By Lynnea Urania Stuart

 

This year has been a profoundly scary roller coaster for the trans community.  We’ve seen incredible successes, suffered incredible defeats, protested like heck, secured great allies as well as great enemies, and sparked outrage like few can do with greater finesse than transpeople.  Enemies have risen and fallen.  A media-advanced “spokesperson” also fell.  Threats have been pushed back but will return in 2018.

Digging into the archives for the year’s stories, here are some highlights in retrospect.  Not one month has passed without stories of significance.

 

January, 2017:  National Geographic publishes an entire issue dedicated to changing views on gender.  It gave attention to transpeople, intersex individuals, and other variations equally with issues of typical females and males.  NatGeo also broadcasts a special on the same subject matter.  The appearance of transpeople on the front cover brought an outcry against National Geographic from religious elements on the Far Right.  The family of a transgender child whose image appeared on the cover would receive threats from anti-transgender extremists.¹

 January 1, 2017:  The world’s first reported murder of a transperson takes place in Sioux Falls SD with the death of 2-Spirit Jamie Lee Wounded Arrow, age 28 and an active trans community member on Facebook.  The death would be followed 3 days later with the shooting of Mesha Caldwell, age 41, Canton OH.  The 2 deaths forewarn an exceptionally deadly 2017 for transpeople.²

January 18, 2017: The inauguration of Donald Trump. At the same hour as he takes the oath of office as President, the new administration removes the White House website page pertaining to LGBT rights.  One activist says upon seeing the page removal, “So it begins.”³

February 22, 2017: Trump rescinds the Obama Era guidelines allowing transgender to use rest rooms consistent with their gender identity, rejecting the application of Title IX protections for transpeople.  Education Secretary Betsy DeVos expresses her misgivings about the action but obeys the executive order.⁴

March 2017: Busses appear in Europe and the United States with anti-transgender slogans like: “Boys have penises, Girls have vaginas. Nobody can change sex. It’s biology, not bigotry.”  One of the busses is temporarily impounded by Spanish authorities.  Another is vandalized by protesters in New York City, situations which proponents use to smear the character of opponents and unsympathetic law enforcement agencies.⁵

 March 2017: Intersex groups gather in Australia and issue the Darlington Statement in which intersex people declare themselves a separate and distinct demographic from transgender peoples:

“Allies

“47. Intersex is distinct from other issues. We call on allies to actively acknowledge our distinctiveness and the diversity within our community, to support our human rights claims and respect the intersex human rights movement, without tokenism, or instrumentalising [sic], or co-opting intersex issues as a means for other ends. “Nothing about us without us.”

“48. We encourage all organizations [sic] and bodies that support the intersex movement to recognize [sic] this Darlington statement.

“49. We call for intersex people, and the intersex human rights movement, to be allies to the LGBTQ, disability, Indigenous, anti-racist, and women’s movements.

“50. We call on intersex people to recognize [sic] our own diversity, and call for intra-community dialogue and mutual support.”⁶

 March 1, 2017: South Dakota Governor Dennis Daugaard, who vetoed anti-transgender legislation in South Dakota in 2015 signs a bill permitting rejection of LGBT peoples in adoption or foster services on the basis of “religious freedom.” Activists are reminded how fragile the legal tide concerning transpeople can be.  Anti-transgender legislation would continue to erupt in many states throughout 2017 with the greatest battles erupting in the state of Texas with various bills battled back and forth into the middle of August.⁷

 

March 6, 2016:  The U.S. Supreme Court sends Gloucester County School Board v. G.G., Gavin Grimm back to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, largely because of Trump’s position on transgender students the previous month.  Gavin Grimm commits to continue his activism.⁸

March 23, 2017: The brutal murder of Brazilian transwoman Dandara dos Santos, age 42; her pleas for her assailants to stop beating her was recorded and posted in an online video.  When she could no longer move she was loaded into a wheelbarrow and wheeled away where she was shot dead.  The horrific incident so outraged the international trans community including activists in the United States, extra pressure fell upon law enforcement to bring her assailants to justice.⁹

