National
USAID ‘strongly encourages’ contractors to prohibit LGBT job bias
Policy change isn’t mandatory for companies
New policy implemented by the U.S. Agency for International Development “strongly encourages” businesses contracting with the organization to have non-discrimination policies in place for their LGBT workers.
The new policy, spelled out in anĀ executive message dated Oct. 11, encourages companies contracting with USAID to go beyond mandatory non-discrimination protections ā including protections based on race, religion and gender ā and put in place additional policies to prohibit job bias against LGBT employees and other workers.
According to the memo, the agency is making the change to “encourage all USAID contractors and recipients, including those performing solely overseas, to apply comprehensive nondiscrimination policies that include sexual orientation, gender identity, pregnancy, marital status, parental status, political affiliation, and any other conduct that does not affect performance.”
The memo notes that the change isn’t mandatory, so contractors aren’t bound to have the policies to continue working with USAID.Ā Still, the policy is likely the first from any U.S. agency encouraging federal contractors to have non-discrimination policies for LGBT workers.
LGBT advocates said the memo is an important step in addressing workplace discrimination, but noted the change doesn’t have a lot of teeth.
Nan Hunter, a lesbian law professor at Georgetown University who first posted the new policy on herĀ blog,Ā called the change a “breakthrough,” but noted it can’t be enforced.
“Technically it isnāt enforceable in the sense that a contractor who fails to adopt these policies could be cited as out of compliance,” Hunter said. “However, it sends a strong signal that such policies are favored, and creates an incentive for any private company that contracts with USAID to conform its policies to this guidance.”
Tico Almeida, president of Freedom to Work, said USAID “deserves credit” for observing that taxpayers “should not have to subsidize anti-LGBT discrimination and harassment,” but also noted the change isn’t binding.
“If a USAID contractor fires a qualified employee just because she is lesbian or because he is transgender, those employees will still not be allowed to file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Labor seeking enforcement of the workplace protections encouraged under this new symbolic policy,” Almeida said.
Mark Bromley, chair of the Council for Global Equality, said the new policy is a step in the right direction and could encourage other agencies to follow USAID’s lead.
“Iāve heard that new language in USAID contracts and grants will encourage the agencyās program implementers to follow USAIDās existing policies by extending nondiscrimination provisions to include sexual orientation and gender identity,” Bromley said. “I think USAID deserves a lot of credit for their leadership and hope others will follow.”
Asked to comment on the USAID policy, Shin Inouye, a White House spokesperson, said, “We welcome it.”
LGBT advocates have been pushing President Obama to issue an executive order prohibiting all federal contractors ā not just those doing business with USAID ā to have non-discrimination policies in place based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Such a policy change would be binding and enforced by the Department of Labor. The Obama administration hasn’t said one way or the other if it will issue the order.
Almeida said the executive order is the best way for the Obama administration to ensure federal contractors have non-discrimination policies for LGBT workers in place and called on the president to issue the order before 2013.
“In order for LGBT workers to have the same workplace protections as all other Americans, President Obama needs to sign an ENDA executive order covering government contractors for all federal agencies,” Almeida said. “Freedom to Work respectfully urges the President to do so during his first term.ā
U.S. Supreme Court
Supreme Court begins fall term with major gender affirming care case on the docket
Justices rule against Biden admin over emergency abortion question
The U.S. Supreme Court’s fall term began on Monday with major cases on the docket including U.S. v Skrmetti, which could decide the fate of 24 state laws banning the use of puberty blockers and hormone treatments for transgender minors.
First, however, the justices dealt another blow to the Biden-Harris administration and reproductive rights advocates by leaving in place a lower court order that blocked efforts by the federal government to allow hospitals to terminate pregnancies in medical emergencies.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services had issued a guidance instructing healthcare providers to offer abortions in such circumstances, per the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, which kicked off litigation over whether the law overrides state abortion restrictions.
The U.S. Court of appeals for the 5th Circuit had upheld a decision blocking the federal government from enforcing the law via the HHS guidance, and the U.S. Department of Justice subsequently asked the Supreme Court to intervene.
