TAKE ACTION

Tell us why you support the Equality Act. The Equality Act would amend the 1964 Civil Rights Act to protect LGBTQ+ people, too. Without the Equality Act, LGBTQ+ people are not protected from discrimination in housing, education, health care, banking, voting, access to public spaces, adoption, and much more. Lawmakers are persuaded by their own constituents, people whom they meet and hear from directly - or whom their local media highlights. Sharing your story about how discrimination has affected you and your family could help get the Equality Act passed. Please let us know if you are willing to share your or your family's experience with anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination. Parents, grandparents, and caregivers who love their LGBTQ+ kids and LGBTQ+ people, inclusive of BIPOC LGBTQ+ and BIPOC trans people are especially encouraged to participate.

COURT MATTERS

Supreme Court of the United States rules that workplace discrimination against LGBTQ+ people is prohibited under Title VII. In a 6-3 vote, SCOTUS ruled on June 15th that firing, failing to hire, or not promoting a person based upon their sexual orientation or gender identity is illegal under sex discrimination.

FEDERAL MATTERS

Newest appointee to USAID has spoken out against the LGBTQ+ community. Merritt Corrigan was last week tapped to be the White House’s deputy liaison at the US Agency for International Development, as reported by ProPublica. USAID is a federal agency responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance.

U.S. House passes DC statehood bill for first time in history. With a vote of 218-169 with 44 non-voting members, the House of Representatives made history by passing a bill to make Washington, DC a state. The bill had 220 co-sponsors.

US Department of Health and Human Services announces removal of protections for transgender people. On June 12th, HHS stated that they would be removing federal protections against healthcare discrimination for transgender individuals. These removals would eliminate the healthcare protections to safeguard transgender individuals from discrimination. Representative Joseph P. Kennedy III spoke out against the anti-trans healthcare rule. Chairing the Transgender Working Group of the Congressional LBGT Equality Caucus, Rep. Kennedy said that the policy is “indefensible” in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling on Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

STATE MATTERS

Florida - State remembers Pulse victims four years after mass shooting. Floridians honored victims of the violent and deadly act against the Orlando LGBTQ+ community on June 12th. On Pulse Remembrance Day, all flags in Florida were ordered to fly at half staff.

Jacksonville LGBTQ+ leaders in the Black Lives Matter movement ask for police to be transparent in cases involving transgender victims. After the murders of three transgender women within the span of three months in 2018, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office created an LGBTQ liaison team. Organizers are calling on the JSO to be more transparent in regard to these and other cases involving trangender women.

Idaho - NCAA considers moving tournament games out of Idaho due to discriminatory law that bans transgender athletes. The National College Athletic Association has stated that they will consider moving championship tournaments out of Idaho due to the state’s recent law that bans transgender athletes from participating in publicly sponsored sporting events.

Illinois - Chicago teen faces murder charges in the death of 37-year-old trans woman. Detectives reported that the offender allegedly shot Selena Reyes-Hernandez once discovering she was transgender. Her death is the 16th reported violent death of a transgender or gender-expansive person this year.

Indiana - Newburgh businessman targeted with anti-LGBTQ+ poster. An artist found an anti-LGBTQ+ poster outside of his home after he displayed a rainbow flag in his window.

Kansas - Senate candidates target trans youth in an ongoing campaign against trans rights. Sen. Kris Kobach, Sen. Roger Marshall and Sen. Bob Hamilton have denounced last week’s SCOTUS ruling in favor of nondiscrimination in employment for LGBTQ+ people. Tom Witt, the executive director of Equality Kansas, and Stephanie Byers, a trans woman running for the Kansas House, have called this part of a pattern meant to divide voters.

Missouri - Openly gay Black bishop ordained in the Episcopal Diocese of Missouri. Rt. Rev. Deon Johnson, the first black gay bishop in the 179 year history of the diocese, addressed the people of Missouri saying “...we have a whole new story to tell and a whole new boldness to tell it with. So I look forward to the adventure.”

New York - New report on the death of Afro-Latinx trans woman at Rikers suggests jail missteps. Layleen Xtravaganza Cubilette-Polanco passed away in June 2019 due to an epileptic seizure, though recent evidence in her case reveals that her death might be attributed to the jail’s institutional failures regarding mental health.

Pennsylvania - Suspect in Dominique “Rem’mie” Fells murder case revealed. Fells, a Black transgender woman, was found dead in Philadelphia’s Schuykill River on June 8th.

