VA Senate: Ban Conversion Therapy, Set Transgender Policy, Repeal Gay Marriage Ban

For twenty six years, the Virginia GOP - pushed by the hate merchants at The Family Foundation - sought to make life hell for LGBT Virginians and blocked every effort to end anti-gays laws.  Indeed, between 2004 and 2006, the Virginia GOP pushed an aggressively anti-gay agenda culminating in the now unconstitutional ban on same sex marriage.  The newly Democrat controlled Virginia General Assembly is moving to reverse all of this discriminatory legislation as well as ban fraudulent "conversion therapy" so loved by charlatans among the professional Christian crowd and knuckle dragging evangelicals. It is truly the eve of a new day in Virginia when the state will at last move out of the 1950's, if not the 1800's.  Numerous news outlets are reporting on votes in the Virginia Senate that will end the Virginia GOP's horrible policies of licensing hate and bigotry. The queen of hate, Victoria Cobb, president of The Family Foundation must be beside herself that LGBT Virginians will soon have equality under the state's laws. Both the Virginia Mercury and the Washington Post have stories.  Passage in the House of Delegates is expected and Governor Northam will sign them measures into law. Here are highlights from the Mercury:

A suite of LGBT-friendly legislation cleared the Virginia Senate on Tuesday.

Lawmakers voted to:

• ban health professionals like counselors and psychologists from performing conversion therapy on anyone under age 18,
• create uniform policies for transgender students attending public schools,
• make it easier for transgender people to change the gender on their birth certificates and
• remove language from the state code banning gay marriage.

The gay marriage ban has already been invalidated by a 2015 Supreme Court ruling and advocates said the state code should reflect that.

“Right now same-gender marriage is legal in Virginia as it is throughout the country, and the code of Virginia needs to have legal ambiguity removed,” said Sen. Adam Ebbin, D-Alexandria, who sponsored the measure and is the first openly gay person elected to the Virginia General Assembly.

The measure passed 25-13, with only Republican members opposing.

The ban on conversion therapy saw the most opposition among Republicans, with 18 members opposing and one, Sen. Jill Vogel, not voting.

The ban would only apply to minors and does not apply to non-health professionals such as religious leaders. It specifically excludes “counseling that provides acceptance, support and understanding of a person or facilitates a person’s coping, social support and identity exploration and development.”

Sen. Jennifer Boysko, D-Fairfax, proposed the legislation addressing birth certificates and school board policies.

Under her proposal, a person who transitioned genders would be able to get a new birth certificate reflecting their new identity. She said during a committee hearing last week that the change aims to address problems transgender residents sometimes face when key documents like drivers licenses and birth certificates don’t match.

The legislation requires “an affidavit provided by a health care provider from whom the person has received treatment stating that the person has undergone clinically appropriate treatment for the purpose of gender transition.”

The bill addressing school policies for transgender students directs the Board of Education to develop a model policy covering issues ranging from how students are identified and dress codes to prevention and responses to bullying and harassment.

School Boards around the state would be required to adopt “policies that are consistent with but may be more comprehensive than” the model policies by the beginning of the 2021-2022 school year.

All four pieces of legislation must now be adopted by the House of Delegates to make it to Gov. Ralph Northam’s desk.

As the Post piece notes, another measure would eliminate "husband and wife" language in the Virginia Code and substitute "parties to marriage" to make Code provisions reflect the existence of same sex marriage.  Republicans had blocked this change since 2015 when Virginia's gay marriage ban was declared unconstitutional.  Here are excerpts from the Post:

The chamber also voted to replace “husband and wife” with gender-neutral “parties to the marriage” language in divorce law and make it easier for transgender people to change how their sex is listed on their birth certificates.

The bills now move to the Democratic-controlled House of Delegates, where they are expected to get a warm reception.

Advocates for expanded LGBT rights have long been stymied by the General Assembly, where Republicans have controlled at least one chamber for the past quarter-century.

Nation's Larges Naval Shipbuilder Scores High on LGBTQ Polices

As the crow flies, I live perhaps 5 or 6 miles from Newport News Shipbuilding, Virginia's largest employer and the builder of America's nuclear powered aircraft carrier fleet and many of the U.S. Navy's nuclear submarines.   For the last several years the company has been a champion of LGBT rights locally and a presenting sponsor for the HR Pride event each summer.  The Christofascists, of course, must be having conniption fits.  Unlike Virginia Republicans, Newport News Shipbuilding when your policies are welcoming to all and discrimination is banned, you can hire the best and the brightest employees.  Who they love really should play no role whatsoever in employment decisions.  Moreover, such policies make a region and/or state attractive to other progressive, forward looking businesses.  A piece in U.S. News & World Reports looks at the company's LGBT friendly polices.  Here are highlights:

One of the nation's leading gay rights groups is praising the LGBTQ-friendly policies of the nation's largest military shipbuilder.

