National
Has the Weinstein firestorm torched Hollywood’s gay House of Cards?
Will collusion be challenged next?
Kevin Spacey came out as gay this week after actor Anthony Rapp accused him of trying to ‘seduce’ him at age 14. (Photo by Vonora; courtesy Bigstock)
Finally, the victims of sexual harassment and assault are speaking out—and finally people are listening. The latest firestorm exploded Sunday night, Oct. 29, as out actor Anthony Rapp told the world that Oscar-winning actor Kevin Spacey had tried to “seduced” him when Rapp was 14 years old. The Star Trek: Discovery actor, now 46, told Buzzfeed that he had been inspired to come forward by the stories of all the women leveling accusations of sexual abuse and harassment at one-time powerhouse Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.
“And not to simply air a grievance,” Rapp told Buzzfeed News, “but to try to shine another light on the decades of behavior that have been allowed to continue because many people, including myself, being silent. … I’m feeling really awake to the moment that we’re living in, and I’m hopeful that this can make a difference.”
Anthony Rapp (Photo by vagueonthehow; courtesy Wikimedia Commons)
Rapp said Spacey, then-26, invited the young Broadway actor to a party at his New York apartment in 1986. Finding himself alone in Spacey’s bedroom after all the other guests had gone, Rapp recalled that Spacey “sort of stood in the doorway, kind of swaying. My impression when he came in the room was that he was drunk.”
Without a word, Rapp recalled, Spacey “picked me up like a groom picks up the bride over the threshold. But I don’t, like, squirm away initially, because I’m like, ‘What’s going on?’ And then he lays down on top of me.”
“He was trying to seduce me,” Rapp said. “I don’t know if I would have used that language. But I was aware that he was trying to get with me sexually.”
Spacey’s response was immediate. He apologized and came out. “I’m beyond horrified to hear his story. I honestly do not remember the encounter, it would have been over 30 years ago. But if I did behave then as he describes, I owe him the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior, and I am sorry for the feelings he describes having carried with him all these years,” Spacey wrote on Twitter.
“This story has encouraged me to address other things about my life. I know that there are stories out there about me, and that some have been fueled by the fact that I have been so protective of my own privacy,” Spacey said, adding “I now chose to live as a gay man.”
Spacey was not welcome with open arms. “Nope to Kevin Spacey’s statement. Nope. There’s no amount of drunk or closeted that explains away assaulting a 14 year old child,” Dan Savage wrote on Twitter.
Others were furious that Spacey’s revelation of his sexual orientation seemed designed to distract from the allegation.
“It is deeply sad and troubling that this is how kevin spacey has chosen to come out. not by standing up as a point of pride – in the light of all his many awards and accomplishments – thus inspiring tens of thousands of struggling LGBTQ kids around the world. but as a calculated manipulation to deflect attention from the very serious accusation that he attempted to molest one,” out actor Zachary Quinto posted on his Twitter page. “victim’s voices are the ones that deserve to be heard,”
In the wake of the Weinstein sexual abuse allegations, the reaction to Spacey has been swift. “Anthony Rapp’s story is deeply troubling. During the time I worked with Kevin Spacey on ‘House of Cards,’ I neither witnessed nor was aware of any inappropriate behavior on set or off. That said, I take reports of such behavior seriously and this is no exception. I feel for Mr. Rapp and I support his courage,” said “House of Cards” creator Beau Willimon.
On Monday, Netflix cancelled “House of Cards” after the upcoming sixth season, which is currently filming in Maryland. The decision made prior to the Spacey scandal.
But Hollywood—not just gay Hollywood—has kept this man’s open secret for years, not just that he is gay but that he allegedly is prone to sexual harassment. During a conversation about when the “gay shoe will drop” after the raft of stories about heterosexual sexual harassment, a young straight actress said unprompted: “Oh, you mean Kevin Spacey? I have a lot of friends who’ve been harassed by him.” They haven’t come forward, she said, because they fear retribution, denial of jobs and that they will be labeled within the Hollywood community as “complainers.”
People are starting to come forward now. Victoria Featherstone, artistic director of the Royal Court Theatre, was asked if she was aware of Spacey’s conduct when he served as artistic director of the Old Vic in London.
“I think that many people in the theatre and in the creative industries have been aware of many stories of many people over a lot of years, and Kevin Spacey would be one of the people that people have had concerns about, yes,” she told Radio 4 in England.
Nadine West tweeted: “KS groped my young male friend when they were both working at the Old Vic. Was apparently always known as one to avoid. Sadly unsurprised.”
More than two weeks ago, former Boston WCVB-TV news anchor Heather Unruh tweeted about Spacey attacking a friend: “The #weinsteinscandal has emboldened me … I was a Kevin Spacey fan until he assaulted a loved one. Time the dominoes fell.”
Those dominoes might well include not only the powerful but the power brokers, as well. “Managers, agents, publicists—they’re all just pimps,” says the straight young actress who’s taking a break from her career because of sexual harassment.
Out actor/playwright Michael Kearns told the Los Angeles Blade that Hollywood is “a scalding cauldron of collusion,” with scores of players who participate in the straight-gay charade.
“What’s troubling is that a number of Hollywood power brokers treat homosexuality as a ‘sin’ or ‘immoral’ or an ‘abnormality’ that somehow is to be hidden; they categorize it as a career killer which could result in a loss of box office billing or revenue,” he says. “But they have skin in the game (usually financial) so they collude. They lie, betray, falsify; they are the immoral ones.”
When Spacey was “trolling the halls at Burke Williams, camouflaging himself by putting the hood of his bathrobe up over his head, he was not exactly embracing his gayness,” Kearns said. “And when he got in the massage room, alone with the masseur, Spacey insisted on positioning himself for something other than a ‘legit massage.’ Is that harassment? It occurred enough times, according to my very reliable source, that he was thrown out of the West Hollywood location and relegated to Santa Monica (where there were more issues reported). Even in this case, Spacey was being protected by moving him rather than really confronting this issue. Collusion.”
Collusion to ignore sexual harassment happens in all venues, wherever there are power struggles.
“Hercules” star Kevin Sorbo alleged that fashion designer Gianni Versace sexually harassed him in 1984, specifically because he was a straight “man’s man.” Sorbo said he refused Versace’s advances and the two remained friends. Sorbo continued to model for Versace but he didn’t get a major campaign he’d hoped for. “Casting couches have always been around. I don’t play that game, nor do I care to,” he told The Hollywood Reporter.
