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Trump immigration policy prompts migrants to seek refuge in Mexico

Gay Honduran asylum seeker has ‘freedom’ in Mexico City

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Casa de Refugiados is a Mexico City-based organization that works with migrants from Central America, Haiti and other countries who are seeking refuge in Mexico. It holds workshops and other events at its community center in a Mexico City park. (Washington Blade photo by Michael K. Lavers)

MEXICO CITY ā€” A 22-year-old gay man from Honduras’ Lempira Department was with a female friend in a park in San Pedro Sula, the country’s second largest city, one night in late February when a group of gang members forced them into a car.

The man, who the Washington Blade is not identifying by name or publishing his picture in order to protect his identity and the safety of his family in Honduras, said the gang members took them to a secluded location. He told the Blade they repeatedly raped his friend before killing her in front of him.

“I didn’t want to run away from her,” said the man on July 17 during an interview in a Mexico City park. “They killed her and they beat me.”

The man fled San Pedro Sula five days after the attack.

“I left because of discrimination,” said the man, who is now seeking asylum in Mexico. “I was discriminated against a lot.”

Honduras ‘was hell’

The man with whom the Blade spoke is among an increasingly number of LGBTI migrants who are seeking asylum in Mexico based on persecution they suffered in their home countries because of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity.

Anti-LGBTI violence is rampant in Honduras, which has one of the world’s highest per capita murder rates. Statistics indicate San Pedro Sula remains one of the most violent cities in the world that is not located in a war zone.

Activists in San Pedro Sula and other cities in Central America with whom the Blade has spoken in recent years have said violence and a lack of economic opportunities are the primary reasons that prompt LGBTI people to flee. Hiram Villarreal of Casa de Refugiados, a Mexico City-based group that provides assistance to migrants, regardless of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity, echoed them when he spoke with the Blade on July 17.

A newsstand in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, on July 10, 2018, sells a Honduran newspaper with a front page devoted to a shootout between police officers and gang members in a San Pedro Sula suburb that left a police officer and two suspected gang members dead. The newspaper also notes the 2018 World Cup semi-final game between France and Belgium (Washington Blade photo by Michael K. Lavers)

The man from Honduras with whom the Blade spoke receives support from Casa de Refugiados. He spoke with the Blade after attending a meeting at Casa de Refugiados’ community center in Mexico City.

He said his father beat him and kicked him out of his home “for being gay.” The man then sought refuge in San Pedro Sula where he worked as a merchant.

“It was hell for me,” he told the Blade, noting gangs extorted money from him. “I was a merchant. I liked to sell things. They took everything from me. I wasn’t able to sell anything.”

He entered Mexico near the city of Tapachula in Chiapas state after he took a bus from San Pedro Sula to Guatemala and crossing the Suchiate River. It took him nearly a month to reach Mexico City.

Villarreal said many LGBTI migrants, like the man from Honduras, enter Mexico by crossing the Suchiate River from Guatemala. He told the Blade they often stay in Tapachula or in Tenosique, a town in Tabasco state that is roughly 90 minutes from the Mexico-Guatemala border.

Casa de Refugiados has offices in Tapachula and Tenosique and works with the U.N. Refugee Agency. Villarreal said Tapachula and Tenosique are “not safe for the LGBTI community, above all for transgender women.”

Tapachula has the highest rate of reported hate crimes of any city in Mexico. Villarreal told the Blade that transgender women are also vulnerable to human trafficking and sexual exploitation in the city.

“There are many sex work networks, many sexual exploitation networks and obviously a person’s life is at risk if they refuse to go along with them,” said Villarreal. “It is an issue of survival more than an issue of whether you are a resident or not a resident.”

Villarreal also said an increasingly number of Venezuelans are now coming to Mexico to escape their homeland’s deepening economic crisis.

“People don’t migrate for one reason,” he told the Blade. “It is a mix of many (reasons.)”

‘The only thing that I can do is be patient’

A person who is seeking asylum in Mexico must formally request it within 30 days of their arrival in the country. The Mexican Commission for Refugee Aid (COMAR) will then interview the asylum seeker to determine whether their claims of persecution in their countries of origin are founded.

Mexican law says COMAR has 45 days to determine whether an asylum seeker has a valid claim. A person who is granted asylum in Mexico is able to receive documents that allow them to work legally, access the country’s public health care system and receive social security benefits.

An asylum seeker who speaks Spanish can request Mexican citizenship after three years. Non-Spanish speakers can seek citizenship after five years.

“It is a long process,” said the man from Honduras. “The only thing that I can do is be patient.”

Mexico City a ‘sanctuary city’ for immigrants

Casa de Refugiados is among the many groups that provides assistance to LGBTI migrants and others who are escaping persecution in their home countries.

