SGN January 13, 2017 - Section 1

Celebrating 43 Years!

Issue 2 Volume 45

Come find Finding Neverland

Queer Resurgence Poetry: Jan. 22-24

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They’re baaack!

HRC proud to join social Backholm group files new justice actions standing bathroom initiative for equality in D.C.

Joseph Backholm – Photo courtesy of youtube.com

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer Just Want Privacy – the group that brought us I-1515 last year – has filed a new initiative aimed at preventing Transgender

Washingtonians from using gender-appropriate restrooms.

Although the group is still headed by see BACKHOLM page 16

HRC President Chad Griffin – Photo courtesy of hrc.org

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s largest Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) civil rights organization, announced that it is proud to both

sponsor and join in major social justice actions next week in the nation’s capital, raising up our shared and continuing fight for see HRC page 15

Pramila Jayapal rockets President Obama into congressional reportedly considering freeing Chelsea Manning leadership roles

Chelsea Manning – photo courtesy of motherjones.com

by Shaun Knittel SGN Associate Editor President Barak Obama is reportedly considering a commutation for former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning.

A Justice Department source told reporters that Manning was on the president’s “short list” for commutations.

Manning has already spent more than six see MANNING page 15

Pramila Jayapal – Photo courtesy of pramilaforcongress.com

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer Newly elected Rep. Pramila Jayapal announced on January 11 that she has been brought into the Democratic leadership team as a senior whip.

In that capacity, she will work with Steny Hoyer, the #2 man in the House Democratic hierarchy, to coordinate legislative strategy and mobilize her fellow Democrats for votes. see PRAMILA page 5

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Celebrating 41 Years!

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January 13, 2017

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Meryl Streep’s Golden Globe speech WOWS the world

by MK Scott SGN Contributing Writer

Last Sunday (January 8) at the 74th Golden Globe Awards as Meryl Streep was accepting the Cecille B. DeMille Lifetime achievement award, Meryl didn’t focus on herself and, as classy as she is, she made a speech about President-elect, Donald Trump, without even saying his name. It was a beautiful and powerful speech and with such an international fan base she let us all know how concerned she (and many of us) are about the future of our country.

Of course, on the next day, Trump took to twitter to attack the living legend truly, showing that he can’t take criticism even from the most respected star in Hollywood.

Here is the speech, where Ms. Streep talks about Hollywood, foreigners and the press: Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Please sit down.

Please sit down. Thank you. I love you all.

You’ll have to forgive me. I’ve lost my voice in screaming and lamentation this week and I have lost my mind sometime earlier this year so I have to read.

Thank you, Hollywood Foreign Press.

Just to pick up on what Hugh Laurie said.

You and all of us in this room really belong to the most vilified segments in American society right now. Think about it: Hollywood, foreigners and the press.

But, who are we, and, you know, what is Hollywood anyway? It’s just a bunch of people from other places. I was born and raised and educated in the public schools of New Jersey. Viola was born in a sharecropper’s cabin in South Carolina, came up in Central Falls, Rhode Island; Sarah Paulson was born in Florida, raised by a single mom in Brooklyn. Sarah Jessica Parker was one of seven or eight kids from Ohio. Amy Adams was born in Vicenza, Veneto, Italy.

And Natalie Portman was born in Jerusalem. Where are their birth certificates? And the beautiful Ruth Negga was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, raised in London – no, in Ireland, I do believe, and she’s here nominated for playing a small-town girl from

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January 13, 2017

Meryl Streep accepting her Golden Globe Cecille B. DeMille Lifetime achievement award – Photo courtesy of Paul Drinkwater/NBC

Virginia. Ryan Gosling, like all the nicest people, is Canadian, and Dev Patel was born in Kenya, raised in London, and is here playing an Indian raised in Tasmania. So Hollywood is crawling with outsiders and foreigners. And if we kick ‘em all out you’ll have nothing to watch but football and mixed martial arts, which are not the arts.

They gave me three seconds to say this, so: An actor’s only job is to enter the lives of people who are different from us, and let you feel what that feels like. And there were many, many, many powerful performances this year that did exactly that. Breathtaking, compassionate work.

But there was one performance this year that stunned me. It sank its hooks in my heart. Not because it was good; there was nothing good about it. But it was effective and it did its job. It made its intended audience laugh, and show their teeth. It was that moment when the person asking to sit in the most respected seat in our country imitated a disabled reporter. Someone he outranked in privilege, power and the capacity to fight back. It kind of broke my heart when I saw it, and I still can’t get it out of my head, because it wasn’t in a movie. It was real life. And this instinct to humiliate, when it’s modeled by someone in the public platform, by someone powerful, it filters down into everybody’s life, because it kinda gives permission for

other people to do the same thing. Disrespect invites disrespect, violence incites violence. And when the powerful use their position to bully others we all lose.

O.K., go on with it.

O.K., this brings me to the press. We need the principled press to hold power to account, to call him on the carpet for every outrage. That’s why our founders enshrined the press and its freedoms in our Constitution. So I only ask the famously well-heeled Hollywood Foreign Press and all of us in our community to join me in supporting the Committee to Protect Journalists, because we’re gonna need them going forward, and they’ll need us to safeguard the truth.

One more thing.

Once, when I was standing around on the set one day, whining about something – you know, we were gonna work through supper or the long hours or whatever, Tommy Lee Jones said to me, “Isn’t it such a privilege, Meryl, just to be an actor?” Yeah, it is, and we have to remind each other of the privilege and the responsibility of the act of empathy. We should all be very proud of the work Hollywood honors here tonight.

As my friend, the dear departed Princess Leia, said to me once, “Take your broken heart, make it into art.”

Thank you, friend.

Celebrating 41 Years!

Five ways repealing the Affordable Care Act will impact Washingtonians

by Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-7) Special to the SGN President-elect Donald Trump and the congressional Republicans have called to repeal the Affordable Care Act, privatize Medicare, make massive cuts to Medicaid, increase prescription drug prices, and defund Planned Parenthood – taking away health care from millions of working families across the country.

“Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, thousands of families in Washington state have been able to get quality, affordable health care,” said Rep. Jayapal. “Now, Republicans in Congress want to strip away health coverage from working families already struggling to make ends meet.

“Health care is a right, not a privilege.

Instead of rolling back the progress we’ve made, we need to strengthen and expand the Affordable Care Act,” added Jayapal.

If Republicans are successful, 775,000 people in Washington state will lose lifesaving health care. Here are five ways repealing the Affordable Care Act will directly harm the people of Washington: 1. Young people in the state under the age of 26 will not be able to get health coverage under their parents’ plan. Currently, about 55,000 young people in Washington have taken advantage of the Affordable Care Act by staying on their parents’ health insurance. A repeal of the law means they will be forced to purchase their own health insurance, or take the risk of staying uninsured.

