The Equality Act Passes House!

HR 5, also known as the Equality Act, would add gender identity and sexual orientation to the Civil Rights Act of 1964.   How apropos that this legislation came up on the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia (IDAHOTB) and the 65th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education SCOTUS decision.

After some contentious debate and a failed attempt by the Republicans to amend it and send it back to the House Judiciary Committee, it passed in the Democratically-controlled US House on a final 236-173 vote.   8 Republicans joined the 228 Democrats voting YES for the legislation.   All of the 173 NO votes were Republican house members.

Keep that in mind equality voters when you vote for your Congressional candidates next year .

Thanks to all the House Democrats who supported this legislation.   Huge thanks also to Rep. Katie Hill (D-CA) for her mic drop level speech excoriating the Republican attempt to kill the bill

Unfortunately since the Republicans control the Senate, that means the bill will not be taken up by the Republican majority.     That's okay, you can punish then at the polls in 2020 for their lack of political vision.

But celebrate this win, and let's begin tomorrow getting control of the Senate and the White House so we can make this the law of the land.

Tokyo Passes Law Banning TBLGQ Discrimination

For those of you who reflexively hate on the Olympics and fixate on the infrastructure costs associated with hosting an Olympic Games, here's a compelling argument in favor of having them in your city.

In the wake of what happened in Sochi, with the Russian government ramping up discrimination aimed at TBLGQ people by passing an anti-gay propaganda law on the eve of the 2014 Winter Games too late for them to be moved elsewhere,  the IOC as part of Olympic Agenda 2020 requires all future host cities to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

In order to meet that Olympics hosting requirement standard, on October 5 the Tokyo Metropolitan Government passed a TBLGQ rights law that states:

“The Tokyo Metropolitan Government, citizens, and enterprises may not unduly discriminate on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation” and includes a government pledge to “conduct measures needed to make sure human rights values are rooted in all corners of the city and diversity is respected in the city.”

The new law also commits the Tokyo Metropolitan Government to do public education campaigns in the city about TBLGQ rights issues.

Tokyo, along with Tokyo prefecture which it merged with in 1943, and the Tokyo metropolitan area is home to 25% of Japan's population.

Japan doesn't have a national law yet legalizing same sex marriage, and Japanese transgender people are required to have gender confirmation surgery before they can obtain federal ID that matches their gender identity.

But Japan has been making positive strides on the TBLGQ rights front in the last several years. Well known trans women like 2009 Miss International Queen winner Ai Haruna live and work there.

According to Human Rights Watch, in 2016 Japan's Minister of Education released a teacher's guidebook that covered the topic of how to treat TBLGQ students.  That same year Japan, along with the Netherlands and the United States, led a UNESCO conference on TBLGQ bullying, and followed that up in March 2017 by the Ministry of Education modifying the national bullying policy to include TBLGQ students.

Since 2003, Aya Kamikawa has been serving on the council for the largest of the 23 wards that make up the historic city of Tokyo, Setagaya.

She was the first and only elected trans official in Japan until March 2017, when 26 year old Tomoya Hosoda became the first trans masculine person elected to public office in the Land of the Rising Sun by winning a seat on the Iruma City city council, located in the Saitama prefecture in the Greater Tokyo metro area.

He called his win at the time 'a marker for transgender rights' in his nation, and in the wake of it has worked to increase acceptance for all forms of diversity in Japan.

If You're A Black TBLGQ Person, We KNOW TBLGQ Rights Aren't Safe

"Should the self destructive white privilege fueled racist tendencies of white voters prevail on Tuesday, we will be stuck with people who hate us having offices in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building and the Justice Department gleefully making policy backed by the federal government that rolls back all the human rights games we have made since Stonewall. ".   
-TransGriot, November 4, 2016 

In the wake of the disastrous 2016 election, one of my Black lesbian homegirls told me a story about a conversation she'd had with two white gay men at her job who were gleefully bragging about voting for Trump. 

"He's going to shake this PC crap up," one of them said while the other recited Trump's demonstrably false narrative about the country being 'terrible' under President Obama.

