Transgender students in Tennessee will be required to compete in school sports according to their sex at birth after Gov. Bill Lee signed a controversial bill into law Friday.
The Volunteer State is the third to enact such legislation into law this year, following Mississippi and Arkansas.
The bill quickly advanced in the state legislature this year. Supportive lawmakers argue the bill protects women sports by ensuring fairness and eliminating a competitive edge they say transgender women may have over their cisgender peers.
But medical experts, LGBTQ advocates and transgender Tennesseans deem the legislation discriminatory against a small population in the state. There is no evidence of transgender student athlete participation in Tennessee.
Lee, who previously said transgender athlete participation would “destroy women’s sports,” touted his signing of the bill on social media.
“I signed the bill to preserve women’s athletics and ensure fair competition,” he posted on Twitter. “This legislation responds to damaging federal policies that stand in opposition to the years of progress made under Title IX and I commend members of the General Assembly for their bipartisan work.”
The bill reflects a nationwide push as similar bills advance in at least 21 states this year. Many are modeled after an Idaho law last year, which was blocked by a federal judge from taking effect. The push comes as President Joe Biden has sought to bar gender discrimination in many areas, including school sports, through a January executive order.
Critics have said Tennessee’s bill may invite economic loss and legal challenge in the future. The American Civil Liberties Union in Tennessee has also threatened to sue the state.
Joe Woolley, CEO of the Nashville LGBT Chamber, told lawmakers during a committee hearing that Tennessee stands to lose billions of dollars from tourism if anti-LGBTQ legislation is passed.
“This discriminatory policy is illegal,” said Sam Brinton of The Trevor Project, a national group providing transgender youths with crisis prevention services. “The Trevor Project is here 24/7 to support trans youth in Tennessee and across the country who feel hurt and invalidated by these purely political attacks.”
Reach Yue Stella Yu at yyu@tennessean.com. Follow her on Twitter at @bystellayu_tnsn.
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Tensions had been running high for weeks at Bogazici University, Turkey’s top-ranked institution of higher learning, but it was a student-organized art exhibit that brought about a police crackdown on the university’s campus.
The art exhibit, one of many events that students organized amid weeks of protests, included a poster of the Kaaba, the center of Islam’s most symbolic mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, adorned with four different LGBTI pride flags in each corner.
The piece, which was anonymously submitted, quickly circulated online after the show opened on January 22. On January 29, Turkish authorities raided the campus and arrested the four student organizers of the exhibit. “4 LGBT perverts who committed the disrespect to the Kaaba-i Muazzama were detained at Boğaziçi University!” Turkey’s Minister of the Interior Suleyman Soylu tweeted after the students’ arrests.
Then, on February 2, the university’s newly appointed rector, Melih Bulu, closed Bogazici University’s LGBTI+ studies club.
Students say that the raid, dissolution of the club, and arrests of the student organizers were made possible by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s January 1 appointment of Bulu—ex-rector of two other universities and former candidate in local elections for the Erdogan-led Justice and Development party (AKP)—as the university’s new rector. In the past, Bogazici faculty members would review and vote on potential candidates for the position, which plays a role similar to a university president’s in the United States. But a decree issued by Erdogan in 2016 amid a two-year state of emergency granted him the power to name university rectors.
By January 4, thousands of students and faculty members were flooding the streets around the university to protest Bulu’s appointment. Now that he has dissolved the LGBTI+ club and allowed for the arrests of student organizers, the protests have only increased in size and scale.
The police crackdown on protesters has resulted in more than 600 arrests, many of them of students. As news of the protests spread around the world, other college students in Turkey and throughout Europe joined the movement. In a matter of weeks the university, a cornerstone of free speech in Turkish society, closed itself off; only students with university identification have been permitted on campus. Police have set up barricades around campus grounds, while armored vehicles patrol university property. “There were snipers positions around the buildings around the school—actual snipers,” Alaz Ada, a graduate student of linguistics based in Istanbul who attended the protests in solidarity, told The Nation. “They were there, aiming at students like a threat.”
For students at Bogazici, the art exhibit controversy was leveraged into an excuse for Bulu, in his first weeks as rector, to shutter the university’s LGBTI+ club. According to Ceren Solmaz, a foreign language education student at Bogazici University, the university’s LGBTI+ students were at the forefront of the initial January protests against Bulu’s appointment. The presence of these students, often accompanied by LGBTI+ pride flags, drew criticism from conservatives, but members of the LGBTI+ club weren’t the exhibit’s organizers. “From the first day, we were there chanting, ‘We don’t want a homophobic rector! We don’t want a transphobic rector! We don’t want a sexist rector!’” they said. “Then he decides to shut down the LGBTI+ club—which wasn’t even involved in the art exhibit.”
