18. THE PRIDE LA, MAY 20, 2016

the pride

PEOPLE: 05.20.2016 MEET MICHAELA

MENDOHLSON ⚫ 23

PRIDE: LA PRIDE CONTROVERSY MISSTEPS ⚫18

WWW.THEPRIDELA.COM

ACCEPTANCE: KAREN OCAMB ON ‘FAMILY IS STILL FAMILY’ ⚫ 7

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ISSUE NUMBER 9, VOLUME 2 1 MAY 20 — JUNE 3, 2016

LOS ANGELES

THE LOS ANGELES LGBT NEWSPAPER

LA PRIDE ⚫ 5

Despite some concessions, LA Pride board finds itself in spotlight TERRORISM ⚫ 6

After antigay terror attack in Bangladesh nowhere to turn GAY PRIDE ⚫ 19

Quiet SCOTUS inaction substantially affects transgender rights PRIDE BEGINS ⚫ 16

One City One Pride events: Celebrate Pride with 40 days INTO THE STREETS: THE RALLYING CRY OF EARLY LGBTQ RIGHTS GROUPS (OUT of events OF THE CLOSET AND INTO THE STREETS) IS THE THEME OF ONE CITY, ONE PRIDE, 6/22 - 6/30

Pride celebrations takes center stage in Los Angeles

⚫ Christopher Street West’s board of directors continues to face widening criticism over their handling of transgender, dyke and financial issues

⚫ Efforts to quell controversy, including concessions have failed while board members face legal pressure to remain silent

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05.20.2016

LOS ANGELES

WHAT IS GENVOYA®?

GENVOYA is a 1-pill, once-a-day prescription medicine used to treat HIV-1 in people 12 years and older. It can either be used in people who are starting HIV-1 treatment and have never taken HIV-1 medicines before, or people who are replacing their current HIV-1 medicines and whose healthcare provider determines they meet certain requirements. These include having an undetectable viral load (less than 50 copies/mL) for 6 months or more on their current HIV-1 treatment. GENVOYA combines 4 medicines into 1 pill taken once a day with food. GENVOYA is a complete HIV-1 treatment and should not be used with other HIV-1 medicines.

GENVOYA does not cure HIV-1 or AIDS. To control HIV-1 infection and decrease HIV-related illnesses, you must keep taking GENVOYA. Ask your healthcare provider if you have questions about how to reduce the risk of passing HIV-1 to others. Always practice safer sex and use condoms to lower the chance of sexual contact with body fluids. Never reuse or share needles or other items that have body fluids on them.

IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION What is the most important information I should know about GENVOYA? GENVOYA may cause serious side effects: • Build-up of an acid in your blood (lactic acidosis), which is a serious medical emergency. Symptoms of lactic acidosis include feeling very weak or tired, unusual muscle pain, trouble breathing, stomach pain with nausea or vomiting, feeling cold (especially in your arms and legs), feeling dizzy or lightheaded, and/or a fast or irregular heartbeat.

• Serious liver problems. The liver may become large and fatty.

Symptoms of liver problems include your skin or the white part of your eyes turning yellow (jaundice), dark “tea-colored” urine, light-colored bowel movements (stools), loss of appetite for several days or longer, nausea, and/or stomach pain.

• You may be more likely to get lactic acidosis or serious liver problems if you are female, very overweight, or have been taking GENVOYA for a long time. In some cases, lactic acidosis and serious liver problems have led to death. Call your healthcare provider right away if you have any symptoms of these conditions.

• Worsening of hepatitis B (HBV) infection. GENVOYA is not approved to treat HBV. If you have both HIV-1 and HBV and stop taking GENVOYA, your HBV may suddenly get worse.

Do not stop taking GENVOYA without first talking to your healthcare provider, as they will need to monitor your health.

Who should not take GENVOYA? Do not take GENVOYA if you take: • Certain prescription medicines for other conditions.

It is important to ask your healthcare provider or pharmacist about medicines that should not be taken with GENVOYA. Do not start a new medicine without telling your healthcare provider.

• The herbal supplement St. John’s wort.

• Any other medicines to treat HIV-1 infection.

What are the other possible side effects of GENVOYA? Serious side effects of GENVOYA may also include:

• Changes in body fat, which can happen in people taking HIV-1 medicines.

• Changes in your immune system. Your immune system may get stronger and begin to fight infections. Tell your healthcare provider if you have any new symptoms after you start taking GENVOYA. • Kidney problems, including kidney failure. Your healthcare provider should do blood and urine tests to check your kidneys. If you develop new or worse kidney problems, they may tell you to stop taking GENVOYA. • Bone problems, such as bone pain, softening, or thinning, which may lead to fractures. Your healthcare provider may do tests to check your bones.

The most common side effect of GENVOYA is nausea. Tell your healthcare provider if you have any side effects that bother you or don’t go away.

What should I tell my healthcare provider before taking GENVOYA?

• All your health problems. Be sure to tell your healthcare provider if you have or have had any kidney, bone, or liver problems, including hepatitis virus infection.

• All the medicines you take, including prescription and over-the-counter medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements. Other medicines may affect how GENVOYA works. Keep a list of all your medicines and show it to your healthcare provider and pharmacist. Ask your healthcare provider if it is safe to take GENVOYA with all of your other medicines.

• If you take antacids. Take antacids at least 2 hours before or after you take GENVOYA. • If you are pregnant or plan to become pregnant. It is not known if GENVOYA can harm your unborn baby. Tell your healthcare provider if you become pregnant while taking GENVOYA. • If you are breastfeeding (nursing) or plan to breastfeed. Do not breastfeed. HIV-1 can be passed to the baby in breast milk.

You are encouraged to report negative side effects of prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit www.fda.gov/medwatch, or call 1-800-FDA-1088.

Please see Important Facts about GENVOYA including important warnings on the following page.

Ask your healthcare provider if GENVOYA is right for you, and visit GENVOYA.com to learn more.

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05.20.2016

LOS ANGELES GENVOYA does not cure HIV-1 or AIDS.

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SHOW YOUR

POWER

Take care of what matters most—you. GENVOYA is a 1-pill, once-a-day complete HIV-1 treatment for people who are either new to treatment or people whose healthcare provider determines they can replace their current HIV-1 medicines with GENVOYA.

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05.20.2016

LOS ANGELES

4

IMPORTANT FACTS This is only a brief summary of important information about GENVOYA and does not replace talking to your healthcare provider about your condition and your treatment.

(jen-VOY-uh) MOST IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT GENVOYA

POSSIBLE SIDE EFFECTS OF GENVOYA

Genvoya may cause serious side effects, including:

GENVOYA can cause serious side effects, including:

®

• Build-up of lactic acid in your blood (lactic acidosis), which is a serious medical

emergency that can lead to death. Call your healthcare provider right away if you have any of these symptoms: feeling very weak or tired, unusual muscle pain, trouble breathing, stomach pain with nausea or vomiting, feeling cold (especially in your arms and legs), feeling dizzy or lightheaded, and/or a fast or irregular heartbeat.

• Severe liver problems, which in some cases can lead to death. Call your healthcare provider right away if you have any of these symptoms: your skin or the white part of your eyes turns yellow (jaundice), dark “tea-colored” urine, light-colored bowel movements (stools), loss of appetite for several days or longer, nausea, and/or stomach pain.

• Worsening of Hepatitis B (HBV) infection. GENVOYA is not approved to treat HBV.

If you have both HIV-1 and HBV, your HBV may suddenly get worse if you stop taking GENVOYA. Do not stop taking GENVOYA without first talking to your healthcare provider, as they will need to check your health regularly for several months.

You may be more likely to get lactic acidosis or severe liver problems if you are female, very overweight, or have been taking GENVOYA for a long time.

ABOUT GENVOYA

• GENVOYA is a prescription medicine used to treat HIV-1 in people 12 years of age

and older who have never taken HIV-1 medicines before. GENVOYA can also be used to replace current HIV-1 medicines for some people who have an undetectable viral load (less than 50 copies/mL of virus in their blood), and have been on the same HIV-1 medicines for at least 6 months and have never failed HIV-1 treatment, and whose healthcare provider determines that they meet certain other requirements.

• GENVOYA does not cure HIV-1 or AIDS. Ask your healthcare provider about how to prevent passing HIV-1 to others.

Do NOT take GENVOYA if you:

• Take a medicine that contains: alfuzosin (Uroxatral®), carbamazepine (Carbatrol®,

Epitol , Equetro , Tegretol , Tegretol-XR , Teril ), cisapride (Propulsid , Propulsid Quicksolv®), dihydroergotamine (D.H.E. 45®, Migranal®), ergotamine (Cafergot®, Migergot®, Ergostat®, Medihaler Ergotamine®, Wigraine®, Wigrettes®), lovastatin (Advicor®, Altoprev®, Mevacor®), methylergonovine (Ergotrate®, Methergine®), midazolam (when taken by mouth), phenobarbital (Luminal®), phenytoin (Dilantin®, Phenytek®), pimozide (Orap®), rifampin (Rifadin®, Rifamate®, Rifater®, Rimactane®), sildenafil when used for lung problems (Revatio®), simvastatin (Simcor®, Vytorin®, Zocor®), or triazolam (Halcion®). ®

®

®

®

®

• Take the herbal supplement St. John’s wort.