The Daily Press in Newport News reported Friday that Huntington Ingalls Industries received a 100 rating on a corporate survey from the Human Rights Campaign Foundation.

The survey evaluated policies that include domestic partner benefits and transgender-inclusive medical benefits. The company builds aircraft carriers and submarines. It was one of 609 major businesses that earned a top rating.

The shipbuilder first participated in HRC's survey last year and scored an 85. The company's score was higher this year for a few reasons.

One was the addition of medical benefits for gender transition. The benefits include surgery, mental health services or other measures.

A piece in the Daily Press provides more on the views of the company's leadership and that of its parent company, including opposition to GOP backed license to discriminate laws masquerading as "religious freedom" laws:  

The nation’s largest military shipbuilder began ramping up efforts on diversity and inclusion several years ago at the behest of CEO and President Mike Petters.

He has vowed to change the culture of a corporate giant built on a foundation of shipyards, a traditional, male-dominated workplace. At Newport News, senior shipbuilders started walking the waterfront decades ago — back when attitudes on race, gender and sexual orientation were far different — so things won’t change overnight.

Changing the culture also means speaking out when necessary.

When the state of Mississippi advanced what supporters termed a religious freedom law, LGBTQ advocates rallied to oppose it.

Major business interests in the state opposed the bill, including MGM Resorts International, which operates casinos in the state, and Nissan North America. HII joined the opposition on behalf of its Ingalls Shipbuilding division in Pascagoula, Miss. 

Gavin Grimm Among Time’s 100 Most Influential People for 2017

I first met Gavin Grimm two years ago at an event at our home for panelists who were participating in an oral history project for the Hampton History Museum.  The event focused on "growing up gay in Hampton" and its environs and is but one of the projects the Museum has undertaken to preserve the words of real individuals for posterity (watermen, members of the black community and others have been the focus of past efforts).  My husband was on the panel as were several other individuals that we know.  The event at our home was intended to let panelist get to know each other so that they would have a higher comfort level while being filmed and recorded.   What struck me when I first met Gavin was his composure and how well spoken he was.  I teased him that he was a 30 year old in a 16 year old body.  It was an honor to be given an award as an "outstanding Virginian" along side Gavin earlier this month (see the image above - not the best photo of me!).  Now, Gavin has been named one of Time Magazine's 100 most influential individuals for 2017.  The honor is well deserved and I count myself honored to know Gavin and his family, especially his amazing mother, Deirdre. The Daily Press notes Gavin's latest honor.  Here are highlights:

Nearly two years after suing Gloucester County schools over its restroom use policy, 17-year-old transgender student Gavin Grimm has been named one of Time Magazine's most influential people in the world.

The magazine's annual 100-person list features artists, politicians, lawmakers, scientists and leaders of technology and business. Just shy of his 18th birthday Grimm is the youngest on this year's list. He was named last fall to Time's list of most influential teens for 2016.

"It's inconceivable. I still haven't really registered it. To have a place immortalized through Time, literally, and in the sense of the publication, is such an honor," Grimm said at his home in Gloucester. "To have a transgender youth activist on a list of influential people is a hugely important step forward for transgender advocacy. It sends the message that the story is being told and the message is being heard."

Time announced the list on Thursday and according to magazine, those included have a lesson to teach and the power to make people think. Grimm is listed as a pioneer along with people like Samantha Bee, Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, and Chance the Rapper.

Kudos to Gavin!  I definitely count Gavin as one of my heroes.   He is an inspiration and those who are suffer from anti-transgender animus would due well to get to know him and/or other members of the transgender community.  Gavin is proof that one person can make a difference.  For those who have not seen it, make a point to watch Gender Revolution on the National Geographic Channel which was hosted by Katie Couric.  The program should be mandatory viewing for legislators and right wing Christians.  Ignorance and clinging to comfortable but untrue myths is not an acceptable excuse in this day and age.

Transgender Sister Of Inaugural Singer Wins Bathroom Ruling

Singer Jackie Evancho performed the national anthem at Der Trumpenführer's inauguration and ended up catching grief from anti-Trump forces and from much of the anti-LGBT Christofascist base of the Republican Party offended by her transgender sister.  The thanks she received from Trump was the withdrawal of transgender protections advanced by the Obama administration.  Now, as BuzzFeed reports, Evancho's sister and two co-plaintiffs have won a federal lawsuit against their public school district for its anti-transgender bathroom policies.  The ruling relied on equal protections guaranteed by the United States Constitution.  Here are highlights from BuzzFeed:

The [Juliet Evancho] transgender sister of a performer who sang at President Trump’s inauguration and two of her schoolmates must be given access to school restrooms that match their gender identity, a federal judge in Pennsylvania ruled on Monday, less than a week after the Trump administration withdrew a policy that said schools must provide that access to transgender students. 

