On Wednesday, May 17th, Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York (Union) will convene a press conference in Washington D.C. in partnership with the Offices of Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-NY) and Senator Chris Coons (D-DE). Senator Coons and a diverse coalition of Evangelical and other faith leaders will join Union to denounce the rise in anti-LGBTQ policies and promote a pro-equality policy agenda for the Trump Administration and Congress. Following the press conference, there will be a facilitated discussion that will further outline how the wider faith community can constructively support LGBTQ people.
The back-to-back events coincide with International Day Against Homophobia and will raise awareness around the recent spate of national policies aimed specifically at rolling back rights for LGBTQ employees, LGBTQ seniors, and the transgender community. In addition, press conference speakers will highlight why their support of the LGBTQ community is not an act of dissent or defiance but a clear reflection of their faiths and the scriptures that inform them.
“The scriptures tell us to welcome all God’s children into the fold of God’s care, just as the mother hen tends to her brood,” shared Rev. Frederick A. Davie, Executive Vice President at Union. “Officials from the US Justice Department, the state of Texas and other states and localities around the country must stop cherry picking verses from sacred texts and blaspheming the name of Christ with hateful faith-based public policies aimed at dehumanizing the LGBTQ community, immigrants, Muslims, women and other vulnerable people.”
A powerful voice in the emerging ‘religious left’ movement, Union has actively rallied Evangelical and other religious leaders from around the country to express the faith community’s mounting support for LGBTQ rights and equality, including: Kathy Baldock, Board of Directors, The Reformation Project (NV); Rev. Amy Butler, Senior Minister, The Riverside Church (NY); Robert and Susan Cottrell, Founders, FreedHearts (TX); Josh Dickson, Co-Founder and Board Member, Evangelicals for Marriage Equality (CO); Michael Kimpan, Founder, (un)Common Good Collective (IL); Doug Pagitt, Organizer, Convergence (MN); Rev. Adam Phillips, Pastor, Christ Church Portland (OR); Brandan Robertson, Founder and Executive Director, NOMAD Partnerships (CO); and Rod Snyder, Board Member, Evangelicals for Marriage Equality (WV).*
“There’s nothing more personal than what an individual believes or whom they love,” said Senator Chris Coons. “We all share in the universal call to honor that individual, regardless of religious preference or sexual orientation. My faith has taught me that we have a moral obligation to stand up for our common humanity. All Americans deserve nothing less than full equality under the law and freedom from discrimination. I’m proud to join this impressive list of organizations and advocates to stand in solidarity with the LGBTQ community.”
Despite the recent legislation in Texas and North Carolina, support for LGBTQ rights continues to grow among religious Americans—particularly Christians. “As the culture wars of the past continue to fade, many faithful Americans – even traditionally conservative Christians – are increasingly seeing LGBTQ equality as integral to their religious values and their calling to love their neighbors as they do themselves,” said Rev. Dr. Serene Jones, President of the Faculty and Johnston Family Professor for Religion and Democracy at Union. Indeed, support for marriage equality among White Evangelicals has more than doubled since 2001, with Black Protestant support increasing by close to one-third during that time. And, according to the Pew Research Center, 58% of Catholics and 64% of White Mainline Protestants support marriage equality today, compared to 40% and 38% in 2001, respectively.
Moving forward, and in keeping with its 181-year-old mission, Union will continue to work with religious voices across the country to support the full inclusion and equality for the LGBTQ community.
“Faith communities must continue to support and galvanize one another in the fight for equality,” said Rev. Dr. Derrick Harkins, Senior Vice President for Innovation in Public Programs at Union. “We must fully embrace our duty to be a prophetic voice as we work together for the full human dignity of all God’s children.”
It's the encore we've all been waiting for! NBC is bringing back its iconic comedy series "Will & Grace," with stars Eric McCormack, Debra Messing, Megan Mullally and Sean Hayes. The 12-episode run begins this fall, airing Thursdays at 8 p.m.