2. Washington women would have to pay more for health care. Before the Affordable Care Act, women were forced to

PRAMILA

continued from cover “I’m pleased to welcome Rep. Jayapal to Congress and to my whip team,” Hoyer said.

“She’s hit the ground running since her arrival, and she’s already hard at work representing the people of Washington’s 7th District, drawing on her experience as a state legislator and an advocate for social justice. I look forward to working with her to ensure that House Democrats provide a strong response to Republican policies that would harm working families and threaten equal justice under our laws.”

Image courtesy of valuewalk.com

pay out of pocket for basic preventive health care like routine breast cancer screenings, birth control, and Pap tests.

3. If the Affordable Care Act is repealed, nearly 4 million Washingtonians who rely on employer-sponsored health care will be impacted. The Affordable Care Act gives tax incentives to encourage small business owners to provide health

coverage to their employees.

4. More than 50,000 Washingtonians who have gained health care due to Medicaid expansion will lose health coverage. The Affordable Care Act expanded Medicaid, giving life-saving coverage to thousands of Washingtonians who couldn’t afford health care before.

5. People with pre-existing conditions

could be denied coverage. In Washington, almost 3 million people have a pre-existing condition. Repealing the Affordable Care Act would allow insurance companies to go back to the days when they could deny coverage to individuals with pre-existing conditions like diabetes, cancer, or asthma.

Jayapal was also elected vice chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC), where she will also serve as liaison to the CPC for women’s issues.

“As a leader in the progressive caucus, Jayapal will fight for progressive policy solutions like a $15 per hour national minimum wage, comprehensive immigration reform, debt-free college, criminal justice reform, protecting women’s reproductive rights, and gun violence reform,” her office said in a statement.

“It’s an honor and a privilege to serve in these leadership positions in the 115th Congress,” Jayapal said.

“With the nominations of Sen. Jeff Sessions, Betsy DeVos, and Andy Puzder to

powerful cabinet posts, the Trump administration continues to threaten to roll back the decades of progress we’ve made in this country. It’s never been clearer that we need to stand together and fight for working families who are struggling to make ends meet, protect our democratic values, and fiercely defend our civil liberties and civil rights.”

On January 10, the House of Representatives announced that Jayapal would serve on the House Judiciary Committee, replacing Washington Rep. Suzan DelBene, who moved to the Ways and Means Committee.

“I got my first-choice committee,” Jayapal wrote on her Facebook page.

“I get to stand for immigrant rights, human rights, civil rights, criminal justice

reform, voting rights, women’s rights, intellectual property, and civil liberties.”

Jayapal represents Washington’s 7th Congressional District, which takes in most of Seattle, all of Vashon Island, Edmonds, Shoreline, Kenmore, and parts of Burien and Normandy Park.

She was elected to replace retiring congressman and progressive icon Jim McDermott. Jayapal was previously a state senator representing the 37th Legislative District, and she was the founder and first executive director of the immigrant rights group OneAmerica.

Gender Justice League and partners hosts name and gender marker change legal clinic Gender Justice League in partnership with Q-Law Legal Foundation, Teller and Associates, U.T.O.P.I.A., and King County Bar Association will be holding a name and gender marker change legal clinic on January 15 prior to the presidential inauguration. The clinic is in response to requests by hundreds of Transgender community members who have expressed concerns about the incoming administration making access to accurate identification and changes in gender markers or names more difficult.

The purpose of this clinic is to provide expedited legal services for the 4 out of 5 trans and gender-diverse people without accurate identification documentation. The clinic provides access to volunteer attor-

neys who will help fill out and understand the necessary paperwork and medical providers who will consult with patients and write same-day-letters at no cost for gender marker changes. People who meet the income guidelines will receive financial assistance with their applications.

The clinic will be held at The Cloud Room, 1424 11th Ave. in Capitol Hill, Seattle from 10am-1pm. The building is ADA accessible. The clinic is also providing Spanish language and ASL interpretation.

To RSVP for the upcoming clinic, contact the Gender Justice League via email at info@genderjusticeleague.org or visit http://www.genderjusticeleague.org/.

Gender Justice League aims to raise

Visit us online www.sgn.org

$40,000 by January 20th in order to provide financial assistance to those who cannot afford the fees associated with changing one’s identity documents. Services provided include assistance with name change in King County, driver’s license changes, immigration document changes, social security changes, birth certificate changes, and passport changes. Costs for changes range from $20.00 for name changes on birth certificates to $171.00 for a King County name change. Together, the average cost is nearly $500 per person. Additionally, the clinic will be taking on-site passport photos.

Gender Justice League and its partners believe that having legal and up-to-date

identification documentation is a vital step in protecting the trans and gender-diverse community’s safety in a time of increasing hate-crimes against the LQBTQIA community. Many in the trans community fear that the incoming federal administration will make gender marker changes on ID significantly more difficult. Without upto-date ID documentation, the trans and gender-diverse community faces increased chances of housing, employment, travel, and education challenges.

January 13, 2017

Seattle Gay News 5

Courtesy of Gender Justice League

Lesbian author Sarah Schulman at Seattle Central Library on Jan. 17

by Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore Special to the SGN SARAH SCHULMAN CONFLICT IS NOT ABUSE: OVERSTATING HARM, COMMUNITY RESPONSIBILITY, AND THE DUTY TO REPAIR IN CONVERSATION WITH MATTILDA BERNSTEIN SYCAMORE SEATTLE CENTRAL LIBRARY January 17 I’m writing because I’m teaming up with the Seattle Central Library to bring Sarah Schulman here on January 17 (Seattle Central Library, 1000 4th Ave., Microsoft Auditorium; doors at 6:30pm, event at 7pm) to talk about her new book, Conflict Is Not Abuse: Overstating Harm, Community Responsibility, and the Duty of Repair.

I’m sure you’re familiar with Sarah’s work over the last several decades as a nationally-renowned writer and AIDS activist, one of the first journalists to write about AIDS in the 1980s, as well as the co-director of

the ACT UP Oral History Project, co-producer of United in Anger: A History of ACT UP, and the widely-respected author of 18 books. This will be Sarah’s first reading in Seattle in well over a decade, and it’s about time! (This event is FREE.) Described by bell hooks as “a vision of mutual recognition and accountability that liberates,” Conflict Is Not Abuse is a searing rejection of the cultural phenomena of blame, cruelty, and scapegoating. Schulman examines the moment where discomfort leads to overreaction in personal relations, in group dynamics, between governments and civilians, and between nations.

She addresses police brutality, the anti-violence movement, HIV criminalization, the Israeli occupation of Palestine, and many other hot-button issues, exposing the tragic trajectory from oppressed to oppressor, in order to illuminate a path toward de-escalation of conflict. While the book starts by scrutinizing the dynamics of intimate relationships, it is ultimately about saving lives.

Claudia Rankine says, “It’s impossible to be invested in the world and not be invested in this groundbreaking and challenging book.”

Hope to see you there!

