“Roy Moore is the Hiroo Onoda of the U.S. culture wars.”
“The latter is the Japanese soldier who refused to believe World War II was over and hid for almost 30 years in a Philippines jungle. The former is the current chief of the Alabama supreme court who continues to resist the U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex marriage last year. But my snarky analogy only goes so far. While the larger war over marriage equality itself is over, the subsequent battles to limit the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Americans continues unabated.”
“As I wrote in an op-ed on Sunday, ‘just because there’s been surprisingly little thunder against the gays of late doesn’t mean no one has been busy conjuring up the lightning that precedes it.’”
“President Obama issued a call to believe in America’s potential during his final State of the Union address on Tuesday, interlacing his words with references to the LGBT community and the progress it has made under his administration.”
“In the year after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of same-sex marriage, Obama said the spirit of America is responsible for ‘how we secured the freedom in every state to marry the person we love.’”
“Obama made history last year by being the first president to say the words “lesbian,” “bisexual” or “transgender” during a State of the Union address. This year, he enumerated the word “gay,” but downplayed the identification in favor of identifying as an American.”
“’I can promise that a year from now, when I no longer hold this office, I’ll be right there with you as a citizen – inspired by those voices of fairness and vision, of grit and good humor and kindness that have helped America travel so far,’ Obama said. ‘Voices that help us see ourselves not first and foremost as black or white or Asian or Latino, not as gay or straight, immigrant or native born; not as Democrats or Republicans, but as Americans first, bound by a common creed.'”
“President Obama vetoed legislation Friday that would have repealed the Affordable Care Act and stripped all federal funds from Planned Parenthood, writing in his veto message that the measure would ‘reverse the significant progress we have made in improving health care in America.’”
“Mr. Obama’s veto — only the eighth of his presidency — was expected, and his decision to issue a simple message without holding a public ceremony indicated that he did not wish to draw attention to the showdown. Republicans do not have the votes in the House or the Senate to override the veto.”
“Last time we checked in on Georgia’s anti-gay “religious freedom” measure, the Georgia GOP was in a civil war. Moderate Republicans were hesitant to push the bill—and, if forced to, they wanted to add a provision that would prevent the measure from overriding LGBT nondiscrimination ordinances in cities that have them. Conservative Republicans, meanwhile, were eager to pass the bill as originally written. One legislator, Sen. Josh McKoon, disparaged the LGBT nondiscrimination carve-out, fuming that it ‘would completely undercut the purpose of the bill.’”
“Although McKoon forced the bill through a Senate committee while a Democratic opponent was in the bathroom, a House committee ultimately tabled it. Now it’s back, alongside a similar bill that would allow public officials to refuse to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.”
“This time, however, there’s even less support for the “religious liberty” measure—even from the power broker Republicans who might be expected to champion it.”
“North Carolina is one of the first states this year to make abortion access increasingly difficult for its residents: As of Jan. 1, all abortion providers in the state are required to send the state’s Department of Health and Human Services their records for abortions or induced miscarriages performed after the 16th week of pregnancy.”
“The law is presumably meant to prove abortion providers are complying with state law and are not illegally performing abortions after the 20th week of an individual’s pregnancy — and therefore requires that providers disclose the method and measurements used to determine and verify the “probable gestational age” of the fetus in question, as well as provide proof in the form of an ultrasound image, the New York Times reported Sunday. The law also extends the mandated waiting period for obtaining an abortion from 24 to 72 hours, making it the longest in the nation, according to the same report.”
“Supporters argue the law will not detrimentally impact patients or abortion providers in that state’s records will not be made public and the identities of those involved will remain anonymous, according to the News and Observer. But opponents argue the law still puts North Carolina women at a disadvantage by making abortion even harder to access — a difficult pursuit given that 90% of North Carolina counties have no abortion providers, according to NARAL Pro-Choice North Carolina.”
“Last week, Texas began giving trans people the option of sealing their old birth certificates and issuing new ones, according to Dallas attorney Katie Sprinkle.”
“Previously, Texas issued amended certificates and those were only issued with a surgeon’s letter. Now, Texas is sealing old records and issuing new birth certificates with a court order. That makes getting accurate documents earlier in the transition process possible.”
“As part of its update of birth certificates reflecting both adoptive parents or parents who used a surrogate, Texas updated its policy on reissuing birth certificates to trans men and women.”
“Since a court order can be used to prove a couple are both the parents of a child and should both be on a birth certificate, a court order will suffice for a trans person to use to get a new birth certificate reissued.”
“Louisiana became the 31st state to expand Medicaid after Gov. John Bel Edwards signed an executive order Tuesday (Jan. 12) that will make more than 300,000 people eligible for the federal health care program.”
“The news conference marked a major break from the policies of former Gov. Bobby Jindal, who refused to expand Medicaid due to his opposition to the Affordable Care Act, President Barack Obama’s signature domestic legislative achievement. Edwards said he plans to discuss his decision to expand Medicaid with Obama when he visits Louisiana on Wednesday.”
“With his signature, Edwards made Louisiana the first state in the deep South to accept Medicaid funding to care for the working poor considered in “the gap:” too poor to afford private insurance, but making too much money to qualify for the program.”
“Hillel, UNC’s Jewish center, updated its building on West Cameron Avenue by installing two gender nonspecific bathrooms in November.”
“Lauren Fine, the student leadership coordinator at Hillel, said installing the bathrooms was necessary to keep up to date with the needs of students.”
“’Something that we like to say at Hillel is that we are the Jewish home on campus, so our doors are always open and everyone is always welcome to come in and ideally feel like they’re at home,’ Fine said. ‘So we knew that with our bathrooms being gender binary that we were excluding people from feeling at home.’”
“’I think really it is about making sure students feel comfortable and safe,’ Fine said. ‘It is something that other people don’t have to think about, and that makes it really easy to just push aside like it’s not a big deal — but it’s a huge deal.’”
“[‘Mahu’ is] a gender role in traditional Hawaiian society that refers to people who exhibit both feminine and masculine traits.”
“’You’re someone in the middle. That’s all it means,’ said Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu, a hula and Hawaiian studies teacher on Oahu, about the mahu term, which she prefers to transgender for its inclusivity.”
“LGBT advocates say Hawaii’s native culture traditionally accepted more nuanced gender roles, and current attitudes toward gender and sexual identity in Hawaii have been affected by colonization, land seizures, the suppression of Hawaiian language and culture, and the imposition of moral codes by Western missionaries.”
“Before Hawaiians’ contact with outsiders, for example, Wong-Kalu says mahu individuals were respected, but faced increasing intolerance as native Hawaiians were supplanted by colonial settlers.”
“The term, once used respectfully, has been appropriated and displaced, said Wong-Kalu, who contends that today’s lack of acceptance is the result of colonization.”
“The work of Toronto photographer Samra Habib focuses on images and interviews with queer Muslims. “Mainstream Islam isn’t always welcoming of LGBTQ Muslims, yet a lot of the Muslim traditions and rituals bring queer Muslims comfort and provide a sense of belonging,” Habib says. “I wanted to show everyone the creative and brilliant LGBTQ Muslims I identified with the most and would hang out with at art shows, queer dance parties, and Jumu’ah prayer. So I picked up my camera and decided to photograph what I was witnessing. In the words of the brilliant Dali (who I shot for this project), ‘we have always been here, it’s just that the world wasn’t ready for us yet.’”
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“North Carolina is one of the first states this year to make abortion access increasingly difficult for its residents: As of Jan. 1, all abortion providers in the state are required to send the state’s Department of Health and Human Services their records for abortions or induced miscarriages performed after the 16th week of pregnancy.”
