Tag: LGBTQ

Categories
News News Blog News Feature

Tennessee AG Slatery Celebrates Win In LGBTQ Discrimination Lawsuit

Y’all means all, y’all. (Photo: Nashville LGBTQ Chamber of Commerce)

Tennessee’s Attorney General celebrated a win for discrimination last week after a federal judge blocked a move that would have allowed trans kids to play sports on a team of their gender and more.

In September, Tennessee AG Herbert Slatery led a 20-state coalition in a lawsuit to stop anti-discrimination guidance from President Joe Biden. The order was issued in January and strives to prevent discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation. 

Biden’s guidance challenged state laws on whether schools must allow biological males to compete on girls’ sports teams, whether employers and schools may maintain sex-separated showers and locker rooms, and whether individuals may be compelled to use another person’s preferred pronouns. 

Herbert Slatery (Credit: State of Tennessee)

“Children should be able to learn without worrying about whether they will be denied access to the restroom, the locker room, or school sports,” reads Biden’s order from January. “Adults should be able to earn a living and pursue a vocation knowing that they will not be fired, demoted, or mistreated because of whom they go home to or because how they dress does not conform to sex-based stereotypes.”

However, Slatery claimed in September that Biden’s order “threatens women’s sports and student and employee privacy.” To get there legally, Slatery and his coalition (including Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, and more) claimed only Congress — not the president — can change “these sensitive issues” of “enormous importance.” The coalition’s complaint asserts that the claim that the order simply implements the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2020 Bostock decision on anti-discrimination is faulty.

“The agencies simply do not have that authority,” Slatery said in a statement at the time. “But that has not stopped them from trying. … All of this, together with the threat of withholding educational funding in the midst of a pandemic, warrants this lawsuit.”

Last week, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee blocked the guidance, which Slatery called “expansive and unlawful” and would have forced, among others things, the use of “biologically inaccurate preferred pronouns.”

“The District Court rightly recognized the federal government put Tennessee and other states in an impossible situation: choose between the threat of legal consequences including the withholding of federal funding, or altering our state laws to comply,” Slatery said in a statement. “Keep in mind these new, transformative rules were made without you — without your elected leaders in Congress having a say — which is what the law requires. We are thankful the court put a stop to it, maintained the status quo as the lawsuit proceeds, and reminded the federal government it cannot direct it’s agencies to rewrite the law.” 

The court ruling drew scorn from LGBTQ advocates, who were quick to point out the judge in the case, Charles Atley Jr., was appointed by former president Donald Trump. 

“We are disappointed and outraged by this ruling from the Eastern District of Tennessee where, in yet another example of far-right judges legislating from the bench, the court blocked guidance affirming what the Supreme Court decided in Bostock v. Clayton County: that LGBTQ+ Americans are protected under existing civil rights law,” Joni Madison, interim president of the Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement. “Nothing in this decision can stop schools from treating students consistent with their gender identity. And nothing in this decision eliminates schools’ obligations under Title IX or students’ or parents’ abilities to bring lawsuits in federal court. HRC will continue to fight these anti-transgender rulings with every tool in our toolbox.”

This preliminary injunction will remain in effect until the matter is resolved. The matter could get a further decision from the federal court in Tennessee, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, or the Supreme Court of the United States.

Categories
Music Record Reviews

Gay Prudes: The Sissy Dicks Laugh All the Way Through Pride Month

Gay Prude by The Sissy Dicks

Even as New York City prepares for the mother of all pride marches this coming Sunday, June 26th, we Memphians are still savoring memories of our own Mid-South Pride Festival on June 4. One eye-catching, prize-winning float in the parade that day was sponsored by Goner Records and was manned by those new musical comedic sensations, The Sissy Dicks.

Actually, they’re not that new, but don’t let that diminish their pride or yours. Memphis Flyer readers may know them from Andria Lisle’s profile in their earliest days, when they were known as the Dixie Dicks. Now re-branded, presumably for more international appeal, The Sissy Dicks soldier on with a new EP released at the top of the month, Gay Prude.

