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  • NHL’s Pride nights collide with LGBTQ+ political climate

    NHL’s Pride nights collide with LGBTQ+ political climate

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    Sports leagues and teams often use Pride nights to raise the visibility and acceptance of LGBTQ+ people — as well as sell them tickets — and the NHL has been a leader. They can include special jerseys designed by LGBTQ+ artists, performances, information tables, even drag performances. And they’re largely a hit.

    But six NHL players recently opted out of wearing rainbow-colored jerseys on their teams’ Pride nights for the first time, leading the league’s commissioner to say it is weighing the future of the events.

    That worries some fans and LGBTQ+ supporters, who say it’s a sign that a political climate that has led to restrictions on expression, health care and transgender sports participation both in the U.S. and internationally is now threatening events that are meant to be fun and affirming.

    “It’s definitely fair to say that this political landscape is helping to sort of normalize people for opting out of the optional ways that they have been asked to show support for marginalized members of society,” said Hudson Taylor, executive director and founder of Athlete Ally, an organization that works with teams and leagues to push for LGBTQ+ inclusivity.

    Pro sports has been here before. In June, five pitchers with the Tampa Bay Rays cited their Christian faith in refusing to wear Pride jerseys, and a U.S. women’s national soccer player skipped an overseas trip in 2017 when the team wore Pride jerseys and also didn’t play in an NWSL game last year for the same reason.

    This season, three NHL teams — the Chicago Blackhawks, the New York Rangers and the Minnesota Wild — that previously wore rainbow warmups decided not to. The Rangers and Wild changed course after initially planning for players to wear rainbow-themed warmup jerseys but did not specifically say why.

    Between the players opting out and the team decisions, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said the league will “evaluate” in the offseason how it handles Pride nights moving forward, calling the refusals a distraction from “the substance of our what our teams and we have been doing and stand for.” Yet he also noted that the NHL, teams and players “overwhelmingly” support Pride nights.

    The NHL has partnered for a decade with You Can Play Project, which advocates for LGBTQ+ participation in sports. No NHL players had previously opted out of Pride nights.

    The changes come as Republican lawmakers across the U.S. pursue several hundred proposals this year to push back on LGBTQ+, and particularly transgender, rights. At the same time, international sports-governing bodies are instituting policies that ban all trans athletes from competing in track and field and effectively ban trans women from swimming events.

    Internationally, a Russian law that restricts “propaganda” about LGBTQ+ people, including in advertising, media and the arts, has led at least one Russian NHL player to decline participation in Pride night. And Ugandan lawmakers recently passed a bill prescribing jail terms for offenses related to same-sex relations.

    It’s all connected, said Evan Brody, an assistant professor at the University of Kentucky whose media studies research often focuses on LGBTQ+ spaces in sports.

    “The laws that are being passed, the players not participating, all exist within the same kind of ecosphere,” Brody said. “They all exist within this larger anti-LGBTQ discourse, which I think we are often very quick to point out about other countries and maybe less so to think about how that’s affecting things in the United States.”

    In the NHL, many Pride nights are more about selling tickets, Taylor said. But because the league has been such a leader among men’s sports in how to do Pride nights well, he said, it’s “conspicuous” to see players and teams “roll back the ways in which they have historically shown support for and given visibility to the LGBTQ community.”

    Russian Ivan Provorov and Canadians James Reimer and brothers Eric and Marc Staal all cited religious beliefs for refusing to take part in warmups in rainbow-colored jerseys. Ilya Lyubushkin said he would not participate because of the law in Russia, where he was born. And Andrei Kuzmenko, another Russian player, decided not to wear the special uniform after discussions with his family.

    “Some players choose to make choices that they are free to make,” Bettman said Thursday night at a news conference in Seattle. “That doesn’t mean they don’t respect other people and their beliefs and their lifestyles and who they are. It just means they don’t want to endorse it by wearing uniforms that they are not comfortable wearing.”

    Taylor noted that the fear of Russian retribution could be “very real” for a player like Lyubushkin, who has family in Moscow and visits often.

    “I don’t think the LGBTQ community should feel that NHL hockey players are turning their back on that community,” new NHL Players’ Association executive director Marty Walsh said. “A supermajority of players have worn the jersey.”

    The Twin Cities Queer Hockey Association took part in the Minnesota Wild’s Pride night this season, with two teenage LGBTQ+ members of the association sitting on the bench during warmups, among other things.

    Bennett-Danek, who cofounded the association with her wife in early 2022, said the Wild have “been nothing but supportive” of their organization and the community at large.

    “Yes, canceling wearing the jerseys was wrong, but they did not cancel any other part of Pride night and they continue to support our group, even today,” Bennett-Danek said. “They are also handing over the Pride jerseys with signatures for auction to further help support our LGBTQIA community here in the Twin Cities. … So, in our mind they have righted the wrong. They have promised us that Pride next year will not be canceled.”

    The NHL hasn’t given out a penalty or fine for anti-LGBTQ+ language since 2017, though the American Hockey League suspended a player in April 2022 for eight games for using homophobic language. And the vast majority of NHL players are participating in pregame Pride skates, which Edmonton’s Zach Hyman said is “an obvious no-brainer.”

    “It doesn’t go against any of my beliefs,” Hyman said. “On the contrary, I think it’s extremely important to be open and welcoming to that greater community just because they’re a minority and they’ve faced a lot of persecution over the years. And to show that we care and that we’re willing and ready to include them in our game and our sport is extremely important to me.”

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    Contributing to this report were AP Sports Writers Stephen Whyno in Washington and John Wawrow in Buffalo, New York, and AP freelance writer Mark Moschetti in Seattle.

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    AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

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  • NOT REAL NEWS: A look at what didn’t happen this week

    NOT REAL NEWS: A look at what didn’t happen this week

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    A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week following the fatal shooting of six people at a Christian school in Nashville. None of these are legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked them out. Here are the facts:

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    Photo of trans woman holding gun misrepresented after Nashville shooting

    CLAIM: A transgender woman posted a photo of herself holding a gun and calling for violence against Christians, referencing a “Trans Day of Vengeance.”

    THE FACTS: A Twitter account posted a years-old photo of MMA fighter and trans woman Alana McLaughlin holding a gun, but she did not author this post calling for violence. A screenshot of the tweet amassed thousands of shares in the wake of Monday’s mass shooting at a private Christian school in Nashville after police said the shooter was transgender. The tweet shows McLaughlin with pink hair and a pink shirt, holding an AR-15 style gun and wearing a Glock-19 pistol with an expanded magazine on her waist, with a transgender pride flag in the background. The caption appears to advocate for violence against Christians, including the verbs “kill,” “behead,” “roundhouse,” “slam dunk,” “crucify,” “defecate in” and “launch.” Some social media posts claimed the tweet was proof McLaughlin was organizing or planning to attend an April 1 protest event outside the U.S. Supreme Court called the “ Trans Day of Vengeance.” But McLaughlin, who lives in Oregon, confirmed she didn’t author the post and was not aware of where this event was taking place or planning to attend. There is no evidence the Twitter account that originally posted the violent tweet, which was later suspended from the platform, has any ties to the planned event. The event website on Wednesday featured language clarifying that it was “about unity, not inciting violence.” Noah Buchanan, co-founder of Trans Radical Activist Network, which is organizing the event, also confirmed to the AP in an email that McLaughlin is not affiliated with the protest, and reiterated that it was not intended to be a violent event. The image of McLaughlin used in social media posts dates to 2020, when it was featured in a Huck Magazine profile about her and other LGBTQ people who said they had decided to arm themselves to stay safe amid violence directed toward their community. “It is entirely defensive,” said McLaughlin, who added that she arms herself to protect against “escalating right-wing threats.” McLaughlin said the photo had been misrepresented in other ways in the past, including in posts falsely claiming she was a soldier fighting in Ukraine.

    — Associated Press writers Arijeta Lajka and Ali Swenson in New York contributed this report.

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    Posts falsely identify photos as Nashville school shooter

    CLAIM: A photo of a person wearing glasses and a baseball cap in a field shows the shooter who killed six people at a Nashville, Tennessee, school on Monday. Another photo shows “Samantha Hyde,” a “trans woman” identified as the assailant.

    THE FACTS: Neither of the photos, both of which circulated widely on social media, show the person responsible for the attack at the private Christian school in Nashville on Monday. After the shooting at The Covenant School, police gave unclear information on the shooter’s gender. For hours, police identified the shooter as a 28-year-old woman and eventually as Audrey Hale. Then at a late afternoon press conference, the police chief said that Hale was transgender. In an email Tuesday, police spokesperson Kristin Mumford said Hale “was assigned female at birth” but did use male pronouns on a social media profile. Amid the confusion, social media users shared unrelated photos of other people, falsely claiming they showed the shooter. One photo that circulated widely shows an Instagram user with the handle “Aidencreates,” who crafts and sells miniature buildings online. “Apparently I’m being confused with the Nashville incident that happened today but I have nothing to do with that. I live in Pennsylvania,” the Instagram user clarified in a video that was posted on the platform. The confusion was linked to an online graphic design portfolio credited to Audrey Hale, which featured a link to a similar Instagram handle. Multiple social media posts also featured a manipulated photo of Sam Hyde, a comedian and internet personality whose photo has been featured in numerous memes over the years falsely identifying him as the suspect in mass shootings, including the 2018 shooting in Parkland, Florida. The posts featured a photo of Hyde that was edited to add long blonde hair and falsely claimed that the Nashville shooter was “Samantha Hyde,” a “trans female.”

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    Photo of Oklahoma protester misrepresented as Nashville shooter

    CLAIM: A photo of a person holding a sign featuring pink, blue and white guns and the words “trans rights… or else” shows the shooter who killed six people at a private Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee, on Monday.

