LGBT

People, you just canNOT make this stuff up. Last Friday, I brought you the absurd story of the student who was bullied during at TV interview ON BULLYING.

Then today I find this gem: a school district appointed a hate group to its anti-bullying task force. Yep. You read that correctly.

Back in March, the Anoka-Hennepin School District just outside Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the U.S. Departments of Education and Justice filed a landmark consent decree to resolve plaintiffs’ claims that middle and high schools in the district failed to address pervasive bullying and harassment of LGBT students (and those perceived as LGBT). The students had alleged violations of a number of laws, including Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which prohibits sex discrimination—including harassment of students for gender non-conformity—in schools that receive federal funding. Read more »

This Thursday, the Second Circuit ruled 2-1 that Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) violates the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution. DOMA defines marriage under federal law as between one man and one woman. The Second Circuit’s ruling continues a recent string of decisions striking down Section 3 of DOMA, which began with the Northern District of California’s ruling in Golinski v. OPM in February and continued with the First Circuit’s ruling in Gill v. OPM. 

In Windsor v. United States, the Second Circuit concluded that laws discriminating against gays and lesbians were subject to “heightened” or “intermediate scrutiny” under the Constitution. According to the Court, heighted scrutiny applies based on the history of discrimination against gays and lesbians and their relative political disempowerment. Heightened scrutiny is the same constitutional standard of review that applies to gender and the Second Circuit here used gender discrimination as an analogy to the discrimination faced by gays and lesbians. Laws subject to heightened scrutiny are presumed to be unconstitutional, unless the challenged legislation is shown to be at least substantially related to an important purpose. In other words, the justification for the law must be “exceedingly persuasive.”

The Second Circuit found that the DOMA failed to meet heightened scrutiny because the purposes given for the law — uniformity at the federal level on marriage, conservation of federal resources, preserving a traditional definition of marriage, and “responsible” child-rearing — were not promoted by the law. Read more »

Happy National Coming Out Day, everyone! In honor of this day, in which we celebrate coming out as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) or as an ally, I wanted to take a minute to highlight our resources on existing federal protections for LGBT students. Plus, I’ll give shout-outs to a couple of important laws that the National Women’s Law Center is working hard to get passed, along with our allies at the Human Rights Campaign, GLSEN, the ACLU, and others.

Before I do that, though, take just a second to review a few of the latest stats showing the extent to which bullying and harassment of LGBT students in schools is a serious problem.

• More than 8 out of 10 LGBT students had experienced verbal harassment (being called names or threatened) in the past year because of their sexual orientation.
• LGBT youth are twice as likely as their non-LGBT peers to say that they have been verbally harassed and called names at school.
• Youth who are out at school are more likely than students who are not out to have been called names involving anti-gay slurs, and to experience verbal harassment at school “frequently.”

In some cases, this conduct is more than just “bullying,” it’s sex-based harassment that’s prohibited by Title IX. Read more »

Tuesday, the U.S. District Court of Connecticut joined the Northern District of California, the Southern District of New York, and the First Circuit in holding that Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defines marriage for the purposes of federal law as between one man and one woman, violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution.

In Pedersen v. OPM, Judge Vanessa L. Bryant concluded that gays and lesbians are entitled to significant constitutional protection because of the history of discrimination against them. She rejected arguments made by a group of Republican leaders of the House of Representatives, who have taken up defending DOMA in the courts after the Department of Justice refused to do so. The Pedersen case involved six same-sex couples and a widower, all of whom had been married legally under the laws of Connecticut, Vermont and New Hampshire, and were denied federal benefits. Judge Bryant declined to apply “heightened scrutiny” to Section 3, because the provision could not survive “under even the most deferential level of scrutiny.” Read more »

Last week, the Senate HELP Committee (that’s Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions) held a hearing on an important piece of bipartisan legislation, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which would provide lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals with long overdue protection against discrimination in the workplace. Specifically, ENDA would prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in both public and private employment (with exemption for small businesses and certain religious employers). Although in certain circumstances, LGBT individuals are currently protected from employment discrimination under the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, there is no federal law that explicitly prohibits workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

The HELP Committee hearing provided an important opportunity for advocates, scholars, and business executives to explain their support (and in one case, opposition) of ENDA to members of the Senate. It also marked an historic occasion—Kylan Broadus, Founder of the Trans People of Color Coalition, became the first openly transgender person to testify before the Senate, a milestone that Senator Harkin (and the Washington Blade) noted. Broadus spoke movingly about his experiences as a transgender American and with workplace discrimination, and described his transition as “a matter of living the truth and sharing that truth for the first time in [his] life.” Read more »

Last week, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report on school bullying. Its basic takeaway — indeed, its title — was that the extent of legal protections for vulnerable groups — such as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students — needs to be more fully assessed. Sure, federal government, study away. But in the meantime, let’s agree this is a problem, understand that tools are already in place that can help address it, and advocate for increased legal protections.

