News
Washington Blade reporter ejected from DOJ Pride event
Similar celebrations open to media during Obama years
A Washington Blade reporter was ejected fromĀ an event WednesdayĀ at the U.S. Justice Department observing June as Pride month ā among the last of the events hosted by LGBT affinity groups for federal workers. Similar celebrations under the Obama administration were open to the media.
Dozens of employees ā among them LGBT attorneys within the Justice Department and federal law enforcement officials ā attendedĀ the event, which was titled “Solidarity through Pride” and held in the Great Hall of the Justice Department building.
Representing the Justice Department was acting Assistant Attorney General for National Security Dana Boente, an Obama administration hold-over who also serves as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.
“Whatever an individual’s background, Americans come together to support one another,” Boente said. “In this country, we know that our unity makes us stronger. We’re united in our respect for the rule of law and the preservation of the freedoms of all of us. Americans understand that in this country liberty means liberty for all. Freedom belongs not to any one race, gender or orientation.”
Boente also invoked the shooting at the congressional baseball practice earlier this month in which House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) was severely wounded. Lesbian Capitol Police officer Crystal Griner, who was on the scene and helped take down the attacker butĀ was wounded herself, isĀ a hero, Boente said.
“Officer Griner is rightly a hero of the LGBT community; she is also a hero for the entire country,” Boente said.
Under U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Boente said a top priority would be “combatting the rise of violent crime” and the Justice Department was already taking steps to pursue that goal.
At about thatĀ point in Boente’s remarks, a Justice Department official approached and said the Blade had to be escorted out because the DOJ Pride event was closed to the press. The Blade complied.
The closed-press rule for the event is unusual. The BladeĀ attendedĀ and covered DOJ Pride events as a member of the press numerous times during the Obama administration ā under both former U.S. Attorneys General Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch.
The Blade was also allowed under the Trump administration to cover a Pride event for LGBT service members and civiliansĀ at the Pentagon with full cooperation of officials. Washington Blade Editor Kevin Naff delivered the keynote address last week at the Small Business Administration’s Pride event.
Naff criticized the decision to close the event to media outlets.
“These events have historically been open to the media and this action at DOJ today is an unfortunate break with tradition,” Naff said. “Holding Pride celebrations behind closed doorsĀ violates the very spirit of suchĀ events and we urge all government agencies to let the sun shine in.”
A Justice Department official responded to Blade inquiries about the DOJ Pride event via email shortly before it began and said the event would be closed to press, but by that time ā less than 30 minutes before the event was set to begin ā the Blade was already enteringĀ the event after being informed second-hand the event was cleared by public affairs. The email was unseen until after the Blade was escorted out.
As Buzzfeed reported, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions spoke positively about the DOJ Pride event on video when an intern asked him about it last week during another event.
“We are going to have a pride group, in this very room, I think next week, I believe it is, and so that’s perfectly appropriate, and we will protect and defend and celebrate that ā and protect the rights of all transgender persons,” Sessions said.
Sessions hasĀ a long anti-LGBT history as a U.S. senator from Alabama. Along with Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, he revoked guidance to schools assuring transgender students have access to the bathroom consistent with their gender identity.
Set to deliver keynote addresses at the DOJ Pride event ā and unseen by the Blade ā wereĀ Michelle Benecke, executive director for management integration for the Immediate Office of the Undersecretary for Management at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and Sultan Shakir, executive director of the D.C.-based youth group SMYAL, or Supporting & Mentoring Youth Advocates & Leaders.
Set to deliver the closing remarks was Granette Trent, assistant director for affirmative employment on the Equal Employment Opportunity Staff at the Justice Management Division.
Attending in person to receive the Gerald B. Roemer Community Service Award ā and with a newly dyed green streak in his hair ā was Gavin Grimm, the transgender student suing his Gloucester County high school for not allowing him to use the restroom consistent with his gender identity.
Attorneys at the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division were set to the receive the James R. Douglass Award for litigationĀ started under the Obama administration in favor of transgender rights.
One recipient of the award wasĀ the Civil Rights Division team that challenged North Carolina anti-LGBT House Bill 2 (which has since been withdrawn under Sessions after Gov. Roy Cooper replaced HB2 with a different law LGBT advocates say is still discriminatory). The other was the Civil Rights Division team that sued Southeastern Oklahoma State University for allegedly discriminating against a transgender professor.
Singing the National Anthem at the event was Garrick Jordan, a member of the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington. The emcee was Robert Koch, vice president of DOJ Pride and attorney for the appellate section of the Civil Rights Division.
Virginia
Norfolk transgender resource center vandalized
Anti-trans graffiti spraypainted onto Southeastern Transgender Resource Center’s windows
The Norfolk Police Department is investigating the vandalism of a transgender resource center’s building.
Tarena Williams, founder of the Southeastern Transgender Resource Center, told WAVY that someone spraypainted anti-trans graffiti on the windows of her organization’s offices on Sunday or Monday morning. Williams told the Hampton Roads television station that seeing the messages was like “walking into hell.”
āI opened up STRC, even the Lamina House,ā she told WAVY. āI opened up that to get away from those types of words. This is a place you can come to get away from that, but to see that sprayed over the window. Itās kind of like you are walking into hell. ā¦ To be honest, I was like in shock.ā
Authorities are investigating the vandalism.
The U.S. has granted asylum to a Guatemalan LGBTQ activist who fled his country in 2019.
Estuardo Cifuentes and his partner ran a digital marketing and advertising business in Guatemala City.
He previously told the Washington Blade that gang members extorted from them. Cifuentes said they closed their business after they attacked them.