BIOS: Sarah Schulman is the author of eighteen books: the novels The Cosmopolitans; The Mere Future; The Child; Rat Bohemia; Shimmer; Empathy; After Delores; People In Trouble; Girls, Visions and Everything; and The Sophie Horowitz Story; the nonfiction works Conflict Is Not Abuse: Overstating Harm, Community Responsibility, and the Duty of Repair; The Gentrification of the Mind: Witness To a Lost Imagination; Israel/Palestine and the Queer International; Ties That Bind: Familial Homophobia and Its Consequences; Stagestruck: Theater, AIDS and the Marketing of Gay America and My American History: Lesbian and Gay Life During the Reagan/Bush Years; and the plays Mercy and Carson McCullers. She is co-author with Cheryl Dunye of the movies The Owls and Mommy is Coming, and co-producer with Jim Hubbard of the feature United in Anger: A History of ACT UP. She is co-director of the ACT UP Oral History Project. Her awards include the 2009 Kessler Award for

“Sustained Contribution to LGBT Studies” from the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Fulbright Fellowship, and two American Library Association Book Awards, and she was a Finalist for the Prix de Rome. She lives in New York, where she is Distinguished Professor of English at City University of New York (College of Staten Island) and a Fellow at the New York Institute for the Humanities at NYU. Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore is the author of a memoir and two novels, and the editor of five nonfiction anthologies.

Her latest title, The End of San Francisco, won a Lambda Literary Award, and her most recent anthology, Why Are Faggots So Afraid of Faggots?: Flaming Challenges to Masculinity, Objectification, and the Desire to Conform, was an American Library Association Stonewall Honor Book. She recently finished a third novel, Sketchtasy, and is the host of “Contagious Exchanges: Queer Writers in Conversation,” a monthly reading series at Hugo House on first Wednesdays.

Kerry apologizes to LGBT State Department employees for past discrimination

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer Secretary of State John Kerry formally apologized on January 9 for past discrimination against LGBT State Department employees.

While not explicitly mentioning the socalled “Lavender Scare” purge of Gays and Lesbians from US government jobs in the 1950s and 1960s, the move follows a late November appeal from Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland that he make the apology to victims of the Lavender Scare.

Thousands of federal employees were fired during that period, many of them from the State Department, some on grounds that their perceived sexual orientation could put them at risk for blackmail.

The apology comes less than two weeks before President Barack Obama leaves office, making the way for the Trump team.

GLIFAA, an organization made up of LGBT employees of the State Department, said in a statement that it appreciated Kerry’s apology.

“Secretary Kerry’s acknowledgment of historic discrimination against LGBT employees at the State Department comes as GLIFAA celebrates its 25th anniversary,” the group noted.

“We wish more of our LGBT colleagues targeted by discrimination were alive to see the progress our country has made, and we celebrate their legacy by continuing to work for full equality for LGBT employees of foreign service agencies.”

President Obama has made a priority of increasing the diversity of the federal workforce during his eight years in office, even saying that inclusion is important for US national security. Many of the pro-LGBT policies pursued by the Obama administration have centered on the State Department.

In 2015, Kerry named the first special envoy for LGBT issues. The envoy, Randy Berry, has traveled to many countries urging more

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Secretary of State John Kerry apologizes for past descriminations against State LGBT employees – Photo by Andrew Harnik/AP

humane treatment of their LGBT residents.

Secretary Kerry’s full statement follows: “Throughout my career, including as Secretary of State, I have stood strongly in support of the LGBTI community, recognizing that respect for human rights must include respect for all individuals. LGBTI employees serve as proud members of the State Department and valued colleagues dedicated to the service of our country. For the past several years, the Department has

January 13, 2017

pressed for the families of LGBTI officers to have the same protections overseas as families of other officers. In 2015, to further promote LGBTI rights throughout the world, I appointed the first-ever Special Envoy for the Human Rights of LGBTI Persons.

“In the past – as far back as the 1940s, but continuing for decades – the Department of State was among many public and private employers that discriminated against employees and job applicants on the

basis of perceived sexual orientation, forcing some employees to resign or refusing to hire certain applicants in the first place.

These actions were wrong then, just as they would be wrong today. On behalf of the Department, I apologize to those who were impacted by the practices of the past and reaffirm the Department’s steadfast commitment to diversity and inclusion for all our employees, including members of the LGBTI community.”

Celebrating 41 Years!

Judiciary Committee Dems go easy on Jeff Sessions

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer “If one is to be attorney general, they must be willing to continue the hallowed tradition in our country of fighting for justice for all, for equal justice, for civil rights,” Sen. Cory Booker told the Senate Judiciary Committee at its January 9 hearing on Donald Trump’s nomination of Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama as attorney general. “Sen. Sessions’ record does not speak to that desire or will.”

“Sen. Sessions has not demonstrated a commitment to a central requisite of the job: to aggressively pursue the congressional mandate of civil rights, equal rights, and justice for all of our citizens,” Booker continued. “In fact, at numerous times in his career, he has demonstrated a hostility towards these convictions and has worked to frustrate attempts to advance these ideals.”

Booker was joined in his testimony against the Sessions nomination by civil rights icon and congressman John Lewis.

“It doesn’t matter how Sen. Sessions may smile, how friendly he may be, how he may speak to you, but we need someone who’s going to stand up, speak up, and speak out for the people who need help, for people who have been discriminated against,” Lewis said.

“We all live in the same house – the American house. We need someone as attorney general who is going to look out for all of us and not just for some of us,” he added.

Booker was alone among Democratic senators in openly opposing his Senate colleague, Sessions, although Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and a handful of other Democrats said afterwards that they intend to vote against confirming Sessions.

Coretta Scott King, the widow of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., urged Congress in a letter to block the 1986 nomination of Jeff Sessions for federal judge.

– Courtesy of The Progressive Turnout Project

Democratic members of the Judiciary Committee questioned Sessions’ record on civil rights, but in a very mild tone and without challenging many of his responses.

Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy, for example, questioned Sessions on LGBT rights.

“You stated at a hearing that you’re not sure women or people of different sexual orientations face that kind of discrimination. And then you said, ‘I just don’t see it.’

Do you still believe that?” Leahy asked.

Sessions replied that it “does not sound like something I said or intended to say.”

Leahy then corrected him, “You did say it,” but without pursuing the question of whether women and LGBT Americans do, in fact, face discrimination.

Leahy then asked about Sessions’ opposition to the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which – among other provisions – offered federal protection against hate crimes to LGBT people.

“In 2010 you stated that expanding hate crimes protections to LGBT individuals was unwarranted, possibly unconstitutional… Do you still feel that way?” he asked.

Session replied, “The law has been passed, the Congress has spoken, [and] you can be sure I will enforce it.”

Leahy did not ask if he would defend the law in court, in the event that its constitutionality was challenged.

