Tag: Massachusetts

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Podcast: Drag Queen Ada Vox Makes American Idol’s Top 10; Massachusetts To Get LGBT Curriculum; New Study Says Gay Couples Are Least Likely To Part Ways

In this week’s podcast:

• Ada Vox becomes American Idol‘s first drag queen contestant in the Top 10

• A new study shows surprising results – gay male couples are least likely to part ways

• High school students in Massachusetts will soon have courses that will include LGBTQ history and literature by gay authors

• The Trump administration launches a new attack on transgender people

• Prince Harry and Suits‘ Meghan Merkle reaffirmed their commitment to LGBTQ rights

All that and more in this episode of The Randy Report podcast

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Massachusetts High Schools To Offer LGBT-Inclusive Curriculum

High school students in Massachusetts will soon have access to LGBTQ-themed history, English and health this fall in an effort to help all students see themselves in the courses they study.

From The Boston Herald:

The curriculum, developed by a team of teachers with Massachusetts Safe Schools Program for LGBTQ Students and the Massachusetts Commission on LGBTQ Youth, will be released this summer. It will feature lessons on the 1969 Stonewall Riots and writings by gay and lesbian authors such as Langston Hughes and Willa Cather. It will also feature lessons like how Nick Carraway’s love for Jay Gatsby may have influenced themes in “The Great Gatsby.”

“We talk about mirrors and windows,” said Jeff Perrotti, director of the Massachusetts Safe Schools Program for LGBTQ Students. “Students need to see themselves reflected and see others who are different from themselves. It is important that all students feel safe, valued and respected in school so they can be ready to learn.”

“If students don’t see themselves in the curriculum, they are not as likely to pay attention,” said commission director Corey Prachniak-Rincon. “It is a huge demand we hear from teachers. They recognize part of the reason why LGBTQ students feel excluded is they’re not reflected and that part of their identity is ignored.”

The Herald goes on to quote teachers who say students have come back after graduating to say how much it helped them to discuss literature and history that included facts such as poet Walt Whitman being gay.

I am, of course, waiting to hear from the haters who will label this “gay indoctrination.”

But the fact is the new gay-themed curriculum will not be required for all schools to teach. The choice to offer the courses will be left to local school districts.

According to a 2015 study, 11% of high school students in Massachusetts identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or questioning their sexual orientation. Almost 3% identify as transgender.

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Massachusetts Becomes 19th State To Enact LGBT Non-Discrimination Protections

Via The Human Rights Campaign:

Today, Massachusetts Republican Governor Charlie Baker signed into law legislation extending commonsense, non-discrimination protections to transgender residents and visitors to the state. While Massachusetts state law already prohibits discrimination against transgender people in housing and employment, the new law extends these same crucial protections to public accommodations, such as access to restaurants, malls, restrooms, and locker rooms.

“By signing this bipartisan legislation into law, Governor Baker has joined the growing list of fair-minded Republicans who are standing up for equality,” said HRC President Chad Griffin. “Equality is not a Republican or Democratic value, it’s an American value. This crucially important measure will help ensure transgender Bay State residents and visitors are protected from discrimination in public spaces.”

Massachusetts becomes the 19th state with non-discrimination protections on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in public accommodations, housing, and employment. In addition, similar protections exist in more than 100 cities across the country, including Atlanta, Dallas, and Louisville.

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Massachusetts: GOP State Senate Candidate Ted Busiek LIkes To Use The Word “Faggots”

Ted Busiek

Raw Story has the details on current Republican Massachusetts state Senate candidate Ted Busiek, who recently praised Donald Trump for “putting self-righteous faggots in their place.”

Oh – but Busiek didn’t mean “faggot” as a slur, however that works.

MSNBC’s All In With Chris Hayes pointed out during a broadcast last week that Trump had complained to the Native American affairs subcommittee in 1993 that some reservations did not deserve to receive gaming licenses because “they don’t look like Indians to me.”

Ted Busiek, who is running for Massachusetts Senate, responded on Saturday by lauding Trump’s remarks.

“DONALD TRUMP. Putting self-righteous faggots in their place since 1993. How I love this fellow,” he wrote.

Busiek later insisted to State House News Service that he did not use the word “faggot” in a “hateful sense.” The candidate said that term was used to show that the congressman questioning Trump was “obnoxious” and “kind of being a jerk.”

“It’s hard for me to get exercised over naughty words,” he explained. “You can insult somebody without being hateful.”

Busiek, who opposes same-sex marriage and adoption rights, said that he was standing up for “anybody who works for a living,” especially those who had “oppressor status” for being white, male and wealthy.

https://twitter.com/TedBusiek/status/749291636304347136
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Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker Will Sign Transgender Protections Bill Into Law

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker

After months of mixed signals, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker has announced he will sign into law recent legislation that provides for public accommodations for transgender folks.

From the Boston Globe:

“We’ve certainly listened to a variety of points of view from many sides and have said, from the beginning, that we don’t want people to be discriminated against,” Baker said in an interview with The Boston Globe. “If the House bill were to pass in its current form, yeah, I would sign it.”

The bill approved by the Senate and the version that is set to be passed by the House on Wednesday would allow people to use the restrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identity and would protect transgender people from discrimination in barber shops, malls, libraries, restaurants, and other public accommodations.

