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Tag: lgbtq people

  • Kansas nears ban on transgender athletes in women’s sports

    Kansas nears ban on transgender athletes in women’s sports

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    TOPEKA, Kan. — The Republican-controlled Kansas Legislature gave final approval Thursday to a ban on transgender athletes in girls’ and women’s sports, and they appear for now to have the votes to override the Democratic governor’s expected veto.

    The state Senate voted 28-11 to approve the bill, which would impose the ban for K-12, college and club sports, starting July 1. It next goes to Gov. Laura Kelly, as the state House approved it two weeks earlier on an 82-40 vote.

    Kelly vetoed two previous versions of the ban. Republicans made it a major issue when she ran for reelection last year, focusing multiple television ads on it. While she won a narrow victory, supporters of a ban appeared to pick up just enough legislative seats to have the two-thirds majorities necessary in both chambers to override a veto.

    If they are successful, Kansas would join at least 18 other states with laws limiting girls’ and women’s sports to athletes who had female anatomy at birth. The measure also is part of GOP conservatives’ broader national campaign against transgender rights, which includes bans on gender-affirming care for minors, preventing transgender people from using facilities associated with their gender identities and blocking them from changing their driver’s licenses and birth certificates.

    “This is a really, really aggressive backlash — this sort of very pointed, very vicious attack on trans rights,” said Jenna Bellemere, a 19-year-old transgender woman and University of Kansas student. “It’s a backlash to the fact that the world is changing and it’s been changing for a very long time.”

    Supporters of restricting transgender athletes argue that it’s necessary to preserve fair competition. They also argue that allowing transgender athletes to compete costs cisgender girls and women scholarships and other opportunities, and undoes decades of progress against sex discrimination in sports.

    Kansas officials and LGBTQ-rights advocates say only a handful of transgender youth participate in high school activities — and possibly only one trans Kansas girl is on a sports team. But backers of the bill argue that the state should act before transgender athletes become more prevalent.

    Republican state Sen. Renee Erickson, a former college basketball player, said that opponents of the bill don’t seem concerned about the mental health of cisgender girls “who will be forced to undress” around transgender girls or women.

    “I’m not willing to wait until a Kansas girl is put into this situation,” she said.

    In the Senate, supporters on Thursday had one more vote than a two-thirds majority — the minimum needed to override Kelly’s expected veto.

    In the House, supporters need 84 votes for a two-thirds majority. While they had 82 votes last month, two Republicans were absent.

    Last year, supporters appeared to be two votes short of a two-thirds majority in the House. But in last year’s elections, three GOP freshmen who supported a ban replaced three Republicans who’d voted against overriding Kelly’s veto last year.

    “Who wouldn’t vote for fairness in women’s sports?” said state Rep. Carrie Barth, one of the three new Republicans, summarizing what she said were bipartisan comments in her eastern Kansas district.

    Last year, no Democrats voted to override Kelly’s veto. In the House last month, one lawmaker, Rep. Ford Carr, of Wichita, did. While Carr did not immediately respond to a cell phone message seeking comment Thursday, he told the Kansas City Star last month that he had listened to his constituents in deciding how to vote.

    Opponents of the bill are working to get Carr or a Republican to switch to no for a vote on overriding the expected Kelly veto.

    Meanwhile, LGBTQ-rights advocates also are bracing for further legislative battles this year.

    “Targeting a marginalized population for the sake of political advantage is a time-honored tradition in conservative politics,” said Rabbi Moti Rieber, executive director of Kansas Interfaith Action, which supports LGBTQ rights.

    The Senate last month approved a bill aimed at blocking gender-affirming care for minors, and it is awaiting a House committee hearing.

    The Senate also passed a measure to legally define male and female based only on a person’s anatomy at birth, which advocates say would erase transgender people’s legal existence. A House committee approved it Wednesday, and a debate in the full House is possible as early as next week.

    Adam Kellogg, a 19-year-old transgender man and University of Kansas student, said the message from the Legislature is, “We don’t want you. We don’t care about you.”

    He added: “This hurts real people in real time, and it’s an active attempt to take us off the map entirely.”

    ___

    Follow John Hanna on Twitter: https://twitter.com/apjdhanna

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  • Trailblazing transgender lawmaker Georgina Beyer dies at 65

    Trailblazing transgender lawmaker Georgina Beyer dies at 65

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    WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Georgina Beyer, a trailblazing New Zealand politician who in 1999 became the world’s first openly transgender member of Parliament, died Monday at the age of 65.

    Friends of Beyer said she died peacefully in hospice care. They did not immediately give a cause of death, although Beyer had previously suffered from kidney failure and underwent a kidney transplant in 2017.

    New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said he didn’t know Beyer well personally but knew she had a large following within New Zealand and had made a lasting impression on the nation’s parliament.

    “I certainly think that Georgina has blazed a trail that has made it much easier for others to follow,” Hipkins said.

    Friend Malcolm Vaughan said Monday he was still with Beyer, who he had known for decades, and didn’t yet feel ready to talk about her life. He and husband Scott Kennedy instead put out a statement.

    “Georgie was surrounded by her nearest and dearest 24/7 over the past week, she accepted what was happening, was cracking jokes and had a twinkle in her eye, right until the final moment,” they wrote.

    They said she was a national treasure, or “taonga” in Indigenous Māori.

    “Farewell Georgie, your love, compassion and all that you have done for the rainbow and many other communities will live on for ever,” they wrote.

    Beyer, who was Māori, worked as a sex worker and nightclub performer before turning to politics. In 1995 she was elected mayor of the small North Island town of Carterton. Four years later, she won national office for the liberal Labour Party and remained a lawmaker until 2007.

    She helped pass the landmark 2003 Prostitution Reform Act, which decriminalized sex work.

    In a speech to lawmakers at the time, she said the protections the new law offered might have spared her being dragged into the sex industry at the age of 16, and from sex workers being threatened and raped without being able to seek help from police.

    “I think of all the people I have known in that area who have suffered because of the hypocrisy of our society, which, on the one hand, can accept prostitution, while, on the other hand, wants to push it under the carpet and keep it in the twilight world that it exists in,” she told lawmakers.

    In 2004, she helped pass a law allowing same-sex civil unions. Nine years later, New Zealand passed a law allowing same-sex marriage.

    Politicians from both sides of the aisle mourned her death Monday. Nicola Willis, the deputy leader of the conservative National Party, recalled Beyer as brave and gracious.

    “We came from different political sides but she had the power to breach the divide,” Willis wrote on Twitter.

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  • As Tennessee, others target drag shows, many wonder: Why?

    As Tennessee, others target drag shows, many wonder: Why?

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    NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — “If I hadn’t been a girl, I’d have been a drag queen.”

    Dolly Parton has uttered those words famously and often. But if she really were a drag queen, one of Tennessee’s most famous daughters would likely be out of a job under legislation signed into law by Republican Gov. Bill Lee on Thursday.

    Lee signed off on the legislation without issuing a statement or having a public ceremony. The bill goes into effect July 1.

    Across the country, conservative activists and politicians complain that drag contributes to the “sexualization” or “grooming” of children. Several states are considering restrictions, but none has acted as fast as Tennessee. The efforts seek to extinguish popular “ drag story hours ” at which queens read to kids. Organizers of LGBTQ Pride events say they put a chill on their parades. And advocates note that the bills, pushed largely by Republicans, burden businesses in an un-Republican fashion.

    The protestations have arisen fairly suddenly around a form of entertainment that has long had a place on the mainstream American stage.

    Milton Berle, “Mr. Television” himself, was appearing in drag on the public airwaves as early as the 1950s on “Texaco Star Theater.” “RuPaul’s Drag Race” is a bona fide cultural phenomenon. Highly popular drag brunches bring revenue to restaurants. That such spectacles are now being portrayed as a danger to children boggles the minds of people who study, perform and appreciate drag.

    “Drag is not a threat to anyone. It makes no sense to be criminalizing or vilifying drag in 2023,” said Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes, a professor of culture and gender studies at the University of Michigan and author of “Translocas: The Politics of Puerto Rican Drag and Trans Performance.”

    “It is a space where people explore their identities,” said La Fountain-Stokes, who has done drag himself. “But it is also a place where people simply make a living. Drag is a job. Drag is a legitimate artistic expression that brings people together, that entertains, that allows certain individuals to explore who they are and allows all of us to have a very nice time. So it makes literally no sense for legislators, for people in government, to try to ban drag.”

    Drag does not typically involve nudity or stripping, which are more common in the separate art of burlesque. Explicitly sexual and profane language is common in drag performances, but such content is avoided when children are the target audience. At shows meant for adults, venues or performers generally warn beforehand about age-inappropriate content.

    The word “drag” does not appear in the Tennessee bill. Instead, it changes the definition of adult cabaret in Tennessee’s law to mean “adult-oriented performances that are harmful to minors.” It also says “male or female impersonators” now fall under adult cabaret among topless dancers, go-go dancers, exotic dancers and strippers.

    The bill then bans adult cabaret from public property or anywhere minors might be present. It threatens performers with a misdemeanor charge, or a felony if it’s a repeat offense.

    The bill has raised concerns that it could be used to target transgender people, but sponsors say that is not the intent.

    The Tennessee Pride Chamber, a business advocacy group, predicted that “selective surveillance and enforcement” will lead to court challenges and “massive expenses” as governments defend an unconstitutional law that will harm the state’s brand.

