密歇根西区地方法院
提交日期：2020 年 10 月 30 日
2020 年 10 月 30 日，GLAD 和国家 LGBTQ 权利中心 (NCLR) 提出新的挑战 到 跨性别军人禁令 代表密歇根陆军国民警卫队专家布莱尔麦金太尔。
麦金特里（McIntrye）专业军士自2015年4月以来一直是密歇根州国民警卫队（Michigan Army National Guard）一名敬业且成绩优异的成员，此前她曾在现役陆军服役，并被派往阿富汗。现在，她因公开自己的跨性别身份而面临退役。
麦金特里专家同时也是国民警卫队一名身着制服的文职人员，专长于武器装备。由于她拥有双重身份技术员，因此从国民警卫队退役也将导致她失去文职职位。
There are mornings when I admit it’s hard to get out of bed. This past Tuesday was one of those mornings.
Maybe it was because Amy Coney Barrett had just been confirmed the night before to replace Justice Ginsburg on the U.S. Supreme Court, in a rushed process that violated not only internal Senate rules, but also Majority Leader McConnell’s own precedent that a Supreme Court justice should not be replaced during an election year.
Maybe it was because another Black man Walter Wallace, who suffered from mental health issues, had been repeatedly shot and killed by police in Philadelphia in front of his mother, the day before.
And I’m sure it didn’t help that my toddler woke up screaming in the middle of the night and wouldn’t go back to sleep.
We are all experiencing stress and weariness about the state of our nation and the pandemic. And like most everyone I know, I am ready for 2020 to be over, and for us to be able to turn the page on this dark chapter in our country’s history.
It’s in these darkest moments that I look for inspiration and encouragement, to keep from giving into despondency and dismay.
And I find it from my heroes.
I find strength from the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, who could not only do more push-ups at the age of 82 than I can at 42, but who also blazed a trail for gender justice and the equal treatment of women.
I find resiliency from the late John Lewis, who was arrested over 40 times in his lifetime of service to justice and equality for Black Americans, including the right to vote.
And I find resolve from Susan B. Anthony who said: “Someone struggled for your right to vote. Use it.”
Already, millions of Americans have already voted, despite waiting in line for four, five, or six hours. This election is on track to reach historic levels of turnout despite voter suppression and a pandemic – that alone is a triumph of our democracy.
If you are eligible to vote but have not done so yet, make a plan now at www.IWillVote.com.
While casting our ballot is essential, voting alone is not enough.
Our work continues on November 4, regardless of the outcome of this election.
We must repair the damage that’s been done to our democracy. That includes ending voter suppression and partisan gerrymandering, reforming the judiciary, strengthening our system of checks and balances, and passing new ethics and conflict of interest rules for the 21st century.
We must rebuild the rights and protections for marginalized communities that have been eviscerated by the current federal administration. And we must continue expanding those protections to move our nation closer to what we aspire to be. That means, as a start, restoring the Voting Rights Act and passing legislation like the Equality Act, the Justice in Policing Act, and comprehensive immigration reform.
And we must realign the values of our nation to point to justice, compassion, inclusion, and fairness. That means neutralizing hate and disinformation online, confronting organizations and groups that advance white supremacist and nationalist agendas, and combatting domestic terrorism. It means advancing strategic and impactful public education campaigns that bridge differences across our society, celebrate diversity and pluralism, and humanize differences.
There is no other choice but to fight for what we love, what we dream of, and for each other. Not when there is so much on the line.
Just before her death, Susan B. Anthony said: “Failure is impossible.”
Heroes, like all people, are not perfect, and their legacies are complicated. For example, while Anthony was an abolitionist and considered an ally by many of the Black civil rights leaders of her time, she was also part of white suffragette leadership that accommodated racist forces in order to advance political goals.
While Anthony never lived to see the adoption of the 19日 amendment 100 years ago granting women the right to vote, she maintained faith in the power of regular people to move our nation ever closer to becoming a true democracy.
I share that faith in our power to move us closer to our collective ideals of justice. And I know that we are strongest when move together, support each other, and lift one another up.
Before this election, I am asking all of you not just to vote, but to commit to the work ahead. Because regardless of the ultimate results of this election, the American project of creating a truly pluralistic and inclusive democracy remains unfinished. While none of us can do that work alone, we will only succeed if we all engage.
Join GLAD in the never-ending project of ensuring that our nation’s story is one of ever expanding inclusion, equality, and justice for all.
Moments ago, the Senate majority pushed through the confirmation of President Trump’s third Supreme Court nominee, Justice Amy Coney Barrett.
This confirmation process was rushed through in opposition to all standard practices for such a critical lifetime appointment.
It was rushed through despite the fact that Americans across the country are already voting in a pivotal election that will decide the next president and leadership of the Senate.