• Take any other HIV-1 medicines at the same time.

®

• Those in the “Most Important Information About GENVOYA” section.

• Changes in body fat.

• Changes in your immune system.

• New or worse kidney problems, including kidney failure.

• Bone problems.

The most common side effect of GENVOYA is nausea.

These are not all the possible side effects of GENVOYA. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you have any new symptoms while taking GENVOYA. Your healthcare provider will need to do tests to monitor your health before and during treatment with GENVOYA. BEFORE TAKING GENVOYA Tell your healthcare provider if you:

• Have or had any kidney, bone, or liver problems, including hepatitis infection.

• Have any other medical condition.

• Are pregnant or plan to become pregnant.

• Are breastfeeding (nursing) or plan to breastfeed. Do not breastfeed if you have HIV-1 because of the risk of passing HIV-1 to your baby.

Tell your healthcare provider about all the medicines you take:

• Keep a list that includes all prescription and over-the-counter medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements, and show it to your healthcare provider and pharmacist.

• Ask your healthcare provider or pharmacist about medicines that should not be taken with GENVOYA.

HOW TO TAKE GENVOYA

• GENVOYA is a complete one pill, once a day HIV-1 medicine.

• Take GENVOYA with food.

GET MORE INFORMATION

• This is only a brief summary of important information about GENVOYA. Talk to your healthcare provider or pharmacist to learn more.

• Go to GENVOYA.com or call 1-800-GILEAD-5 • If you need help paying for your medicine, visit GENVOYA.com for program information.

GENVOYA, the GENVOYA Logo, GILEAD, and the GILEAD Logo are trademarks of Gilead Sciences, Inc., or its related companies.

All other marks are the property of their respective owners.

Version date: November 2015 © 2016 Gilead Sciences, Inc. All rights reserved. GENC0026 04/16

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5/18/16 4:19 PM

05.20.2016 WEST HOLLYWOOD

>

CHRISTOPHER STREET WEST

⚫ BY TROY MASTERS

LOS ANGELES

PRIDE IS CHANGING

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Despite some concessions, LA Pride board finds itself under a microscope Has Christopher Street West’s board missed an opportunity to address a wider array of concerns as transgender issues take center stage?

“P

ride is not just about the millennials, it’s about old lesbians, old gay men too. Get along, people! It’s just silly. Let’s fix this. I hate the fighting,” said San Fernando Valley resident and marriage equality activist Diane Olsen, hoping to set a more civil tone at the May 16 West Hollywood City Council meeting where the management of LA Pride by Christopher Street West’s board of directors was a subject of great energy.

But her call for peace fell on deaf ears as CSW critics and defenders squared off.

Some even pointed fingers at City Council.

“I am very disturbed by what’s happening with CSW and in this community. I understand John Duran and John D’Amico were kind of acting as liaisons to CSW. John Duran -- I cannot believe that both you and Councilman D’Amico didn’t know ahead of time that CSW had intended to transform this event into a music festival,” exclaimed 90-year young activist Ivy Bottini. “I can’t believe you didn’t know it ahead of time.”

“For you not to reach out into the community to say ‘this is what they are planning’ and talk to strategic people makes you culpable in creating the mess we’re all in. I would like some answers…I really would,” Bottini demanded.

Later in the meeting Duran called Bottini out: “Ivy knows she can call me anytime.”

But, at least in the early part of this meeting, some community members came to defend CSW..

Joshua Michael of West Hollywood

MEMBERS OF CHRISTOPHER STREET BOARD OF DIRECTORS LISTEN TO COMMUNITY CONCERNS ABOUT A VARIETY OF ISSUES.

said, “I’d like to ask everyone to take a deep breath and just evolve with what’s happening,” noting that activism plays a role in the parade and that the festival has always featured musical performances. Michael also pointed out that, “Last year’s spotlight was on PrEP and in 2016 the spotlight is on the AIDS crisis in communities of color.”

Terry Zeller read aloud a statement from Pat Rocco, the 82-year old Hawaii resident who was CSW’s first president and one of the founders of the Pride Festival. “After reading that article online, it is with much dismay that I see elements of our community have taken it upon themselves to question all the good works and decisions that CSW has made. This has rubbed me the wrong way,” Zeller quoted Rocco as

saying. “Changes happen when an entire board finds it necessary.”

But Peter Cruz, Asian Pacific AIDS Intervention Team (APAIT) Senior Program Manager, an organization that has joined transgender activists in leading the boycott against LA Pride 2016, said CSW has “yet to commit that they will make the trans and lesbian celebrations a permanent part of Pride weekend.”

Transgender marginalization and inclusion has been one of APAIT’s chief complaints.

“CSW has given inconsistent answers as to why they are limiting the number of organizations and groups from being exhibitors at this year’s event. First they say it’s because festival grounds are smaller this year. Then they say

they are planning ahead for next year’s smaller layout,” exclaimed Cruz. “Then they say it’s for public safety. So what’s the answer?”

CSW President Chris Classen defended the board’s work. “Planning the event requires thousands of moving parts but it also requires listening.

It also requires compromise,” he said, appearing somewhat humbled. “We make thousands of decisions every year and not all of them are correct.

We try to engage communities and we also listen.”

Several speakers also spoke in support of CSW and their efforts.

Van Jazmin, a featured artist at this year’s festival, said, “I don’t think the MORE LA PRIDE continued on p. 19

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BANGLADESH LGBT ACTIVISM

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05.20.2016

LOS ANGELES

TERRORISM

⚫ BY ARAFATUL ISLAM FOR DEUTSCHE WELL

After antigay terror attack in Bangladesh a community has nowhere to turn Activist Riamoni Chisty speaks about the country he fled, where a gay person can be brutally attacked and then called the aggressor.

L

ast month, unknown assailants hacked two gay activists to death in an apartment in Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka. One of the victims, Xulhaz Mannan, edited the first magazine for the country’s gay and lesbian community; the other, Mahbub Tonoy, was a gay rights activist. While an Islamist group claimed responsibility for the killings, Bangladesh’s interior minister laid the blame on the victims themselves - homosexuality is a criminal offense in the country.

In an interview with DW, Riamoni Chisty, a 22-year-old gay activist who recently fled Bangladesh for Germany after repeated attacks, speaks about the contempt the lesbian, gay, biseuxual and transexual (LGBT) community endures in the South Asian country.

DW: What was it like to grow up gay in Bangladesh?

Riamoni Chisty: When I was a child, I used to beg to wear jewelry. I was interested in putting on make-up and always preferred to play with girls. I considered myself one of them. When I was in the fifth grade, my Bengali teacher told me that my behavior indicated that I am gay, like many other people in the world. The teacher was very friendly to me, and helped me learn more about homosexuality. But other teachers made fun of me. My classmates used to tease me, using derogatory terms like “half-lady” and “two-in-one.”

How did your family react after finding out that you are gay?

WEEKS AFTER BANGLADESH’S TOP GAY RIGHTS ACTIVIST WAS MURDERED BY MUSLIM MILITANTS, THE LGBT COMMUNITY IS GOING INTO HIDING, FEARFUL OF BEING THE NEXT TARGET.

They reacted violently. My father is an Islamist thinker and considers homosexuality to be the most severe crime in the world. He told me that God had destroyed Sodom because of homosexuality.

After finding out that I was gay, he took me to a doctor who prescribed me a lot of medicine. Those pills caused severe side effects, including headaches and fevers. I even vomited blood a couple of times. Despite the side effects, my father forced me to take the medicine for 11 months. But that didn’t help at all. Later he took me to India for hormone replacement therapy. That was very painful. I temporarily lost my hair due to the treatment. But I didn’t notice any psychological change in me. At some point, my father gave up and moved to Saudi Arabia with my mother, leaving me behind.

What is the attitude towards the LGBT community in your country?

I used to live in the eastern city of Comilla, where a very conservative attitude towards the LGBT community prevails. Some friends and I formed a cultural group for homosexuals there in 2008, which some members and supporters of the LGBT community from nearby cities joined. We used to meet once a week in a secret place.

When we first organized a “rainbow rally” in the city in 2009, not many people paid any interest. Still, supporters of the ruling party and its leader attacked the rally and injured some of my fellow activists.

Afterwards, locals flagged me as a gay activist. A group of Islamists attacked me and tried to cut my fingers to stop me from writing about religious fundamentalism and gay rights.

I was abducted in 2010 and raped by

my captors. Police rescued me after a few days but didn’t file any case.

Rather, they suggested that I leave my country. My college stripped me of my right to study there, citing my activism. So my maternal grandmother sent me to Malaysia so I could continue studying.

Are you aware of any movement to combat homophobia in your country?

Slain activist Xulhaz Mannan tried to reduce homophobia through a number of initiatives. He published “Roopbaan” in 2014, a magazine that sought to tell people that homosexuality is not a crime, but a natural practice, proven by science.