My homegirl then calmly reminded both of the gay Trump supporters they had just voted for the guy who would take away gay marriage.   Upon hearing that comment, their previously gleeful expressions turned to shock and horror. 

"He can't do that, can he?" one of them asked her in a concerned tone.

"He most certainly can, now that you voted for the guy who will put an anti marriage equality justice on the Supreme Court, and has Mike Pence as his vice president egging him on to do it,"
 said my friend

I'm recalling that now year old conversation because I thought about it as I read the Washington Post story by Colleen Curry in which she talked about the epiphany she had that gay rights weren't safe.

Well, if you had talked to any member of the Black, Latinx or Asian TBLGQ community prior to or since the 2016 election, we could have told you that our community's human rights aren't safe based on our people's long tortured human rights history in the US and our people having to constantly fight tooth and nail just to have our humanity and human rights recognized.

As a matter of fact, just four days before the 2016 election I wrote a post that stated in blunt terms that the humanity and human rights of trans people were on the ballot.

There was a clear choice in this 2016 presidential election in terms of who needed to be in the White House if we wanted as a community continued progress on TBLGQ rights issues  But far too many people in this community were more committed to hatin' on Hillary than electing her to become POTUS so that we could have continued our TBLGQ human rights progress.

My people's history is full of stories like the Reconstruction, in which we made fantastic human rights progress after emancipation only to have it wiped out because of an at times violent conservative backlash that erased those gains before the turn of the 20th Century and saw the birth of Jim Crow Segregation.

The Civil Rights Movement of the 50's and 60's (sometimes called the Second Reconstruction by historians) led to African Americans making fantastic human rights gains during that period only to have them steady chipped away or rolled back by conservative Republicans hostile to any progress for Black Americans

Anyone with a grasp of American history and who was paying political attention over the last several decades could have seen this same pattern coming in terms of TBLGQ rights.    Black women, and especially Black trans women saw this coming which is why we were voting at a 94% clip for Clinton and the Democrats to avoid this disaster.

Rights that you gain by executive order and court cases aren't safe and can be easily reversed.   The only way to make them permanent or harder to roll back is to pass them legislatively  To pass them legislatively, you have to have either TBLGQ legislators or allies doing so.

Elections matter.   As long as the Trump misadministration and people hostile to us are in charge in Washington and our state capitols, TBLGQ human rights will always be under attack and we must fight tooth and nail to ensure there's no slippage in our human rights coverage. .

Good to know that some of you in TBLGQ World are finally waking up to that reality

Ohio Considering Pro-TBLGQ Rights Legislation

Because it has been run by the Republicans for several decades, Ohio has a well earned reputation for being hostile to trans human rights.   It is one of the states that will not allow you to change your birth certificate even if you've had gender confirmation surgery. Cincinnati had a reputation in the 80's and 90's for being openly hostile to TBLGQ rights to the point that federal lawsuits had to be filed by people pushing back against that discrimination. 

That international rep for intolerance cost Cincinnati $600 million in lost business in the 90's, two corporate headquarters relocations, and the opportunity to become the US bid city competing to host the 2012 Olympics that eventually went to London. 

Ohio being in the Sixth Circuit, the most conservative of all the US federal court circuits added to the feelings of Ohio based TBLGQ advocates that sometimes they were ice skating uphill when it came to pushing expanded rights coverage in the Buckeye State.

But things have been interestingly changing for the better there TBLGQ rights wise  Cincinnati not only has had since 2003 a trans inclusive non discrimination ordinance, it is one of 24 cities that has a clinic that treats transgender children. 

Cincinnati is also one of the three Ohio cities along with Akron and Dayton that have a perfect 100 score of the HRC Municipal Equality Index. 

Nineteen Ohio cities now have TBLGQ inclusive ordinances, and 80% of Ohio based corporations have policies that prohibit sexual orientation discrimination.  Cincinnati also became in 2015 the first city in the Buckeye State to pass a law banning conversion therapy.  Toledo did so last year and was followed by Columbus, which has had a long time reputation of being a TBLGQ friendly city. 

