HRC Prepares to Welcome LGBTQ Advocates from Around the World

Post submitted by Caleb Orozco, Executive Director, UNIBAM, Belize

Next month, I will be in Washington, D.C. to attend HRC’s second Global Innovative Advocacy Summit. I will be one of 30 established and emerging LGBTQ advocates — from 28 countries on five continents — who will be participating in the Summit to exchange ideas and practices for advancing LGBTQ equality.

As the executive director of the leading LGBTQ policy organization in Belize, a small country in Central America, and co-chair of the organizing committee for the Summit, I know the importance of convenings like these to global advocates. I am proud that HRC is hosting this summit and I am even prouder to have helped design a program that promises to have a real impact on continued global equality work.

This year’s Summit will be modeled on last year’s successful inaugural Summit that brought together 26 innovators. At this year’s Summit, we will have discussions featuring innovators on LBT women’s issues, strategic litigation and workplace inclusion. There will also be conversations bringing together innovators and HRC staff around sharing LGBTQ stories that support advocacy work. HRC leaders will also share how the organization was launched and grew into the influential organization it is today with a membership of almost two million.

In a dynamic environment like this, innovators can showcase projects and approaches that improve the lives of LGBTQ people in their countries and communities. I expect that this will re-energize innovators to take the lessons home and apply them to refine and advance their own advocacy.

Be sure to follow the activities of the Summit online by following #HRCGlobalSummit. Read more about last year’s Global Summit here and about HRC Global’s work here. 

www.hrc.org/blog/hrc-prepares-to-welcome-lgbtq-advocates-from-around-the-world?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

Senate Intel Committee in Talks to Interview M16 Agent Christopher Steele, Who Authored Dossier on Trump

The Senate Intelligence Committee is in talks to interview former M16 agent Christopher Steele, the author of the “golden showers” dossier on Trump with regard to its investigation into the Trump campaign’s links to Russia, NBC News reports:

Steele, however, remains concerned about his safety and is not inclined to leave London.  He is also concerned about how he might be treated by the Trump administration, according to the sources. The FBI was poised last fall to pay Steele, a former officer with the British Secret Intelligence Service, for information, but that deal fell through, sources familiar with the matter told NBC News.

Two Congressional officials told NBC News that the Senate Intelligence Committee has not yet reached an agreement on how and when to interview the Trump associates who have volunteered to testify, including Paul Manafort, Carter Page and Roger Stone. If any of those men seek criminal immunity for their testimony, the committee would not be inclined to grant it, officials say.

RELATED: Russia Has ‘Compromising’ Personal and Financial Info on Trump, Says Dossier Circulated by Top Govt Officials

The post Senate Intel Committee in Talks to Interview M16 Agent Christopher Steele, Who Authored Dossier on Trump appeared first on Towleroad.

Senate Intel Committee in Talks to Interview M16 Agent Christopher Steele, Who Authored Dossier on Trump

男性ホルモン注入のトランスジェンダー、女子レスリング大会で優勝して波紋
女性として生まれながら男性を自認する米国の高校生レスリング選手が２月、男子の大会への出場が認められず、女子の大会で優勝した。しかし、治療目的で注入していた男性ホルモンが競技力向上目的ならドーピング違反になることから、不公平だとの声が上がった。

もっと見る: 国際, トランスジェンダー, Japan-Lgbt, 男性ホルモン, Japan News

www.huffingtonpost.jp/2017/03/29/transgender_n_15680640.html

#CantEraseUs: HRC FOIAs Trump Administration Over Elimination of LGBTQ Data

Today, the Human Rights Campaign filed a FOIA request with the Department of Commerce for communications related to the Trump Administration’s exclusion of “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” recommendations regarding data collection in the American Community Survey. Materials produced from this request will help determine how this shameful decision was made.

HRC President Chad Griffin said, “The Trump Administration has launched a deliberate campaign to erase LGBTQ people from federal data used to inform budgets and policies across the government. Their intent is clear: by denying we exist, the Trump Administration hopes to deny us equality. It won’t work. Today, we’re resolved to be louder and fight even harder, because  Donald Trump and Mike Pence #CantEraseUs.”

The Census Bureau issued a statement correcting an earlier version of a report to Congress in which they stated, “inadvertently listed sexual orientation and gender identity as a proposed topic in the appendix.” The correction suggests that the draft report included LGBTQ data collection recommendations or plans. Many federal agencies, including the Census Bureau, have been collecting and/or planning to collect similar data.