    THE FACTS: The photo does not show the shooter. The person who took this photograph confirmed it was captured in Oklahoma City before news of the Nashville shooting was widespread. The photo circulated widely online after the police chief identified the shooter, Audrey Hale, as transgender. Social media accounts and other sources indicate the shooter identified as a man and may have recently begun using the first name Aiden. “This is the trans shooter, Audrey Hale,” read one tweet shared thousands of times. “The Feds are in the middle of trying to scrub ALL of her social media & pictures from the internet.” The tweet claimed the shooter was a “terrorist” who wanted to kill Christians, “as the sign makes clear.” However, the person holding the sign in the image is not the shooter who opened fire at The Covenant School. The woman who took the photo confirmed to the AP that she captured it about 11 a.m. CDT on Monday at a protest and march in downtown Oklahoma City, hundreds of miles away from Nashville. “It was a protest entitled Bigotry is Bad for Business,” said Chelsea, the photographer, whose last name is being withheld over concerns for her safety. “They protested, they marched. They weren’t violent.” The photographer said she didn’t know the shooting had happened when she tweeted photos from the protest. Social media users then took her photo and misrepresented it as showing the shooter.

    — Ali Swenson

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    Nashville outlet did not tweet victim’s father calling for ‘end to tolerance’

    CLAIM: WSMV-TV Nashville tweeted that the father of a victim of Monday’s Nashville school shooting called for “an end to tolerance” and “the end of the trans evil.”

    THE FACTS: A representative with WSMV-TV, an NBC affiliate in Nashville said the tweet was fabricated. In addition, the outlet confirmed they did not report that information. The false tweet spread as friends and family members of the six people who were killed in the shooting shared stories about the victims. Police have identified the shooter, Audrey Hale, as transgender, and the bogus tweet alleges that the victim’s dad called for violence against the transgender community. The tweet in the image shows the name and logo of WSMV-TV’s Twitter account, and reads: “Father of murderer girl, 9, at Covenant school shooting, calls for ‘an end to tolerance’ in family statement to the press, vowing ‘to fight with every fiber of my being for the end of the trans evil. The evil that took my daughter. There must be a solution to this evil in America.’” The image doesn’t show a link to a story. The image circulated widely on Wednesday. However, the tweet shown in the image is not real and no such quote has been publically reported from any victim’s family member in any news outlet. The tweet does not appear on WSMV-TV’s Twitter profile and the outlet stated on its own Twitter account that the image was fake. Amanda Hara, an anchor and director of digital at WSMV-TV, confirmed to the AP in an email that the tweet is fake and didn’t come from the outlet.

    — Associated Press writer Karena Phan in Los Angeles contributed this report.

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    Find AP Fact Checks here: https://apnews.com/APFactCheck

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    Follow @APFactCheck on Twitter: https://twitter.com/APFactCheck

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  • No more room for vroom? Paris votes on banishing e-scooters

    No more room for vroom? Paris votes on banishing e-scooters

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    PARIS — The wheels may be about to come off Paris’ ubiquitous for-hire electric scooters.

    Zipping around the City of Light on one of them, wind in the hair, or romantically but naughtily e-scooting à deux on one machine when the gendarmes aren’t looking could soon be over if Parisians vote Sunday to do away with the 15,000 opinion-dividing micro-vehicles.

    The question City Hall is asking in a citywide mini-referendum is: “For or against self-service scooters in Paris?”

    The answer could doom a leading market for the swift two-wheelers that have expanded locomotion choices in the French capital and other urban centers and towns around the world.

    Scattered around Paris, easy to locate and hire with a downloadable app and relatively cheap, the scooters are a hit with tourists who love their speed and the help-yourself freedom they offer. In the five years since their introduction, following in the wake of shared cars and shared bicycles, for-hire scooters have also built a following among Parisians who don’t want or can’t afford their own but like the option to escape the Metro and other public transport.

    But amid complaints that e-scooters are an eyesore and a traffic menace, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo and some of her deputies want to banish the “free floating” flotilla — so called because scooters are picked up and dropped off at their renters’ whim — on safety, public nuisance and cost-benefit grounds before the capital hosts the Olympic Games next year.

    Paris’ deputy mayor for transport, David Belliard, says the scooters have been involved in hundreds of accidents. He also says they are more environmentally damaging than walking or riding a bike or bus, and too speedy and anarchic in a crowded, compact and historic city where space is at a premium.

    They create “a feeling of overall insecurity in the public space, notably for the most vulnerable people, I’m thinking of seniors or people with disabilities,” he said in an interview Friday with The Associated Press. “There are a few benefits but what I see today is that the costs are greater.”

    Paris’ contracts with the three rental companies — Dott, Lime and TIER — expire at the end of August. Whether for-hire e-scooters survive in Paris beyond that will depend on Sunday’s poll that’s open to all of the city’s registered voters, including those from other European Union countries.

    “Whatever the result, we will respect it,” Belliard pledged. Hidalgo has promised likewise and said that she, too, hopes Parisians will vote against the scooters.

    Scooter critics say the machines are particularly dangerous in the hands of tourists who don’t know how to navigate Paris’ frenetic, honk-honk, get-out-of-my-way traffic and the many users who flout the rules and risk fines by riding two to a scooter and by mounting sidewalks, sometimes barreling through pedestrians.

    “I regularly, in fact pretty much all the time, see tourists riding them in pairs, people who often are oblivious to what they are doing, who aren’t in control of the scooter,” says Raphael Sicat, an IT manager who commutes on an electric monocycle to his Paris office. He says he often sees crashes involving for-hire scooters on his 40-kilometer (25-mile) round trip.

    Swiss tourist Ler Detelj loves the adrenaline rush.

    “It’s fast and it’s easy and it’s cool,” she said as she and two friends took scooters for a whirl from the foot of the Eiffel Tower.

    The three scooter operators say they transported nearly 2 million people in the city last year and that 71% of Parisian users are under 35. They’ve used social media influencers, some of them paid, and messages on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok in a get-out-the-vote drive targeting that age group. They are also offering a free round-trip ride Sunday on their scooters or electric bikes to users who enter the words “Je vote” — I vote in French — into their apps.

    Garance Lefèvre, a director of public policy for one of the operators, Lime, says women and LGBTQ+ people value the scooters as a safe mode of late-night travel and that the two-wheelers have generally become ingrained in Parisian habits. The city has “really raised the standards for the entire industry,” she said, and operators have created “durable and responsible jobs.”

    “Paris has been the pioneer in terms of welcoming shared micro-mobility,” she says. “Paris would really be an outlier if it decided to put an end to the service.”

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    Masha Macpherson in Paris contributed.

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  • North Dakota governor vetoes transgender pronouns bill

    North Dakota governor vetoes transgender pronouns bill

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    North Dakota’s Republican governor vetoed a bill that would generally prohibit public schools teachers and staff from referring to transgender students by pronouns other than those reflecting the sex assigned to them at birth.

    Gov. Doug Burgum’s veto on Thursday could be reversed by the state Legislature. If it became law, public school teachers and employees would be barred from using a transgender student’s preferred pronoun unless they have permission from the student’s parents as well as a school administrator.

    The bill would also prohibit government agencies from requiring employees to use a transgender colleague’s preferred pronoun.

    The proposal comes as Republican lawmakers across the U.S. have drafted hundreds of laws this year to push back on LGBTQ+ freedoms, particularly seeking to regulate aspects of transgender people’s lives, including gender-affirming health care, bathroom use, athletics and drag performances.

    Although the bill also addresses state employees, Burgum’s veto message focused on its potential impact on public schools.

    “The teaching profession is challenging enough without the heavy hand of state government forcing teachers to take on the role of pronoun police,” Burgum said in a letter to state Senate leaders. “Parents, teachers and administrators using compassion, empathy and common sense can address individual and infrequent situations that may arise.”

    The First Amendment already protects teachers from speaking contrary to their beliefs, the governor added in his letter. He said existing law also protects the free speech rights of state employees, who cannot be required to use preferred pronouns.

    Lawmakers who support the vetoed bill have said in debates it would free teachers from worrying about how to address each student and create a better learning environment.

    Opponents said it targeted already vulnerable transgender students.

    “For trans youth, especially those who cannot be safe at home, school may be one of the few places to be themselves,” ACLU of North Dakota spokesperson Cody Schuler, said in a statement. “Trans youth thrive when they are affirmed in their gender identity, which includes being called by a name and pronouns that reflect who they are.”

    Schuler praised Burgum’s veto in the statement Thursday, saying such bills are motivated by “ignorance, misinformation and fear.”

    The bill returns to the Legislature for reconsideration. The House approved it 60-32 in February, three votes short of the two-thirds majority needed to override the governor’s veto. It passed the Senate in January with a veto-proof majority.

    Republican Senate Majority Leader David Hogue, of Minot, did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

    In 2021, Burgum vetoed a bill that would have barred transgender girls from playing on girls’ teams in public schools.

    Lawmakers didn’t override the veto, but are considering new legislation this session to replicate and expand that bill, including at the college level. Two bills passed the House with veto-proof majorities. The Senate considered them on Monday.

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  • FACT FOCUS: No ‘incredible rise’ in transgender shooters

    FACT FOCUS: No ‘incredible rise’ in transgender shooters

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    Moments after the assailant who killed six people at a Nashville private school was identified as transgender, a baseless narrative emerged: that there has been an incredible rise in transgender or nonbinary mass shooters in recent years.

    Some pundits and political influencers on social media went further, suggesting that movements for trans rights are radicalizing activists into terrorists.

    The data tells a different story, according to gender and criminology experts. Mass casualty shootings perpetrated by someone identifying as trans or nonbinary are rare, and in fact, those groups are far more likely to be the victims of violence. Here’s a closer look at the facts.

    CLAIM: Four recent shootings show there has been an “incredible rise” in transgender or nonbinary mass shooters in the past few years, making the group “by far the largest group committing as a percentage of the population.”

    Donald Trump Jr. spread the narrative widely on Twitter, claiming the supposed “incredible rise” and later saying there was a clear trend forming. The idea was amplified by hundreds of other social media users. Trump Jr. did not respond to a request for comment.

    THE FACTS: While specific data on transgender and nonbinary mass shooters can be hard to isolate, available information shows that the overwhelming majority of assailants in mass shootings are cisgender males.

    In making the claim, social media users are citing four examples over the past five years in which the assailant in a shooting identified as trans or nonbinary: the November killing of five at a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado; a 2019 shooting at a Denver-area school by two shooters, one of them a trans man, that left one student dead and eight wounded; a 2018 shooting at a Maryland warehouse that left four dead, including the shooter; and the shooting Monday in Nashville.

