The War On Transgender

Moderators: Elvis, DrVolin, Jeff

The War On Transgender

Postby seemslikeadream » Sat Apr 13, 2019 9:33 am

Meet The Real Mike Pence
Mike Pence is an extremist who is amassing power and exerting influence with less scrutiny than any vice president in U.S. history.
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Vice President of the United States
Vice Presidency

-- 04.10.19 - During a House Education Committee hearing, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos acknowledged that the administration's choice to rescind the Obama-era bathroom guidance -- which added protections for transgender students -- exposed trans students to additional harassment and discrimination in schools across the nation.

-- 04.05.19 - President Trump congratulates election of Brian Hagedorn, an anti-LGBTQ activist who wants to ban LGBTQ children from schools and believes in discredited attacks on LGBTQ Americans.

-- 04.04.19 - Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson refused to reinstate housing protection guidelines that would prevent LGBTQ Americans from experiencing discrimination while attaining a home, which include access to homeless shelters.

-- 03.27.19 - Education Secretary Betsy DeVos refused to say on the record whether or not she opposed discrimination against LGBTQ people at schools during a House subcommittee hearing on education appropriations.

-- 03.25.19 - Trump Administration officials within the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) were accused of performing abuse - including harassment and denying health care services - to more than 12 immigrants who identify as LGBTQ.

-- 03.12.19 - In a late night decision, the Trump Administration announces plans to implement its ban on transgender service members from openly serving in the country's armed forces according to their gender identity, impacting more than 13,000 service members currently who are enlisted.

-- 03.11.19 - In its Fiscal Year Budget for 2020, the Trump Administration announced new plans to cut $250 million from the Global Fund, slash $1.5 billion from PEPFAR, and “limit future spending” on Medicaid – three components in the ongoing fight against HIV and AIDS.

-- 02.27.19 - During a House Armed Services Subcommittee hearing on the administration’s ban on transgender services members from serving openly in the armed forces, Trump Administration officials used derogatory phrases such as “a transgender,” but they also called gender-confirmation surgery a “disqualifying surgery,” comparing it to having cancer, heart disease, or diabetes.

-- 02.08.19 - One day after defending a Michigan adoption agency during the National Prayer Breakfast, the Trump Administration confirms they intended to grant faith-based adoption agencies federal funds in its upcoming 2020 White House Budget. These faith-based adoption agencies actively use "religious exemptions" as an excuse to deny LGBTQ families the ability to adopt a child.

-- 02.07.19 - At the annual National Prayer Breakfast, President Trump praised Second Lady Karen Pence for teaching at an anti-LGBTQ school and defended a Michigan adoption agency for refusing to serve an LGBTQ family based on so-called "religious exemptions."

-- 01.28.19 - President Trump meets with Ginni Thomas, wife of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, and anti-LGBTQ group Groundswell at the White House. According to news reports, Ms. Thomas led a meeting with President Trump at the White House where participants denounced transgender Americans and claimed the historic, nationwide marriage equality ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court was “harming the fabric of the United States.” The Supreme Court is on the verge of deciding whether to take up a case regarding Trump's ban on allowing transgender service members from serving in the nation's armed forces.

-- 01.23.19 - The Trump Administration approved a waiver request by South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster, which could give faith-based adoption agencies the ability to deny LGBTQ couples adoption rights based on so-called "religious exemptions" -- all while using government tax dollars.

-- 01.11.19 - More than 13,000 federal workers identifying as LGBTQ do not receive a paycheck as President Trump's government shutdown becomes the longest shut down in U.S. history.

-- 01.03.19 - In a leaked memo by the Justice Department, the Trump Administration considers dissolving the "disparate impact" regulation, which grants marginalized communities (including LGBTQ Americans) legal protections from unintended discrimination in housing, education, and other ways of life.

-- 01.01.19 - NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine invites Dmitry Rogozin, Director General of Roscosmos, to visit the United States. Rogozin, a politician, is vehemently anti-LGBTQ and even compared the community to ISIS.

-- 12.21.18 - The Department of Justice issued a "Statement of Interest" on a pending case involving the University of Iowa and an anti-LGBTQ student organization. The DOJ sided with the student group that indirectly bars an LGBTQ person from joining their organization. This indirect discrimination is known as a "disparate impact" form of discrimination.

-- 12.20.18 - The Trump Administration tightens its regulations on access to food stamps, affecting about the 1 in 4 LGBTQ adults who apply for the SNAP program.

-- 12.19.18 - The Trump Administration discharges two service members in the Air Force after disclosing their HIV-positive status to the Department of Defense.

-- 12.09.18 - The Trump Administration quietly shuts down a HIV research facility in Montana after the administration objected to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and its scientists using fetal tissue as a part of its research to find a cure for HIV and AIDS.

-- 11.30.18 - The Trump Administration signs a trade agreement with Canada and Mexico that makes it clear the United States doesn’t have to proactively combat anti-LGBTQ discrimination in order to adhere to the agreement.

-- 11.23.18 - The Trump Administration asks the United States Supreme Court to circumvent federal appeals courts and issue a ruling on transgender Americans’ right to serve in the military.

-- 10.25.18 - In an ongoing effort on the part of the Trump Administration to replace "gender" with a biological-essentialist definition of "sex", U.S. officials at the United Nations are seeking to replace mentions of "gender", e.g. "gender-based violence", with alternative terminology, like "violence against women," erasing all references to gender identity and the issues relating to trans and gender non-conforming people.