From their band name to the album title, The Sissy Dicks are designed to turn heads, but don’t let that distract you from the fact that they really do make good music. Their hearts are clearly in the country camp, and proof of their earnestness is made plain in the simple fact of their harmonies. Harmony singing is a dying art in some genres, but not in the realm of The Sissy Dicks.

The Sissy DIcks (Photo by Micah Winter)

It helps that drumming duties are handled by Charlotte Watson, best known for her work with Nots and Hash Redactor. She’s now been welcomed aboard as a full-fledged member, and, as always, her drumming is powerful and expressive. Indeed, the driving Go-Go’s rhythm of opening track “Circle Jerk” is key to the spirit of fun it conjures. In less than a minute and a half, it’s come and gone, but it certainly clues listeners in to what’s in store.

Some of the bawdy fun is actually based on the group’s own songwriting, but there’s also plenty of Weird Al Yankovic-type fun when the group takes on old bar band warhorses like “Wagon Wheel” (transformed into “Fuck Me Daddy,” a heartwarming tale of two men “out back behind the dumpster in the parking lot”), or “Learning to Fly” (here redone as “Learning to Top”). No matter what your sexual preference, there’s something satisfying in hearing overplayed radio hits transformed into something so deeply radio-unfriendly.

To be fair, they do credit the Old Crow Medicine Show and Tom Petty as the songwriters for the above tracks, and they carry them off musically with aplomb. As Lisle wrote in 2018, “Their musicianship, which harks back to the folksy, bluegrass style re-popularized with the release of 2000’s O Brother, Where Art Thou?, is top-notch.” And with Gay Prude, it’s better performed and recorded than any of their previous efforts.

This is partly because Watson is not the only finely-trained ear in the group, which is built around the trio of guitarist Brandon Pugh, percussionist Joel Parsons, and banjo player Brandon Ticer (who plays keyboards for the New York-based rock band Wheatus). The music goes down easy, thanks to their focused playing and well-blended vocals. And their straight delivery makes everything that much funnier.

And so, even as many plan for Pride Night on Tuesday, June 28th, at AutoZone Park, before moving on to the other cis-dominated 11 months of the year, Gay Prude will remain long after June is behind us, always ready keep the gaiety in “gay” with a laugh and a naughty wink.

Watch The Sissy Dicks on the Goner TV Pride Special, Friday, July 1, 8 p.m., at www.gonertv.com.

Categories
News News Blog News Feature

State AG to Feds: Equity Issues Not Our Problem

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Any agency that gets federal funds for food must now investigate allegations of discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation, and Tennessee’s Republican Attorney General is leading the fight against the move.  

In May, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) added gender identity and sexual orientation to its interpretation of Title IX. The 1972 law outlawed discrimination based on sex for any program or activity receiving federal assistance.  

The USDA said the move to include gender identity and sexual orientation is to keep its programs open to everyone, help ensure “all Americans have access to nutritious foods that promote health and well-being regardless of race, ethnicity, identity or background.” The move is also in line with President Joe Biden’s executive order in January on “preventing and combating discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation.”   

“USDA is committed to administering all its programs with equity and fairness, and serving those in need with the highest dignity,” said Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack. “A key step in advancing these principles is rooting out discrimination in any form, including discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

We hope that by standing firm against these inequities we will help bring about much-needed change.

Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack

“At the same time, we must recognize the vulnerability of the LGBTQI+ communities and provide them with an avenue to grieve any discrimination they face. We hope that by standing firm against these inequities we will help bring about much-needed change.”

But this is wrong, according to Tennessee’s Attorney General Herbert Slatery, because agencies that don’t comply with the order will lose federal funding. So, Slatery is leading a coalition of 26 state attorneys general to stop it.  

A letter addressed to Biden about the issue was written and sent by Slatery’s office and has been signed by attorneys general from Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

In the letter, the attorneys argue that the new guidance is unlawful because it was issued without the input of state officials and other stakeholders that they say is required by the Administrative Procedures Act. They claim the Biden Administration misread and wrongly applied the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County, which protects employees against discrimination because they are gay or transgender, as a basis for the new rules. 

