New on the County Channel

Patients at LA County’s Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center enjoy some animal therapy as they progress on their rehabilitation journey.

Department of Health Services’ recreation therapists use animal-assisted therapy in both individual and group treatment settings to gain functional outcomes such as increasing social skills, range of motion, group participation, and overall strength and endurance.

You can watch more stories like this on Channel 92 or 94 on most cable systems, or anytime here. Catch up on LA County Close-Up here.

In Case You Missed It

LA County Day at the Fair is May 4th!

The LA County Fair opens this weekend and to celebrate, we’re offering discounted tickets on LA County Day at the Fair on May 4! Enjoy the LA County Expo showcasing all the great things the county is doing in our neighborhoods and take advantage of this discount offer. Admission is just $8 through May 3 at 11:59 p.m. Admission is $10 the day-of, May 4, 2024.

LA County Fair season runs from May 3rd – May 27th. Get your tickets today and be sure to use the password “LACOUNTY” for your LA County Day tickets for the discount price!

At Your Service

LA County Library: Citizenship in a Bag

Looking for help on your path to US Citizenship? LA County Library offers Citizenship in a Bag, a toolkit with resources for customers seeking to obtain US Citizenship.

This toolkit in a bag contains a variety of educational materials for the naturalization exam, including flash cards, multimedia tools, and a FREE citizenship folder with valuable resources that customers can keep.

Borrow or place a hold on a Citizenship in a Bag toolkit here.

For more details and questions, please call your nearest LA County Library location.

Out and About

Beach Eats Gourmet Food Trucks

Beach Eats is back for another summer in Marina del Rey!

Join us every Thursday, 5–9 p.m., May 9 through October 31, for some of the most unique and popular local food truck fare at “L.A.’s Marina.”

• ORDERS: Food orders can be made online up to five days before each Thursday event, or directly at the food trucks on-site.
• PARKING: Available in Lot #11 at a rate of $0.50 for each 15 minutes. There is a $2 minimum for credit card payments.
• MORE INFO: Visit the Best Food Trucks website to check out the upcoming food truck schedule, order online, or try the Best Food Trucks app (Apple or Android).

See you on Thursdays at Beach Eats in Marina del Rey!

Photo Finish

Click here to access more photos of LA County in action.

LOS ANGELES – Southern California gas prices are continuing to drop for a second straight week, according to the Auto Club’s Weekend Gas Watch. The average price for self-serve regular gasoline in California is $5.38, which is three cents lower than a week ago. The average national price is $3.67, which is one cent higher than a week ago.

The average price of self-serve regular gasoline in the Los Angeles-Long Beach area is $5.34 per gallon, which is three cents less than last week, 18 cents higher than last month, and 44 cents higher than last year. In San Diego, the average price is $5.34, which is two cents lower than last week, 19 cents higher than last month, and 45 cents higher than this time last year.

On the Central Coast, the average price is $5.33, which is the same as last week, 22 cents higher than last month, and 45 cents higher than last year. In Riverside, the average per-gallon price is $5.27, which is two cents lower than last week, 21 cents higher than last month and 45 cents higher than a year ago. In Bakersfield, the $5.30 average price is one cent less than last week, 29 cents more than last month, and 44 cents higher than a year ago today.

“After a few months of supply interruptions from refinery breakdowns and maintenance, Oil Price Information Service (OPIS) reports that California refineries have been operating at above 86% of their capacity for the past two weeks,” said Auto Club Spokesperson Doug Shupe. “Additionally, OPIS reported the US Energy Information Administration believes that the country has already experienced its highest gas price point for the first half of this year. Although California prices often go against national trends, that prediction is an encouraging sign for further price drops at the pump.”

The Weekend Gas Watch monitors the average price of gasoline. As of 9 a.m. on May 2, averages are:

LOS ANGELES – Anti-diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) laws have negatively impacted the teaching, research, and health of LGBTQ+ college faculty, according to a new study by the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law.

As a result of anti-DEI laws, about half of the LGBTQ+ faculty surveyed (48%) have explored moving to another state, and 20% have actively taken steps to do so. One-third (36%) have considered leaving academia altogether.

