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Kemp signs Ga. healthcare ban targeting transgender, nonbinary youth

Advocacy groups condemned the law

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Georgia State Capitol (Washington Blade photo by Michael K. Lavers)

Georgia’s Republican Gov. Brian Kemp on Thursday signed a ban on guideline-directed gender-affirming healthcare for transgender and nonbinary youth that was passed earlier this week by the GOP-controlled state legislature.

The law threatens to revoke the medical licenses of physicians who administer treatments for gender dysphoria in minor patients that are overwhelmingly considered safe, effective, and medically necessary by every scientific and medical society with relevant clinical expertise.

A previous version of Senate Bill 140 applied exclusively to surgical interventions, but the version signed into law Thursday also prohibits hormone replacement therapies, although treatment with puberty blockers is still allowed.

The move by GOP legislators to expand the healthcare interventions covered by the legislation follows pressure from conservatives like far-right U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who represents Georgia’s 14th Congressional District in the House and urged the state’s lawmakers last week to make the bill more restrictive.

At the time, Greene also objected to the draft bill’s “limited exceptionsā€ carved out for cases where patients are treated for conditions other than gender dysphoria, including those diagnosed with ā€œa medically verifiable disorder of sex development,ā€ provided the physician can attest they are medically necessary.

These provisions were kept intact in the bill’s final iteration, which contains additional exceptions for the treatment of partial androgen insensitivity syndrome and in circumstances where the minor patient was being treated with hormone replacement therapies prior to July 1, 2023.

A chorus of objections to and condemnations of the legislation have come from LGBTQ groups, along with legal and civil rights advocacy organizations and medical societies, clinicians, and scientists, including the Georgia Psychological Association.

The Human Rights Campaign, America’s largest LGBTQ advocacy group, issued a statement shortly after Kemp signed the bill Thursday, declaring that Georgia had become “the largest state to legislatively enact such a discriminatory ban.”

“Governor Kemp should be ashamed of himself ā€” taking life-saving care away from vulnerable youth is a disgusting and indefensible act,” Human Rights Campaign State Legislative Director and Senior Counsel Cathryn Oakley said in the statement. “This law harms transgender youth and terrorizes their families, but helps no one.”

Despite the wave of legislation across the country barring access to or criminalizing gender affirming care, in most cases for minor patients, the group noted in Thursday’s release that “polling by Patinkin Research Strategies released this month shows that only 26 percent of likely November 2024 voters in Georgia supported the legislation, while 66 percent opposed it” including 63 percent of independent and 59 percent of likely Republican voters.

According to the findings of a Human Rights Campaign study that were announced Wednesday, “more than half (50.4 percent) of trans youth (ages 13-17) have lost or are at risk of losing access to age appropriate, medically necessary gender-affirming care in their state” – care, the group stressed, that “can be lifesaving.”

Following the Georgia legislature’s passage of the SB 140 earlier this week, the ACLU warned it would “[interfere] with the rights of Georgia parents to get life-saving medical treatment for their children” and prevent “physicians from properly caring for their patients.”

The Southern Poverty Law Center released a statement by Beth Littrell, the organization’s senior supervising attorney for its LGBTQ and Special Litigation Practice Group, calling the bill a “cynical partisan attack on transgender youth, medical autonomy, and parental rights” and urging Kemp to ā€œleave personal healthcare decisions in the capable hands of parents, children, and their doctors.”

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Georgia

Suburban Atlanta gender-affirming care clinic target of arson hate crime

QMed/QueerMed set on fire last October

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A structure fire at a commercial office building located at 215 Church St. in downtown Decatur, Ga., which housed a gender-affirming care clinic, was the target of arson, the Decatur Fire Department confirmed.

According to local media outlet Decaturish, a police report indicates QMed/QueerMed was the victim of the Oct. 30, 2023 fire. In a statement released on Jan. 26, the Decatur Fire Department wrote:

ā€œOn the morning of Oct. 30, 2023, the City of Decatur Fire Rescue Department responded to a structure fire at a commercial office building located at 215 Church St. in downtown Decatur. This historic building is commonly known as the Blair Building.

Fire crews extinguished the fire upon arrival. The fire was contained to one office and no injuries were reported.

After a full investigation, the fire incident has been determined to be incendiary in nature, indicating that the fire was intentionally set. However, the identity of the individual or parties responsible is unknown.ā€

ā€œThe city is collaborating with federal and state agencies to investigate this incident. The city will continue to work closely with these agencies to investigate and solve this crime,ā€ the fire department added.