Cifuentes told the Blade that Guatemalan police officers attacked him in front of their home when he tried to kiss his partner. Cifuentes said the officers tried to kidnap him and one of them shot at him. He told the Blade that authorities placed him under surveillance after the incident and private cars drove past his home.
Cifuentes arrived in Matamoros, a Mexican border city that is across the Rio Grande from Brownsville, Texas, in June 2019. He asked for asylum in the U.S. based on the persecution he suffered in Guatemala because of his sexual orientation.
The Trump administration forced Cifuentes to pursue his asylum case from Mexico under its Migrant Protection Protocols program that became known as the “remain in Mexico” policy.
Cifuentes while in Matamoros ran Rainbow Bridge Asylum Seekers, a program for LGBTQ asylum seekers and migrants that the Resource Center Matamoros, a group that provides assistance to asylum seekers and migrants in the Mexican border city, helped create.
The Biden-Harris administration in January 2021 suspended enrollment in MPP. Cifuentes entered the U.S. on March 3, 2021.
“We are profoundly relieved and grateful that my husband and I have been officially recognized as asylees in the United States,” Cifuentes told the Blade on Monday in an email. “This result marks the end of a long and painful fight against the persecution that we faced in Guatemala because of our sexual orientation.”
Vice President Kamala Harris is among those who have said discrimination and violence based on sexual orientation are among the root causes of migration from Guatemala and other countries in Central America.
Cifuentes is now the client services manager for Lawyers for Good Government’s Project CorazĆ³n, a campaign that works “hard to reunite and defend the rights of families impacted by inhumane immigration policies.” He told the Blade he will continue to help LGBTQ asylum seekers and migrants.
“In this new chapter of our lives, we pledge to work hard to support others in similar situations and to contribute to the broader fight for the rights and acceptance of the LGBTQ+ migrant community,” said Cifuentes. “We are hopeful that our story will serve as a call to action to confront and end persecution based on gender identity and sexual orientation.”
West Virginia
Appeals court strikes down W.Va. transgender athlete ban
Ruling finds law violates studentsā constitutional rights, Title IX
BY LORI KERSEYĀ | The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has struck down West Virginiaās ban on transgender athletes, finding the law violates trans studentsā rights under the Equal Protection Clause of the constitution and Title IX, a federal civil rights law prohibiting discrimination based on sex in education programs.
The case, B.P.J. vs. the West Virginia Board of Education, was filed in May 2021 on behalf of Becky Pepper-Jackson, a 13-year-old trans middle school student and track athlete who would be barred from participating if the ban is upheld. Pepper-Jackson is represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, the American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia and Lambda Legal.
In April 2021, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice signed into law a bill prohibiting trans women and girls in the state from participating in sports that align with their gender identity. The U.S. Court of Appeals in February 2023 blocked the state from removing Pepper-Jackson from her schoolās track and field team as legal advocates appealed a lower courtās ruling upholding the ban.
In Tuesdayās ruling, Judge Toby Heytens wrote that offering Pepper-Jackson the āchoiceā between not participating in sports and participating only on boys teams is not a real choice.
āThe defendants cannot expect that B.P.J. will countermand her social transition, her medical treatment, and all the work she has done with her schools, teachers and coaches for nearly half her life by introducing herself to teammates, coaches and even opponents as a boy,ā the judge wrote.
āBy participating on boys teams, B.P.J. would be sharing the field with boys who are larger, stronger, and faster than her because of the elevated levels of circulating testosterone she lacks,ā he wrote. āThe Act thus exposes B.P.J. to the very harms Title IX is meant to prevent by effectively āexclud[ing]ā her from āparticipation inā all non-coed sports entirely.ā
In a statement Tuesday, Joshua Block, senior staff attorney for the ACLUās LGBTQ and HIV Project, called the courtās ruling āa tremendous victory for our client, transgender West Virginians and the freedom of all youth to play as who they are.ā
āIt also continues a string of federal courts ruling against bans on the participation of transgender athletes and in favor of their equal participation as the gender they know themselves to be,ā Block wrote. āThis case is fundamentally about the equality of transgender youth in our schools and our communities and weāre thankful the 4th Circuit agreed.ā
āWe hope todayās ruling sends a message of hope to the trans youth of West Virginia,ā Aubrey Sparks, legal director of the ACLU of West Virginia, said in the statement. āAnd a message of warning to politicians who continue to dehumanize this vulnerable population.ā
West Virginia is one of 21 states that have banned trans student-athletes over the last three years, according to the ACLU.
In a statement Tuesday, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey vowed to defend the ban and said he is ādeeply disappointedā in the decision.
āThe Save Womenās Sports Act is āconstitutionally permissibleā and the law complies with Title IX,ā Morrisey said. āI will keep fighting to safeguard Title IX. We must keep working to protect womenās sports so that womenās safety is secured and girls have a truly fair playing field. We know the law is correct and will use every available tool to defend it.ā
******************************************************************************************
Lori Kersey is a reporter with a decade of experience reporting in West Virginia. She covers state government for West Virginia Watch.
******************************************************************************************
The preceding article was previously published by the West Virginia Watch and is republished with permission.
Nonprofit, nonpartisan, independent journalism not hidden behind a paywall. Mountaineers are always free, and so is West Virginia Watch.
West Virginia Watch is part of States Newsroom, the nationās largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
-
Africa3 days ago
Congolese lawmaker introduces anti-homosexuality bill
-
Colorado5 days ago
Five transgender, nonbinary ICE detainees allege mistreatment at Colo. detention center
-
World3 days ago
Out in the World: LGBTQ news from Europe and Asia
-
Real Estate4 days ago
Boosting your rental propertyās curb appeal