April 2017: The Secrets of My Life, an autobiography about Caitlyn Jenner with Pulitzer Prize winning author Buzz Bissinger is released.  Though the book hits store shelves on a massive scale, the trans community largely ignores it, many already feeling exploited and alienated by Caitlyn’s political and social status despite her attempts to advance trans causes.  The book also deepens a rift between Caitlyn and other family members.¹⁰

April 11, 2017:  The General Conference of Seventh-Day Adventists issues its Statement on Transgenderism which parallels a corresponding statement by the Southern Baptist Convention in 2015 and formally establishing anti-transgender church policy.¹¹

 April 21, 2017: Chechnya President Ramzan Kadyrov announces that “gays” will be eliminated from Chechnya by Ramadan.  Homosexuals and transgender people were herded into concentration camps and tortured into revealing names of other LGBT people.  Few would escape death.¹²

May 3, 2017: Donald Trump issues an executive order delegating decisions on religious liberty issues to Attorney General Jeff Sessions.  The language in Section 4 reads:

“Religious Liberty Guidance. In order to guide all agencies in complying with relevant Federal law, the Attorney General shall, as appropriate, issue guidance interpreting religious liberty protections in Federal law.”¹³

May 17, 2017. Former Army Intelligence Analyst Chelsea Manning is released from prison at Ft. Leavenworth.  After her release Chelsea sports a pixie cut and becomes a media darling even as many continue to renounce her as a traitor for releasing U.S. intelligence information to Wikileaks.  Others hail her as a prisoner of conscience.¹⁴

 May 17, 2017: British survey site YouGov releases results from a sample taken February 8 and 9, 2017.  YouGov identifies 21% of American respondents to believe that transgenderism is either a choice or a mental illness.¹⁵

June 7, 2017: HR 2796 “The Civil Rights Uniformity Act” is introduced to the U.S. House of Representatives with Vicki Harzler [R] MO as main proponent.  It is referred to the House Judiciary Committee the same day.  It includes 2 rules expressly intended to ostracize transpeople:

“(a) Rule of Construction.—In determining the meaning of any Federal civil rights law, and of any related ruling, regulation, guidance, or interpretation of the various administrative bureaus and agencies of the United States, the words “sex” and “gender” and their equivalents shall not be interpreted to mean “gender identity” or its equivalent, and the words “man” and “woman” and their equivalents shall refer exclusively to a person’s genetic sex.

“(b) Rule of Interpretation.—No Federal civil rights law shall be interpreted to treat gender identity or transgender status as a protected class, unless such law expressly designates “gender identity” or “transgender status” as a protected class.”¹⁶

 July 12, 2017: HR 2796 is referred to the Subcommittee in the Constitution and Civil Justice.¹⁷

July 5, 2017: Congressmember Vicky Harzler introduces an amendment to the Defense Budget titled,  Prohibition of Department of Defense Medical Treatment Related to Gender Transition, calling transgender military service “a threat to national security comparable to North Korea, ISIS, and Russian President Vladimir Putin.”¹⁸

July 6, 2017: Trans activist and leader, Brynn Tannehill, writes an ominous op-ed in LGBTQ Nation on behalf of the Bilerico Report concerning the liberties won over the past 35 years in response to the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) and related federal actions, articulating a widespread belief in the trans community:

“The conservative plan to end the LGBTQ rights movement as we know it snapped into clear focus. It’s not a short term plan, but one that will take place inexorably over the next five to ten years. The scary part is that it is not just feasible, but also highly likely to succeed, and there’s very little the movement can do to prevent its own demise.”¹⁹

July 15, 2017: The amendment Prohibition of Department of Defense Medical Treatment Related to Gender Transition introduced by Congressmember Harzler is defeated 209-214 after Defense Secretary James Mattis lobbies against it.²⁰

July 19, 2017: The Defense Department delays implementing acceptance of trans service members for 6 months “pending further study” on the eve of scheduled implementation established in July 2015 by then Defense Secretary Ash Carter.²¹

July 26, 2017: Donald Trump, after being urged by Steve Bannon to end trans military service, tweets that transgender people will not be permitted in the military, sending shock waves through the Defense Department:

(5:55 am) “After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow……”

(6:04 am) “….Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming…..”

