SCOTUS to Rule on Transgender Teen Gavin Grimm’s Bathroom Battle with VA School District

The U.S. Supreme Court will rule on the issue of transgender bathroom rights in the coming year.

The Court announced on Friday it would take up a case involving transgender student Gavin Grimm of Virginia who has been engaged in a legal battle with his school district over being granted permission to use the boy’s restroom.

The case will have implications for President Obama’s guidance to public schools not to discriminate against transgender students, and will also likely impact North Carolina’s anti-trans ‘bathroom bill’ HB 2.

10 WAVY reports: 

The justices said Friday they will hear the appeal from the Gloucester County school board sometime next year. The high court’s order means that student Gavin Grimm will not be able to use the boys’ bathroom in the meantime.

The Washington Post adds:

School districts across the country are split on how to accommodate transgender students in the face of conflicting guidance from courts, the federal government and, in some cases, state legislatures that have passed laws requiring people to use public restrooms that coincide with the sex on their birth certificates.

The justices accepted a petition from Gloucester County, Va. On a 5 to 3 vote in August, they said the school board did not have to comply with a lower court’s order that 17-year-old student Gavin Grimm, who was born female but identifies as male, should be allowed to use the boys’ bathroom during his senior year of high school.

The post SCOTUS to Rule on Transgender Teen Gavin Grimm’s Bathroom Battle with VA School District appeared first on Towleroad.

www.towleroad.com/2016/10/gavin-grimm-scotus/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+towleroad%2Ffeed+%28Towleroad+Gay+News+%29

BREAKING: Supreme Court of the United States Will Decide Transgender Student’s Case

Today, HRC responded to news that the U.S. Supreme Court will hear Gloucester County School Board v. Grimm, a case involving discrimination against a transgender student. Gavin Grimm, a transgender boy, filed suit against the school board alleging the district violated Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 by denying him use of the boy’s restroom. The Supreme Court’s decision in this case will have far-reaching consequences for tens of thousands of transgender students across the nation.  

“The Supreme Court’s ultimate decision in this case will have a profound impact on transgender youth across the country,” said HRC Legal Director Sarah Warbelow. “While hundreds of school districts nationwide are already respecting the civil rights of their transgender students, some are unconscionably discriminating against students like Gavin. Every day that discrimination is allowed to continue, transgender students are put at even greater risk of harm. No young person should wake up in the morning fearful of bullying or discrimination during the school day ahead.”

In June, a federal court ordered the Gloucester County School Board to allow Grimm full access to the restroom that corresponds with his gender identity, consistent with a ruling from the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. In August, SCOTUS halted the lower court’s order, allowing the school board’s discriminatory policy to remain in place while the court awaited an application by the school board to have its full appeal heard. The Fourth Circuit ruling gave appropriate deference to the Department of Education’s interpretation of Title IX as allowing transgender students to use school restrooms consistent with their gender identity.

Allowing transgender people to access facilities consistent with their gender identity — something compelled for years by laws in 18 states as well as adopted by hundreds of cities and school districts around the country — has not resulted in problems. On the other hand, forcing transgender students to use sex-segregated facilities contrary to their identity can impose real harm on transgender students, further compounding the discrimination and marginalization they already face.

Denying transgender people access to facilities consistent with their gender identity has serious consequences. A recent study correlated the high suicide rates of transgender students with discriminatory bathroom restrictions, and according to the Youth Suicide Prevention Program, more than 50 percent of transgender youth will have had at least one suicide attempt by their 20th birthday.

The HRC Foundation’s Welcoming Schools program works extensively with teachers and administrators to support transgender and gender-expansive students, create LGBTQ-inclusive schools, prevent bias-based bullying and gender stereotyping, and embrace family diversity. In 2015, the HRC Foundation, with the American Civil Liberties Union, Gender Spectrum, National Center for Lesbian Rights, and the National Education Association, released Schools In Transition: A Guide for Supporting Transgender Students in K-12, which serves as the premiere best practices guide for schools nationwide.

www.hrc.org/blog/breaking-SCOTUS-will-decide-transgender-students-case?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

"My My Mississippi," the gospel anthem for #MyMississippi, debuts at TEDWomen

www.glaad.org/blog/my-my-mississippi-gospel-anthem-mymississippi-debuts-tedwomen

11 Topical Same-Sex Halloween Costumes

www.advocate.com/comedy/2016/10/27/11-topical-same-sex-halloween-costumes

Do We Really Need A “Will & Grace” Revival?