Mexico City is a “sanctuary city” for migrants and also one of the most LGBTI-friendly cities in Latin America.

The Mexico City Council to Prevent and Eliminate Discrimination (COPRED) works to provide assistance to migrants and fines those who discriminate against them. COPRED President Jacqueline L’Hoist Tapia told the Blade on July 16 during an interview at her office that Mexico City’s status as a “sanctuary city” and it’s pro-LGBTI policies allow LGBTI migrants and asylum seekers to feel welcome.

She said a trans migrant has worked at COPRED’s offices for six months. L’Hoist also said COPRED has also begun to work with the Inter-American Development Bank on a project that seeks to find ways to provide additional support to LGBTI migrants.

“I love it,” the man from Honduras told the Blade when he talked about Mexico City.

The offices of Mexico City’s Council to Prevent and Eliminate Discrimination (COPRED) on July 16, 2018. LGBTI migrants are among the groups on whose behalf COPRED advocates. (Washington Blade photo by Michael K. Lavers)

Discrimination and violence based on sexual orientation and/or gender identity remains commonplace in many parts of Mexico. The man from Honduras nevertheless said he has “more freedom” in Mexico City than in his homeland.

“I can be who I am and nobody is going to abuse me,” he said.

‘Trump has created a policy of being unwelcome’ in US

He spoke with the Blade against the backdrop of outrage over President Trump’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy that includes the continued separation of migrant children from their parents. Outgoing Mexican President Enrique PeƱa Nieto is among those who have repeatedly criticized the White House’s plan to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

A flyer on a wall in Mexicali, Mexico, on July 21, 2018, reads, “Death to Trump!” The city is directly across the Mexico-U.S. border from Calexico, Calif., in California’s Imperial Valley. (Washington Blade photo by Michael K. Lavers)

L’Hoist described Trump’s policy as “inhuman.”

“American residents and citizens know much more about migrants and they know that they are not delinquents, that they are neither rapists nor drug traffickers,” she said, referring to Trump’s previous comments against Mexicans. “They are men and women who are looking for an opportunity in a country that has historically been known around the world as a country of opportunities and of immigrants and one that was built by immigration.”

Villarreal agreed, citing the Trump administration’s efforts to ban citizens from five predominantly Muslim countries from entering the U.S.

He said one of the impacts of the White House’s immigration policy is that migrants have decided to remain in Mexico as opposed to try to enter the U.S. Activists in the city of Tijuana on the Mexico-U.S. border with whom the Blade spoke on July 20 echoed this account.

“Trump has created a policy of being unwelcome,” said Villarreal. “It motivates people to stay and not go north.”

The wall that marks the Mexico-U.S. border from the beach in Tijuana, Mexico, on July 20, 2018. (Washington Blade photo by Michael K. Lavers)

The man from Honduras with whom the Blade spoke does not have any relatives who live in the U.S. He nevertheless criticized Trump’s policies.

“It is very difficult with children who remain separated from their parents,” he said. “I feel very bad. It is very cruel.”

“We are all human beings and each of us did not leave our countries for one reason or another; because of poverty, because of gangs, because of all of it,” added the man.

The man said he plans to stay in Mexico City where he would like to finish high school.

“I don’t have it (my diploma) because I was afraid because of discrimination in schools on the part of teachers and my classmates,” he said. “I was unable to finish my secondary education.”

Mexico City, gay news, Washington Blade

Mexico City (Washington Blade photo by Michael K. Lavers)

PolĆ­tica migratoria de Trump provoca migrantes LGBTI de buscar refugio en MĆ©xico

CIUDAD DE MEXICO ā€” Un hombre de 22 aƱos del departamento de Lempira de Honduras estaba con una amiga en un parque en San Pedro Sula, la segunda ciudad mĆ”s grande del paĆ­s, una noche en el fin de febrero cuando un grupo de pandilleros los forzaron a entrar en un carro.

El hombre, que el Washington Blade no identifica por nombre o publica su foto para proteger su identidad y mantener la seguridad de su familia en Honduras, dijo los pandilleros los tomaron a un lugar aislada. El dijo al Blade que violaron repetidamente a su amiga antes de matarla enfrente de el.

“No me quiso correr de ella,” dijo el hombre el 17 de julio durante una entrevista en un parque en la Ciudad de MĆ©xico. “La mataron y a mi me golpearon.”

Se huyĆ³ de San Pedro Sula cinco dĆ­as despuĆ©s del ataque.

“SalĆ­ de (San Pedro Sula) por discriminaciĆ³n,” dijo el hombre, que ahora estĆ” buscando asilo en MĆ©xico. “Me discriminaba mucho.”

