Tag Archives: Sean Patrick Maloney

New York Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney Introduces Bill To Track LGBT Homicides – The PRIDE Act

House Rep Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY) To Push Again On LGBT Anti-Discrimination Measure

 

New York Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (above) is the hardest working Congressmen pushing for LGBT rights in Washington today.

One of only seven openly gay members of Congress on Thursday, he responded to the tragic Orlando massacre of 49 LGBT clubgoers by introducing a bill that would mandate federal reporting on the deaths of LGBT Americans for the first time.

The PRIDE Act (Providing a Requirement to Improve Data Collection Efforts) would fill a glaring gap in law enforcement data collection. Currently, a person’s sexual orientation and gender identity are not systematically reported at the time of their death.

According to a March 2015 study in the journal LGBT Health, race, marital status, age, occupation, and military service are recorded when a person dies—just not whether they were gay or transgender, for example.

“After last month’s terrorist attack targeting our LGBT community,” said Maloney in a statement on Thursday, “I was shocked to learn that the lives lost in Orlando will not be counted as anti-LGBT murders because our country’s data collection on violence against LGBT Americans and LGBT suicides is offensively inadequate.”

That kind of gap in data causes massive problems for researchers and LGBT advocacy groups—who struggle to calculate suicide or violent homicides in the community—down the line.

“After last month’s terrorist attack targeting our LGBT community,” said Maloney in a statement on Thursday, “I was shocked to learn that the lives lost in Orlando will not be counted as anti-LGBT murders because our country’s data collection on violence against LGBT Americans and LGBT suicides is offensively inadequate.”

If Maloney and others were shocked to learn that the Orlando victims would not be categorized as queer or trans in federal death data, it came as no surprise to New York’s Anti-Violence Project (AVP). 

“We get asked all the time how many violent deaths of LGBTQ people have happened in the course of a year, but the truth is we don’t know, because there is no standardized system collecting this information,” said Emily Waters, of the AVP.

Basically, there’s never been a way to officially and accurately track any data about LGBT people on the national level.

The PRIDE Act would authorize $25 million towards expanding the National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) to all 50 states and mandating that sexual orientation and gender identity be included in the system. Currently, three of the largest states in the nation—Florida, Texas, and California—do not report death data to the federal system at all, much less track LGBT deaths. That means about a third of the U.S. population is missing from federal death statistics.

“LGBT people matter, we count,” said Maloney in the statement. “We’re doing everything we can to understand where, how, and why violence against the LGBT community and LGBT suicides are happening. This bill could save lives.”

Source: The Daily Dot

Senate Armed Services Committee Advances Eric Fanning as First Gay Army Secretary

eric fanning

The Senate Armed Services Committee has approved the nomination of Eric Fanning to be Army secretary. Fanning is the first openly gay leader of a U.S. military service.

President Obama nominated Fanning to the post last September

Eric served as the Army secretary’s principal adviser on management and operation of the service, with a focus on the budget. He was undersecretary of the Air Force from April 2013 to February 2015, and for half a year was the acting secretary of the Air Force

The Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus today applauded the vote, and called on the full Senate to quickly schedule a vote on the nomination.

“This is truly a groundbreaking achievement for the LGBT community and a monumental step forward for our military”. – Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.)

“I want to applaud my Senate colleagues for their recommendation to confirm Eric Fanning as the new Secretary of the Army,” said LGBT Equality Caucus Co-Chair Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.) “This is truly a groundbreaking achievement for the LGBT community and a monumental step forward for our military. Not only is Eric the most qualified, but he will ensure all our service members are treated equal regardless of who they are or who they love.”

Despite the Armed Services committee approval the road ahead is not entirely clear for Fanning.  Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., last year placed a hold on his nomination to protest the Obama administration’s efforts to close the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detention facility

“The Senator’s hold on Eric Fanning is not personal,” Roberts spokesperson Sarah Little said in a statement Thursday. “The Senator has asked the Administration to provide a guarantee that detainees will not wind up in Kansas, as he was able to do when this issue first arose in 2009. This request has been articulated to John McHugh, before he left office as Secretary of the Army, to those working closely on the ‘plan,’ and to Secretary Carter on several occasions. He remains committed to stopping the president from moving a single detainee to the U.S. and will continue to use all legislative tools at his disposal to do so.”