News
Susan Collins lambasted by LGBT groups for Kavanaugh support
Chad Griffin, president of the Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement “we are deeply disappointed in Sen. Collins today” after her speech on the Senate floor affirming support for Kavanaugh.
“In one of the most consequential vote of her lifetime ā and of her constituentsā lifetimes ā she has opted to back a dangerous, unqualified nominee who repeatedly lied under oath and has multiple credible allegations of sexual assault,ā Griffin said. āThe harmful consequences of Sen. Collinsā decision to support Brett Kavanaugh will last decades.”
With Collins’ support, Kavanaugh has the necessary votes for confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), another undecided senator, declared he’d vote for Kavanaugh shortly after Collins’ speech.
Griffin urged voters to demonstrate their anger with Collins by taking to the polls in the congressional mid-term elections and voting out senators who support Kavanaugh.
“In the wake of this news, there is only one course of action,” Griffin said. “The millions of Americans who have fought a valiant struggle against this despicable nominee must make their voices heard in November and beyond by electing lawmakers who will stand up for our rights rather than sell us out.ā
In years past, the Human Rights Campaign has endorsed Collins when she was up for re-election and faced Democratic challengers because of her support for LGBT rights initiatives, including “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. It’s hard to see how that support will continue in the Kavanaugh vote.
Collins declared in a floor speech she “will vote to confirm Judge Kavanaugh” hours after she was among the 51 senators to vote for cloture to allow the Senate to move forward with the nomination.
In response to Christine Blasey Ford’s Senate testimony asserting a 17-year-old Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in 1982 when she was a teenager, Collins said the accusation isn’t enough to preclude the nominee from sitting on the Supreme Court.
“Fairness would dictate that the claims at least should meet the threshold of ‘more likely than not’ as our standard,” Collins said. “The facts presented do not mean the Professor Ford was not sexually assaulted that night or at some other time, but they do lead me to conclude that the allegations fail to meet the ‘more likely than not’ standard. Therefore, I do not believe that these charges can fairly prevent Judge Kavanaugh from serving on the court.”
Amid concerns Kavanaugh would vote to reverse the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court for marriage equality, Collins said Kavanaugh indicated he wouldn’t overturn the decision in his confirmation hearing. (LGBT legal experts have said his responses were wholly unsatisfying.)
“Others I’ve met with have expressed concerns that Justice Kennedy’s retirement threatens the right of same-sex couples to marry,” Collins said. “Yet Judge Kavanaugh described the Obergefell decision, which legalized same-gender marriages, as an important landmark precedent. He also cited Justice Kennedy’s recent Masterpiece Cakeshop opinion for the court’s majority, stating that, ‘The days of treating gay and lesbian Americans or and gay and lesbian couples as second-class citizens who are inferior in dignity and worth are over in the Supreme Court.'”
Marriage equality is but one LGBT rights issue. Other LGBT-related cases that may come to Supreme Court with Kavanaugh on the bench including litigation challenging President Trump’s transgender military ban, whether federal civil laws against sex discrimination applies to LGBT people and whether “religious freedom” affords a right for individuals and businesses to discriminate against LGBT people.
Sharon McGowan, legal director for Lambda Legal, also criticized Collins, saying the senator’s rationale for supporting Kavanaugh ranges “from naĆÆve to disingenuous” and “can only be described as magical thinking.”
“Furthermore, her discrediting of Dr. Christine Blasey Fordās (and othersā) allegations against Brett Kavanaugh speaks far more loudly than the empty words she offered in support of sexual assault survivors, and her reliance on an incomplete and politically manipulated investigation to justify her decision was shameful,” McGowan said. “By relying on fantasy instead of fact, and by putting party ahead of people, Sen. Collins is apparently willing to ignore the overwhelming majority of Mainers who have urged her to oppose this nomination in order to avoid the ire of Republican Party bosses and the White House.”
The Comings & Goings column is about sharing the professional successes of our community. We want to recognize those landing new jobs, new clients for their business, joining boards of organizations and other achievements. Please share your successes with us at: [email protected].
The Comings & Goings column also invites LGBTQ college students to share their successes with us. If you have been elected to a student government position, gotten an exciting internship, or are graduating and beginning your career with a great job, let us know so we can share your success.Ā
Congratulations to Rand Snell on the opening of his new studio/gallery in Florida. Snell is a D.C. and Florida-based artist, composer, and writer. The Gallery is Sixstar Arts Studios, 2430 Terminal Dr. S, Unit B, St. Petersburg, Fla. His work can be seen at www.randsnell.com.
āIām grateful Jason Hackingwerth invited me to join him and four other talented, and successful artists, to create a new arts destination,ā Snell said. āIn my new studio and gallery, Iāll be creating larger pieces and displaying a larger range of my work to the public. I think what creative people do comes from within. There is something that needs to be said, or perhaps a connection with something beyond that channels through the artist, writer, musician, actor, and potentially every human being. Skills and technique open possibilities, but creative people strive for something that goes beyond ability and craft.ā In his collages Rand uses original photography and abstract designs to create works of complexity and layered perspectives. Upon selling his first few pieces Rand added, āBut recognition is also nice. So, thank you to the many friends, artists, collectors, gallery owners and art patrons who have come by to check out Sixstar.ā
Some of Randās compositions have been performed at the Kennedy Center, including his commissioned work for the Congressional Chorus, āOne Land,ā commissioned for the 20th anniversary of the Chorus, which premiered in 2007. His works have been presented by community choirs and groups like the University of Maryland Percussion Ensemble, and the Florida Orchestra Brass Quintet.
