2/21/21

Utah Anti-Trans Health Care Bill is Defeated: One down 47 to go

Sue Robbins(R), with the Transgender advisory Council at Equality Utah and Dr. Jennifer Plumb(L) had something to celebrate Friday with the defeat of one anti-trans bill.

The Utah House sent HB 92 a bill to deny trans youth legal healthcare, back to the Rules Committee, stopping it for this legislative session.

Utah Governor Spencer Cox has said he will veto the other bill which would deny transgender girls the opportunity to play on girls intramural sports teams.



  


However important this victory is these attacks on trans youth are perennial happening in nearly every state with a Republican majority.  What's more the bills are near carbon copies of legislature introduced in 20 other legislatures this year 
Doctor Jennifer Plumb, Attending Physician at University of Utah Health shared this on Sue Robbins' Facebook page

"Thank you to so many who stood up to protect health care for transgender youth. Thank you to the House HHS committee who did not allow this legislation to advance. And thank you to the brave, beautiful, brilliant big-hearted folks who make standing up with strength and support possible. To the transgender kiddos out there, know there is an actual fortress of folks surrounding you, valuing you, celebrating you and fighting for you. You are fiercely loved 🏳️‍⚧️
 

Equality Utah praised the failure of H.B. 92 on Friday, but Robbins believes transgender legislation, including the trans-female sports ban, will continue to be brought up.

“I think we will see this again because we have national organizations that are feeding these bills to the states and they’re not going to be deterred until they lose in the courts,” she said.

Robbins says several bills regarding transgender rights are being shopped around to state legislatures from groups including the Alliance Defending Freedom a designated LGBT hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC)

Bills in at least 20 states are targeting the transgender community in what LGBTQ advocates say is an organized assault by conservative groups.

On Thursday, NBC reports, the North Dakota House of Representatives passed a bill that would ban transgender student athletes from joining teams that match their gender identity. The measure, which passed 65 to 26, also calls for withholding state funds from sporting events that allow athletes to play as anything other than their sex assigned at birth. The bill now heads to the state Senate.

The same day the North Dakota House passed its bill, the Mississippi state Senate passed its own athletic ban, which now goes to the state House for consideration. Georgia, Kansas, Utah and Tennessee advanced similar legislation last week, as well.

In 2020, legislators sponsored 20 bills to restrict transgender students’ participation in sports, according to the ACLU. At least as many have been introduced this year.

Bills driven by ‘centralized groups’

To date, the only trans sports bill to become law is Idaho’s Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, sponsored by Republican state Rep. Barbara Ehardt. Signed by Gov. Brad Little, a Republican, last March, it mandates that "biological sex" be the sole determining factor for inclusion on athletic teams at public schools and universities.

Ehardt worked with the Alliance Defending Freedom in crafting the measure, The Idaho Press reported. Founded in 1994 by Christian conservatives, the Arizona-based group has provided legal counsel for a variety of efforts to curtail LGBTQ rights, from defending gay-marriage bans to ensuring the right of businesses to refuse LGBTQ customers. Perhaps most notably, the ADF defended Jack Phillips, the owner of a Colorado bakery, Masterpiece Cakeshop, in his 2018 Supreme Court case over his refusal to sell a wedding cake to a gay couple.

Kate Oakley, state legislative director and attorney for the Human Rights Campaign, a national LGBTQ advocacy group, told NBC News that a bill under review in Montana restricting transgender sports participation was also written by the ADF.

The ADF did not confirm that it wrote the Idaho bill or provided template wording for legislation to any state, but Matt Sharp, an attorney for the organization, told NBC News in an email, “As is typical practice for legal organizations, Alliance Defending Freedom is often asked by legislators to review possible legislation and offer advice.”

In February 2016, Sharp claimed “lawmakers in at least five states” had used the ADF’s model legislation to draft so-called bathroom bills, The Washington Post reported. Sharp also said the Alliance mailed template bills to “thousands” of school districts.

The ADF did not confirm that it wrote the Idaho bill or provided template wording for legislation to any state, but Matt Sharp, an attorney for the organization, told NBC News in an email, “As is typical practice for legal organizations, Alliance Defending Freedom is often asked by legislators to review possible legislation and offer advice.”

In February 2016, Sharp claimed “lawmakers in at least five states” had used the ADF’s model legislation to draft so-called bathroom bills, The Washington Post reported. Sharp also said the Alliance mailed template bills to “thousands” of school districts.