Today, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, along with Gerhardstein & Branch and the Law Office of Scott Knox, announced that they reached a settlement in Rachel Dovel v. The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, et al. Ms. Dovel has received insurance coverage for gender affirming surgery, which was previously excluded under the Library’s employee health care plan. In 2016, Ms. Dovel was forced to take out a personal loan to cover the cost of her medically necessary gender affirming surgery when faced with this coverage exclusion. In addition to Ms. Dovel’s health care coverage, as part of the settlement the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, where Ms. Dovel continues to work, agreed to continue to expand the Library’s efforts to build an inclusive and trans positive environment, including expanding materials on LGBT issues.
“Employers across the country should take note that denying medically necessary care for transgender employees is unlawful,” said National Center for Lesbian Rights Transgender Youth Project Staff Attorney Asaf Orr. “Today, we applaud the Cincinnati public library system and its employee health care insurer for choosing to do the right thing. This settlement not only rights a wrong for Ms. Dovel, it seeks to eliminate stereotypes and misinformation about the LGBT community by increasing the public library’s collection on these issues and changing its employment practices. This is a victory for all LGBT Cincinnatians.”
“We want LGBT Cincinnatians to know that we are here for you and will work to ensure that you are not the targets of workplace discrimination,” said co-counsel for Rachel Dovel Gerhardstein & Branch’s Jennifer L. Branch. “This settlement demonstrates how critical it is that we work with employers to resolve issues fairly for employees. We are proud of the steps the Cincinnati Public Library is taking to create a better city and a better workplace for the LGBT community.”
This case, filed in September 2016, argued that denying medically necessary health care for a transgender employee constituted discrimination on the basis of sex under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the 14th Amendment Equal Protection Clause. Legal documents filed by Ms. Dovel noted that non-transgender employees received medical coverage for the same or substantially similar medical care denied to transgender employees.
"I am pleased that we were able to resolve this case, which affects not just me but current and future employees and their families who may need access to transition-related care,” said plaintiff Rachel Dovel. “Through the settlement, the Library recognizes the importance of providing transgender employees with access to medically necessary transition-related care and has committed to concrete steps to ensure that it is meeting the needs of it LGBT employees and patrons.”
Congress is overlooking many opportunities to have the federal government publish more of the data it already gathers, collect more data that can be put to valuable use, and encourage the private sector to make better use of data, according to a new report from the Center for Data Innovation, a data-policy think tank. The Center outlines 10 concrete steps Congress can take in 2017 to maximize public benefit by optimizing the way data is collected, shared, and used in the United States.
“In nearly every industry, data is powering new insights that improve decision-making, enable new products and services, and enhance quality of life,” said Daniel Castro, the Center’s director and the report’s lead author. “The government may not be the main engine of this innovation, but it can and should play a vital role in accelerating and shaping it to boost economic growth and aid society.”
The report urges Congress to accelerate data innovation by:
Publishing data the government already collects, including: 1. Establish a permanent open-data policy for the federal government, 2. Allow the U.S. Department of Agriculture to publicly release Common Land Unit data, and 3. Establish an API for legislative data.
Collecting more data that can be put to valuable use, including: 4. Develop a complete 3D National Elevation Dataset, 5. Require corporate data transparency, and 6. Address the LGBT data gap.
Encouraging industries to make better use of data, including: 7. Adopt universal patient identifiers for healthcare, 8. Incentivize adoption of electronic health records for mental-health providers, 9. Foster use of alternative credit data, and 10. Ensure consumers can access their utility data.
Noting that many of these policies have broad support from stakeholders and already have been introduced as legislation in Congress, Castro says the main holdup is inertia in Washington.
“While areas of bipartisan agreement have been limited in the current political climate, there are easy ways Congress can spur data-driven innovation that already have support from both sides of the aisle,” said Castro. “We just need Congress to pay attention and take action.”
“There is a lot of low-hanging fruit here that would deliver significant value to American consumers and businesses. While it is good that Congress tries to get out of the way of the private sector, it should not forget that it also has an important role to play in unlocking new opportunities to use data that we haven’t even imagined yet,” said Castro.
