Québec Minister and Delegation Visit HRC’s Office, Pay Respects to Orlando Victims

A delegation headed by the Québec Minister of International Relations Christine St-Pierre and the Delegate General of Québec in New York Jean-Claude Lauzon visited HRC’s office in Washington, D.C.,  yesterday to pay their respects to the victims of the Orlando shooting.

Minister St-Pierre and her colleagues laid a bouquet at the memorial HRC unveiled last week in memory of those lost in the horrific Orlando shooting. HRC installed images of all 49 victims of the attack in the front windows of its building, creating an 8-story composite image that carries the message “We Are Orlando.”

“I offer my deepest condolences on behalf of the Government and people of Québec to the families and loved ones of the victims of the tragedy that occurred in Orlando on June 12,” Minister St-Pierre said in a message to HRC. “We strongly condemn these acts of violence and stand in solidarity with our American neighbors and friends as well as with the LGBTQ community. We must remain strong and united in the face of hatred and terror.”

The minister and her delegation met with HRC Chief of Staff Joni Madison, Senior Vice President Mary Beth Maxwell and other staff to convey their condolences.

“It was a honor and a privilege to meet with Minister St-Pierre and the rest of the delegation from Québec,” Madison said. “It was a touching and moving gesture for them to take the time out of their busy trip in D.C. to come pay their respects to the victims in Orlando. The government in Québec has made great efforts to advance a pro-equality agenda, and we hope their time here will be an important step in establishing a friendship and partnership to help the global LGBTQ community.”

In the aftermath of the Orlando massacre, HRC announced calls for common-sense gun violence prevention policies, noting that LGBTQ people have been targeted in bias-motivated attacks for decades and that access to deadly weapons compounds this unacceptable threat.

www.hrc.org/blog/quebec-minister-and-delegation-visit-hrcs-office-pay-respects-to-orlando-vi?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

HHS Revises Policy to Include Explicit Provision for Protections of LGBTQ Patients

Last week, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published regulations revising the Conditions of Participation for Hospitals and Critical Access Hospitals to include explicit provision for protections of LGBTQ patients.   Conditions of Participation (CoPs) set requirements and expectations for hospitals participating in Medicare and Medicaid.  These standards significantly enhance the quality of care and protect the health and safety of patients.

Last week’s rule includes a new standard within the CoPs explicitly prohibiting discrimination against patients on the basis of sex (including gender identity) and sexual orientation.  These explicit protections will provide meaningful safeguards for patients, and will play a key role in ending the health disparities that continue to plague so many in the LGBTQ community.  In addition to prohibiting discrimination, the proposed regulation also requires hospitals to establish and implement a written nondiscrimination policy and to inform each patient of their rights under this provision and the process for filing a complaint.

Last week’s regulation is not only consistent with the nondiscrimination requirements imposed by the regulation implementing Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sex stereotyping, but also provides additional explicit protections for lesbian, gay, and bisexual patients. Last week’s regulation also reflects established and widely accepted existing federal standards of care.  For example, the Joint Commission incorporated inclusive non-discrimination requirements into its standards for all hospitals seeking accreditation in 2011.  HRC has consistently urged HHS to adopt these protections within the CoPs.  In October 2014 HRC directly called on HHS to adopt these and included this recommendation within the two most recent editions of the Healthcare Equality Index (HEI).

These recommendations were made because HRC has independently researched hospital policies and in the HEI 2016 found that only 58 percent have patient non-discrimination policies that include both sexual orientation and gender identity. The HEI’s findings demonstrate the patchwork of protections nationwide for LGBTQ patients and their families, as well as LGBTQ healthcare facility employees, underscoring the need for uniform federal non-discrimination protections. LGBTQ Americans are facing a harsh choice between healthcare facilities that have policies that guarantee them equal care, and those that have consistently failed to take steps to ensure all patients receive inclusive, compassionate and respectful care.

