Celebrating 41 Years! Issue 51 Volume 42
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Seattle Gay News SEATTLE’S LGBT NEWS & ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
When is a hate crime not a hate crime? www.queenanneview.com
by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer Tony P., a 28-year-old Gay man, walked into Sully’s Lounge on Queen Anne Avenue N. at about 9:45 p.m. on Sunday night, De-
cember 14. By the time he left just after midnight, he had two black eyes, a bloody nose, and a cut lip. Tony asked not to be identified by his full name because the incident left him traumatized and in fear for his safety. Sully’s Lounge
told SGN that “we’re aware of the incident and we’re working out the details,” but apart from that they declined to comment. Tony went to Sully’s, he later told SGN, to meet several women friends. One of them introduced him as her
“Gay friend” when he arrived. According to Tony, the bartender was flirting with his women friends and pouring them free shots. “He just put glasses in front of everybody and started pouring,” Tony recalled. One of the women later told police she had consumed four shots and one and a half beers during the evening. Tony told the police officers who arrived on the scene later that the bartender said he would “pour [Tony] shots because his friends were hot and he was letting them drink for free.” While the bartender poured Tony drinks, he also made disparaging remarks about his sexual orientation, referring to him as a “faggot” when talking to other customers. “I also remember eating food,” Tony told SGN. “My friend ordered chicken wings. So I’m eating the food, and the bartender comes and grabs it, and throws it away.” Things went even further downhill from there. Eventually, Tony says, the bartender hit him. “I don’t know how many times,” Tony told SGN. “I was in shock. But he must have hit me more than once.” He came away from the encoun-
ter bloody and bruised. Tony then stumbled down the street and found himself in front of Trader Joe’s market, where an employee called police. According to the police report, officers arrived on the scene and found that Tony’s “face and shirt were covered in blood.” After taking Tony’s testimony and offering to get him to a hospital (he declined), the officers then went to Sully’s to question the bartender, but found the bar had closed early. “In front of the front door, officer spotted multiple droplets of what appeared to be blood,” the police report reads. “The red substance stains were fresh and consistent with someone leaving the front door and walking in the direction where the victim was found.” As horrific as the incident was, and even though the bartender made disparaging remarks about Tony’s sexual orientation, police are not investigating it as a hate crime. What is malicious harassment? According to RCW 9A.36.080, the section of Washington state law see Hate page 5
by Shaun Knittel SGN Associate Editor
by Shaun Knittel SGN Associate Editor This month, the list of countries where a same-sex military spouse can be sponsored by the Defense Department to join a U.S. service member for an accompanied assignment outside of the U.S. grew to 40 countries. Unfortunately for many LGBT military families approaching this time of year where new duty stations
are often assigned, many locations remain unavailable, notably including Germany which hosts an estimated 43,000 U.S. military personnel. In the locations that remain unavailable to LGBT military families, the same-sex spouses of U.S. service members are denied what is known as “command sponsorship” due to concerns that they are not covered see Military page 5
On December 18, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, in a policy reversal, issued a memo stating that “the best reading” of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 does protect Transgender people from sex discrimination. “I have determined that the best reading of Title VII’s prohibition of sex discrimination is that it encompasses discrimination based on gender identity, including transgender status,” the outgoing head of the Justice Department said. “This important shift will ensure that the protections of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 are extended to those who suffer discrimination based on gender identity, including transgender status,” Holder added. “This will help to foster fair and consistent treatment for all claimants. And it reaffirms the Justice Department’s commitment to protecting the civil rights of all Americans.” “The decision by Attorney General Holder to fully embrace the legal standard set forth in Macy will go a long way towards advancing equality for the transgender community,” said Sarah Warbelow, Human Rights
AP
List of duty stations around Eric Holder announces Transgender the world available to people are covered by Civil Rights Act same-sex U.S. military couples continues to grow
Eric Holder
Campaign’s Legal Director. “Transgender people continue to face some of the highest levels of discrimination in the workplace. We are thrilled to see the Department of Justice take this important step.” In 2012, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) determined in Macy v. Holder that discrimination based on an individual’s gender identity is sex discrimination and thus constitutes a viola-
tion of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Earlier this year, the EEOC filed complaints in federal courts in Florida and Michigan against two separate companies accused of discriminating against transgender employees, Amiee Stephens of Michigan and Brandi Branson of Florida. Amiee Stephens was fired from R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral see Holder page 16
