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Week in Review: UN Issues Historic Report on LGBT Rights, CDC Reports Epidemic of Violence Against American Women

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The United Nations takes historical steps in support of LGBT human rights,  the Centers for Disease Control reports  epidemic sexual and intimate partner violence toward  American women and LGBT aging focus of the Obama Administration   

International

UN Reports 76 Countries Outlaw LGBT Identity, Violence Pervasive 

The first formal United Nations report on the state of LGBT human rights was presented to the UN General Assembly on Thursday by Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human rights, who has been an outspoken supporter of LGBT human rights. In issuing the report, Pillay called on UN member states to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, and prosecute all serious violations, repeal discriminatory laws, and end legal discrimination for all LGBT persons.  The report is historical, marking the first formal report issued in UN history and establishes the applicable international law that supports the universal human rights treaties and instruments that apply to LGBT persons.

The findings of the report indicate that LGBT people face widespread discrimination everywhere in the world and are subjected to extreme violence, including rape, beatings and torture, evidenced by confirmed reports of mutilation and castration that were characterized by a “high degree of cruelty,” including forcible rape of lesbians, a notorious activity by anti-​gay men in South Africa.

LGBT persons also face criminal punishment in 76 countries and risk capital punishment in five countries, including Iran, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen. The report lays out the evidence of widespread discrimination and arbitrary arrests and criminal punishment based upon sexual orientation and gender identity.

UN Hosts Homophobic Anti-Bullying Forum

The UN broke new ground by hosting an inaugural forum on homophobic bullying to mark International Human Rights Day in Geneva with Judy Shephard in attendance, the mother of Matthew Shephard who was murdered  in 1998.  The forum called on State members to adopt anti-discrimination measures and engage in public education to discourage bullying based upon perceived sexual orientation or gender identity.

“In many countries, discrimination towards gay and lesbian people is hardwired into the law,” said Ivan Šimonović, the UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights. “We know from experience that discriminatory laws reinforce and lend legitimacy to discriminatory attitudes at a popular level. If the State treats some people as second class, or second-rate, or, worse, criminals, because of their sexual orientation or gender identity, it invites members of the public to do the same. The result is an alarming and deeply entrenched pattern of violence and discrimination directed at people who are or are perceived to be lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.”

Clinton Breaks New Ground on Women, Peace and Security

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton addressed a star-studded crowd at the International Crisis Group’s annual awards dinner in New York City on Friday evening, that included former President Bill Clinton, Queen Noor, the widow of Jordan’s King Hussein, Kati Marton, a journalist and author and the widow of the late Richard Holbrooke, a celebrated U.S. envoy and diplomat, U.S. Army Gen. (ret.) Wesley Clark, among many others, on  why it is vital to U.S. interests, as well as the world, to include women leaders when ending conflict and seeking to make peace in its many forms in conflicts that dominate much of Africa, including the emerging democracies in the Middle East and North Africa.  Clinton made her case by not only appealing with a moral argument to include representatives of more than half of humanity, but because emerging social science data indicates that to sustain peace, women must be included in securing agreements:

We can start by asking what’s missing from most peace talks and the agreements they produce. One answer to that question is women. In the past 20 years, hundreds of peace treaties have been signed. But a sampling of those treaties shows that less than 8 percent of negotiators were women.

Now, there is a clear moral argument – after all, women do represent half of humanity and they have, we have, a fundamental right to participate in the decisions that shape our lives. But the moral argument has so far failed to change behavior on the front lines, where it matters most.

So we need to move the discussion off the margins and into the center of the global debate, and we frankly have to appeal to the self-interest of all people, men as well as women. Because including more women in peacemaking is not just the right thing to do, it’s also the smart thing to do. This is about our own national security and the security of people everywhere.

Tonight I want briefly to examine the growing body of evidence that shows how women contribute to making and keeping peace – and that those contributions lead to better outcomes for entire societies.

