Joshua Herr is Chairman of the Log Cabin Republicans of Tennessee.
The Tennessee legislature passed HB1182/SB1224, which would publicly identify private businesses that make accommodations for transgender people.
Specifically, it would require private businesses and public buildings to post signs if they allow transgender people to use the bathroom of their identified gender. The Log Cabin Republicans of Tennessee believe this bill is misguided.
Log Cabin Republicans are LGBT people and allies who are committed to conservative principles and the Republican Party.
We founded the Tennessee chapter this year. We volunteer our time to support Republicans in Tennessee.
We also help Republican officials and candidates to navigate LGBT issues from a conservative perspective. Our goal is to promote LGBT inclusion and understanding in the GOP and to advocate for the GOP within the LGBT community.
Here’s where we stand on different LGBT issues
LGBT leftists tend to hate us because we put our principles first. We believe in religious liberty, free speech, God-given human dignity, limited government, and economic opportunity.
For that reason we frequently oppose radical gender theory and leftist policies like the Equality Act. We support a nuanced, science-based approach to transgender policy issues.
We recently spoke out in support of the legislature’s initiative to keep youth sports organized according to biological sex — we find the effort to let biological males play girls’ sports anti-science and offensive.
As a result of stances like these, LGBT leftists regularly picket us, ban us, destroy our property, and call us ugly names. (Uncle Toms, traitors, self-loathing, anti-gay, anti-trans, and “ciswhite fascists” to name a few.)
Recently, our entire leadership team was kicked out of Nashville’s primary LGBT networking Facebook group, in contravention of that group’s written rules, because the admins hated us.
We hope this background demonstrates our conservative bona fides. If we oppose a Republican LGBT bill, it is out of principle, not identity politics or blind devotion to those in the LGBT “community” who reject us. We were not asked to comment on the bill before it was passed, but we feel we would be remiss not to offer our perspective.
Two reasons why the bathroom bill targeting trans people is flawed
We believe this bill is flawed for two reasons. First, as conservatives who believe in liberty and in supporting small businesses, we do not think that government should single out businesses for special public censure if they do not enforce the government’s current social views.
Americans are still sorting out how they feel about trans people and how they can be tolerant or hospitable neighbors even if they disagree. Government should not use private businesses as pawns in an ongoing culture war, especially with something as private as their customers’ genitalia.
Second, the bill is counterproductive. We understand that the legislature wants to give parents peace of mind that their daughters will not use the same restroom as biological males. Parents want to make sure their kids are safe — this is a completely reasonable concern. But forcing trans women to use the same restroom as young boys can be more disturbing and disruptive to businesses.
Dads: imagine walking into the men’s room with your son and seeing Caitlyn Jenner, in a dress, fixing her makeup.
More disturbing still is when trans men who are far along in their transition — people who look, act, and identify as male — must use the same restroom as young girls.
Moms: imagine walking into the ladies’ room with your daughter and seeing someone with a beard, deep voice, and men’s clothes who urinates standing up. Does this feel safer than if that person had used the men’s room? Of course not. But that is what this bill incentivizes.
Proposal makes trans people further vulnerable to violence and bigotry
Bathroom bill advocates claim that letting trans women use the ladies’ room creates opportunity for sexual predators to assault women or girls.
Again, while we respect this fear, we do not think it will be realized in practice: there is not a single recorded instance of a trans woman sexually assaulting a biological woman in a bathroom in Tennessee.
Instead, the opposite is true: there are many recorded instances of trans people being assaulted when they are recognized as trans. We want to protect all Tennesseans, including trans people. We don’t think this bill helps to do that.
The bathroom issue requires both care and prudence. The best solutions will be arrived at freely by citizens within their communities, not imposed from the top via blanket legislation.
HB1182/SB1224 might be more defensible if it only applied to government restrooms. But by extending the mandate to privately-owned businesses, it tries to shame businesses who choose, out of respect for customers’ privacy, to let trans customers use their restroom of choice.
Tennessee businesses should be allowed to work through their own views without government bullying and public labeling. For that reason, we encourage Governor Lee to veto HB1182/SB1224.
Joshua Herr is Chairman of the Log Cabin Republicans of Tennessee.
If new details about The Trial of Magneto weren’t enough, Marvel Comics has more mutant-related news. Somnus, the new LGBTQ+ debuting in Marvel Voices: Pride #1 in June, is a powerful mutant who has a history with the X-Men. Marvel revealed these details in a press release, along with the news that Steve Orlando (Wonder Woman, Curse of the Man-Thing) and Eisner-nominated artist Claudia Aguirre (Hotel Dare) will reveal Somnus’s backstory during his debut story in Marvel Voices: Pride. The release also includes a full look at Somnus on the cover of Marvel Voices: Pride #1 and Luciano Vecchio’s original character designs. Both are included below.
Marvel describes Somnus, a.k.a. Carl Valentino, as “A mutant who had an extraordinary impact on an X-Man long ago.” His mutant powers give him the ability to control other people’s dreams. For some reason, Somnus has been missing from mutant history until now, when he’s being granted a new chance to pursue his own dreams and fulfill his heroic destiny as part of the mutant nation of Krakoa.
(Photo: Marvel Comics)
“Somnus, Carl Valentino, is inspired not only by my own family history, but by my experiences with past generations of LGBTQ+ folks from across the country, people I wouldn’t have met without comics,” Orlando says in the press release. “While there is still plenty of work to do, we’ve also come a long way as a community. Somnus is a chance to explore how my own late queer relatives may have felt, living in more prejudiced times. He’s also a chance to celebrate past generations as a whole and acknowledge the strides we’ve made that they may not have lived to see. And with the Krakoan era being one of relative utopia for mutantkind, Somnus will bring a fresh perspective, and respectful gut check, to the young mutants of the present who may not know just how hard some had to fight for all mutants have achieved. Within the story and without, Somnus will be a new, complex character carrying a message of respect, power, and vision.”
“Marvel’s Voices: Pride is ticking so many dream assignments for me! On top of doing the cover, a frame variant, and a story that I got to write myself, I also got to design a new queer character introduced in a story written by Steve Orlando,” Vecchio said. “I’m so happy to finally collaborate officially with Steve and I fell in love with Somnus’ concept and backstory right away. I got some input from him and editor Sarah Brunstad but also a lot of liberty to propose ideas. This time the design process itself felt almost like channeling. I wanted him to have an air of ‘man of your dreams,’ very charming and human but unreachable at the same time. Some visual elements are a mix of Mod fashion, a bit of Hellfire Gala influence, and a palette based on Etruscan vase art as a nod to the god he’s named after.”
Are you excited about Somnus? Let us know in the comments.
Somnus debuts in Marvel Voices: Pride #1. The issue releases in comic shops and digital storefronts on June 23rd.
MARVEL’S VOICES: PRIDE #1
Written by KIERON GILLEN, ALLAN HEINBERG, ANTHONY OLIVEIRA, STEVE ORLANDO, TINI HOWARD, LEAH WILLIAMS, MARIKO TAMAKI, TERRY BLAS, CRYSTAL FRASIER, VITA AYALA, J.J. KIRBY, LUCIANO VECCHIO & MORE!
Art by JAVIER GARRÓN, JIM CHEUNG, KRIS ANKA, JEN HICKMAN, PAULINA GANUCHEAU, JETHRO MORALES, BRITNEY WILLIAMS, J.J. KIRBY, LUCIANO VECCHIO, JAN BAZALDUA, CLAUDIA AGUIRRE & MORE!
Frame Variant Cover by LUCIANO VECCHIO (APR210818)
FILE – In this Sunday, June 11, 2017 file photo, Equality March for Unity and Pride participants march past the White House in Washington. The Biden administration says the government will protect gay and transgender people against sex discrimination in health care. That reverses a Trump-era policy that sought to narrow the scope of legal rights in sensitive situations involving medical care. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said Monday that LGBTQ people should have the same access to health care as everyone else. T(AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
WASHINGTON — The federal government will protect gay and transgender people against sex discrimination in health care, the Biden administration declared Monday, reversing a Trump-era policy that narrowed rights at the intersection of changing social mores and sensitive medical decisions.
It marked the latest step by President Joe Biden to advance the rights of gay and transgender people across society, from military service, to housing, to employment opportunities.