The USDA’s move “imposes” new and “unlawful” regulatory measures on state agencies and other agency operators that get federal help from the USDA. Slatery’s letter claims the new rules will cause “regulatory chaos that threatens essential nutritional services to some of the most vulnerable citizens.” The National School Lunch Program, the letter gives as an example, serves nearly 30 million students each day and could be in danger under the new rules. 

As attorneys general we cannot just sit on the sidelines, and we will not.

Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery

“This is yet another attempt by the executive branch and unelected regulators to do what only Congress is constitutionally authorized to do: change the law,” Slatery said in a statement issued Tuesday. “They intentionally misread the [Bostock v. Clayton County] to fit their social policy preferences and exclude the people and their elected representatives from the entire process. As attorneys general we cannot just sit on the sidelines, and we will not.”

The USDA said the LGBTQ community has faced “striking economic and social disparities, such as higher rates of poverty, unemployment, and nutrition insecurity. It said a U.S. Census Bureau survey found that more than 13 percent of LGBTQ respondents faced food insecurity compared to 7.2 percent of non-LGBTQ respondents. 

No one should be denied access to nutritious food simply because of who they are or how they identify.

Stacy Dean, Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services Deputy Undersecretary

“Whether you are grocery shopping, standing in line at the school cafeteria, or picking up food from a food bank, you should be able to do so without fear of discrimination,” said Stacy Dean, Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services Deputy Undersecretary. “No one should be denied access to nutritious food simply because of who they are or how they identify.”

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

Burying the Time Capsule

Photo: Info633933 | Dreamstime.com

Jesus Santa Cruz (he/they), a Los Angeles native and current high school English teacher in Memphis, thinks back to his English teacher of his freshman year in high school. “There was a section in my teacher’s library that said ‘LGBT Books,’” he says. “I will always remember that classroom library.”

Santa Cruz explains that at the time, he was intrigued yet afraid to pick those books up because, for one, they weren’t a common thing to see in a classroom, and two, he hadn’t yet felt comfortable enough to fully express that part of his identity. But now, as a proud queer individual in his 30s, he understands why that memory sticks with him. It was how that section of his English teacher’s classroom library made him feel. Every day, he stepped into that classroom knowing that someone understood him, that someone accepted him. He felt seen and accepted, simply because he was included.

Schools are where children spend most of their time developing and practicing their beliefs. In schools, children learn and internalize almost everything they hear and see. The classroom isn’t just a place for growing minds to learn how to be better writers, readers, and mathematicians, but a place for our nation’s youth and future leaders to socialize and explore in hopes of discovering their true identities and reaching their fullest potential. In order for children to feel safe in doing so, schools, classrooms, and teachers must create a safe environment, inclusive of everyone — but unfortunately, this is not always the case.

After reading that Tennessee lawmakers planned House Bill 0800, which “would ban textbooks and instructional materials that ‘promote, normalize, support, or address controversial social issues, such as lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, and transgender (LGBT) lifestyles,’” I was first reminded of where in the world I was. (I’m living in the South, so how can I be surprised?) Secondly, I came to a realization that this is much bigger than my current coordinates on the United States map but an issue that has repeated itself throughout U.S. history and across the map — the silencing of voices. Voices that have echoed throughout generations and centuries of suppression and dehumanization.

In other words, “Here we go again,” as Santa Cruz says. “In a non-pessimistic way, I’m upset but, living in this country for as long as I have, I’m not surprised.”

Another bill Tennessee lawmakers plan to include, House Bill 2633, states that “a teacher or other employee of a public school or LEA is not required to refer to a student using the student’s preferred pronoun if the pronoun does not align with the student’s biological sex.” To put it simply, a student’s pronouns will not matter. Teachers and other employees of public schools get to call students whatever pronouns they want, despite them communicating what they feel most comfortable with.

Santa Cruz expresses that living in Memphis as someone who is queer is like “living in a time capsule.” As for myself, I would describe my experience as living in a box. Constricting myself into walls that eventually cave in, suffocating my authentic self out of me and exhaling frustrations out onto this keyboard. That is the experience of a queer individual living in a society she is not sure is fully accepting of her.

