2017 news items
LGBTQIA Alliance of Vermont strongly condemns the recent comment of “hang them all.”
LGBTQIA Alliance of Vermont strongly condemns the recent comment of “hang them all.”
It is truly disturbing and repulsive that Donald Trump would 'joke' about Mike Pence wanting to 'hang them all' in reference to LGBTQ people. Hate motivated violence is tragically still a reality of life for LGBTQ people across our country, it is being encouraged and sanctioned by statements such as this, and affirmatively advanced by the most recent policy stances taken by the current Federal Administration. This most recent remark demonstrates the depth of the open contempt and hostility toward LGBTQ people by this Federal administration, and their belief LGBTQ people be treated as second-class citizens in our own country by stripping away the same rights afforded to all. It is not amusing. It is dangerous. It is un-American.
However, the Federal administration’s hostility towards LGBTQ people does not exist in a vacuum. In January of 2017, the Human Rights Campaign Foundation released a post-election survey of more than 50,000 young people ages 13-18. This survey reveals the deeply damaging fallout from the November 2016 election has had on America’s youth.
The online survey reports that 70 percent of respondents had witnessed bullying, hate messages, or harassment since the election; racial bias was the most common motive cited. More than a quarter of LGBTQ youth said they have been personally bullied or harassed since Election Day; transgender youth were most frequently targeted. Only 14 percent of non-LGBTQ youth reported having personally experiencing bullying or harassment.
The National Coalition of Anti-Violence has reported that as of August 2017 more LGBT people have been killed in what has been categorized as hate-violence-related homicides so far in 2017 than in all of 2016. NCAV reports there have already been 33 hate-violence-related homicides of LGBT people. In 2016, there were 28; that number excludes the 49-people killed in the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando.
These numbers translate to roughly one hate-violence-related death every 13 days in 2016. So far in 2017, the pace of those deaths is at about one every six days.
Fifteen of those who have been killed in 2017 were transgender women of color, and at least 12 were cisgender gay men. The reports cited came from all over the US, from Texas to New York to Wisconsin.
The LGBTQIA Alliance of VT holds that these actions have seen support, and in fact legitimacy, by not only this recent report of Trump’s comment, but clearly by the actions taken by the current Federal administration.
Actions such as:
These actions have created a climate that has allowed this dramatic increase in hate motivated violence. A climate in which intolerance has found fertile ground to spread, and has obtained a never before seen support and legitimacy from the highest part of our government.
It should be noted that some of the recent anti-LGBTQ Federal directives were initiated on, or about, October 12th; the 19th anniversary of the hate motivated beating and murder of Matthew Shepard, whose death parked a proactive discussion of how violence affects LGBTQIA people. Can we truly accept this as mere coincidence?
It is truly disturbing and repulsive that Donald Trump would 'joke' about Mike Pence wanting to 'hang them all' in reference to LGBTQ people. Hate motivated violence is tragically still a reality of life for LGBTQ people across our country, it is being encouraged and sanctioned by statements such as this, and affirmatively advanced by the most recent policy stances taken by the current Federal Administration. This most recent remark demonstrates the depth of the open contempt and hostility toward LGBTQ people by this Federal administration, and their belief LGBTQ people be treated as second-class citizens in our own country by stripping away the same rights afforded to all. It is not amusing. It is dangerous. It is un-American.
However, the Federal administration’s hostility towards LGBTQ people does not exist in a vacuum. In January of 2017, the Human Rights Campaign Foundation released a post-election survey of more than 50,000 young people ages 13-18. This survey reveals the deeply damaging fallout from the November 2016 election has had on America’s youth.
The online survey reports that 70 percent of respondents had witnessed bullying, hate messages, or harassment since the election; racial bias was the most common motive cited. More than a quarter of LGBTQ youth said they have been personally bullied or harassed since Election Day; transgender youth were most frequently targeted. Only 14 percent of non-LGBTQ youth reported having personally experiencing bullying or harassment.
