LGBTQ+ Rights are Human Rights But Ignorance, Religion, and Fear Attack Them

As LGBT people gain greater equality under the law, we are seeing a troubling push to allow anyone, including businesses, to use their religious beliefs to discriminate. Nobody should be turned away from a business, refused service by government officials, or evicted from their home just because of who they are. Organizations like Philadelphia’s Catholic Social Services, Foster Care agencies, Food Banks, etc. don’t get to discriminate against LGBTQ, Jewish, Muslim, and Mormon communities without being sued by the ACLU. The Roman Catholic and evangelical faith is more concerned with sexuality in others without correcting the rampant pedophilia among their own clergy.²⁴ That is hypocrisy.

In March 2018, the city of Philadelphia learned that two of the agencies it hired to provide foster care services to children in the city’s care would not, based on their religious objection, accept same-sex couples as foster parents. Philadelphia informed the agencies that it would no longer refer children to them unless they agreed to comply with nondiscrimination requirements that are part of all foster care agency contracts. One of the agencies agreed to do so.

The other, Catholic Social Services (CSS), sued the city, claiming the Constitution gives it the right to opt out of the nondiscrimination requirement. After the Third Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously affirmed a lower court decision in Philadelphia’s favor, CSS asked the Supreme Court to hear this case, and the Court granted review.²⁵ The Court heard argument on November 4.²⁶ The CSS lost the appeal as case remanded. Bigotry disguised as “sincerely held religious beliefs” still festers in the hearts of many evangelicals without religious basis.²⁷ Republican “christians” and evangelicals reject Jesus’ commandment in Matthew 7:1: μη κρινετε ινα μη κριθητε (mh krinete ina mh kriqhte).When the U.S. Congress passed the National Suicide Hotline Designation Act²⁸ last fall to establish a toll-free number with assistance for those with mental health crises, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops quietly lobbied behind the scenes against the legislation. The bishops’ justification? The legislation contained special funding for LGBTQ support.²⁹ This was also the case with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, composed of all men,³⁰  who opposed (March 6, 2013) the March 23 act Violence Against Women, who objected specifically to the law protecting lesbians.³¹

In the past, some states had laws banning LGBTQ people from becoming foster or adoptive parents. The last of these was struck down in 2016. As these outright bans were struck down, those opposed to LGBTQ equality have increasingly sought a far-reaching constitutional license to discriminate in the name of religion.³² The State of Nebraska appealed the case and it was heard by the Nebraska Supreme Court on January 5, 2017. On April 7, 2017, the Nebraska Supreme Court affirmed the lower Court’s decision. It was ordered that plaintiffs and other qualified applicants be permitted to be licensed as foster parents without any regard for their sexual orientation. Every major children’s health and welfare professional group – including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychological Association and the Child Welfare League of America – recognizes that over 25 years of scientific research shows that parents’ sexual orientation has no relevance to parenting ability or the well-being of children.

While white christian evangelicals, Republicanazis, and many COVID-denying unvaccinated heterosexuals including some doctors and nurses work tirelessly to spread misinformation and death among the community, the same is not true of the LGBTQ+ community. Jai Rodriguez, Morris Singletary, and Phill Wilson³³  have founded organizations to end the HIV and AIDS epidemic and used lessons from these pandemics to make people aware of COVID-19.³⁴ Phill Wilson wrote: “We all understand the importance of hotlines, checking in, and reaching out for support when it comes to caring for friend and loved ones with suicidal ideation. But suicide prevention goes beyond the personal, it’s environmental and system. This World Suicide Prevention Day, here are a few ways we can end the suicide epidemic in America.” and listed:

We all understand the importance of hotlines, checking in, and reaching out for support when it comes to caring for friend and loved ones with suicidal ideation. But suicide prevention goes beyond the personal, it’s environmental and system. This World Suicide Prevention Day, here are a few ways we can end the suicide epidemic in America.