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Blue, Too, Writing By (For or About) Working-Class Queers by Jesse Monteagudo SGN Contributing Writer THE BOOK OF THE YEAR: Blue, Too, More Writing By (For or About) WorkingClass Queers edited by Wendell Ricketts; FourCats Press; 486 pages In 2005, the gay-owned Suspect Thoughts Press published Everything I Have Is Blue: Short Fiction by Working-Class Men about More-or-Less Gay Life edited by Wendell Ricketts. The book was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award and also appeared on my own list of the best books of 2005. Unfortunately, except for these kudos and a few reviews, Everything I Have Is Blue was mostly ignored and soon went out of print (while Suspect Thoughts went out of business). For his part, Ricketts refused to give up. Nine years after he single-handedly created the genre of gay, working-class literature, Ricketts revived it with a new anthology: Blue, Too, More Writing By (For or About) Working-Class Queers. Published by Ricketts’s own FourCats Press, Blue, Too is, like its predecessor, self-financed. When I first came out, I thought I was not beautiful enough to be gay. Now I wonder if I am wealthy enough to be gay. Affluent, mostly-white men dominate gay life and gay literature, as witnessed by the expensive circuit parties and fundraisers that dominate our social life. Working-class, blue-collar men, when they exist, are merely sex objects to be lusted after. This misconception of workingclass men was evident in a review of the first Blue book, where the critic invited his readers to lend the book “to the cute guy who delivers bottled water to your office every month. Or your hunky garbage man. Basically, anyone hot with a blue collar,” as if working-class men could not buy their own books. Literature, Ricketts remind us, “instructs us. We must be vigilant, then, as we take our
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pleasure in reading, because one of the main ways that literature instructs is by what it refuses to name, by what it omits, elides, or just plain fumbles. Literature is never neutral and it is never still.” Most of the time, “men and women who come from or live in or were formed by the working class ... don’t see ourselves much in American queer literature.” Nor do many blue collar, men-loving-men view themselves as gay, which is why, when the first Blue book was published, “the part of the title that lay east of the colon – the “moreor-less gay” part – was no accident. ... Then, as now, I don’t presume to know how other queer people with working-class loyalties, families, lives, home towns, sensibilities have, over the course of their lives, managed their relationship to that vexed and freighted notion, “gay.” But I’ll bet there’s not one of them who hasn’t at one time or another in his or her adult life been in conflict over the label, hasn’t worn it sometimes not because it fits or was flattering but because it seemed to be the only shirt in the closet.” In Blue Too, Ricketts “reprints some reader favorites from Everything I Have Is Blue and, in that sense, bears a passing re-
semblance to a second edition. On the other hand, half the pieces in Section I are new … ; the Afterword has been completely revamped, updated, and expanded; and the Reader’s Guide and Annotated Bibliography ... are original to this volume. So, Blue, Too is also something like a sequel. What it really is, is a hybrid.” Ricketts’s own “expanded” Afterword, “Class/Mates: Further Outings in the Literatures and Cultures of the Ga(y) ted Community,” runs 110 pages and is worth the price of the book. Here Ricketts discusses in great detail the scope of queer, working-class literature and the people who created and inspired it. “I continue to be proud of the work in Everything I Have Is Blue and Blue, Too, Ricketts concludes, “and I remain committed to what the books represent: the effort to add colors to the palette of American identity, rebut the reductionisms of ‘multiculturalism,’ confuse categories that deserve to be confused, propagandize where propaganda is well warranted. Though I spent years wandering queer literature in search of something like home, I now know that the writers in this collection are the people I needed to find.”
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Sully’s Lounge in Queen Anne
Hate
continued from cover that defines malicious harassment – the technical name for hate crimes – the offense must be based on the perpetrator’s “perception of the victim’s race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, or mental, physical, or sensory handicap.” “It’s tricky,” Seattle Police spokesperson Detective Drew Fowler told SGN. “It all depends on the suspect’s motivation. To charge with malicious harassment you have to get into the suspect’s head.” In Tony’s case, the issue seems clear enough. The bartender called him a “faggot,” so he had obviously formed a negative perception of Tony’s sexual orientation. But that by itself is not enough to establish malicious harassment. According to the law, “Words alone do not
constitute malicious harassment unless the context or circumstances surrounding the words indicate the words are a threat.” Tony says he was offended by the bartender’s remarks, and felt uncomfortable, but not that he felt threatened. In fact, he says he was “shocked” by the assault. “It really seemed like it was unprovoked,” he told SGN later. In the police report, the officers note that Tony “could not articulate the events triggering the assault. [Tony] did not remember if [the bartender] said anything prior to hitting him in regard to him being Gay.” In other words, even though the bartender clearly expressed a negative view of Tony’s sexual orientation, he did not make an explicit threat or say anything to link his alleged assault on Tony to Tony’s sexual orientation. And that, Detective Fowler explained, makes the crime a simple assault and not malicious harassment.
