A statewide LGBT advocacy group will grade all of California’s 343 unified school districts on their LGBT policies.

The statewide schools scorecard by Equality California would be the first of its kind in the country. It will examine everything from if the districts are teaching LGBT curriculum and have LGBT supportive student groups to if they have gender-neutral bathrooms for transgender students and allow same-sex couples to attend proms and other school functions.

“We will be hitting districts across the state, both urban, rural, and suburban districts,” said EQCA Executive Director Rick Zbur.

Officially known as the Safe and Supportive Schools Index, it is modeled after the Municipal Equality Index created by the Human Rights Campaign, the national LGBT rights group, that annually scores cities across the country on how they are protecting their LGBT citizens.

Over the years California lawmakers have enacted a whole host of pro-LGBT schools legislation. EQCA sees its scorecard as a way to ensure the school districts have implemented the laws.

“It is both a way to understand what is occurring in various school districts and a way of giving the community transparency so individual parents and students can go to their school principal to advocate for changes in their schools as well as to the school board and district superintendent,” said Zbur.

EQCA decided to start with just scoring public schools and only those districts that are unified, meaning they teach kindergarten through high school. It could add private schools in the future as well as smaller public school districts that only have elementary or high schools.

The unified districts should receive the more than 12-page scorecard this fall. They will be asked to fill it out and return it to EQCA, which plans to release the scores in early 2018.

EQCA has been working to develop the scorecard criteria over the last year and will conduct a trial run with a couple of school districts this summer in order to test it out.

“It is a pretty detailed metric,” said Zbur.

The law firm Latham and Watkins LLP, which has offices in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego, has assigned six of its employees to work on the schools scorecard. According to EQCA, the firm has provided more than $250,000 in pro bono help to date.

EQCA has reached out to HRC leaders for advice and has been coordinating with Equality Florida on the schools index. The LGBT rights group is looking to score school districts in the Sunshine State but is not as far along as EQCA is, Zbur said.

Two advisory committees, one in the Bay Area and one in Los Angeles, have provided input to EQCA on the scorecard’s development, as have school district leaders in both regions. EQCA has also consulted with teachers union officials and the office of California Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson on the creation of the index.

It has asked Torlakson to pen a letter encouraging the school districts to fill out the scorecard. Torlakson’s office did not respond to the Bay Area Reporter’s request for comment by deadline Wednesday.

Eric Heins, a gay man who is president of the California Teachers Association, could not be reached for comment.

Noelani Pearl Hunt, a straight ally on the Santa Clara Unified School District board, told the B.A.R. she plans to make sure her district fills out the scorecard.

“I hope Santa Clara scores an A-plus,” said Pearl Hunt. “I have been diligent, and we as a district have been diligent, to make sure every LGBT student feels safe.”

Two years ago Pearl Hunt pushed through a policy change to ensure LGBT slurs were covered under the district’s sexual harassment policy. At the school board’s meeting Thursday (April 20), Pearl Hunt expects the board to approve her resolution reaffirming the district’s commitment to providing a safe learning environment for LGBT students.

It also commits the district, which last year created a director of wellness position, to ensuring that all of its child welfare personnel, including counselors, case managers, and crisis support team members, have the training they need to support LGBTQ students and their parents/guardians.

The resolution is a response to the Trump administration’s recent rollback of federal protections for transgender students, in particular on their right to access bathrooms and other school facilities that correspond with their preferred gender, explained Pearl Hunt.

“I decided that, as a board, we needed to make a statement that we don’t believe anything Trump is saying,” said Pearl Hunt. “I wanted our LGBT students to know that we support you and we support your choices 100 percent.”

Milk SFO terminal takes off

Thursday morning the Airport Facilities Naming Advisory Committee will host its first meeting to select which terminal at San Francisco International Airport should be named after gay icon Harvey Milk, as the B.A.R. first reported on its blog Monday.

