TAKE ACTION

Tell your Senators: Honor free and fair elections in the next COVID-19 stimulus package; include the Voting Rights Restoration Act.

COVID-19 relief funding is stalled in the Senate, and we need your help.Tell your Senators we’re watching and expect responsible action promptly. That includes funding states so that they can hold free and fair elections while also keeping voters safe during this COVID-19 pandemic. Here’s how to take action:

Find your Senators, and call them. [If they are not available, give the message to the staffer who answers, and be sure to thank them!]
On the call, give your NAME, ADDRESS, ZIP CODE, and PHONE NUMBER and share the following PFLAG message:

I’m calling as your constituent and as a member/supporter of PFLAG. I urge you to include the Voting Rights Restoration Act and election provisions in the next COVID-19 stimulus package. Voters have the right to be safe, and that includes promoting public health and public safety connected to this election season.

Thank you for taking action!

COURT MATTERS

Appeals court upholds ‘public charge’ ruling keeping Trump administration from reducing public benefits for immigrants. The ruling from a three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, now allows Connecticut, New York, and Vermont green card applicants to utilize previously barred public benefits such as food stamps.

FEDERAL MATTERS

Letter to NIH results in leading COVID-19 Vaccine Trials to include HIV+ people. Two manufacturers, Moderna and Pfizer, have agreed to include HIV+ people in their Phase III clinical trials. Moderna’s trials are partially federally funded. PFLAG National was among the inaugural signers of the letter to NIH Director Francis Collins that garnered more than 1,000 signatures as it progressed.

Dr. Fauci says there is no clear evidence that HIV heightens COVID-19 risk. Speaking at the 2020 International AIDS Conference in early July, Fauci discussed how knowledge on HIV in relation to the coronavirus is still evolving, though it is clear how the virus disproportionately affects marginalized communities.

LGBTQ+ rights issues largely excluded from State Department’s human rights commission report. The controversial commission came out with the 60-page report, which also included remarks criticizing the U.N. Human Rights Council, a group that has been very supportive of the global LGBTQ+ community in recent years.

ICE’s violence against detained migrants increases significantly during the protests and the pandemic. ICE does not report on its use-of-force unless requested by the media, and it does not compile this data from its 200+ detention centers, government-funded or private.

Widely criticized presidential USAID appointee, Merritt Corrigan, departs the agency after anti-LGBTQ+ tweets. [Note: The tweets are quoted in the linked article; read cautiously for self-protection.] Following numerous tweets which included anti-LGBTQ+ language, Corrigan was no longer employed with the agency.

STATE MATTERS

California - March and vigil held for murdered 22-year-old transgender Latinx woman. A live stream of the August 1st event is available online. Additionally, the hashtag #WeAreMarilyn is being used on social media to honor Marilyn and all those who have lost their lives to anti-transgender violence. The livestream features messages from the family that will resonate with PFLAGers.

California begins the collection of LGBTQ+ specific data relating to COVID-19 and other reportable diseases. California is now the first state to collect data regarding sexual orientation and gender identity and the pandemic. Health officials are researching the impact of the healthcare crisis specifically within the LGBTQ+ community.

Georgia - Savannah City Council passes fully inclusive anti-discrimination ordinance. Passed unanimously, the ordinance also improves hate crime reporting by law enforcement, making it the ninth city in Georgia to pass such legislation. The ordinance defines hate crimes, requires hate crimes training for law enforcement, and protects from discrimination in housing.

Massachusetts - Suspect arrested and charged for assaulting a gay man. The victim was attacked outside of his home, where he had been flying a Pride flag.

New York - New York county makes huge strides in prison reform for transgender and gender-nonconforming inmates. The new policy in Steuben County includes protections that recognize names, clothing, searches, grooming items, housing, and healthcare.

North Dakota - Gov. Doug Burgum (R) blasts his party’s platform in defense of LGBTQ+ people. Emphasizing the need for equality and freedom from discrimination, the governor publically rejected his party’s statements on LGBTQ+ people.

Utah - Salt Lake City School District apologizes for printing a transphobic statement in a high school yearbook. The principal of the high school in question condemned the message, calling it “an affront to our LGBTQIA+ community in particular.”

GLOBAL MATTERS

Austria - Alex Juergen wins the right to an intersex birth certificate. After a four-year legal battle with the Austrian government, Juergen’s birth certificate now says intersex instead of other.

El Salvador - Salvadorian police officers convicted for murder of trans woman. Deported from the U.S. in 2018 despite seeking asylum as a trans woman, Camila Díaz Córdova returned to El Salvador where she was killed by three police officers in 2019. As of July 28th, each officer has been sentenced to 20 years in prison, marking the first time in the country that someone was convicted for killing a transgender person.

