truthout--2020-07-31--Voter ID Law Handed Wisconsin to Trump in 2016. It Could Happen Again in 2020.

Donald Trump ’ s 2016 Wisconsin win was a shock to the Democratic Party — but then , the Democratic Party is always shocked — because Wisconsin was supposed to be a safe state for Hillary Clinton .
Democrats had crushed it seven elections in a row , helped by the massive vote from the famously progressive , activist University of Wisconsin student population .
But then , on Election Day 2016 , a giant hunk of the student vote simply… vanished .
And the Milwaukee Black vote also seemed to just… disappear .
And so , Trump took Wisconsin @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cast .
And , if Wisconsin ’ s voter vanishing operation isn ’ t rooted out , 2020 will be déjà vu all over again .
If Trump swipes this swing state again , he ’ s as good as inaugurated .
Where did they go , the voters who mysteriously didn ’ t show up ?
I flew to Wisconsin just before the COVID lockdown to hunt down the students and voters of color who , mysteriously , did not show up .
The first thing that caught my attention : While @ @ @ @ @ @ @ voter turnout in 2016 , in parts of this down-to-the-wire state , voting fell off a cliff .
Which parts ?
In Black-majority Milwaukee , turnout plummeted from 66 percent to 56 percent of the voting-age population .
That ’ s strange .
And Wisconsin ’ s student vote evaporated .
Nationwide , only two states recorded a drop in student voting .
Wisconsin ’ s drop was breathtaking : In-precinct voting by students declined by a third , from 67 percent to 49 percent .
They didn ’ t need to drag @ @ @ @ @ @ @ students and Black voters .
They were disappeared in plain sight by the Republican legislature under laws crafted by Wisconsin ’ s radical-right governor , Scott Walker .
One new law required a government photo ID to vote .
But the photo ID issued by the state to its 182,000 University of Wisconsin students did not qualify them for voting nor for registration .
How brilliant is that ?
Gun permits could be used to vote ; but not student ID .
Carry a weapon , good .
Carry a book , forget @ @ @ @ @ @ @ license would do .
But not everyone has a license .
Who doesn ’ t drive ?
People who don ’ t have cars — students in Madison , low-income renters who take the bus in Milwaukee , i.e .
voters of color .
And the color is Democratic Blue .
What was particularly devastating was that the law was ordered into effect by a court only two weeks before the 2016 election .
Even those who knew of the change had little time to correct their lack of paperwork , even if @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2020 .
Despite all the trickery , Walker was tossed out on his keister in 2018 .
New Democratic Gov .
Tony Evers — encouraged by his Lt. Gov .
Mandela Barnes — has tried to make it easier for Wisconsinites to vote without dropping dead from the virus .
The GOP won ’ t have it .
Republicans went to court to successfully overturn Governor Evers ’ s order waiving the requirement that absentee ballots include a witness signature .
Elections Commissioner Ann Jacobs pointed out to me that the university could @ @ @ @ @ @ @ vote … but , she noted , just before he lost reelection , Republican Governor Walker appointed the university regents — GOP hacks who wouldn ’ t dream of minting tens of thousands of Democratic voters .
But students will have to get more than a new ID .
Wisconsin is alone in the U.S. in requiring that a student voter can ’ t register without including proof of enrollment in good standing .
Like , huh ?
Fall behind in tuition , flunk algebra… lose your vote ?
And the student will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ chase in their absentee ballot .
Assuming they get one .
The U.S. watched in horror as Wisconsin voters were forced to vote in person on April 7 at the height of a virus spike — when the Republicans overturned the governor ’ s order to delay the vote .
But why didn ’ t voters simply vote by mail ?
They tried .
First , you can ’ t mail in a ballot if you don ’ t get one .
About 1 in 10 ballots requested nationwide are never received by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
That ’ s national .
Students and renters who move in their neighborhoods , within their dorms , don ’ t have an easy time getting their mail-in ballots ; over 100,000 could not get a ballot because , unbeknownst to the voter , they had been purged from the voter rolls , a purge that centered , once again , on Milwaukee and Madison .
We spoke with voters ( mostly African Americans ) in line , and voter after voter said they did not receive their mail-in ballot .
Milwaukee @ @ @ @ @ @ @ voting stations from 180 to five because they simply couldn ’ t find enough poll workers , mostly retirees , who would risk their lives to hand out ballots .
Add the withholding of mail-in ballots to the closure of polls and you ’ ve got electoral meltdown .
University of Wisconsin professors Michael DeCrescenzo and Kenneth Mayer wanted to find out about the mysterious massive drop in 2016 turnout .
They conducted an extraordinary survey , contacting thousands of non-voters directly .
They asked each registrant why they did not , or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that 28,000 citizens in just two cities , Milwaukee and Madison , were blocked by the ID requirement .
( This 28,000 excludes the majority of voters without proper ID who did not vote for other reasons , such as long lines — or who just didn ’ t give a damn about voting . )
Some folks did in fact have the ID required , but the law is so complex and little-explained that thousands thought they did not have acceptable ID .
One in 11 Black voters did not have the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that many thought they didn ’ t , so they did not show up at the polls .
Take a look at this chart from the University of Wisconsin study .
The ID law was three times as likely to block African Americans as whites .
The Black vote in Wisconsin statewide fell by a mind-blowing 24.5 percent between 2012 and 2016 when the ID law hit .
The loss of Black and student votes due to the ID law cost at minimum 61,274 votes , almost three times Trump ’ s plurality @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is low .
I ’ ve left out the Latinx voters who are growing near to the size of the Black population .
Any way you calculate it , the show-me-your-papers ID tactic won Wisconsin , not the voters .
And that ’ s how Trump has already stolen 2020 .
But , if we raise hell and raise the warning , we can steal it back .
And we can try something new for the U.S. — letting the voters choose the president .
This article is adapted from the author ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Stole 2020 .

The loss of Black and student voters due to the ID law cost at least 61,274 votes, almost three times Trump’s plurality.
Part of the Series Voting Wrongs
Donald Trump’s 2016 Wisconsin win was a shock to the Democratic Party — but then, the Democratic Party is always shocked — because Wisconsin was supposed to be a safe state for Hillary Clinton.
Democrats had crushed it seven elections in a row, helped by the massive vote from the famously progressive, activist University of Wisconsin student population.
But then, on Election Day 2016, a giant hunk of the student vote simply… vanished. And the Milwaukee Black vote also seemed to just… disappear.
And so, Trump took Wisconsin by 22,000 votes out of 3 million cast.
And, if Wisconsin’s voter vanishing operation isn’t rooted out, 2020 will be déjà vu all over again. If Trump swipes this swing state again, he’s as good as inaugurated.
Where did they go, the voters who mysteriously didn’t show up? I flew to Wisconsin just before the COVID lockdown to hunt down the students and voters of color who, mysteriously, did not show up.
The first thing that caught my attention: While the rest of the nation had massive voter turnout in 2016, in parts of this down-to-the-wire state, voting fell off a cliff. Which parts? In Black-majority Milwaukee, turnout plummeted from 66 percent to 56 percent of the voting-age population. That’s strange.
And Wisconsin’s student vote evaporated. Nationwide, only two states recorded a drop in student voting. Wisconsin’s drop was breathtaking: In-precinct voting by students declined by a third, from 67 percent to 49 percent.
They didn’t need to drag the local lakes to find the missing students and Black voters. They were disappeared in plain sight by the Republican legislature under laws crafted by Wisconsin’s radical-right governor, Scott Walker.
One new law required a government photo ID to vote. But the photo ID issued by the state to its 182,000 University of Wisconsin students did not qualify them for voting nor for registration.
How brilliant is that? Gun permits could be used to vote; but not student ID. Carry a weapon, good. Carry a book, forget it.
A Wisconsin driver’s license would do. But not everyone has a license. Who doesn’t drive? People who don’t have cars — students in Madison, low-income renters who take the bus in Milwaukee, i.e. voters of color. And the color is Democratic Blue.
What was particularly devastating was that the law was ordered into effect by a court only two weeks before the 2016 election. Even those who knew of the change had little time to correct their lack of paperwork, even if they could.
