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Judge opens new path to challenge Mississippi anti-LGBT law

Fifth Circuit has dismissed lawsuit on basis plaintiffs lacked standing

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Bilal Ahmed

A federal judge has opened a new path to challenge a Mississippi anti-LGBT law.

In the aftermath of a higher court overturning his decision, a federal judge who ruled against a Mississippi “religious freedom” law enabling sweeping anti-LGBT law has opened up to a new path for a legal challenge to the statute.

U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves, an Obama appointee, issued the order Friday in the case against Mississippi’s HB 1523 filed by the Campaign for Southern Equality and two same-sex couples in the state.

The order lifts a stay in the case, allowing up to five written interrogatories to identify which of the 82 clerk’s offices in Mississippi have sought to recuse themselves from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples under the law and the process by which they intend to handle those recusals.

Additionally, the order grants the state until Nov. 13, or a time until the parties may agree, to respond or object to the written interrogatories.

If a Mississippi clerk was found to have recused themselves from issuing marriage licenses or if any such recusal impaired the ability of a same-sex couple to obtain a marriage license, that could form the basis for a new challenge to HB 1523.

The law, signed by Gov. Phil Bryant last year, allows state government employees who facilitate marriages the option to opt out of issuing licenses to same-sex couples, but the person must issue prior written notice to the state government and a clerk’s office must not delay the issuance of licenses.

But the law isn’t limited to clerks. It prohibits the state from taking action against religious organizations that decline employment, housing or services to same-sex couples; families who’ve adopted a foster child and wish to act in opposition to same-sex marriage and individuals who offer wedding services and decline to facilitate a same-sex wedding.

Additionally, the law allows individuals working in medical services to decline a transgender person’s request for gender reassignment surgery.

Reeves last year issued a preliminary injunction enjoining enforcement of the “religious freedom” law on the basis that it violated the Establishment Clause, which prohibits the government from aligning itself with a particular religion. In this case, Reeves determined HB 1523 endorsed one particular religious view on LGBT people, thus was unconstitutional.

But a three-judge panel U.S. Fifth Circuit of Appeals overturned that decision on the basis that plaintiffs lacked standing to challenges the lawsuit. Despite a request from plaintiffs for a “en banc” rehearing before the full court, the Fifth Circuit refused to hear the case. As a result, the law took effect earlier this month.

The Campaign for Southern Equality lawsuit was consolidated with a separate lawsuit filed by LGBT people, a dozen Mississippi ministers and the Joshua Metropolitan Community Church. Lambda Legal, which is representing plaintiffs in that lawsuit, already sought relief after the Fifth Circuit ruling rejecting their challenge by filing a petition of certiorari before the U.S. Supreme Court. The high court has yet to act on the petition.

UPDATE: The Campaign for Southern Equality — represented by New York lesbian attorney Robbie Kaplan — filed a petition for certiorari before the Supreme Court on Monday urging justices to review the case.

“No one in this country should have to live their day-to-day life under circumstances in which their own government has officially designated them to be ‘outsiders’ for purposes of state law. Laws like HB 1523 that establish state-sanctioned religious beliefs are exactly what the First Amendment was designed to prohibit,” Kaplan said in a statement. “The founders in their wisdom intended for the protections of the Bill of Rights to have real meaning.

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New York

Two teens shot steps from Stonewall Inn after NYC Pride parade

One of the victims remains in critical condition

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The Stonewall National Memorial in New York on June 19, 2024. (Washington Blade photo by Michael K. Lavers)

On Sunday night, following the annual NYC Pride March, two girls were shot in Sheridan Square, feet away from the historic Stonewall Inn.

According to an NYPD report, the two girls, aged 16 and 17, were shot around 10:15 p.m. as Pride festivities began to wind down. The 16-year-old was struck in the head and, according to police sources, is said to be in critical condition, while the 17-year-old was said to be in stable condition.

The Washington Blade confirmed with the NYPD the details from the police reports and learned no arrests had been made as of noon Monday.

The shooting took place in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, mere feet away from the most famous gay bar in the city — if not the world — the Stonewall Inn. Earlier that day, hundreds of thousands of people marched down Christopher Street to celebrate 55 years of LGBTQ people standing up for their rights.

In June 1969, after police raided the Stonewall Inn, members of the LGBTQ community pushed back, sparking what became known as the Stonewall riots. Over the course of two days, LGBTQ New Yorkers protested the discriminatory policing of queer spaces across the city and mobilized to speak out — and throw bottles if need be — at officers attempting to suppress their existence.

The following year, LGBTQ people returned to the Stonewall Inn and marched through the same streets where queer New Yorkers had been arrested, marking the first “Gay Pride March” in history and declaring that LGBTQ people were not going anywhere.

New York State Assemblywoman Deborah Glick, whose district includes Greenwich Village, took to social media to comment on the shooting.

“After decades of peaceful Pride celebrations — this year gun fire and two people shot near the Stonewall Inn is a reminder that gun violence is everywhere,” the lesbian lawmaker said on X. “Guns are a problem despite the NRA BS.”

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New York

Zohran Mamdani participates in NYC Pride parade

Mayoral candidate has detailed LGBTQ rights platform

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NYC mayoral candidate and New York State Assembly member Zohran Mamdani (Screen capture: NBC News/YouTube)

Zohran Mamdani, the candidate for mayor of New York City who pulled a surprise victory in the primary contest last week, walked in the city’s Pride parade on Sunday.

The Democratic Socialist and New York State Assembly member published photos on social media with New York Attorney General Letitia James, telling followers it was “a joy to march in NYC Pride with the people’s champ” and to “see so many friends on this gorgeous day.”

“Happy Pride NYC,” he wrote, adding a rainbow emoji.

Mamdani’s platform includes a detailed plan for LGBTQ people who “across the United States are facing an increasingly hostile political environment.”

His campaign website explains: “New York City must be a refuge for LGBTQIA+ people, but private institutions in our own city have already started capitulating to Trump’s assault on trans rights.

“Meanwhile, the cost of living crisis confronting working class people across the city hits the LGBTQIA+ community particularly hard, with higher rates of unemployment and homelessness than the rest of the city.”

“The Mamdani administration will protect LGBTQIA+ New Yorkers by expanding and protecting gender-affirming care citywide, making NYC an LGBTQIA+ sanctuary city, and creating the Office of LGBTQIA+ Affairs.”

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U.S. Supreme Court

Supreme Court upholds ACA rule that makes PrEP, other preventative care free

Liberal justices joined three conservatives in majority opinion

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The U.S. 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 U.S. Supreme Court)

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday upheld a portion of the Affordable Care Act requiring private health insurers to cover the cost of preventative care including PrEP, which significantly reduces the risk of transmitting HIV.

Conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh authored the majority opinion in the case, Kennedy v. Braidwood Management. He was joined by two conservatives, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett, along with the three liberal justices, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown-Jackson.

The court’s decision rejected the plaintiffs’ challenge to the Affordable Care Act’s reliance on the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force to “unilaterally” determine which types of care and services must be covered by payors without cost-sharing.

An independent all-volunteer panel of nationally recognized experts in prevention and primary care, the 16 task force members are selected by the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to serve four-year terms.

They are responsible for evaluating the efficacy of counseling, screenings for diseases like cancer and diabetes, and preventative medicines — like Truvada for PrEP, drugs to reduce heart disease and strokes, and eye ointment for newborns to prevent infections.

Parties bringing the challenge objected especially to the mandatory coverage of PrEP, with some arguing the drugs would “encourage and facilitate homosexual behavior” against their religious beliefs.

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