India - Prince Manvendra Singh Gohli joins calls to ban conversion therapy. A survivor of conversion therapy himself, the prince called for the swift end of the practice both in India and worldwide.

Lebanon - LGBTQ+ Organization, Helem, Executive Director Tarek Zeidan speaks out about the state of LGBTQ+ people in Lebanon. Zeidan discussed rising domestic violence calls to Helem’s hotline, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, and discrimination against single LGBTQ+ people seeking food assistance. This interview took place before the Beirut Blast on August 4th, which has killed more than 100 people and injured thousands.

Mexico - Mexico City bans conversion therapy. Those who practice conversion therapy will now face five years in prison, or longer if they perform this so-called therapy on minors.

Poland - The European Union bars six anti-LGBTQ Polish towns from a local fund program. Now excluded from joining the EU Town Twinning Program, the Polish towns stepped into controversy last month when they declared themselves “free of the LGBTQ+ ideology.”

Saudi Arabia - Saudi Court jails Yemeni blogger for supporting LGBTQ+ rights. The blogger, named Mohamad al-Bokari, tweeted his views supporting equal rights, granting him prison time, a large fine, and deportation.

Thailand - Hundreds of Thai LGBTQ+ activists call for the government to step down. Largely youth-led, the street rallies fighting for democracy and LGBTQ+ rights were some of the largest protests since a 2014 coup.

United Kingdom - Barclays closes the bank account of a charity which provides conversion therapy. Barclays received criticism from LGBTQ+ advocacy groups for their “hypocrisy” in continuing to provide services to conversion therapists while being a sponsor of LGBTQ+ events including London Pride.

MEDIA MATTERS

Director Lilly Wachowski confirms that The Matrix is a trans allegory. After twenty-one years of speculation, Wachowski outright stated the underlying themes were meant to parallel her transgender experience.

Lady Red Couture, an iconic drag queen from LA, dies at 43. She hosted the YouTube series “Hey Qween” and was loved by all who knew her.

Stars from Pose speak out against 2020 Emmy nominations. The groundbreaking show only received one nomination for cisgender gay actor, Billy Porter, despite the cast including mostly Black, Trans actors. Indya Moore and Angelica Ross communicated their frustration with the issue on social media.

Queasha Hardy and Tiffany Harris are the 24th and 25th trans people reported as killed in 2020. Hardy was killed in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Harris was killed in New York.

Lifetime to air holiday film with LGBTQ+ storyline. The television network announced that The Christmas Setup will center its plot around a romance between two LGBTQ+ characters.

Swedish pop star Darin Zanyar comes out as gay. His announcement coincided with the upcoming Stockholm Pride celebration; Darin came out via Instagram.

Movie about Dante “Tex” Gill will be reworked as a TV series by trans writer, Our Lady J. Rub & Tug made headlines in 2018 for casting Scarlett Johansen, a cisgender woman, in the lead role as a trans man. This gangster drama, set in 1970s Pittsburgh, will star a trans actor as Dante “Tex” Gill.

DEAR POLICY MATTERS

Dear Policy Matters:

While much is anticipated about clinical trials on one or two vaccines for COVID-19, I wonder what this might mean for women, people of color, LGBTQ+ people and anyone with HIV, especially people who live at the intersections, such as an HIV+ Black transgender lesbian, for example. I hear so much competing and contradictory information, and I wonder if a study exists that takes a look at the current landscape for any of these marginalized communities in the face of COVID-19 as we await vaccine trials to move forward.

Signed,
COVID-19 Vaccine Concerned

Dear CVC:

As noted above in Federal Matters, two pharma companies driving COVID-19 vaccine trials have agreed to include people with HIV in the phase III trials. However, that’s not comprehensive by population or by breadth of coverage.

Our friends at the Center for American Progress (CAP) have released a new report titled "Toward Equitable Treatments for Women’s Health During Coronavirus and Beyond," which documents the disproportionate exclusion of women and transgender men plus non-binary people, pregnant people, and people of color in data and clinical trials. The report also punctuates the exclusion of people at the intersections of those communities.

Here are some key recommendations from the report:

Disaggregating data across multiple factors, such as sex, gender, and race, for prevalence and research findings
Requiring clinical researchers to assess therapies’ impacts on women and pregnant people
Encouraging researchers to engage in targeted outreach to guarantee adequate representation
Pressing lawmakers, agencies, and the research community to build trust in communities where trust has been broken
Ensuring Congress and federal agencies exercise their oversight and enforcement authority to guarantee equitable research

The report notes that currently and historically, women are underrepresented in medical data and research.

Thank you for asking.