"Gay and transgender people are our friends, neighbors, family and coworkers. When it comes to being able to earn a living, having a place to live, or being served by a business or government office, they should be treated like anyone else and not be discriminated against," said the ACLU.
Ohio Business Connects, a coalition of over 200 businesses that includes the state's largest employers like Proctor & Gamble, Key Bank and General Electric along with right organizations such as the ACLU, TransOhio, the Human Rights Campaign and Equality Ohio.   The OBC has been pushing to have nondiscriminator policies enacted in the Buckeye State and was motivated to make it happen after watching the economic carnage that happened to North Carolina after the passage of the unjust HB 2.

Because OBC has been ramping up the pressure on the GOP controlled state legislature, and they have probably noted the statewide pro- TBLGQ rights trends, two bills have been filed in the 2018 session.  One bill is a watered down one by a Republican legislator, and the pro TBLGQ bill, HB 160 the Ohio Fairness Act  is written by a Democratic legislator.

HB 160, filed by Nickie Antonio (D-Lakewood) prohibits discrimination based on gender identity, gender expression and sexual orientation in the areas of employment, housing and public accomodation.   Rep. Antonio has been pushing this bill since 2011 but it is the first time it has gotten a second hearing.  Even more interesting is that Gov. John Kasich (R) has indicated he may be willing to sign it.

We'll see what happens with this bill and if Ohio becomes the rare red state to pass TBLGQ supportive legislation

IBM's Message To Its Employees

Diane Gherson, IBM's Senor Vice President for Human Resources recently posted this message to all IBM employees outline their opposition to the anti-trans legislation that the Texas GOP is trying to pass during the Special Oppression Session.

July 17, 2017

IBM Community,

This week, I’ll be traveling to Austin, Texas with IBM Chief Diversity Officer Lindsay-Rae McIntyre and nearly 20 IBM leaders—the majority of whom are Texans–to voice IBM’s longstanding commitment to diversity and inclusion.

Logo showing IBM’s commitment to diversity and equality.

Why Texas? And why now? On July 18th, the Texas legislature will start a thirty-day special session, where it is likely some will try to advance a discriminatory “bathroom bill” similar to the one that passed in North Carolina last year.

It is our goal to convince Texas elected officials to abandon these efforts.

IBM wrote its first Equal Opportunity policy in 1953—a decade before the Civil Rights Act was enacted. We were one of the first companies to include sexual orientation in that policy over thirty years ago, and have stood up to ensure that LGBT IBMers across the globe can live and work free from discrimination in any form.

A Texas bathroom bill stands squarely against these deep-rooted IBM values.

A bathroom bill like the one in Texas sends a message that it is okay to discriminate against someone just for being who they are. It threatens IBM’s ability to bring the best and brightest to our Texas workforce—a community that is now over 10,000 strong and represents a diversity of perspectives, backgrounds and experiences.

This bathroom bill also undermines IBM’s goal of bringing more people into New Collar job opportunities—a top company priority. Through partnerships with local high schools and community colleges, we’ve been able to support over 100 P-TECH schools that have created 21st century skills education programs. In May, Texas signed on as the latest state to fund its own P-TECH program.

A bathroom bill could target LGBT youth and students attending such schools—and every other public educational institution across Texas. We will strongly oppose legislation that would marginalize any current or future IBMer.

That’s why we are heading to Texas to engage directly with government officials on this bill.

I am proud of IBM’s leadership in the push for diversity and inclusion and thank all of you in the IBM community for living these values each and every day.

I look forward to reporting back on our work in Texas and on our broader efforts to ensure that diversity remains central to IBM’s company values and culture.

Sincerely,
Diane Gherson
Senior Vice President, Human Resources

Thanks IBM for being on the correct side of history.  

Mesquite, TX Passes Trans Inclusive EEO Policy Update

In breaking news from North Texas, looks like the ongoing negative attacks on trans people by Gov Abbott, Lt. Governor  Goeb Patrick  AG Ken Paxton and the Texas GOP have started to have the opposite effect.

According to Lone Star Q, the city council of the eastern Dallas suburb of Mesquite, TX just voted tonight despite opposition from the Texas Bigots Values haters to add trans, bi and SGL workers to their city's Equal Employment Opportunity policy.

