tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca-fr/topics/gay-rights-7415/articlesGay rights – La Conversation2024-03-22T01:24:48Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2162762024-03-22T01:24:48Z2024-03-22T01:24:48ZBefore the 1980s, Australian teachers could be banned for being gay. A new report wants to protect them at religious schools too<p>In 1976, Greg Weir was banned from teaching by the Queensland government because he was gay – and was then denied employment in New South Wales and Victoria for the same reason. Two years earlier, in 1974, New South Wales trainee teacher Penny Short was declared “medically unfit” to teach after publishing a lesbian poem.</p>
<p>This kind of discrimination in public schools has been outlawed, thanks (in part) to the activism of teachers like Weir and Short. From the 1980s, anti-discrimination laws made overt discrimination illegal in public schools. The exemptions to these laws for religious organisations in some states, however, <a href="https://equalityaustralia.org.au/un-expert-calls-out-discrimination-against-lgbt-people-in-australias-religious-schools-and-service-providers/">allow discrimination to continue</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/DocumentStore.ashx?id=a90858e5-df4f-451b-b067-7d05fda6ef54&subId=663037#:%7E:text=b%20There%20is%20an%20exemption,or%20pregnancy%20in%20connection%20with%3A">Today</a>, in New South Wales, Western Australia, Queensland and South Australia, teachers in religious private schools can still lose their jobs if they are gay, lesbian, bisexual or queer, or if they are transgender or gender diverse. In New South Wales, nonreligious private schools also have the right to discriminate. </p>
<p>This week’s <a href="https://www.alrc.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/ALRC-ADL-Final-Report-142.pdf">landmark Australian Law Reform Commission report</a> on religious education institutions and discrimination has called for laws to be clarified, so religious schools nationwide can’t fire or refuse to hire teachers on the basis of their sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status or pregnancy. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-major-report-recommends-more-protections-for-lgbtq-students-and-teachers-in-religious-schools-but-this-needs-parliaments-support-to-become-law-226309">A major report recommends more protections for LGBTQ+ students and teachers in religious schools. But this needs parliament's support to become law</a>
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<p>In our research on the histories of LGBTQ+ teacher employment, we have come across multiple, publicly known <a href="https://dehanz.net.au/entries/tennant-haysell-employment-of-same-sex-attracted-teachers-in-schools/">controversial sackings</a> in the 1970s, as well as the more insidious practices of moving out (or outed) gay and lesbian teachers to administrative roles, away from students. </p>
<p>The several cases brought to the attention of activists and the media might only be the tip of the iceberg of homophobic discrimination in that period. </p>
<p>These teachers’ stories can help us understand why hostility to LGBTQ+ teachers remains such an entrenched problem today. And they allow us to appreciate the brave ways queer teachers have campaigned to protect themselves from discrimination. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583601/original/file-20240322-21-s9qnw2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="a man talking into a microphone, in a shirt and trousers, with onlookers listening" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583601/original/file-20240322-21-s9qnw2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583601/original/file-20240322-21-s9qnw2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583601/original/file-20240322-21-s9qnw2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583601/original/file-20240322-21-s9qnw2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583601/original/file-20240322-21-s9qnw2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583601/original/file-20240322-21-s9qnw2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583601/original/file-20240322-21-s9qnw2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Greg Weir campaigned against his ban from teaching.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://collection.sl.nsw.gov.au/record/1JkmX0VY/r378BWzXJwJbd">Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales and Courtesy SEARCH Foundation</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<h2>Banned for being gay</h2>
<p>In 1976, in the heat of Brisbane summer, Greg Weir made his way to the hall of his teaching college to find out what school he was posted to. Like all new teaching graduates on government-sponsored scholarships, he expected to learn where he would be teaching. But Greg wasn’t offered a teaching job, despite his scholarship. </p>
<p>The Queensland government had banned him from teaching because he was gay. </p>
<p>Following the Queensland Education Department’s refusal to employ him, Weir toured the country speaking on campuses and at lesbian and gay events, rallies and political events, auspiced by the Australian Union of Students. He took the Queensland government to court, but his case was ultimately withdrawn by 1984 because the Australian Union of Students ran out of money to fund it. </p>
<p>His visibility as an “out” activist placed him in the sights of the hard-right Queensland government, led by Joh Bjelke-Petersen’s Country Party and closely intertwined with new-right religious conservatives.</p>
<p>The Queensland Minister for Education made an <a href="https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/data/UQ_138735/UQ138735_OA.pdf?dsi_version=57aef43a02bb550484250016b0b99a34&Expires=1709091692&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJKNBJ4MJBJNC6NLQ&Signature=Y1yNejMZjEBsPeByR52c7SAMC865SFbIB5UZXCVW4zsz5edgCvrRNRE47i-54ABta1F8rhCmpors3ZWxi7lXLvjYtlEhxry0pDvtadN2xp5wz1u1QNNQHjvG0hYz6i2e6FophxGikexnaUUkF6n6qSizqGTS13BiS5kPNGSbgIA2bKNQFSJRXGHktea%7EZQmf0ErL10VPLxIZrZylxGgmMzvsuZ0O0mKDLVGJH3IPEbmvq5XMel2Ay8Djk8DlME56RGC5mtlqv8o14F43ZFSitx6VPsG%7Er-h1YCCs0UcSER0UMX-RPeESXf4VBz2r2HEdoOOP3YuIFTzR-jc3omkHgg__">unequivocal statement</a> in 1976 about Weir’s prospects for employment as a teacher: </p>
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<p>Student Teachers who participate in Homosexual and Lesbian groups should not assume they will be employed by the Education Department upon graduation from college. </p>
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<p>Before this, the names of all members of the Kelvin Grove CAE Homosexual and Lesbian group were published in government gazettes. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581175/original/file-20240312-16-2tr0gt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581175/original/file-20240312-16-2tr0gt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581175/original/file-20240312-16-2tr0gt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581175/original/file-20240312-16-2tr0gt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581175/original/file-20240312-16-2tr0gt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581175/original/file-20240312-16-2tr0gt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581175/original/file-20240312-16-2tr0gt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581175/original/file-20240312-16-2tr0gt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Greg Weir toured rallies and events around Australia after being banned from teaching for being gay.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://collection.sl.nsw.gov.au/record/1JkmX0VY/GlDMbzy56V7eo">Mitchell Library State Library of New South Wales, courtesy SEARCH Foundation</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>Penny Short had already passed a required psychological check for teachers when she wrote a <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/230398098?browse=ndp%3Abrowse%2Ftitle%2FT%2Ftitle%2F1187%2F1974%2F04%2F10%2Fpage%2F24751615%2Farticle%2F230398098">lesbian love poem</a> for the Macquarie University student newspaper, Arena, published in 1974. She’d told the psychologist who assessed her she was in a relationship with a woman – and was told to stay in the closet. </p>
<p>But <a href="https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-727195700/view?sectionId=nla.obj-728956062&partId=nla.obj-727242098">Short</a>, like Weir, was out and proud about her sexuality. After the poem was published, she was referred back to the psychologist and declared “medically unfit” to teach. </p>
<p>In the case of Weir, a nationwide “<a href="https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-829341667/view?sectionId=nla.obj-830018175&partId=nla.obj-829354990#page/n11/mode/1up">Let Greg Weir Teach</a>” campaign ran for over five years, from when Weir was banned from teaching. Weir also launched an unsuccessful legal case against the Queensland government. He was never able to take up a teaching job.</p>
<p>But Weir’s case made the issue of gay teachers central to the growing gay and lesbian movement.</p>
<p>Gay teacher and student activist groups (like <a href="https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-690923329/view?sectionId=nla.obj-710168422&partId=nla.obj-690995026">GAYTAS</a>, who campaigned for the rights of gay and lesbian teachers in schools and supported gay and lesbian students) were active in multiple states.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/its-kind-of-suffocating-queer-young-australians-speak-about-how-they-feel-at-school-and-what-they-think-of-politicians-187010">'It's kind of suffocating': queer young Australians speak about how they feel at school and what they think of politicians</a>
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<h2>LGBTQ+ teachers’ rights today</h2>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581184/original/file-20240312-28-1g6fs1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581184/original/file-20240312-28-1g6fs1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581184/original/file-20240312-28-1g6fs1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581184/original/file-20240312-28-1g6fs1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581184/original/file-20240312-28-1g6fs1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581184/original/file-20240312-28-1g6fs1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581184/original/file-20240312-28-1g6fs1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581184/original/file-20240312-28-1g6fs1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Steph Lentz was sacked in 2021 for coming out as a lesbian.</span>
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<p>Late last year, teacher Steph Lentz released her <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com.au/9780733342974/inout/">autobiography</a> detailing her experience of <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/i-lost-my-job-for-coming-out-as-gay-this-needs-to-change-20210812-p58i3b.html">being sacked</a> in 2021, after coming out as a lesbian at the Sydney religious school where she taught. Despite pro bono legal support from Equality Australia, there were no legal protections Lentz could call on in New South Wales. </p>
<p>The following year, in 2022, a Senate inquiry heard <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/jan/21/teachers-sacked-for-being-gay-warn-religious-discrimination-bill-will-empower-similar-dismissals">testimony from multiple teachers</a> about their experience of being sacked by religious schools because of their sexuality. </p>
<p>The New South Wales parliament is set to debate an <a href="https://equalityaustralia.org.au/resources/nsw-lgbtiqa-equality-bill-explainer/#:%7E:text=In%20August%202023%20the%20LGBTIQA%2B,discriminated%20against%20the%20LGBTIQA%2B%20community">Equality Bill</a> that would (among many other reforms) remove the exemptions to anti-discrimination laws that allow religious and private schools to discriminate against these teachers on the grounds of religious belief. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/apr/03/queensland-to-abolish-clause-used-to-discriminate-against-lgbtqi-people">Queensland</a> and <a href="https://www.starobserver.com.au/news/national-news/pflag-slams-wa-labor-government-over-delay-in-lgbt-law-reforms/227630">Western Australia</a> are also considering changes to their laws.</p>
<p>These employment disputes are connected to very public and controversial debates surrounding gender and sexuality in schools. </p>
<p>For instance, much of the debate surrounding the ultimately successful Marriage Equality postal vote focused on whether such rights might lead to <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/australian-ad-draws-fire-linking-gay-marriage-boys-dresses-n797491">“boys wearing dresses”</a> in schools and to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/sep/03/scott-morrison-sends-his-children-to-private-school-to-avoid-skin-curling-sexuality-discussions#:%7E:text=The%20prime%20minister%20agreed%20with,talkback%20radio%20interview%20on%20Monday.">“skin curling”</a> conversations about gender – according to former Prime Minister Scott Morrison and broadcaster Alan Jones. </p>
<p>These Australian debates are occurring in the context of a global backlash against rights for trans and gender diverse people in particular, often focused on children, teachers and schools. As British sociologist <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0038026120934684">Sally Hines has argued</a>, contemporary anti-trans campaigns and laws resemble those targeted at lesbians and gays during the 1980s and 1990s.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/religion-would-take-my-life-two-women-testify-to-enduring-and-surviving-harm-in-evangelical-christian-communities-207146">'Religion would take my life': two women testify to enduring and surviving harm in evangelical Christian communities</a>
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<h2>Queer teachers, then and now</h2>
<p>Teachers are often positioned as role models for their students. Therefore, they are expected to exemplify good moral character. Teachers have the capacity to shape the future of the children they teach – and more generally, of the nation. </p>
<p>This means queer and transgender teachers are particularly vulnerable to accusations of trying to influence children. </p>
<p>For instance, in the 1970s and 1980s, those advocating against Greg Weir and other queer teachers argued out gay and lesbian teachers would expose students to moral indecency. They suggested gay teachers would challenge the bedrock social institution of the family, and ultimately lead students to a life of “perversion”. </p>
<p>These “moral rights” campaigners pitched their <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00049182.2017.1327786">cause as protecting children’s rights and interests</a>, suggesting any other position would place children at risk. </p>
<p>The teachers, including Greg Weir, who ran campaigns to defend their right to teach in the 1970s and 1980s, were connected to <a href="https://www.heritage.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0026/513890/History_Of_LGBTIQplus_Victoria.pdf">broader</a> <a href="https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/stories/coming-out-70s/introduction/1">gay liberation campaigns</a> and gay and lesbian groups organised inside teacher unions. They gathered at conferences like the national Homosexuals at Work in 1978.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581181/original/file-20240312-24-fz8013.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581181/original/file-20240312-24-fz8013.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581181/original/file-20240312-24-fz8013.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581181/original/file-20240312-24-fz8013.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581181/original/file-20240312-24-fz8013.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581181/original/file-20240312-24-fz8013.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581181/original/file-20240312-24-fz8013.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581181/original/file-20240312-24-fz8013.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The queer teachers who defend their right to teach in the 1970s and 80s were connected to broader gay and lesbian groups.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://collection.sl.nsw.gov.au/record/1JkmX0VY/R67DkqOELRgA2">Mitchell Library State Library of New South Wales, courtesy SEARCH Foundation</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>These <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/27516629">teachers argued</a> bans on gay and lesbians teaching in schools would force teachers into the closet, and prevent students from understanding sexual and gender diversity. They argued normalising discrimination in a school setting legitimises this discrimination, and produces violence against LGBTQ+ people. They advocated for <a href="https://dehanz.net.au/entries/young-gay-proud-1978/">liberalising sex education</a> and normalising LGBTQ+ content in the curriculum. </p>
<p>They argued this awareness, rather than harming children, could help prevent harm.</p>
<p>The legacy of this history looms large for teachers. A recent <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10476210.2020.1709943">study of the experiences of LGBTIQ+ teachers</a> found they are still reluctant to be out in school settings: they are “haunted” by a history of education that equates their identities with “threats to children’s innocence”.</p>
<p>There is <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-legislation-should-ban-schools-from-discriminating-against-lgbtiq-students-and-teachers-104940">substantial evidence</a> of LGBTQ+ teachers experiencing alienation, isolation and exclusion at work in religious schools, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-schools-must-promote-lgbt-inclusive-education-23260">persistent reporting</a> of verbal and physical abuse directed at LGBTQ+ students in schools.</p>
<p>Returning to this history provides a way to understand how discrimination against <a href="https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/52775">LGBTQ+ teachers</a> continues to be justified through references to the rights of children, such as in debates over the the federal Religious Discrimination Act or the New South Wales Equality Bill. </p>
<p>These notions are not new – they just have a new focus. The new report from the Australian Law Reform Commission provides an opportunity to address the harm done to LGBTQ+ teachers and students by discriminatory laws.</p>
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<p><em>Note that we refer specifically to discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, trans and gender diverse teachers and students, and do not refer to intersex people. This is because current laws to do not exempt intersex people from discrimination protection in religious or private schools. Learn more here in the <a href="https://www.alrc.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/ALRC-ADL-Final-Report-142.pdf">ALRC report</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216276/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Archie Thomas is a member of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jessica Gerrard receives funding from the Australian Research Council. She is also a member of the NTEU. </span></em></p>We don’t ban queer teachers in public schools anymore, but it’s still allowed in some religious private schools – which the new Law Reform Commission report wants to address. What can history teach us?Archie Thomas, Chancellor's Research Fellow, University of Technology SydneyJessica Gerrard, Associate Professor, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2246332024-03-01T02:56:27Z2024-03-01T02:56:27ZThe policing of LGBTQ+ people casts a long, dark shadow. Marching at Mardi Gras must be backed up with real change<p>Public trust and confidence in NSW Police has been sorely tested in the past two weeks. The charging of a police officer with the murders of a Sydney gay couple, Jesse Baird and Luke Davies, has seen shock turn to grief <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/feb/27/a-lot-of-hurt-and-anger-how-the-queer-community-feels-let-down-by-nsw-police">and then anger</a>. </p>
<p>NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb’s framing of the case as a “crime of passion” downplayed the alleged culpability of the accused, and overlooked the murders as possible <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/police-face-backlash-for-using-the-term-crime-of-passion-heres-why-its-irresponsible/b81xl9k0g">domestic violence</a>. The commissioner’s gratitude to the accused for leading police to the location of the remains of the deceased drew further ire. </p>
<p>Yet the most heated debate has been about the appropriateness of the police force’s presence in the 2024 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade. This focus has brought to the surface a spectrum of viewpoints on diversity and inclusion. Much of this focus has ignored the reasons why there is growing dissatisfaction with NSW police among many LGBTQ+ people. This is amid <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/ongoing/report-on-government-services/2024/justice/rogs-2024-partc-overview-and-sections.pdf">ten-year lows</a> of public perceptions of police integrity nationally. Emotions have been running high. </p>
<p>But these recent events are part of a long and complicated history of the policing of LGBTQ+ people, and of Mardi Gras in particular.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/lgbtq-people-are-facing-increasing-persecution-globally-but-refugee-status-is-still-extremely-hard-to-get-207119">LGBTQ+ people are facing increasing persecution globally, but refugee status is still extremely hard to get</a>
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<h2>The ongoing stigma of criminalisation</h2>
<p>The first Mardi Gras in 1978 was a protest that <a href="https://www.mardigras.org.au/history-of-sydney-mardi-gras/">ended with violence</a> between the police and protesters, and the beating of many of the 53 arrestees while in police custody. The damage was exacerbated by the publication in The Sydney Morning Herald of the names, addresses and professions of those arrested. </p>
<p>The first Mardi Gras was held six years before the decriminalisation of homosexuality in NSW in 1984. That was a time when public attitudes were becoming more accepting of homosexuality. But coming out could still lead to you losing your job, and <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/karen-says-she-was-fired-by-a-christian-school-due-to-her-sexuality-shes-not-alone/155fd7f8v">still can</a>. Acting on your same-sex desire could also get you <a href="https://www.nsw.gov.au/departments-and-agencies/the-cabinet-office/resources/special-commissions-of-inquiry/lgbtiq-hate-crimes">killed</a>. </p>
<p>The deeper background to the policing of homosexuality in the 1970s was the expansion of laws and penalties against homosexuality amid increased vilification and discrimination against gays and lesbians after the second world war. The legacy of criminalisation continues through stigma that targets gay men, drag queens and <a href="https://theconversation.com/our-hybrid-media-system-has-emboldened-anti-lgbtq-hate-what-can-we-do-about-it-205028">transgender women</a> as “child groomers”. </p>
<p>It continues through so-called “conversion” therapies that seek to “correct” same-sex desire, often with <a href="https://ilga.org/Conversion-therapy-report-ILGA-World-Curbing-Deception">catastrophic consequences</a>. </p>
<h2>Community responses to the policing of Mardi Gras</h2>
<p>A viral video of police’s excessive force at the 2013 Mardi Gras parade resulted in <a href="https://www.acon.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Policing-Advocacy-document.pdf">LGBTQ+ community action</a>, and a 2014 <a href="https://www.starobserver.com.au/news/mardi-gras-police-premier-sign-new-mardi-gras-festival-accord/118358">memorandum of understanding</a> between Mardi Gras and NSW Police. </p>
<p>Central to that agreement was that Mardi Gras should be policed in a way that is safe and welcoming for all participants and spectators. </p>
<p>The issues with drug detection dogs were documented <a href="https://www.ombo.nsw.gov.au/Find-a-publication/publications/reports-to-parliament/police/review-of-the-police-powers-drug-detection-dogs-act-2001">comprehensively</a> by the NSW Ombudsman in 2006, yet NSW Police continues to use them at Mardi Gras and other festivals. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/theres-a-growing-gap-between-countries-advancing-lgbtq-rights-and-those-going-backwards-203329">There's a growing gap between countries advancing LGBTQ+ rights, and those going backwards</a>
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<p>This is despite the NSW coroner in 2019 recommending <a href="https://coroners.nsw.gov.au/documents/findings/2019/Music_Festival_Redacted_findings_in_the_joint_inquest_into_deaths_arising_at_music_festivals_.pdf">stopping the use</a> of drug detection dogs at music festivals in NSW. This is because, among other things, the presence of the dogs can cause panic ingestion of drugs by party-goers. </p>
<p>NSW Law Enforcement Conduct Commission investigations into strip searches conducted by NSW police officers found that many of the searches <a href="https://www.lecc.nsw.gov.au/news-and-publications/publications/final-report-an-inquiry-into-nsw-police-force-strip-search-practices-15-december-2020.pdf">were unlawful</a>. </p>
<h2>Apologies only go so far</h2>
<p>There have been apologies to the LGBTQ+ community over the years from politicians, police and the media, mainly about the treatment of the “78ers” who marched in the first Mardi Gras. </p>
<p>The most recent apology has come from the NSW police commissioner. The commissioner has apologised to the families of gay hate crime victims whose deaths were not properly investigated by NSW police over four decades from 1970 to 2010. </p>
<p>That apology was foregrounded by Justice John Sackar, who led the NSW Special Commission of Inquiry into LGBTIQ+ hate crimes in NSW. It handed down its findings in late 2023. </p>
<p>The police commissioner has come under fire for the time and placement of the apology, which was issued as an exclusive to The Sunday Telegraph as the search for Baird and Davies continued. Further, NSW police has <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/police-yet-to-accept-gay-hate-crime-inquiry-recommendations-despite-apology-20240225-p5f7n1.html">not officially responded</a> to the special commission’s recommendations. </p>
<p>Justice Sackar’s <a href="https://www.nsw.gov.au/departments-and-agencies/the-cabinet-office/resources/special-commissions-of-inquiry/lgbtiq-hate-crimes">overall impression</a> was that “in significant respects”, NSW Police’s engagement with the inquiry was “adversarial or unnecessarily defensive”. The judge noted that police strike forces Macnamir (2013), Parrabell (2015) and Neiwand (2015) failed in their assessment of hate as a motivator in historical homicides of gay men.</p>
<p>Two of these inquiries occurred after the Mardi Gras and NSW Police Force memorandum was established. In 2023, about two-thirds of the Mardi Gras membership voted to withdraw from it.</p>
<h2>Community taking back ownership</h2>
<p>Mardi Gras is a member-based organisation that champions LGBTQ+ social issues through leveraging the power of arts, culture, partnerships and celebration. </p>
<p>NSW police-branded pride paraphernalia at the festival sits in stark contrast with its invasive and harmful drug detection dog operations, aggressive policing, and ambivalence about addressing historic wrongs. </p>
<p>For many viewers of the Mardi Gras parade, the presence of the police in uniform may suggest the relationship between the LGBTQ+ community and NSW Police is a positive one. This is partly true.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/lgbtiq-people-are-being-ignored-in-the-census-again-not-only-is-this-discriminatory-its-bad-public-policy-165800">LGBTIQ+ people are being ignored in the census again. Not only is this discriminatory, it's bad public policy</a>
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<p>The force’s negative reaction to Mardi Gras’ request not to march in the 2024 parade illustrates the symbolic significance to police of marching in the parade, and its public relations value. </p>
<p>Mardi Gras members, and the Mardi Gras board, have decided that police force participation in the event is <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-26/sydney-mardi-gras-request-nsw-police-not-march-parade/103514440">conditional</a>. Police will now march, but out of uniform. </p>
<p>It remains to be seen whether NSW Police will deliver on greater transparency and accountability. If it decides to do so, the benefits will be realised well beyond LGBTQ+ communities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224633/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicole L. Asquith is the Convener of the Australian Hate Crime Network, and in that role was contracted by the Special Commission of Inquiry into LGBTIQ Hate Crimes to provide paid, expert testimony.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Justin Ellis does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It’s easy to assume the latest opposition to NSW police taking part in the annual festival is a response to recent events. Really, it’s the result of a long, painful history.Justin Ellis, Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Newcastle, University of NewcastleNicole L. Asquith, Director, Tasmanian Institute of Law Enforcement Studies, University of TasmaniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2063752024-02-09T13:35:58Z2024-02-09T13:35:58ZLack of access to health care is partly to blame for skyrocketing HIV rates among gay Black men<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573871/original/file-20240206-20-wvuls8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=453%2C91%2C3636%2C2624&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A man takes a free HIV test during the Harlem Pride parade in New York City.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/man-takes-a-free-hiv-test-during-the-harlem-pride-parade-in-news-photo/1152819582?adppopup=true">Kena Betancur/AFP via Getty Images)</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Over the past 20 years, people living with HIV in the United States have seen a drastic improvement in their overall <a href="https://www.thebodypro.com/article/hiv-life-expectancy-in-u-s-matches-general-population-with-some-differences">quality of life</a>. But the medical achievements that have made those lives better and created longer <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanhiv/article/PIIS2352-3018(23)00028-0/fulltext">life expectancies</a> have not benefited all communities. </p>
<p>In fact, some communities still have higher rates of new cases of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. This is especially true for <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/group/msm/bmsm.html">Black gay and bisexual men</a>. Black queer men are <a href="https://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/omh/browse.aspx?lvl=4&lvlid=21">six times more likely</a> to die as a result of HIV-related complications when compared with queer men of different races.</p>
<p>In addition, in the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/group/msm/bmsm.html">most recent available data</a>, Black queer men made up 26% of all new cases of HIV in 2019 despite making up <a href="https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/publications/black-lgbt-adults-in-the-us/">less than 3% of the total</a> U.S. population. </p>
<p>Finally, <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchhstp/newsroom/2016/croi-press-release-risk.html">data released in 2016</a> revealed that if the rates then of new HIV cases persisted, an estimated 1 in 2 Black queer men would acquire HIV in their lifetime. </p>
<p>For comparison, those rates mirror the <a href="https://www.prb.org/resources/the-status-of-the-hiv-aids-epidemic-in-sub-saharan-africa/">prevalence of HIV in sub-Saharan Africa</a> in 2003 when the international community began sending help, including then-<a href="https://www.cgdev.org/page/overview-president%E2%80%99s-emergency-plan-aids-relief-pepfar">President George W. Bush</a>, who approved and implemented his <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2023/02/28/1159415936/george-w-bushs-anti-hiv-program-is-hailed-as-amazing-and-still-crucial-at-20">Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief</a> program.</p>
