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 idea that anti-trans discrimination is sex discrimination may seem novel. Even those charged with enforcing Title VII at one time rejected the idea. In 2013, Chai Feldblum—a former Georgetown Law professor who now serves on the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission—published in the Journal of Law in Society a concise history of this change. In 1974, she notes, the Commission dismissed a complaint by a trans woman. This was not a case of discrimination ‘because of sex,’ the EEOC reasoned, but one of discrimination because of “having undergone a particular operation.” Since that time, lower courts and federal agencies have rejected that crabbed idea and have fashioned powerful case law demonstrating that LGBT people who are treated differently than their coworkers (or fellow students at a federally funded institution) are suffering discrimination ‘because of sex.’”
“The American understanding of human sexuality has now begun to embrace the full humanity of transgender people. That understanding will deepen as the law disarms the official hatred that seeks to drive them underground. It won’t take 40 years for society to see that the rationale of H.B.2 and other bathroom laws as farcical. All that’s needed are courts that take statutes seriously.”
“The emotional and physical discomfort associated with gender dysphoria can be nearly impossible to describe to someone who has never experienced it. This particular type of dysphoria is often defined as a condition where an individual experiences discomfort or distress because their gender identity doesn’t match the gender they were assigned at birth. But what does gender dysphoria really feel like? What does it look like?”
“Mississippi is facing a new challenge to its law that allows state officials to recuse themselves from authorizing same-sex marriages.”
“The same lawyers who challenged Mississippi’s marriage ban on behalf of a pair of same-sex couples were back in federal court on Tuesday, asking a federal judge to limit the effect of Mississippi’s new anti-LGBT religious refusal law on same-sex couples.”
“For the Campaign for Southern Equality and the two same-sex couples who had sued to end the marriage ban in the first place, the new law — HB 1523 — was ‘a slap in the face,’ as Joce Pritchett, one of the plaintiffs told BuzzFeed News.”
“’We’d barely had time to relax in the safety of being a legal family when our own legislature sucker-punched us,’ Pritchett wrote. ‘These are the people we elected to protect us. To say that county clerks can choose not to issue us licenses but continue to issue licenses to straight couples in line behind us is incredibly unfair.’”
“Until that court hears and rules on those charges, Moore will be suspended with pay from his position atop the state’s highest court.”
“On Friday, the Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission forwarded charges to the commission, accusing the chief justice of violating judicial ethics in his opposition to same-sex marriage.”
“Despite a ruling by a federal judge in Mobile making same-sex marriage legal in Alabama last year, and in the face of a United States Supreme Court ruling last year making its legality the law of the land, Moore instructed probate judges throughout Alabama to ignore those higher courts and to refuse to issue licenses to same-sex couples.”
“Several House Democrats on Tuesday filed a sweeping anti-discrimination bill, which may not garner enough Republican support to succeed but it makes for a timely statement.”
“Newly seated Rep. Chris Sgro, Democrat from Greensboro and executive director of Equality N.C., calls it the ‘most comprehensive non-discrimination legislation for LGBT and other North Carolinians.’”
“Sgro says passage of the bill, along with repeal of House Bill 2, will ensure protections from discrimination in all walks of life. HB2, however, has become the focal point of a national debate over transgender rights, and its future now rests with the courts as much as with the legislature, which is not likely to repeal it.”
“House Bill 1078 would provide discrimination protections in housing, employment, money-lending, education — including charter schools — insurance and access to bathrooms based on a person’s gender identity. Other protections would include sexual orientation, veteran status, age, disability, genetic information and political affiliation.”
“LGBT folks aren’t alone in being targeted by Phil Bryant’s administration. […] Since Bryant was voted back into the governor’s mansion, the 2016 legislative session has been a nightmare for queer people, women, immigrants and minorities in Mississippi. In a matter of months, the Republican legislature has greenlighted an unprecedented wave of legislation — a barrage of bills that might have taken other states years to pass. Given that the GOP controls both houses of the state legislature — in a state that has stacked the deck to ensure they stay there — this may be just the beginning.”
“That’s why the Jackson-based Coalition for Economic Justice has dubbed this year’s session of the Mississippi state legislature the ‘Confederate Spring.’ Advocates say the legislative push is aimed at actively rolling back the gains made in the South since the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The legislature’s season of hate coincides with the 60th anniversary of the Sovereignty Commission; following the Supreme Court’s ruling on Brown v. Board of Education two years earlier, the commission was created in March 1956 to halt integration in the state — to keep the state separate and unequal. In the Confederate Spring, time moves in reverse.”
“A bill to prohibit discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people has made it out of a Louisiana Senate committee for the second time this year.”
“Before 2016, no such legislation to protect the LGBT community had ever made it so far in the legislative process. But this year, two different nondiscrimination bills could be heard on the Senate floor before the session ends.”
“A Senate Judiciary Committee narrowly passed on a 2-1 vote Senate Bill 332 on Tuesday (May 10). The bill broadens all of Louisiana’s state laws and regulations prohibiting discrimination to include protections for people based on sexual orientation, gender identity and expression. Discrimination based on age, sex and disability would also be banned — where it isn’t prohibited already.”
“The UNC Board of Governors met Tuesday for more than three hours to try to sort out the university system’s next steps on House Bill 2, North Carolina’s sweeping law with a controversial bathroom provision.”
“Now that state and federal officials have filed lawsuits against each other, university leaders say they are caught in the crossfire. The board met in closed session to consult with its attorney, and members agreed to search for counsel to represent the university in the federal lawsuit.”
“[UNC President Margaret] Spellings wrote to the justice department Monday, saying the university has complied and will comply with federal anti-discrimination laws but that HB2 ‘remains the law of the State, however, and the University has no independent power to change that legal reality.’ She did point out that the law contains no enforcement provisions, and UNC’s 17 campuses have taken no steps to enforce it.”
“While the issue will ultimately be decided by the courts, that could take months, and the university still faces the potential loss of federal funding, as suggested Monday by Lynch.”
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Let me also speak directly to the transgender community itself. Some of you have lived freely for decades. Others of you are still wondering how you can possibly live the lives you were born to lead. But no matter how isolated or scared you may feel today, the Department of Justice and the entire Obama administration wants you to know thatwe see you; we stand with you; and we will do everything we can to protect you going forward. Please know that history is on your side.This country was founded on a promise of equal rights for all, and we have always managed to move closer to that promise, little by little, one day at a time. It may not be easy—but we’ll get there together.”