(6:08 am) “….victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you.”²²

July 28, 2017: Senator Jeff Flake [R] AZ releases Conscience of a Conservative, decrying how badly the GOP it has strayed from the values that had given strength to Conservatism while denouncing the current trend as destructive.  His book signals a rift in the GOP.  He would later announce that he would not run for re-election.  His retreat signals a further decline of bipartisanism, a necessary component that drove passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.²³

August 1, 2017: Sylvia Leveque releases the book TRANSACTIVE: A Biography of Gwendolyn Ann Smith.²⁴

August 5, 2017: Caitlyn Jenner is caught by paparazzi driving in public with a Trump supporter’s “Make America Great Again” hat.  She later apologizes to the trans community calling it a “stupid mistake.”  But her standing with the trans community continues to decline as well as relations with the Kardashian family.  TMZ, quotes Kim Kardashian to say she “betrayed the transgender community,” “flaunting her pro-Trump views in a ‘heartless’ way”, promoting transgender rights “selectively and only when useful to her,” and that the Kardashians “want nothing to do” with Caitlyn Jenner.²⁵

 August 14, 2017: Transgender pioneer activist and longtime spiritual leader Holly Boswell dies.²⁶

August 15, 2017: Violence erupts in Charlottesville VA between Anti-Fascists and Alt-Right organizations including the Ku Klux Klan and Neo-Nazis.  The Transgender and LGBT flags are seen in the protests on the side of the Anti-Fascists.  The Alt-Right describes itself as “not non-violent” and directly oppose LGBT people.²⁷

August 27, 2017: Ashlee Marie Preston confronts Caitlyn Jenner at the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center at a concert conducted by Trans Chorus LA.  To the horror of Trans Chorus LA and the center, she calls Caitlyn a “fraud and a fake”.  Caitlyn Jenner leaves the event and very little about her appears in the news thereafter.²⁸

September 1, 2017.  A trans Chechen gains asylum in the United States despite changes in federal policy.  She had survived an assassination attempt in the Russian Federation and tells of the horrors resulting from Ramzan Kadyrov’s decision to eliminate “gays”.²⁹

October 3, 2017: The United States delegation to the United Nations votes against Resolution GE.17-16638(E), condemning the death penalty being applied to LGBT peoples and other demographics.  The vote results in widespread condemnation by LGBT activists.³⁰

October 6, 2017: Attorney General Jeff Sessions issues a memo outlining policy on religious liberty.  The language includes:

“Employers covered by Title VII may not fail or refuse to hire, discharge, or discriminate against any individual with respect to compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment because of that individual’s religion.  Such employers also may not classify their employees or applicants in a way that would deprive or tend to deprive any individual of employment opportunities because of the individual’s religion.  This protection applies regardless of whether the individual is a member of a religious majority or minority.  But the protection does not apply in the same way to religious employers, who have certain constitutional and statutory protections for religious hiring decisions.”

The policy sets sweeping changes in terms of discrimination, giving virtually carte blanche acceptance of any hiring (or other) decision pertaining to LGBT peoples as directed by religious leaders.³¹

October 15, 2017: Attorney General Jeff Sessions orders prosecution of Jorge Sanders-Galvez, the alleged murderer of gender non-conforming individual Kedarie (Kandicee) Johnson in Missouri pursuant to the terms of the Matthew Shephard Act, also called the Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009.³²

October 26, 2017: Intersex activists hold the First Federal Parliamentary Forum in Canberra on Intersex Awareness Day.³³

October 30, 2017: Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia finds the Trump ban on transgender military service likely to be unconstitutional and rules against it.³⁴

November 7, 2017: Several transgender candidates win election including Danica Rohm to Virginia’s House of Delegates, Stephe Koontz to the Doraville GA City Council, Tyler Titus as a write-in candidate to the Erie PA School Board, Andrea Jenkins to the Minneapolis City Council (Ward 8), Philippe Cunningham to the Minneapolis City Council (Ward 4), Lisa Middleton to the Palm Springs CA City Council, and Gerri Cannon to the Somersworth NH School Board.  Andrea Jenkins was the first transwoman “of color” elected to office and Philippe Cunningham the first transman “of color.”  Danica Rohm’s election was especially significant because she ran against Robert G. Marshall who had written anti-transgender legislation in Virginia and who attempted to make Danica’s trans status as an impeachable liability during the campaign.³⁵