“Sorry to disappoint everyone, this isn’t the bathroom war…no matter what a political hack from Austin tells you in a fundraising email,” Mesquite Councilman Jeff Casper said. “Let me be clear: This policy has no effect on public restrooms. It simply states that the city of Mesquite’s employment decisions will be based on character and merit.”

As I keep pointing out, while the haters may have some loud voices, we LGBT peeps in the Lone Star State are continuing to fight for the type of inclusive and equitable Texas we wish to make a reality.

Congrats Mesquite and everyone who worked on getting this done for over a year.

Lawsuit Filed Against Unjust NC Anti-Trans Bill

In some good news after a horrible legislative week for trans kind, a lawsuit was filed in federal court today against the unjust HB 2 anti-trans bill.

Lambda Legal, Equality NC,  the ACLU, ACLU-NC  and three individuals filed suit against the unjust bill that nullified local civil rights ordinances and attempts to enact Jim Crow style bathroom restrictions upon trans North Carolinians and trans visitors to the state.

“By singling out LGBT people for disfavored treatment and explicitly writing discrimination against transgender people into state law, H.B. 2 violates the most basic guarantees of equal treatment and the U.S. Constitution,” the lawsuit argues.

The complaint argues the law violates people’s equal protection, privacy, and liberty rights under the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and their civil rights under Title IX of the Education Act of 1972. The lawsuit is asking for a declaratory judgment that the law violates the Constitution and Title IX and an injunction against enforcement of the law.

We'll see how this case plays out as it winds its way through the federal court system.

TransGriot Update:  NC AG Roy Cooper, who is running as the Democratic candidate for North Carolina's governor, announced that he would not be defending the unjust HB 2 law in court.

Charlotte Passes Ordinance Banning TBLG Discrimination

Some good news out of Charlotte tonight as their City Council passed on a 7-4 vote an ordinance banning LGBT discrimination in the Queen City in front of an overflow crowd.

Of course, the Forces of Intolerance beat the bathroom predator meme into hamburger and Gov Pat McCrory (R), the former Charlotte mayor, tried to browbeat the Charlotte City Council into not taking the issue up by issuing threats to overturn it at the state level.

The new Charlotte ordinance takes effect in April and bans discrimination based on gender identity and expression and sexual orientation in housing and public accommodations.

You may recall that an attempt to pass the same ordinance last year was defeated, and in the wake of that loss, the two Democratic councilmembers that opposed it were ousted and replaced with democrats who supported the ordinance.

Elections matter.

But this was the easy part.   As we can tell you in Houston, keeping progressive legislation you pass in a red state is much harder.

But congrats Charlotte for doing so!    

Fayetteville, AR Passes New Civil Rights Protection Law

Was wondering if in the wake of the exposure of the Duggar hypocrisy, that Fayetteville, AR would revisit the marrow repeal of the previous TBLG inclusive law and work on passing a new one.

They have and did.

After almost four hours of discussion last night that favorably commented on it by a 32-20 margin, ,Fayetteville City Council members voted 6-2 to pass the Uniform Civil Rights Protection Ordinance and send it to the voters for a September 8 special election.   The new ordinance won't go into effect until it passes at the ballot box.

Work on the new ordinance started immediately after the controversial repeal vote in December that featured Michelle Duggar's transphobic robocall.  The new ordinance incorporates several existing laws like the Arkansas Anti-Bullying Act and the Fair Housing Act. It also borrows language from the Arkansas Civil Rights Act of 1993, which defines “employer” as a person who employs nine or more employees in the state.

Besides the citizens that spoke favorably for it, it also has the support of one of the groups who initially worked to defeat the original law, the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce.

If passed, the new law will prohibit business owners and landlords from firing or evicting someone because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. It will also provide protections for use of public accommodations, including restrooms.  

City Attorney Kit Williams believes that he can defend it, despite the passage of Act 37, the deceptively named  Intrastate Commerce Improvement Act .  It bans cities and counties from enacting or enforcing “an ordinance, resolution, rule or policy that creates a protected classification or prohibits discrimination on a basis not contained in state law.”

And as usual (boo hiss)  Churches, religious schools, daycare facilities and religious organizations of any kind are exempt from it.