Actor Terry Crews (Photo by Gage Skidmore; courtesy Flickr)
African American actor Terry Crews took to Twitter on Oct. 10 to tell his own story of a “high level Hollywood executive” at an entertainment industry event in 2016 who “groped my privates.” He thought about confronting the man, who “grinned like a jerk,” but then the “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” actor thought of the possible headline: “240 lbs. Black Man stomps out Hollywood Honcho.” He assumed he would go to jail so instead he and his wife just left the party.
The next day, the Hollywood Honcho called to apologize, “but never really explained why he did what he did,” Crews said. “I decided not to take it further because I didn’t want to be ostracized — par for the course when the predator has power and influence.”
Crews continued on Twitter: “I let it go. And I understand why many women who this happens to let it go,” spelling out the scenario: “Who’s going 2 believe you? (few) What r the repercussions?(many) Do u want 2 work again? (Yes) R you prepared 2b ostracized?(No).”
Crews got 43,16043,160 likes and 9,8199,819 Retweets.
The next night, “Dawson’s Creek” star James Van Der Beek, now 40, took to Twitter to announce that he, too, had been sexually harassed. “I’ve had my ass grabbed by older, powerful men, I’ve had them corner me in inappropriate sexual conversations when I was much younger,” Van Der Beek tweeted. “I understand the unwarranted shame, powerlessness & inability to blow the whistle. There’s a power dynamic that feels impossible to overcome.”
Van Der Beek’s last tweet received 12,57312,573 likes and 3,3083,308 Retweets.
The current list of alleged sexual abusers—to which Spacey will be added—contains few names of prominent bi/gay men—other than APA agent Tyler Grasham. Grasham, who was fired on Oct. 20 after allegations from filmmaker Blaise Godbe Lipman that decades ago Grasham “fed” him alcohol and sexually assaulted him. Four other young other men came forward alleging sexual misconduct, as well, prompting important clients to leave the agency. Late Sunday, The Wrap reported that actor Tyler Cornell, 20, filed an LAPD police report Oct. 27, accusing Grasham of sodomizing him earlier this year.
Former 80s child star Corey Feldman has also reemerged with promises of exposing a Hollywood pedophile ring that he says abused him and raped his best friend, actor Corey Haim, when Haim was 11. (Haim died at age 38 in 2010, apparently of an accidental drug overdose.) However, Feldman wants $10 million to fund a film and provide him with security protection before he’ll name names, which Matt Lauer called out during an Oct. 30 interview with Feldman on the “Today” show.
Before Feldman’s appearance, the Washington Post reported that “Lauer read a statement from Judy Haim (Corey’s mother), who told NBC News that if Feldman decides to expose abusers now ‘for the sake of more victims, I’ll be 100 percent behind that. But if he’s waiting to release the names in the movie, I don’t support that. He doesn’t need $10 million to do it.’
(Screen grab from “An Open Secret”)
During a subsequent interview with Megyn Kelly, Feldman gave up one name—talent manager Marty Weiss. However, Feldman had already talked about Weiss in his 2013 memoir “Coreyography” and Weiss was featured in the documentary “An Open Secret” about alleged pedophilia and ephebophilia in Hollywood. Feldman also “hinted at another person as well, saying it was a man who ran ‘a child’s club in Hollywood’ and now works for the L.A. Dodgers,” the Post reports, without immediate follow up.
“An Open Secret” (now free on Vimeo) is a harrowing and powerful 2015 documentary by Amy Berg that focuses on how male managers, agents, and publicists inflict abuse on young, male clients. Central to the film are the Hollywood power players and the star-crazed boys and young men at the Digital Entertainment Network (DEN) in the Tech-Boom days of the late 1990s. As an in-depth story in the Hollywood Reporter noted: “a wide swath of gay Hollywood flocked to the 12,616-square-foot Encino mansion that 40-something Marc Collins-Rector shared with Chad Shackley, a Michigan man in his mid-20s who had lived with Collins-Rector since dropping out of high school at 16; and Brock Pierce, a teenage actor who had appeared in Disney’s The Mighty Ducks movies.
Marc Collins-Rector (Screen grab from “An Open Secret”)
Anticipating the day that programming would be delivered online, Collins-Rector was an early Internet mogul with money to spend.”
The DEN party scene was considered an advantage to career advancement. But, Los Angeles Times reporter Dawn C. Chmielewski says in the film, “The power dynamic is tilted. You have an adult who’s preying on the child, who’s manipulating the child. They tell me in interviews they’re afraid of professional reprisals and they’re fearful of never working again” if they complain.
The pressure on children is extraordinary. “Once you are eight, you are responsible for your own career,” casting director Krisha Bullock says in the film.
In 2011, Chmielewski reported on how casting directors are rarely vetted. “The industry has to recognize we have any number of predators who have insinuated themselves into the world of children. They are dance teachers, drama teachers, gymnastics teachers, coaches — as we have seen at Penn State,” Paul Petersen, a former child actor (“The Donna Reed Show”) who founded A Minor Consideration, a nonprofit advocacy group for young performers, told her. “And no one is doing any checking.”
“There will always be a steady stream of kids who want to be famous,” Occidental College Professor Caroline Heldman says in the film. And “parents who push their children in this industry. If we don’t speak out about it, then we are part of the problem because we are contributing to a culture that normalizes this. And by normalizing something, it becomes invisible as a problem.”
And, says one impacted parent: “It’s Hollywood. People do what they want in Hollywood. And if you’re a big enough star, or big enough director or you making enough money for these people, you can do whatever you want.”
Echoes of “Apprentice” Reality TV star and future President Donald Trump to “Access Hollywood” host Billy Bush in a video released on Oct. 8, 2016 by the Washington Post. “You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.”
“Whatever you want,” says Bush. “Grab them by the pussy,” Trump says. “You can do anything.”
Bryan Singer (Screen grab from “An Open Secret”)
While examining the alleged sexual manipulation by Marc Collins-Rector and his cohorts at DEN, “An Open Secret” also seems to implicate investors in the new tech start-up, including “X-Men” director Bryan Singer; TV executive Garth Ancier; former Disney executive David Neuman, who worked for DEN; and producer Gary Goddard.” Also briefly pictured in the film are mogul investor David Geffen and Michael Huffington, as well as others who attended the parties. Director Randal Kleiser is pictured working on a DEN internet production.