I eventually came into close contact with him. Together we tried to raise awareness using blogs and social meLA PRIDE continued on p. 9

05.20.2016 NATIONAL

FAMILY ACCEPTANCE

⚫ BY KAREN OCAMB

>

LOS ANGELES

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ASIAN LGBT COMMUNITY

Campaigning for greater Asian LGBT acceptance: ‘Family Is Still Family’ One Asain mother’s change in attitude toward her transgender child came too late but now she is on an urgent mission

T

he price of authenticity is dear.

Coming out to embrace the freedom of one’s true self can cost an LGBT person the love of family, community acceptance and the potential for a promising future in a culture rife with homophobia.

Luckily, in 2016, there are role models and culturally competent support systems visible through the closet with glass doors. Help can be just a phone call away, including for those who only speak and under stand Spanish.

But what of LGBT people of Asian Pacific Islander descent, both immigrant and American-born, for whom there is no word in their many languages for being gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender?

Data from a U.S. Census/American Community Survey taken from 2009 to 2013 found that 60.3 million residents—more than one in five people over the age of 5—speaks a language other than English at home. Spanish was the top alternative language, followed by 2.9 million who speak Chinese at home. Not unsurprisingly, in metro areas, the numbers of alternative languages are high.

In Los Angeles, the survey indicates that 54% of residents speak one of at least 185 different languages at home. The survey also found that Asian-American immigrants have a far more difficult time mastering English than Latinos.

But what is not taken into account is just how many languages fall under the API umbrella, including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Mon-Khmer/

JOANNE LEE AT THE NATIONAL QUEER ASIAN PACIFIC ISLANDER ALLIANCE NEWS CONFERENCE

Cambodia, Hmong, Thai, Laotian, Vietnamese, Tongan, as well as Hindi and Urdu—and that’s leaving out dialects. Tagalog, for instance, is one of 185 languages spoken in the Philippines. Additionally, a report by the Asian Pacific American Legal Center of Southern California and the Cyrus Chung Ying Tang Foundation found that 43% of Asians in L.A. County experience disproportionately limited English proficiency.

Coming out for LGBT Asians is not only a linguistic nightmare but a profound cultural burden. They face shaming their parents in a tight-knit community prone to shunning those

out of favor.

But in a way Western-raised LGBTs might not comprehend, Asian LGBT people bear the deep responsibility of dishonoring their revered ancestors.

Suicide is deemed a more honorable recourse.

Some Asian families are choosing their LGBT children over centuries of inculcated cultural tradition. The National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance (NQAPIA) has launched an historic Family Acceptance Campaign “designed to bridge the cultural divide that prevents Asian American, South Asian, Southeast Asian, and Pacific Islander (API) children

from coming out to their parents. In contrast to the western dynamic, API parents are now opening the closet door for their children.”

The new campaign was announced at a May 17 news conference in New York where NQAPIA unveiled a series of emotionally-moving television ads entitled “Family Is Still Family.”

The life-affirming public service announcements presented in English, Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese dialects), Hindi, Korean, Japanese Vietnamese and Tagalog will run on major international Asian TV netFAMILY ACCEPTANCE continued on p. 11

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NATIONAL

OBAMA CARE RULES

>

05.20.2016

LOS ANGELES

TRANS HEALTH

⚫ BY VIRGIL DICKINSON

Obama administration takes step to protect rights of transgender patients “Equal treatment by insurers and medical providers...the right to make civil rights claims against those that deny them coverage or necessary care because they are transgender”

H

HS has finalized a rule that bans discrimination against transgender people throughout the healthcare system, carrying out anti-bias provisions in the Affordable Care Act. HHS could find itself facing pushback from religious hospitals seeking exemption from some of the rule’s provisions, including transition-related surgeries. Others might find it difficult to comply because of costs and complications.

The rule is expected to be more costly than anticipated, requiring an estimated $960 million in training and administrative costs for state and federal agencies over its first few years of implementation, the agency said. That’s up from the $558 million outlined in the proposed rule.

The final rule would apply to any provider or program that accepts federal dollars. HHS received more than 2,000 letters on the proposal before the comment period closed on Nov. 9.

Most doctors would be covered, as would Medicaid and Medicare. Insurers that offer plans through HealthCare.gov would have to comply with the requirements in their exchange plans as well.

The rule does not explicitly require insurers to cover gender-transition treatments such as surgery. But insurers could face questions if they deny medically necessary services related to gender transition for a man who identifies as a woman, or a wom-

ATTORNEY GENERAL LORETTA E. LYNCH STANDS DURING THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF LAW ENFORCEMENT ACTION AGAINST THE STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA ON MAY 9, 2016.

an who identifies as a man.

The rule largely supports existing polices and law but clarifies that the protections will block discrimination based on sex, which HHS says includes gender identity.

For example, transgender people can now enter bathrooms or hospital wards consistent with their gender identity.

Previously, laws enforced by HHS’ Office for Civil Rights barred discrimination based only on race, color, national origin, disability or age.

The ACA empowers HHS to alert an offender and suspend, terminate or refuse to continue federal funding to any organization that does not address noncompliance. HHS may also contact the Justice Department with a recommendation to enforce the law if the discrimination is found to be a criminal offense.

The rule does not address whether the ACA offers added protections to patients who feel their sexual orientation has resulted in provider dis-

crimination. However, the rule makes clear that the OCR will investigate any complaints.

Religious hospitals are likely to take issue with the final rule. Their arguments would be similar to those made in several lawsuits brought by religious organizations that say compliance with rules and laws related to providing birth control or paying for abortion through health plans go against their religious freedom.

“Health services related to gender transition present a potential conflict with the equally important principle of the free exercise of religion,” the Catholic Health Association said in comments on the proposed rule.

“Ascension believes strongly that the final rule should include explicit language protecting its ministries both as health care providers and employers from having to perform, provide health insurance coverage of, pay for, or facilitate in any way procedures that would be contrary to Catholic doctrine,” the health chain says.

In the final rule, HHS refused to offer a blanket religious exemption for transgender care issues.

Such an exemption “could result in a denial or delay in the provision of health care to individuals and in discouraging individuals from seeking necessary care, with serious and, in some cases, life-threatening results,” the agency said, adding that it would consider exemptions on a case-bycase basis.

The CHA also asked for clarification on how to handle room assignments for transgendered individuals.

“While hospitals … should be compassionate in how they treat transgender patients, they must also be sensitive to the privacy concerns of other patients. Facilities which are not able to resolve the situation to everyone’s satisfaction despite a good faith effort should not be held liable for unlawful discrimination,” the association said.

The CHA recommended that facilities making a good faith effort should not face penalties.

Finalizing the rule during a period of debate over the rights of transgender people in the U.S. might not be a coincidence.

The Obama administration Friday issued a directive that public schools must permit transgender students to use bathrooms and locker rooms consistent with their chosen gender identity, not the gender listed on their birth certificates.

“There is no room in our schools for discrimination of any kind, including discrimination against transgender students on the basis of their sex,” Attorney General Loretta Lynch said in a statement accompanying the directive, which is being sent to school districts Friday.

The Justice Department on Monday sued North Carolina over a bathroom access law that it said violates the rights of transgender people, a measure that Lynch likened to racial segregation policies and efforts to deny gay couples the right to marry.

05.20.2016

Bangladesh’s LGBT crisis BANGLADESH continued from p. 6

dia websites. But after the murder of Mannan and Tonoy, most gay activists went into hiding.

What measures, if any, is the government putting in place to prevent attacks against the LGBT community?

Same-sex relationship is a punishable crime with 10 years of imprisonment and/or financial penalty, according to the country’s constitution.

So the government is not taking any steps towards support homosexuals in the country; rather, many cases have been filed against them for their sexual orientation. The government is totally against the LGBT community.

Why did you decide to flee Bangladesh?

I have been sued 25 times in the past few years for being gay. Aside from Islamists, even some of parents of my close friends went to the court against me, saying I was teaching their children homosexuality. I was attacked in 2014 after my

return from Malaysia, leaving me with severe damage in my right ear.

Islamists have hung posters around Comilla that call me an ‘‘anti-Islamic campaigner.’’ Their protests led to my imprisonment on a couple of occasions. Altogether, the situation was far beyond my control, which ultimately led me to leave the country.

What are you planning to do in Germany? Do you hope to continue your support for the LGBT community in Bangladesh?

I want to finish my studies first.

Apart from that, I’m planning to film a drama series about homosexuality, in Bengali. I will upload the videos on YouTube to help Bengali speakers realize that same-sex relationships are normal, and it’s not wise to abuse someone because of sexual orientation. I think many people in my motherland need that education.

They have a lot of misperceptions about the LGBT community.

The interview was conducted by Arafatul Islam for Deutsche Welle (DW), Germany’s international broadcaster.

⚫ BY IAN MILLHISER, THINK PROGRESS

Quiet SCOTUS inaction affects trans rights The Supreme Court has refused to hear a challenge to the right of transgender students to use bathrooms that correspond to their gender identity.

O

n the surface, United Student Aid Funds v. Bible has nothing to do with LGBT rights. It’s a case involving a very technical dispute about student loan repayments, collection costs for borrowers who default, and how to interpret the Education De-

partment’s regulations on this subject.