2020 Mail-In Meltdown
But this is about 2020. Despite all the trickery, Walker was tossed out on his keister in 2018. New Democratic Gov. Tony Evers — encouraged by his Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes — has tried to make it easier for Wisconsinites to vote without dropping dead from the virus.
The GOP won’t have it. Republicans went to court to successfully overturn Governor Evers’s order waiving the requirement that absentee ballots include a witness signature.
Elections Commissioner Ann Jacobs pointed out to me that the university could simply issue ID that allows students to vote … but, she noted, just before he lost reelection, Republican Governor Walker appointed the university regents — GOP hacks who wouldn’t dream of minting tens of thousands of Democratic voters.
But students will have to get more than a new ID. Wisconsin is alone in the U.S. in requiring that a student voter can’t register without including proof of enrollment in good standing. Like, huh? Fall behind in tuition, flunk algebra… lose your vote?
As Common Cause warns,
The standard student ID at only four of the University of Wisconsin’s 13 four-year schools and at eight of the state’s 23 private colleges can be used as a voter photo ID. Note: if you use a school-issued ID for voting, you must also present (or display electronically) at the polls a separate proof of enrollment document, such as an enrollment verification form, class schedule or tuition bill.
And the student will have to include photocopies of their paper chase in their absentee ballot.
Assuming they get one. The U.S. watched in horror as Wisconsin voters were forced to vote in person on April 7 at the height of a virus spike — when the Republicans overturned the governor’s order to delay the vote. But why didn’t voters simply vote by mail?
They tried. First, you can’t mail in a ballot if you don’t get one. About 1 in 10 ballots requested nationwide are never received by the voter – or received too late. That’s national. Students and renters who move in their neighborhoods, within their dorms, don’t have an easy time getting their mail-in ballots; over 100,000 could not get a ballot because, unbeknownst to the voter, they had been purged from the voter rolls, a purge that centered, once again, on Milwaukee and Madison.
We spoke with voters (mostly African Americans) in line, and voter after voter said they did not receive their mail-in ballot. Milwaukee was forced to reduce the number of voting stations from 180 to five because they simply couldn’t find enough poll workers, mostly retirees, who would risk their lives to hand out ballots. Add the withholding of mail-in ballots to the closure of polls and you’ve got electoral meltdown.
61,274 Voters Shafted
University of Wisconsin professors Michael DeCrescenzo and Kenneth Mayer wanted to find out about the mysterious massive drop in 2016 turnout. They conducted an extraordinary survey, contacting thousands of non-voters directly. They asked each registrant why they did not, or could not, vote.
They discovered that 28,000 citizens in just two cities, Milwaukee and Madison, were blocked by the ID requirement. (This 28,000 excludes the majority of voters without proper ID who did not vote for other reasons, such as long lines — or who just didn’t give a damn about voting.)
Some folks did in fact have the ID required, but the law is so complex and little-explained that thousands thought they did not have acceptable ID. One in 11 Black voters did not have the right ID, but more than twice that many thought they didn’t, so they did not show up at the polls.
Take a look at this chart from the University of Wisconsin study. The ID law was three times as likely to block African Americans as whites.
The Black vote in Wisconsin statewide fell by a mind-blowing 24.5 percent between 2012 and 2016 when the ID law hit. The loss of Black and student votes due to the ID law cost at minimum 61,274 votes, almost three times Trump’s plurality. And that estimate of the loss is low. I’ve left out the Latinx voters who are growing near to the size of the Black voting population. Any way you calculate it, the show-me-your-papers ID tactic won Wisconsin, not the voters.
And that’s how Trump has already stolen 2020. But, if we raise hell and raise the warning, we can steal it back. And we can try something new for the U.S. — letting the voters choose the president.
This article is adapted from the author’s newly released book, How Trump Stole 2020.
Tired of reading the same old news from the same old sources? So are we! That’s why we’re on a mission to shake things up and bring you the stories and perspectives that often go untold in mainstream media. But being a radically, unapologetically independent news site isn’t easy (or cheap), and we rely on reader support to keep the lights on.
If you like what you’re reading, please consider making a tax-deductible donation today. We’re not asking for a handout, we’re asking for an investment: Invest in a nonprofit news site that’s not afraid to ruffle a few feathers, not afraid to stand up for what’s right, and not afraid to tell it like it is.
