Supreme Court Broadens “Ministerial Exception” to Anti-Discrimina...

Just weeks after the Supreme Court ruled that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects LGBTQ people from employment discrimination, the court took away that protection from mo... Show more

LGBTQ people who are employed as teachers by religious schools. In a July 8 ruling expanding a “ministerial exception” to anti-discrimination laws that it had recognized under the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights eight years previously, the court held that employees of religious schools whose job entails teaching religion enjoy no protection against discrimination because of their race or color, religion, national origin, sex, age, or disability.  The court’s vote was 7-2. The name of the case is Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru. The prior decision, Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, involved a teacher at a Lutheran Church school, whom the court found to be, in effect, a “minister” of the Church, since she had been formally “called” to the ministry by the congregation after a period of extended theological study, and who had even claimed the tax benefits of being clergy. Although the teacher in question did not teach religion as her primary assignment, the court found it easy to conclude that it would violate Hosanna-Tabor’s right to free exercise of religion under the First Amendment for the government to intervene in any way in its decision not to continue this teacher’s employment, even if — as the teacher alleged — she was being discriminated against because of a disability in violation of t...

Legal Groups, LGBTQ Catholics Say SCOTUS Ruling Imperils Queer Wo...

After the Supreme Court on July 8 expanded a “ministerial exception” to anti-discrimination laws in a victory for religious schools, several legal groups and LGBTQ Catholics expressed s... Show more

lar concerns that the ruling could put the employment status of queer workers in jeopardy. The Supreme Court’s lopsided 7-2 ruling, which centered on a pair of Catholic school teachers who unsuccessfully sued their schools for age discrimination and violating the Americans with Disabilities Act after their contracts were not renewed, widened the scope of the religious carve-outs established by the Supreme Court eight years ago. The court ruled that individuals employed by religious schools who are tasked with teaching religion are exempt from the non-discrimination laws. The decision was underscored by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote for the majority that “the selection and supervision of the teachers upon whom the schools rely to do this work lie at the core of their mission.” “Judicial review of the way in which religious schools discharge those responsibilities would undermine the independence of religious institutions in a way that the First Amendment does not tolerate,” Alito wrote. Justices Sonia Sotomayer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who dissented, presented concerns that were echoed by LGBTQ-focused legal groups like Lambda Legal. “Although today’s decision is limited to certain ‘teachers of religion’ … its reasoning risks rendering almost every Catholic parishioner and parent in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles a Catholic minister,” Sotomayer wrote. “That is, the Court’s apparent defere...

Letitia James Urged to Support Release of Incarcerated TGNCNBI Fo...

Dozens of groups statewide signed a letter delivered to New York State Attorney General Letitia James urging her to take “immediate steps” towards releasing vulnerable transgender, gend... Show more

non-conforming, non-binary, and intersex (TGNCNBI) individuals from state prisons during the coronavirus crisis. The June 23 letter, which followed months of advocacy aimed at protecting vulnerable incarcerated populations in the face of a pandemic, stressed that TGNCNBI individuals are especially vulnerable because discrimination in healthcare, employment, education, and housing contributes to worse health outcomes. “This leads to higher rates of HIV, additional chronic conditions such as hepatitis B and C, substance use, and poorly controlled pre-existing medical conditions,” stated the letter, which included New York Transgender Advocacy Group, Housing Works, Legal Aid Society, Sylvia Rivera Law Project, Release Aging People in Prison, Gays Against Guns, Make the Road New York, Equality New York, Human Rights Campaign, interACT: Advocates for Intersex Youth, Spectrum Transgender Group of WNY, and the LGBT Community Center in Manhattan, among others. Additionally, the letter cited discriminatory policies that force transgender folks to be housed with those who do not share their gender identity.  “For transgender women, in particular, this results in frighteningly high rates of sexual abuse and assault while in prison, conduct that is likely to increase as anxieties and tensions rise due to the pandemic and its anticipated second wave,” the letter noted. “The constant stress of being on-guard for the ...