Nine states have passed anti-DEI legislation related to higher education, and many others are considering similar legislation.

Using data gathered from 84 LGBTQ+ faculty, most of whom work at public universities, this study examined how the anti-DEI and anti-LGBTQ+ climate has affected their teaching, lives outside the classroom, emotional and physical health, coping strategies, and desire to move.

Many faculty reported that anti-DEI laws have negatively impacted what they teach, how they interact with students, their research on LGBTQ+-related issues, and how out they are on campus and in their communities. More than one in ten faculty surveyed have faced requests for their DEI-related activities from campus administrators (14%), course enrollment declines (12%), and student threats to report them for violating anti-DEI laws (10%).

Nearly three-quarters (74%) of the LGBTQ+ faculty said the current environment has taken a toll on their mental health, and over one-quarter (27%) said it has affected their physical health.

Some LGBTQ+ faculty, particularly those who were tenured, part of a union, or well-respected on campus, have responded to anti-DEI policies by becoming more involved in advocacy and activism on (33%) and off campus (26%). Some made positive changes to their teaching, such as adding readings that provide context for LGBTQ+ content and expanding the amount of discussion during class.

“These findings suggest that anti-DEI laws could lead to significantly fewer out LGBTQ+ faculty, less course coverage of LGBTQ+ topics, and a lack of academic research on LGBTQ+ issues,” said study author Abbie E. Goldberg, Affiliated Scholar at the Williams Institute and Professor of Psychology at Clark University. “This could create a generation of students with less exposure to LGBTQ+ issues and faculty mentorship and support.”

ADDITIONAL FINDINGS:

• About 30% of participants said that their college/university communities were conservative or very conservative on LGBTQ+ issues.6% said that they had experienced harassment or been bothered by supervisors or colleagues due to their LGBTQ+ status, political affiliation, or perceived “wokeness” in the last six months.20% said that they were scared of this type of harassment.
• Nearly 30% of participants said that their home communities were conservative or very conservative on LGBTQ+ issues.5% said that they had experienced harassment or been bothered by neighbors due to their LGBTQ+ status, political affiliation, or perceived “wokeness” in the last six months.37% said that they were scared of this type of harassment.
• Over 60% of survey participants who were parents reported at least one adverse event or change had impacted their children in the past six months, including bullying and harassment (26%), removal of books from classrooms (18%), and curriculum changes (35%).

Read the report here (Link)

By Jon King | ADRIAN, Mich. – The buzz is building for Adrian College’s commencement speaker this weekend, but the current is not all positive.

Both students and alumni of the private liberal arts school, located about 40 miles southwest of Ann Arbor, say the May 5 address by anti-trans activist Riley Gaines will be divisive and violate its own stated mission of being “committed to the pursuit of truth and dignity of all people.”

Among those is R. Cole Bouck, the creator of an LGBT and Ally Pride Scholarship at Adrian College, where he came out as being gay while a sophomore at the school in 1981.

“Elevating this divisive and extremist symbol of hate with the largest megaphone and to the highest platform of an academic institution’s school year, their college graduation, as an alum, this is an embarrassing and hurtful decision. As a donor to the college, this is a bad investment decision,” Bouck told the Michigan Advance. 

Gaines has become one of the leading voices in efforts against allowing transgender women to compete in sports that align with their gender identity after the University of Kentucky swimmer tied for fifth place with University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas in the 200 freestyle final at the NCAA Women’s Championships in March 2022. 

Thomas had previously been a member of the university’s men’s swim team, and became the first openly trans woman to compete in the NCAA women’s division. She ended up finishing first in the women’s 500-yard freestyle, becoming the first transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division I title. 

Gaines, who made the All-SEC First Team in 2021 and 2022 and was named the 2022 SEC Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year, immediately disputed Thomas’ participation in female competition, refusing to accept her as a woman based on her anatomy, referring to Thomas as a “fully intact male.” 