    “Tourism, which contributes significantly to our state’s growth and well-being, may well suffer from boycotts disproportionately affecting members of our community who work in Tennessee’s restaurants, arts, and hospitality industries,” chamber President Brian Rosman wrote in an email to The Associated Press. “Corporations will not continue to expand or relocate here if their employees — and their recruits — don’t feel safe or welcomed in Tennessee.”

    John Camp, a Pride organizer in Knoxville, said the event in Tennessee’s third-largest city will be somber this October — describing it as “more of a march than a celebration.” There were 100 drag performers last year, he said, but he is unsure how many can participate this year.

    Several other states, including Idaho, Kentucky, North Dakota, Montana, Oklahoma and Utah, are considering similar bans. And the Arkansas governor recently signed a bill that puts new restrictions on “adult-oriented” performances. It originally targeted drag shows but was scaled back following complaints of anti-LGBTQ discrimination.

    “I find it irresponsible to create a law based on a complete lack of understanding and determined willful misinterpretation of what drag actually is,” Montana state Rep. Connie Keogh said in February during floor debate. “It is part of the cultural fabric of the LGBTQ+ community and has been around for centuries.”

    Tennessee state Sen. Jack Johnson, the Republican sponsor, says his bill addresses “sexually suggestive drag shows” that are inappropriate for children.

    Months ago, organizers of a Pride festival in Jackson, west of Nashville, came under fire for hosting a drag show in a park. A legal complaint spearheaded by a Republican state representative sought to prevent the show, but organizers reached a settlement to hold it indoors, with an age restriction.

    And in Chattanooga, false allegations of child abuse spread online after far-right activists posted video of a child feeling a female performer’s sequined costume. Online commentators falsely said the performer was male, and it has gone on to be used as a rationale to ban children from drag shows.

    “Rather than focus on actual policy issues facing Tennesseans, politicians would rather spend their time and effort misconstruing age-appropriate performances at a library to pass as many anti-LGBTQ+ bills as they can,” Sarah Warbelow, legal director for the Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement last week.

    At times, the vitriol has become violence. Protesters, some of them armed, threw rocks and smoke grenades at one another outside a drag event in Oregon last year.

    The Tennessee drag bill marks the second major proposal targeting LGBTQ people that lawmakers in the state have passed this year. Last week, lawmakers approved legislation that bans most gender-affirming care. Lee also signed that bill into law on Thursday.

    Lee was fielding questions Monday from reporters about the legislation and other LGBTQ bills when an activist asked him if he remembered “dressing up in drag in 1977.” He was presented with a photo that showed the governor as a high school senior dressed in women’s clothing that was published in the Franklin High School 1977 yearbook. The photo was first posted on Reddit over the weekend.

    Lee said it is “ridiculous” to compare the photo to “sexualized entertainment in front of children.” When asked for specific examples of inappropriate drag shows taking place in front of children, Lee did not cite any, only pointing to a nearby school building and saying he was concerned about protecting children.

    ___

    McMillan reported from northeastern Pennsylvania. Associated Press writers Jonathan Matisse in Nashville and Amy Beth Hanson in Helena, Montana, contributed to this report.

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  • As Tennessee, others target drag shows, many wonder: Why?

    As Tennessee, others target drag shows, many wonder: Why?

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    NASHVILLE, Tenn. — NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — “If I hadn’t been a girl, I’d have been a drag queen.”

    Dolly Parton has uttered those words famously and often. But if she really were a drag queen, one of Tennessee’s most famous daughters would likely be out of a job under legislation passed Thursday and soon heading to Republican Gov. Bill Lee, who has promised to sign it.

    Across the country, conservative activists and politicians complain that drag shows contribute to the “sexualization” or “grooming” of children. Several states are considering restrictions, but none has acted as fast as Tennessee to ensure drag shows cannot take place in public or in front of children. Organizers of LGBTQ Pride events say such bans put a chill on their popular parades. And advocates note that the bills, pushed largely by Republicans, burden businesses in an un-Republican fashion.

    The protestations have arisen fairly suddenly around a form of entertainment that has long had a place on the mainstream American stage.

    Milton Berle, “Mr. Television” himself, was appearing in drag on the public airwaves as early as the 1950s on “Texaco Star Theater.” “RuPaul’s Drag Race” is a bona fide cultural phenomenon. Highly popular drag brunches bring revenue to restaurants. That such spectacles are now being portrayed as a danger to children boggles the minds of people who study, perform and appreciate drag.

    “Drag is not a threat to anyone. It makes no sense to be criminalizing or vilifying drag in 2023,” said Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes, a professor of culture and gender studies at the University of Michigan and author of “Translocas: The Politics of Puerto Rican Drag and Trans Performance.”

    “It is a space where people explore their identities,” said La Fountain-Stokes, who has done drag himself. “But it is also a place where people simply make a living. Drag is a job. Drag is a legitimate artistic expression that brings people together, that entertains, that allows certain individuals to explore who they are and allows all of us to have a very nice time. So it makes literally no sense for legislators, for people in government, to try to ban drag.”

    Drag does not typically involve nudity or stripping, which are more common in the separate art of burlesque. Explicitly sexual and profane language is common in drag performances, but such content is avoided when children are the target audience, such as at drag story hours. At shows meant for adults, venues or performers generally warn beforehand about age-inappropriate content.

    The word “drag” does not appear in the Tennessee bill. Instead, it changes the definition of adult cabaret in Tennessee’s law to mean “adult-oriented performances that are harmful to minors.” It also says “male or female impersonators” now fall under adult cabaret among topless dancers, go-go dancers, exotic dancers and strippers.

    The bill then bans adult cabaret from public property or anywhere minors might be present. It threatens performers with a misdemeanor charge, or a felony if it’s a repeat offense.

    The Tennessee Pride Chamber, a business advocacy group, predicted that “selective surveillance and enforcement” will lead to court challenges and “massive expenses” as governments defend an unconstitutional law that will harm the state’s brand.

    “Tourism, which contributes significantly to our state’s growth and well-being, may well suffer from boycotts disproportionately affecting members of our community who work in Tennessee’s restaurants, arts, and hospitality industries,” chamber President Brian Rosman wrote in an email to The Associated Press. “Corporations will not continue to expand or relocate here if their employees — and their recruits — don’t feel safe or welcomed in Tennessee.”

    John Camp, a Pride organizer in Knoxville, said the event in Tennessee’s third-largest city will be somber this October — describing it as “more of a march than a celebration.” There were 100 drag performers last year, he said, but he is unsure how many can participate this year.

    Several other states, including Idaho, Kentucky, North Dakota, Montana and Oklahoma, are considering similar bans. And the Arkansas governor recently signed a bill that puts new restrictions on “adult-oriented” performances. It originally targeted drag shows but was scaled back following complaints of anti-LGBTQ discrimination.

    “I find it irresponsible to create a law based on a complete lack of understanding and determined willful misinterpretation of what drag actually is,” Montana state Rep. Connie Keogh said in February during floor debate. “It is part of the cultural fabric of the LGBTQ+ community and has been around for centuries.”

    Tennessee Sen. Jack Johnson, the Republican sponsor, says his bill addresses “sexually suggestive drag shows” that are inappropriate for children.

    Months ago, organizers of a Pride festival in Jackson, west of Nashville, came under fire for hosting a drag show in a park. A legal complaint spearheaded by a Republican state representative sought to prevent the show, but organizers reached a settlement to hold it indoors, with an age restriction.

    And in Chattanooga, false allegations of child abuse spread online after far-right activists posted video of a child feeling a female performer’s sequined costume. Online commentators falsely said the performer was male, and it has gone on to be used as a rationale to ban children from drag shows.

    “Rather than focus on actual policy issues facing Tennesseans, politicians would rather spend their time and effort misconstruing age-appropriate performances at a library to pass as many anti-LGBTQ+ bills as they can,” Sarah Warbelow, legal director for the Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement last week.

    At times, the vitriol has become violence. Protesters, some of them armed, threw rocks and smoke grenades at one another outside a drag event in Oregon last year.

    The Tennessee drag bill marks the second major proposal targeting LGBTQ people that lawmakers in the state have passed this year. Last week, lawmakers approved legislation that bans most gender-affirming care. Lee says he plans on signing the bill.

    Lee was fielding questions Monday from reporters about the legislation and other LGBTQ bills when an activist asked him if he remembered “dressing up in drag in 1977.” He was presented with a photo that showed the governor as a high school senior dressed in women’s clothing that was published in the Franklin High School 1977 yearbook. The photo was first posted on Reddit over the weekend.

    Lee said it is “ridiculous” to compare the photo to “sexualized entertainment in front of children.” When asked for specific examples of inappropriate drag shows taking place in front of children, Lee did not cite any, only pointing to a nearby school building and saying he was concerned about protecting children.

    ___

    McMillan reported from northeastern Pennsylvania. Associated Press writers Jonathan Matisse in Nashville and Amy Beth Hanson in Helena, Montana, contributed to this report.

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  • Tennessee pushes to define ‘sex,’ could risk federal funding

    Tennessee pushes to define ‘sex,’ could risk federal funding

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    NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee Republican lawmakers on Wednesday advanced legislation that would prevent transgender people from changing their driver’s licenses and birth certificates, a move that officials warn could cost the state millions in federal funding.

    “In my view, this body should do what’s right regardless of the cost,” said Republican Rep. Gino Bulso, the bill’s sponsor. “I don’t care what it costs to do what’s right.”

    LGBTQ-rights advocates have long argued that having a driver’s license or birth certificate match a person’s identity is not only personally important but also beneficial to avoiding harassment.