But while experts in the film say the investors and partygoers should have known what was going on at the DEN estate, proximity and guilt by association doesn’t mean actual guilt. The LAPD made no arrests.
Mike Egan (Screen grab from “An Open Secret”)
Nonetheless, 15 years after he claims he was drugged and forced to have sex at age 15 at the Encino estate and in Hawaii, Michael Egan III filed a lawsuit against Singer, Ancier, Neuman and Goddard. All vigorously denied the allegations and Singer produced receipts to show he wasn’t in Hawaii on the dates Egan cited. Egan dropped the suits in June 2015, with his lawyers forced to pay seven figures in a countersuit and issue public apologies.
“I believe that I participated in making what I now know to be untrue and provably false allegations against you,” attorney Jeffrey Herman wrote in a letter to Neuman and Ancier. “Had I known what I learned after filing the lawsuits, I would never have filed these claims against you. I deeply regret the pain, suffering and damages the lawsuits and publicity have caused you, and your family, friends and colleagues.”
Egan dropped his lawsuit against Singer in August 2014 when his two attorneys withdrew.
The publicity surrounding the lawsuits, as with the backlash against Spacey, exacerbates the vampire myth of the gay sexual predator—a staple of anti-LGBT diatribes.
“The term pedophilia is sometimes used to tar everybody with the same brush,” Dr. Jack Drescher, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University, tells The LA Blade. “ “Historically, people who are against homosexuality have often associated homosexuality with pedophilia.”
Drescher points to the idea that “a gay teacher would be dangerous to young students because they’re gay. That’s a common belief system among people who don’t know gay people or who are deliberately trying to confuse homosexuality with attraction to young people.” Anita Bryant’s 1977 crusade to “Save Our Children,” for instance, argued that “gay people are predators, that pedophiles are predators. It’s an easy way to categorize the universe to lump everybody together.”
Drescher notes that pedophilia is a psychiatric disorder so sexual attraction to post-pubescent youth is more of a legal issue. “There was a time when the age of consent was much younger. At the beginning of the 20th century, states began elevating the age of consent. It used to be very young,” he says. “Now we as a culture don’t believe that people under a certain age have the legal right to give consent. So a person who’s an adult above the age of 18 who has sexual relationships with a person who, depending on the state, is below that age is guilty of statutory rape. It’s not that the younger person wasn’t consenting. The state is saying they don’t have a legal right to give consent.”
Age of consent laws vary from state to state, with 30 states setting the age of consent at 16. Hawaii only changed their age of consent law from 14 to 16 in 2001.
While noting that—in the early days of sexual liberation, gay rights pioneer Harry Hay advocated for lowering the age of consent to 14, as he claimed it was in England (for gay men, it was actually 18 in 1994). But, Drescher says, “at this historic moment, the LGBT civil rights movement does not embrace people who are attracted to minors. Part of the legitimization of the movement that has fought for marriage and service in the military is kind of aligning itself with conventional middle class values regarding age of consent. Harry Hay was very much engaged in the sexual revolution of another era. But the gay rights movement is not really about the sexual revolution any more, in my opinion.”
Several Hollywood insiders say they have never heard of a pedophilia ring in the gay community. However, ephebophilia—adult sexual attraction to post-pubescent youth between the ages of 14 to 18— is another matter.
But sexual harassment and sexual abuse have more to do with the “economics of consent” as played out in sexual dynamics, especially in Hollywood.
“The things that happen in hotel rooms and board rooms all over the world (and in every industry) between women seeking employment or trying to keep employment and men holding the power to grant it or take it away exist in a gray zone where words like ‘consent’ cannot fully capture the complexity of the encounter,” actress, producer Brit Marling writes in The Atlantic. “Because consent is a function of power. You have to have a modicum of power to give it. In many cases women do not have that power because their livelihood is in jeopardy and because they are the gender that is oppressed by a daily, invisible war waged against all that is feminine—women and humans who behave or dress or think or feel or look feminine.”
A reckoning may be on the horizon. Sexual harassment has become an issue in the California Senate race in 2018. Expect to hear the words “complicit” and “collusion” a lot more this coming year.
Ohio
Anti-trans bills see recent movement in the Ohio Statehouse
The Ohio House has four more meetings scheduled in this month and June before the lawmakers go on summer break
By Megan Henry | COLUMBUS, Ohio – Two anti-transgender bills have recently been moving through the Ohio legislature.
House Bill 8 would force educators to out a student’s sexuality to their parents, require public schools to inform parents about sexuality content materials ahead of time and give them the option to request alternative instructions. The bill passed in the House over the summer and has had a few hearings in the Senate Education Committee — meaning it will likely be voted on soon.
House Bill 183 would ban transgender students from using the bathroom and locker room that matches up with their gender identity. The bill was recently voted out of committee but hasn’t made its way to the House floor yet and doesn’t seem like it will anytime soon.
“We haven’t formally discussed it and it won’t be on the floor next week,” said Ohio House Speaker Jason Stephens, R-Kitts Hill.
The Ohio House has four more meetings scheduled in May and June before the lawmakers go on summer break.
Having these bills go through the legislative process — even if they don’t pass — is damaging to the LGBTQ community, said Carson Hartlage, a member of the Board of TransOhio.
“They’re both framed as attempts to protect students … but it doesn’t seem like these bills are actually fixing any real problems,” Hartlage said. “They’re really just creating really harmful conversations around trans kids and a lot of them don’t really seem all that practical or enforceable. … It just creates a spotlight where we don’t really need one and points out kids or individual schools or things like that don’t really need that kind of negative attention.”
Bathroom bills
Bradie Anderson, 14, is worried someone will police which bathroom she uses at school.
“There’s no problem with her in the bathrooms,” Bradie’s mom Anne Anderson said. “There’s just not. They’re looking for a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.”
The Anderson family lives in Mentor, but they have considered moving because of the various anti-LGBTQ bills in the Statehouse.
“People don’t want to stick around here,” Anderson said.
Ten states have laws on the books that limit access to bathrooms that line up with gender identity in K-12 schools, according to the UCLA Williams Institute 2024 report on the impact of anti-transgender legislation on youth. An estimated 34,800 transgender students ages 13-17 live in those states.
Those laws have been challenged in Florida, Oklahoma, Idaho and Tennessee. Seventeen states, including Ohio, have bathroom bill bans pending in the legislature.
