HRC Responds to Results from Today’s Presidential Primary Contests

Today, HRC released the following statement on tonight’s primary election results:

“From North Carolina to Florida to Ohio, fair-minded voters have begun unifying to ensure we are prepared to defeat whichever anti-LGBT candidate emerges as the Republican nominee. Tonight’s decisive victories for Hillary Clinton in key states across the nation have put us closer to preserving a pro-equality White House come November. She has proven time and again that she will fight for the LGBT community — and we are proud to continue to fight alongside her to make sure no opponent of LGBT equality ever sets foot in the Oval Office,” said HRC President Chad Griffin. “John Kasich may have won the state of Ohio tonight, but with an anti-LGBT record, he won’t win the hearts and minds of millions of pro-equality voters should he somehow manage to find a path to his party’s nomination. As Donald Trump, John Kasich and Ted Cruz threaten to overturn, undo, and undermine the progress we have made under President Obama, we are ready to double down and fight like hell to elect Hillary Clinton in November.”

New polling released this year from the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute shows strong support for LGBT equality in the states that voted today. Residents in Florida (70 percent support), Illinois (75 percent support), Missouri (66 percent support), North Carolina (64 percent support), and Ohio (69 percent support) all favor the Equality Act. By similarly large margins, they also oppose religious refusal bills that would allow small businesses to discriminate and deny service to LGBT customers, even for religious reasons.

While Rubio, Cruz and Trump have made anti-LGBT rhetoric a common feature of their campaign events, Governor Kasich, the winner in Ohiotonight, has become more vocal recently about his opposition to LGBT equality. In a debate last month, after previously implying that businesses should not be allowed to deny service to a same-sex couple, Kasich backtracked and suggested it was “common sense” for a business to be able to deny services to a same-sex couple for religious reasons. During his career Kasich has also broken a promise to protect transgender state workers from discrimination and broke a promise to support a statewide LGBT non-discrimination law as governor.

GOP frontrunners Donald Trump and Ted Cruz sank to new lows earlier this year when they doubled down on their support for bills that would allow business to deny service to LGBT people for religious reasons. Cruz even suggested that a state should be allowed to ban adoption by same-sex couples — a position that is at odds with the nation’s leading child welfare organization. They both, along with Rubio and Kasich, remain opposed to nationwide marriage equality, with Trump even telling Christian Broadcasting News that voters can “trust him” to reverse the Obergefell decision.

HRC endorsed Hillary Clinton in January, and has made thousands of voter contacts ahead of today’s elections. Prior to that, HRC opened offices and sent staff to South Carolina, Nevada, New Hampshire and Iowa where it made thousands of voter contacts in the states on behalf of Hillary Clinton. Earlier this month, HRC also released a new video, highlighting just how much is at stake for LGBT Americans in this year’s presidential election.

With 1.5 million members and supporters nationwide, HRC is planning an unprecedented organizational effort to register and mobilize the nation’s pro-equality majority, and elect pro-LGBT candidates up and down the ballot. In 2016, experts predict that the pro-equality vote will be larger, stronger, and more energized than at any point in history.

Exit polls show that in 2012 at least six million LGB Americans voted in an election decided by less than five million votes. Today, in key states like Ohio, North Carolina, and Florida, the population of LGBT adults is greater than the average margin of victory in the last three presidential elections.

Polling done by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner for HRC shows that a 55 percent majority of voters are less likely to support a candidate for president who opposes allowing same-sex couples to marry. This majority includes Independents, married women and white millennials. All of these groups voted Republican in the last congressional election.

The Human Rights Campaign is America’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality. HRC envisions a world where LGBT people are embraced as full members of society at home, at work and in every community.

www.hrc.org/blog/hrc-responds-to-results-from-todays-presidential-primary-contests?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

BREAKING: Kentucky Senate Advances Irresponsible Anti-LGBT RFRA Amendment Bill

Following a vote today by the Kentucky Senate to advance SB 180, HRC and Fairness Campaign, the statewide LGBT advocacy organization, called on the Kentucky House to pull back from SB 180, the shameful anti-LGBT bill that would put LGBT people — and Kentuckians of all walks of life — at risk for discrimination. SB 180 passed the Kentucky Senate 22-16 today.

SB 180 would undermine state and local protections against discrimination for a host of minority communities in Kentucky by allowing businesses like photographers, tailors, engravers, or any other businesses that provide custom goods and services to discriminate and refuse service for any reason. In addition to putting LGBT people at risk for discrimination, under SB 180, single mothers, interfaith couples, interracial couples are all at risk. A bakery could reuse to provide a birthday cake to an African-American, or a photography studio could refuse photographs for a muslim family under this bill.

“Freedom of religion is a basic bedrock foundation of our government, which is exactly why it is already protected by the First Amendment. SB 180 wouldn’t protect our freedom, but instead will put all Kentuckians at risk for discrimination,” said HRC Legal Director Sarah Warbelow. “Leadership in the Kentucky House should stop this reckless and irresponsible bill in its tracks and ensure that everyone, including LGBT people, can live free from fear of discrimination in Kentucky.”

“This is an incredibly disappointing day in the Kentucky Senate,” shared Fairness Campaign director Chris Hartman. “Despite bi-partisan opposition to this ‘License to Discriminate,’ our Senate has sent the message that Kentucky may not be open for business for everyone. We hope Kentucky House leaders will show greater wisdom and give this piece of legislation as much consideration as it deserves–none.”

SB 180 would undermine local non-discrimination protections on the books in the Kentucky cities that have ordinances protecting LGBT people from discrimination.

New polling from the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute this year found that a 56 percent majority of Kentuckians oppose a bills like SB 180 that would allow small business owners to deny service to LGBT people — even for so-called religious reasons — only 37 percent support such a bill.