Decaturish reported

A Decatur Police report indicates QMed was the victim of the Oct. 30 fire, which is being investigated as a first-degree arson, which is a felony. The report contains several images that have been redacted.

QMed owner Dr. Izzy Lowell said the FBI is investigating the fire as a hate crime. Georgia enacted a hate crimes law in 2020, and its protections extend to LGBTQ people. People convicted of a hate crime would face stronger penalties under the new law.

Lowell said, ā€œWe wonā€™t be intimidated. We will not stop providing life-saving care to our patients.ā€ She said the office is ā€œcompletely destroyed,ā€ but that QMed is continuing to see patients remotely.

The Decatur Fire Department has been tight-lipped about the investigation. Decaturish only learned about the fire after receiving an anonymous tip. A reporter visited the scene and saw the damage to the building on Nov. 1. The fire department did not initially confirm the Oct. 30 fire had occurred, and only confirmed it after Decaturish published a story about it this fall.

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Georgia

Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter, 96, dies at home in Georgia

Carter survived by the former president and their children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren

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Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter addresses participants in the 2006 Rosalynn Carter Symposium on Mental Health Policy at The Carter Center in Atlanta, Ga. (Photo Credit: The Carter Center)

Rosalynn Carter, wife of former President Jimmy Carter, has died at the age of 96 at their home in Plains, Georgia on Sunday according to a spokesperson for the Carter Center.

In a statement the Carter Center wrote:

Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter, a passionate champion of mental health, caregiving, and womenā€™s rights, passed away Sunday, Nov. 19, at 2:10 p.m. at her home in Plains, Georgia, at the age of 96. She died peacefully, with family by her side.

Mrs. Carter was married for 77 years to Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the United States and the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize recipient, who is now 99 years old.

ā€œRosalynn was my equal partner in everything I ever accomplished,ā€ President Carter said. ā€œShe gave me wise guidance and encouragement when I needed it. As long as Rosalynn was in the world, I always knew somebody loved and supported me.ā€

She is survived by her children ā€” Jack, Chip, Jeff, and Amy ā€” and 11 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren. A grandson died in 2015.

ā€œBesides being a loving mother and extraordinary First Lady, my mother was a great humanitarian in her own right,ā€ said Chip Carter. ā€œHer life of service and compassion was an example for all Americans. She will be sorely missed not only by our family but by the many people who have better mental health care and access to resources for caregiving today.ā€

The Carter Center had announced on Thursday that on behalf of Jason Carter, grandson of President and Mrs. Carter, the former First Lady had entered hospice care at home. The center previously announced this past May that she was suffering from dementia, three months after former President Carter entered hospice care at home in February of this year.

ā€œShe and President Carter are spending time with each other and their family. The Carter family continues to ask for privacy and remains grateful for the outpouring of love and support,ā€ Thursdayā€™s statement read.

Carter will be buried in front of the modest ranch house in Plains that she and the former president had built in 1961 and always returned to, and never really left save for their stints in what Jimmy Carter humorously termed ā€œgovernment housing.ā€ It was the first home theyā€™d ever owned after Carterā€™s peripatetic military career had taken them all over the country, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

After the news of her death was made public, The Carter Center announced that in lieu of flowers, the Carter family requests that folks consider a contribution to the Carter Centerā€™s Mental Health Program or the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregivers.

The White House released a statement from President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden
on the passing of the former First Lady:

First Lady Rosalynn Carter walked her own path, inspiring a nation and the world along the way.

Throughout her incredible life as First Lady of Georgia and the First Lady of the United States, Rosalynn did so much to address many of societyā€™s greatest needs. She was a champion for equal rights and opportunities for women and girls; an advocate for mental health and wellness for every person; and a supporter of the often unseen and uncompensated caregivers of our children, aging loved ones, and people with disabilities. 

Above all, the deep love shared between Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter is the definition of partnership, and their humble leadership is the definition of patriotism.  She lived her life by her faith. 

Time and time again, during the more than four decades of our friendship ā€“ through rigors of campaigns, through the darkness of deep and profound loss ā€“ we always felt the hope, warmth, and optimism of Rosalynn Carter. She will always be in our hearts.

