The LGBT South is a weekly email newsletter, compiling national, regional, and local news important to LGBT Southerners. Subscribe to get the latest edition to your inbox every Friday morning and keep up with what the Campaign for Southern Equality is up to!
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QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Maybe that’s not where we need to start in the conversation about how to organize the South to save the country anyhow, in an effort of meeting folks not from the region and those of us who are who’ve been taught to hate ourselves where we’re at. Shouting ‘As goes the South, so goes the nation’ or spitting facts to justify why Southern organizing and action is important and valuable isn’t what’s needed right now. Maybe being my Southern self, sharing my Southern perspective, is useful.”
– Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson, “How We Can Organize the South to Save the Country”
Here’s your breakdown of what’s happening this week in the #LGBTsouth:
KEEPING THE DREAM ALIVE
This week Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that the Justice Department would rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA), put in place by the Obama administration in 2012. DACA allows undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. before age 16 to defer deportation and have legal residency status.
DACA has helped close to 800,000 people (referred to as Dreamers after the long-proposed DREAM Act) to stay in the country and build lives, which could now be thrown into chaos, though it’s not fully clear what the impact will be as Trump has tweeted conflicting information in the past few days. The majority of Dreamers come from Mexico and other Latin and Central American countries – the countries most often targeted in the current immigration debate – but a large number also come from Asian, European, and Caribbean countries.
According to the Williams Institute at UCLA Law School, as of February of this year, there are over 75,000 Dreamers in the U.S., over 36,000 of whom have participated in DACA. If nothing else, the current administration is teaching us a lesson in intersectionality. The Trump administration has been targeting the LGBTQ community outright for months, and we must understand that immigration is an LGBTQ issue. LGBTQ people face the same kinds of harassment in immigration detention centers as they do in jails and prisons. The Pulse shooting last year demonstrated the dual targeting of queer Latinx people; the Williams Institute lists Florida as one of the states with the largest number of LGBTQ Dreamers.
Of course, immigrant communities are not going out without a fight. In one show of resistance, activists with Mijente erected a statue of Jeff Sessions at the Department of Justice in D.C. and promptly tore it down, mirroring the push for the removal of Confederate statues across the country. Fifteen states and D.C. have already filed a lawsuit against Trump over the decision to end DACA. While this announcement has been made, what happens next is not yet set in stone, and we have to stand together. To find out ways to use your voice online and in-person, check out this list of actions you can take right now to #DefendDACA.
AFTER THE STORM
Southeast Texas was hit hard last week by Hurricane Harvey, which brought massive floods to the region, especially to Houston and the surrounding areas. Now Hurricane Irma is expected to make landfall in Florida – where a state of emergency has already been declared – in the coming days after ripping through the Caribbean. Texas and Florida both have sizable Latinx and immigrant populations, meaning just as folks are recovering from or bracing for a storm that could devastate their physical homes, they could lose the ability to call the U.S. home as well. On top of that, undocumented people cannot receive cash assistance from FEMA, making it even harder to rebuild.
Houstonians have been banding together to support each other through the aftermath of the storm. Montrose Center, the largest LGBT Center in the city, has been raising money through a disaster relief fund and offering food, supplies, and safe space for LGBTQ residents. The Texas HIV Medication Program is helping Texans who have lost access to their medication and the state has allotted emergency funds to replace antiretroviral meds.
Natural disasters like these tend to affect folks who are already marginalized – poor folks, communities of color and immigrant communities, LGBTQ people, and all of the above. Beyond the expected needs for food, water, and shelter, the storms will have lingering effects for folks who have lost cars, homes, and wages due to the floods. Check out this list of local community organizations in Houston that could use your help.
WHAT ELSE?
A federal appeals court ruled to allow Texas to implement its controversial voter ID laws in its November election.
A trial that kicked off this week could close the last abortion clinic in Kentucky, making it the only state without access to any clinics.
More than 250 people completed a 118-mile march from Charlottesville to D.C. to take a stand against white supremacy after last month’s violence.
Spelman College, an HBCU and women’s college in Atlanta, will admit transgender women and anyone who self-identifies as a woman.
Dallas is the latest city to vote to remove a Confederate statue, one of prominent general Robert E. Lee.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos announced plans to roll back Title IX sexual assault guidelines put in place by the Obama administration.
Boston mayor Martin J. Walsh signed a pledge to eliminate HIV in the city by 2020
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WHAT THE CAMPAIGN FOR SOUTHERN EQUALITY IS UP TO
We are excited to host a FREE “Protect Yourself” Clinic Wednesday, October 4 in Asheville, NC that centers the trans experience and focuses on safety issues.
This clinic is led by trans and gender nonconforming folks and is hosted by Western North Carolina Community Health Services and the Campaign for Southern Equality. We’ll cover safety issues that come up for trans folks, including trainings in self defense (including how to use pepper spray), safety planning, and how to use safety apps on your phone. Every participant will receive a can of pepper spray and a flashlight. Free snacks and drinks will be provided.
There’s room for 15 people to attend this free clinic. To register, email Ivy Hill (ivy@southernequality.org) or call CSE at 828.242.1559.
Building political power for the LGBTQ community is vitally important as we work to overturn laws that target our community. That’s why we’re excited to announce #QueertheVote, a new round of Southern Equality Fund grants.
We’ll be making grants of up to $500 to support grassroots efforts to get folks registered to vote and to the polls. And anyone in North Carolina who receives a grant is eligible to receive training from Democracy NC.
The grant cycle opens right now and will run through September 1. You can apply as an individual or a group and 501c(3) status is not required to receive a grant. Click here to apply for a #QueerTheVote grant!