Copyright © Truthout. May not be reprinted without permission.


truthout--2020-08-01--Trump’s Lawyers Contradict His False Claims on Mail-In Voting

President Donald Trump on Thursday tried to draw a distinction between “ mail-in voting ” and “ absentee voting , ” but his own lawyers acknowledged in court documents the two are the same thing .
Trump suggested delaying the election on Thursday amid plummeting poll numbers and the ongoing coronavirus pandemic , which has killed more than 150,000 people and caused the largest GDP drop in U.S. history .
Trump has no power to postpone the election , and the idea was roundly rejected by Republican lawmakers .
At the same time , many members of the GOP have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the president .
“ With Universal Mail-In Voting ( not Absentee Voting , which is good ) , 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history , ” Trump claimed without evidence .
Some states have long used all-mail elections .
There have been more than 250 million ballots cast by mail in the last 20 years , and only 143 prosecutions related to mail ballot fraud , or a rate of about 0.00006 % .
Trump later reiterated that he opposed “ mail-in-voting ” but “ totally ” supports @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they are the same thing .
Trump and many of his aides have repeatedly voted by mail themselves .
Trump and White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany , for example , have claimed that they voted “ absentee ” in Florida .
But there is no “ absentee ” voting in Florida .
Instead , the state has a “ no excuse ” vote-by-mail system that allows anyone to cast a ballot by mail for any reason .
Trump ’ s own lawyers acknowledged that there is no difference between “ mail-in voting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a lawsuit challenging Pennsylvania ’ s mail voting rules last month .
Attorneys for the Trump campaign noted that while some states have different wording regarding the terminology , “ the terms ‘ mail-in ’ and ‘ absentee ’ are used interchangeably to discuss the use of the United States Postal Service to deliver ballots to and from electors ” in a lawsuit available in full on the president ’ s website .
Marc Elias , a lawyer for the Democratic Party who frequently argues election cases in court , told MSNBC on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” between the two terms .
“ They are synonyms , ” he said .
“ Some states tend to use the term ‘ mail-in.
’ Some states tend to use the term ‘ absentee.
’ Sometimes , within a state , the statutes will refer to both .
But they are both the same .
They are both processes by which people who don ’ t want to show up to the polls in person can receive in the mail a ballot .
.
.
that they either mail back or deliver @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
There is no difference.
” Trump ’ s complaints appear to be based on the premise that mail voters typically have to request and fill out a form in order to obtain a mail-in ballot , but some states are sending every eligible voter an application in anticipation of a surge in mail voting due to the pandemic .
The president falsely claimed on Thursday that states were sending out “ hundreds of millions of universal mail-in ballots.
” Aside from the fact that there are not “ hundreds of millions ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ California , which Trump lost by 31 points in 2016 , plans to send absentee ballots to voters .
Though Trump has falsely accused other states like Michigan of sending everyone a ballot , Michigan is one of a handful of states that is sending applications — not ballots — to eligible voters .
There is not a single state that is sending ballots or applications to anyone who is not registered to vote .
Trump and Attorney General William Barr have also floated conspiracy theories that these ballots could possibly be tampered @ @ @ @ @ @ @ claims have been refuted by Republican state officials .
There are numerous safeguards in place , including bar codes and signature verification .
Beverly Clarno , Oregon ’ s Republican secretary of state , told CBS News that the state ’ s system uses unique barcodes for each ballot it sends out .
Kim Wyman , Washington ’ s Republican secretary of state , told The New York Times that “ vote-by-mail has a lot of security measures.
” “ At the end of the day , all voting systems are like banks @ @ @ @ @ @ @ build a lot of things in to protect from fraud .
You build in a lot of measures to detect it .
But ultimately , if somebody wants to commit fraud , or if someone wants to rob a bank , they can .
And then we have measures on the back end to prosecute that criminal activity .
So you hope to deter it , and you hope it doesn ’ t happen .
But if it does , you have ways to deal with it.
” Pressed on his false claims @ @ @ @ @ @ @ spun a new narrative arguing that he does not want election results to be delayed .