    If enacted, the proposal would define male and female in state law and base people’s legal gender identities on their anatomy at birth. A handful of Republican-led states have introduced similar bills — including Kansas, Texas and Oklahoma — as GOP lawmakers have put transgender issues at the forefront of their legislative agenda.

    Legislative officials tasked with calculating the fiscal impact of bills have stated that Bulso’s bill would likely open the state to “civil litigation and could jeopardize federal funding” because it could conflict with federal rules.

    According to the fiscal review, this means Tennessee could potentially lose $1.2 billion of federal education funding and $750,000 of federal grants dedicated to help women and children. Other state and local governments could also be impacted, but the review did not detail a specific amount.

    “To enact this bill’s strict binary understanding of sex is to sentence me to purgatory,” said Dahron Johnson, a transgender woman who testified against the bill on Wednesday. “Especially since there is no definition of transgender persons or other formal statement of our status, or even mentioned us in the Tennessee code.”

    While the legislation cleared a House legislative committee on Wednesday, it still has several hurdles to go in both chambers.

    “God created man, He created woman. He put them in this world to procreate and to read and replenish the world,” said Republican Rep. Rusty Grills. “And when we continue to spit in the face of God as a nation, we’re going in the wrong direction.”

    Medical experts say that at birth, external genital anatomy can be ambiguous, sometimes because of differences in sex development, or intersex conditions, which affect about 1% of the population.

    Intersex conditions can involve external genitals that don’t match a person’s sex chromosomes. In one condition, testes develop internally but external genitals and breasts appear female. These babies are usually assigned female at birth, but their bodies will never produce eggs.

    Republican Gov. Bill Lee hasn’t publicly said if he supports the legislation, but he has previously said he plans on signing a bill that would ban gender-affirming care for most transgender youth and a bill that will limit where drag shows can take place.

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  • West Virginians clash over religious freedom bill at hearing

    West Virginians clash over religious freedom bill at hearing

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    CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Some people said West Virginia needs a law to codify the right of residents to challenge government regulations that interfere with their religious beliefs because of growing threats to their constitutional freedoms.

    Others who spoke during a public hearing at the state Capitol Friday said they are worried the proposal advancing in the Legislature will be used as a tool to discriminate against LGBTQ people and other marginalized groups.

    “Exercising your religion does not mean discriminating or condemning people because they do not have same beliefs as you,” said Jessica Eplin, who said she is worried about how the proposed law could affect her as an atheist and her child, who is transgender.

    The bill, which passed the House Judiciary Committee earlier this week and is now before the full House of Delegates, would require a government entity to have a compelling reason to burden someone’s constitutional right to freedom of religion and to meet its goals in the least restrictive way possible.

    A similar bill failed in 2016 after lawmakers voiced concerns about how it could affect LGBTQ residents. Then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch Carmichael wiped away tears on the Senate floor as he spoke in support of Democratic-proposed amendment that would bar the legislation from being used to discriminate against LGBTQ people.

    The bill also dictates that the proposed law could not be used to permit access to abortion, which was banned by West Virginia lawmakers last year. The provision was included as abortion rights groups are challenging abortion bans in some states by arguing the bans — supported by certain religious principles — violate the religious rights of people with different beliefs.

    Republican sponsors say the bill has good intentions. Del. Chris Pritt of Kanawha County, who is a Christian, said the bill would make West Virginia attractive to economic development. He said it’s not just about protecting Christians, but religious minorities in the state, too.

    But Catherine Jones, a gay woman, said the bill would do nothing but “legalize discrimination against already marginalized communities.” She said she fears the bill could allow businesses to challenge city ordinances prohibiting discrimination in housing or employment based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

    “I should not be afraid of not being served at a restaurant because I have a different relationship than you do,” she told lawmakers. “This bill will do nothing but spread hate and violence across our state.”

    At least 23 other states have religious freedom restoration acts. The laws are similar to the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act, signed in 1993 by President Bill Clinton, which allows federal regulations that interfere with religious beliefs to be challenged.

    Eli Baumwell, advocacy director and the Interim executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia, said the 1993 federal law was designed to designed to protect people, especially religious minorities, from laws that affected their ability to engage in personal practices of their faith.

    “Unfortunately, people have seized upon a good idea and turn it a shield into a sword,” said Baumwell, who spoke in opposition to the bill. “RFRAs today are promoted by organizations and ideologies and aren’t concerned about individual religious observances. They’re focused on circumventing laws that require fair and equal treatment.”

    People who spoke in support of the bill said they were concerned about the government imposing vaccination requirements against people’s religious beliefs and restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic that limited in-person worship in states across the U.S.

    Monica Ballard Booth said she supports the bill because she wants to see equal protection for people of all faiths. “Since some have questioned why this was necessary, I’ll tell you why it’s necessary: Christians are the most persecuted group in the world,” she said.

    Pastor Bo Burgess of West Virginia Baptists for Biblical Values said he doesn’t believe the bill could be used to discriminate against anyone — it’s about protecting people from discrimination, she said.

    “This legislation doesn’t allow me or a business to go around and attack other people groups,” he said. “There’s no people group language in the bill.”

    Baptist Pastor Dan Stevens of Wood County said people like him want the same benefits of equal protection as people who oppose the bill.

    “We live out our firmly held religious beliefs and convictions about marriage, the family, human sexuality, the value of human life from conception to the grave without fear,” he said. “This bill designed not as a tool of discrimination used by people of faith but to protect the people of faith against discrimination for those who are opposed to our beliefs and our lifestyle.”

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  • South Korean court grants gay couple health benefits in landmark ruling | CNN

    South Korean court grants gay couple health benefits in landmark ruling | CNN

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    Seoul, South Korea
    CNN
     — 

    A South Korean court on Tuesday ruled in favor of a same-sex couple seeking equal health benefits, overturning a lower court’s earlier decision in a ruling hailed by supporters and activists as the first recognition of the legal rights of such couples.

    The plaintiff, So Seong-wook, had previously been registered as a “spousal dependent” for state health insurance coverage, under the government-affiliated National Health Insurance Service (NHIS), according to his lawyer Park Han-hee.

    But the NHIS revoked So’s rights as a dependent and imposed premium payments after realizing he was in a same-sex relationship, Park told reporters after Tuesday’s hearing.

    South Korea does not legally recognize same-sex marriage.

    So and his partner sued the NHIS in 2021 citing discrimination, but lost in a lower court. They appealed the decision, with South Korea’s High Court ruling in their favor on Tuesday.

    The NHIS now has two weeks to appeal against the High Court’s decision.

    “After the first trial, despite the loss, I said that our love won, is winning and will win. And today demonstrates more clearly that our love has won and is winning,” So said Tuesday. “I’m really happy that through this ruling, the world will be more aware of the inequality that my husband and I, as well as other sexual minorities in South Korea, have gone through.”

    LGBTQ organizations and supporters around the world also celebrated the decision.

    Korean advocacy group Gagoonet, which includes the law firm representing So and his partner, congratulated the couple in a statement Tuesday, saying it welcomed “the first ruling where the judiciary recognized the equal rights of same-sex couples.”

    Amnesty International also praised the ruling, with its East Asia Researcher Boram Jang saying it “moves South Korea closer to achieving marriage equality” and “offers hope that prejudice can be overcome.”

    However, Jang added, the country has a long way to go. For instance, it has no anti-discrimination law despite years of campaigning and multiple draft legislation proposals.

    South Korea has also drawn international criticism for its military penal code, which makes sexual activity between men punishable by up to two years in prison. In past years, dozens have been arrested in what critics have called a “gay witch-hunt.”

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  • US Rep. Cicilline to step down, lead nonprofit foundation

    US Rep. Cicilline to step down, lead nonprofit foundation

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    Rhode Island congressman David Cicilline said Tuesday he will step down this summer to lead his home state’s largest funder of nonprofits.

    The Democrat, who is a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the House Committee on the Judiciary, was named president and CEO of the Rhode Island Foundation, effective June. 1.

    “Serving the people of Rhode Island’s First Congressional District has been the honor of my lifetime,” said Cicilline, who is serving his seventh term. “As President and CEO of one of the largest and oldest community foundations in the nation, I look forward to expanding on the work I have led for nearly thirty years in helping to improve the lives of all Rhode Islanders.”

    Cicilline, 61, said the opportunity to lead the foundation was unexpected, but gives him the opportunity to “have an even more direct and meaningful impact on the lives of residents of our state.”

    The Rhode Island Foundation, founded in 1916, focuses on supporting economic security, affordable health care, as well as education and job training. It raised $98 million in 2021 and awarded $76 million in grants, according to its website.

    Cicilline takes over for Neil Steinberg, who will continue as president and CEO until Cicilline starts. The congressman has “the experience, the skills, the passion, and the network to ably lead the Foundation,” Steinberg said.

    Cicilline was selected after a national search.

    “Congressman Cicilline’s career-long fight for equity and equality at the local, national and international level, and his deep relationships within Rhode Island’s communities of color are two of the many factors that led us to this decision,” said Dr. G. Alan Kurose, chair of the foundation’s board of directors, said in a statement.

    Cicilline has represented Rhode Island in the U.S. House since 2011.

    The news of his retirement comes months after he withdrew his bid for a leadership post in the House this Congress. Cicilline, who is openly gay, had challenged Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina for the Democrat’s assistant role, arguing that it was time the party’s leadership table included LGBTQ voices.