“Overall, the policies in this report are incremental, but significant, steps toward the larger aim of creating a fully integrated world that harnesses the power of information for productive purposes,” concluded Castro. “The long-term goal is for Congress to demand that federal agencies look closely at how they can use data to solve important policy challenges and help shepherd in a new era of innovation, productivity, and economic growth.”
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Long week for me. Each day was exhausting as I gave it my all at my day job. Mike and I also thought a lot about our sweet Suga who we lost one year ago this week.
Some weeks I barely have enough energy to do everything I need to do.
And yet I still need to take actions to resist. This week the US House passed a bill that will eviscerate our current health care law that many call Obamacare. So many things wrong with their bill and I have just begun investigating it.
We have to be a voice for those most effected by this bill. We have to ensure every US House representative who voted for this bill hears from those of us opposed to it. Join the nearest Indivisible group. On social media follow people like Deray McKesson and any groups forming to support the Resistance.
Nancy Pelosi said after the House vote on healthcare that those Republicans who voted for it are doomed in ’18. I disagree with her. They are only doomed if we continue to act and resist.
Thanks for reading. And to all of you in the Resistance, all of you who rock it every day for your family, loved ones and community, and then do even more to resist, thank you.
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My client Jack is in his eighties, and he’s in a pretty low spot right now, Drew – maybe you can do something to help.
Last year, he lost Bob, his husband and partner of more than 50 years. In that terrible moment of grief, the funeral home refused to take Bob’s body after they learned Bob and Jack were married.
Now we’re suing the funeral home to bring some justice to Jack and to restore some of the dignity lost in that terrible ordeal. It’s been a year and things were supposed to start getting better from here – but Jack continues to struggle for basic dignity in his loneliness and grief.
Days after we announced the lawsuit, Jack stopped to put gas in his car and a woman at the pump asked if he was the man whose husband died. When he responded in the affirmative, instead of offering condolences like a caring human being might, she told Jack that he should have died, too.
It’s easy to get angry, thinking about how that bully couldn’t resist an opportunity to kick Jack while he was down, but remember: Our movement is grounded in love, not anger or hate.
I fight that kind of bigotry in court every day. Leave that to me. What I’m asking is for you to drown out the hate with love. Nothing can give back everything that Jack has lost, but we can show him that he’s not alone and that there’s a coast-to-coast community standing with him in this fight.
Let Jack know the entire LGBT community and our allies are behind him. Send him a note to let him know that you’re with him now – it will only take a few minutes and I promise it will mean a lot: www.lambdalegal.org/jack
With eight parties in 72 hours bringing in 30,000 admissions through the course of an amazing DJ driven weekend, White Party Palm Springs continued its 28 year run as the world’s premier gay dance festival.
This year, producer Jeffrey Sanker, pictured with T- Dance performer Belinda Carlisle, pulled out all the stops, making this one of the most memorable White Party weekend’s in its storied history. On Sunday, Sanker brought the crowd to a spiritual peak with his annual spectacular fireworks display, choreographed to the music.
Real Housewives’ of Beverly Hills star Kyle Richards, (pictured at the Saturday night Convention Center) was crowned “Queen of White Party 2017” and reigned supreme over the course of the events.
Hotels, including the Palm Springs Renaissance, have already begun taking reservations for White Party 2018 which is set for April 27-30, 2018. Details at www.JeffreySanker.com.
Today transgender Log Cabin Republicans members and LCR President Gregory T. Angelo personally presented the United States Department of Education (DOE) with a white paper and briefed DOE officials on the importance of guaranteeing equal access for transgender pupils in public schools.
“As someone who understands the urgency to make a push for equality from all sides of the aisle, I want to assure my friends and family in the LGBTQ community that the results of today’s meeting have left me confident that what we’re doing is worth the effort and will bring results,” Evans stated.
“It is a honor to represent Log Cabin Republicans and our transgender community to the Department of Education,” Roberts declared. “We are very pleased with the conversations and are looking forward to helping to produce Title IX guidance that will protect the privacy and needs of all students, both transgender and non-transgender alike.”
