Judy Kurtz
Tue, June 20, 2023
Elton John is denouncing anti-LGBTQ legislation being introduced across the United States, saying there’s a “growing well of anger and homophobia that’s around America.”
“I don’t like it at all,” the “Rocket Man” singer said in an interview with Radio Times published this week and cited by multiple outlets.
“It’s all going pear-shaped in America,” the 76-year-old performer and longtime LGBTQ rights advocate said, calling “laws enacted” in Florida “disgraceful.”
“We seem to be going backwards,” said John, who received the National Humanities Medal from President Biden last year. “And that spreads. It’s like a virus that the LGBTQ+ movement is suffering.”
More than 490 bills targeting LGBTQ Americans have been introduced in at least 45 states this year, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Fifty-seven of those bills have become law, the ACLU said.
Last month, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed four LGBTQ-related bills, including legislation that bans gender-affirming medical care for transgender youths and expands a state education law that limits classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Italian prosecutor demands cancellation of birth certificates for lesbian couples
: Annual LGBTQ+ Pride parade in Rome
Tue, June 20, 2023
By Crispian Balmer and Francesca Piscioneri
ROME (Reuters) - A state prosecutor in northern Italy has demanded the cancellation of 33 birth certificates of children born to lesbian couples dating back to 2017, saying the name of the non-biological mother should be removed.
The move by the prosecutor of Padua, which came to light late on Monday, highlighted the legal morass facing gay families in Italy. It came months after Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's government ordered city councils to stop registering same-sex parents' children.
Italy legalised same-sex civil unions in 2016 under a centre-left government, but stopped short of giving couples full adoption rights, fearing that it would encourage surrogate pregnancies, which remain illegal.
In the absence of clear legislation on the issue some courts have ruled in favour of allowing such couples to adopt each others' children, and mayors of some cities, including Padua, have registered births to both partners from same-sex unions.
However, the prosecutor of Padua, Valeria Sanzari, opened a legal case this month, saying that 33 birth certificates signed by the city mayor since 2017 should be changed, with the name of the non-biological mother removed.
A court will rule on her requests later this year.
The prosecutor's initiative outraged Italy's LGBTQ+ community.
"These children are being orphaned by decree," said centre-left parliamentarian Alessandro Zan, who has pushed for gay rights in Italy. "This is a cruel, inhumane decision," he added.
Removing the name of a parent from a birth certificate creates both bureaucratic hurdles and emotional strains.
The mother whose name is eliminated will no longer be able to fulfil a series of tasks, including picking up her child from school without the written permission of her partner. If the legally recognised parent dies, the children could be taken from the family home and become a ward of the state.
To regain her parenting rights, the non-biological mother has to go through a lengthy and expensive special adoption procedure.
The government defended the prosecutor's decision.
"In Italy, marriage is only between a man and a woman, and therefore only the biological parent is the parent whose surname can be registered," Luca Ciriani, the minister for parliamentary relations, told RTL radio on Tuesday.
Italy's lower house is currently debating a law that would make it a crime, punishable by up to two years in jail, for couples who go abroad to have a surrogate baby, even in places where it is legal, such as the United States or Canada.
Meloni, a self-declared enemy of what she calls "gender ideology" and "the LGBT lobby", faces increasing scrutiny from abroad over her highly conservative agenda for families.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told Meloni publicly at a summit of Group of Seven leaders in Japan last month that Canada was "concerned" about some of the positions that Italy was taking in terms of LGBTQ+ rights.
(Additional reporting by Alvise Armellini, editing by Frank Jack Daniel)
: Annual LGBTQ+ Pride parade in Rome
Tue, June 20, 2023
By Crispian Balmer and Francesca Piscioneri
ROME (Reuters) - A state prosecutor in northern Italy has demanded the cancellation of 33 birth certificates of children born to lesbian couples dating back to 2017, saying the name of the non-biological mother should be removed.
The move by the prosecutor of Padua, which came to light late on Monday, highlighted the legal morass facing gay families in Italy. It came months after Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's government ordered city councils to stop registering same-sex parents' children.
Italy legalised same-sex civil unions in 2016 under a centre-left government, but stopped short of giving couples full adoption rights, fearing that it would encourage surrogate pregnancies, which remain illegal.
