Yvie Oddly on how we need to better support local drag queens
Backstage at her show at Tracks (photo above), Yvie spoke to GayCities about the challenges that nightlife performers encounter when they try to find work in smaller cities.
Daily Archives: June 18, 2019
Two Miles Away From Pulse, Trump Fails to Mention Massacre of LGBTQ People in Campaign Launch Speech
Two Miles Away From Pulse, Trump Fails to Mention Massacre of LGBTQ People in Campaign Launch Speech
In his campaign launch speech, Donald Trump stood two miles and a 10-minute drive away from the site of the Pulse nightclub shooting but refused to even mention the 49 LGBTQ lives, most Latinx, taken by senseless gun violence. This omission comes less than one week after Orlando, the LGBTQ community, the Latinx community and the world marked the third year since Pulse without any substantive action on gun reform. In fact, despite multiple trips to Orlando since taking office, Trump nor Pence have ever visited Pulse.
“Trump’s refusal to even acknowledge Pulse or LGBTQ people less than 10 minutes away from the site of the massacre is shameful, but unfortunately not surprising after the NRA spent a record amount on his behalf in 2016,” said HRC National Press Secretary for Campaigns Lucas Acosta. “Throughout their tenure in office, the Trump-Pence administration has taken any and every opportunity to attack LGBTQ people and our rights. But we won’t stand idly by and allow this assault to continue. In 2020, HRC will mobilize the over 10 million LGBTQ voters and 52 million Equality Voters to defeat Donald Trump and elect a pro-equality President who will pass the Equality Act and take our community forward.”
RHODE ISLAND PRIDE 2019
Not Far From Puerto Vallarta Is a Slice of Gay-Friendly Heaven
Not Far From Puerto Vallarta Is a Slice of Gay-Friendly Heaven
At the W Punta de Mita, a modern artsy beach resort meets ancestral Indigenous history, offering an unexpected and wonderful experience.
www.advocate.com/exclusives/2019/6/18/not-far-puerto-vallarta-slice-gay-friendly-heaven
Mayoral candidate caught on tape shouting antigay slurs at cyclist says he was exercising free speech
Mayoral candidate caught on tape shouting antigay slurs at cyclist says he was exercising free speech
Ryan Thompsen was riding his bike home from work last Thursday in San Jose, California when the driver of a grey Nissan illegally blocked the bike lane.
When Thompsen stopped his bike to confront the man about it, the driver went off on a homophobic tirade. And the whole thing was caught on tape.
“That’s the bike lane,” Thompsen can be heard saying in the video, which appears to have been recorded from his helmet cam.
“Hey, no sh*t,” responds the driver.
When Thompsen tells him to get out of the bike lane, the driver says, “F*ck you” then calls him an “Aryan” and an “asshole” before directing him to go a different way.
“You’re a f*g,” the driver snarls. “You’re a f*g.”
“What does that have to do with it?” Thompsen replies.
“All Aryans are f*gs, motherf*cker!” the driver says. “Am I wrong?”
A local CBS news station identified the driver as Cornelius Lopes, who confirmed to the station that it is, indeed, him in the video hurling homophobic slurs for seemingly no reason at Thompsen.
Lopes is a former city council candidate from Newark, California who is said to be running for mayor next year.
He told reporters he was merely “exercising his right to free speech” and “violated no laws” when he called Thompsen a “f*g.”
But this isn’t Lopes’ first run-in with a cyclist. The Mercury News reports:
According to court documents, Lopes was also involved in an incident involving a bicyclist in 2004, when he allegedly extended his arm, striking a moving cyclist in the chest during a road race, and responded to a bystander who warned him not to go into the roadway during the race, “F— you, Jew.”
Lopes was later arrested and charged with “misdemeanor battery” for intentionally causing the collision with the cyclist, but according to the court documents “was never convicted.” He then sued the city of Newark, the Newark Police Department, the Newark police union and members of the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office for wrongfully arresting him. The lawsuit was dismissed.
Watch.
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With Cryptocurrency Launch, Facebook Sets its Path Toward Becoming an Independent Nation
With Cryptocurrency Launch, Facebook Sets its Path Toward Becoming an Independent Nation
Facebook has announced a plan to launch a new cryptocurrency named the Libra, adding another layer to its efforts to dominate global communications and business. Backed by huge finance and technology companies including Visa, Spotify, eBay, PayPal and Uber – plus a ready-made user base of 2 billion people around the world – Facebook is positioned to pressure countries and central banks to cooperate with its reinvention of the global financial system.
In my view as a social media researcher and educator, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is clearly seeking to give his company even more political power on a global scale, despite the potential dangers to society at large. In a sense, he is declaring that he wants Facebook to become a virtual nation, populated by users, powered by a self-contained economy, and headed by a CEO – Zuckerberg himself – who is not even accountable to his shareholders.
Facebook hasn’t behaved responsibly in the past, and is still wrestling with significant public concerns – and investigations – about its privacy practices, information accuracy and targeted advertising. Therefore, it’s important to see through the hype. People must consider who is reshaping the world, and whether they are doing it in the best interests of humankind – or whether they are just seeking to benefit the new class of elite technology executives.
Humanity needs ethical leadership, and time to think through the potential repercussions of rapid technological change. That’s why, in my view, Facebook’s cryptocurrency should be blocked by financial regulators until its design has been proved to be safe for all of global society.
Anthony Quintano/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY
Understanding Libra
Technology companies are interested in a global currency that is native to the internet. That could allow companies like Facebook and Twitter to bring in more users to their platforms, and collect money from businesses who want to join the new system. They also want to siphon off business from the existing financial services industry. That sector is worth trillions of dollars, is enormously profitable, and yet has struggled to implement its own digital currency.
The technical details of Facebook’s plans are still emerging, but it seems that the company is not seeking to compete with Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies. Rather, Facebook is looking to replace the existing global financial system with an all-new setup, with Libra at its center.
