National
Scientology wants to recruit you
How gay protesters are working to expose the anti-LGBT cult
The Scientology building at the Hollywood Inn on Hollywood Boulevard and North McCadden Place. (Photo by Joseph G. Daniels Photography for the Los Angeles Blade)
LGBT pioneer Morris Kight would have loved these gay guys, snarkily pestering the Church of Scientology staff, security, and recruiters with a video camera and an annoying confrontational lilt to their jibes. Kight would have applauded their bravery, dramatically shrugging off the fear factor shrouding the cult and giving the famously anti-LGBT organization a jolt of its own harassment.
Holidays are particularly special—such as this year’s Hollywood Christmas Parade down Hollywood Boulevard, passing the Hollywood Inn at North McCadden Place where Kight used to live and from whence the first Gay Pride Parade set off in 1970. This Nov. 26, Thanksgiving weekend, the Scientology recruiters were out in force, offering free “Personality Tests” as a lure into the “Everyone’s Welcome” Information Center. That night their annual Winter Wonderland aimed to entice Latino children to sit on Santa’s lap and get a cheap toy and L. Ron Hubbard pulp fiction.
There, too, were the merry band of gay pranksters, calling out Scientology’s homophobia and squaring off with annoyed guards.
Though Kight and others had sneered at the shadowy organization for years, Scientology managed to stay out of the publicity spotlight through donations to community and civic organizations. Rumors about celebrities such as John Travolta and Tom Cruise were aggressively squashed through threats of lawsuits. But the institution took an unexpected PR hit in 2008 with an explosion of unwanted publicity—which also turned out to be a kind of rude gay awakening. The Angry Gay Pope (Don Myers), Nasty Nathanial (Nathanial Thomas), and others joined the Guy Fawkes mask-wearing hacktivist collective Anonymous in confronting Scientology after a secret internal video of celebrity Scientologist Tom Cruise was posted online.
Don Myers, aka the ‘Angry Gay Pope’ in front of Winter Wonderland on Nov. 26. (Photo by Nasty Nathanial)
“Being a Scientologist, when you drive past an accident it’s not like anyone else. As you drive past you know you have to do something about it, because you know you’re the only one that can really help,” Cruise said.
The church said the tape was intended for members only and was copyrighted, asking YouTube and other sites to take it down, NPR reported. That infuriated Anonymous, which saw the church’s response as an attack on freedom of speech. Members researched the religion and reacted by hacking the group’s websites, protesting the church’s requirement that members in good standing “disconnect” from family and friends who leave the church.
“We are at war with the Church of Scientology. Our sole target is the church as a corporate entity. We vow to avoid any collateral damage to any member,” an Anonymous spokesperson said in a video.
The church retorted. “It’s very reminiscent of days gone by and current days with the KKK, wearing masks, hiding, having secret meetings on the Internet,” Bob Adams, vice president of the church, told NPR.
And then came Paul Haggis. After receiving a letter from his two lesbian daughters about the church’s endorsement of anti-gay marriage Prop 8, the Oscar-winning director/writer wrote to Tommy Davis, chief spokesperson for the Church of Scientology International (and son of his friend, actress Anne Archer) asking that the church renounce its support and stand against Prop 8.
“I feel strongly about this for a number of reasons,” Haggis wrote. “You and I both know there has been a hidden anti-gay sentiment in the church for a long time. I have been shocked on too many occasions to hear Scientologists make derogatory remarks about gay people, and then quote L.R.H. [Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard] in their defense.”
Haggis noted that daughter Katy lost friends after coming out, which started a whispering campaign about how “Katy is ‘1.1.’” That number on Hubbard’s emotional Tone Scale in “The Science of Survival” classifies a gay person as “Covertly Hostile” — “the most dangerous and wicked level”— equating “homosexuality with being a pervert.” (Such remarks don’t appear in recent editions of the book, the New Yorker reported in 2011.)
Scientology has since been trying to spruce up its PR image, with popular straight actresses such as Elizabeth Moss and Lauren Prepon saying they are Scientologists and they support LGBT people.
But former church spokesperson Mike Rinder, who co-hosts the Emmy-award winning A&E series, “Leah Remini: Scientology and The Aftermath” disputes that characterization.
“In today’s world, where it is no longer socially acceptable to be anti-gay, Scientology has taken steps to attempt to portray itself as tolerant and welcoming of the LGBT community. But similar to Scientology’s claims that disconnection ‘doesn’t exist’ or is simply a ‘personal choice,’ the PR smokescreen hides an ugly and unpleasant reality. At its heart, scientology IS very homophobic.”
At Scientology, no one can break in and no one can break out. (Photo by Angry Gay Pope)
Rinder cites specific quotes about homosexuality from Hubbard’s works, including this from “Science of Survival:” “There are only two answers for the handling of people from 2.0 down on the tone scale, neither one of which has anything to do with reasoning with them or listening to their justification of their acts. The first is to raise them on the tone scale by un-enturbulating some of their theta by any one of the three valid processes. The other is to dispose of them quietly and without sorrow.”
Rinder cautions against taking the passage literally but notes that Scientologists revere Hubbard’s words as gospel and therefore the passage “does inform Scientologists in how to think about such people. According to Hubbard, they should be treated like lepers.”
Before he submitted his resignation letter, Haggis did his homework. He was dumbstruck by what he found, including this public declaration on CNN in May 2008: “There’s no such thing as disconnection as you’re characterizing it,” Davis told anchor John Roberts. “[S]omeone who is a Scientologist is going to respect their family members’ beliefs,” he explained, “and we consider family to be a building block of any society, so anything that’s characterized as disconnection or this kind of thing, it’s just not true. There isn’t any such policy.”
Haggis knew that wasn’t true. His wife had been ordered to disconnect from her parents “because of something absolutely trivial they supposedly did 25 years ago when they resigned from the church,” he later reminded Davis. “Although it caused her terrible personal pain, my wife broke off all contact with them.” Haggis continued, “To see you lie so easily, I am afraid I had to ask myself: What else are you lying about?”