The policy announcement by the Department of Health and Human Services affirms that federal laws forbidding sex discrimination in health care also protect gay and transgender people. The Trump administration had defined “sex” to mean gender assigned at birth, thereby excluding transgender people from the law’s umbrella of protection.
“Fear of discrimination can lead individuals to forgo care, which can have serious negative health consequences,” said HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra. “Everyone — including LGBTQ people — should be able to access health care, free from discrimination or interference, period.”
Both opponents and supporters of Biden’s action said it’s likely to lead to litigation.
The American Medical Association said in a statement that the Biden administration “did the right thing” by ending “a dismal chapter which a federal agency sought to remove civil rights protections.” But some conservatives warned that doctors could be forced to perform gender reassignment procedures against their professional judgement.
Becerra said HHS will now be aligned with a landmark 6-3 Supreme Court decision last year in a workplace discrimination case, which established that federal laws against sex discrimination on the job also protect gay and transgender people.
In a tweet at the time, then-President Donald Trump called the decision “horrible & politically charged.” Undeterred by the ruling, his administration proceeded to try to narrow protections against discrimination in health care. But Biden early on in his term directed government agencies to apply the Supreme Court’s reasoning to areas under their jurisdiction.
Monday’s action means that the HHS Office for Civil Rights will again investigate complaints of sex discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. Hospitals, clinics and other medical providers can face denial of Medicare and Medicaid payments for violations of the law.
Since the Trump transgender rule had been blocked by a federal judge, the Biden administration action essentially restores a policy established during the Obama years. The Affordable Care Act prohibited sex discrimination in health care but did not use the term “gender identity.” The Obama administration interpreted the law as shielding gay and transgender people as well.
Conservative lawyer Roger Severino, who as a former HHS official oversaw the drafting of the Trump rules, said the Biden administration cut corners in issuing its new policy.
“This is inflaming the culture wars, especially when you are trying to circumvent the process,” said Severino, now at the Ethics and Public Policy Center think tank. Partly because of conflicting lower court rulings on the Trump and Obama policies, Becerra should have undertaken a formal rule-making, which can take months. “I expect lawsuits,” Severino added.
But civil rights advocates said the Supreme Court’s ruling on transgender protections essentially wiped the slate clean for Biden. “The Supreme Court has already laid out the reasoning that applies under all sex discrimination laws,” said Omar Gonzalez-Pagan, a lawyer for the Lambda Legal Defense Fund. “They did so in an employment case but their reasoning applies equally in health care, in education, and in housing.”
In recent years the understanding of sex has broadened to acknowledge a person’s inner sense of being male, female, neither or a combination.
Behind the dispute over rights for transgender people is a medically recognized condition called “gender dysphoria” — discomfort or distress caused by a discrepancy between the gender that a person identifies as and the gender assigned at birth. Consequences can include severe depression. Treatment can range from gender confirmation surgery and hormones to people changing their outward appearance by adopting a different hairstyle or clothing.
Under the Obama-era rule, a hospital could be required to perform gender-transition procedures such as hysterectomies if the facility provided that kind of treatment for other medical conditions.
LGBTQ groups say explicit protections are needed for people seeking gender transition treatment, and even for transgender people who need care for illnesses such as diabetes or heart problems.
More than 1.5 million Americans identify as transgender, according to the Williams Institute, a think tank focusing on LGBT policy at the UCLA School of Law. A bigger number — 4.5% of the population– identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, according to Gallup.
HHS is a traditional battleground for conflicts over social issues. During the Trump administration the department bent to the will of conservatives. Other Trump policies applauded by the right restricted abortion referrals and broadened employers’ ability to opt out of providing birth control to women workers covered by their health plans. Under Biden, the policy pendulum has been swinging back in the opposite direction.
One of Biden’s first steps after taking office was a Jan. 20 executive order on combating discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation.
Biden quickly followed that up with another order reversing a Trump-era Pentagon policy that largely barred transgender individuals from serving in the military.
And earlier this spring, the Department of Housing and Urban Development withdrew a Trump policy that would have allowed taxpayer-funded homeless shelters to deny access to transgender people.
At HHS, Biden’s term has seen the Senate confirmation of Dr. Rachel Levine to be assistant secretary for health, a senior position that involves oversight of public health initiatives, HIV/AIDS, women’s health and minority health, as well as other areas including research protections. Levine, formerly Pennsylvania’s top health official, is the first openly transgender person to be confirmed by the Senate.
To say that Man on Man’s debut collection of songs is a celebration of queerness feels a bit like an understatement—the self-titled album from Faith No More’s Roddy Bottum and his boyfriend Joey Holman seems more inspired by unbridled queer love and confidence than it is fueled by the grungy corners of rock it pulls from. The pre-album single “1983” introduced the project as a familiarly mathy track that immediately takes on both upbeat instrumentals and an R-rated expression of love. Even the stoner-rock opener (“Stohner”) is a doe-eyed account of feeling “so right” with a partner by their side. The record is, simply put, a series of songs to be gay to.
With this intersection of queerness and music in mind, the duo of Bottum and Holman embraced “Songs to Be Gay To” as the theme of the playlist they assembled for us, compiling queer anthems from the likes of Frank Ocean, Syd, Bloc Party’s Kele Okereke, and Hayley Williams. Catch up on the band’s new music—Man on Man dropped last Friday via Polyvinyl—here, and keep scrolling to read the duo’s thoughts on the songs included in the playlist below.
Gravy Train, “You Made Me Gay” This song is audacious and bratty and full of spirit and sass. The first time I saw Gravy Train in San Francisco I couldn’t stop squealing.
Kele, “Smalltown Boy”
Kele is the singer of Bloc Party, and the new releases from his solo project are so beautiful. The sounds and moods he created in this song are distinctly Kele and quite perfect.
Serpentwithfeet, “Same Size Shoe” From the awesome Deacon record, a song that speaks on the innocence of love and fellowship and passion.
Brendan Hendry, “Peter Pan Syndrome”
Not to put this song too much in the corner, but it’s reminiscent of nighttime in Bushwick during the summertime while being stoned at 2:00 a.m. with the AC window unit on full blast, and you’re drifting to sleep feeling the cool air on your dirty, sweaty skin from a night out with friends.
Seth Bogart, “Boys Who Don’t Wanna Be Boys”
Seth writes and performs with conviction, I love his sense of pride.
Kehlani, “Bad News”
This record came out during the heat of the pandemic last year. We were in Los Angeles in anticipation of things to come. This song in particular made things feel normal and peaceful again, despite the lyrics and song title.
The Younger Lovers, “Easy Afternoon”
This song loops and swishes, it’s like Brontez doing a gay duet with Brontez.
Syd, “Know”
This song has so much meekness and control, reminiscent of Aaliyah. This song is for fans of really solid beats and synth atmosphere. Syd is such an incredibly gifted singer, has mastered creating and maintaining really strong vibes.
CRICKETS, “Elastic”
CRICKETS is the band I (Roddy) am in with JD and Michael O’Neil. We always imagined this song being performed at a queer festival with kids dancing as far as the eye could see.
Frank Ocean, “Nights”
Frank’s ability to create so many different song structures in one song, like Queen and Led Zeppelin, is his true genius.
Le Tigre, “Hot Topic”
I like this song cause it lists off cool inspirational voices in the world of queer players. In the spirit of our “It’s So Fun (To Be Gay)” video, it includes the community in an inclusive and empowering way that I admire.
Kelela, “Waitin’”
Kelela is a big influence in terms of how she does her vocal stacks. She’s the queen of lyrics and melody, and this song just makes everyone who listens to it feel happy. It’s reminiscent of feel-good ’90s Janet Jackson meets ’60s Motown.
Liam Benzvi, “Opal”
Liam’s got it. His sense of melody and sophisticated instrumentation feels like Roxy Music if Bryan Ferry were gay.
Special Interest, “Young, Gifted, Black, In Leather”
The first time I (Joey) saw this band was at Brooklyn Bazaar (RIP) when they opened up for Limp Wrist. The singer walked onto the stage with a giant disco ball and had the crowd in her hand for their entire set. Both of their LPs are full of chaotic energy and queer as fuck.
Hayley Williams, “Pure Love”
Joey Howard is the co-writer on this song, and he played bass on a few tracks on our record. He’s an insanely talented songwriter and musician, and this song he did with Hayley feels just like the title.