Ohio’s bill would also ban schools from allowing students to share overnight accommodations with the opposite sex, and it would prevent a school from having single-occupancy facilities.
Parental bill of rights
Anderson worries about the LGBTQ students whose parents don’t support them.
“Those are the kids that are going to be completely crushed by House Bill 8,” she said. “House Bill 8 would be very dangerous to children that want to keep a low profile and feel that they can trust someone in their school because they obviously don’t feel safe coming out to their parents, that’s the issue.”
There were 62 parental-rights bills in 24 states in 2023, according to FutureEd, an independent think tank at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy.
Bills have been signed into law in Florida, Arizona, Georgia, and Louisiana.
Ohio’s bill would prohibit any sexuality content from being taught to students in kindergarten through third grade.
The bill defines sexuality content as “oral or written instruction, presentation, image, or description of sexual concepts or gender ideology.”
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Megan Henry is a reporter for the Ohio Capital Journal and has spent the past five years reporting in Ohio on various topics including education, healthcare, business and crime. She previously worked at The Columbus Dispatch, part of the USA Today Network.
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The preceding article was previously published by the Ohio Capital Journal an is republished with permission.
The Ohio Capital Journal is an independent, nonprofit news organization dedicated to connecting Ohioans to their state government and its impact on their lives. The Capital Journal combines Ohio state government coverage with incisive investigative journalism, reporting on the consequences of policy, political insight and principled commentary.
We’re part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
Mississippi
Mississippi lawmakers kill anti-trans legislation
The language of each measure would have had to be the same for the final versions to be passed and sent on to Republican Gov. Tate Reeves
JACKSON, Miss. – Republican lawmakers in Mississippi working to close out their 2024 legislative session were unable to vote on two measures that would have restricted the legal rights of transgender people in the state.
The Associated Press reported that House and Senate leaders failed to agree on compromise versions two bills, one bill that would have restricted transgender people’s use of bathrooms and locker rooms in public buildings, including university dormitories. The other would have specified that sex is defined at birth, and that “there are only two sexes, and every individual is either male or female.”
The language of each measure would have had to be the same for the final versions to be passed and sent on to Republican Gov. Tate Reeves. In February of 2023 Reeves signed into law HB1125, a bill banning health care treatments for gender dysphoria for transgender youth, prohibiting doctors from providing such care and stripping parents of the right to guide medical decisions for their own children.
Reeves said at the time he signed the bill, which bars puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgery for minors, because “there is a dangerous movement spreading across America today.”
“It’s advancing under the guise of a false ideology, and pseudo science is being pushed onto our children through radical activist, social media and online influencers, and it’s trying to convince our children that they are in the wrong body,” Reeves said at a news conference after he signed the bill.
In 2021, the governor signed legislation to ban trans athletes from competing on girls’ or women’s sports teams.
Delaware
Former Delaware LGBTQ center official sentenced to nine months
“Mr. Seeley’s actions are a deep betrayal to not only CAMP Rehoboth but also the entire community we serve”
GEORGETOWN, Del. – Salvator “Sal” Seeley, who served as an official with the Rehoboth Beach, Del., CAMP Rehoboth LGBTQ community center for 20 years, was sentenced on April 5 by a Sussex County Superior Court judge to nine months in prison and to pay $176,000 in restitution to the organization.
The sentencing took place about five weeks after Seeley pleaded guilty to a charge of Theft in Excess of $50,000 for allegedly embezzling funds from CAMP Rehoboth, a spokesperson for the Delaware Department of Justice told the Washington Blade.
Seeley’s guilty plea came shortly after a grand jury, at the request of prosecutors, indicted him on the felony theft charge following an investigation that found he had embezzled at least $176,000 from the nonprofit LGBTQ organization.
“Salvatore C. Seeley, between the 27th day of February 2019 and the 7th day of September 2021, in the County of Sussex, State of Delaware, did take property belonging to CAMP Rehoboth, Inc., consisting of United States currency and other miscellaneous property valued at more than $50,000, intending to appropriate the same,” the indictment states.
“The State recommended a sentence of two years of incarceration based on the large-scale theft and the impact to the non-profit organization,” Delaware Department of Justice spokesperson Caroline Harrison told the Blade in a statement.
“The defense cited Seeley’s lack of a record and gambling addiction in arguing for a probationary sentence,” the statement says. “Seeley was sentenced in Superior Court to a nine-month prison term and to pay a total of $176,000 in restitution for the stolen funds,” Harrison says in the statement.
Neither Seeley nor his attorney could immediately be reached for comment.
At the time of Seeley’s indictment in February, CAMP Rehoboth released a statement saying it first discovered “financial irregularities” within the organization on Sept. 7, 2021, “and took immediate action and notified state authorities.” The statement says this resulted in the investigation of Seeley by the state Department of Justice as well as an internal investigation by CAMP Rehoboth to review its “financial control policies” that led to an updating of those policies.
“As we have communicated from day one, CAMP Rehoboth has fully cooperated with law enforcement,” the statement continues. “At its request, we did not speak publicly about the investigation while it was ongoing for fear it would jeopardize its integrity,” according to the statement. “This was extremely difficult given our commitment to transparency with the community about day-to-day operations during the recent leadership transition.”
The statement was referring to Kim Leisey, who began her job as CAMP Rehoboth’s new executive director in July of 2023, while the Seeley investigation had yet to be completed, following the organization’s process of searching for a new director. It says Seeley left his job as Health and Wellness Director of CAMP Rehoboth in September of 2021 after working for the organization for more than 20 years.
“Mr. Seeley’s actions are a deep betrayal to not only CAMP Rehoboth but also the entire community we serve,” the statement says.
West Virginia
W.Va. AG files brief backing anti-trans kids protesting trans athlete
Attorney General Patrick Morrisey filed a brief in support of the female middle school student-athletes protested a trans athlete competing
By Amelia Ferrell Knisely | CHARLESTON, W.Va. – West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey filed a brief in support of the female middle school student-athletes who publicly protested a transgender athlete competing in their track and field competition.
The transgender athlete has been permitted to compete due to a recent federal appeals court ruling.
Five students who forfeited their shot-put competition April 18 in protest have now been barred from competing in that event at their next track and field meet, according to a new release from the AG’s office.
Four of the five students, through their parents, filed suit.
“Their actions at the earlier track meet were not disruptive or aggrandizing. They were the quiet demonstration of the student-athletes’ evident unhappiness with the competitive consequences of a federal appellate court’s decision,” Morrisey, a Republican, wrote in the amicus brief filed April 26.
