TAKE ACTION

Want to help get the Equality Act passed? Phone bank with us! PFLAG National, in partnership with the NEAT, is providing an opportunity for our members and supporters to talk to voters in target states and patch them through to their Senators’ offices to urge them to vote YES on the Equality Act. Never phone banked before? No worries! Our partner organization, The NEAT, provides a quick training to get you comfortable with using the phone bank tool. You can sign up any time and phonebank whenever is convenient for you. Register here and make some calls for equality!

COURT MATTERS

Supreme Court agrees to hear first gun-rights case in over a decade. In NY State Rifle & Pistol Assoc. v. Corlett, the Court will review a New York law that requires individuals to get a license to carry a concealed gun outside the home. The case will likely be argued in the fall. Read the PFLAG National Gun Violence Prevention policy statement, adopted by the Board of Directors in 2019.

ACLU of D.C. and public defender’s office sue D.C. Dept. of Corrections for housing trans woman in men’s unit of D.C. jail. Sunday Hinton has been housed in the men’s unit since April 26th, according to the lawsuit. “I would like to be housed in a general population women’s unit because I am a transgender woman and identify as a woman,” Hinton said in a statement.

Federal judge dismisses lawsuit against the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference. The suit alleged that Connecticut’s trans-inclusive student athletic policies were hamrful to cis-women and girls. Andraya Yearwood and Terry Miller, two transgender student athletes who were named in the lawsuit, were allowed to join the lawsuit in defense of Connecticut’s inclusive policies. The decision noted that “courts across the country have consistently held that Title IX requires schools to treat transgender students consistent with their gender identity.”

FEDERAL MATTERS

President Biden announces reinstatement of Obama-era rule prohibiting healthcare discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. Under the new policy, the Department of Health and Human Services will once again prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity by health care organizations that receive federal funding. This reverses the previous administration’s policy that said anti-discrimination provisions of the Affordable Care Act of 2010 did not apply to transgender people.

President Biden nominates Catherine Lhamon to lead the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. Lhamon held the same position in the Obama administration, when the Obama administration emphasized tackling sexual assault on college campuses.

House passes Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. The bill would ensure that employers provide reasonable accommodations to pregnant employees that would enable them to keep working while maintaining a healthy pregnancy.

STATE MATTERS

Note: Members of PFLAG can take action on all active bills targeting the trans community at the state level. Visit pflag.org/protecttranskids to take action in your state today. Want to take action and not seeing your state included? Please contact Patrick Cochran, Advocacy and Policy Engagement Senior Coordinator, to have your state legislators added!

Alabama - Governor Kay Ivey signs sex ed bill removing inaccurate and stigmatizing language LGBTQ+ people. Previously, Alabama state law required that sexuality education emphasize “that homosexuality is not a lifestyle acceptable to the general public” and “homosexual conduct is a criminal offense under the laws of the state.”

Florida - Gov. DeSantis says he will sign trans athlete ban bill. Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a Fox News town hall, “We’re going to protect our girls...They deserve an even playing field, and that’s what we’re doing.”. PFLAG National and Equality Florida urge Floridians to call the Governor’s office at 850.717.9337 now to oppose signing.

Georgia - Trans woman shot and killed in Brookhaven. 36-year-old Sophia Arrieta Vasquez was murdered at her apartment on May 4th. She became the 23rd trans person, most of whom--including Sophia--were women of color, to be reported as murdered in 2021.

Atlanta police warn LGBTQ+ community of robberies people using the gay dating app Grindr. Atlanta police say they’ve identified at least eight people who were robbed since February, calling it “a very concerning pattern,” noting that some incidents may have gone unreported.

Kansas - State Legislature upholds Gov. Kelly’s veto of trans athlete ban. The Kansas Senate was one vote short of overriding Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto of the legislation.

Kentucky - Fayette County bans so-called conversion therapy. On May 6th, the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council voted unanimously to pass a conversion therapy ban ordinance. City officials said the ban takes effect immediately.

Montana - Gov. Gianforte signs trans athlete ban. Montana becomes the seventh state to enact such legislation this year, after Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, South Dakota, Tennessee, and West Virginia.

Texas - Trans athlete ban advances in State House. Rep. Harold Dutton (D-Houston), House Public Education Committee Chair, revived SB 29 on May 7th and it passed out of committee. He reraised the bill as retaliation because an unrelated bill of his failed to pass earlier.