-- 10.24.18 - The Department of Justice writes in a brief to the Supreme Court that it is legal to discriminate against transgender employees based on their gender identity, saying that banning sex discrimination under Title VII in the workplace does not extend to transgender workers.

-- 10.21.18 - The Department of Health and Human Services proposes in a new memo to change the legal definition of sex under Title IX, requiring individuals to identify according to their gender assigned at birth. This change in legal definition would remove nondiscrimination protections for transgender, nonbinary, and intersex individuals.

-- 10.01.18 - The Trump Administration's State Department announces a new policy that the same-sex, unmarried partners of United Nations employees will not be granted visas to stay in the U.S., effective immediately. In doing so, diplomats in same-sex partnerships who come from countries where same-sex marriage is illegal will either be forced to marry in the U.S. and risk repercussions, including threats, harassment, and even incarceration back home; quit their jobs; or separate for the sake of one partner's career.

-- 7.30.18 - President Trump's Attorney General Jeff Sessions announces his new 'Religious Liberty' Task Force at the Department of Justice’s Religious Liberty Summit. As stated by Sessions, the group’s purpose is to ensure that the Justice Department upholds the administration’s guidance for religious exemptions, which he released in October.

-- 7.9.18 - President Trump nominates Brett Kavanaugh for the U.S. Supreme Court seat made vacant by the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy. Kavanaugh has an extremely conservative record and has the support of Southern Poverty Law Center-designated anti-LGBTQ hate group Family Research Council (FRC).

-- ​​​​​​​5.11.18 - The Trump Administration rolls back protections for incarcerated transgender people that were intended to mitigate their exposure to sexual assault and abuse, allowing the Bureau of Prisons to “use biological sex as the initial determination for designation” when placing trans people for housing, screening, and programs and services.

-- 5.3.18 - President Trump signs an executive order to create a new "White House Faith and Opportunity Initiative” that will be tasked with working on so-called “religious liberty” issues across federal agencies.

-- 4.18.18 - Reporting revealed that The Trump Administration's President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief gave a sizable grant to the anti-LGBTQ group Focus on the Family Africa on Sept. 18, 2017.

-- 4.10.18 - Reporting reveals that the White House is seeking to roll back vital data collection on LGBTQ youth by raising the minimum age that LGBTQ people can be asked questions about their sexual orientation and gender identity in the Department of Justice's National Crime Victimization Survey.

-- 3.23.18 - Reporting in Slate reveals that the Trump Administration worked closely with Tony Perkins, head of the anti-LGBTQ hate group Family Research Council to draft their latest policy to implement Trump's ban transgender soldiers from openly serving in any capacity within the United States armed forces.

-- 3.23.18 - The Trump Administration announces a reworked attempt to ban all transgender people from serving in the military in response to the implementation of his original policy being frozen by four different federal courts who declared it likely to be unconstitutional.

-- 3.20.18 - The Department of Housing and Urban Development defends the Trump Administration's decision to remove guidelines from its website intended to prevent anti-LGBTQ discrimination in homeless shelters by arguing that transgender women accessing shelters make people “not comfortable."

-- 3.20.18 - The Department of Education once again states that it is the Trump Administration's position to refuse to protect transgender students denied access to bathrooms and lockers based on their gender identity, even when faced with court rulings reaffirming that transgender students are protected under Title IX.

-- 3.8.18 - The Trump Administration hosts Brent Bozell, the anti-LGBTQ founder of the fringe right-wing group Media Resource Center, at a White House roundtable.

-- 3.5.18 - The Department Housing and Urban Development Secretary moved to change its official mission statement by removing promises of inclusive and discrimination-free communities.

-- 2.12.18 - The Department of Education officially confirms they will not investigate or take action on any complaints filed by transgender students who are banned from restrooms that match their gender identity,

-- 1.19.18 - Reporting reveals that Trump Administration appointee Carl Higbie had made extreme racist, sexist, anti-Muslim and anti-LGBTQ comments on the radio. He was removed from his White House position but then hired by "America First Policies," a nonprofit created by six of Trump's top campaign aides to back the White House agenda.

-- 1.18.18 - The Department of Health and Human Services created a new department that shields healthcare workers who refuse to treat LGBTQ patients or those living with HIV by calming moral or religious objections.

-- 1.16.18 - The Trump Administration promotes anti-LGBTQ religious exemptions in his Religious Freedom Day proclamation.

-- 12.29.17 - President Trump fires the entire White House Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS.

-- 12.5.17 - White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders tells reporters that Trump Administration backs the position that businesses owners should be able to put up signs saying they won’t serve gays.

-- 12.5.17 - The Department of Justice argues in support of baker who denied service to a gay couple during the Supreme Court oral arguments for the case Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission.

-- 12.1.17 - The Trump Administration leaves the LGBTQ community and people of color out of his World AIDS Day Proclamation.

-- 1.16.18 - The Trump Administration promotes anti-LGBTQ religious exemptions in the official Religious Freedom Day proclamation.

-- 12.29.17 - The Trump Administration fires the entire White House Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS.

-- 12.22.17 - The Trump Administration signs the GOP tax bill, which targets low-income and LGBTQ communities, into law.

-- 12.15.17 - Staff at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at were instructed not to use the “transgender,” “vulnerable,” “entitlement,” “diversity,” “fetus,” “evidence-based,” and “science-based” in official documents.