Haggis also read an exposé in the St. Petersburg Times reporting that senior church executives subjected other Scientologists to physical violence. In his Aug. 19, 2009 resignation letter, made public by a third party, Haggis wrote that he felt “dumbstruck and horrified,” adding, “Tommy, if only a fraction of these accusations are true, we are talking about serious, indefensible human and civil-rights violations.”
Scientology welcome center on Hollywood Boulevard. (Photo by Joseph Daniels Photography for the Los Angeles Blade)
Haggis had enough. “As you know, for ten months now I have been writing to ask you to make a public statement denouncing the actions of the Church of Scientology of San Diego. Their public sponsorship of Proposition 8, a hate-filled legislation that succeeded in taking away the civil rights of gay and lesbian citizens of California — rights that were granted them by the Supreme Court of our state — shames us,” read his opening paragraph. “Silence is consent, Tommy. I refuse to consent.” Haggis ended: “I hereby resign my membership in the Church of Scientology.”
The media went wild. On Oct. 27, 2009, Davis finally responded to Haggis in a statement to Today. “I don’t want any misunderstanding,” Davis said. “The church supports civil rights for everybody, regardless of sexual orientation, race, color or creed. We are a minority, too; we understand what it’s like to be persecuted, so to the extent that anything prohibits or inhibits on civil rights, we don’t agree with it.”
Davis said the Prop 8 endorsement was a mistake. “Church of Scientology San Diego had been put on a list of churches that supported Proposition 8 out in California. It was incorrectly included and named when it should have never been on the list to begin with,” he said, especially since the church wouldn’t jeopardize its tax-exemption.
But the dam of silence broke. In 2009, the Tampa Bay Times started writing in-depth stories “on the inner workings of the secretive church, which has its spiritual headquarters in Clearwater” — investigations that continue today.
Other journalistic enterprises include a five-year, 24-part series in the Los Angeles Times — with consequences. When Joel Sappell wrote an explosive story about secret Scientology documents in 1985, “The Times told Sappell and his colleague, Robert Welkos, to disappear for a few days until things cooled down.” Though he had been warned by sources to watch out for their pets, Sappell returned to find his dog had died.
Though undeterred by the “unnerving experiences,” in Dec. 2012, Sappell wrote a piece for Los Angeles Magazine about what happened after that first story. He got a call from LA Superior Court Judge Ronald Swearinger, the judge presiding over a “nasty civil trial” he was covering that “pitted the Church of Scientology against a former church member who claimed he’d been relentlessly harassed. Thousands of Scientologists from across the country had converged on downtown Los Angeles to protest the trial and what they perceived as Swearinger’s religious bigotry.”
Sappell wrote of the call: “’I hear your dog was poisoned,’ the judge said softly. I was startled. It’s highly unusual for judges to contact reporters during a trial, especially when they’ve already been accused of bias. There was a pause as Swearinger took a breath. ‘My dog was drowned,’ he said, referring to his collie. ‘We found him dead in our pool. He’d never go near the water on his own.’”
They learned “how the church and its leaders—first Hubbard and then his successor, David Miscavige—had made psychological warfare a spiritual imperative.”
Actually, Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard made a point of it: “If attacked on some vulnerable point by anyone or anything or any organization, always find or manufacture enough threat against them to cause them to sue for peace,” Hubbard said. “Don’t ever tamely submit to an investigation of us. Make it rough, rough on attackers all the way.”
Kate Bornstein
It took trans icon Kate Bornstein until May 2012 to escape the fear of retaliation to publish and promote her memoir, “A Queer and Pleasant Danger: The true story of a nice Jewish boy who joins the Church of Scientology, and leaves twelve years later to become the lovely lady she is today.”
Kate joined Scientology at age 22, in 1970. “I couldn’t figure out who or what I was,” she said in a July 2016 video interview with Broadly.
“What I was didn’t make sense. I knew I wasn’t ‘boy.’ And I started looking for some kind of spiritual answer. What attracted me about it was Scientology’s notion of a spiritual being. They told me – you are not your body. You’re not your mind, you’re not your brain. You are your own immortal soul. They called that soul a ‘thetan.’ So are there girl thetans and boy thetans? No, of course not. I thought, ah – this makes sense. Nothing else in Scientology made sense – but that made sense.”
As Al Bornstein, she rose through the ranks of the Sea Org, becoming first mate to Hubbard on the yacht Apollo in the early 1970s. Scientology tried to “fix” her but Kate was unwilling. “They offered me a choice and the way they described it was – I would be sleeping on the garage floor outside. I couldn’t eat any food in the dining room. I had to wait until everybody else had eaten and then I could eat the scraps they’d left over. It was either that or I could be ex-communicated forever. Ex-communicate me,” she said.
But that meant she had to leave ex-wife Molly and daughter Jessica Baxter, then 9, behind and they had to disconnect with the “suppressive person. Kate hasn’t seen daughter since 1980. She did try to see Jessica in Dec. 2016 when filming I Am Cait. Caitlyn Jenner suggested they go to the big blue Scientology worldwide administrative headquarters on Sunset Boulevard—but they left unfulfilled. As of Nov. 28, Kate hasn’t seen Jessica for 12,825 days.
Many media outlets have written about Scientology without the self-censorship of fear—including former Village Voice editor/investigative reporter Tony Ortega. On Nov. 28, Ortega posted “Ugh. We just found a troubling L. Ron Hubbard Scientology lecture about little boys and sex.” The post features video excerpts of Hubbard’s comments, which Ortega then helps translate for those unfamiliar with Scientology jargon. Even with the translation, however, the thinking is hard to comprehend.
On, Sept. 2, 2012, while still at the Village Voice, Ortega wrote a difficult story: “Scientology’s Homophobia: Even the Church’s Token Gay Guy Was Disgusted.” Ortega writes of the whole-hearted belief West Hollywood gay Keith Relkin had in Scientology. He came out in Nov. 2000 and successfully argued that he should do a rebuttal to a story critical of the church. “Relkin asserted that Scientology was actually a leader in human rights, the Beverly Hills mission in particular was welcoming to gays, and that it was his mission to help Scientology reach out to the gay community,” Ortega writes.