And it was rushed through despite the fact that we are still waiting on a bill to provide real relief to our communities that are suffering from COVID-19.
This shameful political power grab casts a shadow on the credibility of both the judiciary and the Senate – two institutions that should be entrusted to uphold the civil rights of all Americans.
With Justice Barrett now replacing the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the composition of our Supreme Court has taken another step away from a core understanding that our Constitution is there to protect the rights of all.
And the Court will be deciding issues that impact every one of us – in this current term and beyond. The next high stakes LGBTQ rights case, 富尔顿诉费城市, will be argued in just over a week. The Court will hear arguments about the Affordable Care Act soon after. We’re likely to see issues from voting rights, to reproductive freedom to the rights of immigrants and more before the Court again soon too.
But we will not go backwards.
We now have two decades of Supreme Court precedent affirming that LGBTQ people are part of “We, the people.”
GLAD will never stop fighting in the courts to defend our community’s progress and challenge any attempt to relegate LGBTQ people to second-class status.
And our collective work for justice will continue.
Now, more than ever, we each have the opportunity – and the responsibility – to take action and to make sure we keep moving closer to the equitable nation we aspire to be.
Vote. Stay engaged. Support the organizations doing the work that matters to you.
And remember – we’ve faced difficult fights before, and won.
We win because we are right, and because when we work together we are unstoppable.
Together we will keep fighting, and we will keep advancing the cause of equal justice under law for all.
On October 21, 2020, GLAD, together with the Center for Constitutional Rights, Lambda Legal, and Boies, Schiller, Flexner LLP, filed an amicus (friend-of-the-court) brief in support of Edward Gladney, a transgender woman who was sexually assaulted while in federal custody. The case, Gladney v. United States, is currently in the 9th Circuit.
The amicus brief challenges a dangerous district court decision that found prison officials enjoy immunity under the Discretionary Function Exception to the Federal Torts Claims Act when they fail to protect transgender people in their care. The brief argues that prison officials have a non-discretionary duty to protect transgender prisoners from sexual assault under the U.S. Constitution and PREA., and asserts that trans victims of sexual assault are entitled to a remedy.
World Rugby’s decision to ban transgender women from the sport is unjustifiable and profoundly disappointing. For nearly 20 years, transgender athletes have been allowed to play and there is no reason to exclude them now. This is a policy that demeans all women athletes. As a rugby player and queer advocate, it is devastating to have a sport that has meant so much to me and so many other LGBTQ athletes turn its back on us.
When our community secured recognition of our right to marry at the Supreme Court in 2015, we had been making and winning the case for the humanity, dignity, and equality of all LGBTQ people and families under the US Constitution for decades. Those willing to join with us in this fight expanded over the years, as families and neighbors alike recognized the fundamental freedoms at stake.
Justice Thomas’s recent concurrence in Davis v. Ermold, joined by Justice Alito, contains no surprises on substance: these Justices have already stated their positions favoring LGBTQ specific exceptions to the law, even as our Constitution refuses to “tolerate classes among citizens.”(罗默诉埃文斯案, 1996).1 But it is disappointing to see members of the Court choose this stratospherically political moment – on the eve of both a divisive election and a rushed confirmation process for a new Associate Justice – to raise the stakes and try to thrust the Court into a maelstrom by essentially inviting challenges to 奥贝格费尔. Millions upon millions of American people and families, along with businesses, schools, insurers, to name a few, rely on it and believe it is right.
奥贝格费尔 was not writing on a blank slate and it’s silly to pretend otherwise. Past changes in marriage showed the way. Choosing the person you will marry is a “vital personal right,” the Court said in 1967, and the choice of whether and whom to marry belongs with the individual, not the government. (Loving v. Va., 1967). States make their marriage laws, from who can marry to the rights and responsibilities of married couples, and States are therefore accountable for inequalities in their laws. Laws denying same-sex couples the ability to join in marriage – an institution touching nearly every aspect of life and death – even as they are willing to abide by the same rules, make the same commitment, and assume the same responsibilities as others who marry – violate, as 奥贝格费尔 said, “central precepts of equality.” The Court’s opinion in 奥贝格费尔 also explained why marriage is a fundamental right – linking it to constitutional protections of personal autonomy, familial and parenting choices, along with the massive role marriage plays in the social order, all of which applied equally to same same-sex couples. Marriage has never been static and ending the exclusion of same-sex couples was simply another in a long line of such judicial and legislative changes.
Trying to push LGBTQ people out of the Constitution will not work. We will stand against efforts to move our country backward, to compromise rights and responsibilities, or to make it harder for people to care for themselves and their families and contribute to their communities. Through relationships forged as friends, family, coworkers, and members of faith communities, through the democratic process and the judicial process, LGBTQ people are rooted in the fabric of this Nation.
1 517 U.S. 620, 623 quoting Plessy 五. Ferguson, 163 U. S. 537, 559 (1896) (dissenting opinion).