-- 12.5.17 - House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders tells reporters that President Trump backs the position that businesses owners should be able to put up signs saying they won’t serve gays.

-- 12.5.17 - The Department of Justice argues in support of baker who denied service to a gay couple during the Supreme Court oral arguments for the case Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission.

-- 12.1.17 - The Trump Administration leaves the LGBTQ community and people of color out of the official World AIDS Day Proclamation.

-- 10.16.17 - In a profile on Vice President Mike Pence that ran in the New Yorker, President Trump reportedly joked of Pence when asked about LGBTQ rights: “Don’t ask that guy—he wants to hang them all!”

-- 10.11.17 - The Trump Administration's National Park Services withdrew its sponsorship of New York City's first permanent Pride Flag, located outside of the historic Stonewall Inn, and dropped out of its pre-scheduled participation in the flag dedication ceremony.

-- 10.6.17- The Department of Justice issues a sweeping "religious exemptions" guidance which invites taxpayer-funded federal agencies, government employees, and government contractors to legally discriminate against LGBTQ employees as long as they cite a religious belief as the reason for doing it.

-- 10.6.17 - The Department of Health and Human Services rolls back the Affordable Care Act's birth control benefit, allowing the use of "religious exemptions" to deny health care to women, trans men, and gender non-conforming people who rely on the no-copay contraception benefit.

-- 10.5.17 - In a Department of Justice memo, the Trump Administration reverses a policy that provided non-discrimination protections for transgender people in the workplace under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

-- 10.3.17 - The Department of Health and Human Services erases all mentions of the LGBTQ community and their health needs in its strategic plan for the fiscal year 2018-2022.

-- 9.22.17 - The Education Department rescinds the Obama Administration-era Title IX guidance on investigating campus sexual assault; LGBTQ students experience sexual harassment at disproportionately high rates.

-- 9.8.17 - Reporting reveals the CIA canceled a planned speech about diversity and LGBTQ rights set to be given by Judy and Dennis Shepard, founders of the Matthew Shepard Foundation.

-- 9.7.17 - The Justice Department files an amicus brief in support files an amicus brief in support so-called “religious exemptions” to discriminate against LGBTQ Americans.

-- 9.7.17 - The Education Department announces they will roll back Obama Administration-era Title IX guidelines which protected sexual assault survivors on college and university campuses.

-- 9.5.17 - The Trump Administration ends the DACA program, which protected an estimated 800,000 young undocumented immigrants, including 36,000 LGBTQ DREAMers, from detention and deportation.

-- 8.27.17 - Reporting reveals the CIA consulted with Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, an anti-LGBTQ hate group.

-- 8.25.17 - The Trump Administration officially directs the Pentagon to move forward with his ban on transgender service members openly serving in the U.S. Military. The discriminatory policy is due to take effect take effect March 23, 2018.

-- 8.25.17 - The Trump Administration pardons former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, a criminal known for terrorizing the Latinx community with inmate abuses, unjustified arrests, and racial profiling.

-- 8.12.17 - Vice President Mike Pence stands by President Trump after he refused to condemn white supremacists who chanted violently racist and anti-LGBTQ slogans during a rally in Charlottesville, VA.

-- 7.26.17 - The Justice Department files a brief opposing workplace nondiscrimination protections for the LGBTQ community under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1864 in the case Zarda v. Altitude Express.

-- 7.26.17 - The Trump Administration bans transgender service members from serving in "any capacity" in the U.S. military.

-- 7.25.17 - Reporting reveals Vice President Mike Pence advocated for the removal of healthcare benefits for transgender servicemembers within the U.S. military behind closed doors.

-- 7.12.17 – The Trump Administrationo grants an one-on-one interview between President Donald Trump and Pat Robertson, a longtime anti-LGBTQ activist and Televangelist.

-- 7.10.17 – In a closed-door and unannounced opportunity, President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence posed for a photograph with notorious anti-LGBTQ activists who wish to promote so-called “religious exemptions” that would harm LGBTQ Americans across the nation.

-- 6.29.17 - Reports revealed the Trump Administration hired anti-transgender activist, Bethany Kozma, to the Office of Gender Equality and Women’s Rights at the US Agency for International Development.

-- 6.28.17 - The Department of Justice ejected reporters covering a DOJ Pride event hosted by LGBTQ affinity groups for federal workers.

-- 6.27.17 - The Trump Administration failed to mention the LGBTQ community in their National HIV Testing Day statement.

-- 6.17.17 - Six members of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS resigned saying that the Trump Administration "simply does not care" about combating the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

-- 6.16.17 - An obtained internal memo from the Department of Education Office for Civil Rights reveals guidelines to dismiss complaints about bathroom access filed by transgender students.

-- 6.15.17 - Department of Commerce removes sexual orientation and gender identity from the agency's Equal Employment Policy; LGBTQ protections have been explicitly included since 2010. Only after fierce opposition did Department of Commerce Secretary Ross change it back.

-- 6.15.17 - The Department of Education invites Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council, two anti-LGBTQ organizations, to be speakers for a daylong conference on engaging fathers in their children’s education and welfare.

-- 6.15.17 - The Department of Education rolls back the Office for Civil Rights' expansive approach to investigating civil rights complaints that to protect LGBTQ students, and other marginalized communities, from discrimination at school.

-- 6.1.17 - The Trump Administration declines to issue a presidential proclamation designating June as LGBTQ Pride Month, breaking with an eight-year precedent set by President Barack Obama to honor and support LGBTQ Americans during Pride Month.

