theFeed LGBTQ people are protected by Title VII, a nondiscrimination law explicitly mentioned in the original version of Section 1557. In the possible, but unlikely, event that the court sides with LGBTQ advocates, it could force health officials to rework their revision of Section 1557 to conform to the court’s rulings. The Human Rights Campaign balked at the Politico report, and blasted the Trump administration for seeking to weaken what few LGBTQ protections exist in law. “News flash Mr. President — we get sick, we need health care and we should be protected under law,” HRC President Alphonso David said in a statement. “Time after time, the Trump-Pence administration has methodically worked to undermine the rights and welfare of LGBTQ people by rolling back existing protections. “Amid a global pandemic — which is already disproportionately affecting LGBTQ people — the Trump administration’s efforts to remove existing non-discrimination protections for the LGBTQ community is unacceptable, blatantly offensive, and cruel,” David added. “We cannot accept an administration that continues to treat us like second class citizens. We will fight this policy and fight to get a pro-equality President into office this November who represents all of us.” l
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rule. But a Trump administration official pushed back against assertions that the administration was stripping away LGBTQ protections, noting the federal court’s decision to overturn the gender identity provision. “A federal court has vacated the gender identity provisions of the regulation and we are abiding by that court order,” the spokesperson said. “We do not comment on the rulemaking process and refer you to recent public filings made by the Department of Justice before the Supreme Court on what constitutes sex discrimination under civil rights laws.” Severino released his own statement defending his office’s approach to the issue. “As we have shown in our recent efforts to protect persons from disability and age discrimination during the pandemic, HHS will vigorously enforce civil rights laws as passed by Congress, before, during, and after any rulemaking,” Severino said. He noted that the Obama administration had “declined to recognize sexual orientation as a protected category under Obamacare, and HHS proposed to leave that judgment undisturbed” in last year’s proposed rule. The rewrite could also potentially be affected by a pending decision from the U.S. Supreme Court regarding the extent to which
Teaching Moment Chasten Buttigieg on being homeless after coming out: “It felt like nobody believed in me.” By Rhuaridh Marr
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HASTEN BUTTIGIEG, FORMER HIGH SCHOOL teacher and husband of presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, has spoken about the hopelessness he felt during a period of homelessness after he came out as gay. Buttigieg appeared alongside his husband in an interview with Billy Eichner for GLAAD’s fundraising event “Together in 16
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Pride: You Are Not Alone” last week. Last year, Buttigieg spoke about experiencing homelessness after he came out to his family and received a negative reaction from one of his brothers. He told the Washington Post that he moved out of the family home, stayed on friends’ couches, and even slept in his car in the parking lot of his community college.
