Gay Marriage / LGBTQ Rights / Equality Act

[Estiveo]

Towards the end of the covid lockdowns, we had a neat little Mexican bistro take over the space of a well loved but ultimately unprofitable restaurant & bar. This bistro has thrived, and one of the things they instituted early on was Drag Queen brunches on occasional Sundays, every 6 weeks or so.

It took a few months for the local bluenoses to notice, and they were appropriately outraged until the next brunch when their 3 protesters were met with a booked house of families with *gasp* CHILDREN! standing in line for a fabulous brunch and queenly shenanigans.

Strangely, the bluenosed outrage vanished after that.

[AndyinPA]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... are-sports

Ohio’s state senate has voted to override the governor Mike DeWine’s veto of a bill that bans transgender minors from receiving gender-affirming care, and their ability to play on sports teams, on Wednesday.

The bill, HB68, prohibits doctors from providing gender-affirming care – such as puberty blockers, hormone therapy or surgeries – to trans youths. It also blocks transgender female student athletes from participating on girls’ sports teams.

Notably, the bill includes a grandfather clause allowing trans people already receiving care to continue doing so.

In a departure from his party, DeWine vetoed the bill in December 2023, stating in a press conference at the time that it was up to parents to make medical decisions for the children – not the government.

[Frater I*I]

In a departure from his party, DeWine vetoed the bill in December 2023, stating in a press conference at the time that it was up to parents to make medical decisions for the children – not the government.

[/quote]

Until those female children come of age, then the government gets to make all the decisions....

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

In a departure from his party, DeWine vetoed the bill in December 2023, stating in a press conference at the time that it was up to parents to make medical decisions for the children – not the government.

Until those female children come of age, then the government gets to make all the decisions....
[/quote]

[Frater I*I]

Until those female children come of age, then the government gets to make all the decisions....

[/quote]

In this case I don't wanna be a winner....

[Volkonski]

Ohio Man Who Threw Molotov Cocktails at a Church Gets 18 Years in Prison

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/30/us/o ... rison.html

An Ohio man who prosecutors said had tried to burn down a church in anger by throwing Molotov cocktails at it last year because it planned to host two drag shows was sentenced on Monday to 18 years in prison, federal authorities said.

The man, Aimenn D. Penny, 20, of Alliance, Ohio, who was arrested and charged after the March 25 episode, pleaded guilty in October to violating the Church Arson Prevention Act and to using fire and explosives to commit a felony, according to federal prosecutors, who had recommended a 20-year sentence.

“We hope this significant sentence sends a clear and resounding message that this type of hate-fueled attack against a church will not be tolerated in our country,” Kristen Clarke, who leads the Justice Department’s civil rights division, said in a statement on Tuesday.

John W. Greven, a lawyer for Mr. Penny, said in an interview on Tuesday that his client intended to appeal the sentence. He called Mr. Penny’s case “a classic example” of a young person looking for acceptance and turning to the internet to find it.

“I feel he was brainwashed by some people because really there is nothing in his past that would ever indicate that he would do something like this,” Mr. Greven said. “It’s sad all the way around.”

The Community Church of Chesterland had planned to host two drag shows on April 1, 2023. Days before the scheduled events, on March 25, the church reported to local police that the building had been damaged by Molotov cocktails during the night, according to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio. There were scorch marks on the front door and a sign outside the building, according to the complaint. A sign on the property had also been damaged.

The drag shows — one drag show meant for adults and one drag story hour for families — were held as planned.

“I’m not going to pretend that his violent and hateful acts didn’t scare some people,” Jess Peacock, the pastor of the church, said at the sentencing hearing on Monday. “It did. We had a few people leave the church, and the preschool which operated out of our building chose to find a new facility.”

The Cleveland Field Office of the F.B.I. learned during the investigation that Mr. Penny was responsible for the attack and that he was a member of an Ohio group called White Lives Matter, which has “racist, pro-Nazi, and homophobic views,” according to the complaint.

Earlier that month, members of that group had attended a drag event in Wadsworth, Ohio, where they carried swastika flags and shouted racial and homophobic slurs and “Heil Hitler,” according to the complaint. Mr. Penny attended that event and wore camouflage pants, a tactical vest, and a jacket with a firearm patch, the complaint said.

[neonzx]

IOWA.