The company may be counting on increased public interest in cryptocurrencies and financial technologies, and its market strength, to overcome objections. However, I don’t believe Facebook should be allowed to wreck the global financial system like it has, as many see it, wrecked global communications.
Speeding global exchange
There is definitely a need for smoother, faster and cheaper ways to send money around the world, and to provide access to financial services to the many people who do not have formal bank accounts. There is real potential to Libra, but there are likely to be ways to improve even more, developing a payment system that better serves the world as a whole.
At least at the moment, the Libra is being designed as a form of electronic money linked to many national currencies. That has raised fears that Libra might someday be recognized as a sovereign currency, with Facebook acting as a “shadow bank” that could compete with the central banks of countries around the world.
It doesn’t help that Facebook is already positioning itself to evade regulatory scrutiny by creating a corporate subsidiary that will join an ostensibly independent governing body for the Libra.
To protect consumers, regulators should look carefully at whether the new system supporting the Libra is sound. It may be that an entirely new set of financial rules and regulations is needed to shield the existing financial system from harm if the Libra becomes more popular than national currencies. At the very least, governments need to proceed slowly and carefully when new products may introduce systemic risks into our environment. Even the CEO of Google has acknowledged that. In my opinion, Libra’s planned launch in 2020 does not allow enough time to fully vet this technology and its risks.
Protecting the global financial system
Financial regulations have developed over time to encourage trust between unknown parties, and to protect regular customers from fraudsters and corporate greed. There are also rules that help governments prevent and detect transactions that support crime and terrorism.
This is not to say that all payments and purchases should be tied to a known entity online or in real life. Cash and anonymity is also a civil right and is key to privacy and personal freedoms.
As new digital financial services, methods of electronic payment and currencies develop and become popular, they should not be allowed to undermine longstanding financial safety systems, even in the name of smoother, cheaper transactions.
My concern is not just about large-volume transactions. Facebook has shown how even small amounts of money can buy microtargeted ads with the power to influence public opinion and election outcomes in the U.S. and around the world.
Product design and risk assessment
Facebook has a long history of questionable business models and privacy practices. The public, and their representatives in government – including elected officials, financial regulators and central bank authorities – should carefully scrutinize all aspects of Facebook’s cryptocurrency plans.
This concern is especially urgent because Facebook also has a long history of launching products and services, like political ads and live-streaming video, without fully considering their potential to damage democracy and the global society at large.
The company has demonstrated its inability to serve society beneficially – and it may not even be interested in trying. All the signals suggest that customers and regulators alike should carefully examine whether Facebook’s Libra is truly innovative or just a way to avoid restrictions on a potentially hazardous financial product.
Defending democracy
Facebook’s entrance into the financial industry is a threat to democracies and their citizens around the world, on the same scale as disinformation and information warfare, which also depend on social media for their effectiveness.
It may be hard for world leaders to understand that this is an emergency, as they cannot see the virtual powers aligning against them. But they must huddle quickly to ensure they have – and keep – the power to protect their people from technology companies’ greed.
It will be key to understand if Facebook’s future cryptocurrency will ultimately function more like anonymous cash, or more like a traceable credit card transaction. Facebook has the blockchain and encryption technology to create an anonymous digital cash-like system, or a private digital currency, which has not been created yet. Anonymity would heighten the risks of abuse such as money laundering, so it’s worth watching out for a cash-like Facebook cryptocurrency that mirrors the central banks’ cash system.
In addition, I cannot help but reflect on the name that Facebook chose for this, the Libra, which is a reference to the Roman measurement for a pound, once used to mint coins. In many ways the company that Mark Zuckerberg is building is beginning to look more like a Roman Empire, now with its own central bank and currency, than a corporation. The only problem is that this new nation-like platform is a controlled company and is run more like a dictatorship than a sovereign country with democratically elected leaders. Even now, the company may have as much power as some countries – and more than others.
In the wake of the not too distant global financial crisis, and the “fake news” and disinformation culture that is developing, people must slow down and fully evaluate disruptive technology of this magnitude. Society cannot withstand a launch of a cryptocurrency in Facebook’s infamous “move fast and break things” style.
Jennifer Grygiel, Assistant Professor of Communications (Social Media) & Magazine, News and Digital Journalism, Syracuse University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
The post With Cryptocurrency Launch, Facebook Sets its Path Toward Becoming an Independent Nation appeared first on Towleroad Gay News.
With Cryptocurrency Launch, Facebook Sets its Path Toward Becoming an Independent Nation
HRC on Trump-Pence 2020 Campaign Launch
HRC on Trump-Pence 2020 Campaign Launch
Today, HRC slams the Trump-Pence administration for their attacks on LGBTQ people ahead of Trump’s 2020 campaign launch.
“Since Donald Trump and Mike Pence took office 29 months ago, LGBTQ people have been under constant attack by an administration that is hell-bent on ripping away our progress,” says HRC President Chad Griffin. “But time and again, HRC’s grassroots army of more than 3 million strong has fought back, putting up roadblocks on this administration’s path of destruction and discrimination. In the months ahead, we will continue to turn resistance into action by making major investments to turn out the more than 10 million eligible LGBTQ voters in this country and millions more allies to ensure we defeat Donald Trump in 2020 and elect a pro-equality president who will fight for the rights of all Americans.”
Here are 29 horrific things Trump has done to attack or undermine LGBTQ rights since taking office:**
**This list has been significantly curtailed for convenience. For the full, unredacted list of Trump-Pence’s attacks on LGBTQ people, go to hrc.org/Trump.
- Opposition to the Equality Act: Despite support from almost every segment of the U.S. population and a majority of Republicans, President Trump opposed the Equality Act. Last month, the House passed the Equality Act, voting to guarantee critical non-discrimination protections for LGBTQ people among other crucial rights.
- Appointed horrifically anti-LGBTQ judges: Trump has appointed anti-LGBTQ judges with alarming anti-LGBTQ records to appointments at every level of the judicial system, including anti-equality Supreme Court Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh.