The justices also declined to hear a free speech case in which parents challenged a DOJ memo instructing officials to look into threats against public school officials, which sparked false claims that parents were being labeled “domestic terrorists” for raising objections at school board meetings over, especially, COVID policies and curricula and educational materials addressing matters of race, sexuality, and gender.
Looking to the cases ahead, U.S. v. Skrmetti is “obviously the blockbuster case of the term,” a Supreme Court practitioner and lecturer at the Harvard law school litigation clinic told NPR.
The attorney, Deepak Gupta, said the litigation “presents fundamental questions about the scope of state power to regulate medical care for minors, and the rights of parents to make medical decisions for your children.”
The ACLU, which represents parties in the case, argues that Tennessee’s gender affirming care ban violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment by allowing puberty blockers and hormone treatments for cisgender patients younger than 18 while prohibiting these interventions for their transgender counterparts.
The organization notes that “leading medical experts and organizations ā such as the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association, and the American Academy of Pediatrics ā oppose these restrictions, which have already forced thousands of families across the country to travel to maintain access to medical care or watch their child suffer without it.”
When passing their bans on gender affirming care, conservative states have cited the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022), which overturned constitutional protections for abortion that were in place since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973.
The ACLU notes “U.S. v. Skrmetti will be a major test of how far the court is willing to stretch Dobbs to allow states to ban other health care” including other types of reproductive care like IVF and birth control.
Also on the docket in the months ahead are cases that will decide core questions about the government’s ability to regulate “ghost guns,” firearms that are made with build-it-yourself kits available online, and the constitutionality of a Texas law requiring age verification to access pornography.
The latter case drew opposition from liberal and conservative groups that argue it will have a chilling effect on adults who, as NPR wrote, “would realistically fear extortion, identity theft and even tracking of their habits by the government and others.”
National
Lesbian software developer seeks to preserve lost LGBTQ history
Up until the early 2010s, if you searched āBabe Ruthā in the Baseball Hall of Fame, nothing would pop up. To find information on the greatest baseball player of all time, you would have to search āRuth, George Herman.ā
That is the way online archival systems were set up and there was a clear problem with it. Kristen Gwinn-Becker was uniquely able to solve it. āI’m a super tech geek, history geek,ā she says, āI love any opportunity to create this aha moment with people through history.ā
Gwinn-Becker is the founder and CEO of HistoryIT, a company that helps organizations create digital archives that are genuinely accessible. āI believe history is incredibly important, but I also think it’s in danger,ā she says. āLess than 2% of our historical materials are digital and even less of that is truly accessible.ā
Gwinn-Beckerās love for history is personal. As a lesbian, growing up, she sought out evidence of herself across time. āI was interested in stories, interested in people whose lives mirrored mine to help me understand who I was.ā
ā[My identity] influences my love of history and my strong belief in history is important,ā she says.
Despite always loving history, Gwinn-Becker found herself living and working in San Francisco during the early dot com boom and bust in the ā90s. āIt was an exciting time,ā she recounts, āif you were intellectually curious, you could just jump right in.ā
Being there was almost happenstance, Gwinn-Becker explained: āI was 20 years old and wanted to live in San Francisco.ā Quickly, she fell in love with āall of the incredible new tools.ā She was working with non-profits that encouraged her to take classes and apply the new skills. āI was really into software, web, and database development.ā
But history eventually pulled her back. āTech was fun, but I didn’t want to be a developer,ā she says. Something was missing. When the opportunity to get a Ph.D. in history from George Washington University presented itself, āI got to work on the Eleanor Roosevelt papers, who I was and remain quite passionate about.ā
Gwinn-Beckerās research on Eleanor Roosevelt planted the seeds of digital preservation. āEleanor Roosevelt doesn’t have a single archive. FDR has lots but the first ladies donāt,ā she says. Gwinn-Becker wondered what else was missing from the archive ā and what would be missing from the archive if we didnāt start preserving it now.
Those questions eventually led Gwinn-Becker to found HistoryIT in 2011. Since then, the company has created digital archives for organizations ranging from museums and universities to sororities, fraternities, and community organizations.