    The number of mass shootings committed by those identifying as trans or nonbinary — and their ratio compared to mass shootings committed by other groups — is hard to quantify. It depends on the database used, how the act is defined and how gender identity is recorded — for example, transgender males may statistically be counted as just men. But experts agree that the most reputable information still shows a clear pattern that cisgender males are the most likely to commit such an act of mass violence.

    Using the Gun Violence Archive, and a definition for mass shooting meaning “at least four gun injuries,” there have been 3,561 mass shootings since the beginning of 2016.

    Laura Dugan, a professor of human security and sociology at Ohio State University, said the four widely cited examples out of the 3,561 shootings translates to 0.11% being perpetrated by someone who is not cisgender — a very low number relative to the number of mass shootings total.

    “We cannot statistically make any claim of a trend,” she said.

    Dugan also pointed out that there are some doubts about the nonbinary identity asserted by the Colorado Springs shooter.

    James Alan Fox, a statistician and professor of criminology, law and public policy at Northeastern University, helps maintain the Associated Press-USA TODAY-Northeastern database of mass killings in the U.S., which does not contain full data on perpetrators’ gender. The claims on social media this week amount to extreme cherry-picking of data, he said.

    “There are a lot of mass shootings, hundreds of mass shootings, and to cherry-pick four of them and say here’s a trend, that’s wrong,” Fox said. “You can’t make a conclusion that that’s significant. It is not significant in any statistical sense.”

    Olivera Jokić, the director of the gender studies program at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, referred to a National Institutes of Justice database that tracked U.S. mass shootings — defined as a shooting that kills four or more people — from 1966 to 2019. The research found that of the 172 people who committed public mass shootings covered in the database, 97.7% were male. The data makes no distinction between transgender and cisgender perpetrators.

    “The political rhetoric using ‘statistical information’ about gender identification of mass shooters is wrong,” she said, “and seems to serve to distract from existing discussions about mass shootings as a public health problem.”

    The claims come amid a flood of legislation nationwide targeting transgender people. Conservative lawmakers are pushing dozens of proposals in statehouses to restrict transgender athletes, gender-affirming care and drag shows. Last week, a pair of laws passed in Iowa that restrict the bathrooms transgender students can use and ban gender-affirming medical care. Other legislative proposals in at least eight states could prevent transgender people from changing their driver’s licenses and birth certificates.

    Against that backdrop, studies also show trans people are more than four times more likely than cisgender people to be victims of violent crime, according to a report by the Williams Institute, an LGBTQ think tank at the University of California, Los Angeles.

    “This is capitalizing on tragedy for political purposes,” Fox said. “One should not conclude that being trans or nonbinary, they should be more likely to commit a crime like this.” ___

    This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.

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  • GOP lawmakers override veto of transgender bill in Kentucky

    GOP lawmakers override veto of transgender bill in Kentucky

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    FRANKFORT, Ky. — Republican lawmakers in Kentucky on Wednesday swept aside the Democratic governor’s veto of a bill regulating some of the most personal aspects of life for transgender young people — from banning access to gender-affirming health care to restricting the bathrooms they can use.

    The votes to override Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto were lopsided in both legislative chambers — where the GOP wields supermajorities — and came on the next-to-last day of this year’s legislative session.

    As emotions surged, some people protesting the bill from the House gallery were removed and arrested after their chants drowned out the voices of lawmakers. The protesters, their hands bound, chanted “there’s more of us not here” as they waited to be taken away from the Capitol. Kentucky State Police didn’t immediately say how many were arrested or on what charges.

    The debate is likely to spill over into this year’s gubernatorial campaign, with Beshear’s veto drawing GOP condemnation as he seeks reelection to a second term. A legal fight also is brewing. The American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky reaffirmed that it intends to “take this fight to the courts” to try to preserve access to those health care options for young transgender people.

    “While we lost the battle in the legislature, our defeat is temporary. We will not lose in court,” said Chris Hartman, executive director of the Fairness Campaign, an LGBTQ+ advocacy organization.

    In praising the override, David Walls, executive director of The Family Foundation, said the bill puts “policy in alignment with the truth that every child is created as a male or female and deserves to be loved, treated with dignity and accepted for who they really are.”

    Activists on both sides of the impassioned debate gathered at the statehouse to make competing appeals before lawmakers took up the transgender bill.

    At a rally that drew hundreds of transgender-rights supporters outside Kentucky’s Capitol, trans teenager Sun Pacyga held up a sign summing up a grim review of the Republican legislation. The sign read: “Our blood is on your hands.”

    “If it passes, the restricted access to gender-affirming health care, I think trans kids will die because of that,” the 17-year-old student said, expressing a persistent concern among the bill’s critics that the restrictions could lead to an increase in teen suicides.

    The Senate voted 29-8 to override Beshear’s veto,. A short time later, the House completed the override on a vote of 76-23. Republicans have supermajorities in both chambers.

    Bill supporters assembled to defend the measure, saying it protects trans children from undertaking gender-affirming treatments they might regret as adults. Research shows such regret is rare, however.

    “We cannot allow people to continue down the path of fantasy, to where they’re going to end up 10, 20, 30 years down the road and find themselves miserable from decisions that they made when they were young,” said Republican Rep. Shane Baker at a rally.

    The legislation in Kentucky is part of a national movement, with state lawmakers approving extensive measures that restrict the rights of LGBTQ+ people this year — from bills targeting trans athletes and drag performers to measures limiting gender-affirming care.

    At least 10 states have enacted laws restricting or banning gender-affirming care for minors: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee, Utah and South Dakota. A proposed ban is pending before the Republican governor in West Virginia. Federal judges have blocked enforcement of laws in Alabama and Arkansas, and nearly two dozen states are considering bills this year to restrict or ban care.

    The debate in the Kentucky Senate reflected the impassioned arguments put forth at the rival rallies.

    “We are denying families, their physicians and their therapists the right to make medically informed decisions for their families,” Democratic Sen. Karen Berg said in opposing the bill.

    Berg read what her son, Henry Berg-Brousseau, wrote in advocating for transgender rights shortly before his death late last year at age 24. The cause was suicide, his mother said.

    Republican Sen. Robby Mills said he supported the bill because of his belief that “puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, when administered to youth under 18 for the purpose of altering their appearance, is dangerous for the health of that child.”

    Transgender medical treatments have long been available in the United States and are endorsed by major medical associations.

    Mills said another reason for his support was that “parents and students should have confidence that bathrooms in their school will only be used by the same biological sex.”

    The sweeping Kentucky measure would ban gender-affirming care for minors. It would outlaw gender reassignment surgery for anyone under 18, as well as the use of puberty blockers and hormones, and inpatient and outpatient gender-affirming hospital services.

    Doctors would have to set a timeline to “detransition” children already taking puberty blockers or undergoing hormone therapy. They could continue offering care as they taper a youngster’s treatments, if removing them from the treatment immediately could harm the child.

    Parts of the bill dealing with gender-affirming medical care will take effect in about three months.

    The bill would not allow schools to discuss sexual orientation or gender identity with students of any age. It would also require school districts to devise bathroom policies that, “at a minimum,” would not allow transgender children to use the bathroom aligned with their gender identities.

    It would further allow teachers to refuse to refer to transgender students by the pronouns they use and require schools to notify parents when lessons related to human sexuality are going to be taught.

    Another trans teenager, Hazel Hardesty, said the potential discontinuation of gender-affirming health care would mean “my male puberty would continue,” which would “cause a lot of mental distress.”

    “People don’t even understand how it feels,” the 16-year-old said during a rally. “Going through the wrong puberty, every day your body is a little bit farther from what feels like you. And eventually you don’t even recognize yourself in the mirror.”

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  • Ghana’s president softens country’s stance on draconian anti-LGBTQ bill as Kamala Harris visits | CNN

    Ghana’s president softens country’s stance on draconian anti-LGBTQ bill as Kamala Harris visits | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo has said that “substantial elements” of a draconian anti-LGBTQ bill being considered by its parliament “have been modified” after an intervention by his government.

    Akufo-Addo made the disclosure Monday at a joint press conference with US Vice-President Kamala Harris, who’s on a tour of the West African country.

    He pointed out that the proposed legislation, framed in the guise of “family values” – which seeks to introduce some of the harshest anti-LGBTQ laws on the African continent – was not legislation introduced by his government but a private members’ bill. The bill was first introduced in parliament in August 2021.

    “The bill is going through the parliament. The attorney general has found it necessary to speak to the committee (the constitutional and legal committee of parliament) about it regarding the constitutionality … of several of its provisions. The parliament is dealing with it. At the end of the process, I will come in,” the Ghanaian leader said.

    After parliamentary deliberations, a final bill will be sent to the president for assent.

    “My understanding … is that substantial elements of the bill have already been modified as a result of the intervention of the attorney general,” Akufo-Addo said.

    In suggesting that the bill may end up being watered down in the amendment process, Akufo-Addo added that he was convinced the parliament will consider the sensitivity of the bill to human rights issues as well as the feelings of the Ghanaian population “and come out with a responsible response.”

    However, one of the parliamentarians who introduced the bill, Samuel Nartey George, insists that the proposed law remains “rigid and tough.”

    “The bill has not been substantially changed. The bill remains as tough and as rigid as it was,” George told local media in a televised interview.

    He added: “When the bill is laid before the House (of parliament), you will realize that the focus of the bill which has to do with voiding (gay) marriages, preventing them from adopting or fostering children, the clampdown on platforms and media houses that are going to do promotion and advocacy or push those materials still remain enforced.”

    George also implied that restrictions against “expressions, be it lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender are all still there. “So when he (Akufo-Addo) says the bill has been watered down, he doesn’t know what he is talking about.”

    The proposed aw would see LGBTQ Ghanaians face jail time, or be forced into so-called “conversion therapy” – a widely discredited practice debunked by much of the international medical and psychiatric communities.

    Under the bill, advocates of the LGBTQ community would face up to a decade in prison; public displays of same-sex affection or cross-dressing could lead to a fine or jail time, and certain types of medical support would be made illegal.

    The new law would also make the distribution of material deemed pro-LGBTQ by news organizations or websites illegal. It calls on Ghanaians to report those they suspect of being from the LGBTQ community.

    Harris, the US vice-president, said at the press conference she felt very strongly about supporting the freedom and equality of the LGBTQ community.