“ I don ’ t want to see an election — you know , so many years , I ’ ve been watching elections .
And they say the ‘ projected winner ’ or the ‘ winner of the election ’ — I don ’ t want to see that take place in a week after Nov. 3 , or a month or frankly — with litigation and everything else that can happen — years , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ you never even know who won the election.
” Election experts rejected the idea that counting mailed-in ballots , which happens in every election , would delay the election for years .
“ That ’ s not new .
We ’ ve had absentee voting in this country for a long time , ” Elias told MSNBC .
“ We regularly don ’ t have all the ballots counted on election night.
” “ Any state should be able to count votes-by-mail and verify it within a month unless something derails the system @ @ @ @ @ @ @ professor at Ohio State University , told The Hill .
“ We should get ready for the fact that we may not know who won on Election Night , ” added Justin Levitt , a professor at Loyola Law School .
“ But there ’ s a process for counting and a process for fighting over the count .
And the Constitution says that all of that is over — full stop — well before noon on Jan. 20 .
”

President Donald Trump on Thursday tried to draw a distinction between “mail-in voting” and “absentee voting,” but his own lawyers acknowledged in court documents the two are the same thing.
Trump suggested delaying the election on Thursday amid plummeting poll numbers and the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 150,000 people and caused the largest GDP drop in U.S. history. Trump has no power to postpone the election, and the idea was roundly rejected by Republican lawmakers. At the same time, many members of the GOP have expressed similar concerns about mail-in voting as the president.
“With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history,” Trump claimed without evidence.
Some states have long used all-mail elections. There have been more than 250 million ballots cast by mail in the last 20 years, and only 143 prosecutions related to mail ballot fraud, or a rate of about 0.00006%.
Trump later reiterated that he opposed “mail-in-voting” but “totally” supports “absentee voting,” even though they are the same thing. Trump and many of his aides have repeatedly voted by mail themselves.
Trump and White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, for example, have claimed that they voted “absentee” in Florida. But there is no “absentee” voting in Florida. Instead, the state has a “no excuse” vote-by-mail system that allows anyone to cast a ballot by mail for any reason.
Trump’s own lawyers acknowledged that there is no difference between “mail-in voting” and “absentee voting” in a lawsuit challenging Pennsylvania’s mail voting rules last month.
Attorneys for the Trump campaign noted that while some states have different wording regarding the terminology, “the terms ‘mail-in’ and ‘absentee’ are used interchangeably to discuss the use of the United States Postal Service to deliver ballots to and from electors” in a lawsuit available in full on the president’s website.
On @maddow tonight, I told @AliVelshi that Trump's own lawyers admitted in federal court that "the terms 'mail-in' and 'absentee' are used interchangeably." Here are the receipts. pic.twitter.com/wJILzX7FKk — Marc E. Elias (@marceelias) July 31, 2020
Marc Elias, a lawyer for the Democratic Party who frequently argues election cases in court, told MSNBC on Thursday that “there is no distinction” between the two terms.
“They are synonyms,” he said. “Some states tend to use the term ‘mail-in.’ Some states tend to use the term ‘absentee.’ Sometimes, within a state, the statutes will refer to both. But they are both the same. They are both processes by which people who don’t want to show up to the polls in person can receive in the mail a ballot . . . that they either mail back or deliver through some other mechanism to election officials. There is no difference.”
Trump’s complaints appear to be based on the premise that mail voters typically have to request and fill out a form in order to obtain a mail-in ballot, but some states are sending every eligible voter an application in anticipation of a surge in mail voting due to the pandemic.
The president falsely claimed on Thursday that states were sending out “hundreds of millions of universal mail-in ballots.”
Aside from the fact that there are not “hundreds of millions” of voters in the country, only California, which Trump lost by 31 points in 2016, plans to send absentee ballots to voters. Though Trump has falsely accused other states like Michigan of sending everyone a ballot, Michigan is one of a handful of states that is sending applications — not ballots — to eligible voters. There is not a single state that is sending ballots or applications to anyone who is not registered to vote.
Trump and Attorney General William Barr have also floated conspiracy theories that these ballots could possibly be tampered with or forged, but these baseless claims have been refuted by Republican state officials. There are numerous safeguards in place, including bar codes and signature verification.