The girls’ competition forfeiture followed a federal appeals court ruling in favor of West Virginia teen Becky Pepper-Jackson, a trans girl who uses puberty blocking medication. The girl sued the state over its law barring trans athletes from competing on girls’ and women’s sports teams in public schools and colleges.
The law doesn’t ban trans males from competing on boys’ or mens’ teams.
The federal appeals court ruling only blocked the state’s transgender sports ban in Pepper-Jackson’s case; it did not overturn the state law in its entirety.
The AG announced last week that he will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in on if the state can enforce its transgender athlete ban in Pepper-Jackson’s case.
Morrisey is currently running for governor in a tight Republican primary race ahead of the May election.
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Amelia is an investigative reporter for West Virginia Watch. Her coverage regularly focuses on poverty, child welfare, social services and government.
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The preceding article was previously published by West Virginia Watch and is republished with permission.
Nonprofit, nonpartisan, independent journalism not hidden behind a paywall. Mountaineers are always free, and so is West Virginia Watch.
West Virginia Watch is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
Georgia
Georgia Southern University students protest after LBGTQ+ cuts
The protest “differed in tone and tenor from the pro-Palestinian demonstrations happening at campuses across the country”
STATESBORO, Ga. – Several hundred students and supporters gathered in the central atrium of the Russell Union student center at Georgia Southern University (GSU) on Monday protesting the suspension of an LGBTQ+ inclusion training program, Safe Space, to the relocation of health care resource listings from a GSU public website.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Ellen Murphy, a grad student, organized the demonstration along with a handful of others, including members of Georgia Southern’s LGBTQ student organization, the Gay-Straight Alliance.
Murphy and other protestors, who were joined in solidarity by a handful of university administrators aimed to send a message to university administration after they suspended the LGBTQ+ initiatives, removing “information about services, including therapy groups for LGBTQ+ students, training to educate faculty/staff about LGBTQ+ identities (ie, Safe Space/Zone), medical treatments for transgender students, career resources, LGBTQ+ symbolism, and diversity statements from the university website.”
Georgia Southern administrator Dominique A. Quarles told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution the Safe Space training was paused because a compliance review of University System of Georgia human resources administrative practices found the program violated recent policy revisions.
The university is exploring alternative approaches to restore Safe Space or to offer similar training that doesn’t violate University System policy, Quarles told the AJC. The timeline for the reboot is the fall semester, which begins Aug. 14.
In a letter to GSU, Murphy and other protestors claimed that “pride flags were promptly removed from the shelves of the university bookstore, and adjustments were made to programming for upcoming events for LGBTQ+ students.” This included students being given notice that “drag events would no longer be permitted on campus.”
The letter also highlighted that GSU President Kyle Marrero had ordered the removal of a poster promoting gender-affirming care in the school’s counseling center.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution pointed out that the protest “differed in tone and tenor from the pro-Palestinian demonstrations happening at campuses across the country.” Organizers took steps during the planning process to ensure participants would “act in alignment with our values.”
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New Jersey
NJ groups urge school districts to reinstate policy on trans students
The groups say without this policy 5756, districts open to legal liability & students and families may believe their schools are not safe
By Sophie Nieto-Munoz | ASBURY PARK, N.J. – The American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey and Garden State Equality sent letters to 16 school districts across New Jersey this week urging them to reinstate a policy they say protects transgender youth.
The groups say without this policy — known as policy 5756 — not only are districts open to legal liability, but students and families may believe their schools are not safe and welcoming environments. The policy outlines responsibilities districts have to protect LGBTQ students under state and federal law.
“School administrators must do everything they can to protect trans kids. As LGBTQ+ rights face renewed threats across the country, New Jersey has a responsibility to lead by example and ensure that students in our state feel safe, supported, and respected,” ACLU-NJ staff attorney Elyla Huertas said in a statement.
The policy, which is not mandatory, says school officials should have open but confidential discussions with their transgender students to ascertain the students’ preferences on their chosen names, pronouns, and parental communications. It was introduced in 2018 after a law signed by then-Gov. Chris Christie directed state education officials to create a policy regarding transgender students.
It came under fire last year when state Attorney General Matt Platkin’s office filed civil rights complaints against four school districts that sought to implement policies requiring school officials to tell parents about the sexual orientation and gender identity of LGBTQ students. Platkin critics said his office was improperly trampling on their rights to know personal details about their children. After state officials conceded during those court fights that policy 5756 was not mandatory, a handful of school districts repealed it.
“At a time when we are seeing attacks against LGBTQ+ students proliferate throughout the state and country, showing your students that you are protecting them is crucial for their ability to feel safe, supported, and respected in the school environment,” the letter states.
Sparta is among the school districts that received the letter. Its school board president, Kurt Morris, told the New Jersey Monitor that the ACLU-NJ’s concerns are “unfounded” because the district readopted the policy at its December 2023 meeting. Officials from other districts did not respond to requests for comment.
A letter also went to Union Township’s schools. The district’s board president, Cortney Dominianni-Smith, said school officials there agree with the ACLU that transgender students, like all students, should be treated respectfully and in a nondiscriminatory manner.
“The District has numerous policies protecting the rights of all students, including transgender students and guaranteeing them equal access to all programs and opportunities in the Union Township Schools,” she said.
Studies show that LGBTQ+ youth face higher rates of bullying and harassment at school, and are more likely to be alienated from their families or communities. LGBTQ+ children are more likely to experience housing instability, and are four times more likely to attempt suicide compared to their straight and cisgender peers.
“All of the data show affirming schools are a lifeline for LGBTQ+ students,” said Lauren Albrecht, Garden State Equality’s director of advocacy and organizing. “So when schools don’t know — or outright reject research-backed, educator-approved, and, until recently, uncontroversial guidelines for — how to meet the well-documented needs of these students, it isn’t hyperbole to say lives are at risk.”
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Sophie Nieto-Muñoz, a New Jersey native and former Trenton statehouse reporter for NJ.com, shined a spotlight on the state’s crumbling unemployment system and won several awards for investigative reporting from the New Jersey Press Association. She was a finalist for the Livingston Award for Young Journalists for her report on PetSmart’s grooming practices, which was also recognized by the New York Press Club. Sophie speaks Spanish and is proud to connect to the Latinx community through her reporting.