El hombre con que hablĆ³ el Blade es entre un creciente nĆŗmero de migrantes LGBTI que estĆ”n buscando asilo en MĆ©xico por la persecuciĆ³n que sufrĆ­an en sus paĆ­ses natales por razones de su orientaciĆ³n sexual y/o identidad de gĆ©nero.

Violencia contra la comunidad LGBTI es comĆŗn en Honduras, uno de los paĆ­ses mĆ”s violentos del mundo. EstadĆ­sticas indican que San Pedro Sula sigue ser una de las ciudades mĆ”s violentas del mundo que estĆ” fuera de una zona de guerra.

Activistas en San Pedro Sula y otras ciudades en CentroamĆ©rica con que el Blade ha hablado durante los aƱos recientes han dicho que la violencia y una falta de oportunidades econĆ³micas son las razones principales que provocan a las personas LGBTI de huirse. Hiram Villarreal de Casa de Refugiados, un grupo en la Ciudad de MĆ©xico que proporciona asistencia a los migrantes, independientemente de su orientaciĆ³n sexual y/o identidad de gĆ©nero, estaba de acuerdo con ellos cuando hablĆ³ con el Blade el 17 de julio.

El hombre hondureƱo que hablĆ³ al Blade recibe apoyo de Casa de Refugiados. HablĆ³ con el Blade despuĆ©s de asistir una reuniĆ³n a un centro comunitario de Casa de Refugiados en Ciudad de MĆ©xico.

Dijo que su padre lo golpeaban y lo sacĆ³ de su casa “por ser gay.” El hombre pues buscaba refugio en San Pedro Sula donde trabajaba como comerciante.

“Fue un infierno para mi,” dijo al Blade, notando que las pandillas le extorsionaron a el. “Yo era comerciante. Me gustaba vender. Me robaron todo. No podĆ­a vender nada.”

El entrĆ³ MĆ©xico cerca de la ciudad de Tapachula en Chiapas despuĆ©s de tomar un autobĆŗs desde San Pedro Sula a Guatemala y cruzar el RĆ­o Suchiate. Se pasĆ³ casi un mes para llegar a Ciudad de MĆ©xico.

Villarreal dijo que muchos migrantes LGBTI, como el hombre hondureƱo, entran MƩxico por cruzar el Rƭo Suchiate desde Guatemala. El dijo al Blade que frecuentemente se alojan en Tapachula o en Tenosique, una municipalidad en Tabasco que estƔ casi 90 minutos de la frontera entre MƩxico y Guatemala.

Casa de Refugiados tiene oficinas en Tapachula y Tenosique y trabaja con la Agencia de la ONU para los Refugiados. Villarreal dijo que Tapachula y Tenosique no son seguros “para la comunidad LGBTI, sobre todo mujeres trans.”

Tapachula tiene la incidencia de crĆ­menes de odio mĆ”s alta de cualquier ciudad en MĆ©xico. Villarreal dijo al Blade que las mujeres trans tambiĆ©n son vulnerables a la trata de personas y la explotaciĆ³n sexual en la ciudad.

“Hay muchas redes de trabajo sexual, muchas redes de explotaciĆ³n sexual y obviamente si una persona se niega colaborar su vida estĆ” en peligro,” dijo Villarreal. “MĆ”s que un tema de si es un residente o no es residente es un tema de sobrevivencia.”

Villarreal tambiĆ©n dijo que un creciente nĆŗmero de venezolanos ahora estĆ”n viniendo a MĆ©xico para escapar la profundizaciĆ³n de la crisis econĆ³mica en su patria.

“La gente no migra por una razĆ³n,” dijo al Blade. “Es una mezcla de muchas.”

Una persona que estĆ” buscando asilo en MĆ©xico debe solicitarlo formalmente dentro de los 30 dĆ­as de su llegada en el paĆ­s. La ComisiĆ³n Mexicana de Ayuda a Refugiados (COMAR) se entrevistarĆ” a ellos para determinar si sus reclamos de persecuciĆ³n en sus paĆ­ses de origen son vĆ”lidos.

COMAR bajo la ley mexicana tiene 45 dĆ­as para determinar si un solicitante de asilo tiene un reclamo vĆ”lido. Una persona si se le ortega asilo en MĆ©xico puede recibir documentos que les permiten a trabajar legalmente, acceder al sistema de salud pĆŗblica del paĆ­s y recibir beneficios de seguridad social.

Un solicitante de asilo que habla espaƱol puede solicitar ciudadanƭa mexicana despuƩs de tres aƱos. Solicitantes de asilo no hispanohablantes pueden solicitar ciudadanƭa despuƩs

“Es un proceso largo,” dijo el hombre hondureƱo. “Solo hay que tener paciencia.”

Casa de Refugiados estĆ” entre la gran cantidad de grupos que proporciona asistencia a los migrantes LGBTI y otros que estĆ”n escapando de la persecuciĆ³n en sus paĆ­ses natales.