Beverly Clarno, Oregon’s Republican secretary of state, told CBS News that the state’s system uses unique barcodes for each ballot it sends out. Kim Wyman, Washington’s Republican secretary of state, told The New York Times that “vote-by-mail has a lot of security measures.”
“At the end of the day, all voting systems are like banks,” she said. “You build a lot of things in to protect from fraud. You build in a lot of measures to detect it. But ultimately, if somebody wants to commit fraud, or if someone wants to rob a bank, they can. And then we have measures on the back end to prosecute that criminal activity. So you hope to deter it, and you hope it doesn’t happen. But if it does, you have ways to deal with it.”
Pressed on his false claims about mail voting on Thursday, Trump spun a new narrative arguing that he does not want election results to be delayed.
“I don’t want to see an election — you know, so many years, I’ve been watching elections. And they say the ‘projected winner’ or the ‘winner of the election’ — I don’t want to see that take place in a week after Nov. 3, or a month or frankly — with litigation and everything else that can happen — years,” Trump claimed. “Years. Or you never even know who won the election.”
Election experts rejected the idea that counting mailed-in ballots, which happens in every election, would delay the election for years.
“That’s not new. We’ve had absentee voting in this country for a long time,” Elias told MSNBC. “We regularly don’t have all the ballots counted on election night.”
“Any state should be able to count votes-by-mail and verify it within a month unless something derails the system,” Edward Foley, a law professor at Ohio State University, told The Hill.
“We should get ready for the fact that we may not know who won on Election Night,” added Justin Levitt, a professor at Loyola Law School. “But there’s a process for counting and a process for fighting over the count. And the Constitution says that all of that is over — full stop — well before noon on Jan. 20.”
Tired of reading the same old news from the same old sources? So are we! That’s why we’re on a mission to shake things up and bring you the stories and perspectives that often go untold in mainstream media. But being a radically, unapologetically independent news site isn’t easy (or cheap), and we rely on reader support to keep the lights on.
If you like what you’re reading, please consider making a tax-deductible donation today. We’re not asking for a handout, we’re asking for an investment: Invest in a nonprofit news site that’s not afraid to ruffle a few feathers, not afraid to stand up for what’s right, and not afraid to tell it like it is.
This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.


truthout--2020-08-01--House Approves $740 Billion Pentagon Budget While Millions Can’t Afford Rent

Win Without War was among the anti-war voices on Friday issuing blistering condemnations of the passage in the U.S. House of a $ 740 billion defense bill as part of the 2021 Appropriations Minibus .
“ A $ 740 billion Pentagon budget is inhumane at any time , ” said the group ’ s executive director , Stephen Miles .
“ In the midst of a pandemic—as people across the country struggle to make rent , to pay their bills , to survive a deadly disease—it should be unthinkable .
Once again , the House has voted to put the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ over the wellbeing of people here and abroad.
” The bill passed the House on Friday by a 217 to 197 margin , largely along party lines , with 16 members not voting .
Only 12 Democrats voted against the measure while 217 voted in favor .
All Republicans in the House either voted against the bill or did not vote .
Read the full roll call here .
The bill ’ s passage came after a vigorous debate over recent weeks that included votes on whether to cut military spending by 10 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Pentagon to continue using video game streaming platforms to recruit impressionable children .
Both measures failed .
“ Though last week ’ s votes on whether or not to cut the Pentagon budget by ten percent were hopeful signs of the shifting tides on Pentagon spending , this Appropriations bill is a reminder that there remains much to be done , ” said Miles .
“ We are also disappointed that House Democrats have decided to once again couple passage of a bill that fuels militarism abroad with bills that fund our @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to challenge the former without undermining the latter.
” Miles did point to what he called “ bright spots ” in the bill , including two provisions from Rep. Barbara Lee ( D-Calif. ) that repeal the 2001 and 2002 Authorizations for Use of Military Force and require congressional approval before going to war with Iran and an amendment from Rep. Jackie Spier ( D-Calif. ) banning the Department of Defense from using funds to implement a ban on transgender Americans in the military .