Reklin, who worked in the movie industry, convinced the church to let him do an outreach party and distribute thousands of gay-specific versions of “The Way to Happiness” booklet. He was crushed when the event was shut down and he had to find and destroy all the booklets.
“He spent the next year and a half going through intense Scientology interrogations that convinced him the entire debacle had been his own fault. Then, over the last four years of his life, he continued to struggle through his church training, trying to understand where he’d gone wrong,” Ortega writes. Reklin died on Feb. 3, 2012 of natural causes.
On March 21, 2016, the UK Daily Mail Online published the horrific story of Nora Crest, who says she worked at Los Angeles Celebrity Centre taking care of John Travolta and Tom Cruise’s children and taught Scientology courses. “But she says that all changed when she kissed another girl – and liked it. Even though it never went any further than kissing, Nora was put into the Rehabilitation Project Force [RPF],” The Mail reports.
She spent years under constant watch in grueling circumstances, sometimes getting beaten up by other women for imagined slights. She tried to commit suicide and tried to escape—finally downing a bottle of bleach as the last resort.
“It was the most horrific time of my life. I was battered and bruised, pushed around and nearly died trying to leave the Church and all because I had the audacity to desire another woman,” she said. “I was brainwashed into believing I’d done wrong and had to live in horrific conditions for three years before I was finally allowed to leave. This can’t be allowed to happen to another person, hence why I’m speaking out. Homosexuality in the Church is the lowest of the low, you’re treated like scum.”
“Nora Crest was dismissed from her position in the Church of Scientology nearly 15 years ago for misconduct,” a church spokesperson told the Mail. “The serious allegations that she makes about the Church are without any foundation in fact and are not supported by any credible documentary evidence. The Church premises in Los Angeles where Ms Crest lived are routinely inspected for compliance with health, fire and safety regulations with no concerns arising.”
The spokesperson continues: “The claims Ms Crest makes about the Church’s position on homosexuality are also unfounded. The Church is opposed to discrimination of any sort, including on the basis of sexual orientation.”
Now 39, Crest is happy, married to a man named Cameron with whom she has two children. She continues to address Scientology on her YouTube Channel.
But the fear factor remains real, which is why Leah Remini and Mike Ringer praise the former Scientologists who bare their souls and share information on camera. One episode included a discussion of how cruel Hubbard was to his son Quentin, who many believed was gay. Quentin committed suicide on Nov. 12, 1976. He was 22.
Another heartbreaking episode dealt with the suicide of Aaron Poulin at the Hollywood Inn on Hollywood Boulevard. Marie Bilheimer met Aaron when she was 15 and he was 17 serving together in the Sea Org. They married July 16, 2000. However, their career paths diverged as she got promoted and he got demoted for getting caught doing little things—like putting highlights in his hair or going out dancing. Marie was surprised when the Director of Inspections and Reports brought her to security at the Hollywood Inn where she was told, “Aaron hung himself last night.” “Did he die?” “Yeah.” And that was it. She was surrounded by 25 people, none of whom comforted her as she fell apart.
Marie returned to work, forbidden to say anything lest she get written up as Scientology turned Aaron into “just a bad person.”
Later Marie found a ticket in Aaron’s sock drawer—for prostitution. He killed himself three weeks before his pending court date. “I feel like he was trapped,” Marie says through tears, “and for years I felt a responsibility and I felt the blame and I felt like I had missed it and it was my fault and that he did it because of me. Because I was so dedicated and he didn’t have anywhere to turn to.”
In 2004, two months after Aaron died, Marie left the Sea Org. In 2010, she left Scientology. The show put up a disclaimer: “The Church of Scientology states that Marie Bilheimer signed an affidavit stating the Church was not responsible for her husband’s suicide.”
Scientology has repeatedly slammed Remini and the show. For instance, there’s this statement to People: “As we said before, desperate for attention with an acting career stuck in a nearly decade-long tailspin, Leah Remini needs to move on with her life. Instead, she seeks publicity by maliciously spreading lies about the Church using the same handful of bitter zealots who were kicked out years ago for chronic dishonesty and corruption and whose false claims the Church refuted years ago, including through judicial decisions. Please see our full statement at www.scientologynews.org/leah-remini.”
The Angry Gay Pope and Nasty Nathaniel continue their prankster harassment without Anonymous—and have stayed out of major trouble and beaten back Scientology harassment, thanks to gay lawyer Graham Berry.
Pope, aka Don Myers, who has also been on two Emmy-winning teams as an animator and contributor (to Remini’s show), was featured in Business Insider as the protester who took photos of the heightened security around the Twin Peaks compound in Hemet, where many believe Miscavige’s wife Shelly might be sequestered. He also produces video for an ex-Scientology website for www.survivingscientology.com.
Nasty Nathaniel is an independent journalist who does “First Amendment audits” of “the evil, very secretive cult” of Scientology and the police for CopBlock.org.
“I am a police accountability activist,” he says. “I film the police in public as well conducting First Amendment audits of public buildings, such as police stations, correctional facilities, courthouses, post offices, military bases, etc. The purpose of these audits is to make sure that public officials respect our right to record in public.”
Morris Kight would have been proud of the gay protesters sticking with the cause. “Morris didn’t like what Scientology did to unsuspecting, vulnerable youths,” says Mary Ann Cherry, Kight’s biographer. “He saw from his apartment how Scientology recruited young runaways, gave them a place to sleep and a bit to eat in exchange for continual servitude, often for a lifetime,” losing their gay identities.
Kight’s longtime friend Miki Jackson concurs, saying he counseled many young LGBT people “who had fallen under the influence and the captivity of Scientology. Morris called Scientology a menace,” Jackson tells the Blade. “They were particularly predatory towards vulnerable young gay people. They scoured the streets of Hollywood looking for runaways and people in distress,” she says. “It was a fertile hunting ground” for exploitation.