A few days ago President Trump announced his third Supreme Court nominee in as many years, Amy Coney Barrett, pushing to quickly fill the seat left empty following the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg just one week ago.
While it is the job of the president to nominate a justice, and of the Senate to vet and confirm, it is also the design of our democracy that the American people elect the president and the members of the Senate who serve in those roles.
Voting is already under way in this pivotal election, and, as Justice Ginsburg expressed to her granddaughter before her death, nomination of the next Supreme Court justice should be made by the next President. Instead, President Trump is rushing forward in a process that will only create more polarization and division, and cause damage to the credibility of the Court.
The decision of who will take a lifetime seat on our nation’s highest court is of critical importance to all of us, and the U.S. Senate has a responsibility to vet in exacting detail anyone who seeks that role, whether that is Amy Coney Barrett or someone else. This is not a process that should be rushed through for political gain.
Justice Ginsburg leaves a legacy of integrity, disciplined legal thinking, and a conviction that our Constitution is there to protect the rights of all. The next Associate Justice to take her seat should share that commitment to moving us closer to the nation of equals we aspire to be.
No matter how this confirmation process proceeds, our collective work for justice must and will continue. We each have the opportunity and responsibility to stay engaged and to fight for the just society we believe in.
And with your support, GLAD will never stop fighting to ensure our Constitution’s promise of equal justice under law for all is realized.
Since the day the Trump administration took office we’ve been fighting back against attack after attack they’ve leveled at our communities.
The administration’s most recent move is particularly egregious and harmful – a proposed regulation that would eliminate critical protections intended to ensure the availability of emergency shelter for transgender people.
The administration’s new rule removes federal requirements for shelter access consistent with a person’s gender identity. If implemented it would subject homeless transgender people either to a return to the streets or the risk of violence, harassment, or sexual assault in the inappropriate and unsafe shelters they are forced into.
Last week, GLAD submitted our comment strongly opposing this dangerous proposed rule.
The administration must review each of those comments before making a final decision to change the rule. And even if they do push through this discriminatory regulation, Trump can’t change the fact that we have state and federal laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex and transgender status. No matter what, GLAD will continue fighting on every level to ensure equal access to life-saving services, including shelters, for everyone in our community who needs them.
Homelessness reflects acute inequities in our society. As a result of disproportionate rates of unemployment and poverty – stemming from persistent discrimination, family rejection and stigma – transgender people have long experienced alarmingly high rates of homelessness. And that harm is compounded for transgender women of color, particularly, who are multiply impacted by systemic racism, misogyny, and transphobia.
The removal of shelter access protections would be inhumane under any circumstances, but the consequences could be catastrophic during the ongoing pandemic, which has caused skyrocketing rates of people experiencing homelessness. The Trump administration’s callous proposal displays basic ignorance about what it means to be transgender and deplorable disregard for the health and safety of transgender people.
GLAD has long worked to ensure transgender people can access shelter facilities on equal terms and without discrimination or harassment. Now, when access to housing can mean life or death and the federal administration is threatening to make it easier to turn people away, we are doubling down on that work.
With our partners across New England we are expanding our shelter access project, to make sure everyone in our community has the information they need to access shelter services safely and without discrimination. For more information or if you encounter mistreatment when accessing essential services including shelters, contact our GLAD Answers legal infoline.
Your support makes it possible for GLAD to fight back when dangerous proposals threaten our community, and to make sure everyone in our community knows the rights we have to be treated fairly and with respect and dignity.
Update 4/21/2021: The US Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge today formally announced that the department has ended efforts to deny critical nondiscrimination protections in homeless shelters for transgender people.
“Access to safe, stable housing-and shelter-is a basic necessity,” said Secretary Fudge in a HUD statement. “Unfortunately, transgender and gender non-conforming people report more instances of housing instability and homelessness than cis-gender people. Today, we are taking a critical step in affirming HUD’s commitment that no person be denied access to housing or other critical services because of their gender identity. HUD is open for business for all.”
The Trump administration’s proposed rule would enable discrimination against transgender people seeking shelter.
In response to the Trump administration’s proposed rule that would decimate discrimination protections for LGBTQ people, especially transgender and gender nonconforming people at shelters, GLAD has submitted a public comment in opposition.
The administration’s new rule removes federal requirements for shelter access consistent with a person’s gender identity. If implemented it would subject homeless transgender people either to a return to the streets or the risk of violence, harassment or sexual assault in the inappropriate and unsafe shelters they are forced into.
“The Proposed Regulation should be withdrawn because it:
…The Proposed Regulation guts significant protections for transgender people in access to emergency shelters, will increase homelessness, subject transgender people to violence and a host of life-threatening harms, and permits blatant discrimination that is unlawful under current law,” reads the comment.
You can read the public comment in its entirety below.
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