The Democratic National Convention confirmed the nomination of Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz to top the Party’s ticket in the presidential election campaign at an enthusiastic gathering basking in the glow of the Republicans’ dreaded diversity, equity and inclusion. In addition to Harris and Walz, highlights from queers and allies include Senator LaPhonza Butler (CA), Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Attorney General Dana Nessel (MI), Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson, Rev. Al Sharpton, Oprah Winfrey, former First Lady Michelle Obama, state Representative Malcom Kenyatta (PA), Governors Jared Polis (CO), Phil Murphy (NJ) and Kathy Holcomb (NY), and Saturday Night Live’s Kenan Thompson.
And in NewsWrap: a lesbian co-mother gets one brief visit with one of her two children due to a historic Beijing court ruling before her estranged wife again denies her any contact, hundreds of people march with LGBTQ Pride through the streets of Kathmandu in an event coinciding with Nepal’s memorial festival of Gai Jatra, a federal district court finally puts an end to the U.S. military’s ban on enlisting asymptomatic HIV+ recruits, the full 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturns their three-judge panel’s ruling that Houston County, Texas had violated transgender Sheriff’s Deputy Anna Lange’s civil rights when it denied her gender-affirming surgery under its employee health plan, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton orders the Department of Public Safety to flatly deny all applications to change driver’s license or state ID gender markers, Visit Florida virtually tells queer tourists to go where the sun don’t shine by removing the pages on its website that promoted LGBTQ+ attractions, dumpsters at Florida’s New College are found filled with books from its shuttered Gender and Diversity Program, gay dad gentoo penguin Sphen leaves his Magic behind, and more international LGBTQ news reported this week by Elena Botkin-Levy and John Dyer V (produced by Brian DeShazor).
All this on the August 26, 2024 edition of This Way Out!
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Complete Program Summary
for the week of August 26, 2024
Diversity-Driven Democrats Dance to Equality
NewsWrap (full transcript below): lesbian mom Zhang Peiyi wins historic parental visitation rights in China … hundreds celebrate LGBTQ Pride in the Nepalese capital of Kathmandu and honor deceased queers abandoned by their families during the past year in the concurrent Gai Jatra festival … a federal court rules that preventing asymptomatic people with HIV from enlisting in the U.S. military is unconstitutional … a majority of the 12 judges of the conservative 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturns the decision of a three-judge panel that the Houston, Texas county’s employee insurance plan pay for the gender-affirming surgery of a trans sheriff’s deputy, even though the surgery is a fait accompli … Texas Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton is “credited” with denying trans people the right to change the gender marker on their driver’s license or state ID … Florida’s tourism agency removes all pages on its website welcoming LGBTQ visitors … library officials at Florida’s New College literally throw hundreds of books with queer, feminist, racial or diversity themes into campus dumpsters … Sphen, who with Magic was half of the world famous Sydney, Australia parenting gentoo penguin male couple, dies of natural causes (written by GREG GORDON and LUCIA CHAPPELLE, produced by BRIAN DeSHAZOR, reported this week by ELENA BOTKIN-LEVY and JOHN DYER V).
Feature: DEI was a dirty word at their Republican counterpart’s confab last month, but diversity, equity and inclusion bloomed at this year’s Democratic National Convention. Meeting at the United Center in Chicago from August 19th to 22nd, the vast majority of delegates were jubilant about nominating Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz for President and Vice President of the United States. At least for four days, “freedom,” “patriotism” and “family values” belonged to the left side of the partisan aisle (with excerpts from speeches by Senator LaPhonza Butler (CA), Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Attorney General Dana Nessel (MI), Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson, Rev. Al Sharpton, Oprah Winfrey, former First Lady Michelle Obama, state Representative Malcolm Kenyatta (PA), Governors Jared Polis (CO), Phil Murphy (NJ) and Kathy Holcomb (NY), Saturday Night Live’s Kenan Thompson, and music by BEYONCE, SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE, THREE DOG NIGHT, CAROLE KING, THE NEW SEEKERS and THE CHICKS).
NewsWrap
A summary of some of the news in or affecting
global LGBTQ communities
for the week ending August 24th, 2024
Written this week by Greg Gordon, edited by Lucia Chappelle,
reported this week by Elena Botkin-Levy and John Dyer V,
produced by Brian DeShazor
A lesbian co-mother got to see her seven-year-old daughter for the first time in five years thanks to a historic court ruling in Beijing. The visitation rights case marks the first time a court in China has acknowledged that a child can have two legal mothers. It might have been a heartwarming story, but now the other mother is vowing to block any future visits, and the fate of the couple’s son remains unresolved.
Zhang Peiyi married her wife in a U.S. ceremony in twenty-sixteen. Using her wife’s eggs and donor sperm, embryos that were therefore genetically linked only to Zhang’s wife were implanted in both women. In 2017, Zhang gave birth to a girl, and her wife gave birth to a boy. When the couple separated two years later, Zhang’s wife took both children and refused to let her see them. Zhang sued her estranged wife in 2020 in China’s first custody battle involving a same-gender couple.
This week’s ruling grants Zhang monthly visits with her daughter — but not her son. Even though she’s not genetically related to either child, the court recognized the fact that Zhang birthed the girl. Attorney Gao Mingyue thinks the issue is bound to confound Chinese courts until there’s some sort of legal recognition for same-gender couples.
Zhang told the Associated Press that she sat quietly with her estranged wife and their daughter for her first four-hour visit. The masked girl glanced up at Zhang from her homework a few times. Zhang’s ex now wants to stop the visitations on the grounds that Zhang is violating the children’s privacy.
Hundreds of people marched with LGBTQ Pride through the streets of Kathmandu on August 20th. The annual event coincides with Nepal’s festival of Gai Jatra, a memorial for people who have died during the past year. The Blue Diamond Society sponsors the parade. Leader Pinky Gurung told the Kathmandu Post, “In Gai Jatra, men dress as women in brocade crimson blouses and sarees, so in a way, Gai Jatra has always embodied and embraced the LGBTQIA+ community.” Activists have also been using the Gai Jatra festival to honor queer people whose families refused to perform traditional funeral rites. Gurung explained, “This parade represents the commemoration of our deceased community members, so their souls can rest in peace.”
HIV-positive people with will no longer be prevented from enlisting in the U.S. military. Judge Leonie M. Brinkema of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia finally eliminated one of the country’s lingering remnants of HIV/AIDS discrimination. Brinkema wrote in her August 20th decision, “[The Pentagon’s] policies prohibiting the accession of asymptomatic HIV-positive individuals with undetectable viral loads into the military are irrational, arbitrary and capricious.”
Brinkema had declared the military’s discrimination against current service members with HIV unconstitutional in 2022. That left pending three lawsuits against the Pentagon by three prospective enlistees with HIV. The queer advocacy group Lambda Legal sued on their behalf.
In extending her earlier ruling to people with HIV who want to enlist, Brinkema concluded that the ban was “actively hampering the military’s own recruitment goals.”
Houston, Texas transgender Sheriff’s Deputy Anna Lange will be in court again defending her right to insurance coverage for her now-completed gender-affirming surgery. A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had upheld a U.S. district court ruling in 2022 that Houston County had violated Lange’s civil rights when it denied the surgery under its employee health plan. Lange underwent the $10,000 procedure later that year.
Houston County has nevertheless spent far more than that continuing to contest that ruling. They argue that the health plan was not being discriminatory because it “excludes coverage for sex change surgeries for anyone – no matter their sex or gender identity.” A majority of the full 12-judge 11th Circuit Court bought that argument and ordered a new trial this week. A date is to be determined.
With six of its twelve judges appointed by Donald Trump, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals is one of the most conservative in the country.
Rights activists are warning Texas trans people to not even try to change their government documents – at least for the time being. Give credit to state Attorney General Ken Paxton, who has ordered the Department of Public Safety to flatly deny all applications to change driver’s license or state ID gender markers. Only corrections to provable clerical errors are allowed.
Until this week a court order or an amended birth certificate have been enough to authorize the gender marker change. Under Paxton’s new directive, that won’t matter.
Anyone who asks to change their gender marker now will instead be added to a database for state Republican lawmakers, according to Austin public radio station KUT. It’s not clear why, or how that clearly personal information might be used.
The state of Florida is virtually telling queer tourists to go where the sun don’t shine. Visit Florida’s website used to promote Pride events, the state’s top 10 gay beaches, and other queer-friendly destinations for LGBTQ travelers, but those pages have been removed. The link that once led to that information now redirects to a generic “Things To Do” page. Similar pages for Black, Hispanic and other minority visitors are still there.
In a way, Equality Florida actually beat the state to it. Because of the hostile environment for LGBTQ people created by Governor Ron DeSantis and his Republican cronies in the legislature and state agencies, the queer advocacy group issued a travel advisory last year. It warns “individuals, families, entrepreneurs, and students … that Florida may not be a safe place to visit or take up residence.”
Florida is apparently also not a safe place to be a book. Governor DeSantis’ heralded conservative take-over of New College hit a new low last week with the massive dumping of books from its library shelves. Most were from the College’s now-shuttered Gender and Diversity Program. Several social media posts show dumpsters filled with books. The trashed piles include books about feminist issues, Black hip-hop culture and specifically queer tomes.
New College Library staff issued a defensive statement saying it was engaged in a standard annual procedure of “weeding its collection [of] materials that are old, damaged, or otherwise no longer serving the needs of the college.”
Some books may have sustained water damage during a recent tropical storm. Others may no longer serve the needs of a college moving to the right.
Students would have been able to claim the books, but the dumping occurred about a week before most of them arrived ahead of the upcoming semester.
To ACLU of Florida executive director Bacardi Jackson, it’s “reminiscent of some of history’s darkest times.” He wrote, “The fact that these books—sources of wisdom, diverse perspectives, and the narratives of marginalized communities—were discarded in the dead of night, without transparency, and without giving students the opportunity to preserve them, should outrage every Floridian and every American who values democracy and free thought.”
Finally, one half of arguably the world’s most famous queer penguin couple has died. With life partner Magic, Sphen made headlines around the world when they first nurtured an abandoned egg at the Sydney, Australia-based Sea Life Aquarium. Fans nicknamed their healthy chick Sphengic, but her real name is Lara. Sphen and Magic’s second chick is Clancy. The couple was even honored with a float at the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.
The aquarium announced Sphen’s death of natural causes on the eve of his 12th birthday earlier this month. Aquarium staff brought his partner of six years to see his body so that he could understand that Sphen was gone. They said that nearly nine-year-old Magic soon began singing, with the entire gentoo penguin colony joining him.
Penguin keeper Renee Howell told The Guardian that the species typically bows or sings to one another during courtship, but that they had never witnessed behavior like that after a penguin’s death. She said, “In that moment for us, it was a beautiful send-off.”
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