National
Obama, civil rights advocates commemorate March on Washington
Several speakers on steps of Lincoln Memorial referenced LGBT issues
More than 100,000 people on Wednesday gathered on on the National Mall to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington.
President Obama, former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, Oprah Winfrey, Georgia Congressman John Lewis, U.S. Sen. Angus King (I-Maine,) U.S. Reps. Donna Edwards (D-Md.) and JoaquĆn Castro (D-Texas,) Revs. Al Sharpton and Joseph Lowery, Myrlie Evers Williams, NAACP President Benjamin Jealous, Bahamian Prime Minister Perry Christie and Dolores Huerta who co-founded what became known as the United Farm Workers are among those who spoke on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Two of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.,ās children ā Martin Luther King, III, and Rev. Bernice King ā and the slain civil rights leaderās sister, Christine King Farris, also addressed the crowd.
āBecause they marched, America became more free and more fair ā not just for African Americans, but for women and Latinos, Asians and Native Americans; for Catholics, Jews and Muslims; for gays, for Americans with a disability,ā Obama said. āAmerica changed for you and for me, and the entire world drew strength from that example.ā
The president said the 1963 March on Washington during which Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his famous āI Have a Dreamā speech āteaches us that we are not trapped by the mistakes of history; that we are masters of our fate.ā Obama stressed unity, while saying Americans will have to āreignite the embers of empathy and fellow feeling, the coalition of conscienceā he said participants of the historic 1963 gathering expressed 50 years ago.
āThat spirit is there,ā Obama said. āI see it when a white mother recognizes her own daughter in the face of a poor black child. I see it when the black youth thinks of his own grandfather in the dignified steps of an elderly white man. Itās there when the native-born recognizing that striving spirit of the new immigrant; when the interracial couple connects the pain of a gay couple who are discriminated against and understands it as their own.ā
LGBT speakers who spoke during the 1963 March on Washington commemoration on Wednesday included Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) Executive Director Eliza Byard, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten and Service Employees International Union (SEIU) President Mary Kay Henry. Alan van Capelle, the former executive director of the New York LGBT group Empire State Pride Agenda who is now the CEO of Bend the Arc, a Jewish social justice organization, also addressed the crowd.
āWe may be closer to full legal equality; but we are far, far far from justice,ā van Capelle said as he spoke out against a number of issues that include the New York Police Department’s controversial stop-and-frisk policy and anti-LGBT employment discrimination. āWe are far from justice when a gay, lesbian or transgender person can be fired from their job simply because of who they are.ā
A number of other speakers included LGBT-specific remarks in their speeches.
Mee Moua, president of Asian Americans Advancing Justice, said the slain civil rights leaderās vision for the country is āinclusive of all America.ā
āHis call to action invites each America: Asian America, black America, Hispano/Latino America, Native America, GLBTQ America, white America and men and women of America to take inspiration from our own circumstances,ā Moua said. āAnd to know the price of freedom is the commitment to ensuring the security of liberty and justice for all.ā
Maryland Gov. Martin OāMalley noted his support of gay nuptials in his remarks.
Bernice King, who opposes marriage rights for same-sex couples, said the country has seen āgreat strides towards freedom for allā regardless of sexual orientation and other factors since the 1963 March on Washington and the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and other landmark civil rights measures.
āIt doesnāt matter whether youāre black or white, Latino, Asian America or Native American, whether youāre gay or straight,ā Lewis, who is the last living speaker from the original March on Washington, said. āWeāre one people, weāre one family. We all live in the same houseānot just the American house; the world house.ā
The commemoration of the 1963 March on Washington took place four days after Martin Luther King, III, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and others linked LGBT equality to the broader civil rights movement during a separate gathering on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial that marked the landmark event.
Speakers honor Bayard Rustin
Byard is among those who paid tribute to Bayard Rustin, the gay man who organized the 1963 March on Washington, during their remarks at the Lincoln Memorial.
āA movement spoke through him, but the world would not yet embrace him as a gay man,ā Byard said. āToday, LGBT voices are welcomed to this stage.ā
Kristin Stoneking, executive director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, noted Rustin was also a Quaker and a pacifist.
āHe refused to accept war by denying societyās expectation that he be straight,ā she said.
Jealous noted to the Washington Blade during an interview after he spoke at the Lincoln Memorial the slain civil rights leaders backed Rustin in the years leading up to the original March on Washington and during the event itself.