Angry Gay Pope, who is HIV positive and does videos of other people with HIV/AIDS, says he’s really just an “ordinary Joe.” But he hates homophobia. “I do this because I’m morally offended. Eventually, they’re going to come for me so I go for them first,” Myers says frankly. “I might as well fight for a better tomorrow.”
National
Biden, other administration officials mark Transgender Day of Remembrance
‘Epidemic of violence towards transgender people’
Democratic officials marked Transgender Day of Remembrance, which took place on Wednesday, honoring the lives lost to anti-trans violence and calling out rising anti-trans rhetoric and discrimination.
President Joe Biden in a statement said “we mourn the transgender Americans whose lives were taken this year in horrific acts of violence.”
“There should be no place for hate in America — and yet too many transgender Americans, including young people, are cruelly targeted and face harassment simply for being themselves. It’s wrong,” he said. “Every American deserves to be treated with dignity and respect, and to live free from discrimination. Today, we recommit ourselves to building a country where everyone is afforded that promise.”
U.S. Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.), and Mark Pocan (D-Wisc.), as well as U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), all members of the Congressional Equality Caucus, introduced a bicameral resolution commemorating the Transgender Day of Remembrance and “recognizing the epidemic of violence toward transgender people and memorializing the lives lost this year.”
“As anti-transgender rhetoric and legislation has increased in the United States over recent years, unfortunately so has anti-transgender violence,” Jayapal said in a statement announcing the resolution. “On Transgender Day of Remembrance, this resolution stands as a symbol of the strength and resilience of the trans community and honors the lives of the trans people we have lost to horrific violence.”
Jacobs also addressed President-elect Donald Trump’s anti-trans rhetoric.
“Donald Trump’s anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-trans agenda will likely fuel this anxiety and violence against queer communities,” Jacobs said. “That makes this year’s Transgender Day of Remembrance even more important. Our bicameral resolution is a powerful reminder that anti-trans rhetoric can cost lives.”
A report by the Human Rights Campaign documenting anti-trans violence found at least 36 trans and gender-expansive people in the U.S. lost their lives to violence since last year.
Transgender Day of Remembrance was founded in 1999 by trans activist Gwendolyn Ann Smith to commemorate the one year anniversary of the murder of Rita Hester, a trans woman who was killed in Boston. The day has since grown into a national and international event.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a statement honored Transgender Day of Remembrance.
“Transgender individuals exist in every country, every culture, and every faith tradition,” he said. “ The United States recognizes Transgender Day of Remembrance to affirm the dignity and human rights of transgender persons globally.”
In a post on X, U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) wrote, “On this Transgender Day of Remembrance, we honor the trans and nonbinary lives lost to violence simply for being who they are. Every American deserves to live their truth and feel safe doing so. Hate has no place here.”
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield noted the Biden-Harris administration’s advocacy for the trans community, which has included issuing a policy that prohibits discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation under the Title IX federal civil rights law this year.
“On Transgender Day of Remembrance, we reaffirm there is no place for hate in America. The Biden-Harris Administration is proud to advocate for the safety of transgender and all LGBTQI+ Americans, including at the UN,” she said in a post on X.
Victor Madrigal-Borloz, a former independent UN expert on LGBTQ+ and intersex rights, also on X, said trans people’s human rights are questioned “for reasons that have nothing to do with them and a lot with bigotry.”
“Support them actively,” he urged.
Xavier Becerra, the secretary of health and human services, seemingly mixed up the day that was being observed, releasing a statement mistakenly commemorating Transgender Day of Visibility, which takes place on March 31.
“We fight so that trans Americans can go to the doctor and receive the same treatment as any other patient … so that they feel welcomed at school and in their community for who they are,” Becerra said.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat, issued a proclamation recognizing Transgender Day of Remembrance, continuing the precedent he set last year as the first Maryland governor to issue such a proclamation.
Moore in May signed into law a bill that added gender-affirming care to Maryland’s definition of legally protected health care, affirming its status as a sanctuary state for trans people and their healthcare providers.
National
Reports of hate-filled messages under investigation
Racist, homophobic, messages reported across the U.S. following presidential election
On Friday, the Federal Bureau of Investigation stated they are now investigating a series of racist and offensive messages sent to LGBTQ+ communities and communities of color around the country. At first, text messages were targeted at Black Americans and African Americans, then the wave of hateful digital rhetoric spread to target the LGBTQ+ and Latin American communities.
Earlier this month, the initial text messages were sent out to Black American and African American people regarding a fake work assignment that suggested they were going to be working as slaves in a plantation. College students, high school students, professionals and even children, reported receiving the mass texts from unrecognized phone numbers following the presidential election.
Since then, at least 30 states throughout the nation have reported cases of similar messages containing hate-filled speech, according to CNN.
According to the report issued by the FBI, the texts and emails that target the LGBTQ+ and Latin American communities stated that the receivers of these messages were selected for deportation or to report to re-education camps.
The Federal Communications Commission’s enforcement bureau is investigating the text messages. Chair Jessica Rosenworcel issued a statement regarding the texts.
“These messages are unacceptable,” said Rosenworcel. “That’s why our Enforcement Bureau is already investigating and looking into them alongside federal and state law enforcement. We take this type of targeting very seriously.”
The FBI reports that though they have not received reports of violence related to the messages, they are working with the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, to evaluate all reported incidents across the U.S.
Last year, the Leadership Conference Education Fund launched a report stating that hate crimes increase during elections, pointing to white supremacists being particularly active during the past four presidential election cycles.
A portion of the report reads: “The Trump candidacy empowered white nationalists and provided them with a platform — one they had been seeking with renewed intensity since the historic election of America’s first Black president in 2008. Since 2015, communities across the country have experienced some of the most violent and deadliest years for hate in modern history.”
If you have received a similar text or email, you can report it here.
Federal Government
House races could decide Department of Education’s future
Second Trump administration could target transgender students
The Associated Press reports that more than a dozen races for seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, including 10 for congressional districts in California, remain too close to call as of Tuesday — a full week after voters cast their ballots on Nov. 5.