Bill and Turner Ross: Closing Time

Bill and Turner Ross’ “Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets” portrays a special going-out-of-business sale: an extended bender on the last night of a Las Vegas dive called Roaring 20s. The refere... Show more

in the bar’s name to Raoul Walsh’s 1939 gangster film cues us in on the bar’s old-fashioned nature. (While it’s a real establishment using that name, “Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets” was actually shot in New Orleans.) With this film, the Ross brothers take a step toward the improvised fictions with non-professional actors that Jean Rouch made in France and Africa in the ‘60s. A range of influences are at play here: John Cassavetes, Charles Bukowski, Eugene O’Neill’s play “The Iceman Cometh,” even the sitcom “Cheers.” “Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets” assembled a cast that’s diverse in age, gender, race, and other backgrounds. It begins in the morning of the Roaring 20s’ final day, as the bartenders talk casually with a few regulars. As the day turns into night, the bar gets increasingly crowded. The cast really got drunk over a three-day shoot, which centered on an 18-hour simulation of the bar’s rush into oblivion. Lighting enhances the claustrophobia, as most of the film takes place under an artificial glow. A brief montage of security-cam footage is a refreshing break. Directors as different as Cassavetes and Hong Sang-soo have used alcohol — especially when consumed in the quantities that these characters do — as a truth serum. The Weeknd, who turns up on this film’s soundtrack, sang “When I’m fucked up, that’s the real me.” But there’s no danger or chaos in “Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets.” The film creates it...

City Council Prods State Legislature to Repeal Walking While Tran...

Leaders of the City Council’s Women’s Caucus and LGBT Caucus penned a letter to the Public Safety Committee seeking a hearing for a resolution encouraging the State Legislature and Gove... Show more

r Andrew Cuomo to move ahead with legislation repealing the loitering law commonly known as a ban on “Walking While Trans.” The resolution was first introduced last year by Councilmember Carlina Rivera of Manhattan in support of pending legislation at the state level spearheaded in the upper chamber by out gay State Senator Brad Hoylman and in the lower house by State Assemblymember Amy Paulin of Westchester.  In the June 29 letter addressed to the committee and its chair, Councilmember Donovan Richards of Queens, city lawmakers reiterated the way in which law enforcement officers have used the law to stop women — especially trans women of color — for bogus reasons such as the way they walk or what they wear. There is also a sense of urgency at a time when deadly violence targeting Black transgender women nationwide has continued at alarming rates into the summer months. At least three Black trans women have been found dead in the first week of July after two other Black trans women were killed in the final week of June. “As the City Council recently passed a package of police reform legislation to protect marginalized communities from police misconduct and profiling, we believe that urgent action must also be taken to ensure we support our TGNCB community, particularly Black Trans women,” stated the letter, signed by LGBT Caucus Chair Daniel Dromm of Queens and Women’s Caucus Co-Chairs Farah Louis of ...

Margo Price’s New Album Goes Back in Time, But Keeps it Personal...

A sharp collection of autobiographical and political songs with a traditionalist country sound, Margo Price’s 2017 “All-American Made” appealed to fans outside the genre and helped lead... Show more

a Grammy nomination. She plays well to rock fans: her first two albums were released by Jack White’s Third Man Records label, and she’s the only country artist on her new label, the Universal Music Group-distributed Loma Vista. In fact, she speaks to people alienated by mainstream country music, which isn’t a welcoming place even for the most conservative women, much less singers with explicitly leftist lyrics. “All-American Made” had a fairly spare sound, with acoustic guitar, pedal steel and honky-tonk piano. Her latest album, “That’s How Rumors Get Started,” which is released July 10, goes in a more genre-agnostic direction. As rock music’s commercial niche has cratered, some extremely popular country singers, like Chris Stapleton and Eric Church, would have been filed next to Bob Seger, John Mellencamp, and Bruce Springsteen as “roots rock” in the ‘80s. Produced by Sturgill Simpson, whose last album mixed Southern rock and New Wave, “That’s How Rumors Get Started” trades in the pedal steel for thick, fuzzed-out electric guitars and pianos carrying the melody. While “That’s How Rumors Get Started” does look back to the ‘70s — the gospel-influenced “Hey Child” suggests Loretta Lynn fronting the Rolling Stones — Price’s vocals and lyrics keep it urgent and personal. “Heartless Mind” ventures furthest from country music, with synthesizers and a drum sound off a Cars album. Grammy-nominated artist invok...