Category: Human Rights Campaign

Today, HRC responded to Trump-Pence administration’s announcement that they will be rescinding Title IX guidance related to schools’ obligations to address sexual harassment, including sexual violence.

“With today’s announcement, Betsy DeVos and the Trump administration have clearly drawn a line in the sand, stating that they prefer it be more difficult for survivors of sexual assault to receive justice,” said David Stacy, director of government affairs at the Human Rights Campaign. “LGBTQ Americans face disproportionate levels of sexual assault and violence. This unconscionable decision — coupled with the decision to rescind guidance aimed at protecting transgender students — sadly indicates that the Department of Education is no longer in the business of protecting students from harm.”

Title IX prohibits sex discrimination in any educational program or activity that receives federal funding. While historically known for its impact on women’s athletics admissions, Title IX’s prohibition on sex discrimination, as a matter of law, also requires schools to address sexual harassment, including sexual violence, as forms of sex discrimination. In addition, Title IX protects students from discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation, as evidenced by continuing case law, guidance previously issued by the Department of Education, and school district settlements to this effect.

LGBTQ people are disproportionately affected by sexual assault and harassment, and the stigma that many LGBTQ people face can make it more difficult for survivors to report. Studies suggest that nearly half of bisexual women have been raped and half of transgender people will experience sexual violence at some point in their lifetimes. According to the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, a national survey of high school students, lesbian and bisexual women and gay and bisexual men experienced higher rates of sexual assault than their straight counterparts. In addition, a 2015 study by the Association of American Universities found that 60 percent of gay and lesbian students and nearly 70 percent of bisexual students report being sexually harassed on campus.

In February, DeVos and Attorney General Jeff Sessions also withdrew important guidance that clarified schools’ obligations to protect transgender students from discrimination under Title IX.

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According to the most recent data, more than 22,000 children and youth are in foster care in Florida, with nearly 6000 awaiting adoption. Research tells us that LGBTQ youth are overrepresented among these young people in out-of-home care. Thanks to an exciting collaboration with Children’s Home Society of Florida (CHS), HRC’s All Children – All Families (ACAF) project’s impact in the Sunshine State is about to increase exponentially, helping many more child welfare workers welcome and support LGBTQ youth and families.

ACAF provides resources to foster care and adoption agencies across the U.S. to help them better serve the LGBTQ community. A large part of this engagement is providing LGBTQ competency training, which gives social workers the knowledge and skills they need to understand and serve LGBTQ youth and families. In order to really make a difference, LGBTQ training needs to be offered on an ongoing basis and LGBTQ content should be embedded throughout an agency’s training program.

ACAF now offers a “Training of Facilitators” program to build an agency’s internal capacity to provide LGBTQ training routinely. Last December, ACAF piloted this program for CHS. Over the course of a full week, CHS trainers were prepared to deliver ACAF’s expert training. This August, after additional planning and preparation, the facilitators began delivering the training to colleagues throughout the state.

Once completed, the training rollout will include more than 2000 CHS staff members. The agency serves more than 50,000 children and family members every year throughout Florida. CHS’s website makes the organization’s commitment to strengthening families clear: “We believe in a world where children realize their full potential. We believe in turning odds into opportunities. And we’re leading the way.”

As the first agency in the country to conduct a Training of Facilitators with ACAF, CHS puts these words into action and HRC is proud and appreciative of this partnership.

Learn more about All Children–All Families’ work to promote LGBTQ cultural competency in adoption and foster care at hrc.org/acaf.

Want to stay up-to-date on All Children – All Families resources and activities? Subscribe to “Field Forward,” the program’s monthly e-newsletter at hrc.im/field-forward.

Pictured from left to right: Karey Scheyd, ACAF Training Manager; Alison Delpercio, HRC’s Deputy Director of Children, Youth & Families Program; Garry Bevel, ACAF Expert Trainer; CHS Staff Members: John Miller, Arminda Jones, Rebecca Gonzalez, Elizabeth Phelps, Alexandra Fields, Rene Ledford and Sam Oliver.

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HRC and a coalition of 10 partner organizations are sending a letter to the Georgian Ambassador today, ur…

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The recent decision by Catholic University’s seminary and two other Catholic institutions to cancel speeches by the Rev. James Martin, a prominent Jesuit priest and author of a book encouraging the Catholic Church to open dialogue with the LGBTQ faithful, has again highlighted the deep gulf between the church’s laity and its conservative leaders.

