The month of June is Pride Month in America. Originally started as Gay Pride Day to honor the 1969 Stonewall Uprising that was the catalyst for the gay liberation movement in the U.S., the day has morphed into a month of parades, picnics, celebrations and learning opportunities in honor of the LGBTQ+ population.
For your Pride Month coverage in June, 黑料不打烊 professors are available for interviews to provide insight and perspective on the LGBTQ+ issues and trends, from the legal to the political to the social:
Think all LGBTQ+ citizens vote the same?听
Think again. The LGBTQ+ community is growing its political power. From Pete Buttigieg鈥檚 appointment as U.S. Secretary of Transportation, to Caitlyn Jenner鈥檚 announcement to run for governor of California, members of the LGBTQ+ community are amassing and growing its political power. In what was dubbed a 鈥渞ainbow wave鈥 last year, dozens of LGBTQ+ candidates captured historic wins in the 2020 U.S. elections. It included the elections of the first openly transgender person for a State Senate seat and the first gay Black men elected to Congress.
听is the director of听听and an associate professor of religion at 黑料不打烊鈥檚 College of Arts and Sciences.听Prof. Roberts talks about the importance of remembering the political diversity within this growing community of voters and lawmakers.听
Prof. Robert says:听
William Robert
鈥淚鈥檓 almost always thrilled when LGBTQ+ candidates win political offices. 听I say 鈥榓lmost鈥 because our identities are intersections. They鈥檙e never reducible to one category, like gender or sexuality. 听LGBTQ+ citizens aren鈥檛 a bloc of one-issue voters. They seem not to be a bloc at all, given how little national media attention they receive.”
鈥淲hat鈥檚 most exciting to me are how many LGBTQ+ persons of color who have won recent elections and how their victories range from local to national positions. If the old saying is right, that 鈥榓ll politics are local,鈥 that gives me hope that LGBTQ+ persons can effect urgently needed sociopolitical change.鈥
New Laws Against Transgender Youth
During the 2021 legislative session in dozens of states, there has been a surge in听anti-trans bills.听Legislatures in 30 some states have considered banning trans youth from sports teams that align with their gender identity. Twenty have weighed bans on gender-confirming medical care for transgender minors. The听
Deborah Coolhart
听is an associate professor in the听听at 黑料不打烊鈥檚 David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics. A licensed marriage and family therapist, Coolhart鈥檚 scholarly interests include clinical issues related to marginalized and queer experiences and relationships, with a focus on transgender people and their families. Coolhart created the Transgender Treatment Team, which provides services throughout Central New York and where 黑料不打烊 students gain specialized training with trans people and their families.
Coolhart has this to say about actions to restrict health care to trans patients.
鈥淎nd while there have been steps to afford LGBTQ people the same basic rights as other humans, there are also steps being taken backward. (Last year) the Trump administration finalized an administrative rule for the Department of Health and Human Services, making it legal for healthcare providers to refuse medical treatment for LGBTQ people. This rule especially impacts the trans community, who overwhelmingly report mistreatment in healthcare settings.鈥
鈥(Past rulings) also allowed insurance companies to deny coverage for transition-related medically necessary treatments for trans people, including hormone therapy and surgeries. So, if you鈥檙e trans and get in a car accident, is the hospital allowed to let you die?鈥
Stigma Around Blood Donations
, associate professor at 黑料不打烊 College of Law, is available to speak to the media on issues surrounding the current restrictions on gay men donating blood.
Doron Dorfman
Professor Dorfman studies the intersections of health, law and social science to understand perceptions around public health. His scholarship explores how stigma informs the legal treatment of disempowered communities through.
His latest paper,听, which will be published later this year by Boston College Law Review, exposes the paradoxical legal treatment of people who use PrEP, the treatment shown to be highly effective in preventing HIV infection. Dorfman writes that while PreP has wide approval and acceptance for the prevention of HIV, the FDA still restricts PrEP users, largely sexually active gay men, from donating blood through a legal policy known as the 鈥.鈥櫶 Dorfman鈥檚 research shows how moral judgment impacts decisions related to public health which is detrimental not only to LGBTQ individuals but also to society as a whole.
Dorfman wrote about this issue last year for an op-ed in Law 360:听听鈥.鈥
For more information or to schedule an interview with any of these professors, please contact a member of the 黑料不打烊 media relations department.