In his early career, Snell was director of State and Local Relations and Senior Adviser, to the Administrator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; and a senior vice president, Hill & Knowlton. He served in Gov. Chilesās administration in Florida, and as a legislative assistant in his Senate office. Snell also ran for Congress on his own, in a losing campaign for Floridaās 13th congressional District. He began his career as a manager with Reeder Farms, a family agriculture and land management company.
He earned his bachelorās degree in Political Science and History, University of South Florida; a diploma in International and Comparative Politics, London School of Economics; and masterās in Music Composition, University of South Florida.
Politics
Trump vows to reverse transgender student protections ‘on day one’
Former president spoke with right-wing conservative talk radio hosts
During a call-in interview Friday on a Philadelphia-based right-wing conservative talk radio show, former President Donald Trump said he would roll back transgender student protections enacted last month by the U.S. Department of Education āon day oneā if heās reelected.
Reacting to a question by hosts Nick Kayal and Dawn Stensland, Trump said: āWeāre gonna end it on day one. Donāt forget, that was done as an order from the president. That came down as an executive order. And weāre gonna change it ā on day one itās gonna be changed.ā
āTell your people not to worry about it,ā Trump he added referring to the new Title IX rule. āItāll be signed on day one. Itāll be terminated.ā
In a campaign video released on his Truth Social account in February 2023, in a nearly four minute long, straight-to-camera video the former president vowed āprotect children from left-wing gender insanity,āĀ some policies he outlined included a federal law that recognizes only two genders and bars trans women from competing on womenās sports teams. He also promised that he would punish doctors who provide gender-affirming health care to minors.
Trump also falsely claimed that being trans is a concept that the āradical leftā manufactured ājust a few years ago.ā He also said āno serious country should be telling its children that they were born with the wrong gender. Under my leadership, this madness will end,ā he added.
At least 22 Republican-led states are suing the Biden-Harris administration over its new rules to protect LGBTQ students from discrimination in federally funded schools, NBC News Out reported this week.
The lawsuits follow the U.S. Department of Educationās expansion of Title IX federal civil rights rules last month, which will now include anti-discrimination protections for students on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.
Among other provisions, the new rules would prohibit schools from barring trans students from using bathrooms, changing facilities and pronouns that correspond with their gender identities.
South America
Lesbian couple dies after man sets Buenos Aires boarding house room on fire
Suspect has been charged with homicide
Two people died and at least five others were injured on Monday when a man threw a Molotov cocktail into the room of a Buenos Aires boarding house in which two lesbian couples lived.
The fire took place at around 1 a.m. in a house at 1600 OlavarrĆa St., between Isabel la CatĆ³lica and Montes de Ocoa in Buenos Aires’s Barracas neighborhood. The blaze forced roughly 30 people to evacuate, and the injured were taken to local hospitals.
Police say Justo Fernando Barrientos, 68, sprayed fuel and set fire to the room where Mercedes Figueroa, 52, lived together with Pamela Fabiana Cobas, 52, and SofĆa Castro Riglos, 49, and Andrea Amarante, 42.
Figueroa and Cobas both died. Castro and Amarante are hospitalized at Penna Hospital in Buenos Aires.
Witnesses say the fire started on the second floor when Barrientos threw a Molotov cocktail inside the women’s room, and it soon spread throughout the property. LGBTQ organizations in Argentina have described the blaze as a hate crime because Barrientos had already threatened to kill the women because they are lesbians.
“We are in a rather complex context, where from the apex of power, the president himself and his advisors and downwards permanently instill a hate speech, instilling it when they close the (National Institute Against Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racism or INADI), stigmatizing the population that is there and the vulnerable groups,” Congressman Esteban PaulĆ³n, a well-known LGBTQ activist, told the Washington Blade.
“All this is generating a climate of violence,” he said. “The fact that it happened in the city of Buenos Aires, which is terrible … has to be investigated.”
PaulĆ³n said President Javier Milei’s government has installed in the public discourse speeches and actions against the LGBTQ community that have provoked more violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
“All that is installed … and then there are people who fail to make a mediation of that, that fail to make a critical analysis of that and can end up generating an act of hatred like this, which is tragic and that already took the lives of two people,” he said.
The Argentine LGBT+ Federation on social media said it was looking for the victims’ families and friends, but has yet to be able to connect with them.
“We are going to stand by them, making ourselves available for whatever they and their families need, and we will closely follow the court case so that there is justice,” said the organization. “But we cannot fail to point out that hate crimes are the result of a culture of violence and discrimination that is sustained on hate speeches that today are endorsed by several officials and referents of the national government.”
100% Diversidad y Derechos, another advocacy group, demanded the investigation address the attack “with a gender perspective and as motivated by hatred towards lesbian identity.”
Barrientos has been arrested, and will be charged with murder. Activists have requested authorities add discrimination and hate provisions to the charges.
-
The White House3 days ago
EXCLUSIVE: White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on speaking out and showing up
-
Middle East3 days ago
Tel Aviv authorities cancel Pride parade
-
The White House4 days ago
Jane Rigby awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom
-
District of Columbia4 days ago
Billy Porter, Keke Palmer, Ava Max to perform at Capital Pride