November 12, 2017: California approves 10 textbooks for elementary grades telling of contributions by LGBT peoples including transpeople.³⁶

November 14, 2017: The Pentagon approves gender confirmation surgery for an active duty service member despite the pending ban on transgender servicemembers.³⁷

November 14, 2017: Australia votes in favor of same sex marriage with 61% of the vote.³⁸

 November 20, 2017: At the International Transgender Day of Remembrance 325 transpeople murdered worldwide in hate crimes are remembered.  The United States particularly remember at least 25 transpeople murdered with slight variations in the count reported.³⁹

November 21, 2017: An Oklahoma jury awards $1.165 million to the transgender plaintiff in the discrimination case Dr. Rachel Tudor v. Southeastern Oklahoma State University and the Regional University System of Oklahoma. The decision addresses Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, bucking a trend established by the Justice Department.⁴⁰

November 28, 2017: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau issues a public apology to LGBT peoples for decades of government pogroms including an apology to transpeople including indigenous 2-Spirit peoples and intersex individuals.  His speech at the Canadian Parliament include:

“Discrimination against LGBTQ2 communities is not a moment in time, but an ongoing, centuries-old campaign.

“We want to be a partner and ally to LGBTQ2 Canadians in the years going forward. There are still real struggles facing these communities, including for those who are intersex, queer people of colour, and others who suffer from intersectional discrimination.

“Transgender Canadians are subjected to discrimination, violence, and aggression at alarming rates. In fact, trans people didn’t even have explicit protection under federal human rights legislation until this year…

“And, Mr. Speaker, I am proud to say that earlier today in this House we tabled the Expungement of Historically “Unjust Convictions Act. This will mean that Canadians previously convicted of consensual sexual activity with same-sex partners will have their criminal records permanently destroyed.

“Further, I am pleased to announce that over the course of the weekend, we reached an agreement in principle with those involved in the class action lawsuit for actions related to ‘the purge.’”⁴¹

December 8, 2017: The White House requests a delay from the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia for recruitment of transgender people in the military.⁴²

December 11, 2017: The U.S. District Court denies the White House request for a delay pertaining to transgender military recruitment.  Recruitment is to begin January 1, 2018.⁴³

 December 11, 2017: The U.S. Supreme court refuses to hear an appeal by Jameka Evans, a security guard in Savannah GA.  She was fired because of her sexual orientation.  The refusal to hear serves to further balkanize the national legal position for LGBT rights in a manner not seen since the sectionalism concerning slavery prior to the Civil War, and raises doubts among trans activists as well concerning the integrity of the Supreme Court.⁴⁴

December 18, 2017: The White House issues guidelines to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) that certain words may not appear in documents addressing budget issues.  The words include “transgender:, “diversity”, “fetus”, “vulnerable”, “entitlement”, “science-based”, and “evidence-based.”  Activists see the action as an attempt at erasure of the trans community and suppression of science.⁴⁵

December 22, 2017: Donald Trump signs his Tax Reform bill into law, repealing the individual mandate to the Affordable Care Act, virtually destroying a health care safety net upon which many transpeople have relied upon for transition.  At the same time the law provides tax benefits to those making over $75,000 per year and permanently reduces the corporate tax rate to 21%.  The bill further caps property tax deductions, impacting larger states like California and New York with large trans communities.⁴⁶

__________________________

REFERENCES

Featured Image:  A montage of Renaissance woodcuts and image of a stele pertaining to law (Wikimedia Commons) along with one of the books of 2017, TRANS/Active, and a desk calendar.