The Court announced that it would not hear the Bible case on Monday, over the dissent of Justice Clarence Thomas.

Yet, just a few months ago — before Justice Antonin Scalia’s death deprived the Court’s conservative bloc of its majority — Bible was exactly the sort of case that bloc could have used to bring about a sweeping change in how the judiciary treats federal agencies. And that, in turn, could have handed an unexpected victory to anti-LGBT lawmakers who want to regulate where transgender individuals get to pee.

To explain, Bible (the case is named after a debtor named “Bryana Bible,” not the Judeo-Christian holy book) concerns the degree of deference courts SCOTUS continued on p. 15

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ANGELES âš« thepride LOSLOSANGELES 2 10

10.09.2015 05.20.2016

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LOS ANGELES

⚫ BY KAREN OCAMB

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Asian Family acceptance FAMILY CAMPAIGN continued from p. 7

works in the U.S. during June for LGBT Pride month.

Additionally, NQAPIA will hold in-person workshops in several cities presented by API parents of LGBT children. The message to other par ents is simple: “offer your LGBTQ child a lifeline, support their coming out, and keep the family strong and unified.”

“For generations, a culture of shame and misinformation has kept Asian American youth in the closet,” Glenn Magpantay, Executive Director of NQAPIA, said at the news conference. “Our new Asian Family Acceptance Campaign will break this cycle of shame and suicide by helping API parents, many who are immigrants and bilingual, to open the door to unconditional love and acceptance for their LGBT children.”

Joanne Lee was among several supporters with powerful stories at the news conference.

The mother of two children, Avi and Skylar, both born biologically female, Lee said her life changed two years ago when her children came out as transgender.

“I was in shock and didn’t accept them as transgender sons. It was because of my Asian culture, my upbringing, my traditions. I saw their announcements as a dishonor to the family,” Lee said at the news confer ence. “I was torn between my Asian traditions and my love for my transgender children.”

Slowly she started to accept Avi and Skylar but “my progress was too slow. Skylar was 16 years old and a fierce activist for racial justice. But he was also suffering from depression. On Sept. 28, 2015, Skylar took his own life.”

Lee’s heartbreak was also a turning point. “Until that day, I didn’t really understand what it is like to be a transgender and the issues they have,” she said. “Finally I understood it, but it cost my child’s life.”

Lee does not want Sylar’s death to

KNOWLEDGABLE

the pride WWW.THEPRIDELA.COM

THE LOS ANGELES LGBT NEWSPAPER

PROFESSIONAL |

CONFIDENTIAL

MURRAY WEISBERG

SKYER LEE WHOSE SUICIDE LEAD TO HIS MOTHER’S ACTIVISM

be in vain. On the day of his funeral, she pledged “to save the lives of transgender people everywhere. That is why I am proud to stand here with the people of NQAPIA, who share my mission,” she said. “All communities want a better future for children.

Equal opportunities, dignity, safe environment, freedom and equality for their children.

“Let us commit together to our LGBT children. All of them. It is not justice if we leave behind members of our community. We must change the world and give them freedom and equal opportunity. Give them a better future. Please join me to fight against oppression. In memory of Skylar and all the transgender people who have lost their lives.”

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Sotheby’s International Realty, Inc. Associate Manager, Brentwood cell: 310.729.6156 office: 310.481.6260 mw729@aol.com

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Murray is the associate manager at Sotheby’s lntemational Realty in Brentwood. He is also the 2005 past president of the Beverly Hills/Greater Los Angeles Association of Realtors, and has served for many years as a Director of the California Association of Realtors, as well as a Director of the Combined Los Angeles Westside Multiple Listing System. Currently he serves on the Professional Standards Committee, which handles all ethics and arbitration disputes. Since the late 1980s, he has been providing exceptional real estate consultation and representation services to discerning clients. His highest priority is client satisfaction, and he loves to introduce clients to the Westside of Los Angeles.

Murray helps buyers, sellers and investors achieve their ultimate real estate goals. Please feel free to call him for a confidential consultation.

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Sotheby’s International Realty and the Sotheby’s International Realty logo are registered (or unregistered) service marks used with permission. Operated by Sotheby’s International Realty, Inc.

⚫ 12

LOS ANGELES PUBLIC SCHOOLS

⚫ BY STAFF

05.20.2016

LOS ANGELES

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EDUCATION

LA Schools embraces fed trans policy As transgender issues move to the fore, Los Angeles Unified School District heeds the U.S. departments of Education and Justice to ensure protections and rights of trans students.

L

os Angeles Unified School District officials threw their support behind Obama administration guidance released today that spells out the responsibilities of schools to prevent discrimination against transgender students.

The letter, issued jointly by the U.S. departments of Education and Justice, states that transgender students are protected under Title IX, which prohibits K-12 districts, colleges and universities that receive federal dollars from discriminating against students based on sex.

“We applaud President Obama’s guidance that public school districts allow transgender students to attend school in an environment free from discrimination based on sex,” LAUSD

Superintendent Michelle King said in a statement.

“As the second-largest school district in the country, L.A. Unified has long been a leader in respecting the needs of all students and staff,” she said.

King said the guidance is “yet another opportunity to help our students develop the values to contribute to an ever-changing society” and LAUSD “remains committed to providing a safe learning environment for everyone, including transgender students, and ensuring that the entire L.A. Unified family has equal access to our educational programs and activities.”

The guidance letter states that schools must treat students according to the gender they identify with, upon being notified of the student’s transgender status. This includes allowing students to take part in sexsegregated activities or use bathrooms and other facilities that match the student’s chosen gender identity.

Schools are also obligated to respond quickly and effectively when dealing with harassment against transgender students, and to protect the privacy of students on issues related to their transgender status.

Steve Zimmer, president of the LAUSD Board of Education, told KNX Newsradio that he hopes to be-

gin the next school year with at least one gender- neutral bathroom at every middle and high school. He said the change would not be costly, since most schools have restrooms that can be easily adjusted.

“This is not a huge, overwhelming burden or expense, and any expense that we incur is absolutely worth it for the human rights and dignity of our kids,” Zimmer told the station.

“Our students have taken the dignity and humanness of all of their peers very seriously,” Zimmer said. “And when we talk about gender-inclusive or gender-neutral restrooms, this is specifically so nobody has to identify and that all students are comfortable taking care of the needs that they have so they can focus on their academic achievement.”

In April, students clashed with protesters at LAUSD’s Santee Education Complex in South Los Angeles who rallied outside the campus to protest the recent opening of a gender-neutral bathroom on the campus.

The school that month dedicated a 15-stall gender-neutral bathroom, making it the first Los Angeles-area school to have such a facility. The bathroom was the result of a campaign by the school’s Gay Straight Alliance, which collected hundreds of petition signatures in support of the idea.

PUBLISHER & EDITOR TROY MASTERS

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IVY BOTTINI, 90, HOSPITALIZED AFTER FALLING AT PACIFIC DESIGN CENTER

I

vy Bottini, 90, the famously outspoken lesbian activist, was hospitalized after suffering a fall at Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood. Bottini had attended an open to the public meeting of the board Christopher Street West, organizers of LA Pride. Bottini has been highly critical of the board and has called for more public oversight.

Bottini says she tripped over a step, twisting her ankle, landing face first onto the concrete. She was rushed to Cedar-Sinai hospital where she was treated for a broken ankle, dislocated middle finger and severe gash to her head. She will require extensive rehabilitation. “At home, I hope,” she said.

THE PRIDE L.A., The Newspaper Serving Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender L.A., is published by MIRROR MEDIA GROUP. Send all inquiries to: THE PRIDE L.A., 3435 Ocean Park Blvd. #210. Phone: 310.310.2637 Written permission of the publisher must be obtained before any of the contents of this paper, in part or whole, can be reproduced or redistributed. All contents (c) 2016 The Pride L.A..

THE PRIDE L.A. is a registered trademark of MIRROR MEDIA GROUP. T.J. MONTEMER, CEO 310.310.2637 x104; E-mail: troy@smmirror.com Cell: 917-406-1619

© 2015 The Pride L.A. All rights reserved.

05.20.2016

LOS ANGELES

âš« 13

⚫ 14

NATIONAL RESPONS

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05.20.2016

LOS ANGELES

ANTI-TRANS PANIC

⚫ BY ZACK FORD, THINK PROGRESS

Angry, confused, bigoted responses to transgender student inclusion

Conservative forces have met failure at every turn in their opposition to transgender rights and in the face of new federal protections frustrations and bad lawmaking efforts have exploded.

L

ast week the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Department of Education (DOE) told the country’s schools that they should be making sure transgender students have equal access to all educational opportunities, including using facilities that match their gender identities. If they don’t, they put themselves at risk of losing federal funding.

While the debate continues to play out in North Carolina in the courts, the response nationwide, particularly among Republican governors, was not pretty.

Kentucky Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin (R) called the guidance an “absurd federal overreach into a local issue.” President Obama, he said, is “intentionally dividing America” over an issue that he believes should be determined by individual school boards. Bevin’s administration is “researching the options available” to find ways for local jurisdictions to discriminate against transgender students if they so desire.

