Luke Ketbridge

I paused on this frame and 😂

On October 8th, the Supreme Court is set to hear three landmark LGBTQ workplace-discrimination cases. They are as intensely personal as they are political.

Until 2012, Aimee Stephens was, in her own words, “basically leading two different lives, one for work and one for home.” At work she dressed and presented as a cisgender man. Outside of work she dressed as, and could simply be, who she was: a woman.

“In 2012, it came to a boiling point,” Stephens told The Daily Beast. “I didn’t know if I could go forward. I knew for sure I couldn’t go backwards, so where does that leave me? And if that’s all there was, what was the point? So, in November 2012 I considered taking my life and getting it over with. I stood in the backyard with a gun to my chest for an hour. But I came to the conclusion that I couldn’t do it—that I liked me too much. I made the choice to live. And it was shortly after that that I drafted the letter to my boss.”

…

On Oct. 8, Stephens’ case will be one of three to be heard by SCOTUS, which will consider—and ultimately adjudicate—if current sex discrimination laws protect LGBTQ people from workplace discrimination. The cases represent as momentous a moment for LGBTQ rights and equality at the Supreme Court as the Defense of Marriage Act and marriage equality rulings did in 2013 and 2015 respectively.

The cases are being heard against the backdrop of the stymied passage of the Equality Act, which would enshrine anti-LGBTQ discrimination protections in federal law (28 states presently have no protections for LGBTQ employees). The Act passed in the House of Representatives, but has little chance of getting passed in a Republican-controlled Senate.

The other two SCOTUS cases will test if the current sex discrimination laws cover gay people, and will be heard together as they both focus on sexual orientation.

October 8th, #SCOTUS will hear 3 cases on #LGBTQ employment discrimination. These cases will determine whether we’re protected under federal law. 

The implications will affect all employees, LGBTQ or not, who don’t conform to gender stereotypes

I saw @malblum’s show at Rough Trade NYC last month! I love their new album. Listen and buy Pity Boy here: https://lnk.to/Pityboy

Today (July 17th) is the second annual HIV Prevention Day

Find HIV services near you: locator.hiv.gov + p.ppfa.org/2ITWpBs

Support: ACT UP New York, PrEP4AllNow, Positively Trans (T+), Elton John AIDS Foundation, RiseUPToHIV, Black AIDS Institute, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, Lambda Legal, Keith Haring Foundation

Learn more about HIV/AIDS by reading: POZ Magazine

Watch/read: How to Survive a Plague

Visit: NYC AIDS Memorial

Nottingham, England, 17 July 2016 (source)

{Image Description: 3 photos of signs reading “Black Trans Lives Matter”,  “Black Bisexual Lives Matter”, and “Black Queer Lives Matter”.}

Thank you to the activists, organizers, artists, and educators who uplift our community.

We may cut each other up like a pack of alley cats, but when the outside world tries to tear us down, this army closes ranks.

(Just a Few of) The Federal Benefits of Marriage Equality

Obergefell v. Hodges positively changed the lives of LGBTQ Americans. However, the fight for marriage equality isn’t over. Some disabled people lose their disability benefits when they get married. More information via Center for Disability Rights and Dominick Evans

Original article (PBS NewsHour)

(The article is from 2013, not 2015. It’s in response to the Supreme Court striking down an anti-LGBTQ provision of the federal Defense of Marriage Act. The federal benefits described also apply to Obergefell v. Hodges.)

Image Descriptions: 

[Image #1: “Just a few of the federal benefits legally married gay couples will now have access to.” (There’s a rainbow line underneath the words “federal benefits”). “They will be able to: (red line then text continues) sponsor their husband/wife for immigration benefits (orange line then text continues) file income taxes jointly (yellow line then text continues) have joint parenting rights, such as access to children’s school records (green line)”]

[Image #2: “have next-of-kin status for emergency medical decisions (blue line then text continues) have family visitation rights, such as a visit to a spouse in a hospital or prison (purple line then text continues) receive custodial rights to children, shared property, child support and alimony after divorce (red line then text continues) qualify for domestic violence intervention (orange line then text continues) receive spousal funeral and bereavement leave (yellow line then text continues) inherit property (green line)”]

“Fifty years ago this June, in the summer of 1969, patrons of a popular gay bar in New York City called the Stonewall Inn fought back against abusive police. In doing so, they launched the modern lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer movement, creating a touchstone moment that would define the next half-century of activist efforts. 

With the Supreme Court’s historic legalization of same sex marriage in 2015, Congress’s recent approval of the Equality Act, and the increased acceptance and representation of LGBTQ people in popular culture, we have undeniably come a long way from the time when cops routinely raided gay bars and being outed nearly guaranteed a person would be labeled a sexual psychopath, blacklisted, ostracized by friends and family, and legally barred from employment in most occupations, as described by John D’Emilio in his classic book on the pre-Stonewall era, Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities.