National
Veteran gay Dem to head LGBT caucus at convention
Stafford to attend 10th party confab
Rick Stafford (photo courtesy of Stafford)
When nearly 500 LGBT delegates attending the Democratic National Convention hold their first caucus meeting in Charlotte, N.C., next Tuesday, veteran gay Democratic activist Rick Stafford of Minnesota will pound the gavel to call the meeting to order.
Stafford, 60, has been credited with playing a lead role in lobbying, cajoling, and nudging the Democratic Party to take a strong stand on LGBT rights and to change its delegate selection rules and policies to reach out to minorities, especially LGBT people, resulting in a dramatic increase in the number of LGBT delegates.
“This will be my tenth convention,” he told the Blade. “I was out for nine of them.”
He said he kept his sexual orientation confidential during his first Democratic Convention in Miami in 1972, when the Democrats nominated George McGovern for president. He had been selected to attend as a page at a time when he lived in a small town in rural Minnesota.
“There were just a few openly gay delegates,” he said. “You could fit them all in a phone booth.”
Since that time, Stafford has played an increasingly prominent role in Democratic Party politics, both locally and nationally, according to party activists who know him.
With the exception of the 1976 convention, which nominated Jimmy Carter and his vice presidential running mate Walter Mondale of Minnesota, Stafford said he has attended every Democratic Convention since then.
In 1992, Minnesota Democrats elected Stafford as chair of the state party, making him the first out gay person to win election to chair either of the two major parties in a state.
Since the 1990s Stafford has served at various times as a member of the Democratic National Committee. He currently chairs the DNC’s LGBT Americans Caucus.
Gay Democratic activist Kurt Vorndran of D.C., who has worked with Stafford on LGBT party related issues since the 1980s, said Stafford worked “relentlessly” both behind the scenes and through official DNC channels to push the party into requiring the state parties to set goals for recruiting LGBT people, along with other minorities, to become delegates to the Democratic conventions.
“He has served as a member of the party and convention rules committees,” Vorndran said. “He made sure the rule had outreach policies for the LGBT community. Thanks to his hard work and the work of others, for the first time, every single state may have at least one gay or LGBT delegate.”
Stafford said one of the most memorable conventions he attended was in 1984 in San Francisco, when fellow Minnesotan Walter Mondale was nominated for president and selected U.S. Rep. Geraldine Ferraro (D-N.Y.) as the nation’s first female vice presidential candidate for a major political party.
Working with then gay Democratic activist Tom Chorton of D.C., who became the leader of the nation’s first national gay Democratic Party organization, Stafford said he used his Minnesota connections to arrange meetings and phone conversations shortly before the start of the convention with high-level Mondale campaign officials, including Joan Mondale, the candidate’s wife.
As a result of those efforts, according to Stafford, the Mondale campaign put out the word to the convention platform committee that the campaign would support proposed language in the platform calling for federal legislation to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation.
“This led to the first formal recognition of gays by the party,” Stafford said.
With the exception of what he calls a few setbacks and “bumps in the road” the strength of the party’s platform on LGBT issues and the presence of LGBT people increased in every Democratic convention since that time, Stafford said.
Asked what the main objective for the convention’s LGBT caucus will be at the 2012 convention in Charlotte, Stafford said it will be to pull out all the stops to facilitate the re-election of Barack Obama as president.
“The goal is to celebrate what this administration has given us and our community,” he said.
“And just look at the things we’ll be celebrating. The Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act, the repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ the Ryan White HIV Treatment Extension Act and a national AIDS strategy, the lifting of the HIV entry ban, the federal housing programs that ban discrimination on sexual orientation and gender identity throughout the federal government.”
He fired off many other actions he considers “highly significant” LGBT-related accomplishments by the Obama administration, including the large number of LGBT people appointed to high-level administration jobs.
Stafford said that as a staunch adherent of the Democratic Party’s liberal-progressive wing, he sometimes finds himself playing the role of pragmatist. He said that role has already surfaced this week, when he counseled LGBT delegates not to engage in a floor protest against the controversial appearance at the convention of Roman Catholic Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York and former GOP Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, who is backing Obama’s re-election bid. Dolan is scheduled to give the closing prayer at both the GOP and Democratic conventions.
LGBT activists last year denounced Dolan for taking a lead role in opposing New York State’s same-sex marriage law, which the state legislature passed. Activists in Florida have criticized Crist for not being more supportive on LGBT rights.
“I was a rabble rouser,” said Stafford. “But we knew about timing, when it’s the best time to pick and choose your battles. It’s just sheer stupidity when we’re even thinking about a negative protest when we have so much to celebrate.”
The White House
Judy Shepard to receive Presidential Medal of Freedom
Nancy Pelosi is also among this year’s honorees
Beloved LGBTQ advocate Judy Shepard is among the 19 honorees who will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the U.S., the White House announced on Friday.
The mother of Matthew Shepard, who was killed in 1998 in the country’s most notorious anti-gay hate crime, she co-founded the Matthew Shepard Foundation with her husband Dennis to raise awareness about anti-LGBTQ violence.
The organization runs education, outreach, and advocacy programs, many focused on schools.
In a statement shared via the Human Rights Campaign, Shepard said, “This unexpected honor has been very humbling for me, Dennis, and our family. What makes us proud is knowing our President and our nation share our lifelong commitment to making this world a safer, more loving, more respectful, and more peaceful place for everyone.
“I am grateful to everyone whose love and support for our work through the years has sustained me.