    But Clyburn, the highest-ranking Black American in Congress, received unanimous support from the caucus in closed-door elections in December to stay in leadership.

    The challenge to Clyburn was a surprise, but Cicilline said at the time that he felt the need to act to ensure the Democratic leadership “fully reflect the diversity” of the caucus and of the country.

    During his tenure he was a frequent critic of big tech and the amount of power the nation’s tech companies held. He was a House impeachment manager during former President Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial, and a lead sponsor of the legislation that gave federal recognition to same-sex marriages.

    Cicilline previously served as mayor of Providence from 2003 to 2011, and in the state legislature from 1995 until 2003. He has degrees from Brown University and Georgetown University Law Center.

    Rhode Island’s other longtime Democratic representative, Jim Langevin, served his last day in office earlier this year after announcing in January 2022 that he would not seek reelection to the seat he has held since 2001. He was replaced by another Democrat, Seth Magaziner.

    Under state law, Rhode Island’s governor can set a date for a special election to find Cicilline’s successor.

    ___

    Associated Press writer Farnoush Amiri in Washington, D.C. contributed to this story.

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  • Court to reconsider Connecticut’s transgender athlete policy

    Court to reconsider Connecticut’s transgender athlete policy

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    HARTFORD, Conn. — A federal appeals court has reinstated a challenge to Connecticut’s policy of allowing transgender girls to compete in girls high school sports, two months after a three-judge panel upheld the rules.

    The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City said the full court will rehear the appeal of four cisgender runners who said they were unfairly forced to race against transgender athletes in high school competitions.

    The court said in a decision Monday that a majority of its judges voted in favor of rehearing the appeal, a rare move by the court. The court did not say why it voted on whether to rehear the case, and none of the parties to the lawsuit requested a rehearing.

    The court has become more conservative in recent years, with five of its 13 judges — excluding several senior judges — having been appointed by former President Donald Trump.

    Christiana Kiefer, a lawyer with the conservative Alliance Defending Freedom, which represented the four Connecticut cisgender athletes, said the group was pleased by the court’s decision.

    “Every woman deserves the respect and dignity that comes with having an equal opportunity to excel and win in athletics, and ADF remains committed to protecting the future of women’s sports,” Kiefer said in a statement.

    Transgender athletes’ ability to compete in sports is the subject of a continuing national debate. Eighteen states have passed laws banning transgender women or girls in sports based on the premise it gives them an unfair competitive advantage.

    The four cisgender runners filed a lawsuit in 2020 against the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference, the state’s high school sports governing body, as well as several local school districts.

    They sought injunctions to bar enforcement of the state policy on transgender athletes and to remove records set by transgender athletes from the books between 2017 and 2020. They also sought money damages. All the student athletes involved in the lawsuit have since graduated.

    In December, a three-judge panel said the four cisgender athletes lacked standing to sue — in part because their claims that they were deprived of wins, state titles and athletic scholarship opportunities were speculative.

    CIAC officials declined to comment Tuesday. The organization has said its policy is designed to comply with a state law that requires all high school students be treated according to their gender identity. It also said the policy is in accordance with Title IX, the federal law that allows girls equal educational opportunities, including in athletics.

    Two transgender sprinters at the center of the lawsuit — Terry Miller and Andraya Yearwood, from Bloomfield and Cromwell, respectively — frequently outperformed their cisgender competitors.

    They were defended in the lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union, which said Tuesday that it looked forward to defending the state’s policy again.

    “As the initial ruling found, cisgender girls lose nothing from the participation of transgender girls and Connecticut’s policy simply recognizes the right of all student athletes to equal participation and protection under Title IX,” Joshua Block, an attorney for the ACLU, said in a statement.

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  • GOP lawmakers escalate fight against gender-affirming care with bills seeking to expand the scope of bans | CNN Politics

    GOP lawmakers escalate fight against gender-affirming care with bills seeking to expand the scope of bans | CNN Politics

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    Washington
    CNN
     — 

    A flurry of bills seeking to restrict access to gender-affirming care for trans youth have been introduced by Republican state lawmakers this year, with debates around the issue reaching new heights thanks to proposals that would dramatically expand the scope of bans on such care.

    More than 80 bills seeking to restrict access to gender-affirming care have been introduced around the country through February 9, according to data compiled by the American Civil Liberties Union and shared with CNN.

    Gender-affirming care is medically necessary, evidence-based care that uses a multidisciplinary approach to help a person transition from their assigned gender – the one the person was designated at birth – to their affirmed gender – the gender by which one wants to be known.

    Though many of the bills introduced so far this year target trans youth and their access to gender-affirming care, at least four states saw bills introduced this session that would restrict such care for individuals over the age of 18, including at least two states where proposed bans covered people under the age of 26.

    Legislation aimed at trans adults has alarmed LGBTQ advocates, who worry that even if those measures don’t become law, they will make future bills exclusively targeting minors seem like sensible compromises.

    The slew of new bills underscores the shifting policy goals of some conservatives seeking to politicize the lives of transgender Americans by imposing restrictions on a small and vulnerable group that, LGBTQ advocates say, are largely misunderstood, making their existence ripe for attacks. A number of GOP-led states have in recent years been successful in banning trans youth from competing on sports teams that match their gender identity, but now it appears the focus has largely turned to gender-affirming care.

    “It’s really, I think, a big but important, notable moment that they’re no longer pretending that this is about caring about young folks, and making it very clear that all that they really want to do is prevent trans folks from being able to receive medically necessary, life-saving care basically at any age,” said Cathryn Oakley, state legislative director and senior counsel for the Human Rights Campaign, one of the nation’s largest LGBTQ rights groups.

    “They have abandoned women’s sports entirely but doubled down on trying to hurt trans kids,” she added. “So, you know, the through line here is about hurting trans people. And yes, they’re looking for the next discriminatory measure that they can get passed.”

    In pushing the health care bans, Republicans have argued that decisions around such care should be made after an individual becomes an adult – a position that is facing intense scrutiny as some lawmakers have moved the age goalpost this year.

    Many of the bills likely won’t get far in the legislative process. An HRC report released last month said that of the 315 anti-LGBTQ bills introduced in 2022, only 29 – or less than 10% – became law. Still, the influx of bills this session is already helping to grow the small group of states that previously enacted bans on gender-affirming care.

    Last month, Utah became the first state this year to enact a ban on gender-affirming care for trans youth, joining Arkansas, which enacted its ban in 2021, and Alabama, which put a similar ban on its books last year. Arizona also enacted restrictions on gender-affirming care in 2022, though its ban was less sweeping than the others.

    Two of those laws have already brought forth a complicated legal landscape around the issue. The ACLU sued Arkansas over its ban and a federal judge temporarily blocked it in 2021, and Alabama’s law was partially blocked by a federal judge last May.

    As states consider the dozens of health care bans introduced this year, they’ll do so under threat of federal legal action, with the legislative efforts having caused the US Department of Justice to take notice.

    Last year, DOJ’s Civil Rights Division sent a stern warning to state attorneys general on the matter, saying in a letter that it “is committed to ensuring that transgender youth, like all youth, are treated fairly and with dignity in accordance with federal law.”

    “Intentionally erecting discriminatory barriers to prevent individuals from receiving gender-affirming care implicates a number of federal legal guarantees,” the letter read in part.

    Major medical associations agree that gender-affirming care is clinically appropriate for children and adults with gender dysphoria, which, according to the American Psychiatric Association, is psychological distress that may result when a person’s gender identity and sex assigned at birth do not align.

    Though the care is highly individualized, some children may decide to use reversible puberty suppression therapy. This part of the process may also include hormone therapy that can lead to gender-affirming physical change. Surgical interventions, however, are not typically done on children and many health care providers do not offer them to minors.

    LGBTQ advocates have long argued that the health care bans further marginalize a vulnerable community and could cause serious harm to a group that suffers from uniquely high rates of suicide.

    “LGBTQ youth are not inherently prone to mental health challenges and suicide. They are placed at higher risk by the hostility and discrimination they face because of who they are,” said Kasey Suffredini of the Trevor Project, a nonprofit that works to prevent suicide among LGBTQ youth. “It is on adults to carry young people through this period until we get to the place where lawmakers aren’t attacking these young people anymore.”

    At least four states saw bills introduced this year that would restrict gender-affirming care for individuals over the age of 18, dramatically raising the bar in Republicans’ efforts to regulate such care.

    Among those bills was one in Mississippi that would have criminalized people who provided or aided in the provision of gender-affirming care for individuals under the age of 21, with violators of the ban facing “the felony crime of ‘gender disfigurement.’” If convicted, a violator could have been sentenced to a maximum of five years in prison and face a fine of at least $10,000. That bill, however, died in committee in late January.

    A Kansas bill would prohibit medical professionals from “knowingly performing … or causing to be performed” gender-affirming care on an individual under the age of 21 and would make violations of the ban a felony under state law. The bill makes some exceptions, including in the case of someone born intersex.

    A bill in South Carolina, meanwhile, would impose similar restrictions. But the measure, among other things, would require someone older than 21 who is seeking gender-affirming care to first get a referral from their “primary care physician and a referral from a licensed psychiatrist who must certify that the person has been diagnosed with gender dysphoria or a similar condition by the psychiatrist and that the psychiatrist believes that gender transition procedures would be appropriate for the person.”

    Two near-identical bills in South Carolina and Oklahoma go a step further, providing that a “physician or other healthcare professional shall not provide gender transition procedures” to anyone under the age of 26. Medical professionals convicted of violating the act would be guilty of a felony, with a conviction in Oklahoma carrying a maximum sentence of five years in prison. The bills also prohibit public funds from being used “directly or indirectly” at organizations that provide such care.