When it comes down to the queer experience in Memphis, Tennessee, located deep in the infamous Bible Belt, I couldn’t have used a better metaphor than the “time capsule,” as Santa Cruz described. Many parts of the city remain untouched, including some outdated values and traditions — and Santa Cruz and I aren’t the only ones who feel this way.

Though most LGBTQ+ adults are aware of these issues, including other teachers and employees who work in our schools, our youth are not oblivious to them either. “It’s the 21st century. We should have been over homophobia by now,” explains a teenage student who attends public school in Memphis and identifies as queer. “Us children are discovering who we are earlier than generations before us. Banning textbooks and ignoring our pronouns won’t stop us from discovering who we really are.”

Another student politely joins the conversation, “When adults aren’t supportive of who we are, it makes people like us feel like it’s hard to be ourselves. It makes us feel like we don’t belong.”

The two students, who both identify as LGBTQ+ and gender-fluid, agree that if teachers normalized listening and allowed them material that is inclusive of their queer identities, it would help them build confidence in who they are and what they choose for themselves.

We still have yet to see our country’s leaders bury that time capsule so we can move forward. It is difficult to say that America is truly working toward positive change if our schools are not inclusive of all the diverse backgrounds and identities of our youth. America’s reputation for cloaking its regressions and immobilities in sparkling words, half-truths, or even complete silence remains.

Ashley Insong is a starving artist who is working toward being published in The New York Times while teaching full-time and freelance writing part-time. She enjoys singing and writing poetry and short stories about love, self-discovery, and her Filipina heritage.

Categories
News News Blog News Feature

Transgender Athlete Bill Heads to Governor’s Desk

(Credit: Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash)

Tennessee moved a step closer Monday to pulling state funding from K-12 public schools if they allow transgender youth to participate in girls sports.

A bill that cleared the state Senate by a vote of 26-5 attaches financial penalties to a 2021 law that prohibited trans athletes from competing on middle and high school teams based on their gender identity. The legislation passed the House last month.

Republican Gov. Bill Lee, who called last year’s law a step “to preserve women’s athletics and ensure fair competition,” is expected to sign the funding measure into law.

Several civil rights groups have since challenged the 2021 ban in court in a case that is tentatively set for trial next year.

A similar bill that would ban transgender athletes at the college level from participating in women’s sports in Tennessee also cleared the Senate on Monday. That measure is awaiting action before a House finance subcommittee.

Rules governing transgender athletes returned to the spotlight this year when University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas, a trans woman, began smashing records.

In January, in line with the U.S. and international Olympic committees, the NCAA adopted a sport-by-sport approach for determining participation by transgender athletes.

Sponsors of both bills in Tennessee’s GOP-controlled legislature argued transgender females — because their assigned sex at birth was male — are naturally stronger, faster, and bigger than those assigned female at birth, giving them an unfair advantage in sports.

“This legislation is all about setting a level playing field for all of our female athletes so they have fair competition,” said Sen. Joey Hensley, a Hohenwald Republican who co-sponsored the K-12 bill with Rep. John Ragan, a Republican from Oak Ridge.

Opponents said the legislation is about discrimination, not fairness, and is unnecessary and even dangerous.

“There’s no indication this is a problem in Tennessee schools, but … there are kids who feel targeted by this legislature,” said Senate Minority Leader Jeff Yarbro, a Democrat from Nashville. “And these are oftentimes kids who are struggling with a lot that most of us don’t understand and oftentimes are more likely to be at risk of committing suicide than anybody else.”

According to an analysis by The Associated Press, Tennessee passed more laws last year aimed at transgender people than any other state in the nation. One law, for instance, puts public schools at risk of losing lawsuits if they let transgender students or employees use multiperson bathrooms or locker rooms that do not reflect their assigned sex at birth.

Marta W. Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

Categories
News News Blog News Feature

Gov. Lee Blasts Pro-LGBTQ Protest “Mob” at Yale As “Shameful”

Credit: Yale University (Facebook)/Bill Lee (Facebook)

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee said a pro-LGBTQ protest at Yale University was “shameful” and said the groups targeted there — including an anti-LGBTQ group — were “welcome in Tennessee anytime.” 

