Right-wing politicians and pundits scream, but most students, faculty and staff believe that college and university diversity, equity and inclusion programs create an environment that’s welcoming for everyone. Assistant vice president Renee Wells of Queens University of Charlotte in North Carolina sees how DEI improves all of campus life. (David Hunt reports)
And in NewsWrap: U.K.’s ban on puberty blockers for pediatric gender-affirming healthcare passes legal muster according to a High Court judge, London Trans+ Pride breaks records with its sixth annual procession, a Nepali law student and human rights activist can change her legal gender to “female” without having to undergo gender-affirming surgery, protections for LGBTQ students in the U.S. are affirmed one day and stripped the next, Nebraska’s Supreme Court allows the ban on trans patients under the age of 19 from getting gender-affirming healthcare, transgender Christian IT specialist Ellenor Zinski is suing Jerry Falwell’s infamous Liberty University for discrimination, and more international LGBTQ news reported this week by Joe Boehnlein and Melanie Keller (produced by Brian DeShazor).
All this on the August 5, 2024 edition of This Way Out!
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Complete Program Summary
for the week of August 5, 2024
School’s Out for Diversity
NewsWrap (full transcript below): The U.K. High Court upholds the temporary government ban on puberty blockers for transgender young people that the incoming new Labour administration wants to make permanent … a record-breaking crowd of up to 60,000 people marches for Trans+ Pride in London … Nepal’s Supreme Court allows trans woman activist Rukshana Kapali to change her legal gender to “F” without the required gender-affirming surgery, but the ruling only applies to her … the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reverses a Trump-appointed Alabama federal judge’s determination a day earlier that the Education Department’s policy that federal anti-discrimination protections based on sex in education extend to sexual orientation and gender identity … Nebraska’s Supreme Court decides that a law that both bans abortion after the twelfth week of pregnancy and gender-affirming healthcare for trans patients under the age of 19 does not violate the state’s constitutional “single issue bill” requirement … IT specialist Ellenor Zinski sues rightwing Christian Lynchburg, Virginia-based Liberty University for firing her after she comes out out as trans (written by GREG GORDON and LUCIA CHAPPELLE, produced by BRIAN DeSHAZOR, and reported this week by JOE BOEHNLEIN and MELANIE KELLER, written by GREG GORDON and LUCIA CHAPPELLE, produced by BRIAN DeSHAZOR, reported this week by JOE BOEHNLEIN and MELANIE KELLER).
Feature: U.S. colleges and universities are flunking their diversity, equity and inclusion programs, if you ask right-wing politicians and pundits. DEI efforts look different from inside the halls of ivy, where most students, faculty and staff value a campus environment that’s welcoming for everyone. The subject is ripe for study, so it’s back to school for This Way Out’s David Hunt, whose thesis is that the current conflict signals hope for the future.(with a DONALD TRUMP DEI excerpt from his disastrous appearance at this week’s National Association of Black Journalists Convention and intro music by AUTUMN NICHOLAS, plus internal music by XIMO and ELDAR KEDEM).
Web link:
Tracking the dismantling of DEI in higher education:
Feature: “‘What’d I Say’ this week”: DONALD TRUMP and KAMALA HARRIS (with music by RAY CHARLES).
NewsWrap
A summary of some of the news in or affecting
global LGBTQ communities
for the week ending August 3rd, 2024
Written by Greg Gordon and Lucia Chappelle,
reported this week by Joe Boehnlein and Melanie Keller,
produced by Brian DeShazor.
The U.K.’s ban on puberty blockers for pediatric gender-affirming healthcare passes legal muster according to High Court Judge Beverley Lang. Her ruling this week upholds the policy currently in effect in England, Wales and Scotland. It was initiated by the outgoing Tory government, but the newly-elected Labour government fully supports the ban. That notably includes the gay incoming Health Minister Wes Streeting, who has said he wants to make the temporary emergency order permanent.
The nonprofit advocacy group TransActual and the Good Law Project represented an unnamed plaintiff. Their lawsuit claimed that the policy directive issued by Tory Health Minister Victoria Atkins exceeded the powers of that office. Judge Lang disagreed. She wrote, “In my view, it was rational for [Atkins] to decide that it was essential to adopt the emergency procedure to avoid serious danger to the health of children and young people who would otherwise be prescribed puberty blockers during that five-to-sixth month period.”
However, what Lang calls a “rational” decision may have been based on irrational information. The puberty blocker ban was issued shortly after the publication of the highly controversial Cass Report. Its review of pediatric gender-affirming healthcare concluded that treating trans young people with reversible puberty blockers was a serious threat to their health and wellbeing. The British Medical Association became the latest to question the Cass Report’s scientific validity as the group expressed disappointment in the High Court ruling. The largest doctors’ union in the U.K. is calling for a thorough review of what the organization charges are the Cass Report’s “unsubstantiated” findings.