The panel has sat dormant since it was approved in 2013 because of Mayor Ed Lee‘s snail’s pace in naming his five appointees to the nine-person body. Now that he has selected the quintet, and the Board of Supervisors replaced one of its four representatives earlier this month, the committee can get to work.

It arose out of a compromise that Lee and gay former Supervisor David Campos struck after Campos’ initial idea to rename all of SFO after Milk, the city’s first out elected official who was assassinated in 1978 a year after winning a supervisor seat, failed to take off. The naming committee is tasked with recommending to the board and mayor which of SFO’s four terminals should bear Milk’s name.

It could also decide to forward names for the other three terminals, the most prominent being the international terminal at the entrance of the airport.

Due to the reports of gay men being rounded up in the Russian republic of Chechnya, Campos told the B.A.R. this week that the international terminal should bear Milk’s name.

“Given what is happening with Chechnya and in other countries, the international terminal becomes more significant and more appropriate,” he said. “It is the first thing people who travel from all over the world see when they come into San Francisco.”

Depending on how fast the committee works, there is a chance the naming of the Milk terminal could be approved in time for this year’s Harvey Milk Day, which will take place on Monday, May 22, which is Milk’s birthday.

Web Extra: For more queer political news, be sure to check http://www.ebar.com Monday mornings at noon for Political Notes, the notebook’s online companion. This week’s column reported on a lesbian Alameda judge’s admonishment and a gay GOPer’s record FPPC fine.

Keep abreast of the latest LGBT political news by following the Political Notebook on Twitter @ http://twitter.com/politicalnotes.

Got a tip on LGBT politics? Call Matthew S. Bajko at (415) 829-8836 or e-mail mailto:m.bajko@ebar.com.

by Seth Hemmelgarn

s.hemmelgarn@ebar.com

Gay state Senator Scott Wiener has introduced a bill that would create a tiered registry for California sex offenders, meaning some could leave the state’s lifetime registry earlier than planned.

Under state law, all sex offenders currently have to register for life, regardless of how serious their offense was. That means the database includes gay men who were arrested decades ago for having sex in public parks, alongside other people who are on the list for serious offenses such as violent crimes against children.

The registry already includes more than 100,000 people, so law enforcement officials have had to waste time handling paperwork related to low-risk offenders, and it hasn’t effectively kept people from committing future crimes, according to Wiener’s office.

Wiener’s legislation – Senate Bill 421 – would create a tiered system based on the severity of the crime, the risk of sexual reoffending, and the person’s criminal history.

The Senate Public Safety Committee, on which Wiener sits, passed SB 421 by a vote of 6-1 Tuesday. Senator Jeff Stone (R-Riverside) was the opponent.

Under the bill, people convicted of misdemeanors or non-violent felonies could be eligible for 10 years on the registry, and people convicted of serious or violent sex offenses could be eligible for 20 years.

High-risk offenders, including sexually violent predators, repeat violent offenders, and people convicted of sex offenses that require a life term would still have lifetime registration.

Wiener (D-San Francisco) said at Tuesday’s committee hearing that the registry’s had a “damaging impact on the LGBT community.”

The list includes gay men in their 60s, 70s, and 80s who had “sex in a park 40 or 50 years ago,” he said. “To this day, they are still on the registry.”

He added that “after decades of research, we now have a much better sense of who is high risk and who isn’t,” but the current registration system doesn’t even attempt “to account for this distinction.”

Most of the people on the registry are at “low risk” of reoffending, Wiener said, and being listed currently presents “lifetime barriers to stable housing” and other problems.

He also said that California is one of only four states where all sex offender registrants are on the list for life.

“Federal law requires states to have a tiered approach,” Wiener said. “California continues to flagrantly violate that federal law.”

Removal from the registry wouldn’t be automatic. People in the first two tiers would have to petition a court to be removed from the list at the end of their registration period. The courts would be able to deny petitions under certain circumstances, and the district attorney would be allowed to request hearings to oppose petitions.

Local law enforcement agencies could still inform their communities about offenders in any tier under some circumstances.