We'll have to stay tuned to see what the next chapter brings in terms of whether this stays on Fayetteville's law books. 

Because Fayetteville is the home of the University of Arkansas, not having a human rights law on the books is bad for business and recruiting, especially with the Razorbacks being  a member of the SEC, I'm betting it will.

I'm One Of Those Proud Texans That Supports TBLG Non Discrimination Laws

As many of you TransGriot readers are quite aware of, I am a proud Houstonian and Texan who absolutely hates the GOP dominated government that has mismanaged it over the last 20 years.

Instead of our state government doing what they are supposed to do and pass laws that benefit all Texans, they are basically working to oppress anyone that isn't a conservative white male.

LGBT Texans love this state, and as much as y'all would like us to either leave it or go back in the closet so you can go back to pretending we trans, bi and SGL peeps don't exist, neither one of those thing is happening any time soon.

The Lege back in January was hellbent on passing legislation to remake our bipartisan passed in 1999 RFRA into an Indiana style bill until they witnessed the backlash Indiana got for trying to legislate discrimination.

And may I remind the legislative conservafools and the FOX Noise bamboozled sheeple that support them that the 2016 NCAA men's Final Four and 2017 Super Bowl are scheduled for Houston's NRG Stadium.  

And as business leaders in this state are increasingly opening their mouths to say, discrimination is bad for business.

If  you and these fools wish to continue to see NCAA men's and women's Final Fours and Super Bowl coming to San Antonio, Dallas and Houston along with major corporate relocations and conferences, the Tea GOP needs to back the hell off of those unjust bills you're proposing.

And yeah, despite your best efforts to keep me from doing so with your unjust voter suppression laws, I vote

I'm a proud Texan that supports nondiscrimination laws that protect LGBT Texans, and I'm in the majority on this issue.   All I or any other TBLG Texan wants is to live our lives without micromanaging from our government or having our existence criminalized based on a debunked lie.

'Discrimination In Disguise' Event At UHD Tomorrow

With the overwhelmingly negative attention that the Indiana RFRA drew when their GOP dominated state government tried to pass it, this timely panel discussion on the University of Houston Downtown campus brings attention to our GOP dominated state government''s attempts in Texas to pass RFRA bills that are even more odious.

There are currently 20 anti-LGBTQI bills being proposed that disguise themselves as religious freedom restoration acts, and a panel sponsored by the Texas Freedom Network UHD chapter will discuss them.

It will be on the UHD campus at 1 Main Street in Room N1099 starting at 5:30 PM, so come and join the discussion, the free food, and get educated about the attempts of the Texas GOP to legislate discrimination in disguise..

Dallas Adds TBLG Protections To City Charter!

There was actually some good news out of Texas in the wake of an abysmal night for Team Liberal Progressive.

One the ballot in the City of Dallas was  a proposed addition of a nondiscrimination proposition that would add several classes to its city charter.

Proposition 4 if passed would add in addition to sexual orientation and gender identity and expression, color, age, marital status, genetic characteristics, national original, disability, and military or veteran status

Dallas already prohibited discrimination against city employees based on sexual orientation and gender identity and expression in its equal employment opportunity policy.

When all 430 precincts reported in, 77% of the city voted to pass Proposition 4.

Congrats Dallas!

UN Human Rights Council Passes LGBT Resolution

The good TBLG rights news just keeps on coming internationally

The United Nations Human Rights Council after an hour of debate, has passed by a 25-14 margin with seven abstentions an LGBT human rights resolution that condemns discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation

The resolution was proposed a month ago by Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Uruguay.   There were seven amendments proposed by nations opposed to the LGBT resolution designed to strip mentioning gender identity and sexual orientation that were soundly defeated.

The nations voting for passage of the resolution were Argentina, Austria, Chile, Costa Rica, Cuba, Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Montenegro, Peru, Philippines, South Korea, South Africa, Macedonia, the U.K., the United States, Venezuela and Vietnam.

The nations opposed were Algeria, Botswana, Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Gabon, Indonesia, Kenya, Kuwait, Maldives, Morocco, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The nations abstaining were Burkina Faso, China, Congo, India, Kazakhstan, Namibia and Sierra Leone.