    “This is an issue that we consider to be a human rights issue, and that will not change,” she said.

    Ghana’s information minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, also told CNN on Tuesday that the outcome of the parliamentary debate on the bill may differ from its original provisions.

    “The bill is now in an enactment process. What will come out in enactment when 275 members get on the floor and start dealing with it clause by clause and voting clause by clause, may end up being different from what was proposed. You propose a bill and parliament … can tweak it and make it harsher or less harsh … it is in the hands of parliament now,” Nkrumah said.

    The minister also insisted however that the Ghanaian government was not under pressure to relax existing legislation on homosexuality.

    “We are not pressured in any way to focus on things that are not essentially within our main priorities. Our priority number one is getting the Ghanaian economy on track and that’s what we’re focused on.”

    “This conversation is not part of our mainstream conversation here in Ghana,” he added.

    Old sodomy laws dating back to 1960 remain on the statute books in Ghana but they are rarely enforced.

    Activist Danny Bediako, who runs the NGO Rightify Ghana, told CNN that living in Ghana would become tougher for the LGBTQ community if the bill passes in parliament.

    “It’s going to make it difficult for the (LGBTQ) community to exist. They are just trying to erase the community through this bill, so it will definitely lead to an increase in attacks,” said Bediako, who added that his organization had documented 27 cases of violent attacks targeted toward the LGBTQ community in the country this year.

    “There have been different types of cases, but the most dominant one is the activities of violent groups and they are widespread. So if this bill is passed, these activities are going to continue and it’s only going to also get worse.”

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  • Veto puts Kentucky in thick of fight over transgender rights

    Veto puts Kentucky in thick of fight over transgender rights

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    FRANKFORT, Ky. — Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto of a bill aimed at transgender health care puts the state in the middle of a national fight, but with more immediate consequences as the state’s looming election offers an early test on the state-by-state assault on gender-affirming care for minors.

    The veto issued Friday set off competing messages likely to be repeated until the November election — when Bluegrass State voters will decide whether to reward the Democratic governor with a second term or hand over the governor’s office to a Republican. No one seems to know yet how much weight voters will put on the transgender issue with the general election more than seven months away.

    The legislation in Kentucky is part of a widespread movement, with Republican state lawmakers in other states approving extensive measures that restrict the rights of LGBTQ+ people this year, from bills targeting trans athletes and drag performers to measures limiting gender-affirming care.

    Beshear framed the Republican-backed bill in Kentucky as an example of government overreach into parental rights. The sweeping bill would ban gender-affirming care for minors — one of many provisions that would affect the lives of young transgender people.

    “At the end of the day, this is about my belief — and, I think, the belief of the majority of Kentuckians — that parents should get to make important medical decisions about their children, not big government,” Beshear told reporters soon after his veto.

    Kentucky’s GOP-dominated legislature passed the bill by lopsided margins. Lawmakers will reconvene Wednesday for the final two days of this year’s session, when they could vote to override the veto.

    Republicans took immediate aim at the governor’s veto, saying he veered too far for most Kentuckians. Republican Party of Kentucky spokesperson Sean Southard asked: “Is Andy Beshear the governor of Kentucky or California?” He predicted the governor will pay a political price for his action.

    “Once this campaign is over, today may very well be remembered as the day Andy Beshear lost his bid for reelection,” Southard said Friday.

    Republicans could try to capitalize on the political divide over transgender rights to motivate socially conservative voters to flock to the polls in November, when state constitutional offices are on the ballot. Several leading GOP contenders for governor were aligned in condemning Beshear’s veto.

    “If the Republicans choose to make this a centerpiece of the campaign against Beshear, it’s going to hurt him,” said Scott Jennings, a Kentucky-based Republican political commentator.

    Beshear cited his own religious faith as a factor in rejecting the bill, saying: “I believe every single child is a child of God.”

    Twelve candidates in all are competing for the Republican nomination for governor in the state’s May primary. Beshear’s bid for a second term is drawing national attention to see if the popular incumbent can win again in the Republican-trending state. Beshear has won praise for his responses to devastating tornadoes and flooding, as well as a series of economic development successes.

    The bill’s opponents say they’ve got the public on their side and predict Beshear will benefit. They pointed to statewide polling released last month showing a majority of Kentuckians believe decisions over a transgender teen’s health care should be left with the parent, not determined by the state.

    “Folks who have never been involved with politics or legislation have been activated by the Kentucky General Assembly’s all-out war on LGBTQ kids,” said Chris Hartman, executive director of the Kentucky-based Fairness Campaign.

    Social conservatives in Kentucky were dealt a setback in last year’s general election when statewide voters rejected a ballot measure aimed at denying any constitutional protections for abortion.

    The transgender health care bill sparked emotional responses from opponents as it was fast-tracked to legislative passage by GOP supermajorities in mid-March. It would ban gender-affirming care for transgender minors. It would outlaw gender reassignment surgery for anyone under 18, as well as the use of puberty blockers and hormones, and inpatient and outpatient gender-affirming hospital services.

    Doctors would have to set a timeline to “detransition” children already taking puberty blockers or undergoing hormone therapy. They could continue offering care as they taper a child’s treatments if removing them from the treatment immediately could harm the child.

    The bill’s supporters say they’re trying to protect children from undertaking gender-affirming treatments they might regret as adults. Research shows such regret is rare. Gender-affirming medical treatments have long been available in the U.S. and are endorsed by major medical associations.

    The bill would require school districts to devise bathroom policies that, “at a minimum,” would not allow transgender children to use the bathroom aligned with their gender identities. And it would allow teachers to refuse to refer to transgender students by the pronouns they use and would require schools to notify parents when lessons related to human sexuality are going to be taught.

    Debates over transgender rights garnered considerable attention throughout Kentucky’s legislative session, but in Pike County in eastern Kentucky, the issue has been a non-factor, said Pike County Judge-Executive Ray Jones II, a Democrat who supports Beshear.

    “It’s not even been an issue up here,” said Jones, a former state senator. “People are worried about inflation, they’re worried about the economy, they’re worried about jobs. Nobody’s called my office to discuss transgender issues.”

    Summing up the potential political fallout from the veto, Jones said: “People who would vote because of the governor’s veto would likely not vote for him anyway.”

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  • Veto puts Kentucky in thick of fight over transgender rights

    Veto puts Kentucky in thick of fight over transgender rights

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    FRANKFORT, Ky. — Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto of a bill aimed at transgender health care puts the state in the middle of a national fight, but with more immediate consequences as the state’s looming election offers an early test on the state-by-state assault on gender-affirming care for minors.

    The veto issued Friday set off competing messages likely to be repeated until the November election — when Bluegrass State voters will decide whether to reward the Democratic governor with a second term or hand over the governor’s office to a Republican. No one seems to know yet how much weight voters will put on the transgender issue with the general election more than seven months away.

    The legislation in Kentucky is part of a widespread movement, with Republican state lawmakers in other states approving extensive measures that restrict the rights of LGBTQ+ people this year, from bills targeting trans athletes and drag performers to measures limiting gender-affirming care.

    Beshear framed the Republican-backed bill in Kentucky as an example of government overreach into parental rights. The sweeping bill would ban gender-affirming care for minors — one of many provisions that would affect the lives of young transgender people.

    “At the end of the day, this is about my belief — and, I think, the belief of the majority of Kentuckians — that parents should get to make important medical decisions about their children, not big government,” Beshear told reporters soon after his veto.

    Kentucky’s GOP-dominated legislature passed the bill by lopsided margins. Lawmakers will reconvene next week for the final two days of this year’s session, when they could vote to override the veto.

    Republicans took immediate aim at the governor’s veto, saying he veered too far for most Kentuckians. Republican Party of Kentucky spokesperson Sean Southard asked: “Is Andy Beshear the governor of Kentucky or California?” He predicted the governor will pay a political price for his action.

    “Once this campaign is over, today may very well be remembered as the day Andy Beshear lost his bid for reelection,” Southard said Friday.

    Republicans could try to capitalize on the political divide over transgender rights to motivate socially conservative voters to flock to the polls in November, when state constitutional offices are on the ballot. Several leading GOP contenders for governor were aligned in condemning Beshear’s veto.

    “If the Republicans choose to make this a centerpiece of the campaign against Beshear, it’s going to hurt him,” said Scott Jennings, a Kentucky-based Republican political commentator.

    Beshear cited his own religious faith as a factor in rejecting the bill, saying: “I believe every single child is a child of God.”

    Twelve candidates in all are competing for the Republican nomination for governor in the state’s May primary. Beshear’s bid for a second term is drawing national attention to see if the popular incumbent can win again in the Republican-trending state. Beshear has won praise for his responses to devastating tornadoes and flooding, as well as a series of economic development successes.

    The bill’s opponents say they’ve got the public on their side and predict Beshear will benefit. They pointed to statewide polling released last month showing a majority of Kentuckians believe decisions over a transgender teen’s health care should be left with the parent, not determined by the state.

    “Folks who have never been involved with politics or legislation have been activated by the Kentucky General Assembly’s all-out war on LGBTQ kids,” said Chris Hartman, executive director of the Kentucky-based Fairness Campaign.

    Social conservatives in Kentucky were dealt a setback in last year’s general election when statewide voters rejected a ballot measure aimed at denying any constitutional protections for abortion.

    The transgender health care bill sparked emotional responses from opponents as it was fast-tracked to legislative passage by GOP supermajorities in mid-March. It would ban gender-affirming care for transgender minors. It would outlaw gender reassignment surgery for anyone under 18, as well as the use of puberty blockers and hormones, and inpatient and outpatient gender-affirming hospital services.

    Doctors would have to set a timeline to “detransition” children already taking puberty blockers or undergoing hormone therapy. They could continue offering care as they taper a child’s treatments if removing them from the treatment immediately could harm the child.

    The bill’s supporters say they’re trying to protect children from undertaking gender-affirming treatments they might regret as adults. Research shows such regret is rare. Gender-affirming medical treatments have long been available in the U.S. and are endorsed by major medical associations.

    The bill would require school districts to devise bathroom policies that, “at a minimum,” would not allow transgender children to use the bathroom aligned with their gender identities. And it would allow teachers to refuse to refer to transgender students by the pronouns they use and would require schools to notify parents when lessons related to human sexuality are going to be taught.