This process is not easy. āDigital preservation is more than scanning,ā says Gwinn-Becker. āMost commercial scannersā intent is to create a digital copy, not an exact replica.ā
To digitally preserve something, Gwinn-Beckerās team must take a photo with overhead cameras. āThere is an international standard,ā she says, āyou create an archival TIFF.ā
āItās the biggest possible file we can create now. Thatās how you future-proof.ā
Despite the common belief that the internet is forever, JPEGs saved to social media or websites are a poor archive. āItās more expensive for us to do projects in the 2000 to 2016 period than to do 19th-century projects,ā explains Gwinn-Becker, since finding adequate files for preservation can be tricky. āThe images themselves are deteriorated because they’re compressed so much,ā she says.
Her clients are finding that having a strong digital archive is useful outside of the noble goal of protecting history. āIt’s a unique trove of content,ā says Gwinn-Becker. One client saw a 790% increase in donations after incorporating the digital archive into fundraising efforts. āItās important to have content quickly and easily,ā says Gwinn-Becker, whose team also works with clients on digital strategy for their archive.
One of Gwinn-Beckerās favorite parts of her job is finding what she calls āhidden histories.ā
āWe [LGBTQ people] are represented everywhere. We’re represented in sports, in religious history, in every kind of movement, not only our movement. I’m passionate about bringing those stories out.ā
Sometimes queer stories are found in unexpected places, says Gwinn-Becker. āWe work with sororities and fraternities. There are a hell of a lot of our stories there.ā
Part of digital preservation is also making sure that history being created in the moment is not lost to future generations. HistoryIT works with NFL teams, for example. One of their clients is the Panthers, who hired Justine Lindsay, the first transgender cheerleader in the NFL. Gwinn-Becker was excited to be able to preserve information about Lindsay in the digital record. āItās making history in the process of preserving it,ā says Gwinn-Becker.
Preserving queer history, either through āhidden historiesā or LGBTQ-specific archives, is vital says Gwinn-Becker. āThink about whose history gets marginalized, whose history gets moved to the sidelines, whose history gets just erased,ā she prompts. āIn a time of fake news, we need to point to evidence in the past. Queer people have existed since there were humans, but their stories are hidden,ā Gwinn-Becker says.
Meanwhile, Gwinn-Becker accidentally finds herself as part of queer history too. Listed as one of Inc. Magazineās Top 250 Female Founders of 2024, she is surrounded by names like Christina Aguilera, Selena Gomez, and Natalie Portman.
One name stuck out. āNever in my life did I think I’d be on the same list ā other than the obvious one ā with Billie Jean King. That’s pretty exciting,ā she said.
But she canāt focus on the win for too long. āWhen I go to sleep at night, I think āthere’s so much history, and we have to transfer it to the digital,āā she says, āWe have a very small period in which to do that in a meaningful way.ā
(This story is part of the Digital Equity Local Voices Fellowship lab through News is Out. The lab initiative is made possible with support from Comcast NBCUniversal.)
National
Bidenās acknowledgment of LGBTQ History Month āconsequentialā
Equality Forum honors 31 new āiconsā as annual commemoration kicks off
President Joe Biden signed a letter acknowledging Equality Forumās LGBTQ History Month launch event held on Sunday, writing that, āby celebrating stories of bravery, resilience and joy, your example inspires hope in all people seeking a life true to who they are.ā
Malcolm Lazin, Equality Forum executive director, said Bidenās letter is āconsequential.ā He noted that one year before the White House delivered a proclamation for Black History Month, it issued a letter signed by the president.
āIt’s our hope that next year, our nation’s 47th president will issue that proclamation for LGBT History Month,ā Lazin said.
Equality Forum is an LGBTQ civil rights organization with an educational focus based in Philadelphia. The groupās work includes coordinating LGBTQ History Month, producing documentary films and overseeing the application for and installation of government-approved queer historic markers.
When spearheading LGBTQ History Month for the first time back in 2006, Lazin said many pushed back against the idea. Some media outlets claimed it was trying to turn straight people gay or promote pedophilia.
But Lazin said the homophobic reactions died down when people were educated on topics that typically werenāt taught in a widespread way.