When similar legislation was taken up in Indiana last year, the debate cost the state as much as $60 million in convention revenue alone from lost business, according to a recent survey. The survey from Visit Indy found that “12 out-of-state groups were surveyed and all said that the state’s controversial religious objections law played a role in their decision to hold their events elsewhere.”

The attacks on fairness and equality in Kentucky are part of an onslaught of anti-LGBT bills being pushed in 2016 by anti-equality activists around the country. HRC is currently tracking nearly 200 anti-LGBT bills in 32 states. For more information, visit: www.hrc.org/2016legislature. 

www.hrc.org/blog/breaking-kentucky-senate-advances-irresponsible-anti-lgbt-rfra-amendment-bi?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

Tennessee Legislative Assault on Transgender Public School and University Students Moves Forward

The Tennessee House Education Administration & Planning Subcommittee today, unanimously on a voice vote, passed HB 2414 – an outrageous bill targeting transgender students in public elementary, middle, and high schools, as well as those in public universities. The measure, which now moves to the full committee for consideration, seeks to force transgender students to use restrooms and other facilities inconsistent with their gender identity. A subcommittee hearing is also scheduled tomorrow  on companion legislation in the Senate.

Fair-minded Tennesseans; major national child welfare, medical, and education groups; the Tennessee Equality Project; and the Human Rights Campaign have been pleading with lawmakers to abandon the discriminatory measure. The proposal is even more egregious than an appalling bill vetoed recently by Republican South Dakota Governor Dennis Daugaard.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam has expressed concern that the discriminatory, unconstitutional measure would compromise the state’s hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding for its schools and universities. His spokesperson also said the governor “trusts our teachers and local school boards to make necessary accommodations” for transgender students.

“Governor Haslam is exactly right: this vicious legislation would needlessly jeopardize millions in federal funding for Tennessee’s schools and universities, and would strip away the ability of local administrators and teachers to do the right thing for students in their communities,” said Sarah Warbelow, HRC’s Legal Director. “There are more than 10,000 transgender students in Tennessee–and they shouldn’t have to suffer the consequences of a discriminatory law that will lead to even higher rates of harassment, bullying, and even suicide.”

As this bill is being considered by the full Education Administration and Planning Committee, here’s what you should know about is:

• The legislation targets transgender students in public elementary, middle, and high schools, as well as those in public universities;
• The proposal puts Tennessee public schools and universities at risk of litigation and loss of critical federal funds by forcing them into an untenable position of choosing between state and federal law;
• The Tennessee bill is even more egregious than the appalling legislation vetoed recently by South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard;
• Several major national child welfare, medical, and education groups have strongly condemned this type of discriminatory legislation that would further marginalize transgender students;
• It ties the hands of school administrators and teachers who would no longer have the flexibility they need to find workable solutions in coordination with transgender students and their parents; and
• The bill is being pushed by anti-LGBT extremists from outside Tennessee and addresses no pressing issue concerning Tennessee’s school districts or universities.
   

More information on the legislation can be found here.

www.hrc.org/blog/tennessee-legislative-assault-on-transgender-public-school-and-university-s?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

HRC Global Fellow Participates on Panel About LGBT Rights in Egypt

Last week, HRC Global Fellow and Egyptian human rights activist Ahmed Hafez spoke on a panel about the widespread violation of human rights in his country since a military coup overthrew an elected Islamist government in 2013. 

Then-army chief and now president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has ruled Egypt with an iron fist since the coup. Police have engaged in a brutal and widespread crackdown throughout the country and LGBT people, especially gender non-conforming gay men and transgender people, are major victims.

Hafez was a panelist at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University (SAIS) alongside Scott Long, a well-known American LGBT rights activist. Long founded Human Rights Watch’s LGBT rights program and spent the past three years working in Cairo. The panel, “Egypt: Sex, Rights, Politics and U.S. Foreign Policy,” sought to highlight a climate of increasing homophobia and transphobia under the Sisi regime.

According to Long, Egypt imprisons more people for same-sex conduct or gender expression than any other country in the world.

Being lesbian, gay or transgender is widely perceived in Egypt as a mental disorder. The imposition of a British protectorate in the late 19th century led to the introduction of anti-LGBT laws and attitudes that persist widely to this day, according to Hafez. 

Long described the “sustained despair” and “trauma” that have set in among Egyptians as the government intrudes ever deeper into people’s personal lives and freedoms. Disappearances and other repressive tactics are being used to silence civil society activists. Debauchery and prostitution laws have been frequently abused to arrest gay men at bathhouses and other venues where they may congregate. Long urged the U.S. government to do more to assist LGBT Egyptians.

Despite the ongoing crackdown on LGBT communities in Egypt, Hafez noted that educated urban activists have become less fearful and willing to stand up for their rights since the revolution of 2011. This could be a hopeful sign for the country as it suffers under an illiberal military regime where freedom of speech and expression are heavily curtailed.

HRC Global has been keeping close tabs on these developments in Egypt. This included hosting a briefing in Capitol Hill in July about human rights concerns in the country. Speaking at the briefing, HRC Global Director Ty Cobb called on Congress to keep human rights abuses by the state in mind as they formulate U.S. policy towards Egypt. 

Learn more about HRC’s work around the world here. 

www.hrc.org/blog/hrc-global-fellow-participates-on-panel-about-lgbt-rights-in-egypt?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

Missouri Governor Condemns Pro-Discrimination Constitutional Amendment

The pressure is on to keep SJR 39 from advancing to voters.

The post Missouri Governor Condemns Pro-Discrimination Constitutional Amendment appeared first on ThinkProgress.

thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2016/03/15/3760198/jay-nixon-sjr39-missouri-amendment/