News
Log Cabin urges Dave Agema to resign
Gay GOP group calls for committee member’s ouster after anti-gay comments
Log Cabin is calling on Dave Agema to resign from RNC after saying gays want free health care because they’re dying of AIDS.
Pressure is increasing on Republican National Committee member Dave Agema to resign after he delivered remarks saying gay people are claiming HIV-positive partners to obtain health care.
The Log Cabin Republicans and the Log Cabin Republicans of Michigan jointly issued a statement on Friday calling for Agema’s ouster on the grounds that he’s imperiling Republican success at the ballot.
Gregory Angelo, executive director of Log Cabin, said resignation is the only appropriate action for Agema in the aftermath of his anti-gay remarks.
“One word: resign,” Angelo said. “Dave Agema has repeatedly shown that he is unfit to represent the many good Republicans in Michigan who understand that his brand of ‘conservatism’ isn’t doing the party any favors.”
Agema has been under fire for remarks he reportedly made at a local Republican Party holiday reception last week in Berrien County. According to the Herald Palladium, Agema said he’s seen gay people working for American Airlines claim to have HIV-infected partners to obtain spousal health coverage.
“Folks, they [gay people] want free medical because they’re dying between 30 and 44 years old,” Agema was quoted as saying. “To me, it’s a moral issue. It’s a biblical issue. Traditional marriage is where it should be and it’s in our platform. Those in our party who oppose traditional marriage are wrong.”
According to Log Cabin, there’s currently no mechanism to remove a Republican committee member in Michigan, but the Michigan Republican Party can amend its bylaws to allow for the removal of members who harm Republican prospects of winning elections. Short of that, Log Cabin wants Agema’s colleagues and RNC Chair Reince Priebus to insist he step down.
The Michigan Republican Party will have an opportunity to address the call for Agema’s resignation over the weekend at a Michigan Republican Party state committee meeting. According to the Associated Press, Jason Watts, an activist from Western Michigan, will propose a resolution not mentioning Agema by name, but disavowing the party of “demagogic rhetoric that is incendiary and unbecoming of civil discourse.”
Agema has a history of taking on anti-gay positions. He was responsible for introducing a resolution before the Republican National Committee that reaffirmed the party’s opposition to same-sex marriage. Agema has also compared being gay to being an alcoholic.
Agema, the Michigan Republican Party and the RNC did not respond to the Washington Blade’s request for comment on Log Cabin’s call for Agema’s resignation.
Agema’s remarks have already been condemned by Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, Michigan Republican Party Chair Paul Welday, Michigan House Speaker Jase Bolger and Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville.
Joe Sylvester, chair of Log Cabin Republicans of Michigan, said the Michigan Republican Party must find a way to take action against Agema.
“The Michigan Republican Party is acting as if it is helpless in this situation by saying that there is nothing that they can do about it,” Sylvester said. “It’s just a ploy. They are deflecting and hoping the issue goes away. They can do something about it and they should.”
Hungary
New Hungarian government to scrap anti-LGBTQ adoption law
Prime Minister Peter Maygar ousted Viktor Orbán in April
Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Maygar has said his government will amend a law that essentially bans same-sex couples from adopting children.
Lawmakers approved the effective adoption ban in 2020, when then-Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government was in power. Maygar announced plans to amend the law on Saturday when he was speaking to supporters in Budapest, the Hungarian capital.
Orbán and his government faced widespread criticism over its anti-LGBTQ crackdown that also included laws banning Pride events.
Maygar in April ousted Orbán in Hungary’s elections.
Baltimore
Transgender woman killed in Barclay community mourned by friends, advocates
Sophie Lee shot to death on Friday morning
By DARREONNA DAVIS | Denise Johnson imagined spending Sunday with her daughter, Sophie Lee, eating crabs at the park. Instead, she stood on a Barclay street corner Sunday evening surrounded by nearly 100 people who came to remember her daughter, a transgender woman who was fatally shot there Friday.
The 27-year-old woman was found in the 2400 block of North Calvert Street around 1:15 a.m. Friday, Baltimore Police said in a news release.
Lindsey Eldridge, a police department spokesperson, said it’s unclear if her identity had anything to do with her death and the investigation is ongoing.
The rest of this article can be read on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
Turkey
Dozens detained after Turkish authorities raid LGBTQ groups, businesses
Raids targeted gay bars, activists’ homes
Authorities in Turkey over the weekend detained dozens of people during raids they carried out against gay bars and LGBTQ activists’ homes across the country.
The BBC reported the raids were part of the government’s “My Family is Safe” campaign.
A statement from a group of Turkish advocacy groups the Washington Blade received on Sunday noted Justice Minister Akın Gürlek said the operation included “162 individuals, nine associations, and 13 businesses across 15 provinces.” Prosecutors in Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Aydın, and Mersin are coordinating the campaign.
Kaos GL, one of the country’s largest advocacy groups, was among the targets.
“The authorities have referred to allegations including ‘obscenity,’ ‘facilitating prostitution or providing premises for prostitution,’ exposure of children to allegedly obscene content, drug-related offenses, and other morality-related offenses,” reads the press release the Blade received. “Information from the field indicates that additional allegations, including forming a criminal organization, may appear in some investigation files.”
“The reported inclusion of the offense of “establishing an organization for the purpose of committing crimes” under Article 220 of the Turkish Criminal Code is particularly alarming and, if confirmed, would mark a significant escalation in the criminalization of LGBTI+ human rights activism,” it added. “While LGBTI+ activists and organizations have recently faced and continue to face investigations and prosecutions on grounds such as ‘obscenity’ and alleged violations of the Law on Associations, the use of an organized-crime allegation represents a qualitatively more serious threshold, both in terms of the gravity of the accusation and the potential penalties involved.”
Turkish authorities under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s government over the last decade have cracked down on LGBTQ and intersex activists in the country.
Police in 2015 used tear gas and water cannons against people who were about to participate in an Istanbul Pride march. Authorities in 2017 arrested nearly two dozen people who defied a ban on Pride events in the city.
Police in Ankara, the Turkish capital, in 2019, arrested 18 students and an academic who participated in a Pride march at the Middle East Technical University. They faced up to three years in prison, but a court in 2021 acquitted them. Police in 2022 violently broke up a Pride parade at the same Ankara university.
Turkish authorities in July refused to allow a gay cruise ship — the Scarlet Lady, a Virgin Voyage vessel that Atlantis Events chartered — to dock in Kusadasi, a resort town on the Aegean Sea.
Kusadasi is in Aydın Province, one of the provinces in which authorities conducted the raids. Turkish officials also refused to allow the Scarlet Lady to dock in Istanbul.
A Turkish source on Sunday told the Blade the “My Family is Safe” operation began on the 46th anniversary of a military coup that toppled the country’s government in 1980.
“The fact that this operation began on the night of Sept. 12 — the 46th anniversary of the 1980 coup — is highly significant in terms of the foundations of the prohibitive and repressive mindset directed at the LGBTI+ community,” they said. “Moreover, many LGBTI+ organizations had been subject to official inspections last week.”
“Conducting this operation on a Saturday night shortly thereafter also serves the purpose of heightening fear and anxiety within the community,” added the source.
The source asked the Blade not to reveal their identity.
ILGA-Europe in a statement described the raids as “the systematic dismantling of LGBTI civil society.” Paris Mayor Emmanuel Grégoire is among the European officials who have publicly condemned them.
The Blade will update this story with additional details as they become available.
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