Democrats hope that if they can flip the lower chamber, which is now governed by a narrow Republican majority, it might function as a bulwark against President-elect Donald Trump, his incoming administration, and the 53-47 majority in the U.S. Senate that his party secured last week.
If, on the other hand, the GOP retains control of the House, the Republican victory would clear a major roadblock that could otherwise have stymied a major plank of Trump’s education agenda: Plans to permanently shutter the U.S. Department of Education.
Congress ultimately scuttled the former president’s effort to do so during his first administration — though, technically, the proposal then was to merge the agency with the U.S. Department of Labor.
The Wall Street Journal notes that some Republicans, at the time and in the years since, have come out against plans to abolish the 44-year-old agency, in some cases even objecting to major funding cuts proposed by Trump that they understood were likely be unpopular.
However, if the second term plans for DOE as delineated in the Trump campaign’s Agenda47 and the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 governing blueprint become a major policy priority once the incoming administration takes over in January, reluctant Republican lawmakers will face tremendous pressure to get out of Trump’s way.
Federal government will remain in schools to advance anti-trans, anti-woke agenda
Among other responsibilities, DOE disburses and manages student loans, enforces the civil rights laws in public schools, and provides funding for students with disabilities. The agency’s programs, such as Title I, offer assistance for low-achieving or high-poverty K-12 schools, while Pell Grants help undergraduates who otherwise would not be able to pay for college.
It is unclear whether or how those functions will continue if the DOE is disbanded.
Trump’s aim, at least in large part, is to give states — rather than the federal government — the ultimate say over how their schools are run. At the same time, perhaps paradoxically, the other cornerstone of his education policy agenda is to issue proscriptive rules governing the content, curricula, and classroom discussion that will be permitted in the country’s public schools.
Specifically, this means “critical race theory, gender ideology or other inappropriate racial, sexual or political” topics or materials are forbidden. Reasonable people are likely to disagree about what is and is not “inappropriate,” and they may well have different, even disparate, definitions for terms like “gender ideology.”
When Florida and other states enacted similar anti-LGBTQ content and curricular restrictions in their public schools, critics warned the ambiguous language in the statute and the resulting confusion would lead to censorship, or perhaps self-censorship, especially for students and staff who, by virtue of their skin color or sexual orientation or gender identity, are more likely to be targeted with targeted or overzealous enforcement in the first place.
DOE plays major role investigating alleged civil rights violations in schools
According to the National Education Association, “federal civil rights laws prohibit school boards and other employers from discriminating against or harassing staff or students based on their sexual orientation or gender identity,” which “means, for example, that a school district may not prohibit only LGBTQ+ educators from answering students’ questions about their families, may not prohibit recognition and discussion in class only of LGBTQ+ families, and may not require that only LGBTQ+ students hide their sexual orientation or gender identity at school.”
However, the NEA warns, “some school districts, administrators, and the Florida Department of Education may nonetheless choose to do so until a court orders otherwise.”
If officials at a public high school allow heterosexual teachers to display family photos in their classrooms but warn the openly gay teacher that he must put his away or be terminated for violating restrictions on in-school discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity, the manner in which the policy was enforced against him would presumably run afoul of the federal civil rights laws, which prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
The teacher could assume the expense of hiring an attorney to pursue legal remedies, shouldering the burden and the risk that litigation that could drag on for months and conclude with a judgment in favor of his employer. Alternatively, until or unless Trump dissolves the agency, he could file a complaint with DOE’s Office of Civil Rights.
Alternatively, until or unless Trump dissolves the agency, the teacher could file a complaint with DOE. The agency’s Office of Civil Rights would evaluate the information he shared to determine whether there were sufficient grounds to open an investigation and, if so, would deploy “a variety of fact-finding techniques” that can include a review of documentary evidence submitted by both parties, interviews with key witnesses, and site visits.
After the investigation is complete, if a “preponderance of the evidence supports a conclusion that the recipient failed to comply with the law,” OCR will attempt to negotiate a resolution agreement. If the recipient refuses to resolve the matter in this manner, OCR can “suspend, terminate, or refuse to grant or continue federal financial assistance to the recipient, or may refer the case to the Department of Justice.”
According to the DOE’s website, the agency has 11,782 investigations that were open as of Tuesday, with complaints against institutions of all kinds operating in all 50 states, from rural elementary schools in the Deep South to prestigious medical schools, community colleges, and charter schools for students with developmental disabilities. Likewise, the six civil rights laws over which OCR has jurisdiction cover a wide range of conduct, from sexual harassment to discrimination, retaliation, and single-sex athletics scholarships.
Should Trump succeed in abolishing the department, it is not yet clear how those active investigations will be handled, nor how complaints about violations of civil rights law by educational institutions would be reported and investigated moving forward in the agency’s absence.
During his first administration, Trump passed proposed changes to Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which retooled the process for reporting sexual assault on college campuses in ways that were widely seen as imbalanced in favor of the accused.
President Joe Biden in April issued new guidelines that featured “significant shifts in how institutions address sexual harassment, and assault allegations while expanding protections for LGBTQ+ and pregnant students,” the American Council on Education wrote. Specifically, the administration provided a “new definition of sexual harassment, extending jurisdiction to off-campus, and international incidents,” while “clarifying protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, pregnancy, and parenting status.”
The regulations sidestepped thornier questions, however, about how schools should approach issues at the intersection of gender identity and competitive sports, specifying only that they should avoid bans that would categorically prohibit transgender athletes from participating.
Shortly after the Biden administration’s guidelines were introduced, Trump vowed they would be “terminated” on his first day in office. He also pledged to enact anti-trans policies that appear to have been modeled after some of the most extreme of the roughly 1,600 anti-trans bills that conservative statehouses have proposed from 2021-2024.
Among other promises Trump made during the campaign were plans to enact a nationwide ban on trans student athletes competing in accordance with their gender identity, a federal law that would recognize only two genders, and the prosecution of health care providers who administer gender affirming care to patients younger than 18.
National
Trump refers to Anderson Cooper as ‘Allison’
Crude insults continue in effort to attract male voters
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump referred repeatedly over the weekend to CNN’s Anderson Cooper as “Allison Cooper.”