āWe were demonized, marginalized, and vilified,ā Lazin said. āOne of the certain principal ways you’re going to make headway is if you humanize who we are, and also educate people about the important contributions we make to our common society.ā
Education has always been Equality Forumās solution to societal backlash or controversy since its inception, Lazin said.
The organization got its start in 1993 under the name PrideFest Philadelphia. Lazin, who was the founder, said it was created during a time when Pride parades were the main focus of the LGBTQ community.
In an effort to shift focus onto civil rights issues, PrideFest hosted its first LGBTQ summit that eventually transformed into an event featuring national and international organizations. Lazin said it was an effort to educate people on LGBTQ history as well as inform the community on queer rights around the world.
Though that event was terminated in 2020, Lazin is still focused on educating both queer and straight people on LGBTQ civil rights. Equality Forum honors 31 āLGBTQ iconsā each year for every day in October.
This initiative began when Equality Forum started coordinating LGBTQ History Month back in 2006, but Lazin didnāt notice their efforts taking off until about five years in.
āIn year one, people thought, āOh yeah, those are like all the important names of the gay community,āā he said. āPeople paid a little bit more attention the following years, and all of a sudden they’re recognizing, āOh, in a certain sense I was clueless about the role models that the gay community has.āā
This yearās icons being recognized include names like singers George Michael, Luther Vandross, and Sam Smith; pioneering drag queen William Dorsey Swann; āThe Bachelorā star Colton Underwood; Wisconsin Congressman Mark Pocan; and longtime Washington Blade Editor Kevin Naff.
Pocan received the International Role Model Award during Sundayās LGBTQ History Month launch event. Itās the longest-standing LGBTQ award in the nation, and has been presented to prominent figures like former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg.
He said accepting the award allowed him to reflect on the progress thatās been made in a relatively short time.
āI was preparing to make some remarks for the event, and I realized that I’ve been kind of in the front row of a lot of the history making in the country, because more of our history is in the last several decades,ā Pocan told the Washington Blade. āThere are significant moments in the past, but where the real improvements have happened have been more recent.ā
In 1995, former President Bill Clinton invited Pocan, who is gay, and other LGBTQ elected officials to The White House for the first time. When they arrived and were going through security, Pocan said they noticed everyone was wearing blue gloves.
Initially assuming it was due to enhanced security following the aftermath of the Oklahoma City Bombing, Pocan said they later discovered the Secret Service agents thought they could contract AIDS from out elected officials.
He said the Secret Service issued an apology letter and the Clinton administration made it clear that wasnāt their policy. Even more memorable for Pocan was when then-Vice President Al Gore made it a point to shake everyoneās hands at the event.
Comparing that memory to Bidenās recent letter puts the advancements of LGBTQ rights into perspective for Pocan. He said thatās the reason recognizing and remembering queer history is vital.
āIf you donāt know the history, itās too easy to repeat it,ā he said.
The fight to recognize the global work done toward advancing LGBTQ civil rights, however, isnāt over, Lazin said.
Many states are working to restrict LGBTQ topics from being taught in schools. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed HB 1069 last year, dubbed āDonāt Say Gayā by critics, to prohibit lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity.
The New College of Florida faced backlash when photos of hundreds of library books, many containing LGBTQ topics, overflowing a dumpster were shared online. A New College spokesperson said the books were “taken after discovering that the library did not follow all of the state administrative requirements while conducting the routine disposition of materials.”
Despite what the future may hold for LGBTQ content in schools, Lazin said the resources Equality Forum promotes, including the website featuring 31 queer icons in October, are always available.
āAt least on this site, students, teachers, and guidance counselors have resources,ā he said. āSo if you’re an English teacher and you want to be celebrating LGBT History Month, click on poets, or click on authors. You’ve got a whole rich range of people to be able to bring into your curriculum.ā
The reality of what LGBTQ History Month has become today is more than the work of one organization; Lazin said itās the combined effort of local communities that are curious about their own history.
āWhile we could not possibly take on doing the history of all the cities around the country or in North America or around the world, it really has helped to encourage people to appreciate that history and to make sure that it is well documented,ā Lazin said.