Anti-LGBTQ far right extremists have targeted Boston Children's Hospital, threatening its employees and medical staff after lies and misinformation spread online recently about the healthcare facility's treatment of trans+ youth, The Washington Blade reported. "We condemn these attacks in the strongest possible terms, and we reject the false narratives upon which they are based," the hospital said in a statement. "We are working with law enforcement to protect our clinicians, staff, patients, families and the broader Boston Children's Hospital community and hold the offenders accountable. We will continue to take all appropriate measures to protect our people."
A 29-year-old Black transgender woman was stabbed to death in Kansas City in late July during a month that saw at least a half-dozen murders of transgender individuals across the country, Gay City News reported. KMBC, the local ABC affiliate in Kansas City, reported that a physical altercation ended in a fatal stabbing on July 24; however, the news outlet misgendered and deadnamed the victim, identified by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) as Kandii Redd, who also went by Kamila Marie Swann and Dee Dee. Redd's death represented the 25th known murder of a transgender individual in the United States this yearand several of those cases emerged in July, HRC noted. Last year, at least 57 trans or gender non-conforming individuals were violently killed.
LGBTQ Victory Fund-endorsed candidates Jennifer Armstrong and Andrew Gray advanced in their primary elections for Alaska's 16th and 20th state House Districts, per a press release. Both placed first in their elections and received more than half of the votes. Armstrong (who identifies as pansexual) is now on track to become the first out LGBTQ+ woman and Gray (who's openly gay) is on track to become the first out LGBTQ+ man to ever serve in the Alaska state legislature. Alaska is one of four states with zero openly LGBTQ+ state lawmakers.
The Sexual & Gender Minority Research Office (SGMRO) will host the 2022 NIH Sexual & Gender Minority (SGM) Research Investigator Awards Program on Thursday, Sept. 15, at 12-2 p.m. CT via WebEx Events. This event is free and open to the public, and registration is required to attend. Speakers will include Jessica Fish, PhD; Ana María del Río-Gonzalez, PhD, MA, MS; and Ilan H. Meyer, PhD. See https://dpcpsi.nih.gov/sgmro/SGM-investigator-awards-program.
Parents of transgender children filed a friend-of-the-court brief asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit to uphold the injunction against S.B. 184, a Human Rights Campaign press release noted. The Alabama law, blocked by a federal judge in May 2022, would criminalize doctors and parents for ensuring their transgender children can access necessary medical care. Medical experts, faith groups and 21 U.S. states also filed briefs urging the Appeals Court to keep the bar on S.B. 184 in place.
The American Civil Liberties Union and the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court today urging the court to reject a First Amendment challenge to a Colorado civil-rights law requiring businesses open to the public to treat customers equally, a press release noted. In 303 Creative, Inc. v. Elenis, the court is asked if an artist who has chosen to open a business to the public at large can be prohibited from discriminating against customers on the basis of a protected characteristicsuch as race, age, religion, sexual orientation or gender identity. The case, similar to the Masterpiece Cakeshop case from 2018, concerns a Colorado website designer who seeks to provide wedding website design services to the public while turning away same-sex couples.
The National LGBTQ Task Force announced that registration for the 35th Creating Change Conference is now open. Thousands are expected to attend the event in San Francisco on Feb. 17-21, 2023. After two years of gathering virtually, Creating Change returns for a highly anticipated in-person gathering early next year, as the Task Forces kick off the 50th anniversary of the Task Force's founding in 1973. See www.thetaskforce.org/creatingchange/ .
New Jersey is no longer considering gender or sexual identity a factor in a person's eligibility for the monkeypox vaccine, Gothamist reported. The state's criteria for vaccine eligibility was updated to match similar guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC. Monkeypox is not currently considered a sexually transmitted disease by the classic definition, mainly because spread through intimate touching can't be separated from other skin-to-skin transmission.
Also in New Jersey, North Hunterdon High School Librarian Martha Hicksonwho opposed the removal of LGBTQ+ books from school librarieswas awarded the Lemony Snicket Prize for Noble Librarians Faced with Adversity by the American Library Association (ALA), My Central Jersey noted. In June, Daniel Handler, also known as Lemony Snicket, presented Hickson with the awardsa $10,000 prize, a certificate and an "odd, symbolic object" from Handler's private collectionat the ALA's annual conference in Washington, D.C.
Owners of Port 251a gay-owned bar and restaurant in Rehoboth Beach, Delawarehave accused local police of discrimination and harassment, The Washington Blade reported. Tony Sacco, an owner of Port 251, said police began to routinely visit the venue during drag performances because of alleged noise complaints. However, Lt. Jamie Riddle, professional standards unit commander of the Rehoboth Police Department, said that officers are not placed outside of events "unless there is a public safety concern."
The Wisconsin LGBTQ History Project launched a community fundraiser, per a press release. The new website will provide an improved user experience for both visitors and webmasters, allow enhanced sharing and interaction, and integrate larger photos and videos, with faster, easier and less technical publishing processes. Project staffers are working with Accurate Digital Solutions, a Wisconsin LGBT Chamber of Commerce partner, to scope, plan and deliver these solutions. See https://www.gofundme.com/f/wisconsin-lgbtq-history-project-website-20?utm_campaign=p_lico+share-sheet&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=customer.
