10/4 open thread and some news
October 4, 2021
Today is the first Monday in October, which is the day the new Supreme Court term opens. The Court hasn’t yet granted any cases involving LGBTQ rights, but we’re following pending petitions.
– The Court, according to SCOTUSBlog issued orders today but took no action in a case involving a trans patient who is suing a Catholic hospital for discrimination.
This is an open thread. We’ll post any breaking news.
Having technical problems? Visit our support page to report an issue!
17 Comments
1.
VIRick | October 5, 2021 at 5:43 pm
Edomex: Two Marriage Equality Bills Introduced into State Congress on Same Day
Per Gonzalo Kinich Fernández Bravo:
Nuestra diputada, Anais Burgos Hernández (Morena), presentó este día, el 5 de octubre 2021, la iniciativa de matrimonio y concubinato igualitario en el Congreso del Estado de México. La bancada de Morena acordó votarla a favor en cuanto el dictamen se apruebe (en comisión) y pase al pleno.
https://twitter.com/GonzKinich
Today, 5 October 2021, our deputy, Anais Burgos Hernández (Morena), presented the initiative on marriage and cohabitation equality in the Congress of the State of Mexico. The Morena bench has agreed to vote in favor of it as soon as the draft is approved (in committee) and passes to the full congress.
And as anticipated and noted in the previous thread:
On Tuesday, 5 October 2021, Élida Castelán and Viridiana Fuentes, deputies of the PRD bench in Edomex, will propose reforms to the Articles of the Civil Code; Once again, (and for the 4th time), they will seek to legalize civil marriage between same-sex couples in Edomex.
https://twitter.com/senadisexprd/status/144538075…
https://twitter.com/senadisexprd
Per Legislatura de Edomex:
Plantean Morena Edomex y PRD Edomex reconocer matrimonio igualitario en Edomex.
https://twitter.com/Legismex/status/1445586914606…
Morena Edomex and PRD Edomex propose to recognize marriage equality in Edomex.
2.
VIRick | October 6, 2021 at 8:50 pm
Nebraska: Lesbian Moms Sue State for Two-Parent Birth Certificates for Their Children
Two women are suing the state of Nebraska to be recognized as the mother of both of their children, claiming that the state has been denying them their parenthood due to their gender. An opposite-sex couple in their situation would not have their parenthood denied.
Erin Porterfield and Kristin Williams each carried one of their children and lived as a family even though they could not be married in Nebraska. The women broke up in 2013, two years before the Supreme Court legalized marriage equality nationwide.
Porterfield gave birth to their first son, Kadin, in 2002, nineteen years ago. In 2005, Williams gave birth to Cameron. However, since they could not be legally married at the time, the state only allowed the biological mother to be listed on the respective child's birth certificate. Even now, unless they were to marry, the state of Nebraska still continues to refuse to recognize them as equal parents to their children.
On Monday, 4 October 2021, represented by the ACLU of Nebraska, as well as the law firm Koenig-Dunne, Williams, and Porterfield, the women filed suit, claiming the state is violating their constitutional rights and discriminating against them based on their gender. The lawsuit is further petitioning the state to allow anyone, regardless of gender, to provide voluntary acknowledgment of paternity rights.
https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2021/10/lesbian-moms-…
3.
Elihu_Bystander | October 7, 2021 at 9:52 am
Ian, thank you for reporting this. As a gay man who has suffered all kinds of discrimination, I dislike discrimination of any kind. There are LGBTQ police who support us. They should be allowed to express that support in Pride celebrations.
4.
Elihu_Bystander | October 7, 2021 at 10:52 am
In Germany, Synodal Way Approves Text that Seeks Blessings for LGBTQ Couples
The Wall Street Journal reported:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/german-catholic-lead…
“. . .German church leaders voted 168 to 28, with five abstentions, to adopt a draft statement on sexuality that includes a resolution saying that ‘same-sex partnerships who want to take the risk of an unbreakable common life…should be able to see themselves placed under the blessing of God.’
“The Rev. Burkhard Hose, who has campaigned against the Vatican ban, said the decision was ‘a milestone in the journey toward a church without discrimination, a church full of respect for the diversity of love and partnerships.’
“‘It’s not possible for the bishops to ignore this voting of the majority without losing their authority,’ he said.”
See also
https://www.newwaysministry.org/2021/10/07/in-ger…
5.
VIRick | October 7, 2021 at 10:59 am
Netherlands: LGBTQ History: Dutch Gay Man Who Defied the Nazis
In the final days before his execution in July 1943 at the hands of the Nazi party, Willem Arondeus asked his lawyer for one last request: to spread a message after he was gone. “Let it be known,” he said. “Homosexuals are not cowards.”
A battle cry of defiance and a bold assertion of his strength, Arondeus lived his life by these words. An openly gay man and a tireless member of the Dutch resistance against the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, he willingly sacrificed his life for a mission that ultimately protected hundreds of thousands of Jews’ lives.
