{"id":934914,"date":"2025-04-18T10:47:30","date_gmt":"2025-04-18T14:47:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glaad.org\/?p=934914"},"modified":"2025-04-18T16:06:11","modified_gmt":"2025-04-18T20:06:11","slug":"heroes-of-the-resistance-standing-up-for-lgbtq-rights-in-employment-the-first-amendment-health-care-marriage-equality-and-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glaad.org\/heroes-of-the-resistance-standing-up-for-lgbtq-rights-in-employment-the-first-amendment-health-care-marriage-equality-and-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Heroes of the Resistance: Standing Up for LGBTQ Rights in Employment, the First Amendment, Health Care, Marriage Equality, and More."},"content":{"rendered":"

Much has happened this week in positive changemaking for the LGBTQ community at this time of challenge and uncertainty. Heroes in government, law, and in faith communities, are standing up to enormous pressure by the Trump administration and those emboldened by anti-LGBTQ rhetoric.<\/span><\/p>\n

Standing Up for LGBTQ Protections in Employment<\/span><\/h3>\n

At the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the federal agency established in 1965 to enforce civil rights laws against workplace discrimination in the United States, one judge is not bending to pressure to ignore the rights of some Americans. Karen Ortiz (below) is an administrative judge in the New York District Office of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Following Trump\u2019s inaccurate executive order declaring that there are only two biological sexes, <\/span>Ortiz started speaking up<\/span><\/a>. When the acting chair of the EEOC repeated the executive order in a press release and directed administrative judges to hold back on cases that alleged discrimination based on LGBTQ status. Ortiz sent an email with the subject line \u201cTHIS IS NOT NORMAL,\u201d to the entire New York District Office. When that email was deleted\u2014not by her\u2014from her outbox, she sent another, writing that she would not compromise her ethics and her duty to uphold the law, that she would not cower to bullying and intimidation.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Karen Ortiz, administrative judge in the New York District Office of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission<\/span>\u00a0(AP Photo\/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The First Amendment on Military Bases<\/span><\/h3>\n

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has <\/span>filed a lawsuit<\/span><\/a> against the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA), alleging that schools on U.S. military bases have engaged in widespread censorship by removing books and altering curricula related to race, gender identity and sexual orientation, and civil rights. This legal action, brought on behalf of 12 students from six families stationed in the U.S. and abroad, claims that these measures\u2014prompted by executive orders from President Donald Trump\u2014violate students\u2019 First Amendment rights.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The <\/span>lawsuit<\/span><\/a> details the removal of award-winning literature and educational materials, including To Kill a Mockingbird, The Kite Runner, Fahrenheit 451, Well-Read Black Girl<\/em> and The Antiracist Kid<\/em>, as well as the cancellation of cultural observances including Black History Month and LGBTQ Pride Month. The Department of Defense\u2019s directives also extend to prohibiting references to so-called <\/span>\u201cgender ideology\u201d<\/span><\/a> (a term created to diminish the existence of gender diverse people)in school events, yearbooks, and classroom discussions. Critics, including ACLU attorneys and affected families, assert that this campaign amounts to a \u201cwhitewashing\u201d of the curriculum, isolating students from essential perspectives and stifling open dialogue about America\u2019s multicultural social fabric. Plaintiffs argue that these actions deprive students of learning about their own histories and identities, as well as broader American history and diversity.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Hundreds of military base students walked out of class last week to protest the anti-diversity moves. It follows smaller protests deployed in February and March, and included about a dozen schools on bases in Europe, Asia and at least one stateside, according to <\/span>military.com<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

“We’re here and we’re going to fight for what we believe in, especially when it comes to our education,\u201d a tenth grade organizer said. \u201cOur parents are actively fighting for our country for us to be able to have these rights.”<\/span><\/p>\n