Tag Archives: trans issues

OKLAHOMA: GOP Declares Bathroom “Emergency”

From World Net Daily: Lawmakers in Oklahoma, alarmed by the chaos that’s been generated from President Obama’s pressure on schools to open bathrooms to both sexes – else face loss of federal funding – have introduced a bill that declares the matter an “emergency” and allows the state’s attorney general to provide legal representation for those who come under fire …

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CBS/NYT Poll: 41% Back Trans Restroom Rights

Politico recaps: Americans are divided over whether transgender people should be allowed to use the public bathrooms of the gender with which they identify or the gender they were born as, according to the results of a CBS News/New York Times poll released Thursday. Nearly half—46 percent—said transgender people should be required to use the bathroom corresponding with their birth …

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PENNSYLVANIA: 97 GOP Lawmakers Send Obama Letter Expressing “Extreme Outrage” At Trans Guidelines

Nutcase Daryl Metcalfe is at it again. Via Newsworks: Ninety-seven Republican state representatives in Pennsylvania — including several from the Philadelphia region — have signed off on a letter to President Barack Obama, calling the new federal directive to make public schools transgender-inclusive “unconstitutional” and an “extreme outrage.” Led by state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, R-Butler, lawmakers argue in their letter …

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DC Grocery Store Security Guard Charged With Assaulting Trans Woman In Restroom [VIDEO]

NBC Washington reports: D.C. police have charged a security guard at a Giant grocery store with simple assault after a transgender woman said the guard forced her out of the women’s restroom. Ebony Belcher, 32, said she went to the Giant in northeast D.C. with a friend to pick up a delivery from the Western Union. While at the Giant, …

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73 House Republicans Issue Letter “Demanding Answers” On Federal Transgender Rights Guidelines

From the right wing Heritage Foundation: The largest conservative congressional caucus is calling into question the legality of President Barack Obama’s transgender bathroom directive for schools. Chairman Bill Flores, R-Texas, is encouraging Republican Study Committee members to sign on to a letter, pushing the Departments of Education and Justice to detail how, and on what authority, they plan to enforce …

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UNITED NATIONS: Egypt-Led Muslim States Block LGBT Groups From Attending Meeting On HIV/AIDS

Reuters reports: A group of 51 Muslim states has blocked 11 gay and transgender organizations from attending a high-level meeting at the United Nations next month on ending AIDS, sparking a protest by the United States, Canada and the European Union. Egypt wrote to the president of the 193-member General Assembly on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to …

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MINNESOTA: Haters Plan Mobile Billboard Campaign Against All 72 Target Outlets In The State [VIDEO]

Via CBS Minnesota: From sidewalk picketing to online petitions, the opposition to Target’s bathroom and fitting room policy isn’t going away. Outside the state office building in St. Paul on Monday, a large truck rolled up carrying a strong anti-Target message. “Send Target a message — don’t shop where women and children’s emotional and physical safety and privacy are under …

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NORTH CAROLINA: HRC Retains Prop 8 Champion Ted Olson For Amicus Brief In Challenge Of Anti-LGBT Law

Via press release: Today, the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBT civil rights organization, announced that Theodore B. Olson of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP will author an amicus brief on behalf of leading businesses in support of the Department of Justice’s lawsuit challenging North Carolina’s hateful HB2 law. “HB2 discriminates against fellow citizens because of who they are,” …

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Target CEO Brian Cornell: The Boycott Isn’t Hurting Us

Fortune reports: Target reported a disappointing set of first-quarter results on Wednesday and warned investors to expect a slight drop in business in the current quarter. The discount retailer pointed to many factors pinching sales, damp and cool weather in parts of the company and skittish consumers, among them. But one thing not hitting sales is the purported boycott of …

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POSTED: My Seventh Column For Pride Life

Back in February, I launched a twice-monthly column for the website of Britain’s Pride Life magazine, a quarterly LGBT rights and lifestyle magazine. Today’s seventh installment is titled Obama Administration Takes Bold Action On Transgender Rights. Hit the link for my status report on trans rights, Target, hate groups, and the feds. DISCLOSURE: Pride Life is owned by the US …

