{"id":505899,"date":"2016-11-29T15:11:36","date_gmt":"2016-11-29T15:11:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glaad.logalt.net\/tap\/jeff-sessions\/"},"modified":"2023-04-21T22:29:50","modified_gmt":"2023-04-21T22:29:50","slug":"jeff-sessions","status":"publish","type":"gap","link":"https:\/\/glaad.org\/gap\/jeff-sessions\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeff Sessions"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2014<\/span>7.30.18<\/a>\u2014Attorney General Jeff Sessions announces the creation of a \u201cReligious Liberty\u201d Task Force at the Department of Justice\u2019s Religious Liberty Summit. As stated by Sessions, the group\u2019s purpose is to ensure that the Justice Department upholds the administration\u2019s guidance for religious exemptions, which he released<\/a> in October.<\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span>10.10.17<\/a>\u2014Attorney General Jeff Sessions openly defends LGBTQ discrimination when discussing the Masterpiece Cakeshop SCOTUS case in an interview with Christian Broadcasting Network.<\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span>10.6.17<\/a>\u2014Attorney General Jeff Sessions issues a sweeping \u201creligious exemptions\u201d guidance which invites taxpayer-funded federal agencies, government employees, and government contractors to legally discriminate against LGBTQ employees as long as they cite a religious belief as the reason for doing it.<\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span>10.5.17<\/a>\u2014Attorney General Jeff Sessions reverses a policy that provided non-discrimination protections for transgender people in the workplace under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.<\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span>9.5.17<\/a>\u2014Attorney General Jeff Sessions announces the end of the DACA program, which protected an estimated 800,000 young undocumented immigrants, including 36,000 LGBTQ DREAMers, from detention and deportation.<\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span>7.26.17\u2014<\/a>Attorney General Jeff Sessions files a brief opposing workplace nondiscrimination protections for the LGBTQ community under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in the case Zarda v. Altitude Express<\/em>.<\/p>\n

 \u2014<\/span>7.11.17<\/a>\u2014Attorney General Jeff Sessions delivers closed-press remarks at a Summit on Religious Liberty hosted by the anti-LGBTQ hate group, Alliance Defending Freedom<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span>6.28.17<\/a>\u2014The Department of Justice ejects reporters covering a DOJ Pride event hosted by LGBTQ affinity groups for federal workers.<\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span>4.14.17<\/a>\u2014Attorney General Jeff Sessions\u2019 Justice Department withdraws lawsuit accusing North Carolina of discriminating against the LGBTQ community in response to HB2, despite the similarities of the HB142 replacement. <\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span>2.22.17<\/a>\u2014With help of President Trump, Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded Title IX protections for transgender students in our nation\u2019s schools. <\/p>\n

\u2014A former deputy, a black man,<\/span> testified<\/a> that Sessions called him \u201cboy,\u201d warned him about how he talked to white people, and said that Sessions thought the Ku Klux Klan was \u201cOK, until he learned that they smoked marijuana.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014A Justice Department lawyer<\/span> testified<\/a> that Sessions described the NAACP and the American Civil Liberties Union as \u201cun-American\u201d and \u201cCommunist-inspired.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span>Supported<\/a> the Federal Marriage Amendment in both 2004 and 2006, claiming that \u201cleftists\u201d were out to \u201cdestroy the traditional definition of marriage.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span>Claimed<\/a> the Supreme Court\u2019s ruling overturning sodomy laws \u201cdivorced morality from law.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014While attempting to defund the National Endowment of the Arts,<\/span> echoed social conservative claims<\/a> that \u201cthe National Endowment for the Arts showed explicit homosexual activities on the screen using a $31,000 grant.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span>Condemned<\/a> California federal judge for finding the state\u2019s discriminatory marriage ban to be unconstitutional, claiming he \u201cwas citing his own views, emotions and feelings\u201d rather than the law.<\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span>Opposed<\/a> the nomination of US Supreme Court justice Elena Kagan in large part because of what he perceived as her LGBTQ support. (More here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span>Reportedly<\/a> fought to stop LGBTQ conference: As Alabama\u2019s attorney general in 1996, Sessions attempted to stop the Southeastern Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual College Conference from meeting at the University of Alabama under a state law passed in 1992 that made it illegal for public universities to fund in any way a group that promotes \u201cactions prohibited by the sodomy and sexual misconduct laws.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span>Implied<\/a> the U.S. Supreme Court was not allowed to find a right to marriage equality and that he might continue the fight: \u201c\u2018What this court did was unconstitutional. I don\u2019t think they had the power to do what they did. There\u2019s nothing in the constitution for such a result, no mention of marriage in the constitution.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span>Cosponsored<\/a> the so-called First Amendment Defense Act, which would allow opponents of marriage equality to discriminate against LGBTQ (or even supportive) customers and contractors.<\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span>Cosponsored<\/a> the so-called State Marriage Defense Act, a bill designed to circumvent federal protections for same-sex married couples.<\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span>Voted against<\/a> the repeal of the military\u2019s discriminatory \u201cdon\u2019t ask, don\u2019t tell\u201d policy.<\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span>Referred<\/a> to a gay sexual orientation as having \u201cgay tendencies.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span>Known for<\/a> his hardline stances on immigration, for decades opposing any bill that includes a path to citizenship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":343,"featured_media":505900,"template":"","categories":[138754],"tags":[],"region":[138565],"hashtag":[138636,138632,138634],"class_list":{"0":"post-505899","1":"gap","2":"type-gap","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"category-gaps","7":"region-national","8":"hashtag-anti-transgender","9":"hashtag-politics","10":"hashtag-trump"},"aioseo_notices":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t