New Jersey declares April as Sikh Awareness Month

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Washington, March 29

The US state of New Jersey has declared April as ‘Sikh Awareness and Appreciation Month’ as part of its effort to promote awareness of the faith.

New Jersey’s State Assembly made the declaration in a joint resolution this week, saying it was an effort to combat the “increasing and unacceptable levels of anti-Sikh bigotry”.

“The month of April of every year is designated as ‘Sikh Awareness and Appreciation Month’ in the State of New Jersey in order to promote public awareness of the Sikh faith, recognise the important contributions of the Sikh community, and combat anti-Sikh bigotry,” the resolution said.

The resolution was adopted unanimously by both the New Jersey House of Representative and the Senate.

The state wants to acknowledge the lasting contributions of the Sikh people and the essential role they play in New Jersey’s diverse community, a media release said yesterday.

This state assemblies of Indiana and Delaware adopted similar resolutions earlier in the month. But unlike New Jersey they declared the month of April this year as the Sikh Heritage Month and Sikh Awareness and Awareness month, respectively.

The resolution noted that despite their progressive principles and charitable deeds, the American-Sikh community commonly experienced discrimination, often by individuals who are unaware of the beliefs and practices of the faith.

“Nearly 60 percent of Americans admit to knowing nothing about the religion or its practitioners, and national rates of anti-Sikh bigotry rose dramatically following the September 11th terrorist attacks,” the resolution said.

Sikhs disproportionately experience school bullying, with estimates indicating that over 50 per cent of all Sikh children, and roughly 67 per cent of turbaned-Sikh children, endure physical or verbal abuse while at school, it said.

In New Jersey, a Sikh student’s turban was set on fire by a classmate at Hightstown High School in 2008.

The resolution said that deadly assaults against the Sikh community had become all-too-common occurrences across the country.

“Although the Sikh-American community continues to peacefully overcome each attack on its cultural identity, the State of New Jersey is now compelled to promote public awareness of the Sikh faith and memorialise the lasting contributions of its Sikh residents,” it said. PTI

VIDEO: Muslim teens berated as ‘traitors to the country’

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By Caitlin Mota

The Jersey Journal

JERSEY CITY — Five Muslim teens were walking to Newport Mall after school on Tuesday afternoon when they were berated by a man because of their religion.

In a snippet of the incident that was caught on camera, the man, who has not been identified, tells the 18-year-old Dickinson High School students they are “traitors to the country” because they are Muslim.

Fatima Khan, who posted the video on Twitter, said she and her four friends — Ibtissam Jaouad, Aniza Nasir, Dolma Tsering, and Yahaira Osorio — were approached by the man on Seventh Street in Downtown Jersey City and he began yelling.

At first the girls thought he was trying to make a joke, but they soon realized the man was attacking them for their religion. Nasir was wearing a hijab when the man began his hate-filled tirade and that’s when Khan begins recording.

“I’m allowed to talk to streets … people on the streets,” the man says. “It’s important … your s****y people should go …”

In the video the man is interrupted by one of the teens who yells “what do you mean ‘your s****y people?’ She was born here, first of all, and I came here and I am an American citizen.”

The girls, audibly upset at this point, ask the man where he’s from when he says “you are traitors to the country.” Khan tells her friends to keep walking and to ignore him, while he continues to talk to the girls about “your s****y country.”

When reached by phone, the girls said they were surprised by the hate-filled rhetoric in Jersey City, but also acknowledged how it’s happening all across the country. The man also allegedly called them “evil” and “witches.”

“I don’t usually go through all that around here, especially since it’s so diverse,” Nasir said.

Mike McNamara, a Downtown resident, said the man in the video is homeless and in need a psychological help and little things on any given day can tick him off.

The incident occurred near the East District Police Precinct. The students said they went to tell police about the encounter, but were told not much could be done since they did not know where the man in the video went.

As they continued to the mall, the girls said they were stopped by another man who said the person who verbally assaulted them continued his rant even after the girls left. The second man apologized that the girls were put into that type of situation.

The teens hope that sharing their story will shed light on the seriousness of racism, prejudice and hate crimes.

A city spokeswoman did not immediately return a request for comment on the video. Reached by phone, Downtown Councilman James Solomon called the video “disgusting.”

“There is no place for this in Jersey City or America,” he said.

A study released earlier this year by the Council on American-Islamic Relations found hate crimes against Muslims rose 15 percent in 2017.The advocacy group blamed President Donald Trump’s restrictions on immigration from Muslim-majority countries as the reason for more hate crimes.

 

 

How discrimination is sending more black kids to prison

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By Andrea McChristian   

It’s usually a good thing to be No. 1. New Jersey, however, is a leader in two intolerable ways: Our state has the highest rate of black-white youth incarceration disparity and the highest rate of black-white adult state prison incarceration disparity in the country.

A black child in New Jersey is 30.64 times more likely to be incarcerated than a white child, according to a fact sheet by the Sentencing Project. This is a rate double that of the second state on the list, Wisconsin.

