➤ MONICA ROBERTS, from p.20
Roberts’ work remained crucially
important up until her death.
Many media outlets and police
departments continue to either ignore
or disrespect trans victims,
and at least 31 known transgender
individuals have suffered violent
deaths this year — a death
toll that ties a full-year record with
more than two months remaining
in 2020.
Sadly, Roberts died just as she
➤ JUMAANE WILLIAMS, from p.17
housing as well as trans-affi rming
emergency shelter spaces, and the
need for cisgender women to step
forward to support the trans community.
She noted that Williams
had already pointed to the responsibility
that cisgender men have to
learn more about trans issues.
On the question of affordable
housing, Rumi Akong, the trans
justice coordinator at the Audre
Lorde Project, which serves LGBTQ
communities of color throughout
the city, noted that only 10 percent
of what the city categorizes as “affordable
housing” serves New Yorkers
living below the poverty line, a
demographic in which many trans
folks fi nd themselves.
was anticipating an opportunity
to vote early in the upcoming election.
Her fi nal social media post,
which was published across multiple
platforms including Facebook
and Twitter, included a photo of
a voting machine with the word
“VOTE!” labeled on it.
In that post, Roberts wrote, “Just
hit me I’ve been voting in elections
for local, state, and national candidates
since 1980. And can’t wait
until October 13… #FireTrump
#FireTheGOP #FireTheTXGOP.”
Sean Coleman, the founder and
executive director of Destination
Tomorrow, a Bronx LGBTQ community
center that serves a largely
people of color clientele, including
many transgender people, said
that inadequate funding of organizations
with specifi c expertise
in meeting the needs of trans New
Yorkers is a big part of the problem.
He said that even when the
limited government resources for
transgender and non-binary services
are doled out, they too often
end up in the coffers of bigger nonprofi
ts that lack the cultural competency
of Destination Tomorrow
and of other organizations represented
on the Zoom call organized
by the public advocate’s offi ce.
➤ BI-NATIONAL FAMILY, from p.19
In looking at their case, the State
Department applied an internal
policy that deemed both boys as
born out of wedlock, even though
Andrew and Elan were married at
the time of their birth. As a result,
no spousal parental presumption
kicked in to benefi t Ethan.
As the Scales and Solis-Espinoza
cases demonstrate, the State
Department’s handling of this
question can affect a wide array of
situations for both different- and
same-sex couples, but Immigration
Equality, which represents
the family, noted that the policy
has disproportionate impact on binational
same-sex couples creating
a family.
“After years of the federal government
denying Andrew and
Elad’s rights as a married couple,
the Ninth Circuit has unequivocally
ruled in the family’s favor,”
Aaron C. Morris, Immigration
Equality’s executive director and
co-counsel for the family, said in a
written statement. “No longer will
these parents have to worry that
their twin sons will be treated as
if they were born out of wedlock
simply because they have two fathers.
This decision demonstrates
yet again that it is far past time for
the State Department to change its
discriminatory policy.”
The Trump administration could
seek review by a larger panel of the
Ninth Circuit or by the Supreme
Court. Though the State Department
policy predates the Trump
years, a President Joe Biden would
hopefully take a different tack,
with State changing its position to
follow the strict statutory language
that requires no blood relationship
between the parent and the child
and that recognizes children of
same-sex couples as offspring of a
marriage and not as children born
out of wedlock.
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