Kavanaugh Tacks to Right of Gorsuch

The Trump administration has opened up its broadest assault on transgender people yet, moving to adopt a legal definition of gender as never-changing and determined at birth by external genitalia. Led by the Department of H... Show more

ealth and Human Services, where anti-transgender activist Roger Severino heads the Office of Civil Rights, the goal is to get the Departments of Justice, Education, and Labor to join in imposing the new definition through regulations that will have a better chance of being upheld now that Brett Kavanaugh has solidified a 5-4 right wing majority on the US Supreme Court. The new definition is designed to deny health and social services to transgender people and to allow legal discrimination against LGBTQ people in general. The New York Times broke the story Sunday morning after obtaining a copy of an internal HHS memo. Response from the LGBTQ activist community was swift and sharp across the nation. In New York City, hundreds of people huddled in the cold in Washington Square to condemn the move and vow resistance. Chase Strangio, a transgender attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union, said that as extreme as this new attack is, “It is the continuation of a system that has alw

Extraordinary People

At oral arguments at the US Supreme Court on October 10, the justices took up the issue of whether ICE must detain immigrants guilty of even minor crimes committed long ago. Justice Brett Kavanaugh said a 1996 law passed b... Show more

y Congress demanded it and made no provision for a bail hearing. That was too much for the Trump-appointed Justice Neil Gorsuch, who asked government lawyers if there was “any limit” on their power in these cases. He followed up on Justice Stephen Breyer’s question whether an immigrant could be detained “on his death bed, after stealing bus transfers” half a century ago. The government lawyer insisted there was no time limit on these infractions. Gorsuch was seen as potentially joining the court’s more liberal members in striking the law down as he did in an immigrant detention law he found unconstitutionally vague. Kavanaugh positioning himself to the right of Gorsuch is startling, given that one of Gorsuch’s first written opinions, in June 2017, dissented from the high court’s finding that the 2015 marriage equality ruling necessarily meant that the wife of an Arkansas birth mother has the right to be listed on the child’s birth certificate. Gorsuch found that it was not settled

Marriage Updates from Around the Globe

With the smooth precision of a perfectly aimed snooker ball dropping into a corner pocket, Richard Bean’s adroit and amusing comedy “The Nap” has dropped on Broadway. The British import from the author who brought ... Show more

ought us “One Man, Two Guvnors” is as breezy and undemanding as it is charming and often hilarious. Set in Sheffield, England, on the eve of a world snooker tournament, the play tells the story of Dylan Spokes who has escaped his working class, go-nowhere background by becoming an internationally ranked player of this billiards-like game. As Dylan readies for the tournament, he finds himself surrounded by a cast of outrageous people — his eager father, his transgender backer, the “integrity officers” who show up out of nowhere and threaten his ability to play, and his blowsy, alcoholic mom and her crazy boyfriend. All of them want a piece of Dylan, and he’s asked to throw a round of the tournament so some unknown billionaire gamblers can make a killing. Surrounding a more or less normal guy with extreme characters and thrusting him into insane situations is a classic comic trope. The many twists and turns will leave you laughing and remind you of Martin McDonagh in a lighter mode.

Anti-Gay Mob Brutally Murdered Iraqi Boy

Taiwan will hold two referenda on gay relationships this fall. Since the Constitutional Court there has mandated that the country give equal rights to gay couples, the right wing has put forth a proposal limiting marriage ... Show more

to different-sex couples and providing civil unions for same-sex couples. The LGBTQ rights movement has qualified another proposal that would open marriage to gay couples. Both will be on the ballot on November 24. If gay couples are limited to civil unions by the referenda, activists have vowed to go back to the Constitutional Court for an explicit grant of equal marriage rights. In Honduras, opponents of same-sex marriage were able to meet with members of the country’s high court to express their displeasure at an impending ruling opening marriage to gay couples — following a ruling earlier this year from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights that binds all member nations in Latin America to institute marriage equality. President Juan Orlando Hernández said he that personally opposes same-sex marriage, but that all people should be treated with “dignity” and he will abide by the ruling of the Honduran judiciary. Poland’s high court has ruled that both members of a same-sex cou

“Conversion Therapy” Bans Proliferate

Shocking video out of Baghdad that emerged over the past week shows a delicate 14-year-old boy, identified as Hamoudi al-Mutairi, being stabbed to death in the streets near his home because he was perceived to be gay. As h... Show more

is killers stabbed him, they taunted him and joked. He could be heard plaintively calling for his mother as he died at the scene. This photo is one al-Mutairi posted to Instagram. Video of the attack was shot by a member of the mob that attacked the youth, and then circulated on the web. Comment on this story.

Berl Boykin, Pioneering Atlanta Activist, Dies at 74

Eau Claire has become the third city in Wisconsin to ban so-called “conversion therapy” for minors. Joining them this past week were Westchester County, New York, and Lakewood, Ohio. On November 2 “Boy Erased,” a searing ... Show more

searing indictment of conversion therapy practiced by fundamentalist Christian groups, is opening. It stars Lucas Hedges as a gay teen sent to receive the treatment by his pastor father, played by Russell Crowe, and acquiescent mom, Nicole Kidman. Bans on conversion therapy prohibit licensed therapists receiving third-party payments from engaging in the practice. Religious groups that do not receive such reimbursement from government or private insurance will be able to continue the practice. A ban on such therapy statewide in New York has been stalled in the Republican-controlled State Senate.Comment on this story.