Donald Trump Can’t Decide Whether Transgender People Should Have Protections Or Not
Trump told Jimmy Kimmel he “doesn’t know” right from wrong with regard to transgender protections.
The post Donald Trump Can’t Decide Whether Transgender People Should Have Protections Or Not appeared first on ThinkProgress.
New Guide on Transgender-Affirming Hospital Policies
Last year, my friend and colleague Beck Bailey wrote about his experiences with the healthcare system after he took a bad fall while skiing. While no one relishes the idea of having to receive emergency medical care or spend time in a hospital, this is an experience that is particularly dreaded by transgender people who frequently face discrimination in healthcare settings. In fact, Lambda Legal’s landmark 2010 survey, When Health Care Isn’t Caring, found that 70 percent of transgender and gender-nonconforming people had experienced discrimination in healthcare.
To help combat this discrimination, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently finalized rules confirming that transgender and gender nonconforming people are protected against health care discrimination under Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act. These rules apply to both insurance coverage as well as most healthcare providers, including hospitals like the one where Beck was treated.
While Beck experienced incidences of misgendering and other types of discrimination, he also found that many providers truly wanted to be supportive, but lacked any training in LGBT patient-centered care. Furthermore, the hospital did not have any policies or procedures in place to provide welcoming and affirmative care to transgender patients. To provide guidance to hospitals and other healthcare facilities that are seeking to improve healthcare for transgender patients, HRC Foundation, Lambda Legal and the LGBT Rights Committee of the New York City Bar Association, with pro bono assistance from Hogan Lovells US, LLP, and Proskauer Rose LLP, have released an updated version of our guide, “Creating Equal Access to Quality Health Care for Transgender Patients: Transgender-Affirming Hospital Policies.”
When first released in November 2013, “Creating Equal Access to Quality Health Care for Transgender Patients: Transgender-Affirming Hospital Policies” was a pioneering document designed for all hospital personnel seeking to align themselves with best practices in transgender care. It answered their questions about transgender patients, showed them how to reduce bias and insensitivity, and addressed key issues such as confidentiality, room assignments, bathroom access, and admitting/registration procedures. The guidance also included unique model policies that could be adapted to meet the needs of individual hospitals.
The intervening years have seen a significant change in the legal landscape concerning transgender rights in the healthcare context, including victories in court, new state insurance bulletins and evolving policies and best practices, culminating in the finalized Section 1557 rules. The revised publication incorporates those changes, adds new policies and updates existing ones.
The revised guide includes new information about:
HRC Foundation’s Healthcare Equality Index (HEI) is the national LGBTQ benchmarking survey and report that helps healthcare facilities provide more equitable care to their LGBTQ patients. This year we found that only twenty-one percent of hospitals participating in the HEI 2016 had specific policies outlining procedures and practices to eliminate bias and insensitivity toward transgender patients. This revised publication will go a long way in helping more hospitals adopt crucial policies and practices to ensure that transgender patients like Beck are welcomed and treated with appropriate care.
Muslim Organization Teaches LGBTQ Inclusion Through Storytelling
Over 70 people gathered at HRC’s Equality Forum on Saturday night to watch “Coming Out Muslim: Radical Acts of Love,” a faithful and moving play that captures stories and experiences of being at the intersections of Islam and queerness and its relationship to family, lovers, one’s sense of self and relationship with our faith.
The event began with the adhan — the traditional Islamic call to prayer. But it wasn’t your typical male-led muezzin, an appointed reciter. It was beautifully recited by Ani Zonneveld, founder of Muslims for Progressive Values (MPV) and a member of HRC’s Religion Council, who has been working towards building an inclusive Islamic practice for Muslims worldwide, one that is inclusive of women and LGBTQ people.
The event, co-sponsored by HRC Foundation and funded by the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, is on three-city tour and part of MPV’s strategy to elevate LGBTQ Muslim voices through storytelling.
“Sharing a story with someone and making a personal connection is the the crux of how we shift and change perspectives,” said Wazina, one of two performers of “Coming Out Muslim”.
In 2015, HRC Foundation released Coming Home to Islam and to Self, a guide to help LGBTQ Muslims who are seeking to reconnect with their faith and build more inclusive communities.