Bevin’s objection was supported by both Kentucky Senate President Robert Stivers (R) and House Minority Leader Jeff Hoover (R). Stivers claimed that the guidance illustrates “just how out of touch” Obama’s administration has been “with the values of Kentucky,” and Hoover promised to “consider every measure to ensure it is challenged in Kentucky.

Utah In Utah, Gov. Gary Herbert (R) sim-

TENNESSEE GOV. BILL HASLAM SAYS THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT HAS OVERREACHED ON BEHALF OF A MICROSCOPIC GROUP, A “HEAVY-HANDED APPROACH.”

ilarly decried what he called “one of the most egregious examples of federal overreach I have ever witnessed.”

He promised that “if we have to fight this order, we will not hesitate to do so.”

Members of the state Board of Education agreed, such as Stan Lockhart, who said, “While it’s important to look after the rights of the minority, it’s also important to look after the rights of the majority.” Lockhart even said that he’d be willing to abandon federal funding for the state’s schools “if we can’t find any other way to create a safe environment for our kids.”

The Board has told Utah’s schools that they “are not required or expected to take any action” in response to what the Obama administration issued Friday, but will release more guidance soon.

Oklahoma Though Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin (R) has been quiet since Friday, Attorney General Scott Pruitt (R) was anything but. Before the day was over, he had sent a letter to the DOJ and DOE

objecting to the guidance for transgender students. Like other conservative leaders, he complained about what he saw as federal overreach, but he also laid out his specific objections to the content of the guidance: Further, you have forced this definition on parents, students, and communities because you have deemed unjustifiable any discomfort that they may express. Your determination thus elevates the status of transgender students over those who would define their sex based on biology and who would seek to have their definition honored in the most private of places. Indeed, those latter students and their families cannot even seek reassurance that a transgender student’s self-definition is not premised on whim or caprice because you have disavowed the school’s ability to seek any form of documentation regarding the transgender child’s self-definition.

Across Oklahoma, numerous school leaders explained their current policies while the state’smembers of

Congress attacked the Obama administration. Among them was Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), who insisted that he has “a big problem with the federal government telling me that male students are allowed to use the bathroom with my three young girls.”

Louisiana Thirty-two state lawmakers in Louisiana — all Republican — are calling on Attorney General Jeff Landry (R) to respond to the transgender guidance with a legal opinion explaining whether the guidance is a federal overreach and if the state should pursue a legal challenge.

Claiming that they “strongly believe that every person deserves respect and dignity as a human being,” the lawmakers also insist, “we believe that keeping the sexes separate for the purposes of bathroom and locker room access, for example, is important for the privacy and safety of the children and adults of our state.”

They also used their letter as an opportunity to express their concerns with an executive order issued last month by Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) which protects LGBT employees of the state and state contractors from discrimination. They specifically want Landry, who has already clashed with Edwards since his election in January, to clarify what “gender identity” means and whether the governor’s order requires all state bathrooms to accommodate transgender people.

Meanwhile, Jim Garvey (R), president of the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, also blasted the decision as overreach. “If Congress now wants to get the federal government involved in our local schools’ bathroom issues, it could pass an amendment to that legislation that would include such language,” he said.

Idaho The Idaho State Board of Education said that it “certainly wants to make sure that every student feels safe and welcome on our campuses across the TRANS PANIC continued on p. 21

05.20.2016

LOS ANGELES

Quiet victory

“STIRRING AND ENTERTAINING!” – ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

CRITICS PICK!

“Terrific … Smart, literate, funny.

Mr. Giardina’s stimulating play illuminates the emotional toll that living in such a house divided (and a country divided) can take on its inhabitants.” – THE NEW YORK TIMES

THE COURT ANNOUNCED THAT IT WOULD NOT HEAR THE BIBLE CASE ON MONDAY, OVER THE DISSENT OF JUSTICE CLARENCE THOMAS. BANGLADESH continued from p. 9

owe to agencies when they are confronted with ambiguous regulations. When a law is ambiguous, the Supreme Court held in Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council, courts owe great deference to how executive branch agencies interpret that law in their own regulations.

As Justice John Paul Stevens explained in Chevron, such deference is appropriate for two reasons. “Judges are not experts in the field,” Stevens wrote, while agencies typically possess a great deal of expertise in the areas they regulate. Deference to agencies also promotes democratic ends because the agencies are not entirely removed from the electorate in the same way that judges with lifetime appointments are. “While agencies are not directly accountable to the people, the Chief Executive is,” Stevens explained, and most agencies are accountable to the president.

Sometimes, however, an agency drafts regulations that are themselves ambiguous. When that happens, Justice Antonin Scalia explained in Auer v. Robbins, courts should also defer to the agency’s interpretation of its own regulation unless that interpretation is “plainly erroneous or inconsistent with the regulation.”

This doctrine of Auer deference formed the backbone of a federal appeals court’s recent decision holding that schools must allow trans individuals to use the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity. That decision deferred to the Education Department’s interpretation of its own regulations governing gender-segregated bathrooms. Without Auer deference, it’s possible that the trans bathroom case would have come

down differently.

Chevron, it should be noted, is one of the most important and widely cited cases in federal administrative law. Nevertheless, conservatives began to lose faith in the idea that courts should defer to federal agencies around the same time that the Obama family moved into a home at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Indeed, Auer deference is even more out of favor with conservatives than Chevron deference. As Thomas notes in his opinion calling for the Court to use the Bible case to “reevaluate” Auer, three current members of the Court — himself, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito — have “called for its reconsideration in an appropriate case.”

Before his death, Justice Scalia joined these calls, even though Scalia authored the Court’s unanimous opinion in Auer.

If Scalia were still alive, in other words, that would be four votes to hear Bible. Under the Court’s rules, moreover, it only takes four votes for the justices to take up a case. Once the case was argued, the four most conservative justices would only need to convince the slightly-more-moderate-but-still-really-conservative Justice Anthony Kennedy to join them in order to overruleAuer.

If that happened, it would be a massive transfer of power from agency officials accountable to an elected president towards unelected judges. And one of the most immediate impacts would be that such a decision would give anti-trans lawmakers a powerful new weapon to wield in the war over bathrooms.

Instead, Bible will be remembered, if at all, for a short dissenting opinion joined by only one justice. It is likely that it would have ended differently if Justice Scalia were still around to back up his fellow Auer skeptics.

⚫

By Anthony Giardina Directed by Michael Wilson STARRING Christine Lahti Jason Ritter Steven Culp Michael Learned Deborah Offner Johnny Ramey David Selby and Georgia King

MAY 17 - JUNE 4, 2016 TheWallis.org/Conversation | 310.746.4000 9390 N SANTA MONICA BLVD, BEVERLY HILLS CA 90210

15

⚫ 16

LOS ANGELES EVENTS

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05.20.2016

LOS ANGELES

PRIDE CELEBRATIONS

⚫ BY TROY MASTERS

One City One Pride events O

verlooked in the contentious debates about the inclusion of legacy and history in 2016’s LA Pride festivities the extensive slate of offerings that are being featured by the City of West Hollywood and throughout Los Angeles.

May 22, 3pm: Harvey Milk Day Screening – Film Harvey Milk was the first openly-gay person to be elected to U.S. public office. Join the City’s Community Events Division for a free screening of “Milk,” followed by a panel discussion and small reception. West Hollywood City Council Chambers, 625 N. San Vicente Blvd. Free admission. RSVP at: http://conta.cc/1T0aAln May 24, 7pm: Lambda Literary Finalists reading - Literary

Join us for readings by the Los Angeles area finalists for the annual Lambda Literary Awards. West Hollywood City Council Chambers, 625 N. San Vicente Blvd. Free admission. www. lambdaliterary.org

May 25, 7:30pm: Queer California - On Music and Mapping – Music/ Lecture ** How does sprawl sound? Karen Tongson and Raquel Gutierrez explore the ways identities impact psychogeographies. This conversation will musically map some of Souther n Califor nia’s “peripheral” spaces of queer sociability. West Hollywood City Council Chambers, 625 N. San Vicente Blvd. Free admission.www.calgbtartsalliance.com/events/upcoming-alliance-events

May 31, 7:30pm: Lambda Literary Book Club - Literary City Poet Steven Reigns leads a book discussion around Felice Picano’s Nights at Rizzoli. West Hollywood Library Community Meeting Room, 625 N. San Vicente Blvd. Free.www. lambdaliterary.org/book-clubs/lambda-lit-book-club June 1, 7:30pm: Outfest WeHo Screening: Wedding Wars – Film ** With same-sex marriage now the law of the land, it’s worth looking back a decade to celebrate the tenth anniversary of this hilarious comedy from director Jim Fall (“Trick”). Free admission. RSVP required. West Hollywood City Council Chambers, 625 N. San Vicente Blvd. www.outfest.org/ weho-series

05.20.2016

LOS ANGELES Brian had his HIV under control with medication. But smoking with HIV caused him to have serious health problems, including a stroke, a blood clot in his lungs and surgery on an artery in his neck. Smoking makes living with HIV much worse.

You can quit.