Cooper, one of the nation’s most prominent openly gay television anchors, moderated a town hall last week with Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump last Friday called Anderson “Allison” in a social media post, then used the moniker again at a Michigan rally.
“If you watched her being interviewed by Allison Cooper the other night, he’s a nice person. You know Allison Cooper? CNN fake news,” Trump said, before adding, “Oh, she said no, his name is Anderson. Oh, no.”
Trump repeated the name during another Michigan rally on Saturday, according to the Associated Pres, then followed it up during a reference in Pennsylvania. “They had a town hall,” Trump said in Michigan. “Even Allison Cooper was embarrassed by it. He was embarrassed by it.”
Describing Anderson Cooper as female plays into offensive and stereotypical depictions of gay men as effeminate as Trump continues to pursue the so-called “bro vote,” amping up crude and vulgar displays in an effort to appeal to male voters.
National
HRC rallies LGBTQ voters in 12 states ahead of Election Day
10 Days of Action campaign targets pro-equality candidate
The Human Rights Campaign said it filled 1,426 new volunteer shifts and held 174 events across key swing states between Oct. 10-20 as part of its 10 Days of Action campaign.
The LGBTQ civil rights advocacy group is working to mobilize and turn out voters in support of pro-equality and LGBTQ candidates, including the Harris-Walz ticket, on Election Day.
HRC reported exceeding its recruitment goals, noting the strong response across the 12 states as a “clear and resounding message” that LGBTQ and allied voters are energized to back the Harris-Walz ticket.
To kick off the 10 Days of Action, Gwen Walz, the spouse of Minnesota governor and Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz, spoke at a Philadelphia event that HRC and the Out for Harris-Walz coalition hosted on Oct. 10.
Walz highlighted her husband’s long-standing support for LGBTQ issues, such as his role in fighting to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in Congress and banning so-called conversion therapy as governor, according to the Pennsylvania Capital-Star.
Other events launched canvassing efforts for Senate candidates, such as U.S. Sens. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and Bob Casey (D-Pa.), along with House candidates, such as Will Rollins and Mondaire Jones in California and New York respectively.
A virtual organizing call on Oct. 11 that the Out for Harris-Walz coalition hosted featured prominent figures, including actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Andy Cohen, U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), and Delaware state Sen. Sarah McBride, who is running for Congress.
To close out the 10 Days of Action, HRC President Kelley Robinson canvassed with LGBTQ organizers in Phoenix on Oct. 20.
In a statement, Robinson said the campaign’s work is “far from over.”
“We plan to spend every day until the election making sure everyone we know is registered to vote and has a plan to vote because no one is going to give us the future we deserve — we have to fight for it and show America that when we show up, equality wins,” she said. “Together, we will elect pro-equality leaders like Vice President Harris and Governor Walz who value our communities and are ready to lead us forward with more freedom and opportunity.”
A September HRC poll found that LGBTQ voters favor Kamala Harris over Donald Trump in the presidential race by a nearly 67-point margin.
National
73 percent of LGBTQ community centers face harassment: Report
Findings show threats triggered by ‘anti-LGBTQ politics or rhetoric’
The biennial 2024 LGBTQ Community Center Survey Report, which was released Oct. 16, shows that 73 percent of 199 U.S.-based LGBTQ community centers that participated in the survey reported they had experienced anti-LGBTQ threats or harassment during the past two years.
The survey, which included LGBTQ centers in 42 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, is prepared by the Fort Lauderdale-based CenterLink, which provides services and support for LGBTQ community centers; and the Boulder, Colo.-based Movement Advancement Project (MAP), a research organization that focuses on social justice issues impacting the LGBTQ community.
“The biennial survey series started in 2008 and highlights the crucial role these centers play in the broader LGBTQ movement, offering an invaluable link between LGBTQ people and local, state, and national efforts to advance LGBTQ equality,” a statement released by the two organizations says.
The statement and the findings in the report point out that most of the LGBTQ centers that faced anti-LGBTQ threats or harassment said they were triggered by “anti-LGBTQ politics and rhetoric” that has surfaced across the country in the past several years.
“As attacks on LGBTQ people escalate year after year, we applaud these centers’ ongoing dedication to serving on the front lines – meeting both the immediate and long-term needs of LGBTQ people, their families, and their communities across the country,” Tessa Juste, a Movement Advancement Project official, said in the statement.
“This report illustrates the vital difference these centers make in people’s everyday lives, while also highlighting the urgent need for continued funding and support of these centers and the lifelines they provide,” Juste said.
“A majority of centers said they had experienced these threats or harassment offline (63 percent of centers) as well as online (68 percent),” the report states. “Almost half of centers (47 percent) said they had experienced both online and offline harassment in the past two years,” the report says.
“Numerous centers mentioned in open-ended comments that these threats or harassment were specifically in response to anti-LGBTQ politics or rhetoric (77 percent), transgender-related events or programs (50 percent), and youth-related programming (42 percent), again reflecting the current political environment and its targeted attacks on LGBTQ and specifically transgender youth,” according to the report.
Although the report lists in its appendix the names of each of the 199 LGBTQ community centers that participated in the survey, it does not disclose the names and locations of the LGBTQ centers that reported receiving threats or harassment.
Dana Juniel, director of communications for the Movement Advancement Project, told the Washington Blade in a statement that the two organizations that conducted the survey have a policy of not disclosing the centers’ responses to specific questions in the survey.
“Not identifying the specific centers has been our policy since the inception of this report and it is a typical policy for this type of report,” Juniel said. “It’s important to understand that the goal of the survey is to better understand the landscape and capacity of the movement as a whole, not to identify gaps or challenges for specific organizations,” she said.
The report shows that among the LGBTQ community centers that participated in the 2023-2024 survey were the D.C. Center for the LGBTQ Community; the D.C. LGBTQ youth advocacy group SMYAL, which the report lists as an LGBTQ center; the Delmarva Pride Center in Easton, Md.; the Frederick Center in Frederick, Md.; the CAMP Rehoboth LGBTQ center in Rehoboth Beach, Del.; the Sussex Pride center also in Delaware; and LGBTQ centers in Virginia based in the cities of Richmond, Norfolk, Winchester, Oakton, and Staunton.
