Connect with us

National

Puerto Rico Senate approves non-discrimination bill

Passage seen as turning point in island’s LGBT rights movement

Published

on

Pedro Julio Serrano, NGLTF, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, Puerto Rico, San Juan, LGBT equality, adoption, gay news, Washington Blade
Pedro Julio Serrano, NGLTF, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, Puerto Rico, San Juan, LGBT equality, adoption, gay news, Washington Blade

Pedro Julio Serrano of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force testifies in support of a Puerto Rico adoption bill on Friday, May 17. (Washington Blade photo by Michael K. Lavers)

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico—LGBT rights advocates here last week celebrated the passage of a sweeping bill that would ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity and expression in the U.S. territory.

The 15-11 vote in the Puerto Rico Senate on May 16 took place after lawmakers for several hours debated Senate Bill 238 that Sen. Ramón Nieves Pérez of San Juan introduced in January.

“The country, you and I are sick and tired of the marginalization,” Sen. Mari Tere González López of Mayagüez said.

Sen. Thomas Rivera Schatz of San Juan is among those who spoke against the bill.

“This Senate speaks of tolerance but discriminates against those who don’t have the same political ideology,” he tweeted during the debate.

A triumphant Pedro Julio Serrano of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force greeted dozens of LGBT rights advocates and other supporters who had gathered outside the Capitol after the vote. Singer Ricky Martin and New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn are among those who also applauded SB 238’s passage.

“We are celebrating this victory,” Serrano told the Washington Blade outside the Capitol, noting Rivera has previously referred to him as a “faggot.” “The people are celebrating with us. It is an extraordinary step forward.”

Senators approved SB 238 three days after San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz issued two executive orders that banned discrimination against the city’s LGBT municipal employees and mandated the Puerto Rican capital’s police department to equally investigate domestic violence cases regardless of the alleged victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity. She was also inside the Senate chamber when lawmakers approved the measure.

The historic vote took place less than four years after the November 2009 murder of gay teenager Jorge Steven López Mercado sent shockwaves across Puerto Rico.

Serrano, Quinn and others repeatedly criticized then-Gov. Luís Fortuño for his failure to publicly speak out against rampant anti-LGBT violence on the island in the months after the crime. They also noted Puerto Rican prosecutors remained reluctant to convict anyone under the territory’s hate crimes law that includes sexual orientation and gender identity and expression.

The Puerto Rico Senate in late 2011 approved a proposal that would have eliminated LGBT-specific protections from the aforementioned statute.

The Puerto Rico Supreme Court in February narrowly upheld the island’s ban on gay second parent adoptions.

Dr. Carmen Milagros Vélez Vega, whose partner of 25 years, Dr. Ángeles Acosta Rodríguez, sought to adopt their 12-year-old daughter she conceived through in vitro fertilization, on May 17 testified in support of a bill that González introduced earlier this year that would extend second-parent adoption rights to gays and lesbians on the island.

Vega received a standing ovation from Senate Bill 437 supporters who attended the Senate Judiciary, Security and Veterans Committee hearing after she finished her testimony.

“Us three are a Puerto Rican family, one among many,” she said as Acosta and their daughter, Juliana María Acosta Vélez Vega, sat next to her. “We are here, not for the sake of receiving special treatment, nor to seek a privilege, but to present ourselves as citizens and daughters of this country and to ask for that which is granted to Puerto Rican families and children, the right to a family and the protections that that includes.”

The SB 437 hearing took place hours before thousands of people took part in an LGBT rights march from La Fortaleza, the governor’s official residence in Old San Juan, to the Capitol that coincided with the annual International Day Against Homophobia.

Yulín, who unfurled a gay Pride flag from the balcony of City Hall with Nieves during the march, spoke to marchers from the Capitol steps as she stood with members of the Butterflies Trans Association, a transgender advocacy group, while wearing a white headband that said “equity.”

“I say from the bottom of my heart to those who are listening to us — all of Puerto Rico; we are all equal,” she said.

Optimism despite death threats

FBI agents on May 17 arrested Joseph Joel Morales Serrano at his San Juan home for allegedly threatening to kill Serrano at the IDAHO march in a tweet that referenced the Boston Marathon bombings he posted earlier this month.

The Primera Hora newspaper reported Serrano had been planning to attend the march, but he returned to New York City where he lives to accept an award from the Latino Commission on AIDS. His mother, Alicia Burgos, spoke on his behalf.

“We are marching against homophobia,” she said.

Eduardo, who traveled to San Juan from Ponce on Puerto Rico’s southern coast with a group of nearly 150 people, expressed a similar message.

“We are here because we want equality,” Eduardo told the Blade. “We want the same equality that everybody else has.”

The Puerto Rico House of Representatives had been expected to vote on the non-discrimination and the gay second-parent adoption bills on Thursday. A third bill introduced in the chamber in January would add sexual orientation and gender identity and expression to the island’s anti-domestic violence laws.

“It’s just about basic human rights,” Bayamón resident Héctor Maldonado told the Blade as he waived a rainbow flag across the street from the Capitol before senators approved SB 238.

Gov. Alejandro García Padilla supports both the non-discrimination and adoption measures.

“Puerto Rico is on the brink of history,” Serrano said, noting polls that indicate the majority of the island’s residents support expanded rights for LGBT Puerto Ricans. “LGBT rights are advancing and we will have two bills become law in the next few days.”