Macy Rodman, “Vaseline”
I love Macy Rodman so much. I’ve seen her perform a million times, she’s a NY performer who’s got a real sexy swagger combined with a super funny sense of klutzy physical comedy. “Vaseline” embodies that combo in a real fun way.
Medina Spirit is the latest victim of “cancel culture,” the Kentucky Derby-winning horse’s trainer argued Monday. Churchill Downs, the site of the Derby, revealed Sunday that Medina Spirit had registered levels of an anti-inflammatory drug beyond Kentucky horse racing’s legal limit in a post-race blood test. For now, Baffert, who holds the record for the most Derby wins in the sport’s history, is suspended from entering horses at the track, and if the results are confirmed, he and Medina Spirit will be stripped of their victory. Baffert thinks that would be unfair. During an interview on Fox News on Monday, he called Churchill Downs’ statement “harsh,” suggesting that they faced societal pressure to reach their decision. “We live in a different world now. This America is different … it was like a cancel culture kind of a thing,” Baffert said, without acknowledging that his horses have reportedly failed drug tests 29 other times over his four-decade career. lol Bob Baffert went on Fox News and called the uproar about Medina Spirit’s failed drug test is a “cancel culture kind of a thing” pic.twitter.com/aZLeOp8kBz — John Whitehouse (@existentialfish) May 10, 2021 More stories from theweek.comDoomsday for bad bosses5 scathingly funny cartoons about anti-vaxxers jeopardizing herd immunityNewsmax guest calls out network for ‘lying to its own viewers’ live on Newsmax
“When your life flashes before you, part of you changes,” said Harris Mojadedi, a student fee analyst in the Division of Student Affairs. “I’m grateful for that change.” (UC Berkeley photo by Irene Yi)
The COVID-19 pandemic has separated us, but sharing stories about how members of the campus community have been surviving — and even thriving — since spring 2020 can help draw us together. Berkeley News is gathering inspiring personal tales of heartache and triumph related to the coronavirus and will run them periodically. To pitch us your story, send a brief email to news@berkeley.edu. Check out the whole series here.
This is the ninth story in the series. It highlights Harris Mojadedi, a student fee analyst in the Division of Student Affairs.
In July 2019, Harris Mojadedi knew he’d hit the tipping point. While walking from the campus’s Residential Student Services Program building to the student union, the UC Berkeley staffer had to stop three times to rest.
“I’d reached my highest weight, 450 pounds,” said Mojadedi, a student fee analyst in the Division of Student Affairs. “I couldn’t walk from point A to point B. I was 29 years old, my legs hurt, and I felt awful every day.”
Later that year, Mojadedi would confront another serious challenge: a cancer diagnosis — Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Sheltering in place during the pandemic forced Mojadedi to look closely at his challenges, and how to address them. “There’s been an internal awareness that’s come out of the quieting of the chatter and noise,” he said. (UC Berkeley photo by Irene Yi)
But today, as California begins to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, Mojadedi said he is emerging from his personal struggles as a “changed person” who’s lost more than 200 pounds through diet and exercise, is in cancer remission, and chose last fall to reveal to his extended family that he is gay.
That his life has taken a positive turn “while hundreds of thousands of people have lost their lives in ways that could have been preventable, had we shown up differently for the task,” is unsettling, he said. “COVID-19 has been horrible.”
Yet, being sheltered in place at his home in Union City, and now in San Francisco, for more than a year has brought a critical interruption to Mojadedi’s hectic life — to his 1½-hour daily commute, each way, to Berkeley; to juggling his participation on numerous campus committees and his job in student affairs; to his weekends spent networking and prepping to run for a local city council seat.
“Everything froze, life itself,” he said. “It became just me, front and center. Just me. I’ve had to sit with myself, be present with myself in a way that my daily life wouldn’t allow me to before. There’s been an internal awareness that’s come out of the quieting of the chatter and noise. I’ve really been able to come into my own.”
For those like Mojadedi who have lost their well-being, he said, “It’s important to ask what our challenges are, and then to ask, ‘What am I going to choose to do?’ And that’s hard. We all have areas for improvement, things to do better, so life turns out differently.”
Harris Mojadedi savors his daily long walks through San Francisco. In the past, it had gotten difficult for him to travel relatively short distances on foot. (UC Berkeley photo by Irene Yi)
Losing balance
His whole life, Mojadedi has been overweight, and it was exacerbated at home and at school.
“The only issue that mattered to my parents was that I needed to lose weight,” he said. “It was an issue at elementary school. I remember being teased and bullied. But I found ways to handle it, through humor and friendliness. I learned how to adapt.”
In middle and high school, his sincere and compassionate nature led him to make meaningful friendships. “And, I was obese,” he added. “And what was not known to me then was being gay, and not having the words for it.”
Mojadedi went on to San Jose State University, then to St. Mary’s College for his master’s degree. At San Jose State, he began to discover the fields of study and types of community work that meant the most to him.
“I studied political science and was so ridiculously involved in everything in student life you can imagine. I was a resident assistant, a student leader on several campus committees, I worked as a mentor for the EOP (Educational Opportunity Program), I was in a lot of leadership roles,” he said.
He also kept gaining weight. He explained, “Eating is a coping mechanism for me when I feel out of balance.”
During the pandemic, Mojadedi’s formerly hectic life, in which he’d lost his well-being, came to a halt. “It became just me, front and center,” he said. (UC Berkeley photo by Irene Yi)
That’s how Mojadedi felt — out of balance — in April 2019, when he won a Chancellor’s Award for Public Service at Berkeley. It was the staff award for civic engagement, for spending his free time advocating for housing rights. At the time, he was the young chair of the Union City Planning Commission and the Alameda County Human Relations Commission, and a member of the Union City General Plan Advisory Committee.
At the chancellor’s ceremony, a photo was taken of all the awardees with Chancellor Carol Christ. “I was so unhappy,” he said, “and you could see that on my face.”
A few months later, in July 2019, when his weight had reached 450, “I was in a fog,” he recalled. “But I saw the red flag that told me I needed to do something for me. I needed an inward shift.”
One of Mojadedi’s Berkeley colleagues helped by recommending that he take the Enneagram Personality Test. The results gave him insight.
“I learned that I’m a peacemaker — by default so externally motivated that I don’t have an agenda for myself. That was a really, really important lesson to internalize. I’m hard-wired to do everything but be with myself,” he said. “Inside, I had everyone else’s issues, but not how to take care of Harris, what the priority is for Harris, what to do to achieve my own goals. It illuminated so many areas where I was unhealthy — professionally and in my personal life.
“So, I decided to do something about it. And it’s a decision I still have to make every day.”
“I’m still coming into my own,” said Harris Mojadedi. “I’m still learning. I’m still on this journey. I haven’t had an aha! moment or a light bulb go on. But I’m present with myself.” (UC Berkeley photo by Irene Yi)
‘You have cancer’
Mojadedi made a commitment to eating healthy and exercising, joined a support group for food addiction and found a therapist. His biggest adjustment, he said, was “that I had done so much of my socializing around food — lunch, dinner, eating out, eating bad food — and then I had to pivot to bringing my own lunch, not going out to dinner, eating at specific times.”
By October 2019, he’d found he had more energy — and had lost 90 pounds.
But in early November that year, he went to the doctor for a check-up, concerned about a lump on the right side of his groin. He’d had a biopsy the previous month, and an ultrasound, but the results had been inconclusive. “You’re young, it’s nothing,” the doctors had told him.
But blood work was ordered, and it revealed something definite. “I’m sorry, sir, you have cancer,” he was told.
After that, Mojadedi said he had “a few scares” with the cancer and, in December 2019, underwent radiation therapy “that zapped my energy. Then, there were months of waiting to see if I needed more treatments, to see if the cancer was gone.” He returned to his job at Berkeley in February 2020, right before COVID-19 shut the campus down.
Today, he’s in remission and, like facing his weight problem, “the cancer really changed my outlook on life,” he said. “When your life flashes before you, part of you changes. I’m grateful for that change. When I got the diagnosis, I wasn’t thinking about the city council race. I was thinking about my family and friends and enjoying life. Coming off the cancer treatments, I had so much gratitude, and I realized I didn’t want to waste time during the pandemic.”
“Every day, I’m living my best life, going on walks, meditating,” said Mojadedi. “Every day, I try to make the best out of situations, knowing that I am grateful to simply be here.” (UC Berkeley photo by Irene Yi)
First, show up for yourself
Today, Mojadedi is living in San Francisco, which had been a “pipe dream,” he said, adding, “At 450 pounds, I couldn’t imagine walking a block in the city, let alone up and down the hills.”
He’s creating new routines for his morning and evening walks, which sometimes include heading from his apartment, which is uphill from Union Square, to Market Street, then to the Ferry Building, to Fisherman’s Wharf, and then back up into the hills.
“Every day, I’m living my best life, going on walks, meditating, expressing gratitude,” he said. “Every day, I try to make the best out of situations, knowing that I am grateful to simply be here.”
He said he’s “jazzed and juiced” about returning to work on the Berkeley campus, but also hopes there will be a way to work from home several times a week.
Mojadedi said he’s realistic about his progress, knowing “that it’s one day at a time.”
“I’m still coming into my own. I’m still learning. I’m still on this journey,” he said. “I haven’t had an aha! moment or a light bulb go on. But I’m present with myself.”
It’s important for members of the campus community to know they “have a lot of agency over life,” said Mojadedi. “And that, even amid all that’s going on, like the pandemic and racial injustice, in our country and the world, we will be asked to show up for students, staff, family, our partners.
“But we can’t show up for others until we show up for ourselves.”
The blessings have been scheduled to be performed at about 100 churches and other venues in early May, many of them on Monday evening. German clergy have performed such blessings for years, but typically in private and not in churches.
“It’s time to be visible in the church,” said Holger Woltering, whose 2017 civil marriage with Lennart Woltering was blessed for the second time on Thursday in the town of Geldern in northwestern Germany. The ceremony was recorded for streaming on the internet. “It’s really, really time to change these rules,” he said.
The ceremonies were organized as a response to a statement in March by the Vatican’s doctrinal office, approved by Pope Francis, prohibiting blessings of gay relationships on the grounds that God “cannot bless sin.”
Pope Francis, shown Sunday at the Vatican, opposes the blessing services.
German Catholics saw that document as aimed particularly at them. Since last year, German bishops and laypeople have been holding a national synod that is considering a number of potential changes to Catholic life, including liberalized teaching on sexuality and the ordination of women.
According to a 2019 survey by the Pew Research Center, 93% of Catholics in Germany think that society should be accepting of homosexuality, compared with 76% in the U.S. and 6% in Nigeria.
Conservative bishops in Germany and the U.S. have warned that the synod could foment a schism in the church, but a spokesman for the German bishops’ conference says that such fears are unfounded and that “Germany is an integral part of the universal church.”
Retired German Cardinal Walter Brandmüller last month called the May 10 blessings “an enormous scandal, a terrifying sign of heresy, schism and the collapse of the church.”
The president of the bishops’ conference, Bishop Georg Bätzing of Limburg, has said blessings “are not suitable as an instrument of church-political manifestations or protest actions” but he hasn’t threatened disciplinary action. The Vatican didn’t reply to requests for comment.
So far the blessings have come off without incident, said Klaus Nelissen, one of the organizers of the campaign, though one priest in Munich said he received hostile emails before he led a blessing ceremony Sunday afternoon.
The Rev. Wolgang Rothe said the emails threatened him with the “wrath of God” and that one said: “You will die and go immediately to hell.”
Four policeman guarded the Munich event in the Church of St. Benedict, in which about 30 couples, about 10 of them gay or lesbian, took part, Father Rothe said. Church employees in robes held up rainbow banners as the priest read from the Gospel.
“It was a great experience, we felt God’s blessing,” Father Rothe said. “Heavens were open. All people were happy.”
Among those blessed by Father Rothe were Almut Münster and Christine Waltner, a child psychotherapist and a teacher in Munich, who have been a couple for more than three years though they are not civilly married.
“It was a very special moment for us, which brought us even closer together, and which made a feeling of being welcome in the church, which I normally do not have,” Ms. Münster said.
The Rev. Christian Olding, who blessed the Wolterings’ relationship in 2017 and again late last week, said that the next debate will be about the possibility of same-sex marriage within the church, a question on which he says he is still undecided.
“We cannot do the same sacrament for relationships that are able to create a new life and for relationships that are biologically not able to do this, but I think if we say the foundation of the sacrament is love and the love of God, also same-sex relationships…have got a right to get this point discussed,” Father Olding said.
But conservatives worry that such distinctions will be easily lost.
“I suspect that blessings for homosexual couples in the liturgy create the danger of confusion between sacramental marriage and a blessing for different kinds of couples,” said Helmut Hoping, a professor of theology at the University of Freiburg.
The Biden administration says the government will protect gay and transgender people against sex discrimination in health care. In this 2017 photo, Equality March for Unity and Pride participants march past the White House in Washington. Carolyn Kaster/AP hide caption
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Carolyn Kaster/AP
The Biden administration says the government will protect gay and transgender people against sex discrimination in health care. In this 2017 photo, Equality March for Unity and Pride participants march past the White House in Washington.
Carolyn Kaster/AP
Gay and transgender people will be protected from discrimination in health care, the Biden administration announced Monday, effectively reversing a Trump-era rule that went into effect last year.
The announcement from the Department of Health and Human Services concerns one of the most notable parts of the Affordable Care Act — the provision in Section 1557 that prevents health care providers and insurance companies from discriminating on the basis “race, color, national origin, sex, age or disability in certain health programs and activities.”
Effective immediately, the agency says it will interpret that provision to encompass discrimination against someone on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity in health care.
“Fear of discrimination can lead individuals to forgo care, which can have serious negative health consequences,” HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement. “It is the position of the Department of Health and Human Services that everyone — including LGBTQ people — should be able to access health care, free from discrimination or interference, period.”
Officials at HHS framed the change as updating the agency’s interpretation of existing law to bring it into alignment with Bostock v. Clayton County, last year’s landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. That ruling found that LGBTQ people are protected by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 banning discrimination on the basis of sex.
“It is impossible to discriminate against a person for being homosexual or transgender without discriminating against that individual based on sex,” Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in the ruling.
That decision last June came down just a few days after the Trump administration finalized a rule removing nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ people in health care. Though it technically took effect in August, multiple courts have since issued preliminary injunctions blocking some parts of the rule.
“The Supreme Court has made clear that people have a right not to be discriminated against on the basis of sex and receive equal treatment under the law, no matter their gender identity or sexual orientation. That’s why today HHS announced it will act on related reports of discrimination,” Becerra said.
HHS joins other federal agencies in implementing similar guidance after President Biden signed an executive order called “Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation” on his first day in office. The departments of Housing and Urban Development and Justice both issued memoranda earlier this year; in March, the Pentagon overturned the Trump-era rules that effectively banned transgender people from serving in the military.
Xavier Becerra, shown here in 2019, announced the update on Monday that is meant to prevent discrimination against transgender and gay people in health care. Rich Pedroncelli/AP hide caption
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Rich Pedroncelli/AP
At HHS, the new interpretation announced Monday puts the agency in position to more aggressively investigate and enforce LBGTQ discrimination complaints.
“We are open for business,” Robinsue Frohboese, acting director in the HHS Office for Civil Rights, said in an interview with NPR. “Ensuring the protections of individuals, of non-discrimination based on their gender identity and sexual orientation, is a critical part of our civil rights mission.”
The Biden administration has yet to put forward a formal rule on this issue.Normally, federal agencies must follow a lengthy process for issuing new rules and regulations. The Trump administration’s rule, which took effect in August, took about a year to finalize and is still technically on the books.
“This is a policy announcement by the administration to say that this is the way that they read the statute and the way that they’ll enforce it — and they can begin doing that without a rule,” said Valarie Blake, a law professor at West Virginia University. “But I anticipate that they’ll promulgate a new rule anyway that gives a little more shape to what sex discrimination means.”
Frohboese declined to say whether the agency is planning to propose a new rule, saying only that the administration is “actively considering” doing so.
When that rule was finalized last year, LGBTQ people and advocates criticized the change, saying it could have a chilling effect on gay and transgender people seeking needed health care.
“Our mission as the Department of Health and Human Services is to enhance the health and well-being of all Americans, including LGBTQ individuals and everyone. Everyone needs access to health care. No one should be discriminated against in this. This change in rules and regulations will help us do that,”said Dr. Rachel Levine, assistant secretary for health, who in March became the first openly transgender person to serve in a Senate-confirmed position.