<p>To this day, sub-Saharan Africa is still considered the epicenter of the AIDS crisis and accounts for <a href="https://www.unaids.org/en/resources/presscentre/pressreleaseandstatementarchive/2023/july/unaids-global-aids-update">nearly 70%</a> of the world’s HIV infections.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://doi.org/10.1353/hpu.2023.a903345">prevalence of HIV</a> in the Black queer community has been well documented in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09540121.2023.2189223">academic research</a>, including <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/00027642221145027">my own</a>, which demonstrates that when patients’ <a href="https://doi.org/10.5744/rhm.2023.6012">treatment plans</a> include access to health care and other social services, the patients stay healthy longer. </p>
<h2>The question of risky behavior</h2>
<p>The wide reach of HIV in the Black queer community is not due to members of that community having more sex, or using protection less, or having more partners than queer people of other racial or ethnic backgrounds.</p>
<p>In fact, long-standing studies have shown that when Black queer men have access to appropriate health care, they use condoms more often, and test themselves for HIV more often, than queer men of other races.</p>
<p>For example, <a href="https://www.contagionlive.com/view/hiv-rates-in-young-black-gay-men-strikingly-higher-despite-fewer-risk-behaviors">a study</a> conducted in 2018 found that young Black gay men reported lower rates of sexual risk behaviors, fewer sexual partners and more lifetime HIV tests, but still maintained the highest number of new cases.</p>
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<img alt="A Black man sits at a table surrounded by a group of other men at a large gathering." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574193/original/file-20240207-22-snwbsu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574193/original/file-20240207-22-snwbsu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=367&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574193/original/file-20240207-22-snwbsu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=367&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574193/original/file-20240207-22-snwbsu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=367&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574193/original/file-20240207-22-snwbsu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574193/original/file-20240207-22-snwbsu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574193/original/file-20240207-22-snwbsu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A Black man sits among the audience at the annual World AIDS Day commemoration on Dec. 1, 2023, in Long Beach, Calif.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/long-beach-ca-the-audience-was-deeply-moved-by-the-singing-news-photo/1825635482?adppopup=true">Brittany Murray/Long Beach Press-Telegram via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Studies published in <a href="https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2012.301003">2012</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-014-0842-8">2015</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-018-2270-7">2019</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-021-03430-6">2021</a> have shown that the increase in HIV infections in the Black queer community is not about the number of sexual encounters.</p>
<p>According to those studies, Black queer people have a higher risk of contracting HIV than those others because their communities are more tightly knit – despite behaving more safely than others.</p>
<p>As a result of social stigma and discrimination, Black queer men are more likely to have sexual relationships within their own racial group. Given the already high prevalence of HIV in this group, this concentration increases the likelihood of encountering a partner living with HIV and increases the risk of HIV infection.</p>
<h2>A perfect storm of racism and homophobia</h2>
<p>Preventive measures such as preexposure prophylaxis, or <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/basics/prep.html">PrEP</a>, have completely revolutionized the field of HIV treatments.</p>
<p>Available as an <a href="https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-approves-first-injectable-treatment-hiv-pre-exposure-prevention">injection</a>, a <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5935218/">daily pill</a> or <a href="https://endinghiv.org.au/blog/prep-on-demand-dosing-guide/">on-demand dosage</a>, PrEP is known to be 99% effective in reducing the risk of acquiring HIV when taken as prescribed.</p>
<p>But in order to receive PrEP, for instance, one must first locate a provider who is willing to prescribe the medicine. <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/unequal-hiv-prevention-pill-use-puts-minority-men-higher-risk-n1059016">There are examples</a> of doctors simply refusing to prescribe it out of fear of “<a href="https://sph.cuny.edu/life-at-sph/news/2018/07/31/prep-perception-promiscuity/">increased promisciuty</a>.”</p>
<p>This sentiment is often rooted in racism and homophobia.</p>
<p>Even if one locates a provider, there is also the ever-looming issue of insurance and affordability. A <a href="https://www.webmd.com/hiv-aids/how-much-truvada-for-prep-costs">month’s supply</a> of Truvada, one of the two FDA-approved PrEP drugs, is nearly $2,000 without insurance, while a generic version costs $30 to $60 per month. </p>
<p>Though HIV care and <a href="https://www.healthaffairs.org/content/forefront/new-guidance-prep-support-services-must-covered-without-cost-sharing">PrEP</a> are broadly covered under the Affordable Care Act, that often means only the cost of the prescriptions. Patients are frequently surprised to learn that the lab costs of blood tests and analysis of PrEP are <a href="https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/prep-hiv-prevention-costs-covered-problems-insurance/">not always covered</a>, nor are additional tests for other medical conditions, such as diabetes or high blood pressure. </p>
<p>This is problematic because in order to stay on PrEP, you must engage in quarterly check-ins and bloodwork. </p>
<h2>Lowering the risks</h2>
<p>HIV prevalence is highly <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/18/9715">concentrated in the South</a>, which accounts for over 50% of new HIV cases. The region also has the highest fatality rate for Black queer men.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2020.00026">My research</a> typically uses interviews of Black queer men to better understand how Black gay men experience and face structural barriers such as access to testing and <a href="https://health.gov/healthypeople/priority-areas/social-determinants-health">adequate housing</a>.</p>
<p>Most men I interview are living with HIV and offer insights on their lived experiences and professional expertise with great vulnerability and power.</p>
<p>For example, Travis – a pseudonym – is from Little Rock, Arkansas, and is living with HIV. “If I’m worried about where I’m going to sleep or how I’m going to afford medicine, I don’t care about getting tested,” he explained. “I am not gonna come to my appointment to get poked with needles.” </p>
<p><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4509742/#:%7E:text=For%20example%2C%20Peterson%20and%20Jones,reduce%20HIV%2Drelated%20racial%20disparities.">Research</a> shows Travis is not an outlier. </p>
<p>Issues such as <a href="https://www.hud.gov/program_offices/comm_planning/hopwa">housing</a>, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7716244/">employment</a>, <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23876086/">transportation</a> and concerns <a href="https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/10.2105/AJPH.2019.305389">about costs</a> of health care are major obstacles in staying healthy.</p>
<p>Another man I interviewed lives in Los Angeles and pointed out that the younger generation has had limited education about the risks of <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/group/msm/brief.html">Black gay life</a>. </p>
<p>“We don’t even think about the fact that so many young Black gay men were never taught about HIV and condoms in school,” he said. “We don’t learn that.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206375/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Deion Scott Hawkins does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When appropriate care is available, several studies have shown, gay Black men are more likely to test themselves for HIV and engage in less risky sexual behaviors than gay men of other races.Deion Scott Hawkins, Assistant Professor of Argumentation & Advocacy, Emerson CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2191022023-12-15T13:21:42Z2023-12-15T13:21:42ZAs Russia ramps up ‘traditional values’ rhetoric − especially against LGBTQ+ groups − it’s won Putin far-right fans abroad<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565358/original/file-20231212-30-f7gmu7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1022%2C682&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Russian riot police detain gay rights activists during World Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia in St. Petersburg in 2019.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/russian-riot-police-detained-gay-rights-activist-during-news-photo/1144257220?adppopup=true">Olga Maltseva/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>With LGBTQ+ rights <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2020/06/25/global-divide-on-homosexuality-persists/">continuing to expand</a> across much of the world, Vladimir Putin’s Russia has doubled down on restricting them – and a new ruling has made the future even more uncertain for Russian LGBTQ+ groups and individuals.</p>
<p>The LGBTQ+ “movement” is “extremist,” and <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/11/30/1216159464/russias-bans-lgbtq-activism-supreme-court-gay-lesbian-transgender-extremist">its activities will be banned beginning in 2024</a>, according to a ruling a justice of the <a href="https://www.currenttime.tv/a/lgbt/32707868.html">Russian Supreme Court</a> handed down at the close of November 2023.</p>
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<p>This newest decision builds on <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/30/russia-passes-anti-gay-law">10 years</a> of legislation pushed forward by President Vladimir Putin’s government in the name of “family values,” largely focused on <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/russias-parliament-passes-law-banning-lgbt-propaganda-among-adults-2022-11-24/">limiting LGBTQ+ activism</a> and <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/russian-constitution-change-bans-same-sex-marriage">same-sex unions</a>. With theological support from <a href="https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2022/4-november/news/world/russian-orthodox-church-backs-anti-lgbt-legislation">the Russian Orthodox Church</a>, Putin and his supporters portray Russia as <a href="https://hir.harvard.edu/putins-other-war/">a bulwark of “traditional values</a>.” This trend is poised to only increase in 2024, with Putin’s decree that it is the “<a href="https://region15.ru/columnist_article/semya-krepost-gosudarstva/">year of the family</a>.”</p>
<p>That vision appeals deeply to many conservative Christians outside Russia, as well. As <a href="https://cssh.northeastern.edu/faculty/sarah-riccardi-swartz/">an anthropologist</a>, I have spent years studying Russia’s family values rhetoric and its appeal to allies abroad – particularly <a href="https://www.fordhampress.com/9780823299515/between-heaven-and-russia/">Russian Orthodox converts in Appalachia</a>.</p>
<p>Traditional values have become a fixture in <a href="https://www.codastory.com/disinformation/traditional-values/kristina-stoeckl-russia-traditional-values/">far-right movements around the world</a>, some of which see Russia as a model of the future they desire. In Russia and beyond, many conservative Christians in these movements have focused on LGBTQ+ populations, whom they portray as threats to their vision for society – and are not deterred by antidemocratic politics, if its figures <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2016/10/donald-trump-and-the-religion-of-white-nostalgia.html">voice support for their social goals</a>.</p>
<h2>Church and state</h2>
<p>In Russia, traditional family values have historically been linked to patriotism, Russian ethnic identity and service to country. These ideas were supported from the 1970s onward by <a href="https://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2023/07/90088/">writings from a young priest-monk named Kirill Gundyaev</a>, who became head of the Russian Orthodox Church, or ROC, in 2009. </p>
<p>Though three-quarters of Russians say they attend church services <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2014/02/10/russians-return-to-religion-but-not-to-church/">once a year or less</a>, the ROC remains culturally influential. During Putin’s nearly 25 years in power, he has often tapped into the church’s <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s41682-022-00123-2">rhetoric about traditional values</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315560991">to advance his social and political goals</a>. In particular, Russian leaders often portray much of Europe and the U.S. as threats to the traditional family.</p>
<p>Attempting to justify the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, for example, Putin and Kirill have both <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/putins-new-strategy-laying-claim-to-traditional-values-11671253263">appealed to conservative ideas about religion and gender</a>, arguing that Russia’s offensive stems from a need to protect itself from liberal values.</p>
<p>The West has “been aggressively imposing on their countries, attitudes that are directly leading to degradation and degeneration, because they are contrary to human nature,” Putin said <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/24/world/europe/putin-ukraine-speech.html">in a February 2022 speech</a> about the war. Kirill, meanwhile, has portrayed the invasion <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/24/world/europe/putin-ukraine-speech.html">as a spiritual battle</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565363/original/file-20231212-23-6oh1mm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man with a white beard, in black and white priest's clothing, stands next to a balding man in a black coat and tie." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565363/original/file-20231212-23-6oh1mm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565363/original/file-20231212-23-6oh1mm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565363/original/file-20231212-23-6oh1mm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565363/original/file-20231212-23-6oh1mm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565363/original/file-20231212-23-6oh1mm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565363/original/file-20231212-23-6oh1mm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565363/original/file-20231212-23-6oh1mm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Vladimir Putin and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill attend a wreath-laying ceremony on Red Square in Moscow on Nov. 4, 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/this-pool-photograph-distributed-by-russian-state-owned-news-photo/1763798649?adppopup=true">Mikhail Metzel/Pool/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Beyond borders</h2>
<p>Many of Putin’s ideas about tradition resonate with <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/08/us/christian-nationalism-politicians.html">far-right American Christians</a>, including <a href="https://www.fordhampress.com/9780823299515/between-heaven-and-russia/">the Appalachian Orthodox converts’ communities</a> I worked with, who think they are <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/true-christians-arent-persecuted-us-they-run-it-opinion-1801877">being persecuted</a> <a href="https://wp.nyu.edu/crm/2022/03/31/the-revealer-podcast-for-putin-god-and-country-american-converts-to-the-russian-orthodox-church/">for their views</a> about gender and sexuality.</p>
<p>While the language of family values resonated with right-wing voters during and since the Trump presidency, values rhetoric has a much longer history among the American Christian right. During the 20th century, anthropologist <a href="https://as.vanderbilt.edu/anthropology/bio/sophie-bjork-james">Sophie Bjork-James</a> has noted, <a href="https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/templeton-press/9781978821842/">these arguments took off among white Protestants</a> over fears about race, economic instability <a href="https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9780875802947/days-of-discontent/#bookTabs=1">and feminism</a>. </p>
<p>After World War II, as Americans grappled with the looming threat of nuclear war with the Soviet Union, <a href="https://www.salon.com/2016/02/07/how_religious_liberty_replaced_family_values_in_framing_the_conservative_movement_partner/">family values</a> became <a href="https://www.harvard.com/book/9781439131343_the_evangelicals_the_struggle_to_shape_america">a key part of patriotic rhetoric</a> that contrasted the “red threat” of the Soviet Union with a supposedly God-fearing, blessed America. <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/20618754?seq=26">Family values politics</a> inspired the creation of conservative groups like the Moral Majority and the Family Research Council as reproductive rights and fledgling gay rights intensified their concerns.</p>
<p>Though focused on promoting American Christian values, <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3149132">the movement looked abroad</a> for connections and support. <a href="https://www.christiancentury.org/article/features/unexpected-relationship-between-us-evangelicals-and-russian-orthodox">Relationships forged</a> between the Roman Catholic Church and the ROC, as well as the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and the ROC in the early 2010s, helped spur on <a href="https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/the-u-s-christians-who-pray-for-putin/">the types of traditional values movements</a> seen around the world today. Increasingly, these groups have focused on LGBTQ+ populations, portraying them as alien to traditional values. </p>
<p>Russian political figures and the ROC <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09637494.2020.1796172">have participated in local and global organizations</a> that promote traditional family values, including <a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/georgia-confress-families-antigay-moscow-oligarchs-bush/27741199.html">the World Congress of Families</a> and some home-schooling networks formed in the U.S. Some far-right figures involved in such groups <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/315812/war-for-eternity-by-teitelbaum-benjamin-r/9780141992037">promote “traditionalism</a>”: <a href="https://www.colorado.edu/today/2020/04/22/inside-steve-bannons-war-eternity">an anti-modern philosophy</a> that focuses on social, sexual and racial purity.</p>
<h2>From culture to authoritarianism</h2>
<p>Cold War-style language that U.S. politicians once used to criticize the Soviet Union has now been inverted: Many right-wing American Christians who believe their country has lost its traditional religious heritage and is headed toward Marxism see the West as the new “red scare.” For some who criticize <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/world/woke-communism-red-scare/">the West as “woke</a>,” contemporary Russia is a better social model and an <a href="https://divinity.uchicago.edu/sightings/articles/putins-american-comrades-and-our-post-truth-moment">arbiter of traditional morality</a>.</p>
<p>Yet anti-LGBTQ+ policies, family values rhetoric and the notion that Russia is “traditional” are not simply part of the new global culture wars. Rather, they are part of what I call <a href="https://www.fordhampress.com/9780823299508/between-heaven-and-russia/">reactive world-building</a>: radicalized groups working toward what they see as a Christian, pro-family future with authoritarian politics at the helm. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565356/original/file-20231212-15-tqwlk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man holds a placard with stick figures of a man and a woman holding an umbrella over two children below a rainbow-painted sky." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565356/original/file-20231212-15-tqwlk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565356/original/file-20231212-15-tqwlk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565356/original/file-20231212-15-tqwlk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565356/original/file-20231212-15-tqwlk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565356/original/file-20231212-15-tqwlk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565356/original/file-20231212-15-tqwlk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565356/original/file-20231212-15-tqwlk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An activist holds a placard during a ‘March for Family’ amid the World Congress of Families conference in 2019 in Verona, Italy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/pro-family-activists-hold-a-placard-during-a-march-for-news-photo/1133984373?adppopup=true">Filippo Monteforte/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.9783/9780812291919">The language of the Christian right</a> has consistently emphasized obedience to hierarchical authority. In my own work on far-right American converts to Orthodox Christianity, I have met people who support <a href="https://tif.ssrc.org/2022/01/21/the-affective-allure-of-authoritarianism/">antidemocratic politics</a> if they believe it can <a href="https://canopyforum.org/2021/08/10/seeking-a-sovereign-for-the-end-of-democracy-monarchism-and-the-far-right/">deliver the kind of culture they want to see</a> – <a href="https://culanth.org/fieldsights/the-hybridity-of-rural-fascism">and even individuals who call themselves fascist</a>. Some express interest in moving to Russia, with <a href="https://movingtorussia.substack.com/about">American Orthodox convert priest Rev. Joseph Gleason</a> offering a public example.</p>
<p>Under Putin, family values are used as a way to advance post-Soviet Russian power and control globally. That might come as a shock for American allies – although given some <a href="https://gorthodox.com/en/news-item/russian-parliament-consults-americans-moving-to-russia-receives-media-attention">far-right compatriots’ interest</a> in moving there, perhaps not.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219102/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Riccardi-Swartz previously received funding from the Henry R. Luce Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, the Institute for Citizens and Scholars, and the Louisville Institute. </span></em></p>Far-right American Christians once viewed Soviet culture as a menace to their values. Today, some authoritarian-leaning admirers wish their country were more like Putin’s Russia.Sarah Riccardi-Swartz, Assistant Professor of Religion and Anthropology, Northeastern UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2083492023-07-03T11:53:21Z2023-07-03T11:53:21ZThe Colorado website designer’s win is one of dozens of federal cases where religious beliefs and LGBTQ+ rights have clashed – and the pattern might not be what you think<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534218/original/file-20230627-17-9zpqxh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=3%2C9%2C2114%2C1400&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Viewed over decades, the Supreme Court's record on religion-related cases is more complicated than recent headlines suggest.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/sunrise-royalty-free-image/657130668?phrase=supreme+court&adppopup=true">Phil Roeder/Moment via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Does a Colorado designer’s belief that marriage is between one man and one woman merit an exemption to state law barring discrimination against LGBTQ+ people? On June 30, 2023, the Supreme Court <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/22pdf/21-476_c185.pdf">decided 6-3 that the answer is yes</a>: Requiring a conservative Christian business owner to create wedding websites for gay couples would violate the free speech clause of the First Amendment.</p>
<p>Creating a website constitutes an “expressive activity” protected by the First Amendment, Justice Neil Gorsuch <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/22pdf/21-476_c185.pdf">wrote in the majority opinion</a>, and Colorado’s anti-discrimination law would “compel an individual to create speech she does not believe.” Thus, designer Lorie Smith has the right to follow “her conscience about a matter of major significance” and refuse her services for same-sex weddings. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2022/21-476">303 Creative v. Elenis</a> is the latest of a trio of Supreme Court cases where conservative Christian plaintiffs have argued that they should have the constitutionally protected right to refuse service to LGBTQ+ people. In 2018, it was a Colorado baker <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2017/16-111">refusing to bake a cake</a> for a gay wedding. In 2021, <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2020/19-123">it was a Catholic adoption agency</a> arguing it should not be forced to place foster children with gay couples and thus be exempt from Philadelphia’s nondiscrimination policy.</p>
<p>These cases are no doubt important, signaling a broader trend on the current court, which has frequently <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-supreme-court-found-its-faith-and-put-religious-liberty-on-a-winning-streak-158509">ruled in favor of Christian plaintiffs</a> on high-profile cases, particularly when it comes to cases that also involve gender and sexuality – although the Colorado baker’s win was <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/06/the-court-slices-a-narrow-ruling-out-of-masterpiece-cakeshop/561986/">a narrow one</a> that avoided broader questions about civil rights, free speech and free religious exercise.</p>
<p>The big-picture view, however, is more complicated.</p>
<p><a href="https://soc.unl.edu/emily-kazyak">As sociologists</a> of <a href="https://kelsyburke.com">religion and sexuality</a>, we have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-023-00812-4">analyzed every federal court case between 1990 to 2020</a> that involves religious beliefs and LGBTQ+ people’s rights – a total of 62 cases. From this analysis, we know that the ruling in 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis runs counter to legal patterns of the past 30 years. </p>
<p>The latest Supreme Court rulings make it seem as if cases that deal with plaintiffs’ faith are usually successful in federal courts. More broadly, however, <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691180953/the-impossibility-of-religious-freedom">the opposite is true</a>. Throughout U.S. history, litigants have drawn from ideas about religious liberty to attempt to justify violating the law, whether related to taxes, child labor, desegregation or dress codes. Most of the time they lose, and cases related to LGBTQ rights <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13178-023-00812-4">are no exception</a>. </p>
<h2>Three types of claims</h2>
<p>Cases that involve religious freedom can take many forms. We focused our analysis on three types: those based on <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/free_exercise_clause">the free exercise clause</a> of the First Amendment; those about free speech, as in 303 Creative, that are also based on <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/first_amendment">the First Amendment</a>; and religion claims citing <a href="https://www.eeoc.gov/statutes/title-vii-civil-rights-act-1964">Title VII of the Civil Rights Act</a>, which prohibits employment discrimination.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-023-00812-4">We found that</a> in only 21 of the 62 cases did a federal court side side with the religious litigant. What’s more, courts ruled in favor of the litigants’ specific religion-based legal claim – as opposed to some other element of their argument – in only three cases. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534456/original/file-20230627-21-vcxgx0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Three women in coats wave as they walk away from a huge building with tall pillars." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534456/original/file-20230627-21-vcxgx0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534456/original/file-20230627-21-vcxgx0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534456/original/file-20230627-21-vcxgx0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534456/original/file-20230627-21-vcxgx0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534456/original/file-20230627-21-vcxgx0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534456/original/file-20230627-21-vcxgx0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534456/original/file-20230627-21-vcxgx0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lorie Smith, left, the owner of 303 Creative, prepares to speak outside the Supreme Court on Dec. 5, 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/lorie-smith-a-christian-graphic-artist-and-website-designer-news-photo/1245399675?adppopup=true">Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/lsi.2023.5">In our analysis</a>, cases focused on wedding-related services, like 303 Creative, were the most likely to have justices side with the party bringing forth a religion-based claim, or to remand the case for further proceedings. In cases related to employment, housing, incarceration, education or physical and mental health care, on the other hand, <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2019/18-107">federal courts were unlikely</a> to side with religion-based claims.</p>
<p>The relative success of wedding-related cases points to a broader trend we observed. Over time, fewer cases dealt with plaintiffs’ opposition to LGBTQ+ identity and more on LGBTQ+ relationships, specifically same-sex marriage.</p>
<p>Take <a href="https://casetext.com/case/ward-v-polite">Ward v. Polite</a>, a 2012 case where a graduate student in a master’s counseling program requested “that she be allowed to refer gay and lesbian clients seeking relationship advice to another counselor,” even though she, according to case documents, “had no problem counseling gay and lesbian clients.” The university believed that Ward’s refusal to counsel gay and lesbian clients in relationships violated its code of ethics and expelled her from the program.</p>
<p>She <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/04/us/when-counseling-and-conviction-collide-beliefs.html">sued the university</a>, claiming it had violated her right to freely exercise her religion. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals criticized the university for not having an exception clause to its nondiscrimination policy, which students like Ward could have used to request to transfer a client, and remanded the case for additional proceedings.</p>
<h2>Not always the ‘usual story’</h2>
<p>Our findings also revealed that federal court cases about faith and sexual orientation often affirm a stereotype that <a href="https://barnard.edu/profiles/janet-jakobsen">gender scholar</a> <a href="https://nyupress.org/9781479846085/the-sex-obsession/">Janet Jakobsen</a> calls the “usual story” about religion and LGBTQ+ rights: that the two are in tension with one another. </p>
<p>In other words, even when the court doesn’t side with litigants whose cases are related to their faith, most lawsuits about these topics give the impression that religious beliefs endorse heterosexuality over any alternative. The majority of cases brought over the past 30 years – 50 of the 62 in our sample – were indeed brought by people who say their religious beliefs <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/lsi.2023.5">oppose LGBT identities or relationships</a>.</p>