Clinton ended her speech by announcing news that she would be announcing the Obama Administration’s new comprehensive policy that will be accelerating and institutionalizing efforts in support of UN Security Council Resolution 1325,relating to women, peace and security, across the U.S. Government to advance women’s participation in making and keeping peace in a speech on Monday at Georgetown University.

Last U.S. Troops Leave Iraq  Ending War After Nine Long Years

President Barack Obama fulfilled a 2008 campaign promise today as the last convoy of American troops left Iraq and crossed into Kuwait territory, ending a 9-year war that cost more than 4,500 American lives and more than 100,000 Iraqi civilian lives, amidst political uncertainty, with calls for a no-confidence vote against Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlaq, and security sources and lawmakers said an arrest warrant had been issued for Tareq al-Hashemi, one of Iraq’s two vice presidents.  Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s Shi’ite-led government still struggles with a delicate power-sharing arrangement between Shi’ite, Kurdish and Sunni parties, leaving Iraq vulnerable to meddling by Sunni Arab nations and Shi’ite Iran.

National

CDC Reports Epidemic of Violence Against Women in America 

The Centers for Disease Control announced this week findings from a ground breaking study that indicates domestic and sexual violence against American women at epidemic rates that affects “on average, 24 people per minute are victims of rape, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner “.  The CDC data also estimates 1 million women are raped annually and more than 6 million women are stalked annually in the United States.

“The health problems caused by violence remind us of the importance of prevention”, said Howard Spivak, MD, Director of CDC’s Injury Center Division of Violence Prevention. “In addition to intervening and providing services, prevention efforts need to start earlier in life, with the ultimate goal of preventing all of these types of violence before they start.”

The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS) is the first study by the CDC’s newest public health surveillance systems and is designed to monitor the magnitude of sexual violence, stalking and intimate partner violence victimization in the United States and breaks down the study by states, which contains much more detailed and explanatory data.

In the same week the CDC study was released, the 10th body of a group of murdered prostitutes, that included one transvestite, was recovered in Oak Beach, New York, a veritable burial ground who was identified as missing prostitute Shannon Gilbert.  All have been alleged to have been killed by a serial murderer, yet to be arrested.  And an unrelated horrific crime took place in Brooklyn, New York City on Saturday–a woman was burned alive in a Brooklyn elevator, apparently by a man dressed as an exterminator, who sprayed her with an accelerant and tossed a molotov cocktail into the elevator, burning her alive, trapped as the doors closed.

HUD  Hosts First Summit on LGBT Aging and Housing Needs

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and the National Center for Lesbian Rights convened the first-​ever national summit for LGBT elders last Wednesday at HUD’s headquarters in Washington, DC.

Demographic shifts across the country have highlighted issues and challenges for older Americans, especially true for aging LGBT Americans – a population that has been historically ignored by the federal government and is more likely to age without the benefits of family support, face discrimination in housing and health care, and rely on assisted living and long-​term care.

The National Center for Lesbian Rights’ federal policy director Maya Rupert, issued a statement about the conference:

“This event was historic, and we are incredibly grateful to the Obama administration for understanding that housing for LGBT elders deserves to be a federal issue. Older LGBT people are in a particularly vulnerable position as they come to rely on long-term care and assisted living facilities because of widespread discrimination they and their families face in many of these facilities. We have a responsibility to ensure that as members of our community age, they are afforded dignity and respect wherever they live. We are thrilled to have been a part of making this event happen, and we look forward to continue working with HUD, HHS, and the rest of the Obama administration to ensure protection and high quality care for all elders and their families.”

The day-​long conference brought together advocates and practitioners from across the country to highlight existing barriers for LGBT elders, as well as explore future possibilities for building upon current efforts to support housing and long-​term care for LGBT elders. Speakers included Assistant Secretaries Raphael Bostic of HUD’s Policy and Research Development, and John Trasviña of HUD’s Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, as well as a host of other leaders in the LGBT community.  See the event website for more information.