Ciudad de MĆ©xico es una “ciudad santuaria” para migrantes y tambiĆ©n es una de las ciudades mĆ”s LGBTI-friendly en AmĆ©rica Latina.

El Consejo para Prevenir y Eliminar la DiscriminaciĆ³n de la Ciudad de MĆ©xico (COPRED) trabaja para proporcionar asistencia a migrantes y multa a ellos que discriminan contra ellos. Jacqueline L’Hoist Tapia, presidenta de COPRED, dijo al Blade el 16 de julio durante una entrevista en su oficina que el estatus de Ciudad de MĆ©xico como una “ciudad santuaria” y sus polĆ­ticas pro-LGBTI permite a los migrantes LGBTI y solicitantes de asilo de sentirse bienvenidos.

Ella dijo que un migrante trans ha trabajado a la sede de COPRED por seis meses. L’Hoist tambiĆ©n dijo que COPRED ha empezado de trabajar con el Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo en un proyecto que busca proporcionar apoyo adicional a los migrantes LGBTI.

“Me encanta,” el hombre hondureƱo dijo al Blade cuando hablĆ³ sobre Ciudad de MĆ©xico.

La discriminaciĆ³n y la violencia basada en la orientaciĆ³n sexual y/o la identidad de gĆ©nero sigue ser comĆŗn en muchas partes de MĆ©xico. El hombre hondureƱo aunque dijo que tiene “mĆ”s libertad” en Ciudad de MĆ©xico que en su patria.

ā€œI can be who I am and nobody is going to abuse me,ā€ he said.

“Puedo ser lo que sea yo y nada me abusa,” dijo.

HablĆ³ con el Blade contra el contexto de la indignaciĆ³n sobre la polĆ­tica migratoria de “tolerancia cero” del presidente Trump que incluye la continua separaciĆ³n de niƱos migrantes de sus padres. El saliente presidente mexicano Enrique PeƱa Nieto estĆ” entre ellos que han criticado en repetidas ocasiones el plan de la Casa Blanca de construir un muro en la frontera de los EEUU y MĆ©xico.

L’Hoist describiĆ³ la polĆ­tica de Trump como “inhumana.”

“Los habitantes y los ciudadanos norteamericanos conocen mucho mejor a las personas migrantes y ellos saben que no son delincuentes, ni violadores, ni son narcotraficantes,” ella dijo, refiriĆ©ndose a los previos dichos de Trump en contra de los mexicanos. “Son hombres y mujeres que buscan una oportunidad en un paĆ­s que es histĆ³ricamente se ha dado a conocer en el mundo por ser un paĆ­s de oportunidades y de inmigrantes y construido por la inmigraciĆ³n.”

Villarreal estaba de acuerdo, citando a los esfuerzos de la administraciĆ³n de Trump de prohibir a los ciudadanos de cinco paĆ­ses predominantemente musulmanes de entrar los EEUU.

El dijo que uno de los impactos de la polĆ­tica migratoria de la Casa Blanca es que los migrantes han decidido de quedarse en MĆ©xico, en lugar de tratar de entrar los EEUU. Activistas en la ciudad de Tijuana en la frontera de los EEUU y MĆ©xico que hablaron al Blade el 20 de julio estaban de acuerdo.

“Trump ha criado una polĆ­tica de no ser bienvenidos,” dijo Villarreal. “Motiva a la gente de quedarse y no irse.”

La cerca fronteriza en la frontera de MĆ©xico y los EEUU en Mexicali, Mexico, el 21 de julio de 2018. (Foto de Washington Blade de Michael K. Lavers)

El hombre hondureƱo que hablĆ³ al Blade no tiene familia que vive en los EEUU. Aunque criticĆ³ las polĆ­ticas de Trump.

“EstĆ” muy difĆ­cil con los niƱos dejar como separarlos de los padres,” dijo. “Me siento muy feo. EstĆ” muy cruel.”

“Todos somos seres humanos y cada quien no estuvimos por el paĆ­s por alguna razĆ³n: Por pobreza, por maras, por todo esto,” aƱadiĆ³ el hombre.

El hombre dijo que planea quedarse en Ciudad de MĆ©xico donde quisiera terminar sus estudios secundarios.

“No la tuve por miedo . . . de la discriminaciĆ³n en escuelas por parte de maestros y mis compaƱeros,” dijo. “No pude terminar mi secundaria.”

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Honoring the legacy of New Orleansā€™ 1973 UpStairs Lounge fire

Why the arson attack that killed 32 gay men still resonates 50 years later

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Fifty years ago this week, 32 gay men were killed in an arson attack on the UpStairs Lounge in New Orleans. (Photo by G.E. Arnold/Times-Picayune; reprinted with permission)

On June 23 of last year, I held the microphone as a gay man in the New Orleans City Council Chamber and related a lost piece of queer history to the seven council members. I told this story to disabuse all New Orleanians of the notion that silence and accommodation, in the face of institutional and official failures, are a path to healing.  

