The Public Eye, Winter 2013
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Washington, DC Takes on Trans Discrimination, p. 3 TheA PUBLICATION OF POLITICAL R PublicEyeESEARCH ASSOCIATES Winter 2012-13 • Volume XXVIII, No.1 Why Marriage s e g a m I y T T Won e G / T The Right’s Marriage n e T n o Messages and the C n i T a L 2012 Elections / e e r F s w By David Dodge e N / s o efore The November 2012 elecTions, 37 p m a sTaTes had voTed on sTaTewide balloT C r B e n measures seeking To resTricT marriage equal - g a V y iTy in This counTry. Each Time, voTers in These b o T o sTaTes—family members, friends, neigh - h P Millions of evangelicals flood the streets of Sao Paulo during the annual March for Jesus, showing the bors, and co-workers of LGBTQ people— strength of the religious movement in Brazil. approved The anTi-LGBTQ posiTion, ofTen by large margins. Though The LGBTQ communiTy has made significanT progress over The lasT couple of decades in legislaTures and courThouses across The counTry, This per - A Beachhead in Brazil sisTenT losing sTreak aT The balloT box gave Christian Right Legal Center’s “South American Way” anTi-LGBTQ advocaTes a powerful Talking poinT: liberal poliTicians, judges, and Hol - By Jandira Queiroz freedom, human righTs and life.” As The lywood celebriTies may supporT same-sex rom a modesT building in a cenTral Brazilian CenTer’s websiTe sTaTes, marriage, buT The American people do noT. Fneighborhood in Goiânia, The capiTal freedom is a universal righT given by God BuT now, This pasT ElecTion Day, voTers of The Brazilian sTaTe of Goiás, Filipe Coelho and an unalienable righT ThaT musT be helped make hisTory by approving The is launching The American CenTer for Law proTecTed. legalizaTion of same-sex marriage in Maine and JusTice’s (ACLJ) Brazilian branch, fol - In The UniTed STaTes, The ACLJ, since iTs (51.5%), Maryland (52.4%), and Wash - lowing The example of The ChrisTian RighT founding in 1990 by TelevangelisT PaT Why Marriage Won continues on page 8 organizaTion’s offices in EasTern Europe RoberTson, has Taken To courTrooms and and Africa. legislaTive halls To inscribe The conservaTive For Coelho, The son of a prominenT ChrisTian worldview inTo law. The Defense IN THIS ISSUE of Marriage AcT, The federal law banning evangelical minisTe r and The broTher of Two Roe aT 40 . 2 oThers, The goal of The Brazilian CenTer LGBTQ marriage ThaT Congress passed in WashingTon, DC Takes on for Law and JusTice (BCLJ) is simple: To 1996, was iTs creaTion. IT also promoTes legal Trans DiscriminaTion . 3 offer legal services for “people who don’T efforTs To curTail aborTion access and have The means To pay for lawyers when defends The prolife acTivisTs who TargeT ReporTs in Review . 21 reproducTive healTh clinics ThaT provide They’re wronged,” and To defend “religious Eyes RighT . 23 A Beachhead in Brazil continues on page 14 THE PUBLIC EYE 1 WINTER 201 2–2013 The Public Eye EDITORIAL ThePublicEye Publisher Tarso Luís Ramos Roe at 40 Editor (interim) Battered and Embattled Abby Scher Design/layout his January, we boTh celebraTe The forTieTh anniversary of Roe v. Wade for legalizing women’s Hird Graphic Design TrighT To aborTion in The UniTed STaTes and mourn The sTaying power of legislaTion ThaT seeks, piece by piece, To block access To ThaT righT. Poor women, rural women, and women Printing Red Sun Press of color, in parTicular, experience The effecTs of These impedimenTs The mosT. Today’s baTTle wiTh The RighT over wheTher sTaTes will expand The number of people covered by Medicaid Editorial Board under The Affordable Care AcT is only The laTesT fighT in The sTruggle for access. Frederick Clarkson • Kapya Kaoma FirsT iT was The Helms AmendmenT blocking USAID funds from being used for abor - Jean HardisTy • Maria Planansky Tion care abroad, even where aborTion is legal. Then in 1976 The Hyde AmendmenT ended Malika Redmond • Tarso Luís Ramos federal funding of aborTion care Through Medicaid, The “largesT healThcare program in Abby Scher • Rachel Tabachnick The UniTed STaTes,” excepT for cases deemed “legiTimaTe”: rape, incesT, and healTh risk To The woman. By depriving poor women (disproporTionaTely women of color) of access To The procedure, Hyde essenTially nullified Their righT To an aborTion and seT in moTion The PRA PoliTical Research AssociaTes sTraTegy of using legislaTion To chip away aT Roe. ThirTy-Three sTaTes enacTed similar laws, Founder and President Emerita and of The sevenTeen ThaT use sTaTe funds To cover aborTion under Medicaid, all buT four Jean V. HardisTy, Ph.D. do so under courT order. 