Advocacy groups such as the ACLU and Lambda Legal applauded Monday’s announcement but continued to push for a full rollback of the Trump administration’s rule. In addition to limiting the definition of sex discrimination, the change under Trump included a number of other provisions, such as eliminating a requirement to include notice of nondiscrimination policies in multiple languages in health-related mailings and reducing the number of entities covered by the law’s nondiscrimination provision.
“The significant step taken today is just one step in what is a long road to undo the undermining of health care protections for all people under the Trump administration,” Omar Gonzalez-Pagan, an attorney with Lambda Legal, said in a statement.
The announcement from HHS comes as conservative state legislatures are working to enact a variety of bills targeting transgender people. Last month in Arkansas, legislators overrode Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s veto to enact a new law banning doctors from providing gender-affirming medical care to transgender youth.
“I think that there’ll need to be a significant legal analysis about how this guidance and this change in rules interacts with those laws,” Levine told NPR.
In the meantime, hospitals and other health care providers in places such as Arkansas that rely heavily on federal funds may feel they are in a bind with competing legal directives about providing care to transgender youth, according to Blake.
“They have state law — with whatever penalty that might be — but breathing down their necks, they have federal regulators that can pull away their Medicare and Medicaid money,” she said.
By Brianna January | Fox News aired at least 126 discussions about transgender athletes from January 2019 through March 2021, including 72 discussions that aired in the first three months of this year alone — more than twice as many as in 2019 and 2020 combined.
Throughout all of those discussions, Fox hosts and guests could point to only nine trans women athletes, one of whom was not even allowed to compete and none of whom were dominating their sport — as states around the country consider banning them from competing.
Fox anchors, hosts, and guests also cited trans athletes in at least 58 passing mentions during this time, often listing them among examples of supposedly “extreme” Democratic policies.
Fox has aired more discussions of trans athletes in the first three months of 2021 than in 2019 and 2020 combined
Fox’s obsession with trans athletes is a key component of the right’s vitriolic campaign to make them into a political and cultural wedge issue while putting trans kids and families in danger in the process.
During this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference, former President Donald Trump notably mentioned trans athletes, who he has rarely commented on, after right-wing groups and figures had campaigned in the previous two years for Trump to embrace anti-trans issues.
So far this year, at least 31 states have considered bills to ban trans athletes from participating in sports, and five states — Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, and West Virginia — have already signed such measures into law. (Idaho passed a similar law last year, but the law was blocked by a district court and is currently being considered by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.)
Additionally, in South Dakota, Republican Gov. Kristi Noem vetoed a bill barring trans athletes from competing before banning them through executive action. These policies have been called “a ‘solution’ to a problem that doesn’t exist.”
From January 1, 2019, to March 31, 2021, Fox News aired at least 126 original segments that discussed trans athletes:
Across those segments, Fox only cited nine trans women athletes, one of whom was not even allowed to compete and none of whom were dominating their field. There were 41 segments that referenced two trans former high school athletes in Connecticut whom extreme anti-LGBTQ group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) has targeted. National Center for Lesbian Rights’ Shannon Minter has noted that those few athletes are the right’s “Exhibit A, and there’s no Exhibit B — absolutely none.”
Fox aired 72 such discussions in the first quarter of 2021 (January 1-March 31). The network has discussed trans athletes more frequently in that time than it did in all of 2019 and 2020 combined.
Fox aired a total of 15 discussions about trans athletes in 2020. Five of these aired in June, coinciding with the Supreme Court’s historic ruling that LGBTQ employees are protected from discrimination on the basis of sex, and four in February. No other month that year included more than two discussions.
Fox aired 39 such discussions in 2019. Notably, ADF announced on the network in June that it had filed a complaint to the Department of Education against the two trans athletes competing in Connecticut.
Fox featured ADF staff or clients as guests or in video footage in 34 discussions, or 27% all discussions during the time period studied.
Tucker Carlson Tonight aired the most discussions at 27; Fox News @ Night — part of the network’s purported “news” side — aired 23; Fox & Friends, including its weekend editions, aired 22 discussions (Fox & Friends First aired an additional seven); and The Ingraham Angle aired 15.
In addition to the 126 discussions, Fox anchors, hosts, and guests also cited trans athletes in at least 58 passing mentions.
Fox could cite only nine trans women athletes competing, indicative of the right’s “solution in search of a problem”
Across all 126 discussions, Fox hosts and guests named just nine examples of trans women athletes competing in sports; 41 segments mentioned or alluded to ADF’s 2019 case targeting two trans athletes in Connecticut, and 24 segments referenced other trans women athletes — of which only seven were specified. (There was some crossover between those segments, in which several mentioned the ADF case and at least one other athlete.)
ADF is representing cisgender athletes who sued after losing several competitions between 2017 and 2019 to two Black trans athletes, Andraya Yearwood and Terry Miller. Yearwood and Miller have since graduated from high school and no longer compete in track. Yet so far this year, Fox has mentioned them in 18 discussions, and the network has either hosted ADF and its clients as guests or aired video clips of them 22 times in 2021.
On April 25, a federal judge dismissed the lawsuit because after Yearwood and Miller left school, “the plaintiffs could no longer identify any other transgender female athletes, [and] there was no further dispute to resolve.”
The other trans athletes cited on Fox since 2019 included powerlifter Mary Gregory, cyclist Veronica Ivy (who used to go by another name), NCAA track runners June Eastwood and CeCé Telfer, weightlifter Laurel Hubbard, runner Megan Youngren, and powerlifter JayCee Cooper — who wasn’t even allowed to compete.
What you wouldn’t gather from Fox’s coverage of these athletes is that they don’t always win at their chosen sports, undermining right-wing media narratives that trans competitors will dominate and “destroy girls’ sports.” In 2020, one of ADF’s clients placed ahead of Miller after filing the lawsuit, and Ivy has noted, “I lose most of my races. I won five out of 22 events in 2019.”
Telfer, who right-wingmediatargeted after she won a 2019 NCAA Division II national hurdling championship, also has a mixed record of wins and loses; according to Outsports, in a 2019 championship, Telfer “didn’t even crack the top five in any of her events.”
Additionally, Eastwood has described how her athletic abilities have shifted after a year of gender-affirming medical treatment: “I went from being a competitive male athlete toward that top quarter to being about the same on the women’s side. … I’m not the best on my team right now, so it’s sort of interesting because I was before.”
In February 2020, Fox anchor Shannon Bream reported that “a 28-year-old is becoming the first transgender athlete to compete at the U.S. Olympic marathon trials,” alluding to athlete Megan Youngren. What Bream did not report on, however, was that Youngren did not qualify for the Olympics and in fact placed 230th in that race.
Additionally, despite state anti-trans bills specifically targeting trans student athletes, only four of the trans women athletes named on Fox News were students.
In one case in January 2019, Fox’s Trace Gallagher misleadingly alluded to Mack Beggs, a now 21-year-old trans wrestler who “was forced to compete against cisgender girls by state regulations.” Gallagher said, “In Texas, a transgender high school wrestler was booed after beating a female competitor and advancing to the state finals.”
However, Beggs is a trans man who was victim to the very policies that Fox has championed and was forced to compete against girls despite identifying as a boy and wanting to compete against boys.
Earlier this year, The Associated Press’ David Crary and Lindsay Whitehurst found that the very lawmakers attempting to ban trans athletes from competing also struggle to justify such measures:
“Legislators in more than 20 states have introduced bills this year that would ban transgender girls from competing on girls’ sports teams in public high schools. Yet in almost every case, sponsors cannot cite a single instance in their own state or region where such participation has caused problems.
The Associated Press reached out to two dozen state lawmakers sponsoring such measures around the country as well as the conservative groups supporting them and found only a few times it’s been an issue among the hundreds of thousands of American teenagers who play high school sports.”
The report pointed to Miller and Yearwood’s wins between 2017 and 2019, acknowledging that “supporters of transgender rights say the Connecticut case gets so much attention from conservatives because it’s the only example of its kind.”
Fox’s coverage is a key component of the right-wing apparatus that builds support for harmful, anti-LGBTQ policies
Fox’s obsessive coverage of trans athletes illustrates how anti-LGBTQ ideologies are spread through a predictable pipeline, in which anti-LGBTQ groups can push an agenda that is picked up by right-wing media and finally proposed as harmful policies by conservative lawmakers.