On behalf of a grateful nation, we send our love to President Carter, the entire Carter family, and the countless people across our nation and the world whose lives are better, fuller, and brighter because of the life and legacy of Rosalynn Carter.

May God bless our dear friend. May God bless a great American.

ā€œDo what you can to show you care about others, and you will make our world a better place.ā€ ~Rosalynn Carter

 Biography of Rosalynn Carter as provided by The Carter Center:

Former First Lady Rosalynn Carterā€™s marriage to Jimmy Carter took her from a rural farming community to the White House. Showing the world a new vision of the First Lady, Mrs. Carter was a working partner and trusted advisor to the president, a participant in foreign and domestic affairs, and an astute political strategist. Widely recognized as the nationā€™s foremost advocate for mental health, she was actively devoted to building a more caring society.

The White House Years

Rosalynn Carter holds a baby at a camp for Cambodian refugees in Thailand, November 9, 1979.
(Photo: Jimmy Carter Library)

While assuming the traditional demands of presidential wife and official White House hostess, Mrs. Carter worked tirelessly to create what she described as ā€œa more caring society.ā€ She was the first presidential spouse to carry a briefcase to a White House office on a daily basis. As a result of her singular tenacity and southern gentleness, she was dubbed the ā€œsteel magnolia.ā€

Early in 1977, barred by statute from being chair of the newly established Presidentā€™s Commission on Mental Health, Mrs. Carter became its honorary chair. In this capacity she held hearings across the country, testified before Congress, and spearheaded passage of the Mental Health Systems Act of 1980. She continued her work in the field of mental health throughout her life.

She traveled extensively overseas, promoting both her own projects and the presidentā€™s policies. In a history making trip to Latin America in 1977, she represented the U.S. Government and visited with heads of state from seven Latin American countries, sharing her husbandā€™s position on human rights and helping to enhance democracy in our hemisphere. In Geneva, Switzerland, she became the first First Lady to address the World Health Organization.

Drawing from her own experiences as a working woman, wife, and mother, she spent many hours lobbying for support of the Equal Rights Amendment; she mobilized representatives from private voluntary relief organizations, labor, and the corporate world in an appeal that raised tens of millions of dollars for Cambodian refugees; and she brought together 23 leading organizations to develop solutions for problems of the elderly at a White House Roundtable Discussion on Aging. In choosing an unprecedented array of White House entertainment for American leaders and international officials, she showcased American culture, initiating public telecasts of White House performances featuring the worldā€™s finest artists and musicians.

Immunizing children against preventable disease was a special focus of Mrs. Carterā€™s throughout her entire public service career. As governorsā€™ spouses, Mrs. Carter and Betty Bumpers of Arkansas worked together in their respective states to promote vaccinations. Once President Carter was in office and in response to a measles outbreak, Mrs. Carter and Mrs. Bumpers again joined forces to make vaccinations a routine public health practice. By 1981, 95 percent of children entering school were immunized against measles and other diseases.

Throughout Jimmy Carterā€™s years in politics, Rosalynn Carter campaigned widely on his behalf and was considered his most fervent and effective supporter. Often lauded for possessing unique political skills, she admitted being more concerned about popularity and winning than her husband, though she noted, ā€œā€¦I have to say that he had the courage to tackle the important issuesā€¦ā€

The Early Years

She was born Eleanor Rosalynn Smith on August 18, 1927, in Plains, Georgia, daughter of Wilburn Edgar Smith, a farmer who also owned and operated the first auto shop in the county, and Frances Allethea Murray, a college graduate and homemaker. As a child, she was shaped by strong religious and family values and an early acceptance of hard work and responsibility.

When her father died of leukemia at age 44, Rosalynnā€™s mother had to go to work. Thirteen-year-old Rosalynn helped her mother with the housekeeping and caring for her siblings and grandfather. She graduated as valedictorian from Plains High School in 1944 and from Georgia Southwestern College in 1946.

In 1946, she married Jimmy Carter, who had just graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy. Mrs. Carter described her years as a Navy wife as a coming of age in which she developed the self-confidence to manage a household with three babies on her own while her husband worked and was often aboard ship.

Three sons were born in different Navy ports: John William ā€œJackā€ Carter, July 3, 1947, in Norfolk, Va.; James Earl ā€œChipā€ Carter III in Honolulu, Hawaii, on April 12, 1950; and Donnel Jeffrey ā€œJeffā€ Carter on August 18, 1952, in New London, Conn. Amy Lynn Carter was born 15 years later on October 19, 1967, in Plains.

