag “I stand with Lily” began trending on social media.

Madigan called for more Trans and nonbinary people to run for elected office.

HRC partners with IBM to promote LGBT workplace equality across the Americas WASHINGTON, DC – [On May 16], the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation, the educational arm of America’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) civil rights organization, in partnership with IBM, the world’s largest information technology employer, is launching a two-week, five-country series of business workshops across Latin America to promote LGBT workplace inclusion.

The forums will bring together hundreds of corporate leaders and civil society stakeholders to bolster greater LGBT inclusion in Colombia, Chile, Peru, Argentina, and Mexico, building off the success of HRC’s in-country programs in Mexico, Equidad MX: Programa Global de Equidad Laboral; and Chile, Equidad CL: Programa Global de Equidad Laboral, “As HRC expands its partnerships across the Americas, we are excited to join IBM in these meetings of Latin and global businesses, where we will be sharing strategies for best practices and, most importantly, developing actionable steps to create more welcoming and inclusive workplaces for LGBT employees,” said Deena Fidas, HRC Director of HRC Equidad MX and HRC Foundation’s Workplace Equality Program. “Through this initiative, we are exploring new opportunities to expand our efforts to raise the level of LGBT engagement across the Americas.”

“Promoting talent and inclusive workplaces for all employees is an intrinsic part of our corporate values. Our long-standing commitment to LGBT equality has paved the way to expand these efforts across borders,” said Tony Tenicela, IBM Global

Photo courtesy of HRC

Leader, Marketplace Diversity and Workplace Engagement Services. “When we incorporate inclusive policies and practices into our business, we create opportunities for employees to achieve their full potential.

IBM is proud to provide a workplace environment where employees are free to be who they are, and we are especially proud to serve as models for diversity and inclusion for employers across Latin America.”

Bolstered by the partnership with IBM and with the support of Pride Connection chapters, the preeminent international group of LGBT-committed employers, the HRC Workplace Equality Program business workshops will bring together a diverse group of experts to discuss LGBT-

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inclusive trends and the economic impact of workplace inclusion in the region. The program will also be providing new Spanish-language business resources to help corporate leaders train employers and build LGBT-inclusive environments.

Earlier this year, the HRC Workplace Equality Program successfully launched two in-country surveys in Mexico and Chile evaluating LGBT inclusion among large employers and multinationals.

HRC’s Equidad MX and Equidad CL use a business assessment model based on HRC’s Corporate Equality Index (CEI), the premier benchmarking tool on corporate LGBTQ policies and practices in the United States, to evaluate and promote

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LGBT workplace inclusion.

HRC’s Latin American engagement connects key leaders and major employers to advance an internal economic case for LGBT workplace inclusion and develop strategies to achieve a long-lasting regional impact. Through HRC’s Workplace Equality Program and the CEI, the HRC Foundation has established LGBT-inclusive guidelines, business toolkits, and resources to promote LGBT inclusion in businesses around the world.

HRC is proud to join with IBM, Pride Connection, and partner organizations to kick off its series of business workshops in the following cities: • May 16 – Bogotá, Colombia • May 18 – Santiago, Chile • May 21 – Lima, Peru • May 23 – Buenos Aires, Argentina • May 25 – Mexico City, Mexico For more information on HRC’s Workplace Equality Program in Mexico and Chile or to access HRC’s Spanish-language business resources, please visit hrc.im/ equidadMX and hrc.im/equidadCL. The Human Rights Campaign Foundation is the educational arm of America’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people. HRC envisions a world where LGBTQ people are embraced as full members of society at home, at work, and in every community.

Courtesy of the HRC

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