That basic premise, in which gender is defined solely on one’s reproductive organs, is at the heart of Republican efforts across the country to limit and/or deny rights to transgender individuals by declaring there only two genders, male and female, which are fixed at birth and “immutable.”

However, a strictly binary definition ignores the complexity of what determines biological sex in humans. Newly fertilized embryos have no indication of sex when they initially develop, with that process playing out over the next several weeks and involving precisely timed gene expressions. When that timing is off, as sometimes happens, reproductive organs can exhibit characteristics of the opposite sex, as seen in emerging evidence that gene variants play a role in transgender identity. 

The result is that, scientifically speaking, using visually observable signs of gender at birth as the sole basis for determining biological sex is simply not a reliable method.

Out of the pool and into politics

Gaines quickly used her experience and became a staple of anti-trans efforts across the country. 

Just weeks after her tie with Thomas, Gaines was present when the Kentucky Senate overrode a veto by Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear of a bill banning transgender females from competing in women’s sports. By September 2022, she appeared in a campaign ad for Kentucky U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, a Republican, in which she said the dream of girls like her “is being taken away” by trans athletes competing in women’s sports.

Since then, Gaines has testified in several other states in support of similar legislation to prevent trans athletes from participating in women’s sports, including West Virginia, Kansas and Ohio, where the bill she spoke in favor also prohibits doctors from providing gender-affirming care to trans youth, including puberty blockers and hormone therapy. The bill was later passed by a veto override and will take effect April 23.

Gaines also campaigned in 2022 with failed GOP gubernatorial nominee Tudor Dixon who centered her campaign against trans athletes competing in sports and a Florida-style “Don’t Say Gay” education law, telling a crowd in Taylor that people needed to open their eyes “to the irrefutable damage that is being done to women’s sports.”

“There is no equity. There’s no fairness,” Gaines continued. “There’s no sportsmanship, and there’s no opportunity for women to succeed at an elite level without sex-based categories.”

Gaines was the guest of U.S. Rep. Lisa McClain (R-Bruce Twp.) at the 2023 State of the Union address. The former college athlete has headlined Republican fundraisers, like one for GOP Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds last year, and endorsed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for president. 

“Riley is fighting on the front lines of the most important women’s issue of our time,” Reynolds said. “She is not afraid to stand up for common sense and declare that biological men do not belong in women’s sports.”

Gaines also has become an ambassador for the conservative Independent Women’s Forum and joined more than a dozen college athletes who filed a lawsuit against the NCAA in March, accusing it of violating their Title IX rights by allowing Thomas to compete at the national championships in 2022.

But as Media Matters reported last year, Gaines’ arguments have moved beyond claiming that trans women possess an unfair advantage over cis women in athletic competition, but also now include increasing claims that trans women pose a sexual and physical threat to cis women, a position at odds with a study by the Williams Institute which found “transgender people are over four times more likely than cisgender people to be victims of violent crime.” 

Despite that, the announcement by Adrian College that Gaines would be the guest speaker at their May 5 commencement was made in glowing terms.

“We look forward to providing Riley a welcoming atmosphere,” said Andrea Milner, Adrian College vice president and dean of academic affairs. “I’m excited to offer our graduates the opportunity to broaden their understanding of world issues and inspire them as they embark on their future endeavors.”

However, it was met with anger by many members of the college’s LGBTQ+ community. The same day that Gaines was announced, a petition to “disinvite” her as the commencement speaker was created at change.org.

Created by Safe Space, Adrian College’s LGBTQ+ student organization, more than 400 signatures were gathered on the first day. It now has more than 1,600.

“According to the Human Rights Campaign, 4 out of 10 LGBT students report being bullied at school (Human Rights Campaign). By inviting someone with controversial views on inclusivity, we risk further alienating these students and creating an environment that doesn’t respect their identities,” stated the petition. “We urge Adrian College administration to reconsider their choice of speaker for this year’s commencement ceremony. Let us ensure our graduation is a celebration that respects all students’ identities and values inclusivity above all else.”

A request for comment was sent to Gaines, but was not returned.

