News
Cuban lawmakers ban anti-gay employment discrimination
Mariela Castro sought to amend country’s employment law
“Experienced a countless number of emotions today in Parliament,” said Cuban blogger Francisco Rodríguez who blogs under the pen name Paquito El De Cuba on his Twitter page as Andrés Duque of Blabbeando reported. “We now have the first law that protects gays, in this case in employment.”
Rodríguez tweeted there was also what he described as an “intense debate” about amending the island’s labor law to also ban discrimination based on gender identity and expression.
He said Mariela Castro, daughter of Cuban President Raúl Castro and executive director of the country’s National Center for Sex Education (CENESEX), proposed the trans-specific amendment. Rodríguez said she also obtained support for it from Christian and intellectual leaders in Parliament.
The Cuban newspaper Granma on Saturday reported Mariela Castro, who is the niece of former Cuban President Fidel Castro, sought to amend the employment law that broadly referenced “the equality of the worker,” but did not specifically ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and other factors in the workplace. The publication further noted Mariela Castro also sought to ban employment discrimination based on gender identity, disability and HIV status.
Ignacio Estrada Cepero, founder of the Cuban League Against AIDS, told the Blade on Saturday from Miami that he had previously predicted the Cuban Parliament would have approved something along the lines of banning anti-gay discrimination in the workplace during their most recent meeting.
Estrada and his transgender wife, former CENESEX employee Wendy Iriepa Díaz, remain critical of Mariela Castro and her father’s government. The two met with Cuban-born U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) in July on Capitol Hill while they were in the U.S. on a three month trip.
“You would have to ask if any of us taking a seat inside the Cuban Parliament would have been able to achieve this” Estrada told the Blade. “It surely would have been impossible to achieve it.”
Estrada added Cuban parliamentarians only approved the proposal to ban anti-gay discrimination in the workplace because Mariela Castro introduced it and she is the Cuban president’s daughter.
Equality Forum in May honored Mariela Castro for her efforts on behalf of LGBT Cubans. The executive director of the Philadelphia-based gay advocacy group refused to allow this reporter to ask the Cuban president’s daughter about her country’s human rights record during a press conference before she accepted an award from the organization.
Ros-Lehtinen is among those who blasted Equality Forum for honoring Mariela Castro. The U.S. government also faced criticism for granting her a visa that allowed her to travel to Philadelphia to accept the award.
“The tyrannical regime in Cuba likes to fool those who are easily fooled but, unless there are human rights for all, there can be no true rights just for gays,” Ros-Lehtinen told the Blade in a statement on Saturday. “One would have to be quite gullible to give any credence to reports that the non-freely elected sham of a parliament has passed a non-discrimination law regarding individuals who are LGBT. The Castro regime allows no freedom but it knows how to sugar coat its horrid human rights record by promoting a law that will never mean a thing. The Cuban people deserve freedom, whether they are gay or straight. Liberty knows no gender identity.”
CENESEX and the Cuban government did not return the Blade’s request for comment.
Congress
Sens. Butler, Smith introduce Pride in Mental Health Act to aid at-risk LGBTQ youth
Bill is backed by Democrats in both chambers
U.S. Sens. Laphonza Butler (D-Calif.) and Tina Smith (D-Minn.) introduced the Pride in Mental Health Act on Thursday, legislation that would strengthen resources in mental health and crisis intervention for at-risk LGBTQ youth.
“Accessing mental health care and support has become increasingly difficult in nearly every state in the country,” said Butler, who is the first Black LGBTQ senator. “Barriers get even more difficult if you are a young person who lacks a supportive community or is fearful of being outed, harassed, or threatened.”
“I am introducing the Pride in Mental Health Act to help equip LGBTQ+ youth with the resources to get the affirming and often life-saving care they need,” she said.
“Mental health care is health care,” said Smith. “And for some LGBTQ+ youth, receiving access to the mental health care they need can mean the difference between living in safety and dignity, and suffering alone through discrimination, bullying, and even violence.”
The Minnesota senator added that data shows LGBTQ students are experiencing “an epidemic” of “anxiety, depression and other serious mental health conditions.”
For example, a 2023 study by The Trevor Project found that 54 percent of LGBTQ youth reported symptoms of depression, compared to 35 percent of their heterosexual counterparts.
