Republicans Use Kim Davis to Score Points for President
The Kentucky clerk is becoming the symbol of religious freedom that Republicans had been looking for.
Lucas Grindley
www.advocate.com/politics/election/2015/09/03/republicans-use-kim-davis-score-points-president
Federal rules proposed in US to help end health insurance discrimination against trans people
The US Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday (3 September) released proposed rules aimed at eliminating discrimination against transgender people in the US health care system.
The proposed Nondiscrimination in Health Programs and Activities rule would make it illegal for healthcare plans to not cover services for transgender people if they offer those services to non-transgender people.
The rules seek to eliminate the common practice of excluding all gender transition-related health care from coverage – something that is common with private health insurance plans, state Medicaid and other programs.
The rules are designed to implement the Affordable Care Act’s non-discrimination provision, Section 1557. The Affordable Care Act is commonly known as ObamaCare.
The Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund calling this a ‘monumental step’ towards ensuring that transgender Americans get fair treatment within the health care system.
‘It is vital for transgender people to have access to medically necessary care, to be covered by insurance for that care, and to be treated with dignity and respect in medical settings,’ said TLDEF Executive Director Michael Silverman.
‘Transgender people continue to face tremendous barriers to accessing care which causes great harm to their health and well being,’ Silverman added. ‘The purpose of the Affordable Care Act was to ensure that all Americans had access to safe, affordable care. Under these new rules, transgender people will finally be able to reap the benefits of our nation’s health care law.’
The proposal would apply to all health insurance plans sold on the state and federal exchanges. It would also apply to any plan sold by a company with a federal contract or that is receiving federal funds.
It may not cover some private health insurance plans that do not receive any type of federal financial assistance or federal government contracts. It would also be up to non-Health and Human Services federal health programs to apply the rules to their programs.
The Department of Health and Human Services will hear comments on the proposed rule until 7 before taking final action on the proposal.
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Greg Hernandez
Judge Denies Divorce, Blames Marriage Equality
In a case of sour grapes, a Kentucky judge says Obergefell v. Hodges was partially to blame for his refusal to let a straight couple split.
Daniel Reynolds
www.advocate.com/law/2015/09/03/judge-denies-divorce-blames-marriage-equality
Here's What's Next For Kim Davis Now That She's Been Thrown In Jail For Contempt
A federal judge on Thursday ordered the indefinite detention of a renegade Kentucky clerk for contempt of court after she refused to follow an order he gave last month to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
Rowan County clerk Kim Davis has resisted multiple orders to begin issuing the marriage licenses, saying it would violate her religious beliefs. On Monday, the Supreme Court declined to intervene in her case.
Since U.S. District Judge David Bunning’s original Aug. 12 order only applied to the couples who sued Davis, he also extended it to include “other individuals who are legally eligible to marry in Kentucky.”
“Her good faith belief is simply not a viable defense,” Bunning said in open court, according to The Chicago Tribune. “I myself have genuinely held religious beliefs … but I took an oath.”
The issuance of marriage licenses — at a standstill in Rowan County since the Supreme Court decided in June that gay couples have a constitutional right to marry — is expected to resume on Friday.
“Mrs. Davis took an oath,” said Bunning, a George W. Bush appointee. “Oaths mean things.”
Joe Dunman, a civil rights lawyer who represents the same-sex couples in this case, told The Huffington Post that it was never his or his clients’ desire that Davis be incarcerated.
“We didn’t ask for it,” he said. “We didn’t want for her to be put in jail.”
But Bunning ordered her detained anyway. According to the Courier-Journal, he said he could not “condone willful disobedience.”
“If you give people opportunity to choose what orders they follow, that is what potentially causes problems,” he said.
Congress vested federal courts with incredible power to “punish by fine or imprisonment, or both” any individual who disobeys or resists their dictates. This is what’s known as courts’ civil contempt power, and may include orders, judgments, instructions to appear, or other rules.
Now that Davis is behind bars, the judge theoretically could hold a special hearing on Friday or sometime next week to check in on Davis and find out if she is still unwilling to comply, in which case he could keep her detained until further notice.
As the Supreme Court pointed out in 2011 in Turner v. Rogers, Davis’ path to liberty in a case like hers is clear-cut: “Once a civil contemnor complies with the underlying order, he is purged of the contempt and is free.”