As of January of this year, of the 222 youths incarcerated in New Jersey’s three youth prisons, 148 were black and just 13 were white. And as of June 1, the ages of our locked-up young people ranged from 14 to 24 years old. While the offenses that children are incarcerated for appear to vary from nonviolent to violent, according to the Juvenile Justice Commission, there is one constant: Most of the youths are black, even though research shows that black and white kids commit most offenses at similar rates.

So what’s the root cause of the racial disparities?

Racial discrimination. These striking racial disparities reflect racially discriminatory circumstances that determine which kids get prison and which kids do not.

Any attempt to justify these staggering racial disparities based solely on their offenses speaks to our inability to address and redress the systemic racism which has led to their restraint. This is not about the individual. It is about a system that has existed for well over a century to strip childhood from black children.

This racialized approach to the confinement of black children has been a historical mainstay of our nation. From slavery and convict leasing, to the since-debunked “super-predator” myth of the mid-1990s, the inability of our system to see black children as children has erased their humanity and led to their criminalization. This has continued to present day, with recent research showing that black kids are often perceived to be older than their age, as well as less innocent and more mature.

This is a piece of the same system that criminalized and villainized crack cocaine users (largely black) but greeted opioid users (largely white) with compassion and treatment. We must channel this same compassion to our children of color. Our failure to do so has disproportionately funneled black children into the youth justice system.

One arena where this myopic view of black youths is playing out is in our state’s schools, where factors such as zero-tolerance policies and implicit bias have transformed classrooms into launching pads for confinement. A source of this problem is the ever-increasing presence of police in schools.

During the 2013-14 school year, almost one-fifth of New Jersey schools had sworn police officers; and with the recent passage of S-86, which authorizes additional trained special officers to police schools, this number has surely increased. This heightened police state in our schools has markedly harmed black youths: During the 2013-14 school year, black kids in the state made up 33.6 percent of school arrests and 31.1 percent of law enforcement referrals, while constituting only 15.2 percent of total enrollment.

The overpolicing of kids of color also extends beyond the classroom. In 2015, while black kids made up 14 percent of the total state youth population, they made up almost half of all arrests. High arrest rates of black youths are not only seen in counties with cities with large black populations, but also in regions where black youths make up a small portion of residents.

For example, black youths made up an estimated 13.9 percent of the total youth population in Gloucester County in 2015, but over 40 percent of total county youth arrests.

New Jersey’s failure to address the root cause of these disparities — racial discrimination — continues to trap our black youths in a cycle of incarceration for the rest of their lives.

We must stop condemning our kids of color, rather than our racialized system, for these intolerable racial disparities. To do so speaks little of their own guilt, but rather our misplaced inclination to blame black youths for their involvement in a flawed system of our own creation.

We should not be in first place for failing our kids.

Andrea McChristian is associate counsel at the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice. She is the primary author of “Bring Our Children Home: Ain’t I a Child,” a report on racial disparities in New Jersey’s juvenile justice system.

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Does New Jersey’s anti-bullying law address racism in schools?

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 pressofatlanticcity.com

A Camden County lacrosse team’s season was canceled this month after students from Haddonfield uttered a racial slur at a member of the Sterling High School track team in Somerdale.

In a similar incident last weekend, members of Linwood’s Mainland Regional High School boys crew team were accused of taunting a black rower on Absegami High School’s crew team during a meet at Lake Lenape in Mays Landing. The punishment for those students has not been disclosed by the Mainland superintendent, but The Press has been told the boys involved have been removed from the team.

State data show such incidents are on the decline in schools, which many attribute to New Jersey’s anti-bullying law. The 2010 law established procedures and reporting requirements to help districts deal with harassment, intimidation and bullying, known collectively to school officials as HIB.

But under the law, how punishments for those incidents are doled out is entirely up to the school district.

Greater Egg Harbor Regional Superintendent John Keenan, who oversees three high schools, including Absegami, said there is no “one-size-fits-all” discipline for a violation because each situation is unique.

State data show most HIB violations result in detentions as well as individual counseling and parent and student conferences.

Christopher Kobik, superintendent of the Lower Cape May Regional School District, said racial bias may extend beyond the scope of the HIB law.

“HIB can address it when it fits; however, bias by definition has a wider scope that extends beyond individuals to practices and organizations,” Kobik said, noting his district references affirmative action policies for guidance, as well.

Although there haven’t been studies on its effectiveness, Rutgers University psychology professor Paul Boxer said the HIB law is successful in placing accountability on schools.

“There’s no leeway as far as schools not being able to follow every step. … I think it’s also a good thing in terms of really making it clear to students the potential severity of what they’ve done,” said Boxer, director of the Center on Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice, who was also involved in making recommendations to the state regarding the law.

Data show most HIB incidents in New Jersey are related to “other distinguishing characteristics” of a person, but the second most prevalent target is a person’s race.

Kaleem Shabazz, president of the Atlantic City NAACP, said schools are doing a good job in reacting to racism, but there needs to be more “proactive” work, especially during a time when people may feel more emboldened to make such comments.

“We have to do more to prevent some of these incidents and let people know they should not interact with people like that,” Shabazz said. “It’s hard to look at ourselves and say we have ingrained racist feelings … but unfortunately, it’s here.”