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The preceding article was previously published by the New Jersey Monitor and is republished with permission.
New Jersey Monitor provides fair and tough reporting on the issues affecting New Jersey, from political corruption to education to criminal and social justice. We strive to hold powerful people accountable and explain how their actions affect New Jerseyans from Montague to Cape May.
New Jersey Monitor, PO Box 6843, Lawrenceville, NJ 08648
We’re part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
Kansas
Kansas Republican votes no on trans ban
Representative Concannon, a Republican Representative, voted to sustain a veto of a gender affirming care ban in Kansas
By Erin Reed | TOPEKA, Kan. – On Monday, the Kansas Legislature met to vote on Senate Bill 233, a bill that would ban gender-affirming care for transgender youth and impose strict restrictions on social transitions in any publicly funded buildings, including schools.
The Legislature had previously passed the bill, but it was vetoed by Governor Laura Kelly. Republicans, who had enough votes to override the veto, were expected to do so and ban gender-affirming care for transgender youth.
However, at the last moment, two Republicans, Representatives Susan Concannon and Jesse Borjon, unexpectedly broke ranks and voted to sustain the veto, preventing the bill from being signed into law.
Representative Concannon, who had previously voted in favor of the bill, reversed her decision and stepped forward to explain why, stating, “We hear of bullying and ask authorities to make it stop. We hear about mental health, about suicide, and ask why. We’re not listening to the impacted youth. Government involvement is not the answer. I voted for this bill in the past due to concerns about the surgery. With further consideration, this bill is vague beyond the surgery. These decisions belong between the team of professionals and the parents. The youth need our help, not government overreach. For all those who reached out, I hear you, and vote to sustain the governor’s veto.”
See her speech and the failure of the bill’s passage here:
Kansas has been a lightning rod for anti-trans legislation in recent years, and the defeat of a gender-affirming care ban in the state is likely to be seen as a big surprise among those following anti-LGBTQ+ legislation nationwide.
Previously, Kansas Republicans had passed a bill banning transgender individuals from bathrooms and ending legal recognition of their gender identities. This led Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach to force transgender people to have their driver’s licenses and birth certificates reversed.
That law placed Kansas among the states with some of the harshest laws toward transgender people in the United States, leading some to view the passage of a gender-affirming care ban for youth as a foregone conclusion.
However, recent months have cast doubt on the willingness of Republicans nationwide to continue targeting transgender people using the legislative process, at least prior to the upcoming election, where such positions may be seen as ideologically extreme.
Several other states that have led the charge in legislation targeting transgender and LGBTQ+ people failed to pass any significant anti-trans or anti-LGBTQ+ legislation this year, including Florida, West Virginia, Georgia, and Iowa.
In a recent interview with Casey Parks of The Washington Post, Sarah Parshall Perry of the Heritage Foundation stated, “We’re finding this to be sort of a lightning rod issue…I think there is some legislative will to try to back off a little bit and possibly pump the brakes on what had been previously a more aggressive approach.”
Sensing such shifts, there has also been more effort in lobbying centrist and conservative legislators while appealing to values that resonate with conservatives, such as control of one’s health care, privacy rights, and personal liberty. One such group is GRACE For America, an organization that describes itself as focusing on “the movable middle” and “the middle right” in outreach and education.
A recent video from the group, for instance, features a combat veteran who speaks about his advocacy for his own transgender child. When asked about the Kansas vote, a member of the organization stated, “We fully support these brave Republican legislators in Kansas for exemplifying the values of liberty, respect, and dignity—not just for transgender people but for parents and families who understand that decisions on health care belong with them and not government officials. Their actions demonstrate that transgender rights can be bipartisan, and we are grateful to see more Republicans adopting this approach and call on others to learn from these examples.”
One of the major groups in Kansas doing such outreach has been Equality Kansas, which was part of a coalition of statewide organizations lobbying the legislature to sustain the veto. These organizations include the ACLU of Kansas, Kansas Interfaith Action, Loud Light Civic Action, Mainstream, Planned Parenthood Great Plains Votes, Trust Women Foundation, and Transformations.
Collectively, they led thousands of phone calls and emails to legislators in the state. Equality Kansas responded to the defeat, stating, “We are relieved that the House Republicans took time to listen to trans folks and take a step back to look at what is going on—that SB 233 and bills like it are founded in hate, not in fact. We need and will continue to work to engage Kansas community members and educate legislators.”
Had the bill passed, it would have been one of the most extreme bills targeting transgender youth in the United States. It not only would have banned surgery for trans teens, an exceedingly rare occurrence, but also hormone therapy and puberty blockers. Moreover, it would have barred state employees from “promoting social transition.” Social transition usually includes simple things such as pronouns, names, hairstyles, and clothing.
Many opposed to the bill interpreted it as potentially having far-reaching consequences for any teens who wished to go by different pronouns or names in schools, and could potentially have forbidden state employees from recognizing such transitions or expressions of gender identity.
Now with Republican defections, this bill will not become law in Kansas, giving Kansans who live under some of the harshest anti-trans laws in the United States some reprieve when it comes to their medical care.
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Erin Reed is a transgender woman (she/her pronouns) and researcher who tracks anti-LGBTQ+ legislation around the world and helps people become better advocates for their queer family, friends, colleagues, and community. Reed also is a social media consultant and public speaker.
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The preceding article was first published at Erin In The Morning and is republished with permission.
Colorado
Colorado constitution’s same-sex marriage ban may be on ballot
Colorado’s constitution states, “Only a union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in this state”
By Sara Wilson | DENVER, Colo. – Colorado voters could be asked to amend the state constitution this fall to remove language against same-sex marriages.
Even though civil unions for same-sex marriage became legal in the state in 2013 — and same-sex marriages became legal nationwide in 2015 with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling — the Colorado constitution retains language that states, “Only a union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in this state.”
Voters narrowly approved that language in 2006 through a ballot initiative, but the Legislature is now considering sending a measure to voters to get rid of the sentence.
“As representatives of the people of Colorado, it is our shared responsibility to uphold the principles of equality and justice for all citizens, regardless of political affiliations,” said state Sen. Joann Ginal, a Fort Collins Democrat. “While we’re protected today, our state constitution still reflects outdated language and values.”
Ginal is running the resolution that would put the amendment on November’s ballot. The Senate gave preliminary approval to it on Friday, but still needs to sign off with a recorded vote before it moves to the House.
