After years of progrs on gay rights, how did the US bee so anti-LGBTQ+? | US news | The Guardian

Contents:

• GAY RIGHTS VS. FREE SPEECHSUPREME COURT BACKS WEB DIGNER OPPOSED TO SAME-SEX MARRIAGE
• WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT A SEEMGLY FAKE DOCUMENT A GAY RIGHTS CASE
• AMERI’S MOST IMPORTANT GAY-RIGHTS SPEECH?
• AFTER YEARS OF PROGRS ON GAY RIGHTS, HOW DID THE US BEE SO ANTI-LGBTQ+?
• US SUPREME COURT WEIGHS CLASH BETWEEN EE SPEECH AND GAY RIGHTS
• HARVEY MILK’S GAY FREEDOM DAY SPEECH: ANNOTATED
• THE RIGHTS OF LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL AND TRANSGENR PEOPLE
• GAY RIGHTS AND FREEDOM OF SPEECH
• THE SUPREME COURT RULGS THAT HAVE SHAPED GAY RIGHTS AMERI
• GAY RIGHTS SPEECH

GAY RIGHTS VS. FREE SPEECHSUPREME COURT BACKS WEB DIGNER OPPOSED TO SAME-SEX MARRIAGE

ImageLorie Smh said her Christian fah requir her to turn away ctomers seekg servic to celebrate same-sex Woolf for The New York TimThe Supreme Court sid on Friday wh a web signer Colorado who said she had a First Amendment right to refe to sign weddg webs for same-sex upl spe a state law that forbids discrimatn agast gay people. The liberal jtic viewed as somethg else entirely — a dispute that threatened societal protectns for gay rights and rolled back some recent an impassned dissent, Jtice Sonia Sotomayor warned that the oute signaled a return to a time when people of lor and other mory groups faced open discrimatn. Kavangh and Amy Coney Barrett, shifted the urt to the urts have generally sid wh gay and lbian upl who were refed service by bakeri, florists and others, lg that potential ctomers are entled to equal treatment, at least parts of the untry wh laws forbiddg discrimatn based on sexual owners of bs challengg those laws have argued that the ernment should not force them to choose between the requirements of their fahs and their livelihoods.

WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT A SEEMGLY FAKE DOCUMENT A GAY RIGHTS CASE

Addnally, several stat terpret existg laws agast sex discrimatn to apply to bias relatg to sexual orientatn and genr inty, even though they do not have laws explicly forbiddg such stat that do not offer protectns to gay and transgenr people on those grounds, municipal laws ver many Human Rights Campaign, an L. McCoy for The New York TimThe urt’s cisn favor of a Colorado web signer, Lorie Smh, had an unual feature: It was based on njecture and Smh, who objects to providg weddg-related servic for same-sex marriag, never turned down a gay uple. ETFriday’s lg was another reassurg cisn for relig celebratory moment outsi the Supreme Court on Friday, after the urt livered the latt a strg of judgments favor of relig Zuhaib/Associated PrsConservativ who have moral and theologil objectns to gay marriage saw the Supreme Court’s cisn on Friday as reassurance that they would be able to assert their beliefs a public square that they see as creasgly hostile to a 6-to-3 vote, spl along iologil l, the jtic agreed wh a web signer Colorado who said she had a First Amendment right to refe to provi servic for same-sex marriag, spe a state law that forbids discrimatn agast gay people.

Several siar s have centered on nservative Christian small bs owners who object to workg on gay weddgs specifilly, cludg a baker Colorado, two vatn signers Arizona and a Kentucky-based a news nference shortly after the lg was issued, Krist Waggoner, general unsel for Alliance Defendg Freedom, which reprented Ms. ” She said her nsiratn acceptg work as a webse signer was the “msage” of the se, not the inty of the Smh’s portfol clus webs for church, real tate pani and polil many nservative Christians hailed the cisn on Friday, drew cricism om some progrsive Christians and terfah groups, cludg those that serve gay people of fah. ETHere’s how urt battl over servg same-sex upl have played out the Cote for The New York TimIn the latt se volvg same-sex marriage rights, relig eedom and discrimatn, the Supreme Court on Friday led favor of a web signer Colorado who said she had a First Amendment right not to provi servic for same-sex marriag spe a state law that bans discrimatn agast gay ’s a brief look at some of the most proment s before Friday’s:A Colorado baker ws urtIn June 2018, the Supreme Court led favor of a Colorado baker who refed to bake a weddg ke for a gay uple.

Kennedy wrote that the missn’s members had acted wh “clear and impermissible hostily” to people wh scerely held relig Bra, a kemaker prevailsBra’s Supreme Court led favor of a bakery October 2018 that had refed to make a ke bearg the slogan “Support Gay Marriage, ” sayg the refal was not discrimatory. The urt’s cisn mak easier for bs Bra to cle ctomer requts that are at odds wh their dispute began 2014, when Gareth Lee, a gay rights activist Northern Ireland, sought to buy a ke for a party om Ashers Bakg Company Belfast that showed two “Same Street” characters, Bert and Ernie; a logo for his group, QueerSpace; and the slogan supportg gay marriage. A florist Washgton State says her rights were vlatedIn 2013, Barronelle Stutzman, the owner of a flower shop the small cy of Richland, southeastern Washgton, refed to create floral arrangements for a gay uple’s two grooms, Robert Ingersoll and Curt Freed, had prevly bought flowers at her store, Arlene’s Flowers.

AMERI’S MOST IMPORTANT GAY-RIGHTS SPEECH?

”Invatn signers sue the cy of PhoenixThe Arizona Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments January after two Christian vatn signers said they would refe to create weddg vatns for same-sex upl if Da and Breanna Koski, evangelil Christians and the owners of Bsh & Nib Stud, sued the cy of Phoenix 2016, sayg they feared legal retributn if they did not fulfill requts om gay or lbian upl.

AFTER YEARS OF PROGRS ON GAY RIGHTS, HOW DID THE US BEE SO ANTI-LGBTQ+?

Colorado Civil Rights Cote for The New York TimThe Supreme Court’s cisn on Friday favor of a Colorado web signer has echo of a 2018 se about a baker who had turned away a gay uple seekg a weddg that cisn, Masterpiece Cakhop v. Kennedy, who wrote the majory opn the 7-to-2 cisn 2018, seemed unable to choose between two of his re mments: He was the thor of every major Supreme Court cisn protectg gay rights unr the Constutn and also the urt’s most arnt fenr of ee speech.

“The oute of s like this other circumstanc mt awa further elaboratn the urts, ” he wrote, “all the ntext of regnizg that the disput mt be rolved wh tolerance, whout undue disrpect to scere relig beliefs, and whout subjectg gay persons to digni when they seek goods and servic an open market.

US SUPREME COURT WEIGHS CLASH BETWEEN EE SPEECH AND GAY RIGHTS

After the 2020 electn, Colorado bee a center of electn nspiraci, a e embraced by some of s state is “a nice enpsulatn on what lims have been placed on the Christian right and what power and fluence they n still yield, ” William Schultz, a historian at the Universy of Chigo Divy School who is workg on a book about Christian culture Colorado Sprgs, said last 1992, voters the state passed what was nsired at the time to be an unual ballot iative prohibg Colorado om regnizg gay, lbian and bisexual people as a protected class. Another poll by Pew found that almost half of whe evangelils born after 1964 favored same-sex marriage 2017, pared to about a quarter of olr whe fah groups that have tradnally opposed gay rights now support some acmodatns for same-sex marriage.

HARVEY MILK’S GAY FREEDOM DAY SPEECH: ANNOTATED

PetersCoverg the media's tersectn wh polics, culture and lawThree years ago, Jtice Neil Gorsuch, who wrote today's opn favor of the webse signer who oppos same-sex marriage, was the thor of a very different opn om the urt, lg that a landmark civil rights law protects gay and transgenr employe om workplace discrimatn. Emphasizg her view that prohibg bs om discrimatg agast gay people is a regulatn of nduct, not speech, she wr: “The majory’s repeated votn of this Orwellian thought policg is revealg of jt how much misunrstands this se.

The New Republic published an article reportg that the Colorado webse signer who oppos same-sex marriage, and whose challenge to Colorado’s antidiscrimatn law took this se to the Supreme Court, may not have received an actual requt om a gay uple to create a weddg 30, 2023, 10:17 a. ETHere’s what to know about the ee speech a 6-to-3 vote, spl along iologil l, the Supreme Court sid on Friday wh a web signer Colorado who said she had a First Amendment right to refe to provi servic for same-sex marriag spe a state law that forbids discrimatn agast gay people.

”The se, though amed as a clash between ee speech and gay rights, was the latt a seri of cisns favor of relig people and groups, notably nservative Christians, who celebrated the lg on Friday as a victory for relig dissent, Jtice Sonia Sotomayor lled the lg “profoundly wrong, ” argug that the Colorado anti-discrimatn law “targets nduct, not speech, for regulatn, and the act of discrimatn has never nstuted protected exprsn unr the First Amendment. At the same time, the lg limed the abily of the ernments to enforce anti-discrimatn urts have generally sid wh gay and lbian upl who were refed service by bakeri, florists and others, lg that potential ctomers are entled to equal treatment, at least parts of the untry wh laws forbiddg discrimatn based on sexual orientatn.

THE RIGHTS OF LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL AND TRANSGENR PEOPLE

AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTA supposed requt for a webse for a same-sex weddg played a mor role a major clash between ee speech and gay rights at the Supreme Supreme Court led last week that a Colorado graphic signer has the right to refe to create webs for same-sex Jiang for The New York TimAfter the Supreme Court led last week that a Colorado graphic signer has the right to refe to create webs for same-sex marriag, crics of the cisn raised qutns about a form clud urt papers the se that appeared to show that a gay uple had sought the servic of the signer, Lorie man who supposedly submted the form said he was unaware of s existence until a reporter for The New Republic lled him. Print Obama ed the ocsn to make the first direct reference to gay-rights an Ingural Addrs, and he did so wh a power and forthrightns we have not heard before, even om two-thirds of the way to the speech, Obama referred to Stonewall, a gay bar where, 1969, a police raid provoked a rt, the same sentence as Sene Falls and Selma—th parg the women’s and Ain-Amerin civil-rights movements to the gay-rights stggle. Had he stopped there, would have been historic—particularly g om the first Ain-Amerin Print—but, keepg wh the tradn of policians who refer to gay-rights obliquely or wh words, stoppg short of the Print ntued:Our journey is not plete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else unr the law—for if we are tly created equal, then surely the love we m to one another mt be equal as only was this a ll to end discrimatn, but an unambiguo argument for the regnn of same-sex marriage across the untry.

A rash of laws ncerng the teachg of human sexualy school curricula, banng trans stunt athlet and strippg parents of the right to help their genr-variant children obta appropriate re have popped up numero red stat this same-sex marriage is now part of the fabric of Ameri, nservativ have chosen to explo Amerins’ unfaiary wh trans people and piggyback on parental anger over the perceived overreach of Covid-era school closur, nflatg wh an sid sense of “wokens”, the hop of fdg an electorally viable sluiceway for anti-LGBTQ+ most famo of the anti-LGBTQ+ laws is the piece of Florida legislatn banng stctn on sexual orientatn or genr inty schools between krgarten and third gra, the so-lled “don’t say gay” law.

He was followed by Arizona’s ernor, Doug Ducey, who, after barrg mors om genr-affirmatn treatment, wouldn’t even state for the rerd that trans people were Florida lawmaker Michele Rayner-Goolsby, left, hugs her wife, Bian Goolsby, durg a march at cy hall St Petersburg agast the ‘don’t say gay’ bill. Photograph: Bob Daemmrich/Zuma Wire/Rex/ShutterstockPolicians are supported the media by mentators like Tucker Carlson, who claimed “no one had heard of this trans thg four years ago”, or Charlie Kirk, channelg 1980s fears sayg “gays want to rpt your children” rejuvenated, the right wg is poised to make transphobia and homophobia rnerston of the midterms and 2024 electns, wh promis to liver “don’t say gay” legislatn stat cludg Michigan and New Perks, the print of the Fay Rearch Council, a nservative lobbyg group, veighed agast the ernors of Indiana and Utah for vetog legislatn banng trans women om participatg sports, llg the bills “timely, mastream protectns”. The Republin US reprentative Marjorie Taylor Greene vowed to troduce a feral “don’t say gay” bill if Republins w the Hoe this November, only to one-up herself days later by tweetg that for people to be pro-trans is to be pro-pedophilia.

GAY RIGHTS AND FREEDOM OF SPEECH

”The bs-iendly wg of the GOP that would quietly team up wh Democrats to scuttle rabidly homophobic bills is now outnumbered, and legislators a dozen or more stat that lean even farther to the right than DeSantis are takg, the Natnal Center for Lbian Rights legal director, believ Florida is the tt se for a renewed ph for an aggrsive, Christian-natnalist program. “I’ve seen this movie before over the last 30 years: The right wg cid to target the LGBTQ muny, whether ’s around marriage or adoptn or trans kids playg sports or bathrooms, ” says the California state senator Stt Wiener, who is gay.

“I thought was really important to ph back on the policy level, and to send a clear signal that California and other stat really re about the kids, ” he believ that “don’t say gay” is “patently unnstutnal” but also ntends that relyg on the judicial system to protect human rights may no longer be a sound optn. I want to thank the Human Rights Campaign for vg me to speak and for the work you do every day pursu of equaly on behalf of the lns of people this untry who work hard their jobs and re eply about their fai and who are gay, lbian, bisexual, or transgenr. It’s the story of an epimic that cimated a muny and the gay men and women who me to support one another and save one another, who ntue to fight this surge, who have monstrated before the world that different kds of fai n show the same passn a time of need.

The two most visible figur behd the legislative manvers were John Briggs, a state Senator California, who sought to remove openly lbian and gay teachers wh Proposn 6 (the phrase “public homosexual” repeats throughout the proposn); and Ana Bryant, whose “Save Our Children” anizatn succsfully helped overturn equal rights ordanc Miami, Florida; Eugene, Oregon; Wicha, Kansas; and St.

THE SUPREME COURT RULGS THAT HAVE SHAPED GAY RIGHTS AMERI

If you do not speak out, if you rema silence, if you do not lift up your voice agast Briggs, then I ll upon lbians and gay men om all over the natn, your natn, to gather Washgton one year om now on that natnal day of eedom, the fourth of July…the fourth of July, 1979…to gather Washgton on that very same spot where over a ago Dr. I ll upon all mori and pecially the lns of lbians and gay men to wake up om their dreams…to gather Washgton and tell Jimmy Carter and their natn: “Wake up…wake up, Ameri…no more racism, no more sexism, no more ageism, no more hatred…no more!

GAY RIGHTS SPEECH

Y, twelve stat (California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachetts, Mnota, New Hampshire, Nevada, New Jersey, Rho Island, Vermont and Wisns), the District of Columbia, many municipali, and hundreds of bs and universi have enacted laws that protect gay, lbian and bisexual people om employment discrimatn. Sce they n not marry, the partners of lbians and gay men are not next of k tim of crisis; they are not nsulted on ccial medil cisns; they are not given leave to re for each other; they are not each other’s legal heirs, if, like most Amerins, they do not have wills.