The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force has released its fourth and final report analyzing the intersection of race and gender identity among transgender and gender non-conforming people who completed the National Transgender Discrimination Survey. As has been evident with other racial groups, transgender American Indians and Alaskan Native respondents experienced unique levels of discrimination because of their overlapping identities:

• Native trans people faced incredibly high rates of extreme poverty, with 23 percent reporting a household income of less than $10,000 per year, compared to 15 percent of all trans people, 8 percent of the general native population, and 4 percent of all U.S. citizens.
• Native trans people faced higher rates of HIV infection (3.24 percent) and not knowing their status (8.53 percent).
• Over half (56 percent) of all American Indian and Alaskan Native transgender respondents have attempted suicide, compared to 41 percent of all student respondents.
• Native trans people face inordinately high rates of unemployment (18 percent), and many have lost a job due to bias (37 percent) or were not hired due to bias (60 percent).
• 34 percent of native trans people have been refused medical care due to bias.

Read the full report for additional data about the inequities faced by transgender Native Americans, and revisit past reports about trans Asian American, Latino, and black respondents.

Bishop Joseph Tyson, who oversees the Catholic Diocese of Yakima, Washington, is the latest member of the Catholic hierarchy to speak out against marriage equality. In a pastoral letter urging parishioners to vote against Referendum 74, Tyson not only claims that the freedom to marry would harm children, but spins that claim to say that “it is actually offensive to basic human rights and equality”:

R-74’s conception of marriage is wrong from the start, since it presumes that marriage is simply a matter of what any two consenting adults desire. But this has never been the meaning of marriage, nor has it been the reason why marriage is recognized as essential to the common good. R-74 redefines marriage and therefore pays no heed to fundamental facts of human life and flourishing. It ignores the significance of the human body as well as sexual difference and complementarity, understood in their fullness – spiritual, biological, psychological, and emotional.

R-74 overlooks the basic rights and equality of children, and it dispenses with an appreciation for the unique place of motherhood and fatherhood. As a law, R-74 therefore conditions our society to forget or ignore basic realities of human existence, and, rather than foster human rights, it is actually offensive to basic human rights and equality.   This is the tragic irony: a law touted as a victory for civil rights and equality is actually a loss of civil rights and equality for the most vulnerable among us, children.

The language mirrors the strategy laid out in the infamous National Organization for Marriage’s “race-wedging” memos to “fan the hostility” between blacks and gays by suggesting LGBT activists are trying to co-opt “civil rights.” By focusing on sowing division instead of unity, Tyson is blind to two significant “basic realities of human existence”: that people are innately gay and that they are already raising children. In fact, 16 percent of all Washington same-sex couples are raising their own children, including 29 percent of couples who identity as spouses. If Tyson truly cared about children’s well-being, as he claims in his letter, he would make sure that their families are not treated with second-class status and persistent stigma.

The Catholic Church has been a leading force against marriage equality in all four state campaigns, and Archbishop John Nienstedt has been the fact of that opposition in Minnesota. He has repeatedly asked parishioners to vote and pray against marriage equality, arguing that such views “not prejudicial.” Now a letter has surfaced he wrote in 2010 “to a mother who pleaded for acceptance for her gay child,” in which he tells the woman she must reject her son according to Catholic teachings, or she might go to Hell as well:

I write to inform you that the teaching of the Catholic Church on homosexuality,a s described in paragraphs 2357 and 2358 and 2359  of the Catechism of the Catholic Church is rooted in Scripture and based on the Natural Moral Law. It, therefore, shares in God’s revelation to us. Catholics are bound in conscience to believe this teaching. Those who do not cannot consider themselves to be Catholic and ought not to participate in the sacramental life of the Church.

Indeed, some might find this is a hard saying by many of Jesus’ teachings were likewise received as such. I urge you to reconsider the position that you expressed in your letter. Your eternal salvation may well depend upon a conversation of heart on this topic.

Truth Wins Out describes Nienstedt’s ultimatum as “spiritual bullying of the highest order.” The impacts of family rejection include increased risks of suicide and homelessness, yet the Church is forcing people to choose their faith over the lives of their loved ones. Despite claims made by the campaign to support the marriage inequality constitutional amendment, this is not a group of people that cares about the well-being of children.