Originally, as previously reported, the bill was known as Senate Bill 695 and was authored by gay state Senator Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens) and Senator Holly Mitchell (D-Los Angeles). Tuesday, Lara’s spokesman told the Bay Area Reporter that with Lara’s full portfolio of legislation, including single-payer health care legislation and other important criminal justice reforms, “he is glad that Senator Wiener has introduced SB 421 to champion the effort.”

Broad support

SB 421’s sponsors include Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office, and the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault.

At Tuesday’s hearing, Brad McCartt, who’s with the Los Angeles DA’s office, said that in its current form, the registry “has become meaningless. … We need to have the purpose of the list restored” so that authorities can “quickly find suspects” and try to prevent children from being harmed.

McCartt added that someone’s shortened registration period wouldn’t begin until after they’re released from custody, so that if someone gets out of prison after serving a 15-year sentence, they would still have to be on the registry for 20 years if they were on the second tier.

Equality California is also sponsoring SB 421.

In a letter to Wiener, EQCA Executive Director Rick Zbur said the statewide LGBT advocacy group “is co-sponsoring this bill to address in particular the unfair circumstance of LGBT people who were targeted and often entrapped on charges that required registration as a sex offender when their actual actions hurt no one, including for simply engaging in same-sex contact when that action was criminalized in the past. These members of the LGBT community were required to register as sex offenders for life even though their convictions are now decades old and the law and its enforcement have changed, and the basis for many of these arrests was due to anti-LGBT discrimination and police entrapment.”

Spokespeople for San Francisco District Attorney George Gasc—n didn’t provide comment on whether he supports the bill.

San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi’s office is in favor of Wiener’s legislation.

“The proposed bill is a win-win,” Deputy Public Defender Sandy Feinland, who heads the agency’s unit dealing with sex cases, said in response to an email from the B.A.R. “It allows law enforcement to focus its resources on serious offenders who pose a real risk. At the same time, it eliminates the lifetime banishment from society for minor offenders who turn their lives around.”

Marc Klaas, whose young daughter, Polly, was kidnapped and murdered more than 20 years ago, was one of the handful of people who spoke against SB 421 at Tuesday’s hearing.

“The real victims here seem to have no voice,” Klaas said, and “this whole idea of victimizing sex offenders” who decided to harm others is “offensive in every way.”

The bill next goes to the Appropriations Committee.

http://www.ebar.com/news/article.php?sec=news&article=72553

Los Angeles – In response to today’s announcement from the U.S. Supreme Court that it will not hear Welch v. Brown, a case challenging California’s ban on so-called “conversion therapy” on the grounds that it violates constitutional religious freedom protections, Equality California Executive Director Rick Zbur issued the following statement:

“Today’s announcement is good news for thousands of LGBT youth nationwide, especially in states that do not yet ban so-called ‘conversion therapy.’ Homosexuality is not a condition that needs curing. However, we do know that the practice of trying to change sexual orientation not only doesn’t work, but puts vulnerable LGBT young people at risk of depression, substance abuse, homelessness and suicide. It flies in the face of a consensus of respected health organizations – including the American Psychiatric Association, the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and other groups – that efforts to change a young person’s sexual orientation are harmful. Even so, thousands of LGBT youth are forced to submit to such programs across the country every year and thousands of ‘therapists’ are more than willing to take their money.”

Equality California sponsored California’s SB 1172, authored by then State Senator Ted Lieu (D-Los Angeles), and now is now working to pass his Therapeutic Fraud Prevention Act of 2017 in Congress to ban conversion therapy across the country.

Equality Act of 2017 Introduced in Congress

Los Angeles – In response to Donald Trump’s executive order today greatly expanding the ability of tax-exempt religious organizations to engage in political activity, Equality California Executive Director Rick Zbur issued the following statement:

“Our government was designed to respect everyone’s right to follow the dictates of their faith while not favoring one religion over another. The precious freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment were never intended as a cudgel for use against anyone of whom followers of one religion or another don’t approve.