He said the local NACCP is working with the Anti-Defamation League and offered to provide resources to schools in Atlantic County to combat racism and bullying.

Experts say there is no easy explanation for why students make racist comments. In the case at Lake Lenape, Boxer said the fact that a competition was going on could have been a contributing factor. Boxer said kids may also feel more empowered when they are in a group setting.

“They get messages from their parents, they get messages from the media about what’s appropriate and what’s not appropriate,” Boxer said. “It’s not like racism in American society is something that just came out of nowhere.”

Keenan said training is a big part of a school’s anti-bullying procedures, and that involves not only staff but students. Many schools also have anonymous reporting apps such as STOPit, which is used by the Greater Egg schools.

NJ students more diverse, but schools more segregated, report shows

New Jersey is becoming more racially diverse, but its schools are becoming more segregated, according to the latest report from the UCLA Civil…

Regardless of the punishment, Absegami’s Myasia Joga wants an in-person apology from the students at Mainland Regional High School who she says taunted her.

“I need to read that they apologized, but it still isn’t enough,” the 16-year-old told The Press of Atlantic City earlier this week.

Mainland has apologized in writing. Superintendent Mark Marrone declined to comment on the situation further.

I’ve suffered from racism in N.J. Here’s one way to fight it

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And speak up when a makes it seem like not only is there such a thing as a “s–hole country,” effectively dismissing an entire people and place.

We don’t want to be a country that believes that children are filth because of the color of their skin. We push back at these kinds of harmful, biased stories, and elevate the news media when it does a good job.

In this digital age, let’s tell stories of our own so that we can change the very lexicon that we use to talk about these things. These messages don’t just provide a reflection of what our society believes, but also who and what it values, and what it believes it should do.

Khadijah Costley White assistant professor in the School of Communication and Information, Rutgers-New Brunswick.

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‘Turban man’ slur aimed at NJ attorney general is the latest indignation for state’s Sikhs

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https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/new-jersey/2018/07/26/slur-aimed-ag-gurbir-grewal-latest-slight-njs-sikhs/840310002/

New Jersey Sikhs seek to promote awareness through acts of charity and faith

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http://www.philly.com/philly/news/new_jersey/sikhs-vaisakhi-new-jersey-faith-20180413.html

Melanie Burney

Once a month, on a given Saturday, volunteers from the South Jersey Sikh community meet for several hours in downtown Camden to put their faith into action by distributing home-cooked meals to the homeless.

The service project will take on extra meaning this month as the faithful celebrate Vaisakhi, the most significant of the annual Sikh gatherings that mark the spring harvest in India’s Punjab region. This year, the festival coincides with the first Sikh Awareness Month in New Jersey.

About 300 people are expected to partake in the service of langar, or free community meals, said Tony Rahil, the project director. About a dozen volunteers will help serve traditional Indian vegetarian dishes, mostly beans and rice and rice pudding, near the Walter Rand Transportation Center.

Launched in 2012, the community service project follows one of the basic tenets of Sikhism, the fifth-largest world religion, by performing selfless acts of service to others. Sikhs in Jersey City, Newark, Glen Rock, and Trenton also regularly provide meals to the needy.

Tony Rahil, a Sikh, started a project to feed the homeless in Camden in 2012. “We really feel strongly about it,” said Rahil, of Voorhees, a real estate agent. “You’re blessed to do the work.”

Rahil and Sikh leaders are trying to break down barriers and dispel stereotypes about Sikhs, who have been the target of hate crimes. They want to develop relationships with people of different faiths and backgrounds, especially in service projects such as feeding the homeless.

“Most of the people in the U.S., all they see are the turbans,” said Jagvinder S. Chattha, 45, of Westampton, an auto wholesaler. “We have not clarified our identity to our neighbors.”

This month, Gov. Murphy signed a bill designating every April in New Jersey as Sikh Awareness Month. New Jersey is home to about 100,000 Sikh Americans, one of the largest populations in the country. It is estimated that about 500,000 Sikhs live in the United States (The Census Bureau doesn’t ask questions about religion so there is no official count.) Worldwide, there are more than 25 million Sikhs.

Lawmakers said they hope the measure would help counter bigotry and educate the public about Sikhism, often wrongly viewed as a combination of Islam and Hinduism. Their distinct physical identity — unshorn hair and turbans for men and head coverings for women — make them easily identified and targeted for hate crimes.

“As we see a surge in hate crimes this year, so also is a surge in our resolve to heal with love,” Manwinder Singh, director of United Sikhs,said in a statement.

In New Jersey and elsewhere, there have been a spate of hate crimes and attacks against Sikhs, especially after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In Hightstown, the turban of a Sikh student was set on fire by a classmate in 2008. In Wisconsin, six Sikhs were killed during a hate-crime attack at a gurdwara, a place of worship, in 2012. Ravi Singh Bhalla, who took office in January as Hoboken’s first Sikh mayor, has reported receiving death threats.