[SOUND: crowd chants - Trans rights are human rights]
Despite -- or maybe because of -- the controversy, London Trans+ Pride broke records with close to 60,000 people marching on July 27th. Drag stars, actors and politicians could be spotted among the throngs as the sixth annual procession wound its way through the streets of the English capital.
London Trans+ Pride co-founder Lewis G Burton’s celebratory statement summed it up saying, in part, “Often, due to vitriol and bigotry, inflated by the UK media, that our community faces, we feel we live in a country where we are not loved and respected. Yesterday was a beautiful reminder to not only the glorious trans+ community but to London, the new Labour government and the rest of the world that trans+ people are loved, and this love is a huge majority.”
A Nepali law student and human rights activist will be able to change her legal gender to “female” without having to undergo gender-affirming surgery. The landmark ruling issued by the nation’s highest court this week applies only to the plaintiff.
Trans people have been able to self-identify as “other” or “third gender” on their government documents for more than a decade. The legal barriers for choosing the “male” or “female” options are more onerous. Surgery is required, and it usually must be done outside the country. That’s followed by official genital examinations and intrusive medical assessments back home.
Those rules remain in place for every other trans person in Nepal who wants to identify as “M” or “F” on their government documents – except for Rukshana Kapali. The 27-year-old plaintiff has filed suit dozens of times on behalf of transgender and intersex people since 2021. She told the Himalayan Times, “My life is going to be easy from now on.”
Everyone else will still need to petition the court to choose “M” or “F” without the mandatory surgery.
LGBTQ students in the U.S. saw their protections affirmed one day and stripped the next. On July 30th, Trump-appointed Birmingham, Alabama District Judge Annemarie Axon ruled in favor of the Biden administration’s policy -- including sexual orientation and gender identity bias prohibitions under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. On July 31st the Atlanta-based Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the temporary injunction Judge Axon had refused to quash.
This lawsuit was filed by officials in Alabama, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina. Attorneys from more than two-dozen Republican-controlled U.S. states have succeeded in temporarily blocking enforcement of that Education Department policy. They insist that the word “sex” in Title IX is defined only as biological.
The Department of Education announced the inclusive policy in April. As of now, it can now only enforce it in 24 of the 50 U.S. states. The Department issued a statement in response to the latest setback insisting, “we will [continue to] fight for every student.”
Nebraska can prevent trans patients under the age of 19 from getting gender-affirming healthcare. The state Supreme Court has upheld that and another provision of the same law that prohibits most abortions after the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.
The 6-to-1 August 2nd ruling rejected the argument of plaintiffs represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and others. They claimed that the Republican-dominated legislature’s Bill 574 violates the state constitution by dealing with more than one issue. The justices decided that both provisions involve the single issue of healthcare.
The lone dissenter was Justice Lindsey Miller-Lerman. She said her colleagues had given deference to lawmakers “at the expense of the Constitution.” In her opinion, “Unrelated provisions that happen to do similar things at some level of generality do not dispel the criticism that the bill contains more than one subject.”
Expect the issue of pediatric gender-affirming healthcare to wind up at the U.S. Supreme Court. ACLU of Nebraska Executive Director Mindy Rush Chipman says a variety of options are under consideration. She vowed, “[T]his case will not be the final word on abortion access and the rights of trans youth and their families in Nebraska. Despite this loss, we will continue to do all that we can to ensure that Nebraskans can make their own private decisions about their lives, families and futures.”
Finally, a transgender Christian IT specialist is storming the gates of an infamous far-right Christian institution. Ellenor Zinski was fired a month after she came out to Human Resources at Liberty University.
The ACLU is representing Zinski in what appears to be an open and shut case on its face. It claims that Liberty officials actually read a statement to her explaining that she was being terminated for “denying biological and chromosomal sex assigned at birth.” She was told that was in conflict with the University’s Doctrinal Statement, in which “denial of birth sex by self-identification with a different gender” is called a “sinful act prohibited by God.”
The university was founded in Lynchburg, Virginia by the late televangelist Jerry Falwell, who led the anti-queer Moral Majority in the 1980s. His son and successor’s scandalous exit from the institution ended with a surprise settlement announced last week.
Zinski’s lawsuit seeks $300,000 in compensatory damages, and “declaratory relief that Liberty University’s policy” violates federal anti-discrimination laws.
A regular congregant at a welcoming Episcopal church, Zinski’s personal testimony is simple: “Christianity has been so weaponized against the LGBTQ community, but there doesn’t need to be a conflict. You can be transgender and Christian.
I am.”
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