In the absence of clear legislation on the issue some courts have ruled in favour of allowing such couples to adopt each others' children, and mayors of some cities, including Padua, have registered births to both partners from same-sex unions.
However, the prosecutor of Padua, Valeria Sanzari, opened a legal case this month, saying that 33 birth certificates signed by the city mayor since 2017 should be changed, with the name of the non-biological mother removed.
A court will rule on her requests later this year.
The prosecutor's initiative outraged Italy's LGBTQ+ community.
"These children are being orphaned by decree," said centre-left parliamentarian Alessandro Zan, who has pushed for gay rights in Italy. "This is a cruel, inhumane decision," he added.
Removing the name of a parent from a birth certificate creates both bureaucratic hurdles and emotional strains.
The mother whose name is eliminated will no longer be able to fulfil a series of tasks, including picking up her child from school without the written permission of her partner. If the legally recognised parent dies, the children could be taken from the family home and become a ward of the state.
To regain her parenting rights, the non-biological mother has to go through a lengthy and expensive special adoption procedure.
The government defended the prosecutor's decision.
"In Italy, marriage is only between a man and a woman, and therefore only the biological parent is the parent whose surname can be registered," Luca Ciriani, the minister for parliamentary relations, told RTL radio on Tuesday.
Italy's lower house is currently debating a law that would make it a crime, punishable by up to two years in jail, for couples who go abroad to have a surrogate baby, even in places where it is legal, such as the United States or Canada.
Meloni, a self-declared enemy of what she calls "gender ideology" and "the LGBT lobby", faces increasing scrutiny from abroad over her highly conservative agenda for families.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told Meloni publicly at a summit of Group of Seven leaders in Japan last month that Canada was "concerned" about some of the positions that Italy was taking in terms of LGBTQ+ rights.
(Additional reporting by Alvise Armellini, editing by Frank Jack Daniel)
Most Americans oppose religious-based bias against LGBTQ people, defying growing wave of restrictions
Marc Ramirez, USA TODAY
Tue, June 20, 2023
Most American adults – including two-thirds of those identifying as Catholics or Christians – disagree with religious-based denial of medical care, employment, or other services to LGBTQ individuals, a national poll has found.
The results reflect Americans’ increasing support of LGBTQ rights and protections, in sharp contrast to a growing wave of legislation and legal action nationwide chipping away at such rights and protections.
Chris Erchull, attorney for GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD), said the findings show most Americans believe in treating each other fairly.
“This poll shows that the current campaign of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation and efforts to weaken existing nondiscrimination protections is out of step with what the majority of Americans want," Erchull said. ".... Targeting one community with harmful legislation is not a winning political strategy long-term and runs contrary to core principles in our democracy.”
Similar sentiments were expressed by Christy Mallory, legal director for the Williams Institute and one of the study's authors.
“Recent efforts by some state legislatures to expand religious exemptions from LGBTQ-inclusive non-discrimination laws are largely out of alignment with the views of most Americans,” she said in a release accompanying the findings.
A record number of anti-LGBTQ bills
As of May 23, the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ civil rights group, had tallied a record 520 anti-LGBTQ bills introduced in legislatures this year, with more than 40% of those targeting transgender and nonbinary people. More than 125 bills would ban transgender youth from accessing gender-affirming care.
Additionally, a recent report found the number of LGBTQ-hostile states on the rise, reflecting the growing amount of legislation targeting gender-affirming care, reducing protections for transgender people, and limiting discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court is expected to rule this year in the case of Colorado web designer Lorie Smith, who is asking the state not to compel her to create web pages for same-sex weddings, which she said conflict with her religious beliefs. LGBTQ advocates fear a decision in Smith's favor could have more far-reaching consequences.
Activists wave progress pride flags as they and hundreds of others march toward the Capitol in a Queer Capitol March on Saturday, April 15, 2023, in Austin. Activists gathered to protest recent anti-LGBTQ legislation in Texas.
The survey findings were gleaned from a national poll of 1,003 U.S. adults conducted in September 2022 and commissioned by nonpartisan research firm NORC at the University of Chicago in partnership with the Williams Institute, a think tank dedicated to gender identity and sexual orientation research at the University of California Los Angeles School of Law.
