LA Mayor Supports Making Stonewall National Monument; Highlights LGBT History

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has announced his support to make Stonewall a national monument honoring the American LGBT experience.

While national park sites share a diverse group of stories and American history, there are no national park sites that honor LGBT Americans. 

“Although the struggle for equal rights extends from coast to coast, the Stonewall Riots in 1969 served as an historic turning point in LGBT history,” Garcetti wrote in a letter to President Obama. “Recognizing the Stonewall Inn and Christopher Park in New York City’s West Village would honor the American LGBT experience in every city and help to teach people of an important historical event that has helped to shape our nation.”

Mayor Garcetti has been a champion of protecting LGBT history. In 2008 as City Council President of Los Angeles, he worked to successfully designate the Black Cat Bar as a registered landmark in the City of Los Angeles.

“Two and a half years before the Stonewall Riots in New York City, the first documented demonstration for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) rights in the nation occurred outside the Black Cat Bar in Silver Lake on Sunset Boulevard,” he continued. “The demonstrations happened after undercover LAPD officers arrested and assaulted bar patrons for kissing during a New Year’s Eve celebration in 1967. Displaying great courage and bravery, 200-300 Angelenos protested these police actions against the LGBT community.”

Several events pertinent to the LGBT community have happened in Los Angeles, the second largest country in the nation.

“Los Angeles has played an influential role in the nation’s LGBT history that includes the formation of first American gay rights group, the Mattachine Society; the first gay publication, One Magazine; the first gay pride parade on the one year anniversary of the Stonewall Riots; and the first parade protesting the military’s LGBT ban,” he concluded. “It is with this history in mind that I write in support of designating the Stonewall Inn in New York City as a National Monument through the Antiquities Act.”

HRC continues to urge President Obama to use his authority under the Antiquities Act to designate the area around Stonewall as a national monument in our nation’s National Park Service. 

www.hrc.org/blog/la-mayor-supports-making-stonewall-national-monument-highlights-lgbt-histor?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

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New Study Connects Suicide Rates of Transgender Teens to Bathroom Restrictions

Using data from the National Transgender Discrimination Survey, a new study correlated the high suicide rates of transgender teens with bathroom restriction for transgender teens.

“Transgender and gender non-conforming people frequently experience discrimination, harassment, and marginalization across college and university campuses,” the Journal of Homosexuality explained. “Using the National Transgender Discrimination Survey, this study analyzes whether being denied access to these spaces is associated with lifetime suicide attempts, after controlling for interpersonal victimization by students or teachers. Findings from sequential logistic regression (N = 2,316) indicate that denial of access to either space had a significant relationship to suicidality, even after controlling for interpersonal victimization.” 

This study comes at a pertinent time for transgender youth across the country. Just last month, HRC released a report detailing an alarming onslaught of legislation nationwide targeting transgender people, particularly transgender youth.

An unprecedented 44 anti-transgender bills are being considered in 17 states. Some bills undercut the ability of transgender people to access gender-affirming health care, create state-sanctioned avenues of anti-transgender discrimination and, last but not least, deny transgender people access to bathrooms, locker rooms and athletic teams consistent with their gender identity.

Unfortunately, a third of the anti-equal access “bathroom bills” would apply statewide to multi-user restrooms, locker rooms and similar facilities. If passed, some impose criminal penalties on transgender people who use restrooms consistent with their gender identity.

Most recently, the Tennessee House Education Administration & Planning Subcommittee unanimously passed HB 2414 – an outrageous bill targeting transgender students in public elementary, middle, and high schools, as well as those in public universities. The measure, which now moves to the full committee, seeks to force transgender students to use restrooms and other facilities inconsistent with their gender identity. Tennessee would be the first state in the nation to pass such a law.

Earlier this month, South Dakota Governor Dennis Daugaard vetoed HB 1008 — outrageous legislation that attacked the rights of transgender children in public schools by attempting to force them to use restrooms and other facilities inconsistent with their gender identity.

To learn more about how you can support transgender youth, click here. For more information about anti-LGBT bills in your state, click here.

www.hrc.org/blog/new-study-connects-suicide-rates-of-transgender-teens-to-bathroom-restricti?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

The Most Extreme Attempt Yet To Demonize Transgender People And Deny Them Rights

A new video smears all transgender women as criminals and predators.

The post The Most Extreme Attempt Yet To Demonize Transgender People And Deny Them Rights appeared first on ThinkProgress.

thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2016/03/18/3761379/transphobic-video-predators-criminals/