Tag: GOP discrimination

Why the right wing has put marriage equality and LGBTQ rights on the ballot

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Same-sex marriage advocates expressed concern Monday after rightwing Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito issued a fresh attack on a landmark 2015 decision that had been hailed as a “transformative triumph'” for marriage equality and LGBTQ rights.

The attack came when the top court declined to hear an appeal from Kim Davis, a former county clerk in the Kentucky who refused, after the Obergefell v. Hodges et. al. decision, to issue same-sex marriage certificates citing her religious beliefs.

In a statement (pdf) accompanying the denial of Davis’s appeal, written by Thomas and joined by Alito, the justices say “Davis may have been one of the first victims of this court’s cavalier treatment of religion in its Obergefelldecision, but she will not be the last.” Continue reading.

House votes to end military ban on transgender troops

Amendment would block use of funds to implement policy that would bar transgender people from joining military and keep some who are already serving from staying in

The House adopted by voice vote an amendment to the fiscal 2021 Defense appropriations bill Thursday that would effectively bring an end to the Trump administration’s severe restrictions on transgender people serving openly in the U.S. military.

The amendment was tucked into a massive en bloc package of amendments that were attached to the six-bill spending package that includes defense funding.

Introduced by California Democrat Jackie Speier, chairwoman of the House Armed Services Military Personnel Subcommittee, the amendment would block the use of funds to implement policy issued in April 2019 that would bar transgender people from joining the military and even keep some transgender people who are already serving from staying in. Continue reading.

Trump’s Rollback of Transgender Rights Extends Through Entire Government

Whether it means serving in the military, working for a federal contractor or seeking medical help, regulations that once protected transgender people are under attack.

WASHINGTON — Nicolas Talbott, a graduate student at Kent State University in Ohio who is transgender, was told in May that because of President Trump’s transgender ban in the military, he would no longer be eligible for placement as an Army officer. He could continue participating in the Reserve Officers Training Corps program, but the benefits that he joined for — health insurance and student loan forgiveness — were no longer available to him.

“Everyone else would walk away with a job in the United States Army, and I would walk away with just more student loan debt,” Mr. Talbott said.

Mr. Talbott’s experience is just one version of a broader story unfolding across vast portions of the federal government as the Trump administration has rolled back a wide array of protections for transgender people, many of them put in place during the Obama administration. The Obama White House used its powers to declare that legal and legislative efforts to defend against sex discrimination should apply to gender identity. The Trump White House called that executive overreach — and reversed course wherever it could.

Continue reading

Vice President Pence to headline anti-gay Christian conservative group’s anniversary gala at Trump’s DC hotel

AlterNet logoVice President Mike Pence is the headline act for Concerned Women for America‘s 40th anniversary celebration – and fundraising – dinner Thursday night, at the Trump International Hotel at the Old Post Office in Washington, D.C. Pence will deliver his remarks around 7 PM at the Christian conservative anti-gay group’s “Ruby Red and Black Tie Gala” at the Trump International’s Ballroom.

“The planned speeches suggest that President Trump and his Cabinet are not shying away from events that drive revenue to Trump’s company, even after multiple stories have brought new scrutiny to the blurring of lines between Trump’s business and presidency,” The Washington Post reports.

It’s a stunning cirle of money and influence the President has created.

View the complete September 12 article by David Badash from the New Civil Rights Movement on the AlterNet website here.