<p>Still, there are examples of plaintiffs who <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/socrel/srab062">use religion-based claims to advance LGBTQ+ rights</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534457/original/file-20230627-20750-1o0jgs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man holding a rainbow-striped flag waves it in front of an ornate building with pillars." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534457/original/file-20230627-20750-1o0jgs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534457/original/file-20230627-20750-1o0jgs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534457/original/file-20230627-20750-1o0jgs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534457/original/file-20230627-20750-1o0jgs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534457/original/file-20230627-20750-1o0jgs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534457/original/file-20230627-20750-1o0jgs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534457/original/file-20230627-20750-1o0jgs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A supporter of same-sex marriage waves a pride flag in front of the U.S. Supreme Court to celebrate the eighth anniversary of the Obergefell v. Hodges decision.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/same-sex-marriage-supporter-vin-testa-of-washington-dc-news-photo/1502430450?adppopup=true">Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>For instance, attorney Robin Joy Shahar <a href="https://www.casebriefs.com/blog/law/family-law/family-law-keyed-to-weisberg/alternative-families/shahar-v-bowers/">sued the attorney general of Georgia</a>, Michael Bowers, after he withdrew his job offer to her upon finding out that she married her partner, another woman, in a religious ceremony. The case, Shahar v. Bowers, was eventually decided in 1997, when <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2018/02/15/he-was-convicted-of-a-sex-act-thats-no-longer-a-crime-years-later-hes-deemed-a-sex-offender/">sodomy laws were still on the books</a>, and long before U.S. states legally recognized same-sex marriages – a fact the court emphasized by putting quotation marks around every reference to Shahar’s marriage and wedding.</p>
<p>Shahar, who had held a Jewish wedding ceremony at her synagogue, argued that the attorney general had violated her right to freely exercise her religion, among other rights. But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit sided with Bowers, reasoning that the interests of the government – in this case the attorney general’s office – outweighed Shahar’s individual rights. </p>
<p>Other litigants have integrated their religious beliefs or identity into federal court arguments, seeking to protect LGBTQ+ people and their rights. In our analysis, the court ruled against each of their religion-based claims.</p>
<h2>The road ahead</h2>
<p>Today, hours after the court’s decision was announced, it is too early to predict the consequences of the ruling. It’s worth noting, however, that the Supreme Court declined to consider <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/cert/21-476">Smith’s claims that Colorado’s law violated the free exercise clause of the First Amendment</a>. In other words, they were willing to consider – and ultimately decided – that the law violated her right to create, or not create, content based on her religious beliefs. Yet they were not willing to consider whether the law impeded her ability to freely practice her faith.</p>
<p>In this way, the court did not overturn precedent related to other forms of religious freedom.</p>
<p>Still, as Justice Sonia Sotomayor noted <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/22pdf/21-476_c185.pdf">in her dissent</a> – joined by Justice Elena Kagan and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson – this ruling leaves open the possibility that other religious business owners will claim their services are “expressive” acts of speech and thus refuse to serve LGBTQ+ people. </p>
<p>“Today, the Court, for the first time in its history, grants a business open to the public a constitutional right to refuse to serve members of a protected class,” <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/22pdf/21-476_c185.pdf">Sotomayor wrote</a>. “The law in question targets conduct, not speech, for regulation, and the act of discrimination has never constituted protected expression under the First Amendment.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208349/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kelsy Burke receives funding from the National Science Foundation. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emily Kazyak receives funding from the National Science Foundation. </span></em></p>Two sociologists break down how cases related to plaintiffs’ beliefs and LGBTQ+ rights have fared in federal courts over several decades.Kelsy Burke, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Nebraska-LincolnEmily Kazyak, Associate Professor of Sociology and Women's and Gender Studies, University of Nebraska-LincolnLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2067312023-06-30T12:39:52Z2023-06-30T12:39:52ZFrom Stonewall to Pride, the fight for equal rights has been rooted in resistance led by Black transwomen<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534655/original/file-20230628-4980-adwtxh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=215%2C26%2C982%2C777&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An unidentified participant in a New York City Pride March during the 1980s. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/portrait-of-an-unidentified-participant-dressed-in-a-blue-news-photo/1250531142?adppopup=true">Mariett Pathy Allen/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Its unclear who threw the first brick at Stonewall Inn on that night in New York City that arguably launched the gay rights liberation movement. </p>
<p>As part of queer lore, <a href="https://ucnj.org/mpj/about-marsha-p-johnson/">Marsha P. Johnson</a>, a Black transwoman at the forefront of gay liberation, or <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sylvia-Rivera">Sylvia Rivera</a>, a Latina transwoman, was the first. But based on their accounts of that night of June 28, 1969, neither threw that first brick. </p>
<p><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=-llnDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA135&lpg=PA135&dq=I+was+uptown+and+I+didn%E2%80%99t+get+downtown+until+about+two+o%E2%80%99clock.+When+I+got+downtown,+the+place+was+already+on+fire,+and+there+was+a+raid+already.+The+riots+had+already+started.&source=bl&ots=ZXLgGQdf90&sig=ACfU3U1okjsWKzcQQk4czZfJjSKqPSEtcA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiTlNGh_6nqAhU4mnIEHbymCuUQ6AEwAHoECAsQAQ#v=onepage&q=I%20was%20uptown%20and%20I%20didn%E2%80%99t%20get%20downtown%20until%20about%20two%20o%E2%80%99clock.%20When%20I%20got%20downtown%2C%20the%20place%20was%20already%20on%20fire%2C%20and%20there%20was%20a%20raid%20already.%20The%20riots%20had%20already%20started.&f=false">Johnson admitted</a> to arriving after the riots had started, and Rivera <a href="https://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/riverarisingandstronger.html">explained in an interview</a>:</p>
<p>“I have been given the credit for throwing the first Molotov cocktail by many historians, but I always like to correct it. I threw the second one; I did not throw the first one!”</p>
<p>The most likely scenario does not involve a brick or Molotov cocktail but rather the pleas of <a href="https://www.thepinknews.com/2020/05/27/who-threw-the-first-brick-at-stonewall-uprising-riot-pride/">Storme DeLarverie</a>, a mixed-race lesbian.</p>
<p>While she was being thrown into the back of a police car, she asked her queer brothers and sisters, “Aren’t you going to do something?”</p>
<p>Because of <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/stonewall-why-did-mafia-own-bar/">Mafia ownership</a> and stringent liquor laws, the Stonewall Inn, a popular night spot for the queer community, was an <a href="https://www.baruch.cuny.edu/nycdata/disasters/riots-stonewall.html">easy target for police raids</a> during the 1960s.</p>
<p>At approximately 2 a.m., New York police officers arrived to clear out the bar at its closing time. Initially, most patrons were cooperative, but as harassment and arrests increased, the mostly queer patrons fought back.</p>
<p>Though the details of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/31/us/first-brick-at-stonewall-lgbtq.html#:%7E:text=The%20gay%20rights%20movement%20was,tactical%20police%20in%20riot%20gear.">the origins of that night</a> remain murky, what is clear is that both Johnson and Rivera were there and would later become anchors of gay rights and queer resistance.</p>
<p>Their protests, as well as the actions of other Black gay people in an earlier and little-known act of defiance, demonstrate how queer women of color were often overlooked but at the forefront of gay liberation. </p>
<p>Despite some social progress, Black transwomen continue to pay the price, sometimes with their lives. </p>
<h2>Misperceptions of the Stonewall Riots</h2>
<p>As a first-generation Black American and gay professor who <a href="https://emerson.edu/faculty-staff-directory/deion-hawkins">researches the intersection</a> of <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9843143/">race and health</a>, <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2020.00026/full">HIV</a> and <a href="https://journals.upress.ufl.edu/rhm/article/view/1775">queer activism</a>, I look for ways to better teach queer activism during my <a href="https://professional.emerson.edu/search/publicCourseSearchDetails.do?method=load&courseId=1010305&selectedProgramAreaId=1009727&selectedProgramStreamId=1009758">rhetoric of social movements course</a>. </p>
<p>I have learned that the story of Stonewall became popularized when a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGEJmPwB4yI">movie was released</a> in 2015. But the “Stonewall” movie was met with <a href="https://people.com/movies/stonewall-movie-roland-emmerich-and-jeremy-irvine-defend-whitewashing-criticism/">harsh criticism</a> for whitewashing the story and omitting the role of Black and Latina queer people.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A queer Black man is wearing an outfit that has shiny black crystals." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534677/original/file-20230628-27-xv7gek.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534677/original/file-20230628-27-xv7gek.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534677/original/file-20230628-27-xv7gek.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534677/original/file-20230628-27-xv7gek.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534677/original/file-20230628-27-xv7gek.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534677/original/file-20230628-27-xv7gek.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534677/original/file-20230628-27-xv7gek.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Gay liberation activist Marsha P. Johnson wears a black sequined jumpsuit during a 1982 Pride March.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/american-gay-liberation-activist-marsha-p-johnson-along-news-photo/1392246163?adppopup=true">Barbara Alper/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the movie, a gay white man throws the first brick, but almost every public account of the night <a href="https://www.them.us/story/who-threw-the-first-brick-at-stonewall">discredits this version</a>.</p>
<p>Instead, it was <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-black-and-brown-activists-who-started-pride/">queer people of color</a>, especially gender nonconforming individuals, who led the charge. These individuals and other examples of queer resistance are often erased and forgotten in popular culture. </p>
<h2>An overlooked act of defiance</h2>
<p>Stonewall was not the first act of public defiance by a gay community.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.advocate.com/transgender/2018/8/02/dont-let-history-forget-about-comptons-cafeteria-riot">Compton’s Cafeteria riot</a> took place about three years before Stonewall and nearly 3,000 miles away in San Francisco. </p>
<p>Compton’s Cafeteria, located in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district, was a popular late-night gathering spot in the 1960s for transgender people, particularly transwomen. </p>
<p>But the cafeteria’s management and the police subjected these marginalized communities to harassment and constant mistreatment. Transwomen were often arrested under <a href="https://www.glbthistory.org/newsletter-blog-2020/08-feature">female impersonation laws</a> and faced public humiliation and enduring physical violence. </p>
<p>In August 1966, a pivotal incident at Compton’s Cafeteria sparked the flames of resistance. </p>
<p>The documentary “<a href="https://itvs.org/films/screaming-queens/">Screaming Queens</a>” highlights the injustice faced by the trans community at the time, which was <a href="https://sfstandard.com/arts-culture/trans-history-comptons-cafeteria-riot-transgender-remembrance-day-tenderloin/">mostly women of color</a> engaging in sex work.</p>
<p>After years of enduring mistreatment, a group of transwomen, drag queens and gender-nonconforming individuals decided they had endured enough. </p>
<p>When a police officer attempted to arrest one of the transwomen, she defiantly threw her cup of hot coffee in his face. Within a few moments, patrons overturned a police car. </p>
<p>This act of resistance ignited a spontaneous uprising within the cafeteria and on the streets. By the time it was over, police had arrested dozens of people and beaten countless others.</p>
<p>Although the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/jun/21/stonewall-san-francisco-riot-tenderloin-neighborhood-trans-women">Compton’s Cafeteria riot</a> did not receive the same level of national attention as other events, it had a profound and lasting impact. </p>
<h2>Hate still runs rampant</h2>
<p>Despite these acts of public defiance and growing public acceptance,
transwomen of color repeatedly report higher <a href="https://www.thetaskforce.org/new-analysis-shows-startling-levels-of-discrimination-against-black-transgender-people/">rates of unemployment</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/26895269.2020.1848691">elevated rates of stigma</a> from health care providers, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/03/25/981309903/theres-a-backdrop-of-historic-distrust-in-police-to-solve-murders-of-trans-peopl">shattered trust with law enforcement</a> and <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2021/p0414-trans-HIV.html">disproportionate rates of HIV</a> and other ailments.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A demonstrator holds a sign a that supports Black transsexuals." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534682/original/file-20230628-19349-ow06qu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534682/original/file-20230628-19349-ow06qu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534682/original/file-20230628-19349-ow06qu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534682/original/file-20230628-19349-ow06qu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534682/original/file-20230628-19349-ow06qu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534682/original/file-20230628-19349-ow06qu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534682/original/file-20230628-19349-ow06qu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A demonstrator takes part in the Queer Liberation March on June 28, 2020, in New York.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/an-estimated-20-000-demonstrators-take-part-in-the-queer-news-photo/1223412024?adppopup=true">David Dee Delgado/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In addition, the murder of transpeople <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/transgender-community-murder-rates-everytown-for-gun-safety-report/">nearly doubled from 29 deaths in 2017 to 56 in 2021</a>, according to the nonprofit <a href="https://everytownresearch.org/report/remembering-and-honoring-pulse/">Everytown for Gun Safety</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.hrc.org/resources/fatal-violence-against-the-transgender-and-gender-non-conforming-community-in-2022">The Human Rights Commission</a> notes that Black and Latina transwomen are at the highest risk of violence, with some assailants being able to skirt jail time due to “<a href="https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/press/gay-trans-panic-press-release/">gay/trans panic defense </a>,” which enables a suspect to blame their violent reaction on the victim’s sexuality.</p>
<p>So far in 2023, the murders of <a href="https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/crime/2023/03/06/neenah-man-charged-in-milwaukee-homicide-of-cashay-henderson/69975920007/">Cashay Henderson</a>, a Black transwoman and <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/arrest-made-killing-koko-da-doll-atlanta-rcna81904">KoKo Da Doll</a>, the lead actor in “Kokomo City,” <a href="https://deadline.com/2023/03/kokomo-city-sundance-berlin-award-winning-documentary-magnolia-pictures-director-d-smith-subjects-daniella-carter-dominque-silver-interviews-1235275833/">a Sundance Award-winning documentary</a>, serve as tragic reminders of the ongoing violence and discrimination targeting queer people.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206731/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Deion Scott Hawkins does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As violent attacks against gay people continue to increase in the US, Black transwomen face ongoing battles against discrimination in the workplace and over receiving health care.Deion Scott Hawkins, Assistant Professor of Argumentation & Advocacy, Emerson CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2071192023-06-22T20:07:22Z2023-06-22T20:07:22ZLGBTQ+ people are facing increasing persecution globally, but refugee status is still extremely hard to get<p>The newly passed <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/05/30/ugandas-president-signs-repressive-anti-lgbt-law">Anti-Homosexuality Act</a> in Uganda has made a country that was already dangerous for LGBTQ+ people truly treacherous. </p>
<p>The new law includes the death penalty for the so-called offence of “<a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/05/29/1178718092/uganda-anti-gay-law">aggravated homosexuality</a>”, defined as same-sex relations involving someone who is HIV positive or under the age of 18.</p>
<p>Many countries around the world are moving towards decriminalising same-sex relations (most recently <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/12/13/barbados-high-court-decriminalizes-gay-sex">Barbados</a>, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-11-29/singapore-parliament-repeals-gay-sex-ban/101713976">Singapore</a> and the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/pacific/programs/pacificbeat/cook-islands-decriminalises-homosexuality/102230188">Cook Islands</a>). Others, however, are seeking to impose harsher laws. </p>
<p>For example, in <a href="https://www.scmp.com/news/world/africa/article/3214095/womens-wing-tanzanian-ruling-party-demands-castration-homosexuals">Tanzania</a>, the leader of the women’s wing of the government has called for the castration of men convicted of same-sex related offences. <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2023/03/29/africa/ghana-softens-lgbtq-stance-intl/index.html">Ghana</a>, meanwhile, appears to have watered down a draconian anti-gay bill, but only after US Vice President Kamala Harris expressed concerns about it ahead of her visit. </p>
<p>This increasing hostility towards LGBTQ+ people in some African nations is causing many <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/anti-gay-sentiment-grows-lgbtq-people-seek-flee-99808634">to flee</a>. But gay and gender-diverse people have historically faced enormous obstacles finding refuge abroad. Today, they remain among the <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/ie-sexual-orientation-and-gender-identity/lgbti-and-gender-diverse-persons-forced-displacement">most vulnerable and marginalised</a> of all asylum seekers. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/theres-a-growing-gap-between-countries-advancing-lgbtq-rights-and-those-going-backwards-203329">There's a growing gap between countries advancing LGBTQ+ rights, and those going backwards</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<h2>LGTBQ+ Ugandans have few options</h2>
<p>For LGBTQ+ Ugandans, finding a safe haven is not easy when four of the five countries that border Uganda also criminalise same-sex sexual conduct (South Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of the Congo). </p>
<p>Kenya is the most common destination for asylum seekers fleeing Uganda. However, there’s been a <a href="https://theconversation.com/queerphobia-in-kenya-a-supreme-court-ruling-on-gay-rights-triggers-a-new-wave-of-anger-against-the-lgbtiq-community-204575">backlash</a> against LGBTQ+ people in that country after the Supreme Court recently ruled that discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation violated the constitution.</p>
<p>LGBTQ+ Ugandans in one Kenyan refugee camp reported facing daily hostilities, <a href="https://www.openlynews.com/i/?id=d28df789-96e9-4216-b91e-41532c6ff123">saying</a> the situation there is “as terrible as you can imagine”.</p>
<p>There are now <a href="https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/06/04/uk-government-uganda-refugees-lgbtq/">increasing calls</a> in western countries to open their doors to LGBTQ+ refugees from Uganda, but even in countries with progressive gay rights laws, the process is not so simple. </p>
<p>In Australia, for example, just 1,100 asylum seekers were granted a protection visa because of their sexual orientation from 2018-23. This is barely a drop in the ocean of the reported need. The LGBTQ+ advocacy group <a href="https://www.rainbowrailroad.org/">Rainbow Railroad</a> says it receives an average of 10,000 requests for assistance a year from LGBTQ+ people fleeing persecution. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/rwanda-lgbt-rights-are-protected-on-paper-but-discrimination-and-homophobia-persist-182949">Rwanda: LGBT rights are protected on paper, but discrimination and homophobia persist</a>
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<h2>What international refugee treaties say</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/about-unhcr/who-we-are/1951-refugee-convention">1951 Refugee Convention</a> is the leading international treaty governing the rights of people seeking asylum. When it was drafted, however, homosexuality was still a crime in a majority of countries. As a result, LGBTQ+ people are not explicitly protected by the convention, even today.</p>
<p>The convention <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/convention-relating-status-refugees">defines</a> a refugee as a person who has a well-founded fear of persecution based on</p>
<ul>
<li>race </li>
<li>religion </li>
<li>nationality </li>
<li>membership of a particular social group</li>
<li>political opinion. </li>
</ul>
<p>In the 1990s, many western countries such as the US, Canada and Australia began recognising LGBTQ+ people as a “particular social group” under this treaty, who could seek asylum if they have a reasonable fear of persecution. </p>
<p>Finally, in 2008, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees <a href="https://www.refworld.org/pdfid/48abd5660.pdf">issued</a> guidance on refugee claims relating to sexual orientation and gender identity. </p>
<p>This should have streamlined the process for those seeking asylum. But many refugee claims made by LGBTQ+ people are still unsuccessful. Why is this the case? </p>
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<h2>Reasons LGBTQ+ refugees are turned down</h2>
<p>Let’s look at Australia as a specific example. Even though Australia recognised LGBTQ+ people as a persecuted group under the Refugee Convention, many claims <a href="http://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/SydLawRw/2003/6.html">were still being rejected</a> until 2003 on the basis that gay people could be safe in their home countries if they were discrete about their sexuality. </p>
<p>Then, in December 2003, the High Court <a href="https://www.refworld.org/cases,AUS_HC,3fd9eca84.html">ruled</a> it is fundamentally wrong to expect a person to hide their sexual orientation in order to be safe from persecution. </p>
<p>This, however, did not result in the expected increase in successful asylum seeker applications. Many LGBTQ+ people found themselves facing a new obstacle – officials questioning whether they were, in fact, members of the LGBTQ+ community.</p>
<p>For example, in 2020, the <a href="https://jade.io/article/723988">Federal Court considered</a> a decision of the Refugee Review Tribunal rejecting the asylum applications of two Pakistani men who feared persecution in their home country because of their relationship. </p>
<p>The tribunal <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/hannahryan/australia-refugees-gay-lgbt-tribunal-pakistan">said</a> it did not believe the men were gay or in a relationship. It questioned the men’s credibility for various reasons. These included the fact the men visited gay venues in Melbourne when they said they wanted to keep their relationship a secret and because of how they responded to questions about their first sexual encounter. </p>
<p>On appeal, the Federal Court found the tribunal’s conclusions about the men’s credibility to be flawed and irrational. The court sent the case back to the tribunal to be heard again.</p>
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<p>It is difficult to understand how such assessments are still being made when there are <a href="https://www.kaleidoscopehrf.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Best-Practice-Guide-22nd-June-2015.pdf">comprehensive resources</a> available to assist government decision-makers to avoid such mistakes.</p>
<p>The high rate of rejection of LGBTQ+ asylum claims is not unique to Australia. A <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jul/09/lgbt-asylum-seekers-routinely-see-claims-rejected-in-europe-and-uk">recent study</a> found that across Europe, one in three claims by LGBTQ+ asylum seekers were denied because officials did not believe the claimants’ assertions about their sexual orientation. </p>
<p>And four in ten were turned down because officials didn’t believe they were at risk of persecution in their home countries.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/homosexuality-and-africa-a-philosophers-perspective-185536">Homosexuality and Africa: a philosopher's perspective</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Is there a path forward?</h2>
<p>Many western countries have opened their arms to refugees fleeing war in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and most recently, Ukraine. But armed conflict is not the only reason people need to flee their countries. Uganda is waging war against its LGBTQ+ citizens, and they need to urgently escape.</p>
<p>It is up to countries that respect the rights of LGBTQ+ people to offer them a safe haven. <a href="https://www.pm.gc.ca/en/news/news-releases/2023/06/08/providing-lgbtqi-people-safe-home-canada">Canada</a> provides a useful illustration of how this can be done. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced this month his government is partnering with Rainbow Railroad to “help LGBTQI+ people start a new, safe chapter here in Canada.”</p>
<p>For LGBTQ+ people fleeing Uganda, one can hope this is not the only door open to them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207119/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paula Gerber is President of Kaleidoscope Human Rights Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation that advocates for the rights of LGBTIQ+ people in the Asia Pacific region. </span></em></p>Gay and gender-diverse people have historically faced enormous obstacles finding refuge abroad.Paula Gerber, Professor of Human Rights Law, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2045182023-05-23T18:36:51Z2023-05-23T18:36:51ZIndian activists call for recognition of queer relationships beyond marriage<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527088/original/file-20230518-21-svvca8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C31%2C5301%2C3475&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Demonstrators carry a rainbow flag as they march demanding equal marriage rights in New Delhi, India on Jan. 8, 2023. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/indian-activists-call-for-recognition-of-queer-relationships-beyond-marriage" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>The Supreme Court of India <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-law/sc-same-sex-marriage-here-are-the-arguments-over-10-days-8609177/">recently finished</a> hearing <a href="https://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/governance/marriage-equality-what-good-is-symbolic-recognition-of-one-s-relationships-sans-rights--88940">petitions</a> related to marriage equality for queer and trans people. A group of 18 couples has <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/05/09/1174752874/india-same-sex-marriage-case-supreme-court">petitioned</a> the country’s highest court to legalize same-sex marriage.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.boomlive.in/explainers/same-sex-marriage-wrong-term-what-is-a-marriage-equality-petition-in-india-21762">Marriage equality</a> would grant LGBTQ+ couples rights currently only available to those married to people of the opposite sex.</p>
<p>Activists are also calling for the recognition of queer and trans kinships beyond marriage. Trans and queer kinships provide emotional as well as material supports and care. But legalizing marriage alone ignores such kinship ties. </p>
<p>Many who choose such kinships over marriage will not have access to rights and benefits that are associated with marriage.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524933/original/file-20230508-266123-o6xtme.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman at a protest holds a placard that reads: self identification is a human right." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524933/original/file-20230508-266123-o6xtme.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524933/original/file-20230508-266123-o6xtme.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524933/original/file-20230508-266123-o6xtme.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524933/original/file-20230508-266123-o6xtme.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524933/original/file-20230508-266123-o6xtme.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524933/original/file-20230508-266123-o6xtme.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524933/original/file-20230508-266123-o6xtme.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Protestors hold placards during a demonstration against an anti-LGBT bill in Bangalore, India in November 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Beyond marriage</h2>
<p>In February, activists Rituparna Borah, Chayanika Shah, Minakshi Sanyal, Maya Sharma and six anonymized petitioners <a href="http://orinam.net/content/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Rituparna-Borah-Ors.-v.-UOI-WP-No.-260-of-2023-as-filed.pdf">filed a petition</a> before the Supreme Court demanding the right to form legally recognized families — even if they do not revolve around marriage.</p>
<p>These 10 petitioners are calling for the legal recognition of <a href="https://www.thequint.com/gender/chosen-family-queer-and-trans-persons-life-marriage-equality#read-more">an expansive idea of family</a> which goes beyond the institution of marriage and is not solely defined by birth or adoption. </p>
<p>They are asking the court to affirm the rights of queer and trans people who have <a href="https://lifestyle.livemint.com/relationships/it-s-complicated/the-petition-you-need-to-know-about-from-the-same-sex-marriage-hearings-that-start-today-111681805877468.html">various forms of kinships</a>, friendships and non-monogamous relationships that are not deemed legitimate in the eyes of the law.</p>
<p><a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/no-court-of-law-can-tell-us-whom-to-love-says-lesbian-couple/articleshow/50827605.cms">Queer</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/08/indian-transgender-couple-tie-knot-in-landmark-rainbow-wedding">trans</a> people have long been getting married in India even without legal recognition. Marriage has legal and socio-cultural legitimacy that is unparalleled.</p>
<h2>Legal, political and social hurdles</h2>
<p>However, marriage in the Indian context enables the inequalities of the caste system to persist. <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-35650616">Caste</a> is a hierarchical socio-religious system which continues to privilege people of upper castes while excluding lower caste and caste-oppressed people. </p>
<p>Activists see marriage as a <a href="https://www.newsclick.in/marriage-equality-case-queer-and-trans-persons-assert-right-define-family">casteist</a> institution and are demanding that the state recognize queer and trans kinships beyond marriage.</p>
<p>Marriage cannot contain all kinds of <a href="https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/thicker-blood-queer-kinship-and-choosing-your-own-families-88253">relationships, needs and wants that inform the lives of queer and trans people in India</a>. Therefore, <a href="https://indianculturalforum.in/2021/11/24/what-we-dont-talk-about-when-we-talk-about-same-sex-marriage/">marriage equality</a> alone <a href="https://thewire.in/lgbtqia/queer-trans-deaths-equal-same-sex-marriage">cannot save</a> or protect all trans and queer lives. </p>
<p>For example, social injustice and political mobilization can <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00856401.2023.2150446">inform strong relationships</a>.
