Tag: LGBTQ rights

DFL Party Statement On Governor Walz’s Executive Action On Conversion Therapy

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SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA – Today, following Governor Walz’s executive action on conversion therapy, the practice of attempting to change someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity through bullying and intimidation, DFL Party Chairman Ken Martin released the following statement:

“Conversion therapy is not backed by science and can cause life-long trauma for those forced to endure it. I applaud Governor Walz and Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan on this step today to stop this barbaric practice. 

“Last year when the Governor and DFL leaders in the legislature tried to ban conversion therapy, Senate Republicans led by Senator Paul Gazelka blocked it. It is shameful that we have Republicans like Paul Gazelka and Scott Jensen who are not only on the wrong side of history on this issue, but who are actively contributing to a toxic environment that tells LGBTQ+ youth that they shouldn’t love and accept themselves for who they are. This is a great step for Minnesota and we must re-elect Governor Walz in order to move the state forward, not backward.”

Continue reading “DFL Party Statement On Governor Walz’s Executive Action On Conversion Therapy”

Blinken Scraps Trump Administration’s Global Attack On Gay Human Rights

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The Biden administration has thrown out a report from the Trump administration that human rights groups criticized for devaluing LGBTQ rights across the globe.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken made the announcement during a press conference on Tuesday to discuss a 2020 report on the status of human rights that includes some 200 countries and territories.

“There is no hierarchy that makes some rights more important than others,” Blinken said. “Past unbalanced statements that suggest such a hierarchy, including those by the recently disbanded State Department advisory committee do not represent a guiding document for this administration.” Continue reading.

Workers can’t be fired for being gay or transgender, Supreme Court rules B

The Hill logoThe Supreme Court on Monday ruled 6-3 in a landmark decision that gay and transgender employees are protected by civil rights laws against employer discrimination.

A set of cases that came before the court had asked the justices to decide whether Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which forbids discrimination on the basis of “sex,” applies to gay and transgender people.

Justice Neil Gorsuch, who wrote the opinion for the six-member majority, said that it does. Continue reading.

Keith Ellison, Rebecca Lucero: We will prove LGBTQ discrimination is not free speech

The following is an op-ed penned by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and Rebecca Lucero, commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Human Rights. The op-ed was published this week in the Star Tribune.

Minnesotans are decent people. We think everyone, no exceptions, should be able to live with the same dignity and respect we want for ourselves and our families. But that common decency is under attack in court.

Last month, the federal appeals court for the Eighth Circuit – in a divided 2-1 ruling with a strong dissent – ruled that, in at least one narrow, hypothetical case, a business in Minnesota that offers services to the general public can use the owners’ personal beliefs to discriminate against same-sex couples. Continue reading “Keith Ellison, Rebecca Lucero: We will prove LGBTQ discrimination is not free speech”

Trump must prove that he supports ‘our LGBTQ citizens’

The following editorial from the Editorial Board at the L.A. Times posted the following December 29, 2016:

Artwork and signatures cover a fence around the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla. on Nov. 30. In his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention in July, Donald Trump brought up the mass-shooting that took place at the nightclub. (John Raoux / Associated Press)

Among the many constituencies viewing the presidency of Donald Trump with apprehension are gay, lesbian and transgender Americans, who are disturbed by what they’ve heard from members of the president-elect’s inner circle and by language in the Republican platform.

Vice President-elect Mike Pence, for example, has espoused troubling views on issues of importance to the gay community. As a member of Congress, for instance, he supported a constitutional amendment to outlaw same-sex marriage, warning that “societal collapse was always brought about following an advent of the deterioration of marriage and family.” As governor of Indiana, Pence signed a “religious freedom” bill that many feared would allow businesses to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation (though he later signed a revised version making it clear that businesses couldn’t deny services to anyone based on sexual orientation or gender identity). Continue reading “Trump must prove that he supports ‘our LGBTQ citizens’”