Similarly, when Sessions was asked about his opposition to marriage equality, he was allowed to get away with a bland statement about enforcing settled law. “[The] Supreme Court has ruled on that.

The dissent was vigorous,” Sessions replied initially, before adding, “The majority of the court has established the definition of marriage for the entire United States of America, and I will follow that decision.”

Again he was not asked if he would defend the Supreme Court’s Windsor and

Obergefell decisions if they were challenged by new litigation – something that is not out of the question, in view of the fact that several states have refused to remove “one man-one woman” marriage laws from the books.

The idea that an attorney general would decline to defend a law he felt was unconstitutional is not far-fetched. Obama’s attorney general, Eric Holder, for example, not only refused to defend DOMA in court but filed a brief advising the Supreme Court that the law was unconstitutional.

Sessions might very well do the same if the constitutionality of LGBT protections were challenged.

Sessions is also a supporter of the First Amendment Defense Act (FADA), a law that would authorize anti-LGBT discrimination under cover of “religious” convictions. Not a single Senate Democrat asked Sessions about his views on that bill, or on the relationship between First Amendment religious rights and 14th Amendment equal protection rights for LGBT individuals.

Judiciary Committee Democrats also failed to even ask about Sessions’ views on Title VII and Title IX, and whether those federal laws should afford protections to LGBT Americans. Sessions is on record stating that the Obama administration had no authority to reinterpret those laws to expand LGBT rights.

The Obama administration’s pro-LGBT reading of those laws is currently being litigated in federal courts, and while the cases will not disappear with the change in administrations, a change in the Justice Department’s attitude toward them might well torpedo rulings favorable to the LGBT community.

Mattis won’t say he supports LGBT service in military

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer At his January 12 confirmation hearing, General James Mattis, Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Defense, repeatedly refused to say whether he supports LGBT people serving in the military.

The question came up because Mattis wrote in a book published last year that a “progressive agenda” imposing “social change” on the military posed a “risk to our forces.”

Mattis warned that following the 2010 repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, “an unin-

formed public is permitting political leaders to impose an accretion of social conventions that are diminishing the combat power of our military.”

During his confirmation hearing, Mattis evaded three separate questions about LGBT people serving openly in the military.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand asked pointblank, “Do you believe that openly serving homosexuals, along with women in combat units, is undermining our force?”

“My belief is we have to stay focused on a military that’s so lethal that on the battlefield it will be the enemy’s longest day and their worst day when they run into that

force,” Mattis replied, without addressing Gillibrand’s question.

“I believe military service is a touchstone for patriots of whatever stripe,” he continued. “It’s the way they demonstrate their commitment. I believe the policies that are now in effect, unless a service chief brings something to me where there’s a problem, then I’m not going in with an idea that I’m going to review these right away or start rolling something back.”

When Gillibrand pressed for an answer, Mattis responded, “Frankly I’ve never cared much about two consenting adults and who they go to bed with.”

After Gillibrand’s third attempt to get a clear answer on women and LGBT individuals serving in the armed forces, Mattis answered, “My concern is on the readiness on the force to fight and to make certain it’s at the top of its game… that’s my obligation as I look as this job.”

Donald Trump previously hinted that he might object to Transgender people serving in the military. In response to a soldier’s question about “social engineering” that would allow Trans recruits, Trump assured him, “We’re going to get away from political correctness – we’re going to have to do that.”

You don’t deserve “extra rights,” Ben Carson says

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer Ben Carson – nominated for no discernable reason by Donald Trump to be Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) – said at his January 12 confirmation hearing that LGBT Americans should not get “extra rights.”

If confirmed by the US Senate, Carson would be in charge of administering federally funded housing for low-income people and enforcing federal nondiscrimination policies.

In 2012 and 2015, Obama’s HUD adopted rules to ensure that the department’s core housing programs and services are open to people regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity. Those protections seem now to be at risk under Carson.

Asked by Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio if he would enforce LGBT protections in the public housing sector, Carson tried to appear conciliatory.

“Of course, I would enforce all the laws of the land,” Carson responded. “Of course,

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Ben Carson – Photo by Chris Keane/Reuters

I think all Americans should be protected by the law.”

But then he added, “What I have said before is I don’t think anyone should get ‘extra rights.’”

Unfortunately Brown did not follow up with a question about what those “extra rights” might be.

A clue might be found in a 2014 speech Carson delivered to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). In it, he denied that Lesbian and Gay couples have a right to marry.

“Of course gay people should have the same rights as everyone else, but they don’t get extra rights,” Carson told CPAC. “They don’t get to redefine marriage.”

LGBT people have very few rights actually guaranteed by federal statutes. Only Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act and the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act specifically address sexual orientation and gender identity. All other federal civil rights protections for the LGBT community come under

executive orders or administrative guidelines issued by the Obama administration.

That’s why a promise to “enforce all the laws of the land” is not a good answer, at least from the perspective of LGBT rights.

Carson also sidestepped a question about Donald Trump’s potential conflicts of interest.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren asked Carson to guarantee that “not one dollar” of HUD money would go to Trump-owned businesses.

“I will not play favorites for anyone,” Carson said. “I will manage things in a way that benefits the American people.”

“If there happens to be an extraordinarily good program that’s working for millions of people, and it turns out that someone that you’re targeting is going to gain $10 from it, am I going to say, ‘No, the rest of you Americans can’t have it?’” Carson added. “I think logic and common sense is the best way.”

January 13, 2017

Seattle Gay News 7

Florida settles lawsuit on birth certificates for children of same-sex couples

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer The state of Florida agreed on January 5 to settle a federal lawsuit over birth certificates issued to children born to same-sex couples.

Two married Lesbian couples and the Equality Florida Institute sued the state in 2015 after health officials refused to include both parents’ names on the documents. The lawsuit came months after same-sex marriages became legal in Florida and two months after the US Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges.

Florida health officials claimed they lacked the authority to change birth certificate forms without legislative action. However, the Republican-controlled legislature did not approve any changes to Florida laws that might recognize the legality of samesex marriage in the state.

Consequently, only birth mothers, and not their spouses, were listed as parents on birth certificates.

The Florida Department of Health asked US District Judge Robert Hinkle last May to dismiss the lawsuit. State officials argued that the issue was moot because

Senior staff attorney for National Center for Lesbian Rights Amy Whelan – Photo courtesy of nclrights.org

they had started listing both spouses on birth certificates of children born to samesex couples and had started a rule-making process to allow the designation of “parent” in addition to “mother” and “father” on the birth records.

Lawyers for the same-sex couples objected, saying that the Health Department’s “recent remedial measures are both substantively incomplete and procedurally lacking in finality” and that the issues are not moot.

On January 5, however, lawyers for both sides filed a document telling Hinkle they had reached a settlement in the case.

Under the settlement, the state agreed to issue corrected birth certificates free of charge to the plaintiffs and to all same-sex couples who received incorrect documents.