-- 5.23.17 - The Trump Administration reveals their budget which includes proposed slashes to programs and departments critical to the LGBTQ community, including Medicaid, Planned Parenthood, and the Center for Disease Control’s HIV and AIDS programs.

-- 5.22.17 - The Trump Administration grants White House press credentials to a "reporter" from Infowars, a conspiracy outlet that regularly peddles dangerous, offensive and anti-LGBTQ content.

-- 5.8.17 - Department of Agriculture issues new so-called "religious freedom" policy statement, a move praised by the anti-LGBTQ Family Research Council.

-- 5.4.17 - President Trump, with Vice President Mike Pence at his side, signs a "religious liberty" executive order. Although this EO does not target LGBTQ Americans, it is the first step in what could be a more broader permission slip for discrimination against the overall LGBTQ community.

-- 4.14.17 - The Trump Administration files to dismiss a lawsuit accusing North Carolina of discriminating against the LGBTQ community in response to HB2, despite the similarities of the HB142 replacement.

-- 4.10.17 - A ProPublica investigation reveals the Trump Administration appointed James Renne, a key staffer involved in the Bush-era anti-LGBTQ purge of gay government employees, to a senior role at the Department of Agriculture.

-- 3.28.17 - The Trump Administration cancels plans to add the LGBTQ community to its upcoming 2020 U.S. Census, a survey conducted every decade by the federal government to help collect data about living Americans and the United States of America.

-- 3.28.17 - Under the proposed budget for the U.S. Congress, The Trump Administration offered to cut HIV and AIDS research funding under the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

-- 3.24.17 - The Trump Administration appoints an anti-LGBTQ activist and former Heritage Foundation employee Roger Severino to lead the Health and Human Services Civil Rights Office, putting the LGBTQ community at risk of losing access to critical and affordable health care.

-- 3.20.17: The Trump Administration erases the LGBTQ community from The National Survey of Older Americans Act Participants and the Annual Program Performance Report for Centers for Independent Living, key surveys that are used to help provide care to American seniors – including disability, transportation, and caregiver support needs.

-- 2.22.17 - The Trump Administration rescinds Title IX protections for transgender students in our nation's schools.

-- 2.02.17: ABC News reports that after previously committing to protecting LGBTQ Americans from discrimination, the Trump Administration had drafted a "License to Discriminate" executive order which would usher in across-the-board discrimination against the LGBTQ community.

-- 1.27.17: The Trump Administration issues an executive order to indefinitely ban Syrian refugees from entering the United States. This ban includes LGBTQ refugees fleeing the nation in fear of discrimination.

-- 1.20.17: Minutes after Donald Trump and Mike Pence were sworn into office, any mention of the LGBTQ community were erased from White House, Department of State, and Department of Labor websites.

Prior to Service

-- As governor of Indiana, Pence earned national notoriety for signing a so-called "religious freedom" bill that religious conservatives in his state (many of whom Pence invited to attend the private bill signing) championed for the purposes of allowing business owners the right to refuse service to LGBTQ customers. After outcry and boycotts, Pence was forced to sign an amended version that made it clear the law cannot be used to discrimination on basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

-- Said he and the President believe in ending the Obama administration's guidance on public schools allowing transgender students to use bathrooms and facilities that match their gender identity.

-- Supported anti-LGBTQ Federal Marriage Amendment with claims that being gay is a "chosen lifestyle," and a warning that "societal collapse was always brought about following an advent of the deterioration of marriage and family."

-- First ran for Congress on a platform that called on lawmakers to "oppose any effort to put gay and lesbian relationships on an equal legal status with heterosexual marriage," to "oppose any effort to recognize homosexuals as a ' and insular minority' entitled to the protection of anti-discrimination laws similar to those extended to women and ethnic minorities," and to "support the reauthorization of the Ryan White Care Act only after completion of an audit to ensure that federal dollars were no longer being given to organizations that celebrate and encourage the types of behaviors that facilitate the spreading of the HIV virus." Pence called on these federal dollars to instead be "directed toward those institutions which provide assistance to those seeking to change their sexual behavior."

-- Claimed repealing the military's discriminatory "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy would turn the Armed Forces into a "backdrop for social experimentation." Sought to end "Don't Ask Don't Tell" and restore a full ban on openly gay soldiers.

-- Claimed federal hate crimes legislation was really designed "to advance a radical social agenda."

-- Worried that LGBTQ-inclusive hate crime legislation would "silence" groups that promote so-called conversion therapy: "Finally, pro-homosexual activist groups such as the Human Rights Campaign have stated their belief that an ad campaign by pro-family groups showing that many former homosexual people had found happiness in a heterosexual lifestyle, contributed to the tragic 1998 murder of homosexual college student Matthew Shepard. There is no evidence that his killers even knew about the ads, and Shepard's killers told ABC's 20/20 that they were motivated by money and drugs. However, the danger here is that people use a hate crimes bill to silence the freedom of religious leaders to speak out against homosexuality."

-- Insisted "there's no question to mainstream homosexuality within active duty military would have an impact on unit cohesion would have an impact on recruitment, an impact on readiness…"

-- Signed on to a letter demanding a federal appointee be fired because of his "role in promoting homosexuality and pushing a pro-homosexual agenda in America's schools-an agenda that runs counter to the values that many parents desire to instill in their children."

