Some Good News

I don’t know about you but we are due some good news…

I’ll start out in my home state, in a press release.

Attorney General Tong Defends Right of Transgender Americans to Have IDs That Match Their Gender Identity
August 17, 2021


(Hartford, CT) – Attorney General William Tong today joined a coalition of 15 attorneys general, led by California, in an amicus brief in Corbitt v. Taylor in defense of the right of transgender Alabamians to obtain driver’s licenses that correspond with their gender identity. Under Alabama’s Policy Order 63, transgender Alabamians are unable to access driver’s licenses that accurately reflect the gender and sex with which they identify unless they have undergone “gender reassignment surgery.” In the friend-of-the-court brief filed before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, the coalition blasts the patently unconstitutional policy and urges the appellate court to uphold the district court’s ruling finding that the policy was an impermissible form of sex discrimination.

“Discrimination on the basis of gender identity and expression is wrong and barring transgender people from having driver’s licenses consistent with their gender identity causes unnecessary stigma, isolation and harm,” Attorney General Tong said. “This Alabama policy is unconstitutional and flies in the face of common sense and modern practices.”

Although gender-affirming surgery is an important form of healthcare, many transgender Americans do not want or need it — and some cannot afford it. No matter an individual’s reasons, they are still entitled to have a license that can be safely used without putting at risk their dignity and safety. The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency’s policy prevents transgender Alabamians from having that chance. In fact, the policy is an extreme outlier among states and is unsupported by any legitimate governmental interest. Critically, it violates the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The amici states have a profound interest in protecting all Americans against unconstitutional discrimination in any form — in particular, to help reverse and remedy the stigma and discrimination that transgender Americans have experienced for decades.

Moreover, many states across the country — including Connecticut — have successfully adopted policies contrary to Alabama’s, issuing driver’s licenses and state identification cards with updated sex designations without requiring applicants to undergo surgery. These policies help reduce discrimination and, in some instances, even violence. Used routinely when applying for jobs, patronizing restaurants and bars, and applying for housing and bank accounts, identification cards and driver’s licenses can have a direct impact on the mental and physical wellbeing of transgender Americans in their daily interactions with society. According to a recent Gallup poll, approximately 0.6% of all U.S. adults — or roughly 1.9 million Americans — identify as transgender.

In the amicus brief, the coalition of attorneys general asserts:

• Alabama’s Policy Order 63 fails scrutiny under any constitutional standard;
• The express surgery requirement is rare and out of step with modern practices;
• Driver’s licenses that reflect a transgender person’s gender identity serve state interests in lowering hate violence; and
• Alabama’s asserted interests are unsupported and contrary to federal law.

In filing the amicus brief, Attorney General Tong joins the attorneys general of California, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and the District of Columbia.

I am proud to be a resident of Connecticut a state that doesn’t play politics with people’s lives.

Now on to a court case involving a business that we all know.

Transgender victory over Hobby Lobby could have national impact
LGBTQ advocates say the "sweeping" ruling could be used to attack “bathroom bills” and trans sports bans across the country.
Out NBC News
By Dan Avery
August 18, 2021


In appellate court deciding Hobby Lobby violated Illinois anti-discrimination law by denying a transgender employee access to the women’s restroom could have nationwide implications, experts say.

Meggan Sommerville, a trans woman who has worked at a Hobby Lobby location in Aurora for more than 20 years, has been denied access to the store’s women’s room since transitioning at work in 2010. As a result, she has had anxiety and recurring nightmares and has been forced to limit her fluid intake, according to filings.

On Friday, the Illinois 2nd District Appellate Court upheld a lower court decision that determined the crafts chain violated the Illinois Human Rights Act both as an employer and as a place of public accommodation.

“Sommerville is female, just like the women who are permitted to use the women’s bathroom,” the three-judge panel said in its decision. “The only reason that Sommerville is barred from using the women’s bathroom is that she is a transgender woman.”

The ruling is one of first impression, meaning it presents a legal issue that has never been decided in the court’s jurisdiction.

“They stuck to the law,” Sommerville, 51, told Forbes. “This is a precedent-setting case in Illinois, because the Human Rights Act has never been tested in this way in Illinois, and actually in the country.”

But it is not over yet…

Hobby Lobby could appeal the ruling to the Illinois Supreme Court and theoretically take it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Attorney Whitman Brisky, who represented the company, did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Yes, I imagine that we will see this go all the way to the Supreme Court.

Lastly here is an article about a homophobic church.

Anti-vax cardinal, who blamed ‘homosexual culture’ for child rape, hospitalised with COVID
Cardinal Raymond Burke, one of the most extreme anti-LGBT+ figures in the Catholic Church, has been hospitalised after contracting COVID-19.
Pink News UK
By Emma Powys Maurice
August 19, 2021


73-year-old Burke is sedated on a ventilator in a stable but serious condition, according to officials at a Wisconsin shrine he founded, who have asked people to “pray the Rosary for him”.

The ultraconservative bishop is an outspoken vaccine skeptic who believes the best weapon for fighting the virus is Jesus Christ. Several holy relics have been placed in his hospital room, religious officials say.

Burke criticised early COVID measures and encouraged Catholics to attend Mass in person, partly to combat “the pervasive attack upon the integrity of human sexuality”.

“We need only to think of the pervasive attack upon the integrity of human sexuality, of our identity as man or woman, with the pretence of defining for ourselves, often employing violent means, a sexual identity other than that given to us by God,” he wrote on his website early in the pandemic.

Maybe God is telling him something, that God is about love, not hate.

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I am batting down the hatches!

Henri is making a beeline to Cape Cod Bay and then stay around there making havoc. The National Hurricane Center's cone-of-uncertainly goes right over Cape Cod Canal slowing as it bumps into a high pressure wave. If worse comes to worse, I will head back to Connecticut.