Washington - Seattle Police Department affirms support for LGBTQ officers and rejects "Appreciation Dinner" invitation from Pastor Franklin Graham. City Council President Lorena Gonzalez objected to the invitation for the May 11th event, and SPD declined it as well.

GLOBAL MATTERS

Canada - Ontario Catholic school district mandates LGBTQ+ awareness and staff training for Pride. The Halton Catholic District School Board failed to pass a proposal to fly the LGBT Pride flag outside schools in June, and instead voted to “raise awareness around Pride Month,'' mandate staff training and request a review from Ontario’s Education Minister.

Iran - Young gay man murdered by family in “honor killing.” Alireza Fazeli Monfared, who was 20 years old, was planning to flee Iran for Turkey and then seek asylum in Norway or Sweden. Arsham Parsi, a Toronto-based, Iranian gay-rights activist and head of the International Railroad for Queer Refugees, said, "There's no guarantee that this won't happen again until our society becomes educated and informed.”

Japan - Japan’s LGBTQ+ and other orgs oppose proposed so-called “LGBT Equality Act” that offers no protections The bill requires the government to “promote understanding of LGBT people but fails to include nondiscrimination protections or enforcement and thereby fails to uphold the Olympic charter.

Lithuania - Lithuanian artist raises money for LGBT groups with art installation. Erikas Malisauskas raised over $6,000 with his work, titled "Hate Speech Cloud," which consists of 400 offensive messages addressed to Tomas Raskevicius, the first LGBTQ+ rights activist elected to Parliament. The messages are bundled and shaped like a cloud.

United Kingdom - Queen Elizabeth II announces government will ban so-called conversion therapy. In her annual address to the House of Lords, written by the government to set out its agenda, the Queen said that measures “will be brought forward to address racial and ethnic disparities and ban conversion therapy.”

United Kingdom - Bangor, Wales elects world’s first-known nonbinary mayor. Owen Hurcum, 23, is genderqueer and agender, and was elected unanimously last year by the City Council in Bangor, Wales. Hurcum takes office May 17th.

MEDIA MATTERS

TUNE IN: Join us on Sunday, May 23rd at 2pm ET/11am PT for PFLAG Parent Day (#PFLAGParentDay), a celebration of all of the parenting people—moms, dads, and nonbinary parents; parents by blood, foster care, and adoption; found/chosen family; educators, healthcare workers, and more—who show up for LGBTQ+ folks. We'll have great conversations, musical performances, and fun surprise appearances, live on Facebook and YouTube (both with closed captions available), with additional #PFLAGParentDay content on Instagram. Visit pflag.org/pflagparentday for more information and to set a tune-in reminder!

At least eight openly transgender athletes competing in Tokyo Olympic Games this summer. Until this point, an openly trans athlete has never competed in the Olympics, and Tokyo is set to change that. The hopefuls hail from five different countries and include Olympic vets who weren’t previously out, as well as promising young competitors. PFLAG New Hampshire is proud to support track and field athlete CeCé Telfer, who was the first openly trans woman to win an NCAA championship when she won the Division II 400m hurdles in 2019

NCAA announces preliminary host schools for Division I Softball Championship- including schools in states with trans athlete bans. The list of 20 possible host schools included schools in Alabama, Arkansas and Tennessee, all of which recently passed laws banning transgender girls and women from competing in women's sports teams. The final list of 16 schools that will host games in the tournament's regional round will be announced May 16. GLAAD and Athlete Ally are pushing the NCAA to not host championships in states that ban trans athletes.

Evangelical Lutheran Church elects first out trans bishop. Rev. Megan Rohrer was elected to a six-year term as bishop of the Sierra Pacific synod, an assembly based in Sacramento that includes about 200 congregations across Northern and Central California and northern Nevada. Pastor Rohrer said in an email, “I pray that my election by the faithful people of the Sierra Pacific Synod will become a constant reminder that God’s fabulous love is never limited by the opinions or legislation of others.”

2021 breaks record for most anti-LGBTQ+ legislation passed in one calendar year. 17 anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been signed into law this year, breaking the previous record of 15 set in 2015. An additional 11 anti-LGBT+ bills are sitting on governors’ desks waiting to be signed into law or vetoed while dozens more are moving through state legislatures across the country.

Top platforms are unsafe for LGBTQ community, new GLAAD report says. The report comes a few months after those surveyed in a Pew Research Center study in January said about 68% of lesbian, gay or bisexual adults who said they have been harassed online think it occurred because of their sexual orientation. Check out the May 13th episode of Something to Talk About Live, where we discussed the report and its ramifications for our LGBTQ+ loved ones.