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Top Vatican Cardinal Denounces “Demonic” Transgender Rights At National Catholic Prayer Breakfast [AUDIO]

From the pro-LGBT site Bondings 2.0: A top cardinal at the Vatican attacked transgender civil rights as “demonic” and compared marriage equality to “poison” during a speech before high-profile U.S. Catholics. Cardinal Robert Sarah, prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship, keynoted the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast yesterday morning in Washington, D.C. His address about family and religious freedom …

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Itzhak Perlman Goes Springsteen On North Carolina

From the Raleigh News & Observer: Itzhak Perlman is the latest artist to cancel a North Carolina performance over the state’s controversial House Bill 2. One of the world’s greatest concert violinists, the 70-year-old Perlman was scheduled to play Raleigh’s Meymandi Concert Hall Wednesday night with the NC Symphony. But he called off the show on Tuesday, releasing the statement …

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CANADA: PM Justin Trudeau Unveils Trans Rights Bill

The CBC reports: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced in Montreal federal legislation about to be tabled*, which will guarantee legal and human rights protection to transgender people across Canada. “We have worked too hard for us to stop here,” Trudeau said. “Too hard to stop with the progress we have made because I sincerely believe that in Canada we can …

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Obama Marks International Day Against Homophobia And Transphobia: LGBT Rights Are Human Rights

President Obama today issued a statement marking the International Day Against Homophobia & Transphobia, which was launched in 2004 on the anniversary of the World Health Organization’s 1990 declassification of homosexuality as a mental illness. Obama’s message declares that “LGBT rights are human rights” and that the United States honors the work of activists and will continue to “support their …

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Trump Vows To Rescind Obama’s Pro-Trans Directives

The Washington Post reports: Donald Trump vowed Monday that if elected president he would rescind the Obama administration’s new directives aimed at protecting transgender people against discrimination in schools and health-care coverage. But even as Trump accused the administration of federal overreach and argued that such matters should be addressed by the states, the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee also sounded …

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Elton John Slams “Ignorant” Pat McCrory

Elton John has penned a lengthy piece for The Hill in which he denounces the “ignorance” of North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory. An excerpt: What’s worse than the discriminatory bill itself, and the millions in taxpayer dollars McCrory is wasting to defend it, is that the governor signed it after admitting he had never met a transgender person. Although McCrory …

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Moral Monday: Arrests At North Carolina Statehouse

From Raleigh’s CBS affiliate: Law enforcement started making arrests Monday evening after hundreds of HB2 protesters moved inside the Legislative building. A crowd of around 350 gathered between the Legislative Building and the Capitol building before moving inside the Legislature just before 5 p.m. The Raleigh Police were seen arresting demonstrators around 5:20 p.m. As of 5:40 p.m., 11 people …

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SCOTUS Rejects Appeal To Case That Set Precedent For Fourth Circuit Court’s Ruling On Transgender Rights

This is a major setback for supporters of North Carolina’s hate law: The Supreme Court announced Monday, over the dissent of one conservative justice, that it will not review a legal precedent key to an appeals court ruling last month requiring public schools to allow transgender students to use bathrooms corresponding to their gender identity. The justices declined to take …

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NORTH CAROLINA: Lambda Legal & ACLU Ask Federal Court To Stop Enforcement Of Anti-LGBT Hate Law

Via press release: The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of North Carolina, and Lambda Legal today asked a federal court to order an immediate halt to enforcement of a North Carolina law that targets transgender people for discrimination in single-sex facilities. The three organizations and the law firm of Jenner and Block are challenging the law, House Bill 2, …

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Anti-LGBT Nutjobs Disrupt More Targets [VIDEO]

Raw Story recaps the first incident: A mother who was apparently angered over Target’s vow to allow transgender customers to use bathrooms and fitting rooms that correspond to their gender identity went marching through a store while waving a Bible. A video of the woman’s loud protest was posted to YouTube. The woman was not named but appears to have …

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