    “Surgical and chemical genital mutilation has been occurring in our great state, and it must be stopped,” the bill’s sponsor, Oklahoma GOP state Sen. David Bullard, said in a statement, using incendiary language to describe the clinically appropriate health care he’s trying to restrict.

    The statement said Bullard “chose the age of 26 to account for scientific findings that the brain does not fully develop and mature until the mid- to late 20s with the prefrontal cortex, the part responsible for critical skills like planning and controlling urges, developing last.”

    Bullard’s bill was later gutted by a Senate committee, with the changes removing the ban on care but maintaining the public funds prohibition.

    “These are people who are old enough to enlist in the military, buy guns, buy alcohol, buy tobacco, get married, do a variety of other things that we leave to adults to do,” Oakley said. “And yet we would be forbidding them from being able to receive gender affirming care, as if that is in some way a more permanent decision.”

    The push to restrict gender-affirming care has been a central focus for a number of well-funded national right-wing groups, including the conservative American Principles Project.

    The group’s president, Terry Schilling, told CNN that it works with states to introduce and pass such bans, saying their overall goal is to eliminate gender-affirming care for all Americans, regardless of age. “The movement to oppose (gender-affirming care) has never said, ‘we only care about children.’ We’ve said, ‘we want to protect children,’” he said.

    “And so, we want to protect who we can as quick as possible. And the group of people that we can protect as quick as possible is children,” Schilling added. “And so that’s the thrust of the strategy – is we want to protect everyone from this stuff. But ultimately, we have to start with children because that’s where the vast majority of the American people are right now.”

    Lawmakers in Texas have introduced a number of bills that would outlaw gender-affirming care for trans youth, with most of them setting up blanket bans similar to ones being floated elsewhere.

    But the state is also attempting to approach the issue in a unique way, with lawmakers there having introduced at least four bills that would expand the definition of child abuse to include providing gender-affirming care to minors.

    The bills are seeking to codify a non-legally binding opinion released last year by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton that said providing gender-affirming surgical procedures and drugs that affect puberty should be considered child abuse under state law.

    Paxton’s move prompted the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services to begin investigating parents who provide their children with such care. But LGBTQ advocates sued, and a district judge ruled last September that the state cannot pursue investigations into parents providing such care if their children and those families are part of one of the groups suing the state.

    One of the bills states in part that abuse “includes the following acts by a medical professional or mental health professional for the purpose of attempting to change or affirm a child ‘s perception of the child’s sex, if that perception is inconsistent with the child ‘s biological sex.”

    When Republican state Rep. Bryan Slaton pre-filed the bill last year, he said in a statement that it “will designate genital removal surgeries, chemical castration, puberty blockers, and other sex change therapies as child abuse.”

    Elsewhere, states are pushing ahead with bans similar to the ones in Arkansas and Alabama that are currently in legal jeopardy.

    In Utah, the Republican-controlled legislature moved a ban on gender-affirming care for minors through the statehouse in under a month, with Republican Gov. Spencer Cox giving it his stamp of approval in late January.

    “More and more experts, states and countries around the world are pausing these permanent and life-altering treatments for new patients until more and better research can help determine the long-term consequences,” Cox said in a statement explaining his decision to sign the bill into law.

    “This is a devastating and dangerous violation of the rights and privacy of transgender Utahns, their families, and their medical providers,” said Chase Strangio, deputy director for transgender justice at the ACLU, in a statement. “Claims of protecting our most vulnerable with these laws ring hollow when lawmakers have trans children’s greatest protectors – their parents, providers, and the youth themselves – pleading in front of them not to cut them off from their care.”

    LGBTQ advocates hoped Cox would veto the ban, pointing to the governor’s decision last year to veto an anti-trans sports bill in the state. At the time, he questioned the need for it and stressed that it targets a marginalized group that suffers from high rates of suicide. Lawmakers, however, quickly overrode his veto, with the drama underscoring how Republicans are not always in lockstep on matters pertaining to the LGBTQ community.

    Last month, Mississippi’s House passed a bill that similarly makes it illegal to “knowingly provide gender transition procedures to any person under” the age of 18. Physicians and other medical professionals found to have violated the ban would have their license to practice health care in the state revoked.

    “I just believe a child needs to wait until they’re 18-years-old, then they can make their own decision,” the bill’s sponsor, Republican state Rep. Gene Newman, told CNN. Decisions about the type of care Newman’s bill seeks to limit, however, are made by a mix of people, including a child’s parents and the medical provider.

    A South Dakota bill would also prohibit health care professionals in the state from providing gender-affirming care to minors. Like the Mississippi bill, providers found to be in violation of the ban by a professional or occupational licensing board would get their license to practice medicine revoked, according to the bill. The bill cleared South Dakota’s Senate on Thursday and is now headed to Republican Gov. Kristi Noem, who is supportive of the legislation.

    South Dakota has been especially hostile to trans youth in recent years, with Noem having signed a bill last year banning transgender women and girls in the state from competing on sports teams consistent with their gender at accredited schools and colleges. That legislation codified an executive order the governor signed in 2021.

    As lawmakers continue to debate these bans, advocates like Strangio, who is involved in the ACLU’s legal fight against some of the bans, are vowing to take states to court over any enacted restrictions.

    “It will be the government’s burden to defend it in court,” he told a Tennessee House committee last month that went on to approve a ban there. “And Tennessee, like Alabama, like Texas, like Arkansas, will not be able to do so.”

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  • Pandemic youth mental health toll unprecedented, data show

    Pandemic youth mental health toll unprecedented, data show

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    The pandemic took a harsh toll on U.S. teen girls’ mental health, with almost 60% reporting feelings of persistent sadness or hopelessness, according to a government survey released Monday that bolsters earlier data.

    Sexual violence, suicidal thoughts, suicidal behavior and other mental health woes affected many teens regardless of race or ethnicity, but girls and LGBTQ youth fared the worst on most measures, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report. More than 17,000 U.S. high school students were surveyed in class in the fall of 2021.

    In 30 years of collecting similar data, “we’ve never seen this kind of devastating, consistent findings,” said Kathleen Ethier, director of CDC’s adolescent and school health division. “There’s no question young people are telling us they are in crisis. The data really call on us to act.”

    The research found:

    — Among girls, 30% said they seriously considered attempting suicide, double the rate among boys and up almost 60% from a decade ago.

    — Almost 20% of girls reported experiencing rape or other sexual violence in the previous year, also an increase over previous years.

    — Almost half of LGBTQ students said they had seriously considered a suicide attempt.

    — More than a quarter of American Indians and Alaska Natives said they had seriously considered a suicide attempt — higher than other races and ethnicities.

    — Feelings of persistent sadness and hopelessness affected more than one-third of kids of all races and ethnicities and increased over previous years.

    — Recent poor mental health was reported by half of LGBTQ kids and almost one-third of American Indian and Alaska Native youth.

    The results echo previous surveys and reports and many of the trends began before the pandemic. But isolation, online schooling and increased reliance on social media during the pandemic made things worse for many kids, mental health experts say.

    The results “reflect so many decades of neglect towards mental health, for kids in particular,” said Mitch Prinstein, the American Psychological Association’s chief science officer. “Suicide has been the second- or third-leading cause of death for young people between 10 and 24 years for decades now,” and attempts are typically more common in girls, he said.

    Prinstein noted that anxiety and depression tend to be more common in teen girls than boys, and pandemic isolation may have exacerbated that.

    Comprehensive reform in how society manages mental health is needed, Prinstein said. In schools, kids should be taught ways to manage stress and strife, just as they are taught about exercise for physical disease prevention, he said.

    In low-income areas, where adverse childhood experiences were high before the pandemic, the crisis has been compounded by a shortage of school staff and mental health professionals, experts say.

    School districts around the country have used federal pandemic money to hire more mental health specialists, if they can find them, but say they are stretched thin and that students who need expert care outside of school often can’t get it because therapists are overburdened and have long waitlists.

    ___

    AP writer Jocelyn Gecker contributed in San Francisco contributed to this report.

    ___

    Follow AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner at @LindseyTanner.

    ___

    The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • Pope, Anglican, Presbyterian minister denounce anti-gay laws

    Pope, Anglican, Presbyterian minister denounce anti-gay laws

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    ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE — Pope Francis, the head of the Anglican Communion and top Presbyterian minister together denounced the criminalization of homosexuality on Sunday and said gay people should be welcomed by their churches.

    The three Christian leaders spoke out on LGBTQ rights during an unprecedented joint airborne news conference returning home from South Sudan, where they took part in a three-day ecumenical pilgrimage to try to nudge the young country’s peace process forward.

    They were asked about Francis’ recent comments to The Associated Press, in which he declared that laws that criminalize gay people were “unjust” and that “being homosexual is not a crime.”

    South Sudan is one of 67 countries that criminalizes homosexuality, 11 of them with the death penalty. LGBTQ advocates say even where such laws are not applied, they contribute to a climate of harassment, discrimination and violence.

    Francis referred his Jan. 24 comments to the AP and repeated that such laws are “unjust.” He also repeated previous comments that parents should never throw their gay children out of the house.

    “To condemn someone like this is a sin,” he said. “Criminalizing people with homosexual tendencies is an injustice.”

    “People with homosexual tendencies are children of God. God Loves them. God accompanies them,” he added.