Spokespersons for the D.C. Center and CAMP Rehoboth did not immediately respond to a Blade inquiry on whether they were among the centers that experienced threats or harassment. Sussex Pride Executive Director David Mariner told the Blade that his center was among those that had not received anti-LGBTQ threats or harassment in the past two years.
The Blade reported in August of this year that D.C. police were investigating threats made against SMYAL following the publication of an article criticizing SMYAL’s programs supporting LGBTQ youth in the conservative online publication Townhall.com. A D.C. police report said the threats were reported by SMYAL Executive Director Erin Whelan.
The statement released by CenterLink and Movement Advancement Project also points out that the LGBTQ center survey shows LGBTQ community centers in the U.S. serve more than 58,700 people each week, or three million people each year, “with many centers primarily serving people and communities that are historically under-resourced and under-served, including low-income, people of color, transgender people, and those under the age of 18.”
Denise Spivak, CEO of CenterLink, says in the joint statement that the report “is a crucial guidepost for us to see the positive impact of LGBTQ centers across the U.S. as well as what areas need additional resources.” She added, “As we celebrate our 30th anniversary, this report makes clear the importance of LGBTQ centers in our communities.”
Among other things, the report includes these findings:
• 66 percent of LGBTQ community centers directly provide physical health, mental health, and/or anti-violence services or programs
• Half of the centers (50 percent) offer computer resources or services to the public, providing needed tools for job searching, career development, social services, and schoolwork.
• Nearly all centers (92 percent) engage in advocacy, public policy, or civic engagement activities across a wide range of issues and areas.
• While nearly half of all centers remain thinly staffed, 84 percent of responding centers employ paid staff, providing jobs to 3,100 people.
• In 2023, roughly 11,600 people volunteered more than 421,000 hours at responding community centers, helping centers with and without paid staff to significantly expand their reach and impact.
The 2024 LGBTQ Community Center Survey Report can be accessed here.
Federal Government
Pentagon gives honorable discharges to 800+ LGBTQ+ veterans
Administration has committed to remedying harms of anti-LGBTQ military policies
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Tuesday announced the Pentagon has upgraded the paperwork of more than 800 veterans who were discharged other than honorably before discriminatory policies like “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” were repealed.
“More than 96 percent of the individuals who were administratively separated under DADT and who served for long enough to receive a merit-based characterization of service now have an honorable characterization of service,” said Christa Specht, director of legal policy at the department’s Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness.
The change will allow veterans to access benefits they had been denied, in areas from health care and college tuition assistance to VA loan programs and some jobs.
Separately, this summer President Joe Biden issued pardons to service members who had been convicted for sodomy before military laws criminalizing same-sex intimacy were lifted.
More than a decade after the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the administration has made a priority of helping LGBTQ+ veterans who are eligible to upgrade their discharge papers, directing the department to help them overcome bureaucratic barriers and difficult-to-navigate processes.
However, as noted by CBS News, which documented the challenges faced by these former service members in a comprehensive investigation published last year, these efforts are ongoing.
The department is continuing to review cases beyond the 800+ included in Tuesday’s announcement, with an official telling CBS, “We encourage all veterans who believe they have suffered an error or injustice to request a correction to their military records.”
National
Detroit teen arrested in fatal stabbing of gay man
Prosecutor says defendant targeted victim from online dating app
A 17-year-old Detroit man has been charged with first-degree murder for the Sept. 24 stabbing death of a 64-year-old gay man that prosecutors say he met through an online dating app.
A statement released by the Wayne County, Mich., Prosecutor’s Office says Ahmed Al-Alikhan allegedly fatally stabbed Howard Brisendine inside Brisendine’s home in Detroit before he allegedly took the victim’s car keys and stole the car.
The statement says police arrived on the scene about 4:04 p.m. on Sept. 29 after receiving a call about a deceased person found in their home. Upon arrival police found Brisentine deceased in his living room suffering from multiple stab wounds, the statement says.
“It is alleged that the defendant targeted the victim on an online dating app because he was a member of the LGBTQ community,” according to the prosecutor’s statement.
“It is further alleged that on Sept. 24, 2024, at the victim’s residence in the 6000 block of Minock Street in Detroit, the defendant stabbed the victim multiple times, fatally injuring him, before taking the victim’s car keys and fleeing the scene in his vehicle,” it says.
It further states that Al-Alikhan was first taken into custody by police in Dearborn, Mich., and later turned over to the Detroit police on Oct. 1. The statement doesn’t say how police learned that Al-Alikhan was the suspected perpetrator.
In addition to first-degree murder, Al-Alikhan has been charged with felony murder and unlawful driving away in an automobile.
“It is hard to fathom a more planned series of events in this case,” prosecutor Kym Worthy said in the statement. “Unfortunately, the set of alleged facts are far too common in the LGBTQ community,” Worthy said. “We will bring justice to Mr. Brisendine. The defendant is 17 years and 11 months old – mere weeks away from being an adult offender under the law.”
She added, “As a result of that and the heinous nature of this crime, we will seek to try him as an adult.”
A spokesperson for the prosecutor’s office said the office has not designated the incident as a hate crime, but said regardless of that designation, a conviction of first-degree murder could result in a sentence of life in prison. The spokesperson, Maria Lewis, said the prosecutor’s office was not initially disclosing the name of the dating app through which the two men met, but said that would be disclosed in court as the case proceeds.
The NBC affiliate station in Detroit, WDIV TV, reported that Brisendine was found deceased by Luis Mandujano, who lives near where Brisendine lived and who owns the Detroit gay bar Gigi’s, where Brisendine worked as a doorman. The NBC station report says Mandujano said he went to Brisendine’s house on Sept. 29 after Brisendine did not show up for work and his car was not at his house.
Mandujano, who is organizing a GoFundMe fundraising effort for Brisendine, states in his message on the GoFundMe site that Brisendine worked as a beloved doorman at Gigi’s bar.
