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Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Removes LGBT Seniors From Annual Survey

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Via NBC News reports:

Advocates are outraged that questions about LGBTQ seniors have suddenly been removed from an annual survey that determines services for elderly Americans. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) uses the National Survey of Older Americans Act Participants (NSOAAP) to decide how to allocate federal funding to groups that work with the elderly.

For years, LGBTQ groups lobbied to have the survey include questions that would help identify the amount of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender elderly people who live in the U.S. and participate in services.

In 2014, questions about sexual orientation and gender identity were added to the survey — helping researchers determine the U.S. is home to about 3 million LGBTQ people over the age of 55. The Trump administration released a draft of the 2017 survey, with only one noticeable change from previous years: The LGBTQ questions are gone.

SAGE responds:  (Services and Advocacy for GLBT Elders)

Services & Advocacy for LGBT Elders (SAGE) announced today that it is launching a nationwide effort to oppose the Trump Administration’s proposed erasure of LGBT elders from the National Survey of Older Americans Act Participants (NSOAAP). Specifically, SAGE opposes changes that would eliminate questions that allow the federal government to assess the extent to which LGBT older adults are receiving federally funded elder services. According to a March 13 notice in the Federal Register, those questions (which have been included in the Survey since 2014) are proposed for elimination in the 2017 Survey. This is the only change the Trump Administration proposes to the Survey.

This annual survey is conducted by the federal government to evaluate the effectiveness of programs funded under Title III of the Older Americans Act, including who is being served by such programs. Results from the survey are used to determine how to direct billions of dollars toward older people’s needs through publicly funded senior centers, home-delivered meals, family caregiver support, transportation, and other key supports.

Community advocates have made inclusion of LGBT people in government surveys a top priority as a way of ensuring that they are counted and that those in need receive their fair share of taxpayer-funded services. This is especially true for the more than 3 million LGBT older Americans, who often confront severe challenges, including intense social isolation. LGBT elders are twice as likely to live alone, twice as likely to be single, and 3-4 times less likely to have children to help care for them in their later years; many are estranged from their families of origin as a result of historical bias. LGBT elders, who suffer from the accumulated results of a lifetime of discrimination, are more likely to live in poverty than older Americans in general, and more likely to struggle with serious health conditions.

OUTRAGE!

LGBT Rights Groups File Lawsuit Challanging Utah’s ‘No Promo Homo’ Law In Public Schools

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LGBT Rights Groups File Lawsuit Challanging Utah's ‘No Promo Homo’ Law In Public Schools

 

The National Center for Lesbian Rights and Equality Utah have filed a lawsuit against the state of Utah challenging a law that forbids discussion of homosexuality in schools that might be construed as “advocacy”on behalf of students in public schools identified in court documents only as “John Doe,” “James Doe” and “Jessie Doe.”

The legal challenge is the first of its kind in the nation and claims First Amendment rights of students and teachers are violated, as well as federal education laws.

The law, nicknamed “No Promo Homo” by LGBT rights activists, bans schools from any kind of discussion about homosexuality in classes like sex ed, history or student clubs that could be construed as a “positive” portrayal.

“These are some of the last remaining anti-LGBT laws that are currently being enforced in the country, and they’re especially odious, because they explicitly apply to school classes on every subject,” Equality Utah Executive Director Troy Williams said. “These laws send a message that our lives are shameful and must be hidden and censored. They create a deadly culture of silence and non-acceptance, causing harms that can never fully be undone. The time has come to end the stigma and strike down this shameful law.”

The lawsuit claims that children are harmed by the law because it prevents discussion of sexual orientation and LGBT people. Equality Utah said one of its plaintiffs is a gay teen who has been harassed in high school and claimed he could not give a school report on his family history because he wanted to mention his uncle, who is in a same-sex marriage.

claims she was targeted in middle school for holding another girl’s hand, while heterosexual teenagers faced no punishment for public displays of affection.

“It is long past time for these dangerous laws to be struck from the books. The U.S. Supreme Court has held that sexual orientation is ‘a normal expression of human sexuality’ and that LGBT people must be treated equally under the law. These laws openly discriminate against LGBT students and teachers,” said Kate Kendell, the executive director of NCLR in a statement announcing the lawsuit.

“They stigmatize vulnerable young people who should be celebrated and supported, and they censor constitutionally protected free speech, including students’ right to receive accurate information about sexual orientation and LGBT people.”

The lawsuit seeks an injunction stopping the so-called “No Promo Homo” law from being enforced in Utah schools.

Read the full complaint here. 

Cincinnati Man Beaten Unconscious and Robbed, FOX News Affiliate Leaves Out That Its A Gay Crime

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Cincinnati, OH FOX news affiliate FOX19 is reporting that police are searching for three suspects accused of knocking a man unconscious with an iron before robbing him. But what they are not reporting that this is potentially a gay hate crime.

“According to authorities, the victim met the three men at Shooters, a bar located on Race Street downtown, on February 11th. From the bar, they all went back to the victim’s home to hang out and drink, sometime after 8 p.m.

That’s when the three suspects reportedly hit the victim in the back of the head several times with an iron. Police say the he attempted to fight them off but was knocked unconscious.

The three men then ransacked his apartment and took several items.”

The bar in question Shooters is a gay country and western bar, one of the few gay bars located in downtown Cininnati and one of the best known.

While it should be any surprise to no one that a FOX affiliate would straight-wash a news story the  fact is that  its a common problem in Cinci-nasty and other parts of the midwest.

If you don’t talk about gay people, they don’t exist.

 

 

No Gay Couples Shown On St. Louis Cardinals Kiss Cam At Saturdays Game – Are We Shocked?

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After a week of will they or won;t they, no gay couples were featured on Busch Stadiums Jumbotron on Saturday as  folks from Pride St. Louis, the local gay rights and advocacy organization that had about 200 members at the game, at least some of whom were hoping for a same-sex moment on the Kiss Cam.

Sonny and Cher’s “I Got You Babe” blared. There were old couples, young couples, oblivious couples. who were featured on screen  But not one same-sex couples.

The idea for a kiss cam moment came about after Sunday’s Ram’s game against the Arizona Cardinals. During the game, the kiss cam focused on two men in Arizona jerseys who jeered at the camera and made expressions of distaste toward one another.

Some gays and lesbians who were at the game said it appeared that by having the kiss cam linger on the men – who seemed to them to be straight — there was an insinuation that the men were gay. The kiss cam catch was followed by hoots, boos and derisive cheers from the audience.

“We always felt left out because the kiss cam always singles out heterosexual couples,” Harrison Roberts. (pictured left) Roberts is the manager of Just John’s where the official after-party was held on Saturday following the game. And  after what happened at the Rams game, all the gay and lesbian fans that were there felt embarrassed and a little degraded,” he added. “Why shouldn’t we be on the camera, too?”

But the Cardinals made no promises, and all week pointed out that the Kiss Cam roams the crowd, trying to squeeze as many couples as it can into about 90 seconds. and nwhen the moment came, in the middle of the second inning, the Kiss Cam scene was all heterosexual couple, aside from one young man and his mother

Ethan Barnett, a Pride board member who organized the event, said .”It was meaningful enough that the Cardinals even approached the group about a bulk-ticket purchase a few months back. We’re really excited about it. It’s the first time the Cardinals have gone so far as to look us up as a community and approach us. Everyone’s been welcoming.”  (UGH typical.  Dude, they wanted to sell tickets.)

That it didn’t pan out wasn’t too big a surprise.  It was a little disappointing, Roberts said  after the game, but all the fuss at least got people talking about the issue and the idea that gay people are Cardinals fans, too.