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07
Feb
2016

MSU Adds Gender Identity and Expression to Their Nondiscrimination Policy

The Missouri State University Board of Governors voted in favor, 6-1, of amending the university’s nondiscrimination policy for both students and employees to include gender identity and gender expression. Other categories that they voted in favor to add include marital status, family status, pregnancy and genetic information. The policy already protects students and employees based on sexual orientation. The updated policy applies to students, faculty, and staff of all Missouri State University campuses.

In June 2014, the University of Missouri Board of Curators voted in favor of adding gender identity and gender expression to their nondiscrimination policy. This decision impacted University of Missouri, Missouri University of Science and Technology, University of Missouri-Kansas City and University of Missouri-St. Louis.

“We are thrilled that Missouri State University, my alma mater, has taken this intentional step to ensure the safety and support of all of their students, faculty, and staff, including those who are transgender.” said Steph Perkins, a Springfield resident and Executive Director of PROMO, Missouri’s statewide LGBT advocacy organization. “Following the repeal of Springfield’s nondiscrimination ordinance in April, we have seen a surge of businesses and organizations take public steps to affirm the local LGBT community. We are proud that MSU is one of those entities.”

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04
Feb
2016

MONA Passes Out of Senate Committee!

The Missouri Nondiscrimination Act (MONA) is making strides in the Missouri Legislature. MONA would add sexual orientation and gender identity to Missouri’s Human Rights Statute, which currently prohibits discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations for other protected categories, including race, sex, and national origin.

The Progress & Development Committee, led by Senator Joseph Keaveny, voted to pass MONA, SB 653, out of the committee February 3rd. This is a step in the long process of completely passing MONA. Previously in 2013, the Senate has voted once in favor of passing the Missouri Nondiscrimination Act out of the full Senate Chamber.

We are thrilled that the Progress & Development Committee have helped MONA move forward in the Senate. Without MONA, thousands of Missourians are at risk of losing their jobs and not being able to provide for their families simply because they are gay or transgender. We thank the committee members for their vote and their support.

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03
Feb
2016

Kansas Bill Would Send Teachers to Prison for Mentioning Sex

The door is opening in Kansas for the wholesale elimination of art, literature, and discussion containing any hint of sexual material. These things will not be banned, they will be discarded through coercion and threats.

Under a Republican bill approved by the Kansas Senate in 2015, and now under consideration by a Kansas House committee, teachers would be stripped of protections currently in place, facing fines or up to six months in prison for using materials that implicitly or explicitly mention sex acts.

A Democratic congressman asked the bill’s sponsor, Republican Senator Mary Pilcher-Cook,

whether a teacher could be prosecuted for showing an image of Michelangelo’s sculpture David, which depicts male genitalia. He quoted sexual puns in Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” and asked whether teaching the play could be a criminal offense.

Pilcher-Cook said that would have to be decided by individual prosecutors and juries, an ignorant statement expressing how vague and poorly-defined such a law would inevitably be (“What counts as a criminal offense? You’ll find out after you’re arrested”). It reminds one of what Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart said of “hardcore pornography” in 1964:

I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description, and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it…

Proponents of the measure insist children must be protected from “harmful material,” defined as that with “any description, exhibition, presentation or representation, in whatever form, of nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement or sadomasochistic abuse.”

 

Continue reading about the bill here…

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30
Jan
2016

Since Mormon church enacted anti-gay policy, 32 young LGBTI people have killed themselves

Since a severe new anti-gay policy was enacted in the Mormon Church last fall, 32 LGBTI people between the ages of 14 and 20 have committed suicide.

The devastating number was made public by a group of Mormon mothers with gay children called the Mama Dragons.

In November, church leaders released new policies targeting gay men and lesbians, and their children including a ban on baptisms for children of gay parents until the kids turn 18. Afterwhich, they must disavow gay marriage and stop living with their parents.

 

Read more here…

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29
Jan
2016

Oklahoma GOP Bill Would Ban Suicidal LGBT Teens From Seeking Help From Pro-Gay Therapists

In another bit of negative regional news for the LGBT community…

If Oklahoma Republicans have their way, the suicide rate among LGBT teens will skyrocket.

LGBT teens are, by far, the most vulnerable group within the LGBT community because they are not considered adults yet and therefore are subject to the will of their parents, teachers, and school administrators. Many teens are scared to reveal their sexuality out of fear that they will be ostracized and discriminated against.

And that appears to be exactly what Oklahoma State Rep. Sally Kerns wants since she has introduced several anti-gay bills this year as part of her ongoing hate crusade against gay people.
The most egregious bill of the three is HB 3044, which forbids school officials from referring gay students in crisis to councilors or therapists who would actually treat them like human beings.

According to Slate,

The bill states that no public school “counselor, therapist, social worker, administrator, teacher or other individual” can “refer a student under the age of eighteen” to any “individual, organization or entity” if the referral “pertain[s] to human sexuality.” In fact, public school counselors can’t even “provide the contact information, business card, brochure or other informational materials” of a gay-friendly organization to students.

 

Continue reading…

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