#AM_Equality Tipsheet: June 13, 2019

HRC MARKS THREE YEARS SINCE PULSE TRAGEDY, COMMITS TO “HONOR THEM WITH ACTION”: Yesterday, HRC staff and members marked the day with a public reading of the victims’ names and a moment of silence at HRC headquarters in Washington, D.C.  The Pulse shooting, which took place at an Orlando LGBTQ nightclub on Latinx Night, was the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history until the tragic mass shooting on October 1, 2017, during an outdoor concert in Las Vegas. More from HRC.

Today, @HRC staff observed a moment of silence and read the names of the victims of the #Pulse nightclub shooting, which took place three years ago today. #HonorThemWithAction pic.twitter.com/me2qIjPzUL

— Human Rights Campaign (@HRC) June 12, 2019

TODAY — PRO-EQUALITY HOUSE MEMBERS HOLD REMEMBRANCE FOR PULSE; INTRODUCE LGBTQ ESSENTIAL DATA ACT: Reps. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY); Chris Pappas (D-NH); Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ); Donna Shalala (D-FL); and Joe Kennedy (D-MA) will introduce the bill with the support of HRC, PFLAG and the Trevor Project. The data collection bill was first introduced in 2016 after the Pulse Nightclub shooting and will strengthen the National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) by including data on sexual orientation and gender identity in violent deaths.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT — VP PENCE DRAWS PROTESTS DURING VISIT TO BILLINGS, MT: Pro-equality and pro-choice demonstrators turned out in force. Check out these photos at the Billings Gazette and learn more about Pence’s anti-LGBTQ record here.

THANKFUL THURSDAY — MEET THE 26 OPENLY LGB PARTICIPANTS IN THE 2019 WOMEN’S WORLD CUP: Among the incredible athletes representing their countries are Team USA’s Tierna Davidson, Adrianna Franch, Ashlyn Harris, Ali Krieger and Megan Rapinoe — and their fearless out coach, Jillian Ellis. More from OutSports.

Go, #USWNT! Nice to see longtime @HRC supporter Megan Rapinoe (@mPinoe) score at today’s Women’s World Cup game #USAvTHA.

Team USA scored the most goals in a game in #FIFAWWC history.#OneNationOneTeam pic.twitter.com/eoY2J8TNeV

— Human Rights Campaign (@HRC) June 11, 2019

SUSPECT IN DEATH OF DALLAS TRANSGENDER WOMAN MUHLAYSIA BOOKER ARRESTED, POLICE ANNOUNCE THIS MORNING: Reports the Washington Post’s Michael Brice-Saddler (@TheArtist_MBS): Dallas police have arrested Kendrell Lavar Lyles, 34, in the fatal May 18 shooting of Muhlaysia Booker, 23, “a transgender woman whose death has brought renewed national attention to the perils faced by the black LGBTQ community.” Lyles has also been charged in the slayings of two other people. Read more at the Washington Post.

• Remembering Josie Berrios: Berrios, a transgender woman, was murdered in New York in 2017. The circumstances of her death reveal the painful truths about the violence and discrimination faced by too many transgender people. More from USA Today.

HRC MOURNS TITI GULLEY, BLACK, TRANSGENDER PERSON FOUND DEAD IN PORTLAND: At the urging of Gulley’s family, local police are seeking more information about the circumstances of her May 27 death, which was originally classified as a suicide. More from Portland Mercury.

 PRIDE MONTH ROUNDUP

HRC’S SARAH MCBRIDE TALKS EQUALITY, LGBTQ PRIDE AND HOW TRUMP-PENCE STAND FOR NEITHER:  McBride (@SarahEMcBride) tells Mashable’s Sage Anderson (@hierbitx): “We must all feel the ‘fierce urgency of now’  in our work — recognizing that every day our society asks LGBTQ people to sit back and allow for a slow conversation to take place, we are asking people to watch their one life pass by without the dignity and fairness that every person deserves.” Read more in Mashable.

• More McBride on Trump-Pence: “This has become one of if not the most explicitly anti-LGBT administrations in modern American history,” McBride tells Yahoo News.

CHRIS DAUGHTRY’S NEW SONG IS POWERFUL PRIDE ANTHEM WRITTEN BY HIS WIFE: Songwriter Deanna Daughtry (@DeannaDaughtry), who married the American Idol star (@CHRIS_Daughtry) in 2000, is openly bisexual. More from Entertainment Tonight.