1 RighT now in Mississippi, where women’s healTh acTivisTs fighT To keep The lasT abor - Staff Tion-providing clinic open, a righTwing governor is refusing To expand Medicaid under Tarso Luís Ramos, Executive Director Alex DiBranco, Communications Director The federal Affordable Care AcT. IT is one of Ten sTaTes Taking advanTage of The U.S. Supreme Kapya Kaoma, Religion & Sexuality CourT decision ThaT allowed sTaTes To opT ouT of The expansion. This means Thousands of Neville Lewis, Operations Consultant women will remain wiThouT affordable access To reproducTive healTh care, conTracepTive Charles OciTTi, Finance Director services, and even aborTion in cases of rape, incesT, women’s healTh risk, or feTal impair - Maria Planansky, Research Coordinator menT. This is only one example of how The anTichoice RighT remains commiTTed To under - Malika Redmond, Gender Justice mining boTh reproducTive rights overall and access To safe and legal aborTion. Any defense Abby Scher, Interim Research Director of Roe musT acknowledge The inTimaTe link beTween aborTion access and racial and Aramis Tirado, Technology economic jusTice. – Malika Redmond Interns Bader Abu-Eid • Michael Juhasz 1 “STaTe Funding of AborTion Under Medicaid,” State Policies in Brief, GuTTmacher InsTiTuTe, January 1, 2013. hTTp://www.guTTmacher.org/sTaTecenTer/spibs/spib_SFAM.pdf Alicia STeinmeTz • Alex Zadel Board of Directors Maria Elena LeTona, Chair KaTherine Acey Douglas Gould JaneT Jakobsen Hamid Khan Pardis Mahdavi Dania Rajendra The Public Eye is published by PoliTical Research AssociaTes, 1310 Broadway, SuiTe 201, Somerville, MassachuseTTs 02144-1837. 617.666.5300 fax: 617.666.6622 PRA is a nonprofiT, Tax-exempT organizaTion. All donaTions are Tax-deducTible To The exTenT permiTTed by law. © PoliTical Research AssociaTes, 201 2–2013. WebsiTe: www.publiceye.org All righTs reserved. ISSN 0275-9322 ISSUE 74 THE PUBLIC EYE 2 WINTER 201 2–2013 The Public Eye Washington, DC Takes on Trans Discrimination By Miriam Zoila Pérez gender man, and The fifTh person’s den Campbell McCollum is The founder ad feaTures language abouT gender Iof The Campbell CenTer, a peer-run nonconformiTy (“I may noT fiT resource cenTer for people living wiTh men - some ideas abouT gender, and I’m Tal healTh challenges. The cenTer serves The a proud parT of DC”). primarily low-income and African-Amer - McCollum says he was ican communiTy in SouTheasT WashingTon, inspired To parTicipaTe in parT DC. McCollum, a man in his mid-forTies because of The murder of Camp - wiTh a brighT smile, has been running The bell CenTer inTern, Lashai CenTer for almosT five years now. 1 McLean, in July 2011. A Trans He is also Transgender, and one of five woman, she was faTally shoT one people feaTured in a groundbreaking new evening while walking home in C D NorTheasT DC. The deTails remain ad campaign ThaT ran on 200 DC-area , n o T bus shelTers from SepTember 2012 Through unsolved, buT McCollum says he g n i h s January 2013. Thinks her deaTh may have been a W , s relaTed To her gender idenTiTy: T While The definiTion varies from indi - h g i R vidual To individual, Transgender people “Had [The assailanT] been edu - n a caTed ThaT Trans people are people m generally are Those who idenTify wiTh a gen - u H f like anyone else, maybe They could o der ThaT is differenT from The one They e c i f were assigned aT birTh. For McCollum ThaT have passed by each oTher in a safe f O means while he was assigned female aT manner.” birTh, he has come To idenTify as male and has made sTeps Toward embracing ThaT idenTiTy. Now he is parT of The firsT ever ciTy gov - You might find McCollum featured on a bus shelter, ernmenT-funded ad campaign To address respecT for Transgender people. You mighT full bodied and larger than life, with the quote, find McCollum feaTured on a bus shelTer, full bodied and larger Than life, wiTh The “I love the wharf, listening to jazz at Westminster quoTe, “I love The wharf, lisTening To jazz Church and playing basketball with other guys. aT WesTminsTer Church and playing bas - keTball wiTh oTher guys. I’m a Transgender I’m a transgender man and I’m part of DC.” man and I’m parT of DC.” 2 Of The four oTher people feaTured in The series, Two are Transgender women; anoTher is a Trans - If iT was a bias crime, ThaT wouldn’T be ple, in 2010, 57 percenT of all bias-relaTed unusual in WashingTon. According To The crimes were based on sexual orienTaTion, Miriam Zoila Pérez, a former staffer of the DC Trans CoaliTion, “Since July 2011, gender idenTiTy, or gender expression. The National Latina Institute for Reproductive There have been over 60 aTTacks againsT Trans nexT highesT percenTage, bias crimes relaTed Health, is a columnist at RH RealiTy Check people in DC, according To informaTion To race, only accounTed for 30 percenT of and a former Editor of Feministing.com. Her published [by] DC’s MeTropoliTan Police crimes.