    Debates over transgender rights garnered considerable attention throughout Kentucky’s legislative session, but in Pike County in eastern Kentucky, the issue has been a non-factor, said Pike County Judge-Executive Ray Jones II, a Democrat who supports Beshear.

    “It’s not even been an issue up here,” said Jones, a former state senator. “People are worried about inflation, they’re worried about the economy, they’re worried about jobs. Nobody’s called my office to discuss transgender issues.”

    Summing up the potential political fallout from the veto, Jones said: “People who would vote because of the governor’s veto would likely not vote for him anyway.”

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  • North Carolina treasurer running for governor in 2024

    North Carolina treasurer running for governor in 2024

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    RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina State Treasurer Dale Folwell announced on Saturday he will run for governor in 2024, a bid that will likely require him besting Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson to earn the Republican nomination.

    While Republicans have controlled the Legislature since 2011 and won a majority on the state Supreme Court last November, they have struggled to enter the Executive Mansion. The GOP has won just one gubernatorial general election since 1992, and winner Pat McCrory served for just four years.

    Folwell, a former legislator, school board member and state unemployment office chief who was first elected treasurer in 2016, said he would bring competence to operating government in a fiscally sound manner and look out for working people if elected.

    “The root word of ‘governor’ is to govern, and what that means is to be the CEO of the biggest business in the state,” Folwell told The Associated Press in an interview. “And based on my track record of saving lives, minds and money, I’m uniquely qualified to do that.”

    The state constitution prevents Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper from seeking a third consecutive term.

    Folwell had said in September that he was strongly considering a run for governor after encouragement from several Republicans. He revealed his plans first at Saturday’s Republican Party convention for Forsyth County, where he lives.

    The disclosure came two days after Robinson said he’d hold an April 22 rally at an Alamance County race track, where he’d make a “special announcement” about 2024.

    Robinson’s campaign adviser declined to reveal his specific plans, but Robinson has said previously that he was fairly certain that he’d run for governor.

    Robinson, who was elected the state’s first Black lieutenant governor in 2020 in his first run for office, released an autobiography last year and is a popular speaker at conservative churches and events.

    Attorney General Josh Stein announced his bid for the Democratic nomination for governor in January, taking direct aim at Robinson for speeches in which critics say he disparaged LGBTQ+ people, women and abortion rights. Last week, Robinson criticized churches that fly a “rainbow flag.”

    Robinson hasn’t apologized for certain remarks, saying he wasn’t attacking the LGBTQ+ community — but rather it was a judgment on reading materials in the public schools. He also said he can separate his religious views from his governmental responsibilities. But some Republicans are worried about whether Robinson can win the general election in the closely divided state.

    Folwell had already criticized Robinson’s governing style months ago.

    At his announcement, Folwell pointed out that the public didn’t even know who Robinson was a few years ago. Since then, Folwell said, Robinson has “spent all this time attacking people instead of attacking the important problems that our citizens are facing.”

    Folwell, meanwhile, said he’s attractive to voters because they feel like as an elected official “I’m doing the right thing on their behalf.”

    “They’re going to respond to somebody who speaks to them like adults,” he added.

    Folwell said his timing to get in the race had nothing to do with Robinson’s upcoming announcement — he wanted to reveal his plans first to his fellow local Republicans.

    Folwell, 64, ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor in 2012 before winning his current statewide job four years later.

    While treasurer, he’s focused upon efforts to curb health care costs for state employees and retirees and for the poor as a way to improve their well-being. As McCrory’s unemployment office chief he helped carry out system reforms and implement new technologies.

    The state treasurer manages the state’s investments and its massive government employee pension funds. His office also oversees the health insurance program for state workers and teachers and their dependents.

    The State Health Plan has been sued over its decision — defended by Folwell — to decline covering gender-affirming treatments for transgender employees and their children.

    While delivering the Republican response to Cooper’s State of the State address earlier this month, Robinson focused on his life story while promoting fiscal responsibility and respect for law enforcement and public school teachers.

    Folwell also talks about growing up in poverty. Folwell said his young adulthood included working as a trash collector and in motorcycle shops before going to college and becoming a CPA. He then worked for an investment firm.

    Former U.S. Rep. Mark Walker, R-N.C., also has expressed interest in a gubernatorial bid. Candidate filing for the March 2024 primary is held in December, but anyone else seeking to challenge Robinson will feel pressure to enter this spring.

    At the end of 2022, Folwell reported $47,000 in cash in his campaign account, compared to $2.2 million held by Robinson’s campaign.

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  • Darcelle, world’s oldest working drag queen, dies at 92

    Darcelle, world’s oldest working drag queen, dies at 92

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    PORTLAND, Ore. — Walter Cole, better known as the iconic drag queen who performed for decades as Darcelle XV and a fearless advocate for Portland’s LGBTQ+ community, has died of natural causes in Portland, Oregon. He was 92.

    Darcelle, who died Thursday, was crowned the world’s oldest working drag performer in 2016 by the Guinness Book of World Records and was regaling audiences until the very end. As a performer, Darcelle was known for hosting the longest-running drag show on the U.S. West Coast. Off stage, Cole, an Army veteran, championed LGBTQ+ rights and charitable work in Portland.

    The nightclub that Darcelle opened more than 50 years ago in downtown Portland, Darcelle XV Showplace, posted a statement on Facebook expressing grief and asking for privacy and patience.

    The club, which had become a Portland cultural institution by the 1970s, was listed in 2020 on the National Register of Historic Places, making it the first site in Oregon to be nominated specifically for its significance in LGBTQ+ history. In the venue’s early days in the 1970s and 1980s, it was seen as taboo and protesters picketed outside, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported.

    It provided a lifeline for many in the city’s LGBTQ community, including Cole, he told the newspaper in a 2010 interview. Cole preferred female pronouns when performing, but told The Oregonian he preferred male pronouns off-stage.

    “If I hadn’t admitted who I was, I’d probably be dead now,” he told the paper. “I’d be sitting on a couch retiring from … management. Not for me.”

    “She touched the lives of so many, not only through her performances but also through her fearless community advocacy and charitable works,” said Todd Addams, the interim executive director of Basic Rights Oregon, speaking of Darcelle. “She was nothing short of an icon.”

    Writer Susan Stanley described the club a place of “warmth and affection” where performers were “glittering in sequins and satin and a shimmering froth of feathers,” in what’s credited as the first profile of Darcelle XV, published in Willamette Week in 1975.

    When speaking of Darcelle, Cole, a gay man, referred to his persona in the third person using female pronouns. “I’m an entertainer with a capital E,” Cole told Stanley. “Darcelle is a character — like in a play — and I work very hard at her.”

    Stanley wound up briefly working at the club and becoming Cole’s close friend. She described the performer not only as a talented artist, who also sewed many of the club’s costumes, but as a caring person deeply invested in the LGBTQ+ community and the fight against the social stigma of the time.

    “(Darcelle) was just a very, very nurturing person. She encouraged other guys to perform and get out of their shells,” Stanley told the AP in a phone interview.

    After decades of advocacy by LGBTQ+ activists organizing for civil rights and freedoms, Stanley said she was saddened to see how drag has become so polarized in today’s political climate.

    “It bespeaks a really, really big misunderstanding,” she said. “Politicians wanting to step back decades in attitudes … it’s mystifying and horrifying to me at the same time.”

    Cole was born in 1930 and raised in Portland’s Linnton neighborhood. He served in the U.S. Armed Forces and was discharged in the late 1950s, according to the club’s website, which says he used money he received from the military to start his first business.

    After dabbling in a coffee store and a jazz club, Cole purchased the space that would become the Darcelle XV Showcase in 1967.

    Two years later, he had developed the “alter ego” named Darcelle and came out as gay, according to a profile on the club’s website.

    He left his wife and began a relationship with his artistic director. During the 1970s, the Showplace became a popular destination for cabaret and drag performance.

    In 1999, Darcelle became the oldest drag performer on the West Coast, after the closing of San Francisco’s drag venue Finocchio’s Club.

    On Friday, fans including Portland’s mayor mourned Cole’s death on social media. Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden said in a social media post that “Darcelle carved out an unforgettable chapter in Portland’s history” with “pioneering courage.”

    Darcelle XV Showplace said that details of a public memorial will be announced and all shows will go on as scheduled, per Darcelle’s wishes.

    “Please join us and celebrate her legacy and memory, thank you in advance for your continued support,” the club’s statement said.

    ___

    Claire Rush is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. You can follow Rush on Twitter @ClaireARush.

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  • Drag community shows up to protest Nebraska drag show bill

    Drag community shows up to protest Nebraska drag show bill

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    LINCOLN, Neb. — A bill that would criminalize exposing anyone 18 or younger to a drag show in Nebraska was the last one to get a public hearing in this year’s legislative session late Friday. But those opposed to the bill made sure the final hearing went out with a flash of glitter and sequins.

    Among scores of people who showed up to voice their opposition were more than a dozen dressed in drag, including heavy makeup, wigs and evening gowns.

    The bill’s main sponsor, conservative Sen. Dave Murman of Glenvil, said the legislation is intended to protect children “from being exposed to overly-sexualized and inappropriate behavior far too early.”

    The bill defines drag as a performance by someone presenting a gender identity that is different than the performer’s gender assigned at birth. It would make exposing a minor to a drag show a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail. The bill comes amidst a national push by conservatives to restrict drag shows, transgender health care, bathroom access and how LGBTQ topics are discussed in schools.

    “Those who allow this kind of perversion should be held accountable,” Murman said.

    But Murman struggled to answer questions from Judiciary Committee members about how his bill would be enforced without violating the constitutional rights of drag performers, parents and others. Sen. Carol Blood, a Democrat from Bellevue asked how he would draw a line between drag and, say, musicians or actors who dress up in makeup and showy costumes for performances.

    When Murman said the difference would come down to how scantily dressed the performer was, another Democrat, Sen. Wendy DeBoer, asked whether that would include a cheerleader in uniform twerking at a game. Murman said it would not.

    “What you’re doing is cherry-picking a demographic, and that’s wrong,” Blood said.

    The fact that the hearing didn’t begin until after 5 p.m. Friday did little to dissuade the public from turning out to speak on it. The crowd filled the Judiciary Committee hearing room and spilled out nearly 100 deep into the Capitol hallways.