Rahil said Sikhs have been warmly embraced by the community in Pine Hill, where his family belongs to one of the oldest gurdwaras in New Jersey, Sikh Gurdwara Pine Hill. Located on a busy stretch of Blackwood-Clementon Road, the gurdwara is a center for learning, worship, and gathering for the faithful.

A steady stream of congregants came to the temple Friday, where a 48-hour worship service for Vaisakhi will conclude Saturday to celebrate their history and rededication to their religious traditions. Before entering, they removed their shoes and covered their heads. They reverently approached the Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh scripture, which sits on a throne in the center of the ornate room, and bowed as a sign of submission.

In a nearby room, a priest and members took shifts reciting scriptures without interruption. In the kitchen, three women prepared spices for langar after Friday night’s worship service.

New Jersey, With Long Reputation of Hate Crimes Against Indian Americans, Had Surprisingly Few in 2016: Report

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http://www.indiawest.com/content/tncms/live/

SUNITA SOHRABJI, India-West Staff Reporter

The state of New Jersey, which has had a long and troubling legacy of hate crimes against Indian Americans, had surprisingly few such incidents in 2016, according to a new report released March 27.

The report was released by New Jersey’s new state Attorney General Gurbir Grewal, who is Indian American. The 30-page report included data about the nationality, religion and gender of the victims, whether the hate crime was against a person, private property or public property, and several related details.

In 2016, only three hate crimes were perpetuated against Indian Americans, which the report identifies as Asian Indians. All three of those attacks were against Hindu Americans, according to the report, which also stated that two attacks were committed on the person, while one was committed on the victim’s private property.

More troubling is the large number of attacks on Muslim Americans: there were 26 hate crimes against members of the Islamic faith in 2016. Four of the hate crimes against Muslims were on public property, seven were on private property, and 15 were on the person.

Children between the ages of 11 and 17 were most often the targets of hate crimes; the largest number of offenders were also between the ages of 11 and 17, indicating that many such incidents may have been school bullying. But surprisingly, adult white males between the ages of 46 to 60, and a large number of senior citizens committed the majority of attacks.

African Americans and Jewish people were the most frequent targets of hate crime. Monmouth and Middlesex counties had by far the largest numbers of hate crimes.

No comparative data was available for 2017.

New Jersey gained notoriety in 1987, when a gang calling itself the Dotbusters – in reference to the tikka worn by many Indian American women on their foreheads – began harassing members of the community in Jersey City and Hoboken. In July of that year, members of the Dotbusters gang attacked banker Navroze Mody as he was leaving the Gold Coast bar in Hoboken with friends. The youth punched Mody with their fists, feet, and bricks, and left him unconscious on the sidewalk. Mody died four days later. The youths – who were tried as adults – each received sentences of 10 years or less.

Several days later, physician Kaushal Saran was severely beaten in Jersey City Heights. Saran survived a month-long coma, but emerged with severe damage to his brain and skull.

In more recent times, Indian American professor Divyendu Sinha was fatally beaten outside his Old Bridge, New Jersey, home in 2010, while taking a late-night walk with his family. Three of the five teens allegedly involved in the incident were acquitted of all charges, three years later.

In 2016, New Jersey law enforcement agencies reported 417 bias incident offenses, a 14 percent increase compared to 2015.

“It’s sad that we see bias incidents trending upward, but it’s not surprising, given that we have political leaders in this country who encourage the expression of intolerance and hatred, or in other cases, ignore or countenance it,” said Grewal, in a statement announcing the release of the report.

“What we need to do, as individuals and as a society, is to push back against this prejudice. We need to embrace the diversity that makes us stronger as a state and a nation, and we need to spread a countervailing message of tolerance and unity.”

“To quote Nelson Mandela, ‘No one is born hating another person.’ If people can learn to hate, they also can learn to love and respect one another,” said Grewal.

How LGBT rights are still hindered in N.J. from old laws still on the books

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By Chris Donnelly

More Americans are becoming uncomfortable with direct or indirect interaction with a member of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. While disheartening, these results from a recent poll released by GLAAD (a leading LGBT media-focused organization) should not come as a shock.

Even in New Jersey — which has made incredible strides over the past decade on LGBT issues — there remain laws that institutionalize bias against members of the LGBT community.

The issues that impact the LGBT community go far deeper than bigotry masked as religious freedom-loving bakers or marriage equalit y. While important, they are still not the sole reason for anti-LGBT sentiment in New Jersey and across the country.

This sentiment manifests itself in many forms, some straightforward: acts of violence or vandalism, or messages of hate. But much of the bias hides beneath a mask of marginal acceptance. In other words, people are willing to bestow upon the LGBT community rights they themselves are comfortable with, but will not go further than that if it makes them feel, well, icky inside.

Those sentiments are evident in GLAAD’s poll. Americans still largely support general LGBT rights. But more non-LGBT people are getting uncomfortable with the thought of specific involvement and engagement on issues that are supportive of the LBGT community.

These attitudes have been sanctioned by the statements and policies of President Donald Trump.His rhetoric has a ripple effect that impacts all minority and oppressed groups.

But let’s be honest. These feelings of discomfort have probably always been there. The president has simply made it OK to now publicly express them.