In Memoriam

Celebrated writer, author and pundit Christopher Hitchens died Friday morning after a long fight with esophageal cancer.  A proclaimed atheist and a polemical figure, with a massive appetite for cigarettes and scotch, Hitchens eviscerated his targets of opportunity over the years with a fine edged razor, drawing blood at whim and continued to write apparently until his final days, according to friends.  Hitchens did not convert to any sort of religion in his last moments, much to the chagrin of a number of his critics, including evangelical leader Rick Warren, who attempted to  profess that Hitchens had finally met the “truth” in his after life.

While many have offered soaring tributes to Hitchen’s prolific writing through the duration of his career, some of his critics have been particularly harsh with his right-wing tilt and embrace of the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld invasion of Iraq and upon reflective review of his ‘ode to fellatio’ Vanity Fair 2006 essay “As American As Apple Pie,” , Hitchens appears to have harbored not only misogyny, which is rather par for the course among straight men, but reserves of deep homophobia with lines like these:   “The queer monopoly on blowjobs was the result of male anatomy, obviously, and also of the wish of many gays to have sex with heterosexual men. … This was therefore an inducement the gay man could offer to the straight, who could in turn accept it without feeling that he had done anything too faggotty … The illusion of the tonsilized clitoris will probably never die (and gay men like to keep their tonsils for a reason that I would not dream of mentioning), … America’s gay manhood is still sucking away as if for oxygen itself….”.  Enough said.  Take a long rest Hitch.

 

H/T to Michael Bedwell for Hitchens’ “As American As Apple Pie” homophobic characterizations.  Christopher Hitchens photo courtesy of Wikipedia.


Tanya L. Domi is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University who teaches about human rights in Eurasia and is a Harriman Institute affiliated faculty member. Prior to teaching at Columbia, Domi worked internationally for more than a decade on issues related to democratic transitional development, including political and media development, human rights, LGBT human rights, gender issues, sex trafficking, and media freedom.

 

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News

Trump Doubles Down Calling Egg Prices ‘Too Low’ as Costs Soar to Record Highs

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In the days leading up to Easter, President Donald Trump has repeatedly—and falsely—claimed that egg prices have plummeted to the point of being “too low,” baselessly citing steep double-digit declines—even as Americans face record-high prices at the grocery store.

“The egg prices are down 87 percent, but nobody talks about that,” the President said on Friday. “You can have all the eggs you want, we have too many eggs, in fact, if anything the prices are getting too low.”

Trump campaigned on the promise he would lower the price of groceries “on day one,” a promise that three months later is not only unfulfilled, but in some cases reversed: overall grocery prices have risen.

READ MORE: ‘Taunting SCOTUS’: Concerns Mount Over ‘Openly Contemptuous’ White House

On Thursday, Trump claimed the price of eggs had dropped 92%, while berating a reporter and his Federal Reserve Chairman.

“The price of groceries are substantially down,” the president falsely claimed.

The price of eggs, you know, when I came in, they hit me with eggs. I just got there, I was here for one week, and they started screaming, ‘Eggs have gone through the roof.’ I said, ‘I just got here.’

“They went up 87%, and you couldn’t get them,” Trump told reporters. “They said, ‘You won’t have eggs for Easter,’ which is coming up. Happy Easter, everybody.You won’t have eggs for Easter.”

“And we did an unbelievable job, and now eggs are all over the place and the price went down 92 percent,” he claimed.

READ MORE: Trump’s Latest Target: The Watchdog That Keeps Suing Him

Last week on Monday, Trump had claimed, falsely, that egg prices had dropped 79%.

Egg prices, Newsweek reported on Wednesday, “continued to climb despite recent efforts by the Trump administration to combat the shortage brought about by the ongoing bird flu with imports of Turkish eggs. The CPI egg index jumped by 5.9 percent from February and was up 60.4 percent compared to March 2024, and the average price for a dozen grade A large eggs climbed 5.6 percent to a record $6.23.”

Moe Davis, the well-known retired U.S. Air Force colonel, attorney, and former administrative law judge, posted to social media a federal government chart of egg prices.