- Joked about Pence’s desire to hang gay people: In 2017, Trump joked about Vice President Pence’s anti-gay agenda saying “Don’t ask that guy—he wants to hang them all!”
In the Workplace
- Banned transgender service members from the military: Against the expert advice of military leadership, medical authorities, budget analysts, 70% of Americans and the armed forces of allied countries, Trump and Pence banned transgender people from serving in the military.
- Rolled back Obama-era non-discrimination protections: Trump’s Department of Justice upended previous DOJ interpretations of the Civil Rights Act that protect transgender and non-binary workers from employment discrimination and ceased enforcing non-discrimination protections as well as taking a hostile stance to LGBTQ workers in court.
- Planned new rules to license discrimination: Trump’s Department of Labor issued a directive designed to allow federal contractors to claim a religious exemption to fire LGBTQ workers because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
- Kicked people living with HIV out of the military because of their status: The Department of Defense instituted a “Deploy or Get Out” policy, which would remove military personnel living with HIV from service solely because of their status.
- Created a hostile work environment for LGBTQ federal employees: According to Politico: “[The Trump administration] fostered a climate where six staffers who are LGBT described removing their wedding rings before coming to work in the morning, taking down photos of their partners and families or ultimately finding new jobs further away from certain political appointees. They did not want to be identified; two said they feared being reassigned for being gay.”
In Health Care
- Section 1557 Rule: HHS just published a proposed major change to the administrative rule interpreting Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to remove explicit protections for LGBTQ people in healthcare programs and activities by excluding LGBTQ people from protections from discrimination based on sex stereotyping and gender identity.
- Advocated for the elimination of the entire Affordable Care Act: The Justice Department issued a legal filing arguing that the entirety of the Affordable Care Act should be overturned. This move would jeopardize health care for over 130 million people with preexisting conditions like HIV and eliminate non-discrimination protections for LGBTQ people.
- Created a Religious Discrimination Division: HHS created a new office whose sole purpose would be to defend physicians and other medical professionals who decide to refuse care, including to LGBTQ patients.
- Proposed cutting over $1.35 billion from PEPFAR budget: In his proposed FY 2019 budget, Trump cut $1.35 billion from, or 29% of, PEPFAR’s budget. PEPFAR is the U.S. government program that fights AIDS abroad.
In Schools
- Guidance for Schools on Transgender Students: The Departments of Education and Justice eliminated Obama-era guidance clarifying that schools must treat transgender students consistent with their identity. This encourages schools officials to permit harassment of transgender students, deny access to facilities consistent with gender identity, and refuse to use correct names and pronouns — all inflicting untold emotional harm.
- Rejected Complaints From Transgender Students: The Department of Education refused to respond to civil complaints filed by transgender students, including those who were barred from using bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity. This increases the burden for transgender students to combat these harmful policies.
- Suggested it is acceptable for schools to discriminate against LGBTQ students while accepting tax-payer funds: Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has refused to rule out federal funding for schools that discriminate against LGBTQ students and has declined to state she would otherwise intervene should discrimination occur.
- Sexual Assault: DeVos rescinded Title IX rules related to schools’ obligations to address sexual harassment, including sexual violence. By eliminating the Obama-era rules, DeVos increased the standard of proof from “preponderance of the evidence” to “clear and convincing evidence” making it more difficult for survivors of sexual assault to obtain justice. LGBTQ people are disproportionately affected by sexual assault and harassment, and the stigma that many LGBTQ people face can make it more difficult for survivors to report.
- Eliminated language protecting LGBTQ children participating in the 4-H program: The Trump-Pence Administration ordered 4-H programs to remove a policy specifically welcoming LGBTQ children in the 4-H program, which led to the firing of an official who protested.
In Housing
- Allowed emergency shelters to deny access to transgender people: Despite the fact that LGBTQ people are significantly more likely to experience homelessness in their lives, HUD Secretary Ben Carson has proposed a rule to permit emergency shelters to deny access or otherwise discriminate against transgender persons who are homeless. HUD also canceled a scheduled survey on LGBTQ homelessness.
- Placed transgender prisoners in the wrong prison: The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) rolled back an Obama-era policy that housed transgender prisoners consistent with their gender identity. With transgender people experiencing sexual assault at higher rates than average, this decision only puts them at further risk of assault.
In Families
- Allowing foster care programs to discriminate while accepting tax-payer funds: Trump undermined an Obama-era rule that banned discrimination on the basis of religion by foster care organizations receiving federal funds from HHS. This change could prevent thousands of LGBTQ parents from being able to provide stable and loving homes for over 400,000 children in foster care nationwide.
- Refusing visas to partners of diplomats: The State Department began refusing visas for same-sex partners of some diplomats and U.N. workers if they are not married
- Changed rules to deny surrogate born children citizenship: The Trump Administration has interpreted immigration rules specifically so the child of a same-sex couple born abroad via surrogate would be considered “born out of wedlock” and making it more difficult to obtain U.S. citizenship
In Representation
- Erased transgender people: Trump’s HHS proposed a new definition that would narrowly define sex as either male or female, unchangeable, and determined by birth. According to the New York Times: “The new definition would essentially eradicate federal recognition of the estimated 1.4 million [transgender] Americans.” In addition, agency staff, including those at the Centers for Disease Control, have been instructed to stop using the word transgender in official reports.
- Eliminated information on LGBTQ rights, mentions, and representation on government websites: Within hours of Trump’s swearing-in, pages on LGBTQ rights and recognition were removed from government websites, including the White House.
- Blocked questions regarding sexual orientation from consideration for the census: Trump and Pence have sought to block questions on sexual orientation from the census in order to erase LGBTQ people from official counts. This would, in turn, prevent the collection of crucial data that could help improve government programs and resources for LGBTQ people.
- Refused to recognize LGBTQ people in National AIDS day Address: Despite being the community most affected by the epidemic, Vice President Pence has consistently refused to acknowledge LGBTQ people in his addresses on National AIDS day.