-- Refers to undocumented immigrants as "criminal aliens."

-- Compared himself to Noah trying to stop the flood of marriage equality: “It's important that every American use whatever means is necessary. I feel a little like Noah. Everybody laughed at him when he was building his boat. People may not understand the urgency, but we need to build a firewall to defend marriage.”
https://www.glaad.org/tap/mike-pence





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKyaTdIqtCA

As Transgender Military Ban Goes Into Effect, Groups Speak Out
Ernie Smith

The Pentagon’s decision to rescind rules that allowed transgender people to serve in the military went into effect Friday, drawing condemnation from several organizations, including the American Medical Association.

As the U.S military reverted to a policy banning transgender individuals from serving, one of the most respected voices in the medical sphere spoke out.

The American Medical Association called out the Pentagon’s reasoning for the policy in an interview with the Associated Press. Effective Friday, the Defense Department added transitioning to another gender as one of its “administratively disqualifying conditions.” In an interview with the AP, AMA President Dr. Barbara L. McAneny particularly took issue with language describing transgender people as having a “deficiency.”

“The only thing deficient is any medical science behind this decision,” she said. “The AMA has said repeatedly that there is no medically valid reason—including a diagnosis of gender dysphoria—to exclude transgender individuals from military service.”

The decision reverses an Obama-era policy that ended the ban, one of a series of changes in the former administration that also ended a prohibition on gay and lesbian servicemembers. AMA, along with many other groups, has spoken out previously against the reinstatement of the transgender ban, which was first announced by President Donald Trump on Twitter in 2017 and later formalized by the Defense Department.

Other organizations that criticized the ban this week included:

American Military Partner Association. AMPA, the largest organization representing the families of LGBTQ soldiers, characterized the move as a dangerous regression to the days of “don’t ask, don’t tell.” “Thousands of transgender service members and qualified recruits are willing to risk their very lives for our nation, and we will not stop fighting to reverse this unconscionable ban until they are once again able to serve openly and authentically as they deserve,” AMPA President Ashley Broadway-Mack said in a news release.

Human Rights Campaign. The LGBTQ rights group has been out front on this issue, thanks in part to a well-timed media appearance by one of its employees. Charlotte Clymer, a high-profile Army veteran and transgender military activist who works for HRC, shared her view of the shift in a televised op-ed that aired this past week on CBS Sunday Morning. She spoke about her experiences in the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment, which is responsible for managing burials at Arlington National Cemetery. “All I know about those I carried was that they died in selfless service, and they wore the flag of this country to the grave,” she said.

GLAAD. The LGBTQ rights group launched a profile picture campaign on Friday, as the policy change went into effect, encouraging a show of support for trans people. “The ampersand represents the power of our voices together,” GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said in a tweet. Prominent LGBTQ celebrities such as Wanda Sykes, Laverne Cox, and Wilson Cruz took part.
https://associationsnow.com/2019/04/tra ... ups-speak/



Trump's ban on trans troops in the US military goes into effect
Openly trans people will not be able to enlist in the US military as of Friday (12 April)
Trump's ban on trans troops in the US military goes into effect
Protesters gather to denounce Trump's plan to strip transgender rights (Photo: Twitter)
13 April 2019 6:22 BSTCalum Stuart
US President Donald Trump’s ban on trans troops in the US military has gone into effect.

People who are openly trans or in the process of gender affirmation treatment have been banned from enlisting as of Friday (12 April).

The move has been widely condemned by trans rights supporters, politicians and public figures.

The ban takes effect after a federal appeals court struck down the last attempt to block the ban in March.

Some commentators have said the move sees the US military partially returning to the so-called ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ era.

‘Forcing brave American heroes to hide who they are’
According to a 2016 survey by the Rand Corporation, there may be an estimated 10,000 trans individuals serving in the US military.

The ban will now require them to hide their identity. Trans rights advocates and troops have said it will lead to increased stigma and mental health issues among trans servicepeople, the Guardian reports.

‘With the implementation of this transgender military ban, our nation is once again shamefully forcing brave American heroes to hide who they are in order to serve,’ said Ashley Broadway-Mack, the president of the American Military Partner Association.

‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ was an unofficial rule which banned openly LGBTI people from serving in the US military. However, it allowed gay personnel to serve, as long as they were not open about their sexuality.

The rule was repealed by former President Barak Obama in 2011.

‘Tremendous medical costs and disruption’
Trump first proposed the ban in a tweet in July 2017, in which he declared that trans individuals would not be allowed to ‘serve in the US military in any capacity’. It was an announcement that surprised even defense officials.

The president justified the ban by incorrectly claiming that allowing trans troops to serve came with ‘tremendous medical costs and disruption’.

In reality, trans troops’ healthcare costs amount to very little of the overall budget. The US military spends five times the amount on Viagra than on the healthcare costs of trans servicepeople.

Trump later walked back on the announcement, offering a watered-down version of the ban.

‘An act of cruelty’
Since it was first announced, numerous equal rights advocates, politicians and public figures have lambasted the ban.

In February, several trans servicepeople testified before Congress to speak out against the ban. During the hearing, committee chairwoman Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) described the ban as ‘unconstitutional, discriminatory, and self-defeating’.

Last month saw the United States House of Representatives vote against the ban in a non-binding resolution. Although the vote had no legislative power, it was a symbolic show of support for trans members of the military.