The state also pledged to apply the statute regarding birth certificates “and any forms promulgated based on that statute to same-sex spouses in the same manner as they are applied to opposite-sex spouses.”

And finally, the state also agreed to pay $55,000 to in legal fees and costs to the plaintiffs.

“The LGBTQ community can now celebrate a long-awaited victory,” said Hannah

Willard, Public Policy Director for Equality Florida.

“Married same-sex couples deserve to be treated fairly and equally before the law in all ways, including in the recognition of our families. Thanks to years of hard work by the National Center for Lesbian Rights and our local attorneys, the State of Florida has agreed to our terms so that we can put this discrimination behind us.”

“Through the course of this lawsuit, Florida took important steps to protect same-sex couples and their families, and we are very happy that the state has now fully resolved the case,” said National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) senior staff attorney Amy Whelan.

“Leaving children and families vulnerable in this way benefits no one, and we hope other states will follow Florida’s example.”

The NCLR represented the plaintiffs in the case, along with private attorneys Mary Meeks and Elizabeth Schwartz.

“I am happy that Florida same-sex couples can finally look forward to full and equal recognition as parents of their children and hope other states will follow suit as well,” Meeks added.

LGB teens and risk behavior

by Shaun Knittel SGN Associate Editor The kids are not all right. According to the nation’s first survey of Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual (LGB) teens and risk behavior, there are almost 1.3 million such high school students in the United States. They are nearly five times more likely than their straight peers to have attempted suicide and more than four times more likely to have experimented with hard drugs like heroin and meth.

Another half a million high school students are not sure about their sexual orientation, according to the study by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Several of the study’s authors flagged the survey in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

They used a nationally representative sample of 15,624 public and private high school students in grades 9 through 12 who completed an anonymous and voluntary questionnaire.

According to their write-up in JAMA, “Compared with their straight peers, LGB students reported a significantly higher prevalence of being bullied at school

JAMA logo – Image courtesy of autisminvestigated.com

(34.2% vs. 18.8%), experiencing electronic bullying (28.0% vs. 14.2%), being forced to have sexual intercourse (17.8% vs. 5.4%), experiencing physical dating violence (17.5% vs. 8.3%), and experiencing sexual dating violence (22.7% vs. 9.1%). Students who were not sure of their sexual identity also reported higher rates of all of these behaviors than their straight peers.”

Nationwide, the CDC found, “88.8% of students identified as heterosexual, 2.0% identified as gay or lesbian, 6.0% identified

as bisexual, and 3.2% were not sure of their sexual identity.”

The survey was conducted between September 2014 and December 2015 and measured 118 risky behaviors in total, such as whether students catch rides with drivers who have been drinking (over 20% of all students reported they had done so at least once over the previous 30 days). Of students who had driven a car in the previous 30 days, those unsure about their sexual identity were twice as likely to report hav-

ing driven under the influence of alcohol (16.7%).

Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual students were more likely to engage in many of the risky behaviors the CDC measured.

Though they were less likely than straight students to carry a firearm in public, they were more likely to carry a weapon to school (6.2%) and twice as likely to have tried marijuana before age 13 (13.9%). They were also more than twice as likely to skip school out of safety concerns (12.5%) and almost twice as likely to have been threatened with a weapon at school (10%).

For more information, go to the CDC’s website and look up “Sexual Identity, Sex of Sexual Contacts, and Health-Related Behaviors Among Students in Grades 9-12 – United States and Selected Sites, 2015.”

Obama administration appeals Title IX ruling, seeks to protect Trans students

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer The Obama administration has decided to appeal an August 2016 federal court decision that blocked enforcement of Department of Education guidelines designed to protect Transgender students.

In a January 6 filing, federal lawyers asked the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to overturn the earlier ruling on the grounds that it was incorrect and overly broad.

Although the administration now has less than two weeks left in office, the appeal will go forward and could potentially vindicate Obama’s reading of Title IX of the 1972 Education Amendments. The administration has argued that Title IX’s ban

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on sex discrimination in federally funded schools protects Trans students and allows them to use restrooms and locker rooms that correspond to their gender identity.

The case at issue began with a lawsuit

by Texas and several other Republicandominated states arguing that the Obama administration exceeded its authority in telling local school districts where Trans students should use the restroom.

US District Court Judge Reed O’Connor sided with the states and issued a temporary injunction last August suspending enforcement of the administration’s guidelines nationwide.

His order also blocked agencies from starting new enforcement actions and barred government lawyers from raising certain arguments in ongoing lawsuits.

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O’Connor did not address the issue of how a similar ban on sex discrimination in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act – the section pertaining to employment – should be interpreted. The Obama administration has also read that section as affording workplace protections to Trans employees.

In its appeal of O’Connor’s August ruling, the administration contends that workplaces should not be affected, because his original injunction did not mention Title VII. In their appeal, Justice Department lawyers made three arguments to the Fifth Circuit: They said the administration did not violate the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), as Texas and the other states claimed. The guidelines for schools and

workplaces are not final acts by any agency, the appeal says, and therefore did not require a special process under the APA. They also contended that the states lack standing to bring the case because they “can ignore [the guidance] without legal consequence.” Enforcement procedures stem from the underlying civil rights laws, not the guidance itself, they say.

Finally, they argued that the lower court, under Judge O’Connor, erred by ruling too broadly. O’Connor did so by in applying the injunction nationwide, rather than just within the states that brought the lawsuit, the administration’s lawyers say.

The Justice Department has asked the Fifth Circuit to throw out the injunction and instruct O’Connor to dismiss the case.

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Online sex-seekers study

by Shaun Knittel SGN Associate Editor Gay sex-seeker culture switched from the bathhouse and bar to the chat room and mobile hookup app scene years ago. Health organizations have been trying to figure out what’s the best way to get the word out about healthy sexual behavior.

It is largely believed that Gay and Bisexual men who seek sex online often are less connected to the LGBTQ community and are less likely to practice safe sex. But the results of a study by the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS (BC-CfE) revealed contrary information.

The study, published in December 2016 in the journal Sexual Health, conducted by researchers from the BC-CfE, the University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, and the University of Victoria, involved 774 Gay and Bisexual men and men who have sex with men (MSM) in Metro Vancouver.

Researchers sought to understand what relationship exists between seeking sex online, community connections, and sexual behavior.

The most common forms of community involvement were reading Gay news (75%) and attending Gay bars or clubs (73%).

Over half of the men either watched (45%) or participated in (11%) a Pride parade.

The study found that, contrary to stereo-

BC-CfE associate researcher Nathan Lachowsky – Photo courtesy ofpbs.twimg.com

types, online sex-seeking men were more likely to spend more social time with other Gay and Bisexual men.

However, the men also experienced less emotional connection to a general LGBTQ community identity.

While this may seem contradictory, BC-CfE associate researcher Nathan Lachowsky explained that “there is a difference between identifying with something

versus spending time doing something.”