Wilson noted on the Facebook page of his Black AIDS Institute, the sad reality “We can’t end the HIV epidemic without first tackling the effects of stigma! And that’s the subject of GLAAD and Gilead’s Be Our Compass’s new report: 2021 State of HIV Stigma Study. The numbers don’t lie—we still have a ways to go to stop the stigma, and at BAI we’re committed to just that.” with the poignant illustration: Sika Nutmeg commented: “Without empathy we can never beat HIV stigma[,] education is not enough even judging from the numbers by the medical community[.]²⁰

On July 27, 2021, Gov. (Jay Robert) J. B. Pritzker (D) signed into law HB1603 to repeal its draconic HIV-transmission law, following the Black AIDS Institute (BAI) release of the “We the People Plan: A Black Strategy to End HIV”, noting the forceful statement of the Black Treatment Advocates Network (BTAN) Chicago:

“The only way we can end the HIV epidemic in Black communities is by ending the misperception that people living with HIV are dangerous and need to be controlled. People living with HIV deserve to live full, enriched lives just like every other human being.”³⁶ Photo taken of the February meeting. Monthly meetings are held at 4314 South Cottage Grove, Chicago, IL 60653-3514. Pritzker is also known for Executive Order 22 in 2021, that extends the vaccination requirements for individuals in high-risk settings, including all healthcare workers, nursing home employees, all P-12 teachers and staff, and higher education personnel and students. The two-week extension allows for hospitals and schools to implement their own testing, vaccine and accountability protocols. It was released in English, Arabic, Chinese, Spanish, Hindi, Polish, and Tagalog.³⁷

It’s not surprising that Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, who fought to overturn the Affordable Care Act (Obama Care) for Trump³⁸ and used state money to support Trump,³⁹ has joined with 19 other Republican states⁴⁰ to sue the Biden administration for a rule extending federal sex discrimination protections to LGBTQ people. Discriminating against LGBTQ people is the LAW in Arkansas.⁴¹ The legislature has made it clear, with new additions just this year, and Rutledge has advanced the cause at every opportunity. Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery filed the lawsuit⁴² in U.S. District Court in Knoxville, Tennessee, controlled by 1 George W. Bush appointee (Thomas Varlan) and three Donald Trump appointments (Clifton Randall McDonough, Charles Atchley Jr., and Catherine Crytzer)⁴³arguing that legal interpretations by the U.S. Department of Education and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission are based on a faulty view of U.S. Supreme Court case law.

The Supreme Court ruled in June 2020⁴⁴ that a landmark civil rights law, under a provision called Title VII, protects gay, lesbian and transgender people from discrimination in employment. Joining Tennessee in the lawsuit to overturn the Supreme Court ruling and allow states to discriminate and permit the murder of LGBTQ+ people are Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota and West Virginia. No thinking and rational LGBTQ+ person should boycott and never ever visit, buy products grown or good manufactured by these hate-filled hateful states.

Most of the attacks on LGBTQ+ people are because of religions and religious discrimination based on their wrongly perceived concept that Jesus and god hate the LGBTQ+ community. As LGBT people gain greater equality under the law, we are seeing a troubling push to allow anyone, including businesses, to use their religious beliefs to discriminate. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a 6-3 decision[1, https://www.aclu.org/legal-document/bostock-v-clayton-county-supreme-court-opinion,] that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the federal ban on sex discrimination in employment, protects LGBTQ+ workers from discrimination. The decision was based on a straightforward reading of the law: Discriminating against someone because they are LGBTQ+ is inherently sex discrimination. In his dissent, Justice Samuel Alito, a far-right Pius X Roman Catholic, raised concerns about implications for employers with religious objections to hiring LGBTQ+ people, but the questions before the court in Monday’s monumental victory for LGBTQ workers did not involve whether the employers had a religious right to fire LGBTQ+ people. The court made clear that the scope of any religion-based defenses offered by Title VII, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, and the constitutional protections for religious exercise would be addressed in future cases.

The greatest enemy, after religion (especially the evil cancer of the Roman Catholic and evangelical churches, their pastors and parishioners⁴⁵), of LGBTQ+ people is Facebook. Facebook has an Orwellian history of censoring LGBTQ+ advertisers.⁴⁶

And Facebook’s problems are not limited to the LGBTQ community, Black creators documenting police violence have recently seen their pages temporarily taken down completely. Facebook calls these “mistakes” but isn’t doing enough to stop them from happening again. It is not safe to use Facebook, even for social chat as Facebook has become the instrument of hate groups: Proud Boys, Peace Keepers, KKK, American Nazis, Roman Catholic Council of Bishops, Republican Party, the Trump Crime Family, and many more. It would be nice if Liker would come back as it was a site that was open to all people without comment of qualification. Unlike Fox News, Liker never put out an opinion piece and welcomes all people, all races, all forms of sexual expression, and all religions including people who rejected religion and all gods.

Michael.Cooper@onlinesafetymasters.com, passed me a link that should be kept handy by all LGBTQ+ people when they feel at a loss and their safety at risk. It will  help: https://www.vpnmentor.com/blog/lgbtq-guide-online-safety/.