THE LGBT SOUTH is a weekly email newsletter from the Campaign for Southern Equality that highlights the voices and experiences of LGBT people living in the South. Send feedback and story tips to felicia@southernequality.org.
“South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard on Tuesday vetoed a bill that would have banned transgender students from using school restrooms that correspond with their gender identity, heeding to pressure from LGBT advocates and a fear of lawsuits.”
“South Dakota would have been the first state in the nation with such a policy — risking a legal clash with the Obama administration, which has argued similar rules constitute illegal discrimination when enacted by local school districts in other states.”
“Republican backers of the bill — who control both chambers of the legislature — had said they were responding to the federal government’s recent advocacy for transgender students. They argued the bill was needed to protect student privacy and safety from transgender students in restrooms.”
“But Daugaard countered in a veto letter that local school officials are best positioned to address those rare situations if and when they arise.”
“Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people are disproportionately jailed in federal and state prisons, according to a Movement Advancement Project report released this week.”
“LGBT people in the U.S. are also more likely to face discriminatory policing, be treated unfairly while incarcerated and have greater barriers to re-entering society post-release, the report found.”
“The analysis found that LGBT people account for 7.9 percent of the population in state and federal prisons — although just 3.4 percent of Americans identify as gay or transgender. And while incarceration rates varied greatly for youth, MAP found that between 12 and 20 percent of people in juvenile detention facilities identify as LGBT, versus 7 percent of young people nationally.”
“Ending LGBT conversion therapy used to seem a long way off.”
“After the suicide of transgender teenager Leelah Alcorn, President Obama came out against it—but with Republicans in control of Congress, his power is limited.”
“Four states and the District of Columbia have banned attempts to change the sexual orientation or gender identity of minors, but similar bans in states like Colorado, Hawaii, Maryland, and Virginia have recently failed.”
“But following a legal victory in New Jersey last year, LGBT advocacy groups may have just found the silver bullet to put a stop to the practice: consumer fraud law.”
“The news landed with a thud in the HIV community on Thursday: A gay man, who was adherent to his regimen of Truvada, a pill designed to prevent HIV infection, contracted a drug-resistant strain of HIV. A lot of that comes off as science jargon, but basically the pill that is meant to prevent HIV didn’t do its job for the first time since it was approved by the FDA in 2012.”
“The most well-known studies on PrEP showed that people who took the pill at least four times a week did not contract HIV. The wild card in this case is the drug-resistant strain of HIV which, according to Dr. Bob Grant, a lead PrEP researcher, describes less than 1% of HIV strains.”
“‘If PrEP is not fully effective against viruses that are highly resistant to both drugs in [Truvada], the efficacy of PrEP when taken may decrease from 99% to 98%,’ Grant said in an interview with San Francisco AIDS Foundation’s BETA Blog. ‘Or from 99.9% to 98.9%. Or from 100% to 99%. The decimal points are not certain.'”
“‘My point is that one chooses whether to focus on the glass 99% full or 1% empty.'”
Editor’s note: In the wake of North Carolina’s recent restrictions on voting rights, here is some clear information to ensure your ability to vote.
“Early voting in North Carolina’s primary elections begins Thursday and will last until March 12. The primary itself, for all races except the congressional seats, will then be held March 15.”
“The March primary will decide who makes it to the Nov. 8general election in races for president, governor, U.S. Senate, General Assembly, attorney general, lieutenant governor and other state and local contests.”
“Since a court decision led the state to redraw maps for North Carolina’s 13 U.S. House of Representatives districts, the primary for those has been postponed to June 7, pending legal challenges. Those congressional races will still be listed on the March 15 ballots, but those votes alone probably won’t count.”
“However, the State Board of Elections is asking people to go ahead and vote in every race in March’s primary – even the U.S. House races – as a precaution. “First off, nothing is set in stone right now,” said Jackie Hyland, the board spokeswoman. ‘And we also want to avoid any confusion.'”
“A Kentucky Senate committee OK’d a bill that — if passed — would allow business owners to refuse service to would-be customers on religious grounds.”
“The Kentucky Senate Veterans, Military Affairs, and Public Protection Committee sent Senate Bill 180 to the full Senate Thursday for its consideration. The bill would prohibit the government from forcing businesses to provide goods, services or actions to or from individuals if doing so would violate the business owner’s religious beliefs.”
“The bill was meant to enhance Kentucky’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act, passed by lawmakers in 2013, which protected business-owners from punishment in the event they refuse to enter into business based on religious creed.”
“Avoiding the disastrous route of their Georgia colleagues, the Florida House of Representatives today is expected to pass an amended version of the so-called Pastor Protection bill (HB 43) to limit its scope and send the message that controversial amendments allowing discrimination would not be entertained.”
“The bill had been widely criticized as a vaguely worded and unnecessary duplication of existing laws that served as a Trojan Horse for more nefarious measures to be added. That was the route Georgia lawmakers took by amending their pastor protection bill last month to allow any individual or faith-based business, for-profit entity, or taxpayer-funded organization to ignore nondiscrimination protections or any law that conflicts with their religious beliefs about marriage. The state is roiling from the public outrage and the economic backlash that has been strong enough to draw the threat of a veto from the Georgia governor.”
“Long negotiations between Florida bill sponsors and Equality Florida’s Governmental Affairs Manager Carlos Guillermo Smith produced agreements that the sponsors would oppose amendments that broadened the bill and they agreed to seek language that would actually limit the scope of the measure.”
“A Republican lawmaker introduced a resolution on Saturday to amend the state Constitution to prevent cities and towns from enacting nondiscrimination ordinances that extend protections to the LGBT community.”
“Sen. Craig Blair, the Majority Whip, introduced Senate Joint Resolution 13, which would prohibit a city or town from adopting any ordinance that creates a protected classification not contained in state law.”
“The West Virginia Human Rights Act contains protections based on race, religion, sex and several other characteristics, but does not include protections based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Because the state has not added LGBT protections to the Human Rights Act, eight cities and towns in West Virginia have taken it upon themselves to adopt ordinances that extend protections to the LGBT community.”
“On Monday, North Carolina’s largest city passed a law allowing transgender people to choose public bathrooms that correspond to their gender identity.”
“The Charlotte City Council voted 7-4 to expand protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity, making it the latest frontier in a national debate on how businesses treat gay, lesbian and transgender customers.”
“Now the Campaign for Southern Equality and Equality NC are calling on the Asheville City Council to pass similar protections for LGBT individuals.”
“Perhaps nowhere is this city’s dual identity as a left-leaning metropolis in a conservative state more evident than in the debate over LGBT rights.”
“Last November, voters here rejected an equal-rights ordinance—the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance, or HERO—that would have prevented employers and landlords from discriminating against people for a number of reasons, sexual orientation and gender identity among them. Yet Houston has an established LGBT community, it elected an openly gay mayor, and it is one of the youngest and most diverse cities in the United States. The defeat left LGBT advocates reeling.”
“So what happened? A number of factors came into play, including high turnout among black voters (one of just a few demographics where support for gay marriage has not reached 50 percent), an opposition campaign that successfully employed fear tactics with the message that the law would allow men to prey on girls in women’s restrooms, and a weak effort by supporters of the proposal to coordinate their message.”