    Those supporting the bill expressed conspiracy theories of alleged efforts to indoctrinate children into queer society and used words like “groomers” and “woke culture” to describe drag shows.

    But the vast majority of those attending opposed the bill, including two who identify themselves as Polly Pocket and Baby Girl, who often read picture books to children at an Omaha church’s story hour. They defended such events and drag shows as simple fun and read from the children’s book “Unicorns Are the Worst!” at a rally held before the hearing to protest the drag bill and another to ban gender-affirming care for minors.

    “It’s just queer people showing queer art,” Polly Pocket said.

    The church where they perform, Urban Abbey, has been hosting drag story hours since 2018. But last Saturday, the show was interrupted by an emailed bomb threat that also threatened the church’s pastor and several staff members.

    “I have never in my life received an email that said, ‘Today you will die,’” Urban Abbey’s pastor, the Rev. Debra McKnight, said. “They listed my home address and the addresses of several staff members.”

    Sunday service the next day was also interrupted by an emailed bomb threat, she said, noting that Omaha police and the FBI are investigating.

    The bill could later be advanced or die in committee.

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  • NHL team won’t wear Pride jerseys, citing new Russian law

    NHL team won’t wear Pride jerseys, citing new Russian law

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    A National Hockey League team with a Russian player has decided against wearing special warmup jerseys to commemorate Pride night, citing an anti-gay Kremlin law that could imperil Russian athletes when they return home.

    The Chicago Blackhawks, who have at least two more players with connections to Russia, will not wear Pride-themed warmup jerseys before Sunday’s game against Vancouver, a person with knowledge of the matter told The Associated Press, because of security concerns involving the law, which expands restrictions on supporting LGBTQ rights. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed it in December.

    The decision was made by the Blackhawks following discussions with security officials within and outside the franchise, according to a person familiar with the situation who spoke Wednesday to the AP on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the move.

    Chicago coach Luke Richardson said Thursday that he and his players were disappointed and called it “an unfortunate situation.”

    “I don’t think we can control the world issues, so that takes it out of our hands,” Richardson said. “We’re just making decisions as best we can as an organization and for everybody.”

    The league declined to comment through a spokesperson.

    The decision comes amid increasing threats to freedom of expression in the U.S. and abroad. Conservative political forces have sought to ban LGBTQ-themed books from American school libraries and to forbid classroom lessons that mention sexuality and some aspects of race relations.

    Similar pressures have forced Russian players to walk a careful line since the invasion of Ukraine, with some cautiously speaking out against the war even with family members still living in Russia. Last year, Minnesota Wild star Kirill Kaprizov ran into several roadblocks as he traveled back to the U.S., raising concerns about his safety.

    “There’s such a sensitivity to the topic, and you have concerns for the Russians, especially,” Buffalo Sabres captain Kyle Okposo said, emphasizing that he does not “understand what it’s like to be in Russia and to grow up there. And I don’t think we’re able to speak about the psychology of those players because we don’t understand.”

    Chicago defenseman Nikita Zaitsev is a Moscow native, and there are other players with family in Russia or other connections to the country.

    The Florida Panthers — whose star goaltender, Sergei Bobrovsky, is Russian — went forward with plans to wear Pride-themed jerseys Thursday night before their home game against Toronto. Bobrovsky took part, while brothers Eric and Marc Staal did not, and cited religion as the reason.

    “We carry no judgement on how people choose to live their lives, and believe that all people should be welcome in all aspects of the game of hockey,” the Staal brothers said in a statement. “Having said that, we feel that by us wearing a Pride jersey it goes against our Christian beliefs.”

    The jerseys are just one part of many initiatives the Panthers built into the annual event, including auctioning off the jerseys, matching the money raised and donating it to nonprofits that work with the LGBTQ community.

    Speaking after Florida’s 6-2 loss, Panthers coach Paul Maurice described the Staal brothers as men of faith, and then noted how the rest of the team wore the warmup jerseys.

    “I love both of those men and they have the right to their opinion. I stand by that right,” he said. “But everyone else in the room has the right to put that sweater on proudly and wear it and be welcoming to all people in our community.”

    The Sabres and Vancouver Canucks have Pride nights upcoming. The Canucks have not announced specific plans for the event. Sabres management was scheduled to hold discussions Thursday with its player leadership group on the matter, amid concern over whether defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin will participate because he is from Moscow, where he still has family and returns in the offseason to visit.

    Lyubushkin and his family members could face a backlash in Russia, according to a Sabres employee with knowledge of the issue. The person spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the discussions.

    In other sports, members of Major League Baseball’s Tampa Bay Rays decided last season not to wear rainbow-colored logos on their uniforms as part of their Pride night. Women’s basketball star Brittney Griner, an American citizen who is gay, was arrested at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport last year after Russian authorities said she was carrying vape canisters with cannabis oil. She was imprisoned for eight months until a high-profile prisoner swap with the U.S.

    Kurt Weaver, chief operating officer of the You Can Play Project, which advocates for LGBTQ participation in sports, said he was upset when he learned of the Blackhawks’ decision, but he called the conversation an indicator of progress.

    “We are certainly disappointed that the jerseys aren’t worn, because that’s the No. 1 visual representation from the athletes themselves, and I know a lot of the athletes do support this effort and support their community that comes to watch them,” Weaver said, adding praise for the Blackhawks’ commitment to Pride causes dating back more than a decade.

    Ivan Provorov of the Philadelphia Flyers declined to take part in pregame warmups during the team’s Pride night in January, citing his Russian Orthodox religion. Russians Nikolai Knyzhov and Alexander Barabanov wore the Pride-themed jerseys for the San Jose Sharks Sharks on Saturday, when Canadian goaltender James Reimer refused to take part because, like the Staals, he said it conflicted with his religious beliefs.

    The New York Rangers and Minnesota Wild opted not to wear Pride jerseys or use Pride stick tape as part of their events despite previously advertising they would.

    The Blackhawks planned a variety of LGBT-related activities in conjunction with Sunday’s game. DJs from the LGBTQ community will play before the game and during an intermission, and the Chicago Gay Men’s Chorus is slated to perform. There also are plans to highlight a couple of area businesses with ties to the gay community.

    “We don’t want the jerseys to represent the entirety of the night,” Blackhawks defenseman Seth Jones said. “We’re still doing a lot for the LGBTQ community, and us as players respect that. We just thought that this was best for our team.”

    ___

    AP Sports Writers John Wawrow, Josh Dubow and Tim Reynolds, and AP freelance reporter George Richards contributed to this report.

    ___

    Follow Jay Cohen at https://twitter.com/jcohenap

    ___

    AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

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  • UN and US join chorus of condemnation against Uganda’s hardline anti-LGBT bill | CNN

    UN and US join chorus of condemnation against Uganda’s hardline anti-LGBT bill | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The United Nations and United States on Wednesday added to international outrage over a hardline bill passed by Ugandan lawmakers that criminalizes simply identifying as LGBTQ+, prescribes a life sentence for convicted homosexuals and a death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality.”

    The UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights asked Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni not to sign the bill passed by lawmakers on Tuesday. Volker Türk called the Anti Homosexuality Bill 2023 “draconian,” saying it would have negative repercussions on society as a whole and violates the nation’s constitution.

    “The passing of this discriminatory bill – probably among the worst of its kind in the world – is a deeply troubling development,” said a statement from Türk’s office.

    “If signed into law by the President, it will render lesbian, gay and bisexual people in Uganda criminals simply for existing, for being who they are. It could provide carte blanche for the systematic violation of nearly all of their human rights and serve to incite people against each other.”

    US Secretary of State Antony Blinken slammed the bill, which would “undermine fundamental human rights of all Ugandans and could reverse gains in the fight against HIV/AIDS,” he tweeted on Wednesday. “We urge the Ugandan Government to strongly reconsider the implementation of this legislation.”

    US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield spoke twice this week with Museveni to express “deep concern” about the legislation, a US official told CNN Wednesday.

    The new legislation constitutes a further crackdown on LGBTQ+ people in a country where same-sex relations were already illegal – punishable by life imprisonment. It targets an array of activities, and includes a ban on promoting and abetting homosexuality as well as conspiracy to engage in homosexuality.

    According to the bill, the death penalty can be invoked for cases involving “aggravated homosexuality” – a broad term used in the legislation to describe sex acts committed without consent or under duress, against children, people with mental or physical disabilities, by a “serial offender,” or involving incest.

    The bill must now go to Museveni for assent. Last week he derided homosexuals as “deviants.”

    Uganda made headlines in 2009 when it introduced an anti-homosexuality bill that included a death sentence for gay sex.

    The country’s lawmakers passed a bill in 2014, but they replaced the death penalty clause with a proposal for life in prison. That law was ultimately struck down.

    The new bill has wide public support in the highly conservative and religious East African nation, where anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment is deeply entrenched.

    But it has drawn strong criticism from civil society groups and LGBTQ+ activists. “It is another way of using the law to punish people who cause no harm but for being who they are,” said a tweet from Pan Africa ILGA.

    “As a community, partners and allies, we’ll do everything to ensure that the constitutional rights that are given to the LGBTI community are met and the legal provisions that are available for us will definitely be looked into if the president assents to this bill and it gets to be law,” activist Richard Lusimbo told CNN.

    Pepe Onziema, a transgender LGBTQ rights activist and program director of Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), a non-governmental organization for LGBTQ rights, whose operations were shut by authorities last year, told CNN members of the community were now living in fear.

    “We’ve been having quite excruciating anxiety from the threats of the bill. And now that it has actually passed in Parliament, the (LGBTQ) community is quite in fear,” Onziema said. “There’s a large community of LGBTQ persons in the country, so we can’t just give up. We’ll find different ways of working. We might not be as visible as we’ve been because there are attacks online as well.”

    African Rainbow Family, a UK-based charity that supports LGBTQ+ Africans seeking refuge in the UK, described the bill as an “assault” and “persecution” of Uganda’s LGBTQ community.

    “African Rainbow Family condemns in its entirety, the passing of the Ugandan ‘Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2023’ into law. The law is a violation of the fundamental human rights of LGBTIQ people in Uganda.