While today’s executive order isn’t the frontal attack on LGBTQ civil rights that many were expecting, it still cloaks the erosion of a woman’s control over her own body and, ultimately, discrimination against LGBTQ people in a false mantle of faith. Like Citizens United, it clouds who funds political campaigns, and allows religious organizations free reign for the first time to use charitable donations to engage in the political process to target anyone they find objectionable.

For that reason, today’s executive order offers the LGBTQ community no reason to feel relief. Instead, it represents a further chipping away of the civil rights we worked so hard to achieve. After all, if an employer is free to deny a woman reproductive care on religious grounds, how far off is a validation of the firing of a man because he’s gay, the slamming of a door in the face of a transgender woman seeking a place to rent or the refusing to marry a lesbian couple because a county clerk thinks that’s what the Bible says to do?

Diversity of faith is one of our country’s greatest strengths and freedom of religion is one of our most fundamental values. But that freedom does not include a right to impose your beliefs on others – to harm them – or to deprive them of their most basic dignity.

And we have no reason to believe that a broadside on LGBTQ civil rights won’t come at some point in the future. This is still the most anti-LGBTQ administration in decades, with a cabinet that is a who’s who of homophobia. Donald Trump has already rescinded rules protecting transgender students, gutted protections for LGBTQ employees of federal contractors, returned LGBTQ people to invisibility in the U.S. census and is threatening to undo regulations protecting transgender people from discrimination under the Affordable Care Act. Unraveling LGBTQ civil rights can happen relatively quietly, one piece at a time. We will not let down our guard.”

EDITORIAL

Equality California is poised to become a leader in the ongoing resistance to President Donald Trump and his administration.

At its sold-out San Francisco Equality Awards gala last weekend, Executive Director Rick Zbur spoke about the challenges LGBTs face under the new administration. “It’s fair to say the world has changed,” he said. “This is a test of our community.”

Over the last three years, Zbur has worked to shore up EQCA’s bottom line and that has paid off. California may be deep blue when it comes to our statewide officeholders and Legislature, but there are 14 Republicans in Congress from the Golden State. Zbur explained that EQCA has a plan to flip some of those seats. If he and other allies are successful, it could help the Democrats take back control of the House.

Seven Republican members of Congress in California represent districts that voted for Hillary Clinton last year. Zbur said those seats are in the Central Valley, Orange County, and San Diego. EQCA has hired full-time organizers to start talking with voters and doing other outreach work. It makes sense to begin that organizing now, rather than in the heat of a campaign, as we learned from the Proposition 8 experience in 2008. EQCA is also broadly focusing on issues such as health care, immigration, civil rights, voting rights, and climate change, in addition to marriage rights, Zbur said. All are important, and all affect the LGBTQ community.

Flipping some of those seven seats would help increase the chances of Democrats controlling the House; it’s important to look at each congressional district, identify good candidates, and get them elected. One district at a time. Trump’s diehard supporters (about 40 percent) may not have tired of him yet, but plenty of other folks who voted for him are beginning to sober up. The more Congress tries to screw over working and middle-class people, the more they will see that Trump’s GOP is out of control and actively working against their interests.

There’s also the U.S. Supreme Court, which is one retirement or death away from giving the president an opportunity to nominate another extreme conservative. (Neil Gorsuch, who was recently sworn in, took the place of the late Antonin Scalia, so didn’t fundamentally alter the court’s 5-4 conservative edge.)

“We know what we need to do,” Zbur said. “We need to protect and defend our community.”

EQCA also has a robust state legislative package this year, aimed at revamping some outdated laws and developing new ones. In recent weeks we have reported that the organization backs a proposed law that would change how sex offenders are tracked and another that would modernize HIV criminalization laws. Both laws are outdated and negatively affect gay men; they’re holdovers from a time when gays were considered perverts worthy of punishment. Two bills that aim to ease the state’s name change procedures for transgender, intersex, and non-binary individuals are also moving through the Legislature.