The National Coalition of Anti-Violence has reported that as of August 2017 more LGBT people have been killed in what has been categorized as hate-violence-related homicides so far in 2017 than in all of 2016. NCAV reports there have already been 33 hate-violence-related homicides of LGBT people. In 2016, there were 28; that number excludes the 49-people killed in the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando.
These numbers translate to roughly one hate-violence-related death every 13 days in 2016. So far in 2017, the pace of those deaths is at about one every six days.
Fifteen of those who have been killed in 2017 were transgender women of color, and at least 12 were cisgender gay men. The reports cited came from all over the US, from Texas to New York to Wisconsin.
The LGBTQIA Alliance of VT holds that these actions have seen support, and in fact legitimacy, by not only this recent report of Trump’s comment, but clearly by the actions taken by the current Federal administration.
Actions such as:
- The appointment of the most virulent anti-LGBTQ cabinet in US history.
- The Executive Order prohibiting transgender personnel to serve in the US military.
- Support for the role back of Title IX guidelines for the investigation of sexual assault on campuses.
- The Executive Order directing the US Attorney General for supporting the use of “religious liberty protections” in Federal laws that would support the denial of services and discriminatory actions.
- Support for the amicus brief to the US Supreme Court withdrawing previous support of sexual orientation and gender identity being included under the definition of sex in Title VII of the Civil Rights Enforcement Act of 1964.
- Support for the withdrawal of opinion by Sec. of Education for transgender students in the use of public bathrooms.
These actions have created a climate that has allowed this dramatic increase in hate motivated violence. A climate in which intolerance has found fertile ground to spread, and has obtained a never before seen support and legitimacy from the highest part of our government.
It should be noted that some of the recent anti-LGBTQ Federal directives were initiated on, or about, October 12th; the 19th anniversary of the hate motivated beating and murder of Matthew Shepard, whose death parked a proactive discussion of how violence affects LGBTQIA people. Can we truly accept this as mere coincidence?
Alliance Response to Rescinding DACA
September 5, 2017
The LGBTQIA Alliance of Vermont condemns, in the strongest possible terms, the decision by the Trump administration to cancel the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. This program was started to allow youths who have largely been raised in the US and who have no criminal records to receive a two year, renewable, period of protection from deportation. DACA was seen as a way of removing attention from these kids to allow immigration enforcement to focus on dangerous individuals.
While this racist and anti-immigrant move is unsurprising, the fact that the announcement came while Houston and other areas of Texas are still recovering from the devastation of Hurricane Harvey only emphasizes the administration’s lack of caring, insight, and wisdom.
While cancelling the program will directly effect around 800,000 young people, the reverberations will be felt across the nation, including in the LGBTQI community. Trump’s move will affect approximately 75,000 LGBTQ individuals who qualify for the program, including the 36,000 currently participating in DACA, according to the public policy research group The Williams Institute.
Assuming that the Trump administration continues it’s policy of targeting immigrants with strong work records, existing family ties and long term residency, it is unclear what future these young people face.
This move is unAmerican, racist and cruel and the LGBTQIA Alliance of Vermont deplores the decision and calls on congress to immediately renew and strengthen the program.
The LGBTQIA Alliance of Vermont condemns, in the strongest possible terms, the decision by the Trump administration to cancel the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. This program was started to allow youths who have largely been raised in the US and who have no criminal records to receive a two year, renewable, period of protection from deportation. DACA was seen as a way of removing attention from these kids to allow immigration enforcement to focus on dangerous individuals.
While this racist and anti-immigrant move is unsurprising, the fact that the announcement came while Houston and other areas of Texas are still recovering from the devastation of Hurricane Harvey only emphasizes the administration’s lack of caring, insight, and wisdom.
While cancelling the program will directly effect around 800,000 young people, the reverberations will be felt across the nation, including in the LGBTQI community. Trump’s move will affect approximately 75,000 LGBTQ individuals who qualify for the program, including the 36,000 currently participating in DACA, according to the public policy research group The Williams Institute.