In the World:
- Embassy Pride Flags: Pence defended the State Department directive to ban U.S. embassies across the world from flying the LGBTQ Pride Flag during Pride Month.
- Left the U.N. Human Rights Council: Trump and Pence, over LGBTQ and other issues, removed the United States from the U.N. Human Rights Council.
- Chechnya: Trump and Pence refused to condemn attacks on LGBTQ people in Chechnya, where atrocities against queer people are horrific and ongoing.
With Donald Trump mired in lurid scandals and investigations that threaten his presidency, Mike Pence has flown under the radar, amassing enormous power in an administration hobbled by clueless advisors, inexperienced staffers and a revolving cast of lawyers. Pence is exploiting that alarming leadership void by quietly spearheading a charge to radically undermine the rights of LGBTQ people and women, attack voting rights, undercut sound science, and enable the greatest assault on American institutions in modern history.
In 2018, HRC mobilized 52 million Equality Voters nationwide to help elect pro-equality leadership in state and federal offices in 6 target states: Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. In those states, pro-equality candidates won 5/5 Senate Seats, 4/6 Governor’s mansions and broke anti-equality trifectas or supermajorities in 4/6 states. Now, HRC will build upon the tremendous successes in these states to elect a pro-equality President in 2020.
www.hrc.org/blog/hrc-slams-trump-pence-2020-campaign-launch?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed
Tig Notaro, P!nk, Michael Wolff, Arthur, Orlando Rally, Jon Stewart, Gay Veterans, Lizzo, Top Gear: HOT LINKS
Tig Notaro, P!nk, Michael Wolff, Arthur, Orlando Rally, Jon Stewart, Gay Veterans, Lizzo, Top Gear: HOT LINKS
ORLANDO. Trump opponents launch protests at gay bar with mariachi band and drag queen: ‘Organizers of the “Win With Love Rally” said Trump’s announcement in Orlando Tuesday night is an affront to a city with a large Puerto Rican population and a visible gay community. Orlando is at the center of the Interstate 4 corridor, stretching from Tampa to Daytona Beach, which is considered the swingiest part of the nation’s largest swing state.
ALABAMA. Hundreds celebrate Arthur’s gay rat wedding at church. ‘Last month, Alabama Public Television chose not to air an episode of “Arthur” that contained same-sex rat nuptials. Mike McKenzie, director of programming at APT, cited parents’ trust in APT as the reason behind the decision.’
LOCK HIM UP. Democrats flirt with calls to prosecute Trump: ‘A role reversal is starting to play out, with some Democrats openly taunting President Donald Trump with threats he’ll be the one spending time behind bars after he’s out of office. And some White House hopefuls have started weighing in, teeing off on the norm-busting Trump presidency and arguing that no person should be above prosecution if the evidence is there. Yet in the process, they’re alarming law enforcement veterans across the political spectrum who see the Democrats engaging in their own version of the politicization of the country’s criminal justice system…’
MITCH MCCONNELL. Jon Stewart isn’t letting him off easy.
POSE. Renewed for Season 3! “Pose has elevated our culture and the TV landscape like few shows before it,” FX chairman John Landgraf said in a statement, “and we are honored to partner with co-creators Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Steven Canals on a third season.”
PBS NEWS HOUR. 2 gay veterans on their 25 years of love
PAUL MANAFORT. Department of Justice intervenes, stops transfer to Rikers Island: “The former Justice Department officials and current state prosecutors, who regularly handled the transfer of federal inmates to state custody, said they were surprised that the second-highest official in the Justice Department would take an interest in the case. The decision is usually made by the warden at the prison where the inmate is being held. Justice Department officials were unable to say who made the decision in Mr. Manafort’s case; the Bureau of Prisons, which is part of the Justice Department, did not respond to a request for comment.”
JUICE. Lizzo channels Sister Act for 2019 MTV Movie and TV Awards.
TOP GEAR. The UK motoring show sprayed two cars used in its Brunei episode with the rainbow flag to make a statement. “We would never have filmed in Brunei had the law been announced beforehand. Like millions of other people around the world, I utterly condemn Brunei’s actions. No one deserves to be stoned to death, whoever they love. Love is love,” said Flintoff.
Top Gear gives the cars used in Brunei episode a rainbow makeover to show LGBT solidarity t.co/orgE251hFc
— DJPOLY (@DJPOLY_M) June 18, 2019
BURGER AND FRIES. Taylor Swift on the Katy Perry reconciliation.
FIRE AND FURY. Michael Wolff on why Mueller didn’t indict Trump: ‘Mueller was thinking that Donald Trump wears a suicide vest of sorts. If Mueller had pushed Donald Trump into a corner he would blow up everything. Donald Trump would take the country’s political institutions down with him. Trump would take down the Department of Justice. Trump would not care. For somebody like Robert Mueller, this was a reality he had to confront. Mueller was likely thinking to himself, “I have to deal with the fact that somebody who has as much power as I do, or more, can use this power in a way that could harm everybody in a much greater way.” Robert Mueller decided it was much better to let Donald Trump just run out the clock than to give Trump the opportunity and the cause to destroy everything, the country’s political institutions.’
MUSIC VIDEO OF THE DAY. P!nk featuring Wrabel “90 Days”.
UNDER A ROCK. Tig Notaro tries to figure out who Wyclef Jean is.
TWO SWEET FOR TUESDAY. Saulo Costa.
