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PFLAG New Board Of Director Members

Marking the beginning of its 50th anniversary year PFLAG National has elected the first Indigenous person to serve on its board of directors. Sarah EchoHawk is a member of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma & CEO of AISES an organization dedicated to advancing Indigenous People in STEM. She joins PFLAG National Regional Directors Kathy Halbrooks of Tennessee & Ann Miller of Georgia in serving their inaugural term on the 21-member PFLAG National Board of Directors. Susan Thronson, President of the PFLAG National Board of Directors, the first parent of a transgender child to serve in this role stated, “For 50 years, PFLAG has worked to ensure that all people who are LGBTQ+ can be affirmed & celebrated, no matter their race or gender, their religion or none, Native or newcomer. As we begin this seminal year of celebration, the individuals guiding PFLAG’s future truly represent the diversity of LGBTQ+ people & families in this country.” PFLAG National’s commitment to inclusion has extended beyond its board of directors, impacting strategic investment in inclusive programs, partnerships & financial management. These investments include programs like PFLAG Connects: Communities, safe, virtual meeting spaces for people of similar backgrounds to find support and learn without judgment; partnerships with BIPOC-led and centered organizations & intentional investments in Minority Depository Institutions. Founded in 1973, PFLAG is the first & largest organization dedicated to supporting, educating & advocating for LGBTQ+ people & their families. PFLAG’s network of hundreds of chapters & more than 325,000 members & supporters works to create a caring, just & affirming world for LGBTQ+ people & those who love them. 
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Will Twitter Free Speech & Hate Collide

Now that Elon Musk has taken over Twitter we’ll be watching to see if this move will jeopardize the safety of its users, society & global democracies. Over the years Twitter has become a very iffy social media platform & with Musk’s political views most likely it will descend into darkness. GLAAD released a statement following Musk’s Twitter takeover: “Despite his claim that he wanted to buy Twitter to ‘help humanity,’ Elon Musk has a record of posting & defending harmful anti-LGBTQ content as well as content that harms other marginalized communities. GLAAD remains deeply concerned about the safety of LGBTQ people on Twitter & we join other organizations that are now questioning Twitter’s future policies & actions against extremist content. GLAAD’s Social Media Safety Index found that the LGBTQ community faces disproportionate levels of hate & harassment online. No matter who owns Twitter it remains absolutely critical that the company prioritizes & consistently enforces its existing policies against hate speech, violence & disinformation. Misinformation, disinformation & hateful content have real-world consequences & irrevocably harm our community, period. All of our corporate, government & community leaders have a responsibility to facilitate education, facts & the truth & to disempower those who actively work against those principles of democracy.” GLAAD was one of the founding members of the Stop the Deal coalition that launched in June 2022 by Accountable Tech, Media Matters for America, MoveOn, UltraViolet & others warning of the potential dangers of the Musk acquisition of Twitter. Musk will most likely run Twitter to the ground hopefully serving as a warning to other platforms that they will be held accountable for ignoring public safety & dismantling the guardrails designed to protect our information ecosystem.
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LGBTQ Midterm Voting Agenda (AUDIO)

This week I talked with Cathy Renna Communications Director for the National LGBTQ Task Force about joining forces with Equality Florida & Equality Texas to fight anti-LGBTQ extremism ahead of midterm elections including a new animated ad campaign. The ads are adapted from an innovative campaign developed by Wide Angle Research inviting voters to fight extremism & fight for our freedoms. Equality Florida is targeting Governor DeSantis for his repeated attacks against our LGBTQ community, especially highlighting his signing of the vicious "Don't Say Gay" legislation & his repeated attempts to censor school curriculums & ban books. Equality Texas is focusing their efforts on Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for his anti-LGBTQ rhetoric & promises to defend the Supreme Court with any law criminalizing sodomy enacted by the Legislature. The ads are in English markets & also target Latino audiences with Spanish subtitles. The campaign raises awareness around the increasingly aggressive attacks on our LGBTQ community & communities of color including legislation that bans hundreds of books & censors curriculum covering slavery or mentioning LGBTQ people. As extreme politicians strip away freedoms by banning abortions even in cases of rape & incest they’re also working to criminalize & charge parents with child abuse simply for supporting their transgender child. Renna also addresses the National LGBTQ Task Force “Queer The Vote” campaign that builds grassroot efforts in key battleground states to inform voters of the crucial issues they’re facing in the midterm elections as well as driving LGBTQ people & allies to the polls. I talked to Cathy about what she hopes to accomplish with these campaigns & her spin on our LGBTQ issues. LISTEN:  
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Violating Its Own Community Standards