To learn more about Islam’s position on LGBTQ issues, go to www.hrc.org/muslim.
New Chinese Bus is Designed to Eat Traffic Jams for Lunch: WATCH
Traffic is a huge problem in most urban areas but China’s is legendary. Now, a Beijing company has designed this futuristic bus which would take the place of up to 40 conventional buses, and glides over the top of traffic jams on rails. It’s still conceptual at this point.
The “straddling bus”, which owes more to Blade Runner than China’s car-clogged highways, is supported by two legs that run along rails laid along the roadside.
Those legs allow the TEB’s giant frame to glide high above the gridlock at speeds of up to 60km per hour. Equally, vehicles that are less than two metres high will be able to drive freely underneath the bus, even when it is stationary.
“The biggest advantage is that the bus will save lots of road space,” Song Youzhou, the project’s chief engineer, told Xinhua, China’s official news agency.
Song claimed his buses, capable of transporting up to 1,400 commuters, could be produced for 20% of the price of an underground train and rolled out far more quickly since the supporting infrastructure was relatively simple.
However, questions still remain as to how safe the TEB will be, considering the scale model at the expo used only cars and not tall and heavy vehicles such as trucks and vans, to demonstrate how it would work.
The demo model also lacked safety barriers that separated the cars from the bus, raising safety concerns on traffic collisions which are already common throughout the country’s roads.
Watch:
The post New Chinese Bus is Designed to Eat Traffic Jams for Lunch: WATCH appeared first on Towleroad.
YouTuber’s Dad Confesses He Considered Suicide When His Son Came Out as Gay: WATCH
Gay YouTuber RiyadhK sat down with his parents Lorraine and Sam to talk about his coming out but had no idea that his father was about to confess that he tried to kill himself over his son’s revelations.
The clip manages to be devastating, heartbreaking, and instructive all at once. For parents hoping to get some guidance on dealing with kids who are gay, this one is a must-watch.
Said Sam about a note his son had left him, explaining that he is gay:
“I read it and I was like, waiting to sink in. ‘Really? No, it can’t be. Is it?’ It was just so confusing, because something just hits you like, bang! And you’re not really expecting it, and you’ll be thinking of what to do…and the family…”
Collecting himself, Sam added, “What I’m thinking is for every mother and father, if they love their kid, you have to stand by them.”
“I remember it was tough for you,” added Riyadh.
Riyadh’s statement seemed to push Sam to open up further:
‘I actually got up that night at – after you all went to sleep – about 3 or 4 in the morning, and I was looking for a tablet to commit suicide. That’s why I say it was so stupid.”
Watch:
The post YouTuber’s Dad Confesses He Considered Suicide When His Son Came Out as Gay: WATCH appeared first on Towleroad.
Dangerous When Wet: A Gay Man’s Struggle with Booze, Sex, and His Mother
TowleREAD is a regular audio feature in which LGBT authors read from their works. For this week’s TowleREAD audio selection, we return to the memoir, and bring you a special excerpt from Jamie Brickhouse’s critically-acclaimed book Dangerous When Wet: A Memoir of Booze, Sex, and my Mother, which Josh Kilmer-Purcell of The Fabulous Beekman Boys calls “a dark journey studded with gems of hilarity.”
Brickhouse spoke with us about his reading:
Dangerous When Wet is the darkly comic memoir of my long struggle with alcohol, my complicated relationship with my mother, Mama Jean, and my sexuality. From the age of five in small-town, Texas all I wanted was to be at a party with a drink in one hand and a cigarette in the other and all Mama Jean wanted was to keep me at that age, her Jamie doll forever. A Texan Elizabeth Taylor with the split personality of Auntie Mame and Mama Rose, she was always camera-ready and flamboyantly outspoken. Mama Jean haunted me my whole life, even after I moved to New York City and no matter how deep in booze I swam.
In this excerpt, I reveal the halcyon days of my early childhood in Texas, when I was Mama Jean’s constant companion and she was like a movie star to me. I appreciate her beauty rituals, long afternoons with her at the beauty parlor, and visits with her girlfriends, as only a nascent homosexual son can. The alcoholic fate of one of her girlfriends is an early foreshadowing to the dark days lurking in my future.