South Carolina - Spartanburg-based “conversion therapy” group closes its doors. Hope for Wholeness, a group that promoted “freedom from homosexuality through Jesus Christ,” has announced that it will be disbanding. Mathew Shurka of the Born Perfect project has stated, “This is enormous for a lot of reasons [...] Hope for Wholeness is a well-known conversion therapy organization that has cheated lots of people.”

Texas - Dallas City Hall to fly the Pride flag for the month of June. Dallas City Hall Plaza has announced that it will continue to display the Pride flag in all future Pride months.

GLOBAL MATTERS

United Nations - The United Nations releases statement denouncing conversion therapy. The U.N. has stated that conversion therapy should be outlawed globally and has cited studies such as their own independent research to back up the denouncment of this practice.

Egypt- Egyptian LGBTQ+ activist dies in exile in Toronto. Activist Sarah Hegazi died by suicide whilst in exile in Canada. She was arrested in 2017 after flying a rainbow flag at a concert in Egypt, and was granted asylum in Toronto in 2018.

Gabon - Lawmakers vote to reverse law criminalizing homosexuality. As the bill moves to a vote in the Senate, Gabon will soon join South Africa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola, Botswana, and many more nations on the African continent to legalize LGBTQ+ relationships.

Poland - Polish public broadcaster bans television advertisement featuring same-sex couple. A Durex condoms commercial was pulled from Polish television after featuring husbands Dawid Mycek and Jakub Kwiecinski.

Activists for LGBTQ+ rights in Poland protest President Andrzej Duda’s campaign. One hundred activists gathered in Warsaw to protest Duda’s anti-LGBTQ+ remarks. President Duda had previously promised to enact anti-LGBTQ+ legislation if reelected.

Jewish community leaders in Warsaw oppose anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric of President Andrzej Duda. The Board of the Jewish Community of Warsaw has stated disappointment with the anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric being used throughout the presidential election campaign.

Romania - LGBTQ+ rights activists oppose ban on gender-identity studies in schools and universities. Activists have openly opposed a recent law that bans all gender-identity studies in Romanian classrooms. Certain groups have stated that this ban will push education “back to the Middle Ages.”

United Kingdom - ‘Hate comments’ cause children’s drag queen story-telling event to be cancelled. The virtual event received a significant number of anti-LGBTQ+ remarks, prompting city council to pull drag queen Aida H Dee’s performance last minute.

MEDIA MATTERS

Lifetime to re-air two PFLAG National-partnered movies: Find your air-time here. On Monday, June 29th, Lifetime will re-air Prayers for Bobby and Trapped: The Alex Cooper Story. Prayers for Bobby won the 2010 GLAAD Award for Outstanding TV Movie or Mini-Series, and star Sigourney Weaver--who was nominated for both an Emmy and a Golden Globe award for her portrayal of PFLAG mom Mary Griffith--received a PFLAG National Straight for Equality in Entertainment award in support of her work. The real Mary Griffith passed away earlier this year.

Disclosure: Trans Lives on Screen now out on Netflix. The documentary explores the representation of transgender storylines in movies and TV. Director Sam Feder and PFLAG friend producer Laverne Cox know that 80% of Americans have never met a trans person, so they created this movie to confront the negative tropes about trans people in film. PFLAG National is a proud official partner on this film.

Welcome to Chechnya to premiere on HBO, June 30th. PFLAG National is proud to partner on this new documentary from Academy Award-nominated director David France. Welcome to Chechnya is a powerful and eye-opening documentary about a group of activists risking their lives to confront the ongoing anti-LGBTQ persecution in the repressive and closed Russian republic of Chechnya.

Over 15,000 gather in Brooklyn, NY to show that #BlackTransLivesMatter. 40,000 demonstrators in other cities made June 14th the largest gathering on record in support of Black trans liberation.

Nickelodeon tweets a photo of Spongebob Squarepants to celebrate Pride Month. On June 13th, television network Nickelodeon tweeted a photo of their character Spongebob Squarepants in a post dedicated to Pride Month. This post led to discussion about the character’s potential LGBTQ+ identity, and many fans believe that the post confirms that Spongebob is asexual.

Sesame Street celebrates LGBTQ+ Pride Month with a Rainbow Muppet message on Facebook. The beloved PBS television show wrote, "On our street, we accept all, we love all, and we respect all. Happy #PrideMonth!"

Come Together Kentucky Connections Pen Pal Program connects LGBTQ+ students during COVID-19. Several universities in Kentucky have partnered to begin a pen pal program for LGBTQ+ students who are feeling lonely during the pandemic.

Disney actress Raven-Symoné Christina Pearman marries Miranda Maday. The That’s So Raven and Raven’s Home actress married her girlfriend in a small, backyard ceremony.