More than 8 in 10 respondents (84%) opposed allowing medical professionals to cite religious beliefs as a reason to deny care to LGBTQ people, while 74% said they were against letting employers deny jobs to LGBTQ individuals. About 7 in 10 (71%) said they objected to business owners citing religious beliefs as a reason for denying LGBTQ people service.
The majorities were consistent across political affiliations, religions, race, ethnicity and gender, the poll found. Women, people of color and Democrats were most likely to say they opposed discrimination against LGBTQ people on religious grounds, including more than 80% of Black respondents.
Democrats were far more likely (92%) than Republicans (71%) to oppose religious-based discrimination against LGBTQ individuals in terms of medical care, as well as business services (90% to 52%) and employment (89% to 54%).
In terms of gender differences, women were likelier (86%) than men (81%) to oppose religious-based discrimination by medical professionals, as well as by business owners (76% to 67%) and employers (79% to 69%).
Opposition to bias lowest among the most religious
When broken down by religious attendance, those regularly frequenting religious services were least likely to oppose religious-based denial of such services to LGBTQ people, though those who did still represented a majority of the group. Just 53% of that category opposed religious-based discrimination against LGBTQ people on the part of business owners, while 59% opposed such bias from employers and 71% from medical providers.
Opposition was highest among those who never attended services, with at least 8 in 10 among that group objecting to allowing religious-based discrimination by medical professionals (89%), employers (82%) and business owners (80%).
The findings, the study authors said, should give pause to policymakers, business owners and service providers given the growing pattern of restrictions against LGBTQ people.
While LGBTQ people are not explicitly protected from discrimination at the federal level, laws banning sex-based discrimination have been interpreted to extend to members of the LGBTQ community. Additionally, 33 states and the District of Columbia also provide discrimination protections in areas such as employment, housing and public accommodations.
Earlier this month, Human Rights Campaign issued its first "state of emergency" in its more than 40-year history after more than 75 anti-LGBTQ bills had been passed in state legislatures in 2023.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: LGBTQ people: Americans largely oppose religious-based discrimination
Pride of place: The world has changed for the better
Bruce Anderson
Tue, June 20, 2023
Ledger Columnist Bruce Anderson in Lakeland Fl Thursday December 22,2022.Ernst Peters/The Ledger
June is Pride Month - a celebration of the gay, lesbian, and transgender members of our community and their continuing struggle for acceptance. But it’s really more than that. It is a festival of recognition of the wonderful diversity of this great country, and the folks who make it up.
Few nations on earth have the amazingly varied population of the U.S. and each group has had to push and shove and demand acceptance. But people of wide-ranging sexual orientations and gender identities are everywhere. LGBTQ+ people make up about 10% of the earth’s population and when you add in folks that are not sure where they fit, but do not directly identify as one thing or another, that number goes up – perhaps way up.
As with every other group demanding equal treatment under the law, the LGBTQ+ community has had to struggle. For one thing, sexual orientation and gender identity is elusive. It only becomes real when someone is transparent - when someone comes out.
Hiding or being “in the closet” was, for centuries, the norm – people pretending to be someone they emphatically were not. Why? Often simply being yourself was illegal – you could literally do time for being gay. So, few were “out” that those few could be easily marginalized and ostracized from the wider society. The weird and unnatural phobia against the other could be easily reinforced against the few.
What turned the tide? Honesty. When the coming out movement evolutionarily spun a wider and wider circle, the LGBTQ+ community became undeniable. In a matter of a decade or two, everyone straight suddenly had brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, kids, longtime friends, and casual acquaintances who were not. Longtime LGBTQ+ antagonists had to confront the reality that being against it would mean being against people they knew and loved.
The political experience of the new century has been one where folks of all sorts were being assimilated into the mainstream, becoming part of the great experiment: diversity was celebrated for its contribution to the whole – marginalizing folks was no longer on. This does not mean that homophobia did not exist – of course it did – but it was massively reduced on both sides of the aisle and, for the stubborn bigots who still felt that way, falling rapidly out of fashion to display it.
But there has been an inexplicable reactionary backlash: it is now trendy to marginalize LGBTQ+ folks again, in some circles.
Proclamations of support for Pride events have come under fire, with some polities abandoning them altogether. Despite widespread acceptance, laws that threaten this community are being filed and passed across the red states, and the blundering bigotry of fringe groups – ever a threat to peace – are becoming more open, more violent, and more public.