Protesters interrupted a Federalist Society event on campus earlier this month that featured Kristen Waggoner, an anti-LGBTQ speaker, according to Yale Daily News. Waggoner is general counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, an organization that has been designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The group has supported the re-criminalization of sexual acts between consenting LGBTQ adults in the U.S., has defended state-sanctioned sterilization of trans people abroad, and more, according to the SPLC. 

The event also featured Monica Miller, an associate at the American Humanist Association. That group says it “advocates progressive values and equality for humanists, atheists, freethinkers, and the non-religious across the country.”

Lee said Thursday he signed a letter against the protest organized by the drafters of the Philadelphia Statement, a free-speech statement against “social media mobs, cancel culture, campus speech policing,” and more.

Lee’s link to the Yale letter shows no signatories, only “The Undersigned.” However, The Washington Free Beacon, the conservative news site, said the letter had been signed by “Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Mike Lee (R-Utah), nine members of the House of Representatives, and the governors of Tennessee, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Mississippi, and Idaho.”   

The letter blasts the ”the deeply disturbing incident” saying the speakers at the event were met with “a vitriolic mob of Yale Law students intent on silencing them.” The letter says “instead of engaging with the panelists, a shocking number of Yale Law students hurled constant insults and obscenities at them and tried to prevent them from speaking and being heard.” The “shameful conduct” also included stopping, shouting, banging on walls, all “making it difficult to hear the panel.” 

Lee said he signed the letter to urge Yale leaders to act. In a pivot, though, he took the opportunity to promote his idea for a new state school he said would be an “antidote to the cynical, un-American behavior we are seeing at far too many universities.”

Here’s Lee’s statement in full:

“I signed a letter to Yale Law School urging administrators to address a student mob that violently disrupted a bipartisan event about free speech and political discourse. The behavior is shameful but it speaks to a growing trend in higher-education where First Amendment freedom is taken for granted and often held in contempt. 

“We are endeavoring to establish the University of Tennessee Institute for American Civics to be the antidote to the cynical, un-American behavior we are seeing at far too many universities. The Institute for American Civics will be a flagship for the nation — a beacon celebrating intellectual diversity at our universities and teaching how a responsible, civic-minded people strengthens our country and our communities. 

“Representatives from Alliance Defending Freedom and the American Humanist Association, who had such a terrible experience at Yale, are invited to join us in Tennessee anytime.”

Categories
Memphis Gaydar News News Blog

Lawmakers Target LGBTQ Issues in Schools

Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash

A number of bills filed in the Tennessee General Assembly’s current session target the LGBTQ community at the state’s public schools. 

The current session kicked off two weeks ago and is off to a slow start. Usually, lawmakers start the session in a flurry of filing bills and getting them before their appropriate committees. However, this year committee schedules have been light, likely due to the fact that lawmakers went to Nashville for three special sessions, the most in Tennessee history. 

Though slow, the session is proving there’s no shortage of anti-LGBTQ sentiment among the many members of the Tennessee legislature. Here are three bills worth watching this session:

Textbook Ban

House Bill 800 by Rep. Bruce Griffey (R-Paris) — The bill would ban textbooks and instruction materials that “promote, normalize, support, or address controversial social issues, such as lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, and transgender (LGBT) lifestyles.” The bill deems these “lifestyles” as “inappropriate.” 

“The promotion of LGBT issues and lifestyles in public schools offends a significant portion of students, parents, and Tennessee residents with Christian values,” reads the bill. “The promotion of LGBT issues and lifestyles should be subject to the same restrictions and limitations placed on the teaching of religion in public schools.”

This bill was filed last year but did not make it to the floors of the House or Senate. 

Transgender Athletes

Senate Bill 2153 by Sen. Joey Hensley (R-Hoenwald) — The bill “prohibits males from participating in public higher education sports that are designated for females.” It also creates a process “for violations that deprive a student of an athletic opportunity or that cause direct or indirect harm to a student at the middle school, high school, or postsecondary level.”

Teachers and pronouns

House Bill 2633 by Rep. Mark Cochran (R-Engelwood) — This would allow school teachers or employees to use whatever pronouns they want for students “if the pronoun does not align with the student’s biological sex.”