New Jersey, while late to the party on marriage equality, has been more progressive on LGBT equality and rights. Credit must be given to elected officials who were at the forefront of equality, such as state Sen. Loretta Weinberg, recently retired Sen. Raymond Lesniak, Assemblymen Reed Gusciora and Tim Eustace, and Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle.

But GLAAD’s poll shows the fight for equality continues.

There must be renewed vigor and emphasis on rectifying issues that may not make the headlines, and yet contribute to the continuing stigma of being LGBT in America. Organizations such asGarden State Equality, GLAAD, the American Civil Liberties Union and Lambda Legal have and will continue to lead the charge, but these organizations cannot do it alone. The people of New Jersey and our lawmakers must help us tackle and defeat these biases.

Some of these issues are easily addressed. For example, in New Jersey it is still legal to dismiss a potential juror based on his or her sexual orientation or gender identity. We can become the first state east of the Mississippi to ban this outdated policy.

A bill currently making its way through the state Legislature would make it easier for transgender individuals to revise their birth certificates. While vetoed twice by our last governor, Gov. Phil Murphy has pledged his support.

Also, there are countless LGBT military veterans in New Jersey who were unfairly discharged during the days of “Don’t ask, don’t tell.” This injustice has resulted in these brave men and women being ineligible for benefits they are entitled to by way of their defense of our country.

These issues add up, both in a literal and figurative sense.

When people are constantly told they are not as good as others — that they are not normal — and those sentiments are backed by our own laws, the results can be devastating. One of the consequences is the incredibly high rate of LGBT youths who are homeless, suffering from drug addiction or being harassed and bullied. Words matter. Deeds matter. Laws matter.

We cannot truly address these issues until we get at the root causes of them: lack of acceptance, lack of understanding, lack of compassion for our LGBT brothers and sisters.

That means ensuring our government and judicial systems no longer support and implement laws that ingrain bias into the public’s mind. The LGBT community has made tremendous strides over the past decade. But clearly, our work is not done yet.

Chris Donnelly, a principal at the public affairs and consulting firm Kivvit in Asbury Park, serves on the Garden State Equality’s Action Fund Executive Committee. He was communications director for New Jersey United For Marriage, a grassroots campaign to bring marriage equality to New Jersey.

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Anti-LGBT roundup of events and activities 5/3/18

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https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2018/05/03/anti-lgbt-roundup-events-and-activities-5318

American Family Association*

The American Family Association (AFA)is protesting a move by the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) to allow girls into its ranks, though the BSA’s announcement came in October of last year.

According to BSA, girls can now start participating in Cub Scouts and BSA will begin implementing a program that allows older girls to advance and earn Eagle Scout rank.

Ed Vitagliano, AFA’s executive vice president, acknowledged in a video of AFA’s “Reason and Company” program posted April 24 that the decision is months-old, but that the BSA is just now starting to get girls into its programs. According to Vitagliano, it’s “part of the ongoing war against the Judeo-Christian worldview, the way God has established mankind, male and female.” The BSA, he argued, is an example of how “this thing” (the ongoing war) unfolds:

They first began to allow homosexuals, and homosexual troop leaders, and then transgenders [sic], and now girls in with boys because the secular progressive, the materialistic worldview based in evolution says there’s really no difference between boys and girls, and so we don’t need to — we see the same thing with Target, allowing men into women’s restrooms and changing areas — this is part of a larger war against God and His divine order.

AFA’s Ed Vitagliano, left, and Tim Wildmon (screenshot from “Reason and Company,” Apr. 24, 2018)

AFA has been protesting Target’s trans-inclusive policy for about a year. This includes boycotting the retailer, a tactic AFA has historically used against LGBT-inclusive companies. AFA often insinuates that trans woman are men, and that trans-inclusive store policies will allow male sexual predators into women’s restrooms and other women’s public facilities, a harmful myth promulgated by the anti-LGBT right.

Family Research Council*

The Family Research Council (FRC) is a  fan of new secretary of state Mike Pompeo (see below), and held a panel discussion May 2 titled “Religious Liberty and National Security: Opportunities for Secretary Pompeo.”

The panelists were Thomas Farr, president of the Religious Freedom Institute and Robert Destro, a professor of law at Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law. He is also co-director of the Iraqi Kurdistan Religious Freedom Project.

FRC’s description of the event states that “a developing body of evidence suggest that the presence of religious freedom is significantly connected to security, stability, and prosperity” and claims that security at home “seems increasingly related to religious freedom elsewhere.”