Bulu’s decision reflects a larger shift in Turkey’s society following Erdogan’s rise to power. The annual Istanbul Pride march was banned in 2015—at its height, it was the biggest gay pride march among Muslim-majority countries. Smaller-scale pride marches that have taken place since have been met with significant police brutality. “LGBT people being in public and celebrating ourselves is an inherently political thing in this country, especially where there’s a lot of public animosity towards us,” said Ada, who last attended the annual Pride march in 2019. “There were not only just policemen but civilians who came there that day, who were really aggressive.”
And most recently, on March 20, President Erdogan withdrew Turkey from the Istanbul Convention: an international treaty, signed in 2011, that seeks to combat gender-based violence and domestic abuse. Erdogan used rising femicide rates as an opportunity to attack Turkey’s LGBTI+ community. “The Istanbul Convention, originally intended to promote women’s rights, was hijacked by a group of people attempting to normalize homosexuality—which is incompatible with Turkey’s social and family values,” a statement released by Erdogan’s Directorate of Communications read. “Hence the decision to withdraw.”
Oner Ceylan, a translator and volunteer for Lambdaistanbul, an LGBTI+ community building organization in Istanbul, said he thinks that things worsened for Turkey’s LGBTI+ community after the 2015 general election that resulted in Erdogan’s political party, the AKP, regaining power. “Things became worse and worse and worse and more oppressive, putting a lot of pressure on anyone who had ideas who opposed or who questioned the power or the authority of the party in power,” he said. “I believe from 2015 on it went downwards in a really bad way, and it’s still that way.”
Mina Kocasoy, a philosophy student at Bogazici University, said the government’s response to the student-led protests and demands for LGBTI+ rights is another example of Turkey’s oppressive regime against the LGBTQ community. “I don’t think people care enough to even think about our existence, let alone, think about giving us rights, and there’s nothing that ever gets the conversation started,” she added. “This might be a catalyst for it, but I don’t see it happening for years.”
Turkey is a majority-Muslim country, and even though bigger cities like Istanbul and Ankara have vibrant LGBTI+ communities and embrace secular local governments, negative sentiment towards LGBTI+ individuals is rampant. According to a 2018 nationwide survey conducted by the Center for Turkish Studies at Kadir Has University, 53.8 percent of respondents stated that they did not want to be neighbors with a gay person—having a gay neighbor was the most undesirable of all of the choices on the survey, including a neighbor who is Christian, a refugee, a divorced woman, an unmarried couple living together, and a drunk person.
Ahmet Sunay, a political science student at Bogazici University, spent the weekend after Bulu’s appointment online, organizing with fellow students over Zoom. He and other student protesters relied on the university’s alumni association’s premium Zoom subscription to hold town halls on academic freedom, freedom of speech, and democracy, while organizing the protests. He said that though he’s grateful for being able to organize virtually, he has faced significant harassment on social media.
Recently, he filed a criminal complaint about a tweet from a state-sponsored “AK troll” who threatened to physically harass Bogazici’s LGBTI+ students who were protesting. According to Sunay, the prosecutor’s office did not pursue the case and claimed that the tweet was an expression of free speech. “If you are a queer person, and if you are trying to voice your opinion, no matter how mainstream or controversial that might be, you’re going to get awful comments about how your opinion shouldn’t matter,” Sunay said.
In-person, this kind of harassment continued. As word spread about the art exhibition and the closing of Bogazici’s LGBTI+ club, students organized more protests. But on February 2, two hours before some of the major protests were scheduled to begin, officials issued a Covid-related ban on protests. Despite this, students from across Istanbul came out to support Bogazici’s LGBTI+ students.
By the time Deniz Celik, a history student at Bogazici, arrived in the Kadikoy neighborhood, located in the Asian side of Istanbul, the protest had already started. She said that she saw groups of students marching while riot police tried to intimidate them. Within minutes, Celik’s friend was detained by the police. Celik said she didn’t know what prompted the police to target her friend, other than he “looks queer and like he’s from Bogazici,” which other students say was the basis of several other arrests that day. An hour later, Celik herself was arrested. “They jumped on me and they tackled me down. They kicked me a few times, and then they handcuffed me in the back,” she said. She spent two weeks under house arrest and is now on an indefinite probation, barred from leaving the province of Istanbul.
Though Bulu vows that he won’t resign, students and faculty members continue to organize and advocate for their academic freedoms and LGBTI+ rights. Protests and boycotts continue to take place; faculty members hold daily vigils in front of the rector’s office wearing their academic gowns; and online organizing efforts have broadened to include social media pages dedicated to sharing messages and video updates as the events unfold. Students have started to post updates in English in hopes of reaching a wider audience. “We demand the release of our friends,” the students wrote in one of their recent English-language tweets. “We want them back in their campuses where they belong, as soon as possible.”
As tensions continue to rise, amid an economic collapse and Erdogan’s continued efforts to exert his power, students remain hopeful. “Our demands are very clear,” Sunay, the political science student from Bogazici, said. “We want the rector out, the LGBTI+ club reopened, the two new departments that were established by presidential decree to be shut down, and we want our friends who have been detained, arrested, and placed on house arrest to be freed without hindrance.”