Assuming that the Trump administration continues it’s policy of targeting immigrants with strong work records, existing family ties and long term residency, it is unclear what future these young people face.
This move is unAmerican, racist and cruel and the LGBTQIA Alliance of Vermont deplores the decision and calls on congress to immediately renew and strengthen the program.
Alliance Response to Charlottescville, VA
The LGBTQIA Alliance of Vermont stands in solidarity with the brave protestors in Charlottesville, VA, and expresses sympathy to the family of Heather Heyer.
Alliance Liaison Brenda Churchill of Enosburg Falls echoes the statements put forth by other leaders from within the LGBTQIA communities: “Hate and bigotry must never be met with silence or half-hearted rebukes. All political leaders, from the Federal administration on down, must explicitly, and unequivocally, condemn this violent extremism”.
The recent events in Charlottesville are a stark reminder that the racism and white supremacy which has been allowed to fester for generations has become emboldened by the policies, rhetoric, and support of the current Presidential administration. There are no two sides. The violence being acted out is horrifying, but it is merely the latest manifestation of the growing, and unveiled, racist, anti-immigration, anti-Semitic, sexist and anti-LGBTQ hate in our country. The LGBTQIA Alliance of VT stands proudly with our sisters and brothers who are African-American, First Nation, Immigrant, Jewish, Latino, Muslim, People of Color, People with Disabilities, and all marginalized people targeted by the hate and discrimination that is coming from all directions, from the White House to the streets of Charlottesville.
These forms of white supremacy and hate, the explicit as well as the hidden and structural, the historical and the present, are intimately connected. So, while there are no Klan rallies or torch-wielding white-supremacist marches in Vermont, we must declare our total opposition to all of the forms that white supremacy can take. The LBGTQIA communities are only too familiar with how hate and intolerance can feed and create violence against marginalized communities. A report released this week by The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs has identified that there have already been more hate motivated homicides of LGBT people in the first 6 months of 2017 than in all of 2016. The estimate is there is one LGBT hate related death every 6 days, with the highest number being transgender women of color. The reports of violence extended across the country; hate has no boundaries. Vermont’s LGBTQIA communities are reminded of the death in 2016 of transgender man Amos Beede, and the devastating impact of the massacre at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fl.
Alliance Liaison Keith E Goslant of Montpelier has stated, “I believe in the words of Martin Luther King Jr, that: “Hate can’t drive out hate. Only love can do that.” At this time, we must keep each other close, stand together, hold on to and support each other. Today I choose the emotion of love, for myself and I offer it to my fellow Vermonters, because love is a radical act of rebellion.”
We’re not going to accept bigotry, we’re not going to accept hate, and we’re not going to accept violence.
Alliance Response to Trump's comments on denying transgender people the right to serve in the military:
July 26, 2017
The LGBTQIA Alliance of Vermont issues the following statement in response to the newly stated ban on transgender people serving openly in the military.
Today, in his usual manner of using twitter to respond to issues of significance, President Trump has stated: “After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail.”
The LGBTQIA Alliance of Vermont stands firmly opposed to this ban. Per Alliance Liaison Brenda Churchill, “The only thing that is of significance when it comes to allowing military personnel to serve is whether they can handle the job for which they are trained and to which they are assigned. By attacking thousands of transgender troops already serving, President Trump makes it clear that he cares more about extreme ideology than military readiness.”
The Alliance echoes, and supports the statements made by former Defense Secretary Ash Carter who ended the transgender military ban just last year, and those of Senator Elizabeth Warren: “To choose service members on other grounds than military qualifications is social policy and has no place in our military.” "There are already transgender individuals who are serving capably and honorably. This action would also send the wrong signal to a younger generation thinking about military service.”