Listen:
You can pick up a copy of Dangerous When Wet: A Memoir of Booze, Sex, and my Mother, on Amazon.
You can also buy any of the books we have featured on TowleREAD in our store.
Boy Erased: A Preacher’s Son Recounts His Failed Journey Through Gay Conversion Therapy
Jim Downs Reexamines Gay Culture, History, and Sex in the 1970s in ‘Stand By Me’
Ken Corbett’s ‘A Murder Over a Girl’ Explores the Terrible Killing of California Teen Larry King: LISTEN
Rashod Ollison Reads from His Lyrical Coming-of-Age Memoir ‘Soul Serenade’ – LISTEN
Garth Greenwell Reads from His Remarkable Debut Novel ‘What Belongs To You’ – LISTEN
Disclosure: If you buy something through hyperlinks to supporting retailers, we may get a small commission on the sale. Thanks for your ongoing support of Towleroad and independent publishing.
The post Dangerous When Wet: A Gay Man’s Struggle with Booze, Sex, and His Mother appeared first on Towleroad.
HRC Praises Bipartisan House Victory for LGBT Workers
In a strongly bipartisan 223-195 vote, the U.S. House of Representatives voted last night to ensure that funds from an appropriations bill cannot be used to discriminate against LGBT workers. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY) offered the amendment yesterday to the FY17 Energy and Water Appropriations bill, following an attempt last week where House leadership held the amendment vote open on the floor longer than permitted to flip seven of 36 Republican votes and kill the amendment.
This week, 43 Republicans joined all Democrats in voting favorably.
“Today’s vote is a strong reminder that equality isn’t a partisan issue,” said HRC Government Affairs Director David Stacy. “No American should face discrimination because of who they are or whom they love. While that principle won a victory that was elusive last week, it’s time to advance meaningful legal protections for LGBT people and pass the Equality Act. This vote can be a building block if Congress works together for protections that the overwhelming majority of voters want for LGBT Americans.”
The House also disappointingly passed an amendment offered by Rep. Robert Pittenger (R-NC) that prohibits funds appropriated by the bill from being taken away from any entity in North Carolina for any reason including fraud, failure to carry out the terms of a contract or if used in violation of the law. The broadly-worded amendment was intended to prevent any cessation of funds to the state of North Carolina over its anti-transgender law.. The 227-192 vote included 11 Republicans voting no.
In July 2014, President Obama issued Executive Order 13672, which prohibits federal contractors from discriminating in employment based on sexual orientation or gender identity. The Maloney Amendment says that no funds from the bill can be used to contract with companies that aren’t in compliance with this executive order.
A nearly identical amendment passed last year in the House on a bill to fund the Departments of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development. That amendment, offered by Rep. Scott Peters (D-CA) received huge bipartisan support, with 60 Republicans voting yes — including Rep. Paul Ryan (before he was Speaker).
HRC Analysis: Lawsuit Attempts to Gut Federal Non-Discrimination Protections for Trans People
Today, HRC released the following statement on the reckless and shameful lawsuit filed today by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and government actors from 10 other states, which aims to block federal nondiscrimination protections for transgender people.
In the suit, Paxton — who has been indicted — has led other states seeking to undo crucial and historic non-discrimination advancements the federal government has implemented for transgender people in recent years. Specifically, the lawsuit attacks guidance from the U.S. Department of Education which explains that schools are obligated under federal law to protect transgender students from discrimination challenges guidance from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) with regards to transgender employees, and seeks to undermine the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s determination that transgender employees are covered by federal employment nondiscrimination law.
“The lawsuit filed today is dangerous political grandstanding that has put a target on the backs of transgender Americans in schools and workplaces across the country,” said Sarah Warbelow, Legal Director of the Human Rights Campaign. “The guidance recently issued by the United States Departments of Education and Justice is a clarification of the existing state of the law, and that clarification was requested by educators who were already hard at work ensuring that their students, including transgender students, were able to get an education where they are safe and enabled to learn. This lawsuit not only misrepresents the guidance and misrepresents the law, it does significant harm to transgender people by encouraging discriminatory behavior. We look forward to seeing this case receive the disposition it deserves.”