It would also insulate school teachers and employees from lawsuits of being fired for “referring to a student using the pronoun aligned with the student’s biological sex instead of the student’s preferred pronoun.”

“In other words, this bill protects school personnel who discriminate against transgender and non-binary students,” said Chris Sanders, executive director of the Tennessee Equality Project. Research shows that school policies that affirm a student’s gender identity yield better health and academic outcomes.

Categories
News News Blog News Feature

LGBTQ Group: Ford Tantrum Was “Bullying, Trolling, and Abusive”

Credit: City of Memphis/YouTube

An LGBTQ leader is calling for accountability from the Memphis City Council after a board member openly threatened and insulted two citizens during public meeting Tuesday [above)]. 

Council member Edmund Ford Sr. berated Alex Hensley, an aide to Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris, and George Boyington, who leads intergovernmental relations and special projects for Shelby County Assessor of Property Melvin Burgess. 

He told Hensley, who was representing Harris, “don’t you come back here,” and “you sit your behind down” after they spoke on an ordinance before the council. In commanding Boyington to come before the council, Ford said he did so “to blow you out of the water and back across the street” to the county administration building.  

What has raised the ire of LGBTQ leaders, though, is Ford’s treatment of Hensley’s pronouns. She listed “she/they” in their signature on a letter given to council members about the pipeline ordinance. In referencing the letter, Ford called the pronouns “so irrelevant” before sarcastically asking Hensley, “Who is she and they?” Hensley said, “Me. … that’s a letter from me.” Ford did not continue the conversation but called for a vote on the pipeline ordinance. 

Boyington came to Hensley’s defense, calling Ford’s conduct “unprofessional.” He was the only person to speak against Ford’s behavior. Not a single city council member spoke up, stepped in, or said a word against Ford’s outbursts.   

Ford’s actions were ”bullying, trolling, and abusive” and “unacceptable and unbecoming of a public official,” according to Shahin Samiei, the Shelby County committee chair of the Tennessee Equality Project, an LGBTQ advocacy group. Samiei included those remarks and more in a letter to each city council member. 

“Both Memphis city and Shelby County governments have made remarkable strides in the past decade to be inclusive for employees and citizens regardless of who they are or who they love,” Samiei wrote. “This kind of behavior is embarrassing, unprofessional, and discriminatory.

“With all respect to the office, if an elected official finds himself, herself, or themself unable to discharge their representative duties with constituents and/or other public officials who are not like them, they should make room on the council for someone who can.

”Our community is watching, and we expect for this body to take action.”

Council member Martavius Jones, found himself on the business end of a Ford tantrum last year. Ford called him a “short-ass man” and said Jones had “butthole problems” during a public meeting [above]. Jones told The Daily Memphian Thursday he should have intervened in Tuesday’s verbal attack on members of the public. 

Categories
Memphis Gaydar

Brooks’ First Transgender-Centered Exhibit to Open Saturday

Photo by Mark Seliger (Source: Brooks Museum)

The first trangender-focused exhibition at Brooks Museum of Art will open on Saturday. 

The exhibition, “On Christopher Street,” by New York-based photographer Mark Seliger, features portraits of transgender individuals in New York’s Greenwich Village. 

Greenwich Village is said to be the birthplace of the LGBTQ rights movement following the police raid on the historic gay bar The Stonewall Inn in 1969. That raid sparked protests on the street that would later be commemorated with Pride marches all over the world. 

Seliger began taking the portraits in 2014 and continued for about three years, capturing 60 subjects. He started with a small camera kit, taking pictures after work as a way to document the neighborhood. 

Christopher Street, a safe haven for many, began to change and Seliger wanted to capture the community before it completely transformed. 

“I’d stop people on the street and ask if I could take a quick portrait of them,” he said. “ I wasn’t sure where the project was going, but it evolved from there.” 

As Seliger continued snapping photos, he asked himself what was unique about his portraits. Then he realized he was beginning to tell a story about identity, focusing on transgender individuals. Seliger said he wanted to dig deeper and learn more about the subjects of his photos. 

His subjects told him stories of their successes and accomplishments, as well as the hurdles they had to overcome to become who they are today. 