The bathroom provision has raised sharp concern from opponents who assert that male sexual predators, under the guise of being transgender women, could enter women’s restrooms and locker rooms. Proponents of the bill say those worries are unfounded and not borne out by the almost 20 states that already have similar protections.

Baker was booed at an LGBT event in April when he wouldn’t endorse the legislation.

Transgender rights and protections have jumped to the forefront of our national discourse in the past year, with many states passing anti-transgender laws like North Carolina’s HB2 which dictates to transgender students they must use bathrooms that align with their gender assigned at birth as opposed to their actual gender identity.

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Massachusetts Man Receives First US Penis Transplant

Thomas Manning (photo: Massachusetts General Hospital)

A Massachusetts cancer patient has become the first man to receive a penis transplant in the United States.

After a nearly 15 hour operation, 64 year-old Thomas Manning appears to be recovering well and there are no signs of rejection. Most of Manning’s penis was removed during his bout with cancer four years ago.

From USA Today:

“Today I begin a new chapter filled with personal hope and hope for others who have suffered genital injuries, particularly for our servicemembers who put their lives on the line and suffer serious damage as a result,” Manning said in a statement.

Manning, a bank courier in Halifax, Mass., underwent the operation on May 8 and 9. The surgeons who led the 15-hour procedure, Curtis Cetrulo and Dickens Ko, said they were “cautiously optimistic” Manning will regain full urinary and sexual function.

“He’s doing well so far,” Cetrulo said at a news conference Monday. “He is up and out of bed. Emotionally he’s doing amazingly well. He’s a very positive person.”

Manning has been cancer free for about four years, the physicians said. He is not married but said the transplant could help make such a relationship possible.

The first ever penis transplant in the world took place in Africa in December 2014.

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Massachusetts State Senate Advances Transgender Protections Bill

By a vote of 33-4, the Massachusetts state Senate today advanced legislation that would outlaw discrimination against transgender people.

The bill now goes to the state House of Representatives, where the legislation has strong support. The only real question at this point is whether Republican (but socially liberal) Gov. Charlie Baker will sign the bill into law.

The measure would make Massachusetts the 18th U.S. state to prohibit discrimination based on gender identity.

As many folks know, with the passage of marriage equality last summer, focus in the world of LGBT rights has shifted in part to transgender protections with many conservative states passing laws which effectively legalize discrimination against trans folks.

(source)

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Massachusetts Gov. Baker Booed By Trangender Activists At LGBT Event

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker

Republican Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker was booed off the stage by LGBT activists when he hemmed and hawed about whether he supports rights for transgender folks.

Via the Boston Globe:

More than 1,000 business leaders packed the hotel ballroom for the 10th Annual Boston Spirit LGBT Executive Networking Night, hosted by Boston Spirit magazine, in the hopes of hearing Baker either declare support for the transgender bill or at least pledge not to veto the measure if it reaches his desk.

But Baker infuriated many in the crowd, some of whom held signs that read “Trans Rights Now,” when he hedged.

Baker said he would “make sure I talk to all the parties involved” if the legislation comes to him. He also did not say whether he would veto the bill.

The bill in question, known as the public accommodations bill, would prohibit bias against transgender people in restaurants, shopping malls, and other public areas.

I have to say – you attend an LGBT networking event, and you can’t offer clear, strong support to the people you’re addressing?

How embarrassing for what is typically a very progressive state to have such a weak leader regarding LGBT rights. #Sad

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Judge Rules Catholic School Broke Anti-Discrimination Laws By Rescinding Offer To Gay Man

The haters are so going to scream “religious liberties!”

Fontbonne Academy offered Matthew Barrett a job as a food services director. He accepted.

But when he listed his legal husband as his emergency contact on human resources forms, his offer was rescinded.

Message? We don’t hire gays. The only problem is they broke state laws discriminating against Barrett.

ABC News takes it from here:

Barrett sued, alleging that the Milton school discriminated against him based on sexual orientation and gender. Norfolk Superior Court Judge Douglas Wilkins agreed, rejecting Fontbonne’s claim that hiring Barrett would infringe on its constitutional rights because it views his marriage to a man as incompatible with its religious mission.

The judge said Barrett’s duties as a food services director did not include presenting the teachings of the Catholic church. The judge also found that a religious exemption to the state anti-discrimination law applies only if a religious organization limits admission to people of a certain religion. Fontbonne is open to students and employees of all faiths, with the exception of its administration and theology faculty.

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10th Anniversary of Marriage Equality in Massachusetts

Ten years ago today, the first same-sex couple got married in Massachusetts.

The first of many “happy dances” in my house.

A decade later, 17 other states and the District of Columbia have legalized same-sex marriage. The Supreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act which had long deterred other states from following Massachusetts’ lead, and gays and lesbians now serve openly in the military without fear of being discharged. President Obama and many elected leaders have come to embrace marriage equality as have a majority of Americans. Just last week, the NFL drafted its first openly gay player.

While many have championed the successful legal strategy that saved same-sex marriage in the state of California, for civil rights activists, it’s hard to overstate the importance of Goodridge which set an example for the country in terms of equal rights and the freedom to marry.

For the detractors – you will note the sky has not fallen.

Congrats Massachusetts!