Residents of a small town in western Michigan helped raise almost $100,000 for their local library after it was defunded over the inclusion of LGBTQ+ books, NBC News reported. Primary voters in Jamestown Township, a community 20 miles east of Lake Michigan, rejected a proposal last week to renew tax funds to support the Patmos Library in nearby Hudsonville that serves Jamestown and the surrounding area. However, two days after the vote, Jesse Dillman, a Jamestown resident and father of two, launched an online fundraiser to help raise the $245,000 to keep the library open; the GoFundMe page is at www.gofundme.com/f/fund-patmos-library-for-2023.
Award-winning independent filmmaker Darlene Lieblich Tipton is attempting to have all state statutes of limitations on sex abuse be repealed or modified to allow sexually abused Boy Scouts to receive justice under the Boy Scouts of America's (BSA) Chapter 11 bankruptcy, according to PR Newswire. More than 82,000 child sex abuse claims have been filed against the BSA, but the majority of states have statutes of limitations on sex-abuse crimes. Tipton is asking that all sexually abused Boy Scouts and their supportersalong with famous Boy Scouts such as Steven Spielberg, Harrison Ford, Bill Gates, Michael Bloomberg, Jack Black, Zack Galifianakis, John Tesh, George Clooney, Michael Moore, Caitlin Jenner and moreuse their social-media presences to call for the signing of a national petition to repeal or modify the current state statutes of limitations on sex abuse. The petition is at https://www.change.org/p/repeal-or-open-window-state-statutes-of-limitations-on-sex-abuse?recruiter=1177194055&recruited_by_id=7f09ead0-61ea-11eb-be07-9d60abe6d879&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=petition_dashboard.
Harlem's Marcus Garvey Villagean 18-story, 330-unit affordable housing development with an LGBTQ centeris now expected to open in 2024, Gay City News reported. The mixed-income, mixed-use complex, named after the late Marcus Garvey, broke ground in November 2021. Gay City News previously reported Carthage is spearheading the project after purchasing the former Abyssinian Baptist Church site for $27 million.
New York City pays about $300,000 per year for NYPD overtime pay and Sanitation (DSNY) worker services for the annual Staten Island St. Patrick's Paradedespite the event excluding LGBTQ+ participants, the Staten Island Advance reported. Although the Staten Island Parade Committee largely explains the exclusion by referencing the teachings of the Catholic Church, the New York City St. Patrick's Day Parade in Manhattan ended a two-decade ban of LGBTQ+ groups in 2014, while parades in Boston and Dublin have done the same.
A man was tackled to the ground after he pulled out a grenade at a popular queer nightclub in Wilton Manors, Florida, PinkNews noted. The individual walked into The Corner Pub and placed a grenade on the bar counter, surveillance footage showed. The man claimed to have guns in his car, but bar regular and former Marine Darell Darling overheard the two speaking. Darling was able to convince the man to leave the bar before tackling him outside The Corner Pub's front doors. The man, police said in a press release, was an "emotionally disturbed male" who has since been taken to a mental-health facility for treatment; the grenade he had was a dud and he had no other weapons.
A Long Island man was sentenced to 30 months in prison for mailing dozens of threats to "kill, shoot, and bomb" gay rights advocates and organizations across the region, The New York Post noted. Robert Fehring, 74, of Bayport, pled guilty in February to sending 60 letters targeting the LGBTQ+ community over a span of eight years, federal prosecutors said. Fehring pledged to terrorize Manhattan's 2021 Pride Parade, a Pride event in Huntington and an LGBTQ+-themed night at a Long Beach club. The hatemonger claimed he would make the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting "look like a cakewalk," according to officials.
In Massachusetts, Clark University professor/faculty chair Robert Deam Tobinknown for his work in LGBTQ+ studies and European cultural studiesdied at age 60, the Telegram & Gazette noted. He arrived at Clark in 2008, where he would eventually work with Rox Samer, assistant professor of screen studieswho not only shared common expertise in queer studies but was also from the same hometown, neighborhood and high school.
In late June, a woman who worked at a Chick-fil-A in Decatur, Georgia, filed a federal lawsuit, claiming she was wrongfully fired after being harassed for four months by her co-workers for being transgender, NBC News noted. Erin Taylor (whose legal name is used in her court document) accuses her former employer of condoning a workplace that included "sexual harassment," "discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation" and "retaliation." The franchise owner, identified in the suit as Joe Engert, did not return NBC News' requests for comment.
Two researchers say that bachelorette parties are a form of "hetrification" that is actively destroying LGBTQ+ safe spaces, according to LGBTQ Nation. Two researchersLaurie Essig, a professor of gender, sexuality and feminist studies at Middlebury College in Vermont; and Vincent Jones II, a professor of community health at York College in New Yorkwrote in The Boston Globe that the bachelorette parties held mostly by white women in queer spaces, often seek a drunken night out without the worry of harassment and assault from heterosexual men. Party attendees may see themselves as allies, but "just after several drinks, many may grab the butt of a cute gay man or take selfies in front of the leather daddies as if they were exhibits in some queer zoo," the researchers wrote.