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Trump’s picks for AIDS council disappoint some fighting HIV epidemic

Cited as concerns social detriments of health, pharmaceutical appointments and lack of Republicans

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defending Trump, gay news, Washington Blade
President Donald Trump has restaffed the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS 15 months after firing all members. (Photo by Michael Vadon via Flickr)

President Trumpā€™s recently selected choices to the fill the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS are rankling some observers.

Critics say the appointments fail to address social determinants of health, including homophobia and transphobia, rely too heavily on the pharmaceutical industry and leave out Republicans with records of fighting HIV/AIDS.

The nine members were selected last week ā€” joining co-chairs Carl Schmid and John Wiesman ā€” in the aftermath of Trump announcing in his State of the Union address a pledge to end new HIV infections in the United States by 2030.

Scott Schoettes, HIV project director for Lambda Legal, said heā€™s ā€œglad to seeā€ the posts filled, but had concerns about addressing the social determinants of health and the Trump administration waiting to make the choices until after the plan was unveiled.

ā€œI have some concerns that they really came up with their plan, and then chose the people to be on the council sort of after the fact,ā€ Schoettes said. ā€œIt seems to be you would want those people in those advisory positions as you develop your plan, and it seems like the people theyā€™ve picked are, so far, reflective of that plan in that itā€™s very focused on finding everyone, getting them tested, getting them treated and not really thinking much about the social determinant of health or the things that we know drive the epidemic in a significant way in the United States.ā€

Schoettes is a former member of PACHA who was appointed during the Obama administration, but was among six members who resigned in June 2017 over Trumpā€™s perceived inaction on HIV/AIDS.

ā€œIā€™m hopeful that the administration will pay more attention to these individuals than they did to the members while I was serving, but Iā€™m not sure that they will,ā€ Schoettes said.

In December 2017, Trump sacked the remaining remembers of PACHA without explanation via letter from FedEx, as first reported by the Washington Blade. It wasnā€™t until 15 months later that Trump would finally restaff PACHA with the nine new members.

Schoettes said the social determinants PACHA should be able to address include ā€œhousing instability and access to care, income insecurity, food insecurity.ā€

ā€œAll of those things drive the HIV epidemic in addition to things like homophobia, transphobia, racism, gender inequality,ā€ Schoettes said. ā€œAnd so, unless you are addressing those other factors, youā€™re not really going to get at the sort of entrenched people living with HIV and the people that are out there that are not currently diagnosed. Those folks are living in a swirl of other social determinants of health that are preventing them from getting tested, from accessing care and you got to address those things as well as just the biomedical side of it.ā€

The nine new PACHA members come from variety of backgrounds , including the pharmaceutical industry, activism and academia:

Gregg Alton, chief patient officer for Gilead Sciences, Inc.;

Wendy Holman, CEO and co-founder of Ridgeback Biotherapeutics;

Marc Meachem, head of External Affairs North America for ViiV Healthcare;

RafaelĆ© Roberto NarvĆ”ez, co-founder and director of Health Programs for Latinos Salud;

Michael Saag, professor of medicine and associate dean for global health at UAB School of Medicine and director of the University of Alabama at Birmingham Center for AIDS Research;

John Sapero, office chief for the HIV prevention program at the Arizona Department of Health Services;

Robert Schwartz, head of Dermatology at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School;

Justin Smith, a Ph.D. candidate at Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University; and

Ada Stewart, lead provider and HIV specialist at Eau Claire (South Carolina) Cooperative Health Centers.

Created in 1995, PACHA has provided advice to U.S. presidents on policy and research to promote effective treatment and prevention for HIV ā€” maintaining the goal of finding a cure.

Asia Russell, executive director of the New York-based Health GAP, said the appointments demonstrate Trump ā€œdoesn’t give a damnā€ about PACHA being truly diverse, citing in particular the appointments from the pharmaceutical industry.

“His appointment of representatives of pharmaceutical companies that profit directly from government refusal to address price gouging is unethical,ā€ Russell said.

Gay Republicans with records of working on HIV/AIDS were also critical of what they perceived as a lack of Republican appointments to PACHA. (Schmid was once a Republican, but told the Blade heā€™s now a registered independent and has been so for about the last decade.)

Jim Driscoll, a Nevada-based HIV/AIDS advocate who supported President Trump in the 2016 election, was among those dissatisfied with the apparent lack of Republicans.

ā€œPolitically the group is very one sided,ā€ Driscoll said. ā€œMembers appear to be chosen more to forestall community blow back than for their ability to aid, advise or influence President Trump.ā€

Driscoll, who served as a PACHA member during the George W. Bush administration and applied for membership in the Trump administration, also said other key groups were absent, such as AIDS patients in treatment, registered nurses and older patients ā€œdespite elders being the fastest growing group and too little is being done about AIDS among the elderly.ā€

ā€œGay Republicans are wondering, who actually won this election?ā€ Driscoll said. ā€œGays are well represented, except there appear to be zero gay Republicans. The council needs at least two credible gay Republicans who supported Mr. Trump and at least three or four more Trump supporters. I expect that even VP Pence and his evangelical supporters would want this.ā€

Jerri Ann Henry, executive director of Log Cabin Republicans, said she knows Republicans who have been involved with her organization and ā€œunhappy to have been passed over,ā€ and echoed the concerns about no Republicans.