Marine accused of murder in the Philippines will remain in custody by Shaun Knittel SGN Associate Editor
Military
continued from cover under the current Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) with the host nation as military dependents. This effectively prevents same-sex spouses and children from accompanying their service member to their new duty station in those locations. “Unfortunately our LGBT service members are often faced with a very difficult situation of choosing between their family and a duty station that would benefit their career, a frustrating and heartbreaking choice my own family is experiencing,” said Ashley Broadway, President of AMPA and spouse of an active duty U.S. Army officer. “Service members already have to leave their families
tody of American military personnel accused of crimes. But the looming irritant between the treaty allies over Pemberton’s custody was eased after Washington agreed to move him from a U.S. warship to the Philippine military’s main camp in metropolitan Manila, where he remained under American custody with an outer ring of Filipino guards. The Philippine government said in a statement issued by its foreign affairs department that it looks “forward to the full cooperation of the U.S. government in ensuring that justice is secured for Laude.” Harry Roque, the lawyer of Laude’s family, welcomed the prosecutors’ ruling and angrily demanded that Pemberton be thrown into an ordinary jail.
behind for deployments to combat zones, and sadly our LGBT service members have to face leaving their families behind for a normal duty station as well.” “While we are confident that the State Department is working towards a solution, we cannot emphasize enough the urgency of this issue and how much of an impact continued delays in resolving the uncertainty have on our military families,” continued Broadway. “We are especially eager to see the situation resolved with Germany, considering so many of our service members continue to receive orders there and must leave their families behind.” The situation with Germany, a nation which already recognizes same-sex relationships, remains unsettled due to continued
delays in working out agreements between the State Department and the German government over reciprocity agreements in regards to Germany’s civil unions. Additionally, resolution of remaining concerns with the Republic of Korea (South Korea) is also a high priority for AMPA and LGBT military families. With an estimated 30,000 U.S. military personnel stationed there, continued problems remain for issuing necessary SOFA visas to same-sex military spouses. Current available locations for command sponsorship of same-sex spouses include: Japan, Italy, UK, Bahrain, Belgium, Spain, Canada, Norway, Sweden, Portugal, Argentina, Denmark, New Zealand, Uruguay, Mexico, Brazil, Nepal, Vietnam, Australia, Laos, Aus-
tria, Bolivia, Columbia, Cambodia, Mongolia, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Finland, Cyprus, Ireland, Israel, Burma, Georgia, Philippines, Taiwan, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Curacao, Papua New Guinea, and Fiji.
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The embassy said U.S. officials will cooperate with the Philippine government in the case. “The United States will continue to work closely with the Philippine government to help ensure justice is served and the rights of all persons are protected. This includes making the suspect available for all appearances required by the Philippine judicial system,” the embassy’s statement said. The embassy has a history of keeping custody of American military personnel accused of crimes in the Philippines. In 2005, Lance Cpl. Daniel Smith was found guilty of raping a woman and was kept at the embassy until his conviction was overturned by appeal even though a judge ordered him released to local authorities. That case, like this one, sparked local criticism of the VFA. REUTERS / Lorgina Minguito
Officials at the U.S. Embassy in Manila said the United States will maintain custody of U.S. Marine Private First Class Joseph Scott Pemberton under provisions of the Visiting Forces Agreement(VFA),adocumentthatsetsrulesandrights forU.S.militarypresenceinthePhilippines. “The VFA states that the United States has the right to retain custody of a suspect from the commission of the alleged offense until completion of all judicial proceedings. Pemberton is being held at a Philippines military base, Camp Aguinaldo, under guard of U.S. military personnel, with perimeter security provided by the Armed Forces of the Philippines,” the embassy said in a statement. Pemberton, an anti-tank missile man with the 2nd Battalion, 9th Marines based at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, has been in U.S. military custody since October following the slaying of Jennifer Laude, a Transgender woman in an Olongapo city hotel room. On Monday, Philippine prosecutors charged Pemberton with murder. Prosecutor Emilie de los Santos said there was “probable cause” that Pemberton killed Laude in the hotel room where the victim’s body was found in Olongapo city. She had been strangled and drowned in a toilet bowl. “Its murder,” de los Santos told reporters after filing the charge against the 19-yearold Pemberton before a regional court. “It was aggravated by treachery, abuse of superior strength and cruelty.” Among the evidence submitted by de los Santos and other prosecutors were statements by
Pemberton’s three Marine colleagues who went bar-hopping with him on October 11 in Olongapo, a former liberty town when the U.S. Navy was at the vast Subic Naval base, now a bustling commercial Freeport and recreation hub. According to the Associated Press, Pemberton and some of his colleagues picked up women at a bar and separately checked in at nearby hotels, and then returned to their ship after midnight. According to reports, witnesses saw Pemberton check in with Laude, where he was seen leaving shortly before the discovery of the killing. Marine Lance Corporal Jairn Michael Rose, who went out with Pemberton that night, acknowledged that the suspect later confided back at their ship that he attacked the woman he was with by choking her after discovering that she was Transgender when she undressed, according to the prosecutors. “I think I killed a he/she,” Pemberton was quoted as having told Rose. Pemberton allegedly said he choked her from behind with his arm “for a couple of minutes” until she stopped moving then dragged her into the bathroom, according to the prosecutors. The new details have sparked condemnation from LGBT groups, which have labeled the attack a hate crime. The case comes after the Philippines and the United States strengthened ties with the recent signing of a defense accord that allows greater U.S. access to Philippine military camps. According to the AP, the accord will help Washington’s bid to reassert its presence in Asia, and enable Manila to deter what it calls China’s aggressive moves to reinforce its claims in disputed South China Sea territories. The case also reignited a debate over cus-
German national Marc Sueselbec grieves beside the coffin of his slain fiancée, Jennifer Laude
For more information about the American Military Partner Association and LGBT military spouses and their families, please visit www.MilitaryPartners.org. The American Military Partner Association is the nation’s largest organization for the partners, spouses, families, and allies of America’s LGBT service members and veterans. With over 35,000 members and supporters, AMPA is committed to education, advocacy, and support for our “modern military families.”