View this post on InstagramOdeia tirar fotos, mas às vezes cede, só pra me agradar
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Ahead of Trump’s Reelection Announcement, GLAAD Shines Spotlight on Administration’s 114 Attacks Against LGBTQ Americans
Ahead of Trump’s Reelection Announcement, GLAAD Shines Spotlight on Administration’s 114 Attacks Against LGBTQ Americans
SHOT: Donald Trump in 2016 to LGBTQ community: I’m a ‘real friend’
CHASER: President Trump has issued 114 attacks against LGBTQ Americans, in policy and rhetoric, since 2017
NEW YORK – Ahead of President Trump’s reelection announcement this evening, GLAAD, the world’s largest LGBTQ media advocacy organization, today slammed the President for his ongoing hypocrisy and attacks against LGBTQ Americans during his term in office, including more than 114 attacks in policy and rhetoric by his administration after initially claiming to be a “real friend” toward the LGBTQ community during his 2016 presidential campaign.
However, President Trump’s actions speak louder than his election-year words. From ignoring the third-anniversary of the Pulse shooting, in which 49 people were killed at Orlando’s Pulse Nightclub, to cutting HIV and AIDS research, the President continues to show LGBTQ Americans during Pride Month that he’s not a true ally.
“When the LGBTQ community was felt most vulnerable, Donald Trump tried to pull the ultimate con job by claiming he was our friend. But President Trump’s actions make it obvious he will only offer small steps toward LGBTQ acceptance in exchange for votes,” said Zeke Stokes, Chief Programs Officer for GLAAD. “Let’s make one thing clear, Mr. President: GLAAD sees through your hypocritical games, and we’ll make sure voters know your real record on LGBTQ issues before they go to the polls in 2020.”
LGBTQ acceptance has been threatened by President Trump and his administration since the start of 2017. Not only did President Trump ban transgender Americans from serving in the nation’s armed forces, but his administration has also opposed the Equality Act, a bill which would provide across-the-board protections for LGBTQ Americans at home, at work, and in their communities. The entire list of the Trump Administration’s anti-LGBTQ actions can be found below or by going to GLAAD’s Trump Accountability Project.
· 06.12.19 – After using the Pulse shooting as a campaign move in 2016, President Donald Trump failed to recognize the third anniversary of the horrific shooting at Orlando’s Pulse Nightclub, which killed 49 LGBTQ people.
· 06.07.19 – The Trump Administration denies all U.S. Embassy buildings from flying the historic LGBTQ Pride Flag on embassy flagpoles in honor of June being National LGBTQ Pride Month.
· 06.05.19 – The Trump Administration announced they would cut federal funding for an HIV and AIDS research program being conducted by the University of California.
· 06.05.19 – During his visit to the United Kingdom, President Trump continued to use discredited information about transgender Americans — including categorizing trans people as drug users — as a means to justify his ban on allowing transgender Americans from openly serving in the country’s armed forces.
· 05.24.19 – The Trump Administration announced a new policy stating transgender Americans would not be guaranteed health care protections under the Affordable Care Act, potentially harming 1.5 million trans Americans.
· 05.24.19 – The Trump Administration announced plans to begin implementing a new policy which would allow adoption agencies to deny LGBTQ couples the ability to adopt based on so-called “religious exemptions.”
· 05.22.19 – The Trump Administration announced plans to rescind Obama-era policy which asked homeless shelters receiving federal dollars to grant transgender Americans the ability to use facilities according to their gender identity.
· 05.17.19 – NewNowNext releases report highlighting the anti-LGBTQ record on media mogul Conrad Black, a convicted felon who was pardoned by President Donald Trump this week.
· 05.13.19 – President Trump declares his opposition to the Equality Act, a direct flip flop from his previous stance on the issue more than a decade ago.
· 05.02.19 – The Trump Administration, via the Department of Health and Human Services, issued a new rule allowing doctors and physicians the opportunity to deny Americans health care services based off their so-called religious beliefs, including seeking a “religious exemption” to deny life-saving health care for LGBTQ Americans.
· 04.17.19 – The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced the agency would no longer be collecting data on LGBTQ youth in foster care programs.
· 04.12.19 – President Trump and his administration implement its ban barring transgender Americans from openly serving in the country’s armed services.
· 04.10.19 – During a House Education Committee hearing, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos acknowledged that the administration’s choice to rescind the Obama-era bathroom guidance — which added protections for transgender students — exposed trans students to additional harassment and discrimination in schools across the nation.
· 04.05.19 – President Trump congratulates election of Brian Hagedorn, an anti-LGBTQ activist who wants to ban LGBTQ children from schools and believes in discredited attacks on LGBTQ Americans.
· 04.04.19 – Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson refused to reinstate housing protection guidelines that would prevent LGBTQ Americans from experiencing discrimination while attaining a home, which include access to homeless shelters.
· 03.27.19 – Education Secretary Betsy DeVos refused to say on the record whether or not she opposed discrimination against LGBTQ people at schools during a House subcommittee hearing on education appropriations.
· 03.25.19 – Trump Administration officials within the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) were accused of performing abuse – including harassment and denying health care services – to more than 12 immigrants who identify as LGBTQ.
· 03.12.19 – In a late-night decision, the Trump Administration announces plans to implement its ban on transgender service members from openly serving in the country’s armed forces according to their gender identity, impacting more than 13,000 service members currently who are enlisted.
· 03.11.19 – In its Fiscal Year Budget for 2020, the Trump Administration announced new plans to cut $250 million from the Global Fund, slash $1.5 billion from PEPFAR, and “limit future spending” on Medicaid – three components in the ongoing fight against HIV and AIDS.
· 02.27.19 – During a House Armed Services Subcommittee hearing on the administration’s ban on transgender services members from serving openly in the armed forces, Trump Administration officials used derogatory phrases such as “a transgender,” but they also called gender-confirmation surgery a “disqualifying surgery,” comparing it to having cancer, heart disease, or diabetes.
· 02.08.19 – One day after defending a Michigan adoption agency during the National Prayer Breakfast, the Trump Administration confirms they intended to grant faith-based adoption agencies federal funds in its upcoming 2020 White House Budget. These faith-based adoption agencies actively use “religious exemptions” as an excuse to deny LGBTQ families the ability to adopt a child.