“My subjects were being the truest to themselves as they had ever been, as if it was the first time they’d really been seen in this light,” Seliger said. “That was really kind of an amazing moment.” 

Taking the portraits, Seliger also said he began to learn more about the importance of identity.

“As I was learning about the idea of being comforted with who you are and how you identify while being the truest to who you are, I realized that’s important to your own personal worth and connection to others and yourself,” Seliger said. “That was very meaningful to me.”

At the end of the day, Seliger believes his portraits capture the human experience, which is “remarkable, profound, and terrifying.”

For those that view his photos, Seliger just wants them to gain a new sense of understanding and awareness for the human struggle. 

“Ultimately, it’s for the viewer to determine how they want to react to it,” Seliger said. “We give them as much information as we can in order to lead people to their own level of clarity. But I think the work is eye-opening and hopefully will start a conversation that we need to have about gender and inclusivity.” 

Brooks’ curator of European and decorative art, Rosamund Garrett, said Seliger’s photos not only showcase the trans community, but also tell the story of gentrification. 

“For years, Mark has witnessed the steady erosion of the rich cultural diversity of the area and its replacement with luxury boutiques,” Garrett said. “His striking portraits not only celebrate the trans community but also represent a cautionary tale about gentrification. This message is as resonant in Memphis in 2021 as it has been in New York City and other communities around the country for years.” 

The exhibition will run from Saturday, September 18th to January 9th. Seliger and four of his portrait subjects will be present at the hybrid virtual/in-person opening reception on Friday. The event will be live streamed here. 

Additionally, Brooks is hosting a panel discussion with Alex Hauptman from OUTMemphis and Kayla Gore from My Sistah’s House about Memphis’ LGTBQ community on Saturday.

. 

Categories
Memphis Gaydar News

Tennessee Sued Over Anti-Transgender Bathroom Law

(Credit: Bianca Phillips)

An LGBTQ advocacy group filed a federal lawsuit against Tennessee earlier this week, challenging a bathroom bill that restricts transgender students’ use of school restrooms. 

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) filed the lawsuit in the District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee on behalf of two transgender children. 

The lawsuit alleges that the Tennessee Accommodations for All Children Act (also known as the School Facilities Law), signed by Governor Bill Lee in May, “unfaily discriminates against transgender children.”

“By singling out transgender students for disfavored treatment and explicitly writing discrimination against transgender people into State law, the School Facilities Law violates the most basic guarantees of equal protection under the U.S. Constitution and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972,” the lawsuit reads. 

The lawsuit further argues that the law endangers the safety, privacy, security, and well-being of transgender students through “intentional and inherent discrimination.” 

“The law invites potential harassment and assault of non-transgender students who may not fit gender expectations or stereotypes associated with their gender identity by giving private persons a right of action to sue under the Law, and thereby encouraging independent policing of everyone who uses a multi-occupancy restroom,” the lawsuit reads. 

The lawsuit seeks to block the state from enforcing the law, while requiring that the plaintiffs, along with other students, are allowed to use multi-occupancy restrooms matching their gender identity. 

HRC president Alphonso David calls the law in question “morally reprehensible” and “devoid of any sound legal justification.” 

“Courts have time-and-time again ruled against these dangerous and discriminatory laws and we are going to fight in court to strike down this one and protect the civil rights of transgender and non-binary young people,” David said in a press release. “With our representation of two transgender kids today, we are sending a strong message of support for all transgender and non-binary children across the country [that] you matter, and your legal rights should be respected.” 

The law being challenged is one of five targeting transgender students signed into law this year in Tennessee. Together, the laws prevent transgender students from participating in high school and middle school sports, prevent physicians from prescribing hormone treatment for prepubertal transgender youth, require public schools to notify parents before offering any curriculum about sexual orientation and gender identity, and require businesses with bathrooms open to the public to post a notice at the entrance of each public restroom if the business allows transgender individuals to use the restrooms corresponding with their gender identity. 

This is the second lawsuit filed in response to one of these laws. The first, filed in May by the American Civil Liberties Union, challenges the Business Bathroom Bill, which requires businesses to post signs if they allow transgender customers to use multi-occupancy restrooms. A federal judge has preliminarily blocked the law from being implemented.