Fear of discrimination causes many LGBTQ people to avoid seeking healthcare, and, when they do enter care, studies indicate that LGBTQ people are not consistently treated with the respect that all patients deserve.  In a recent study, 56 percent of LGB people and 70 percent of transgender and gender non-conforming people reported experiencing discrimination by healthcare providers–including refusal of care, harsh language, and physical roughness–because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. A startling 27 percent of transgender respondents and 8 percent of LGB respondents reported that they had been denied necessary healthcare because of their gender identity or sexual orientation. Delay and avoidance of care due to fear of discrimination compounds the significant health disparities experienced by LGBTQ people as a group. For example, 28 percent of transgender people reported that they postponed or avoided seeking treatment when sick or injured for fear of facing discrimination.

HRC applauds HHS for making this much needed step towards ending LGBTQ health disparities and ensuring that all patients regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity receive the care they need and deserve.

To read the proposed regulation visit: www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2016-06-16/pdf/2016-13925.pdf

www.hrc.org/blog/hhs-revises-policy-to-include-explicit-provision-for-protections-of-lgbtq-p?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

The John Lewis Case: Gun Control Only Passes If We Come Together

The famed civil rights leader says, “We must look out for each other.”

www.advocate.com/politics/2016/6/23/john-lewis-case-gun-control-only-passes-if-we-come-together

House Dems End Gun Control Protest As Sit-In Goes Over 24-Hour Mark

House Democrats ended their gun control protest Thursday morning.

www.advocate.com/election/2016/6/23/aide-house-dems-end-gun-control-protest-sit-goes-over-24-hour-mark

An Orthodox Rabbi Walked Into A Gay Bar… What Happened Next May Surprise You

“I heard about the horrific shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, while our synagogue in Washington was celebrating Shavuot,” Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld writes in a new think piece published by The Jewish Chronicle Online. “Even though the holiday is a happy time, I cried as I recited our prayers.”

Rabbi Herzfeld leads Ohev Sholom, a Modern Orthodox synagogue in Washington, D.C. After the shooting, he says about a dozen or so members of the congregation approached him and said they wanted to show solidarity with the victims and their families.

Related: Some Jews Are Really Upset Obama Now Hates The Defense Of Marriage Act. Other Jews, Not So Much

So they did something that, for them, was pretty crazy. They planned a visit the Fireplace, a popular gay bar near Dupont Circle.

“We did not go to recruit members that night or to express any new theological ideas,” Herzfeld writes. “Our goal was simply to try to connect, build bridges, heal a little and be with a community in pain.”

“I had not been to a bar in more than 20 years,” he continues. “And I had never been to a gay bar. But we all realized that we had to act. Our country was in tremendous pain–is still in tremendous pain. We wanted to try to connect and offer support.”

Herzfeld says he understands that “the intersection between the gay community and Orthodox Judaism is obviously a work in progress” and that there’s still a lot of gray area between the two, but if ever there was an opportunity to find common ground, this was it.

Related: What Will It Take to Get Orthodox Jews to Embrace Their Gays?

The experience proved more eye-opening than he even anticipated.

“We walked inside and just by standing there with our kippot I felt that we were embracing a community that was looking for an embrace,” he recalls.

“That night I felt both the pain and the reassurance in the room,” he adds. “I felt pain when I stood in that bar–pain that I wouldn’t have been able to comprehend without being there.”

So what’s the takeaway from all this?

In a word: Empathy.

“As an Orthodox community, we need to communicate a message of unconditional love and unconditional safety and protection to all of our children from as young an age as possible,” Herzfeld writes. “We need to communicate a message that actively challenges homophobia and transphobia–and to actively assert that such harmful messages will not be tolerated.”

“For some children,” he concludes, “this can be a matter of life and death.”

Related: Are Orthodox Jews Coming Around On Homosexuality?

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Four Disco-Infused, Dance-Centric NYC Pride Events You Shouldn’t Miss

You’re never prepared when New York Pride Weekend descends upon you. All of a sudden, bars teem with fresh blood and confetti is everywhere. For the next three days, there’s no shortage of things to do, and plenty of tourists to do them with.

Head over to GayCities New York Pride Guide for an exhaustive rundown of the weekend’s many events — from the parade to the rally and special events all over town. Looking for some particularly over-the-top parties? Well, take a look below.