KNOW YOUR HISTORY — BRENDA HOWARD IS THE BISEXUAL ACTIVIST KNOWN AS THE “MOTHER OF PRIDE”: More from Them.

GLOBAL EQUALITY NEWS

LOVE WINS! ECUADOR’S CONSTITUTIONAL COURT PAVES WAY FOR MARRIAGE EQUALITY: The court also instructed the congress to pass legislation ensuring equality for all under the country’s marriage law. Read more at the Washington Post.  

HORRIFYING — IRAN’S TOP DIPLOMAT DEFENDS COUNTRY’S CRUEL AND DRACONIAN ANTI-LGBTQ LAWS: Iran is one of the 10 countries where a person may receive a death sentence for being LGBTQ. More from Business Insider.

BERMUDA TO HOST ITS FIRST-EVER LGBTQ PRIDE: More from Pink News.

ISRAEL LAUNCHES LGBTQ-FOCUSED TELEVISION CHANNEL: More from Pink News.

READING RAINBOW – Bookmark now to read on your lunch break!

Business Equality Magazine profiles “Pride Legacy Leaders Over 50”,  including members of HRC’s Business Advisory Council — Bob Witeck, Meghan Stabler and Scott Sapperstein; former member Wesley Combs; and former HRC President Elizabeth Birch; Teen Vogue interviews trans and non-binary people who use drag to explore and affirm their gender identities; Asbury Park Press interviews actor George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) on the 50th anniversary of Stonewall

Have news? Send us your news and tips at [email protected]. Click here to subscribe to #AM_Equality and follow @HRC for all the latest news. Thanks for reading!

www.hrc.org/blog/am-equality-tipsheet-june-13-2019?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

Aspiring Camp Counselor Found Out the Hard Way How Christian Groups React When They Discover You’re Gay: WATCH

Jace Taylor, an 18-year-old aspiring camp counselor, found out the hard way how cruel and heartless Christian organizations can be when they find out you are gay.

Taylor had been hired as a camp counselor at Fir Creek camp for kids, a lifelong dream, because as a kid attending the camp “they made me feel loved, they made me feel accepted especially by God and Christ.”

He knew the manager and other camp officials well, but when they found out he was gay via social media, all bets were off.

The camp released this statement to FOX13:

“We are a faith-based organization whose mission is not only to love kids but to introduce them to a God who loves them as well. A God that we feel reveals Himself primarily in the Bible. This, then, is what we are all about.  We seek to accomplish this mission through our programs within the context of approved Statements of Faith which are approved by our Board of Directors and in our organizational by-laws. They represent what we believe and who we are.

In order for us to carry our mission out we hire young leaders each summer and we call them summer staff. Some of them are counselors. It is critical that we hire people who are committed to our mission and to these statements of faith. These folks are extremely important to us, we care deeply for them and they are at the point of what we do.

Just recently we extended an invitation for a young man well known and loved at The Firs to serve as a counselor of children at Fircreek Day Camp. (He had previously been employed by us in a non-leadership role.) When it became evident in the application process that he did not personally align with our statements of faith (in particular, one regarding sexuality) we determined we could not use him in this role.

Our quandary was this. In order to be consistent to our beliefs and our mission we felt compelled to pass on someone we truly liked in filling this counselor role. I sincerely wish this was otherwise. I know this may be confusing and contrary to other’s beliefs. The leadership of The Firs will continue to seek the appropriate means to carry out our mission in the context of a changing world.”

The post Aspiring Camp Counselor Found Out the Hard Way How Christian Groups React When They Discover You’re Gay: WATCH appeared first on Towleroad Gay News.

Aspiring Camp Counselor Found Out the Hard Way How Christian Groups React When They Discover You’re Gay: WATCH

6 Photos of the Rainbow Flag Serving Its Original Purpose

www.advocate.com/media/2019/6/13/6-photos-rainbow-flag-serving-its-original-purpose

Cop Bans and Corporate Partnerships: A Tale of Two NYC Prides

A pair of Pride events for Stonewall’s 50th anniversary take very different approaches.

www.advocate.com/exclusives/2019/6/12/cop-bans-and-corporate-partnerships-tale-two-nyc-prides

Tennessee Cop Turned Pastor Urges Execution of Gays

Grayson Fritts, a Knox County, Tenn., sheriff’s detective, called LGBTQ people “filthy” and “freaks,” and said the Bible calls for their execution.

www.advocate.com/religion/2019/6/12/tennessee-cop-turned-pastor-urges-execution-gays

Will Corey Johnson’s charm and energy make him the next mayor of New York City?