“Today’s meeting with the Department of Education was very heartening and quite productive,” Williams added. “Their staff were fully engaged and they asked many great questions about the important issues involved and about our lives as transgender Americans. As a Log Cabin Republican, whose Party was founded in a Little White Schoolhouse in Ripon, Wisconsin, our meeting with the Department of Education gives me great hope that we will find solutions.”
“The promise of the Trump phenomenon was that LGBT people could get our full rights protected under a Republican President, without our having to serve as cannon fodder for the Democrat Party,” Maddison stated. “That hasn’t happened yet, but today’s meeting is a first step toward realizing that promise. If the meeting leads to solid actions, our community may finally get liberated from the stifling ideological cages, and America will come out much the stronger for it.”
Log Cabin Republicans President Gregory T. Angelo concluded, "I couldn’t be more proud of our Transgender Leadership Caucus — or of the Department of Education for taking this important meeting. The white paper we presented this morning marks the culmination of weeks of work on behalf of transgender students, but it does not mark the end of our efforts. Log Cabin Republicans remains committed to the safety of transgender students and the equality of all students, and we look forward to continued conversations with the Trump Administration to achieve that end"
The City of Tel Aviv-Yafo is excited to announce that the theme of the 2017 LGBT Pride Parade is “Bisexuality Visibility” The parade will be the first large-scale pride parade in the world to ever celebrate the theme bisexuality.
Starting June 3, hundreds of thousands of people from Israel and around the world are expected to descend on Tel Aviv for a nonstop week of parties, events, and shows that feature and celebrate the city’s vibrant LGBTQ community, culminating in a massive parade through the city streets on June 9, expected to draw some 200,000 participants. Tel Aviv’s pride parade is the largest pride event in Asia and the Middle East, and one of the largest parades in the world.
Every year, members of Tel Aviv’s LGBTQ community choose a theme for the week of events in June. Past themes include last year’s “Women for a Change” and “Transgender Visibility”.
This year, the city’s LGBTQ community has chosen a theme that reaffirms its support for the diverse and inclusive atmosphere that has led to Tel Aviv being dubbed “the world’s gayest city” by The Boston Globe and “the gay capital of the Middle East” by Out Magazine.
The Tel Aviv Pride Parade is the only pride parade in the world that is fully sponsored by the Municipality. Over the last few years, Tel Aviv has significantly deepened its investments to promote gay tourism to the city, and an estimated 35,000 tourists are expected to arrive this year in Tel Aviv to take part in the pride events.
This year, the Municipality is collaborating with NYX Tel Aviv, the official Pride hotel. NYX Tel Aviv will offer special deals and host events organized by the well-known gay party line PAG. The Hotel will be lit up in rainbow colors throughout Pride Week.
Efrat Tolkowsky, Tel-Aviv Yafo City Council Member, In charge of LGBTQ Affairs: “Both in Israel and around the world, many bisexual people feel that they are an invisible group within the LGBTQ community. Here in Tel Aviv, we are committed to celebrating each and every LGBTQ person and ally equally, so that we can all be out and proud together”.
Yaniv Weizman, Tel-Aviv Yafo City Council Member, In charge of LGBTQ Affairs: “Every year tens of thousands of the LGBTQ community from around the world visit Tel Aviv-Yafo. We are proud to have them join us during pride week celebrating the diversity and spirit of tolerance that makes Tel Aviv the best gay city in the world”.
On Saturday, Billy Porter delivered a stirring call to action for all members and allies of the LGBTQ community.
At the 28th GLAAD Media Awards in New York, the Kinky Boots star received the Vito Russo Award, an honor bestowed upon an out member of the media who has worked to promote acceptance. Presenting him with the honor was his longtime friend Rosie O’Donnell, who accepted the award herself in 2003. People has exclusive video footage of Porter’s acceptance speech, during which he shared a moving story, recalling the time in 1996 that he visited The Rosie O’Donnell Show while still in the closet.
