Today, HRC celebrated a vote by the Massachusetts House of Representatives to pass bipartisan legislation…
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State Department Human Rights Reports Showcase Selectivity of Administration on Abuses
Washington, D.C.—Human Rights First welcomed release of the State Department’s 2018 Human Rights Reports today, while noting that the internationally recognized rights monitored within the reports are all too often missing from the center of the Trump …
Read moreHRC: House Judiciary Committee Right to Advance VAWA Without Anti-Transgender Amendments
Today, HRC applauded pro-equality members of the House Judiciary Committee for voting down last-minute, harmful, and unnecessary amendments to the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) that would have stripped protections of transgender people from violence and given organizations and individuals a license to discriminate against the transgender community.
“It’s shocking that in 2019, Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee would use a bill designed to address violence against women as a vehicle to launch a coordinated attack on the LGBTQ community,” said David Stacy, HRC Government Affairs Director. “Protecting people from violence shouldn’t be a partisan issue. These amendments ignore medical expertise and defy common sense. The reality is that trans people are disproportionately victims of violent crime, and they need to be able to access appropriate services. Leaders of hundreds of sexual violence and domestic violence organizations agree that transgender women victims being served alongside other women is appropriate and not a safety issue. We are grateful that pro-equality members of the Judiciary Committee voted down these discriminatory amendments.”
Despite today’s anti-trans efforts by Republican members, protections against violence for the transgender community in prison and other spaces has a considerable bipartisan history. In 2003, President Bush signed the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA), which provided for the development of basic federal protections for the care of transgender people in prison. After six years of study, the Department of Justice adopted regulations fully implementing these protections in 2012. The National PREA Resource Center developed an FAQ on the implementation of these standards, which have made clear that searches of transgender people who are incarcerated should be based on their gender identity and reflect that transgender prisoners are more than nine times more likely to be targeted for sexual abuse or assault.
Last year, HRC called out the Trump-Pence White House’s blatantly undermining Obama-era protections for transgender prisoners when they ordered the Bureau of Prisons to use “biological sex” in determining how transgender prisoners are assigned housing, putting them at significant risk of sexual abuse, assault, and other types of discrimination.
Read moreHuman Rights, Media Freedom Groups Call on Congress for Justice for Khashoggi
Washington, D.C.—A group of 11 human rights organizations led by Human Rights First today called on the leaders of the House Foreign Affairs Committee to undertake additional action co
Read moreMaking It Relevant: HisStory, HerStory, Your Story
On February 27, the Managers Affinity Group at the National Urban League headquarters in New York City, hosted a special Black History Month program to engage and empower high school students from the region. A group of students and their chaperones fr…
Read moreSenate Vote on National Emergency a Rebuke to President Trump’s Attack on Asylum
Washington, D.C.—In response to today’s Senate vote terminating President Trump’s national emergency declaration to pay for a wall at the U.S. southern border, Human Rights First’s Jennifer Quigley issued the following statement:
Read moreHRC and UCONN Survey Reveals Black LGBTQ Youth Are at Heightened Risk for Discrimination
Today, HRC Foundation, in partnership with the University of Connecticut, released the Black & Africa…
Read moreChildren Seeking Protection Illegally Returned to Mexico
New York City—Following reports that the first children have been returned to Mexico under the Trump Administration’s plan to illegally force asylum seekers to wait in the country during their asylum proceedings, Human Rights First’s Eleanor Acer, who …
Read moreSouth Dakota House of Representatives Passes Discriminatory Anti-Transgender Bill
HRC responded to the news that the South Dakota House of Representatives has passed HB 1108, which effect…
Read moreBipartisan Ohio Fairness Act Introduced in State Senate
HRC and Equality Ohio, the statewide group working to advance equality, released the following statements…
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