FRC president Tony Perkins hosts a daily radio show, “Washington Watch.” Guests from April 14 through May 2 included attorney James Trusty (formerly with DOJ); columnist Terry Jerry; Rep. Mark Walker (R-NC); Sam Brownback (Ambassador-at-Large for Religious Liberty); Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD); columnist and author Matt Walsh; Chris Mitchell (Christian Broadcasting Network); Hiram Sasser (general counsel, First Liberty); Sen. James Lankford (R-OK); former congresswoman Michele Bachmann; Rep. David Brat (R-VA); Emery McClendon (Project 21); Pastor Dean Haun (First Baptist Church, Morristown, TN); Avi Melamed (former Israeli intelligence); Matthew Heiman (National Security Institute visiting fellow); Jonathan Keller (California Family Council); Nick Salyers (Champion Tribes); Caroline Glick (Jerusalem Press); author Joel Rosenberg; Pastor Naim Khoury (First Baptist Church of Bethlehem); Pastor Jack Hibbs (Calvary Chapel Chino Hills, CA); Frank Gaffney (Center for Security Policy*); former actress Tina Marie Griffin; Rep. Ron Estes (R-KS); Pastor Ronnie Floyd (president, National Day of Prayer); Ken Cuccinelli (Senate Conservatives Fund); Tim Graham (NewsBusters); George Barna (Barna Research Group); Rep. Steve King (R-IA); author Gordon Chang; columnist Terry Jeffrey

Family Policy Institute of Washington

The Family Policy Institute of Washington (FPIW; located in Bellevue, Washington) is hosting its annual dinner May 4 with guest speaker Robert George, Princeton professor of law and longtime anti-LGBT activist.

George is chairman emeritus of anti-LGBT group the National Organization for Marriage and is also one of the three drafters of the anti-choice and anti-LGBT “Manhattan Declaration,” a theocratic manifesto that calls for Christians to disobey laws they disagree with, seeks to ban same-sex marriage and disallows recognition of any kind of civil union between same-sex couples.

George, who served as chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, is a senior fellow at the Witherspoon Institute, which provided nearly $700,000 to anti-LGBT sociology professor Mark Regnerus for his debunked 2012 study. In addition, George launched the American Principles Project in 2009, a group that worked to derail the Common Core educational standards, including using conspiratorial turns such as warning about “dark forces” behind the standards. He has also referred to transgender identity as “absurd” and “superstitious.”

FPIW is extremely active in anti-choice and anti-LGBT state and local politics. It has battled domestic partnerships, access to birth control for poor women and a telemedicine bill, claiming that it would allow “webcam abortions.” FPIW president Joseph Backholm has compared same-sex marriage to two siblings re-defining their bond and said that “tolerance is not something to be pursued.”

FPIW is also behind the anti-trans “Just Want Privacy” campaign, which gathered signatures in 2016 for Initiative 1515. The initiative would have repealed a state human rights commission law and made it legal for businesses to discriminate against trans people by allow denying them access to restrooms and locker rooms in accordance with their gender identity. The measure didn’t make the ballot.

Focus on the Family

Focus on the Family (FOTF) recently defended its 2016 shift in status to be classified by the IRS as a “church” after Right Wing Watch (RWW) posted about it again April 17 after initially posting an article in February. RWW delved into greater detail in the April 17 post, revealing documents that indicated the organization was seeking to avoid the Affordable Care Act’s insurance mandate on coverage for contraception and other regulations.

The documents indicated that the IRS was initially skeptical of FOTF’s claims with regard to being classified as a church, but relented after FOTF’s attorneys insisted the organization met the criteria for church status and that a denial would violate the First Amendment. In a letter attorneys wrote to the IRS, they claim that the daily work of FOTF “is worship” and FOTF believes that all its members “are ministers.”

FOTF is now exempt from some retirement plan regulations that apply to most nonprofits, and no longer has to pay unemployment taxes or provide unemployment benefits to employees it fires. Churches are also exempt from filing publicly available tax documents with the IRS and are protected from audits.

In response to RWW’s April 17 article, FOTF spokesman and vice president of communications Paul Batura told the Christian Post that the change in status was to protect the privacy of donors in a “hostile environment” for groups like theirs, contrary to what the organization told the IRS its reasons were for seeking church status. “[I]f some of our critics object,” Batura said, “they should take it up with Congress.”

Meanwhile, in other FOTF news, ThinkProgress revealed that FOTF Africa received a grant from the Trump administration in September 2017 to combat HIV/AIDS in South Africa through a religious program that pressures kids to pledge they will abstain from sex until marriage. The organization received nearly $50,000 under the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) from the State Department’s Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator to implement its global abstinence-only purity pledge program, ThinkProgress reported, called “No Apologies,” to 7,000 “learners” in 90 schools in South Africa. Studies demonstrate that abstinence programs do not work in the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases or pregnancy (see here, here, and here).

Liberty Counsel*

On April 18, Mary McAlister, senior litigation counsel for Liberty Counsel, appeared on right-wing activist Cliff Kincaid’s “USA Survival” program claiming that sex ed programs in public schools are “satanic,” according to Right Wing Watch. McAlister’s Twitter biography states that she is working to “stop the satanic sexualization of our children and the destruction of the family.”

McAlister and Kincaid were discussing the right-wing “Sex Ed Sit Out” effort organized by religious right activist Elizabeth Johnston (“Activist Mommy”), among others, which encouraged parents to take their kids out of school April 23 to protest what Johnston perceives as “graphic, gender-bending sex education.”

Johnston posted a video to her Facebook page in March titled “They Are Coming for Our Children.” In the accompanying text, she claimed that “LGBT activists are brainwashing children through graphic sex ed, medicating our children against our will, stealing our children through the courts, and sabotaging our children’s sporting events. When will we protect our children?”