· 02.07.19 – At the annual National Prayer Breakfast, President Trump praised Second Lady Karen Pence for teaching at an anti-LGBTQ school and defended a Michigan adoption agency for refusing to serve an LGBTQ family based on so-called “religious exemptions.”
· 01.28.19 – President Trump meets with Ginni Thomas, wife of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, and anti-LGBTQ group Groundswell at the White House. According to news reports, Ms. Thomas led a meeting with President Trump at the White House where participants denounced transgender Americans and claimed the historic, nationwide marriage equality ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court was “harming the fabric of the United States.” The Supreme Court is on the verge of deciding whether to take up a case regarding Trump’s ban on allowing transgender service members from serving in the nation’s armed forces.
· 01.23.19 – The Trump Administration approved a waiver request by South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster, which could give faith-based adoption agencies the ability to deny LGBTQ couples adoption rights based on so-called “religious exemptions” — all while using government tax dollars.
· 01.11.19 – More than 13,000 federal workers identifying as LGBTQ do not receive a paycheck as President Trump’s government shutdown becomes the longest shut down in U.S. history.
· 01.03.19 – In a leaked memo by the Justice Department, the Trump Administration considers dissolving the “disparate impact” regulation, which grants marginalized communities (including LGBTQ Americans) legal protections from unintended discrimination in housing, education, and other ways of life.
· 01.01.19 – NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine invites Dmitry Rogozin, Director General of Roscosmos, to visit the United States. Rogozin, a politician, is vehemently anti-LGBTQ and even compared the community to ISIS.
· 12.21.18 – The Department of Justice issued a “Statement of Interest” on a pending case involving the University of Iowa and an anti-LGBTQ student organization. The DOJ sided with the student group that indirectly bars an LGBTQ person from joining their organization. This indirect discrimination is known as a “disparate impact” form of discrimination.
· 12.20.18 – The Trump Administration tightens its regulations on access to food stamps, affecting about the 1 in 4 LGBTQ adults who apply for the SNAP program.
· 12.19.18 – The Trump Administration discharges two service members in the Air Force after disclosing their HIV-positive status to the Department of Defense.
· 12.09.18 – The Trump Administration quietly shuts down a HIV research facility in Montana after the administration objected to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and its scientists using fetal tissue as a part of its research to find a cure for HIV and AIDS.
· 11.30.18 – The Trump Administration signs a trade agreement with Canada and Mexico that makes it clear the United States doesn’t have to proactively combat anti-LGBTQ discrimination in order to adhere to the agreement.
· 11.23.18 – The Trump Administration asks the United States Supreme Court to circumvent federal appeals courts and issue a ruling on transgender Americans’ right to serve in the military.
· 10.25.18 – In an ongoing effort on the part of the Trump Administration to replace “gender” with a biological-essentialist definition of “sex”, U.S. officials at the United Nations are seeking to replace mentions of “gender”, e.g. “gender-based violence”, with alternative terminology, like “violence against women,” erasing all references to gender identity and the issues relating to trans and gender non-conforming people.
· 10.24.18 – The Department of Justice writes in a brief to the Supreme Court that it is legal to discriminate against transgender employees based on their gender identity, saying that banning sex discrimination under Title VII in the workplace does not extend to transgender workers.
· 10.21.18 – The Department of Health and Human Services proposes in a new memo to change the legal definition of sex under Title IX, requiring individuals to identify according to their gender assigned at birth. This change in legal definition would remove nondiscrimination protections for transgender, nonbinary, and intersex individuals.
· 10.01.18 – The Trump Administration’s State Department announces a new policy that the same-sex, unmarried partners of United Nations employees will not be granted visas to stay in the U.S., effective immediately. In doing so, diplomats in same-sex partnerships who come from countries where same-sex marriage is illegal will either be forced to marry in the U.S. and risk repercussions, including threats, harassment, and even incarceration back home; quit their jobs; or separate for the sake of one partner’s career.
· 7.30.18 – President Trump’s Attorney General Jeff Sessions announces his new ‘Religious Liberty’ Task Force at the Department of Justice’s Religious Liberty Summit. As stated by Sessions, the group’s purpose is to ensure that the Justice Department upholds the administration’s guidance for religious exemptions, which he released in October.
· 7.9.18 – President Trump nominates Brett Kavanaugh for the U.S. Supreme Court seat made vacant by the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy. Kavanaugh has an extremely conservative record and has the support of Southern Poverty Law Center-designated anti-LGBTQ hate group Family Research Council (FRC).
· 5.11.18 – The Trump Administration rolls back protections for incarcerated transgender people that were intended to mitigate their exposure to sexual assault and abuse, allowing the Bureau of Prisons to “use biological sex as the initial determination for designation” when placing trans people for housing, screening, and programs and services.
· 5.3.18 – President Trump signs an executive order to create a new “White House Faith and Opportunity Initiative” that will be tasked with working on so-called “religious liberty” issues across federal agencies.
· 4.18.18 – Reporting reveals that President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief gave a sizable grant to the anti-LGBTQ group Focus on the Family Africa on Sept. 18, 2017.
· 4.10.18 – Reporting reveals that the White House is seeking to roll back vital data collection on LGBTQ youth by raising the minimum age that LGBTQ people can be asked questions about their sexual orientation and gender identity in the Department of Justice’s National Crime Victimization Survey.
· 3.23.18 – Reporting in Slate reveals that the Trump Administration worked closely with Tony Perkins, head of the anti-LGBTQ hate group Family Research Council to draft their latest policy to implement Trump’s ban transgender soldiers from openly serving in any capacity within the United States armed forces.
· 3.23.18 – President Trump announces a reworked attempt to ban all transgender people from serving in the military in response to the implementation of his original policy being frozen by four different federal courts who declared it likely to be unconstitutional.
· 3.20.18 – The Department of Housing and Urban Development defends the Trump Administration’s decision to remove guidelines from its website intended to prevent anti-LGBTQ discrimination in homeless shelters by arguing that transgender women accessing shelters make people “not comfortable.”