Along with publishing anti-Nazi information, he and other members of the resistance created about 70,000 false identification cards of Dutch Jews, preventing them from being tracked down by the Nazis. Yet over time, the Nazis began to catch on to the forged documents, which could be double-checked at the Amsterdam registry building. Thus, Arondeus and the rest of his unit constructed their boldest plan yet: they would blow up the facility — along with the hundreds of thousands of documents inside.
And so, on 27 March 1943, a group of resistance fighters led by Arondeus entered the facility disguised as Dutch police, drugged the guards, and blew up about 800,000 identity cards. Yet, just several days later on 1 April, an anonymous source informed authorities of the attack and Arondeus was arrested.
Although he attempted to take full responsibility for the attack and refused to give the names of his team, his notebook was found and many of the contributors were revealed. Some were able to escape and flee the country, but exactly three months later, Arondeus and 12 others, including two other gay men, were brought before a firing squad and executed.
To learn more about Willem Arondeus, visit the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s website and YouTube page.
https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2021/10/dutch-gay-man…
6.
VIRick | October 7, 2021 at 6:03 pm
Lidice: The Annihilation of a Czech Town
Lidice was a small Czech town located about 12 miles (20 km) west of Prague. On 9-10 June 1942, German forces annihilated Lidice. They razed the town to the ground and murdered or deported all of its residents. The annihilation of Lidice was an act of revenge for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, a prominent Nazi official who was killed there by two members of the Czechoslovak resistance. The Nazis promised to obliterate the name of Lidice from the map of Europe. As a result, not a single Lidice family survived the war without experiencing devastating loss. Lidice thus became a symbol of Nazi Germany's arbitrary wartime brutality.
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article…
A number of generations prior, one of my ancestors founded the town of Lititz in Pennsylvania. Lititz is the German language spelling for the Czech language version, Lidice. Since the town has been obliterated, I have never been able to verify whether said ancestor came from Lidice, but there is a very good chance that they did, because they were also a member of the same small pacifist religious dissenter group as were almost all of the murdered inhabitants of Lidice. For this reason alone, my blood has always run cold whenever I encounter Nazi war atrocities.
There: In that short account, I have repeated the name, Lidice, 12 times, twice in German and 10 times in Czech. In addition, the Czech government has rebuilt the town of Lidice nearby, and dedicated the original Lidice site as a national war memorial.
7.
ianbirmingham | October 8, 2021 at 6:59 pm
Reinhard Heydrich was a principal architect of the Holocaust. He chaired the January 1942 Wannsee Conference which formalised plans for the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question"—the deportation and genocide of all Jews in German-occupied Europe.
Many historians regard Heydrich as the darkest figure within the Nazi regime. He was directly responsible for the Einsatzgruppen, the special task forces that travelled in the wake of the German armies and murdered more than two million people by mass shooting and gassing, including 1.3 million Jews.
Himmler named Heydrich to head the Gestapo on 22 April 1934.
On 27 September 1941, Heydrich was appointed Deputy Reich Protector of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (the part of Czechoslovakia incorporated into the Reich on 15 March 1939) and assumed control of the territory. Upon his appointment, Heydrich told his aides: "We will Germanize the Czech vermin." Heydrich demanded racial classification of those who could and could not be Germanized. He explained, "Making this Czech garbage into Germans must give way to methods based on racist thought." Heydrich's brutal policies during that time quickly earned him the nickname "the Butcher of Prague". The reprisals are referred to by Czechs as the "Heydrichiáda". By 3 October 1941, Czechoslovak military intelligence in London had made the decision to kill Heydrich.[
Heydrich was ambushed by a team of Czech and Slovak soldiers who had been sent by the Czechoslovak government-in-exile to kill the Reich-Protector; the team was trained by the British Special Operations Executive. Heydrich died from his injuries a week later.
Nazi intelligence falsely linked the Czech and Slovak soldiers and resistance partisans to the villages of Lidice and Ležáky. Both villages were razed; all men and boys age 14 and above were shot, and only a handful of the women and children were deported and killed in Nazi concentration camps.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinhard_Heydrich
8.
VIRick | October 7, 2021 at 11:46 am
France: National Assembly Approves Ban on "Conversion Therapy"
On Tuesday, 5 October 2021, members of France’s National Assembly unanimously approved a bill that would ban so-called "conversion therapy" in the country.
Têtu, a French LGBTQ magazine, reports that "conversion therapy" practitioners would face two years in prison and a €30,000 ($34,653) fine (for practicing their nonsense on an adult). Those who administer the widely discredited practice to a minor would face three years in prison and a €45,000 ($51,979) fine. Practitioners could also lose their medical license for up to 10 years.
The bill, which a member of President Emmanuel Macron’s party introduced, now goes to the French Senate for their approval.
https://www.washingtonblade.com/2021/10/07/french…
9.
ianbirmingham | October 8, 2021 at 5:58 pm
North Carolina Lt. Governor Mark Robinson faces calls to resign after he was caught on video calling gay and transgender people 'filth'
Footage, first posted online by advocacy group Right Wing Watch on Wednesday, shows Robinson addressing the congregation at the Asbury Baptist Church in Seagrove back in June.