Kinships rooted in affection, care, mutual support, activism and solidarity, deserve recognition, and the rights that flow from it.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524935/original/file-20230508-29-6su8wd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="People at a march with rainbow coloured balloons and a banner that reads: Delhi queer pride." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524935/original/file-20230508-29-6su8wd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524935/original/file-20230508-29-6su8wd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524935/original/file-20230508-29-6su8wd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524935/original/file-20230508-29-6su8wd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524935/original/file-20230508-29-6su8wd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524935/original/file-20230508-29-6su8wd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524935/original/file-20230508-29-6su8wd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People attending a march demanding equal marriage rights in New Delhi, India on Jan. 8 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Networks of care</h2>
<p>Disabled and neurodivergent trans and queer people experience <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/lifestyle/relationships/how-indians-with-disabilities-find-love-through-dating-apps-101677134546666.html">more discrimination</a> when it comes to establishing relationships. Their partners are also often <a href="https://medium.com/skin-stories/if-you-want-the-full-story-you-have-to-start-with-our-love-story-dd8291a73495">dissuaded</a> or discouraged by their families from <a href="https://www.thebetterindia.com/295644/disabled-activist-nu-misra-on-navigating-sexuality-stereotypes/">dating</a> them. </p>
<p>They often choose <a href="https://feminisminindia.com/2022/02/08/the-loves-of-my-wildest-dreams-valentines-day-plans-and-beyond/">broader networks</a> of care, affection and support. </p>
<p>Recognition of different kinds of trans and queer kinships can also help dismantle relationship hierarchies. When marriage is the only valid and legal relationship, it runs the risk of marginalizing those <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2pZ3KQPZ9A">excluded</a> from it.</p>
<p>Moreover, there are trans kinships which cannot be subsumed within the institution of marriage — such as <a href="https://journals.openedition.org/samaj/3992">Hijra households</a> with complex <a href="https://www.fordhampress.com/9780823294718/hijras-lovers-brothers/">kinship</a> structures.</p>
<p>Older trans and queer people <a href="https://www.queerbeat.org/stories/long-shadows-in-the-sunset">aging into disabilities</a> might find it even harder to successfully advocate for themselves and their partners as they age. </p>
<p>Apart from marriage equality, the Indian state needs to be committed to equity to ensure the survival of trans and queer people as well as their kinship networks. Marriage equality without attention to equity cannot do justice to trans and queer lives.</p>
<p>If trans kinship is to be legally recognized, it should also align with demands for <a href="https://upscwithnikhil.com/article/polity/what-is-the-difference-between-vertical-and-horizontal-reservations-in-india">horizontal reservations</a> and <a href="https://www.youthkiawaaz.com/2023/04/before-getting-married-i-want-to-live-with-pride/">equality</a>. </p>
<p>In India, <a href="https://www.thequint.com/explainers/trans-people-fight-for-horizontal-reservations-across-castes#read-more">horizontal reservations</a> refer to policies and quotas that address historical injustices and inequities faced by marginalized groups. Such reservations would provide caste-oppressed trans people <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/equal-stake-nation-transgender-people-demanding-horizontal-reservation-8570321/#:%7E:text=jobs%20and%20education.-,In%202021%2C%20Karnataka%20became%20the%20first%20and%20only%20state%20in,horizontal%20reservation%20for%20transgender%20persons.">guaranteed rights</a> with regards to education and employment which they struggle to access. </p>
<p>So far, <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/equal-stake-nation-transgender-people-demanding-horizontal-reservation-8570321/">Karnataka</a> remains the only Indian state to <a href="https://thewire.in/lgbtqia/karnataka-first-state-reserve-jobs-transgender-persons">partially</a> provide horizontal reservations for transgender people.</p>
<p>Trans people often experience violence and exclusion on the basis of caste as well as transphobia. Horizontal reservations recognizing caste oppression within trans communities means those who are unmarried, unpartnered and without community, can also survive when marriage equality prevails.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527281/original/file-20230519-25-fs6kdw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A group of people stand in a line. Some are chatting to each other." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527281/original/file-20230519-25-fs6kdw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527281/original/file-20230519-25-fs6kdw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527281/original/file-20230519-25-fs6kdw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527281/original/file-20230519-25-fs6kdw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527281/original/file-20230519-25-fs6kdw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527281/original/file-20230519-25-fs6kdw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527281/original/file-20230519-25-fs6kdw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Transgender women and gay men wait in line to receive a number as part of the process to apply for asylum in the United States, at the border in Tijuana, Mexico on Nov. 15, 2018.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Gregory Bull)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Kinship ties are important in the lives of variously marginalized trans people in various parts of the world. In 2018, a group of LGBTQ+ migrants, including 30 trans women, <a href="https://academic.oup.com/migration/article/9/3/1075/6179036">presented themselves together</a> at the United States’ southern border, having travelled through Mexico from Honduras. </p>
<p>They asserted the existence of their kinship by applying for asylum in the U.S. together. Even though they identified as a group, they were separated from each other and sent to different detention centres. </p>
<p>As marriage is associated with rights that cannot be obtained otherwise, it is crucial to <a href="https://www.theindiaforum.in/article/redefining-same-sex-marriage#Top">make living and relating possible</a> for those who want to — or have to — survive without it. </p>
<p>We need to advocate for the recognition of broader and inclusive forms of trans and queer kinship so that their critical support networks are not invalidated in the eyes of the law if and when marriage equality becomes a reality in India.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204518/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sohini Chatterjee receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) as a Vanier Scholar.</span></em></p>Trans and queer kinships provide emotional as well as material supports and care. But legalizing marriage alone would ignore such kinship ties.Sohini Chatterjee, PhD Candidate & Vanier Scholar in Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies, Western UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2059782023-05-23T12:26:19Z2023-05-23T12:26:19ZSalman Rushdie renews fight against book-banning – 3 essential articles on right-wing challenges to what schoolkids can read<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527379/original/file-20230521-128284-6lxthk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=504%2C84%2C3233%2C2404&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Salman Rushdie speaks at the PEN America Literary Gala on May 18, 2023, in New York City.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/honoree-salman-rushdie-speaks-on-stage-at-the-2023-pen-news-photo/1491399550?adppopup=true">Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for PEN America</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>No one needs to tell <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/4b089c93-f8a1-4a0f-bb7a-5108e3736a50">Salman Rushdie</a> about the cost of free speech.</p>
<p>In 1989, Rushdie’s novel “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/aug/12/tsunami-outrage-salman-rushdie-satanic-verses">The Satanic Verses</a>” triggered the ire of Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who called for <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/12/nyregion/salman-rushdie-fatwa-satanic-verses.html">the writer’s death</a>.</p>
<p>Protests against Rushdie’s novel <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/08/13/1117389122/salman-rushdie-satanic-verses-controversy">ignited violent attacks</a> against bookstores across the world, and the book was later banned in such countries as Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Sudan.</p>
<p>Even those safety precautions were not enough to prevent <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-62588666">a nearly fatal attack</a> on Rushdie in the summer of 2022 while he was on stage at a literary festival in western New York. Rushdie was stabbed repeatedly and eventually lost an eye. </p>
<p>In his first public appearance since the attack, on May 18, 2023, Rushdie, 75, accepted an <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/05/19/1177014716/pen-america-gala-honors-salman-rushdie-his-first-in-person-appearance-since-stab">award for his courage</a> at the annual gala of PEN America, a nonprofit literary group that is in the <a href="https://news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/florida-school-system-sued-by-pen-america-over-book-restrictions">middle of a fight</a> in Florida over attempts to restrict access to books primarily involving race and LGBTQ+ identities. </p>
<p>During his brief speech, Rushdie said the attacks on books and teaching and even libraries have “never been more dangerous and never been more important to fight.”</p>
<p>“Terrorism must not terrorize us,” <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/05/19/1177014716/pen-america-gala-honors-salman-rushdie-his-first-in-person-appearance-since-stab">Rushdie said</a>. “Violence must not deter us.”</p>
<p>Over the years, The Conversation U.S. has published numerous stories exploring the wave of attempts to ban certain books from public schools and how those attacks on free speech teeter on the edges of constitutionality – and potential violence. Here are three selections from those articles. </p>
<h2>1. Outdated beliefs about how children read</h2>
<p>Trisha Tucker teaches a class on banned books at the University of Southern California and explained that attempts to ban books are “frequently motivated by misapprehensions about how children consume and process literature.”</p>
<p>Research shows that children’s reading experiences are “complex and unpredictable.”</p>
<p>“Their interpretation of books is informed by their personal and cultural histories,” <a href="https://theconversation.com/book-bans-reflect-outdated-beliefs-about-how-children-read-189938">she wrote</a>, “and those interpretations may change over time or when readers encounter the same stories in different contexts.” </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/book-bans-reflect-outdated-beliefs-about-how-children-read-189938">Book bans reflect outdated beliefs about how children read</a>
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</p>
<hr>
<h2>2. A lack historical knowledge weakens a strong democracy</h2>
<p>Since it began keeping tally in 2021, PEN America has counted more than 4,000 instances of book banning in the U.S. </p>
<p>Those banned books range from Toni Morrison’s “Beloved,” a fictional tale of freed enslaved people, to Anne Frank’s “Diary of a Young Girl”, a nonfiction account of a Jewish girl’s life under Nazi occupation.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvDorZaUIwU&t=9s">director of two human rights programs at Penn State</a> and the <a href="https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/a-holocaust-survivors-german-rifle/">grandchild of Holocaust survivors</a>, Boaz Dvir knows firsthand about the danger of efforts to limit students’ access to book and courses about certain historical and societal topics. </p>
<p>Failing to teach about the Holocaust, for instance, “may rob students of such imperative lessons as how propaganda can mislead, grow and wreak havoc on democracy, as well as how societies and institutions can fall apart,” <a href="https://theconversation.com/im-an-educator-and-grandson-of-holocaust-survivors-and-i-see-public-schools-failing-to-give-students-the-historical-knowledge-they-need-to-keep-our-democracy-strong-203868">Dvir wrote</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/im-an-educator-and-grandson-of-holocaust-survivors-and-i-see-public-schools-failing-to-give-students-the-historical-knowledge-they-need-to-keep-our-democracy-strong-203868">I'm an educator and grandson of Holocaust survivors, and I see public schools failing to give students the historical knowledge they need to keep our democracy strong</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>3. When are book bans unconstitutional?</h2>
<p>It’s hard to definitively say whether the current incidents of book banning in schools are constitutional – or not. </p>
<p>First Amendment scholar <a href="https://udayton.edu/directory/law/goldberg_erica.php">Erica Goldberg</a> explained the reason for the uncertainty is due to the courts’ analyzing decisions made in pubic schools differently than censorship in nongovernment contexts. </p>
<p>“Control over public education, in the words of the Supreme Court, is for the most part given to state and local authorities,” <a href="https://theconversation.com/when-are-book-bans-unconstitutional-a-first-amendment-scholar-explains-176225">Goldberg wrote</a>.</p>
<p>But not all is lost for those opposed to book bans in Florida and other U.S. states. </p>
<p>“Even though the government has discretion to control what’s taught in school,” Goldberg wrote, “the First Amendment ensures the right of free speech to those who want to protest what’s happening in schools.”</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/when-are-book-bans-unconstitutional-a-first-amendment-scholar-explains-176225">When are book bans unconstitutional? A First Amendment scholar explains</a>
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</p>
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<p><em>Editor’s note: This story is a roundup of articles from The Conversation’s archives</em>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205978/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
The constitutionality of the recent wave of proposed book bans is unclear, as the US Supreme Court has given states wide latitude to regulate what is read in public schools and libraries.Howard Manly, Race + Equity Editor, The Conversation USLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2055442023-05-16T12:41:13Z2023-05-16T12:41:13ZGay men can now donate blood after FDA changes decades-old rule – a health policy researcher explains the benefits<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525731/original/file-20230511-941-a7vrz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C20%2C6709%2C4446&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Allowing gay and bisexual men to donate blood would help alleviate chronic blood supply shortages in the U.S.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/donating-blood-royalty-free-image/1093904562?phrase=blood+donation&adppopup=true">Petri Oeschger/Moment via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced on May 11, 2023, that it has officially <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/05/11/1175622785/fda-blood-donations-gay-bisexual-men">dropped restrictions that prohibit gay and bisexual men</a> from donating blood under many circumstances on May 11, 2023. The ban was <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-0009.12114">initially put in place</a> in the early days of the AIDS epidemic, but for years medical professionals and gay rights advocates have argued that the ban was no longer medically justifiable and that it unnecessarily discriminated against <a href="https://theconversation.com/men-who-have-sex-with-men-originated-during-the-hiv-pandemic-to-focus-on-behavior-rather-than-identity-but-not-everyone-thinks-the-term-helps-189619">men who have sex with men</a>.</em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://luskin.ucla.edu/person/ayako-miyashita-ochoa">Ayako Miyashita</a> is a health policy researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles, who studies HIV treatment and prevention. She explains the history of the ban and the reasoning behind its long-awaited reversal.</em></p>
<h2>1. When and why did the ban begin?</h2>
<p>When the FDA <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-0009.12114">first implemented the blood donation ban</a> in 1983 for men who have sex with men, there were good reasons for broad regulations to ensure the safety of the blood supply. At the start of the AIDS epidemic, public health officials were dealing with an unknown virus that was spread through unknown means. Researchers <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.6200936">formally identified HIV as the cause of AIDS</a> a year later, in 1984, and it took another year to approve the first test to screen blood donations for HIV in 1985.</p>
<p>Despite the ban on blood donations from men who have sex with men, there was some small risk that failures in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/trf.14195">donor screening</a> and <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2011/07/19/2011-18093/quarantine-release-errors-in-blood-establishments-public-workshop">blood screening protocols</a> could lead to transmission of HIV or other diseases from blood transfusion. But over the years, scientific advancements and strict protocols have helped to nearly <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/trf.12423">eliminate HIV transmission</a> through blood. In fact, the last documented transmission of HIV through the a U.S. donor’s blood product <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5941a3.htm">occurred nearly 15 years ago</a>.</p>
<p>Starting in 2013, the U.S. government began implementing a nationwide <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/trf.13632">system to monitor</a> the safety of the U.S. blood supply for a variety of different pathogens, including HIV. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526324/original/file-20230515-31713-uevzio.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A bag of donated blood." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526324/original/file-20230515-31713-uevzio.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526324/original/file-20230515-31713-uevzio.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526324/original/file-20230515-31713-uevzio.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526324/original/file-20230515-31713-uevzio.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526324/original/file-20230515-31713-uevzio.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526324/original/file-20230515-31713-uevzio.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526324/original/file-20230515-31713-uevzio.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Modern tests and screening protocols prevent blood of people with HIV or other diseases from getting into the U.S. blood supply.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/phlebotomist-adel-velasco-prepares-a-blood-donation-at-a-news-photo/1308846819?adppopup=true">MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>2. Why lift the ban now?</h2>
<p>While the blood donation ban – as well as many other <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/policies/law/states/exposure.html">laws passed in the 1980s regarding HIV exposure and spread</a> – were reasonable at the time, the science has changed. Researchers and public health officials have gained a better understanding of how HIV is transmitted and the risks associated with different activities. Given today’s knowledge, many <a href="https://www.ama-assn.org/about/leadership/fda-must-lift-its-discriminatory-blood-donor-policy">medical experts believe</a> that the benefits of the ban no longer outweigh the hit to the blood supply or the harm caused by what is a discriminatory rule. </p>
<p>The FDA has been slowly working toward this change. In December 2015, the organization took a big step by allowing men who have sex with men to donate blood if they hadn’t had <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/06/17/2020-13051/revised-recommendations-for-reducing-the-risk-of-human-immunodeficiency-virus-transmission-by-blood">sexual contact in one year</a>. That period was <a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2020-06-17/pdf/2020-13051.pdf">further reduced to three months</a> in April 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, to help fight a <a href="https://www.redcross.org/about-us/news-and-events/press-release/2020/american-red-cross-faces-severe-blood-shortage-as-coronavirus-outbreak-threatens-availability-of-nations-supply.html">critical blood shortage</a>. </p>
<p>While a step in the right direction, these updates didn’t change the blunt assessment by the FDA that men who have sex with men are performing high-risk sexual behaviors and are themselves high-risk donors. Researchers and gay rights advocates have long argued that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMp2112329">time-based deferrals lack nuance</a> and fail to realistically consider the differences in risk associated with the type of sex, type of relationship, number of partners and frequency of sexual encounters.</p>
<p>The FDA’s latest <a href="https://www.fda.gov/regulatory-information/search-fda-guidance-documents/recommendations-evaluating-donor-eligibility-using-individual-risk-based-questions-reduce-risk-human">draft recommendations</a> go a long way toward improving clarity about what makes a person a high-risk donor and removes the blanket categorization of prospective donors based on their gender and sexual orientation alone.</p>
<p>Under the new guidelines, there is a way to differentiate between individuals who are monogamous and those who are not, as well as between those who have not engaged in anal sex in the prior three months and those who have. The recommendation now suggests that blood donor history questionnaires be used to evaluate an individual’s risk rather than a reliance on broad categorizations. If the assessment finds an individual to be high-risk, then the guidelines recommend that person be prevented from donating blood for three months.</p>
<h2>3. What effect could this have on the blood supply?</h2>
<p>The FDA’s latest move represents a seismic shift for men who have sex with men as well as for the <a href="https://theconversation.com/heading-into-the-third-year-of-the-pandemic-the-us-blood-supply-is-at-a-10-year-low-175906">critically low U.S. blood supply</a>. </p>
<p>According to recent research, a conservative estimate suggests that the lifting of the ban will lead to a <a href="https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/publications/blood-donation-ban-msm/">2% to 4% increase in the blood supply</a>. With the ongoing blood shortage, that increase could help save more than a million lives. In addition, removing gender and sexual orientation from the risk assessment for blood donation will take the U.S. one step further in addressing stigma and discrimination against men who have sex with men.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205544/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ayako Miyashita does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In 1983, during the early days of the AIDS epidemic, the US Food and Drug Administration made the decision to ban gay men from donating blood. Now, 40 years later, it is dropping that rule.Ayako Miyashita, Adjunct Professor of Public Policy and Social Welfare, University of California, Los AngelesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2044352023-05-15T12:33:01Z2023-05-15T12:33:01ZCo-workers could bear costs of accommodating religious employees in the workplace, as Supreme Court reinterprets 46-year-old precedent<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524981/original/file-20230508-21-hntq0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=152%2C53%2C5840%2C3585&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Supreme Court may require employers to be more accommodating to religious requests in the workplace. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/midsection-of-woman-using-laptop-at-home-royalty-free-image/1350046560?phrase=prayer%20workplace">Victor Plop/500px via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Supreme Court <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/22pdf/22-174_k536.pdf">issued a unanimous decision</a> that will transform the role of faith in the workplace in a way that could elevate the rights of religious workers at the expense of their colleagues.</p>
<p>On June 29, 2023, the <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-rules-christian-postal-worker-refused-work-sundays-rcna84868">court ruled unanimously in favor</a> of a Christian postal worker who quit his job and sued the U.S. Postal Service for, in his view, not doing enough to accommodate his request to not work Sundays. </p>
<p>The case, known as <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/groff-v-dejoy/">Groff v. DeJoy</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-far-must-employers-go-to-accommodate-workers-time-off-for-worship-the-supreme-court-will-weigh-in-198499">addressed an employer’s obligation</a> to accommodate religious employees’ requests under federal law.</p>
<p>The upshot is that the ruling means religious employees may have an easier time getting their companies to accommodate requests. But while on the surface it may seem businesses will bear the costs of doing so, as a <a href="https://zicklin.baruch.cuny.edu/faculty-profile/debbie-kaminer/">scholar of employment discrimination</a> I believe other employees may ultimately pay for much of the burden of accommodation.</p>
<h2>Religious rights in the workplace</h2>
<p>Employers are required to accommodate the religious needs of employees under <a href="https://www.eeoc.gov/religious-discrimination">Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964</a>, so long as they can do so without imposing an “undue hardship.”</p>
<p>Congress didn’t define what that term meant, and it took another dozen years for the Supreme Court to do so in <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1976/75-1126">Trans World Airlines v. Hardison</a>. The court determined that Title VII does not require employers to bear more than a “de minimis,” or minimal, cost in accommodating religious employees. The new ruling requires a higher level of accommodation by employers.</p>
<p>Relying on this “de minimis” standard, employees requesting religious accommodation in the workplace have generally <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4393316">fared poorly in the courts</a>. Supporters of more religious accommodation in the workplace have tried many times to amend Title VII to redefine undue hardship as a “significant difficulty or expense.” </p>
<p>From 1994 to 2013, <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4393316">over a dozen bills attempting to codify this definition</a> were introduced in Congress, with none coming close to passage. After failing to persuade Congress to amend Title VII, religious advocates turned to the Supreme Court. The court’s decision to hear this case in the first place was highly unusual because it suggested it was considering overturning its own long-standing precedent.</p>
<p>The other key issue in the case was whether or not a religious accommodation that imposes on co-workers can count as an undue hardship on the employer. </p>
<p>Since Trans World Airlines v. Hardison, <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4393316">most federal appellate courts</a> have determined that accommodations affecting religious employees’ co-workers – such as requiring them to take over undesirable weekend shifts – can be an undue hardship, even if the business is not directly harmed. In practice, that has made it easier for an employer to avoid accommodating a religious request. </p>
<h2>Business interests vs. religious rights</h2>
<p>Ultimately, the court didn’t overturn the precedent set in TWA v. Hardison. </p>
<p>Instead, it took the equally unusual position of explaining that for almost half a century both the lower courts and Congress misunderstood that decision and that de minimis had never been the appropriate standard. Rather, the court noted that the earlier Supreme Court decision stated three times that accommodation is required unless it results in “substantial” – not minimal – costs. </p>
<p>Relying on this long-ignored language, the <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/22pdf/22-174_k536.pdf">new ruling</a> revised “undue hardship” to mean “when a burden is substantial in the overall context of an employer’s business.”</p>
<p>The court’s compromise ruling left unclear what “substantial” means, so I expect more court cases to come as employees push the limits of what can be accommodated.</p>
<p>In addition, the ruling seems to permit employers to sometimes shift this increased accommodation cost to co-workers. While the court provided little guidance on when an accommodation would burden co-workers, this could have the effect of limiting other employees’ rights.</p>
<p>Take, for example, one common type of <a href="https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/guidance/what-you-should-know-workplace-religious-accommodation">accommodation request</a>, which is time off from work for religious observance.</p>
<p>In those cases, either co-workers can bear the cost of accommodation, by covering for the religious employee without necessarily earning more income, or the employer can bear the cost of accommodation, by hiring additional workers, paying premium wages or suffering a loss of productivity. </p>
<p>The Supreme Court ruling determined that a cost to co-workers can only count as an undue hardship <a href="https://www.courthousenews.com/supreme-court-backs-sabbath-sunday-accommodations-for-workers/">if those impacts</a> also affect the overall business. That means employers might be able to shift the cost of accommodation onto co-workers – for example, requiring them to work an undesirable weekend shift.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="rainbow flag is seen with the supreme court's columned building in background" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525447/original/file-20230510-11901-6tptgf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525447/original/file-20230510-11901-6tptgf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525447/original/file-20230510-11901-6tptgf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525447/original/file-20230510-11901-6tptgf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525447/original/file-20230510-11901-6tptgf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525447/original/file-20230510-11901-6tptgf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525447/original/file-20230510-11901-6tptgf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The court appeared to elevate employees’ religious rights at the expense of their LGBTQ+ colleagues.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/CongressEqualityAct/80eed63ec6f44e1ea62a6ae0d1051f18/photo?Query=LGBTQ%20supreme%20court&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=70&currentItemNo=32">AP Photo/Susan Walsh</a></span>
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<h2>Co-workers bearing the brunt</h2>
<p>Co-workers could also be harmed in cases involving accommodation of religious expression. This is of particular concern in cases in which religious expression demeans LGBTQ+ people.</p>
<p>In 2004, the <a href="https://openjurist.org/358/f3d/599">9th Circuit Court of Appeals determined</a> that it would pose an undue hardship and be demeaning to co-workers for a religious employee to post in his cubicle the Bible verse “If a man also lie with mankind … both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death.” </p>
<p>With the new ruling, employers might be required – by a civil rights law originally aimed at prohibiting employment discrimination – to accommodate religious expression that demeans LGBTQ+ employees.</p>
<p>This all suggests religious employees’ co-workers, not companies, could end up bearing the increased cost of accommodation. </p>
<p>At its heart, the case pit business rights versus religious rights. By making it easier to pass the costs onto workers, the ruling allows the Roberts court to maintain its reputation as being both the most <a href="https://www.axios.com/2022/08/04/supreme-court-john-roberts-business">pro-business</a> and the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/22/briefing/supreme-court-religion.html">most pro-religion court</a> in recent memory.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of an article originally published on May 15, 2023.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204435/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Debbie Kaminer does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Supreme Court on June 29, 2023, changed the definition of ‘undue hardship’ so that employers have to accommodate more of workers’ religious requests.Debbie Kaminer, Professor of Law, Baruch College, CUNYLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2048052023-05-04T21:32:15Z2023-05-04T21:32:15ZWe must all speak out to stop anti-LGBTQ legislation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524190/original/file-20230503-1198-6blxj2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=46%2C57%2C7670%2C5078&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">People gathered at West Texas A&M University in Canyon, Tex. on March 21, 2023 to protest the university president's decision to cancel a drag show on campus.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Michael Cuviello/Amarillo Globe-News via AP)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/we-must-all-speak-out-to-stop-anti-lgbtq-legislation" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Anti-LGBTQ sentiments have become increasingly toxic and more prevalent around the world. From the United States to Europe and East Africa, right-wing state and federal governments are introducing legislation and social policies targeting LGBTQ people.</p>
<p>The backlash against LGBTQ communities and <a href="https://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/human-rights-are-under-attack-who-will-protect-them/">human rights</a> is global in scale and appears to be gaining momentum. There are <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamiewareham/2023/04/07/new-maps-show-where-its-illegal-to-be-lgbtq-in-2023/?sh=66998e677eaa">64 countries</a> in the world where being LGBTQ is considered a crime, including six countries where it is punishable by death. </p>
<p>Canada is not immune to the rise in anti-LGBTQ sentiment in other parts of the world. In the coming years, we will need to be even more vigilant in protecting and advancing LGBTQ rights in our own country.</p>
<h2>Rights under attack</h2>
<p>Far-right governments and populist movements are becoming more emboldened across the world. There is a direct correlation between the erosion of human rights and increasing hate crimes and violence targeting the LGBTQ community. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/trans-rights-and-political-backlash-five-key-moments-in-history-187476">Trans rights and political backlash: five key moments in history</a>
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<p>In the U.S., there are now more than 650 <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/03/31/650-anti-lgbtq-bills-introduced-us/11552357002/">anti-LGBTQ bills</a> that have been introduced in state legislatures designed to roll back the human and civil rights of LGBTQ communities. </p>
<p>In Florida, at least <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/education/3939606-advocates-plan-for-battle-as-desantis-preps-dont-say-gay-expansion/">10 anti-LGBTQ bills</a> are under consideration. Many of these backwards measures seek to block children from accessing <a href="https://theconversation.com/transgender-youth-on-puberty-blockers-and-gender-affirming-hormones-have-lower-rates-of-depression-and-suicidal-thoughts-a-new-study-finds-177812">life-saving gender-affirming care</a>, criminalize parents for supporting their transgender and non-binary children, censor LGBTQ-inclusive books and prohibit teaching about sexual and gender diversity.</p>
<p>Other bills have sought to protect <a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2023/02/10/nebraska-lawmaker-renews-bill-to-protect-physicians-right-of-conscience/">conscience rights</a>, which allow discrimination against LGBTQ people seeking services. Several U.S. states have also introduced laws prohibiting <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/transgender-athletes-ban-kansas-states-b2315626.html">transgender athletes</a> from participating in female sports. A new <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/02/14/drag-shows-republican-bills-bans/">slate of bills</a> are now targeting public drag performances as a form of child endangerment in more than a dozen states.</p>