ā€œItā€™s very disappointing for me to see there are, I donā€™t think, any Republicans on PACHA at all under a Republican administration,ā€ Henry said. ā€œAnd I think this is one of those committees that most administrations have tried to make overly partisan. Thatā€™s not a top criteria that should be used in selecting people, but under a Republican president, it would be great to see some Republicans there, especially the people who have worked in the past under less friendly administrations to make things like this happen.ā€

Schmid, who in addition to serving as PACHA co-chair is deputy director of the AIDS Institute, said in response to criticisms Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar is responsible for the appointments, but in defense of the appointments said the claims were off base.

With respect to addressing the social determinants of health, Schmid said during the PACHA meeting last week ā€” the first meeting after the new appointments were made ā€” those issues were discussed ā€œalong with other non-medical issues were highlighted and discussed throughout the meeting.ā€

ā€œSeems people are quick to criticize without knowing the facts,ā€ Schmid said, ā€œAnd comments such as these ignore the leaders in the community who are members of PACHA and the work they are doing to end HIV in their respective communities.ā€

In response to the lack of Republicans on PACHA, Schmid said people making the criticism do not have their facts correct and ā€œprobably should do some more research before making such a claim.ā€

ā€œI tend to think people keep their party affiliation private and it is not my business, it is their private personal matter,ā€ Schmid added.

In terms of diversity, Schmid said six out of 11 of the members are gay, including two black gay men and one Latino gay man.

Schmid said during the PACHA meeting last week he announced the new appointments were just the first round and more should follow in the aftermath of Trump unveiling a plan to beat HIV/AIDS by 2030.

ā€œI listed a number of people we are looking for: More people living with HIV, more women, younger people, trans people, injection drug users, reps of tribal and faith communities, local government, philanthropy, community health centers, people who focus on Hepatitis, STDs, different disciplines and geographic diversity,ā€ Schmid said.

The Department of Health & Human Services didnā€™t respond to the Washington Bladeā€™s request for comment on the criticism of the PACHA choices.

Among the first orders of business for the newly appointed PACHA was approving a resolution in support of the Trump administrationā€™s ā€œEnding the HIV Epidemicā€ plan.

Cited in the resolution is how HIV/AIDS ā€œdisproportionately impacts certain populations, including gay and bisexual men, in particular among those who are black, Latino, and young; black women, transgender women and those who inject drugs.ā€

The resolution concludes with commending the Trump administrationā€™s ā€œbold initiativeā€ to end new HIV infections and pledging to dedicate resources to make it happen, but also to ā€œensure that proper accountability and metrics are in place.ā€

ā€œAs part of this assistance PACHA will focus on reducing the stigma often associated with HIV, as well as the numerous disparities and social determinants of health that impact HIV in the United States,ā€ the resolutions says.

The resolution says PACHA will work with the administration to ensure the plan is sufficient not just for the first year, but for future years until meeting the goal of no new infections by 2030.

The PACHA members will have their work cut out for them. In addition to advising Trump on HIV/AIDS as he pursues his goal, PACHA is charged with providing counsel on the National AIDS Strategy, which is due for an update in 2020.

It remains to be seen what recommendation PACHA will make. A progress report from the Trump administration last year on the National AIDS Strategy adopted Obama-era goals in combatting HIV/AIDS, which includes reducing the rate of new diagnoses among gay and bisexual men.

The observers critical of the PACHA choices, however, raised questions about whether the administration was making a serious commitment to achieve its goal in stopping HIV/AIDS.

Cited as evidence of concern was Trumpā€™s fiscal year 2020 budget request. Although the request calls for $300 million to beat HIV/AIDS, the budget slashes global HIV programs and cuts Medicare and Medicaid, programs on which many people with HIV/AIDS rely.

Russell was particularly critical of the budgetā€™s request to cut global programs, saying theyā€™re ā€œthreatening the lives of people with HIV worldwide.ā€

ā€œFor example, the White House just requested Congress pass $1.742 billion in killer cuts to global AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria programs for FY 2020, when those programs actually need $1.39 billion in funding increases to accelerate life saving service delivery,ā€ Russell said. ā€œEven drastically improved PACHA representation would not correct the impact of President Trump’s deadly decisions.”

Schoettes had concerns about the budgetā€™s proposed cuts to programs on the domestic side, saying the administration has made an ā€œambitious goalā€ but he hasnā€™t ā€œseen the actions or the steps that would be necessary to achieve the goal.ā€

ā€œWhile there was an increase in HIV spending proposed in the presidentā€™s budget, there were a bunch of cuts to other really critical programs,ā€ Schoettes said. ā€œTheyā€™re going to undermine that goal. So, for instance, cuts to NIH that really dwarf the increases that we saw with respect to HIV. Cuts to Medicaid and attempts to move that into a block grant program. The continued efforts to undermine the ACA. You can some funding thatā€™s going to specifically address HIV, you are actually undermining the goals of health for those communities if youā€™re not providing comprehensive access to health care.ā€

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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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