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Ninth Circuit upholds LA condom law by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer
L.A. County (highlighted)
The Los Angeles County ordinance requiring porn actors to use condoms is constitutional, according to a December 15 ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The ordinance was passed by voters in 2012, in an effort to protect porn actors from sexually transmitted diseases. A three-judge panel of the appellate court rejected arguments by porn industry lawyers that the law violates filmmakers’ First Amendment free speech rights. For the First Amendment to apply, the Ninth Circuit said, the industry would have to show that porn viewers were likely to understand the “message” of bareback sex. “Here, we agree with the district court that, whatever unique message plaintiffs might intend to convey by depicting condomless sex, it is unlikely that viewers of adult films will understand that message,” said Judge Susan P. Graber, writing for the panel majority. In her opinion, Graber cited a 2009 letter from the Los Angeles County Department of Health stating the rate of STD infection among porn actors is 20%, compared with only 2.4% for the general public. Lawyers for the porn industry claimed that the industry’s own safety regulations, requiring actors be tested for STDs every two to four weeks, were good enough to protect the actors. AIDS Healthcare Foundation President Mi-
chael Weinstein, one of the activists behind the ordinance, hailed Monday’s ruling as a “total vindication” of his views. “The court struck down every one of [the industry’s] arguments,” he said. Weinstein added that he hopes the porn industry will appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, so there can be a definitive ruling. A statewide condom law before California’s legislature died in committee last year, but Weinstein said he hopes it will be resurrected. In the meantime, he said, his organization is going forward with a petition drive to put the issue on a statewide ballot. Industry spokespeople did not indicate whether they would appeal the Ninth Circuit ruling. They could ask for a review of the panel’s decision by the full Ninth Circuit, or they could appeal directly to the Supreme Court. Since the ordinance went into effect, many porn producers have moved their operations out of LA County. Since the ban went into effect, the number of film permits in Los Angeles has plummeted from 485 in 2012 to just 40 in 2013. Industry officials indicated that some filmmakers simply stopped applying for permits and went underground, while others moved film shoots to neighboring counties or states. Vivid Entertainment Group head Steven Hirsch, one of the industry’s largest porn producers, told The Associated Press in August that his company had moved its film shoots out of the county. He refused to say where.
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more, 10-20 years later? These are the kinds of not been able to express myself as a woman in questions I didn’t want to haunt me. public. So I worked with Alicia Neal, an artist in California, to sketch a realistic portrait that Why did you choose this particular art- more accurately represents who I am. Unwork to represent you? fortunately, with the current rules at military It’s the closest representation of what I confinement facilities, it is very unlikely that I might look like if I was allowed to present and will have any photos taken until I am released express myself the way I see fit. Even after I – which, parole and clemency notwithstandcame out as a trans woman in 2013, I have ing, might not be for another two decades. art by Alicia Neal
of money spent; the gallons of fuel burned; by Amnesty International reprinted from Reader Supported News the reams of paper printed; the lengthy rolls of security personnel, lawyers, and experts 16 December 14 – it felt silly at times. It felt especially silly being presented as a traitor by the officers who Chelsea Manning is serving a 35-year pris- prosecuted my case. I saw them out of court on sentence for leaking classified U.S. govern- for at least 100 days before and during the trial ment documents to the website WikiLeaks. and developed a very good sense of who they From her prison cell in Kansas, Chelsea tells were as people. I’m fairly certain that they got us why speaking out against injustice can be a a good sense of who I am as a person too. I reonce-in-a-lifetime opportunity. main convinced that even the advocates that presented the treason arguments did not beWhy did you decide to leak documents lieve their own words as they spoke them. about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? These documents were important because Many people think of you as a whistlethey relate to two connected counter-insurgen- blower. Why are whistleblowers important? cy conflicts in real-time from the ground. HuIn an ideal world, governments, corporamanity has never had this complete and detailed tions, and other large institutions would be a record of what modern warfare actually looks transparent by