    The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, recalled that LGBTQ rights were very much on the current agenda of the Church of England, and said he would quote the pope’s own words when the issue is discussed at the church’s upcoming General Synod.

    “I wish I had spoken as eloquently and clearly as the pope. I entirely agree with every word he said,” Welby said.

    Recently, the Church of England decided to allow blessings for same-sex civil marriages but said same-sex couples could not marry in its churches. The Vatican forbids both gay marriage and blessings for same-sex unions.

    Welby told reporters that the issue of criminalization had been taken up at two previous Lambeth Conferences of the broader Anglican Communion, which includes churches in Africa and the Middle East where such anti-gay laws are most common and often enjoy support by conservative bishops.

    The broader Lambeth Conference has come out twice opposing criminalization, “But it has not really changed many people’s minds,” Welby said.

    The Rt. Rev. Iain Greenshields, the Presbyterian moderator of the Church of Scotland who also participated in the pilgrimage and news conference, offered an observation.

    “There is nowhere in my reading of the four Gospels where I see Jesus turning anyone away,” he said. “There is nowhere in the four Gospels where I see anything other than Jesus expressing love to whomever he meets.

    “And as Christians, that is the only expression that we can possibly give to any human being, in any circumstance.”

    The Church of Scotland allows same-sex marriages. Catholic teaching holds that gay people must be treated with dignity and respect, but that homosexual acts are “intrinsically disordered.”

    ___

    Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

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  • Pope, Anglican, Presbyterian minister denounce anti-gay laws

    Pope, Anglican, Presbyterian minister denounce anti-gay laws

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    ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE — Pope Francis, the head of the Anglican Communion and top Presbyterian minister together denounced the criminalization of homosexuality on Sunday and said gay people should be welcomed by their churches.

    The three Christian leaders spoke out on LGBTQ rights during an unprecedented joint airborne news conference returning home from South Sudan, where they took part in a three-day ecumenical pilgrimage to try to nudge the young country’s peace process forward.

    They were asked about Francis’ recent comments to The Associated Press, in which he declared that laws that criminalize gay people were “unjust” and that “being homosexual is not a crime.”

    South Sudan is one of 67 countries that criminalizes homosexuality, 11 of them with the death penalty. LGBTQ advocates say even where such laws are not applied, they contribute to a climate of harassment, discrimination and violence.

    Francis referred his Jan. 24 comments to the AP and repeated that such laws are “unjust.” He also repeated previous comments that parents should never throw their gay children out of the house.

    “To condemn someone like this is a sin,” he said. “Criminalizing people with homosexual tendencies is an injustice.”

    “People with homosexual tendencies are children of God. God Loves them. God accompanies them,” he added.

    The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, recalled that LGBTQ rights were very much on the current agenda of the Church of England, and said he would quote the pope’s own words when the issue is discussed at the church’s upcoming General Synod.

    “I wish I had spoken as eloquently and clearly as the pope. I entirely agree with every word he said,” Welby said.

    Recently, the Church of England decided to allow blessings for same-sex civil marriages but said same-sex couples could not marry in its churches. The Vatican forbids both gay marriage and blessings for same-sex unions.

    Welby told reporters that the issue of criminalization had been taken up at two previous Lambeth Conferences of the broader Anglican Communion, which includes churches in Africa and the Middle East where such anti-gay laws are most common and often enjoy support by conservative bishops.

    The broader Lambeth Conference has come out twice opposing criminalization, “But it has not really changed many people’s minds,” Welby said.

    The Rt. Rev. Iain Greenshields, the Presbyterian moderator of the Church of Scotland who also participated in the pilgrimage and news conference, offered an observation.

    “There is nowhere in my reading of the four Gospels where I see Jesus turning anyone away,” he said. “There is nowhere in the four Gospels where I see anything other than Jesus expressing love to whomever he meets.

    “And as Christians, that is the only expression that we can possibly give to any human being, in any circumstance.”

    The Church of Scotland allows same-sex marriages. Catholic teaching holds that gay people must be treated with dignity and respect, but that homosexual acts are “intrinsically disordered.”

    ___

    Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

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  • Republicans across the country push legislation to restrict drag show performances | CNN Politics

    Republicans across the country push legislation to restrict drag show performances | CNN Politics

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    Washington
    CNN
     — 

    A slew of bills, mostly in Republican-led states, are looking to restrict or prohibit drag show performances in the presence of children, part of a larger fight over a burgeoning culture war issue.

    Republicans say the performances expose children to sexual themes and imagery that are inappropriate, a claim rejected by advocates, who say the proposed measures are discriminatory against the LGBTQ community and could violate First Amendment laws.

    As transgender issues and drag culture are increasingly becoming more mainstream, such shows – which often feature men dressing as women in exaggerated makeup while singing or entertaining a crowd, though some shows feature bawdier content – have occasionally been the target of attacks, and LGBTQ advocates say the bills under consideration add to a heightened state of alarm for the community.

    Bills in at least 11 states across the country are working their way through legislatures, though none have yet been signed into law, according to a CNN review.

    Legislation in Tennessee and Arizona, which seek to limit “adult cabaret performances” on public property so as to shield them from the view of children, threaten violators with a misdemeanor and repeat offenders with a felony. A bill in the Texas legislature would include restaurants and bars that host drag performances under the state’s definition of a “sexually oriented business.”

    Under the terms presently being considered in West Virginia, parents or guardians of children who are either involved in drag shows or permit their children to be in the presence of one could be “required to complete parenting classes, substance abuse counseling, anger management counseling or other appropriate services” as determined by the state.

    Shangela, a drag performer who has competed on “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” told CNN in an interview that as the drag community has gained visibility, “it becomes a greater target and a greater point of possible division.”

    “Now (people are) seeing drag. They’re seeing it on their cable networks, they’re seeing it in film, and it’s being represented authentically. And it’s forcing, it’s driving conversations that have never had to be had before. And some people are afraid of that,” she said.

    Jonathan Hamilt, the executive director of Drag Story Hour, a non-profit organization that features performers reading to children, believes bigotry is the motivation behind the bills.

    “If drag wasn’t rooted in gay culture and rooted in queer community, I don’t think it’d be up for debate,” Hamilt said. “Nobody is banning clowns, nobody is banning miming. This is nothing new, this is just the 2023 trending version of what homophobia looks like.”

    “Drag meddles in stories about gender, beauty, and culture,” drag queen Sasha Velour wrote for CNN in 2017. “Even in the act of lip syncing, we choose a song – a preexisting story that’s deemed ‘straight’ or ‘normal’ or ‘nothing out of the ordinary’ – and then we squeeze our beautiful queer bodies into it, shifting the meaning, disrupting the total effect. Drag makes room for us queers as we are (or perhaps more importantly, as we imagine ourselves) in the center of every recognizable narrative.”

    Republican sponsors of some bills, however, claim such performances are adult in nature and potentially harmful to children.

    “When you take one of these little kids and put them in front of drag queens that are men dressed like women, do you think that helps them or confuses them in regard to their own gender?” Arkansas state Sen. Gary Stubblefield, a Republican who sponsored legislation that passed in the state Senate last month, asked during floor remarks.

    “This bill is not anti-drag. It is pro-child,” Tennessee state Sen. Jack Johnson told CNN in a statement. “I am carrying the legislation to protect children from being exposed to sexually explicit drag shows that are inappropriate for minor audiences. It is similar to laws that prohibit children from going to a strip club.”

    Johnson’s press secretary, Molly Gormley, insisted to CNN that the bill, which looks to limit “entertainment that appeals to a prurient interest,” is specifically aimed at “sexually explicit” drag performances and that the senator is “not taking issue with drag shows or children at drag shows.”

    A Montana bill, which flatly seeks to prohibit children from attending drag shows, would block drag performances at publicly funded libraries or schools, a reference to events such as Drag Queen Story Hours, which have occasionally faced backlash from far-right groups. During an event last year, Proud Boys interrupted as drag queen Panda Dulce was reading to children at the San Lorenzo Library in California.

    Several sponsors to whom CNN spoke said some constituents complained about the shows, while others offered anecdotal examples of performances they described as sexually explicit.

    “You have the constitutional right as an adult to engage in sexual activity, you have the constitutional right to go to a drag performance. And no one in Texas is actually trying to stop that,” said Texas state Rep. Nate Schatzline, a Republican. “I think when we see minors involved in activities that are inappropriate for a child to be involved in, that’s where we as legislators have to step up and say, ‘Hey, we have to draw a line,’ because ultimately it’s our job to protect the liberties of those that are citizens in the state of Texas and to protect those that can’t protect themselves.”

    Advocates of LGBTQ and free speech rights fear that the laws, if passed, would have a chilling effect on the performances and argue that the language is vague.

    “It’s not clear to me that a trans man for example, who wrote a book, would be able to do a book reading at a local book store under these bills. A high school couldn’t perform a Shakespeare play like Twelfth Night because Twelfth Night explicitly in its plot includes a woman dressed as a man,” said Kate Ruane, the director of Pen America’s US Free Expression program.

    Sarah Warbelow, the legal director for the Human Rights Campaign, noted that the bills don’t amount to outright bans on drag performances but “libraries, book stores, regular theaters and restaurants would have to comply with all adult business regulations, and they are unlikely to do that so they’re more likely to cancel the shows.”

    Some drag shows indeed may be inappropriate for children, Shangela acknowledged. But, she said, “you can’t characterize the world of the drag by one particular type of show, the same way that you can’t characterize the way a television film by one particular program.”