“If I had the power to change one thing, I can only dream of the example that Matt’s life and purpose would have shown, had he lived. This honor reminds the world that his life, and every life, is precious.”
Shepard was instrumental in working with then-President Barack Obama for passage of the landmark Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act in 2009, which was led in the House by then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who will also be honored with a Presidential Medal of Freedom during the ceremony on Friday.
Also in 2009, Shepard published a memoir, “The Meaning of Matthew: My Son’s Murder in Laramie, and a World Transformed,” and was honored with the Black Tie Dinner Elizabeth Birch Equality Award.
“Judy Shepard has been a champion for equality and President Biden’s choice to honor her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom is a testament to what she’s done to be a force of good in the world,” HRC President Kelley Robinson said in a statement.
“A mother who turned unspeakable grief over the loss of her son into a decades-long fight against anti-LGBTQ+ hatred and violence, Judy continues to make a lasting impact in the lives of the LGBTQ+ community,” she said.
“It is because of her advocacy that the first federal hate crimes legislation became law and that countless life-saving trainings, resources and conversations about equality and acceptance are provided each year by the Matthew Shepard Foundation,” Robinson said. “We are honored that Judy is a member of the HRC family and know that her work to create a more inclusive and just world will only continue.”
Other awardees who will be honored by the White House this year are: Actor Michelle Yeoh, entrepreneur and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Jesuit Catholic priest Gregory Boyle, Assistant House Democratic Leader Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), former Labor and Education Secretary and former U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.), journalist and former daytime talkshow host Phil Donahue, World War II veteran and civil rights activist Medgar Evers (posthumous), former Vice President Al Gore, civil rights activist and lawyer Clarence B. Jones, former Secretary of State and U.S. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), former U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) (posthumous), Olympic swimmer Katie Ledecky, educator and activist Opal Lee, astronaut and former director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center Ellen Ochoa, astronomer Jane Rigby, United Farm Workers President Teresa Romero, and Olympic athlete Jim Thorpe (posthumous).
National
United Methodist Church removes 40-year ban on gay clergy
Delegates also voted for other LGBTQ-inclusive measures
The United Methodist Church on Wednesday removed a ban on gay clergy that was in place for more than 40 years, voting to also allow LGBTQ weddings and end prohibitions on the use of United Methodist funds to “promote acceptance of homosexuality.”
Overturning the policy forbidding the church from ordaining “self-avowed practicing homosexuals” effectively formalized a practice that had caused an estimated quarter of U.S. congregations to leave the church.
The New York Times notes additional votes “affirming L.G.B.T.Q. inclusion in the church are expected before the meeting adjourns on Friday.” Wednesday’s measures were passed overwhelmingly and without debate. Delegates met in Charlotte, N.C.
According to the church’s General Council on Finance and Administration, there were 5,424,175 members in the U.S. in 2022 with an estimated global membership approaching 10 million.
The Times notes that other matters of business last week included a “regionalization” plan, which gave autonomy to different regions such that they can establish their own rules on matters including issues of sexuality — about which international factions are likelier to have more conservative views.
Rev. Kipp Nelson of St. Johns’s on the Lake Methodist Church in Miami shared a statement praising the new developments:
“It is a glorious day in the United Methodist Church. As a worldwide denomination, we have now publicly proclaimed the boundless love of God and finally slung open the doors of our church so that all people, no matter their identities or orientations, may pursue the calling of their hearts.
“Truly, all are loved and belong here among us. I am honored to serve as a pastor in the United Methodist Church for such a time as this, for our future is bright and filled with hope. Praise be, praise be.”
Federal Government
Republican state AGs challenge Biden administration’s revised Title IX policies
New rules protect LGBTQ students from discrimination
Four Republicans state attorneys general have sued the Biden-Harris administration over the U.S. Department of Education’s new Title IX policies that were finalized April 19 and carry anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ students in public schools.
The lawsuit filed on Tuesday, which is led by the attorneys general of Kentucky and Tennessee, follows a pair of legal challenges from nine Republican states on Monday — all contesting the administration’s interpretation that sex-based discrimination under the statute also covers that which is based on the victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
The administration also rolled back Trump-era rules governing how schools must respond to allegations of sexual harassment and sexual assault, which were widely perceived as biased in favor of the interests of those who are accused.
“The U.S. Department of Education has no authority to let boys into girls’ locker rooms,” Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said in a statement. “In the decades since its adoption, Title IX has been universally understood to protect the privacy and safety of women in private spaces like locker rooms and bathrooms.”
“Florida is suing the Biden administration over its unlawful Title IX changes,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wrote on social media. “Biden is abusing his constitutional authority to push an ideological agenda that harms women and girls and conflicts with the truth.”
After announcing the finalization of the department’s new rules, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona told reporters, “These regulations make it crystal clear that everyone can access schools that are safe, welcoming and that respect their rights.”
The new rule does not provide guidance on whether schools must allow transgender students to play on sports teams corresponding with their gender identity to comply with Title IX, a question that is addressed in a separate rule proposed by the agency in April.
LGBTQ and civil rights advocacy groups praised the changes. Lambda Legal issued a statement arguing the new rule “protects LGBTQ+ students from discrimination and other abuse,” adding that it “appropriately underscores that Title IX’s civil rights protections clearly cover LGBTQ+ students, as well as survivors and pregnant and parenting students across race and gender identity.”
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HHS reverses Trump-era anti-LGBTQ rule
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New World Bank US executive director: LGBTQ rights are human rights