default. Unfortunately, the like. Once you realize that the co-ordinates rep- world is not ideal. Many institutions begin resent a real place where people live; that the a slow creep toward being opaque and we dates happened in our recent history; that the need people who recognize that. I think the numbers are actually human lives – with all the term “whistleblowers” has an overwhelmlove, hope, dreams, hatred, fear, and nightmares ingly negative connotation in government that come with them – then it’s difficult to ever and business, akin to a “tattle-tale” or “snitch.” forget how important these documents are. This needs to be addressed somehow. Very often policies that supposedly protect such What did you think the consequences people are actually used to discredit them. might be for you personally? In 2010, I was a lot younger. The consequencWhat would you say to somebody who es felt very vague. I expected the worst possible is afraid to speak out against injustice? outcome, but I didn’t have a strong sense of what First, I would point out that life is precious. that might entail. But I expected to be demonized In Iraq in 2009-10, life felt very cheap. It beand have every moment of my life examined and came overwhelming to see the sheer number analyzed for every single possible screw-up that of people suffering and dying, and the learned I’ve ever made – every flaw and blemish – and to indifference to it by everybody around me, have them used against me in the court of public including the Iraqis themselves. That really opinion. I was especially afraid that my gender changed my perspective on my life, and made identity would be used against me. me realize that speaking out about injustices is worth the risk. Second, in your life, you are What was it like to feel the full force of the rarely given the chance to really make a differU.S. justice system and be presented as a traitor? ence. Every now and then you do come across It was particularly interesting to see the lo- a significant choice. Do you really want to find gistics involved in the prosecution: the stacks yourself asking whether you could have done
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Stonewall veteran Danny Garvin dies at 65 www.nextmagazine.com
Danny Garvin
morning hours of June 28, 1969, when New York City police officers raided the Stonewall Inn, in New York’s Greenwich Village. Stonewall veteran Danny Garvin died DeThe raid was standard operating procecember 9. He was 65. dure for police in the late 1960s, but it set off The Stonewall Uprising began in the early a popular uprising – a six-day series of proby Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer
tests, demonstrations, and confrontations between New York’s LGBT community and the police. The incident also transformed a small movement based on the Gay middle class into the mass LGBT civil rights movement that continues today. According to Gay historian David Carter, who was friends with Garvin, his personal story intertwined with the history of the bar and the larger community that frequented it. “Danny was there the night it opened (on his birthday in 1967) and became a regular customer of the Stonewall Inn,” Carter said. “He met his first love there by dancing with him, dated the main doorman (Blonde Frankie), and was roommates with one of the men who worked in the coat check. Danny’s knowledge of the club has contributed a lot to a better understanding of the Stonewall Inn. Fortunately, Danny also happened to walk up the street soon after the June 1969 raid began, and his detailed memories of that night significantly add to our knowledge about the Uprising. “Danny’s life story is all the more remarkable and historically relevant because his experiences mirrored those of his generation as if he were a Gay Zelig,” Carter continued. “Danny was in a Gay hippie commune before Stonewall and he was roommates with
Gay activist Morty Manford after Stonewall. Morty Manford’s introduction of Danny Garvin and another gay friend to Manford’s parents precipitated Manford’s coming out to his parents. Morty’s mother Jeanne Manford later founded what became Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, now PFLAG. He hung out with Andy Warhol’s crowd, and he founded the recovery contingent of LGBT marchers in the LGBT Pride March each June.” Unlike Morty Manford, who was a pre-law student at prestigious Columbia University when the Stonewall Uprising broke out, Garvin was homeless. “Danny was one of the heroic homeless LGBT youths who fought during the Stonewall Uprising,” New York’s Ali Forney Center for homeless youth recalled in a statement. “At that time he was living out of a locker in the Port Authority, and struggling to survive on the streets.” Monty Manford went on to found the Gay Activists Alliance in 1969, and died from complications of AIDS in 1992. Stonewall icon Sylvia Rivera was also a member of the Alliance. Garvin became an advocate for the homeless and a volunteer at the Forney Center. The Center is named for Ali Forney, a homeless Transgender youth who was murdered in Harlem in 1997. The Center named for her opened in 2002.