<p>Anti-LGBTQ rhetoric is often couched within <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/09/06/how-targeting-lgbtq-rights-are-part-authoritarian-playbook">tropes of protecting children</a>, promoting parental rights, and defending religious freedoms as the basis for attacking minority rights and liberal values.</p>
<p>Recently, with losses mounting in the Ukraine war, Russian President Vladimir Putin intensified his attacks on LGBTQ people by approving <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/05/europe/russia-lgbtq-propaganda-law-signed-by-putin-intl/index.html">new legislation</a> making it illegal to spread so-called propaganda concerning “non-traditional sexual relations.” This essentially outlaws any public events, performances or communication about LGBTQ identities or communities.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/uganda-parliament-passes-mostly-unchanged-version-anti-lgbtq-bill-2023-05-02/">Ugandan parliament</a> has introduced some of the most regressive anti-LGBTQ legislation in the world. It proposes the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality” and a life sentence for promoting and funding of same-sex activities.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ugandas-anti-homosexuality-bill-wants-to-rehabilitate-lgbtiq-people-african-psychologists-warn-of-its-dangers-204431">Uganda's anti-homosexuality bill wants to 'rehabilitate' LGBTIQ+ people – African psychologists warn of its dangers</a>
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<p>Other African nations such as <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/3/23/why-are-kenya-and-uganda-cracking-down-on-lgbtq-rights">Kenya</a> and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/29/africa/ghana-softens-lgbtq-stance-intl/index.html">Ghana</a> are now drafting similar laws. This offensive against African LGBTQ communities has largely been fuelled by <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/03/19/africa-uganda-evangelicals-homophobia-antigay-bill/">American evangelicals</a> who have spent years radicalizing local citizens to reject Western influences and protect so-called family values.</p>
<p>This growing anti-LGBTQ backlash has also been witnessed in <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/lgbt-rights-under-attack-in-brazil-under-new-far-right-president/2019/02/17/b24e1dcc-1b28-11e9-b8e6-567190c2fd08_story.html">Brazil</a>, <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/anti-lgbt-ideology-zones-are-being-enacted-in-polish-towns">Poland</a> and <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2022/7/12/photos-thousands-march-in-romania-as-law-censoring-lgbtq-looms">Romania</a>. Recently, Italy’s new right-wing government moved to <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/italian-government-limits-parental-rights-of-gay-couples-1.6312851">restrict adoption rights for same-sex parents</a>, citing the need to protect “<a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/3/18/protests-in-italy-as-government-restricts-same-sex-parent-rights">natural families</a>.”</p>
<h2>Backlash in Canada</h2>
<p>Given this rising tide of global hate, we should not be complacent in believing anti-LGBTQ backlash will not happen in Canada. On the contrary, it has already started. <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/9393280/canada-lgbtq-hate-trans-west-block/">Police-reported hate crimes</a> targeting people based on sexual orientation have <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/230322/dq230322a-eng.htm">grown significantly</a> over the past three years, increasing by nearly 60 per cent between 2019-2021. </p>
<p>Attacks against drag queen storytime events have swept across the country, with <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-anti-gay-activists-target-childrens-libraries-and-drag-queen-story/">protests</a> in more than a dozen cities. Some community organizers have cancelled events based on fears for the safety of parents and the already-vulnerable LGBTQ children these events are trying to support.</p>
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<p>With rising LGBTQ visibility comes increased hate. <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/social-media-platforms-fail-to-stop-lgbtq-hate-speech-according-to-glaad-report">Social media</a> has become a toxic breeding ground for discrimination with old and tired stereotypes now being recycled to new and eager audiences. </p>
<p>The odious term “<a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/05/11/1096623939/accusations-grooming-political-attack-homophobic-origins">groomer</a>” is now utilized as a shorthand linking LGBTQ communities to pedophilia; gay-straight alliances are labelled as ideological <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/ideological-sexual-clubs-alberta-gay-straight-alliance-law-faces-court-challenge-1.4712581">sex clubs</a> in schools; <a href="https://www.aclu.org/news/lgbtq-rights/four-myths-about-trans-athletes-debunked">transgender athletes</a> are viewed as the ruin of competitive sports; teaching about sexual and gender diversity is positioned as a form of <a href="https://www.edweek.org/leadership/whats-driving-the-push-to-restrict-schools-on-lgbtq-issues/2022/04">indoctrination</a>; and drag queen storytime is equated with sexualizing vulnerable children.</p>
<h2>Countering hate</h2>
<p>We get the communities we are willing to build. Now is the time for community, corporate and political leaders to speak out and denounce anti-LGBTQ actions and rhetoric. </p>
<p>Ask your elected officials to enact legislation that protects the safety, health and well-being of LGBTQ communities. Calgary’s new <a href="https://www.calgary.ca/content/www/en/home/bylaws/safe-and-inclusive-access-bylaw.html">Safe & Inclusive Access Bylaw</a> provides an excellent example of how to balance freedom of speech and the right of assembly with community safety and civic participation. </p>
<p>Similarly, Ontario MPPs have introduced a new <a href="https://www.ola.org/en/legislative-business/bills/parliament-43/session-1/bill-94">private members’ bill</a> to prohibit acts of intimidation within 100 meters of identified 2SLGBTQI+ community safety zones. The bill also calls for the creation of a provincial 2SLGBTQI+ Safety Advisory Committee to help improve community safety and prevent hate crimes.</p>
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<p><a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2021/05/un-experts-urge-religious-leaders-show-respect-and-compassion-lgbt-persons">Religious leaders</a> also need to speak out and demonstrate how faith can be welcoming, affirming and supportive of LGBTQ identities. Religion should not be allowed to become <a href="https://www.pfaw.org/report/who-is-weaponizing-religious-liberty/">weaponized</a> by far-right extremists as a conduit for hate and bigotry.</p>
<p>Collectively, all of us need to unite and prevent vulnerable communities from being silenced and intimidated by hate. We must loudly communicate that hate can have no place on our streets and in our communities.</p>
<p>If there are protests against drag queen storytime in your community, host more drag queen storytime events by partnering with your public library, <a href="https://united-church.ca/sites/default/files/why-become-an-affirming-ministry.pdf">affirming congregations</a> and local LGBTQ community groups.</p>
<p>As community members, we also need to question and ask where our elected representatives stand on the issue of defending LGBTQ human rights. Do not accept silence as an answer. Get your elected leaders on the public record and hold them accountable for their words and actions.</p>
<p>Another crucial step is for each of us to speak out, become more actively involved and get out and vote. If you are a member of the LGBTQ community, consider running in the next election for your local school board, municipal, provincial or federal government.</p>
<p>We must become part of the democratic process if we are to change it. It is harder to discriminate against the LGBTQ community when you are sitting across from us at the decision-making table.</p>
<p>Visibility and representation matter. Hate flourishes in the vacuum of silence. If we are to truly build an inclusive democracy, we can’t be afraid to actively protect and defend it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204805/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kristopher Wells holds the Canada Research Chair for the Public Understanding of Sexual and Gender Minority Youth, which is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. </span></em></p>Anti-LGBT sentiments are on the rise around the world, and Canada is not immune to the tide. Now is the time for us to speak out and denounce anti-LGBTQ actions and rhetoric.Kristopher Wells, Associate Professor, Faculty of Health and Community Studies, MacEwan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2033292023-04-11T06:25:27Z2023-04-11T06:25:27ZThere’s a growing gap between countries advancing LGBTQ+ rights, and those going backwards<p>Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong joined 50,000 people to march in support of queer rights across the Sydney Harbour Bridge for World Pride in early March. A week earlier, Albanese became the first sitting prime minister to march in Sydney’s Mardi Gras, something he’s done over several decades.</p>
<p>And yet at the same time, in another part of the world, Uganda’s parliament passed <a href="https://theconversation.com/ugandas-new-anti-lgbtq-law-could-lead-to-death-penalty-for-same-sex-offences-202376">a string of draconian measures</a> against homosexuality, including possible death sentences for “aggravated homosexuality”. Any “promotion” of homosexuality is also outlawed.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ugandas-new-anti-lgbtq-law-could-lead-to-death-penalty-for-same-sex-offences-202376">Uganda's new anti-LGBTQ+ law could lead to death penalty for same-sex 'offences'</a>
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<p>Seven years ago, I co-wrote a book with Jonathan Symons called Queer Wars. Back then, we suggested there was <a href="https://researchers.mq.edu.au/en/publications/queer-wars-the-new-global-polarization-over-gay-rights">a growing gap</a> between countries in which sexual and gender diversity was becoming more acceptable, and those where repression was increasing. </p>
<p>Sadly, that analysis seems even more relevant today.</p>
<h2>A growing gap</h2>
<p>Some countries have been unwinding criminal sanctions around homosexuality, which are often the legacy of colonialism. This includes, in recent years, former British colonies <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/08/22/singapore-decriminalize-gay-sex">Singapore</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/06/indian-supreme-court-decriminalises-homosexuality">India</a>.</p>
<p>But others have been imposing new and more vicious penalties for any deviation from stereotypical assumptions of heterosexual masculine superiority (what Australian sociologist Raewyn Connell <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0891243205278639">terms</a> “hegemonic masculinity”).</p>
<p>Anti-gay legislation is currently pending in Ghana, which led US Vice President Kamala Harris to <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-43822234">express concerns</a> on a recent visit.</p>
<p>These moves echo the deep homophobia of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has <a href="https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/putins-anti-gay-war-on-ukraine/">bizarrely linked</a> intervention in Ukraine to protecting traditional values against LGBTQ+ infiltration.</p>
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<p>Meanwhile, reports from Afghanistan suggest that anyone identified as “LGBT” is <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/01/26/afghanistan-taliban-target-lgbt-afghans">in danger of being killed</a>.</p>
<p>Indonesia recently passed legislation <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/06/indonesia-passes-legislation-banning-sex-outside-marriage">penalising all sex outside marriage</a>. This follows <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13639811.2022.2038871">years of anti-queer rhetoric</a> from Indonesian leaders and crackdowns in regional areas.</p>
<p>And while the Biden administration is supportive of queer rights globally, the extraordinary hysteria <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/mar/07/cpac-anti-trans-rhetoric">around trans issues in the Republican Party</a> reminds us the West has no inherent claim to moral superiority.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/whats-going-on-with-the-wave-of-gop-bills-about-trans-teens-utah-provides-clues-199851">What's going on with the wave of GOP bills about trans teens? Utah provides clues</a>
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<h2>Where to next?</h2>
<p>Speaking at the World Pride Human Rights Conference, both Wong and Attorney General Mark Dreyfus made it clear Australia would press for recognition of sexuality and gender identity as deserving protection, as part of <a href="https://www.foreignminister.gov.au/minister/penny-wong/speech/sydney-worldpride-human-rights-conference-opening-statement">our commitment to human rights</a>.</p>
<p>Wong also announced a <a href="https://www.themandarin.com.au/213443-wong-announces-international-fund-for-lgbt-rights/">new Inclusion and Equality Fund</a> to support queer community organisations within our region.</p>
<p>Australian governments have usually been wary of loud assertions of support for queer rights. This is partly due to a reasonable fear this merely reinforces the perception that such language reflects <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/african-studies-review/article/abs/locating-neocolonialism-tradition-and-human-rights-in-ugandas-gay-death-penalty/33A06F4F33CF586E20E208BE790E71E0">a sense of Western superiority</a>, unwilling to acknowledge other societies may have very different attitudes towards gender and sexuality.</p>
<p>Australia is part of the Equal Rights Coalition, an intergovernmental body of 42 countries dedicated to the protection of the rights of LGBTQ+ people, and has supported sexual and gender rights in the <a href="https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/rights-and-freedoms/australias-second-universal-periodic-review-human-rights">country reviews</a> undertaken by the United Nations Human Rights Commission.</p>
<p>Australia has a minimal presence in Uganda, and direct representations are unlikely to have much effect. Uganda is a member of the Commonwealth, as are Ghana, Kenya and Zambia, where official homophobia appears to be increasing. But there’s little evidence the Australian government sees this as a significant foreign policy forum, or is prepared to push for sexual rights through its institutions.</p>
<p>As persecution on the basis of sexuality and gender identity increases, more people will seek to flee their countries. Queer refugees face double jeopardy: they’re not safe at home, but they’re often equally unsafe in their diasporic communities, which have inherited the <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/01/lgbt-refugees-untold-story/">deep prejudices of their homelands</a>.</p>
<p>The UN’s refugee agency <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/lgbtiq-persons.html">reports</a> that most people seeking asylum because of their sexuality are unwilling to disclose this, because of discrimination within their own ethnic communities. This makes it impossible to have accurate numbers. But a clear signal from Australia would be a powerful statement of support – that it understands the situation and welcomes people who need flee because of their sexuality or gender expression.</p>
<p>An official Canadian government document <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/refugees/canada-role/2slgbtqi-plus.html">states</a>: </p>
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<p>Canada has a proud history of providing protection to and helping to resettle the world’s most vulnerable groups. That includes those in the Two-Spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and additional sexually and gender diverse community.</p>
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<p>Theirs is a model worth following.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/203329/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dennis Altman is Patron of the Pride Foundation, which supports queer refugees and asylum seekers.</span></em></p>In March, Albanese joined 50,000 people to march in support of queer rights. At the same time, in another part of the world, Uganda passed a string of draconian anti-gay laws.Dennis Altman, VC Fellow LaTrobe University, La Trobe UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2016232023-03-16T12:30:57Z2023-03-16T12:30:57ZTennessee’s drag ban rehashes old culture war narratives<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515517/original/file-20230315-26-vndw56.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=10%2C10%2C3484%2C2315&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A drag queen reads to a group of parents and kids at a library in Los Angeles in July 2019.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/protest-against-the-drag-queen-story-hour-event-at-welling-news-photo/1411832510?phrase=drag story hour&adppopup=true">Guy Smallman/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Tennessee recently <a href="https://www.capitol.tn.gov/Bills/113/Amend/HA0011.pdf">passed legislation</a> that bans drag from being performed in public spaces, as well as in the view of children. Although Tennessee is the first state to enact such a ban, it is unlikely to be the last, as others with conservative legislatures are <a href="https://apnews.com/article/drag-queens-tennessee-bill-legislation-3ed2ddd0e8231819ade5d0c8b9f4c30a">currently considering similar action</a>. Some states proposing bans have <a href="https://time.com/6260421/tennessee-limiting-drag-shows-status-of-anti-drag-bills-u-s/">explicitly targeted Drag Story Hour</a>, which involves drag performers reading books to children in public spaces such as libraries. </p>
<p>So why does the American public suddenly need to be protected from drag? </p>
<p>The answer to this question has deep roots in modern U.S. history. </p>
<p>Tennessee’s ban on drag is not an isolated event. Rather, it is only the latest volley in the broader culture war between American conservatives and progressives to define the values of the country. </p>
<h2>A centurylong war</h2>
<p>In 1991, sociologist <a href="https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=KTiTxl-rY9AC&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&dq=hunter+culture+wars&ots=JugnjdouL-&sig=kjjT85c8xRa2dA78R71MPjWaJYY#v=onepage&q=hunter%20culture%20wars&f=false">James Davison Hunter</a> alerted Americans that the nation was in the midst of a perpetual culture war that would “continue to have reverberations not only within public policy but within the lives of ordinary Americans everywhere.” </p>
<p>Examples of early culture war battles include the 1925 <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/roaring-twenties/scopes-trial">Scopes Monkey Trial</a>, in which a Tennessee high school science teacher was prosecuted for violating anti-evolution laws, and the 1962 <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/engel-v-vitale/">Supreme Court ruling</a> that deemed school-sponsored prayer unconstitutional. </p>
<p>Culture war conflict came to a head in the 1980s and 1990s, with Senate hearings over the perceived dangers of <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/dee-snider-on-pmrc-hearing-i-was-a-public-enemy-71205/">heavy metal music</a> and obscenity in <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1994/05/10/pop-culture-takes-the-rap-as-congress-battles-violence/96d62842-7f04-415e-8a40-e21e17e80750/">rap music</a>.</p>
<p>Social scientists largely thought the <a href="https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=IByIDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP8&dq=hartman+a+war+for+the+soul+of+america&ots=wjK0iJJIc7&sig=gIobLQ_e0OfU-LMrWo77TSZ0p_0#v=onepage&q=hartman%20a%20war%20for%20the%20soul%20of%20america&f=false">culture wars had receded</a> at the turn of the 21st century. Then former President Donald Trump’s battle cry to “Make America Great Again” rallied troops back into action.</p>
<p>As Hunter noted in his monumental tome, culture war disputes <a href="https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=IByIDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP8&dq=hartman+A+War+for+the+Soul+of+America:+A+History+of+the+Culture+Wars&ots=wjK0gGLQ38&sig=WCz2um1_8hAYro0UDcTjYpQz5Ms#v=onepage&q=hartman%20A%20War%20for%20the%20Soul%20of%20America%3A%20A%20History%20of%20the%20Culture%20Wars&f=false">usually intensify during times of upheaval</a>, such as changes in the country’s demographics and shifts in the distribution of political power. These shifts lead people to wonder exactly whose values, languages, religions and opportunities are respected or promoted by the government, law and popular culture.</p>
<p>Not surprisingly, cultural conflict tends to emerge within institutions that have practical implications for Americans’ lives: family, public schools, popular media, public art and law. </p>
<h2>Ripe conditions for a new battle</h2>
<p>The first Drag Story Hour <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/aug/12/first-edition-drag-queen-story-hour">took place in 2015</a>. It was organized by author and queer activist Michelle Tea and the San Francisco-based literacy nonprofit RADAR Productions. The <a href="https://www.dragstoryhour.org/about">official mission</a> of Drag Story Hour is to celebrate “reading through the glamorous art of drag” and create “diverse, accessible, and culturally-inclusive family programming where kids can express their authentic selves.”</p>
<p>Because these performances take place in public spaces and in front of children, they hit upon a couple of important culture war triggers. </p>
<p>First, public performances can spark cultural conflict because they can signify exactly whose values are prioritized over others. Second, art and performances that reach audiences of children are often perceived as a threat to the family as an institution. </p>
<p>For example, in the 1980s, some activists and politicians viewed profane music as a threat to the family. This led to the introduction of <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/2015/10/09/oral-history-tipper-gores-war-explicit-rock-lyrics-dee-snider-373103.html">parental advisory labels</a> to identify music deemed inappropriate for children.</p>
<h2>‘When librarians were nice Christian ladies’</h2>
<p>As social scientists who study gender and culture, we recently <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/23294965211050019">analyzed reactions to Drag Story Hour</a> that were posted on social media forums. </p>
<p>In our analysis, we found that many grievances centered on institutions and values crucial to the culture wars. </p>
<p>We found that conservatives reminisced about a time when their values were dominant in American society and rehashed old culture war narratives about “<a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Threatened_Children/8VIg9STL-wUC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=best+threatened+children&printsec=frontcover">threatened children</a>.” </p>
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<img alt="Group of protesters hold signs with text reading 'groomer.'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515519/original/file-20230315-22-4l4pl1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515519/original/file-20230315-22-4l4pl1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515519/original/file-20230315-22-4l4pl1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515519/original/file-20230315-22-4l4pl1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515519/original/file-20230315-22-4l4pl1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515519/original/file-20230315-22-4l4pl1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515519/original/file-20230315-22-4l4pl1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Many opponents of Drag Story Hour claim that the events endanger kids by ‘grooming’ them to be sexually exploited.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/protest-against-the-drag-queen-story-hour-event-at-welling-news-photo/1411832510?phrase=drag%20story%20hour&adppopup=true">Guy Smallman/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>They specifically expressed nostalgia for a time when American culture was anchored by conservative values, and progressive views existed on the periphery of public life. As one forum member lamented, “When I was a kid, the librarians were nice Christian ladies and there was an American flag outside. My current public library [has] scary levels of liberal posters and talks.”</p>
<p>Some conservatives also used rhetoric reminiscent of the “<a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Satanic_Panic.html?id=abJqF8csPrQC">Satanic Panic</a>” of the 1980s and 1990s by claiming that drag performers were satanic pedophiles who sought to recruit, groom and sexually abuse children. Others argued that parents who take their children to Drag Story Hour should be jailed or lose their parental rights.</p>
<h2>The safety of children as political fodder</h2>
<p>In our view, it’s no accident that Tennessee’s ban on drag specifically targets drag performed in front of children. </p>
<p>Emphasizing threats to children is a well-established strategy for conveying the decline of American culture and values. As sociologists Joel Best and Kathleen Bogle have noted, adults often <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Kids_Gone_Wild/91YTCgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=best+bogle+kids+gone+wild&printsec=frontcover">project their anxieties and fears</a> concerning a perceived disintegration of traditional norms onto younger generations, whom they believe need to be shielded.</p>
<p>In the 1970s, anti-gay activist Anita Bryant launched her “Save our Children” campaign. Claiming that gays and lesbians were “recruiting children” to their cause, <a href="https://theconversation.com/anti-transgender-bills-are-latest-version-of-conservatives-longtime-strategy-to-rally-their-base-158296">she successfully pressed voters to oppose</a> anti-discrimination statutes.</p>
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<img alt="Black and white photo of woman speaking at a microphone." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515542/original/file-20230315-2388-69ahd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515542/original/file-20230315-2388-69ahd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515542/original/file-20230315-2388-69ahd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515542/original/file-20230315-2388-69ahd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515542/original/file-20230315-2388-69ahd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515542/original/file-20230315-2388-69ahd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515542/original/file-20230315-2388-69ahd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In today’s opposition to Drag Story Hour, there are echoes of the rhetoric of anti-gay activist Anita Bryant.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/anita-bryant-is-near-tears-as-several-hundred-demonstrators-news-photo/515123282?phrase=anita%20bryant&adppopup=true">Bettmann/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>And in the 1980s, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-9020.2008.00169.x">fears over changing family structures</a>, such as rising divorce rates and an influx of working mothers, fueled a moral panic that <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-modern-witch-hunt/2015/07/31/057effd8-2f1a-11e5-8353-1215475949f4_story.html">day care staffers were ritualistically abusing children</a>.</p>
<p>Almost half a century later, fears regarding advancements in LGBTQ+ rights have <a href="https://apnews.com/article/florida-dont-say-gay-law-signed-56aee61f075a12663f25990c7b31624d">produced legislation restricting discussions of gender identity</a> in schools and stoked claims that drag performers are satanists who terrorize children.</p>
<p>The deployment of these well-worn narratives is unlikely to end with legislation such as Tennessee’s drag ban. Rather, it will continue as long as conservatives and progressives battle to define American values.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/201623/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Emphasizing threats to children is a well-worn refrain among those worried about the decline of American culture and values.Heather Hensman Kettrey, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Clemson UniversityAlyssa J. Davis, PhD Student in Sociology, Vanderbilt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1998512023-02-23T13:16:58Z2023-02-23T13:16:58ZWhat’s going on with the wave of GOP bills about trans teens? Utah provides clues<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510906/original/file-20230217-26-nih602.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C3%2C1017%2C683&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A pride flag flies in front of the temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City during a 2015 protest against church policy toward same-sex couples. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/pride-flag-flies-in-front-of-the-historic-mormon-temple-as-news-photo/497172074?phrase=utah%20pride&adppopup=true">George Frey/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 2022, Republican politicians proposed <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/10/14/anti-trans-bills/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email">over 150 bills</a> limiting trans rights in state legislatures across the country. By February 2023, the GOP <a href="https://www.equalityfederation.org/tracker/cumulative-anti-transgender">had already surpassed</a> that record by proposing over 200 similar bills.</p>
<p>Many of these bills would legislate access to hormone replacement therapy for transgender individuals, making it illegal – and <a href="http://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2023_24/measures/documents/sb12_00_0000.pdf">in some cases</a>, criminal – for adolescents to receive such treatments. The first to make it into law in 2023 was Utah’s SB 16, “<a href="https://le.utah.gov/%7E2023/bills/static/SB0016.html">Transgender Medical Treatments and Procedures</a>,” which Gov. Spencer Cox signed on Jan. 28.</p>
<p>Across the country, though, <a href="https://www.prri.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/PRRI-Oct-2022-AVS_FINAL.pdf">just over half</a> of Americans are opposed to such laws. In a survey of 2,500 adults conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute in September 2022, only 1 in 4 strongly favored laws that prevent parents from allowing their child to receive medical care for gender transition. </p>
<p>Why, then, is there a surge in laws targeting medical treatments for transgender youth? We think Utah offers some answers. One of us is <a href="https://kelsyburke.com">a sociologist</a>; the other is <a href="https://cehs.usu.edu/psychology/people/lefevor-tyler">a Utah-based psychologist</a>. Both of us study Christianity, sexuality and LGBTQ communities. Understanding how religion and politics intersect can provide insight into the broader national push against transgender rights.</p>
<h2>Evolving views</h2>
<p>In Utah, where <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/religious-landscape-study/state/utah/">just over half</a> of adults belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the church is a powerful political force. Church teachings <a href="https://apnews.com/article/business-religion-legislature-utah-state-legislature-a5a7ac925a507a7d993fd63cb3ba1ecf">often shape</a> legislation, such as strict liquor laws.</p>
<p>The church’s <a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics/intro?lang=eng">official policies</a> consider sex to be acceptable only within <a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/the-family-a-proclamation-to-the-world/the-family-a-proclamation-to-the-world?lang=eng">a marriage between a man and woman</a>, and binary gender is an important component of its theology. More than a decade ago, the church <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/15/us/politics/15marriage.html">was a major force</a> in promoting Proposition 8, a California ballot measure to block same-sex marriage.</p>
<p>Yet the church has become increasingly supportive of LGBTQ rights. In 2015, its leaders <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/12/us/politics/utah-passes-antidiscrimination-bill-backed-by-mormon-leaders.html">endorsed a Utah bill</a> that prohibited housing and employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. In 2020, the state enacted a ban on <a href="https://theconversation.com/conversion-therapy-is-discredited-and-increases-risk-of-suicide-yet-fewer-than-half-of-us-states-have-bans-in-place-161330">conversion therapy</a> for minors, which prohibits any intervention, other than spiritual counseling, to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. At the time, Utah was “<a href="https://www.kuer.org/utah-politics/2019-12-03/how-a-bill-became-a-rule-the-journey-of-utahs-conversion-therapy-ban">the only Republican-controlled state</a>” to have passed such laws, according to <a href="https://faculty.utah.edu/u0625806-CLIFFORD_ROSKY/hm/index.hml">law professor Clifford Rosky</a>.</p>
<p>Perhaps because of this recent support for LGBTQ nondiscrimination, in 2022 Utah’s governor <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2022/03/22/utah-governor-veto-transgender-sports-ban-00019417">vetoed a law</a> banning trans youth from participating in sports. And most recently, <a href="https://www.kuer.org/race-religion-social-justice/2022-11-15/lds-church-comes-out-in-support-of-same-sex-marriage-law">the church itself supported</a> 2022’s Respect for Marriage Act. This federal legislation protects same-sex marriages performed in any state where they are legal, while also protecting religious institutions from having to perform them.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510908/original/file-20230217-14-m5omw5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman in a blazer signs something on a table with a sign reading 'The Respect for Marriage Act' as people look on." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510908/original/file-20230217-14-m5omw5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510908/original/file-20230217-14-m5omw5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510908/original/file-20230217-14-m5omw5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510908/original/file-20230217-14-m5omw5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510908/original/file-20230217-14-m5omw5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510908/original/file-20230217-14-m5omw5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510908/original/file-20230217-14-m5omw5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer conduct a ceremony after the U.S. House passed the Respect for Marriage Act.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/speaker-of-the-house-nancy-pelosi-d-calif-and-senate-news-photo/1245569074?phrase=%22respect%20for%20marriage%20act%22&adppopup=true">Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Joining the trend</h2>
<p>The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints formally <a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/transgender-understanding-yourself/what-is-the-churchs-position-on-transitioning?lang=eng">advises against gender transition</a> and notes that transgender people who medically or socially transition may incur restrictions to church membership. Yet it simultaneously acknowledges that some people are prescribed hormone therapy “to ease gender dysphoria” – a sense of incongruence between one’s internal sense of gender and one’s primary sex characteristics – or to “reduce suicidal thoughts.” The church urges members to research “the potential risks and benefits” for themselves or their child.</p>
<p>Utah’s recently passed bill, <a href="https://le.utah.gov/%7E2023/bills/static/SB0016.html">SB 16</a>, begins by aligning with the church’s guidelines of needing to understand potential risks and benefits of hormone replacement therapy. As part of the law, the state will “conduct a systematic review of the medical evidence regarding hormonal transgender treatments and provide recommendations to the Legislature.” </p>
<p>Until that review is complete, however, the bill implements a complete moratorium on any subsequent gender-affirming medical interventions for minors in Utah. </p>
<p>To be clear, gender-affirmative care, including hormone replacement therapy, has been deemed a medically necessary, safe and evidence-based treatment by the <a href="https://www.ama-assn.org/press-center/press-releases/ama-reinforces-opposition-restrictions-transgender-medical-care">American Medical Association</a>, the <a href="https://www.psychiatry.org/File%20Library/About-APA/Organization-Documents-Policies/Policies/Position-Transgender-Gender-Diverse-Youth.pdf">American Psychiatric Association</a> and the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2018-2162">American Academy of Pediatrics</a>.</p>
<p>Therefore, SB 16 seems <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/commentary/2023/02/02/g-tyler-lefevor-james-s-mcgraw/">unlikely to improve</a> transgender youth’s mental or physical health. Instead, we agree with <a href="https://slate.com/human-interest/2021/03/anti-trans-bills-republicans-sports-bathroom-discrimination.html">other commentators</a> that its aims are political. </p>