Several Bogazici students are already facing trial for the depiction of the Kaaba with the pride flags at the late January art exhibit. Most recently, another student was called to testify after being placed under a disciplinary investigation for draping a gay pride flag above the university gate during a protest. Students protested the investigation, leading to an additional two dozen students’ being detained on March 25.
For Ada, who said they lived for a period of time in France, the continued fight for LGBTI+ rights in Turkey is worth it. “If I stay here, I get to fight in a place where I feel like I belong, with people who are of my community,” they said. “I am more useful here than I can be somewhere else.”
Tennessee lawmakers want to ban any textbooks or curriculum that contain LGBTQ+ content from schools.
HB800 would prohibit public schools and teachers from including teaching materials that “promote, normalize, support, or address lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, or transgender (LGBT) issues or lifestyles.” As of publication, it is unclear how lawmakers plan to define what qualifies as LGBT issues or lifestyle content.
Griffey said the bill serves to focus school attention and resources on subjects that are critical to students like math and science.
“The promotion of LGBT issues and lifestyles in public schools offends a significant portion of students, parents, and Tennessee residents with Christian values,” Griffey wrote in the bill.
According to the Charlotte Observer, the bill will be read and discussed by the state legislature’s Education Instruction Subcommittee on March 30. If passed, the law would go into effect on July 1, 2021 and impact the 2021-2022 school year.
The proposal to ban LGBTQ+ books and educational materials from schools has legal precedent, as state lawmakers have attempted to pass similar bills since the 1990s, according to the National Coalition Against Censorship.
Some 75 years ago, in bombed-out Frankfurt, Germany, a little girl named Marlene Mahta received a sign of hope in the midst of squalor, homelessness and starvation. A CARE Package containing soap, milk powder, flour, blankets and other necessities provided a lifeline through the contributions of average American families. There were even luxuries like chocolate bars.
World War II may have ended, but its devastation lingered. Between 35 and 60 million people died. Whole cities had been destroyed, the countryside was charred and burned, and at least 60 million European civilians had been made homeless. Hunger remained an issue for many families for years to come. In the face of this devastation, 22 American organizations decided to come together and do something about it: creating CARE Packages for survivors.
“What affected me… was hearing that these were gifts from average American people,” remembers Mahta, who, in those desperate days, found herself picking through garbage cans to find leftover field rations and MREs to eat. Inspired by the unexpected kindness, Mahta eventually learned English and emigrated to the U.S.
“I wanted to be like those wonderful, generous people,” she says.
The postwar Marshall Plan era was a time of “great moral clarity,” says Michelle Nunn, CEO of CARE, the global anti-poverty organization that emerged from those simple beginnings. “The CARE Package itself – in its simplicity and directness – continues to guide CARE’s operational faith in the enduring power of local leadership – of simply giving people the opportunity to support their families and then their communities.”
Each CARE Package contained rations that had once been reserved for soldiers, but were now being redirected to civilians who had suffered as a result of the conflict. The packages cost $10 to send, and they were guaranteed to arrive at their destination within four months.
Thousands of Americans, including President Harry S. Truman, got involved, and on May 11, 1946, the first 15,000 packages were sent to Le Havre in France, a port badly battered during the war.
Thousands of additional CARE Packages soon followed. At first packages were sent to specific recipients, but over time donations came in for anyone in need. When war rations ran out American companies began donating food. Later, carpentry tools, blankets, clothes, books, school supplies, and medicine were included.
Before long, the CARE Packages were going to other communities in need around the world, including Asia and Latin America. Ultimately, CARE delivered packages to 100 million families around the world.
The original CARE Packages were phased out in the late 1960s, though they were revived when specific needs arose, such as when former Soviet Union republics needed relief, or after the Bosnian War. Meanwhile, CARE transformed. Now, instead of physical boxes, it invests in programs for sustainable change, such as setting up nutrition centers, Village Savings and Loan Associations, educational programs, agroforestry initiatives, and much more.
But, with a pandemic ravaging populations around the world, CARE is bringing back its original CARE packages to support the critical basic needs of our global neighbors. And for the first time, they’re also delivering CARE packages here at home in the United States to communities in need.
Community leaders like Janice Dixon are on the front lines of that effort. Dixon, president and CEO of Community Outreach in Action in Jonesboro, Ga., now sends up to 80 CARE packages each week to those in need due to COVID-19. Food pantries have been available, she notes, but they’ve been difficult to access for those without cars, and public transportation is spotty in suburban Atlanta.
“My phone has been ringing off the hook,” says Dixon. For example, one of those calls was from a senior diabetic, she remembers, who faced an impossible choice, but was able to purchase medicine because food was being provided by CARE.
Today, CARE is sending new packages with financial support and messages of hope to frontline medical workers, caregivers, essential workers, and individuals in need in more than 60 countries, including the U.S. Anyone can now go to carepackage.org to send targeted help around the world. Packages focus on helping vaccines reach people more quickly, tackling food insecurity, educational disparities, global poverty, and domestic violence, as well as providing hygiene kits to those in need.