US District Court Judge Mark R. Hornak issued a temporary injunction barring Pine-Richland School District from enforcing a policy that said transgender students could either use single-person bathrooms or facilities matching their birth sex. In issuing his opinion suspending that policy, Hornak ruled that the students would likely prevail on their claims that the rule denied their equal protection rights under the equal protection guarantee of the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution. However, the court sidestepped a national debate about whether civil rights laws already ensure transgender students access to restrooms — a question scheduled to go before the Supreme Court in March. In doing so, Hornak did not address the question about whether the students would prevail on a claim the school district policy violated Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. The court found, instead, that the Constitution’s equal protection guarantee provided relief for the students — and that they are likely to succeed on those claims.

The plaintiffs include three students at Pine-Richland High School, including Juliet Evancho, who is the sister of Jackie Evancho, who sang at Trump’s inauguration. The other plaintiffs are Elissa Ridenour and another student identified only as A.S. Hornak wrote in an order Monday, “The Plaintiffs appear to the Court to be young people seeking to do what young people try to do every day-go to school, obtain an education, and interact as equals with their peers. … [T]he Plaintiffs have shown a reasonable likelihood of success on the merits of their claim that the District’s enforcement of Resolution 2 as to their use of common school restrooms does not afford them equal protection of the law as guaranteed to them by the Fourteenth Amendment.”

Supreme Court Takes Transgender Case

An understaffed U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to take the appeal of the spineless and bigoted Gloucester County School Board from the ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth that struck down the school board ruling denying gender identity appropriate bathroom use to high school student, Gavin Grimm.  With the evenly split court, the ruling when it comes could be a tie and leave the lower court ruling as the binding law for the states within the 4th Circuit (which include North Carolina) while leaving the law unsettled across the rest of the nation.  One can only hope that a majority of the justices will rule in favor of Grimm and transgender individuals across the nation. It should also be noted that notwithstanding lies disseminated by Christofascist organizations (including the disingenuously named and stridently anti-LGBT Alliance Defending Freedom), there are ZERO instances of inappropriate behavior by transgender individuals in restrooms.  The same cannot be said for Republican  elected officials.  Here are highlights from the Washington Post.

The Supreme Court said Friday that it will decide whether the Obama administration may require public school systems to let transgender students use bathrooms that align with their gender identity, putting the court once again at the center of a divisive social issue.

School districts across the country are split on how to accommodate transgender students amid conflicting guidance from courts, the federal government and, in some cases, state legislatures that have passed laws requiring people to use public restrooms that match the sex on their birth certificates.

The justices accepted a petition from the School Board of Gloucester County, Va., seeking to overturn a lower court’s order that 17-year-old Gavin Grimm, who was born female but identifies as male, be allowed to use the boys’ restroom during his senior year of high school.

It is the most high-profile case the eight-member court has accepted since the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in February. The case will not be heard until next year, and it is unclear whether Scalia’s seat will be filled by then.

In an interview Friday, Grimm said it was unfair that he will continue to be barred from the boys’ bathroom at Gloucester High until the case is decided. He said he tries to avoid going to the bathroom altogether at school but uses the nurse’s bathroom when necessary.

Grimm, referred to as G.G. in court papers, came out as a transgender boy in his freshman year of high school and, as a result of hormone therapy, has a deep voice and facial hair, his lawyers told the court.

“We’re prepared to make our case to the court and to make sure the Supreme Court and people in general see Gavin as who he is and see trans kids across the country for who they are,” said Grimm’s attorney, Joshua Block of the American Civil Liberties Union. Grimm “is not trying to dismantle sex-segregated restrooms. He’s just trying to use them.”

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit sided with him in April, ruling that his case could move forward. It deferred to the Obama administration’s position that Title IX, the federal law banning sex discrimination in public schools, protects the rights of transgender students to use school bathrooms that align with their gender identity.
A month after the 4th Circuit decision, the U.S. Education Department issued that same guidance to the rest of the nation’s public schools.

The petition said the case provides the court an opportunity to reexamine a 1997 precedent, Auer v. Robbins, that affords deference to an agency’s interpretation of its regulations. It has been criticized by several conservative justices, but the court earlier this year turned down a chance to revisit it and did the same in accepting the Gloucester case.

“This is one of the most important days in the history of the transgender movement,” Shannon Minter, legal director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, said in a statement. “Whatever the court rules . . . may ensure that transgender people are accepted and included as equal members of our society, or it may relegate them to outsiders for decades to come.”

Remember that the entire issue arose in Gloucester County because of the insistence of a group of rabble rousing Christofascists who seek to inflict their belief system on all citizens.  It their view, only they have rights and everyone else must defer to their beliefs.  They represent, in my view, a toxic cancer on society.