Of course, since Davis has contended it is “factually impossible” for her to comply, even in her official capacity, it is hard to tell how long her defiance will last.
Since the prospect of impeachment is a long shot, the path of least resistance, and the end of sorrows for her and many others in Rowan County, would be for her to simply resign.
— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
ABC Family and Fox get highest grades for LGBTI representation on TV
When GLAAD began grading the television networks on the the quantity, quality, and diversity of LGBT representation on television nine years ago, Fox got a failing grade.
But in the latest GLAAD Network Responsibility Index (NRI) released on Thursday (3 September), Fox was the only one of the five broadcast networks to earn a grade of excellent. This marks the first time a broadcast network has ever ranked that well.
‘This milestone highlights real change across the media landscape – especially considering that the network received a “Failing” grade in the NRI‘s first two editions,’ said GLAAD CEO & President Sarah Kate Ellis.
Fox has a prominent gay character on its new hit drama Empire played by out actor Jussie Smollett and had several gay and lesbian characters on Glee.
ABC Family was the only cable network of the 10 ranked to be graded excellent for its original programming – the third time the cable network was given the highest ranking.
Its shows include the drama The Fosters which centers on a lesbian couple raising a large brood of birth, adopted and foster children including a teenage son who is gay. The show also has a transgender character. The cable network also has lesbian or bisexual characters on Pretty Little Liars and Chasing Life.
The networks were judged by programming which aired between June 1, 2014 and May 31, 2015.
Receiving a grade of ‘Good’ were ABC, The CW, FX, HBO, MTV and Showtime while CBS, NBC, TLC, TNT and USA received grades of ‘adequate.’
The grade of ‘Failing’ was given to A&E and The History Channel.
GLAAD announced that this is the final edition of its NRI. The organization will now turn its focus to its annual Where We Are On TV Report which analyzes the diversity of primetime scripted series regulars on broadcast networks.
The post ABC Family and Fox get highest grades for LGBTI representation on TV appeared first on Gay Star News.
Greg Hernandez
www.gaystarnews.com/article/abc-family-and-fox-get-highest-grades-for-lgbti-representation-on-tv/
HRC Digital Campaign: Why are Bush, Walker and Trump Ducking on Kentucky Clerk Ignoring Federal Law?
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Today, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization, launched a new digital campaign asking Jeb Bush, Scott Walker and Donald Trump to take a position regarding Kentucky’s Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis, who was held in contempt in federal court today for her disobedience of a federal court order directing her to begin issuing marriage licenses to all qualified couples in her community.
HRC.org
Entertainer Steve Grand Accepts U.S. Marine Tanner White’s Invitation To The Marine Corps Ball
Servicemen and women posting videos where they ask a celebrity to be their date to the Marine Corps Ball is becoming just as much of an annual tradition as the event itself. With November only a few months away, the requests are starting to pop up on YouTube.
U.S. Marine Tanner White asked out entertainer Steve Grand to accompany him to this year’s Marine Corps Ball in a video posted online earlier in the week.
Grand posted his response video earlier today and happily said yes. Watch Grand’s acceptance below:
Here is Tanner’s video. He has dubbed himself “your favorite positive marine” and set up his YouTube channel to help reduce the stigma of HIV by sharing his experience and knowledge about HIV.
An officer and a gentleman. Have a great time, boys!
Jeremy Kinser
What You Need to Know About the Affordable Care Act's Trans Protections
Trans Latina health advocate Joanna Maria Cifredo dissects the work that must be done to combat transgender health disparities.
Cleis Abeni
Transgender Women's Lives: A Family Matter
This year we’ve broken a record, and it’s not a good one. More transgender women have been killed in the U.S. than in any other year on record. I’m heartbroken and angered that women keep dying, most of them women of color, most of them Black. Most were between the ages of 17-25, just coming into adulthood, when their lives, dreams and futures were stolen. They were sisters, daughters, granddaughters, aunties and more. I cannot even imagine the devastation I would feel if this happened to my own child.
I am frustrated by the lack of public outcry in response to these murders and compelled to use my voice the best way I know how. I am crying out as a mother to other families. I am crying out because I want trans women of color to know that the deaths in their community do not go unnoticed. I am crying out because I want to be part of a world where their lives matter to all of us. I want people to celebrate the lives of trans girls and women of color and recognize that they make our world better. Families can play a pivotal role in making this happen.