Earlier this month, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi condemned the ban as an ‘act of cruelty’ which would leave the Trump administration’s legacy in the ‘dustbin of history’.

The ban has also been met with derision from former military personnel.

In January, former four-star army general Stanley McChrystal described the ban as ‘a mistake’.

Kristen Beck, a trans woman and former US Navy SEAL, has also hit out at the ban on numerous occasions.

Woeful record on trans rights
The ban is in keeping with the Trump administration’s woeful record on trans rights.

The White House received widespread condemnation in October 2018 after a leaked memo suggested that the Department of Health and Human Services was planning to restrict the definition of sex to genitalia at birth.

Trans rights advocates, multinational businesses and members of the science community took a stand against the move. Many claim that the move would ‘legally erase’ trans people.

The White House has also made moves to roll back Obama-era legislation protecting the rights of trans students in US schools and trans prisoners.
https://www.gaystarnews.com/article/pre ... #gs.5dm5s0



Trump Got What He Wanted — Transgender Soldiers Are Now Banned From The Military
“We are pleased,” the Pentagon told BuzzFeed News.



Dominic Holden
BuzzFeed News Reporter
Posted on April 12, 2019, at 1:24 p.m. ET


Nicholas Kamm / AFP / Getty Images
President Donald Trump finally got to implement a ban on transgender people in the military on Friday — nearly two years after he shot off tweets declaring the military “will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity.”

Lt. Col. Carla M. Gleason, a Pentagon spokesperson, told BuzzFeed News, “We are pleased that we are able to create and implement our own accessions policy,” adding that she is “not aware of any anecdotes up to this point” of military applicants or service members being penalized under the new rules.

The Pentagon has used a rhetorical sleight of hand to insist the new policy doesn’t actually ban transgender people, arguing service members can simply pretend they’re not and serve as their birth sex.

But it is certainly a ban.

After prevailing in four court battles, at least for now, the Pentagon released a directive in March to prohibit service members who appear transgender or act transgender by failing to meet grooming, uniform, and other military standards for their birth sex. It also bans people from enlisting in the armed forces if they have transitioned from their “biological sex” to another gender. People in the military who came out as transgender between 2016 and today can remain in the forces under a grandfather clause.

“It’s absolutely not,” Gleason said when asked if it was a ban. She did say, however, that new recruits will be rejected if they’ve undergone a gender transition, that they cannot transition while in service, and they they must conform to the uniform and fitness standards of their birth sex.

Nevertheless, she said, “We are not going to hunt down transgender individuals and punish them for being transgender.”

A cavalcade of critics — including LGBT groups, medical leaders, and lawmakers — condemned the policy this week, calling it a “ban.” The American Medical Association rebuffed the Pentagon’s claim that gender transitions were a “deficiency.”

“The only thing deficient is any medical science behind this decision,” the AMA said in a statement. “The AMA has said repeatedly that there is no medically valid reason — including a diagnosis of gender dysphoria — to exclude transgender individuals from military service. Transgender service members should, as is the case with all personnel, receive the medical care they need. There is a global medical consensus about the efficacy of transgender health care, including treatment for gender dysphoria.”

Trump had campaigned with the promise of being a champion for LGBT people, yet once in office, he carried out the agenda of the Evangelical Christian right with a rapid-fire assault on LGBT protections across several federal agencies.

Trump announced his military ban, which reverses a 2016 policy, in a series of tweets in July 2017 that accused transgender people of being a hardship on the armed forces, even though the previous administration found they weren’t. Trump’s administration assembled a so-called panel of experts to affirm the president's position.

Akira Wyatt transitioned publicly after the Obama administration lifted a long-standing ban in 2016.
Courtesy of Akira Wyatt
Akira Wyatt transitioned publicly after the Obama administration lifted a long-standing ban in 2016.
Transgender military members told BuzzFeed News in January they were terrified and disappointed by the ban. “To be told that I’m now a burden, after nearly 19 years of service, it’s really hard to understand,” Chief Warrant Officer Lindsey Muller, an active-duty Army attack helicopter pilot who also served during the Iraq War, said at the time.

Even with the grandfather clause, troops warned that they could still be at risk. “As people who are grandfathered in, we are in danger,” Akira Wyatt, a Navy Corps member who transitioned publicly after the Obama administration lifted a longstanding ban in 2016, told BuzzFeed News in January.

Four lawsuits will continue to challenge the policy on its merits, even as it takes effect, including one lawsuit based in Washington, DC, where challengers attempted to push back implementing the policy until recently. The US District Court in DC had issued a preliminary injunction blocking the ban in 2017, and as recently as March, Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ruled the ban could not yet take effect due to a procedural timeline set by an appeals court. “Defendants were incorrect in claiming that there was no longer an impediment,” says Kollar-Kotelly’s ruling against the Trump administration. But as the clock ran out, the Pentagon was able to proceed.

“Today is the implementation day as originally scheduled,” Gleason said Friday.

The transgender military memo, signed by David L. Norquist, who is currently performing the duties of the deputy secretary of defense, prohibits service members who exhibit gender dysphoria, the condition of experiencing a distressing clash between one’s gender and sex assigned at birth. Gender dysphoria is, for many, the essence of being transgender.

Pentagon officials said not all transgender people experience gender dysphoria, and that troops could say they are transgender, provided they act like they aren’t. For those not grandfathered in under the 2016 policy, the new rules require that soldiers meet the military’s prescribed expectations of their birth sex — including uniforms, haircuts, and physical tests.