CALL 1-800-QUIT-NOW.

#CDCTips

HIV alone didn’t cause the clogged artery in my neck.

Smoking with HIV did.

Brian, age 45, California

⚫ 17

⚫ 18

WEST HOLLYWOOD 2016 CSW

⚫ BY TROY MASTERS

>

05.20.2016

LOS ANGELES

LA PRIDE FESTIVAL

As LA Pride controversy intensifed, some missteps T

he board of Christopher Street West, organizers of LA Pride, need to listen to Reverend Troy Perry. They haven’t even bothered to call the CSW co-founder to ask his thoughts about transforming the famous LGBT Pride parade and festival into a quasi-LGBT identified indy-style music festival.

“I’ve lived to see equality unfold.

We c a n ’ t — o u r m o v e m e n t c a n ’ t — take steps backwar d now. We can’t leave people behind. So, If the parade becomes something that is not reflective of our community because of the actions of a bad executive board then we have a problem,” said the 76-year old Perry, spiritual leader and founder of Metropolitan Community Church and the only surviving founder of LA Pride, launched on Hollywood Blvd. in 1970.

Erasing Perry, the pioneers of the LGBT civil rights movement, and the transgender community at the proposed new LA Pride Music festival was a major topic of discussion at an emergency meeting called by transgender leaders and allies Monday night, May 9 at the headquarters of the Asian Pacific AIDS Intervention Team (APAIT).

Peter Cruz, APAIT Associate Director, speaking to about 75 concerned community leaders and activists, says he received a call from CSW President Chris Classen who told him that because Pride has traditionally lost money, he had made the decision to revamp the festival, including the activities usual scheduled for Friday night.

The Friday night events—including a transgender tent and the Dyke March—have for many years been a treasured part of transgender life in Los Angeles.

In his phone call to Cruz, Classen said Friday night had become “lackluster” and needed to be revamped.

Cruz says he told Classen that the Friday night event is the only night of the year where the trans community can come together and celebrate, as well as remember trans people who had been murdered.

Classen tried to negotiate with Cruz by of fering $45,000 in tickets that APAIT could distribute to smaller non-profits and he offered to extend the time available for a transgender event from 2 hours to 4 hours.

At Monday’s emergency meeting, speaker after speaker took issue with CSW/LA Pride.

Zoey Luna—a 14-year old transgender woman who was a 2015 Grand Marshal with Reverend Troy Perry—said: “As a former Grand Marshal, I represented the future. What’s my future since I am not even invited to the Pride? How many 14-year olds are going to be able to pull out $50?

“It’s disgusting what’s happening,” Luna continued. “I get that you want mor e fun for all the kids and get more exposure but where’s the pride for our community? It’s literally just a festival now. I don’t want to go to a Rave. I wanted to celebrate my pride and my heritage and not Carly Rae Jepson, who I haven’t heard about in 4 years(when Luna was 10). No offense to her – but where have you been?”

Robin Tyler, an LGBT pioneer who has produced dozens of music and comedy festivals, including the main stages of the Marches on Washington, says she does not see a transparent budget with CSW. “I demand the Christopher Street West budget.

I don’t know how or if they are taking competitive bid on vendors who supply things to the festival, like staging, toilets, garbage, etc.,” she said.

“If the stages are costing $175,000, I want to know that they got the best deal, for instance. No one knows!”

Tyler added, “This is much beyond

transgender inclusion….Our pride h a s b e e n t a k e n o v e r. F o l l o w t h e money.

“There’s a lot of money there,” she continued “It’s not about increasing attendance with Millennial participation. If you want their participation, you don’t charge $50 to get in. This is not a Coachella Music Festival.

This is our Pride Festival.”

Demaya Wilson, Princess of Unity for the Imperial Court of Los Angeles and Hollywood, says she is from Selma, Alabama and never imag ined she would be here in Los Angeles. “I came here to follow my dream and find happiness. I never even knew there was a pride parade and of course I didn’t know there was such a thing as Trans Day pride,” the young trans woman of color said.

“At a very vulnerable time (for trans people), they’re stripping us of everything right now. We are not asking for anything extravagant,” Wilson added.

The APAIT meeting was remarkable in its display of respect for elders and diversity, with Millennials and legacy members showing great concern for the history and inclusiveness of the community.

“Shut it Down, Take It Back” became a slogan born at that meeting, suggesting a boycott or some other action. A number of community members will gather on May 14 to plan strategy.

The emergency community meeting followed last week’s raucous West Hollywood City Council meeting at which CSW board president Classen distributed a letter that said, “Adding the word ‘music’ to the title of L.A. Pride is a subtle welcome to a younger generation who does not inherently understand the historical context of the event.”

Criticism was immediate and has intensified over the scope of change being implemented on West Holly-

wood’s largest public event. Speaker after speaker said the changes downplayed the history of the LGBT struggle, minimized transgender people, minimized lesbian issues and was a move toward mainstreaming, or de-gaying, a festival that for decades has been a celebration of LGBT lives.

Ivy Bottini, the legendary 90-year old lesbian icon, posed a question to the city council that has become the pivotal question about those changes, changes that have roiled LA’s LGBT community.

“I’d like to know: who is running CSW? Is it a one-man show? A twoman show? The board should be making decisions. Are they doing that? Or has the head of the organization suddenly decided it’s his organization?” Bottini asked at the City Council meeting.

By the end of that meeting, City Council vowed greater oversight of CSW. But the next day, Bottini’s question hung in the air as CSW’s full board met without anyone from City Co unc il pr e s e nt . Me mbe rs o f t he public, including Bottini, attempted to get clarity on a variety of questions but were met by resistance and obfuscation.

Facing a barrage of questions during the period set aside for public comment, Classen announced to the room, “We don’t respond to comments.”

But that did not stop Bottini: “Did anyone on the board review your letter?”

Classen finally responded by saying that his statement was sent to the entire board. But he did not say whether his statement was approved by the board, though he implied it was. “T o be clear, only a few people saw the letter (about the Music re-branding) before hand,” he said.

MESSY PRIDE continued on p. 19

05.20.2016

LOS ANGELES

⚫ 19

Talk of LA Pride boycott continues, but is it on?

MORE LA PRIDE continued from p. 5

people who rail against LA Pride know who they are hurting in the process. I don’t think they know the hard work or details that go into the planning.”

James Gilliam, Deputy Executive Director of the ACLU of Southern California, said his organization stands with #notourpride in their boycott of LA Pride festivities. Gilliam rebutted criticism that critics of CSW do not appreciate the complexities of producing an event like LA Pride. “I was producer of Pride in Nashville for 7 years so I know what it’s like to do these events in cities that are not as supportive as West Hollywood,” he said.

Gilliam requested that the City Council look at how CSW’s board is empaneled. “Make sure it is an open process,” he implored.

Even city leaders seem a little exasperated by the bickering.

John Leonard, The City of West Hollywood’s revenue manager, discussed the economic impact and demographics of events like the Pride Festival. The Pride event, the largest event in West Hollywood, has an estimated economic impact on the city of $9,200,000. Of attendees to all of the special events, 62 percent are millennials (18-34), 85 percent of whom do not live in the city but who travel to the city for the event from within a 50 mile radius. Leonard pointed out that the public relations MESSY PRIDE continued from p. 18

Steve Ganzell, a long time CSW board member, says he told Classen, “If we are not made aware of things, I can not support you.”

The exchange reveals that the board was not consulted in advance of the decision to change the entire nature of the event by rebranding it a Music Festival. It also raises questions about a variety of other changes such as ticket-pricing, specific transgender inclusion and entertainment talent.

A discussion between board members responding to to frustrations raised by an unidentified transgender person was interrupted by Mar quita Thomas, an executive board member. She mentioned California’s Brown Act and then quickly moved on to the next agenda item.

value of LA Pride is both unquantifiable and invaluable and offered that 31,000 social media users shared information about the event that reached millions of people.

The value of portraying WeHo as a safe haven should not be undervalued, he suggested.

The information suggests that CSW’s famous pivot toward millennials may be backed up by data. But the demographic is not the financially rewarding jackpot the city may be banking on in providing hard cash, subsidies and services.

West Hollywood Mayor Lauren Meister pointed out that more than $500,000 dollars in taxpayer cash and services is spent on LA Pride and perhaps more effort should be made to understand the return on investment.

City Councilman John D’Amico noted that only $165,000 in hotel taxes and $94,000 in general tax revenues were generated by the event. “These events do not put people in hotel beds.

That’s what we’ve learned. We all thought (otherwise),” he said.

The day after the council meeting, CSW held a board meeting attended by about 25 concerned community members. Commenters repeated the previous night’s points directly to a clearly exasperated board.

For over 30 minutes, speaker after speaker assailed the board on a variety of issues.

“You are selling us out,” said one.

“You guys are playing games,” said another. “You have a blatant disregard for the community.” “You are slapping everyone in the face.”

“They spent $30,000 decorating this tiny room? With what money? I thought CSW lost money!,” one person whispered.

Ivy Bottini again just laid it all out there. “I consider the board a lame duck board. There shouldn’t be any decisions made about next year. Do not touch the bylaws. Don’t touch the mission. Try to figure out how we are going to get some education in this festival,” she said.