The Republican, who would take over if the state's Democratic Governor Roy Cooper stood down or was impeached, is seen raging that children should not learn about such 'filth' in public schools and using a derogatory phrase for transgender people.
'I'm saying this now, and I've been saying it, and I don't care who likes it: Those issues have no place in a school,' he says.
'There's no reason anybody anywhere in America should be telling any child about transgenderism, homosexuality – any of that filth.'
Transgenderism is regarded as a derogatory term in the LGBTQ+ community as it was coined by anti-transgender activists to suggest transgender people suffer from a condition.
In the video, Robinson continues to double down on his comments saying 'yes, I called it filth' and claiming children are being 'abused in schools' that support LGBTQ+ rights.
In 2016, Robinson called homosexuality an 'abominable sin' and said he would not 'fly their sacrilegious flag' after the Pulse nightclub shooting killed 49.
Robinson's spokesperson has defended his comments, telling NBC News his comments 'refer to education' and his belief 'transgenderism and homosexuality' should not be discussed in schools.
'Topics surrounding transgenderism and homosexuality should be discussed at home and not in public education,' Waugh said.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10074187…
10.
JayJonson | October 9, 2021 at 6:44 am
The White House has condemned the "repugnant" comments by Robinson.
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-govern…
11.
ianbirmingham | October 9, 2021 at 9:20 am
Meanwhile, the "Log Cabin Republicans" tweeted this on October 5th:
"Keep the Left's gender identity politics out of America's schools."
https://twitter.com/LogCabinGOP/status/1445419426…
The "Log Cabin Republicans" are also advertising $1,200 to $1,500 tickets to their upcoming gala event November 6th at Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, this event being in honor of Melania Trump…
https://spiritoflincoln.org/
http://logcabin.org/
12.
Elihu_Bystander | October 9, 2021 at 10:32 am
WTF!!
13.
ianbirmingham | October 9, 2021 at 2:27 pm
Many people think "Jews For Hitler" is a modern-day joke… but it isn't…
The Association of German National Jews (German: Verband nationaldeutscher Juden) was a German Jewish organization during the Weimar Republic and the early years of Nazi Germany that eventually came out in support of Adolf Hitler.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_of_Germ…
14.
ianbirmingham | October 10, 2021 at 3:42 pm
North Carolina Lt. Governor Mark Robinson Refuses To Resign After Calling LGBTQ Community 'Filth''
Mark Robinson, North Carolina’s Republican lieutenant governor, dismissed a call for his resignation on Friday after he was exposed on videotape calling members of the LGBTQ community “filth.”
Robinson said he stood by his homophobic comment and claimed to Raleigh NBC affiliate WRAL that right-wing speech was being “demonized.”
“We will not be intimidated. We will not back down. We will not change our language,” he said. “The language I used, I am not ashamed of it. I will use it in the future because, again, it is time for parents in this state to take a strong stand for their children.”
“I’m saying this now, and I’ve been saying it, and I don’t care who likes it: Those issues have no place in a school. There’s no reason anybody anywhere in America should be telling any child about transgenderism, homosexuality — any of that filth,” he said in a sermon at the church.
Robinson added: “And yes, I called it filth. And if you don’t like it that I called it filth, come see me and I’ll explain it to you.”
The video was posted on Twitter by Right Wing Watch, part of the progressive advocacy group People for the American Way.
Robinson’s comments were “literally dangerous” for members of the LGBTQ community, Allison Scott, director of impact and innovation for the Campaign for Southern Equality, told WRAL.
“Whether that is his meaning or not, it is his words that are actually painting the picture that we as a group should not exist. There are real impacts to words, and the real impacts are the damage and hurt in people’s lives,” Scott warned.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/north-carolina-mar…
15.
VIRick | October 11, 2021 at 1:44 pm
Sally Ride: First Out LGBTQ Person to Be Featured on US Currency
Pioneering astronaut Sally Ride will become the first out LGBTQ person to be featured on US currency. Ride will be one of five American women to appear in the new “American Women Quarters Program,” the selection of 25-cent coins to be released for circulation in 2022. Ride will join poet Maya Angelou, Asian-American actress Anna May Wong, Cherokee Nation leader Wilma Mankiller, and suffragette Nina Otero-Warren on the series of 5 coins.
Ride, who in 1983 became the first American woman in space, died of cancer in 2012. Her sexual orientation was not widely known until her death, at which time her obituary revealed she was survived by her female partner of 27 years. In 2013, President Barack Obama awarded Ride a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom.
https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2021/10/astronaut-sal…
16.
ianbirmingham | October 11, 2021 at 2:20 pm
Superman is set to come out as bisexual and begin a romantic relationship with his male best friend, two months after DC Comics announced that iconic Batman sidekick Robin was dating a man
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-100810…
17.
ianbirmingham | October 11, 2021 at 6:44 pm
‘You are loved and accepted just the way you are’ Biden tells LGBTQ community on National Coming Out Day
https://www.rawstory.com/you-are-loved-and-accept…