According to the Human Rights Campaign, Meta accepted over $4 million for ads that violates its own “Community Standards”. Specifically ads for Matt Walsh’s anti-transgender propaganda film “What Makes a Woman?” violates Facebook’s community guidelines. Laurel Powell, HRC Deputy Director of Communications stated, “Like many other marginalized groups, social media platforms like Facebook & Twitter are vital outlets for the LGBTQ2S+ community. As publicly traded corporations, it’s good business for these companies to ensure the people on their platforms don’t face threats, harassment or stigma paid for by extremists. HRC is concerned the ads will lead to real-world threats & violence against trans people, also a direct violation of the platform’s safety policy. In Walsh’s case, this is not without precedent: earlier this year, he helped spearhead harassment campaigns against hospitals that provide gender-affirming care to trans youth, which led to multiple instances of bomb threats and death threats. As a whole, social media companies lack real mechanisms for accountability, leading to a lack of trust on the part of marginalized groups. No system is perfect & that’s certainly true for social media companies but when we’re talking about millions upon millions of dollars being spent & who knows where that money comes from to promote a propaganda film filled with outright lies & mistruths about transgender people, which seems to have no goal but to further stigmatize transgender people, there must be some mechanism by which Meta & the Facebook platform won’t let themselves be used to cause harm.” 
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Florida Attempting To Ban Trans Youth

On Friday October 28th members of the Florida Board of Medicine appointed by DeSantis will draft a new rule likely to ban gender-affirming care for trans & gender-diverse youth throughout the state. The Board may also impose new restrictions for adults despite hundreds of groups condemning these actions. Gender-affirming care refers to a range of supports that affirm a patient's gender identity such as pubertal suppression for minors, hormonal & surgical treatments & access to social transition. Providers in Florida who administer this care already follow robust guidelines set forth by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH). Legal experts suggest that restricting or banning access for gender-diverse patients could be considered discriminatory & even unconstitutional as the new rule would not impede access for cisgender patients seeking some of these same treatments for conditions such as precocious puberty, PCOS & gynecomastia. Hundreds of organizations, groups, public officials, spiritual leaders & healthcare professionals signed on to an open letter opposing the Florida Board of Medicine’s politically-motivated meddling in gender-affirming care. They wrote: “Governor Ron Desantis’ hand-picked appointees on the Board of Medicine initiated these proceedings as one of several policy attacks on LGBTQ+ people in Florida.” The letter also condemns the Florida Board of Medicine’s handling of last August 5th's meeting in Broward County that ended public comment early & without explanation silencing dozens of trans Floridians, family members & allies who had waited hours to speak about the importance of protecting access to gender-affirming care. Several trans & non-binary Floridians denied the opportunity to speak at the meeting co-authored the letter stating, “We won’t be silenced & we won’t be silent.” 
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Activist Peter Tatchell Arrested In Qatar

We just got word that human rights activist Peter Tatchell, director of the Peter Tatchell Foundation has been detained in Qatar where he was demonstrating outside The National Museum in Doha against their homophobic government. Peter was holding a sign that stated, “Qatar arrests, jails & subjects LGBTs to ‘conversion’ #QatarAntiGay.” At this reporting we don’t know where he has been taken but we demand that Tatchell be released & returned to the United Kingdom. Pliny Soocoormanee Executive Officer Peter Tatchell Foundation stated, “A few minutes ago, Peter was seized by the Qatari security services while demonstrating in Doha against one of the most homophobic regimes on Earth. Qatar hosts the FIFA football World Cup in three weeks. He was arrested near Qatar’s national museum while staging the first ever public LGBT+ protest in Qatar or any Gulf state. Peter was holding a placard supporting Qatari LGBT+ people who can face jail, ‘honor’ killing & forced conversion practices. Under Sharia law, the maximin penalty for homosexuality is death. The current whereabouts of Peter are unknown. We are currently working to secure Peter’s release.” During the 2018 World Cup games in Moscow, Russia Tatchell was arrested & released after bravely staging a one-man protest against Putin’s failure to act against Chechnya’s torture of our LGBTQ community that brought international attention to this issue. I talked to Peter on OUTTAKE VOICES™ in this exclusive audio interview about his work fighting for the elimination of exclusion & discrimination on the grounds of ethnicity, race, gender, disability, religion, belief, age, sexual orientation & gender identity. LISTEN   
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Don’t Say Gay or Trans Battle Heats Up

Judge Wendy Berger appointed to the U.S. District Court by Trump in 2019 refused to halt Florida’s enacted House Bill 1557 known as the “Don’t Say Gay or Trans” law & dismissed the case altogether but is allowing the plaintiffs an opportunity to file an amended complaint by November 3rd. Kell Olson, Staff Attorney at Lambda Legal stated, “The court’s decision is wrong on the law & disrespectful to LGBTQ+ families & students. HB 1557 suppresses wholesale the speech & identities of LGBTQ+ students & their families. The students & families at the heart of this case have experienced more bullying in the months since the law went into effect than ever before in their lives, but the court dismissed their experiences of bullying as ‘a fact of life.’ The court’s decision defies decades of precedent establishing schools’ constitutional obligations to protect student speech & to protect students from targeted bullying and harassment based on who they are.” Simone Chriss, Director of Transgender Rights Initiative at Southern Legal Counsel added, “Our plaintiffs & other LGBTQ+ students & families throughout Florida, have experienced real harms caused by this law, which were not acknowledged by the Court. This fight is not over - it has just begun. Florida’s LGBTQ+ students & families deserve better & we will press forward to protect their rights.” Angela Vigil, Partner & Executive Director of Pro Bono Practice at Baker McKenzie LLP concluded, “We very much look forward to continuing the fight against this unjust & dangerous law. We plan to show the court & the state the harm caused to children & families by this law is destructive in so many ways for education, community, families & most importantly, children.” 
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