Tag: American Civil Liberties Union

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Memphis Gaydar News News Blog

Advocacy Groups Promise Legal Action Against Transgender Healthcare Bill

(Credit: Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash)

The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Tennessee, and Lambda Legal, a national organization “committed to achieving full recognition of the civil rights of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender people, and everyone living with HIV,” issued a statement where they have promised legal action against the Tennessee law that will prohibit gender affirming care for minors.

“We will not allow this dangerous law to stand,” said the statement. “We are dedicated to overturning this unconstitutional law and are confident the state will find itself completely incapable of defending it in court. We want transgender youth to know they are not alone and this fight is not over.”

Senate Bill 1 was recently signed into law by Governor Bill Lee on Thursday, March 2nd. The law will prohibit healthcare professionals from administering gender-affirming care to minors. This makes Tennessee the fourth state to ban this care for people under the age of 18.

This legislation will make gender affirming hormone therapy and puberty blockers inaccessible, and trans people in Tennessee will not have access to this care until they reach the age of 18. Similar restrictions have been made in states like Arkansas and Alabama.

A report entitled “LGBTQ Tennesseans: A Report of the 2021 Southern LGBTQ Experiences Survey,” released by the Campaign for Southern Equality in January 2023 defines gender affirming healthcare as “ an individualized experience for all trans and nonbinary people. There is no single surgery or standard path that all trans people access and each transgender person has their own unique needs related to gender affirming care.”

The report said that about 84 percent of transgender respondents from Tennessee said that “when they were under the age of 18, having access to gender-affirming care was important to their overall well-being.”  

“Restrictive laws and policies related to gender affirming care can lead to increased stigma for transgender people, resulting in delays or avoidance in seeking necessary medical care, ultimately resulting in worse health outcomes for this population,” the study stated.

In response to the signing of the bill into law, Emma Chinn, co-author of LGBTQ+ Tennesseans, special projects coordinator at the Campaign for Southern Equality, and a master of public policy candidate at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, said that research states that “access to transgender-related healthcare is critical to the physical and mental health of transgender people and their ability to thrive in their daily lives.”

As the law does not go into effect until July 1, 2023, advocates are also offering resources and steps for families to take action now.

A resource guide provided by the ACLU of Tennessee, Inclusion TN, and Campaign for Southern Equality lists the following recommendations:

  1. See current provider as soon as possible to discuss current needs and options for continued care;
  2. If you and your family  have been planning to pursue gender-affirming care, try to initiate care before July 1 when the law takes effect;
  3. Fill current prescriptions with regard to gender-affirming medical care;
  4. To view a list of trans-affirming providers in Southern states, please visit the Trans in the South guide at www.transinthesouth.org. 
  5. For any questions related to navigating gender-affirming care in Tennessee, please fill out this form at www.southernequality.org/tnresources or email TennesseeResources@southernequality.org

The Campaign for Southern Equality and Inclusion Tennessee have also partnered to give out rapid response emergency grants of $250.

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Politics Politics Beat Blog

Judge Lipman Oversees New COVID Protections for Jailed Inmates

Shelby County Criminal Justice Center at 201 Poplar Avenue

It isn’t a Get Out of Jail card, but it’s one of the next best things. On Friday, US. District Judge Sheryl Halle Lipman of Tennessee’s Western District approved an agreement between civil rights advocates and the Shelby County Sheriff’s office that will improve health conditions in jail and protect people from the ravages of COVID-19.

Judge Lipman

The agreement guarantees that the jail will implement rigorous monitoring and reporting; additional jail inspections; improved airflow and ventilation measures to keep people safe from airborne transmission of COVID-19; better quality protective equipment for people being detained in the jail; continued efforts to expedite release for those who are disabled and medically vulnerable; improved social distancing; and other enhancements that will better protect people living and working in the facility.

Judge Lipman  stated from the bench that she believed it to be in the community’s interest to stop the spread of COVID and that the measures put in place in the facility are designed to do that. She said the point is to get as many safety features into the jail as possible and keep detainees as safe as possible. She went on to say that containing the spread of coronavirus helps within the community as well as in the facility, and that the effort put in to reach and protect the safety of the detainees is in the public interest and critically important.

The agreement was reached in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee; the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation; Just City; Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison; and Memphis attorneys Brice Timmons and Steve Mulroy on behalf of people incarcerated at the Shelby County Jail.

The lawsuit followed a court order that urged the jail to address numerous public health lapses identified after two expert inspectors — one appointed by the court —  issued reports expressing alarm at the tactics employed at the jail to contain the virus. Among the  conditions the inspectors uncovered at the jail were a failure to test new arrestees, even those clearly displaying COVID-19 symptoms; open airflow between areas of the facility where COVID-positive and quarantined people were detained and areas where others not yet exposed to the virus were detained; a lack of fresh masks; staff members wearing masks below their chins when speaking; and inadequate availability of cleaning supplies, hand sanitizer, and soap.