The passage of the amendment was applauded by the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC).

"The Human Rights Council has taken a fundamental step forward by reaffirming one of the United Nations’ key principles — that everyone is equal in dignity and rights.” said Jessica Stern, the executive director of IGLHRC. “This resolution puts the UN on a trajectory to address the discrimination and violence LGBT persons suffer daily across the world.”

"The council is confirming that LGBT people have universal human rights,” Stern said. “We know, of course, that the struggle is long, and that we will need the Council to focus on the violations we suffer for many years to come. But for now, we celebrate that the majority of States stood with us to declare, unequivocally, that human rights are for everyone, everywhere.”

Trans and LGB rights issues are international human rights issues, and this vote by the UN Human Rights Council is more evidence this is not only a statement of fact, but our opponents are on the wrong side of human rights history once again.

- See more at: http://www.sdgln.com/news/2014/09/26/breaking-un-human-rights-council-votes-support-lgbt-rights#sthash.M2wVjq9n.dp

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Debunking The Top 5 Myths About TBLG Rights Laws

We heard all those lies during our recent contentious battle to pass the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance, and Media Matters For America now has produced this video that debunks the Top 5 lies.

So file this video away for future reference and use when your locale decides to pass an LGBT rights ordinance or you build the critical political mass to push for passage of one.

Because we know that as soon as your local governmental entity decides to do the right thing and protect their LGBT citizens, the conservahaters will deploy these lies in a desperate attempt to derail it.

And what are those conservalies?

1. LGBTQ folks aren't actually discriminated against anymore.
2. Non-discrimination laws create special rights for LGBTQ folks.
3. Non-discrimination laws infringe on the religious rights of Christians.
4. Non-discrimination laws will trigger a wave of frivolous law suits.
5. Non-discrimination laws let sexual predators sneak in women's bathrooms.

Here's the video.

 

POTUS To Sign Exec Orders Banning TBLG Workplace Discrimination Today

Happening in mere moments from the White House will be President Obama signing two executive orders 11246 and 11478 that ban workplace discrimination in federal contracting for LGBT employees and federal workplace discrimination against transgender ones

Glad that Mia Macy is in the house to witness it along with Faith Cheltenham and Kylar Broadus..  I'll find out later who else was at the White House to watch that history happen.   Her Macy vs Holder EEOC case has opened the doors for us to be able to go to the EEOC to fight anti-trans discrimination.

Once President Obama signs the new executive orders, TBLG employees who work for federal contractors will be protected from discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. In addition, bias against federal employees based on gender identity will be prohibited.

Sexual orientation been protected from bias discrimination since President Clinton’s signed his executive order doing so in 1998.   It was past time it happened for the trans community.

TransGriot Note:  When the video is posted on White House.gov for the ceremony, I'll update the post.

Kentucky HB 171 Hearing Testimony

It was one of the things I was working on before I left Kentucky, and I was pleased to hear that the statewide Fairness Bill, HB 171 finally got a committee hearing in the Kentucky House.

It was introduced back on February 5 and assigned to the House Judiciary Committee the next day. 

If passed, HB 171 would protect people in the commonwealth from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in employment, housing, and public accommodations. 

It would also make Kentucky one of the first Southern states to do so. 

Six Kentucky cities, Louisville, Lexington, Covington, Vicco, Morehead and the state capitol of Frankfort,  representing a quarter of the state's population of 4,380,415 are covered by Fairness laws.   But those laws only protect BTLG Kentuckians if you live in one of those six cities, which is why we've had the ongoing push for a statewide Fairness law. 

HB 171 is sponsored by my former state rep when I lived in Da Ville, Mary Lou Marzian (D).  It has as co-sponsors (all Democrats) Reps. Arnold Simpson, Kelly Flood, Ruth Ann Palumbo, Joni Jenkins, Jim Wayne and Susan Westrom    Speaker of the House Greg Stumbo is considering becoming a co sponsor as well and House Judiciary Committee chairman John Tilley (D-Hopkinsville) indicated in an interveiew that he supports HB 171.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2014/03/05/3122897/after-15-years-lawmakers-hold.html#storylink=cpy

.  .
The General Assembly is not yet ready to vote on a civil rights bill covering gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, Tilley said. The bill might be called again at a future date, he said.in an interview with the Lexington Herald-Leader .