1. National Geographic (January 2017) Volume 231, Number 1, National Geographic Society. The cover image in the subscription version appears on page 31 in the newsstand version.
2. (n.a.) “325 reported murders of trans and gender-diverse people between 1 October 2016 and 30 September 2017” Trans Respect versus Transphobia, Worldwide, a Research Project by Transgender Europe (TGEU) (accessed November 17, 2017) http://transrespect.org/en/research/trans-murder-monitoring/
3. Colby Itkowitz. “LGBT rights page disappears from White House web site” Washington Post (January 20, 2017, accessed December 20, 2017) https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/2017/live-updates/politics/live-coverage-of-trumps-inauguration/lgbt-rights-page-disappears-from-white-house-web-site/?utm_term=.45bdb8b5cdcc
4. Jeremy W. Peters, Jo Becker, and Julie Hirschfeld Davis. “Trump Rescinds Rules on Bathrooms for Transgender Students” New York Times (February 22, 2017, accessed December 20, 2017) https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/22/us/politics/devos-sessions-transgender-students-rights.html .
5. Lynnea Urania Stuart. “A Color of Hate” Transpire (March 31, 2017, accessed December 22, 2017) https://lynneauraniastuart.wordpress.com/2017/03/31/a-color-of-hate/
6. Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand intersex community organizations and independent advocates, including the Androgen Insensitivity Support Syndrome Support Group Australia (AISSGA),1 Intersex Trust Aotearoa New Zealand (ITANZ),2 Organisation Intersex International Australia (OIIAU),3 Eve Black, Kylie Bond (AISSGA), Tony Briffa (OIIAU/AISSGA), Morgan Carpenter (OIIAU/Intersex Day Project4), Candice Cody (OIIAU), Alex David (OIIAU), Betsy Driver (Bodies Like Ours), Carolyn Hannaford (AISSGA), Eileen Harlow, Bonnie Hart (AISSGA), Phoebe Hart (AISSGA), Delia Leckey (ITANZ), Steph Lum (OIIAU), Mani Bruce Mitchell (ITANZ), Elise Nyhuis (AISSGA), Bronwyn O’Callaghan, Sandra Perrin (AISSGA), Cody Smith (Tranz Australia), Trace Williams (AISSGA), Imogen Yang (Bladder Exstrophy Epispadias Cloacal Exstrophy Hypospadias Australian Community – BEECHAC5), Georgie Yovanovic. “The Darlington Statement” (issued March 2017, accessed November 2, 2017) https://oii.org.au/darlington-statement/
7. Jason Silverstein. “South Dakota law allows child service agencies to reject LGBT clients” New York Daily News (March 12, 2017, accessed March 13, 2017) http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/south-dakota-law-lgbt-child-services-denial-article-1.2995885
8. Emma Green. “The Trump Administration May Have Doomed Gavin Grimm’s Case” The Atlantic (March 6, 2017, accessed December 21, 2017) https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/03/the-trump-administration-may-have-doomed-gavin-grimm/518676/ .
9. Marina Lopes. “A horrific murder has awakened Brazil’s transgender community” Washington Post (March 23, 2017, accessed December 20, 2017) https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/03/23/a-horrific-murder-has-awakened-brazils-transgender-community/?utm_term=.2134e4925b30 .