Furball NYC

Game plan: Slug down the hair of the dog that bit you, then barrel into this beefy, burly burlesque aimed at cubs, bears, and hairy Toms and Dicks. Two dance floors seductively groan under the fancy footwork of roughly (ruff-ly?) 500 jolly revelers, while DJs Jack Chang, Corey Craig, Matt Effect, and Benson Wilder dig deep into the crates to spin you into a fearsome frenzy of Prideful pirouettes. 637 W 50th St, furballnyc.ticketleap.com; 10:00pm to 6:00am

Head here for a full guide to New York Pride.

Bathhouse  

Well, this could be sleazy. A legion of over thirty hired “towel dancers” and “living Roman statues” will be muscling their way through the cavernous XL Nightclub for Bathhouse’s 2nd Annual Pride bacchanal. This study in salaciousness by promoter Brandon Voss promises an old-school XXX theater, a “towel only” locker room, and, erm, spa treatments. (You may need them at some point in the night.) Music by DJ W Jeremy provides the aural soundscape to accompany your every regret. 512 West 42nd Street; Info & VIP: 212.481.6203; Friday, June 24, 2016; 11:00pm to God only knows

Head here for a full guide to New York Pride.

Fantasy

Shh, silence! Beneath Times Square lies a hidden disco utopia that goes by the name The Diamond Horseshoe. Tonight, promoter Brian Raffety overtakes the $20 million dollar mega-club to provide cloudy revelers with an assaulting barrage of flashing lights, delirious sounds, performance art, and perverse special effects. This year’s theme is simply “neon,” so don your most eye-searing ’80s leggings, sploosh palmfuls of Manic Panic into your hair, sling rainbow rings onto every wiggly digit, and just go be an unmitigated loon. 225 W 46th St (at Seventh Ave), nycpride.org.; Friday, June 24, 10:00 pm to 5:00 am

Head here for a full guide to New York Pride.

Dance on the Pier

Celebrating its 30th year, Dance on the Pier still serves as NYC’s largest fundraiser for NYC Pride. Expect the event to close out the weekend’s festivities with a delirious fireworks display over the Hudson River that will alternately delight and terrify the crowd, depending on the state of their mind in that final hour. Fergie headlines — expect all her biggest hits, from “Glamorous” to “Glamorous.” Hudson River Park, Pier 26, nycpride.org; Sunday, June 26, 2:00 pm to 10:00 pm

Head here for a full guide to New York Pride.

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Matt Bomer Understands What ‘Bobby-Dangler’ Means, For Good Reason: WATCH

Matt Bomer is starring in the new Amazon drama pilot The Last Tycoon, based on the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel, which is about a studio executive in the 1930’s.

In a new video, Matt Bomer is asked what slang terms from that era mean, and he did not do so great.

Do you know what bobby-dangler, jelly ass, zazzy, hot tomato, off the cob, blat, and other terms mean?

See how well Bomer does:

The post Matt Bomer Understands What ‘Bobby-Dangler’ Means, For Good Reason: WATCH appeared first on Towleroad.

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Toronto Police Chief ‘Expresses Regrets’ for 1981 Raids on Gay Bathhouses: WATCH

Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders apologized on Wednesday for February 1981 raids on Toronto gay bathhouses which outed patrons and ruined lives.

CTV reports:

Police officers barged in on four Toronto bathhouses on Feb. 19, 1981 and rounded up the people inside. Nearly 300 people were arrested and charged.

Toronto resident Tony Fay said he was affected by the raids and the apology offered him closure. He said the apology also showed the importance of that particular moment in Toronto’s history and how police have changed their opinions of the gay community.

Fay said it’s been a “long time coming.” He said the effects of the arrest lingered for years.

He said in the raids, police “did everything they could to intimidate us. It was not a good scene.”

Watch:

Track Two is a documentary about the 1981 Toronto raids.

Watch it in full:

The post Toronto Police Chief ‘Expresses Regrets’ for 1981 Raids on Gay Bathhouses: WATCH appeared first on Towleroad.

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