The attempt to pass HF2082, the bill seeking to eliminate gender identity from the Iowa Civil Rights Act, died in the House. Donate to One Iowa Action and support our work fighting these harmful bills:

https://buff.ly/48XtlCq.

[raison de arizona]

[Volkonski]

Utah teen athlete faces threats after state official posted photos questioning her gender

https://www.axios.com/local/salt-lake-c ... ll-threats

Utah state school board member Natalie Cline is under fire after posting photos of a high school basketball player, questioning her gender and prompting threats against the girl.

Why it matters: Anti-transgender fervor is escalating in Utah, where lawmakers have passed laws restricting sports participation, health care and, most recently, bathroom access.

Driving the news: Cline, an elected member of the Utah State School Board, posted the photos Tuesday on Facebook, inciting a dogpile of comments identifying the girl, criticizing her appearance.

The girl is now under police protection, the Salt Lake Tribune reports, as Granite School District ramps up security at her school.

Cline removed the post Wednesday after she learned the girl was not transgender and posted a statement arguing "it is normal to pause and wonder if people are what they say they are because of the push to normalize transgenderism in our society."

The other side: The student's parents told KSL-TV they want Cline to resign.

Equality Utah, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group, and state Democratic lawmakers also called for her resignation.

[raison de arizona]

that's awful

[raison de arizona]

Sounds bad in Utah.

Birkeland led the charge against transgender girls competing in Utah high school sports, sponsoring HB11 in 2022 that banned them from girls’ teams.

Since her measure was passed by the Legislature — in a vote overriding the governor’s veto — there has been a slew of accusations from parents and others trying to call out players they think might be transgender at schools across the state.

Last month, the father of a junior varsity girl’s basketball player confronted administrators, demanding one of the girls not be allowed to play because he believed she was transgender. The girl was not the same athlete from Cline’s post.

Other similar incidents have occurred — including another in 2022 where two parents challenged the gender of a girl who had beaten their children at a track meet — but the Utah High School Activities Association has so far not released data on their frequency. The USHAA determined in that first case, after pulling the accused student’s records back to kindergarten, that she has always been female.

That is also the case with the girl Cline questioned, according to Equality Utah. Cline later updated her apology to include that, but continued to discuss the girl’s body.

“She does have a larger build, like her parents,” Cline wrote. “We live in strange times when it is normal to pause and wonder if people are what they say they are because of the push to normalize transgenderism in our society.”

https://www.sltrib.com/sports/2024/02/0 ... r-natalie/

[Rolodex]

When these laws piss off enough parents of cis kids, then maybe they'll stop obsessing over kids' genitals.

[sugar magnolia]

Utah teen athlete faces threats after state official posted photos questioning her gender

https://www.axios.com/local/salt-lake-c ... ll-threats

"it is normal to pause and wonder if people are what they say they are because of the push to normalize transgenderism in our society."

She has that exactly backwards. By assuming that the student was transgender simply by looking at her, she proves that gender is on a spectrum, not black or white.

[Slim Cognito]

[RTH10260]

Greece

Greece becomes first Orthodox Christian country to legalise same-sex marriage
Lawmakers in the 300-seat parliament voted for the bill drafted by centre-right government despite church officials’ objections

Helena Smith in Athens
Fri 16 Feb 2024 00.04 CET

Greece has become the world’s first Christian Orthodox nation to legalise same-sex marriage after the Athens parliament passed the landmark reform amid scenes of both jubilation and fury in the country.

In a rare display of parliamentary consensus, 176 MPs from across the political spectrum voted in favour of the bill on Thursday. Another 76 rejected the reform while two abstained from the vote and 46 were not present.

Members of the LGBTQ+ community, many unable to contain their emotion, watched from the galleries above.

“We have waited years for this,” said the prominent gay activist Stella Belia of legislation that will not only allow same-sex couples to exchange vows in civil ceremonies but also to adopt children.

“It’s a historic moment. A lot of us weren’t sure it would ever come,” she said.

The vote followed two days of heated debate – and weeks of public rancour – with the reform described by supporters as “bold” and “long overdue” and decried as “antisocial’ and “unchristian” by opponents including the powerful Orthodox church.

Despite facing formidable pushback from within his own centre-right New Democracy party, prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis had championed the bill, saying it would end a “serious inequality for our democracy”.