Today, HRC released a letter signed by national organizations representing almost five million educators, pediatricians, counselors, and other child welfare providers urging lawmakers and public officials, like Paxton, to stop their political attacks on transgender youth. These organizations include the American Federation of Teachers; the American Academy of Pediatrics; the American Counseling Association; the National Association of School Psychologists; and the National Education Association.
Paxton previously issued an opinion encouraging clerks to refuse to grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples after the Supreme Court’s historic marriage equality ruling in Obergefell v Hodges. Paxton’s opinion is similar to one issued by Alabama Chief Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore, who was recently suspended from the bench after directing probate judges not to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Texas State Bar rules requires all attorneys, including the Attorney General, to take an oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution.
Also today, HRC Welcoming Schools released a key resource for school officials to effectively and respectfully follow recent guidance from the U.S. Department of Education on the rights of transgender students. The guide answers questions school officials may be asked by parents, guardians and other community members.
Democrats Defend Trans Kids During House Hearing
Yesterday, Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee Task Force on Executive Overreach came to the defense of transgender students during a Task Force hearing on regulatory overreach. During his opening remarks, Rep. Steve King (R-IA) described the Department of Educations’ recent Title IX guidance on transgender students as an “egregious example” of regulatory overreach, setting the tone for the hearing.
These comments were later followed by the testimony of Gail Heriot. In her submitted testimony, Heriot stated that “We are teaching young people a terrible lesson. If I believe that I am a Russian princess, that doesn’t make me a Russian princess, even if my friends and acquaintances are willing to indulge my fantasy. Nor am I a Great Horned Owl just because—as I have been told—I happen to share some personality traits with those feathered creatures.” While Republican members of the task force did not challenge Heriot’s ignorant views (and in fact, Representative King quoted her testimony in his opening remarks), Democrats made clear their opposition to Heriot’s testimony.
Both Representative Steve Cohen (D-TN) and Representative Jerry Nadler (D-NY) shared expert views that Heriot’s dismissal of transgender student’s identity dangerously ignores the high rates of discrimination and sexual violence transgender students face in schools. During the following exchange with Heriot, Representative Nadler cited the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals decision which affirmed the Department of Education’s interpretation of Title IX of the Education Act of 1972 as protecting transgender students from discrimination, including allowing them to use restrooms consistent with their gender identity.
Later, Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) explained that she found the guidance to be very reasonable. She then stated that she found it “very regrettable” that Heriot’s testimony was put in the record, and during a heated exchange, Representative Lofgren made it clear that she would not let Heriot’s testimony go unchallenged. Representative Lofgren shared that she found Heriot’s testimony to be offensive and that it was clear from her testimony that Heriot did not know anything about transgender people and has probably never met a transgender child who is coming to terms with their gender identity.
Although the hearing was not well-attended, this may have been for the best. Other task force members include Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) who described PayPal’s decision not to invest in North Carolina because of their anti-transgender law “the height of lunacy” and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) who said there is “no need” for the Department of Education’s guidance.
Although Republicans on the Task Force refused to speak out—and at times encouraged—Heriot’s remarks, it clearly did not have to be this way. The past couple of weeks have highlighted the strong bipartisan support for LGBT equality. Just last week, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) stated that “allowing students to use the bathroom of their authentic selves is a step forward in stopping the stigma around transgender individuals.” Meanwhile, Representatives Charlie Dent (R-PA), Carlos Curbelo (R-FL), Richard Hanna (R-NY), and Mike Coffman (R-CO), along with Representative Ros-Lehtinen, sponsored a bipartisan amendment to strip anti-LGBT language from the Fiscal Year 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The day after the amendment was prevented from being debated and voted on, twenty-nine Republicans joined 183 democrats in voting for a LGBT non-discrimination amendment on a different bill in the House.
LGBT rights are clearly a bipartisan issue and it is a shame that no Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee Task Force on Executive Overreach were willing to stand up for trans rights and trans youth at yesterday’s hearing.
www.hrc.org/blog/democrats-defend-trans-kids-during-house-hearing?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed
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