The story I related to them began on a typical Sunday night at a second-story bar on the fringe of New Orleansā€™ French Quarter in 1973, where working-class men would gather around a white baby grand piano and belt out the lyrics to a song that was the anthem of their hidden community, ā€œUnited We Standā€ by the Brotherhood of Man. 

ā€œUnited we stand,ā€ the men would sing together, ā€œdivided we fallā€ ā€” the words epitomizing the ethos of their beloved UpStairs Lounge bar, an egalitarian free space that served as a forerunner to todayā€™s queer safe havens. 

Around that piano in the 1970s Deep South, gays and lesbians, white and Black queens, Christians and non-Christians, and even early gender minorities could cast aside the racism, sexism, and homophobia of the times to find acceptance and companionship for a moment. 

For regulars, the UpStairs Lounge was a miracle, a small pocket of acceptance in a broader world where their very identities were illegal. 

On the Sunday night of June 24, 1973, their voices were silenced in a murderous act of arson that claimed 32 lives and still stands as the deadliest fire in New Orleans history ā€” and the worst mass killing of gays in 20th century America. 

As 13 fire companies struggled to douse the inferno, police refused to question the chief suspect, even though gay witnesses identified and brought the soot-covered man to officers idly standing by. This suspect, an internally conflicted gay-for-pay sex worker named Rodger Dale Nunez, had been ejected from the UpStairs Lounge screaming the word “burn” minutes before, but New Orleans police rebuffed the testimony of fire survivors on the street and allowed Nunez to disappear.

As the fire raged, police denigrated the deceased to reporters on the street: ā€œSome thieves hung out there, and you know this was a queer bar.ā€ 

For days afterward, the carnage met with official silence. With no local gay political leaders willing to step forward, national Gay Liberation-era figures like Rev. Troy Perry of the Metropolitan Community Church flew in to ā€œhelp our bereaved brothers and sistersā€ ā€” and shatter officialdomā€™s code of silence. 

Perry broke local taboos by holding a press conference as an openly gay man. ā€œItā€™s high time that you people, in New Orleans, Louisiana, got the message and joined the rest of the Union,ā€ Perry said. 

Two days later, on June 26, 1973, as families hesitated to step forward to identify their kin in the morgue, UpStairs Lounge owner Phil Esteve stood in his badly charred bar, the air still foul with death. He rebuffed attempts by Perry to turn the fire into a call for visibility and progress for homosexuals. 

ā€œThis fire had very little to do with the gay movement or with anything gay,ā€ Esteve told a reporter from The Philadelphia Inquirer. ā€œI do not want my bar or this tragedy to be used to further any of their causes.ā€ 

Conspicuously, no photos of Esteve appeared in coverage of the UpStairs Lounge fire or its aftermath ā€” and the bar owner also remained silent as he witnessed police looting the ashes of his business. 

ā€œPhil said the cash register, juke box, cigarette machine and some wallets had money removed,ā€ recounted Esteveā€™s friend Bob McAnear, a former U.S. Customs officer. ā€œPhil wouldnā€™t report it because, if he did, police would never allow him to operate a bar in New Orleans again.ā€ 

The next day, gay bar owners, incensed at declining gay bar traffic amid an atmosphere of anxiety, confronted Perry at a clandestine meeting. ā€œHow dare you hold your damn news conferences!ā€ one business owner shouted. 

Ignoring calls for gay self-censorship, Perry held a 250-person memorial for the fire victims the following Sunday, July 1, culminating in mourners defiantly marching out the front door of a French Quarter church into waiting news cameras. ā€œReverend Troy Perry awoke several sleeping giants, me being one of them,ā€ recalled Charlene Schneider, a lesbian activist who walked out of that front door with Perry.

(Photo by G.E. Arnold/Times-Picayune; reprinted with permission)

Esteve doubted the UpStairs Lounge storyā€™s capacity to rouse gay political fervor. As the coroner buried four of his former patrons anonymously on the edge of town, Esteve quietly collected at least $25,000 in fire insurance proceeds. Less than a year later, he used the money to open another gay bar called the Post Office, where patrons of the UpStairs Lounge ā€” some with visible burn scars ā€” gathered but were discouraged from singing ā€œUnited We Stand.ā€ 

New Orleans cops neglected to question the chief arson suspect and closed the investigation without answers in late August 1973. Gay elites in the cityā€™s power structure began gaslighting the mourners who marched with Perry into the news cameras, casting suspicion on their memories and re-characterizing their moment of liberation as a stunt. 