From the very beginning, CARE received the support of presidents, with Hollywood luminaries like Rita Hayworth and Ingrid Bergman also adding their voices. At An Evening With CARE, happening this Tuesday, May 11, notable names will turn out again as the organization celebrates the 75th Anniversary of the CARE Package and the exciting, meaningful work that lies ahead. The event will be hosted by Whoopi Goldberg and attended by former Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Jimmy Carter, as well as Angela Merkel, Iman, Jewel, Michelle Williams, Katherine McPhee-Foster, Betty Who and others. Please RSVP now for this can’t-miss opportunity.
When Laurie Hernandez stepped onto the floor at the 2021 Winter Cup (in a Captain Marvel leotard, no less) it was the first time she’d competed in over four years. She’s come a long way since winning team gold and an individual silver medal for beam at the Rio Olympics as a teen. Now 20, she says she’s grown as a person. “I’m honestly just winging it like everybody else,” Hernandez told POPSUGAR laughing, though she added that, in all seriousness, she’s matured. She’s more realistic about, well, everything, and in terms of her sport, she’s learned to embrace her nerves and rely on her expertise. So the stage is set: her focus is on earning a ticket to the Tokyo Summer Games.
“The pandemic definitely shook things up a bit,” Hernandez said. “When you’re training for something as big as the Olympics, it’s not really something that happens on a whim. It happens with a lot of time taking it into consideration, knowing that you’re gonna have to be ready to try and be the best in the world and to try and be the best in your country, and that is really difficult.” Having to get back into a groove after COVID-19 restrictions thawed a bit was discouraging, she admitted, but there was a silver lining with the postponement of the Games: she was able to work on upgrades to her routines and get ready for the 2021 competition season preceding Tokyo.
Currently, Hernandez trains six days a week, four to four-and-a-half hours a day, at Gym-Max in California. All international competitions for her have been cancelled, but she’s planning on competing in US meets ahead of the Olympic trials. These will include May’s GK US Classic and Nationals in the beginning of June, a few weeks prior to trials. Though she “watered down” her routines at the Winter Cup since it was her first meet in a while (she didn’t do nearly as difficult of a last tumbling pass on floor, for example), she noted that we can expect full performances at her next competitions.
Hernandez is known for her crowd-pleasing performances, and she actually choreographed the floor routine she debuted at the Winter Cup, which featured music inspired by Hamilton. Her only other event at that competition was beam, but her skills on bars and vault, she said, are coming along as well. She went to a national team training camp recently in Indiana and did all-around in an in-house competition (those are typically called “mock meets”), and she’s excited to continue perfecting more challenging skills, especially on bars. “I think everyone will be happily surprised with what we show for this year,” she stated.
When asked about her pre-competition rituals, Hernandez said she doesn’t typically have a strict preference for day-of preparation (though she does like to listen to “chill” music such as Fleetwood Mac before a meet and then switch to something powerful, namely the Black Panther soundtrack). And, in terms of recovery, she relies on Hyperice products (her favorites are Hypervolt Go and the Venom for her back).
However, Hernandez did create a superstition of sorts by accident prior to the Winter Cup, she confessed, laughing again (she really is such a vibrant personality over the phone!). A friend gifted her a candle, which she burned pre-workout leading up to the competition. The workouts all went well, she said, so she decided to burn it again before the Winter Cup just in case. Lo and behold, the meet proceeded to go well, too (though we both agreed she should give herself and her training more credit).
“I am a very competitive person,” Hernandez said of her Olympic-oriented goals. There are four spots available on the US women’s Olympic gymnastics team and two individual spots: one will go to Jade Carey if she wants it, and though she still needs to qualify, Simone Biles is pretty much a shoe-in for a team spot.
Aside from aiming to join the likes of Aly Raisman, Gabby Douglas, Kerri Strug, and Shannon Miller in achieving two Olympic appearances, Hernandez wants to be able to go out and show that she can compete with the best in the nation all while having attained a greater sense of balance (prioritizing her mental health, spending time with loved ones, and doing fewer hours of practice compared to when she was younger). “I kind of gave [it] everything when I was 16,” she said of gymnastics. Now, with that same passion and work ethic, she’s learned to focus on other aspects of her life as well.
“I’m really excited to see how my gymnastics looks this summer,” Hernandez said. “Of course Winter Cup was so much fun, but again, they were watered down routines, so to be able to fully just show what we’ve been working on, and to do those upgrades, I would love to compare that to when I was 16 and see if I do go any higher.”
Spring is in the air, and with it comes peak reading season. Sure, you can always read at home in winter, but it’s just not the same as cracking the spine of a good book in the park or on a windswept beach or wherever else your vernal travels might take you. There’s a breadth of exciting, new queer writing coming out between March and May—fiction, nonfiction, poetry, graphic novels, and beyond—that makes for great reading any time of the year (and not just Pride Month, ahem). Below, find nine of the books by LGBTQ+ authors, including Sarah Schulman, Melissa Febos, Jasmine Mans, and many more, that we can’t wait to read.
