Civil Rights

NBC News reports: U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell says the Trump administration has strong backing at home from Republicans and even religious conservatives for its push to end laws that criminalize homosexuality in foreign countries, telling NBC News that he’s “wildly supported by both parties.” In an exclusive interview in Berlin, Grenell says he has no concerns that the …

The Wall Street Journal reports: New York City is seeking to put an end to policies that restrict or ban natural hair and hairstyles closely connected to racial, ethnic and cultural identities. The New York City Commission on Human Rights issued new legal guidelines Monday clarifying that it considers such restrictions to be unlawful discrimination that disproportionately affects black people …

The Jurist reports: Angola’s parliament approved a new penal code Wednesday that drops provisions widely interpreted to criminalize homosexuality. The new penal code is Angola’s first since it gained its independence from Portugal in 1975. The prior code contained many holdover provisions from the colonial era, including a ban of “vices against nature,” which was understood to criminalize same-sex relationships …

Gay City News reports: New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Friday signed into law the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA) and the state’s ban on conversion therapy practiced on minors. Cuomo signed the bills at the LGBT Community Center in Manhattan 10 days after they were swiftly approved by the State Legislature. The two measures sailed through the Assembly and …

Reuters reports: Iowa’s “fetal heartbeat” law, the most restrictive abortion ban in the United States, was declared unconstitutional Tuesday, as it violates the Iowa state constitution, a state judge ruled. Iowa’s Republican-controlled legislature passed the restriction in May 2018, outlawing the procedure after a fetal heartbeat is detected, often at six weeks and before a woman realizes she is pregnant. …

The Hill reports: Rep. Deb Haaland (D-N.M.) said a transgender flag is “proudly” on display outside of her office this week after the Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to temporarily enforce restrictions on transgender people who serve in the military. Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), an Iraq War veteran, also criticized the Supreme Court’s decision on Tuesday. She blasted the …

The Daily Beast reports: Russian campaigners have told The Daily Beast that Chechen authorities have ordered people to kill LGBT members of their own families, and have demanded ransoms for the release of detained LGBT relatives. According to reports, at least 40 people have been arrested in the last two to three weeks, many of them tortured, in a new …

NBC News reports: A federal court on Wednesday ruled against a lesbian couple who brought a lawsuit against a Missouri retirement home that rejected the women’s apartment application because their marriage is not “understood in the Bible.” Bev Nance, 68, and Mary Walsh, 72, married a decade ago in Massachusetts and have been in a committed relationship for roughly 40 …

The Wichita Eagle reports: Gov. Laura Kelly ordered Kansas state agencies on Tuesday to again prohibit on-the-job discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender state employees. The first openly gay state representatives in Kansas history said they will introduce a bill to extend non-discrimination protections to all LGBT people in the state. Kelly said she would sign such a bill. …

FINALLY now that Democrats control the state Senate! From the LGBT Bar Association of Greater New York: Today we made history in New York! In an historic vote, both chambers of the New York’s Legislature finally passed GENDA—a measure to protect transgender and gender non-conforming people from discrimination statewide. This turning point is a victory some 17 years in the …

The Associated Press reports: The Russian republic of Chechnya has launched a new crackdown on gays in which at least two people have died and about 40 people have been detained, LGBT activists in Russia charged Monday. The new allegations come after reports in 2017 of more than 100 gay men arrested and subjected to torture, and some of them …

The Associated Press reports: Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Monday signed a new directive to prohibit LGBT-based discrimination in state services or by state contractors, replacing a narrower order that her Republican predecessor issued days before he left office. Whitmer’s directive, like one signed by Gov. Rick Snyder in late December, says state contracts, grants and loans must include a …

The Washington Post reports: The Trump administration is considering a far-reaching rollback of civil rights law that would dilute federal rules against discrimination in education, housing and other aspects of American life, people familiar with the discussions said. A recent internal Justice Department memo directed senior civil rights officials to examine how decades-old “disparate impact” regulations might be changed or …

The Associated Press reports: Newly installed President Jair Bolsonaro targeted Brazil’s indigenous groups, descendants of slaves and the LGBT community with executive orders in the first hours of his administration, moving quickly after a campaign in which the far-right leader said he would radically overhaul many aspects of life in Latin America’s largest nation. In removing LGBT concerns from the …

The New York City Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings has upheld a ruling by the Taxi & Limousine Commission against cabbie Martin Morrison for ejecting a gay passenger. The New York Post reports: The male and female complainants said they got into Morrison’s cab at the corner of Fifth Avenue and East 43rd Street in Manhattan just before 1 …

Via press release from Equality Ohio: Today, Governor John Kasich issued Executive Order 2018-12K to take a significant step in ensuring that all Ohioans, including LGBTQ Ohioans, are protected from discrimination in state employment. This Executive Order explicitly prohibits discrimination in state employment on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, and other protected bases such as race, …

NBC News reports: Members of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the federal agency that enforces civil rights laws in the workplace, are routinely reconfirmed in a bipartisan manner. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, however, is bucking the norm by putting a hold on the reappointment of Chai Feldblum, the first openly LGBTQ person to sit on the commission, because of her …

On Friday, minutes after Trump signed the so-called USMCA trade deal, the replacement for NAFTA, GOP House Rep. Doug Lamborn rushed out a wailing statement that the deal’s LGBT employment protections threaten US sovereignty. Dozens of anti-LGBT House Republicans have signed Lamborn’s complaining letter to Trump. But as it turns out, those protections may be effectively useless for LGBT Americans. …

Reuters reports: An Indonesian city has approved a bylaw to fine gay or transgender people up to 1 million rupiah ($70) for behaviour that could “disturb public order” or be considered immoral, the city’s deputy mayor said on Friday. The regulation is the latest example of a rise in government and public hostility toward the LGBT community in the world’s …

Minutes ago Trump signed the so-called USMCA trade deal, or NAFTA under another name. As I previously reported, anti-LGBT hate groups and dozens of the most viciously anti-LGBT Republican members of Congress loudly objected to a section of the deal which provides LGBT employment protections. The Liberty Counsel launched a petition to Trump against the “radical LGBT provision.” But the …