When a local gay journalist asked in April 1977, ā€œWhere are the gay activists in New Orleans?,ā€ Esteve responded that there were none, because none were needed. ā€œWe donā€™t feel weā€™re discriminated against,ā€ Esteve said. ā€œNew Orleans gays are different from gays anywhere elseā€¦ Perhaps there is some correlation between the amount of gay activism in other cities and the degree of police harassment.ā€ 

(Photo by H.J. Patterson/Times-Picayune; reprinted with permission)

An attitude of nihilism and disavowal descended upon the memory of the UpStairs Lounge victims, goaded by Esteve and fellow gay entrepreneurs who earned their keep via gay patrons drowning their sorrows each night instead of protesting the injustices that kept them drinking. 

Into the 1980s, the story of the UpStairs Lounge all but vanished from conversation ā€” with the exception of a few sanctuaries for gay political debate such as the local lesbian bar Charleneā€™s, run by the activist Charlene Schneider. 

By 1988, the 15th anniversary of the fire, the UpStairs Lounge narrative comprised little more than a call for better fire codes and indoor sprinklers. UpStairs Lounge survivor Stewart Butler summed it up: ā€œA tragedy that, as far as I know, no good came of.ā€ 

Finally, in 1991, at Stewart Butler and Charlene Schneiderā€™s nudging, the UpStairs Lounge story became aligned with the crusade of liberated gays and lesbians seeking equal rights in Louisiana. The halls of power responded with intermittent progress. The New Orleans City Council, horrified by the story but not yet ready to take its look in the mirror, enacted an anti-discrimination ordinance protecting gays and lesbians in housing, employment, and public accommodations that Dec. 12 ā€” more than 18 years after the fire. 

ā€œI believe the fire was the catalyst for the anger to bring us all to the table,ā€ Schneider told The Times-Picayune, a tacit rebuke to Esteveā€™s strategy of silent accommodation. Even Esteve seemed to change his stance with time, granting a full interview with the first UpStairs Lounge scholar Johnny Townsend sometime around 1989. 

Most of the figures in this historic tale are now deceased. Whatā€™s left is an enduring story that refused to go gently. The story now echoes around the world ā€” a musical about the UpStairs Lounge fire recently played in Tokyo, translating the gay underworld of the 1973 French Quarter for Japanese audiences.

When I finished my presentation to the City Council last June, I looked up to see the seven council members in tears. Unanimously, they approved a resolution acknowledging the historic failures of city leaders in the wake of the UpStairs Lounge fire. 

Council members personally apologized to UpStairs Lounge families and survivors seated in the chamber in a symbolic act that, though it could not bring back those who died, still mattered greatly to those whose pain had been denied, leaving them to grieve alone. At long last, official silence and indifference gave way to heartfelt words of healing. 

The way Americans remember the past is an active, ongoing process. Our collective memory is malleable, but it matters because it speaks volumes about our maturity as a people, how we acknowledge the pastā€™s influence in our lives, and how it shapes the examples we set for our youth. Do we grapple with difficult truths, or do we duck accountability by defaulting to nostalgia and bluster? Or worse, do we simply ignore the past until it fades into a black hole of ignorance and indifference? 

I believe that a factual retelling of the UpStairs Lounge tragedy ā€” and how, 50 years onward, it became known internationally ā€” resonates beyond our current divides. It reminds queer and non-queer Americans that ignoring the past holds back the present, and that silence is no cure for what ails a participatory nation. 

Silence isolates. Silence gaslights and shrouds. It preserves the power structures that scapegoat the disempowered. 

Solidarity, on the other hand, unites. Solidarity illuminates a path forward together. Above all, solidarity transforms the downtrodden into a resounding chorus of citizens ā€” in the spirit of voices who once gathered ā€˜round a white baby grand piano and sang, joyfully and loudly, ā€œUnited We Stand.ā€ 

(Photo by Philip Ames/Times-Picayune; reprinted with permission)

Robert W. Fieseler is a New Orleans-based journalist and the author of ā€œTinderbox: the Untold Story of the Up Stairs Lounge Fire and the Rise of Gay Liberation.ā€

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New Supreme Court term includes critical LGBTQ case with ‘terrifying’ consequences

Business owner seeks to decline services for same-sex weddings

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The U.S. Supreme Court is to set consider the case of 303 Creative, which seeks to refuse design services for same-sex weddings. (Blade file photo by Michael Key)

The U.S. Supreme Court, after a decision overturning Roe v. Wade that still leaves many reeling, is starting a new term with justices slated to revisit the issue of LGBTQ rights.

In 303 Creative v. Elenis, the court will return to the issue of whether or not providers of custom-made goods can refuse service to LGBTQ customers on First Amendment grounds. In this case, the business owner is Lorie Smith, a website designer in Colorado who wants to opt out of providing her graphic design services for same-sex weddings despite the civil rights law in her state.

