Lambda Legal filed a federal lawsuit against the State Department on behalf of an intersex person who was denied a passport because they do not identify as male or female. The lawsuit notes that Dana Alix Zzyym, the associate director of the U.S. affiliate of the Organization Intersex International, applied for a passport in September 2014 in order to travel to Mexico City this week for an international conference that will focus on intersex-specific issues.
Those applying for a passport for the first time must submit a copy of their birth certificate. The State Department stated it denied the application because it was “unable to fulfill your request to list your sex as ‘X,’ even though doctors at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs confirmed the gender listed on the birth certificate as “unknown.” The State Department said Zzyym could receive a passport with a male or female gender marker or withdraw the application.
“When I was a child, I had no say in what was done to me in order to make me ‘fit’ in some acceptable category,” said Zzyym in a press release that Lambda Legal released on Monday. “I continue to suffer the consequences of those decisions today. But, as an adult, I can take a stand. I am not male, I am not female, I am intersex, and I shouldn’t have to choose a gender marker for my official U.S. identity document that isn’t me.” Read More via Washington Blade
The ugly myth about transgender people opponents of a Houston civil rights law used to win
Opponents of LGBTQ rights in Houston used a big, ugly myth to take down a law that would simply ban discrimination in certain settings. Opponents of the ordinance fell back on age-old, desperate tactics to try to combat the law, using what's widely known as the bathroom myth. You can see it in the advertisement by Texas Values Action, which shows a trans woman using the locker room that corresponds to her gender identity — and posing some sort of danger to other women in the facilities.
This is a tactic that has been used time and time again — not just against LGBTQ efforts, but against the Equal Rights Amendment, which would have established equal rights for women. The idea is that men will somehow take advantage of equal rights laws to disguise themselves as women and attack women in bathrooms.
HERO would not have protected people who commit crimes in bathrooms — they could still be prosecuted. And business owners would have been able to deny a customer they believe to be a man entrance to a women's bathroom. What business owners wouldn't have been able to do under HERO is deny trans people entrance to a bathroom in a way that's clearly discriminatory — by, for example, using a slur or insulting a person's gender identity. Read more via Vox
Ireland: Hozier calls Pope Francis' LGBT position 'lip service' that 'should have been said 100 years ago'
On the back of Hozier's runaway hit "Take Me to Church," the Irish-born singer-songwriter has become one of music's most outspoken critics of institutionalized homophobia. In an interview Monday with Larry King Now guest host Kelly Osbourne, Hozier took the Catholic Church and Russia to task on their practices of discrimination against the LGBTQ community.
Speaking about the Catholic Church and Pope Francis' popularity, he said, "This is one of the paradoxes and weird hypocrisy of that organization [Catholic Church]. The pope came here last year and said, 'Who am I to judge with regards to somebody's sexual orientation?' I think it is important to differentiate between lip service towards something and actually making change. I think it is hopeful, but saying this in 2015, 'Who am I to judge?' is something that should have been said 100 years ago." Read more
US: Houston fails to pass Houston Equal Rights Ordinance
Early voting numbers showed that Houston, Texas, failed to pass Proposition 1, also known as the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance, or HERO. Prop 1 would have prohibited discrimination in everything from employment to housing based on, among other things, someone's sexual orientation or gender identity, two classes of people not currently protected under federal anti-discrimination laws.
"We are disappointed with today's outcome, but our work to secure nondiscrimination protections for all hard-working Houstonians will continue," the ordinance's supporters said in a statement, according to the Houston Chronicle. "No one should have to live with the specter of discrimination hanging over them. Everyone should have the freedom to work hard, earn a decent living and provide for themselves and their families."
However, the legislation faced an ugly, conservative media-backed campaign aimed at convincing residents the bill was actually a measure that would make it easier for sexual predators to attack women in public bathrooms. Read more via Mic
Western Balkans and Turkey: New EU accession reports
The European Commission’s published its annual progress reports on accession states’ progress towards EU Membership. The reports include important and extensive information on the situation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people in those 7 countries.
The European Commissioner responsible for Enlargement, Johannes Hahn, presented the 2015 progress reports. In his speech the Commissioner emphasised that the reports have “a strong focus on fundamental rights, including freedom of expression and fighting discrimination, notably against the LGBTI community and Roma”. Read more via Intergroup on LGBT Rights
Russia: New bill orders fines, arrest for public coming out as gay
State Duma lawmakers Ivan Nikitchuk and Nikolay Arefyev want to amend the Russian Administrative Code with a new article listing “public expression of non-traditional sexual relations” as a violation.
“I think that the problem is acute and urgent because it concerns the social diseases of our society and the moral upbringing of the younger generation. Unfortunately, the mechanism suggested in the 2013 law ‘On the protection of children against the information that harms their health and development’ has proved to be ineffective and this prompted us to develop new measures,” Nikitchuk said in comments with Izvestia daily.