“I was signed to a major label and had been schooled by the executives to keep my mouth shut, except for singing, so that my true nature might not be detected in the urban music business, which at the time was riddled with institutional, aggressive, poisonous and inhumane homophobia,” Porter, 47, reminisced.
“Just as I was about to go onstage for my interview with Rosie, my record executive handler flippantly tossed out this direction: ‘Don’t speak! I mean, don’t try to talk too much.’ He actually said those words to me: ‘Don’t speak.’ The on-camera interview was a disaster,” he added. “Rosie’s crack-of-dawn effervescence was met with rigid one-word answers, a tongue was tied, my spirit was broken. Rosie saw ambush in my eyes. On a commercial break, she leaned in: ‘What’s wrong?’ ‘Nothing,’ I said. But she pressed: ‘My office. After the show. No bulls—.'”
It was after their segment that O’Donnell delivered some motivating real talk.
“She wrapped me in her arms. She gave me some tough love. And she empowered me: ‘You are enough. F— them,'” Porter said. “She also gave me a Volkswagen Bug to drive when I moved to L.A., and I drove it for 16 years, just FYI!”
Porter — who last month released his new covers album Billy Porter Presents: The Soul of Richard Rogers — delivered a similar sentiment when he took the stage at the GLAAD event.
“You are all enough. We are all enough. F— them. Because now is the time to speak up because the attack from this administration on the arts and on the LGBTQ and other marginalized people is real, and it is meant, once again, to silence up,” he said. “However, since the beginning of time, artists are the folks who engage critical thinking and encourage those who think they are powerless to question the status quo; speak truth to power; change hearts and minds. The days of ‘shut up and sing’ are over. We must stay vigilantly visible. We must stay engaged. We must tell our stories. And GLAAD encourages us to do just that.”
Porter has vocally opposed President Donald Trump since the election. What’s more, he and his longtime partner Adam Smith — the 35-year-old co-owner of the high-end eyewear company Native Ken — rushed their wedding, marrying barely two weeks into their engagement in January, so they could say “I do” under the Obama administration.
“This administration has declared war on its own people. And as a black man, this ain’t nothin’ new, as a gay man, this ain’t nothin’ new — but where they slipped up this time is in that in that declaration of war, it’s not only against black and brown people and queer people anymore: It’s against all of us. And as a result, the good news is, white folk and straight folk and all those fierce women folk are mad now, and now something might get done!” Porter said, the 2,000-strong crowd erupting in cheers.
“So it’s time to get your war clothes on! Because from slavery to emancipation to the 13th Amendment to Jim Crow to the Civil Rights Movement; from Stonewall to AIDS to marriage equality — we gotta remember the shoulders who we stand on,” he said. “The ones who fought and died for those freedoms that we hold so dear. Let’s use these historical strides we’ve made as a nation to empower us as warriors on this battlefield of equality.”
As the audience gave a standing ovation, Porter concluded his emotional speech: “It’s time to protect our inalienable rights and get your war clothes. Until we can figure out how to love each other unconditionally, no one wins. No one. Freedom, equality, justice have always come at a cost, and evidently they always will … Stay strong. Stay vigilant. Stay visible. Stay hopeful. Stay focused. Be brave. Be fierce. Resist. Resist. Resist. Resist. Resist.”
At the event, GLAAD raised more than $2.2 million to raise money for the organization’s various initiatives that aim for LGBTQ acceptance.
You're invited to join the ACLU of Colorado Wednesday, May 24, at the History Colorado Center for their 2017 Annual Meeting.
The evening will include a wrap-up of the 2017 legislative session and a review of their legal advocacy over the last year, as well as a discussion on the ACLU of Colorado’s role as a protector of civil rights and civil liberties over the next four years and beyond.
Today, Miley Cyrus releases her new single and music video for "Malibu,"
which is is the first single off of Cyrus' forthcoming album due for
release later this year. The video is directed by Miley Cyrus and Diane
Martel. "Malibu" is available now at all digital retail providers.
