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Republican lawmakers force LGBTQ exhibit display out of Missouri Capitol

Openly Out Missouri State Senator Razer; “The exhibit’s removal was proof discrimination is alive in Jefferson City.”

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Missouri State Capitol Building (Photo Credit: The State of Missouri)

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – A display curated by students from the University of Missouri at Kansas City celebrating LGBTQ history was removed from the Missouri State Museum on the first floor of the state capitol building, after complaints from a legislative staffer to a state Republican lawmaker.

The exhibit, titled “Making History: Kansas City and the Rise of Gay Rights” apparently offended Uriah Stark, a Legislator Assistant for Republican Representative Mitch Boggs (District 157) in the Missouri House of Representatives, who in addition to complaining to his boss, Tuesday night he complained in a Facebook post on his personal page: 

Update: To clarify, the Missouri State Museum, which is under the Department of Natural Resources, is responsible for allowing this. Original: So is there any good reason that our taxpayer funded museum is pushing the LGBT agenda in our state capitol? These are literally in-your-face banners that you can’t walk through the museum without seeing… and they’re scheduled to be there through December.

Screenshot from Facebook

On Wednesday Stark triumphantly announced that the museum had removed the exhibit, which had only been publicly displayed for 4 days at the point it was removed. The exhibit was scheduled to run for 12 weeks:

Update on pro LGBT “history” exhibit. Thanks to the efforts of several of our great elected officials, the exhibit has been removed from the Missouri State Museum! To God be the glory! Shoutout to Rep. Ann Kelley and Rep. Brian Seitz for taking the bull by the horns! I also spoke with multiple other elected officials who were ready and willing to take action, thank you all for standing for traditional family values!

Screenshot from Facebook

The Kansas City Star, which first broke the story, reported Thursday that the exhibit consisted of banners, curated by UMKC history students, that recount the activism of the local LGBT community, including a focus on 1950s gay rights groups known as homophile organizations.

It had gone up just four days ago State Senator Greg Razer, a Kansas City Democrat and the only openly gay member of the Senate told the Star. In an email response to inquiries about the exhibit’s removal by the Star, a spokeswoman for the Department of Natural Resources Connie Patterson responded saying only that “the display has been moved from the Capitol.” She did not say why or who made the decision.

The UMKC exhibit had been on display around Kansas City in past years before making it to the Missouri State Museum. Last Friday, UMKC’s Gay and Lesbian Archive of Mid-America posted on Facebook cheering its installation at the capitol. The students who curated the exhibit used the archive’s collections.

“We are absolutely thrilled that our colleagues at the Museum have mounted the exhibit, which will be on display for Capitol visitors and state legislators through the end of the year,” the post read.

Screenshot from Facebook

Responding to the exhibit’s removal, state Senator Razer told the Star he was furious to find out about its removal and said he questioned whether LGBT Missourians are welcome in state parks.

“I think it is the epitome of cancel culture that they just want to cancel my history,” he said. “I think it shows a degree of bigotry and I don’t use that word lightly.”

The newspaper noted that Razer has pushed for the legislature to adopt a law prohibiting discrimination against LGBT people in housing, employment and other private sector activities. The proposal has not made it to passage after more than two decades. Razer said the exhibit’s removal was proof discrimination is alive in Jefferson City.

“Do you really think the people that brought down that exhibit are going to rent me a house? We have seen discrimination under our own roof,” he said.

“The story that that exhibit told is the story of how I get to stand on the Senate floor in the first place. Thirty years ago there wouldn’t be an openly gay man in the state Senate.”

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Missouri

1,500 turn out for LGBTQ protests across Missouri

‘We are not alone. We’re not going away’

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KayCee Adams speaks at a protest in Missouri this week. (Photo by Sandy Dwyer)

More than 1,500 people braved a blustery cold day to demonstrate in support of LGBTQ civil rights across Missouri on March 1, embracing the theme “We are here to stay.” 

In a state where the only protections from discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations are found in just three major cities, the turnout was precedent setting. 