No surgery for Trans prisoner, First Circuit says
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pone their adjustment to the crumbling gender binary.” Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, which assisted with Kosilek’s lawsuits, condemned the First Circuit decision. “I am appalled by this decision, which means that Michelle Kosilek will continue to be denied the life-saving medical care she needs and has been seeking for years,” Jennifer Levi, director of GLAD’s Trans-
gender Rights Project, said in a statement. “It is difficult or impossible to imagine a decision like this one – that second-guesses every factual determination made by the trial court – in the context of any other prisoner healthcare case. This decision is a testament to how much work remains to be done to get transgender people’s healthcare needs on par with others in the general public.” www.wbur.org
A Transgender prisoner does not have a right to gender reassignment surgery, the First Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on December 16. Their ruling overturns the decision of a federal district judge who ruled that denying the woman surgery violated her Eighth Amendment protection against cruel and unusual punishment. Michelle Kosilek, now 65 years old, was convicted of murdering her thenwife Cheryl McCaul in 1990. She is serving life without parole in a Massachusetts men’s prison. In 2000, Kosilek informed prison officials that she is a woman, and filed suit to get medical treatments to facilitate her transition. In 2002 she won counseling and hormone therapy, and also received electrolysis for a short time in 2008. In 2006 she requested gender reassignment surgery, and when that was denied she sued the Massachusetts Department of Corrections. Her medically diagnosed gender dysphoria causes her a high level of depression, anxiety, and stress, she said, and only surgery will alleviate the symptoms. In 2012, U.S. District Judge Mark Wolf ruled that the Massachusetts Department of Corrections had violated Kosilek’s constitutional rights by denying sex reassignment surgery. The judge also blasted then-Corrections Commissioner Kathleen Dennehy for engaging in “pretense, pretext, and prevarication” to deny Kosilek the treatment. Wolf wrote that Dennehy had “testified untruthfully on many matters” while lobbying the state legislature for a law that would
prohibit her from providing gender reassignment surgery to inmates. Wolf then ordered the Department of Corrections to provide Kosilek with the surgery. Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick appealed Wolf ’s ruling, bringing the matter to the First Circuit. The appellate court decision was sharply split, with three judges of the five-judge panel voting to reverse Wolf, and two voting to uphold his decision. Writing for the majority, Judge Juan R. Torruella indicated that prison administrators were best suited to determine whether security issues trumped the rights of Trans inmates to medically necessary health care. Judge Wolf, Torruella added, had wrongly substituted his own beliefs on medical care for expert opinions, since expert witnesses did not unanimously agree that Kosilek’s current health care was constitutionally inadequate. In her dissenting opinion on this resolution, Judge O. Rogeriee Thompson charged that social prejudice against Trans citizens played a large part in her colleague’s decision to reverse Kosilek’s access to health care. “I am confident that I would not need to pen this dissent, over 20 years after Kosilek’s quest for constitutionally adequate medical care began, were she not seeking a treatment that many see as strange or immoral,” Thompson wrote. “Prejudice and fear of the unfamiliar have undoubtedly played a role in this matter’s protraction.” “The precedent the majority creates is damaging,” she added. “It ... aggrieves an already marginalized community, and enables correctional systems to further post-
by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer
Federal Judge Mark Wolf
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LGBT Americans face greater social economic disparities according to Williams Institute economic vulnerability in the Midwest.” KEY FINDINGS INCLUDE:
by Shaun Knittel SGN Associate Editor LGBT Americans face greater social and economic disparities in the South, Midwest, and Mountain states, according to a new Williams Institute report sponsored by Credit Suisse, a longtime partner of the Williams Institute. The report reviews social climate, demographic, economic and health indicators, and highlights disparities between the 21 states that currently have non-discrimination laws that include sexual orientation and the 29 states without such laws. LGBT Americans in the 29 states without state laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation consistently see greater disparities than in the 21 states with such laws, including less social acceptance, greater economic vulnerability especially among African-American LGBT
workers, and wider household income gaps. The report is entitled, “The LGBT Divide: A Data Portrait of LGBT People in the Midwestern, Mountain & Southern States” and is available at http://williamsinstitute.law. ucla.edu/lgbtdivide/#. In states where legal climates are less supportive of LGB people, social stigma toward them is also higher,” said co-author, and Williams Public Opinion Project Director, Andrew Flores. “Social and legal climates are generally intertwined such that supportive laws and social acceptance run hand in hand.” “While there has been a lot of focus on the social and legal inequalities that LGBT people face in the South, the inequities for those living in the Midwest and Mountain states are sometimes overlooked,” said Amira Hasenbush, co-author and Jim Kepner Law and Policy Fellow. “These data point to severe disparities with respect to HIV infection rates in the Mountain states and