Alumni speak out

Leann McKee is a 1984 Adrian College graduate who later came out as a trans woman. She didn’t mince words about Gaines being selected to speak at her alma mater’s spring graduation ceremony.

“She has no message to deliver other than she hates trans people. That’s her message,” McKee said. “Would she give an uplifting speech? Could she do all the things that you expect a commencement speaker to do? She could, but so could any member of the faculty that’s already there. They don’t need to bring in a controversial figure.”

McKee says while Gaines or her supporters would likely dispute the notion that she hates trans people, the label does not require a literal statement to that effect.

“When we say somebody hates something, you don’t actually have to say the words to understand how somebody feels about it,” she said. “Her whole message is to minimize [trans people’s] experience, try to push them in the corner, and get public sentiment against them. ‘Let’s make laws to legislate trans people out of this. Let’s make up rules so that they can’t play sports. Let’s keep these people out of sight because ew, ick, we don’t like them.’”

Bouck sent a letter in that vein to Adrian College President Jeffrey Docking and the college’s board of trustees.

“Ms. Riley is not an otherwise LGBTQIA+ friendly person who merely has a strong position on a particularly singular issue,” he wrote. “Her ‘policy platform’ in public speaking is not a mystery, it is not unknown, it is not unclear. On the contrary, Ms. Riley’s notoriety arises solely from her established record of intolerance and hate against trans persons and the LGBTQIA+ community more broadly – not just controversy, but HATE.”

Bouck said “hands down” he would support Gaines speaking at a forum in which her controversial opinions could be presented along with an opposing point of view and students could in turn ask both speakers challenging questions, and be challenged themselves. 

Most importantly, he says only those students who wished to take part would participate, unlike at a commencement ceremony.

“This is of course an unkind thing to expect a graduating LGBTQIA+ or Ally senior and their family to have to consider for their college graduation ceremony,” he wrote.

An ‘uncomfortable’ commencement

Docking has been Adrian College’s president since 2005. He holds a Ph.D. in Ethics from Boston University, a master’ss of divinity degree from Garrett-Evangelical Seminary in Evanston, Ill., and a B.A. from Michigan State University. 

When asked by the Advance, how Gaines was chosen as the commencement speaker, he said the choice was entirely his own as he thought the issue of transgender women in athletics was substantive. 

“She seems to be at the center of the vortex because of her swimming career at Kentucky, and when she realized that she was swimming against a trans athlete, was willing to go public and say, ‘This doesn’t seem fair to me,” and in speaking up she then became the face of that point of view, so she seemed like the most logical person to bring to talk about this,” said Docking.

While he declined to say what his personal belief is about Gaines’ point of view, Docking insisted that Adrian College was not taking a position on the issue by inviting her to speak.

“First of all, this college is not endorsing her point of view,” he said. “Secondly, I think on college campuses sometimes people debate topics like this. Other times topics like this are presented.”

As to whether a commencement address was the appropriate venue to feature such a polarizing figure as Gaines, Docking had no concerns it was not.

“My feeling is with the amount of tuition that people pay to go to college, whether it’s here or somewhere else, that they should expect to be challenged, presented with thoughtful topics, things that need to be considered from the day they arrive until the day they leave, and so I don’t think that a commencement address is necessarily a time that should be solely focused on just making everybody feel comfortable. I think that making people feel uncomfortable during a commencement address is very consistent with what colleges should be doing.”

In many ways, Docking’s reputation is one based on not letting people, especially at the collegiate level, get too comfortable.

In 2015, he co-authored a book called, “Crisis in Higher Education: A Plan to Save Small Liberal Arts Colleges in America,” which focused on an “admissions growth” strategy that has more than doubled enrollment at Adrian College since his arrival. 

That strategy favors prioritizing the funding of athletics and upgraded facilities over the arts, foreign languages or library holdings as those were not viewed as being a draw for new students. While the book received generally favorable reviews, Steven Mintz, a professor of history at the University of Texas at Austin, writing for Inside Higher Ed, noted the college’s enrollment growth depended largely on a high tuition discount rate and dubbed Docking’s strategy as “an example of how to destroy an institution in order to save it.”