· 3.20.18 – The Department of Education once again states that it is the Trump Administration’s position to refuse to protect transgender students denied access to bathrooms and lockers based on their gender identity, even when faced with court rulings reaffirming that transgender students are protected under Title IX.
· 3.13.18 – President Trump fires Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and announces plans to nominate anti-LGBTQ and anti-Muslim politician Mike Pompeo as his replacement.
· 3.8.18 – President Trump hosts Brent Bozell, the anti-LGBTQ founder of the fringe right-wing group Media Resource Center, at a White House roundtable.
· 3.5.18 – The Department Housing and Urban Development Secretary moved to change its official mission statement by removing promises of inclusive and discrimination-free communities.
· 2.28.18 – Following Billy Graham’s death, Trump overlooks his anti-LGBTQ record and praised the work of Franklin Graham who has used the legacy of his father to advance extreme anti-LGBTQ messaging including attacking LGBTQ families and claiming that Satan is behind LGBTQ advocacy.
· 2.12.18 – The Department of Education officially confirms they will not investigate or take action on any complaints filed by transgender students who are banned from restrooms that match their gender identity.
· 1.19.18 – Reporting reveals that Trump administration appointee Carl Higbie had made extreme racist, sexist, anti-Muslim and anti-LGBTQ comments on the radio. He was removed from his White House position but then hired by “America First Policies,” a nonprofit created by six of Trump’s top campaign aides to back the White House agenda.
· 1.18.18 – The Department of Health and Human Services created a new department that shields healthcare workers who refuse to treat LGBTQ patients or those living with HIV by calming moral or religious objections.
· 1.16.18 – President Trump promotes anti-LGBTQ religious exemptions in his Religious Freedom Day proclamation.
· 12.29.17 – President Trump fires the entire White House Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS.
· 12.22.17 – President Trump sings the GOP tax bill, which targets low-income and LGBTQ communities, into law.
· 12.15.17 – Staff at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at were instructed not to use the “transgender,” “vulnerable,” “entitlement,” “diversity,” “fetus,” “evidence-based,” and “science-based” in official budget documents.
· 12.5.17 – White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders tells reporters that President Trump backs the position that businesses owners should be able to put up signs saying they won’t serve gays.
· 12.5.17 – The Department of Justice argues in support of baker who denied service to a gay couple during the Supreme Court oral arguments for the case Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission.
· 12.4.17 – President Trump endorses Roy Moore, who has a violently anti-LGBTQ record and multiple well-documented accusations of sexual assault, abuse, and assessment, in the Alabama special Senate Election.
· 12.1.17 – President Trump leaves the LGBTQ community and people of color out of his World AIDS Day Proclamation.
· 10.17.17 – President Trump delivers the keynote address at the anti-LGBTQ Heritage Foundation President’s Club annual meeting.
· 10.16.17 – In a profile on Vice President Mike Pence that ran in the New Yorker, President Trump reportedly joked of Pence when asked about LGBTQ rights: “Don’t ask that guy—he wants to hang them all!”
· 10.13.17 – President Trump becomes the first sitting president to speak at the Family Research Council‘s Values Voter Summit, a convening of fringe groups united around discrimination against LGBTQ people.
· 10.11.17 – The Trump Administration’s National Park Services withdrew its sponsorship of New York City’s first permanent Pride Flag, located outside of the historic Stonewall Inn, and dropped out of its pre-scheduled participation in the flag dedication ceremony.
· 10.6.17 – The Department of Justice issues a sweeping “religious exemptions” guidance which invites taxpayer-funded federal agencies, government employees, and government contractors to legally discriminate against LGBTQ employees as long as they cite a religious belief as the reason for doing it.
· 10.6.17 – The Department of Health and Human Services rolls back the Affordable Care Act’s birth control benefit, allowing the use of “religious exemptions” to deny health care to women, trans men, and gender non-conforming people who rely on the no-copay contraception benefit.
· 10.5.17 – In a Department of Justice memo, the Trump Administration reverses a policy that provided non-discrimination protections for transgender people in the workplace under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
· 10.3.17 – The Department of Health and Human Services erases all mentions of the LGBTQ community and their health needs in its strategic plan for the fiscal year 2018-2022.
· 9.22.17 – The Education Department rescinds the Obama Administration-era Title IX guidance on investigating campus sexual assault; LGBTQ students experience sexual harassment at disproportionately high rates.
· 9.8.17 – Reporting reveals the CIA canceled a planned speech about diversity and LGBTQ rights set to be given by Judy and Dennis Shepard, founders of the Matthew Shepard Foundation.
· 9.7.17 – The Justice Department files an amicus brief in support files an amicus brief in support so-called “religious exemptions” to discriminate against LGBTQ Americans.
· 9.7.17 – The Education Department announces they will roll back Obama Administration-era Title IX guidelines which protected sexual assault survivors on college and university campuses.
· 9.7.17 – President Trump nominates Gregory Katsas, who worked behind the scenes to promote the implementation of the trans military ban and revoke federal guidelines that protect transgender students from discrimination, to the U.S. Federal Court of Appeals for the Circuit of D.C.
· 9.7.17 – President Trump nominates Jeff Mateer, who has an extensive anti-LGBTQ record including calling trans children part of “Satan’s plan,” to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.
· 9.5.17 – President Trump ends the DACA program, which protected an estimated 800,000 young undocumented immigrants, including 36,000 LGBTQ DREAMers, from detention and deportation.
· 8.27.17 – Reporting reveals the CIA consulted with Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, an anti-LGBTQ hate group.
· 8.25.17 – President Trump officially directs the Pentagon to move forward with his ban on transgender service members openly serving in the U.S. Military. The discriminatory policy is due to take effect take effect March 23, 2018.
· 8.25.17 – President Trump pardons former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, a criminal known for terrorizing the Latinx community with inmate abuses, unjustified arrests, and racial profiling.