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LGBT Americans in the 29 states without state laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation (non-state law states) consistently see greater disparities than in the 21 states with such laws (state law states), including in the following areas: • Social Climate: An LGB social climate index, which measures the level of social acceptance of Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual people, found that the 21 state law states have a much warmer climate towards LGB people than the 29 non-state law states, with average index scores of 70 in the state law states and 52 in the non-state law states. • Economic Vulnerability for AfricanAmericans: African-American LGBT individuals live in higher concentrations in the 29 non-state law states (18%) than in the 21 state law states (12%), leaving nearly 900,000 African-American LGBT workers with limited legal options to address experiences of discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in the workplace. • Household Income: While same-sex couple households enjoy a $14,000 income advantage in the 21 state law states that shrinks to $5,300 in the 29 non-state law states. In contrast, same-sex couple households with children face an income disadvantage when
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compared to their different-sex married counterparts with children. That income gap widens from $4,300 in the state law states to $11,000 in the non-state law states. LGBT Americans in the South face increased disparities compared to LGBT people in other regions in the country in the following areas: • Household Income for parenting same-sex couples: Same-sex couples raising children have a household income that is nearly $11,000 lower on average than their different-sex, married parent counterparts who are raising children. • Health: More new HIV infections among men who have sex with men (MSM) have come from the South than any other region in the country. Southern LGBT individuals also have the lowest insurance rates in the country, with nearly one in four lacking insurance. In contrast, 16% of non-LGBT individuals in the South do not have health insurance. LGBT people and same-sex couples from the Midwest find themselves facing some of the greatest inequities in: • Education: LGBT individuals in the Midwest are less likely to have completed a college degree by age 25 than non-LGBT Midwesterners, while LGBT individuals in other regions of the country tend to have similar or higher levels of education than see Williams page 14
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continued from page 13 their non-LGBT counterparts. • Household Income: LGBT individuals in the Midwest are substantially more likely to report having a household income below $24,000 than their non-LGBT counterparts (35% v. 24%, respectively). Same-sex couples have a statistically significant income advantage in all regions of the country, except the Midwest, where the advantage nearly disappears. Among same-sex couples raising children, Midwesterners have a household income nearly $20,000 less than their different-sex couple married parent counterparts.
LGBT people and same-sex couples in the Mountain states face regional differences in: • Household Income: LGBT individuals in the Mountain states are much more likely to report having a household income below $24,000 than their non-LGBT counterparts (33% v. 22%, respectively). • Health: MSM in the Mountain states currently have the highest incidence of HIV in the country at 61.6 new infections per 100,000 MSM. They also have the greatest disparity among the regional population as a whole. The new HIV infection rate among MSM is nearly six times the regional population rate, and the MSM HIV prevalence is more than 50 times the regional population prevalence. • Adoption: Same-sex couples in the Mountain states have the lowest adoption rates of same-sex couples throughout the country, even though different-sex married couples in the same region have the highest adoption rate in the country, among different-sex married couples.
“It’s not just that LGBT people in the Midwest and South are poorer, because people in those regions tend to be poorer overall,” said Gary Gates, co-author and Blachford-Cooper Distinguished Scholar. “In some cases the economic disadvantages that LGBT people have relative to non-LGBT people markedly increase in those regions. In others, the advantages that you see for LGBT people in other parts of the country either disappear or reverse.” “While the nation seems on the verge of full marriage equality, most states still have not adopted non-discrimination laws protecting LGBT people,” said Brad Sears, Executive Director of The Williams Institute. “This report sheds light on important differences between LGBT people who live in the states that have moved ahead on LGBT rights – mainly on the coasts – and those who have not.” “This study clearly identifies the financial disparities faced by members of the LGBT community,” said Pamela Thomas-Graham,
Credit Suisse’s Chief Marketing and Talent Officer and head of the bank’s New Markets business. “We partnered with Williams on this research for the same reason we created the Credit Suisse LGBT Equality Index and Portfolio: better information and more transparent data leads to smarter decisions for investors, policy makers, and our society.” “The LGBT Divide: A Data Portrait of LGBT People in the Midwestern, Mountain & Southern States” is co-authored by Williams Institute Jim Kepner Law and Policy Fellow, Amira Hasenbush; Public Opinion Project Director, Andrew R. Flores; Williams Policy Analyst, Angeliki Kastanis; Executive Director, Brad Sears; and Blachford-Cooper Distinguished Scholar, Gary J. Gates. It is sponsored by Credit Suisse’s New Markets business, led by Pamela Thomas-Graham, the bank’s Chief Marketing and Talent Officer and the first woman and African-American to sit on its Executive Board.
Williams Institute documents discrimination against HIV+ people A new study released by the Williams Institute documents ongoing discrimination against HIV-positive people in the Los Angeles area. The Williams Institute, founded in 2001, is a research group attached to UCLA Law School, and focuses on disparities affecting the LGBT community. Williams Institute Executive Director Brad Sears said in an email to supporters that the data his team collected “just blew us away.” The Institute interviewed almost 400 people living with HIV as they waited at food banks, participated in support groups, and during education and community events “from Long Beach to Pomona; from Boyle Heights to Malibu,” Sears said.