Specifically, groups like ADF can create controversy through lawsuits and gain traction through appearances in a friendly right-wing media ecosystem, which then dedicates a disproportionate amount of coverage to the topic. This gives political decision-makers an opportunity to push for policy change and an engaged base to support them on it.
Trans journalist Katelyn Burns has explained how right-wing media leverages the occasional success of a handful of trans athletes in order to fuel harmful anti-trans policies:
“The crusade against trans athletes has been the most successful effort to introduce transphobic discrimination into state law, after numerous states failed to pass larger-scale bathroom bills and puberty blocker bans in recent years. Trans athleticism is a seemingly complicated issue that has found success largely due to a mishmash of cultural attitudes and generally incorrect assumptions, particularly about trans girls’ bodies.”
[…]
“Anti-trans doomsayers often claim that simply allowing trans women and girls to compete at sports would “destroy women’s sports.” “If the A.C.L.U. gets its way, women’s sports will no longer exist,” Roger Brooks, senior counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom, told the New York Times. “There’ll be men’s sports and there’ll be semi-coed sports, and women and girls in Connecticut will be losers.”
But that narrative largely fails to hold up to real-world evidence — trans athletes have been allowed in girls’ high school and women’s college sports for years and no school has had to make “co-ed teams,” a dig that misgenders trans girls and women. Meanwhile, science has found that trans girls who hormonally transition at younger ages do not necessarily have a “biological advantage” athletically. And none of it justifies banning middle school trans girls from the local girls’ soccer team.”
In addition to Fox’s obsessive coverage, this crusade has been aided by right-wing media online. A 2020 Media Matters study of online content about trans issues earning more than 100,000 Facebook interactions (reactions, comments, shares) found that right-leaning sources earned a total of over 43.3 million interactions, nearly two times the engagement of all other sources combined.
Content about trans athletes from right-leaning sources made up 23.6% of the 225 examples that were reviewed, earning 21.2 million interactions in total. Of those stories, 19 discussed ADF’s Connecticut athlete clients, and a post from ADF earned the highest engagement of any example at over 2.7 million interactions.
Anti-trans groups have also used paid political ads on Facebook to spread misleading rhetoric about trans athletes, potentially reaching millions of users.
Another anti-trans policy measure followed this same pattern: nationwide efforts to ban and even criminalize lifesaving best practice medical care for trans youth.
In 2019, the Heritage Foundation hosted anti-trans advocates and policy-makers for a series of events targeting such care. After attending one of them, a South Dakota state legislator introduced a bill in 2020 to ban necessary care for trans kids.
At the same time, right-wing media inundated audiences with misinformation about the topic.
While South Dakota’s bill ultimately failed, dozens of similar bills have been introduced following it. Earlier this month, Arkansas became the first state in the country to sign one into law — backed by even more anti-trans misinformation from Fox News.
Methodology
Media Matters searched transcripts in the Kinetiq database for all original programming on Fox News Channel for any of the terms or any variations of the terms “transgender,” “trans,” “transphobe,” “transphobic,” “transphobia,” “sex,” “gender identity,” “biological male,” “biological man,” “biological men,” or “biological boy” within close proximity of any of the terms or any variations of the terms “sport,” “athlete,” “athletic,” “competition,” “scholarship,” “unfair,” “advantage,” “dominate,” or “game” or any of the terms “women’s sports,” “girls’ sports,” “Selina Soule,” “Alanna Smith,” “Chelsea Mitchell,” “Mary Gregory,” “Rachel McKinnon,” “female sports,” “identify as a girl,” “sports team for women,” “sports teams for girls,” “identify as women,” “identify as a woman,” “identify as girl,” or “identify as girls” from January 1, 2019, through March 31, 2021.
We conducted a similar search of transcripts in the Nexis database for Fox News Channel for all of the above terms during the same time period; however, this search was limited to 5 p.m. to midnight each day, as transcripts for Fox’s daytime programming are not available in Nexis.
We also searched transcripts in the SnapStream database for all original programming on Fox News Channel for any of the terms or any variations of the terms from January 1 through March 31, 2021.
We defined segments as instances when trans issues were the stated topic of discussion or when there was significant discussion of trans issues. We defined “significant discussion” as any back-and-forth exchange between two or more people. We included passing mentions that mentioned trans issues as a separate measure in the analysis. We did not include previews or teasers of upcoming segments.
Brianna January is a researcher for the LGBTQ program at Media Matters. Brianna holds a Masters in Public Policy from the University of Maryland School of Public Policy and has a background in LGBTQ human rights and advocacy.
The preceding piece was originally published by Media Matters for America and is republished with permission.
Monday features a six-game slate starting at 7:30 p.m. ET.
Point Guard
Stud
What does Russell Westbrook have to do to get priced above $11,000 on DraftKings? The man has posted an average Plus/Minus of +13.26 over his past 10 games – including three games with at least 81.0 DraftKings points in his past four – yet his salary never seems to budge. It results in a Bargain Rating of 99% for tonight’s matchup vs. the Hawks, which makes him one of the easiest plays on the slate.
Westbrook carries even more upside than usual on Monday with Bradley Beal out of the lineup. He’s increased his usage rate by +5.7% and his assist rate by +4.6% with Beal off the court, both of which rank first on the team.
Value
Sticking with the Wizards, Ish Smith should see a boost in playing time with Beal out of the lineup. He’s currently projected for 24 minutes in our NBA Models, and he’s averaged 0.86 DraftKings points per minute this season. That makes him a strong value at just $3,300, and players with comparable salaries and minute projections have historically averaged a Plus/Minus of +2.44 (per the Trends tool).
Fast Break
The top implied team total of the day belongs to the Blazers. They’re implied for 126.25 points vs. the Rockets, who are playing without most of their key players at this point in the season. There are some blowout concerns in this contest, but Damian Lillard has excellent upside if this game stays competitive. His Opponent Plus/Minus of +2.17 is one of the top marks at the position, and his $9,500 salary on FanDuel is very reasonable.
Trae Young and the Hawks are also in a great spot on Monday. Their implied team total of 122.25 ranks second on the slate, and Young has increased his production to 1.32 FanDuel points per minute over the past month. He’s also one of the best pure values at the position on FanDuel, where his $8,400 salary comes with a Bargain Rating of 86%.
Shooting Guard
Stud
We’re still waiting on an official injury report for the Cavaliers, but expect them to be shorthanded vs. the Pacers. It seems unlikely that Darius Garland will play again this season, and Kevin Love could be shut down at any moment. He played 27 minutes Sunday vs. the Mavericks, so I think it’s unlikely he suits up on the second leg of a back-to-back.
That would leave Collin Sexton as the last man standing. He’s increased his usage rate by +2.0% and assist rate by +6.5% with Garland, Love and Andre Drummond off the court this season, so he can do some damage against a porous Pacers’ defense on Monday. He leads the position with 10 Pro Trends on FanDuel, where his $7,500 salary comes with a Bargain Rating of 85%.
Value
Grayson Allen will miss his third straight game for the Grizzlies, and Dillon Brooks has been one of the primary beneficiaries from his absence. He’s logged at least 35.8 minutes in each of his past two games, and Brooks has averaged 0.90 FanDuel points per minute this season. He’s the type of player who can take advantage of a few additional minutes.
Fast Break
Lonnie Walker has started the past two games for the Spurs, and he’s responded with at least 22.25 DraftKings points in both contests. He’s seen a slight price increase for tonight’s matchup vs. the Bucks, but he remains one of the best value options at the position. He’s currently projected for 31.4 minutes in our NBA Models, and players with comparable salaries and minute projections have historically averaged a Plus/Minus of +3.01.
Caris LeVert has been doing work for the shorthanded Pacers recently, and there’s a chance they could be without Jeremy Lamb and Malcolm Brogdon once again on Monday. Both players are currently questionable, so make sure to monitor their statuses using the Labs Insiders tool. If Brogdon in particular is ruled out, LeVert can be treated as an elite option at the position.
Small Forward
Stud
There aren’t a ton of high-priced options to consider at small forward on Monday, with only two players possessing a salary above $6,300 on FanDuel. With that in mind, Kyle Anderson stands out as one of the better options at just $5,900. He’s averaged a strong 1.08 FanDuel points per minute this season, and he’s played at least 30.8 minutes in three of his past four games. Anderson also owns a nice matchup vs. the Pelicans, resulting in an Opponent Plus/Minus of +1.61.
