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09 Feb 2017 - NPWJ News Digest on LGBTI rights
Articles
Supportive social networks can mitigate LGBTI mental health risk, study finds
By The Guardian, 09 Feb 2017
Sexuality poses no risk to mental health, a new study has found, challenging a common perception that homosexual and bisexual people are at risk of poor mental health and suicide because of their orientation. The research, carried out over eight years and led by the Australian National University, found that the risk commonly attributed to sexual orientation was driven by other factors, including negative social interactions, the absence of support, adversity in childhood such as sexual trauma, and even smoking. Homosexual and bisexual people did experience more of these risk factors, which leader researcher Dr Richard Burns said may be a consequence of their orientation, particularly at the time of their coming out. He said a heterosexual person feeling unsupported in a stressful or traumatic situation “would be at just as much risk as a homosexual who is reporting negative social support ... It’s these other risk factors that are driving people’s risks, not their sexual orientation.” Burns added that social support and negative health behaviours were “modifiable”. Burns said an absence of support from family, friends and the wider community was a known risk factor for poor mental health, and that could include discrimination under legislation or in public discourse.
Radical feminists team up with right-wing evangelicals to oppose trans rights protections
by Pink News, 08 Feb 2017
A group of radical feminists are working alongside ultra-conservative Christians who preach that women must obey their husbands – in order to attack transgender rights protections. The unlikely move comes from activists from the so-called Women’s Liberation Front, who describe themselves as “radical feminists dedicated to the total liberation of women”. The group, comprised of feminists who do not believe transgender women should be able to access female-only spaces, has got into bed with ultra-conservatives from the Family Policy Alliance and Focus on the Family, in order to challenge legal anti-discrimination protections for trans people. Activists from WoLF have filed a challenge to policies enacted under the Obama administration that extend existing anti-sexism laws to safeguard trans kids in schools from discrimination – and they seem only too happy to join up with their usual enemies to get it done. Others in the feminist movement have questioned the group’s willingness to get into bed with their biggest opponents, working alongside activists who want to outlaw abortion, and believe a woman must be obedient to her husband.
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Trump moves leave LGBT groups, religious conservatives wary
By The Washington Post, 08 Feb 2017
NEW YORK — Mixed signals from the White House on gay rights and religious exemptions have put two constituencies on edge: LGBT advocates already wary of President Donald Trump and social conservatives determined to hold him to his campaign promises. Recent developments have left both groups anxious and uncertain. Last week, Trump pledged to maintain President Barack Obama’s job protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender federal employees, and the White House touted him as a protector of the broader LGBT community. Soon after, Trump nominated Judge Neil Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court, which cheered conservatives because of the nominee’s past support for broad religious exemptions. Then a draft executive order on religious exemptions was leaked; among other things, it would have boosted protections for those with faith objections to gay marriage while undercutting LGBT gains made under Obama. Had the executive order been signed, LGBT-rights leaders were poised to respond with a wave of protests and lawsuits depicting the order as authorizing taxpayer-funded discrimination. Even though Trump has backed off for now, they remain wary. “It’s really not a question of if this administration will attack LGBT people — it’s a question of when and how,” said Rachel Tiven, CEO of Lambda Legal.
Transgender court hearing set amid fight over Trump nominee
by Reuters, 03 Feb 2017
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday scheduled oral arguments in a major dispute on transgender rights for March 28, when the U.S. Senate is set to be in the midst of a political fight over President Donald Trump's nominee to a vacant seat on the bench. By March, the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate is likely to be deliberating on whether to approve Neil Gorsuch, a conservative federal appeals court judge from Colorado, to the court. Where Gorsuch stands on social issues like transgender rights is likely to be a much-discussed question during the confirmation process. Republicans are hoping the Senate Judiciary Committee holds hearings and votes on the nomination by late March, paving the way for a vote in the full Senate the first week of April, before the chamber begins a two week spring recess, according to Senate aides. In the transgender case, in which the eight-justice court could be split 4-4 without a ninth vote, a Virginia public school district is fighting to prevent a female-born transgender high school student from using the boys' bathroom. The dispute involves a transgender student named Gavin Grimm, who identifies as male and sued in 2015 to win the right to use the school's boys' bathroom. At the heart of the case is the question of whether transgender people are covered by a ban on gender discrimination in education under federal law. The administration of former President Barack Obama said it was. The Trump administration has not yet weighed in.
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