Political appeals to the base of the GOP – primary voters, for the most part, in the upcoming election – have been geared to the apparent lowest common denominator. I write “apparent” because I suspect that any return to the gross homophobia of the past will force politicians onto a third rail. In addition to its inherent dreadfulness, this strategy won’t work. The political base of the GOP has interests quite different from those of Democrats, to be sure, but the general acceptance of LGBTQ+ people is something most people share, regardless of political party.
LGBTQ+ folks are out now more than ever and pushing this brand of crass ugliness about who people are is a likely loser in most primaries, and in the few places where it isn’t, it is a likely a death sentence in the general election.
The world has changed. And for the better.
Pride celebrations are community celebrations and celebrate the whole of the community. Let’s be sure the message is always clear that “our community” means everyone.
Bruce Anderson is the Dr. Sarah D. and L. Kirk McKay Jr. Endowed Chair in American History, Government, and Civics and Miller Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Florida Southern College. He is also a columnist for The Ledger.
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Pride of place: The world has changed for the better
Bruce Anderson
Tue, June 20, 2023
Ledger Columnist Bruce Anderson in Lakeland Fl Thursday December 22,2022.Ernst Peters/The Ledger
June is Pride Month - a celebration of the gay, lesbian, and transgender members of our community and their continuing struggle for acceptance. But it’s really more than that. It is a festival of recognition of the wonderful diversity of this great country, and the folks who make it up.
Few nations on earth have the amazingly varied population of the U.S. and each group has had to push and shove and demand acceptance. But people of wide-ranging sexual orientations and gender identities are everywhere. LGBTQ+ people make up about 10% of the earth’s population and when you add in folks that are not sure where they fit, but do not directly identify as one thing or another, that number goes up – perhaps way up.
As with every other group demanding equal treatment under the law, the LGBTQ+ community has had to struggle. For one thing, sexual orientation and gender identity is elusive. It only becomes real when someone is transparent - when someone comes out.
Hiding or being “in the closet” was, for centuries, the norm – people pretending to be someone they emphatically were not. Why? Often simply being yourself was illegal – you could literally do time for being gay. So, few were “out” that those few could be easily marginalized and ostracized from the wider society. The weird and unnatural phobia against the other could be easily reinforced against the few.
What turned the tide? Honesty. When the coming out movement evolutionarily spun a wider and wider circle, the LGBTQ+ community became undeniable. In a matter of a decade or two, everyone straight suddenly had brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, kids, longtime friends, and casual acquaintances who were not. Longtime LGBTQ+ antagonists had to confront the reality that being against it would mean being against people they knew and loved.
The political experience of the new century has been one where folks of all sorts were being assimilated into the mainstream, becoming part of the great experiment: diversity was celebrated for its contribution to the whole – marginalizing folks was no longer on. This does not mean that homophobia did not exist – of course it did – but it was massively reduced on both sides of the aisle and, for the stubborn bigots who still felt that way, falling rapidly out of fashion to display it.
But there has been an inexplicable reactionary backlash: it is now trendy to marginalize LGBTQ+ folks again, in some circles.
Proclamations of support for Pride events have come under fire, with some polities abandoning them altogether. Despite widespread acceptance, laws that threaten this community are being filed and passed across the red states, and the blundering bigotry of fringe groups – ever a threat to peace – are becoming more open, more violent, and more public.
Political appeals to the base of the GOP – primary voters, for the most part, in the upcoming election – have been geared to the apparent lowest common denominator. I write “apparent” because I suspect that any return to the gross homophobia of the past will force politicians onto a third rail. In addition to its inherent dreadfulness, this strategy won’t work. The political base of the GOP has interests quite different from those of Democrats, to be sure, but the general acceptance of LGBTQ+ people is something most people share, regardless of political party.
LGBTQ+ folks are out now more than ever and pushing this brand of crass ugliness about who people are is a likely loser in most primaries, and in the few places where it isn’t, it is a likely a death sentence in the general election.
The world has changed. And for the better.
Pride celebrations are community celebrations and celebrate the whole of the community. Let’s be sure the message is always clear that “our community” means everyone.
Bruce Anderson is the Dr. Sarah D. and L. Kirk McKay Jr. Endowed Chair in American History, Government, and Civics and Miller Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Florida Southern College. He is also a columnist for The Ledger.
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Pride of place: The world has changed for the better
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