Next week, LGBTs and allies have a chance to advocate for those and other state bills at EQCA’s Advocacy Day. Joining with the Human Rights Campaign, LGBTQ Advocacy Day takes place Tuesday, May 16 in Sacramento. It’s an opportunity for activists to learn about the legislative process and how to effectively lobby lawmakers while becoming advocates for equality and social justice. EQCA, HRC, and other organizations will be lobbying on issues important to the LGBT community like health care, education, HIV/AIDS, and trans rights.

After some fiscal uncertainty before Zbur took the reins, EQCA now finds itself reenergized – and rebounding financially. It has set achievable goals and collaborates with other LGBT and allied organizations. That’s a good recipe going forward. LGBTs are going to need our allies to stand up to Trump who is more interested – and invested – in his personal businesses than running the country. As we saw earlier this year, many Americans are not sold on Trumpcare, which would gut coverage for the poorest and jack up costs for the sickest.

Zbur said he wants Congress members “to fear us more than they fear the tea party.” And they will, if we defeat more incumbent Republicans in the midterm elections.

http://www.ebar.com/columns/column.php?sec=editorial&article=672

By Cynthia Laird

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra told the largely LGBT crowd that he’ll continue fighting for their rights as he accepted Equality California’s Vanguard Leadership Award last weekend in San Francisco.

Gay Assemblyman Evan Low (D-Campbell) touted his successful law that instituted a ban for non-essential travel to states with anti-LGBT laws that the attorney general’s office compiled.

But it was Jazz Jennings, a trans teenager and reality television star, who stole the show at the May 6 San Francisco Equality Awards gala with her heartfelt message for equality.

Jennings, 16, whose “I Am Jazz” show is broadcast on TLC, received EQCA’s Visibility Award.

She told the sold-out audience of about 700 people at the Westin St. Francis that she was diagnosed with gender dysphoria disorder at age 3.

“Finally, when I was 5, I began my social transition to become the girl I am today, in kindergarten in 2006,” she said, drawing laughter from the audience.

Her family has been fully supportive, she said, explaining that her parents have had to fight to let her use the girl’s restroom at school. She would often pee her pants, she said.

“I just want to pee in peace,” Jennings added.

Jennings told the audience she has battled depression and isolation and experienced bullying.

“In the end, the obstacles made me stronger,” she said.

And to those who have seen her YouTube videos or TV show, she acknowledged that giving up her privacy for life in the spotlight has not always been easy.

“I’m willing to give up some of my privacy if it helps other trans people,” she said.

In the current political environment of President Donald Trump, Republican-controlled Congress, and may GOP-controlled statehouses, Jennings said it’s “a tough year for kids like me, and the whole community, in fact.”

“But we won’t be bullied – you hear that, Mr. President?” she said. “Our community has already shown the world we live authentically. We will not give up.”

In accepting his award, Becerra, who was appointed by Governor Jerry Brown after former Attorney General Kamala Harris was elected to the U.S. Senate, pointed out he was one of the few who voted against the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996 when he served as a congressman. But he wanted to look to the future.

“I hope you’re giving me this honor not for stands I took 20 years ago,” he said. “I hope you’re doing this because of what I will do to continue the fight.”

He pointed to religious liberty, which he described as “an important and cherished value.” The First Amendment, he said, gives people the right to exercise their religious beliefs, but not to force those beliefs on someone else.

“The moment I hear ‘discrimination’ I get wound up,” Becerra said. “We need to stand up and get in the way, as [Representative] John Lewis says, and that’s what I will do.”

Other honorees at the dinner included Michael Dunn, chairman and chief executive officer of Prophet, a consulting firm that redesigned EQCA’s logo, and Washington Post opinion writer Jonathan Capehart, who received the Leadership Award.

EQCA Executive Director Rick Zbur said that the gala was the organization’s largest in San Francisco. An EQCA spokesman said the event raised $400,000, $75,000 of which came from a pitch during the dinner.

Zbur told the audience that California will protect LGBT undocumented people, and undocumented people in general.