Name: Corey Johnson, 37

Who He Is: Speaker of the New York City Council, potential mayoral candidate

How He’s Contributed: Johnson takes politics seriously but has fun doing it. An activist since high school when he came out as a football player, he has overcome addiction to become a popular and powerful political force in the Big Apple, well positioned to become city’s next mayor.

Why We’re Proud: For twenty years, Johnson has been something of a one-man pride parade. He grew up in a blue-collar household in Massachusetts that was less than idyllic. His father left when he was a baby, and his mother’s second husband struggled with alcohol. “We always had problems with money,” Johnson later recalled.

Johnson found an outlet in football, becoming the captain of his high school football team. To the surprise of the team, which ultimately supported his decision, Johnson came out as gay.

His decision to come out was a brave one, and catnip for the mainstream media enchanted by the idea of a gay high school football captain. As a result, Johnson first taste of media attention came in 2000 when he was 18, with a story in The New York Times and a segment on 20/20.

Johnson found himself the center of attention, and after just a month at George Washington University in D.C., he moved to New York City. He became immersed in politics and started working for local politicians.

In sharp contrast to his rising political star, his personal life was full of turmoil. He was diagnosed as HIV positive in 2004, at the age of 22. “In the moment and for the days and months and even years following my doctor giving me that news I lived with shame and fear and anxiety,” he later said.

Not long after seroconverting, Johnson lost his job and health insurance. “My drinking and drug use took off after this,” he said. “After waking up one day in 2009 with a hangover, as he often did, Johnson confided to a friend that he had a problem. Johnson has now sober for nine years.

Johnson came through the dark period of his life with his charm and energy undiminished. The New York Times has described him as “possessed with a preternatural talent for getting to know everyone and the energy to call and call again, making him something of a ubiquitous presence for nearly everyone in the upper echelons of New York’s public life in recent years.”

In 2005 Johnson joined the district Community Board that includes the heavily gay Chelsea neighborhood, a perfect way to establish a political case. When out lesbian Christine Quinn decided in 2013 to vacate her City Council seat to run for mayor, Johnson threw his hat in the ring. He wasn’t considered the frontrunner, but as one political observer noted, “he just outworked everybody” and won.

On the Council, Johnson distinguished himself as an advocate for equality. He authored a bill that eliminated the need for transgender people to have surgery before they could change their birth certificates. Earlier this month, he demanded that the New York Police Department apologize for its behavior during the Stonewall Riots; the police commissioner made the apology the following day.

But Johnson also distinguished himself by his ambition. Early in his first term, he was already lobbying to become the Council President. Late in 2017, Johnson achieved his goal, becoming the first gay man to hold the position.

Along the way, Johnson earned a reputation as a happy political warrior. He knows how to ingratiate himself with voters (and the media) by having fun. For example, in 2018, he turned a cameo in a weather report on a local TV station into a chance to dance to Lady Gaga’s “The Cure.” The gig was so successful it became a regular feature on Tuesdays.

Johnson has also learned how to work the legislative machinery to appeal to New Yorkers disdain for hysterical homeboy Donald Trump. In 2017, he proposed a bill that would have required Trump to disclose his taxes. (The bill didn’t go anywhere, but the state legislature passed similar legislation this year.)

Between his charm and his drive, Johnson has become the most popular politician in New York City–far more so than Mayor Bill de Blasio. De Blasio is running for president, but a poll of city residents found that he is their last choice among the candidates.

That leaves Johnson well positioned to run for mayor in 2021. He’s already broadly hinted that he’s planning on doing so. Meantime, expect Johnson to keep having fun. All you have to do is look at his dance performance at the Pride Parade in Brooklyn on Sunday.

That is clearly a man who takes pride in his work–and in Pride.

www.queerty.com/will-corey-johnsons-charm-energy-make-next-major-new-york-city-20190612?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29