Black Boy Out of Time: A Memoir by Hari Ziyad (March 1)
Black Boy Out of Time
$22.95
Bookshop
In this memoir, writer Hari Ziyad recounts their origin as one of 19 children raised by a Hindu Hare Kṛṣṇa mother and a Muslim father; they also skillfully narrate their experience of growing up Black and queer in Cleveland, as well as their coming of age in New York City. Their story is often painful, but it’s full of joy too, and it offers readers a new script for pushing beyond racial and gender binaries.
untold: defining moments of the uprooted edited by Gabrielle Deonath and Kamini Ramdeen (March 2)
Untold
$18.35
Bookshop
This anthology from Brown Girl Magazine compiles the voices of 32 writers who explore myriad facets of the South Asian experience in the U.S., the U.K., and Canada, from immigration and mental health to sexual orientation and gender identity. With a powerful foreword penned by Born Confused author Tanuja Desai Hidier, this wide-ranging collection of deeply human experiences is not to be missed.
Black Girl, Call Home by Jasmine Mans (March 9)
Black Girl, Call Home
$13.80
Bookshop
Spoken-word poet Jasmine Mans’s gift with words is nothing short of sublime, and the territory she explores in this poetry collection—from waiting for her mother to get home from work and do her hair as a child in Newark to coming into her full as a young, queer Black woman—couldn’t be more necessary.
Sarahland by Sam Cohen (March 9)
Sarahland
$22.08
Bookshop
This short-story collection revolves around a clutch of women named Sarah looking for themselves across a wide range of milieus, from a primarily Jewish college dorm and a rich necrophiliac’s apartment to a fan-fiction site and somewhere beyond the earth itself. It’s an ambitious work, to be sure, but the structural leaps it takes are more than earned, and Cohen’s prose is something to be celebrated all on its own.
PHILADELPHIA — Blood donations are vital. But we’re digging deeper into a policy set by the FDA, that many see as discriminatory against the LGBTQ community. Meteorologist Adam Joseph at our sister station in Philadelphia talked to their health reporter and registered nurse Ali Gorman about how that policy impacts him and millions of others.
“I want to help everyone as much as I can but someone is telling me I can’t because I am living the life I was born to live,” he said.
Joseph is speaking out about an FDA policy that restricts gay or bisexual men from donating blood unless they are abstinent for three months, that includes men like Adam, who has been in a monogamous relationship for 12 years. He and his partner Karl have built a family together.
“We look at our life with our two kids, yes we’re two dads but we’re living a life like any other straight couple,” Adam said. “You know we don’t go outside our marriage, we live happily together. “
He says as a gay male, he and many others are lumped into a stereotype that is discriminatory that all gay men have HIV.
The restriction on blood donations stems from a lifetime ban enacted in 1983 when the AIDS epidemic was unfolding.
Doctor Katharine Bar, an infectious disease expert at Penn Medicine, says we have come a long way scientifically since then. She says screening today of both the donor and the blood itself is incredibly sensitive.
The policy by the FDA has been updated. In 2015, it changed, allowing gay or bisexual men to donate if they abstain from sex with a man for 12 months. Last year, due to the pandemic, that time period went down to three months.
Doctor Bar says it’s a step in the right direction but still unreasonable and not based on science.
“It’s really judging people as a large group that you identify with as opposed to your individual risks,” she said. “I think we can continue to push to reassess this policy and hopefully have it be more science-based as opposed to historically-based.”
She says other countries have changed their policies.
The FDA recently launched a pilot study to assess evaluating individual risks instead of blanket restrictions.
The American Medical Association says there’s already enough evidence. In a statement, it urges the FDA to remove categorical restrictions.
Adam still tells others, donate blood if you can.
“It can save so many lives. Do it for me until I can walk in those doors and do it for all of you,” he said.
The American Red Cross is involved with the FDA study.
“The Red Cross remains committed to building an inclusive environment that embraces diversity for all those who engage with our lifesaving mission and does not believe blood donation eligibility should be determined by methods that are based upon sexual orientation,” the American Red Cross said in a statement.
After Krispy Kreme announced it’s offering a free donut to those who get the COVID-19 vaccine, one gym owner from New Jersey put his own spin on the incentivized push.
Ian Smith, the owner of The Atilis Gym, out of Bellmawr, New Jersey, took to Twitter to say he’s offering free gym memberships to those who don’t get the vaccine.
In the viral tweet, Smith wrote, “We believe in health – the real way – exercise, good diet, plenty of vitamin D, zinc, and an environment to destress.”
In light of @krispykreme giving free donuts for receiving the CVD shot, here at @TheAtilisGym we are giving out free memberships to all who don’t get vaccinated. We believe in health – the real way – exercise, good diet, plenty of Vitamin D, Zinc, and an environment to destress.