“According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics,” Davis wrote, “the price of a dozen eggs in March was $6.23, the highest price ever recorded and 26% higher than in January when Trump took office. Of course if Trump says egg prices are down then the MAGA cult is obliged to say egg prices are down.”

Watch the video above or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Things Like This Take Place’: Trump Shrugs Off Mass Shooting Despite Once Being a Target

 

Image via Reuters

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‘Taunting SCOTUS’: Concerns Mount Over ‘Openly Contemptuous’ White House

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The Trump White House is coming under fire for what appears to be an attempt to mock the U.S. Supreme Court, the facts in the case of a Maryland man wrongly deported to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador, and The New York Times.

The White House’s official account on the social media platform X posted a “corrected” version of a New York Times story—corrections that have drawn concern and scorn from the legal community and political commentators.

“Senator Meets With Wrongly Deported Maryland Man in El Salvador,” read a screenshot of the Times’ headline.

But the White House’s version (below), complete with red ink and cross outs, reads: “Senator Meets With MS-13 Illegal Alien in El Salvador Who Is Never Coming Back.”

The White House added remarks saying, “Fixed it for you, @NYTimes. Oh, and by the way, @ChrisVanHollen — he’s NOT coming back.”

Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) traveled to El Salvador this week and, after several days, was finally permitted to meet with Kilmar Abrego Garcia—the legal U.S. resident whom the Trump administration has admitted in court it wrongly deported. Multiple courts, including the Supreme Court, have ordered the administration to “facilitate” his return. Yet the Trump administration appears to be refusing.

Friday’s claim that Abrego Garcia is “never coming back” was taken as a serious statement of intent by some.

Attorney Aaron Regunberg wrote: “The White House is saying he’s ‘never coming back’ — they are explicitly declaring they will violate a unanimous Supreme Court order.” Calling out Senate Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Regunberg wrote: “you said this was your red line that would trigger ‘extraordinary action.’ So…where the f— are you?”

“2 telling things here,” offered The Washington Post’s senior political reporter Aaron Blake. “1) White House crosses out ‘wrongly,’ despite repeatedly acknowledging its error in court. 2) ‘who’s never coming back’ is basically taunting SCOTUS. Signals the opposite of any intent to ‘facilitate’ his return.”

“The White House press shop lies and claims Mr. Abrego was not wrongfully deported, despite having acknowledged that fact at every single stage of the court process; at the district court, the circuit court, and the Supreme Court,” noted attorney Aaron Reichlin-Melnick. “They are openly contemptuous of the truth.”

Civil rights attorney Patrick Jaicomo, replying to the White House, wrote: “There is a mistake in the headline. You didn’t wrongly deport Garcia. You wrongly imprisoned him without due process. So, fix your mistake, as the courts have ordered. You don’t have to keep doubling down on bad decisions.”

Attorney Dilan Esper added, “I’ll remind you that the federal judges issuing orders see this.”

Veteran journalist John Harwoood called it, “disgusting fascism,” and wrote that “the Trump WH is garbage from top to bottom.”

Opinion writer Magdi Jacobs noted, “They’re moving from evading the judiciary to openly mocking it. This is very dangerous territory.”

Some others addressed what they appeared to suggest was the juvenile nature of the White House’s post.

“When you graduate from 4chan and land your first job at the White House,” wrote Talking Points Memo publisher Josh Marshall.

“The Trump admin really wants to distract people from the fact that it illegally sent someone to El Salvador in violation of a court order & binding law, either out of malice or sheer incompetence. No amount of s—posting will change that,” said Reason magazine’s Billy Binion.

“This is the evil of the Trump White House,” remarked Fred Wellman, an Army veteran, political consultant, and the host of the podcast “On Democracy.”

Journalist and author Robert Lusetich observed: “The White House, an ever-lasting symbol of the power, dignity and greatness of the United States. Now, a trolling meme account.”

Anti-gun-violence activist Fred Guttenberg declared the White House is “staffed by pathetic punk 2nd grade pre pubescent children.”