Value
Rudy Gay continues to get buckets for the Spurs. He’s not playing a ton of minutes – he’s currently projected for just 22.0 minutes in our NBA Models – but that hasn’t stopped him from scoring at least 26.0 DraftKings points in four of his past five games. He remains underpriced on DraftKings, where his $4,300 salary comes with a Bargain Rating of 98%.
Fast Break
The Jazz are still playing without Mike Conley and Donovan Mitchell, which means Joe Ingles should continue to start. He’s increased his usage rate by +3.8% and his assist rate by +7.9% with both players off the court this season, resulting in an average of 0.98 DraftKings points per minute. He’s an appealing option across the industry.
Norman Powell is a cheaper way to get some exposure to the Blazers’ slate-high implied team total on Monday. His price tag has decreased by $1,000 over the past month on FanDuel, and his current $5,600 price tag comes with a Bargain Rating of 80%. He hasn’t displayed a ton of upside recently, but he’s still posted a positive Plus/Minus in four straight games.
Power Forward
Stud
Domantas Sabonis is another member of the Pacers who would benefit if Brogdon and Lamb are ultimately ruled out. He’s probably the closest facsimile to Nikola Jokic, and he’s put his full skill set on display with three games of at least 74.25 DraftKings points in his past five contests. Sabonis is definitely a bit pricy across the industry, but that doesn’t matter so much on a slate with plenty of value and not a ton of studs. He should be able to have his way vs. the Cavaliers’ interior defense, so I have no problem paying up for him if the Pacers are shorthanded again.
Value
Dean Wade has been playing a ton of minutes for the Cavaliers recently, and he could take on an even larger workload depending on their injury report on Monday. He’s currently projected for 32.3 minutes in our NBA Models, which makes him a steal at just $3,400 on DraftKings and $3,700 on FanDuel. The Pacers also represent a strong matchup, giving Wade an Opponent Plus/Minus of +1.95.
Fast Break
Davis Bertans is another potential value option at power forward. He’s increased his usage rate by +3.6% with Beal off the court this season, resulting in an average of 0.77 FanDuel points per minute. That number doesn’t jump off the page, but it should be more than enough to pay off his current salary across the industry.
The Pelicans are also dealing with some key injuries at the moment. Zion Williamson is not expected to play again this season, and Brandon Ingram is also expected to miss Monday’s contest vs. the Grizzlies. That opens the door for James Johnson to see a few additional minutes, and Johnson is always an appealing fantasy option when he’s going to see significant playing time. He’s averaged 0.90 FanDuel points per minute this season and is capable of racking up fantasy points in a variety of ways.
Center
Stud
Rudy Gobert is an interesting buy-low candidate on FanDuel vs. the Warriors. He’s seen a price decrease of $600 over the past month, and his current $7,900 salary comes with a Bargain Rating of 82%. Gobert has historically averaged a Plus/Minus of +3.97 with a comparable salary, and his matchup with the Warriors results in an Opponent Plus/Minus of +2.24.
Value
Jaxson Hayes is comically underpriced at $4,500 on DraftKings, resulting in a Bargain Rating of 99%. He’s dominated in his past two games without Williamson and Ingram, scoring at least 41.0 DraftKings points in both contests, and he’s averaged 0.95 DraftKings points per minute on the season. He has the potential for another huge game if he hits his ceiling, but he should be able to return value even if he hits his floor vs. the Grizzlies.
Fast Break
Jarrett Allen has struggled recently, but he owns arguably the best matchup at the position vs. the Pacers. They’ve been a fantasy goldmine recently, and they’ve been miserable against opposing centers all season. Allen’s Opponent Plus/Minus of +3.04 is the top mark at the position on DraftKings, so he’s a strong bounce-back candidate.
Clint Capela is another potential buy-low option on FanDuel. He’s seen an even larger price decrease than Gobert over the past month, and his $7,700 salary comes with a Bargain Rating of 84%. His matchup vs. the Wizards is also a good one, resulting in an Opponent Plus/Minus of +2.54.
Photo Credit: Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images Pictured: Jaxson Hayes
Gay and transgender people will be protected against sex discrimination in healthcare, the U.S. health secretary said on Monday, as President Joe Biden’s administration reversed a policy put in place under his predecessor Donald Trump.
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said the action restores protections under a provision of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, against sexual discrimination in healthcare. It was the latest in a series of steps the Democratic president has taken to bolster LGBT rights.
“It simply says what everyone already should know: You should not discriminate against people,” Becerra told CNN. “That includes those based on sexual orientation or gender identity and when it comes to healthcare – we want to make sure that’s the case.”
The new policy represents a reversal of a reversal. HHS under Trump in June 2020 issued a rule that lifted some anti-discrimination protections under the Affordable Care Act, a law signed by former President Barack Obama in 2010.
In 2016, Obama’s administration introduced rules that made clear that LGBT people would be protected under the federal healthcare discrimination provision. The Trump-era rule reversed those provisions of the law that extended civil rights protections in healthcare to cover areas including gender identity and abortion.
“So now it’s clear, there’s no ambiguity: You cannot discriminate against people based on sexual orientation or gender identity,” Becerra added.
HHS said in a statement that its Office for Civil Rights made the decision in light of a June 2020 U.S. Supreme Court ruling and subsequent court decisions. The Supreme Court last year delivered a watershed victory for LGBT rights and a defeat for Trump’s administration, ruling that a longstanding federal law barring workplace discrimination protects gay and transgender employees.
“The Supreme Court has made clear that people have a right not to be discriminated against on the basis of sex and receive equal treatment under the law, no matter their gender identity or sexual orientation,” Becerra said in the statement.
House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, praised the administration’s step and called Trump’s LGBT action in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic “an act of senseless and staggering cruelty.”
The issue of transgender rights has become a flashpoint in the U.S. culture wars, with Republicans at the state level pursuing measures targeting transgender people. Such bills have been introduced in about 28 states so far this year, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center advocacy group.
“With healthcare for transgender youth under attack by state legislatures, this move to protect LGBTQ people from discrimination in healthcare is critical,” the American Civil Liberties Union said.
“It’s unfortunate that such an obvious step had to be taken; the AMA welcomes this common-sense understanding of the law,” added American Medical Association President Susan Bailey.
Biden, who took office in January, has sought to overturn other Trump policies limiting the rights of LGBT Americans.
Biden has reversed his Republican predecessor’s ban on transgender people serving in the U.S. military, issued an executive order that extends existing federal nondiscrimination protections to LGBT people and issued a presidential memorandum aimed at expanding protection of the rights of LGBT people worldwide. read more
In one of the many, many fan questions about Harry Styles, Bassett fawned over the singer as he revealed what it is he “admires” most about him.
“He is a very classy man,” Joshua Bassett began. “He’s also very well-rounded and kinda does it all – acting, singing, fashion.
“I think he’s just a nice guy, doesn’t say too much, when he talks, it matters. He’s just cool – who doesn’t think Harry Styles is cool?
“Also, he’s hot, you know? He’s very charming, too. Lots of things.
“This is also my coming out video, I guess.”
The way the Dirty John star so casually appeared to come out as a member of the LGBT+ community drew applause and awe online, with the sentiment very much being that the kids are alright.
coming out doesn’t always have to be this big thing. me and my friends all are unlabeled but we all told eachother in the most casual way so the ppl in the quotes need to chill. bi men exist too you know. https://t.co/R44kHHn3eM
If this is indeed a ~coming out~ I’m so glad to see the younger generation being very 🤷🏽♂️ about sexuality bc I did the whole ~locking myself in my bedroom not eating properly for weeks~ thing when I was 15 and it wasn’t fun actually! https://t.co/FHx9o61SBR
— Venus Flytrap 🧜🏼♀️ 🎃 (@venus__flytrap1) May 10, 2021
if you’re saying this isn’t coming out shut up !!! coming out doesn’t have to be huge or anything each persons comfort level is different so just because you wouldnt be comfortable coming out like this does not mean it is not a coming out video https://t.co/uewpbAm2Fa
And that figure will likely be higher in years to come, Gallup bosses stressed, considering that they were only able to survey the oldest bloc of Generation Z, or those currently aged between 18 and 23.