"There still is concern among members on both sides of the aisle. This hearing was an attempt to dispel some of that concern," Tilley said.

Chris Hartman, the director of the based in Da Ville Fairness Campaign, said in a Herald-Leader interview that Wednesday's hearing on the statewide fairness bill was progress because past versions of HB 171 were never even discussed in a committee.

"At the very least, there was conversation, and that ultimately engenders support," Hartman said   "Without conversation, the bill would ... languish for the next 15 years."

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2014/03/05/3122897/after-15-years-lawmakers-hold.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2014/03/05/3122897/after-15-years-lawmakers-hold.html#storylink=cpy

In the Senate it's SB 140 and is sponsored by Sen.  Morgan McGarvey (D) with co-sponsors (once again all Democrats) Sens Gerald Neal, Denise Harper Angel, Perry Clark, Reginald Thomas and Minority Whip Jerry Rhoads.   It was introduced on February 12 and assigned to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Valentines Day.   

After 15 years of liberal-progressive Kentuckians pushing for it to happen, the hearing that Chairman Tilley talked about finally took place on March 5.  But with a divided legislature  (Republicans 23-12-1 independent in the Kentucky Senate, Democrats 54-46 in the Kentucky House) and the political shockwaves from the recent federal judicial decision invalidating Kentucky's same sex marriage amendment still reverberating throughout the Commonwealth, this may be all we get before the session ends in April

Then again, I never thought I see a Fairness law passed in Frankfort either. 

You can check out the video testimony from the HB 171 hearing.






. 

Why PLC 122's Passage Was Important In Brazil

Sergio Viula talks about conditions in Brazil in the wake of the failure of PLC 122 to pass.the Brazilian Congress.

Brazilian Senator Calling For TBLG Discrimination Bill Vote

As anyone who has attended TDOR's or been paying attention over the last few years can tell you, violence against transwomen in Brazil has alarmingly spiked in the last few years.   In just this year alone there were 292 Brazilians lost to anti-TBLG violence with the vast majority of them being trans women.  

A bill has been proposed in Brazil, PLC 122 to ban discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation.  It would also criminalize incitement of violence against TBLG Brazilians and punish violations of those offenses with up to three years in prison. 

However, the evangelical lobby in the country is throwing a nasty cup in the legislative Kool-Aid.   As they do everywhere else around the world when they don't get their way, they are having a hissy fit.   They are threatening to punish legislators who vote YES for passage of PLC 122 and President Dilma Rousseff who is up for re-election for a second term in the Brazilian national elections slated to happen on October 5, 2014.  

According to reports published in LGBTQ Nation, nervous legislators were preparing to cave to the evangelical phobes and shelve the bill until after those elections to appease them.

Never mind the fact that according to Grupo Gay de Bahia, 44% of the worlds' LGBT murders occur in Brazil, and one is committed against a Brazilian BTLG person every 21 hours.   The 292 murders this year were an unacceptable increase over the number committed in 2012, and the 2012 BTLG murder numbers were a 21% increase over the number of anti-TBLG murders that occurred in 2011.  

Senator Ana Rita of the ruling Labor Party plans to defy the government and call the vote for Wednesday despite instructions from President Rousseff and Brazilian Minister of Institutional Relations Ideli Salvatti to delay the vote on the sorely needed anti-TBLG discrimination measure until after the October elections.

Brazilian TBLG people are pushing back against the evangelical wing pressure by organizing a protest in Sao Paulo later today and planning to be in Brasilia for the PLC 122 vote on Wednesday.   

Human rights organizations are also making their voices heard and calling for it to happen, stating that the Brazilian TBLG community has waited a dozen years for their government to be drum majors for justice.

They also pointed out Brazil will be hosting the World Cup this summer and the Summer Olympics in Rio in 2016, and need to do so not only for its LGBT citizens, but visitors coming here to attend those two major international sporting events. 