As has been provided by the Human Rights Campaign: According to the Williams Institute, there are an estimated 15,500 actively serving transgender members of the U.S. military. Thousands of transgender people have served with honor and distinction in our military, including the more than 134,00 transgender veterans who are alive today. Transgender service members have risked their lives around the world, and the previous transgender military ban made them unable to be their authentic selves or seek the medical care they needed. This had negative implications for our nation’s military readiness. A service member who is able to be open and honest about their gender identity and receive appropriate care is more productive and focused on the mission.
A 2016 Rand study commissioned by the Defense Department found that the medical costs of trans service members represented an “exceedingly small portion of active-component health care expenditures.” According to the study, which analyzed health insurance data on gender transition-related expenditures, extending medical care to transgender service members would increase costs by $2.4 million to $8.4 million a year. That comes out to be between one-tenth and one-twentieth of a percent.
The LGBTQIA Alliance of Vermont issues the following statement in response to the newly stated ban on transgender people serving openly in the military.
Today, in his usual manner of using twitter to respond to issues of significance, President Trump has stated: “After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail.”
The LGBTQIA Alliance of Vermont stands firmly opposed to this ban. Per Alliance Liaison Brenda Churchill, “The only thing that is of significance when it comes to allowing military personnel to serve is whether they can handle the job for which they are trained and to which they are assigned. By attacking thousands of transgender troops already serving, President Trump makes it clear that he cares more about extreme ideology than military readiness.”
The Alliance echoes, and supports the statements made by former Defense Secretary Ash Carter who ended the transgender military ban just last year, and those of Senator Elizabeth Warren: “To choose service members on other grounds than military qualifications is social policy and has no place in our military.” "There are already transgender individuals who are serving capably and honorably. This action would also send the wrong signal to a younger generation thinking about military service.”
As has been provided by the Human Rights Campaign: According to the Williams Institute, there are an estimated 15,500 actively serving transgender members of the U.S. military. Thousands of transgender people have served with honor and distinction in our military, including the more than 134,00 transgender veterans who are alive today. Transgender service members have risked their lives around the world, and the previous transgender military ban made them unable to be their authentic selves or seek the medical care they needed. This had negative implications for our nation’s military readiness. A service member who is able to be open and honest about their gender identity and receive appropriate care is more productive and focused on the mission.
A 2016 Rand study commissioned by the Defense Department found that the medical costs of trans service members represented an “exceedingly small portion of active-component health care expenditures.” According to the study, which analyzed health insurance data on gender transition-related expenditures, extending medical care to transgender service members would increase costs by $2.4 million to $8.4 million a year. That comes out to be between one-tenth and one-twentieth of a percent.
July 26, 2017
Today, in his usual manner of using twitter to respond to issues of significance, President Trump has stated: “After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail.”
So, let's look at the information that is available regarding the Pentagon's budget: Base budget: $496 Billion Personnel: $135 Billion Aircraft: $40 Billion F-35 Fighters: $8 Billion Viagra (yes, the little blue pill): $41.6 Million Cialis (because we want to support the free market): $22.8 Million The 2016 Rand study estimated the cost of healthcare for transgender personnel to be $8.4 million. OutServ estimates there are currently 15 thousand transgender people serving in the military. In the year since the ban has been listed, there are no reports of disruption in military readiness or cohesiveness.
Today, in his usual manner of using twitter to respond to issues of significance, President Trump has stated: “After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail.”
So, let's look at the information that is available regarding the Pentagon's budget: Base budget: $496 Billion Personnel: $135 Billion Aircraft: $40 Billion F-35 Fighters: $8 Billion Viagra (yes, the little blue pill): $41.6 Million Cialis (because we want to support the free market): $22.8 Million The 2016 Rand study estimated the cost of healthcare for transgender personnel to be $8.4 million. OutServ estimates there are currently 15 thousand transgender people serving in the military. In the year since the ban has been listed, there are no reports of disruption in military readiness or cohesiveness.