10. Jenner, Caitlyn with Bissinger, Buzz. The Secrets of My Life (April 2017) Grand Central Publishing, Hachete Book Group, New York City.  ISBN: 978-1-4555-9675-1.
11. (n.a.) 111-17G Statement on Transgenderism (Rev. April 11, 2017 by the General Conference Executive Committee) https://executivecommittee.adventist.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/111G-Statement-on-Transgenderism.pdf . Also found on Adventist News Network (April 11, 2017, accessed May 11, 2017) https://news.adventist.org/en/all-news/news/go/2017-04-11/seventh-day-adventist-world-church-vote-statement-on-transgender/
12. Kristina Marusic. “Chechnya’s President Vows To Eliminate Gays By The Start Of Ramadan” New NowNext  (April 21, 2017, accessed September 3, 2017) http://www.newnownext.com/chechnya-gay-purge-kadyrov/04/2017/
13. Washington Examiner Staff. “Trump’s executive order on religious liberty: FULL TEXT” Washington Examiner (May 4, 2017, accessed May 5, 2017) http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/trumps-executive-order-on-religious-liberty-full-text/article/2622142
14. Emanuella Grinbergand Eliott C. McLaughlin. “Out of prison, Chelsea Manning looks forward to exploring life as a woman” CNN (March 17, 2017, accessed December 20, 2017) http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/17/politics/chelsea-manning-release/index.html .
15. (n.a.) “21% of Americans believe that being transgender is a mental illness” YouGov (May 17, 2017, accessed May 19, 2017): https://today.yougov.com/news/2017/05/17/21-americans-believe-identifying-transgender-menta/
16. Text: H.R.2796 — 115th Congress (2017-2018)” https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/2796/text
17. “All Actions H.R.2796 — 115th Congress (2017-2018)” https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/2796/all-actions
18. Zack Ford.  “Conservatives celebrate delay of transgender military enlistment” ThinkProgress (July 5, 2017, accessed July 23, 2017) https://thinkprogress.org/transgender-military-delay-2c4513a2629f
19. Brynn Tannehill. “Is this the end of the LGBTQ movement as we know it?” LGBTQ Nation (July 6, 2017, accessed July 7, 2017) https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2017/07/end-lgbtq-movement-know/
20. Michelangelo Signorile. “Vulnerable Republicans Showed Why Fighting For Trans Rights Is A Political Winner” Yahoo! (quoting Huffington Post July 15, 2017, accessed July 20, 2017) https://www.yahoo.com/news/vulnerable-republicans-just-showed-why-135419590.html
21. Tom Porter. “What Is Behind U.S. Military Decision to Delay the Induction of Transgender Recruits?” Newsweek (July 1, 2017, accessed July 23, 2017) http://www.newsweek.com/what-behind-us-military-decision-delay-induction-transgender-recruits-630906
22. Emily McFarlan-Miller. “Trump’s Evangelical Advisors Discussed Transgender Ban at White House Meeting” Religion News Service (July 28, 2017, accessed August 5, 2017) http://www.christianheadlines.com/blog/trump-s-evangelical-advisors-discussed-transgender-ban-at-white-house-meeting.html
23. David Brooks.  “Jeff Flake Plants a Flag” New York Times (July 28, 2017, accessed July 31, 2017) https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/28/opinion/columnists/jeff-flake-plants-a-flag.html