āHe made sure that Bayard, who was as out as anyone in 1963, was visible,ā Jealous said. āThose small acts of courage magnify overtime and become transformative and set benchmarks and bars for the rest of us in our own lives and ultimately in our own politics.ā
Van Capelle also discussed Rustinās legacy with the Blade before he traveled to D.C. to speak at the March on Washington commemoration.
āIāll be thinking as much about Bayard Rustin as Iāll be thinking about King, and how happy Bayard Rustin would probably be 50 years later to know that this country is embracing the civil rights of LGBT Americans,ā van Capelle said.
National
GLSEN hosts Respect Awards with Billy Porter, Peppermint
Annual event aims to āinspire a lot of people to get activeā
GLSEN will host its annual Respect Awards April 29 in New York, with guests including Miss Peppermint and Billy Porter.
Respect Awards director Michael Chavez said that the event will be moving.
āIt will inspire a lot of people to get active and take action in their own communities and see how much more work there is to do, especially with all of the harmful things happening,ā he said.
At the event, they will recognize the Student Advocate of the Year, Sophia T. Annually, GLSEN recognizes a student from around the country who is impacting their community.
āSophia is doing incredible work advocating for inclusive sex education that is LGBTQ+ affirming, working with Johns Hopkins University to implement curriculum.ā Chavez said.
Chavez calls the students that attend the Respect Awards the ābiggest celebritiesā of the evening.
āIt is really important for the adults, both the allies and the queer folks, to hear directly from these queer youth about what itās like to be in school today as a queer person,ā he said.
GLSEN is a queer youth advocacy organization that has been working for more than 30 years to protect LGBTQ youth.
āGLSEN is all hands on deck right now, because our kids are under direct attack and have been for years now,ā said actor Wilson Cruz.
Cruz is the chair of GLSENās National Board, which works to fundraise and strategize for the organization.
āI think we are fundamental to the education of LGBTQ students in school,ā he said. āWe advocate for more comprehensive support at the local, national, and federal levels so our students are supported.ā
Chavez is one of the students that was impacted by this work. He led his schoolās GSA organization and worked with GLSEN throughout his youth.
Cruz said Chavez is doing what he hopes todayās GLSEN students do in the future, which is pay the work forward.
āThereās nothing more powerful than people who have experienced the work that GLSEN does and then coming back and allowing us to expand on that work with each generation that comes forward,ā he said.
Florida
Homeless transgender woman murdered in Miami Beach
Andrea Doria Dos Passos attacked while she slept
Gregory Fitzgerald Gibert, 53, who was out on probation, is charged with the second-degree murder of 37-year-old Andrea Doria Dos Passos, a transgender Latina woman who was found deceased in front of the Miami Ballet company facility by a security guard this past week.
According to a Miami Beach Police spokesperson the security guard thought Dos Passos was sleeping in the entranceway around 6:45 a.m. on April 23 and when he went to wake her he discovered the blood and her injuries and alerted 911.
She was deceased from massive trauma to her face and head. According to Miami Beach police when video surveillance footage was reviewed, it showed Dos Passos lying down in the entranceway apparently asleep. WFOR reported: In the early morning hours, a man arrived, looked around, and spotted her. Police said the man was dressed in a black shirt, red shorts, and red shoes.
At one point, he walked away, picked up a metal pipe from the ground, and then returned. After looking around, he sat on a bench near Dos Passos. After a while, he got up and repeatedly hit her in the head and face while she was sleeping, according to police.
āThe male is then seen standing over her, striking her, and then manipulating her body. The male then walks away and places the pipe inside a nearby trash can (the pipe was found and recovered in the same trash can),ā according to the arrest report.
Police noted that in addition to trauma on her face and head, two wooden sticks were lodged in her nostrils and there was a puncture wound in her chest.
Victor Van Gilst, Dos Passosās stepfather confirmed she was transĀ and experiencing homelessness.Ā
āShe had no chance to defend herself whatsoever. I donāt know if this was a hate crime since she was transgender or if she had some sort of interaction with this person because he might have been homeless as well. The detective could not say if she was attacked because she was transgender,ā said Van Gilst.