<p>The focus on transgender health care in <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/religious-landscape-study/state/utah/party-affiliation/">solidly Republican Utah</a> is representative of how the GOP has turned opposition to transgender rights into a <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/3839471-trump-vows-to-punish-doctors-hospitals-that-provide-gender-affirming-care-to-transgender-minors/">core political issue</a> over the past few years. In <a href="https://www.prri.org/spotlight/religion-politics-the-news-and-americans-polarized-attitudes-about-lgbtq-rights/">a 2022 survey from PRRI</a> (Public Religion Research Institute), 61% of Republicans expressed support for laws prohibiting children from gender-affirming health care, compared to 46% of independents and 22% of Democrats.</p>
<h2>Politics plus religion</h2>
<p>But it is this combination of politics and faith – not religion alone – that creates the current recipe for restricting transgender rights.</p>
<p>Consider that nationally, nearly 60% of Latter-day Saints and white evangelical Protestants – the two groups with the greatest religious representation <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/religious-landscape-study/state/utah/">among Utah residents</a> – support laws that prevent parents from allowing their children to receive gender-affirming medical care. This is a greater percentage than <a href="https://www.prri.org/spotlight/religion-politics-the-news-and-americans-polarized-attitudes-about-lgbtq-rights/">among any other religious group</a>, including Americans with no religious affiliation.</p>
<p>But denominational affiliation is just one factor shaping people’s beliefs. For example, among Latter-day Saints and white evangelicals who report that mainstream news is their most trusted TV news source, as opposed to outlets like Fox News or the far-right Newsmax, <a href="https://www.prri.org/spotlight/religion-politics-the-news-and-americans-polarized-attitudes-about-lgbtq-rights/">the percentage that supports such laws</a> is significantly lower: 49%. </p>
<p>A clear lesson from this data and the recent events in Utah is that legislation limiting LGBTQ rights is not the inevitable outgrowth of conservative religious beliefs. Although the Beehive State has passed laws like SB 16, it has also passed laws <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/12/utah-passes-mormon-backed-lgbt-anti-discrimination-bill">supporting LGBTQ rights</a>.</p>
<p>SB 16’s passage perpetuated a common assumption: that conservative religious beliefs all but guarantee opposition to transgender rights. As Utah illustrates, however, this is but a partial story.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199851/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kelsy Burke receives funding from the Public Religion Research Institute. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tyler Lefevor receives funding from the Public Religion Research Institute. </span></em></p>The relationship between faith, politics and LGBTQ rights is more complicated than it can appear at first glance.Kelsy Burke, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Nebraska-LincolnTyler Lefevor, Assistant Professor of Counseling Psychology, Utah State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1986442023-02-06T13:29:53Z2023-02-06T13:29:53ZRights of transgender students and their parents are a challenge for schools, courts<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507694/original/file-20230201-17339-vyv5pl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5852%2C3291&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The rights of transgender people are often in dispute, including in schools.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/TransgenderYouthUtah/c0c366c44c6343c8915f5fd59c22a34d/photo">AP Photo/Rick Bowmer</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As an <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/10/science/transgender-teenagers-national-survey.html">increasing number</a> of elementary, middle and high school students in the U.S. have begun to identify as transgender, school leaders have struggled to figure out how to respond, and how – and whether – to communicate about their actions to parents. </p>
<p>In Maryland, for instance, <a href="https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/maryland/mddce/8:2020cv03552/487743/60/">three sets of parents filed a federal lawsuit</a> in 2020 that challenged school guidelines allowing students to express their gender identities at school. In some situations teachers and other school staff are asked not to notify parents they are doing so.</p>
<p>The federal trial court ruling, which has been appealed, determined that parents did not have a fundamental right to be informed promptly if their children chose to identify as another gender while at school.</p>
<p>The judge tried to balance both parents’ rights under the <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/due_process">due process clause</a> of the Constitution and states’ <a href="https://www.americanbar.org/groups/crsj/publications/human_rights_magazine_home/2014_vol_40/vol_40_no_2_civil_rights/educational_rights_states/">rights to regulate public education</a>, even if they conflict with parental wishes.</p>
<p>The judge found that while school board officials intended to ultimately inform parents, if educators had concerns about a child’s safety they would hold off on doing so.</p>
<p>The board’s rules, the judge wrote, “<a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23201110-parents-v-montgomery-county_opinion#page=11">keep a student’s gender identity confidential</a> … out of concern for the student’s well-being.” The rules also call for a “comprehensive gender support plan that anticipates and encourages eventual familial involvement wherever possible.”</p>
<p>In short, parents have a general right to know about their children’s activity in school. However, parental rights can be limited by students’ rights to privacy and personal safety.</p>
<p>The Maryland case is by no means the only case in which school officials have been caught between students’ right to privacy and parents’ right to know. As <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=T3b-g5YAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">researchers</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=k_GuRaYAAAAJ">who</a> specialize in education law, we have analyzed similar cases in <a href="https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/iowa/iandce/1:2022cv00078/62349/38/">Iowa</a>, <a href="https://legalinsurrection.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Foote-v.-Ludlow-School-Committee-%20Complaint.pdf">Massachusetts</a>, <a href="https://law.justia.com/cases/wisconsin/supreme-court/2022/2020ap001032.html">Wisconsin</a> and <a href="https://www.whsv.com/2022/12/08/pieces-lawsuit-against-harrisonburg-city-schools-dismissed/">Virginia</a>. </p>
<p>Regardless of how the cases from Maryland and elsewhere play out, this issue is likely to continue to generate additional controversy and litigation.</p>
<h2>Parents’ rights vs. schools’ obligations</h2>
<p>Disagreements between parents and schools over education are not new. In 1925, in <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/268/510">Pierce v. Society of Sisters</a>, a dispute from Oregon, the Supreme Court upheld the rights of parents to send their children to schools run outside the public education system.</p>
<p>The justices famously wrote: “The child is not the mere creature of the state; those who nurture him and direct his destiny have the right, coupled with the high duty, to recognize and prepare him for additional obligations.” This signaled clearly that parents have rights over how their children are raised and educated. </p>
<p>But the U.S. Supreme Court has not yet decided clearly where the rights of parents end and the rights of their children begin. As a result, an appellate court in New Jersey observed that courts have held that “<a href="https://caselaw.findlaw.com/nj-superior-court-appellate-division/1473672.html">in certain circumstances</a> the parental right to control the upbringing of a child must give way to a school’s ability to control curriculum and the school environment.”</p>
<p>Courts have even decided that there may be times when school or other public officials have legitimate interests in intervening where parents would typically have free rein, to assist or protect children. For example, educators might choose to keep information about students’ gender identity from parents if school staff members have reason to believe the students would be kicked out of their houses, physically abused, or forced to participate in abusive counseling programs, such as <a href="https://www.aacap.org/aacap/Policy_Statements/2018/Conversion_Therapy.aspx">conversion therapy</a>.</p>
<h2>The role of students’ rights</h2>
<p>At the same time, school officials must ensure protection of students’ rights. In particular, many states have laws requiring school board officials to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/22/us/gender-identity-students-parents.html">protect their students from discrimination</a> and violations of privacy.</p>
<p>In the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision in <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/17-1618">Bostock v. Clayton County</a>, interpreting <a href="https://www.eeoc.gov/statutes/title-vii-civil-rights-act-1964">Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964</a> as applying to people who are gay or transgender, the U.S. Department of Education told school boards across the country that they <a href="https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/us-department-education-confirms-title-ix-protects-students-%20discrimination-based-sexual-orientation-and-gender-identity">cannot allow discrimination</a> on the basis of sex, sexual orientation or gender identity.</p>
<p>School staff members have legal obligations to protect students’ privacy. According to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, “<a href="https://casetext.com/case/sterling-v-borough-of-minersville">It is difficult to imagine a more private matter than one’s sexuality</a> and a less likely probability that the government would have a legitimate interest in disclosure of sexual identity.”</p>
<p>Even so, schools often want <a href="https://safesupportivelearning.ed.gov/training-technical-assistance/education-level/early-learning/family-school-community-partnerships">parents to be involved</a> in their children’s education and the wider school community. This regularly puts educators in the sensitive position of having to protect student privacy while respecting parental rights to raise their children in accordance with their values.</p>
<p>It remains to be seen how courts will balance parental rights to direct the lives of their children and the role of educators in safeguarding the privacy rights of students – and whether the Supreme Court can, or will, ever set clearer rules in this important topic.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198644/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Parents have a general right to know about their children’s activities in school, but that can be limited by students’ rights to privacy and personal safety.Charles J. Russo, Joseph Panzer Chair in Education in the School of Education and Health Sciences and Research Professor of Law, University of DaytonMaggie Paino, Ph.D. Student in Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis, University of Wisconsin-MadisonSuzanne Eckes, Susan S. Engeleiter Professor of Education Law, Policy and Practice, University of Wisconsin-MadisonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1985662023-01-26T21:56:44Z2023-01-26T21:56:44ZIt shouldn’t seem so surprising when the pope says being gay ‘isn’t a crime’ – a Catholic theologian explains<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506685/original/file-20230126-36898-bos38c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C1%2C1024%2C680&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Pope Francis leads the second vespers service at St. Paul's Basilica on Jan. 25, 2023, in Rome.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/pope-francis-leads-the-celebration-of-the-second-vespers-on-news-photo/1459422783?phrase=pope%20francis&adppopup=true">Alessandra Benedetti/Corbis via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Once again, Pope Francis has called on Catholics to welcome and accept LGBTQ people.</p>
<p>“Being homosexual isn’t a crime,” the pope said in an <a href="https://apnews.com/article/pope-francis-gay-rights-ap-interview-1359756ae22f27f87c1d4d6b9c8ce212">interview</a> with The Associated Press on Jan. 24, 2023, adding, “let’s distinguish between a sin and a crime.” He later <a href="https://apnews.com/article/pope-francis-lgbtq-people-religion-marriage-862075728690d103bd99bbe8e1e65aba?utm_source=Pew+Research+Center&utm_campaign=b97447689d-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2023_01_30_02_48&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-b97447689d-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D">issued a note</a> clarifying that his remarks on “sin” referred to sexual activity outside of marriage. During the interview, Francis also called for the relaxation of laws around the world that target LGBTQ people. </p>
<p>Francis’ long history of making similar comments in support of LGBTQ people’s dignity, despite the church’s rejection of homosexuality, has provoked plenty of criticism from some Catholics. But I am a <a href="https://ctu.edu/faculty/steven-millies/">public theologian</a>, and part of what interests me about this debate is that Francis’ inclusiveness is not actually radical. His remarks generally correspond to what the church teaches and calls on Catholics to do.</p>
<h2>‘Who am I to judge?’</h2>
<p>During the first year of Francis’ papacy, <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2013/07/29/206622682/pope-francis-discusses-gay-catholics-who-am-i-to-judge#:%7E:text=Answering%20a%20question%20about%20reports,who%20am%20I%20to%20judge%3F%22">when asked about LGBTQ people</a>, he famously replied, “If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?” – setting the tone for what has become a pattern of inclusiveness.</p>
<p>He has given <a href="https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2021/06/27/james-martin-lgbt-ministry-pope-francis-240938">public support</a> <a href="https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2022/11/11/james-martin-pope-francis-244131">more than once</a> to James Martin, a Jesuit priest whose efforts to <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/building-a-bridge-james-martin?variant=32117748236322">build bridges</a> between LGBTQ people and the Catholic Church have been a lightning rod for criticism. In remarks captured for a 2020 documentary, Francis expressed support for the legal protections that <a href="https://theconversation.com/pope-francis-support-for-civil-unions-is-a-call-to-justice-and-nothing-new-148607">civil unions</a> can provide for LGBTQ people.</p>
<p>And now come the newest remarks. In <a href="https://apnews.com/article/pope-francis-gay-rights-ap-interview-1359756ae22f27f87c1d4d6b9c8ce212">his recent interview</a>, the pope said the church should oppose laws that criminalize homosexuality. “We are all children of God, and God loves us as we are and for the strength that each of us fights for our dignity,” he said, though he differentiated between “crimes” and actions that go against church teachings.</p>
<h2>Compassion, not doctrinal change</h2>
<p>The pope’s support for LGBTQ people’s civil rights does not change Catholic doctrine about marriage or sexuality. The church still teaches – and will certainly go on teaching – that any sexual relationship outside a marriage is wrong, and that marriage is between a man and a woman. It would be a mistake to conclude that Francis is suggesting any change in doctrine. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A crowd of people in jackets look up at a tall cross in front of them." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506523/original/file-20230126-18-5b14ew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506523/original/file-20230126-18-5b14ew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506523/original/file-20230126-18-5b14ew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506523/original/file-20230126-18-5b14ew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506523/original/file-20230126-18-5b14ew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506523/original/file-20230126-18-5b14ew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506523/original/file-20230126-18-5b14ew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A rosary march in Warsaw in 2019 ended with a prayer apologizing to God for pride parades in Poland.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/around-a-thousand-people-took-part-in-a-rosary-march-in-news-photo/1173890431?phrase=catholic%20gay%20law&adppopup=true">Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Rather, the pattern of his comments has been a way to express what the Catholic Church says about human dignity in response to rapidly changing attitudes toward the LGBTQ community across the past two decades. Francis is calling on Catholics to take note that they should be concerned about justice for all people.</p>
<p>The Catholic Church has condemned discrimination against LGBTQ people for many years, even while <a href="https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P85.HTM">it describes</a> homosexual acts as “intrinsically disordered” in its catechism. Nevertheless, some bishops around the world support laws that criminalize homosexuality – <a href="https://apnews.com/article/pope-francis-gay-rights-ap-interview-1359756ae22f27f87c1d4d6b9c8ce212">which Francis acknowledged</a>, saying they “have to have a process of conversion.”</p>
<p>The “<a href="http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/justpeace/documents/rc_pc_justpeace_doc_20060526_compendio-dott-soc_en.html#INTRODUCTION">law of love embraces the entire human family and knows no limits</a>,” the Vatican office concerned with social issues said in a 2005 compilation of the church’s social thought.</p>
<p>In 2006, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops recognized that LGBTQ people “have been, and often continue to be, <a href="https://www.usccb.org/resources/ministry-to-persons-of-homosexual-iInclination_0.pdf">objects of scorn, hatred, and even violence</a>.” And expressing care for other human persons – “<a href="http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19651207_gaudium-et-spes_en.html">especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted</a>” by the indifference or oppression of others – represents obligations for all Catholics to embrace.</p>
<p>As the Francis papacy now nears the end of its 10th year, it is becoming more and more common to hear Catholic leaders attempting to make LGBTQ people feel included in the church. Chicago’s Cardinal Blase Cupich has <a href="https://www.archchicago.org/statement/-/article/2021/03/15/statement-of-cardinal-blase-j-cupich-archbishop-of-chicago-on-same-sex-unions#:%7E:text=with%20respect%20and%20sensitivity">called on pastors</a> to “redouble our efforts to be creative and resilient in finding ways to welcome and encourage all LGBTQ people.” New York’s Cardinal Timothy Dolan has <a href="https://www.ncronline.org/news/people/gay-groups-st-patricks-parade-all-right-cardinal-dolan">welcomed LGBTQ groups</a> in the St. Patrick’s Day parade, against the wishes of many New York Catholics. </p>
<p>In this most recent interview, Francis emphasized that being LGBTQ is “<a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253452/being-homosexual-is-not-a-crime-pope-francis-reiterates-in-new-interview#:%7E:text=It%20is%20a%20human%20condition">a human condition</a>,” calling Catholics to see other people less through the eyes of doctrine and more through the eyes of mercy.</p>
<h2>A new ‘political reality’</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/1651/gay-lesbian-rights.aspx">rapid change</a> that has happened in prevailing social attitudes about the LGBTQ community in recent decades has been difficult to process for a church that has never reacted quickly. This is especially because the questions those developments raise touch on a gray area where moral teaching intersects with social realities outside the church.</p>
<p>For decades, church leaders have been working to <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-catholic-church-resists-change-but-vatican-ii-shows-its-possible-102543">reconcile the church with the modern world</a>, and Francis is stepping in places where other Catholic bishops have already trodden.</p>
<p>In 2018, for example, German bishops reacting to the legalization of gay marriage acknowledged that acceptance of LGBTQ relationships is a new “<a href="https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2018/01/24/german-bishops-grapple-blessings-gay-marriage">political reality</a>.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two same-sex couples stand in a church." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506521/original/file-20230126-20-54hefc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506521/original/file-20230126-20-54hefc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506521/original/file-20230126-20-54hefc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506521/original/file-20230126-20-54hefc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506521/original/file-20230126-20-54hefc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506521/original/file-20230126-20-54hefc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506521/original/file-20230126-20-54hefc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An LGBTQ couple embraces after a pastoral worker blesses them at a Catholic church in Germany, in defiance of practices approved by Rome.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/chantal-hoeffer-and-ivonne-fuchs-hug-each-other-after-news-photo/1317339092?phrase=catholic%20gay&adppopup=true">Andreas Rentz/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There are signs that parts of the church are moving even more quickly. Catholics in Germany, in particular, have called for <a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/250313/synodal-way-meeting-ends-with-call-for-same-sex-blessings-change-to-catechism-on-homosexuality">changes to church teaching</a>, including permission for priests to bless same-sex couples and the ordination of married men.</p>
<h2>The next chapter</h2>
<p>But those actions are outliers. Francis <a href="https://apnews.com/article/pope-francis-only-on-ap-vatican-city-germany-religion-15c469ce6a29a797f8235dd35eccb118">has criticized</a> the German calls for reform as “elitist” and ideological. When it comes to the civil rights of LGBTQ people, the pope is not changing church teaching, but describing it.</p>
<p>I believe the challenge the Vatican faces is to imagine the space that the church can occupy in this new reality, as it <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-catholic-church-resists-change-but-vatican-ii-shows-its-possible-102543">has had to do</a> in the face of numerous social and political changes across centuries. But the imperative, as Francis suggests, is to serve justice and to seek justice for all people with mercy above all. </p>
<p>Catholics – including bishops, and even the pope – can think, and are thinking, imaginatively about that challenge.</p>
<p><em>This article was updated on Jan. 30, 2023 to include new comments from Pope Francis. Portions of this article originally appeared in <a href="https://theconversation.com/pope-francis-support-for-civil-unions-is-a-call-to-justice-and-nothing-new-148607">a previous article</a> published on Oct. 22, 2020.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198566/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steven P. Millies does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Catholic leaders’ attitudes toward LGBTQ people have shifted dramatically – but the actual theology behind them, not so much.Steven P. Millies, Professor of Public Theology and Director of The Bernardin Center, Catholic Theological UnionLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1950852022-11-23T13:18:50Z2022-11-23T13:18:50ZSuspect in the Colorado LGBTQ shootings faces hate crimes charges – what exactly are they?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496850/original/file-20221122-26-o8xg8i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Club Q co-owners Nic Grzecka, left, and Matthew Haynes listen during a police news conference on Nov. 21, 2022, in Colorado Springs, Colo. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/club-q-co-owners-nic-grzecka-and-matthew-haynes-listen-to-news-photo/1443386018?phrase=club%20q&adppopup=true">Scott Olson/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The 22-year-old suspected shooter at a gay night club in Colorado Springs, Colorado, who allegedly killed five and injured dozens <a href="https://apnews.com/article/shootings-colorado-gun-politics-springs-7f079c7feebc32cc8ad46f2724844c18">faces five counts of murder and hate crimes</a> charges.</p>
<p>Hate crimes are known as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/21/us/hate-crime-laws-colorado-shooting.html?partner=slack&smid=sl-share">“bias-motivated” crimes in Colorado</a>. The charges against the shooter are still preliminary, although <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/11/21/colorado-springs-nightclub-shooting-lgbtq-community/10745611002/">Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers said</a> the attack “has all the trappings of a hate crime.”</p>
<p>The mass shooting rekindled memories of the 2016 massacre at <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2022-11-20/factbox-mass-shootings-in-the-u-s-from-club-q-to-pulse-nightclub">Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida</a>, that killed 49 people.</p>
<p>Hate crimes are <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/us-hate-crimes-rise-during-first-half-of-2022-/6713791.html">rising across the U.S.</a>, but officials often resist the quick classification of incidents as a hate crime. Hate crimes have unique legal requirements. And even when police and prosecutors believe the elements of a hate crime are present, such crimes can be difficult to prove in court. </p>
<h2>What is a hate crime?</h2>
<p>I have studied <a href="https://www.luc.edu/law/faculty/facultyandadministrationprofiles/bell-jeannine.shtml">hate crime and police for over 20 years</a>.</p>
<p>Hate crimes are crimes motivated by bias on the basis of race, religion, sexual orientation or ethnicity. In some states, gender, age and gender identity are also included. Hate crime laws have been passed by 48 states and the federal government since the 1980s, when activists first began to <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1389346?seq=1">press state legislatures to recognize the role of bias in violence against minority groups</a>.</p>
<p>In order to be charged as a hate crime, attacks – whether assault, killings or vandalism – must be directed at individuals because of the prohibited biases. Hate crime laws, in other words, punish motive. </p>
<p>The prosecutor must convince the judge or jury that the victim was targeted because of their race, religion, sexual orientation or other protected characteristic. </p>
<p>If the defendant is found to have acted with bias motivation, hate crime charges often add an additional penalty to the underlying charge. Charging people with a hate crime, then, <a href="https://jhs.press.gonzaga.edu/articles/abstract/10.33972/jhs.34/">presents additional layers of complexity</a> to what may otherwise be a straightforward case for prosecutors. Bias motivation can be hard to prove, and prosecutors can be reluctant to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/S1059-433720210000085003">take cases that that they may not win</a> in court.</p>
<p>It can and does happen, though. In June 2020, Indiana resident <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdin/pr/indianapolis-man-sentenced-making-racially-motivated-threats-toward-neighbor">Shepherd Hoehn</a> placed a burning cross and a sign with racial slurs and epithets facing the construction site where his new neighbor, who is Black, was building a house. </p>
<p>Hoehn was charged with and later pleaded guilty to <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/indiana-man-pleads-guilty-hate-crime-making-racially-charged-motivated-threats-toward-black">federal hate crime charges</a> in Indiana. A few months later, Maurice Diggins was convicted by a federal jury of a 2018 hate crime for breaking the jaw of a Sudanese man in Maine <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/maine-man-sentenced-federal-hate-crime-convictions">while shouting racial epithets</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390660/original/file-20210319-23-4bba6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Video still of young blond man in prison jumpsuit surrounded by armed guards" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390660/original/file-20210319-23-4bba6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390660/original/file-20210319-23-4bba6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=345&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390660/original/file-20210319-23-4bba6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=345&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390660/original/file-20210319-23-4bba6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=345&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390660/original/file-20210319-23-4bba6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390660/original/file-20210319-23-4bba6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390660/original/file-20210319-23-4bba6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Dylann Roof, who killed nine worshippers at a Black church in South Carolina in 2015, was convicted of 33 charges, including hate crimes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/in-this-image-from-the-video-uplink-from-the-detention-news-photo/477782304?adppopup=true">Grace Beahm-Pool/Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>How to charge a hate crime</h2>
<p>The first use of the term “hate crime” in federal legislation was the <a href="https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/101/hr1048">Hate Crimes Statistics Act of 1990</a>. This was not a criminal statute but rather a data-gathering requirement that mandated that the U.S. attorney general collect information on crimes that “evidenced prejudice based on race, religion, sexual orientation, or ethnicity.” </p>
<p>Soon, states began passing their own laws recognizing bias crimes. But hate crime legislation has not led to many charges and convictions.</p>
<p>Law enforcement officers struggle to identify hate crime and prosecute offenders. Even though 48 states have hate crime laws, 88% of law enforcement agencies, including local and state police departments, reported to the FBI that not a single hate crime <a href="https://www.axios.com/2022/03/19/doj-police-departments-decline-report-hate-crimes">had occurred in their jurisdiction</a>in 2020. </p>
<p>I’ve found that police departments are rarely organized in a way that allows them to develop the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764207306054">expertise necessary to effectively investigate hate crimes</a>. When police departments have specialized police units and prosecutors who are <a href="https://nyupress.org/9780814798973/policing-hatred/">committed to taking on hate crime</a>, they can develop the routines that allow them to investigate hate crime in a manner that supports victims. </p>
<p>In the late 1990s, I studied a specialized police hate crime unit in a city I called, for the purposes of anonymity, “Center City.” My <a href="https://nyupress.org/9780814798973/policing-hatred/">book revealed that those detectives</a> could distinguish non-hate crimes – for instance, when the perpetrator angrily used the n-word in a fight – from cases that are truly hate crimes, as when the perpetrator used it during a targeted attack on a Black person. </p>
<p>Without the right training and organizational structure, officers are unclear about common markers of bias motivation, and tend to assume that they must go to extraordinary lengths to figure out why suspects committed the crime. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390661/original/file-20210319-19-319ekc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Fire inspector walks through ruins of a charred building, looking at the ground" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390661/original/file-20210319-19-319ekc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390661/original/file-20210319-19-319ekc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390661/original/file-20210319-19-319ekc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390661/original/file-20210319-19-319ekc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390661/original/file-20210319-19-319ekc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390661/original/file-20210319-19-319ekc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390661/original/file-20210319-19-319ekc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">When arson targets a temple, mosque or cultural center, it may be investigated as a hate crime.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/houston-fire-department-arson-investigator-inspects-the-news-photo/463382360?adppopup=true">Aaron M. Sprecher/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Limits of the law</h2>
<p>Advocates for hate crime victims maintain that <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/hate-crime-training-for-police-is-often-inadequate-sometimes-nonexistent">police and prosecutors can do much more</a> to identify and punish hate crimes. </p>
<p>Empirical evidence supports their claims. The FBI’s 2019 report contains <a href="https://ucr.fbi.gov/hate-crime/2019/resource-pages/hate-crime-summary#:%7E:text=Of%20the%205,512%20hate%20crime%20offenses%20classified%20as,commercial%20sex%20acts%20were%20reported%20as%20hate%20crimes.">8,559 bias crimes reported by law enforcement agencies</a>. But in the National Crime Victimization Survey, victims say that they experienced, on average, <a href="https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/hcs1317pp.pdf">more than 200,000 hate crimes each year</a>. This suggests that police are missing many hate crimes that have occurred. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/kids-perceptions-of-police-fall-as-they-age-for-black-children-the-decline-starts-earlier-and-is-constant-145511">Distrust of police</a>, especially in Black communities, may dissuade minorities from even calling the police when they are victimized by a hate crime for fear they could also become <a href="https://theconversation.com/police-shootings-and-race-in-america-five-essential-reads-65847">victims of police violence</a>. </p>
<p>All this means that perpetrators of hate crimes may not be caught and can re-offend, further victimizing communities that are meant to be protected by hate crime laws.</p>
<p>Hate crime laws reflect American ideals of fairness, justice and equity. But if crimes motivated by bias aren’t reported, well investigated, charged or brought to trial, it matters little what state law says.</p>
<p><em>Editor’s note: This story incorporates material from an earlier story <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-a-hate-crime-the-narrow-legal-definition-makes-it-hard-to-charge-and-convict-157488">published on March 19, 2021</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/195085/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jeannine Bell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Bias-motivated attacks became a distinct crime in the 1980s. But police investigate only a fraction of the roughly 200,000 hate crimes reported each year – and even fewer ever make it to court.Jeannine Bell, Professor of Law, Loyola University ChicagoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1859402022-06-28T20:27:13Z2022-06-28T20:27:13ZWhy Roe v. Wade’s demise – unlike gay rights or Ukraine – isn’t getting corporate America to speak up<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471446/original/file-20220628-25-4jb3vp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=202%2C125%2C4458%2C2872&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Many Americans reacted with outrage to the Supreme Court's decision to dismantle the constitutional right to abortion.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/Abortion/3e90619302ce469b9c72a975e83dd94f/photo?Query=abortion%20protest&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=3740&currentItemNo=5">AP Photo/Rick Bowmer</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Corporate America – once known for carefully <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1970/09/13/archives/a-friedman-doctrine-the-social-responsibility-of-business-is-to.html">avoiding public stances</a> on hot button issues – has, in recent years, become increasingly outspoken on a host of thorny topics, from <a href="https://www.hrc.org/press-releases/200-major-u-s-companies-oppose-anti-lgbtq-state-legislation">gay rights</a> to the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-apple-disney-ikea-and-hundreds-of-other-western-companies-are-abandoning-russia-with-barely-a-shrug-178516">war in Ukraine</a>. That makes <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/24/business/abortion-roe-wade-companies.html">its relative silence</a> in the face of the end of federal abortion rights all the more deafening. </p>