Advertisement
FUND LGBTQ JOURNALISM
SIGN UP FOR E-BLAST

National

Detroit teen arrested in fatal stabbing of gay man

Prosecutor says defendant targeted victim from online dating app

Published

on

Officials say Ahmed Al-Alikhan allegedly fatally stabbed Howard Brisendine. (Photo of Al-Alikhan courtesy of the Detroit Police Department; photo of Brisendine via GoFundMe)

A 17-year-old Detroit man has been charged with first-degree murder for the Sept. 24 stabbing death of a 64-year-old gay man that prosecutors say he met through an online dating app.

A statement released by the Wayne County, Mich., Prosecutor’s Office says Ahmed Al-Alikhan allegedly fatally stabbed Howard Brisendine inside Brisendine’s home in Detroit before he allegedly took the victim’s car keys and stole the car.

The statement says police arrived on the scene about 4:04 p.m. on Sept. 29 after receiving a call about a deceased person found in their home. Upon arrival police found Brisentine deceased in his living room suffering from multiple stab wounds, the statement says.

“It is alleged that the defendant targeted the victim on an online dating app because he was a member of the LGBTQ community,” according to the prosecutor’s statement.

“It is further alleged that on Sept. 24, 2024, at the victim’s residence in the 6000 block of Minock Street in Detroit, the defendant stabbed the victim multiple times, fatally injuring him, before taking the victim’s car keys and fleeing the scene in his vehicle,” it says.

It further states that Al-Alikhan was first taken into custody by police in Dearborn, Mich., and later turned over to the Detroit police on Oct. 1. The statement doesn’t say how police learned that Al-Alikhan was the suspected perpetrator. 

In addition to first-degree murder, Al-Alikhan has been charged with felony murder and unlawful driving away in an automobile.

“It is hard to fathom a more planned series of events in this case,” prosecutor Kym Worthy said in the statement. “Unfortunately, the set of alleged facts are far too common in the LGBTQ community,” Worthy said. “We will bring justice to Mr. Brisendine. The defendant is 17 years and 11 months old – mere weeks away from being an adult offender under the law.”

She added, “As a result of that and the heinous nature of this crime, we will seek to try him as an adult.”

A spokesperson for the prosecutor’s office said the office has not designated the incident as a hate crime, but said regardless of that designation, a conviction of first-degree murder could result in a sentence of life in prison. The spokesperson, Maria Lewis, said the prosecutor’s office was not initially disclosing the name of the dating app through which the two men met, but said that would be disclosed in court as the case proceeds.

The NBC affiliate station in Detroit, WDIV TV, reported that Brisendine was found deceased by Luis Mandujano, who lives near where Brisendine lived and who owns the Detroit gay bar Gig’s, where Brisendine worked as a doorman. The NBC station report says Mandujano said he went to Brisendine’s house on Sept. 29 after Brisendine did not show up for work and his car was not at his house.

Mandujano, who is organizing a GoFundMe fundraising effort for Brisendine, states in his message on the GoFundMe site that Brisendine worked as a beloved doorman at Gigi’s bar.

“We will do what we can to honor Howard’s life as we put him to rest,” Mandujano states in his GoFundMe message. “He left the material world in a volatile manner at the hand of a monster that took his life for being gay. Let’s not allow hate to win!”

In response to a Facebook message from the Washington Blade, a spokesperson for Gigi’s said the money raised from the GoFundMe effort will be used for Brisendine’s funeral expenses and his “remaining bills.” The spokesperson, who didn’t disclose their name, added, “Any leftover money will be donated to local LGBTQ nonprofit groups to combat hate.”

The GoFundMe site can be accessed here.

Continue Reading

The White House

Karine Jean-Pierre becomes Biden’s fourth openly LGBTQ senior adviser

Press secretary’s promotion was reported on Monday

Published

on

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre (Washington Blade photo by Christopher Kane)

Following White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre’s promotion to a top role on Monday, four of the 10 officials serving as senior advisers to President Joe Biden are openly LGBTQ.

The other LGBTQ members of the president’s innermost circle are White House Communications Director Ben LaBolt, senior adviser to first lady Jill Biden Anthony Bernal, and White House Director of Political Strategy and Outreach Emmy Ruiz.

Jean-Pierre became the first Black and the first LGBTQ White House press secretary in May 2022. She spoke with the Washington Blade for an exclusive interview last spring, shortly before the two-year anniversary of her appointment to that position.

“Jill and I have known and respected Karine a long time and she will be a strong voice speaking for me and this Administration,” Biden said in 2022 when announcing her as press secretary.

Breaking the news of Jean-Pierre’s promotion on Monday, ABC noted the power and influence of the White House communications and press office, given that LaBolt was appointed in August to succeed Anita Dunn when she left her role as senior adviser to the president.

As press secretary, Jean-Pierre has consistently advocated for the LGBTQ community — pushing back forcefully on anti-LGBTQ legislation and reaffirming the president and vice president’s commitments to expanding rights and protections.

Continue Reading

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

Published

on

The Supreme Court as composed June 30, 2022 to present. Front row, left to right: Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., Associate Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr., and Associate Justice Elena Kagan. Back row, left to right: Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett, Associate Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, Associate Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, and Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. (Photo Credit: Fred Schilling, The Supreme Court of the U.S.)

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 — such as the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association, and the American Academy of Pediatrics — 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.”

Continue Reading
Advertisement
Advertisement

Sign Up for Weekly E-Blast

Follow Us @washblade

Advertisement

Popular