24. Leveque, Sophia Cecelia. TRANS/ACTIVE: A Biography of Gwendolyn Ann Smith (Winston-Salem NC, Library Partners Press, ZSR Library, Wake Forest University August 1, 2017) ISBN: 978-1-61846-044-8.
25. Martha Ross. “Caitlyn Jenner Shows Support for Trump after Transgender Ban” San Jose Mercury News   (quoting TMZ, updated August 5, 2017, accessed August 30, 2017) http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/08/04/caitlyn-jenner-apparently-remains-team-trump-despite-transgender-ban/
26. Mila Madison. “Transgender Symbol Creator and Activist Holly Boswell Passes Away” Transgender Universe (August 14, 2017, accessed August 21, 2017) http://transgenderuniverse.com/2017/08/14/transgender-symbol-creator-and-activist-holly-boswell-passes-away/
27. James West. “Vice News Just Released Chilling, Must-Watch Footage From Behind Charlottesville’s Battle Lines” Mother Jones (August 15, 2017, accessed August 17, 2017) http://www.motherjones.com/media/2017/08/vice-news-just-released-chilling-must-watch-footage-from-behind-charlottesvilles-battle-lines/
28. Daniel Reynolds. “Activist Calls Caitlyn Jenner a ‘Fraud and a Fake’ at Trans Fundraiser” The Advocate (August 27, 2017, accessed August 31, 2017) https://www.advocate.com/transgender/2017/8/27/activist-calls-caitlyn-jenner-fraud-and-fake-trans-fundraiser-video
29. Adam Taylor. “How a transgender Chechen escaped Russia and found asylum in the United States” Washington Post (September 1, 2017, accessed September 3, 2017) https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/a-transgender-chechen-woman-and-her-plea-for-asylum-in-america/2017/09/01/0edc5bd6-8916-11e7-96a7-d178cf3524eb_story.html?utm_term=.46e4224e7ca0 .
30. Alex Emmons. “The U.S. Voted Against a U.N. Resolution Condemning Death Penalty for LGBTQ People” The Intercept (October 3, 2017, accessed October 4, 2017) https://theintercept.com/2017/10/03/the-u-s-voted-against-a-u-n-resolution-condemning-death-penalty-for-lgbtq-people/.
31. Federal Law Protections for Religious Liberty (Memo, Office of the Attorney General October 6, 2017, accessed October 13, 2017), p. 4. https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1001891/download
32. Brandon Carter. “Sessions sending top DOJ lawyer to prosecute transgender murder case: report” The Hill (October 15, 2017, accessed October 23, 2017) http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/355557-sessions-sending-top-doj-lawyer-to-prosecute-transgender-murder-case.
33. Tony Briffa. “Intersex Awareness Day: Commemorating the intersex version of Stonewall” Gay Star News (October 26, 2017, accessed October 26, 2017) https://www.gaystarnews.com/article/intersex-awareness-day-commemorating-the-intersex-version-of-stonewall/#gs.WOqpLcQ.
34. Dave Philipps. “Judge Blocks Trump’s Ban on Transgender Troops in Military” New York Times (October 30, 2017, accessed December 20, 2017) https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/30/us/military-transgender-ban.html .
35. Lynnea Urania Stuart “What’s Next? Looking Ahead for 7 Trans Officials” Trans Muse Planet (November 12, 2017, accessed December 22, 2017) https://thetmplanet.com/whats-next-looking-ahead-for-7-new-trans-officials/
36. Helene Cooper. “Pentagon Approves Gender-Reassignment Surgery for Service Member” New York Times (November 14, 2017, accessed December 20, 2017) https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/14/us/politics/pentagon-transgender-surgery.html
37. Joseph Patrick McCormick. “California approves LGBT-inclusive history books for primary schools” Pink News (November 12, 2017, accessed November 13, 2017) http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2017/11/12/california-approves-lgbt-inclusive-history-books-for-primary-schools/?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=PNT&utm_content=JPM
38. Ben Westcottand Lucie Morris-Marr. “Australia votes ‘yes’ to same-sex marriage” CNN (November 14, 2017, accessed December 20, 2017) http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/14/asia/australia-same-sex-marriage-yes/index.html
39. pdf. For a list of domestic cases, see Samantha Allen. “On Transgender Day of Remembrance, these Are 25 Trans People Killed, So Far, in 2017” The Daily Beast ( November 20, 2017, accessed December 22, 2017) https://www.thedailybeast.com/on-transgender-day-of-remembrance-these-are-25-trans-people-killed-so-far-in-2017-10
40. “Jury Awards Transgender Professor 1.1 Million Discrimination Case” NBC News (November 21, 2017, accessed November 22, 2017) https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/jury-awards-transgender-professor-1-1-million-discrimination-case-n822646
41. Scott Maucione. “White House asks for delay in recruiting transgender people to military” Federal News Radio (December 8, 2017, accessed December 20, 2017) https://federalnewsradio.com/defense/2017/12/white-house-asks-for-delay-in-recruiting-transgender-people-to-military-plaintiffs-call-argument-baloney/
42. Rebecca Kheel. “Judge denies Trump request to delay transgender military enlistment” The Hill (December 11, 2017, accessed December 20, 2017) http://thehill.com/policy/defense/364283-judge-denies-trump-request-to-delay-transgender-military-enlistment
43. Justin Trudeau (Address to Parliament November 28, 2017).
44. Will Kohler. “SCOTUS Rejects Lambda Legal’s Appeal In Anti-LGBT Employment Discrimination Case” (Lambda Legal Press Release December 11, 2017, accessed December 20, 2017) http://www.back2stonewall.com/2017/12/scotus-rejects-lambda-legals-appeal-anti-lgbt-employment-discrimination-case.html
45. Jessica Ravitz and Debra Goldschmidt. “Word ban at CDC includes ‘vulnerable,’ ‘fetus,’ ‘transgender’” CNN (December 18, 2017, accessed December 18, 2017) http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/16/health/cdc-banned-words/index.html
46. Naomi Jagoda. “Trump signs tax bill into law” The Hill (December 22, 2017, accessed December 23, 2017) http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/366148-trump-signs-tax-bill-into-law