“We know what we need to do – protect and defend our community. We’re fighting the erasure of LGBT people from federal programs, which is what they want to do,” Zbur said, referring to the Trump administration.

He also noted that there are seven congressional districts in California that are represented by Republicans but were carried by Hillary Clinton in the presidential election and are in the Central Valley, Orange County, and San Diego, and pledged that EQCA would get to work educating constituents with the goal of flipping those districts in next year’s midterm elections.

San Francisco–Equality California announced today that it has hired Rick Rivas as its San Francisco-based program manager. Rivas will be responsible for maintaining an on-the-ground presence in San Francisco as well as maintaining and broadening engagement with the Bay Area LGBTQ community, elected officials and partner organizations. His hire is part of the restructuring initiated two years ago of the organization’s mission and staff and fulfills a longterm priority of reestablishing a senior staff presence in the Bay Area.

“Rick is a stellar addition to our staff and will reestablish our ability to advance LGBTQ equality and social justice in the Bay Area,” said Rick Zbur, executive director of Equality California. “Rick’s extensive experience and relationships with leaders in government and partner organizations will enable us to broaden our reach and impact in Northern California as we expand our programs to improve the lives of LGBT people.”

Growing up in the rural California community of Hollister, Rivas was inspired to pursue a career in social activism, politics and public service growing by his grandfather, who was active in the United Farm Workers Union. Since 2002, he has helped dozens of Democratic candidates across California raise money and run strong grassroots campaigns, and has himself run dozens of local and state legislative races. He also served as legislative aide and communications director to Assemblymember Anna Caballero, directing her campaigns in 2006 and again in 2016. He also served as chief consultant for Measure A, a successful $90 million school bond measure in the City of Salinas and the largest bond measure in the history of the Alisal Unified School District. He served as a member of Equality California’s board of directors from 2010 to 2017.

Rivas holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Santa Clara University as well as a master’s degree in public policy from the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy.

By Rick Zbur

Since his inauguration, President Trump has wasted no time putting our nation in jeopardy. His staff had barely begun unpacking boxes in the Oval Office when he started signing reckless executive orders, decrees that endanger not only our nation but Americans at a local level. This especially applies to disadvantaged communities that will suffer disproportionately from threats to health care, immigrant rights and environmental policies, to name a few.

Amid the onslaught of the president’s appalling falsehoods is his denial of the insidious threat of climate change. This “alternative” notion is both dangerous and misguided.

Scientific evidence proves that climate change has been negatively impacting our planet and our communities for decades. When powerful people ignore these facts, they directly endanger everyone, especially in our most vulnerable communities. Disenfranchised people need to be seen, heard and protected, and they deserve leaders who will fight for environmental justice.

The consequences of environmental injustice are among my earliest and most vivid memories. When I was growing up in a Latino community in the Rio Grande Valley south of Albuquerque, N.M., members of my family drank polluted water from shallow wells that were not regulated and were polluted by agricultural chemicals and leaking underground gas tanks. Several of my aunts, uncles and cousins were among the many local people who suffered from kidney disease and other severe illnesses that I believe were a direct result of our community’s water supply.

I still witness this kind of environmental injustice here in California. I’ve seen first-hand the profound impact of pollution on public health and quality of life, with families suffering just as mine did. We must eliminate disparities in health and well-being and work toward a fair and just society where all people can thrive.

As a member of the LGBT community and the leader of Equality California, I and my organization fights for marginalized communities. While not all LGBT folks are disenfranchised, our community experiences profound disparities in health and wellbeing and socioeconomic status compared to the general public.

Members of every community include people who are LGBT. We are immigrants, people of color and every religious faith. Because of this, we often experience double discrimination: first from a lack of acceptance because of our sexual orientation or gender identity, and second from being a member of another marginalized community facing discrimination. As a result, we are twice as likely to be living in poverty compared to the general public — 16 times more likely in the case of our transgender friends.