    “The world of drag is no different than any other aspect of entertainment in our world,” she said. “If you are a parent that is concerned about what your child is seeing, then you stay involved in what you’re allowing your child to be exposed to.”

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  • Superbowl LVI was crypto’s coming out party. This year, the party’s over | CNN Business

    Superbowl LVI was crypto’s coming out party. This year, the party’s over | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    Super Bowl LVI was the crypto world’s coming out party. Buzzy firms made bold pitches last year, and shelled out millions of dollars on ads encouraging viewers not to be afraid of this new-fangled digital investment — and for God’s sake don’t miss out on this exciting opportunity!

    You can expect a lot less noise from Team Crypto during Super Bowl LVII next Sunday.

    In the year since those celebrity-packed ads debuted, the entire crypto industry has been rattled by a collapse in digital asset values. Bankruptcies began to pile up over the summer.

    Then the real pain started.

    Of the four crypto or crypto-affiliated companies that advertised in the Super Bowl last year, one (FTX) has collapsed completely. The others (Coinbase, Crypto.com and eToro) have fought against industry headwinds. Shares of Coinbase, the only publicly traded company in the group, have fallen more than 60% since its “floating QR code” ad became one of the most talked-about spots.

    Don’t expect any of those companies to be back this year. FTX is bankrupt and under criminal investigation by federal prosecutors. Etoro, a multi-asset trading platform, confirmed to CNN it would not be splurging on an ad this year, saying that while it continues to invest heavily in marketing, “we dial up or down specific channels based on many factors including market conditions.”

    Coinbase declined to comment. Representatives for Crypto.com — the company behind the ad featuring LeBron James telling his younger self to “call your own shots” — didn’t respond to requests for comment.

    But there will be at least one crypto-adjacent newcomer. Limit Break, a blockchain-based game developer, has secured a spot and intends to give away 40,000 NFTs, or non-fungible tokens (aka one-of-a-kind digital collectibles) to viewers who scan its QR code. Limit Break, founded in 2021, said it has already raised $200 million and expects to grow “a massive global audience.”

    Despite what is being called a “crypto winter,” sports advertising remains a crucial avenue for the digital curency, marketing experts say, as their target demographics share significant overlap — sports fans and crypto traders tend to be mostly male and mostly young.

    But turmoil in the crypto space means marketers are changing their tactics.

    “The tone has shifted towards Web3-driven fan engagement over crypto-specific advertising,” said Silvia Lacayo, head of marketing at crypto exchange Bitstamp US. (Web3 refers to a future internet framework that is decentralized and gives consumers more control over their own data).

    “Crypto firms are focusing less on crypto advertising and more on investing in better user experiences, products, and customer service,” Lacayo added.

    Although we don’t yet know the final lineup of advertisers for the Super Bowl, the usual suspects — beer, snacks, cars — are on deck as usual.

    “The fact that the crypto players are not going to be on the Super Bowl reflects the fact that that world has profoundly changed,” Calkins said. “Last year it was an exuberant time for crypto … This year, everything is different.”

    A year ago, FTX fetched a private valuation of around $32 billion. Its Super Bowl ads featured Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen. Another FTX ad featured Larry David in a role that, a year later, appears prescient, with David sarcastically predicting that FTX won’t make it.

    In November, nine months after the ad debuted, FTX filed for bankruptcy. Several former executives have been charged with wire fraud and conspiracy over allegations FTX misappropriated customer funds.

    “It’s amazing how you can look back one year you realize we were in such a different place,” Calkins said. “Last year we had a Super Bowl advertiser saying, ‘fly me to the moon,’” he said, referencing the music in eToro’s ad, which many read as a nod to the meme-stock traders’ rally cry.

    But a year of higher inflation, the end of pandemic-era stimulus and higher interest rates has put a damper on financial markets — not only crypto, but traditional markets as well.

    That shift in mood will likely show up in the kinds of advertisers we see and in their messaging.

    “Our economy’s in a strange place,” Calkins says. “So if you’re an advertiser, it’s hard to know — how do you play that?”

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  • Japanese prime minister’s aide leaving over LGBTQ remarks

    Japanese prime minister’s aide leaving over LGBTQ remarks

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    TOKYO — A senior aide to Japan’s prime minister is being dismissed after making discriminatory remarks about LGBTQ people.

    Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters Saturday that Masayoshi Arai, a secretary at his office, was being dismissed after Arai recently told Japanese media he did not like seeing LGBTQ people. Arai had retracted his comments and apologized on Friday.

    Kishida said the remarks run counter to the administration’s position on promoting diversity.

    “Taking strong action is inevitable,” Kishida said without providing further details, meaning Arai may leave voluntarily.

    Arai’s remarks prompted an outburst of protest and were the latest in a string of gaffes by Japanese officials that have landed them in trouble.

    Saving face is important in conformist Japan, where prejudice against LGBTQ people, racial groups, women and other nationalities persist.

    Japan is the only Group of Seven country that does not recognize same-sex marriage, but the movement toward recognition has been growing.

    Kishida’s administration has been hit by several scandals recently, and its popularity is shaky.

    Various Japanese officials have resigned over the years over comments they made.

    A justice minister stepped down last year after joking about capital punishment.

    In 2021, Yoshiro Mori resigned as head of the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee after saying women talked too much. Mori had been gaffe-prone when he earlier served as prime minister, about 20 years ago.

    A minister in charge of cybersecurity who acknowledged he had hardly ever used a computer resigned in 2019.

    ___

    Yuri Kageyama is on Twitter https://twitter.com/yurikageyama

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  • Crowds decry gender-affirming treatment ban in West Virginia

    Crowds decry gender-affirming treatment ban in West Virginia

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    CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Crowds at the West Virginia state Capitol pleaded with lawmakers Thursday to show as much compassion for saving the lives of transgender children as they showed for unborn fetuses when they voted to ban abortion just months ago.

    Over and over, dozens of doctors, parents and LGBTQ people told the Republican supermajority during a hearing that a decision to ban gender-affirming care for youth would put children’s lives at risk. West Virginia is among 26 states considering bans to restrict gender-affirming care for minors or young adults, with the most recent action being in South Dakota and in Utah, where the Republican governor just signed that state’s bill into law. A judge is reviewing whether to strike down Arkansas’ law after temporarily blocking it last year.

    Transgender and gender nonconforming children attempt suicide at a disproportionately high rate, and West Virginia has the largest per capita population of transgender youth in the nation.

    “You all like to use rhetoric about not killing children as a justification for passing legislation, as you did this summer. You will kill children if you pass this,” said the Rev. Jenny Williams, a United Methodist pastor in Preston County. “If you oppose the killing of children like you say you do, I would hope that you apply your principals consistently.”

    Multiple people told lawmakers they would have blood on their hands if they advance the bill to ban gender-affirming treatments for minors, which has moved out of two House committees and is now up for consideration before the full House of Delegates. West Virginia has a Republican governor and one of the largest Republican majorities in any state legislature in the country, and the legislation has a high chance of becoming law.

    Some of the handful of lawmakers in attendance watched attentively, others looked at their phones or laptops or averted their eyes. People were given one minute to talk before they were cut off and told to sit down. Almost 80 people spoke against the bill. Two spoke in support.

    Paula Lepp, who said she is a Christian parent of a Christian transgender child, told lawmakers she believes the bill is contrary to the teachings of Jesus to care for the most marginalized.

    “The bottom line is this: I would rather have a live daughter than a dead son, and this bill puts that at risk,” she said.

    Republicans in other states who have moved to limit access to the treatments for minors have often characterized the treatments as medically unproven and potentially dangerous in the long term, as another political battle against liberal ideologies. They also say teenagers shouldn’t undergo irreversible surgeries.

    Braden Roten, one of the two people who spoke in support of the bill, urged lawmakers to look past the crowds of people who showed up to speak against it and think about what conservatives would want.

    “Despite the crowd opposing this bill, this is a red state and there’s a big push in the conservative movement for this bill,” he said, as people watching from the chamber galleries and floor booed. “If you don’t vote on this bill we will vote you out.”

    At least 88 bills seeking to restrict gender affirming care for minors or young adults have been introduced across 26 states. West Virginia’s measure prohibits gender-affirming surgery and hormone therapy for youth.

    Many doctors, mental health specialists and medical groups have argued that treatments for young transgender people are safe and beneficial, though rigorous long-term research is lacking. Federal health officials have described the gender-affirming care as crucial to the health and wellbeing of transgender children and adolescents.

    Charleston pediatric physician Dr. Allison Holstein spoke Thursday on behalf of West Virginia chapter the American Academy of Pediatrics. She said the bill interferes with doctors ability to provide the best medical care to their patients.

    “The bill is dangerous, it’s an intrusion on the physician-patient relationship,” she said. “The attempt to insert politics into medical practice are troubling and very concerning.”

    Staff from the Women’s Health Center of West Virginia — formerly West Virginia’s only abortion provider, before the procedure was practically outlawed — also spoke against the bill. The clinic, which offers services predominately to low-income people on Medicaid, began offering gender-affirming hormone therapy when abortion was banned.

    Executive Director Katie Quiñonez read a statement on behalf of a transgender man who said prior to coming out as transgender, he attempted suicide four times. The first time he was 12.

    “If you’re so pro-life, why are you trying to kill trans kids?” Quinonez said.

    Women’s Health Center Communications Director Kaylen Barker, who is a member of the LGBTQ community, said she’s tired of having to come to the Capitol to justify her existence and the experiences of people she loves.