“The anti-discrimination law will send a powerful message that gays, lesbians, bisexual and trans people in Brazil are fully protected by Brazilian law,” said Andre Banks, Executive Director of All Out to LGBTQ Nation.

It'll not only send that message should PLC 122 pass to TBLG people inside the fifth largest nation on the planet, but around the world as well.

And that law needs to happen.

Johnny Weir Puts Skates In Mouth

With the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics in Sochi a mere 62 days away, the debate is heating up in LGBT World on whether or not to boycott those Games. 

While I'm pissed off about what is happening in Russia to our TBLG cousins there, after watching the Olympic Boycotts of 1976, 1980 and 1984 I personally believe a boycott only hurts the athletes, and will not result in the change the community is seeking in terms of getting the Russians to repeal those draconian anti-LGBT laws.   That being said, if you want to try to make it happen, go for it.

The option I support and still do was moving the Games to Vancouver.  With two months left and the IOC being as cowardly as they usually are, I expect on February 7 for the Olympic cauldron to be lit in Sochi.

But the controversy over those Russian anti-LGBT laws which were pushed by anti-gay activists in the US, will continue right up until that date and probably beyond the conclusion of those Games.

Meanwhile here in the States, Johnny Weir opened his mouth and inserted his figure skate clad foot into it. He pissed off the LGBT community and his rainbow community fanbase by stating “the Olympics are not the place to make a political statement” about Russia’s anti-gay laws and “you have to respect the culture of a country you are visiting.” while speaking a group of 40 female students at Barnard College December 2.

Weir poured more gasoline on the controversy stirred up by his earlier comments by calling the four veteran activists outside his talk exercising their free speech rights to picket him 'idiots'.  

It was a group that according to a Gay City News report that had 100 years of combined activism on behalf of gay and HIV/AIDS causes that included rainbow flag creator Gilbert Baker and Queer Nation's Ann Northrup.

Note to Johnny: Dude, the people you insulted made it possible for your ass to get married to your Russian husband.  Respect is due to your elders who paved the way for you to have the space to come out and live your self described fabulous life. 


Weir later apologized for his unfortunate choice of words, but the damage may be done with his gay fanbase he alienated with his comments.

We'll see what Johnny does when he has to travel to Sochi as part of the NBC analyst team covering the Games.  Question is will anyone be watching?

Are Virgina's Transpeople About To Be Thrown Under The Civil Rights Bus?

While I'm happy that the next governor of the commonwealth of Virginia will be a Democrat, what I'm not happy about is that Governor-elect Terry McAuliffe is possibly about to throw the Virginia transpeople who helped get him elected under the human rights bus.

McAuliffe announced that one of his first acts as governor once he is inaugurated in January would be banning  discrimination in state workplaces based on sexual orientation.  

It's the same executive order that former Virginia governor Tim Kaine signed in 2006 that was rescinded four lears later when Republican Bob McDonnell succeeded him.

That's a problem because sexual orientation language alone will not cover trans people.  Gender identity or expression language needs to be added to that executive order to cover the trans community  

And for those of you in GL World who will throw the 'you transpeople are covered under Title VII and we're not' point to justify this, bigots aren't paying attention to Title VII, Glenn v Brumby or the EEOC Macy v Holder case until after they discriminate against trans people and get whacked by it.

What they do pay attention to is laws and the media telling them laws have been passed that make it illegal to discriminate against protected classes of people.

Bottom line is that favorable court and EEOC rulings and precedents aren't enough .  We need anti-trans discrimination laws on the books in our cities, counties, states and our nation that explicitly state anti-trans discrimination is unacceptable.  

If you GL people in Virginia and elsewhere don't think that it's important to have those laws on the books or transpeople pointing out the missing gender identity and expression language is 'attacking your allies', then let's see how secure you would feel your human rights are if all the anti-discrimination laws in this country that have sexual orientation only language in them to prohibit discrimination against you were suddenly no longer available and you had to depend on the court system or EEOC administrative rulings to enforce them. 

Bet you'd see it differently wouldn't you? 

So to ensure the executive order covers all LGBT Virginians in state employment, gender identity and expression language needs to be expeditiously added to that executive order. 

We'll see if it happens.