PHILADELPHIA — Blood donations are vital. But we’re digging deeper into a policy set by the FDA, that many see as discriminatory against the LGBTQ community. Meteorologist Adam Joseph at our sister station in Philadelphia talked to their health reporter and registered nurse Ali Gorman about how that policy impacts him and millions of others.
“I want to help everyone as much as I can but someone is telling me I can’t because I am living the life I was born to live,” he said.
Joseph is speaking out about an FDA policy that restricts gay or bisexual men from donating blood unless they are abstinent for three months, that includes men like Adam, who has been in a monogamous relationship for 12 years. He and his partner Karl have built a family together.
“We look at our life with our two kids, yes we’re two dads but we’re living a life like any other straight couple,” Adam said. “You know we don’t go outside our marriage, we live happily together. “
He says as a gay male, he and many others are lumped into a stereotype that is discriminatory that all gay men have HIV.
The restriction on blood donations stems from a lifetime ban enacted in 1983 when the AIDS epidemic was unfolding.
Doctor Katharine Bar, an infectious disease expert at Penn Medicine, says we have come a long way scientifically since then. She says screening today of both the donor and the blood itself is incredibly sensitive.
The policy by the FDA has been updated. In 2015, it changed, allowing gay or bisexual men to donate if they abstain from sex with a man for 12 months. Last year, due to the pandemic, that time period went down to three months.
Doctor Bar says it’s a step in the right direction but still unreasonable and not based on science.
“It’s really judging people as a large group that you identify with as opposed to your individual risks,” she said. “I think we can continue to push to reassess this policy and hopefully have it be more science-based as opposed to historically-based.”
She says other countries have changed their policies.
The FDA recently launched a pilot study to assess evaluating individual risks instead of blanket restrictions.
The American Medical Association says there’s already enough evidence. In a statement, it urges the FDA to remove categorical restrictions.
Adam still tells others, donate blood if you can.
“It can save so many lives. Do it for me until I can walk in those doors and do it for all of you,” he said.
The American Red Cross is involved with the FDA study.
“The Red Cross remains committed to building an inclusive environment that embraces diversity for all those who engage with our lifesaving mission and does not believe blood donation eligibility should be determined by methods that are based upon sexual orientation,” the American Red Cross said in a statement.
PHILADELPHIA — Blood donations are vital. But we’re digging deeper into a policy set by the FDA, that many see as discriminatory against the LGBTQ community. Meteorologist Adam Joseph at our sister station in Philadelphia talked to their health reporter and registered nurse Ali Gorman about how that policy impacts him and millions of others.
“I want to help everyone as much as I can but someone is telling me I can’t because I am living the life I was born to live,” he said.
Joseph is speaking out about an FDA policy that restricts gay or bisexual men from donating blood unless they are abstinent for three months, that includes men like Adam, who has been in a monogamous relationship for 12 years. He and his partner Karl have built a family together.
“We look at our life with our two kids, yes we’re two dads but we’re living a life like any other straight couple,” Adam said. “You know we don’t go outside our marriage, we live happily together. “
He says as a gay male, he and many others are lumped into a stereotype that is discriminatory that all gay men have HIV.
The restriction on blood donations stems from a lifetime ban enacted in 1983 when the AIDS epidemic was unfolding.
Doctor Katharine Bar, an infectious disease expert at Penn Medicine, says we have come a long way scientifically since then. She says screening today of both the donor and the blood itself is incredibly sensitive.
The policy by the FDA has been updated. In 2015, it changed, allowing gay or bisexual men to donate if they abstain from sex with a man for 12 months. Last year, due to the pandemic, that time period went down to three months.
Doctor Bar says it’s a step in the right direction but still unreasonable and not based on science.
“It’s really judging people as a large group that you identify with as opposed to your individual risks,” she said. “I think we can continue to push to reassess this policy and hopefully have it be more science-based as opposed to historically-based.”
She says other countries have changed their policies.
The FDA recently launched a pilot study to assess evaluating individual risks instead of blanket restrictions.
The American Medical Association says there’s already enough evidence. In a statement, it urges the FDA to remove categorical restrictions.
Adam still tells others, donate blood if you can.
“It can save so many lives. Do it for me until I can walk in those doors and do it for all of you,” he said.
The American Red Cross is involved with the FDA study.
“The Red Cross remains committed to building an inclusive environment that embraces diversity for all those who engage with our lifesaving mission and does not believe blood donation eligibility should be determined by methods that are based upon sexual orientation,” the American Red Cross said in a statement.
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Thursday signed a law banning transgender women and girls from competing in school sports teams consistent with their gender identity, making the state the second to approve such a restriction so far this year.
The Republican governor approved the measure despite objections from medical and child-welfare groups that it would have devastating impacts on transgender youth. Hundreds of college athletes have also urged the NCAA to refuse to hold championships in states that enact such bans.