After courts blocked Trump’s initial memorandum banning transgender troops, his policy evolved in February 2018, when former defense secretary James Mattis recommended banning most transgender personnel but allowing those who’d already joined and transitioned to remain in the ranks.

The DC Court of Appeals found in January that the administration made “substantial” changes from the original version of the ban Trump first announced on Twitter in 2017, fixing problems that led judges to block it in the first round of litigation. The court said the ban wasn't a ban at all, because transgender people could still serve if they presented as their sex identified at birth.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/do ... kes-effect


The Discrimination Administration
Trump’s record of action against transgender people


Since the day President Trump took office, his administration has waged a nonstop onslaught against the rights of LGBTQ people. In order to keep the administration accountable for its policies and help transgender people keep track of actions taken against us, here are the major changes implemented or attempted by the Trump administration:

Anti-Transgender and Anti-LGBT Actions

March 13, 2019: The Department of Defense laid out its plans for implementing its ban on transgender troops, giving an official implementation date of April 12.

January 23, 2019: The Department of Health & Human Services' Office of Civil Rights granted an exemption to adoption and foster care agencies in South Carolina, allowing religiously-affiliated services to discriminate against current and aspiring LGBTQ caregivers.

November 23, 2018: The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) erased critical guidance that helped federal agency managers understand how to support transgender federal workers and respect their rights, replacing clear and specific guidance reflecting applicable law and regulations with vaguely worded guidance hostile to transgender workers. While this guidance change did not change the rights of transgender federal workers under applicable law, regulations, Executive Orders, and case law, it is likely to cause confusion and promote discrimination within the nation's largest employer.

August 10, 2018: The Department of Labor released a new directive for Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) staff encouraging them to grant broad religious exemptions to federal contractors with religious-based objections to complying with nondiscrimination laws. It also deleted material from an OFCCP FAQ on LGBT nondiscrimination protections that previously clarified the limited scope of allowable religious exemptions.

June 11, 2018: Attorney General Jeff Sessions ruled that the federal government would no longer recognized gang violence or domestic violence as grounds for asylum, adopting a legal interpretation that could lead to rejecting most LGBT asylum-seekers.

May 11, 2018: The Bureau of Prisons in the Department of Justice adopted an illegal policy of almost entirely housing transgender people in federal prison facilities that match their sex assigned at birth, rolling back existing protections.

March 23, 2018: The Trump Administration announced an implementation plan for its discriminatory ban on transgender military service members.

February 18, 2018: The Department of Education announced it will summarily dismiss complaints from transgender students involving exclusion from school facilities and other claims based solely on gender identity discrimination.

January 26, 2018: The Department of Health and Human Services proposed a rule that encourages medical providers to use religious grounds to deny treatment to transgender people, people who need reproductive care, and others.

January 18, 2018: The Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Civil Rights opened a "Conscience and Religious Freedom Division" that will promote discrimination by health care providers who can cite religious or moral reasons for denying care.

December 14, 2017: Staff at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were instructed not to use the words “transgender,” “vulnerable,” “entitlement,” “diversity,” “fetus,” “evidence-based,” and “science-based” in official documents.

October 6, 2017: The Justice Department released a sweeping "license to discriminate" allowing federal agencies, government contractors, government grantees, and even private businesses to engage in illegal discrimination, as long as they can cite religious reasons for doing so.

October 5, 2017: The Justice Department released a memo instructing Department of Justice attorneys to take the legal position that federal law does not protect transgender workers from discrimination.

September 7, 2017: The Justice Department filed a legal brief on behalf of the United States in the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing for a constitutional right for businesses to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation and, implicitly, gender identity.

August 25, 2017: President Trump released a memo directing Defense Department to move forward with developing a plan to discharge transgender military service members and to maintain a ban on recruitment.

July 26, 2017: President Trump announced, via Twitter, that "the United States Government will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military."

July 26, 2017: The Justice Department filed a legal brief on behalf of the United States in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, arguing that the 1964 Civil Rights Act does not prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation or, implicitly, gender identity.

June 14, 2017: The Department of Education withdrew its finding that an Ohio school district discriminated against a transgender girl. The Department gave no explanation for withdrawing the finding, which a federal judge upheld.

May 2, 2017: The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a plan to roll back regulations interpreting the Affordable Care Act’s nondiscrimination provisions to protect transgender people.

April 14, 2017: The Justice Department abandoned its historic lawsuit challenging North Carolina’s anti-transgender law. It did so after North Carolina replaced HB2 with a different anti-transgender law known as “HB 2.0.”

April 4, 2017: The Departments of Justice and Labor cancelled quarterly conference calls with LGBT organizations; on these calls, which had happened for years, government attorneys shared information on employment laws and cases.

March 31, 2017: The Justice Department announced it would review (and likely seek to scale back) numerous civil rights settlement agreements with police departments. These settlements were put in places where police departments were determined to be engaging in discriminatory and abusive policing, including racial and other profiling. Many of these agreements include critical protections for LGBT people.

March 2017: The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) removed links to four key resource documents from its website, which informed emergency shelters on best practices for serving transgender people facing homelessness and complying with HUD regulations.

March 28, 2017: The Census Bureau retracted a proposal to collect demographic information on LGBT people in the 2020 Census.

March 24, 2017: The Justice Department cancelled a long-planned National Institute of Corrections broadcast on “Transgender Persons in Custody: The Legal Landscape.”