· 8.12.17 – President Trump refused to condemn white supremacists who chanted violently racist and anti-LGBTQ slogans during a rally in Charlottesville, VA.
· 8.3.17 – President Trump nominates L. Steven Grasz, who has close ties to the anti-LGBTQ group Focus on the Family, to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
· 7.26.17 – An official White House webpage directs readers to an article published by the anti-LGBTQ Heritage Foundation that calls being transgender a “psychological disorder.”
· 7.26.17 – The Justice Department files a brief opposing workplace nondiscrimination protections for the LGBTQ community under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in the case Zarda v. Altitude Express.
· 7.26.17 – President Trump bans transgender servicemembers from serving in “any capacity” in the U.S. military, threatening to fire 15,000 currently serving troops over Twitter.
· 7.25.17 – Reporting reveals Vice President Mike Pence advocated for the removal of healthcare benefits for transgender servicemembers within the U.S. military behind closed doors.
· 7.13.17 – President Trump nominates Mark Norris, who supported legislation that allowed mental health counselors to discriminate against LGBTQ clients during his time as a TN state senator, to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee.
· 7.12.17 – President Trump grants a one-on-one interview with Pat Robertson, a longtime anti-LGBTQ activist and Televangelist.
· 7.10.17 – In a closed-door and unannounced opportunity, President Trump poses for a photograph with notorious anti-LGBTQ activists who wish to promote so-called “religious exemptions” that would harm LGBTQ Americans across the nation.
· 6.29.17 – Reports revealed President Trump hired anti-transgender activist, Bethany Kozma, to the Office of Gender Equality and Women’s Rights at the US Agency for International Development.
· 6.28.17 – The Department of Justice ejected reporters covering a DOJ Pride event hosted by LGBTQ affinity groups for federal workers.
· 6.27.17 – The Trump Administration failed to mention the LGBTQ community in their National HIV Testing Day statement.
· 6.21.17 – Reporting reveals President Trump hired a lawyer who openly supported Russian President Vladimir Putin’s anti-LGBTQ law banning so-called “gay propaganda” from Russia, a law that Europe’s top human rights court found to be illegal.
· 6.17.17 – Six members of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS resigned saying that President Trump “simply does not care” about combating the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
· 6.16.17 – An obtained internal memo from the Department of Education Office for Civil Rights reveals guidelines to dismiss complaints about bathroom access filed by transgender students.
· 6.15.17 – Department of Commerce removes sexual orientation and gender identity from the agency’s Equal Employment Policy; LGBTQ protections have been explicitly included since 2010. Only after fierce opposition did Department of Commerce Secretary Ross change it back.
· 6.15.17 – The Department of Education invites Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council, two anti-LGBTQ organizations, to be speakers for a day-long conference on engaging fathers in their children’s education and welfare.
· 6.15.17 – The Department of Education rolls back the Office for Civil Rights’ expansive approach to investigating civil rights complaints that to protect LGBTQ students, and other marginalized communities, from discrimination at school.
· 6.7.17 – President Trump nominates Stephen S. Schwartz, who worked with North Carolina legislators in support of the anti-trans legislation HB2, to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.
· 6.1.17 – President Trump declines to issue a presidential proclamation designating June as LGBTQ Pride Month, breaking with an eight-year precedent set by President Barack Obama to honor and support LGBTQ Americans during Pride Month.
· 5.23.17 – The Trump Administration reveals their budget which includes proposed slashes to programs and departments critical to the LGBTQ community, including Medicaid, Planned Parenthood, and the Center for Disease Control’s HIV and AIDS programs.
· 5.22.17 – The Trump Administration grants White House press credentials to a “reporter” from Infowars, a conspiracy outlet that regularly peddles dangerous, offensive and anti-LGBTQ content.
· 5.8.17 – Department of Agriculture issues new so-called “religious freedom” policy statement, a move praised by the anti-LGBTQ Family Research Council.
· 5.4.17 – President Trump signs a “religious liberty” executive order. Although this EO does not target LGBTQ Americans, it is the first step in what could be a more broader permission slip for discrimination against the overall LGBTQ community.
· 4.14.17 – The Trump Administration files to dismiss a lawsuit accusing North Carolina of discriminating against the LGBTQ community in response to HB2, despite the similarities of the HB142 replacement.
· 4.10.17: A ProPublica investigation reveals the Trump Administration appointed James Renne, a key staffer involved in the Bush-era anti-LGBTQ purge of gay government employees, to a senior role at the Department of Agriculture.
· 3.28.17: The Trump Administration cancels plans to add the LGBTQ community to its upcoming 2020 U.S. Census, a survey conducted every decade by the federal government to help collect data about living Americans and the United States of America.
· 3.28.17: Under his proposed budget for the U.S. Congress, The Trump Administration offered to cut HIV and AIDS research funding under the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
· 3.24.17: President Trump appointed anti-LGBTQ activist and former Heritage Foundation employee Roger Severino to lead the Health and Human Services Civil Rights Office, putting the LGBTQ community at risk of losing access to critical and affordable health care.
· 3.20.17: Trump Administration erases the LGBTQ community from The National Survey of Older Americans Act Participants and the Annual Program Performance Report for Centers for Independent Living, key surveys that are used to help provide care to American seniors – including disability, transportation, and caregiver support needs.
· 2.22.17 – With help of Attorney General Sessions, President Trump rescinded Title IX protections for transgender students in our nation’s schools.
· 2.02.17: ABC News reports that after previously committing to protecting LGBTQ Americans from discrimination, President Trump and his administration had drafted a “License to Discriminate” executive order which would usher in across-the-board discrimination against the LGBTQ community.
· 1.27.17: President Donald Trump issued an executive order to indefinitely ban Syrian refugees from entering the United States. This ban includes LGBTQ refugees fleeing the nation in fear of discrimination.
· 1.20.17: Minutes after Donald Trump was sworn into office, any mention of the LGBTQ community was erased from White House, Department of State, and Department of Labor websites.
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June 18, 2019
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