Among the plaintiffs in the case at high risk of serious illness or death from contracting  contract COVID-19 were several  pretrial detainees — one with progressive multiple sclerosis and heart disease dependent on an immunosuppressant; another with diabetes and hypertension; and another with hypertension and an irregular heartbeat, who previously had a heart attack. 

These plaintiffs had alleged that the jail temporarily made improvements to certain conditions in anticipation of forthcoming  inspections by a court-appointed inspector and knowingly allowed those improvements to lapse shortly after the inspections occurred, putting the lives of those who live and work at the facility at risk.

“This case and agreement shine a light on conditions in the Shelby County Jail and how officials there are responding to the COVID-19 crisis,” said Andrea Woods, staff attorney with the ACLU’s Criminal Law Reform Project. “While the work will continue, we applaud the court’s approval and commitment to ensuring that inspections and other monitoring continue until the pandemic is over.” 

“This agreement could quite literally mean the difference between life and death for our clients and many others who live and work at the Shelby County Jail, and in the wider Memphis community,” said Stella Yarbrough, ACLU of Tennessee staff attorney. “Far too many people are held in conditions that daily threaten their health, safety, and human dignity, especially during this pandemic, and we are relieved that conditions at the jail will now be improved.”

Josh Spickler, executive director of Just City, stated, “In Shelby County, the number of presumed innocent people being held in cages is extraordinarily high. This settlement will bring some much-needed accountability to those responsible for their well-being, but the real work is only beginning — we must break our community’s addiction to pretrial detention.”

University of Memphis law professor and former Shelby County Commissioner Steve Mulroy, one of the plaintiffs’ lawyers, said, “This case sparked jail improvements and continued monitoring which would not have occurred without our filing. It’s helped protect the health of thousands of Shelby Countians, most of whom have not been convicted of any crime.”

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News News Blog

ACLU-TN Launches Campaign Against State Internet Law

A new campaign is teaching people how to stand up for their “dotRights” and avoid identity theft, unwanted snooping through emails, and even incarceration.

The dotRights campaign, headed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), is a national movement to inform internet users about the privacy risks associated with their online activities, as well as what they can do to protect themselves.

The Tennessee chapter of the organization, ACLU-TN, is focusing on a Tennessee law passed this summer that makes it a crime to post images or statements online that could be considered “emotionally distressing.”

State Representative Charles Curtiss, who sponsored the bill, said its primarily targeting people that habitually harass, offend, or threaten people through online messages and photos, also known as “cyber-bullying”.

“It has to be an intentional act. If someone posted something and didn’t intend for it to be seen by all people, that’s not violating the law,” Curtiss said.

dotRIGHTS.jpg

Lindsay Kee, communications director for the ACLU-TN, said the organization considers the law unconstitutional due to its vague description of what is or isn’t offensive.

“What’s sensitive to one person is not offensive to another person. What’s art to one person might offend somebody,” Kee said.

Shelby County Commissioner Steve Mulroy, also a University of Memphis law professor, said under the First Amendment, people generally have the right to say or display things that might be viewed as offensive by others.

However, Mulroy said this doesn’t apply if one deliberately tries to threaten someone or physically intimidate them.

“The first amendment protects the communication by picture as well as the communication by word,” Mulroy said. “To say that you should have known that sending a photo could have frightened or intimidated, or caused emotional distress is too broad.”

Those that violate the law could spend up to a year in prison or receive a fine of up to $2,500. No one has yet been prosecuted for violating the law.

The national dotRights campaign is also raising awareness about the accessibility of a person’s private information online.

Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, Yahoo, Google Docs, and Youtube are among the sites that could place one’s identity at risk when providing personal information to join them.

“We’re spending so much time online these days, from web mail to photo sites to YouTube, and people don’t realize that the privacy protections they have come to expect in their personal lives offline don’t always apply in the online world,” Kee said.

Kee said the campaign isn’t designed to steer people away from online activity, but just make them more aware of the high possibility that their information is being viewed by a third party.

“Sometimes it seems like it’s just innocent conversational things that you’re putting out there, but the difference is that if you’re sitting in the coffee shop having that conversation, there’s nobody standing behind you recording it all. But online you can’t tell who’s watching and collecting that [information],” Kee said.

The Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 is the current privacy law being utilized to protect those on the Internet. This law was created years before the Internet came about. Current law allows the government to access without a search warrant any web mail that’s been left in an account for more than 180 days.

“Anything that you might consider personal information that you wouldn’t want viewed, delete those emails when you’re done or don’t put them in your email in the first place,” Kee said.

The ACLU considers this a violation of the Fourth Amendment. Under that amendment, the government is required to present a warrant for searches and seizures.

Kee said until the act is updated, people can delete cookies on their computer to protect information. They can also limit online sharing of personal information and be aware of all the material they’re releasing that can be viewed by the public.

ACLU-TN launched a statewide speaking tour in early November, which made stops in Knoxville, Nashville and Memphis, that addressed technology, online free speech and privacy, and encouraged people to get involved with the campaign. For more information on how to get involved, visit: http://dotrights.org/