Supporters, on the other hand, say the results speak for themselves with an enrollment of over 1,850 students compared to less than 900 when Docking arrived. The college’s endowment has also tripled to over $70 million, while seeing a fivefold increase in applications.

But that growth has come with some pains along the way. In 2020, the college tried to quietly implement a plan to cut the history, theater and joint religion, philosophy and leadership departments as a cost-cutting move. However, the pushback from faculty and alumni eventually convinced Docking to cancel the plan, saying he had “received a significant amount of feedback from alumni, faculty, staff, and friends of the College” about the decision and that the “input overwhelmingly supported the continuation of the majors and minors in these departments and the need to keep the liberal arts at the center of all we do as an institution.”

When asked about the feedback on the decision to bring in Gaines, Docking admitted it had created negativity.

“We’ve gotten some angry phone calls,” he said. “We’ve gotten some threatening phone calls. We’ve gotten some alums [who] have been upset about it. I’ve been out of town quite a bit, so I haven’t had a chance to read some of the articles that have been written, but presumably given that this is a very debatable issue and one that people like to weigh in on, I assume that there’ve been a whole lot of people out there that both agree and disagree with the decision.”

Despite that, Docking was clear that no amount of negative feedback would change his mind to invite Gaines and he expected commencement to go on as usual.

“I always say that the second most important thing that we do at Adrian College is educate students, but the first most important thing we do is to try to keep them safe during their time here,” he said. “I’m always concerned about student safety, whether it be large events like this, safety of visitors to campus, et cetera. And so we will certainly take all precautions possible to make sure that it’s a safe environment, a civil environment for people to attend a commencement address.”

Bouck, however, says inviting Gaines is pushing the envelope of what a commencement address should be.

“I am gravely concerned about the safety and security of the students, the college, the public in attendance, and (based upon some of her past experiences) even Ms. Gaines,” he wrote. “Extreme violence against trans people and incidents of mass violence have both skyrocketed over the past years and continue climbing. Why is Adrian College so interested and willing to stoke that fire so publicly?”

Courting controversy on college campuses is nothing new for Gaines. When she spoke at San Francisco State University (SFSU) in April 2023, she claimed that she was assaulted by protestors, although university police eventually suspended the investigation after “reviewing available video footage found that claims of crimes committed were unfounded.”

The SFSU event was hosted by Turning Point USA (TPUSA), a right-wing organization that the Southern Poverty Law Center has linked to white supremacist groups, as well as the anti-LGBTQ+ hate group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), which has conflated homosexuality with pedophilia.

TPUSA has sponsored Gaines on a national tour of college campuses, although they are not involved with her appearance at Adrian College.

Docking, however, says he sees the controversy surrounding Gaines as being one-sided and often missing the point.

“I don’t think that there’s any doubt that some people see her as anti-trans,” he said. “I think there’s other people that see her as pro Title IX, pro supportive of women in athletics, pro-supportive of fair competition.”

NCAA transgender policy

It is the question of fairness that the debate over Lia Thomas, and of trans athletes in general, is often waged. 

In that regard, Docking says he has experience and insight on collegiate athletics having served as chair of the Division III Presidents Council of the NCAA, the NCAA Board of Governors, and a member of the five-person NCAA Executive Committee. 

“I am very aware of the NCAA’s point of view, and I think that it’s very clear to the public that the NCAA has a point of view, which is … I’m not a medical doctor, but I believe it’s the sort of drugs that suppress testosterone, if they’re taken for enough time, that they will allow trans athletes to compete with their new identity.”

At the time of the NCAA Women’s Championships in February 2022, in which Gaines and Thomas tied for fifth, the policy in place by the NCAA Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports (CSMAS) required transgender student-athletes to provide documentation that they had undergone one year of testosterone suppression treatment. At that point, Thomas had been on such treatments for more than two years.

It also required a one-time serum testosterone level that fell below the maximum allowable level for the sport in which the athlete was competing, which in this instance was USA Swimming. At the time, USA Swimming deferred to the medical criteria of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which required a testosterone level of below 10 nanomoles per liter for at least 12 consecutive months prior to the competition. 