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“This law simply says that female athletes should not have to compete in a sport against a student of the male sex when the sport is designed for women’s competition,” Hutchinson said in a statement released by his office. “As I have stated previously, I agree with the intention of this law. This will help promote and maintain fairness in women’s sporting events.”
Republicans in at least 20 state legislatures have been pushing for similar bans this year. Mississippi’s governor signed a prohibition into law earlier this month. South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem had initially said she would sign similar legislation sent to her but has since pushed for changing it to exclude college sports. Arkansas’ law covers K-12 as well as collegiate sports.
The head of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ rights groups, called Hutchinson’s decision “an affront not just to the transgender kids it is bound to hurt but to all Arkansans who will be impacted by its consequences.”
“Hutchinson is ignoring the ugly history of states that have dared to pass anti-transgender legislation in years past, and by doing so he is exposing Arkansas to economic harm, expensive taxpayer-funded legal battles, and a tarnished reputation,” Alphonso David, the group’s president, said in a statement.
Only one state, Idaho, has enacted a law curtailing transgender students’ sports participation, and that 2020 measure is blocked by a court ruling as a lawsuit plays out. Opponents have not said whether they plan legal action to block Arkansas’ ban.
“This law is a discriminatory and shameful attempt by politicians to stigmatize and exclude transgender teens,” American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas Executive Director Holly Dickson said in a statement.
Arkansas’ law, if it isn’t blocked by a legal challenge, would take effect this summer. Under the new law, a student or school who suffers “direct or indirect harm” could take a school to court for violating the ban.
The measure is among several targeting transgender people advancing through the majority-Republican Legislature this year. Another bill on Hutchinson’s desk would allow doctors to refuse to treat someone for moral or religious reasons, a measure opponents says would allow LGBT patients to be turned away.
A final vote is also expected next week on legislation that would ban gender confirmation surgery or treatment for minors.
The measures have won support as a hate crimes bill backed by Hutchinson has stalled, facing conservative resistance. The current version of the bill would impose additional penalties for committing a crime against someone because several characteristics, including gender identity or sexual orientation.
Arkansas is one of three states without a hate crimes law.
When asked earlier this week about the message the measures targeting transgender people send to the LGBT community, Hutchinson said he hoped to send a welcoming message by enacting a hate crimes law.
“I want the message to be that we want to make sure that everyone is protected, that everyone has equal treatment under the laws,” Hutchinson told reporters Tuesday. “That is very, very important, whether it’s transgender or whether it is some other characteristic.”
Hutchinson also signed the bill four years after opposing legislation that would have prohibited people from using restrooms in government buildings that do not match their gender at birth. That measure, which never advanced out of committee, had drawn opposition from tourism groups who said it would harm the state’s economy.
Offering gender-equal clothing to help the LGBTQ+ community “shop their authentic selves” sounds like a very bold statement, but a New York-based startup is proving that inclusive fashion for today’s diverse world is achievable with the right attitude.
Embracing the belief that fashion is a prized medium for carving out an identity and expressing one’s values, Play Out Apparel has created an e-commerce underwear and athleisure brand that challenges the binary of gender.
It takes customers on an inclusive shopping experience where they can find and buy sexuality and gender-expression affirming apparel with affordable price points and unique artistic designs.
Although society is opening up to the understanding of the science of non-binary individuals and brands are thinking more critically and creatively about their relationship to gender, gender fluidity is still far from being fully integrated into the fashion industry.
Abby Sugar (R) and E Leifer (Image credit: Play Out Apparel)
However, Play Out believes even the longest journeys start with the first steps and is leaving fairly deep footprints for others to follow.
Its founder and CEO, Abby Sugar, launched Play Out’s first styles in 2014 as the first and only gender-equal underwear brand to show at Lingerie Fashion Week.
A graduate of the Founder Institute Silicon Valley Winter 2020 cohort, she has turned her company into a sexuality, gender, race, age, size, and ability inclusive podium for the voices of the LGBTQ+ community along with her chief design officer E Leifer.
The brand, which is certified by the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce as an LGBT Business Enterprise, has had people of all gender presentations and identifications wear its products in line with its mission of promoting queer visibility.
Rise in LGBT identification
The need for startups like Play Out is growing as more adults are openly identifying as LGBT than ever before in different parts of the world.
In the United States, according to a new Gallup study, 5.6% of all people over 18 identify as lesbian, bisexual, gay, or transgender—up from 4.5 percent in Gallup’s findings based on 2017 data.
People belonging to Generation Z—those born between 1997 and 2012—identified as LGBT at the highest rate: nearly 16% or roughly one in six.
“Members of the LGBTQ+ community deserve to see themselves reflected in the brands they shop and the clothes they wear,” says the team behind Play Out, which is determined to make clothing shopping for this segment of the population less stressful and intimidating.
Image credit: Play Out Apparel
Community giving
As a queer, lesbian, gay, and non-binary owned company, supporting this community is an integral part of Play Out’s mission.