After Carter left the Navy and returned home to run the family business upon the death of his father, Rosalynn began working alongside her husband, keeping the books for the farms and the farm supply business. During Carterā€™s contentious 1962 race for the state Senate, which he won after exposing a stuffed ballot box, she received her first taste of politics.

Though shy and anxious about public speaking, she became fully engaged in subsequent campaigns for his re-election and his bids for governor in 1966 and 1970. She campaigned full time on a separate schedule in the 1976 and 1980 presidential races.

As Georgiaā€™s First Lady, Mrs. Carter led a passionate fight against the stigma of mental illnesses and worked to overhaul the stateā€™s mental health care system. Her obligations in the governorā€™s mansion also called for entertaining visiting officials and diplomats, serving as liaison to civic groups, and using her influence as a public figure to advance immunizations of children and other charitable causes. She later observed that these experiences prepared her for the White House years.

The Carter Center and Beyond

After the White House, Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter traveled worldwide to advance peace and health in the worldā€™s poorest nations. Photo taken in Nigeria in 2007. 
(Photo: The Carter Center)

After what she called ā€œinvoluntary retirementā€ to Plains in 1981, her working relationship with her husband expanded. In 1982, they together founded The Carter Center in Atlanta, a nongovernmental organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for people at home and in the developing world through programs to alleviate suffering and advance human rights.

As emissaries for the Center, the Carters circled the globe many times on nonpolitical campaigns to eradicate Guinea worm disease and other neglected tropical diseases, increase agricultural production in Africa, monitor elections in nascent democracies, urge greater compliance with international human rights standards, and resolve conflicts. As a full partner providing direction and vision for the Center, Mrs. Carter accompanied the former president as an active participant, observant note-taker, and thoughtful advisor on high-profile peace missions, including in Bosnia, Cuba, Sudan, Ethiopia, and North Korea.

She established the Carter Centerā€™s Mental Health Program to continue her work to combat stigma and discrimination against people with mental illnesses and promote improved mental health care in the United States and abroad. She chaired the Carter Center Mental Health Task Force, a group of individuals in a position to affect public policy; hosted an annual gathering of national mental health leaders to foster greater consensus on pivotal national policy issues; and established the Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism to encourage accurate, in-depth reporting about mental health issues.

In 2000, The Carter Center and Emory Universityā€™s Rollins School of Public Health established the Rosalynn Carter Endowed Chair in Mental Health to honor Mrs. Carterā€™s lifelong commitment to mental health advocacy. It is the first endowed chair in mental health policy at a school of public health, and its focus is on prevention of mental disorders and promotion of mental health.

In addition, Mrs. Carterā€™s devotion to service extended to other complementary areas. She saw the toll that caring for a loved one with mental illness had on a family and knew firsthand the burden of caring for a critically ill or aging family member. In 1987, Mrs. Carter founded the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregivers at Georgia Southwestern State University to support those who selflessly cared for others and build on her belief that ā€œthere are only four kinds of people in this world: those who have been caregivers, those who are currently caregivers, those who will be caregivers and those who will need caregivers.ā€ The Rosalynn Carter Institute began by helping caregivers in Georgia through direct service programs. Today it serves all family caregivers, which number over 40 million people in the United States. Under Mrs. Carterā€™s leadership, the RCI has increased public awareness of caregiver needs, advanced public and social policies to support caregivers, and become a catalyst for change.

In her unwavering dedication to others, Rosalynn Carter reunited with Betty Bumpers to form Vaccinate Your Family (founded as Every Child By Two) to campaign for timely infant immunizations. She was honorary chair of the call-to-action campaign, Last Acts: Care and Caring at the End of Life, a national coalition of individuals and organizations advocating more compassionate care for those who are dying, and distinguished fellow of the Emory University Department of Womenā€™s Studies. And for more than 30 years during Habitat for Humanityā€™s annual Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project, she would be found with her husband demonstrating advanced carpentry skills as they built homes for poor families.

As a lifelong resident of Plains, Mrs. Carter was an avid supporter of her hometown and a strong advocate for maintaining its historic integrity. She served on the boards of the Plains Historic Preservation Trust and the Friends of the Jimmy Carter National Historical Park. Mrs. Carter was an active member of Maranatha Baptist Church, where she served as a deacon.