But just six weeks before the championships, USA Swimming announced new rules for elite swimmers that would require Thomas and other transgender women swimmers to maintain a testosterone level of below 5 nanomoles per liter for at least 36 months before the competition. However, the NCAA declared that it would not adopt the new threshold for the upcoming winter championship. 

Instead, the new standard of 5 nanomoles per liter would be phased in so that by Aug. 1, 2024, transgender student-athletes would have to provide documentation “no less than twice annually (and at least once within four weeks of competition in NCAA championships) that meets the sport-specific standard (which may include testosterone levels, mitigation timelines and other aspects of sport-governing body policies) as reviewed and approved by CSMAS.”

In other words, what started out as a protest of what were essentially temporary rules specifically regarding trans women swimmers, has blossomed under Gaines persona as a movement to ban trans athletes from women’s athletics altogether.

“She has no message to deliver other than she hates trans people. That’s her message. Would she give an uplifting speech? Could she do all the things that you expect a commencement speaker to do? She could, but so could any member of the faculty that’s already there. They don’t need to bring in a controversial figure.“

“This has all gone too far. Add your name to the open letter to athletic governing bodies and public servants to keep women’s sports female,” states Gaines’ website.

McKee, who was a competitive athlete for many years including playing women’s tackle football, says this issue is not one that is black or white.

“A lot of sports go by that testosterone level, and I think a lot of people would agree that’s a reasonable thing,” she said. “I think it’s reasonable that different sports have different concerns when it comes to mixing the men and women. So I do agree with the idea that I think each sport could look at it separately. But the tricky thing with testosterone being your measurement is that there are cisgender females in Africa who have been disqualified from their track events because their testosterone levels were naturally too high. Well, all women have testosterone. So we’re now saying women’s sports is meant for women, but only those that don’t have too much testosterone. Is that fair? No.”

McKee says that unfortunately, the atmosphere has become so poisoned with bigotry that a rational debate is almost impossible right now.

“There could be conversations that could be had on this topic. Absolutely. I always saw myself as an athlete, so to not play would’ve been a blow to me. But at the same time, I want to make sure I’m competing the way I’m supposed to compete. See? I’m not so radical that I’m saying, ‘If anybody says they want to be a woman today, they can play.’ But while it’s a political football, I don’t think any progress is going to get made,” said McKee. 

“It’s just very difficult to try to do it when people are just trying to score points and keep people uneducated about trans people.”

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Jon King is the Senior Reporter for the Michigan Advance and has been a journalist for more than 35 years. He is the Past President of the Michigan Associated Press Media Editors Association and has been recognized for excellence numerous times, most recently in 2022 with the Best Investigative Story by the Michigan Association of Broadcasters. He is also an adjunct faculty member at Cleary University. Jon and his family live in Howell.

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The preceding article was previously published by the Michigan Advance and is republished with permission.

Corporate media aren’t cutting it. The Michigan Advance is a nonprofit outlet featuring hard-hitting reporting on politics and policy and the best progressive commentary in the state.

We’re part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.

DAKAR, Senegal — A Senegalese NGO has called on the government to expedite the process of enacting an anti-LGBTQ+ law after the country’s new president met with a top EU official.

Jamra Ong Islamique made the call during a press conference last Wednesday after newly elected Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye met with European Council President Charles Michel.

Mamae Makhtar Gueye of Jamra Ong Islamique claimed the meeting between the two dignitaries involved an acknowledgment of LGBTQ+ rights in Senegal. Gueye said Michel is an LGBTQ+ ally who wants to change Senegal’s cultural customs that do not condone LGBTQ+ rights.

“His ardent proselytism for the expansion of LGBT ideology could not leave Jamra indifferent,” said Gueye. “Countries including Gabon, Central African Republic, and Mauritius, amongst others, that underestimated the nuisance of these propagandists of homosexuality paid dearly for it because these global lobbyists ended up legalizing this abomination, so beware.” 