The social good enterprise donates 20% of its net profits to LGBTQ+ and Black Lives Matter nonprofit organizations, having teamed up with a number of influencers and community advocates.
Play Out says it wishes to push the boundaries and continue the conversation on gender norms as relevant to everyone, not just the LGBTQ+ community.
And the tremendous support it has received from customers indicate that it is on the right track to be further recognized as a pioneer of introducing fashion with a queer aesthetic to broader masses.
Disclaimer: This article mentions a client of an Espacio portfolio company.
PHILADELPHIA — Blood donations are vital. But we’re digging deeper into a policy set by the FDA, that many see as discriminatory against the LGBTQ community. Meteorologist Adam Joseph at our sister station in Philadelphia talked to their health reporter and registered nurse Ali Gorman about how that policy impacts him and millions of others.
“I want to help everyone as much as I can but someone is telling me I can’t because I am living the life I was born to live,” he said.
Joseph is speaking out about an FDA policy that restricts gay or bisexual men from donating blood unless they are abstinent for three months, that includes men like Adam, who has been in a monogamous relationship for 12 years. He and his partner Karl have built a family together.
“We look at our life with our two kids, yes we’re two dads but we’re living a life like any other straight couple,” Adam said. “You know we don’t go outside our marriage, we live happily together. “
He says as a gay male, he and many others are lumped into a stereotype that is discriminatory that all gay men have HIV.
The restriction on blood donations stems from a lifetime ban enacted in 1983 when the AIDS epidemic was unfolding.
Doctor Katharine Bar, an infectious disease expert at Penn Medicine, says we have come a long way scientifically since then. She says screening today of both the donor and the blood itself is incredibly sensitive.
The policy by the FDA has been updated. In 2015, it changed, allowing gay or bisexual men to donate if they abstain from sex with a man for 12 months. Last year, due to the pandemic, that time period went down to three months.
Doctor Bar says it’s a step in the right direction but still unreasonable and not based on science.
“It’s really judging people as a large group that you identify with as opposed to your individual risks,” she said. “I think we can continue to push to reassess this policy and hopefully have it be more science-based as opposed to historically-based.”
She says other countries have changed their policies.
The FDA recently launched a pilot study to assess evaluating individual risks instead of blanket restrictions.
The American Medical Association says there’s already enough evidence. In a statement, it urges the FDA to remove categorical restrictions.
Adam still tells others, donate blood if you can.
“It can save so many lives. Do it for me until I can walk in those doors and do it for all of you,” he said.
The American Red Cross is involved with the FDA study.
“The Red Cross remains committed to building an inclusive environment that embraces diversity for all those who engage with our lifesaving mission and does not believe blood donation eligibility should be determined by methods that are based upon sexual orientation,” the American Red Cross said in a statement.
PHILADELPHIA — Blood donations are vital. But we’re digging deeper into a policy set by the FDA, that many see as discriminatory against the LGBTQ community. Meteorologist Adam Joseph at our sister station in Philadelphia talked to their health reporter and registered nurse Ali Gorman about how that policy impacts him and millions of others.
“I want to help everyone as much as I can but someone is telling me I can’t because I am living the life I was born to live,” he said.
Joseph is speaking out about an FDA policy that restricts gay or bisexual men from donating blood unless they are abstinent for three months, that includes men like Adam, who has been in a monogamous relationship for 12 years. He and his partner Karl have built a family together.
“We look at our life with our two kids, yes we’re two dads but we’re living a life like any other straight couple,” Adam said. “You know we don’t go outside our marriage, we live happily together. “
He says as a gay male, he and many others are lumped into a stereotype that is discriminatory that all gay men have HIV.
The restriction on blood donations stems from a lifetime ban enacted in 1983 when the AIDS epidemic was unfolding.
Doctor Katharine Bar, an infectious disease expert at Penn Medicine, says we have come a long way scientifically since then. She says screening today of both the donor and the blood itself is incredibly sensitive.
The policy by the FDA has been updated. In 2015, it changed, allowing gay or bisexual men to donate if they abstain from sex with a man for 12 months. Last year, due to the pandemic, that time period went down to three months.
Doctor Bar says it’s a step in the right direction but still unreasonable and not based on science.
“It’s really judging people as a large group that you identify with as opposed to your individual risks,” she said. “I think we can continue to push to reassess this policy and hopefully have it be more science-based as opposed to historically-based.”
She says other countries have changed their policies.
The FDA recently launched a pilot study to assess evaluating individual risks instead of blanket restrictions.
The American Medical Association says there’s already enough evidence. In a statement, it urges the FDA to remove categorical restrictions.
Adam still tells others, donate blood if you can.
“It can save so many lives. Do it for me until I can walk in those doors and do it for all of you,” he said.
The American Red Cross is involved with the FDA study.
“The Red Cross remains committed to building an inclusive environment that embraces diversity for all those who engage with our lifesaving mission and does not believe blood donation eligibility should be determined by methods that are based upon sexual orientation,” the American Red Cross said in a statement.
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