March 13, 2017: The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that its national survey of older adults, and the services they need, would no longer collect information on LGBT participants. HHS initially falsely claimed in its Federal Register announcement that it was making “no changes” to the survey.

March 13, 2017: The State Department announced the official U.S. delegation to the UN’s 61st annual Commission on the Status of Women conference would include two outspoken anti-LGBT organizations, including a representative of the Center for Family and Human Rights (C-FAM): an organization designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

March 10, 2017: The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced it would withdraw two important agency-proposed policies designed to protect LGBT people experiencing homelessness. One proposed policy would have required HUD-funded emergency shelters to put up a poster or "notice" to residents of their right to be free from anti-LGBT discrimination under HUD regulations.

The other announced a survey to evaluate the impact of the LGBTQ Youth Homelessness Prevention Initiative, implemented by HUD and other agencies over the last three years. This multi-year project should be evaluated, and with this withdrawal, we may never learn what worked best in the project to help homeless LGBTQ youth.

March 8, 2017: Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) removed demographic questions about LGBT people that Centers for Independent Living must fill out each year in their Annual Program Performance Report. This report helps HHS evaluate programs that serve people with disabilities.

March 2, 2017: The Department of Justice abandoned its request for a preliminary injunction against North Carolina’s anti-transgender House Bill 2, which prevented North Carolina from enforcing HB 2. This was an early sign that the Administration was giving up defending trans people (later, on April 14, it withdrew the lawsuit completely).

March 1, 2017: The Department of Justice took the highly unusual step of declining to appeal a nationwide preliminary court order temporarily halting enforcement of the Affordable Care Act’s nondiscrimination protections for transgender people. The injunction prevents HHS from taking any action to enforce transgender people's rights from health care discrimination.

February 22, 2017, 2017: The Departments of Justice and Education withdrew landmark 2016 guidance explaining how schools must protect transgender students under the federal Title IX law.

Other Harmful Trump Administration Actions

The Trump administration has taken many other actions to roll back civil rights and health care protections and target vulnerable communities. While not specifically directed at transgender people or gender identity protections, we list them here because it is critically important that we view our quest for transgender equality as intertwined with other social justice movements. These include attacks on reproductive rights, the Affordable Care Act, refugees and other immigrants and the enforcement of civil rights laws. Many of these actions will also disproportionately harm transgender people. These are just a few examples:

Kicking Americans off Medicaid and Food Stamps: The Trump Administration has taken numerous actions to kick Americans in need off of Medicaid and SNAP coverage. On April 10, Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to push for work requirements for low-income people in America who receive federal assistance, including Medicaid and SNAP.

Targeting Reproductive Rights: On October 6, 2017, the Department of Health and Human Services issued a regulation allowing employers and insurers to deny coverage for birth control, as long as they can cite religious reasons for doing so. In April, President Trump and Congress overturned a regulation that protected Planned Parenthood, one of the nation’s largest providers of care for transgender people, and other family planning clinics from funding discrimination by states.

Harming Sexual Assault Survivors. On September 7, 2017, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos announced she would withdraw historic guidance on schools' and universities' responsibilities to address sexual assault and sexual harassment. On September 27, 2017, the Department replaced this guidance with flawed and dangerous “interim guidance” tipping the scales against student survivors seeking protection on campus. This is especially dangerous for transgender students, because 47% of transgender adults in the US Transgender Survey were sexual assault survivors.

Cruel and Relentless Attacks on Immigrant Communities. On September 5, 2017, President Trump acted to strip hundreds of thousands of Americans and their families of security, stability, and safety by ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. On April 6, 2018, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a “zero tolerance” policy that separated hundreds of immigrant children from their families. On April 10, a federal official announced that the Department of Justice was halting the Legal Orientation Program, which offers legal assistance to immigrants. On June 11, Attorney General Sessions ruled that domestic or gang violence are not grounds for asylum in the United States. These are just a few of numerous anti-immigrant actions that are especially dangerous for many LGBT immigrants who could face life-threatening violence if deported.

Putting Health Care Out of Reach: On April 13, 2017, the Department of Health and Human Services rolled back numerous Affordable Care Act rules to reduce protections for people seeking and using health insurance. These actions make it harder to enroll in health care plans, allow plans to sharply raise deductibles, and weaken requirements for insurance plans to have in-network providers that serve low-income communities. These changes disproportionately affect people of color and any one with lower incomes, including transgender people. These changes make getting health care coverage harder for people who lose coverage or who depend on community clinics.

Expanding Immigration Detention: The Department of Homeland Security is vastly expanding the number of immigrants held in immigration detention centers nationwide, while also eliminating protections for health and safety in detention centers. Reducing these protections for immigrants who are being detained is wrong, and it's especially dangerous for vulnerable transgender immigrants, many of whom are asylum-seekers who risk extreme abuse.

Banning Muslims and Refugees: On January 27, 2017 and again on March 6, President Trump signed executive orders seeking to ban entry by refugees and travelers from certain Muslim-majority countries and drastically reduce the number of refugees allowed to seek safety in the United States. We cannot stand for a world where people in danger are denied entry because of who they are, including where they come from or whether they are Muslim or any other religion. LGBT refugees are among the many who are fleeing life-threatening persecution because of who they are or what they believe. While the bans were allowed to take effect by the Supreme Court, court cases challenging them continue.
https://transequality.org/the-discrimin ... nistration
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Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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