News
Biden recognizes anti-trans violence on Transgender Day of Remembrance
2021 deadliest year on record for transgender people
President Biden issued on Saturday a statement recognizing the Transgender Day of Remembrance, noting an estimated 46 transgender and non-binary were recorded as killed in 2021 in a horrific milestone of the most violent year on record for the transgender community.
“This year, at least 46 transgender individuals in this country ā and hundreds more around the worldāwere killed in horrifying acts of violence,” Biden said. “Each of these lives was precious. Each of them deserved freedom, justice, and joy. Today, on Transgender Day of Remembrance, we mourn those we lost in the deadliest year on record for transgender Americans, as well as the countless other transgender peopleādisproportionately Black and brown transgender women and girls ā who face brutal violence, discrimination, and harassment.”
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, in response to a question from the Washington Blade last week on whether Biden was briefed on anti-transgender violence reaching a new record in 2021, called the grim milestone “heartbreaking to hear,” but said she was unsure if Biden was briefed on the issue.
The Biden statement implies he was briefed on the deaths because it referenced 2021 being the deadliest year on record with 46 deaths, although the White House hasn’t responded to the Blade’s request to comment on whether he was briefed on the violence.
Biden moved early on during his administration to act on transgender rights, reversing President Trump’s transgender military ban and signing an executive order directing federal agencies to implement the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision against anti-LGBTQ discrimination to the fullest extent possible.
The Biden administration has announced an ongoing created an interagency task force charged with making the U.S. government as transgender inclusive, which is the White House says is still ongoing.
Read Biden’s full statement below:
November 20, 2021 Statement by President Biden on Transgender Day of Remembrance This year, at least 46 transgender individuals in this countryāand hundreds more around the worldāwere killed in horrifying acts of violence. Each of these lives was precious. Each of them deserved freedom, justice, and joy. Today, on Transgender Day of Remembrance, we mourn those we lost in the deadliest year on record for transgender Americans, as well as the countless other transgender peopleādisproportionately Black and brown transgender women and girlsāwho face brutal violence, discrimination, and harassment. In spite of our progress strengthening civil rights for LGBTQI+ Americans, too many transgender people still live in fear and face systemic barriers to freedom and equality. To ensure that our government protects the civil rights of transgender Americans, I charged my team with coordinating across the federal government to address the epidemic of violence and advance equality for transgender people. I continue to call on state leaders and lawmakers to combat the disturbing proliferation of discriminatory state legislation targeting transgender people, especially transgender children. As I have said before, these bills are nothing more than bullying disguised as legislation, they are un-American, and they endanger the safety and well-being of our children. I also continue to urge the Senate to swiftly pass the Equality Act so that all people are able to live free from fear and discrimination. Transgender people are some of the bravest Americans I know. But no person should have to be brave just to live in safety and dignity. Today, we remember. Tomorrowāand every dayāwe must continue to act. |
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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.
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