    “Leave us alone,” Barker cried. “Find something useful to do with your time, like fix the damn roads.”

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  • Former New Zealand rugby player Campbell Johnstone becomes first All Black to come out as gay | CNN

    Former New Zealand rugby player Campbell Johnstone becomes first All Black to come out as gay | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Former New Zealand rugby player Campbell Johnstone became the first All Black to come out publicly as gay, in an interview with TVNZ’s Seven Sharp on Monday.

    Johnstone – who played three Test matches for New Zealand, including two against the British and Irish Lions in 2005 – said he told his friends and family “a long time ago” before making the announcement on the show.

    “If I can be the first All Black that comes out as gay and take away the pressure and stigma surrounding the issue it can actually help other people,” Johnstone said.

    “Then the public will know that there is one in amongst the All Blacks … and it could be one of the final pieces in the puzzle sports-wise that gives everyone closure,” the former Canterbury and Crusaders player added.

    Responding to the announcement, New Zealand Rugby chief executive Mark Robinson praised his former teammate, saying Johnstone’s “strength and visibility will pave the way for others in our game,” in a statement released on Twitter on Monday.

    “Rugby is a sport that is welcoming to everyone and a place where people should feel safe to be who they are. We know that there are people who have not always been comfortable to be who they are in rugby. We want to be clear, no matter who you love, rugby has your back,” Robinson added.

    The 43-year-old Johnstone said he was ready for the spotlight that would be cast upon him, adding: “I am very much happy and very comfortable about myself, so I am very happy about that.”

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  • Sanders’ Latinx ban wades into community’s generational rift

    Sanders’ Latinx ban wades into community’s generational rift

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    LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — One of Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ first acts as Arkansas governor was to ban most state agencies from using the gender-neutral term Latinx, tapping into a debate that’s divided Hispanics along generational lines.

    Sanders called the word “culturally insensitive” in an order that’s prompted complaints from some critics who view it as yet another attack by Republicans on the LGBTQ community. Yet her move may have limited impact, given that the word does not appear to be widely used in Arkansas government.

    It was among several orders the 40-year-old former White House press secretary signed within hours of taking office office that were cheered by conservatives, including restrictions on teaching critical race theory in public schools and banning TikTok on state devices. The Latinx prohibition gives agencies 60 days to revise written materials to comply.

    “One of the things as governor that I will not permit is the government using culturally insensitive words,” Sanders said as she signed the order.

    Sanders’ order adds to the debate over a word that’s found little widespread support among Latinos and even prompted backlash from some Democrats. It comes as Republicans have sought to rally around culture war issues. They also are seeking to make inroads with Latino voters, but fell short of the major shifts some in the party were hoping for in last year’s elections.

    The term Latinx was coined in recent years as a gender-neutral alternative to Latino and Latina, since all nouns in the Spanish language are gendered. Many in the LGBTQ Latino community have embraced the word, but it has been slow to catch on more widely, with some Latino figures calling the term unnecessary.

    The League of United Latin American Citizens, the oldest Latino civil rights group in the U.S., announced in 2021 that it would no longer use the term Latinx. The group declined to comment on Sanders’ order.

    Democratic U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego from Arizona also said that year his staff was not allowed to use the term in official communications.

    “When Latino politicos use the term it is largely to appease white rich progressives who think that is the term we use,” Gallego tweeted in 2021.

    The Log Cabin Republicans, which represents LGBT members of the party, praised Sanders’ order.

    “The term Latinx is just another misguided product of the modern left’s relentless obsession with stripping gender from American life, an obsession that LGBT conservatives fight back against daily,” Charles Moran, the group’s president, said in a statement.

    Sanders’ order doesn’t apply to the state’s institutes of higher education or other state agencies considered constitutionally independent, such as the Arkansas Department of Transportation. It also allows the governor to grant exemptions for the word’s use.

    Several state agencies said they were reviewing their forms to make sure they would comply. Health Department spokeswoman Meg Mirivel said two jobs that had been unofficially called the Latinx public information coordinator and the Latinx outreach coordinator will continue to work with the Latino community but will no longer include Latinx in their titles.

    Sanders isn’t the first governor to ban or restrict the use of certain words. Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul last year signed a bill in New York removing from state education law the word “incorrigible,” a term that critics had called sexist and racist.

    In 2015, then-Florida Gov. Rick Scott was criticized after former officials said they were instructed to not use the terms “climate change” and “global warming.” Scott, a Republican who now serves in the Senate, denied he banned the terms.

    Critics of Sanders’ order have said that just because the term isn’t universal among Spanish speakers, that doesn’t mean it’s insensitive to use.

    “Language is constantly evolving,” said Manuel Hernandez, head of the Latino LGBTQ group Association of Latinos/as/xs Motivating Action. “We don’t speak Old English. I’ve never met someone who says ‘thy.’”

    Hernandez called Sanders’ order “an attempt to erase” the LGBTQ Latino community.

    Sanders signed the order the day after Arkansas lawmakers kicked off a session that’s already included newly proposed restrictions on the LGBTQ community. One bill would classify drag shows as adult-oriented businesses, and another would ban transgender people from using bathrooms at K-12 schools that align with their gender identity.

    Sanders has also said she would support legislation similar to Florida’s law that forbids instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade. Critics have dubbed it the “Don’t Say Gay” law.

    Sanders’ executive order banning Latinx cites a 2020 report from Pew Research Center, which found that 1 in 4 U.S. Hispanics have heard the term “Latinx,” but just 3% use it.

    Age is an important factor. Hispanics ages 18-29 are six times more likely than older generations to have heard of the term — 42% compared with 7% of those ages 65 or older, Pew found.

    Its popularity has risen since 2016, but remains below Latina, Latino and Hispanic, according to the report.

    “If you’re trying to categorize a community with the term that they seemingly are rejecting or in some cases are even openly hostile against, it makes sense that that term would in essence, go the way of the dodo, which Latinx seems to have done,” said Fernand Amandi, president of Bendixen & Amandi, a multilingual public opinion research firm.

    Among those using the term is Angel Castillo Reyes, a 21-year-old nonbinary student at the University of Arkansas who uses the pronouns they/them. Castillo Reyes uses both Latinx and “Latine,” another gender-neutral term that’s been used by some in the Latino community to describe their ethnic identity.

    “I appreciate those terms because I know it doesn’t come from a sense of wanting to divide,” Castillo Reyes said. “It comes from the sense of wanting to unite.”

    Conversations with older Latino people about gender neutrality can be difficult, Castillo Reyes said. Their parents, who are evangelical Pentecostal Christians, find the terms “ridiculous.”

    Castillo Reyes criticized Sanders’ order as unnecessary, but said they think it will offer an opportunity to discuss the need for gender-neutral terms with a wider community.

    “Now that I know Spanish can be used in a way that is inclusive, it’s like, ‘Wow, I never thought this was possible,’” they said.

    ___

    Savage reported from Chicago and 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.

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  • GOP Rep. George Santos denies claims he performed as a drag queen | CNN Politics

    GOP Rep. George Santos denies claims he performed as a drag queen | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    Embattled Republican Rep. George Santos is strongly denying claims that he once performed as a drag queen.

    “The most recent obsession from the media claiming that I am a drag Queen or ‘performed’ as a drag Queen is categorically false,” the New York congressman tweeted Thursday after a Brazilian drag performer posted a photo of herself with another individual dressed in drag that she claims is Santos.

    “The media continues to make outrageous claims about my life while I am working to deliver results. I will not be distracted nor fazed by this,” the tweet continued.

    Santos, who represents New York’s 3rd District, has been under immense scrutiny over the past month for lying and misrepresenting his educational, work and family history, including falsely claiming he was Jewish and the descendant of Holocaust survivors. He also faces federal and local investigations into his campaign finances. Santos has admitted to “embellishing” his resume but has maintained he is “not a criminal.”

    The congressman – an out gay man – was identified by a longtime local performer who says Santos went by the name Kitara Ravache. On January 12, performer Eula Rochards posted a picture of herself with another person in drag who she alleged was Santos at a Rio de Janeiro-area parade.

    The photo is from a newspaper clipping from 2008 and identifies the person Rochards says is Santos as Kitara Revache.

    Rochards also provided to CNN another, clearer image of the person she claims is Santos, in addition to the clipping.

    CNN has not independently verified the images.

    In an interview with CNN, Rochards said that it’s Santos in the pictures, adding that she knew him from LGBTQ events he attended in the town of Niterói, near Rio de Janeiro, where she said he was well known in the gay community.

    Rochards said she recognized Santos from a recent news report and dug up the old pictures but was surprised to learn that Santos was a Republican.

    “I don’t know him now, I only knew him then,” she said.

    “But if [Jair] Bolsonaro can win here, why wouldn’t Santos win there?” she added, referring to the former Brazilian president.

    Rochards said she wishes Santos would own up to this part of his past.

    “It’s marvelous work [to be a drag queen]. He can’t discriminate against what he himself did, and if he does he is discriminating against me,” she said.

    Santos has not replied to CNN’s request for comment. He told NBC News in a previous interview that he has “never experienced discrimination in the Republican Party.”

    Santos has voiced support in the past for policies seen as discriminatory against LGBTQ individuals. In April 2022, he posted a video on Facebook vocalizing his support for Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ legislation in Florida banning certain teaching about sexual orientation and gender identity in classrooms. In the video, he accused Democrats of “wanting to groom our kids” – a homophobic term that invokes an idea that LGBTQ people corrupt children.

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