In an impassioned speech before the vote, the 55-year-old leader, who belongs to the liberal faction of his party, said the measure would align Greece with 36 countries globally that had already legislated on the issue. Conservatism, he argued, should not be conflated with antiquated views that were out of sync with modern society.



https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/ ... x-marriage

[W. Kevin Vicklund]

[Volkonski]

Utah school board member who appeared to question girl’s gender on social media is censured

https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/15/us/utah- ... index.html

Utah’s State Legislature has voted to censure a state board of education member whose social media post last week appeared to raise questions about a high school girl’s gender.

Natalie Cline, a member of the Utah State Board of Education since 2020, posted a photo of the high school basketball player and falsely implied the student is transgender, writing: “Girls’ basketball…”

The teenage girl in Utah faced threats after Cline’s posts, which drew condemnation from Gov. Spencer Cox and Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson – who both urged state education officials to hold her accountable.

On Wednesday, the Utah State Board of Education approved a resolution to censure Cline, stripping her of committee assignments and asking her to resign, according to a news release.

“The Board voted to request Member Cline’s resignation from the Board by February 19, 2024,” the board said in the release. “Additionally, she will be removed from all committee assignments, not be allowed to place items on upcoming Board agendas, and prohibited from attending any Board advisory committee meetings.”

Both houses of Utah’s Legislature on Thursday passed a censure resolution against Cline, saying that her “bullying and failure to treat a student with dignity and respect undermine the mission of the USBE and displays a selfish indifference to her sworn oath to discharge her board member duties with fidelity.”

“Cline’s abhorrent actions caused the student emotional harm and exposed the student to relentless harassment and bullying, including threats of violence that created a need for additional security at the student’s school,” the resolution says.

The governor later signed the resolution censuring Cline.

[pipistrelle]

Gift link: https://wapo.st/48FjpNf

What is known with certainty in Owasso, Okla., is that a 16-year-old is dead.
Nex Benedict collapsed the day after an altercation in a girls’ bathroom at the public high school they attended, a school where relatives say the 10th-grader, who used they/them pronouns, had been bullied for being nonbinary.
Beyond that are the unknowns, as well as soul-searching, pain and accusations.
“Whether Nex died as a direct result of injuries sustained in the brutal hate-motivated attack at school or not, Nex’s death is a result of being the target of physical and emotional harm because of who Nex was,” the LGBTQ advocacy group Freedom Oklahoma declared Monday.

[raison de arizona]

Gift link: https://wapo.st/48FjpNf

What is known with certainty in Owasso, Okla., is that a 16-year-old is dead.
Nex Benedict collapsed the day after an altercation in a girls’ bathroom at the public high school they attended, a school where relatives say the 10th-grader, who used they/them pronouns, had been bullied for being nonbinary.
Beyond that are the unknowns, as well as soul-searching, pain and accusations.
“Whether Nex died as a direct result of injuries sustained in the brutal hate-motivated attack at school or not, Nex’s death is a result of being the target of physical and emotional harm because of who Nex was,” the LGBTQ advocacy group Freedom Oklahoma declared Monday.

What a sad story. Their gofundme: https://www.gofundme.com/f/dagny-benedict

[RTH10260]

‘A concern for everyone’: Tennessee poised to ban Pride flags in schools
Activists warn of ‘creeping restrictions on expression’ as bill forbidding schools from displaying flags is expected to clear senate

Ava Sasani
Sun 3 Mar 2024 13.00 CET

Tennessee is poised to become the first state to in effect ban Pride flags in public and charter school classrooms, prompting outrage from the LGBTQ+ community.

The Tennessee house advanced a bill, HB 1605, that forbids schools, teachers or faculty from displaying flags other than the US flag and the Tennessee state flag in public schools. The bill would also allow “a parent of a child who attends, or who is eligible to attend” a Tennessee public or charter school to sue their school district if a Pride flag is displayed “anywhere students may see the object”.

The bill does not mention LGBTQ+ Pride flags or Black Lives Matter outright, but some Republican lawmakers have made it clear that the bill is meant to restrict them.

The bill is expected to clear the senate as early as next week.