Trans women’s lives concern all families.
We may or may not have a daughter, sister or other family member who is transgender. But, if we think of trans lives as “somebody else’s issue” we are missing the boat. Consider these questions:
Do you want children to grow up feeling that they can be themselves without being bullied or harassed?
Do you want children to grow up and realize their potential without being forced to change who they are?
Do you want children to grow up respecting the dignity of every human being?
Do you want your family to learn from examples of women who have faced adversity and risen to leadership roles working for social justice?
If your response to even one of these questions is affirmative, the lives of trans women of color matter to you and your family.
Family values are being hijacked to attack transgender women.
Many families are afraid that transgender rights will harm their children. Some are aligning themselves with right wing conservative and Christian fundamentalists to attack the rights of transgender children and adults. These groups claim to represent families and family values. Here are a few examples:
These families may think they are protecting children, but they are actually harming them. They do not speak for my family or for any family that truly respects and values diversity. Families don’t all look the same. We include single parent families, chosen families, interracial families, families with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender parents and children and more. We need family voices and family values that represent and honor this diversity. More and more families of transgender children and parents are speaking out. As they do, our families need to support them, not attack their rights.
We, as families, can make a difference.
Ending the violence isn’t just about stopping violent individuals. It’s about changing the ideology of hate into one of love, checking the ways we participate in the marginalization of trans people, and creating supportive families, communities and institutions. Here are some things any family can do:
I wrote this post to spark conversation and inspire families to action. What actions have you taken in your family? What ideas do you have?
Many thanks to Isa Noyola, Program Manager, Transgender Law Center, Anayvette Martinez, Radical Monarchs Co-Founder and my son Danny Moreno, for their collaboration on this piece.
Resources
Voices of trans women of color:
Ruby Corado, Laverne Cox, Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, Lourdes Ashley Hunter, Marsha P. Johnson, Andy Marra, Janet Mock, Isa Noyola, Silvia Rivera, Bamby Salcedo, Hina Wong-Kalu(Kumu Hina)
Transgender girls of color and their families:
Malisa, Mazy, Zoe
TV Shows:
Growing up Trans, I am Jazz, I am Cait
Safe homes, schools and churches:
4 Ways to Honor your Child’s Gender Autonomy
Beyond the Binary: Gender Identity Activism in Your School
How Gender Boxes Harm all Children and What We Can Do about it
Schools in Transition: A Guide for Supporting Transgender Students in K-12 Schools
Supporting and Caring for our Gender Expansive Youth
The Top 10 Ways to Welcome Transgender People to Church
And more:
Transgender Friendly Young Children’s Books
Transgender Basics, from the Gender Identity Project
— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
Mike Huckabee: Jailing of Kim Davis “removes all doubt of the criminalization of Christianity”
Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee blasted the jailing on Thursday (3 September) of Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis for contempt of court.
Davis was ordered into custody by a federal judge who said she must do her job and issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples despite her religious objections.
‘Having Kim Davis in federal custody removes all doubt of the criminalization of Christianity in our country,’ Huckebee wrote in a post on Facebook.
‘We must defend religious liberty and never surrender to judicial tyranny. Five, un-elected Supreme Court lawyers did not and cannot make law. They can only make rulings. The Supreme Court is not the Supreme branch and it’s certainly not the Supreme Being.’
The US Supreme Court ruled on 26 June that same-sex marriage is now legal in all 50 states. It was then that Davis stopped issuing marriage licenses to all couples – straight or gay – which resulted in a federal lawsuit against her.
Davis lost the lawsuit and is appealing. Five of her deputy clerks told the judge they would issue licenses beginning Friday (4 September). Because Davis would not promise to not interfere with that process, the judge ordered her to stay in jail until she complies or resigns.
Huckabee, a candidate for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination, also wrote: ‘I am proud of Kim for standing strong for her beliefs. Who will be next? Pastors? Photographers? Caterers? Florists? This is a reckless, appalling, out-of-control decision that undermines the Constitution of the United States and our fundamental right to religious liberty.’
The post Mike Huckabee: Jailing of Kim Davis “removes all doubt of the criminalization of Christianity” appeared first on Gay Star News.
Greg Hernandez
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