<p>Over two-thirds of companies in the Fortune 500 <a href="https://www.integritystaffing.com/integrity-insights/the-dos-and-donts-of-pride-month-a-corporate-guide-to-celebrating-authentically">are publicly committed</a> to supporting LGBTQ rights, and many were early <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-much-credit-should-corporations-get-for-the-advancement-of-lgbtq-rights-126664">backers of marriage equality</a> before the public embraced it. In the weeks after Vladimir Putin sent his armies into Ukraine, <a href="https://som.yale.edu/story/2022/over-1000-companies-have-curtailed-operations-russia-some-remain">hundreds of companies suspended or ceased</a> operations in Russia in an unprecedented reaction to geopolitical aggression. And in the aftermath of the passage of a 2021 Georgia law seen as curtailing voting rights, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/31/major-us-companies-take-aim-at-georgias-new-voting-restrictions.html">dozens of companies spoke forcefully</a> against the legislation.</p>
<p>But so far, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/businesses-react-supreme-court-overturn-of-roe-v-wade-2022-6">only three dozen or so companies</a> have taken a public stance on the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, mostly to declare their support for workers seeking an abortion. While a few openly criticized the Supreme Court’s June 24, 2022, decision, the vast majority did not.</p>
<p>In my own research, I have examined both the emergence of corporate activism on sociopolitical issues and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2021.1450%22%22">the fraught history of abortion provision in the United States</a>, which has been contested ever since elective abortion became legal nationwide in 1973. </p>
<p>The big question is: Why is corporate America being so timid this time around?</p>
<h2>Growing activism from corporate America</h2>
<p>Across America, corporate activism has been on the rise. </p>
<p>Whereas most companies once subscribed to conservative economist <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1970/09/13/archives/a-friedman-doctrine-the-social-responsibility-of-business-is-to.html">Milton Friedman’s famous quip</a> that the “only social responsibility of business is to increase its profits,” corporations are increasingly expected to take public stances on a host of thorny issues. </p>
<p>And so it was strange to see so little reaction after a Supreme Court decision that <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/24/roe-v-wade-overturned-by-supreme-court-ending-federal-abortion-rights.html">amounted to a sea change</a> in reproductive health for the entire country. Within the next month, it is estimated that <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2022-supreme-court-roe-v-wade-abortion-access/?sref=rtkxJ8jz">over 30 million women will lose access to the procedure</a>. Companies that did speak out mostly <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/article/abortion-companies-travel-expenses.html">sought to reassure their employees</a> that they would cover necessary travel and in some cases abortion procedures but did not explicitly criticize the decision.</p>
<h2>Knowing when to stay mum</h2>
<p>The most basic explanation for the relative silence is that not all social issues are alike. Some enjoy such overwhelming levels of public support that speaking out is obviously the “right thing to do.”</p>
<p>Within days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, for example, <a href="https://theconversation.com/shell-bp-and-exxonmobil-have-done-business-in-russia-for-decades-heres-why-theyre-leaving-now-178269">most U.S. companies were already pulling out of Russia in droves</a>. In total, <a href="https://som.yale.edu/story/2022/over-1000-companies-have-curtailed-operations-russia-some-remain">over 300 American companies</a> have withdrawn from Russia entirely, and over 600 more either suspended operations or scaled them back.</p>
<p>Although the speed with which they fled was unprecedented, it maybe shouldn’t be all that surprising given U.S. public opinion. Shortly after the invasion, 7 in 10 Americans said <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2022/04/06/seven-in-ten-americans-now-see-russia-as-an-enemy/">they saw Russia as an “enemy”</a> – with no partisan split – compared with 4 in 10 just a couple months earlier. </p>
<p>But on other issues – such as abortion – public opinion is divided across well-defined fault lines. While 61% of Americans recently polled said abortion <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/fact-sheet/public-opinion-on-abortion/">should be legal in all or most cases</a>, the partisan divide is significant, with just 38% of Republicans saying that. </p>
<p>And in some cases, speaking out about a given issue might not be perceived as appropriate at all. A <a href="https://www.webershandwick.com/news/ceo-activism-in-2018-half-of-americans-say-ceo-activism-influences-government/">2018 survey</a> found that while most Americans appreciate it when CEOs – and corporations more generally – speak out on workplace-relevant issues like sexual harassment and equal pay, they take a dim view of their doing so on topics like gun control or abortion. Notably, in the same survey only 14% of respondents thought that corporate leaders should weigh in on abortion.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="a crowd of people holding a large white banner with an apple outlined on it march on a street carrying rainbow flags" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471445/original/file-20220628-14613-ra1wjg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471445/original/file-20220628-14613-ra1wjg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=342&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471445/original/file-20220628-14613-ra1wjg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=342&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471445/original/file-20220628-14613-ra1wjg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=342&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471445/original/file-20220628-14613-ra1wjg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471445/original/file-20220628-14613-ra1wjg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471445/original/file-20220628-14613-ra1wjg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Corporate America has fully embraced the cause of gay rights.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/GayPrideSanFrancisco/bdb2daaedc044d81b7f80fcb7b04ff10/photo?Query=apple%20pride%20gay&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=8&currentItemNo=0">AP Photo/ Tony Avelar</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Learning to be activists</h2>
<p>Just as important, though, is the fact that in choosing to wade into contentious societal debates, companies are exposing themselves to risk. As a result, companies have often approached social issues by initially taking only tentative steps aimed at internal constituents like employees.</p>
<p>Here, the case of LGBTQ rights advocacy by corporations is especially instructive. </p>
<p>In the early 1990s, companies such as Disney and Apple were among the first to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1995/10/08/us/disney-co-will-offer-benefits-to-gay-partners.html">offer benefits to employees’ same-sex partners</a>. By 2005, about 20% of Fortune 500 companies did. At the time, <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/fact-sheet/changing-attitudes-on-gay-marriage/">most Americans opposed marriage equality</a>, so companies pursued a limited approach and refrained from pushing for legalization.</p>
<p>This is consistent with some of my ongoing research with Rice University colleagues in which I’m finding that companies tend to frame their stances on social issues narrowly when they are not settled matters. Once they are settled, however, and controversy abates, companies often shift to full-fledged advocacy. </p>
<p>So in 2012, when same-sex marriage was already legal in a handful of U.S. states, Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein was the first Fortune 500 company leader to come out in support of marriage equality. As marriage equality was realized in more and more states and public support increased, more companies jumped on the bandwagon. By early 2013, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/02/business/businesses-refuse-to-arrive-late-on-same-sex-marriage.html">over 100 corporations had pledged their support for same-sex marriage</a>. And today, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-gaymarriage-companies/many-u-s-companies-say-supporting-marriage-equality-makes-business-sense-idUSKBN0P62LE20150627">most corporations do</a>.</p>
<h2>Facing a backlash</h2>
<p>As one of the first examples of widespread corporate activism, the fight over LGBTQ rights likely led corporations to believe that customers and the general public would reward bold action and principled stances. </p>
<p>Hence, in the years since, we’ve seen <a href="https://theconversation.com/black-lives-matter-lgbtq-rights-trump-the-risks-and-rewards-of-corporate-activism-142540">increasingly activist positions</a> from companies – and <a href="https://theconversation.com/when-did-che-guevara-become-ceo-the-roots-of-the-new-corporate-activism-64203">many stories</a> trumpeting them.</p>
<p>This can be seen in the strong reaction to the 2016 North Carolina “bathroom bill” – including <a href="https://www.vox.com/2016/7/8/12128698/apple-cisco-intel-salesforce-68-companies-north-carolina-anti-lgbt-law-hb2">lawsuits</a> and a <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/paypal-cancels-plans-for-operations-center-400-jobs-over-north-carolinas-transgender-law-1459872277">boycott of the state by companies</a>, which eventually led to the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-north-carolina-lgbt/north-carolina-lawmakers-reach-deal-to-repeal-transgender-bathroom-law-idUSKBN17108Z">law’s being repealed</a> – and in the <a href="https://www.hrc.org/press-releases/marriott-hilton-american-airlines-and-airbnb-join-150-major-u-s-companies-to-oppose-anti-lgbtq-legislation-in-florida">forceful response to a recent Florida law</a> that prevents instruction of sexual orientation or gender identity from kindergarten through third grade. </p>
<p>One of Florida’s largest employers, Disney, after initially equivocating, <a href="https://theconversation.com/florida-republicans-row-with-mickey-mouse-highlights-widening-gap-between-historical-bffs-gop-and-corporate-america-182401">came out forcefully against the law</a> after it was passed and said it <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/edwardsegal/2022/03/30/disney-ramps-up-its-corporate-activism-by-seeking-to-repeal-new-dont-say-gay-law/?sh=745d91ca7106">would seek its repeal</a>. But this time, Disney’s full-throated activism <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/04/01/disney-dont-say-gay-bill/">faced substantial backlash</a> – from both sides. Employees and activists <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/03/23/1088169718/disney-workers-protest-the-companys-response-to-the-so-called-dont-say-gay-bill">accused the company of not doing enough</a>, while the company’s stance was met with <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/disney-faces-backlash-in-florida-amid-dont-say-gay-controversy-11650027780">fierce resistance from the government of Florida</a>, which moved aggressively against the company and voted to strip Disney of the special tax and self-governing privileges it has held for 55 years.</p>
<h2>Getting it wrong</h2>
<p>For a possibly chastened corporate America, I believe the Disney incident was a reminder of the perils of wading too deeply into polarizing societal debates. </p>
<p>This appears evident from the corporate stances toward abortion rights that have played out since Roe v. Wade fell. Companies once again focused their responses on protecting their employees first and foremost, without offering criticism of the ruling or supporting a push for new legislation. </p>
<p>That said, I’m convinced there is probably no going back to the days when companies stood on the sidelines, eyeing their profit margins and little else. </p>
<p>It is a brave new world out there for corporate activism, and I predict that striking the right balance will become increasingly tough. Getting it wrong might mean not just angry employees or customers but also <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2022/05/23/texas-companies-pay-abortions/">legal challenges</a>, for example for companies that have pledged to help workers seeking an abortion.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/185940/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alessandro Piazza does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In contrast to their reaction to gay rights or the war in Ukraine, relatively few companies have openly criticized the Supreme Court ruling ending a constitutional right to abortion.Alessandro Piazza, Assistant Professor of Strategic Management, Rice UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1785162022-03-09T18:09:49Z2022-03-09T18:09:49ZWhy Apple, Disney, IKEA and hundreds of other Western companies are abandoning Russia with barely a shrug<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450817/original/file-20220308-17181-yumwpg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=134%2C239%2C3761%2C2354&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Muscovites rushed to buy furniture and other goods from IKEA before it closed its Russian stores.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/RussiaWarUkraineEconomy/bfef81caccce40939ef2963011fdafb2/photo?Query=russia%20close%20store&mediaType=photo&sortBy=creationdatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=10&currentItemNo=7">AP Photo/Vladimir Kondrashov</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many companies in the U.S. and elsewhere have been quick to sever ties to Russia – going well beyond applying the <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-28/sanctions-imposed-so-far-on-russia-from-the-u-s-eu-and-u-k">sanctions ordered by their governments</a>. </p>
<p>IKEA, Nike and H&M are <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2022/03/03/business/ikea-h-and-m-russia/index.html">temporarily closing their Russian stores</a>. Disney, Sony and Warner Bros. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/mar/01/disney-and-warner-bros-pause-film-releases-in-russia-over-ukraine-invasion">paused the release of new films</a> in Russia. Apple, Samsung and Microsoft <a href="https://www.cnet.com/news/apple-microsoft-and-other-tech-companies-stop-sales-in-russia/">stopped selling their products there</a>. McKinsey, Ernst & Young and many other top <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/big-auditors-to-leave-russia-amid-invasion-of-ukraine-11646666419?mod=djemCFO">accounting</a> and <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/6c412673-d65e-4e75-adbb-08146c42387c">consulting firms</a> said they are leaving the Russian market – possibly for good. </p>
<p>In all, <a href="https://som.yale.edu/story/2022/over-200-companies-have-withdrawn-russia-some-remain">over 300 companies have announced plans</a> to close stores, reassign staff or stop selling products in Russia since the invasion began on Feb. 24, 2022, according to a running tally by Yale management professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld. Most recently, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/08/business/mcdonalds-pepsi-coke-russia/index.html">McDonald’s</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/03/08/business/stocks-economy-inflation-ukraine">Starbucks</a> and Coca-Cola joined the list on March 8, 2022, announcing they would close stores and cease sales.</p>
<p>In some ways, these decisions fit in with a <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-corporate-ceos-found-their-political-voice-83127">recent trend in which companies have increasingly staked out</a> public positions on often controversial social and political issues, such as restrictions on trans rights and ability to vote. As <a href="https://business.rice.edu/person/douglas-schuler">business professors</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=k7slUggAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">who study why</a> companies engage in activism, we feel the same factors that have driven those decisions to speak out are at work over Ukraine. </p>
<p>But we also believe Ukraine stands out for one important reason: For many of these companies, it may have been one of the easiest stands they’ve ever taken – even if there is a financial cost.</p>
<h2>Taking a stand</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1177/0022242920937000">Corporate sociopolitical activism</a> – the technical term we use – entails companies making public declarations or taking actions about significant social or political issues that extend beyond their core business. </p>
<p>Until relatively recently, <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-corporate-ceos-found-their-political-voice-83127">companies rarely took stands</a> on social or political issues. </p>
<p>That didn’t really change until the 2000s, when LBGTQ rights were under attack and major companies such as <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-walmart-arkansas-analysis-idUSKBN0MT13E20150402">Walmart spoke out</a> against bills that would have allowed discrimination.</p>
<p>Since then, there’s been a <a href="https://qz.com/work/1797058/2020-is-the-year-corporate-activism-and-global-political-risk-converge/">surge in companies taking proactive stands</a> on issues ranging from climate activism and racism to abortion and voting rights. </p>
<p>For example, in the wake of the murder of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis in 2020, hundreds of CEOs <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/11/ceos-unveil-plans-against-racial-inequality-after-george-floyd-death.html">signed a pledge</a> against racial discrimination and <a href="https://www.ceoaction.com/purpose/">created an organization dedicated</a> to diversity, equity and inclusion. In 2021, the CEOs of Dell, American Airlines, Southwest Airlines and AT&T <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/04/02/983709091/these-are-the-businesses-speaking-out-against-texass-newly-proposed-election-law">spoke out against a Texas bill</a> aimed at making it more difficult for citizens to vote. </p>
<p>Others have taken more decisive action. <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/09/08/1035045952/lyft-uber-will-pay-drivers-legal-fees-if-theyre-sued-under-texas-abortion-law">Uber and Lyft</a> said they would pay to defend their drivers if they got sued under a Texas law that allows anyone to sue a person who helps someone get an abortion. And in 2016, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/27/bathroom-bill-to-cost-north-carolina-376-billion.html">PayPal and the NCAA pulled business</a> from North Carolina after the state passed a bill limiting LGBTQ protections.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/consumer-packaged-goods/our-insights/great-expectations-navigating-challenging-stakeholder-expectations-of-brandsexpectations-of-brands">Surveys show</a> <a href="https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/ct/publication/documents/2021-11/ipsos-global-trends-2021-report.pdf">today’s consumers expect</a> <a href="https://www.5wpr.com/new/wp-content/uploads/pdf/5W_consumer_culture_report_2020final.pdf">companies to live up</a> to the <a href="https://certusinsights.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Markstein-Social-Responsibility-_-Certus-Insights-Research-_.pdf">values they espouse</a> in their press releases, and big corporate groups such as the Business Roundtable even began <a href="https://www.businessroundtable.org/business-roundtable-redefines-the-purpose-of-a-corporation-to-promote-an-economy-that-serves-all-americans">urging companies</a> to focus on creating value for everyone – not just shareholders. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="a crowd marches in a city street behind a banner that reads justice for George" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451007/original/file-20220309-20-12axmhb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451007/original/file-20220309-20-12axmhb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451007/original/file-20220309-20-12axmhb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451007/original/file-20220309-20-12axmhb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451007/original/file-20220309-20-12axmhb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451007/original/file-20220309-20-12axmhb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451007/original/file-20220309-20-12axmhb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Many companies spoke out against racism after George Floyd’s murder inspired months of protests, like this one on the first anniversary of his death.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/RacialInjustice-MinnesotaProtests/b9a714aa8e5c4a0d8981cff7ae70176f/photo?Query=George%20Floyd%20protest&mediaType=photo&sortBy=creationdatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=11555&currentItemNo=113">AP Photo/Christian Monterrosa</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Why companies speak out</h2>
<p>More specifically, <a href="https://www.econbiz.de/Record/don-t-mix-business-with-politics-understanding-stakeholder-reactions-to-corporate-political-activism-appels-moritz/10012303252">research</a> has identified <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.5465/amr.2018.0084">three major factors</a> that typically drive a company’s decision to pursue corporate activism: employee beliefs, consumer pressure and the <a href="https://hbr.org/2018/01/the-new-ceo-activists">CEO’s personal involvement</a> or conviction. </p>
<p>It’s not always clear what is driving corporate decisions to suspend operations in Russia, but it seems as if all three factors are at play. </p>
<p>IKEA, for example, <a href="https://about.ikea.com/en/newsroom/2022/03/03/ikea-pauses-operations-in-russia-and-belarus">cited the support and security</a> of its workforce in announcing its “pause” in Russia and a donation of 20 million euros for humanitarian assistance for those displaced by the war. After a #BoycottMcDonald’s <a href="https://www.mashed.com/789748/heres-why-boycott-mcdonalds-is-trending-on-twitter/">began trending on Twitter</a> to protest its presence in Russia, the fast-food chain said it was temporarily closing its stores there. And Tesla CEO Elon Musk <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/22958373/ukraine-russia-starlink-spacex-elon-musk">agreed to provide Ukraine</a> with free satellite internet after a Ukrainian official requested it on Twitter. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="People stand outside a restaurant-looking building with yellow arches spelling an M as they wait to eat McDonalds for the first time." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450993/original/file-20220309-13-1co2myw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450993/original/file-20220309-13-1co2myw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450993/original/file-20220309-13-1co2myw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450993/original/file-20220309-13-1co2myw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450993/original/file-20220309-13-1co2myw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450993/original/file-20220309-13-1co2myw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450993/original/file-20220309-13-1co2myw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">McDonald’s has been in Russia since it opened its first store in Moscow in 1990.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/RussianMcDonalds1990/bdb02160f3c742118e8ef29ed8288b48/photo?Query=McDonald%27s%20russia&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:asc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=159&currentItemNo=3">AP Photo</a></span>
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<h2>A corporate no-brainer</h2>
<p>But ultimately, the decision whether or not to sever a relationship with a country – even if temporarily – is very different from taking a stand on an anti-trans measure.</p>
<p>Even so, the speed with which U.S. and other Western companies have abandoned Russia is something we’ve never seen in our lifetimes. And it suggests the decision was likely a no-brainer. </p>
<p>For one thing, Russia’s invasion has been met with widespread revulsion in the West. And even before the war, the public’s perception of Russia in Western countries <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/02/07/russia-and-putin-receive-low-ratings-globally">was very low</a>. </p>
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<p>One post-invasion poll found that 86% of Americans <a href="https://poll.qu.edu/poll-release?releaseid=3837">saw the invasion as unjustified</a> – with broad bipartisan agreement – and another showed that half of the respondents would <a href="https://www.live5news.com/2022/03/07/poll-finds-majority-want-russian-oil-ban-divided-biden/">compare the actions of Vladimir Putin</a> with those of Adolf Hitler. </p>
<p>And governments including those like <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/german-chancellor-olaf-scholz-announces-paradigm-change-in-response-to-ukraine-invasion/a-60932652">Germany</a> that have close commercial ties to Russia have strongly condemned its actions and joined unprecedented sanctions. About 80% of Germans said they approved of their government’s decision to sanction Russia and export weapons to Ukraine – or said it didn’t go far enough.</p>
<p>Ultimately, the Russian market is just not that big for companies in the U.S, such as <a href="https://appleinsider.com/articles/22/03/04/what-apple-risks-by-stopping-all-sales-operations-in-russia">Apple</a> and <a href="https://deadline.com/2022/03/disney-ukraine-theme-parks-disneyplus-1234973007/">Disney</a>. For others, such as McDonald’s, which has been <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-03-08/mcdonald-s-faces-tough-questions-with-large-exposure-to-russia?sref=Hjm5biAW">in Russia since 1990 and has about 850 locations there</a>, days of pressure finally persuaded company officials they had to pull out. </p>
<p>On many hot-button social issues like <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/350174/mixed-views-among-americans-transgender-issues.aspx">trans rights</a> and <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/09/13/key-facts-about-americans-and-guns/">gun control</a>, the general public is split almost right down the middle, meaning taking a stand could alienate a lot of consumers. </p>
<p>But on the issue of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, many companies likely were more worried about the <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/business/consumer/mcdonalds-us-brands-pressure-stop-business-russia-rcna18990">risks to their reputation</a> were they to do nothing. With so many other companies pulling out, it likely seemed better to explain to shareholders and customers back home <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2022/03/02/business/companies-pulling-back-russia-ukraine-war-intl-hnk/index.html">why they’re leaving</a> than <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/business-60660006">why they’re staying</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/178516/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Over 300 companies so far have closed stores, reassigned staff or halted sales in Russia in the two weeks since the invasion began.Douglas Schuler, Associate Professor of Business and Public Policy, Rice UniversityLaura Marie Edinger-Schons, Professor of Sustainable Business, University of MannheimLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1768512022-02-11T12:33:18Z2022-02-11T12:33:18ZLGBT+ history: the bold, very British resistance to section 28<p>Throughout the 1980s, some local councils in Britain attempted to provide positive representations of gay people in schools. Some quarters of the national press described such councils as “loony”, and also printed scare stories about gay men and HIV/Aids. In 1987, a <a href="https://www.bsa.natcen.ac.uk/latest-report/british-social-attitudes-30/personal-relationships/homosexuality.aspx">survey</a> indicated that 64% of the British public thought that homosexuality was always wrong. The legislative response was section 28, which said local authorities shall not “intentionally promote homosexuality”. </p>
<p>Passed in 1988, the law was largely symbolic, sending a message to LGBT+ people that they were not wanted. As a result of section 28, many teachers were unsure how to tackle homophobic bullying in schools, let alone relevant sex education, so the law caused untold damage to the development of thousands of people who grew up under it.</p>
<p>But people did not just sit idly by and wait for the law to be changed. Opposition to section 28 came in many forms, from reasoned arguments on live radio to mass protests.</p>
<p>In researching the <a href="http://www.reaktionbooks.co.uk/display.asp?k=9781789145618">history of section 28</a>, I was struck by the way that the British national character comes across in many of the protests. Take for example the January 1988 <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/third-ear--section-28/zbm4scw">debate</a> between actor Ian McKellen and Peregrine Worsthorne (editor of the Sunday Telegraph). A few weeks earlier, Worsthorne had written a column referring to the “bold and brazen, proselytising cult” of homosexuals, of which many members had “positively flaunted their aberrant sexual tastes”. The debate is memorable for being the moment McKellen publicly <a href="https://twitter.com/IanMcKellen/status/957292177616334848">came out as gay</a>. But what makes it even more interesting is how well-mannered McKellen and Worsthorne are to one another, despite the clear divergence of opinion and the potential for it to descend into a screaming match.</p>
<p>Sangfroid was also in the air on May 23, 1988, the day before section 28 became law. A group of young women, concerned about the lack of news coverage, invaded a live broadcast of the BBC’s six o'clock news. They gained entrance to the building, bursting onto the studio floor at the start of the programme. The news crew were shocked, with the director shouting “Fucking hell, we’ve got nutters in the studio, get ‘em out! Get security quickly!” </p>
<p>There was no going back, though, so the presenters had to muddle through. A newsreader, Nicholas Witchell, sat on one of the protesters off-screen, placing his hand over her mouth. Meanwhile, presenter Sue Lawley read through the headlines, apologising to viewers: “If you’re hearing quite a lot of noise in the studio at the moment. I’m afraid that, erm, we have rather been invaded by some people who we hope to be removing very shortly.” It’s the slightly incongruous use of “rather” which makes this such a typically British statement – conveying a nonchalant air of detachment when everything around you is falling apart.</p>
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<p>Even the protesters displayed their perfect manners during the invasion, with one saying “thanks very much” as she was cut free from her handcuffs. One protester expressed dismay at Witchell’s response to the invasion, saying in an interview: “I couldn’t believe his language, especially someone from the BBC. It seemed so out of character and, in my opinion, so unnecessary.”</p>
<h2>Protest with pizzazz</h2>
<p>These kinds of invasions evoked a characteristically British madcap humour, reminiscent of the Carry On film series. Another instance of direct action against section 28 took place in the House of Lords on February 2, 1988. This was characterised by a bit of bungling, a lot of luck and an enormous amount of chutzpah. A group of women tied lengths of clothesline around their waists – one of these makeshift ropes even fell to the ground as they were in the line for security, but nobody spotted that. After watching the Lords take a key vote on section 28, they tied the lengths of line to the balcony and climbed down them to the floor. </p>
<p>While the shocked Lords and Ladies looked on, the women scuffled with the ushers, with one almost losing his trousers. During the fracas, two women simply walked out of the building, while those who did not escape were handled in a most civilised way. They were put in a cell under Big Ben for a few hours, given tea and coffee and allowed to watch television, then later released without charge. The arresting officer even took them on a tour to the cell where suffragette Emily Pankhurst had been held.</p>
<p>Section 28 was eventually repealed in 2003 and is seen as a stain on British political history. However, it should also stand as a testament to the indefatigable spirit of those campaigners, who deserve to be remembered for the calm, inventive and often hilarious ways that they protested an unfair law.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/176851/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Baker does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Opposition to the controversial law reflected the British national character, reminiscent of comedies like the Carry On films.Paul Baker, Professor of Linguistics and English Language, Lancaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1734332021-12-10T10:09:22Z2021-12-10T10:09:22ZWhen academics become anti-LGBT activists: fear and hate in Indonesian academia<p>In Western academia, it seems common sense that discrimination should have no place in society, including against LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual/transgender) people.</p>
<p>This achievement is the result of decades of struggle and bitter experiences of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/06/13/being-gay-in-america-is-still-a-radical-act/">LGBT-phobia in Western societies</a>.</p>
<p>Indonesian society, on the other hand, has been <a href="https://theconversation.com/on-gender-diversity-in-indonesia-101087">historically quite tolerant</a> with people of different gender expression and sexual orientation. But the country has experienced <a href="https://www.hrw.org/video-photos/interactive/2016/08/10/2016-indonesias-lgbt-crisis-words">an increasing wave of homophobia in politics and society</a> in the past few years.</p>
<p>This is also the case in Indonesian academia.</p>
<p>I compiled <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mYSN2CVb-euuIhe3R0K2o6-uFWMIFbABvbaFgFckd_U/edit?usp=sharing">a list of incidents throughout 2016-2021</a>. Though probably incomplete, the list involves many institutions and reveals an intense LGBT-hostile atmosphere among Indonesian universities.</p>
<p>These incidents include, among others, the <a href="https://www.tribunnews.com/video/2015/12/04/rektor-hasriadi-akan-pecat-penyebar-virus-lgbt">dismissal of students and staff</a> who share “the LGBT virus”, <a href="http://www.riaubook.com/berita/7899/terungkap-ternyata-ada-komunitas-lgbt-di-kampus-kampus-di-riau-ini-buktinya.html">university-sponsored rallies</a> against LGBT students, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/teror-akademik-masih-membungkam-wacana-keragaman-gender-dan-seksual-di-kampus-indonesia-167202">crackdowns on queer-themed academic discussions</a>.</p>
<p>As Western and Indonesian academia continue to engage in co-operation, we should find common ways of counteracting discrimination, including discrimination against people with non-heteronormative gender expressions and identities.</p>
<h2>Amplifying state-sponsored homophobia</h2>
<p>Over the years, Indonesian universities have joined the state-sponsored homophobia – including <a href="https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2020/09/05/police-lambasted-for-targeting-lgbt-community-in-raid-in-jakarta.html">law enforcement</a> and <a href="https://news.detik.com/berita/d-3125654/menristek-saya-larang-lgbt-di-semua-kampus-itu-tak-sesuai-nilai-kesusilaan">statements by politicians</a> fuelling hatred of LGBT people.</p>
<p>Academics often work hand-in-hand with these institutions and rely on statements from religious authorities, while at the same time providing anti-LGBT activists with seemingly scientific arguments.</p>
<p>Within the academic discourse, for instance, some Indonesian scholars (and also students) reproduce the state’s argument that LGBTs are a threat to an imagined national harmony.</p>
<p>In 2016, the then minister of research, Muhammad Nasir, declared LGBT individuals were <a href="https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/01/25/lgbt-not-welcome-university-minister.html">not welcome at Indonesian universities</a>. He said they “corrupt the morals of the nation”. The then minister of defence, Ryamizard Ryacudu, even said the LGBT movement was <a href="https://www.thejakartapost.com/academia/2016/12/22/a-case-against-the-militarys-newfound-proxy-war-obsession.html">part of a proxy war</a> to weaken the nation.</p>
<p>Academics usually refrain from such dramatic statements. But there are some who maintain the idea of LGBTs as a threat.</p>
<p>Indonesian terms for queer gender expressions, both nationally (such as <em>waria</em> or <em>transpuan</em>) and in local cultures (such as <em>bissu</em> in South Sulawesi or <em>tayu</em> in Bengkulu) have increasingly been superseded by the term “LGBT”, which has Western and foreign associations.</p>
<p>Moreover, “LGBT” is linked in both public and academic discourses to derogatory connotations.</p>
<p>Negative stigmas attached to LGBTs in global discourses typically involve pedophilia, Western intervention, pornography and prostitution. However, statements by Indonesian scholars often highlight <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13552074.2018.1429103">health issues (LGBTs as a threat that spreads STDs)</a> as well as <a href="https://www.e-ir.info/2016/03/21/against-state-straightism-five-principles-for-including-lgbt-indonesians/">religious stances</a>.</p>
<p>It is therefore not surprising that anti-LGBT proponents in academia often have a conservative Islamic background.</p>
<p>However, they effectively link their moral claims not only to religion, but also to Indonesian nationalism.</p>