HRC’s own polling shows that an overwhelming majority of Catholics in the pews support LGBTQ equality, including marriage equality and employment protections. A recent survey by the Public Religion Research Institute also found that a majority of Catholics reject the notion that businesses should be allowed to use religion as a guise to discriminate against LGBTQ people.

But for many of the church’s conservative leaders, acceptance of LGBTQ people violates the tenets of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which still characterizes “homosexual acts” as “intrinsically immoral and contrary to the natural law,” and names “homosexual tendencies” as “objectively disordered.”

That’s why Martin’s book, Building a Bridge, published earlier this year, has re-energized the debate about the LGBTQ faithful. It has not only predictably ignited vicious attacks from far right Catholic websites, but, encouragingly, it has also prompted many in the Catholic community — including leaders like San Diego Bishop Robert McElroy — to call for an end to the church’s “long-standing bigotry” against LGBTQ people.

“The concerted attack on Father Martin’s work has been driven by three impulses: homophobia, a distortion of fundamental Catholic moral theology, and a veiled attack on Pope Francis and his campaign against judgmentalism in the church,” Bishop McElroy wrote in an op-ed in America Magazine.

“I think it is important to notice who the author is — a priest,” said Frank DeBernardo, Executive Director of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ Catholics, While Catholic theologians, scholars and lay leaders have tackled the issue of LGBTQ inclusion, it’s far more unusual for a priest to speak out.

In his book, Martin, appointed by Pope Francis as counselor to the Vatican’s Secretariat ( a counselor or adviser in the Catholic Church) for Communications, provides a roadmap for repairing and strengthening the bonds that unite all of God’s children. He writes that criteria at the heart of the Christian ministry — “respect, compassion, and sensitivity” — should guide how the Catholic Church relates to the LGBTQ community.

On his Facebook page, Rev. Martin said he’s received overwhelming support since the controversy began.  

“I am so grateful!” he wrote. “And, as I said a week ago, thanks to so many things — most of all, Jesus being close to me in prayer, and the support of my Jesuit superiors and brothers — I am at total peace.”

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On August 15, HRC awarded Northeast Ohio Adoption Services (NOAS) with the All Children – All Families Seal of Recognition as a Leader in Supporting and Serving LGBTQ Youth & Families. HRC Board of Directors Member Suzanne Hamilton (based in Cleveland) was on hand to commend the dedicated team of staff members who led NOAS’s efforts in this area. The Seal was presented at the Hilton Downtown Cleveland.

NOAS is an independent, specialized adoption and foster care agency based out of Warren, Ohio, and has been in service since 1978. Throughout that time they have led innovations on ensuring family stability for youth throughout the region. NOAS prides itself on innovation — from ensuring family stability to maintaining sibling connections, the agency is looked to as an example by peers in Ohio and throughout the country. This same drive for innovative solutions to the needs of children is behind their work toward All Children – All Families’ Seal of Recognition.

NOAS earned the Seal of Recognition by meeting All Children – All Families’ 10 key Benchmarks of LGBTQ Cultural Competency.

“NOAS is so honored to be presented with the All Children All Families LEADER certification from the Human Rights Campaign!,” NOAS posted on Facebook. “We are so happy to be specially equipped to serve the LGBTQ community!”

If you would like to learn more about Northeast Ohio Adoption Services, please visit their website.

HRC Foundation’s All Children – All Families has guided agencies across the U.S. in improving practice with LGBTQ youth and parents for more than a decade. To learn more about the program’s practice improvement model and see a full list of participating agencies, visit hrc.org/acaf. To find LGBTQ-inclusive agencies in your area, check out the list of participating agencies.

Above: Eric Meinhart, Plexus; Luz Pellot, HRC Cleveland; Cheryl Tarantino, NOAS; Cynthia Wallis, NOAS; Suzanne Hamilton, HRC Cleveland, BoD; Thomas Hawn, Plexus.

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This summer, HRC supported prides in eight countries on five continents through our newly launched Global…

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On Friday, HRC joined more than 80 organizations on a letter to Acting Assistant Attorney General John Go…

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Vitit Muntarbhorn, an international law professor from Thailand and the first-ever United Nations (U.N.) …

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LGBT Legal Rights Organizations Ask Federal Court to Halt Immediately All Efforts to Implement Dangerous and Discriminatory Ban

Lambda Legal and OutServe-SLDN today asked a federal court to halt immediately all steps taken to implement the Trump Administration’s discriminatory plan to ban transgender individuals from serving openly in the U.S. Armed Services.