Remember the days when we had to go searching far and wide for any kind of queer content on television? Now, all you have to do is catch a commercial for women’s deodorant to see trans women. So how will the Will & Grace reboot fare, now that they’re no longer the only gay game in town?

Here’s what we know of the rumor so far: they reunited for a little webisode a few weeks ago to remind people that voting is important if you live in a swing state. (And if you don’t live in a swing state, you can still have a say in the election as long as you can donate tens of thousands of dollars.)

That little video did well enough that now NBC is thinking about bringing everyone back for a something new — but what? We don’t know. From the sound of things, it would be a little Will & Grace miniseries. Not a full network sitcom, but something short and fun and limited.

At the time, both Debra Messing and Eric McCormack said that they’d be interested in talking about bringing the show back.

But, yeesh, let’s take a minute and think here. When you watch an episode of the show, it really does not feel contemporary, and not just because it’s shot at 1.33:1. You forget how far this country has come until you see the issues queers were dealing with in 1999. Coming out was a huge deal, discrimination was just expected, gay marriage was hahaha yeah right. The show created a happy gay fantasy bubble where the real world seldom intruded, but it had to do so because the real world was so unpleasant at the time.

Now, things are considerably better, the current GOP nominee notwithstanding. We don’t need as much of a fantasy bubble. Will those characters feel as daring and fresh as they did to an America that had never seen so much queerness on TV? Or will they just seem as boring and predictable as urban gays considered them when they first appeared?

www.queerty.com/really-need-will-grace-revival-20161028?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29

FBI Director James Comey Re-Opens Investigation into Hillary Clinton’s Emails

FBI Director James Comey announced on Friday that the Bureau would be re-opening its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server during her tenure as Secretary of State.

Comey sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee saying it had discovered new emails while working on an allegedly unrelated investigation. The intent of re-opening the investigation is to determine whether this new crop of emails contained any classified material.

In letter to Senate Judiciary Cmte, FBI Director Comey writes that FBI is investigating add’l emails that were discovered

— Jesse Rodriguez (@JesseRodriguez) October 28, 2016

NBC News reports: 

“In connection with an unrelated case, the FBI has learned of the existence of emails that appear to be pertinent to the investigation … I agreed that the FBI should take appropriate investigative steps designed to allow investigators to review these emails to determine whether they contain classified information, as well as to assess their importance to our investigation,” he wrote.

In September, Comey defended his agency’s decision to not press criminal charges in the investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email sever. Documents related to the case were released just before the Labor Day weekend and included a summary of Clinton’s July interview with the FBI about her private email server, as well as a detailed investigative summary of the case.

The FBI language in the letter to Congress makes clear that new evidence has been discovered and thus will be reviewed — meaning FBI agents will read these emails. It is unusual for the FBI to tell Congress it is looking over newly discovered evidence in a criminal inquiry that was otherwise closed.

Asked to respond, a top Clinton campaign spokesperson tells NBC News, “No idea.”

Here’s the letter from the FBI saying it is REOPENING Clinton email inquiry to see if there’s more classified info pic.twitter.com/N8nDvZWjnk

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) October 28, 2016

FBI Dir just informed me, “The FBI has learned of the existence of emails that appear to be pertinent to the investigation.” Case reopened

— Jason Chaffetz (@jasoninthehouse) October 28, 2016

.@PeteWilliamsNBC makes the key point: There would have to be pretty dramatic information in these emails to change the previous conclusion

— Mark Murray (@mmurraypolitics) October 28, 2016

Meanwhile, this sums it up.

pic.twitter.com/NckGixGPwH

— Jimmy (@JimmyPrinceton) October 28, 2016

The stock market took a dive after the news broke.