The GAO report noted a lack of data from federal agency surveys on the prevalence of bullying on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. But it’s not as if the data doesn’t exist. As the report observes, a 2009 study by GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network) found that nearly 9 out of 10 of the LGBT student respondents had been called names or threatened in the past school year on the basis of their sexual orientation, and two out of three on the basis of their gender expression. And just last week, the Human Rights Campaign released a report on its survey of LGBT-identified youth which found that LGBT youth were twice as likely to have been verbally harassed at school as their non-LGBT peers. I could totally go for a federal study or two, but it seems pretty clear already that this is a serious problem.

And although I can get behind the GAO’s criticism of the lack of data on state law protections for LGBT youth, there are federal protections in place that we know about. Read more »

Up ahead in this edition of NWLC’s weekly roundup: a couple international stories along with a look at “best intentions” laws and how they can hurt pregnant women here in America.

First of all, can we take a moment to talk about Valérie Trierweiler, the new first lady of France? She’s already unwittingly endeared herself to some American women – here are just a few of the reasons why:

• Ms. Trierweiler is one-half of France’s first unmarried presidential couple. Her partner – and newly sworn in French president to boot – is François Hollande.
• She has no plans to quit working. Instead, she’ll continue her work as a political journalist.
• Trierweiler is a working mother – she has three teenage sons, and like many working mothers she’s concerned about balancing her career and her family. “I’ve shared the fate of many working mothers, I felt guilty like them,” Trierweiler once said.
• And the kicker – here’s another quote of hers: “I haven’t been raised to serve a husband. I built my entire life on the idea of independence.”

Of course, it’d be awesome if France’s new president (or any country’s for that matter) were a woman, so that we could celebrate her achievement and not just her status as wife or partner to the male president. But I still think Trierweiler sounds like she’ll be a breath of fresh air in her role as the partner to a head of state. Read more »

Welcome to another weekly roundup! First up this week: the Half in Ten campaign’s new video connecting the hugely popular book/movie series The Hunger Games with cuts to SNAP (food stamp) benefits. It’s well worth the watch – check out the video below. (Need a quick recap on exactly what The Hunger Games is all about? Click here.)

I think the contrast here between a fictional dystopian society that controls its subjects through – among other things – hunger and fear and the mentality to slash a number of programs women and families depend on is striking. While reading The Hunger Games, sometimes that type of future society doesn’t seem possible… but with the dots connected like this, it really strikes home what real Americans, right now, are going through.

On a happier note, are you still looking for the perfect card to send to mom? Strong Families can probably help you out – this week they released a series of e-cards that break past the norm of “flowers and pancakes.” That’s what’s so great about these cards: they intentionally celebrate the many types of mothers and families nationwide. When’s the last time you saw a greeting card celebrating both of a child’s mamas at once?

If you’re interested in perusing these e-cards or sending on to your mom, head to mamasday.org. Read more »

On Friday, President Obama officially endorsed two crucial pieces of legislation currently pending in Congress — the Student Non-Discrimination Act (SNDA) and the Safe Schools Improvement Act (SSIA). The bills are aimed at improving the climate in our nation's schools, especially for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students.

SNDA would outlaw discrimination in K-12 public schools on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity/expression. And the bipartisan SSIA would require schools to undertake affirmative efforts to prevent bullying and harassment in schools, including conduct based on a victim's sexual orientation and gender identity. These bills are essential — a 2009 study by GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network) found that nearly 9 out of 10 LGBT students experienced harassment in schools.

Here at the National Women's Law Center, we have been working actively with our coalition partners to advance SNDA and SSIA. Just last month, NWLC was among a group of seventy LGBT, civil rights, education, labor, and faith groups that sent a letter to President Obama urging him to publicly support and endorse SNDA. And he did!

The Administration's announcement of its support of SDNA and SSIA was timed to coincide with a screening of the new documentary film "Bully" at the White House. I was lucky enough to attend the screening, where Lee Hirsch, the director, and many of the students and families featured in the film spoke poignantly about bullying and harassment in schools, and urged audience members to work to eradicate it. Read more »

On Monday, the U.S. Departments of Education (ED) and Justice (DOJ), six student plaintiffs, and the Anoka-Hennepin School District just outside Minneapolis, Minnesota, filed a landmark consent decree that resolved the plaintiffs’ claims that middle and high schools in the district failed to address pervasive bullying and harassment of students who failed to conform to gender stereotypes. The students alleged violations of a number of laws, including Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which prohibits sex discrimination — including sex-based harassment — in schools that receive federal funding.

In the Anoka-Hennepin School District, students who were or were perceived to be LGBT endured near-daily sex-based harassment, in some cases for years on end. They were subjected to awful slurs, were told by their peers that they were “sinners,” would go to hell, and should kill themselves. Tragically, some student in the district did take their lives as a result of the bullying and harassment. (For further details of harassment targeted at LGBT teens in the district, see the recent Rolling Stone article.)

The consent decree, if approved by the district court, will put in place many essential protections against sex-based harassment, including requirements that the district hire an expert consultant to review its policies and procedures, develop a comprehensive plan to prevent and addressed student-on-student sex-based harassment, provide improved training for both staff and students, and submit annual compliance reports to the DOJ and ED for five years. Read more »