“Before the President’s vicious attack on transgender Americans, transgender service members had been serving openly and proudly in every branch of the U.S. Military for more than a year,” Lambda Legal Senior Attorney Peter Renn said. “Since the President’s tweets, and his mandate for the Pentagon to implement his ban, those same service members have been branded as unfit to serve – to do the jobs they have been doing successfully – simply because they are transgender. That harm is real, it is palpable, and it is discriminatory.”

“It is unacceptable to destroy the careers of patriotic and courageous members of the U.S. military,” said Peter Perkowski, Legal Director for OutServe-SLDN. “This ban must be stopped dead in its tracks before it goes any further so that these brave men and women can focus on their real jobs – protecting and serving the country they love.”

Lambda Legal and OutServe-SLDN filed a motion for preliminary injunction on Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. The motion asks the court to preliminarily enjoin the government from taking actions inconsistent with the military policy that existed prior to July 26, 2017, under which transgender service members were allowed to serve openly, and transgender Americans seeking to join the military had a path forward for doing so.

In the lawsuit, Lambda Legal and OutServe-SLDN are now representing nine individual plaintiffs, all of whom are transgender, and three organizational plaintiffs – the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), Seattle-based Gender Justice League, and the American Military Partner Association (AMPA).

The individual plaintiffs include six current service members and three individuals who wish to enlist. The current service members are: Staff Sergeant Cathrine (“Katie”) Schmid, a 33-year-old woman and 12-year member of the U.S. Army currently serving in Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington, who has applied to become an Army Warrant Officer; Petty Officer Terece Lewis, a 33-year-old woman and 14-year member of the U.S. Navy serving on the U.S.S. John C. Stennis out of Bremerton, Washington; Lindsey Muller, a 35-year-old woman and seventeen-year member of the U.S. Army serving in Seoul, South Korea; Phillip Stephens, a 29-year-old man and five-year member of the U.S. Navy serving at Eglin Air Force Base near Valparaiso, Florida; Megan Winters, a 29-year-old woman and five-year member of the U.S. Navy serving in the Office of Naval Intelligence in Washington, D.C.; and a sixth individual who remains anonymous. The three plaintiffs who seek to join the military are: Ryan Karnoski, a 22-year-old Seattle man who currently works as a social worker and wishes to become an officer doing social work for the military; Conner Callahan, a 29-year-old man who currently works in law enforcement in North Carolina; and Drew Layne, a high-school student from Corpus Christi, Texas, who is 17 years old and, with parental support, wants to join the Air Force.

“It is impossible to overstate how important it was when the Pentagon lifted the ban on open service, when I and other transgender service members were finally able to live and serve as our true and authentic selves,” Phillip Stephens said. “To read those tweets, to have the rug pulled out from under us, to be branded unfit to serve was devastating, not just for me, but really for the U.S. Military and military readiness as a whole.”

Background

On July 26, President Trump posted a series of tweets in the early morning hours announcing that, “The United States Government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military.” The tweeted ban was swiftly and widely condemned by more than 56 retired generals and admirals and a large percentage of Republican and Democratic U.S. senators and representatives.

Despite that criticism, the White House proceeded to issue a memorandum directing the military to continue the ban on enlistment by those they learn are transgender, even though our armed forces currently are facing recruitment challenges, including in high demand positions like linguists, health care providers, social workers and aviators. The enlistment ban also bars transgender members of the military currently serving openly, such as Staff Sergeant Schmid, from obtaining appointments as officers.

The memorandum further orders the return to past anti-transgender policies affecting continued service and medical care of those known to be transgender after the development of an implementation plan by the Secretary of Defense. The Lambda Legal and OutServe-SLDN lawsuit against President Trump, the United States of America, Secretary of Defense James Mattis and the U.S. Department of Defense is based on the Constitution’s guarantees of equal protection, due process and free speech for all.

The government-commissioned RAND study released in May 2016 determined that the cost of providing transition-related care is exceedingly small relative to U.S. Armed Forces overall health care expenditures, that there are no readiness implications that prevent transgender members from serving openly, and that numerous foreign militaries have successfully permitted open service without a negative effect on effectiveness, readiness, or unit cohesion. Based on that study, the Pentagon lifted the ban on open service by transgender men and women in July 2016.