Lachowsky says the study found that guys who use apps ascribed less importance to collective Queer identity. In other words, while in the past there was more involvement in becoming part of a larger group or movement, things have shifted toward more personalized networks now.

“It’s more the fact that these guys tend to operate more with their friends…and that particular social network for them might be more important than the broader gay community,” said Lachowsky. “I think the key message really is that guys connecting online and in person are both really important, and it’s not just one or the other anymore.”

Lachowsky, who is Gay himself, said they were impressed overall with the diversity of ways that men were involved in Queer communities.

“Regardless of the way in which we might individually identify and participate in the gay community, I think there still is quite an interest in what it means to be gay and what it’s like to be gay,” he opined.

The study also found that a lack of emotional connection to a large collective identity did not necessarily mean that the men cared less about taking sexual precautions.

Online sex-seekers were twice as likely to ask a partner about HIV status, twice as likely to use risk-reduction practices (including changing sexual positions), and

were more likely to have been tested for HIV than those who did not go online to seek sex.

“What we found is that these guys who were using app websites to connect with other men did report a greater risk of passing HIV, but they also, at same time, reported multiple strategies of ways to protect themselves and their partners from passing HIV,” Lachowsky said. “That is not necessarily the story that has been told. The dominant story has been that guys online are riskier, full-stop, and part of this work was to really look at ‘Well, we need to look at that more holistically,’ and what we were able to demonstrate is that, yes, these guys do report an absolute greater risk for passing HIV, but they are more likely to use risk reduction.”

Ultimately, the study helps to dispel some misconceptions and focus future research on how social networks can be used to spread information and develop health awareness strategies effectively.

“People’s personal networks are critical to the way in which we interact, are influenced, and learn about things,” Lachowsky said. “So if we want to help provide HIV prevention resources or education, we need to be really thinking about the way people are connected to each other, and where they spend their time, and what they are emotionally connected to.”

The impact of losing Obamacare

by Shaun Knittel SGN Associate Editor At about one ‘o clock in the morning, January 12, Senator Bob Corker, Republican of Tennessee, withdrew his amendment that would have pushed the process of repealing the Affordable Care Act back to the beginning of March. The move indicates that the Republican majority is not afraid of the backlash that will come when people lose their healthcare, and that they do not realize that repealing the ACA without a viable replacement will cause actual chaos.

These are scary times and the president elect, Donald Trump, hasn’t even been sworn-in yet.

The Republican congressional majorities want Obamacare dead because of the theological belief that health insurance is not the job of government. Plus, let’s be honest: A majority of them just plain hate Obama, anything he has ever done, anything he wanted to do, and certainly any major legislation he was able get passed and then signed into law.

The New York Times wrote, “The final vote, which ended just before 1:30 a.m., followed a marathon session in which senators took back-to-back roll call votes on numerous amendments, an arduous exercise known as a vote-a-rama. The approval of the budget blueprint, coming even before President-elect Donald J. Trump is inaugurated, shows the speed with which Republican leaders are moving to fulfill their promise to repeal President Obama’s signature domestic policy achievement — a goal they believe can now be accomplished after Mr. Trump’s election. The action by the Senate is essentially procedural, setting the stage for a special kind of legislation called a reconciliation bill. Such a bill can be used to repeal significant parts of the

LGBTQ people, like many Americans, use all of the benefits in all of those categories. Of particular note, Seattle Counseling Service (SCS) accepts Obamacare insurance to help folks with mental health services and addiction treatment. Maternity and newborn care services are certainly accessed by community members. Are you on Prep? Chances are you are getting because of Obamacare and chances are that will stop.

Image courtesy of healthline.com

health law and, critically, is immune from being filibustered. Congress appears to be at least weeks away from voting on legislation repealing the law.”

Republican leaders are saying they will work closely with Trump to develop legislation to repeal and replace the health care law. But there’s just one problem with that.

At this point it is unclear exactly how his team will participate in that effort at all.

In short, the GOP has made it their mission to repeal Obamacare and replace it with absolutely nothing. Obamacare has helped as many as 20 million people get new health insurance, and more than 4 percent of all Americans got health insurance for the first time because of the law.

So how will Washingtonians be impacted by a repeal of the ACA? More specifically, how will LGBTQ Washingtonians be impacted by such a terrible thing? Greatly.

The Ten essential health benefit categories of Obamacare include outpatient care, emergency care, hospitalization, maternity and newborn care, mental health services and addiction treatment, prescription drugs, rehabilitative services and devices, lab services, pediatric dental and vision, and free preventive services.

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Over 100 million Americans have benefited from the health care law. This includes more than 105 million people who accessed critical preventive services for free that had previously been subject to out-of-pocket costs. Seniors saved billions of dollars from the gradual closing of the Medicare Part D “Donut Hole”. Billions more were saved from new accountability measures for insurance companies, and that isn’t even the end of the savings from the ACA.

insurance now have access to preventive services with no cost sharing because of the new minimum standards of ObamaCare.

ObamaCare doesn’t ration health care. It protects consumers from the health care coverage and cost-based rationing that insurance companies have been doing for decades. ObamaCare reduces the growth in healthcare spending. The current $2.8 trillion U.S. healthcare system costs almost $9k a year for every man, woman, and child.

Before ObamaCare’s first open enrollment period, 15% of Americans were uninsured – this is a little less than 50 million men, women, and children. Before the ACA, about 38 million Americans had inadequate health insurance.

Studies have shown that anywhere from 20,000 to 44,000 Americans died each year from lack of health insurance.

The Fact is, ObamaCare gives 47 million women access to preventive health services and makes it illegal to charge women different rates than men. Up to 82% of nearly 16 million uninsured young U.S. adults qualify for cost assistance or Medicaid through ObamaCare’s marketplaces. The number of young people who sign up for insurance will greatly impact the effectiveness of the program, as healthy young adults are the least likely to use costly health care services. 1 in 2 Americans have a “pre-existing” condition that they could have been denied health insurance for. ObamaCare chipped away at pre-existing conditions until 2014, so pre-existing conditions are no longer a barrier to insurance coverage for anyone, including high-risk customers. This means you can no longer be denied coverage or treatment or be charged more due to your health status. Find out more about pre-existing conditions.

54 million Americans with private health

Given the above, before the Affordable Care Act, nearly one-third of Americans faced each day without the security of knowing that affordable medical care was available to them and their families.

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An April, 2014 Gallup poll showed the uninsured rate dropped to 13.4%, the lowest in decades, during the open enrollment in the health insurance marketplaces.

And the Republicans are doing all they can, as quickly as they can, to repeal this law and replace it with nothing. If ObamaCare is repealed, tens of millions of Americans will be without good health coverage, and insurance companies will continue to be able to deny coverage for pre-existing conditions. Without healthcare reform, America will suffer the consequences of a health care system controlled by private, for-profit companies whose bottom line is money and not health.