Michigan State Rep. Tom McMillin (R) said in 2003 that people “caught up in the homosexual lifestyle need help,” comparing them to smokers.  Nine years later, his positions haven’t changed much. He told a town hall meeting last month that he still believes that homosexuality is a “lifestyle” and a “choice” that people can —and have — “come out” of:

QUESTIONER: Do you still believe that being gay is like smoking, that it’s a choice?

MCMILLIN: Well, I think that the thousands of people that have been in that lifestyle and have come out would say that it was their choice when they were in it and came out of the lifestyle.

QUESTIONER: Do you think some people are born gay?

MCMILLIN: You know, I don’t know.

QUESTIONER: But you think it’s a choice?

MCMILLIN: I think for some it is, I mean it sounds like it.

Watch it:

In a follow-up statement, McMillin simply tried to blame “a few liberals” from shifting the focus to such issues, refusing to comment further on the matter at hand.

Claims that there are “thousands” of ex-gays have never been substantiated.

GOP Senate Candidate Linda McMahon

In a debate Sunday, Senate nominee Linda McMahon (R-CT) reversed her earlier position in favor of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), by saying she supports “America’s law for same-sex marriage.”

Asked by a questioner about the fact that Connecticut has marriage equality but her original home state of North Carolina recently enacted a marriage inequality constitutional amendment, McMahon appeared confused:

Well, I live in Connecticut and I absolutely support America’s law for same-sex marriage. I wouldn’t pretend to try to impose my will or rights on others. I think everyone should have the freedom to make that choice.

In his response, marriage equality supporter Rep. Chris Murphy (D) noted that her answer was incorrect, as “America doesn’t have a law protecting same-sex marriage, in fact it has the exact opposite.” He added “I think the fact that Linda McMahon spent only about 20 seconds answering that question tells you that she’s not going to stand up to her party in Washington” on social issues.

Watch the video:

After the debate, McMahon clarified that she would now vote to repeal DOMA, saying “I have changed my position on DOMA. With now gay marriage approved in the state of Connecticut, I don’t think it’s fair.” She said her “opinion has just been evolving” but that she doesn’t know when her view changed.

While it is good news that she has come around to supporting marriage equality one month before the election, Connecticut has had marriage equality since 2008. In the 2010 campaign, her campaign said she supported DOMA because “she supports states’ rights.” The head of the anti-LGBT Family Institute of Connecticut endorsed McMahon in 2010 and again in 2012, noting, “It was Linda who reached out to us, not the other way around. It was Linda who made it a point to tell Connecticut’s voters of her opposition to partial-birth abortion and Obamacare-funding of abortion—and of her support for parental notification and the federal DOMA.” After the debate, he announced he is withdrawing his endorsement.

Sally Field and her son, Sam Greisman.

The Human Rights Campaign held its annual National Dinner Saturday night in Washington, DC, and many prominent speakers were on hand to champion the progress of LGBT equality and reinforce hope for the journey forward.

Actress Sally Field accepted HRC’s Ally for Equality Award, and after her gay son Sam Greisman introduced her, she spoke to the importance of family acceptance:

FIELD: There are so many children who struggle to understand and embrace their sexuality, and families who do not welcome them — with parents who somehow find it acceptable to shut them out of their hearts and their homes. And that I find unacceptable. There comes a time when parents must listen and learn from these people they brought into the world, their children, and these children have something important to teach their parents. I urge them to listen.

HRC’s National Equality Award went to the NAACP, a prominent civil rights organization that endorsed marriage equality. The group’s president, Ben Jealous, emphasized the importance of turning “liberty and justice for all” into a reality:

JEALOUS: As an American people, we celebrate the many times that our nation has led this world away from hate and ever toward hope. In this precipitous moment, when we as a movement are on the brink of massive change and tremendous progress…let us stand up for marriage equality from coast-to-coast and border-to-border!

Newark, New Jersey Mayor Cory Booker was the dinner’s headline speaker, and he spoke passionately about the future of civil rights:

BOOKER: I get in weird conversations with my friends. “Why you always talking about gay rights”‘ I said, “I’m not talking about gay rights. I’m talking about human rights. I’m talking about my rights. I’m talking about your rights.” When people were fighting to expand the promise of this country, it took everybody involved, ’cause we knew we were all in it together. That deep and real African proverb was clearly true in our history that says, “If you want to go fast, you go alone. If you want to go far, you go together.” And so now, it’s time we go together.

Also on hand were playwright Dustin Lance Black and actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson, who sang a special song he “learned from Johnny Cash.” Watch videos of all the speeches: