South Dakota Fails to Pass Bill Targeting Trans Athletes

On Monday, the South Dakota State House narrowly voted against a bill seeking to reject a policy that allows transgender students to play on whichever sports team matches their gender identity.

The vote was an even split, 34-34, failing to garner the majority required for its transfer to the the state Senate. NBC News reports that this was the fourth anti-trans bill proposed and subsequently rejected by South Dakota lawmakers this session.

via South Dakota Fails to Pass Bill Targeting Trans Athletes

Animated Music Video Celebrates Gender Identity & Games

It’s awesome being awesome, isn’t it?

This new song and music video from nerdy duo the Doubleclicks, “I’m Winning,” is all about video games and identity, celebrating the feeling that comes from living with your authentic gender. And the band brought 16 non-binary, trans, and genderqueer artists onboard to bring that winning vision to life. Rebecca Sugar would be proud.

via Animated Music Video Celebrates Gender Identity & Games

Kansas bills say same-sex marriage is ‘parody marriage’

A group of state representatives in Kansas introduced legislation Wednesday that seeks to define same-sex marriage as “parody marriage,” stop the state from recognizing gay marriage and establish an “elevated marriage” option for straight couples who seek “higher standards of commitment.”

One of the two bills introduced contends LGBTQ people are aligned with the secular humanism movement, which it calls a religion. It also calls the gay pride rainbow flag a symbol of a “faith-based worldview.”

By doing so, the proposed legislation seeks to define marriage between a man and a woman as “neutral” and same-sex marriage as religious in nature. It then contends the state cannot constitutionally condone a religious practice.

via Kansas bills say same-sex marriage is ‘parody marriage’

England in West Indies: Joe Root showed ‘integrity and leadership’ – Ebony Rainford-Brent – BBC Sport

England captain Joe Root showed integrity and leadership in his response to a comment from West Indies fast bowler Shannon Gabriel, says former batter Ebony Rainford-Brent.

Sky Sports published a clip of Root, 28, telling Gabriel: “Don’t use it as an insult. There’s nothing wrong with being gay.”

Gabriel, 30, was warned by the umpire for the language he used, though his original comment was not picked up.

via England in West Indies: Joe Root showed ‘integrity and leadership’ – Ebony Rainford-Brent – BBC Sport

Jessica Sunderland Denied Hormones in Jail, Won Landmark Decision

During the 16 months Jessica Sunderland was incarcerated at the Riverside Correctional Facility in Suffolk County, New York, jail officials refused to give her the hormones she had been taking for two years. In response, in August 2013, Sunderland filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Suffolk County, arguing that the jail’s failure to provide her hormones violated her constitutional rights.

In October of this year, Sunderland won her case. As reported by Melissa Gira Grant at the Appeal, a jury agreed that Sunderland’s constitutional rights had been violated, and awarded her $280,000 in damages, plus an additional $75,000 in punitive damages against Vincent Geraci, the jail’s medical director. It’s a groundbreaking decision, according to Sunderland’s attorney Joel Wertheimer.

via Jessica Sunderland Denied Hormones in Jail, Won Landmark Decision

Office of Personnel Management Manager Explains Removal of Transgender Guidance

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, ThinkProgress reported that guidance protecting transgender people in the federal workforce were quietly removed from the Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM) website. As ThinkProgress noted, the guidelines offered definitional and practical information on how to better ensure that trans employees have essential workplace protections and are free from harassment. The decision to remove that language is just the latest in a series of actions the Trump administration has taken to strip federal protections from trans people in the workplace and at school, but according to audio obtained by Government Executive, Natalie Veeney, the OPM’s diversity program manager, reportedly explained the change to an LGBTQ employee group as a way to “afford agencies more discretion in responding to the needs of their workforce” and give agencies more “autonomy.”

In other words, OPM believes that federal agencies should have more freedom to discriminate how they best see fit. (This mirrors language the administration used when rescinding guidance on protection for trans students: framing an erasure of basic protections as an expansion of freedom for local schools.) Previously, the trans guidances on OPM’s site directed managers to use their trans employees’ preferred names and pronouns and ensure access to bathrooms consistent with their gender. The guidance also noted that even if employees had not yet changed their name legally, agencies should “adopt procedures that allow employees to use the name of daily usage or first initial in or on email accounts, employee directories, business cards, name tags, and similar items.” Basic, but essential, stuff.

via Office of Personnel Management Manager Explains Removal of Transgender Guidance

LGBT Asylum Seekers from the Migrant Caravan Have Made To The Border

The first asylum-seekers from the migrant caravan have arrived in Tijuana after several weeks of traveling from Central America; they are part of a small group of LGBTQ migrants who split off from the larger caravan while in Mexico City. Their decision to travel separately stemmed in large part from discrimination they experienced en route to the United States, according to several asylum-seekers interviewed by the Washington Post and NPR.

via LGBT Asylum Seekers from the Migrant Caravan Have Made To The Border

Gay teen beaten on Bristol bus in hate crime – BBC News

An 18-year-old gay man was viciously beaten up on the bus going home “for being different”, a court heard.
Kydis Zellinger was repeatedly punched in the face by a man shouting homophobic abuse in the hate crime.
Mr Zellinger said he was “scared for his life” in the prolonged attack in south Bristol on 15 October.
Paul Austin, 27, of Inns Court, Bristol, pleaded guilty to assault and was sentenced, at Bristol Magistrates Court earlier, to 18 weeks in jail.

via Gay teen beaten on Bristol bus in hate crime – BBC News

Virginia School Excludes Trans Girl From Active-Shooter Drill

In addition to being subjected to the trauma of preparing for a mass shooting at school, one trans student in Virginia was further humiliated when teachers failed to guide her to safety, instead making her wait alone in the hallway during the scenario on account of her identity.

Media outlets reported on the incident after LGBTQ advocacy group Equality Stafford wrote about it in a Facebook post, alleging that at the beginning of the drill, teachers in one Stafford County Public School directed children to bathrooms or locker rooms closest to them, but couldn’t decide where to send the girl, who is trans. “The student was forced to watch the adults charged with her care, debate the safest place (for the other students) to have her shelter,” the post stated.

via Virginia School Excludes Trans Girl From Active-Shooter Drill

DOJ Says Discriminating Against Trans Workers is OK

Lawyers from the Department of Justice told the Supreme Court on Wednesday that, in their opinion, American businesses are free to discriminate against trans employees.

The DOJ weighed in as the court decides whether or not it will take a case about trans employment rights. Its intervention is actually creating a split between two parts of the government against one another. The DOJ says that discrimination against trans workers is fine, but the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (which would actually have to apply and enforce that law) says that it’s not.

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Per Bloomberg Law:

Solicitor General Noel Francisco told the [Supreme Court] that a civil rights law banning sex discrimination on the job doesn’t cover transgender bias. That approach already has created a rift within the Trump administration, contradicting the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s view of the law it’s tasked with enforcing.

via DOJ Says Discriminating Against Trans Workers is OK