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.
“The decision was made, amazingly, with a shrug—and that may be one of the first reasons it has been all but buried by history. Frank Shoichet, the campaign manager, had this novel thought.”
“’Hey Kathy, I’ve got an idea,’ the University of Michigan law student said to the 21-year-old English major who was about to announce her candidacy for a seat on the Ann Arbor City Council. “Why don’t we run you as openly gay?” Kathy Kozachenko, an apple-cheeked radical with long blonde hair and a little gap-toothed overbite, hardly blinked. “Yeah, OK, Frank,” the 21-year-old creative writing major replied. ‘Let’s do that.’”
“So they did. On April 2, 1974, when the Human Rights Party candidate bested a Democrat to become the first openly gay person to win elected office in the United States (and most likely worldwide as well) the response was equally nonchalant. The New York Times ran a piece the following day about the election that ignored its barrier-breaking significance and, instead, focused on the wackiness of some wildly liberal town’s voters passing a referendum to reduce the penalty for marijuana possession to a $5 fine. The Times did list the winning candidates, too, noting of Kozachenko that she was “a student at University of Michigan who described herself as a lesbian.” But there was no indication that she had just accomplished something historic.”
“Popular narratives of adolescence have long been shadowed by the fear of parental rejection—rarely as obviously as in stories of “coming out.” The threat of traumatic cuts underlies how Americans talk about family, home, and growing up—the central promise of security and belonging brings with it a danger of the most fundamental betrayal and alienation.”
“The homelessness crisis demands that queer activists, along with social workers and other youth and homeless advocates, work to broaden the possibilities for social services—not only to meet immediate material needs, but to expand models for adulthood and to revitalize our expectations for family, community, and belonging.”
“It’s been nearly five months since the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges guaranteed the freedom to marry for same-sex couples throughout America. Most state courts with pending marriage cases promptly implemented the ruling. Today, around 99.9 percent of Americans live in counties issuing marriage licenses to all couples. But in the counties where same-sex couples continue to be denied the right to marry, elected judges are casting aside their duty to follow the law for political reasons.”
“In Alabama — where justices run in partisan races — probate judges in 13 counties still refuse to issue any marriage licenses. Earlier this year, the Alabama Supreme Court ordered probate judges not to issue licenses to same-sex couples, despite a federal court ruling the state’s marriage equality ban unconstitutional.”
“Meanwhile, elected justices in Mississippi and Louisiana have issued divided rulings in marriage-related cases, with dissenters arguing for defiance of the U.S. Supreme Court. A disturbing dissent from Louisiana Supreme Court Justice Jefferson Hughes […] not only suggested that he would not comply with Obergefell, but went on to imply that same-sex parents shouldn’t be trusted to adopt children of the same sex. Statements like this suggest that these judges may also be motivated by anti-LGBT animus.”
“The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday granted a lesbian woman’s request to have the adoption of her former partner’s children be enforced while the court decides whether to hear her appeal of an Alabama Supreme Court ruling that the adoption was void.”
“The U.S. Supreme Court has not yet said whether it will hear the appeal of the Alabama Supreme Court ruling, but on Monday granted the woman’s request that the state court’s ruling be recalled and stayed until it decides whether it will do so.”
“That request, filed in mid-November, features a complex case in which a lesbian couple in Alabama went to Georgia in 2007 so that one of those women, referred to as V.L. in court filings, could adopt the children of E.L.”
“Years later, when E.L. and V.L’s relationship ended, V.L. sued in Alabama to have the adoption decree enforced for visitation and other parental purposes. Although a lower court sided with V.L., the Alabama Supreme Court ruled otherwise in September of this year, holding that the Georgia adoption was “void” because, the Alabama court maintained, it should not have been allowed under Georgia law.”
“Married same-sex couples in Florida have asked a federal court to order the state to list both parents on birth certificates for their children, as the state does for different-sex couples.”
“The couples and Equality Florida filed suit in August, but last week they added a request for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida to make the order to the state without a trial, according to a press release from the National Center for Lesbian Rights, which is representing them along with Florida attorneys.”
“Birth certificates are less about genetics than legal relationships. Not having a birth certificate listing both parents, NCLR notes, is not only discriminatory and stigmatizing, but it prevents recognition of a legal relationship between both parents and the child, creating problems with obtaining health care, making medical decisions, signing up for day care, and more.”
“The Savannah City Council expanded its protections for LGBT people on Thursday, becoming one of just a handful of jurisdictions in the state to add “gender identity” to its non-discrimination ordinance.”
“The unanimous vote also ensured that LGBT people could not be discriminated against when applying for jobs, permits or licenses with the city, and codified administrative policy concerning sexual orientation into the ordinance, according to Jeff Graham, Georgia Equality’s executive director.”
“LGBT activists applauded the unanimous vote, which capped months of discussion between LGBT activists and city officials.”
“Some 59 jurisdictions across Georgia offer non-discrimination policies that protect LGBT people but Savannah becomes just the 14th in the state to include “gender identity” in its protections, according to Georgia Equality.”
“A Brooklynite by way of South Carolina and Georgia, Ms. Nimmons was ticking down the minutes, as she had ticked down the months, until she would be wheeled into an operating room for gender reassignment surgery. It was a moment she had long dreamed about but considered out of reach, a shimmer at the edge of her field of vision.”
“Now, though, societal attitudes toward “transgenderalism,” as Ms. Nimmons calls it, were shifting so rapidly that many health plans were overturning their long-held exclusions of transition-related care. Even public insurers were approving surgical procedures that, until recently, were accessible only to those who could pay out of pocket, despite medical consensus about their safety and efficacy.”
“Seizing the opportunity, Ms. Nimmons was about to become one of the first low-income New Yorkers to undergo a genital reconstruction paid for by Medicaid. In a few hours, if all went well, her body would be aligned with her identity for the first time, and she would no longer be ‘a chick with a wiener,’ in her words, but ‘a woman in mind, body and soul, before the Lord and before the law.’
“Fear is guiding our moral compass, and deciding what values are most important to us. As a result of these fears, we are valuing things which are objectively actively harmful to people, and U.S. national interests. The discussion over gun control, discrimination against LGBT people, and Syrian refugees are all examples of this. Previous examples of fear based values can be seen in US history, whether the Red Scare, the Japanese Internment, opposition to desegregation, or the Lavender Scare.”
“It is also worth noting that each of these is now regarded as a dark moment in our past.”
“Many of the things we ascribe great value to would be senseless anathema to an outside observer. When we look at other cultures with traditions that are actively harmful and have no real benefit, like female genital mutilation, we cluck our tongues, call them barbarians, and go about our lives certain of our moral superiority.”
“Our problem now is that we are holding “freedoms” with no tangible benefit, and clearly defined harms, above all others. There is no logical, rational, or humanistic justification for them. Just fear and willful ignorance.”
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