The lawsuit is Karnoski v. Trump. Read a copy of the Motion for Preliminary Injunction here. Read more about the case here.

The Lambda Legal attorneys working on the case are: Peter Renn, Jon W. Davidson, Camilla B. Taylor, Tara Borelli, Natalie Nardecchia, Sasha Buchert, Kara Ingelhart, and Carl Charles. They are joined by co-counsel Peter Perkowski of OutServe-SLDN. Also on the legal team are pro-bono co-counsel at Kirkland & Ellis LLP and Newman Du Wors LLP.

Statements from Organizational Plaintiffs

“The thousands of transgender troops currently serving their country deserve immediate clarity and protection from the discriminatory whims of this president,” said HRC National Press Secretary Sarah McBride. “No service member should be forced to fear for their future for one more day due to Donald Trump’s unconstitutional order. We hope the court will recognize the urgency and severity of the situation and ensure that the promise made to these service members – that if they are willing and able to serve, they will be allowed to do so – is protected.”

AMPA President Ashley Broadway-Mack said: “After the Defense Department assured transgender service members it was safe to come out and serve openly, President Trump is now singling them out for blatant discrimination. This shameful assault threatens the service member and his or her entire military family. As the nation’s largest organization of LGBT military families, we are proud to be represented by Lambda Legal and Outserve-SLDN in our lawsuit challenging this unpatriotic and shameful transgender military ban. Any qualified American, regardless of their gender identity, should be able to serve their country.”

“We know from our members about the fear and uncertainty created first by President Trump’s tweets and now the memo,” said Danni Askini, Executive Director, Gender Justice League. “Current transgender service members and those wanting to enlist are now in a constant state of limbo as the result of a hateful and counterproductive policy. We are hopeful the courts will uphold their duty to our ideals and halt this policy by granting the requested injunction.”

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Trigger Warning: This post discusses suicide.

This September, HRC marks National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month by reaffirming our commitment to support the wellbeing of LGBTQ youth and adults.

Though this support can come in many forms, HRC recognizes the fundamental role parents play in fostering a safe and inclusive community for young people.

According to a 2016 study published in LGBT Health, family rejection increases the odds of substance misuse and suicide attempts in transgender and gender non-conforming people. These results mirror research by Dr. Caitlin Ryan and the Family Acceptance Project, which found that LGBTQ youth whose families affirm their gender identity and sexual orientation are almost 50 percent less likely to make a suicide attempt compared to those whose families are unsupportive.   

Acknowledging the importance of parental support within the LGBTQ community, last year HRC launched the Parents for Transgender Equality Council, a national committee of parent-advocates fighting for transgender equality. Their work builds upon insights gained from parents and family members of LGBTQ children within the larger HRC network, including those who participated in HRC’s #LoveYourNeighbor video campaign.

By sharing their stories as parents of LGBTQ children who have been affected by suicide, we hope to amplify the voices of love, inclusion and support for the LGBTQ community, particularly to those currently at risk.

Joanne Lee is a member of the Parents for Transgender Equality Council. Her two children were assigned female at birth, but both came out as transgender males in 2014. At first, Lee did not accept her transgender sons. But in 2015, after one of Lee’s sons, Skyler, took his own life due to depression, her outlook completely changed.

Marsha Aizumi shared her touching story as mother of a transgender son at HRC’s 2016 Time to THRIVE conference. Her journey to accept her transgender son led her to advocate for full equality of all LGBTQ people.

HRC’s #LoveYourNeighbor video storytelling project featured Jolie and Lillie Ben, mother and sister of a lesbian daughter who died by overdose, from Birmingham, Alabama.

For parents looking for resources on how to support LGBTQ youth, HRC’s Welcoming Schools program provides tools and resources for parents, educators and administrators focused on making schools inclusive for all children and families.

If you or someone you know may be at risk of suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255. The Trevor Project provides support for LGBTQ youth, and their 24-hour crisis hotline can be reached at 1-866-488-7386. If you are a transgender person of any age, call the Trans Lifeline at (877) 565-8860

To learn more about supporting LGBTQ youth in their homes, schools and communities, visit www.hrc.org/youth.

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