Joining the senators as cosponsors are Democratic U.S. Sens. Ed Markey (Mass.), Bob Casey (Penn.), Peter Welch (Vt.), Alex Padilla (Calif.), Jeff Merkley (Ore.), Cory Booker (N.J.), and Tammy Baldwin (Wis.). Baldwin was the first LGBTQ woman elected to the House in 1999 and the first LGBTQ woman elected to the Senate in 2013.
Leading the House version of the bill are LGBTQ Democratic U.S. Reps. Sharice Davids (Kan.), Eric Sorensen (Ill.), and Ritchie Torres (N.Y.), along with 163 other House members.
Organizations that have backed the Pride in Mental Health Act include the Human Rights Campaign, GLSEN, American Academy of Pediatrics, National Education Association (NEA), National Center for Transgender Equality, Seattle Indian Health Board, PFLAG National, The Trevor Project, American Psychological Association, Whitman-Walker Institute, InterACT: Advocates for Intersex Youth, National Alliance on Mental Illness, American Federation of Teachers (AFT), Mental Health America, and Center for Law and Social Policy.
District of Columbia
D.C. mayor honors 10th anniversary of Team Rayceen Productions
LGBTQ entertainment, advocacy organization praised for ‘vital work’
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser today issued an official proclamation declaring Monday, March 18, 2024, as Team Rayceen Day in honor of the local LGBTQ entertainment and advocacy organization Team Rayceen Productions named after its co-founder Rayceen Pendarvis.
“Whereas Rayceen, along with Team Rayceen Productions co-founder, Zar, have spent 10 years advocating for the Black LGBTQI+ community using various forms including in-person events, social media, and YouTube,” the proclamation states.
The proclamation adds that through its YouTube Channel, Team Rayceen Productions created a platform for “Black LGBTQIA+ individuals to discuss various topics including spotlighting nonprofit organizations and small businesses, voter registration and participation, the state of LGBTQIA+ rights and resources in D.C, gender equality and equity, and the amplification of opportunities to bring the community together.”
It also praises Team Rayceen Productions for its partnership with the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs in helping to produce “exciting events like the District of Pride talent showcase held each June and the iconic 17th Street High Heel Race celebrated in October.”
“Whereas I thank Team Rayceen Productions for its vital and necessary work and am #DCProud to wish you all the best as you continue to support Black LGBTQIA+ residents across all 8 Wards,” the proclamation continues.
“Now, therefore, I, the Mayor of Washington, D.C., do hereby proclaim March 18, 2024, as TEAM RAYCEEN DAY in Washington, D.C. and do commit this observance to all Washingtonians,” it concludes.
“We thank Mayor Bowser for this special proclamation, which highlights where it all began, with the Black LGBTQIA+ community of Washington, D.C,” Team Rayceen Productions says in a statement. “Starting with The Ask Rayceen Show, Reel Affirmation, and events with D.C. Public Library to Art All Night, Silver Pride by Whitman-Walker, and events with the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs, we are #dcproud of what we have accomplished in the Nation’s Capital,” the statement says.
“For TEAM RAYCEEN DAY, we thank the diverse group of individuals who have made everything we have done possible by volunteering their time and talents over the past decade – as online co-hosts, event staff, performers, DJs, photographers, and more,” says the statement.
U.S. Supreme Court
Supreme Court declines to hear case over drag show at Texas university
Students argue First Amendment protects performance
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday declined to hear a First Amendment case over a public university president’s refusal to allow an LGBTQ student group to host a drag show on campus.
The group’s application was denied without the justices providing their reasoning or issuing dissenting opinions, as is custom for such requests for emergency review.
When plaintiffs sought to organize the drag performance to raise money for suicide prevention in March 2023, West Texas A&M University President Walter Wendler cancelled the event, citing the Bible and other religious texts.
The students sued, arguing the move constituted prior restraint and viewpoint-based discrimination, in violation of the First Amendment. Wendler had called drag shows “derisive, divisive and demoralizing misogyny,” adding that “a harmless drag show” was “not possible.”
The notoriously conservative Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, who former President Donald Trump appointed to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, ruled against the plaintiffs in September, writing that “it is not clearly established that all drag shows are inherently expressive.”
Kacsmaryk further argued that the High Court’s precedent-setting opinions protecting stage performances and establishing that “speech may not be banned on the ground that it expresses ideas that offend” was inconsistent with constitutional interpretation based on “text, history and tradition.”
Plaintiffs appealed to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which is by far the most conservative of the nation’s 12 appellate circuit courts. They sought emergency review by the Supreme Court because the 5th Circuit refused to fast-track their case, so arguments were scheduled to begin after the date of their drag show.
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