Media Trail – 9/27/19

Women occupy most same-sex households, except in cities

The Baltimore Sun reported women couples make up more than half of all same-sex households in the United States, but male couples dominate in cities with large gay populations.

The U.S. Census Bureau reported Sept. 18 that the U.S. had almost 1 million same-sex households in 2017, with female couples making up almost 52 percent of those households. The findings emerged in the bureau’s American Community Survey.

Male couples dominated in cities with the largest gay populations, but the rate varied depending on the city. In San Francisco, more than three-quarters of same-sex couples were male; in Phoenix, more than half were male.

Almost 60 percent of couples in same-sex households are married, up from 26.6 percent in 2008.

Same-sex households make up only a portion of the LGBT community.

 DC considers banning ‘gay panic’ defense

 WTOP-FM reported the Washington, D.C., Council is considering legislation that would bar people charged with violent offenses from claiming they acted in self-defense after learning the victim was gay or transgender.

Council Chairman Phil Mendelson introduced the “Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Panic Defense Prohibition Act of 2019” this week, saying it’s unacceptable for “bigots to claim panic as a defense.”

The bill would prohibit defendants from claiming they acted in the “heat of passion” or suffered reduced mental capacity upon learning about a person’s actual or perceived sexuality or gender identity.

Mendelson was involved in helping the District legalize same-sex marriage.

 Transgender prisoner dies of cancer days before release

 The Washington Post reported a transgender prison inmate who got attention for suing the state of New York over her alleged rape in a men’s prison died of cancer last weekend, days before she was set to be freed on parole.

State prison officials said LeslieAnn Manning died Saturday at the Wende Correctional Facility in Alden, New York.

Her attorney, Susan Hazeldean, said the 53-year-old had lung cancer.

Manning had been serving a 30-year sentence for shooting at a police car.

Officials said she was scheduled to be released Sept. 23 after receiving parole board approval in May.

Manning accepted $100,000 from the state last year to settle a federal lawsuit in which she’d argued prison officials were “deliberately indifferent” to her safety as a transgender woman housed in a men’s prison. 

Transgender man can sue Catholic hospital over hysterectomy 

The Sacramento Bee reported a California appeals court has ruled that a transgender man can sue a Catholic hospital for canceling his hysterectomy.

The Sept. 18 decision by the First District Court of Appeals overturns a lower court ruling dismissing the discrimination lawsuit.

Evan Minton sued Mercy San Juan Medical Center for canceling his scheduled hysterectomy after he mentioned to a nurse two days before surgery that he’s transgender.

Hospital operator Dignity Health quickly helped transfer the surgery to a non-Catholic facility, but Judge Stuart Pollak said that didn’t negate Minton’s complaint.

Dignity Health says its Catholic facilities “do not provide elective sterilizations.”

California civil rights law says businesses must offer full and equal access to residents.

Political donor faces charge in overdose death

The Los Angeles Times reported a law enforcement official said political activist Ed Buck will face a federal charge in a drug death at his Los Angeles-area home.

The official with knowledge of the investigation said Sept. 19 that Buck will be charged with distributing meth resulting in the death of Gemmel Moore.

The official wasn’t authorized to speak publicly and insisted on anonymity.

Moore died at the 65-year-old gay activist’s West Hollywood home in 2017. Another man died of an overdose there last year.

State prosecutors charged the wealthy and influential Democratic donor this week with causing the overdose of another man who escaped from his home this month.

State prosecutors say Buck is a violent sexual predator and are seeking $4 million bail.

An email seeking comment from Buck’s lawyer was not immediately returned. 

 

Reporting via Associated Press

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