“We will do what we can to honor Howard’s life as we put him to rest,” Mandujano states in his GoFundMe message. “He left the material world in a volatile manner at the hand of a monster that took his life for being gay. Let’s not allow hate to win!”
In response to a Facebook message from the Washington Blade, a spokesperson for Gigi’s said the money raised from the GoFundMe effort will be used for Brisendine’s funeral expenses and his “remaining bills.” The spokesperson, who didn’t disclose their name, added, “Any leftover money will be donated to local LGBTQ nonprofit groups to combat hate.”
The GoFundMe site can be accessed here.
Congress
Baldwin attacked over LGBTQ rights support as race narrows
Wis. Democrat facing off against Republican Eric Hovde
As her race against Republican challenger Eric Hovde tightens, with Cook Political Report projecting a toss-up in November, U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) is fielding attacks over her support for LGBTQ rights.
Two recent ads run by the Senate Leadership Fund, a superPAC that works to elect Republicans to the chamber, take aim at her support for gender affirming care and an LGBTQ center in Wisconsin. Baldwin was the first openly LGBTQ candidate elected to the Senate.
The first ad concerns her statement of support for Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers’s veto of a Republican-led bill to ban medically necessary healthcare interventions for transgender youth in the state.
Treatments require parental consent for patients younger than 18, and genital surgeries are not performed on minors in Wisconsin.
The second ad concerns funding that Baldwin had earmarked for Briarpatch Youth Services, an organization that provides crucial services for at-risk and homeless young people, with some programming for LGBTQ youth.
Baldwin’s victory is seen as key for Democrats to retain control of the Senate, a tall order that would require them to defend a handful of vulnerable incumbents. U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, an Independent who usually votes with the Democrats, is retiring after this term and his replacement is expected to be the state’s Republican Gov. Jim Justice.
National
Supreme Court begins fall term with major gender affirming care case on the docket
Justices rule against Biden admin over emergency abortion question
The U.S. Supreme Court’s fall term began on Monday with major cases on the docket including U.S. v Skrmetti, which could decide the fate of 24 state laws banning the use of puberty blockers and hormone treatments for transgender minors.
First, however, the justices dealt another blow to the Biden-Harris administration and reproductive rights advocates by leaving in place a lower court order that blocked efforts by the federal government to allow hospitals to terminate pregnancies in medical emergencies.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services had issued a guidance instructing healthcare providers to offer abortions in such circumstances, per the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, which kicked off litigation over whether the law overrides state abortion restrictions.
The U.S. Court of appeals for the 5th Circuit had upheld a decision blocking the federal government from enforcing the law via the HHS guidance, and the U.S. Department of Justice subsequently asked the Supreme Court to intervene.
The justices also declined to hear a free speech case in which parents challenged a DOJ memo instructing officials to look into threats against public school officials, which sparked false claims that parents were being labeled “domestic terrorists” for raising objections at school board meetings over, especially, COVID policies and curricula and educational materials addressing matters of race, sexuality, and gender.
Looking to the cases ahead, U.S. v. Skrmetti is “obviously the blockbuster case of the term,” a Supreme Court practitioner and lecturer at the Harvard law school litigation clinic told NPR.
The attorney, Deepak Gupta, said the litigation “presents fundamental questions about the scope of state power to regulate medical care for minors, and the rights of parents to make medical decisions for your children.”
The ACLU, which represents parties in the case, argues that Tennessee’s gender affirming care ban violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment by allowing puberty blockers and hormone treatments for cisgender patients younger than 18 while prohibiting these interventions for their transgender counterparts.
The organization notes that “leading medical experts and organizations — such as the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association, and the American Academy of Pediatrics — oppose these restrictions, which have already forced thousands of families across the country to travel to maintain access to medical care or watch their child suffer without it.”
When passing their bans on gender affirming care, conservative states have cited the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022), which overturned constitutional protections for abortion that were in place since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973.
The ACLU notes “U.S. v. Skrmetti will be a major test of how far the court is willing to stretch Dobbs to allow states to ban other health care” including other types of reproductive care like IVF and birth control.
Also on the docket in the months ahead are cases that will decide core questions about the government’s ability to regulate “ghost guns,” firearms that are made with build-it-yourself kits available online, and the constitutionality of a Texas law requiring age verification to access pornography.
The latter case drew opposition from liberal and conservative groups that argue it will have a chilling effect on adults who, as NPR wrote, “would realistically fear extortion, identity theft and even tracking of their habits by the government and others.”
Estudiantes de la Universidad de El Salvador reclaman respeto para la comunidad LGBTQ+
Biden, other administration officials mark Transgender Day of Remembrance
Quinceañera fashion show raises record-breaking funds
Four men accused of homosexuality beaten, chased out of Nigerian city
Kenyan advocacy group uses social initiatives to fight homophobia
Out in the World: LGBTQ+ news from Europe, Asia, and Oceania
Reports of hate-filled messages under investigation
Kamala Harris’s loss prompts mixed reaction in India
GOP resolution targets Sarah McBride, the first trans member of Congress
Kenyan advocacy group uses social initiatives to fight homophobia
-
World3 days agoOut in the World: LGBTQ+ news from Europe, Asia, and Oceania
-
National3 days agoReports of hate-filled messages under investigation
-
India3 days agoKamala Harris’s loss prompts mixed reaction in India
-
Politics2 days agoGOP resolution targets Sarah McBride, the first trans member of Congress
-
Kenya2 days agoKenyan advocacy group uses social initiatives to fight homophobia
-
Online/Digital Streaming Media2 days agoLGBTQ youth love TikTok. Does TikTok love them back?
-
Nigeria1 day agoFour men accused of homosexuality beaten, chased out of Nigerian city
-
LGBTQ Non-Profit Organizations19 hours agoQuinceañera fashion show raises record-breaking funds
-
National5 hours agoBiden, other administration officials mark Transgender Day of Remembrance
-
Noticias en Español4 hours agoEstudiantes de la Universidad de El Salvador reclaman respeto para la comunidad LGBTQ+