āShe has been struggling with mental health issues for a long time, going back to when she was in her early 20s. We did everything we could to help her. My wife is devastated. For her, this is like a nightmare that turned into reality. Andrea moved around a lot and even lived in California for a while. She was sadly homeless. I feel the system let her down. She was a good person,ā he added.
The Miami Police Department arrested Gibert, collected his clothing, noting the red shorts were the same type in the video and had blood on them. Blood was also found on his shoes, according to police. He was taken into custody and charged.
āThe suspect has an extensive criminal record and reportedly was recently released from custody on probation for prior criminal charges. Police apprehended the suspect in the city of Miami and the investigation is currently ongoing. This case is further evidence that individuals need to be held accountable for prior violent crimes for the protection of the public. We offer our sincere condolences to the family and friends of the victim,ā Miami Beach Mayor Steve Meiner said in a statement.
Joe Saunders, senior political director with LGBTQ rights group Equality Florida, told the Miami Herald that āwhenever a transgender person is murdered, especially when it is with such brutality, the question should be asked about whether or not this was a hate-motivated crime.ā
Federal Government
HHS reverses Trump-era anti-LGBTQ rule
Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act now protects LGBTQ people
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights has issued a final rule on Friday under Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act advancing protections against discrimination in health care prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability, or sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristics), in covered health programs or activities.
The updated rule does not force medical professionals to provide certain types of health care, but rather ensures nondiscrimination protections so that providers cannot turn away patients based on individual characteristics such as being lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, or pregnant.
āThis rule ensures that people nationwide can access health care free from discrimination,ā said HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra. āStanding with communities in need is critical, particularly given increased attacks on women, trans youth, and health care providers. Health care should be a right not dependent on looks, location, love, language, or the type of care someone needs.ā
The new rule restores and clarifies important regulatory protections for LGBTQ people and other vulnerable populations under Section 1557, also known as the health care nondiscrimination law, that were previously rescinded by the Trump administration.
āHealthcare is a fundamental human right. The rule released today restores critical regulatory nondiscrimination protections for those who need them most and ensures a legally proper reading of the Affordable Care Actās healthcare nondiscrimination law,ā said Omar Gonzalez-Pagan, counsel and health care strategist for Lambda Legal.
āThe Biden administration today reversed the harmful, discriminatory, and unlawful effort by the previous administration to eliminate critical regulatory protections for LGBTQ+ people and other vulnerable populations, such as people with limited English proficiency, by carving them out from the rule and limiting the scope of entities to which the rule applied,ā Gonzalez-Pagan added. āThe rule released today has reinstated many of these important protections, as well as clarifying the broad, intended scope of the rule to cover all health programs and activities and health insurers receiving federal funds. While we evaluate the new rule in detail, it is important to highlight that this rule will help members of the LGBTQ+ community ā especially transgender people, non-English speakers, immigrants, people of color, and people living with disabilities ā to access the care they need and deserve, saving lives and making sure healthcare professionals serve patients with essential care no matter who they are.ā
In addition to rescinding critical regulatory protections for LGBTQ people, the Trump administrationās rule also limited the remedies available to people who face health disparities, limited access to health care for people with Limited English Proficiency, and dramatically reduced the number of healthcare entities and health plans subject to the rule.
Lambda Legal, along with a broad coalition of LGBTQ advocacy groups, filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration rule,Ā Whitman-Walker Clinic v. HHS, and secured a preliminary injunction preventing key aspects of the Trump rule from taking effect.
These included the elimination of regulatory protections for LGBTQ people and the unlawful expansion of religious exemptions, which the new rule corrects. The preliminary injunction in Whitman-Walker Clinic v. HHS remains in place. Any next steps in the case will be determined at a later time, after a fulsome review of the new rule.
GLAAD President Sarah Kate Ellis released the following statement in response to the news:
āThe Biden administrationās updates to rules regarding Section 1557 of the ACA will ensure that no one who is LGBTQI or pregnant can face discrimination in accessing essential health care. This reversal of Trump-era discriminatory rules that sought to single out Americans based on who they are and make it difficult or impossible for them to access necessary medical care will have a direct, positive impact on the day to day lives of millions of people. Todayās move marks the 334th action from the Biden-Harris White House in support of LGBTQ people. Health care is a human right that should be accessible to all Americans equally without unfair and discriminatory restrictions. LGBTQ Americans are grateful for this step forward to combat discrimination in health care so no one is barred from lifesaving treatment.ā
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