“It doesn’t feel like you understand what Pride is,” Bottini said, “because you are all about money.”

After the public commenting period ended, Jeff Consolletti, the lead producer of LA Pride Festivals since 2009, was asked to update the board on the status of his work. He said many organizational “elements are still in limbo. There is still plenty of time to wrap things (stage programming) up but there are a lot of items that need to be addressed.”

Among those items is Transgender programing and staging. Consoletti said he had “received a phone call” regarding programming for the transgender stage programming. Subsequently, it was revealed that Rachel Rose Luckey, a member of the boycotting commu-

nity, had direct communication with members of the CSW board and with Consoletti about transgender issues, acting as de facto advisor on behalf of the transgender activists.

That news drew a collective gasp from the room as boycotters expressed outrage that one of their own had gone rogue. About 15 people immediately left the room, shouting down the echoing hallway. “CSW knows this is classic divide and conquer strategy,” said one of them. “Who the fuck does she think she is?” asked another.

The meeting lasted well into the evening, during which CSW board member Maquita Thomas said nothing.

At a previous meeting, she interrupted dialogue between board members and commenters, later reminding the board they were under confidentiality agreements. No member of the board addressed any commenter during the most recent meeting or after.

Ivy Bottini had the last word. As she was leaving CSW’s small office at the Pacific Design Center, the sharp-witted 90 year old tripped over a set of steps, breaking her ankle, dislocating a finger and leaving a substantial gash in her head. She was taken by ambulance to Cedar-Sinai Medical Hospital and now faces weeks in a rehabilitation facility.

When asked by phone which finger she had dislocated, Bottini didn’t miss a beat: “The one you flip people off with.”

The Br own Act is a gover nment “sunshine” law that guarantees the public’s right to attend and participate in official meetings of elected officials or groups that are receive funding from local gover nments.

The law also prohibits decisions from being made in secret. CSW is a non-profit that receives hundreds of thousands of dollars in underwritten services and subsidies from the City of West Hollywood.

It is not clear why Thomas mentioned the Brown Act while also seeming to violate the intent of the act by ending public discussion at a contentious moment. Critics later described the situation as “angry,” “of ficious” and “of f-putting” with the entire meeting described as “extremely tense.”

Hours after the CSW board meeting, Thomas sent a ster n email to

the board. The subject line of the e m a i l w a s “ A b s o l u t e l y u n a c c e p table.” In it she wrote: “You have a responsibility to protect the organization even when you don’t agree with a vote. Speaking against the organization in any way and especially to the press is conduct unbecoming and a violation to your duty and loyalty.”

“Conduct unbecoming” is a phrase famously used by the military to expel gay and lesbian service members.

Steve Ganzell instantly hit reply all. “You are not welcome to shutdown, vilify or ignore those with whom you disagree.”

The email was read aloud to The Pride LA by a reliable source.

Robin Tyler said: “If the executives producing the Pride festival do not produce a detailed budget, for the

past several years, including but not limited to the competitive bids they should have been asking for, then the Califor nia Attor ney General’s office should begin an investigation.

You cannot run a non-profit like it is your own private business.”

“I don’t understand what they are hiding. Why does this executive committee need so much control?

Sure, I guess they can ‘legally’ have a non-disclosure agreement. But its very existence is anathema to the openness we value as a community,” said Ivy Bottini.

T roy Perry, in an interview with T h e P r i d e L o s A n g e l e s s a i d , “ We always tried to be inclusive and take care. I don’t want to tackle the board but they need to listen to the community.”

“I am hoping the board will meet again,” he said.

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state whether they are elementary schools, junior high, high school, or colleges or universities.” But the head of the state’s education department doesn’t think the Obama administration’s guidance is the way to do it.

Idaho Superintendent of Public Education Sherri Ybarra (R) called it “another example of an extreme topdown approach that won’t change day-to-day bathroom use.” Instead, she explained, “Idaho schools and communities know their students best, and know that each individual students’ needs are unique.”

Gov. Butch Otter (R) and Lt. Gov. Brad Little were more explicit in their objections. Little claimed, “the President is stretching the true meaning of the gender equality law,” while Otter outright accused him of orchestrating an “offensive attempt at social engineering” that “only harms our children.” Otter also hinted at the possibility of a legal challenge.

Mississippi Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant (R), who recently signed a broad anti-LGBT bill into law, took to Facebook to attack the Obama administration. “Because these decisions are better left to the states, and not made at the point of a federal bayonet,” he wrote, “Mississippi’s public schools should not participate in the president’s social experiment.”

As many other lawmakers have done, Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves played the father-of-daughters card. “As the father of three young daughters, I am deeply disturbed by the direction this administration is trying to push our society,” he wrote on Facebook.

“Please pray for our country.”

Nevertheless, the Mississippi Department of Education said in no uncertain terms that it will actually adhere to the DOJ/DOE guidance. “A safe and caring school environment is critical to a student’s ability to learn and achieve,” the Department said in a statement.

Update: On Wednesday May 16, 2016 the Department reversed, saying it would “follow the lead of state leadership” and take no immediate action.

Michigan Officials in Michigan had already been debating trans student issues after the State Board of Education had unveiled draft guidance for protecting LGBT students from discrimination. Some lawmakers are already considering legislation similar to North Carolina’s HB2 that would overrule such protections. Friday’s guidance only added to the polariza-

LOS ANGELES

tion already underway.

Various state lawmakers spoke out against the guidelines, such as Sen. Patrick Colbeck (R), who said, “Our local school districts should ignore them. They have no standing whatsoever.”

Congressman Bill Huizenga (R-MI) also lashed out Friday, suggesting, “Gender identity is a deeply personal issue and decisions regarding its interpretation or definition by the federal government need to be made by the American people and their elected representatives, not through executive fiat by bureaucrats within the Obama Administration.”

Gov. Rick Snyder (R) was noticeably silent.

Arkansas Officials in Arkansas offered one of the most incendiary responses to the guidance on Friday. Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) issued a statement calling it “offensive, intrusive and totally lacking in common sense” and insisting that “there is no recognizable problem in Arkansas on this issue.”

Disproving his own point, he went on to say, “As Governor, I recommend that local school districts disregard the latest attempt at social engineering by the federal government and continue to use common sense to ensure a safe and healthy environment in Arkansas schools.”

Lt. Gov Tim Griffin (R) also chimed in on social media, thanking Hutchinson for his statement and calling the guidance “ridiculous and misguided.” Attorney General Leslie Rutledge agreed, accusing the federal agencies of “bullying and blackmail tactics” that raise “serious safety concerns for students and parents.” Like other attorneys general, she suggested her openness to taking legal action “to keep our students safe.”

The Arkansas Department of Education’s only comment was that it “fully supports Governor Hutchinson’s recommendation as outlined in his statement.”

Texas The Texas Republican Convention this weekend provided the opportunity for almost every speakerto reference bathrooms and mock transgender people. Likewise, the Party ended up approving a platform with numerous references to opposing equal access to facilities for transgender people. “Now, just so you’re not confused,” Lt. Gov Dan Patrick (R) joked, “when you go to the restroom, the M doesn’t stand for make up your mind, and the W does not stand for ‘whatever.’”

If that weren’t enough, Patrick did

ALABAMA STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION MEMBER MATTHEW BROWN SEEKS A BIOLOGICAL SEX RULE.

a whole media tour this weekend decrying the guidance. His most notable appearance was on Fox News with Megyn Kelly, where the host actually grilled him and ultimately cut him off as he continued to espouse anti-transgender sentiments, claiming it’s going to be “chaos” when there are “seven-year-old children co-mixing in the bathroom.”

Kelly challenged Patrick’s attempts to conflate transgender people with child molesters pointing out, “A lot of sex offenders are men who molest men, who molest boys. Why is there an assumption that they need to sneak into the girls’ room?” Patrick tried to push back, saying, “Megyn, you’re missing this,” to which she replied, “I don’t think I’m missing anything.”

Patrick has said that he will instruct superintendents across Texas to disregard the guidance. Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) also said in a statement, “If President Obama thinks he can bully Texas schools into allowing men to have open access to girls in bathrooms, he better prepare for yet another legal fight.”

Failed presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who just last week was still entertaining the idea of reentering the race, jumped at the opportunity to continue the anti-trans crusade that defined the last leg of his campaign.

Picking up the theme at the Texas Republican Convention, he told the crowd Saturday, “The president issued a decree to every public school in America demanding that they change their bathroom policies, demanding that every public school now allow grown men and boys into little girls’ bathrooms. We have entered the world of politically correct lunacy.”

Alabama Alabama officials may be scram-

21

bling the quickest to respond to the guidance. On Friday, Attorney General Luther Strange (R) issued a statement decrying the guidance and warning, “If the Obama Administration tries to enforce this absurd edict, I will work with other Attorneys General to challenge it.”

The Alabama State Board of Education is also prepping resistance.