“As we see more Gen Z become adults, we may see that number go up,” Gallup senior editor Jeff Jones told The Washington Post.
“The vast majority of Generation Z adults who identify as LGBT+ – 72 per cent – say they are bisexual,” Jones wrote in a report announcing the results in February.
“Thus, 11.5 per cent of all Gen Z adults in the US say they are bisexual, with about two per cent each identifying as gay, lesbian or transgender.”
Generation Z being so emboldened to live their truths comes at a time where acceptance for LGBT+ folk is soaring in the States – as is the number of people overall who say they are not heterosexual and/or cisgender.
Of the more than 15,000 Americans interviewed by survey takers in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, 5.6 per cent said they are LGBT+.
BERLIN — Germany’s powerful Catholic progressives are openly defying a recent Holy See pronouncement that priests cannot bless same-sex unions by offering such blessings at services in about 100 different churches all over the country this week.
The blessings at open worship services are the latest pushback from German Catholics against a document released in March by the Vatican’s orthodoxy office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which said Catholic clergy cannot bless same-sex unions because God “cannot bless sin.”
The document pleased conservatives and disheartened advocates for LGBTQ Catholics around the globe. But the response has been particularly acute in Germany, where the German church has been at the forefront of opening discussion on hot-button issues such as the church’s teaching on homosexuality as part of a formal process of debate and reform.
The dozens of church services celebrating blessings of gay unions are the latest escalation in tensions between conservatives and progressives that have already sparked alarm, primarily from the right, that part of the German church might be heading into schism.
Germany is no stranger to schism: 500 years ago, Martin Luther launched the Reformation here.
Pope Francis, who has championed a more decentralized church structure, has already reminded the German hierarchy that it must remain in communion with Rome during its reform process, known as a “synodal path.”
In Berlin, the Rev. Jan Korditschke, a Jesuit who works for the diocese preparing adults for baptism and helps out at the St. Canisius congregation, will lead blessings for queer couples at a worship service May 16.
“I am convinced that homosexual orientation is not bad, nor is homosexual love a sin,” Korditschke told The Associated Press in an interview Friday. “I want to celebrate the love of homosexuals with these blessings because the love of homosexuals is something good.”
The 44-year-old said it is important that homosexuals can show themselves within the Catholic Church and gain more visibility long-term. He said he was not afraid of possible repercussions by high-ranking church officials or the Vatican.
“I stand behind what I am doing, though it is painful for me that I cannot do it in tune with the church leadership,” Korditschke said, adding that “the homophobia of my church makes me angry and I am ashamed of it.”
The head of the German Bishops Conference last month criticized the grassroots initiative for gay blessings which is called “Liebe Gewinnt” or “Love Wins.”
Limburg Bishop Georg Baetzing said the blessings “are not suitable as an instrument of church political manifestations or political actions.”
However, Germany’s powerful lay organization, the Central Committee of German Catholics, or ZdK, which has been advocating for gay blessings since 2015, positioned itself once more in favor of them. It called the contentious document from Rome “not very helpful” and explicitly expressed its support for ”Love Wins.”
“These are celebrations of worship in which people express to God what moves them,” Birgit Mock, the ZdK’s spokeswoman for family affairs, told the AP.
“The fact that they ask for God’s blessing and thank him for all the good in their lives — also for relationships lived with mutual respect and full of love — that is deeply based on the Gospel,” Mock said, adding that she herself was planning to attend a church service with gay blessings in the western city of Hamm on Monday in which she would pray for ”the success of the synodal path in which we, as a church, recognize sexuality as a positive strength.”
The ZdK has been taking part in the “synodal path” meetings for more than a year with the German Bishops Conference. They are due to conclude in the fall. The meetings include talks about allowing priests to get married, the ordination of women and a different understanding of sexuality, among other reforms. The process was launched as part of the response to revelations of clergy sexual abuse.
“We’re struggling in Germany with a lot of seriousness and intensive theological discourses for the right path,” Mock added. “Things cannot continue the way they did — this is what the crimes and cover-ups of sexual abuse showed us.”
“We need systemic changes, also regarding a reassessment of the ecclesiastical morality of sexuality,” Mock said.
Young LGBT+ people are three times more likely to have previously had an eating disorder or still be suffering from one, a new study has found.
A report, carried out by Just Like Us, a charity that supports young LGBT+ people, found girls who are lesbian or bisexual are more than twice as likely as straight girls to have an eating disorder.
The research, shared exclusively with The Independent, discovered one in five LGBT+ young people has had or currently has an eating disorder, significantly higher than the seven per cent of non-LGBT+ young people.
While a quarter of bisexual girls and young lesbians previously or currently have eating disorders, this was the case for around one in ten heterosexual girls and some 22 per cent of transgender young people.
Researchers found LGBT+ boys were substantially more likely to have an eating disorder – with 18 per cent of boys who identify as gay and 13 per cent of boys who are bisexual experiencing eating disorders, in comparison to three per cent of heterosexual boys.
Dominic Arnall, chief executive of Just Like Us, told The Independent: “It is devastating to discover that LGBT+ young people are three times more likely to have an eating disorder and this highlights how society’s lack of acceptance can impact on your mental health and wellbeing.
“LGBT+ young people are disproportionately experiencing tension at home, feeling far less safe in school, and struggling with greater mental health challenges.
“We hope that this Mental Health Awareness Week, schools and parents will send a positive message of acceptance to any young people that being LGBT+ is something to be celebrated and that they can be themselves at home and at school.”
He said LGBT+ young people grappling with mental health issues will find it “far harder to reach out” for help without “explicitly” understanding that it is “okay to be themselves”.
Researchers polled 2,934 secondary school pupils who were aged between 11 to 18 stretching across almost 400 schools and colleges, including 1,140 LGBT+ young people.
Some 1.25 million people are estimated to have an eating disorder such as bulimia or anorexia nervosa in the UK – with most being female. The figure includes those who binge eat, which can lead to being overweight.
Tom Quinn, of leading eating disorder charity Beat, said the latest research’s findings are “devastating but sadly not surprising”.
He added: “Past research has shown that there is a higher prevalence of eating disorders in the LGBT+ community, and we know those affected often face additional barriers when seeking and getting treatment.
“It is paramount that we understand the experience of eating disorders for the LGBT+ community so we are able to ensure services are accessible and providing the right support.”
The report comes after The Independent recently revealed demand for Beat has tripled during the pandemic with the service experiencing record levels of people coming forward to seek help.
Overall helpline demand soared by 173 per cent in around a year – rising from 4,277 contacts in February 2020 to 11,686 contacts in January this year.
Jess Griffiths, the charity’s clinical head, previously told The Independent eating disorders “tend to come from feeling out of control” and people are “feeling more out of control than ever” during the public health crisis. The psychotherapist, who has specialised in eating disorders for 16 years, also noted there is increased focus on food and fitness during the pandemic.
Meanwhile, the Health Survey for England, which polled 8,205 adults in 2019, discovered one in six adults in England has a possible eating disorder – with four per cent saying anxieties about food impinged their ability to work, carry out personal responsibilities or have a social life.
Some 28 per cent of women who were aged between 16 and 24 and 27 per cent of women from 25 to 34 had a potential eating disorder. While researchers found around one in eight male adults have a possible eating disorder.
She is leaving her current position at NowThis to take the top spot at the title, one of the most prestigious publications aimed at teenagers.
Conde Nast selected Ms Sharma to take the helm at the fashion magazine for teens after their last pick, Alexi McCammond, resigned before she even began following controversy over years-old racially insensitive tweets.
“Versha is a natural leader with a global perspective and deep understanding of local trends and issues – from politics and activism to culture and fashion – and their importance to our audience,” Anna Wintour, the global editorial director of Vogue and the chief content officer of Conde Nast said in a statement.
Ms Sharma, 34, led news and cultural output at NowThis, a site owned by Group Nine Media. The team she worked with won an Edward R. Murrow award in 2018 for their documentary looking into the destruction left by Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico.
Ms Sharma’s appointment comes nearly two months since Ms McCammond, who previously worked at Axios, was forced out after more than 20 Teen Vogue colleagues spoke out publically against tweets she wrote a decade ago.
Those tweets included offensive stereotypes about Asians and LGBT groups. Ms McCammond apologised when they reemerged in 2019 and subsequently deleted them. She did so again when they reappeared again in March and quit her role at Teen Vogue before she even commenced it.