<p>A common example is the use of the phrase, “the young generation of the Indonesian people” (<em>generasi muda bangsa</em>), which is seemingly threatened by sexually transmitted diseases and immoral activities.</p>
<p>Applying the term “<em>bangsa</em>” is an effective tool to connect religious morality with Indonesian nationalism. LGBTs thus emerge as the embodiment of an otherwise vague and abstract threat. </p>
<h2>Academics as anti-LGBT activists</h2>
<p>Conservative Indonesian scholars <a href="https://indonesiaatmelbourne.unimelb.edu.au/ailas-unsuccessful-petition-a-narrow-escape-from-overcriminalisation/">gained public attention in 2017</a> when the Indonesian Family Love Alliance (Aliansi Cinta Keluarga or AILA) sought a judicial review at the Constitutional Court.</p>
<p>They demanded the criminalisation of homosexual activities and LGBT activism, with punishment of up to five years in prison. As usual, these academics argued that LGBTs contribute to the spread of HIV-AIDS.</p>
<p><a href="https://news.detik.com/berita/d-3266050/sidang-mk-kasus-homoseks-ahli-sebut-lgbt-picu-angka-kenaikan-hivaids">They also claimed it is unethical</a> that such people get expensive medicine paid for by public health insurance, making ordinary Indonesians pay for them.</p>
<p>Not surprisingly, the language they used referred not only to empirical findings but also moral stances.</p>
<p>Euis Sunarti, a professor at the Bogor Agricultural Institute (IPB), for instance, is an AILA scholar. She teaches in the field of “family resilience and empowerment” (<em>ketahanan dan pemberdayaan keluarga</em>). In her view, LGBT activities threaten the institution of the family, and therefore the state must take action.</p>
<p>Statements from scholars mirror those of religious authorities and state officials. In this way, they further blur the boundary between religion, the state and science.</p>
<p>This anti-LGBT narrative also serves as a tool for unifying Indonesia’s many social and economic groups. Thus, it perpetuates the idea of a harmonious society at the expense of <a href="https://theconversation.com/onslaughts-against-gays-and-lesbians-challenge-indonesias-lgbt-rights-movement-54639">an already marginalised group</a>.</p>
<p>Sadly, it does so by generating fear and prejudice. </p>
<h2>Counteracting fear and hate</h2>
<p>Many academics from Western countries maintain close ties with scholars and institutions in Indonesia. Since they often support anti-discriminatory actions around the world, they should not turn a blind eye to discrimination against queer people committed by the institutions we are working with. </p>
<p>While open confrontation might not always be effective, I believe critical scholars cannot be quiet when minorities are discriminated against on Indonesian campuses.</p>
<p>The task is not only to challenge <a href="https://www.thejakartapost.com/academia/2020/01/30/rejecting-homophobic-pseudoscience.html">pseudo-scientific anti-LGBT discourses</a> in Indonesian academia, but also to evoke empathy for people who are increasingly marginalised and excluded from education due to their gender expressions and identities.</p>
<p>Fortunately, Indonesia is also home to many critical and engaged scholars. Academic institutions in the Global North can find knowledgeable partners among these scholars that we can work with.</p>
<p>However, Western scholars should not avoid controversial debates with our Indonesian counterparts either. For instance, when signing MoUs or other forms of agreement on co-operation with Indonesian counterparts, issues such as discrimination can be discussed.</p>
<p>Critical scholars can tackle LGBT hate in Indonesia in the same way they criticise, for instance, growing <a href="https://theconversation.com/islamophobia-in-western-media-is-based-on-false-premises-151443">Islamophobia in the West</a>. Stressing to Indonesian partners that state-driven hate against minorities is structurally similar to hatred against Muslims in the West – that is, as a supposed threat to the nation – might be a viable approach.</p>
<p>It is an academic duty to engage in creating a world with less fear and hate. This is something Indonesian and Western scholars should do together.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/173433/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Timo Duile receives funding from the German Research Foundation (DFG). The associated research does not explore topics related to the LGBT community.</span></em></p>As Western and Indonesian academics continue to engage in co-operation, we should find common ways of counteracting discrimination, including discriminatory practices against the LGBT community.Timo Duile, Lecturer and researcher at the Institute for Oriental and Asian Studies, University of BonnLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1657402021-08-11T20:07:37Z2021-08-11T20:07:37ZWhy New Zealand’s proposed law banning conversion practices is so unlikely to criminalise parents<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415588/original/file-20210811-23-1rnyfa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5463%2C3604&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Given all parliamentary parties have said they oppose conversion practices being performed on LGBTQ+ people, you could be forgiven for wondering why the first reading of the <a href="https://www.legislation.govt.nz/bill/government/2021/0056/latest/whole.html#LMS487197">Conversion Practices Prohibition Legislation Bill</a> last week didn’t pass unanimously.</p>
<p>In the end, the bill passed comfortably, 87-33, but the National Party has sown doubt by voting against it due to the <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/i-will-not-support-parents-being-criminalised-for-being-parents-judith-collins-on-conversion-therapy-bill/ILX7Y2XWNBIXCSROZ4JQAJ76DQ/">alleged risk</a> of criminalising parents “for trying to advise their 12-year-old child not to take puberty blockers”.</p>
<p>ACT voted for the bill to proceed to select committee but voiced <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/act-supports-conversion-therapy-ban-bill-national-holding-out-over-parental-concerns/QJGIIHIIEC6Q57K2JQGQ5RPCPI/">similar concerns</a>, and also <a href="https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/hansard-debates/rhr/document/HansS_20210805_051960000/mckee-nicole-rurawhe-adrian">argued</a> it would unduly restrict the ability of religious people to express and engage with their beliefs.</p>
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<p>While there are some <a href="https://www.legislation.govt.nz/bill/government/2021/0056/latest/LMS494268.html">other aspects</a> of the bill that might assuage these concerns, whether or not these are realistic fears ultimately comes down to the bill’s <a href="https://www.legislation.govt.nz/bill/government/2021/0056/latest/LMS487215.html">definition</a> of “conversion practice”. The core of the definition is contained in section 5(1), which says:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In this Act, conversion practice means any practice that —</p>
<p>(a) is directed towards an individual because of the individual’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression; and</p>
<p>(b) is performed with the intention of changing or suppressing the individual’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression.</p>
</blockquote>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-ban-on-conversion-therapy-has-to-include-religious-groups-160896">Why the ban on conversion therapy has to include religious groups</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<h2>The definitions are clear</h2>
<p>Right off the bat, you can see that to count as a conversion practice there must be a practice. This word by itself strongly suggests a course of conduct or action is required.</p>
<p>Moreover, it must be “directed towards an individual” — again suggesting a passive <em>failure</em> to do something (such as not seeking affirming health care for a trans child) would not be caught by the law because it is not directed at a person.</p>
<p>The practice must also be intended to change or suppress the individual’s sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. </p>
<p>It is difficult to see how merely advising their child against a particular healthcare option could be seen as suppressing their gender identity or expression.</p>
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<p>Section 5 explicitly draws on Australian legislation that also supports the idea that this sort of parental reluctance would not be caught by the bill. One of these Australian laws, a 2020 amendment to Queensland’s Public Health Act, gives <a href="https://www.legislation.qld.gov.au/view/html/inforce/current/act-2005-048#sec.213F">examples</a> of what conversion practices include:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>inducing nausea, vomiting or paralysis while showing the person same-sex images</p></li>
<li><p>using shame or coercion to give the person an aversion to same-sex attractions or to encourage gender-conforming behaviour</p></li>
<li><p>using other techniques on the person encouraging the person to believe being lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or intersex is a defect or disorder.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>These are clearly ongoing courses of action directed at making a person associate pain and shame with their sexual or gender identity.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-is-the-australian-christian-lobby-waging-a-culture-war-over-lgbtq-issues-127805">Why is the Australian Christian Lobby waging a culture war over LGBTQ issues?</a>
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<h2>Why parents are covered</h2>
<p>It is not unreasonable to see the examples in the Queensland act – which directly influenced the drafting of New Zealand’s bill – as further evidence that family discussions about appropriate health care (even if it involves parents not immediately seeking out the health care their child wants) simply aren’t matters the bill is concerned with.</p>
<p>It is, however, appropriate that the bill covers parents who do take an active course of action to suppress or change their child’s identity. </p>
<p>The sad fact is that, in almost all cases, if a child is subjected to conversion practices it is because their parents have sent them there. A general exclusion for parents would defeat the purpose of the bill.</p>
<p>That said, section 5(2) does explicitly exclude some types of conduct from the definition of conversion practice. These include helping a person express their gender identity or transition to a different gender, facilitating a person’s coping skills or identity exploration, and providing acceptance, support or understanding of an individual.</p>
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<h2>Expressing religious beliefs is allowed</h2>
<p>There are also medical and religious exclusions. The former is written slightly oddly, but functionally means that regulated medical professions – including doctors, nurses, psychologists and psychotherapists – can provide advice and support for LGBTQ+ people within the normal ethical practice of their profession without risking being caught by the bill.</p>
<p>The professions covered by this carve-out do not include counsellors, although the Association of Counsellors <a href="https://www.nzac.org.nz/assets/Ethics/Conversion-Therapy-2020.pdf">unequivocally considers</a> conversion practices to be unethical.</p>
<p>The religious exclusion is not a general exemption for all conduct based on religious beliefs. That would defeat the purpose of the bill, because many conversion practices are indeed religious.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/its-time-to-talk-about-gay-reparations-and-how-they-can-rectify-past-persecutions-of-lgbtq-people-162086">It's time to talk about gay reparations and how they can rectify past persecutions of LGBTQ people</a>
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<p>What it does do is state that merely expressing religious principles or beliefs to an individual without any intention to change or suppress their identity will not be caught by the bill. General religious discussion or preaching, even if it could be seen as homophobic, is not a conversion practice. </p>
<p>What this means is that if a priest, for example, said to an LGBTQ+ person, “It’s a sin to be gay, you’re a sinner”, this would not be caught by the bill. If, however, they added, “I can help change you, or make you put that part of yourself in a little box you never think about”, and offered “therapy” from a religious standpoint, it would be. </p>
<p>What is targeted is the <em>practice</em>, not the beliefs that motivate it. Given this explicit exclusion, ACT’s concerns about the effect on general freedom of religion seem overblown.</p>
<h2>Definitions no reason to oppose the bill</h2>
<p>The fears raised about the effect on families struggling to deal with a child’s gender identity are not borne out by the actual text of the bill. </p>
<p>On their own, awkward or emotional discussions, or a failure to actively seek out affirming health care, cannot reach the required threshold of active, deliberate conduct.</p>
<p>If even more clarity is required, perhaps the wording of the definition could be changed to “<em>actively</em> suppressing”, making it (even more) crystal clear that passive failure to act cannot be caught. That is a very minor tweak, however, and could easily be made at the select committee.</p>
<p>It is certainly no reason to vote against ending a practice that every party in parliament agrees is cruel and unnecessary.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/165740/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eddie Clark does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Fears that concerned parents might fall foul of a new law banning gay conversion practices are not borne out by the strict definitions in the bill before parliament.Eddie Clark, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Law, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of WellingtonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1658002021-08-10T01:44:35Z2021-08-10T01:44:35ZLGBTIQ+ people are being ignored in the census again. Not only is this discriminatory, it’s bad public policy<p>“Do you know how many LGBTIQ+ folks live in Australia? It turns out no one does, and we’re not about to find out in the upcoming census.” </p>
<p>Courtney Act, an Australian drag queen and television personality, <a href="https://m.facebook.com/EqualityAustralia/videos/187949036711096/?refsrc=deprecated&locale2=ne_NP&_rdr">made this point</a> on Facebook last week as part of Equality Australia’s push to have LGBTIQ+ people counted in the census. </p>
<p>Once again, the census is failing to accurately collect data on sex, sexual orientation and gender diversity.</p>
<p>The census ticks around every five years to provide a snapshot of who we are and how we are changing. It is not just about collecting statistics about where we live, who we live with, our work, lives, income and health, but it also provides crucial insights to inform the vital services that Australians need. </p>
<p>We cannot effectively support all of Australia if we do not count all of Australia (and it’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-need-to-count-lgbti-communities-in-the-next-census-heres-why-124769">not the first time we’ve argued this too</a>). </p>
<p>Currently, we do not understand how many people identify as LGBTIQ+, where they are, or anything about their socioeconomic status, health, relationships and more. </p>
<p>It is a matter of serious concern, particularly given LGBTIQ+ folk often face <a href="https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/lgbtihealth/pages/549/attachments/original/1620871703/2021_Snapshot_of_Mental_Health2.pdf?1620871703">higher suicide and mental health concerns</a> and worrying rates of <a href="https://www.dvrcv.org.au/sites/default/files/Family-violence-in-an-LGBTIQ-context-Kate-OHalloran.pdf">domestic violence</a>. LGBTIQ+ people also have unique needs when it comes to the provision of services, from health to housing and beyond. </p>
<p>As Amnesty International <a href="https://www.amnesty.org.au/lgbtqia-australians-have-been-left-out-of-the-2021-census/">notes</a>, the census’s lack of appropriate questions capturing LGBTIQ+ communities and experiences “will result in a service gap that constitutes discrimination of the LGBTQIA+ community”.</p>
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<h2>So, what was supposed to be asked?</h2>
<p>In <a href="https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/download/publications/tabledpapers/0d17ec78-cb05-40e1-81bf-990299e32d4d/upload_pdf/OPD%20219%20gender.pdf;fileType=application%2Fpdf#search=%22senate%20orders%22">a submission to the Senate in 2019</a>, questions around sexuality and gender identity were proposed for inclusion in the 2021 census. These were developed in consultation with LGBTIQ+ communities, and can generally be seen as best practice. </p>
<p>Then the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) walked away from them. Why?</p>
<p>The ABS voted against these new questions due to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/dec/03/abs-said-census-questions-on-gender-and-sexual-orientation-risked-public-backlash">perceived public backlash</a> - particularly after some of the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-08-09/abs-website-inaccessible-on-census-night/7711652">technical difficulties of the 2016 #censusfail</a>. </p>
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<p>The decision came after assistant treasurer Michael Sukkar <a href="https://qnews.com.au/minister-under-fire-after-lgbtiq-census-questions-dropped/">expressed “a preference”</a> about not including the questions in testing, David Kalisch, the former Australian statistician, said in 2019. </p>
<p>This is despite the fact that in qualitative testing of census questions, those on gender and sexuality “<a href="https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/download/publications/tabledpapers/0d17ec78-cb05-40e1-81bf-990299e32d4d/upload_pdf/OPD%20219%20gender.pdf;fileType=application%2Fpdf#search=%22senate%20orders%22">performed well</a>” with both target and non-target populations. These draft questions were also recommended by multiple federal departments. </p>
<p>And, in 2019 Senate submission documents, the ABS itself noted there are “no other suitable alternative data sources” to collect such crucial information. It also identified data on LGBTIQ+ communities as “<a href="https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/download/publications/tabledpapers/0d17ec78-cb05-40e1-81bf-990299e32d4d/upload_pdf/OPD%20219%20gender.pdf;fileType=application%2Fpdf#search=%22senate%20orders%22">of current national importance</a>”.</p>
<p>It’s also despite the fact that the majority of Australians voted for marriage equality, and Australia has generally taken more progressive steps towards gender and sexuality inclusion in the last few years.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/census-2021-is-almost-here-whats-changed-since-censusfail-whats-at-stake-in-this-pandemic-survey-164784">Census 2021 is almost here — what's changed since #censusfail? What's at stake in this pandemic survey?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What’s being asked instead?</h2>
<p>Nothing in this year’s census asks specifically about sexuality. The question on gender identity and sex has also conflates the concepts — <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-difference-between-sex-and-gender-and-why-both-matter-in-health-research-162746#:%7E:text=The%20term%20sex%20is%20generally,men%20and%20gender%2Ddiverse%20people.">despite international efforts to address the issue</a>.</p>
<p>Although some of the questions on cohabitation and families make it possible to garner some data on people in same-sex relationships, only those who are couples and who live together are counted. </p>
<p>The question about sex/gender limits choices to male/female/non-binary sex. It obscures data on transgender and intersex folk and does not recognise differences in gender identity (how a person sees themselves or the social/cultural aspects of identity) and sex (a person’s anatomy or biological sex characteristics). </p>
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<p>Further, question 37 erases the experience of some trans people entirely. It asks, “for each female, how many babies has she ever given birth to?”. This blatantly ignores the fact that many transmen (often those who have transitioned from female to male) <a href="https://7news.com.au/news/social/medicare-figures-show-dozens-of-australian-men-are-now-giving-birth-every-year-c-389349">can and have given birth</a>.</p>
<p>While the census has included questions around other identity categories, including race, ethnic ancestry, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and people living with a disability, LGBTIQ+ remains overlooked — and without good reason.</p>
<h2>How does Australia compare globally?</h2>
<p>There’s a major gap globally in the inclusion of these data on national census questionnaires.</p>
<p>Much was made of the hasty withdrawal of questions relating to gender and sexuality in the <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/lgbtq-americans-won-t-be-counted-2020-u-s-census-n739911">2020 US census</a>, a move that was highly scrutinised in the political pressure cooker of the Trump administration. </p>
<p>In a country where federal marriage equality was achieved in 2015, millions of LGBTIQ+ Americans will now have to wait until 2030 (at least) to contribute their experiences to the US census. </p>
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<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/oct/18/census-to-ask-about-sexual-orientation-for-the-first-time">In the UK</a>, voluntary questions on sexual orientation and gender identity will be asked this year in England and Wales, and in Scotland in 2022. </p>
<p>Yet, in general, a <a href="https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/dbbb7a05-en/index.html?itemId=/content/component/dbbb7a05-en">2019 report</a> noted only a few nationally representative surveys contained questions on LGBTIQ+ identity in the OECD, and none (at that stage) included them in the census. </p>
<h2>Why the census has failed us</h2>
<p>Determining whom and what is counted has always been part of census history — a history that has not always been neutral or fair. In fact, the census has often ignored or marginalised various communities for socio-political reasons. </p>
<p>For instance, <a href="https://guides.slv.vic.gov.au/earlycensus/history">while population counts began with colonisation around 1788</a> and the first census (as we know it, of people in dwellings) occurred in 1828, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs%40.nsf/mediareleasesbyCatalogue/E31B62F372FC7BCECA2581320029DC01#:%7E:text=On%20Saturday%2027%20May%2C%20Australia,beginning%20with%20the%201971%20Census.">only fully included in the census in 1971</a>, almost two centuries later.</p>
<p>Longstanding structural racism and discrimination help explain the census’s historic incomplete data collection on First Nations people. Does the same hold true for the modern census’s approach to LGBTIQ+ communities? </p>
<p>Perhaps. Given there was strong evidence, arguments and testing around new questions on gender and sexuality in the census, it seems the ABS’s willful ignorance towards LGBTIQ+ people can only be justified by political conservatism and discrimination. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/its-time-to-talk-about-gay-reparations-and-how-they-can-rectify-past-persecutions-of-lgbtq-people-162086">It's time to talk about gay reparations and how they can rectify past persecutions of LGBTQ people</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Although LGBTIQ+ people have more reason than most to be wary of the quantitative collection of sensitive data, it still desperately needs to be collected. </p>
<p>Inclusion of targeted questions on gender and sexuality also requires greater assurances around data integrity — a particular concern of older members of the LGBTIQ+ community who lived through the <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/topics/pride/agenda/article/2016/08/12/definitive-timeline-lgbt-rights-australia">criminalisation of homosexuality</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/witch-hunts-and-surveillance-the-hidden-lives-of-queer-people-in-the-military-76156">lesbian witch hunts, surveillance</a> and <a href="https://qnews.com.au/australian-lgbtiq-history-timeline-the-20th-century/">other related trauma</a>.</p>
<p>Ultimately, not only is the lack of recognition <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/it-s-time-we-counted-census-makes-lgbtiq-people-invisible-20210805-p58fzx.html">distressing for many LGBTIQ+ people, it is also bad public policy</a>. Australia needs reliable, informed data on sex, sexual orientation and gender identity. Without it, the census is too risk-averse to even be accurate. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>This story has been updated to correct that the next US census is in 2030, not 2025.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/165800/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Despite the ABS itself saying that collecting data on LGBTIQ+ communities is of ‘national importance’, these questions have been left off the census again — for no good reason.Elise Stephenson, Postdoctoral Research Fellow of the Policy Innovation Hub, Griffith UniversityJack Hayes, Researcher, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1613982021-06-18T17:50:24Z2021-06-18T17:50:24ZSupreme Court unanimously upholds religious liberty over LGBTQ rights – and nods to a bigger win for conservatives ahead<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407218/original/file-20210618-15-14zupid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4992%2C3323&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Supreme Court has tended to side in favor of religious rights.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/SupremeCourtFosterCareImpact/b35b639fd5144d778acbad3e33373d28/photo?Query=Catholic%20Social%20Services&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=85&currentItemNo=0">AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It wasn’t a dramatic expansion of religious rights – not yet. But the Supreme Court’s ruling <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2020/19-123">in favor of a Catholic adoption agency</a> that had been excluded from Philadelphia’s foster programs for refusing to work with same-sex couples will be consequential. It suggests that when the broader question of whether religious groups have the right to discriminate does come before the justices, they will likely uphold religious liberty over gay rights.</p>
<p>The court’s decision, <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf/19-123_g3bi.pdf">delivered in a 9-0 ruling</a>, emphasizes a pluralist approach: The Christian agency gets to participate in the adoption programs while adhering to its religious beliefs, and LGBTQ couples will continue to have access to other adoption agencies within the Philadelphia system.</p>
<p>The ruling is narrow, but it means that any unequal treatment of religious groups will be regarded as a violation of the First Amendment, even if it comes at the expense of the dignity of LGBTQ citizens.</p>
<p>Perhaps the most important aspect of the ruling is its unanimity in upholding a clear standard of neutral treatment for religious and secular groups. The city government claimed it was not violating this standard, but even the liberal justices agreed it was. </p>
<p>The city’s contention that government funding or the city’s contracting rules shifted the equation against religious rights was roundly rejected by the court. </p>
<p>The unanimous ruling was achieved by <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/6/17/22538645/supreme-court-fulton-philadelphia-lgbtq-catholic-social-services-foster-care-john-roberts-religion">delaying another core question</a> that some of the justices wanted to address: whether religious businesses or groups have the clear right to deny service to the LGBTQ community or whether states can insist that in the public square, such faith-based groups set aside discriminatory beliefs.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, as a <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/us/series/16259">scholar of the Supreme Court</a>, I believe the decision of the nine justices will have broad ramifications for current government policies and future judicial rulings. By subordinating the dignity of same-sex couples to the religious rights of believers, the court’s new decisive ruling will influence many interactions between religious organizations and LGBTQ citizens. </p>
<h2>Harming the dignity of same-sex couples</h2>
<p>The case in front of the Supreme Court addressed the city of Philadelphia’s refusal to continue to allow Catholic Social Services to participate in the city’s adoption and foster programs because the religious charity would not serve same-sex couples. </p>
<p><a href="https://cssphiladelphia.org/">The group</a> claimed that its <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/first_amendment">First Amendment</a> right to free exercise of religion had been violated as a result. </p>
<p>The organization, along with <a href="https://www.inquirer.com/philly/opinion/commentary/catholic-social-services-philadelphia-lawsuit-lgbtq-gay-foster-parents-adoption-sharonell-fulton-20180524.html">Sharonell Fulton</a> and <a href="https://becketnewsite.s3.amazonaws.com/Opinion-_-Why-I-hope-the-Supreme-Court-sides-with-Catholic-Social-Services-in-Fulton-v.-Philadelphia-The-Washington-Post1.pdf">Toni Simms-Busch</a> – two Catholic women who wished to serve as foster parents through the agency – sued the city.</p>
<p>They were aided by the <a href="https://www.becketlaw.org/">Becket Fund for Religious Liberty</a>, a nonprofit law firm behind several successful Supreme Court cases, including 2014’s <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/sebelius-v-hobby-lobby-stores-inc/">Burwell v. Hobby Lobby</a>, which upheld the ability of religious businesses to refuse to pay for forms of contraception that violate their beliefs, and <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/little-sisters-of-the-poor-saints-peter-and-paul-home-v-pennsylvania/">Little Sisters of the Poor v. Pennsylvania</a> in 2021, which also protected religious exemptions to contraceptive coverage under the Affordable Care Act. </p>
<p>The city of Philadelphia argued that religious rights do not allow for harms to third parties, including to the dignity of the same-sex couples being told publicly that they are not acceptable. </p>
<p>As one <a href="https://law.unlv.edu/faculty/leslie-griffin">constitutional law professor</a> wrote in an <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/19/19-123/150689/20200819171858226_39871%20pdf%20Griffin.pdf">amicus brief</a> in favor of the city: “The believers can believe whatever they like and organize their affairs through discriminatory purposes, to be sure, but not when the government is paying and not <a href="https://verdict.justia.com/2020/11/05/stigma-and-the-oral-argument-in-fulton-v-city-of-philadelphia">when the public is impacted</a>.”</p>
<p>But the justices seem to have agreed with the alternative framing offered by <a href="https://www.becketlaw.org/staff/lori-windham/">Lori Windham</a>, the advocate for Fulton: “Does the <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts/2020/19-123_o758.pdf">Free Exercise clause shrink</a> every time the government expands its reach and begins to regulate work that has historically and traditionally been done by religious groups?” </p>
<h2>A surprising unanimity</h2>
<p>All nine justices agreed with the core holding that Philadelphia could not exclude Catholic Social Services. There were no dissents from Justices Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan or Sonia Sotomayor – the current liberal wing of the court. </p>
<p>But three of the conservative justices – Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas – signed <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf/19-123_g3bi.pdf#page=23">separate</a> <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf/19-123_g3bi.pdf#page=100">opinions</a> agreeing with the outcome but arguing that the protections of religious rights should have been even stronger.</p>
<p>The ruling does not protect the ability of religious groups to discriminate or exclude under any circumstances. Rather, it prevents government authorities only from applying different standards to religious and secular organizations. Philadelphia’s policies did not apply a “generally applicable” rule, but instead allow exceptions at their discretion.</p>
<p>In coming to their decision, the justices <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1989/88-1213">cited</a> previous <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1992/91-948">decisions</a> holding that if government allows exceptions for secular reasons, then the First Amendment demands that they also allow them for religious reasons. As Chief Justice John Roberts <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf/19-123_g3bi.pdf#page=14">phrased it</a>, “The creation of a formal mechanism for granting exceptions renders a policy not generally applicable.”</p>
<p>In presenting the case to the justices, Fulton’s attorney argued: “In our pluralistic society, this Court has repeatedly said that there should be room for those with different views.”</p>
<p>Roberts’ majority opinion <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf/19-123_g3bi.pdf#page=6">appears to reflect</a> that view: “No same-sex couple has ever sought certification from CSS. If one did, CSS would direct the couple to one of the more than 20 other agencies in the City, all of which currently certify same-sex couples.” </p>
<p>For <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf/19-123_g3bi.pdf#page=19">this reason</a>, “CSS seeks only an accommodation that will allow it to continue serving the children of Philadelphia in a manner consistent with its religious beliefs; it does not seek to impose those beliefs on anyone else.”</p>
<h2>The expansion of religious rights</h2>
<p>At a mere 15 pages, the ruling is what Justice Alito described as a “<a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf/19-123_g3bi.pdf#page=99">wisp of a decision</a>” in his 77-page concurrence. He argued that the court should have decided more boldly in favor of expanded religious rights.</p>
<p>The Fulton decision follows a long string of <a href="https://theconversation.com/christianity-at-the-supreme-court-from-majority-power-to-minority-rights-119718">other rulings that have tipped in favor of religious claimants</a>. In recent years, the court has increasingly protected the freedom of religious groups <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/trinity-lutheran-church-of-columbia-inc-v-pauley/">in government programs</a>, in <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/masterpiece-cakeshop-ltd-v-colorado-civil-rights-commn/">commerce</a>, in <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/the-american-legion-v-american-humanist-association/">public displays</a> and in <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/espinoza-v-montana-department-of-revenue/">public school programs</a>.</p>
<p>The most recent ruling also suggests the limits of LGBTQ rights under the current court. There have been no major victories on this issue at the Supreme Court since the 2018 retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy – the <a href="https://theconversation.com/justice-kennedys-lgbtq-legacy-may-be-short-lived-81239">author of every major gay rights ruling</a> in recent decades including Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized same-sex marriage throughout the country in 2015. But Kennedy himself hinted at the limits to LGBTQ rights when they are in opposition to religious liberties, writing in the <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/14pdf/14-556_3204.pdf#page=32">Obergefell</a> decision that “the First Amendment ensures that religious organizations and persons are given proper protection as they seek to teach the principles that are so fulfilling and so central to their lives and faiths.”</p>
<p>Since the Obergefell case, most of the Supreme Court cases addressing LGBTQ rights have not been brought by an LGBTQ plaintiff. Instead, they have have been brought – and won – by religious groups.</p>
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<h2>The question to come</h2>
<p>The Fulton case proved no exception to this <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-supreme-court-found-its-faith-and-put-religious-liberty-on-a-winning-streak-158509">winning streak for religious rights</a>. </p>
<p>But what the ruling did not do is hand down a definitive answer to the question that these cases are moving toward: Should gay rights or religious rights yield when the two are in irreconcilable conflict? When the court answers that question, it will likely not be unanimous. But the current trajectory suggests that religious rights are more likely to prevail.</p>
<p>As Justice Gorsuch concluded in his concurring opinion, “<a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf/19-123_g3bi.pdf#page=109">dodging the question today guarantees it will recur tomorrow</a>.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/161398/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Morgan Marietta does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In an unanimous decision, the nine justices said the city of Philadelphia was wrong to exclude a Catholic agency from its adoption programs.Morgan Marietta, Associate Professor of Political Science, UMass LowellLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.