Journalist James Surowiecki commented, “Your tax dollars are paying for this childish cr–.”

See the White House’s social media post above or at this link.

 

Image via Reuters

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Trump’s Latest Target: The Watchdog That Keeps Suing Him

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From the outset of his 2024 presidential campaign, Donald Trump signaled that a central focus of his presidency would be targeting and exacting retribution against his critics.

“In 2016, I declared, ‘I am your voice,’” Trump told attendees at CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference in March 2023. “Today, I add: I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution.”

In keeping his retribution vow, Trump in just three months—often with the use of the power of his executive orders—has targeted for retribution numerous top law firms, revoked the security clearances of dozens of top national security experts, former government officials, and former political opponents. He has targeted top universities, threaten to defund millions of dollars or more in critical research grants, and declared top news outlets CNN and MSNBC “corrupt” and “illegal.”

Just days after the 2024 election, NPR reported that during the campaign, “Trump made more than 100 threats to investigate, prosecute, imprison or otherwise punish his perceived enemies, including political opponents and private citizens.”

READ MORE: ‘Things Like This Take Place’: Trump Shrugs Off Mass Shooting Despite Once Being a Target

On Thursday, Trump threatened to go after one of his top legal critics: CREW, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a nonprofit legal and ethics watchdog that has been working for years to hold him (and others) to account, often by suing.

Asked by a reporter what group he would like to see have their tax exempt status removed, Trump replied, “Well, we’ll be making some statements, but it’s a big deal.”

“They’re so rich and so strong, and then they go so bad, they’ve earned so much by being a member of this country, you know, a member of this group, this beautiful group of people in this country, and then they go and they abuse their power like that,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office Thursday afternoon. “I think it’s, you know, I think it’s very sad.”

“I have a group named CREW,” he continued. “CREW. You ever hear of it? I think it’s CREW, and they have a guy that heads CREW. It’s supposed to be a charitable organization. The only charity they had is going after Donald Trump. So we’re looking at that.”

“We’re looking at a lot of things, but if you take a look at CREW, what they’ve done, and I think it was a very big abuse, but we’re going to be finding out pretty soon.”

During Trump’s first and second terms, CREW sued Trump or his administration for alleged emoluments clause violations, alleged Presidential Records Act noncompliance, and challenged some of his executive orders. It also represented voters in a lawsuit attempting to use the 14th Amendment to remove him from the ballot, claiming his role in the January 6, 2021 insurrection was constitutionally disqualifying.

READ MORE: ‘Full Time Babysitter’: Treasury Secretary Urges Caution After Trump Fed Chair Threat

In January, CREW was part of a lawsuit suing to “block Trump’s illegal plan to fire government workers,” and in February, CREW sued the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) “to compel transparency.”

CREW, in a statement to NCRM, vowed to continue its work.

“For more than 20 years, CREW has exposed government corruption from politicians of both parties who violate the public trust and has worked to promote an ethical, transparent government,” CREW Vice President of Communications Jordan Libowitz said. “Good governance groups are the heart of a healthy democracy. We will continue to do our work to ensure Americans have an ethical and accountable government.”

Legal experts are blasting Trump’s threat.

“It is literally a federal crime punishable by up to five years in prison for the President, VP, or any senior White House employee, to ‘request, directly or indirectly, any officer or employee of the IRS to conduct … an audit or other investigation of any particular taxpayer,'” wrote attorney Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council.

“The Trump administration has gone after law firms, they’ve gone after universities, and they’re now going after civil society, including groups like @CREWcrew. They want to silence any opposition to their extreme agenda,” added the National Women’s Law Center.

“President Trump is now threatening to weaponize the IRS against nonprofit organizations like @CREWcrew,” wrote Public Citizen. “He is attacking our most basic right: to say what we believe without fear of government prosecution. We proudly stand in solidarity with our friends at CREW.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

Watch the video above or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Stunning Admission’: GOP Senator Says Colleagues ‘Are All Afraid’ of ‘Retaliation’

Image via Reuters

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