You Might Like
#AM_Equality Tip Sheet: August 11, 2016
TODAY, TWO MONTHS AFTER PULSE NIGHTCLUB TRAGEDY, DONALD TRUMP AND MARCO RUBIO COURT ANTI-LGBTQ ACTIVISTS IN ORLANDO: Today Donald Trump and Marco Rubio will be campaigning with anti-LGBTQ activists in Orlando — two months after the shooting at Pulse Nightclub claimed the lives of 49 LGBTQ people and allies. When it comes to opposing LGBTQ equality, Donald Trump and Marco Rubio are two dangerous peas in a pod: They both oppose marriage equality and transgender equality, support Kim Davis-style, taxpayer-funded discrimination, and have vowed to revoke President Obama’s executive orders protecting LGBTQ employees. Earlier this week, HRC Senior Vice President of Policy and Political Affairs JoDee Winterhof blasted the candidates saying, “Donald Trump and Marco Rubio are seeking votes from people who fundamentally believe we are not equal, who support dangerous and harmful conversion therapy and who have worked to export anti-LGBTQ hate abroad.” More from HRC.
- Check out this piece in The American Prospect which perfectly sums up how despicable Trump and Rubio are for sharing the stage with anti-LGBTQ activists. They write, “the candidates’ decisions to speak to these groups wipes away the thin veneer of tolerance that the two Republicans have recently tried to construct and instead affirms their allegiance to the religious right.”
“HB2 IS NOT WHO WE ARE. WE ARE A PEOPLE OF INTEGRITY”: In an op ed for The News and Observer, NC Rep. Chris Sgro writes about the very real costs of the state’s discriminatory HB2 law, including damage done to families like Hope Tyler and her transgender son. Sgro writes that Hope’s son was well on his way to being comfortable in his own skin, when HB2 thrust him into the spotlight, forcing him to use bathrooms inconsistent with his gender identity. “McCrory owes the LGBT community, and all North Carolinians, a public conversation about the need to fully repeal HB2,” Sgro writes. “The status quo is hurting us every day. North Carolina needs real leadership now.” More from The News and Observer.
ALA. JUSTICE ROY MOORE’S SUPPORTERS BOO WIDOWER: On Monday, supporters of anti-LGBTQ Justice Roy Moore repeatedly heckled, booed and laughed at a man speaking about his late husband during an HRC press conference about the harms caused by the disgraced justice. The incident occurred after Moore’s ethics hearing before Alabama’s Court of the Judiciary on charges he repeatedly defied federal marriage equality rulings. See the troubling video, and read more at AL.com in John Archibald’s revealing piece, “Those who claim Alabama’s moral authority don’t have it.”
BELIZE’S HIGHEST COURT DECRIMINALIZES SAME-SEX RELATIONSHIPS: Yesterday, the highest court in Belize ruled that criminalizing male same-sex sexual activity is unconstitutional, and ordered the law amended. A plaintiff in the case, Caleb Orozco said: “We won on all grounds of dignity, right to privacy, right to freedom from discrimination, freedom of expression and the equal protection of the law.” More from HRC and BuzzFeed.
EGYPT’S GOVERNMENT TARGETING LGBTQ PEOPLE: At least 250 LGBTQ people have been arrested in Egypt since 2013, when its first democratically-elected president was overthrown and replaced with former Gen. Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. Egypt has no law forbidding same-sex activity, but the LGBTQ community is targeted for arrest under laws prohibiting “habitual debauchery,” with penalties of up to 12 years in prison. More from The New York Times.
U.S. STATE DEPT. TAKES EXCEPTION TO PHILIPPINE LEADER’S ANTI-LGBTQ SLUR: State Department officials summoned Manila’s envoy in Washington to complain after Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte reportedly used an anti-LGBTQ slur when describing U.S. Ambassador Philip Goldberg, according to Agence France-Presse. The US State Department said that the Filipino charge d’affaires, Patrick Chuasoto, was summoned Monday to discuss Duterte’s comments.
DISTURBING SURVEY SHEDS LIGHT ON ANTI-LGBTQ HATRED IN INDONESIA: A new survey finds that Indonesians consider the LGBTQ community the most hated group in the country, and documents the alarming anti-LGBTQ rhetoric in the country, saying “The rights of Indonesian sexual and gender minorities have come under unprecedented attack in 2016… [a] combination of government officials, militant Islamists, and mass religious groups stoking anti-LGBT intolerance led to immediate deterioration of the human rights of LGBT individuals.” More from TIME.
UK SUPREME COURT TO HEAR CHALLENGE TO DISCRIMINATORY LOOPHOLE IN PENSION LAWS: LGBTQ couples in the UK are challenging a loophole in pension laws that put them at a disadvantage when acquiring pension benefits to pass on to their partners. The Supreme Court is expected to hear the case in November. More from Pink News.
READING RAINBOW
NBC reports that the WWE plans to “integrate LGBT characters” into its programming; Denver officials are considering turning the First Unitarian Society of Denver building into an LGBTQ rights landmark, according to KUSA; ThinkProgress details the new wave of oppression facing the LGBTQ community in Uganda; and USA Today highlights how a transgender model is using her gown to stand up for LGBTQ equality.
Have news? Send us your news and tips at [email protected]. Click here to subscribe to A.M. Equality and follow @HRC for all the latest news. Thanks for reading!
www.hrc.org/blog/am-equality-tip-sheet-august-11-2016?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed
You Might Like