The LGBT community — along with immigrants and people of color — face discriminatory barriers when we are denied housing and employment. In most major cities, 4 out of 10 homeless youth are LGBT. We are more likely to be exposed to polluted air and water and our community suffers barriers to healthcare, leading us to suffer disproportionately from illness. We score poorly in almost every measure of community health.

Environmental issues do not exist in a vacuum. They’re our social issues, as well.

It goes without saying that progress will not be easy under a Trump presidency. That’s why we need leaders now more than ever to stand up for environmental protections; because when we make these policies stronger, we move to safeguard our most vulnerable. Clean air, water and energy are important rights to secure for everyone, but they are particularly critical for disadvantaged communities.

California needs to be our country’s leader in environmental justice and protect the laws at risk under the Trump administration. We have a duty to lead the nation by showing that respect for all people — no matter their race, gender, religion, geography, sexual orientation or gender identity — is the way forward.

We need all of our legislators, without exception, to be champions in the fight to support climate change laws. We need strong, quick, bold action, and we need it now.

Rick Zbur, a one-time congressional candidate in the Long Beach area, is executive director of Equality California and an attorney who has advocated for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender and environmental causes.

http://www.presstelegram.com/opinion/20170520/pollution-discriminates-its-time-to-fight-back-guest-commentary

The Trump Administration’s grotesquely-named ‘‘A New Foundation for American Greatness” budget is an all-out assault on the social bedrock of the health and wellbeing of middle and lower-income Americans, and a naked gift to the wealthiest.

Over the next ten years, this cruel budget would eviscerate the very programs that were put in place to support our nation’s most vulnerable. It would cut Medicaid by $1.4 trillion and $193 billion for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) — nearly 25 percent of the funding– to help millions of low-income families buy healthy food.  It would cut $72 billion for programs that support people with disabilities.  It would cut $9.2 billion in funding for public schools and reduce support for loans and grants that help make college affordable to low-income students. It would entirely eliminate funding for the Legal Services Corporation, which is the single largest funder of civil legal aid for low-income Americans. It would dramatically cut HUD’s housing affordability programs.

It is obvious that Trump’s campaign promises and inaugural pledge that “the forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer” were brazen lies.

People living with HIV and AIDS would be profoundly hit. The budget cuts funding for the Centers for Disease Control by $149 million, an appalling 19 percent reduction — at a time when prevention treatments are clearly beginning to make progress toward the goal of eliminating new infections. It would cut 17 percent of CDC funding to prevent STDs over two years. Funding for the National Institutes of Health, the driver of AIDS research, would be slashed by 20 percent. Trump’s budget would completely eliminate funding for two key pillars of Ryan White funding that aimed at assist hard to reach communities living with HIV and hepatitis (Education and Training Centers and the Special Projects of National Significance), as well as zero out funding for HHS’s Minority AIDS Initiative. It would cut $26 million for HUD’s Housing Opportunity for People with AIDS, a critical program that helps homeless people living with HIV.

Many pundits dismiss the Trump Administration’s first budget as “dead on arrival,” and laugh about the $2 trillion math error (a double-count of tax benefits) and near-fantasy economic assumptions about economic growth and corporate job creation. But this ugly and cruel draft budget shows America just what the Trump Administration is really about — a naked “reverse Robin Hood” that would rob the poor and bestow ever-more wealth to the rich.

Equality California calls on the U.S. Congress to reject this these proposed draconian cuts to the social fabric of our country and to start over to craft a real, bipartisan budget that provides for the needs of our country.

Current law requires people seeking to change their gender on official documents to submit documentation proving medical treatment. The Gender Recognition Act would instead allow people to choose the gender they identify most with.

“It would take some time obviously to put into place, but that opportunity would be there where it currently doesn’t exist,” said Jo Michael, who works as the Legislative Manager for Equality California. “That would mean a great deal to a lot of people who use identification every day that doesn’t reflect who they are.”

Michael expects the bill to pass the Assembly within the next few weeks where it will then head to Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk. If the governor signs it, the new option would become available in January 2018.

http://www.abc10.com/news/local/california/california-moves-closer-to-recognizing-third-gender/444698539