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Trans man sues Catholic hospital for discrimination Lawsuit cites part of Obamacare blocked by federal judge

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer A transgender man is suing a Catholic hospital for canceling his hysterectomy.

Jionni Conforti says his doctor ordered the surgery as “medically necessary” treatment for his gender dysphoria, as well as to avoid the possibility of an increased risk of cancer.

But St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center, a Catholic health care provider in Paterson, New Jersey, canceled the procedure on the basis of its religious values, Conforti charges.

According to Conforti’s lawsuit, in 2015 a nurse initially confirmed the surgery but the hospital later emailed him to cancel it.

“This is to follow up to your email inquiring about scheduling a total hysterectomy here at St. Joseph’s to remove all female parts based on the medical necessity for gender reassignment,” reads the email, sent

by Rev Martin D. Rooney of the Paterson Diocese.

“This is to inform you that as a Catholic Hospital we would not be able to allow your surgeon to schedule this surgery here at St. Joseph’s.”

Conforti eventually found another surgeon and hospital to perform his hysterectomy, but he told Yahoo Beauty the initial rejection “cost him emotionally.”

“This is my neighborhood hospital,” Conforti explained. “My whole family has been treated here, and this is the hospital where I would be taken by ambulance in an emergency, and they discriminated against me.

“I am shocked and saddened by the treatment I received, and I am afraid of how I would be treated if I need medical care again. St. Joseph’s Healthcare, who says it

MANNING

continued from cover years in jail for stealing nearly a million secret documents and then leaking them to Wikileaks. The 29-year-old was sentenced to 35 years behind bars at Fort Leavenworth for releasing the files, including those detailing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as secret diplomatic cables.

Jionni Conforti – Photo by AP Photo/Julio Cortez

prides itself on a ‘patients first’ approach, completely disrespected who I am as a person, and that is not how a hospital should treat people.”

Conforti is suing the hospital under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination, which states that a person cannot be discriminated against on the basis of sex and gender identity.

The lawsuit also cites Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA, or Obam-

acare). The nondiscrimination provisions in that section of the law prohibit discrimination based on a person’s sex when the health care provider receives federal funds, as St Joseph’s does.

The Obama administration rule applying Section 1557 to protect health care for Transgender people was blocked on December 30 by a federal judge in a separate lawsuit initiated by Texas.

Nevertheless, Conforti’s lawyers say he

is entitled to protection under that rule.

“No hospital should be allowed to decide who their patients are, particularly when they receive government funds,” said Lambda Legal attorney Omar GonzalezPagan, who is handling the case.

“Denying care to someone at their time of need because of their sex or gender identity is not only dangerous and humiliating, it’s against the law.”

commit suicide twice while behind bars.

Trump would look less than favorably on her case and leave her to serve the remaining decades left on her sentence.

love and support,” Manning, 28, tweeted upon hearing the news of the signature drive.

Manning and Edward Snowden (an exNSA contractor who similarly leaked a slew of files before fleeing to Russia) had both requested clemency from Obama in November.

Manning told the Guardian that clemency is her “last hope.”

Snowden took to twitter Wednesday and urged the president to help Manning.

Manning’s family remain cautiously optimistic.

“I have more hope right now than I have the entire time since she was sentenced,” he aunt, Deborah Manning told NBC. “I do think it’s the last hope for a while.”

Manning’s petition created on November 14 could get an official White House response within 60 days.

“The sole relief I am asking for is to be released from military prison after serving six years of confinement as a person who did not intend to harm the interests of the United States or harm any service members,” Manning said through her lawyer.

The day after the verdict, Manning (then known as Bradley) came out as a Transgender woman. Time behind bars hasn’t been easy for her. Manning went on a hunger strike earlier this year in a bid to get gender reassignment surgery and she has tried to

“Mr. President, if you grant only one act of clemency as you exit the White House, please: free Chelsea Manning. You alone can save her life,” he wrote.

Chelsea Manning went so far as to start a petition calling on President Obama to reduce the remainder of her 35-year prison sentence. In December, that petition exceeded its goal of 100,000 signatures, requiring the White House to respond.

Manning believes President-elect Donald

“We did it! Thank you so much for your

HRC

values of equality and justice for all,” said HRC President Chad Griffin. “Next week and beyond, we will stand in locked arms with our progressive partners, reminding our new president that our communities are as diverse as the fabric of this nation. We are women. We are Muslim. We are Jewish. We are black, white, Latinx, Asian, and Native American. We are immigrants and we are people living with disabilities. And if you attack one of us, you are attacking all of us.”

The Rev. MacArthur H. Flournoy, HRC Foundation’s Director for Faith Partnerships and Mobilization, is scheduled to speak at the “We Shall Not Be Moved March,” sponsored by the National Action Network. The 9 a.m. march on January 14

along Independence Avenue will culminate in a noon rally at West Potomac Park across from the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial.

The “We Are Here To Stay” rally, part of a national immigrant day of action, organized by a coalition of immigration advocacy groups, will begin January 14 at 11 a.m. at the historic Metropolitan AME Church in downtown Washington, D.C. Javier, an HRC supporter, whose moving story about coming to the United States is featured in a new HRC video in English and Spanish, will be among the special guests speaking at the rally.

The Women’s March on Washington, a grassroots effort to unify communities dedicated to advancing equality for women at all levels of society, is January 21, and kicks

off at 10 a.m. at Independence Avenue and Third Street NW, near the nation’s Capitol.

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continued from cover equality for all.

A contingent of HRC staff, members and volunteers will be participating in both the “We Are Here To Stay” rally for immigrant and refugee rights and the “We Shall Not Be Moved March on Washington” for civil rights on January 14; and the “Women’s March on Washington” on January 21. HRC is a sponsor of both the “Women’s March,” and the “We Are Here To Stay” rally.

“At a time of great uncertainty for our country, we join our fellow Americans in standing up and speaking out for our shared

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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

BACKHOLM

continued from cover veteran anti-LGBT extremist Joseph Backholm, the paperwork for the as-yet-unnumbered initiative was filed on January 9 by three women: Kaeley Triller Haver, Kristi Merritt, and Cassandra Nelson.

The new initiative is essentially a retread of I-1515. It would add language to the state’s civil rights law that would prevent Trans people, and especially students, from using restrooms or locker rooms that correspond to their gender identity.

In fact, the initiative would throw the whole idea of gender self-identification out the window and base gender solely “upon the person’s sex or gender as determined or that existed biologically or genetically at the time of a person’s birth.”

While the initiative promises to make accommodations for “students who consistently assert to school officials that their gender identity is different from their birth sex or gender, and whose parent or legal guardian provides written, signed consent to school officials,” it contains the important qualification “if one is available,” thus allowing school districts to evade their re-

sponsibilities to Trans students.

It also adds that “in no event shall that accommodation be access to a private facility such as a student restroom, student bathroom, student locker room, student shower room, or student changing area designated for use by students of the opposite sex or gender while students of the opposite sex or gender are or could be present at the same time.”