South Alabama’s representative to the Board, Matthew Brown, is proposing a resolution that will require all public school students in the state to use bathrooms and locker rooms “corresponding to that students’ biological sex” as designated on their birth certificates. In other words, it will enforce a rule identical to the relevant provision of North Carolina’s HB2. State Sen. Phil Williams (R) has similarly proposed introducing legislation to the same effect.

Though Gov. Robert Bentley (R) has been mum, several of Alabama’s other elected leaders have spoken out.

Congresswoman Martha Roby (R-AL) said the members of the Obama administration “have lost their minds” because “eighth grade boys don’t need government-guaranteed access to the sixth grade girls’ bathroom, or vice versa.”

Rep. Gary Palmer (R-AL) claimed that the guidance will “create an environment with much more potential for sexual misconduct and harm.” He went as far as to say that “the safety implications for sexual predation have been well documented,” even though there is actually no documentationof transgender protections ever making schools less safe.

Indiana After a lackluster and failed attempt to recover from the anti-LGBT reputation Indiana developed in 2015 for its “religious liberty” legislation, the state is still siding with discrimination.

Gov. Mike Pence (R) responded to the guidance in a statement demanding, “Policies regarding the security and privacy of students in our schools should be in the hands of Hoosier parents and local schools, not bureaucrats in Washington, DC.” He said Indiana’s school communities will resolves these matters “in a manner that reflects the common sense and compassion of our state.”

But Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction Glenda Ritz (D) supports the guidance. “In Indiana, we have already seen schools take steps to ensure that their students and staff feel safe regardless of race, religion, sex or gender identity,” she TRANS PANIC continued on p. 23

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>

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ACTIVISM AND LEADERSHIP

PROFILES

⚫ BY ROBERT WILLIAMS

Meet Michaela Mendohlson: pioneering trans entrepreneur

Creating an employment advocacy organization is not the only way the 63-year-old Mendelsohn champions her community.

M

ichaela Mendelsohn is a gal on the go, or more correctly, a gal on the way up and she wants to pull you up with her, especially if you are part of the transgender community. Her mission is to level the playing field so that trans people can start expanding their vision from worrying about survival to flourishing and having a family.

“If we are not lifting up the community from the lowest denominator up, then we aren’t really doing our job for social justice,” Mendelsohn says.

The author and speaker founded the California Transgender Workplace Program to promote trans-friendly job conditions and employment opportunities.

As a transgender female and CEO of Pollo West Corp, one of the largest franchisees for El Pollo Loco, she has first hand experience as an employer who has realized the value and potential for transgender employees in the workplace.

“I began to think of the idea for CTWP when I hired my first transgender employee in one of my restaurants,” she says. “Living as a woman, the employee was forced by her previous employer to use the men’s restroom where she was sexually molested. She was then allowed to use the women’s restroom but a customer complained and she was fired.”

Creating an employment advocacy organization is not the only way the 63-year-old Mendelsohn champions her community. She is the first transwoman on the board of the Trevor Project, a national organization focused on suicide prevention among LGBTQ youth. It’s an important step for both Mendelsohn and the organization as 43 percent of trans people have attempted suicide, including Mendelsohn.

At age 55, Mendelsohn started living life as a woman which caused tension among her family, including her three

MICHAELA SERVES ON THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS AT THE TREVOR PROJECT, IS FOUNDER OF CALIFORNIA WORKPLACE PROJECT AND IS CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF POLLO WEST CORP

children. They did not want her around their friends and she was not allowed to go to their school events. This rejection led to her suicide attempt.

“Being a parent was the best part of my life and I was angry I wasn’t getting back

the love I had given them.” Mendelsohn said. “I expected their support and when I felt rejected, it felt awful.”

The tension peaked when Mendelsohn went anonymously to her daughter’s classroom and read a poem her daughter

had written and was posted on the wall: “When I was 4 years old I would sit on my daddy’s shoulders and I was on top of the world. Nothing could hurt me. Now everything has changed. I am no longer daddy’s little girl. I am no longer safe.

Now even the sound of his voice sickens me,” her daughter wrote.

“It was like an arrow through my heart,” she says. “I had never been suicidal but I thought I realized my being alive was hurting my family too much. I was not in my right mind when the following night I stepped out my car in front of an oncoming car. My then 19-year-old son jumped out of the passenger seat, grabbed me, and pulled me away. He looked in my eyes and said, ‘Dad, I don’t care what gender you are, this family needs you.’”

Mendelsohn’s therapist explained the lifetime of pain suicide causes the surviving family members and she has never thought about it again.

“It’s important that we all celebrate uniqueness,” said Mendelsohn. “My struggles have made me stronger and happier – that’s the message.”

Mendelsohn has an aura of warmth and beauty shared nicely with a type of confidence lending credence to personal and professional success. Although soft spoken, her matter-of-fact honesty and articulated intelligence screams at you. She is a woman whose journey has seasoned her to command respect and admiration, if not awe.

She was the first transgender contestant in the Ms. Senior California Pageant and worked with Jenji Kohan as a consultant on “Orange is the New Black,” in the development of Laverne Cox’s character.

She didn’t want payment for her consultation for the television series but she did have a couple of requests.

“Jenji in her position is going to do whatever she wants, but I asked her to get the role right because so many roles have been stereotyped and to hire a transgender actress, which she did.”

Mendelsohn’s full surgical transition occurred in 2013. Today, she is in a relationship, and together they are raising a 2-year-old son, who Mendelsohn describes as the light of her life. She has also reconciled with her 3 adult children, who continue to call her Dad.

05.20.2016 TRANS PANIC continued from p. 21

said in a statement. “I will support their efforts, and will continue to ensure that all students have the opportunity to learn in a safe and welcoming environment.”

Georgia Neither Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal (R) nor Attorney General Sam Olens (R) has commented on the guidance, but a majority of the Senate’s Republicans have called on them to do so. It called on them to sue the Obama administration for overreaching, and to also promise every school in the state that “the State of Georgia will defend them against any lawsuit that may result from not complying with this federal directive.”

The letter suggests not-so-subtly suggests that the guidance amounts to child abuse: We ensure that children wear seatbelts. We do not allow them to drink alcohol or buy cigarettes until they are 21. We provide significant penalties for those who use children in sex trafficking. We remove children from the custody of those who abuse them.

The federal Executive Branch has now assumed the role of the abuser by threatening the safety and welfare of the children of the State of Georgia. We cannot be complicit in this abuse by being complacent. We must be proactive to come to the defense of our children.

Deal said Tuesday that he does not believe the guidance carries the force of law and asked State School Superintendent Richard Woods to provide guidance to the state’s schools.

Olens went farther, describing the guidance as addressing “a sensitive and complex issue with a sledgehammer.” He said that he will “take steps, when appropriate under the law, to ensure that these decisions are being made at the appropriate level, as demanded by principles of separation of powers and federalism under our Constitution.”

Additionally, House Speaker David Ralston (R) wrote a letter to Georgia’s two members of the U.S. Senate, Johnny Isakson (R) and David Perdue (R), asking them to “protect our students and our local educators from the heavy hand of the federal government.”

Tennessee A majority of Tennessee’s Republican senators sent a letter Monday to Gov. Bill Haslam (R) and Attorney General Herbert Slatery (R) urging them to join “our neighbors in legal action if necessary opposing the Obama Administration’s ‘decree’ which denies the privacy rights of more than 99 percent of Tennesseans.”

“While a microscopic group of individuals demands accommoda-

LOS ANGELES tion, the opportunism that is created for criminal predators (not within the said group receiving preference) to access their unwilling prey — women and children — is a certain consequence,” they wrote. “The deviancy driving rapists and pedophiles has been dismissed and would most certainly impact and endanger a much larger segment of the public in an irrational fear of media criticism and opposition by a radical political activist subgroup.”

Haslam responded, calling the guidance a “heavy-handed approach” but pointing out that it was simply “an enforcement action and does not make any additional requirements under the law.”

The Wall Street Journal Catering to its conservative readership, the Wall Street Jour nal published an editorial Tuesday condemning the transgender student guidance. Relying on an opinion piece they published in 2014 by Johns Hopkins psychiatrist Paul McHugh, the editorial board members assert that “the idea of gender as subjective ‘per sonal truth’ has no basis in science.”

McHugh’s anti-LGBT bias has been widely documented and his anti-transgender thinkingthor oughly debunked. His rejections of trans identities conflict with the broad consensus of medical professionals; in fact, he is often the only doctor conservatives cite to justify their anti-transgender positions.

The Journal concludes that there should be no national standard for protecting trans people from discrimination. “We made this argument on abortion and gay marriage and will do so again to the transgender activists: Let the states decide.”

The Catholic Church Not to be left out, two committee chairmen from the U.S. Confer ence of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) also issued a statement Monday rejecting the guidance as “deeply disturbing.”

Bishop Richard Malone and Archbishop George Lucas explained, “The guidance fails to address a number of important concerns and contradicts a basic understanding of human for mation so well expressed by Pope Francis: that ‘the young need to be helped to accept their own body as it was created.’”

They also quoted Pope Francis as having indicated that “biological sex and the socio-cultural role of sex (gender) can be distinguished but not separated,” imploring the government to “make room for more just and compassionate approaches and policies in this sensitive area.”

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