A young Nigerian girl presents Mrs. Carter with flowers of welcome during the Feb. 15, 2007, tour of health work in the community of Nasarawa. (Credit: The Carter Center)

Among her many honors were the ā€œInto the Lightā€ Award from the National Mental Health Association; the Award of Merit for Support of the Equal Rights Amendment from the National Organization for Women; the Notre Dame Award for International Service; the Foundation for Hospice and Homecare Lifetime Achievement Award; United Seniors Health Cooperative Senior Advocate Award; the U.S. Surgeon Generalā€™s Medallion; and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Americaā€™s highest civilian recognition. In 2001, she was inducted into the National Womenā€™s Hall of Fame.

Rosalynn Carter was the author of five books: her autobiography First Lady from Plains; Everything To Gain: Making the Most of the Rest of Your Life, a book co-authored with President Carter and inspired by their life after the White House; Helping Yourself Help Others: A Book For Caregivers (with Susan K. Golant); Helping Someone with Mental Illness: A Compassionate Guide for Family, Friends, and Caregivers (with Susan K. Golant), which was selected as the winner of the 1999 American Society of Journalists and Authors Outstanding Book Award in the service category, and Within Our Reach: Ending the Mental Health Crisis (with Susan K. Golant and Kathryn E. Cade).

Asked once how she would like to be remembered, she said, ā€œI would like for people to think that I took advantage of the opportunities I had and did the best I could.ā€

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Marjorie Taylor Greene ‘swatted’ over her anti-trans views

Ga. congressman introduced Protect Childrenā€™s Innocence Act

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(Photo courtesy of the Rome Police Department/Facebook)

According to a report from the Rome, Ga., police department, five officers showed up at the home of Republican U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene after midnight Wednesday morning because of a fake 911 call placed by a suspect who was ā€œupset about Ms. Greeneā€™s stance on ā€˜transgender youthā€™s rights.ā€™ā€

The incident comes after Greene introduced the so-called ā€œProtect Childrenā€™s Innocence Actā€ last week, a bill that would prohibit the administration of medically approved gender affirming health treatments to transgender minors nationwide, punishable as a class C felony with a prison sentence of up to 25 years. 

Satisfied that a man had not been shot multiple times in Greeneā€™s bathtub as alleged in the call to dispatchers, the officers promptly left the congresswomanā€™s home without incident, the police report says.  

Nevertheless, Greene spent much of the day telling the hosts of conservative news networks that the ā€œswattingā€ ordeal had put her life in danger ā€” using a term that describes the practice of targeting someone with harassment by making a fraudulent call to an emergency service with the goal of sending armed law enforcement agents to their home. 

Greene did not miss the opportunity to use the incident to promote her proposed anti-trans legislation to the audience and hosts of fringe right-wing media outlets like Newsmax and Real Americaā€™s Voice where she appeared in multiple interviews today. 

Quoting the section of the police report that details the suspectā€™s motivations, the congresswoman tweeted: ā€œIf this is the war the left wants, this is the war the left will get. I will never stop protecting children and defending their innocence. We have to immediately pass H.R. 8731, the Protect Childrenā€™s Innocence Act, to end the mutilation of kids.ā€

The overwhelming scientific and medical evidence supports the use of medically assisted transitions within certain guidelines for trans youth, as has been repeatedly articulated by U.S. and overseas associations of physicians and medical providers with relevant clinical experience. 

Greene has previously called for and endorsed other proposed federal bills that target trans minors, such as prohibitions on their participation in school sports leagues and use of restrooms and other facilities that align with their gender identities. These bills mirror state laws that have been passed in some conservative jurisdictions. 

Last year, during an interview on Steve Bannonā€™s ā€œReal Americaā€™s Voice,ā€ Greene called trans women ā€œmen playing dress-up,ā€ saying ā€œThey will never be [women] and I refuse to recognize them that way.ā€ 

The congresswoman has repeatedly characterized the inclusion of LGBTQ themes in educational materials, or the discussion of LGBTQ identities in schools, as efforts to ā€œgroomā€ children for sexual abuse. 

Through her perpetuation of this lie, according to a report released earlier this month by the Human Rights Campaign and Center for Countering Digital Hate, Greene is among a small handful of actors who are personally responsible for the proliferation of Twitter and Facebook posts linking LGBTQ people to pedophiles who abuse children. 

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