Twenty percent of the interviewees were cisgender women, 9% were Trans women, 44% were Latino, and 38% were African American. Astonishingly, over half of those interviewed reported incomes under $10,000 a year. Almost everyone interviewed – 97% – reported having to deal with at least one legal issue in the past year. On average, respondents had six or more legal issues in the past year. Their legal problems included consumer law and debt (48%), accessing health care (46%), housing (43%), and immigration issues (18.9%). Despite the obvious need, only 16% of those who had a legal problem actually got legal assistance. Of those who tried to access legal services, 20% felt that their legal provider was insensitive to people living with HIV. Twenty-eight percent of the respondents said they had personally experienced discrimina-
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by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer
Seattle Gay News
tion within the last five years, and 16% reported experiencing it within the past year. Of those, more than half said they experienced discrimination in health care settings, one-third in employment, and almost one-fifth in housing. In a statement to Frontiers magazine, Sears said he hopes the study will help to inform policymakers on how they might better serve the HIV community, as well as empower those living with the virus with information to “cut through the stigma, the ignorance and the blatant discrimination that still persists, even in one of the most progressive counties in the nation.” The new Williams Institute study confirms finding by other groups. The National Health Law Program (NHeLP), for example, recently reported that some insurance providers are manipulating their Affordable Care Act offerings to exclude HIV-positive
individuals. Insurers might, for example, put all HIV drugs in the highest cost brackets, or require prior authorization from the insurance company before they will pay for them. NHeLP and The AIDS Institute have filed a civil rights complaint asking the federal government to stop four Florida insurance companies from taking similar actions. Since the complaint was filed, two of the insurance companies – Cigna and Coventry – have signed consent decrees with Florida’s insurance regulator promising to restructure their HIV benefits and remove barriers to getting HIV meds. A third company, CMS, has also agreed in principle that placing all medications used to treat a specific condition in a high price bracket constitutes discrimination against people with that condition.
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New studies show more female same-sex couples marry than male and lower divorce rates overall Data also show large increase in same- riage equality, 62% of married same-sex cousex marriages after Windsor decision last ples are female. year – even in states that already had marState level data also shows that on averriage equality age 1.1% of same-sex couples dissolve their relationships each year. When just considLOS ANGELES – The Supreme Court’s deci- ering marriage equality states (New Hampsion in United States v. Windsor contributed to a shire and Vermont), on average only 1.6% significant increase in the number of same-sex of same-sex couples divorce annually. These couples marrying – even in states that had mar- rates are lower than the annual rate of diriage equality long before the decision – accord- vorce among married different-sex couples, ing to new analysis by the Williams Institute at which is about 2% annually. the UCLA School of Law. State administrative “It is not surprising that divorce rates for mardata from Connecticut, New Hampshire and ried same-sex couples are lower,” says study coVermont shows that the number of same-sex author Christy Mallory. “Many of these couples couples who married nearly doubled in mar- have been waiting years to get married. On avriage equality states from 2012 to 2013. erage, they are more likely to have relationships “The expansion of legal benefits to same- tested by time before marrying.” sex couples and the symbolic power of fedAll three of these reports were co-authored eral recognition appear to have increased by M.V. Lee Badgett, Distinguished Scholar the economic and cultural incentives for at the Williams Institute, and Director of the same-sex couples to marry,” said M.V. Lee Center for Public Policy and Administration Badgett, Distinguished Scholar at the Wil- at the University of Massachusetts Amherst; liams Institute and Director of the Center and Christy Mallory, Senior Counsel at the for Public Policy and Administration at the Williams Institute. To read the full reports, University of Massachusetts Amherst. visit www.williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu. The Williams Institute’s findings of this “Windsor Effect” on the number of same-sex The Williams Institute is dedicated to conductcouples marrying is part of a series of new ing rigorous, independent research on sexual analyses based on administrative data from orientation and gender identity law and public states that recognized same-sex marriages policy. A national think tank at UCLA Law, the and relationships as of early 2014. Williams Institute produces high-quality research In another analysis, the Williams Institute with real-world relevance and disseminates its finds that in states that allow same-sex couples work through a variety of education programs to formalize their relationship through mar- and media to judges, legislators, lawyers, other riage, civil unions, or domestic partnerships, policymakers, and the public. For more informaalmost two-thirds (64%) of all same-sex cou- tion go to: http://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/ ples who entered legal relationships are female. When just considering those states with marCourtesy of the Williams Institute
Holder
continued from cover Home, Inc., in Michigan after informing her employer that she was transitioning from male to female and would be dressing appropriately to represent her affirmed gender. Brandi Branson was fired from Lakeland Eye Clinic in Florida after acknowledging to her employer that she was
transitioning from male to female. Other groups are wondering if this could usher in more changes to anti-Trans policies. In a press release, the American Military Partner Association (AMPA), said it is “calling on the Defense Department to end its currently unjustified sex discrimination against Transgender troops by lifting the ban against open and honest service.”
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