Members voted for the bill after a verbal showdown between the state representative Justin Jones, a Democrat, and the Republican house speaker, Cameron Sexton. Jones was blocked from speaking on the house floor after likening the anti-LGBTQ work of the Tennessee legislature to a neo-Nazi rally held in Nashville earlier this month. When Sexton moved to end the debate and proceed to a chamber-wide vote, Jones blasted the speaker for silencing criticism of the proposed ban on Pride flags.

Despite opposition, house Republicans comfortably passed the bill with a final vote of 70 to 24, splitting predictably along party lines.

The vote sparked backlash from LGBTQ+ advocates, who noted that the bill’s advancement comes just weeks after Nex Benedict – a non-binary teenager in Oklahoma – died following a fight at the public high school they attended.



https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... ag-schools

[RTH10260]

someone needs to sneak some wording into the bill prohibiting the Gadsen or the Confederate flags ...

[Ben-Prime]

someone needs to sneak some wording into the bill prohibiting the Gadsen or the Confederate flags ...

I mean, one would think the wording "displaying flags other than the US flag and the Tennessee state flag" already does ban those, plus Blue Lives Matter and MAGA flags. So I think this is a self-own waiting to happen.

[RTH10260]

a message from downunder ...

Penny Wong wedding: Australian foreign minister weds long-time partner Sophie Allouache
Couple married in Adelaide after nearly two decades together, with prime minister Anthony Albanese in attendance

Australian Associated Press
Sun 17 Mar 2024 00.48 CET

Australia’s foreign affairs minister Penny Wong and Sophie Allouache have tied the knot after nearly two decades together.

The couple were married in Adelaide on Saturday in a ceremony attended by the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and senior ministers.

The couple’s two daughters – Alexandra, 11, and Hannah, 8 – were reportedly flower girls at the wedding.

“We are delighted that so many of our family and friends could share this special day with us,” Wong posted to Instagram on Sunday.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup
Parliamentary colleague Michelle Rowland was among those to congratulate the couple. “You both look absolutely gorgeous,” she said.

Entering federal parliament in 2002, Wong recently made history as Australia’s longest-serving female cabinet minister.

She initially toed the Labor line by publicly opposing same-sex marriage before becoming one of its loudest and most ardent advocates.

During the parliamentary debate in 2017 to expand marriage to same-sex couples like hers, the senator paid tribute to her partner Sophie and their daughters.



https://www.theguardian.com/australia-n ... n-adelaide

[keith]

I missed that news. I've been wondering when she'd take the plunge.

[RTH10260]

UK

In 1994, I was the last person sent to prison in the UK for being gay – and I’m still being punished today
For two years, David Bonney’s sexuality was investigated by his employer, the RAF. When he confessed, he was sent to solitary

by Chris Godfrey
Tue 2 Apr 2024 11.00 CEST

David Bonney realised his employer, the Royal Air Force, was investigating his sexuality within minutes of entering the guard room at RAF Mount Batten, a military base near Plymouth. It was 1991 and Bonney, then a 21-year-old medical assistant, had just been escorted from his post at the medical centre by military police. He sat down in the guard room, opposite the duty staff, and the interrogation began.

“Questions about my sex life,” says Bonney, now 55. “Questions about witnessing me with other gay people. Questions about things I said on the phone to my mother.” He says there was shouting, swearing, banging on the desk. “Threats to me, threats to my career, threats to my family.” Bonney hadn’t told anyone in the military that he was gay. Before 2000, it was illegal for gay people to serve in the British armed forces and he knew a confession would cost him his career. “They wanted to get rid of me,” he says. “Anything they could to just manipulate me into confessing, to frighten the hell out of me.”

The initial interrogation took two hours. The RAF’s investigation into Bonney’s sexuality lasted two years. He says he was questioned more than a dozen times, spied on, threatened and intimidated.

When Bonney did confess, in October 1993, he was court martialled. He received a dishonourable discharge, a criminal record, multiple fines and was sentenced to six months in detention – one month of which was in solitary confinement. They would have taken his medals, too, had he not hidden them. The solitary confinement was, he says, a vindictive decision, he says, because “I made them work for two years to try to get rid of me” before he confessed.

Bonney served four months in prison, before being let out early for good behaviour. He is believed to be the last person in the UK to be imprisoned for being gay. Three decades later, he is still dealing with the fallout.



https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyl ... g-punished