Gueye, however, has received a lot of backlash and has been accused of not raising the same sentiments during the tenure of former President Macky Sall, who also met with Michel.

“Did he come as a defender of the LGBT cause or as a European official? Did he come to talk about LGBT rights or partnership agreement between the European Union and Senegal?,” asked Ahmadou Diaw, a Senegalese academic. “Mr. Gueye should know when to alert and when to shut up.”

Cheikh Maï Niang, a social commentator, described Jamra as a “useless organization” that is focused on restricting the freedom of the Senegalese people.

“They are absolutely good for nothing apart from eating the taxpayer’s money,” said Niang. “Where is the democracy we cry about everyday? Seems like they are here to restrict the freedom of the Senegalese people.”

“Not everyone is interested in religion,” added Niang. “We wasted too much time with these useless things. Let’s talk about developing the country. People should live their lives in the manner they want.”

Jamra has previously made proclamations against the LGBTQ+ community.

The organization in February — before Senegal’s presidential election that took place on March 24 — accused the EU Electoral Observation Mission to Senegal of wanting to indoctrinate Senegalese people with their pro-LGBTQ+ narrative.

Senegal does not have a law that specifically criminalizes those who identify as LGBTQ+ or advocate for them. Article 319 of the country’s penal code criminalizes consensual same-sex sexual relations with a fine and between one and five years in prison.

Some Senegalese lawmakers have sought to increase the prison sentence to 10 years for anyone convicted of engaging in homosexuality. These efforts thus far have not been successful.

Samm Jikko Yi (Together for the Safeguarding of Values), an Islamic lobby group that includes many organizations, in 2022 organized an anti-LGBTQ+ demonstration in Dakar, the country’s capital. Protesters called for harsher penalties for Senegalese who identify as LGBTQ+ and/or advocate for LGBTQ+ rights.

The Washington Blade in 2022 noted LGBTQ+ people have suffered physical and sexual abuse while in prison.

Senegal’s deep religious roots, which are largely Islamic, have contributed to the lack of tolerance of LGBTQ+ people in the country. This reality has prompted LGBTQ+ Senegalese to either flee the country or remain in the closet.

Media reports indicate there are fewer bars, clubs and other places where LGBTQ+ people can freely socialize.

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.

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.

WASHINGTON – Four Republicans state attorneys general have sued the Biden-Harris administration over the U.S. Department of Education’s new Title IX policies that were finalized April 19 and carry anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ students in public schools.

The lawsuit filed on Tuesday, which is led by the attorneys general of Kentucky and Tennessee, follows a pair of legal challenges from nine Republican states on Monday — all contesting the administration’s interpretation that sex-based discrimination under the statute also covers that which is based on the victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity.

The administration also rolled back Trump-era rules governing how schools must respond to allegations of sexual harassment and sexual assault, which were widely perceived as biased in favor of the interests of those who are accused.

“The U.S. Department of Education has no authority to let boys into girls’ locker rooms,” Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said in a statement. “In the decades since its adoption, Title IX has been universally understood to protect the privacy and safety of women in private spaces like locker rooms and bathrooms.”

“Florida is suing the Biden administration over its unlawful Title IX changes,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wrote on social media. “Biden is abusing his constitutional authority to push an ideological agenda that harms women and girls and conflicts with the truth.”

After announcing the finalization of the department’s new rules, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona told reporters, “These regulations make it crystal clear that everyone can access schools that are safe, welcoming and that respect their rights.”

The new rule does not provide guidance on whether schools must allow transgender students to play on sports teams corresponding with their gender identity to comply with Title IX, a question that is addressed in a separate rule proposed by the agency in April.

LGBTQ and civil rights advocacy groups praised the changes. Lambda Legal issued a statement arguing the new rule “protects LGBTQ+ students from discrimination and other abuse,” adding that it “appropriately underscores that Title IX’s civil rights protections clearly cover LGBTQ+ students, as well as survivors and pregnant and parenting students across race and gender identity.”

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.

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. 

Appeals court strikes down West Virginia trans athlete ban

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.

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West Virginia Watch is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.