Conversion therapy hurts trans people
Who knew? (Hint: Trans people.)
It’s September 11, and naturally many are thinking back on the tragic attacks in 2001, but I want to look back on something a bit different today. On this day in 1961, the first-ever documentary on homosexuality aired on American television.
Called The Rejected, the one-hour made-for TV special focused entirely on gay men. While it sounds outdated today — framing homosexuality as a social problem like alcoholism — the special was fairly forward-thinking for its time. Consider that homosexuality wouldn’t be declassified as a mental illness until another decade later!
If you’ve never heard of or seen this, it’s worth taking a listen, even if you skip around instead of watching the full hour. It’s rather amazing just how much our knowledge and our acceptance has changed in half a century:
Onto today’s LGBTQ news:
Discrimination wins in North Carolina
In a narrow win, anti-LGBTQ bigot Dan Bishop (R) won Tuesday’s special congressional election and will now represent North Carolina in the U.S. House. Bishop helped write and defend HB2, the law that mandated discrimination against transgender people in public spaces. President Trump was of course thrilled and took credit for the win.
Rick Scott blocked $70M in HIV spending for Florida
A new investigation from The Guardian finds that Rick Scott (R) blocked $70 million that should have gone toward fighting the HIV epidemic in Florida. Now a member of the U.S. Senate, Scott as governor blocked state health officials from securing legislative permission to spend the funds and also blocked several grant applications. Miami and Broward counties have some of the highest HIV infection rates in the country.
Study shows link between anti-trans conversion therapy and suicide
A new study published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry found an alarming — if unsurprising — connection between conversion therapy for transgender people and negative mental health outcomes, including suicide attempts. (We often talk about conversion therapy in terms of trying to “de-gay” someone, but it also describes efforts to “de-trans” someone by forcing them to conform to the gender they were assigned at birth.)
According to the study’s senior author, Dr. Alex Keuroghlian, the study shows that efforts to force a transgender person not to be trans at any point during their lives more than doubles the odds that they will attempt suicide. These results were consistent regardless of whether the therapy was with a secular therapist or a religious counselor.
For children subjected to such treatment, the study found “four-fold increased odds of lifetime suicide attempts.” For more on how to respond to trans kids, check out my feature investigation about the junk science confusing many parents.
School that isolated trans student during drill passes LGBTQ protections
Last year, I reported on an exclusive interview with a Virginia mom whose transgender daughter was prohibited from participating in a safety drill because students evacuated into gendered locker rooms. Since then, Amy has been fighting for the protections her daughter deserves. Last night, after a long heated meeting in which Amy’s son testified on behalf of his sister, the Stafford County School Board voted 4-3 to approve LGBTQ nondiscrimination protections.
It may have taken a year, but Amy’s daughter will finally have the protection she deserves through the rest of her schooling experience.
California winery refuses to host same-sex weddings
For every person who says, “Just go to another venue,” there’s another venue telling same-sex couples that they aren’t welcome there to hold their weddings there. The latest is Viaggio Estate & Winery in Acampo, California, which has been telling a number of same-sex couples that they’re willing to host receptions, but not ceremonies as they do for different couples.
According to the venue, the owners have “very strong personal religious beliefs regarding marriage, which is for marriage to be between heterosexual couples only,” and believe the Constitution justifies their discrimination. The Supreme Court may make such a call in the coming years, but for now, California state law doesn’t see it that way.
Gay teen’s self-defense results in 14 years for manslaughter
After years of bullying for being gay, teen Abel Cedeno defended himself with a knife against two bullies, killing one of them. He was convicted this summer on all counts against him, and this week was sentenced to 14 years in prison. The judge rejected all please for leniency and refused to sentence Cedeno as a minor because he had turned 18 just before the incident.
NY Post Editor: Drag queen story hour is “demonic”
Seriously, all this fear about Drag Queen Story Hour is getting a little out of hand. At a debate at Catholic University last week, Sohrab Ahmari, editor of the New York Post’s op-ed page, claimed that DQSH “is a threat and it is demonic,” going on to call it a “cultural crisis and a moral emergency” that ought to be banned.
David French, his debate opponent, is a big opponent of LGBTQ equality, but to his credit, he pointed out that Ahmari’s plan would violate the First Amendment.
(Vox posted an explainer back in June about the conservative divide between French and Ahmari, if you want to start down that rabbit hole.)
Indian trans police recruitment drive backfires
The Indiana state of Chhattisgarh announced a recruitment drive to allow transgender people to join the police force. A group of 40 people quit their jobs and left their homes to join up, hoping for a better future thanks to a career with the police. After months of training and study, however, none of them have actually been allowed on the force, and in the meantime, many have them have been outed, resulting in lost jobs and assaults by family members.
Radio station calls one of its own hosts a “fag” on Twitter
The New Orleans talk radio station WWL-AM tweeted on its official Twitter profile that one of its radio hosts is a “fag.”
Host Seth Dunlap, who is gay, has been open over the past week about his concerns that New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees partnered with Focus on the Family on a video. The tweet responding to one of this concerns was up for several hours before the station deleted it. WWL now says it’s investigating the incident:
In the meantime, Dunlap is taking some to “reflect and decompress.”
UVA really likes its homophobic chants
The University of Virginia has a traditional tune called “The Good Old Song,” which is set to the melody of “Auld Lang Syne” and sung at many events. It includes the lyric, “We come from old Virginia, where all is bright and gay,” which has proven to be a big problem at sporting events over the years. When it’s sung, fans have often inserted a chant of “Not gay!”
For years, the school has tried to change the practice. Some fans started saying “Fuck Tech!” instead, referring to UVA’s rivals at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, which isn’t much better — and “Not gay!” is still used too. The latest effort to change the tradition is a video featuring athletes, students, and prominent alums like Tina Fey:
Yes, they made a whole produced video about not being homophobic or unsportsmanlike during a song. Some are just calling for the song not to be used anymore since people can’t seem to sing it responsibly.
Until next time, stay platinum!
(“Trans is truth” photo credit: Flickr/Governor Tom Wolf.)