The ADF did not confirm that it wrote the Idaho bill or provided template wording for legislation to any state, but Matt Sharp, an attorney for the organization, told NBC News in an email, “As is typical practice for legal organizations, Alliance Defending Freedom is often asked by legislators to review possible legislation and offer advice.”

In February 2016, Sharp claimed “lawmakers in at least five states” had used the ADF’s model legislation to draft so-called bathroom bills, The Washington Post reported. Sharp also said the Alliance mailed template bills to “thousands” of school districts.

LGBTQ Nation takes a deep dive into the copycat legislation

“These bills are intended to look constituent-led, but we know it’s driven from these centralized groups,” Chase Strangio of the ACLU told NBC News

“Alliance Defending Freedom has on several occasions said that, should a state be sued for one of these pieces of anti-trans legislation, that they would be happy to take care of the litigation,” HRC’s Cathryn Oakley told The American Independent.

The work of these national organizations could explain why Republicans in so many states are trying to get these bills passed this year, even while openly admitting that they have no idea whether their legislation would address any complaints in their states.

For example, Mississippi Sen. Angela Hill (R) sponsored a bill that would ban transgender girls from competing in sports. During the debate on the bill, Republicans couldn’t even name a transgender student-athlete in the state and none of them even asked if there were any. Hill herself was only willing to say that “numerous coaches across the state” told her that “they are beginning to have some concerns of having to deal with this.”  

Chace appeared on the LGBTQ Nation podcast this week to discuss the anti-transgender legislation.

Heritage Foundation, Alliance Defending Freedom, Eagle Forum, Twenty States 47 Boilerplate anti-trans bills: Check to see your if your state is pushing hate legislation at the National Center Transgender Equality.

2/20/21

Gloucester School Board asks Supreme Court to Violate Gavin Grimm's civil Rights

Gavin Grimm
Gavin Grimm 

 The Gloucester County School Board is  asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review its transgender bathroom ban after rulings by lower courts that the policy is unconstitutional and had discriminated against former student Gavin Grimm, chron reports.

In 2015 Gavin Grimm began the 10th grade at his new school district in Gloucester he used the boys bathroom as any boy would.  Then for no reason the Virginia School Board reversed itself and banned Gavin from the Boys bathroom.





Then in Sept. 2015 a district judge ruled against Grimm deny him his civil rights and sided with the School District. On April 2016 the The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals admonished the District Judge, sending the case back to him to which he then ruled in favor of Gavin Grimm. On October of 2016 The Supreme Court announced that it would rule on Grimms case but instead ordered a stay sending the case back to the 4th District Court appeals. The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals on September 2020 denied a petition by the Gloucester School Board for a full Appeals Court Hearing.

Related: June 2020 the Supreme Court Rules Civil Rights Act of 1964 Protects Transgender and Gay people


The Gloucester County School Board hasn't learned anything after years of court rulings protecting the civil rights of former transgender student Gavin Grimm.

The American Civil Liberties Union today responded to the Gloucester County School Board’s request to the Supreme Court to again take up Gavin Grimm’s case.

"The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit have both ruled that the school board violated Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause by prohibiting Gavin from using the same restrooms as other boys and forcing him to use separate restrooms — simply because he is transgender." 

The Supreme Court was scheduled to hear Gavin’s case at an earlier stage of the litigation in 2017, but the case was sent back to the lower courts after the Trump administration withdrew the government’s support for Gavin’s claims. Since that time, three federal appeals courts have ruled that discriminatory restroom policies like the one in Gavin’s high school violate Title IX and the Constitution, and another two appeals courts have rejected claims that policies like the one Gavin seeks here — which would allow transgender students to use the restrooms — infringe on anyone else’s privacy. 

As the Fourth Circuit noted in its decision ruling in favor of Gavin, the Gloucester School Board has continued to discriminate against Gavin, “while schools across Virginia and across the country were successfully implementing trans-inclusive bathroom policies, again, without incident.” It added, “It is time to move forward.”

Statement from Gavin Grimm:

“I graduated four years ago — it is upsetting and disappointing that Gloucester County continues to deny who I am. Trans students in Gloucester County schools today should have the respect and dignity that I was denied. Whether it’s using the right restroom or having transcripts that reflect who we are, we all deserve to go to a school that’s free of harassment and discrimination.”










Related:

 Supreme Court Affirms Trans student Rights to Public Accommodations On Monday Dec. 7, 2020 the US Supreme Court declined to hear a case in which a lower court from Oregon had ruled in favor of transgender student rights.