    “African Rainbow Family sees this law as again, an assault and added layer of State and non-State agents’ persecution of Ugandan LGBTIQ community,” it told CNN.

    Feminist writer and Human Rights Activist Rosebell Kagumire told CNN the new legislation could have other consequences beyond human rights violation.

    “Seeking to strip LGBTQIA persons of their whole humanity, it extends to deny them housing, education and health care. In a country where AIDS is still an epidemic and men who have sex with men and trans women (and) sex workers are still faced with higher incidence, this law will criminalize health care provision and defeat the whole struggle to end AIDS,” Kagumire said.

    For human rights lawyer Sarah Kihika Kasande, “If President Museveni assents to the bill, it will authorize state-sanctioned attacks and persecution against LGBTQ persons.”

    Seeking refuge elsewhere might be the “last resort” for some members of Uganda’s LGBTQ community, Onziema says.

    “Asylum is sort of a last resort for us, but for people who are really under a lot of threat and feel that they can’t live here anymore, as a leader in this community, I would definitely support them to seek refuge elsewhere.

    “But it’s difficult to seek asylum, especially as a Black queer person. Your chances are sort of narrowed down even further. But I believe that the few people who are looking at that as an option, we are hoping that the countries that they choose to go to for refuge will actually accept them and not further marginalize them,” he told CNN.

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  • A Texas university president canceled a student drag show, calling it ‘divisive’ and misogynistic. First Amendment advocates disagree | CNN

    A Texas university president canceled a student drag show, calling it ‘divisive’ and misogynistic. First Amendment advocates disagree | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    A student drag show aimed at raising money for the LGBTQ community was canceled Monday by West Texas A&M University’s president, who called such shows “derisive, divisive and demoralizing misogyny,” drawing backlash from students and free speech advocates.

    In an email to the school community, university President Walter V. Wendler said drag shows “discriminate against womanhood,” compared them to blackface and said there was “no such thing” as a harmless drag show.

    “A harmless drag show? Not possible. I will not appear to condone the diminishment of any group at the expense of impertinent gestures toward another group for any reason, even when the law of the land appears to require it,” the email read.

    Proceeds of the show were due to support The Trevor Project, a suicide prevention organization for LGBTQ young people.

    The show was scheduled for March 31.

    A university spokesperson declined to provide further comment on the president’s email, citing pending litigation.

    Wendler’s decision and remarks drew backlash from both students and advocates who said the move was wrong – and unconstitutional.

    A Change.org petition said the university’s student body “is calling for the reinstatement” of the performance on campus and called its canceling an “indirect attack on the LGBT+, feminist, and activist communities of the WTAMU student body.”

    The petition said the president’s comparison of blackface and drag performances was a “gross and abhorrent comparison of two completely different topics” and “an extremely distorted and incorrect definition of drag as a culture and form of performance art.”

    In a letter to Wendler, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a group focused on freedom of speech and religion in academia, wrote it was “seriously concerned” by his decision and asked that he reinstate the performance.

    “The First Amendment and Texas law protect student expression from administrative censorship,” FIRE said in a later statement.

    “As an individual, Wendler can criticize this particular drag show, or the existence of drag writ large. No reasonable person would argue that public university administrators personally endorse the views expressed at every event hosted by every student group on campus. But as a government actor, President Wendler cannot co-opt state power to force his own views on the WTAMU community,” the statement said.

    “WTAMU must allow the show to go on — and we’ll continue watching to ensure that happens,” it added.

    PEN America, a literary and free expression advocacy organization, called the cancellation an “abhorrent trampling on students’ free expression rights.”

    “Drag shows should be welcome on campus; censoring speech the university president dislikes should not,” Kristen Shahverdian, PEN America senior manager of free expression and education, said in a statement.

    As transgender issues and drag culture have increasingly become more mainstream, a slew of bills – mostly in Republican-led states – have sought to restrict or prohibit drag show performances.

    LGBTQ advocates have told CNN those bills add a heightened state of alarm for the community, are discriminatory and could violate First Amendment laws.

    Earlier in March, Tennessee became the first state this year to restrict public drag show performances. Its law will go into effect on July 1.

    A Texas House bill introduced this year also seeks to regulate public venues hosting drag performances.

    At least nine other states are also considering anti-drag legislation.

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  • Uganda parliament passes law criminalizing identifying as LGBTQ | CNN

    Uganda parliament passes law criminalizing identifying as LGBTQ | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Ugandan lawmakers have approved a law which imposes a punishment of up to 10 years in prison for identifying as LGBTQ+, among other things.

    The new legislation constitutes a further crackdown on LGBTQ+ people in a country where same sex relations are already illegal. It targets an array of activities, including banning promoting and abetting homosexuality as well as conspiracy to engage in homosexuality, Reuters reported.

    Opposition lawmaker Asuman Basalirwa introduced the Anti Homosexuality Bill 2023 to parliament, saying that the bill aims to “protect our church culture; the legal, religious and traditional family values of Ugandans from the acts that are likely to promote sexual promiscuity in this country.”

    “The objective of the bill was to establish a comprehensive and enhanced legislation to protect traditional family values, our diverse culture, our faiths, by prohibiting any form of sexual relations between persons of the same sex and the promotion or recognition of sexual relations between persons of the same sex,” said Basalirwa on Tuesday.

    Lawmaker Fox Odoi-Oywelowo spoke out against the bill, saying that it “contravenes established international and regional human rights standards” as it “unfairly limits the fundamental rights of LGBTQ+ persons.”

    Rights advocacy group Human Rights Watch warned earlier this month that the law would violate Ugandans’ rights to freedom of expression and association privacy, equality, and nondiscrimination.

    “One of the most extreme features of this new bill is that it criminalizes people simply for being who they are as well as further infringing on the rights to privacy, and freedoms of expression and association that are already compromised in Uganda,” said Oryem Nyeko, Uganda researcher at Human Rights Watch in a statement, calling on politicians in the country to “stop targeting LGBT people for political capital.”

    The bill is expected to eventually go to Ugandan president, Yoweri Museveni, for assent. Museveni last week derided homosexuals as “deviants.”

    Anti-LGBTQ sentiment is deeply entrenched in the highly conservative and religious east African nation.

    Uganda made headlines in 2009 when it introduced an anti-homosexuality bill that included a death sentence for gay sex.

    The country’s lawmakers passed a bill in 2014, but they replaced the death penalty clause with a proposal for life in prison. That law was ultimately struck down.

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  • Hundreds protest clampdown on same-sex parents in Milan | CNN

    Hundreds protest clampdown on same-sex parents in Milan | CNN

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    Rome, Italy
    CNN
     — 

    Hundreds took to the streets of Milan on Saturday to protest against moves by Italy’s new right-wing government to restrict the rights of same-sex parents.

    The demonstration, called “Hands Off Our Sons and Daughters,” took place in the historical Piazza della Scala pedestrian square and was organized by LGBTQ+ groups across the country.

    “You explain to my son that I am not his mother,” read one protest sign. Others held up ballpoint pens, used to sign birth registrations, in protest.

    Also present at the protests was Milan’s mayor Giuseppe Sala, who had earlier tweeted his support of same-sex families.

    Organizers estimated around 10,000 people took part while Milan city officials gave more modest estimates of hundreds.

    In 2016 Italy became the last country in Europe to legalize same-sex unions but it still does not recognize “stepchildren adoption” or surrogacy, which rights groups say is because of opposition from the Catholic Church.

    Its government led by far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, places a strong emphasis on traditional family values.

    Same-sex parents who wish to register their children born by surrogacy abroad have often had to just put one parental name on official birth registrations or take their cases to family court.

    Several cities, including the capital Rome and Milan, had instituted a Parent 1/Parent 2 policy on birth registrations rather than the traditional mother/father designations, but last week the Interior Ministry ordered the city of Milan to stop the practice.

    The Italian Interior Ministry said it would order other cities’ birth registrars to also halt the practice.

    Last week, the Italian senate voted against a measure introduced by the European Commission to make the recognition of same-sex parents mandatory.

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  • In wake of Florida law, additional states seek to restrict certain LGBTQ discussions in schools | CNN Politics

    In wake of Florida law, additional states seek to restrict certain LGBTQ discussions in schools | CNN Politics

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    Washington
    CNN
     — 

    Bills similar to Florida’s controversial legislation that bans certain instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity in schools are being considered in at least 15 states, data compiled by the American Civil Liberties Union and reviewed by CNN shows.

    Some of the bills go further than the Florida law, dubbed by its critics as “Don’t Say Gay,” which sparked a furious nationwide discussion about LGBTQ rights, education policy and parental involvement in the classroom.

    The debate reflects the sensitive forces of LGBTQ rights becoming increasingly ascendant at a time when some parents are seeking greater input in their children’s education, especially in the wake of the tumult wrought by the Covid-19 pandemic.

    Republicans, arguing that discussions around gender identity and sexuality are inappropriate for young children, have used the banner of “parental rights” to push for a curtailment of such conversations in schools, even though opinions on the matter vary widely among parents. LGBTQ rights advocates see a conscious decision to stigmatize a vulnerable slice of American society and a potential chilling effect on what they believe to be urgently needed discussions.

    “These bills are predicated on the belief that queer identities are a contagion while straight, cisgender identities are somehow more pure or correct,” Gillian Branstetter, a communications strategist for the ACLU, told CNN. “In truth, every student has a right to have their own life stories reflected back at them and every student benefits from stories that serve as a window into the lives of people different from them. Censorship and homogeneity benefit no one while denying all students an equal chance to learn, grow and thrive.”

    The ACLU has tracked a total of 61 bills across 26 states, though efforts in several states, including Mississippi and Montana, have already failed. Earlier this month, Arkansas approved restrictions against such discussions through the fourth grade.

    Ultimately, it’s unclear how many of the bills will be enacted. A Human Rights Campaign report released in January said that of 315 bills that they viewed as anti-LGBTQ that were introduced nationwide last year, only 29 – less than 10% – became law.

    Florida’s law, titled the “Parental Rights in Education” bill, prohibits classroom instruction about sexual orientation or gender identity in kindergarten through third grade “or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.” It also requires districts to notify a student’s parent if there’s a significant change in their mental or emotional well-being, which LGBTQ rights advocates argue could lead to some students being outed to their parents without the student’s knowledge or consent.

