It might seem impossible in the state that twice elected Sam Brownback as governor, but a bill to prohibit anti-LGBT discrimination is finally going to get a hearing nearly 11 months after it was first introduced.
The bill, HB2323, was introduced by Rep. John Carmichael (D-Wichita) during the final hours of last year’s legislative session, in response to Brownback’s decision to rescind a nondiscrimination executive order for LGBT state employees that was issued by former Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D).
The bill, as introduced, amends a number of statutes to include sexual orientation and gender identity among a list of protected classes when it comes to discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations. House Judiciary Chairman John Barker (R-Abilene) has granted the bill a hearing on Jan. 14, three days after the legislature convenes for its 2016 session, The Wichita Eaglereports.
While the bill is unlikely to pass the Republican-dominated legislature, or even emerge from committee, Barker has at least promised to hold a hearing on the issue. But social conservatives are expected to mobilize their forces to defeat the bill, claiming it violates their First Amendment rights to express their religious beliefs.
“It will of course be up to the committee and the whole body, but I think it needs to be aired,” Barker told the Eagle. “And I like to listen to people. I like to listen to both sides of an argument.”
“I think the people of Kansas need to understand that anti-LGBT discrimination does exist in this state and there are steps we can take to end it,” Tom Witt, the executive director of Equality Kansas, said in a statement expressing support for Carmichael’s bill.
Meanwhile, Carmichael is happy just to get a hearing in front of the Judiciary Committee to ensure that LGBT people will be protected from being unfairly fired or evicted from their homes.
“Where the bill progresses from there, I cannot offer a guarantee,” he told the Eagle. “I think it depends in large part on what happens in the hearing and quite frankly on what happens in society outside the Capitol as well.”
A group of students, parents, and teachers in Florida have reached a settlement with state educational authorities that clarifies several provisions in the state's infamous "Don't Say Gay" law.
The "Don't Say Gay" law, officially dubbed the "Parental Rights in Education" law, sought to limit students' exposure to LGBTQ issues and identities under the guise of keeping parents informed and giving them outsized influence over what subjects are broached in the classroom.
Soon after its passage, proponents of the law quickly dubbed opponents "groomers," claiming they wanted to indoctrinate children into adopting values or embracing ideas that run counter to their parents' morals or beliefs or expose them to age-inappropriate subjects. Republican lawmakers soon expanded the law's restrictions on K-3 classrooms to apply to all K-12 classrooms in the state.
The Capital Pride Alliance has unveiled its plans for June's 2024 Pride celebration in Washington, D.C., adopting the theme "Totally Radical" for its upcoming events.
The theme is rooted in the spirit that defined the LGBTQ activism of the 1980s and 1990s, and the progress achieved due to the dedication of the activists who fought for various forms of social and cultural change, from HIV/AIDS activism to marriage equality.
"Capital Pride's 2024 theme... about embracing our authenticity, pushing boundaries, and advocating for a world where everyone can live their truth without fear or discrimination," Ryan Bos, the executive director of Capital Pride Alliance, said in a statement.
Maybe not exactly like Thirty, a feature loosely assembled from episodes of the eponymous VOD series created by Dontá Morrison and co-written with director Anthony Bawn. But films that likewise feature a gay Black couple as the center of the story, or of a circle of friends, come few and far between.
Undeniably the stories are out there, as is the audience, yet, as one Thirty character laments of the media landscape, "white boys get all the airtime."
Thirty lends its air time to the epic trials and tribulations of longtime couple Khalil (Bobby Musique Cooks), a Hollywood stylist, and Tyrin (Brandon Moten), an ad agency owner, and their young and restless friends, most of whom are Black and queer.
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