This is the Trump Administration’s latest move in a larger campaign to erase LGBTQ people from federal surveys and disrupt programs that provide direct assistance to the LGBTQ community. Last week, the Department of Health and Human Services removed a question about sexual orientation from the National Survey of Older Americans Act Participants. Earlier this month, the Department of Housing and Urban Development withdrew two notices impacting data collection and implementation guidelines for a homelessness prevention initiative targeting LGBTQ youth.

www.hrc.org/blog/hrc-foias-trump-administration-over-elimination-of-lgbtq-data?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

Twitter to Live Stream Red Carpet at the 28th Annual GLAAD Media Awards

www.glaad.org/blog/twitter-live-stream-red-carpet-28th-annual-glaad-media-awards

‘Thrilled to Be Out of the Woods,’ Hillary Clinton Urges Trump Pushback: ‘Resist, Insist, Persist, Enlist’

Hillary Clinton told the Professional Women’s Conference on Tuesday that there was no place she’d rather be “other than the White House” and blasted “groups of men in Washington making decisions about women’s health.”

Added Clinton: “We will need to fight back twice as hard not for the sake of politics but because these are bad policies that will hurt people and take our country in the wrong direction. There’s a little mantra I’ve been repeating to myself lately – kind of silly – the kind of thing that pops into your head when you take a lot of long walks in the woods…Four words keep coming back to me: resist, insist, persist, enlist.”

Watch:

Clinton also blasted Sean Spicer and Bill O’Reilly for sexist remarks they made toward women yesterday – Spicer to journalist April Ryan, and O’Reilly at Congresswoman Maxine Waters:

The post ‘Thrilled to Be Out of the Woods,’ Hillary Clinton Urges Trump Pushback: ‘Resist, Insist, Persist, Enlist’ appeared first on Towleroad.

‘Thrilled to Be Out of the Woods,’ Hillary Clinton Urges Trump Pushback: ‘Resist, Insist, Persist, Enlist’

HRC Calls on Pro-Equality Senators to Vote ‘No’ & Filibuster Neil Gorsuch

Today, HRC continued their historic opposition to the nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court by calling on every pro-equality member of the U.S. Senate to vote “no” and filibuster his nomination.

“Last week, Neil Gorsuch refused to answer basic questions regarding his alarming history of opposing civil rights,” said HRC President Chad Griffin. “Anyone looking to gain a lifetime appointment to our nation’s highest court must prove they will apply a compassionate, impartial, and inclusionary interpretation of the Constitution faithful to its drafters’ vision — and Judge Gorsuch proved he is not that person. We believe every U.S. Senator must not only oppose Neil Gorsuch but also filibuster his nomination. Republicans should not unilaterally change long standing Senate rules to allow Trump’s nominee to waltz into the Supreme Court.”

Last week before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, HRC Legal Director Sarah Warbelow outlined the equality case against Judge Gorsuch. In one of the most powerful moments during the hearing, Warbelow said, “We need a justice who recognizes our basic equality and shared humanity. Judge Gorsuch has never met this bar.” She went on to detail the nominee’s disturbing history in opposing civil rights for the LGBTQ community and the profound consequences this appointment could have for generations to come.

Gorsuch has a long and troubling career opposing civil rights, including for LGBTQ people:

• Gorsuch called marriage equality part of the liberal social agenda, saying. “American liberals have become addicted to the courtroom… as the primary means of effecting their social agenda on everything from gay marriage to assisted suicide…”
• He joined the Tenth Circuit’s decision in Hobby Lobby v. Sebelius, which asserted that  that some private corporations are “people” under federal law and have a right to deny basic healthcare coverage if it violates their religious belief. This expansive ruling could allow employers to deny transgender employees access to hormone treatment, access to birth control and other crucial health care for LGBTQ people.
• Hobby Lobby could have negative long-term consequences beyond health care for the LGBTQ community. There are those who are already trying to use the decision to advance discrimination against LGBTQ workers.
• In 2015, Gorsuch joined a ruling against a transgender woman who was denied consistent access to hormone therapy while incarcerated. The ruling dismissed the prisoner’s claims that the denial of care amounted to cruel and unusual punishment under the U.S. Constitution.
• He has advocated for eliminating Chevron deference, a critical administrative law doctrine that allows our federal system of regulations to function, which could result in the significant loss protections for LGBTQ people. 

www.hrc.org/blog/hrc-calls-on-pro-equality-senators-to-vote-no-filibuster-neil-gorsuch?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

29 DO's and DON'Ts for the Dinah

www.advocate.com/travel/2017/3/29/29-dos-and-donts-dinah