Jennifer Pizer, acting chief legal officer of Lambda Legal, said in an interview with the Blade, “it’s not too much to say an immeasurably huge amount is at stake” for LGBTQ people depending on the outcome of the case.

“This contrived idea that making custom goods, or offering a custom service, somehow tacitly conveys an endorsement of the person ā€” if that were to be accepted, that would be a profound change in the law,” Pizer said. “And the stakes are very high because there are no practical, obvious, principled ways to limit that kind of an exception, and if the law isn’t clear in this regard, then the people who are at risk of experiencing discrimination have no security, no effective protection by having a non-discrimination laws, because at any moment, as one makes their way through the commercial marketplace, you don’t know whether a particular business person is going to refuse to serve you.”

The upcoming arguments and decision in the 303 Creative case mark a return to LGBTQ rights for the Supreme Court, which had no lawsuit to directly address the issue in its previous term, although many argued the Dobbs decision put LGBTQ rights in peril and threatened access to abortion for LGBTQ people.

And yet, the 303 Creative case is similar to other cases the Supreme Court has previously heard on the providers of services seeking the right to deny services based on First Amendment grounds, such as Masterpiece Cakeshop and Fulton v. City of Philadelphia. In both of those cases, however, the court issued narrow rulings on the facts of litigation, declining to issue sweeping rulings either upholding non-discrimination principles or First Amendment exemptions.

Pizer, who signed one of the friend-of-the-court briefs in opposition to 303 Creative, said the case is “similar in the goals” of the Masterpiece Cakeshop litigation on the basis they both seek exemptions to the same non-discrimination law that governs their business, the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act, or CADA, and seek “to further the social and political argument that they should be free to refuse same-sex couples or LGBTQ people in particular.”

“So there’s the legal goal, and it connects to the social and political goals and in that sense, it’s the same as Masterpiece,” Pizer said. “And so there are multiple problems with it again, as a legal matter, but also as a social matter, because as with the religion argument, it flows from the idea that having something to do with us is endorsing us.”

One difference: the Masterpiece Cakeshop litigation stemmed from an act of refusal of service after owner, Jack Phillips, declined to make a custom-made wedding cake for a same-sex couple for their upcoming wedding. No act of discrimination in the past, however, is present in the 303 Creative case. The owner seeks to put on her website a disclaimer she won’t provide services for same-sex weddings, signaling an intent to discriminate against same-sex couples rather than having done so.

As such, expect issues of standing ā€” whether or not either party is personally aggrieved and able bring to a lawsuit ā€” to be hashed out in arguments as well as whether the litigation is ripe for review as justices consider the case. It’s not hard to see U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts, who has sought to lead the court to reach less sweeping decisions (sometimes successfully, and sometimes in the Dobbs case not successfully) to push for a decision along these lines.

Another key difference: The 303 Creative case hinges on the argument of freedom of speech as opposed to the two-fold argument of freedom of speech and freedom of religious exercise in the Masterpiece Cakeshop litigation. Although 303 Creative requested in its petition to the Supreme Court review of both issues of speech and religion, justices elected only to take up the issue of free speech in granting a writ of certiorari (or agreement to take up a case). Justices also declined to accept another question in the petition request of review of the 1990 precedent in Smith v. Employment Division, which concluded states can enforce neutral generally applicable laws on citizens with religious objections without violating the First Amendment.

Representing 303 Creative in the lawsuit is Alliance Defending Freedom, a law firm that has sought to undermine civil rights laws for LGBTQ people with litigation seeking exemptions based on the First Amendment, such as the Masterpiece Cakeshop case.

Kristen Waggoner, president of Alliance Defending Freedom, wrote in a Sept. 12 legal brief signed by her and other attorneys that a decision in favor of 303 Creative boils down to a clear-cut violation of the First Amendment.

“Colorado and the United States still contend that CADA only regulates sales transactions,” the brief says. “But their cases do not apply because they involve non-expressive activities: selling BBQ, firing employees, restricting school attendance, limiting club memberships, and providing room access. Coloradoā€™s own cases agree that the government may not use public-accommodation laws to affect a commercial actorā€™s speech.”

Pizer, however, pushed back strongly on the idea a decision in favor of 303 Creative would be as focused as Alliance Defending Freedom purports it would be, arguing it could open the door to widespread discrimination against LGBTQ people.

“One way to put it is art tends to be in the eye of the beholder,” Pizer said. “Is something of a craft, or is it art? I feel like I’m channeling Lily Tomlin. Remember ‘soup and art’? We have had an understanding that whether something is beautiful or not is not the determining factor about whether something is protected as artistic expression. There’s a legal test that recognizes if this is speech, whose speech is it, whose message is it? Would anyone who was hearing the speech or seeing the message understand it to be the message of the customer or of the merchants or craftsmen or business person?”

