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‘Mind your own uterus’

Hundreds of thousands join Women’s March across the country

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Women's March Oct. 2, 2021 (Photo courtesy of the Los Angeles Blade)

From D.C. to New York and then across the country to the City of Angels hundreds of thousands participated in more than 600 marches nationwide in the first Women’s March of Joe Biden’s presidency on Saturday.  

The marches were organized with particular focus this year on women’s reproductive rights which are under siege in Republican-majority legislatures, which are passing laws meant to circumvent or present court challenges to overturn the landmark 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade.

Conservative lawmakers and judges have put it that decision in jeopardy including Texas’ new abortion law and a Mississippi challenge which is due to be heard this fall term of the U.S. Supreme Court which began Monday.

“I think we’ve grown incredibly fast in five years,” said Emiliana Guereca, president of Women’s March Foundation. “What started as, really an anti-Trump movement, has turned into a really strong feminist movement for women, pro-choice. So we’re proud of the 500 sister marches that are stepping up into leadership to organize with us.”

Speaking to the 20,000 plus attendees on Saturday in downtown Los Angeles, Rick Zbur, the executive director of Equality California told the crowd;

“Anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ+ extremists are fighting every day to overturn Roe v. Wade. And as you’ve heard from so many speakers before me, Roe hasn’t faced such a serious threat in the five decades since it was decided.

But I’m here to tell you that the LGBTQ+ community—young and old, women and men and non-binary folks—are bringing our collective strength, resilience and power to this fight.

Because the fight for reproductive justice is a fight for LGBTQ+ justice, and the fight for LGBTQ+ justice is a fight for reproductive justice!

LGBTQ+ people need abortion care. LGBTQ+ people need contraception. LGBTQ+ people need STI testing and HIV prevention.”

Equality California’s Rick Zbur with fellow marchers (Photo courtesy of Equality California)

Across the country the National LGBTQ Task Force had a visible present at marches and rallies in D.C., New York, Miami and other cities and states.

In New York, Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul spoke at rallies in Seneca Falls and then the state’s capital city of Albany.

“I’m sick and tired of having to fight over abortion rights,” she said. “It’s settled law in the nation and you are not taking that right away from us, not now not ever.”

In her speech at Freedom Plaza near the White House and in view of the U.S. Capitol at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, Alexis McGill Johnson, the national president of Planned Parenthood told the crowd stories of women forced to drive hours across state lines—sometimes multiple state lines—to end pregnancies in the weeks since the Texas law went into effect.

“The moment is dark … but that is why we are here,” she told the crowd. “With the upcoming Supreme Court term- no matter where you are, this fight is at your doorstep right now,” she said.

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Congress

House passes reconciliation with gender-affirming care funding ban

‘Big Beautiful Bill’ now heads to the Senate

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U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) (Washington Blade photo by Michael. Key)

The Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday voted 215-214 for passage of the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” reconciliation package, which includes provisions that would prohibit the use of federal funds to support gender-affirming care.

But for an 11th hour revision of the bill late Wednesday night by conservative lawmakers, Medicaid and CHIP would have been restricted only from covering treatments and interventions administered to patients younger than 18.

The legislation would also drop requirements that some health insurers must cover gender-affirming care as an “essential health benefit” and force states that currently mandate such coverage to find it independently. Plans could still offer coverage for transgender care but without the EHB classification patients will likely pay higher out of pocket costs.

To offset the cost of extending tax cuts from 2017 that disproportionately benefited the wealthiest Americans, the reconciliation bill contains significant cuts to spending for federal programs like Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

The Human Rights Campaign criticized House Republicans in a press release and statement by the group’s president, Kelley Robinson:

“People in this country want policies and solutions that make life better and expand access to the American Dream. Instead, anti-equality lawmakers voted to give  handouts to billionaires built on the backs of hardworking people — with devastating consequences for the LGBTQ+ community.

“If the cuts to programs like Medicaid and SNAP or resources like Planned Parenthood clinics weren’t devastating enough, House Republicans added a last minute provision that expands its attacks on access to best practice health care to transgender adults.

“This cruel addition shows their priorities have never been about lowering costs or expanding health care access–but in targeting people simply for who they are. These lawmakers have abandoned their constituents, and as they head back to their districts, know this: they will hear from us.”

Senate Republicans are expected to pass the bill with the budget reconciliation process, which would allow them to bypass the filibuster and clear the spending package with a simple majority vote.

Changes are expected as the bill will be reviewed and amended by committees, particularly the Finance Committee, and then brought to the floor for debate — though modifications are expected to focus on Medicaid reductions and debate over state and local tax deductions.

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Congress

Gerry Connolly dies at 75 after battle with esophageal cancer

Va. congressman fought for LGBTQ rights

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U.S. Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) speaks at a Barack Obama rally on Oct. 19, 2012. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

Democratic U.S. Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia died on Wednesday, according to a statement from his family.

The 75-year-old lawmaker, who served in Congress since 2009, announced last month that he will not seek reelection and would step down from his role as the top Democrat on the powerful U.S. House Oversight Committee because his esophageal cancer had returned.

“We were fortunate to share Gerry with Northern Virginia for nearly 40 years because that was his joy, his purpose, and his passion,” his family said in their statement. “His absence will leave a hole in our hearts, but we are proud that his life’s work will endure for future generations.”

“He looked out for the disadvantaged and voiceless. He always stood up for what is right and just,” they said.

Connolly was memorialized in statements from colleagues and friends including House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.), Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson (La.), former President Joe Biden, and U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.).

Several highlighted Connolly’s fierce advocacy on behalf of federal workers, who are well represented in his northern Virginia congressional district.

The congressman also supported LGBTQ rights throughout his life and career.

When running for the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors in 1994, he fought the removal of Washington Blade newspapers from libraries. When running in 2008 for the U.S. house seat vacated by Tom Davis, a Republican, Connolly campaigned against the amendment to Virginia’s constitution banning same-sex marriage and civil unions in the state.

In Congress, he supported the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on marriage equality, the Biden-Harris administration’s rescission of the anti-trans military ban, and the designation within the State Department of a special LGBTQ rights envoy. The congressman also was an original cosponsor of the Equality Act and co-sponsored legislation to repeal parts of the Defense of Marriage Act.


 

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Congress

Marjorie Taylor Greene’s bill to criminalize gender affirming care advances

Judiciary Committee markup slated for Wednesday morning

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U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.)’s “Protect Children’s Innocence Act,” which would criminalize guideline-directed gender affirming health care for minors, will advance to markup in the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday morning.

Doctors and providers who administer medical treatments for gender dysphoria to patients younger than 18, including hormones and puberty blockers, would be subject to Class 3 felony charges punishable by up to 10 years in prison if the legislation is enacted.

LGBTQ advocates warn conservative lawmakers want to go after families who travel out of state to obtain medical care for their transgender kids that is banned or restricted in the places where they reside, using legislation like Greene’s to expand federal jurisdiction over these decisions. They also point to the medically inaccurate way in which the bill characterizes evidence-based interventions delineated in standards of care for trans and gender diverse youth as “mutilation” or “chemical castration.”

Days into his second term, President Donald Trump signed “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation,” an executive order declaring that the U.S. would not “fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called ‘transition’ of a child from one sex to another, and it will rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit or limit” medical treatments and interventions intended for this purpose.

Greene, who has introduced the bill in years past, noted the president’s endorsement of her bill during his address to the joint session of Congress in March when he said “I want Congress to pass a bill permanently banning and criminalizing sex changes on children and forever ending the lie that any child is trapped in the wrong body.”

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