Issue Highlights
Survey: Americans opposed to using religion to discriminate
84% of participants did not believe medical professionals should be able to withhold care for LGBTQ individuals, while 74% said they were opposed to employers discriminating against applicants based on sexuality and gender identity. The survey also found that 71% of respondents did not believe that businesses should be able to deny services to LGBTQ people.
Uganda: Anti-Homosexuality Law leads to soaring evictions, violence
In a newly released report, HRAPF noted that anti-LGBTQ evictions rose 138 percent, to 19. Violence and threats of violence rose 5 percent, to 23; while arrests dropped slightly (from 6 to 4). The statistics, which compare June 2023 to June 2022, include only cases reported to HRAPF. It does not include human rights violations reported to other human rights organizations.
Anti-LGBTQ activities by ordinary Ugandan citizens rather law enforcement have created much of the law’s impact, the HRAPF report shows.
‘When We Destroy Nature, We Destroy Ourselves,’ Wildlife Vet Says | Barron's
The award-winning conservationist spoke with Penta about her work, how our health is connected to that of animals, and what we can do to support wildlife.
LGBTQ Social Justice
Uganda health ministry says 'Don't discriminate', but the law says otherwise
In hopes of assuring HIV patients that it’s still safe to visit clinics, the ministry issued a communique urging clinics not to deny services to any client “for any reason – gender, religion, tribe, economic status, social status or sexual orientation.”
However, the Ugandan human rights group Convening For Equality (CFE) pointed out that the Ministry’s instruction doesn’t provide LGBTI patients with any protection:
Malawi: About 5,000 protesters support anti-LGBTQ laws | Africanews
The rally took place against the backdrop of a legal action brought by a Dutch national and a transgender woman from Malawi who are challenging the constitutionality of the country's laws on homosexuality .
Organized by the local Catholic Church and supported by other religious groups, protests also took place simultaneously in other major towns in Malawi, including Blantyre , Mzuzu and Zomba.
Mexico City hosts LGBTQ, intersex rights conference - Washington Blade: LGBTQ News, Politics, LGBTQ Rights, Gay News
LGBTQ+ Victory Institute co-organized 3-day event
Federal court issues preliminary injunction against Arizona’s ban on trans athletes
The court’s order granting the preliminary injunction did not specify whether it was effective against all enforcement of the law, or just prohibiting its enforcement against the transgender plaintiffs, identified in court records as Jane Doe and Megan Roe, although the order specified that Thomas C. Horne, the state’s Superintendent of Instruction, could not enforce the law “as to Plaintiffs” and that the statute “shall not prevent Plaintiffs from participating in girls’ sports.”
How an upstart conservative group is taking Christian nationalist politics local
The pressure to ban the textbooks, local activists say, came instead from conservative groups, particularly Citizens Defending Freedom, which gave interviews to local media and pressured board members to ban references to abortion or gender identity “ideology” in schools.
The Supreme Court ruled that discrimination is protected speech. As the children of Holocaust survivors, we understand where this leads. - Jewish Telegraphic Agency
The 303 Creative case forces us to contemplate the possibility that white supremacists, antisemites, Islamaphobes and other hate-filled individuals and groups will now be allowed to recast their bigotry in First Amendment or religious freedom terms. As Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in her dissent, the decision “threatens to balkanize the market and to allow the exclusion of other groups from many services.”
She was a GOP congresswoman. Her son is a transgender activist. - The Washington Post
He is the executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, an influential advocacy group that lobbies the Biden administration on issues related to transgender Americans.
A Mississippi mother drove 8 hours for her trans son's hormone shots - Washington Post
Technically, Ray could see any doctor in Alabama, but the last few months had made Katie suspicious. She didn’t want to take her child to someone who might reject him, and so, with the help of the nonprofit Campaign for Southern Equality, she’d found a company called QMed that offered online appointments to patients in 26 states.
Emergency resources launched to help Texas families of transgender youth - Queer Forty
Families of transgender youth in Texas are now eligible to apply for support from the Southern Trans Youth Emergency Project (STYEP), a regional project of the Campaign for Southern Equality, led in partnership in Texas with Equality Texas and the Transgender Education Network of Texas (TENT). The project helps transgender youth whose access to gender-affirming care has been disrupted by government policies. Through STYEP, families can receive accurate information about SB14; patient navigation to identify out-of-state gender-affirming care providers; and emergency grants of $500 for immediate needs, including travel, medication, and other logistics
Trans Floridians Take More Action Against Gender-Affirming Care Restrictions
A lawsuit seeking to overturn Florida’s ban on gender-affirming care for trans minors has been amended to include a challenge to restrictions on care for adults and a request to block those while the suit proceeds.
Great Apes & Gibbons
World’s top sovereign fund latest to cut ties with dam in orangutan habitat
The Norwegian state pension fund has recommended excluding a major Chinese hydropower developer from further investment, due to its association with a dam in Indonesia that threatens the world’s rarest great ape.
Baby apes are being stolen for pets—and little is being done to stop it
With baby gorillas fetching up to $550,000, the illicit trade is booming as demand for African great apes rises in China, the Middle East, and Pakistan.
Chimpanzee Vs Bonobo: Do You Know The Difference? | IFLScience
One key giveaway is how their hair sits on top of their heads. The hair on top of a bonobo's head is sometimes neatly parted down the middle, making them sometimes look bald, but chimp head hair doesn’t usually have this feature.
Chimpanzees can prepare for alternative futures | New Scientist
the only animal apart from humans known to do so
Philanthropy
As Book Banning Campaigns Spread, this Funder is Defending the Right to Read | Inside Philanthropy
The Actons are among of a handful of funders currently working to combat book bans, including the Dohle Book Defense Fund, part of PEN America; Endeavor Foundation, a New York-based funder backing higher ed and the arts; and the Long Ridge Foundation, a family foundation based in California whose causes include the environment, immigrant rights and gun safety.
How inflation affects foundation grantmaking decisions
cumulative giving grew by 3% in fiscal year end (FYE) 2022 compared to 2021, not nearly enough to keep pace with 8% average growth in inflation. We asked survey respondents if rising inflation impacted their foundations’ grantmaking decisions. Here’s what we found.
Foundations Are Giving More and More Money to DAFs. Is That a Problem? | Inside Philanthropy
it’s a problem that foundations can use DAFs to circumvent the payout requirement at all. The fact that this loophole exists, regardless of the extent to which it’s being exploited, means the foundation payout requirement isn’t actually a requirement — it’s optional
Six People and Culture Practices That Can Change Your Organization
Six ideas that could help organizations improve hiring, performance, equity, and more.
Building on Feedback: Results from our Grantee Perception Survey / Ford Foundation
One of the most common suggestions for improvement was more frequent and substantive interactions between Ford staff and those we fund.
This Women’s Donor Collective Invites its Members to “Experience Philanthropy Differently” | Inside Philanthropy
Donors back pilot projects seeking to improve health and gender equity while learning from and forming relationships with people on the ground. The goal is to mobilize funds for unproven solutions while cultivating donors who are “authentic, accountable and activated agents of social change.”