LA police probe transgender women bar removal as hate crime
The Fresno Bee reported Los Angeles police are investigating the aggressive removal of a group of transgender women from a bar as a possible hate crime.
Department spokesman Officer Jay Chaves said Aug. 26 a complaint was filed with police and that the matter is “in the hands of detectives.”
Cell phone video footage showing security guards shoving and dragging two transgender women and a gay man out of the downtown Los Angeles bar was widely shared on social media over the weekend.
Khloe Rios said a straight couple approached her and a group of friends and yelled slurs and attacked them.
She said the bar’s security guards escorted the couple out but used excessive force with them.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti tweeted Sunday his office will ensure a “proper investigation is completed.”
Missouri attorney general: Law doesn’t protect LGBTQ people
The Missourian reported Missouri’s attorney general believes that federal law doesn’t protect LGBTQ people from discrimination.
Attorney General Eric Schmitt was among GOP attorneys general nationwide who signed a U.S. Supreme Court brief outlining the position Aug. 23.
The attorneys general are wading into a legal battle over whether discriminating against someone because they’re gay or transgender violates a federal law banning sex discrimination. The cases will be argued before the U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 8.
Schmitt’s spokesman Chris Nuelle said when the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed, sex discrimination did not include transgender people. Nuelle said it’s up to Congress and not the Supreme Court to change that.
Nuelle said Schmitt believes that regardless of “race, creed, zip code or gender,” everyone should be treated with dignity under the law.
Lawsuit: School official harassed trans teen in bathroom
NBC News reported a lawsuit has been filed on behalf of a West Virginia transgender student who said an assistant principal harassed him when he tried to use the boys’ bathroom.
The American Civil Liberties Union announced the lawsuit against the Harrison County Board of Education Aug. 28.
The statement says the district has failed to create a safe school environment for teenager Michael Critchfield.
The ACLU said an assistant principal followed Critchfield into the boys’ bathroom in November at Liberty High School and said, “You freak me out.” Critchfield said he also was ordered to prove his gender by using a urinal. He was 15 at the time.
ACLU state legal director Loree Stark calls the lawsuit “a last resort.”
Assistant county schools superintendent James Lopez did not immediately return a telephone message.
California law requires updating transgender grads’ records
KSBY.com reported California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed a bill requiring school districts to update their records to reflect the chosen names and genders of graduates.
Newsom announced Aug. 30 that he approved the bill by Democratic Assemblyman David Chiu of San Francisco.
Chiu said his bill will give greater protections to those who are transgender or nonbinary after it takes effect next year, making it easier to apply for college and jobs.
He said old records can also inadvertently reveal that a graduate is transgender when they have not otherwise made the transition public.
California law protects current transgender students from discrimination, but Chiu said some schools have been reluctant to issue new diplomas, GEDs or transcripts to graduates upon request. n
Reporting via Associated Press