    “We will continue to recognize that in the state of Florida, parents have a fundamental role in the education, health care and well-being of their children. We will not move from that,” Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, said when he signed the bill in March 2022.

    According to the Movement Advancement Project, a nonprofit think tank that advocates for issues including LGBTQ rights, Florida’s law was the catalyst for the bills currently under consideration in other states, which include:

    • An Iowa bill that passed the state House last week that would prohibit instruction about gender identity and sexual orientation from kindergarten through sixth grade.
    • A bill in Oregon that would prohibit any discussion on sexual identity for grades kindergarten through third grade without parental notification and consent.
    • Legislation in Alaska that would require parental notification two weeks prior to “any activity, class or program that includes content involving gender identity, human reproduction or sexual matters is provided to a child.”
    • Multiple bills in Florida that seek to double down on last year’s legislation, including one that requires instruction that “sex is determined by biology and reproductive function at birth” and another that prohibits requirements for employees to use pronouns that do not correspond with a student’s sex.

    A recurring theme in the legislation is a requirement that school employees notify a parent if a child expresses a desire to be addressed by a pronoun that matches their gender identity if it differs from the one assigned at birth.

    “We’re not saying that you can’t do this,” Washington Republican state Sen. Phil Fortunato, who introduced legislation that would limit instruction on gender and sexual identity for kindergarten through third grade, told CNN. “I mean, I disagree with it, but, you know, if the parents and the child agree with it, that is their decision. But they shouldn’t be doing it behind the parent’s back when their kid goes to school. And that’s the point of the bill.”

    Missouri’s bill is uniquely far-reaching: no employee at a public or charter school would be allowed to “encourage a student under the age of eighteen years old to adopt a gender identity or sexual orientation,” though what the law means by “encourage” is not explained. School officials would be required to immediately notify parents if their child confides in them “discomfort or confusion” about their “official identity” and teachers would not be allowed to refer to a student by their preferred pronouns without first securing a parent’s approval.

    The bill specifically calls for whistleblower protections for school employees who report violators, who would then face “charges seeking to suspend or revoke the teacher’s license to teach based upon charges of incompetence, immorality or neglect of duty.”

    In a blog post entitled “Evil perpetrated on our children,” Missouri GOP state Sen. Mike Moon, who sponsored the legislation, called it a “lie that boys can be changed into girls and girls can be changed into boys.”

    “One thing we must agree on, though, is that parents are responsible for the upbringing of their children,” he continued. “To that end, parents must be involved in the education of their children.”

    The measures are likely to face swift legal challenges if enacted, though at least two efforts to block Florida’s law have so far failed to take it off the books. One of those lawsuits, brought by a group of students, parents and teachers in Florida, was thrown out last month by US District Judge Allen Winsor, a Trump appointee, who said the challengers were unable to show that they’ve been harmed by the law.

    “Plaintiffs have shown a strident disagreement with the new law, and they have alleged facts to show its very existence causes them deep hurt and disappointment,” Winsor wrote in his order. “But to invoke a federal court’s jurisdiction, they must allege more. Their failure to do so requires dismissal.”

    At the heart of opponents’ concerns is the vagueness in the laws’ language as written. LGBTQ issues are not generally a formal part of public school curricula, they point out, leaving educators with the prospect of having to determine where legal fault lines are drawn with nothing less than their careers at stake.

    “What counts as classroom discussion? As classroom instruction? Does it just include the curriculum for the class?” asked Alice O’Brien, the general counsel for the Alice O’Brien, in an interview with CNN. “For example, does it include teachers’ lesson plans, or does it sweep so broadly as to include classroom discussion? A teacher answering a student’s question, a teacher perhaps intervening in an incident where one student is bullying another student because of that student’s prestige, sexual orientation or gender identity? It’s very unclear what is prohibited and what is not prohibited.”

    There are other concerns. Naomi G. Goldberg, the deputy director of MAP, worries about a “chilling effect on teachers themselves in terms of their ability to support students in the classroom as well as the students themselves in the classroom.”

    A similar point was made in a CNN op-ed last year by Claire McCully, a trans mother who is outraged over Florida’s law.

    “Like any other parent, I expect my family to be welcomed and accepted by others at the school,” McCully wrote. “And of course, this acceptance might be more likely if some of the children’s stories read in classrooms feature two dads, two moms or even a trans mom.”

    Cathryn Oakley, the state legislative director and senior counsel of the Human Rights Campaign, told CNN that using a student’s preferred pronouns is harmless to other students but deeply meaningful to trans children themselves. She urged a cautious approach that recognizes the need for schools to be a safe space for vulnerable children, particularly if there is a risk that outing a child before they are ready could lead to “family rejection or even violence.”

    “No one is suggesting that this is information that won’t be relevant to parents,” she said. “But what we are saying is that young folks should be able to have this conversation on their own terms with their parents and not have a third party be forced to broker a conversation that could put that child in danger.”

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  • Michigan adds LGBTQ protections to anti-discrimination law

    Michigan adds LGBTQ protections to anti-discrimination law

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    LANSING, Mich. — Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed legislation Thursday codifying LGBTQ protections into the state’s civil rights law, permanently outlawing discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity in the state.

    The legislation follows a state Supreme Court ruling last year that the Michigan’s Elliot-Larsen Civil Rights Act, which outlaws discrimination in employment, housing, public accommodations and education on the basis of sex, extended to sexual orientation as well.

    Whitmer’s signature Thursday ensures that the high court’s ruling cannot be reversed in the future and goes one step further in extending protections to include gender identity or expression. It comes at a time, Whitmer said, when there’s a “nationwide assault on our LGBTQ-plus community, especially our trans neighbors, family and friends.”

    “There are state legislatures across this country dedicating themselves to legalizing discrimination,” Whitmer said. “In Michigan, we will keep expanding freedoms and getting things done on the issues that actually make a difference in people’s lives.”

    Democrats took full control of the state government this year for the first time in 40 years and have worked quickly to undo decades of Republican measures. The Michigan Legislature advanced a repeal of the state’s “right-to-work” law earlier this week. On Thursday, the Senate passed an 11-bill gun safety package.

    Michigan was previously one of 29 states that did not have laws explicitly protecting LGBTQ people from discrimination, according to the gay rights group the Human Rights Campaign, and Michigan Democrats made it a top priority this year after seeing the effort blocked by Republicans for years.

    The Michigan House and Senate passed the LGBTQ protections earlier this month with the large majority of Republicans voting in opposition, claiming that it could infringe on religious groups’ rights.

    The bill’s sponsor, Jeremy Moss, the state’s first openly gay state senator, said Thursday that amending the state’s civil rights act to include LGBTQ protections has been 40 years in the making. “This baton has been passed from generation to generation,” he said.

    The Elliot-Larsen Civil Rights Act also prohibits discrimination based on religion, race, color, national origin, age, sex, height, weight, familial status and marital status.

    Former Republican Rep. Mel Larsen, who helped author the civil rights act alongside Democratic Rep. Daisy Elliott in 1976, attended the bill signing in Lansing and said the “original intent, and the intent still, is that every citizen of Michigan has the right to be protected under the Elliot-Larsen Civil Rights Act.”

    The anti-discrimination legislation also comes at a time when advocates for LGBTQ rights say Republican-led states across the country are trying to erase the legal existence of people who are trans and to restrict the expression of those who are nonbinary, gender-fluid or who perform in drag.

    Earlier this month, Tennessee became the first state to severely limit drag show performances as other Republican-led states consider similar measures. An increasing number of states have also banned, or are considering banning, gender-affirming medical care for young people.

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  • Biden says efforts to restrict transgender rights ‘close to sinful’ | CNN Politics

    Biden says efforts to restrict transgender rights ‘close to sinful’ | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    President Joe Biden called efforts to restrict transgender rights in Florida “close to sinful” in an interview released Monday, suggesting federal laws should be passed to protect those rights in all states.

    “What’s going on in Florida is, as my mother would say, close to sinful. It’s just terrible what they’re doing,” Biden said during an interview with Kal Penn for “The Daily Show.”

    Biden’s comments came as an unprecedented number of measures are introduced in state legislatures this year that are seeking to restrict LGBTQ rights. The proposed bills cover a wide range of policies, including some that seek to restrict transgender people from competing on sports teams or using bathrooms that align with their gender identity.

    Youth and medical care is a growing legislative focus. Florida will soon enact a measure banning gender-affirming medical care for youth, including barring doctors from prescribing puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgeries for patients under 18. Tennessee passed a law this month banning gender-affirming care for transgender youth.

    Biden didn’t specify which rules he found offensive, but said that efforts to restrict the rights of trans individuals were “cruel.”

    “It’s not like a kid wakes up one morning and says, You know, I decided I wanted to become a man or want to become a woman or I want to change. I mean, what are they thinking about here? They’re human beings. They love, they have feelings, they have inclinations,” he said.

    “It just, to me, is, I dunno, it’s cruel,” he went on.

    “And the way we do it is make sure we pass legislation like we passed on same-sex marriage. You mess with that, you’re breaking the law, and you’re going to be held accountable,” he said.

    At least 385 bills targeting LGBTQ rights and queer life have been introduced around the country through March 7, according to data compiled by the American Civil Liberties Union. The number of bills has already surpassed last year’s total of 306, according to ACLU data shared with CNN.

    In the interview, Biden also affirmed his support for same-sex marriage, describing an epiphany when he was young after seeing two “well-dressed men” kissing outside an office building in Delaware.

    “I’ll never forget – I turned and looked at my dad. He said, ‘Joey, it’s simple. They love each other,’” he said.

    Despite the early view into same-sex relationships, Biden still voted for the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996 when he was a senator, which defined marriage as between a man and a woman.

    His views on the issue evolved, and in 2012, when he was serving a vice president, Biden delivered an unexpected endorsement of same-sex marriage in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

    At the end of last year, Biden signed into law landmark new federal protections for same-sex and interracial couples, capping both a personal and national evolution on an issue that’s enjoyed growing acceptance over the past decade.

    In the interview, Biden lightly ribbed Penn – an actor who also worked in the Obama White House – for putting off marriage after getting engaged to his partner five years ago.

    “Listen to your auntie and your uncle: get married. Do it now. Don’t wait,” he said.

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