Originally organized two weeks prior by the Missouri Democratic LGBT Caucus to take place in six cities, as word spread, it quickly increased to include 10 more towns scattered throughout the state’s rural areas.

At the state capitol in Jefferson City, and other sites, many of the demonstrators came from the smaller towns within an hour or so drive. Along with the LGBTQ residents were parents, grandparents, and other friends, who came to show their solidarity and support. Among the speakers in Jefferson City, the state’s capital, was KayCee Adams, Miss Gay Kansas City Missouri America, offering encouragement and inspiration to keep speaking out and being visible.

While it was definitely a demonstration, complete with chants and songs, there was an informality, especially at the conclusion, where people who were strangers at the beginning, were becoming friends. 

“The message is, we are not alone,” demonstrator Madelyn Desking said. “We’re not going away.”

Protesters at the Missouri capitol earlier this week. (Photo by Sandy Dwyer)
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Missouri

ACLU sues Mo. school district for denying trans student access to bathroom

Lawsuit alleges violations of the state’s constitution and Human Rights Act

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Platte County High School in Missouri (Screen capture YouTube/KCTV5)

The American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri filed a lawsuit against Platte County School District for allegedly denying a transgender former student access to bathrooms matching her gender identity, the group announced on Tuesday.

The complaint argues the district’s policies and practices violated provisions of the Missouri Human Rights Act and the Equal Protection Clause of the state’s constitution.

“Forcing transgender students to use the bathroom or locker room that matches their sex designated at birth is not only discrimination but dangerous and causes serious harm to Missouri’s youth,” said Gillian Wilcox, deputy director of litigation at the ACLU of Missouri, in a press release announcing the move.

The student “lives as a female and was living as a female when she was denied the use of the girls’ restroom at her school,” and received “a series of escalating punishments ranging from verbal warnings to out-of-school suspension” for noncompliance with the policy, according to the press release.

When she began using the boys’ restroom after serving a suspension, the student was harassed and threatened with rape, the ACLU of Missouri said. Suffering anxiety and depression, she was unable to return to school and finished her freshman year virtually.

The Movement Advancement Projects tracks laws across the country restricting trans people’s access to restrooms and facilities consistent with their gender identities. These range from statutes defining “sex” in ways that may impact access to Florida’s law that criminalizes the use of “bathrooms and facilities consistent with their gender identity in all schools, colleges and government-owned buildings and spaces.”

The ACLU of Missouri is challenging efforts to ban gender affirming care for minors through implementation of Senate Bill 49 and the state attorney general’s attempt to use consumer protection laws for this purpose, joined in litigation by Lambda Legal and the law firm Bryan Cave.

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Missouri sends two anti-trans bills to governor’s desk

Legislation targets healthcare access and school sports

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The Republican-controlled Missouri legislature on Wednesday sent bills to the state’s Republican Gov. Mike Parson that will restrict transgender residents’ access to healthcare and prohibit them from participating in school sports.

“It’s an incredibly devastating day for transgender Missourians, for families raising transgender youth, and for all of Missouri,” said Shira Berkowitz, senior public policy director for PROMO Missouri, the statewide LGBTQ advocacy organization, in a video shared on Twitter.

According to PROMO, Senate Bill 39 will ban “all transgender student athletes from kindergarten through college from being able to play sports on sanctioned school teams that align with their gender identity.”

The law would apply to public, private and charter schools, which risk losing state funding for noncompliance.

SB 49, meanwhile, “bans gender affirming surgery for anyone under 18,” along with “access to transgender affirming care for minors who are not already on a prescribed path for healthcare.”

Additionally, under the law,”Medicaid will no longer be able to cover gender affirming healthcare for children or adults” and “people who are incarcerated will no longer have access to any gender affirming care while they are in state custody.”

Saint Louis Rabbi Daniel Bogard, who is raising a trans son and has been active in advocacy over the state’s anti-trans legislation, condemned the move in a tweet Wednesday.

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