National
NAACP denounces anti-gay persecution in Uganda

Trans Africa Forum, the African-American group that led U.S. efforts to oppose South Africa’s apartheid government in the late 1970s, joined the NAACP Wednesday in calling on Congress to oppose legislation pending in Uganda that could result in the arrest and possible execution of gays.
In a news conference on Capitol Hill, officials with Trans Africa Forum, the NAACP, the National Black Justice Coalition and black church leaders said a growing number of mainline U.S. civil rights groups were beginning to speak out against anti-LGBT persecution in Uganda.
The civil rights group leaders and Frank Mugisha, an official with Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), who also spoke at the news conference, said they were especially troubled that an atmosphere of hostility toward LGBT people in Uganda appears to have been “imported” by U.S. fundamentalist Christian organizations.
“Trans Africa is very concerned about the situation in Uganda and all over the continent of Africa, where we see homophobia on the rise,” said Nicole Lee, president of Trans Africa Forum. “And one of the ironic concerns, frankly, is that this homophobia is not home grown,” she said.
“We have found that this homophobia is imported from the United States and Europe. And we really want to make clear that black civil society organizations here in the United States will not stand for this.”
Lee and the other U.S. civil rights leaders participating in the news conference said they were prompted to take a more vocal stand on LGBT-related developments in Uganda following the Jan. 26 murder of Ugandan LGBT rights leader David Kato, who was found bludgeoned to death in his home near the capital city of Kampala.
Police investigating the case said the murder was part of a robbery and not related to Kato’s role as a gay activist. But LGBT activists in Uganda dispute that claim, saying they believe Kato was targeted because of his sexual orientation.
Mugisha said the murder came at a time when Uganda’s news media and government were waging an aggressive campaign to portray LGBT people as child molesters seeking to “recruit children into homosexuality.” He noted that one of the country’s newspapers published a photo of Kato and other “known homosexuals,” along with their home addresses, under a headline that said, “Hang them.”
“We know the religious right has been pitting blacks against gays,” said Pastor Joseph Tolton of the Global Justice Institute. “They are now exporting this and using Uganda as their laboratory.”
Jasper Hendricks, an official with the D.C.-based National Black Justice Coalition, said his group was working closely with other U.S. civil rights organizations to urge Congress and the U.S. State Department to put pressure on the Ugandan government to drop efforts to pass the pending anti-homosexuality legislation, which has become known in human rights group circles as the “kill the gays bill.”
Hilary Shelton, the NAACP’s executive vice president, said leaders of the veteran black civil rights group consider the anti-LGBT developments in Uganda to be comparable to the lynchings and “Jim Crow” policies of segregation and discrimination faced by blacks in the U.S. Rev. Graylin Hagler of D.C.’s Plymouth Congregational Church said that religious leaders in Uganda appear to be using various biblical passages to justify the anti-gay campaign there just as some Christian leaders and clergy used the Bible to justify slavery and segregation in the U.S.
A video of the news conference can be viewed through this link: http://vimeo.com/19761450
New York
Two teens shot steps from Stonewall Inn after NYC Pride parade
One of the victims remains in critical condition

On Sunday night, following the annual NYC Pride March, two girls were shot in Sheridan Square, feet away from the historic Stonewall Inn.
According to an NYPD report, the two girls, aged 16 and 17, were shot around 10:15 p.m. as Pride festivities began to wind down. The 16-year-old was struck in the head and, according to police sources, is said to be in critical condition, while the 17-year-old was said to be in stable condition.
The Washington Blade confirmed with the NYPD the details from the police reports and learned no arrests had been made as of noon Monday.
The shooting took place in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, mere feet away from the most famous gay bar in the city — if not the world — the Stonewall Inn. Earlier that day, hundreds of thousands of people marched down Christopher Street to celebrate 55 years of LGBTQ people standing up for their rights.
In June 1969, after police raided the Stonewall Inn, members of the LGBTQ community pushed back, sparking what became known as the Stonewall riots. Over the course of two days, LGBTQ New Yorkers protested the discriminatory policing of queer spaces across the city and mobilized to speak out — and throw bottles if need be — at officers attempting to suppress their existence.
The following year, LGBTQ people returned to the Stonewall Inn and marched through the same streets where queer New Yorkers had been arrested, marking the first “Gay Pride March” in history and declaring that LGBTQ people were not going anywhere.
New York State Assemblywoman Deborah Glick, whose district includes Greenwich Village, took to social media to comment on the shooting.
“After decades of peaceful Pride celebrations — this year gun fire and two people shot near the Stonewall Inn is a reminder that gun violence is everywhere,” the lesbian lawmaker said on X. “Guns are a problem despite the NRA BS.”
New York
Zohran Mamdani participates in NYC Pride parade
Mayoral candidate has detailed LGBTQ rights platform

Zohran Mamdani, the candidate for mayor of New York City who pulled a surprise victory in the primary contest last week, walked in the city’s Pride parade on Sunday.
The Democratic Socialist and New York State Assembly member published photos on social media with New York Attorney General Letitia James, telling followers it was “a joy to march in NYC Pride with the people’s champ” and to “see so many friends on this gorgeous day.”
“Happy Pride NYC,” he wrote, adding a rainbow emoji.
Mamdani’s platform includes a detailed plan for LGBTQ people who “across the United States are facing an increasingly hostile political environment.”
His campaign website explains: “New York City must be a refuge for LGBTQIA+ people, but private institutions in our own city have already started capitulating to Trump’s assault on trans rights.
“Meanwhile, the cost of living crisis confronting working class people across the city hits the LGBTQIA+ community particularly hard, with higher rates of unemployment and homelessness than the rest of the city.”
“The Mamdani administration will protect LGBTQIA+ New Yorkers by expanding and protecting gender-affirming care citywide, making NYC an LGBTQIA+ sanctuary city, and creating the Office of LGBTQIA+ Affairs.”
U.S. Supreme Court
Supreme Court upholds ACA rule that makes PrEP, other preventative care free
Liberal justices joined three conservatives in majority opinion

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday upheld a portion of the Affordable Care Act requiring private health insurers to cover the cost of preventative care including PrEP, which significantly reduces the risk of transmitting HIV.
Conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh authored the majority opinion in the case, Kennedy v. Braidwood Management. He was joined by two conservatives, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett, along with the three liberal justices, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown-Jackson.
The court’s decision rejected the plaintiffs’ challenge to the Affordable Care Act’s reliance on the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force to “unilaterally” determine which types of care and services must be covered by payors without cost-sharing.
An independent all-volunteer panel of nationally recognized experts in prevention and primary care, the 16 task force members are selected by the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to serve four-year terms.
They are responsible for evaluating the efficacy of counseling, screenings for diseases like cancer and diabetes, and preventative medicines — like Truvada for PrEP, drugs to reduce heart disease and strokes, and eye ointment for newborns to prevent infections.
Parties bringing the challenge objected especially to the mandatory coverage of PrEP, with some arguing the drugs would “encourage and facilitate homosexual behavior” against their religious beliefs.
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