Liberty Counsel, like other Christian Right anti-LGBT groups, believes that sex ed in schools “sexualizes” children and is a vehicle to a host of perceived ills, including “recruiting” children into homosexuality and being transgender, part of the so-called “gender ideology” conspiracy theory that right-wing groups have manufactured in an attempt to further marginalize LGBT people and curtail reproductive health efforts.

Voice of the Voiceless

“Ex-gay” group Voice of the Voiceless has partnered with organizers of Freedom March: A Celebration of Freedom from Homosexuality and Transgenderism, according to NBC.

This event is slated for Saturday, May 5 in Washington, D.C., and the featured speaker is anti-LGBT “Activist Mommy” Elizabeth Johnston, who told the Christian Post that the Freedom March will be attended by all kinds of people around the globe who have known the destruction of sexual sin and gender confusion. “They know what it’s like to want help and freedom from the emptiness and addictions of the gender-confused lifestyle, but not know where to turn,” then added that she hopes meaningful, loving relationships are formed.

Voice of the Voiceless has linked homosexuality to pedophilia while founder Christopher Doyle has claimed that anti-LGBT laws in African countries are the fault of LGBT people themselves and denies that violence takes place against them and instead, they’re just “playing the victim card.” Doyle has also referred to homosexuality as a “maladaptive condition” and in one interview stated that, “I have no issues with gay people per se. I do have issues with homosexuality and the homosexual activists’ agenda.”

World Congress of Families*/International Organization for the Family*

Larry Jacobs, the managing director for WCF/IOF, died April 30 after suffering a stroke. He was 50, according to family on social media.

Jacobs’ bio on LinkedIn notes that he managed the operations, public relations, fundraising and publications for IOF/WCF and that he organized international “pro-family” conferences (i.e. WCF gatherings) in the U.S., Mexico, the Netherlands, Spain, Poland, Russia and Australia. He is also listed as the CEO and founder of Jabez Consulting, which according to a different bio, is a not-for-profit organization that assists businesses, Christian organizations and so-called “pregnancy centers” (anti-abortion) with medical services, strategy, and fundraising.

Larry Jacobs at the 2017 WCF gathering in Budapest (screenshot from IOF website).

Jacobs has been a large part of WCF and its work in a variety of international arenas, including the United Nations (where it holds consultative status with the Economic and Social Council) and with local groups and governments to implement exclusionary policies and views with regard to LGBT people and reproductive healthcare in countries around the world.

WCF is particularly busy in Russia and Eastern Europe and was launched in 1997 after a meeting in Russia between the group’s founder and two Russian intellectuals. In 2012, WCF helped found FamilyPolicy.ru, a network of hard right organizations in Russia.

Mother Jones noted in 2014 the influence that WCF has had on countries like Russia and others in Eastern Europe where anti-LGBT legislation is on the rise, and that anti-LGBT laws in Russia seemed to mirror the rise of WCF’s work in the country. When asked whether WCF’s work had contributed to this pattern, Jacobs responded, “Yes, I think that is accurate.” Jacobs told right-wing Christian radio host Rick Wiles in 2013, shortly before the Russian Duma passed the ban on so-called “gay propaganda,” that the ban was a “great idea” as it would prevent LGBT people from “corrupting children.

The 2018 WCF gathering is slated for September in Moldova, further indication that WCF is aligning itself more and more with authoritarian leaders to further its goals of implementing policies more to its liking. One of those leaders is Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, and WCF/IOF celebrated his re-election April 8, calling it “true liberty” and “a victory for friends of the Natural Family around the globe.”

Judicial, legislative, federal

Former CIA director Mike Pompeo confirmed as Secretary of State

Mike Pompeo, former CIA director and former Republican House member from Kansas, was confirmed by the Senate last week as Secretary of State, despite his record of anti-LGBTand anti-Muslim statements and activities.

Pompeo has implied that homosexuality is a perversion and called the 2015 Supreme Court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage a “shocking abuse of power.” When grilled by Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) in his confirmation hearing last month, Pompeo refused to answer whether he still believed that homosexuality is a “perversion.”

Pompeo also has ties to anti-Muslim hate groups, including the Center for Security Policy* (CSP), which spreads anti-Muslim conspiracy theories. Pompeo spoke at CSP’s “Defeat Jihad Summit,” where he was joined by other anti-Muslim luminaries, including Dutch politician Geert Wilders and FRC executive vice president Lt. Gen. (ret.) Jerry Boykin. He also sponsored a legislative briefing for anti-Muslim group ACT for America* and received that group’s 2016 “National Security Eagle Award.”

Pompeo replaces former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

Anti-LGBT attorney confirmed to federal bench

Attorney Kyle Duncan, a partner at a Washington, D.C., law firm, was confirmed April 24 by a party-line, 50 to 47 vote in the Senate to a lifelong seat on the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which has jurisdiction over Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi.