In other words, the promised accommodation is no accommodation at all.

The proposed initiative also allows students to sue schools for up to $5,000 anytime a Trans student uses a bathroom consistent with their gender identity, and would “allow businesses to determine their own bathroom and locker room policies,” allowing businesses to discriminate against Trans people at will.

Although I-1515 failed spectacularly – it never even qualified for the ballot – Backholm’s group believes they can win this time.

Identifying herself as the group’s communications director, Triller Haver blamed their 2016 defeat on lacking enough time to accumulate the petition signatures necessary to get on the ballot. This time will be different, she vowed.

“We came really close last year,” she

said. “We know the people want to sign it; it’s just a matter of getting it to them in time.”

The initiative would have the same effect as the already-filed bill HB 1011, but Backholm’s group said it would not wait to see the outcome in the state legislature as it did last year.

“While we are fully supportive of these measures and encourage you to contact your legislators to voice your enthusiasm for them, we lost valuable time last year waiting for a legislative fix to this problem, and we are not interested in making that mistake again,” a statement on the group’s website says.

Meanwhile, human rights activists said they were ready for the new challenge.

“Washingtonians sent a clear message last year – we won’t discriminate,” said Seth Kirby, a Transgender man and chair of Washington Won’t Discriminate.

“Voters didn’t buy the pitch that repealing our state’s nondiscrimination protections for Transgender people would somehow make us safer. Washingtonians value fairness and equality, and we believe that everyone in our state should be able to earn a living, frequent a business, earn an education, and raise a family free from the fear of discrimination.”

“Washington is a state defined by values of inclusiveness and fairness, and these values will always prevail because they are on the right side of history,” the Pride Foundation’s Kris Hermanns said.

“Using fear and lies, this initiative will allow legally sanctioned harassment and interrogation specifically targeting transgender Washingtonians. Our community has come together time and again to fight for the advances we’ve made up to now – and we won’t stop fighting until we preserve the legal equality we all deserve.”

According to Washington Won’t Discriminate, more than 51,000 have become members since the group was launched last year.

Also, the groups says, more than 200 big and small businesses and labor unions from around the state quickly rallied to oppose I-1515, including Amazon, the Washington State Labor Council, Microsoft, Group Health, Google, Facebook, Expedia, Vulcan, AT&T, Dow Chemical, the Washington Education Association, and many more.

Spain is the most Trans-friendly country, new survey shows

by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer Spain is the most Trans-friendly country in the world, according to a new survey conducted by BuzzFeed News, Ipsos polling, and the Williams Institute at UCLA Law School.

The United States came tenth on the list, surprisingly behind India but well ahead of Poland, Hungary, and Russia.

Rankings were based on how respondents answered six questions covering a range of issues, including access to bathrooms, sex-reassignment surgery, and protection from discrimination.

The researchers conducted online surveys in 16 countries with widespread Internet access, plus an additional six countries with somewhat lower Internet penetration.

In those countries, they cautioned, “the results provide a clue about what people think but might not be broadly representative of public opinion.”

In India, they commissioned surveyors to conduct in-person interviews because of the country’s low Internet penetration. Ipsos considers the results of these surveys to be accurate within a window of 3.1 to 4.5 percentage points, depending on the size of the sample in each country.

Because the word “Transgender” and equivalents in other languages are not widely known in many countries, respondents were asked about their attitudes toward people “who dress and live as one sex even though they were born another.”

Researchers say they “used the word ‘sex’ rather than ‘gender’ throughout the survey, because many people don’t understand the difference and because many languages don’t distinguish between the two.”

In nearly every country surveyed, less than half of the respondents said they believe that individuals should be able to self-determine their own legal gender designation.

Spain was the only country where a majority of the respondents supported allowing people to change their legal gender designation without restriction. In Argentina – where people are entitled by law to do so –

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Spain’s flag – Image courtesy of drodd.com

only 48% of the sample agreed with the idea.

In the United States, 23% agreed that people should be allowed to change their gender designation without restrictions, while 24% said sex changes should not be allowed under any circumstances.

That finding means that respondents in the US are the most opposed to sex reassignment of any country surveyed – even slightly more opposed than Russian respondents.

In most countries, a substantial portion of respondents said people who want to change their legal gender should first be required to have sex-reassignment surgery or get permission from an official, such as a judge or doctor.

While respondents in almost all countries wanted to put some restrictions on changing gender designations, majorities in most countries had no problem with Transgender people using the bathrooms that match their gender identity.

Majorities in two-thirds of the countries surveyed said Trans people should be “allowed to use the restroom of the sex they identify with.”

Support was over 70% in Spain, Argen-

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tina, and India. Also showing majority support for restroom access were some countries that score toward the bottom on other measures of support for Transgender rights, including Turkey and Peru.

In the United States – where bathroom access has become the primary battleground over Transgender rights – just 47% said Transgender people should be “allowed to use the restroom of the sex they identify with.” Other countries where less than half of respondents supported bathroom choice include Brazil, Japan, and Russia.

On the other hand, 71% of US respondents agreed that Transgender people “should be protected from discrimination by the government.” In Spain, 87% of respondents also agreed with that proposition. Even in Turkey some 60% agreed, but in Russia only 41% thought Trans people deserved government protections.

Most respondents said they don’t know a Transgender person, which may account for some of the negative feelings towards Trans rights.

In most countries, people who said they

personally know someone who is Transgender were substantially more supportive of Trans rights. In some countries, people who know a Transgender person were as much as 30% more supportive.

In Brazil, however, half of the respondents said they personally knew a Transgender person, but the country ranked 14th on the combined measure of support for Transgender rights, largely because Brazil records some of the highest rates of antiTrans violence in the world.

In Spain, the most Trans-supportive country, just 25% of respondents said they knew a Transgender person.

In Russia, the most anti-Trans country surveyed, the percentage of people who reported being familiar with a Transgender person is statistically equivalent to the percentages found in countries like the UK, India, and Germany – all between 16% and 20%.

Respondents in Japan appeared to be the least familiar with Transgender people, with only 10% reporting they know a Trans person, even though a 2003 law declared the treatment of Transgender people “a concern of the national government.”

Less than 3% of respondents identified as Transgender in almost all the countries surveyed. The only country where more identified as Trans was the United States, where 5% said they “dress and live as one sex even though they were born another.”

In some countries – including the United States – people said they are more comfortable with Gay people than Transgender people.

When asked if they would want Gay people, Trans people, or people of a different race as neighbors, the number of respondents who said they wouldn’t want a Gay neighbor or a Transgender neighbor were about the same.

But in several – including the United States – respondents were far more opposed to having a Transgender neighbor than a Gay or Lesbian one. Gay and Lesbian neighbors were also more acceptable to many European respondents than were neighbors of a different race or ethnicity.

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