Constitutional amendments need a supermajority vote in the Legislature, so at least one Republican senator will need to vote yes for it to advance. House Democrats have the votes to pass it without Republican support. If it is put on the ballot, it will need 55% voter approval.
The marriage line in the state constitution is inoperative and unenforceable since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, but some supporters of same-sex marriage have been concerned about the decision’s longevity after the court’s conservative majority overturned the federal right to an abortion two years ago.
In a concurring opinion in that case, Justice Clarence Thomas — one of the most conservative voices on the bench — wrote that the reasoning the court applied in the Dobbs decision could extend to other rulings that codify rights to contraception access, same-sex relationships and same-sex marriage.
“Our LGBTQ community is very afraid, living in fear that rights will be taken away,” Sen. Sonya Jaquez Lewis, a Longmont Democrat, said.
Sen. Bob Gardner, a Colorado Springs Republican, said on the Senate floor that even if the Obergefell decision is overturned, same-sex marriages in Colorado would still be protected by state law. Changing the constitution would not have a true impact except for the removal of language many people find offensive.
“I think the law is settled. I think, in some ways, the culture of our country is settled on this matter,” he said.
The legislative session ends on May 8.
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Sara Wilson covers state government, Colorado’s congressional delegation, energy and other stories for Newsline. She formerly was a reporter for The Pueblo Chieftain, where she covered politics and government in southern Colorado.
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The preceding article was previously published by the Colorado Newsline and is republished with permission.
Colorado Newsline provides fair and accurate reporting on politics, policy and other stories of interest to Coloradans. Newsline is based in Denver, and coverage of activities at the Capitol are central to its mission, but its reporters are devoted to providing reliable information about topics that concern readers in all parts of the state, from Lamar to Dinosaur, from Durango to Sterling.
We’re part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
Federal Government
New World Bank US executive director: LGBTQ+ rights are human rights
Felice Gorordo assumed role last year
WASHINGTON — Acting U.S. World Bank Executive Director L. Felice Gorordo recently told the Washington Blade that he is committed to the advancement of LGBTQ+ and intersex rights within the multilateral organization.
“LGBTQI+ rights are human rights and human rights are LGBTQI+ rights. Period. Hard stop,” he said during an exclusive interview at his D.C. office on March 27. “I see it, personally, from a human rights promotion lens.”
Gorordo, a Cuban American who was born in Miami, graduated from Georgetown University in 2005.
He co-founded Roots of Hope, an organization that seeks to empower young Cubans on the island through entrepreneurship and increased access to technology.
Gorordo served in various roles in both the Obama and George W. Bush administrations, and served as advisor to then-Vice President Joe Biden’s cancer initiative after his mother died from pancreatic cancer.
He has also been the CEO of three-venture backed technology companies, an investor and advisor at two venture capital funds with focuses on global healthcare and infrastructure, and has sat on the boards of several for- and non-profit organizations. Gorordo was most recently the CEO of eMerge Americas and executive director of the Technology Foundation of the Americas before the U.S. Senate confirmed him in May 2023.
He has been the World Bank’s acting U.S. executive director since Adriana Kugler joined the Federal Reserve Board last September.
Gorordo, 41, throughout the interview referenced the Biden-Harris administration’s 2021 memo that committed the U.S. to promoting LGBTQ+ and intersex rights abroad as part of U.S. foreign policy.
“It starts off with us at the bank trying to build demand for the issues related to LGBTQI+ rights and people,” he said. “It’s about protecting LGBTQI+ rights in and outside of World Bank operations and projects and supporting LGBTQI+ people and rights inside and outside of our projects through inclusion. It’s using our voice and vote at every chance that we get to advance LGBTQI+ people.”
Gorordo pointed out his office reviews roughly 700 projects a year for the World Bank, and they have an average of $90-$100 billion in financial commitments. He said there is a “pretty extensive review process for due diligence” with criteria that include environmental and social frameworks and bank safeguards (that currently do not explicitly include sexual orientation or gender identity.)
“We take a critical lens at each one that it lives up to the values that we want to promote, and that includes looking at it through the lens of LGBTQI+ rights,” said Gorordo.
One LGBTQ-inclusive project is the World Bank International Finance Corporation’s $275 million loan to Banco Davivienda in Colombia, which provides funding for advisory services to LGBTQ+ and intersex people and for the design of LGBTQ+ and intersex banking products. The board in 2023 greenlighted $200 million for the Program for Universal Primary Healthcare Coverage and Resilience which, among other things, seeks to improve the quality of healthcare that LGBTQ+ and intersex people receive in Chile.
The World Bank’s EQOSOGI Project has already collected LGBTQ+- and intersex-specific data on legal gaps as well as practices that impact LGBTQ+ and intersex people in 16 countries, and it plans to expand its work to other nations in 2024. The World Bank is also expanding its research on the economic costs of discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
The first studies focused on Serbia and North Macedonia, and found both countries’ annual gross domestic product would increase by .6 percent if LGBTQ+ and intersex people faced less discrimination in the workplace. A study that will focus on Brazil will be released later this year.
“There’s always more we can do,” Gorordo told the Blade. “What we believe we need to do, again, using our convening power and our voice and our vote is to help build because in the end we are still a demand-driven organization.”
“We need to use our research and the data, in my opinion, our opinion, to help generate the demand for LGBTQI rights to be enshrined in our safeguards, in our strategies and in every single one of our products and the data speaks for itself,” he added.
Gorordo also noted the bank in the coming months will release a new gender strategy that recognizes gender as nonbinary.
“That’s a big step,” he said.
Gorordo described World Bank President Ajay Banga as “a champion of the rights of all, including LGBTQI+ people.” Gorordo, however, acknowledged there has been “some pushback from certain constituencies that have different views and opinions than ours” on the new gender strategy and support for LGBTQ+ and intersex rights.
“I see it as my responsibility to not just advocate for it in the board room or with management, but also using my office and chair to meet with other chairs bilaterally, to make the case for it, to try and bring folks along with us,” he added.
Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act ‘needs to be struck down and repealed’
The World Bank last August suspended new loans to Uganda in response to the country’s Anti-Homosexuality Act that President Yoweri Museveni signed.
Uganda’s Constitutional Court earlier this month refused to nullify the law. A group of Ugandan LGBTQ+ activists have appealed the ruling.
“The law needs to be struck down and repealed. Hard stop,” said Gorordo. “We continue to advocate for that.”