Duncan, a Trump nominee, has a long history of anti-LGBT actions and statements. He organized an amicus brief on behalf of 15 states in opposition to nationwide marriage equality when same-sex marriage went before the U.S. Supreme Court in 2015. He also led efforts to keep marriage bans in place in Louisiana and Virginia. After the SCOTUS ruling on Obergefellthat made marriage equality legal, Duncan called the decision an “abject failure” and said that it “imperils civic peace.” He later suggested the ruling was invalid and said that it “raises a question about the legitimacy of the court.” Duncan, who previously served as general counsel for the right-wing Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, was instrumental in the so-called Hobby Lobbycase in which the Supreme Court ruled that corporations could deny covering birth control for women because of religious objections.

Duncan also helped litigate a lawsuit that sought to bar trans student Gavin Grimm from using the school restroom consistent with his gender identity. In another case, Duncan represented North Carolina Republican lawmakers in their attempt to defend the statewide anti-trans H.B. 2.

Duncan has also attempted to keep laws in place that make it more difficult for people of color to vote. He petitioned the Supreme Court to uphold a law that attacked the voting rights of communities of color in North Carolina and defended a controversial voter photo ID law in an amicus brief that supported the state of Texas.

Missouri state senator pushes resolution to declare same-sex marriage “parody marriage”

Missouri state senator Ed Emery (R-Lamar) filed a resolution last week to halt the state’s recognition of same-sex marriage. The resolution, which St. Louis’s Riverfront Times calls a “brain-bending carnival of logical deductions,” seems to been lifted from legislation filed earlier this year in South Carolina and Wyoming. The resolution states that “parody marriage is any form of marriage that does not involve one man and one woman” and also claims that “sexual orientation is a self-asserted sex-based identity narrative that is based on a series of naked assertions and unproven faith-based assumptions that are implicitly religious.”

The South Carolina legislation was co-written by anti-pornography and anti-LGBT activist and attorney Mark “Chris” Sevier, who has garnered attention in the past for unsuccessfully suing states for the right to marry his laptop computer and for claiming that being gay “is a religion,” which explains some of the wording in Emery’s resolution. Sevier was also responsible for the Wyoming bill, which was nearly identical to the South Carolina bill. Wyoming’s bill died a few days after it was proposed.

Emery was also behind a 2017 anti-trans “bathroom bill” in Missouri, which ultimately died after one hearing.

Oklahoma anti-LGBT adoption bill moves closer to law

On April 30, MetroWeekly reported that the Oklahoma House of Representatives approved a measure allowing adoption and foster care agencies to refuse placing children with same-sex couples by claiming personal beliefs that oppose homosexuality.

The bill, SB 1140, states that no private child-placing agency will be required to perform, assist in, consent to, recommend, refer or participate in any placement of a child for foster care of adoption if the proposed placement violates the agency’s “written religious or moral convictions or policies.”

The bill could thus allow an agency to reject a prospective parent or couple based on characteristics the agency deems a violation of their religious beliefs, including status as a single parent, a same-sex couple or an opposite-sex couple in an interfaith marriage. The bill also shields agencies from sanctions for discrimination.

The House version of the bill included an amendment that would have prevented agencies that discriminate from receiving taxpayer dollars, but the Oklahoma Senate rejected that amendmentApril 30 and the bill now has to go to a House conference committee.

Colorado advances anti-LGBT adoption bill, kills conversion therapy ban bill

The upper chambers of the Colorado General Assembly killed a bill (HB 1245) that would have prohibited harmful conversion (or “ex-gay”) therapy in the state and advanced legislation (SB 241) that allows religiously affiliated adoption and foster care agencies to discriminate against same-sex couples and ensures that there are no repercussions for doing so.

The Daily Beast reported April 24 that anti-LGBT adoption bills like this one and so-called “bathroom bills” that target transgender people started cropping up in the aftermath of the 2015 Supreme Court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage. Anti-LGBT groups began to shift their focus from marriage to secondary targets like bathrooms and wedding cakes.

The language in these anti-LGBT bills is broad, the Daily Beastreported, and full of sweeping appeals to “moral conviction” and “sincerely-held religious beliefs,” which could allow religiously-affiliated child placement agencies not to work with anyone with whom they have a religious objection.

“These bills are part of a broader effort by opponents of LGBT equality, both in state legislatures and the courts, to use religious freedom arguments to establish a right to discriminate against LGBT people,” American Civil Liberties Union attorney Leslie Cooper told the Daily Beast.

New Hampshire senate passes major anti-discrimination bill that protects transgender people

The New Hampshire state senate voted 14 to 10 to pass H.B. 1319, which adds gender identity to the state’s current anti-discrimination legislation. The addition provides protections for transgender people in employment, housing and public accommodations.

A spokesperson for Republican governor John Sununu has said that the governor intends to “move forward” with the legislation.

A similar bill, H.B. 478, failed to pass in 2017 after the anti-LGBT group Cornerstone asked its supporters to send letters to state representatives that included the harmful myth that gender identity protections endanger women and children.

LGBT advocates launched an extensive public education campaign after that loss, and in March of this year, H.B. 1319 cleared the Republican-controlled house of representatives, 195 to 129.

Should Sununu sign the bill into law, New England will join the West Coast in becoming an entire region of the country with trans-inclusive non-discrimination measures in place in every state.