U.S. stocks slide following news of FBI probe into Clinton emails t.co/yCI6qvx1aW pic.twitter.com/ZLNqnSqhEA

— Bloomberg (@business) October 28, 2016

UPDATING…

Speaker Paul Ryan says Hillary Clinton should no longer receive classified briefings until the probe is concluded.

UPDATE: Paul Ryan calls for a suspension of all classified briefings for Hillary Clinton until email matters are fully resolved. pic.twitter.com/ntyTfR4zR5

— CBS Evening News (@CBSEveningNews) October 28, 2016

Trump’s campaign is ecstatic.

A great day in our campaign just got even better. FBI reviewing new emails in Clinton probe @CNNPolitics t.co/WBltG2lAK6

— Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) October 28, 2016

Still no word on what “unrelated investigation” the emails were connected with.

Law enforcement sources tell @evanperez newly discovered emails not related to WikiLeaks or Clinton Fndtn. They wouldn’t describe content

— Noah Gray (@NoahGrayCNN) October 28, 2016

Donald Trump hit the campaign trail in Manchester, New Hampshire shortly after the news broke, saying “this is bigger than Watergate.”

Trump: “This is bigger than Watergate. This is bigger than Watergate, in my opinion.” t.co/J54RiABFFl pic.twitter.com/rDPpOKNdzs

— CBS News (@CBSNews) October 28, 2016

Reporters are still waiting for a response from Clinton’s team.

Reporters waiting for Hillary Clinton to step off her plane in Iowa shortly after FBI news broke. No comment from her team yet. pic.twitter.com/qPxSYPzB0F

— Chris Megerian (@ChrisMegerian) October 28, 2016

The post FBI Director James Comey Re-Opens Investigation into Hillary Clinton’s Emails appeared first on Towleroad.

www.towleroad.com/2016/10/fbi-director-james-comey-re-opens-investigation-hillary-clintons-emails/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+towleroad%2Ffeed+%28Towleroad+Gay+News+%29

HRC Works to #turnOUT the Vote in the Philadelphia Area

Post Submitted by Associate Regional Field Director Ryan Rowe

HRC staff have been on the ground in the Philadelphia area since September to #turnOUT the vote for Hillary Clinton and pro-equality candidates in the Keystone State. We are working with our HRC Philadelphia Steering Committee to ensure that this critical swing state goes blue on November 8. 

Local HRC leaders, including Patty Ellis and Philadelphia Community Engagement Chair David Klein, are organizing a team of volunteers in the critical regions of the Philadelphia ​suburbs and Center City Philadelphia. HRC ​volunteers there have already reported more than 500 hours of volunteering to help elect pro-equality candidates. 

Earlier this month, HRC President Chad Griffin stopped in Philadelphia to pump up a group of volunteers at a local canvass kickoff.

“Winning in Pennsylvania is not just critical for winning the White House,” he said. “But for winning a majority in Congress and winning in all of the down​-ballot elections here that are imperative if we want to move our work for equality forward for everyone!” 

HRC volunteers and staff are working hard alongside the Pennsylvania Democratic Party to #turnOUT the vote for Clinton and pro-equality candidates.​ ​HRC​ strongly support and has endorsed Kate McGinty, who is ​running for the U.S. Senate, ​and Dwight Evans, who is​ running for the U.S. House, earlier this year.

Today, there are more than 273,000 LGBTQ voters living in Pennsylvania — a substantial population given that the state was won in the last three presidential elections by an average of 358,189 votes. Pennsylvania is being hard fought this election cycle. This year, both 538 and the New York Times have picked Pennsylvania as the state most likely to be the tipping point state for the presidential election.

If you’d like to get involved in this home stretch, we need your help in the Philadelphia area. Please contact [email protected] for more information.  

www.hrc.org/blog/hrc-works-to-turnout-the-vote-in-the-philadelphia-area?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

Trump Supporters Vandalize Openly Gay Candidate’s Home With 'Death Threat'

The attack amounts to a hate crime, according to the victim.

www.advocate.com/election/2016/10/28/trump-supporters-vandalize-openly-gay-candidates-home-death-threat