Then-World Bank President Jim Yong Kim in 2014 postponed a $90 million loan to the Ugandan government in response to Museveni’s decision to sign a nearly identical version of the Anti-Homosexuality Act, known as the “Kill the Gays” law that imposed a life sentence upon anyone found guilty of repeated same-sex sexual acts.
Uganda’s Constitutional Court later struck down the law on a technicality, but Kim’s decision to postpone the loan without first consulting the World Bank’s board sparked widespread criticism among board members. Advocacy groups had asked the World Bank not to fund future projects in Uganda, but they did not ask for the cancellation of existing loans.
The World Bank earlier this year organized a seminar with the Human Rights Promotion Forum of Uganda that upwards of 50 people attended virtually and in person.
“One of the things that I think is incredibly critical is hearing directly from those we seek to serve and who are being impacted by these discriminatory laws,” said Gorordo.
Gorordo said the World Bank in lieu of the law’s repeal has “been doing a review of mitigation efforts” that includes “a three-month trial period once there is an agreement of what those mitigation efforts would be, to see if they are fit for purpose.”
“At the crux of it includes the protection as well as the equal access of benefits for LGBTQ communities in Uganda. If it is not fit for purpose, then we have to go back to the drawing board., So we will continue to push for the strictest mitigation measures that can be put into place, a very critical review through that process … and ensuring that we are able to guarantee equal access and protection for the LGBTQ community.”
Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo has delayed a decision on whether he will sign a bill that would further criminalize LGBTQ+ people in his country. Lawmakers in Kenya and Tanzania have proposed similar measures.
“One of the reasons why we’ve taken such a critical view of the Uganda case is this is potentially one of many of these types of cases that we’ll have to deal with,” said Gorordo. “What we do in Uganda could have a ripple effect in other countries and we need to ensure that we are setting the right precedents for how we react in these cases.”
Gorordo further noted consensual same-sex sexual relations remain criminalized in upwards of 60 countries around the world.
“The discrimination that’s against LGBTQI+ people is unacceptable across the board,” he said. “We will use all the tools in the U.S. government’s toolbox to be able to make it known our objection and to try and stop discrimination and protect the rights of LGBTQ+ people every chance we get.”
Kansas
Kansas Senate overrides governor’s veto on anti-trans care bill
Sen. Mark Steffen said the predators in today’s society are “woke” health care providers who are preying on “confused” children
By Sherman Smith & Rachel Mipro | TOPEKA, Kan. — As the Kansas Legislature renewed its yearslong assault on transgender children, Sen. Mary Ware told her Senate colleagues Monday she had a “simple” question for them.
“What is the acceptable number of youth suicides?” Ware asked.
The Senate voted 27-13 to override Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto of Senate Bill 233, which bans gender-affirming care, including hormone therapy and other treatments recognized as necessary by medical professionals, for anyone younger than 18. The bill also bans state employees from supporting “social transitioning,” which is defined to include an individual changing their preferred pronouns or manner of dress.
The bill still requires a vote in the House, where 84 of the 125 members are needed to override the governor’s veto. The House passed the bill 82-39 on March 27 with two Republicans and two Democrats absent.
“We need to find one more Republican with a spine,” said Rep. Tobias Schlingensiepen, D-Topeka.
Two Republicans — Sen. John Doll of Garden City and Sen. Carolyn McGinn of Sedgwick — joined the chamber’s 11 Democrats in opposing the legislation.
The Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is a hotline for individuals in crisis or for those looking to help someone else. To speak with a certified listener, call 988.
Crisis Text Line is a texting service for emotional crisis support. To speak with a trained listener, text HELLO to 741741. It is free, available 24/7, and confidential.
Ware and other Democrats pointed to extensive medical research that shows transgender children, who are already at an elevated risk for suicide, are more likely to die from suicide if they don’t receive gender-affirming care.
“This bill ignores, or should I say tramples, on the rights of some Kansas citizens to live peaceably, lawfully and free to make their own decisions about their own bodies,” Ware said.
Republicans argued the bill would protect children from life-altering decisions they could end up regretting.
Sen. Beverly Gossage, R-Eudora, said she receives “beautiful cards” and emails from parents who thank her for pursuing the legislation.
“We all sympathize to those who are suffering from gender dysphoria,” Gossage said.
Sen. Mark Steffen, R-Hutchinson, said the predators in today’s society are “woke” health care providers who are preying on “confused” children and parents.
“No more than we would ever tell somebody with anorexia that they’re fat would we tell a boy that they’re a girl or girl that they’re a boy,” Steffen said.
Under the law, medical professionals would lose their license if they provide gender-affirming care, and parents would be allowed to sue them for punitive damages up until the child turns 28 years old.
In a teary speech, Senate Minority Leader Dinah Sykes, D-Lenexa, said she has heard from hundreds of Kansans who see hormone treatment as a life raft — and are concerned the Legislature is about to rip that away.
Research consistently shows that supportive environments, including access to gender-affirming care, reduces the mental health risk for kids, Sykes said, while denying that care amplifies feelings of isolation, shame and hopelessness.
“So for our transgender community, I will say there are some, who, we are in your camp,” Sykes said. “We may not understand all the complexities that you go through, but you have a place in this state. And we accept you and we cherish you. And regardless of where this vote goes, there is someone who is here, who cares.”
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Sherman Smith is the editor in chief of Kansas Reflector. He writes about things that powerful people don’t want you to know. A two-time Kansas Press Association journalist of the year, his award-winning reporting includes stories about education, technology, foster care, voting, COVID-19, sex abuse, and access to reproductive health care. Before founding Kansas Reflector in 2020, he spent 16 years at the Topeka Capital-Journal. He graduated from Emporia State University in 2004, back when the school still valued English and journalism. He was raised in the country at the end of a dead end road in Lyon County.
A graduate of Louisiana State University, Rachel Mipro has covered state government in Baton Rouge and New Orleans. She and her fellow team of journalists were 2022 Goldsmith Prize Semi-Finalists for their work featuring the rise of the KKK in northern Louisiana, following racially-motivated shootings in 1960. With her move to the Midwest, Rachel is now turning her focus toward issues within Kansas public policies.
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The preceding article was previously published by the Kansas Reflector and is republished with permission.
Kansas Reflector is a nonprofit news operation providing in-depth reporting, diverse opinions and daily coverage of state government and politics. This public service is free to readers and other news outlets.
We’re part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
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