The lawmaker also told reporters that he considered homosexuality to be a “grave danger for any normal person and for humanity as a whole” because it can affect children and grandchildren and prevent them from reproduction. “In a biological sense, failure to reproduce is the same as death and this makes homosexuality a deadly danger for humanity,” Nikitchuk said. Read more via RT
Ukraine finally passes anti-bias law, a prerequisite for visa-free travel to EU
Ukraine’s parliament passed amendments to the Labor Code that will end lingering Soviet-era workplace discrimination over sexual orientation, political and religious beliefs.
The law was the most controversial bill in parliament among a package of anti-corruption and other legislation the European Union requires in its visa liberalization action plan.
The voting process has been excruciating, requiring six rounds of voting and frantic consultations before it finally passed. In the last unsuccessful vote, 219 lawmakers voted in favor, seven votes short of the votes that are needed for a bill to pass. Parliament’s speaker Volodymyr Groysman announced: “Dear deputies: Seven votes stand between us and a visa-free regime,” before calling a break.
Arguing in favor of the bill, Groysman said that “the individual and his rights are at the foundation of our society.” He ensured that the anti-discrimination measure had no bearing on the broader issue of gay rights. “God forbid same-sex marriages in our country,” he said. Read more via Kyiv Post
What You Need To Know About Chemsex
Mainstream awareness about "chemsex,” a little-discussed public health issue in the gay community, is on the rise. Programs like BBC Radio 4’s July segment on chemsex in London and Vice Media’s upcoming documentary on chemsex in England and Ireland shed light on what some say is a growing phenomenon of men using hardcore club drugs to fuel hours- or days-long sex sessions.
Chemsex generally involves taking substance like GHB, crystal meth or mephedrone (known as meow meow) to enhance or prolong sexual activity, primarily among a subset of city-dwelling gay men. Crystal meth and meow meow stimulate sexual arousal and euphoria, while GHB removes inhibitions.
Researchers suspect that the practice could be driving London’s rising HIV rates among young men, but the practice is so covert and the population of participants so small that not enough research exists about the topic. Read more via Huffington Post
UK: Making business the frontline in the fight against HIV
In the UK, HIV represents one of the most serious health conditions; there are an estimated 107,800 people living with HIV, one quarter of whom are estimated to be unaware of their infection. The main routes of transmission vary, but infection rates remain stubbornly and disproportionately higher in some key populations such as men who have sex with men, migrant populations, injecting drug users and sex workers.
One way to reach those who either don’t want to or don’t feel able to use sexual health clinics is to deliver services where those who need them are--creating opportunities for healthier “settings”, or more supportive environments for health. A bar, club, or sauna can be developed into a healthy place to reach target populations.
In recent projects business owners successfully engaged with HIV prevention and other health promotion interventions. They provided customers with access to condoms and lubricants, HIV/STI information on prevention and treatment, and offered HIV/STI testing. In some cases, business owners went even further. Important changes were made to workplace policies to support HIV issues. Staff got sexual health training so they were better able to support customers, while staff and clients were assured non-disclosure and non-discrimination through supportive policies and practices. Read more via The Conversation
France to lift ban on gay men donating blood
France will lift a ban on blood donations by gay and bisexual men starting next year, officials announced, joining a growing list of countries that have loosened or scrapped such restrictions, which many see as outdated vestiges of the 1980s AIDS crisis.
“Giving one’s blood is an act of generosity and of civic responsibility that cannot be conditioned by sexual orientation,” the health minister, Marisol Touraine, said. “While respecting the absolute security of patients, it is a taboo, a discrimination that is being lifted today.”
Gay advocacy groups in France welcomed the end of the ban but criticized new provisions that would continue to treat homosexual and heterosexual blood donors differently. Some critics, while welcoming the lifting of the lifetime ban, say that a 12-month deferral period is not medically justified, mainly because the so-called window period for HIV is much shorter than 12 months. They assert that the restriction amounts to a de facto lifetime ban for many gay men, since it requires that they be celibate for a year before being able to donate blood.
Netherlands: Ban lifted on gay male blood; advocates critical of new restrictions
A permanent ban on blood donations from homosexual men was lifted in place of new restrictions that state gay men may only donate blood if they have not had sex with another man over the last 12 months. The decision was announced by Edith Schippers, the Minister of Health, after she made her department’s research on the subject available to members of Parliament.
Because the ban still restricts sexually-active gay men from donating blood, even if they only practice safe sex, LGBT advocate Tanja Ineke found the new policy “very disappointing.” In an interview with broadcaster AT5, Ineke, the head of non-profit COC Nederland, said, “The policy is only of practical importance for bisexual men in long-term monogamous relationships with a woman.” Read more via NL Times
US: Update the New Normal
Radiolab profiles the US's first openly transgender mayor, Stu Rasmussen. He became the nation's first openly transgender mayor when he was elected as the mayor of Silverton, Oregon in November 2008.
This episode we return Oregon where choice has challenged destiny to see what's changed and what has become deeply normal for a small conservative town. Listen via Radiolab