Despite the implications in the case for LGBTQ rights, 303 Creative may have supporters among LGBTQ people who consider themselves proponents of free speech.

One joint friend-of-the-court brief before the Supreme Court, written by Dale Carpenter, a law professor at Southern Methodist University who’s written in favor of LGBTQ rights, and Eugene Volokh, a First Amendment legal scholar at the University of California, Los Angeles, argues the case is an opportunity to affirm the First Amendment applies to goods and services that are uniquely expressive.

“Distinguishing expressive from non-expressive products in some contexts might be hard, but the Tenth Circuit agreed that Smithā€™s product does not present a hard case,” the brief says. “Yet that court (and Colorado) declined to recognize any exemption for products constituting speech. The Tenth Circuit has effectively recognized a state interest in subjecting the creation of speech itself to antidiscrimination laws.”

Oral arguments in the case aren’t yet set, but may be announced soon. Set to defend the state of Colorado and enforcement of its non-discrimination law in the case is Colorado Solicitor General Eric Reuel Olson. Just this week, the U.S. Supreme Court announced it would grant the request to the U.S. solicitor general to present arguments before the justices on behalf of the Biden administration.

With a 6-3 conservative majority on the court that has recently scrapped the super-precedent guaranteeing the right to abortion, supporters of LGBTQ rights may think the outcome of the case is all but lost, especially amid widespread fears same-sex marriage would be next on the chopping block. After the U.S. Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against 303 Creative in the lawsuit, the simple action by the Supreme Court to grant review in the lawsuit suggests they are primed to issue a reversal and rule in favor of the company.

Pizer, acknowledging the call to action issued by LGBTQ groups in the aftermath of the Dobbs decision, conceded the current Supreme Court issuing the ruling in this case is “a terrifying prospect,” but cautioned the issue isn’t so much the makeup of the court but whether or not justices will continue down the path of abolishing case law.

“I think the question that we’re facing with respect to all of the cases or at least many of the cases that are in front of the court right now, is whether this court is going to continue on this radical sort of wrecking ball to the edifice of settled law and seemingly a goal of setting up whole new structures of what our basic legal principles are going to be. Are we going to have another term of that?” Pizer said. “And if so, that’s terrifying.”

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Kelley Robinson, a Black, queer woman, named president of Human Rights Campaign

Progressive activist a veteran of Planned Parenthood Action Fund

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Kelley Robinson (Screen capture via HRC YouTube)

Kelley Robinson, a Black, queer woman and veteran of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, is to become the next president of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s leading LGBTQ group announced on Tuesday.

Robinson is set to become the ninth president of the Human Rights Campaign after having served as executive director of Planned Parenthood Action Fund and more than 12 years of experience as a leader in the progressive movement. She’ll be the first Black, queer woman to serve in that role.

ā€œIā€™m honored and ready to lead HRC ā€” and our more than three million member-advocates ā€” as we continue working to achieve equality and liberation for all Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer people,ā€ Robinson said. ā€œThis is a pivotal moment in our movement for equality for LGBTQ+ people. We, particularly our trans and BIPOC communities, are quite literally in the fight for our lives and facing unprecedented threats that seek to destroy us.”

Kelley Robinson IS NAMED as The next human rights Campaign president

The next Human Rights Campaign president is named as Democrats are performing well in polls in the mid-term elections after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, leaving an opening for the LGBTQ group to play a key role amid fears LGBTQ rights are next on the chopping block.

“The overturning of Roe v. Wade reminds us we are just one Supreme Court decision away from losing fundamental freedoms including the freedom to marry, voting rights, and privacy,” Robinson said. “We are facing a generational opportunity to rise to these challenges and create real, sustainable change. I believe that working together this change is possible right now. This next chapter of the Human Rights Campaign is about getting to freedom and liberation without any exceptions ā€” and today I am making a promise and commitment to carry this work forward.ā€

The Human Rights Campaign announces its next president after a nearly year-long search process after the board of directors terminated its former president Alphonso David when he was ensnared in the sexual misconduct scandal that led former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to resign. David has denied wrongdoing and filed a lawsuit against the LGBTQ group alleging racial discrimination.

Kelley Robinson, Planned Parenthood, Cathy Chu, SMYAL, Supporting and Mentoring Youth Advocates and Leaders, Amy Nelson, Whitman-Walker Health, Sheroes of the Movement, Mayor's office of GLBT Affairs, gay news, Washington Blade
Kelley Robinson, seen here with Cathy Chu of SMYAL and Amy Nelson of Whitman-Walker Health, is the next Human Rights Campaign president. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
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