Win Without War was among the anti-war voices on Friday issuing blistering condemnations of the passage in the U.S. House of a $740 billion defense bill as part of the 2021 Appropriations Minibus.
“A $740 billion Pentagon budget is inhumane at any time,” said the group’s executive director, Stephen Miles. “In the midst of a pandemic—as people across the country struggle to make rent, to pay their bills, to survive a deadly disease—it should be unthinkable. Once again, the House has voted to put the interests of weapons manufacturers and war hawks over the wellbeing of people here and abroad.”
The bill passed the House on Friday by a 217 to 197 margin, largely along party lines, with 16 members not voting. Only 12 Democrats voted against the measure while 217 voted in favor. All Republicans in the House either voted against the bill or did not vote. Read the full roll call here.
The bill’s passage came after a vigorous debate over recent weeks that included votes on whether to cut military spending by 10% and whether or not to allow the Pentagon to continue using video game streaming platforms to recruit impressionable children. Both measures failed.
“Though last week’s votes on whether or not to cut the Pentagon budget by ten percent were hopeful signs of the shifting tides on Pentagon spending, this Appropriations bill is a reminder that there remains much to be done,” said Miles. “We are also disappointed that House Democrats have decided to once again couple passage of a bill that fuels militarism abroad with bills that fund our priorities at home, forfeiting the ability to challenge the former without undermining the latter.”
Miles did point to what he called “bright spots” in the bill, including two provisions from Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) that repeal the 2001 and 2002 Authorizations for Use of Military Force and require congressional approval before going to war with Iran and an amendment from Rep. Jackie Spier (D-Calif.) banning the Department of Defense from using funds to implement a ban on transgender Americans in the military.
Tired of reading the same old news from the same old sources? So are we! That’s why we’re on a mission to shake things up and bring you the stories and perspectives that often go untold in mainstream media. But being a radically, unapologetically independent news site isn’t easy (or cheap), and we rely on reader support to keep the lights on.
If you like what you’re reading, please consider making a tax-deductible donation today. We’re not asking for a handout, we’re asking for an investment: Invest in a nonprofit news site that’s not afraid to ruffle a few feathers, not afraid to stand up for what’s right, and not afraid to tell it like it is.
This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.


truthout--2020-08-01--Black Teen Jailed for Not Doing Her Online Schoolwork Is Released

A Michigan teenager who has been detained since mid-May after not doing her online schoolwork was set free on Friday , after the Michigan Court of Appeals ordered her immediate release from a juvenile facility in suburban Detroit .
Grace , a high school sophomore , spent 78 days at the Children ’ s Village after an Oakland County family court judge found she had violated her probation on earlier charges of assault and theft .
Friday ’ s decision comes a week after that judge denied her lawyer ’ s request to set her free .
The lawyer then @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Within two hours of the court order , shortly after 5 p.m. , Grace left the facility after her mother arrived to get her .
She “ had her bags ready to go , they jumped in the car and they were gone , ” said one of Grace ’ s attorneys , Saima Khalil .
“ They were definitely emotional and happy.
” The case involving Grace , who is Black , was detailed in a ProPublica Illinois investigation this month and has drawn national scrutiny over concerns about the juvenile @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a teenager accountable for schoolwork during the pandemic .
The three-judge appellate court panel ordered that Grace be “ immediately released from detention to the custody of her mother.
” She will remain free pending the appeal of Judge Mary Ellen Brennan ’ s decision in May that found Grace “ guilty on failure to submit to any schoolwork and getting up for school.
” Brennan called Grace a “ threat to ( the ) community , ” citing the assault and theft charges that led to her probation this spring .
Michigan @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for the girl ’ s release , more than 300,000 people signed an online petition and federal lawmakers asked the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Justice Department to intervene .
There were several protests outside the courthouse where the case was heard .
“ We are elated .
We are so happy for Grace to be going home .
It is amazing that she is going to be able to sleep at home tonight , ” said Grace ’ s other attorney , Jonathan Biernat .
A statement released on behalf @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ They are both extremely and deeply appreciative of the outpouring of support from around the country , and for Grace ’ s release ; she is anxious to be with her family.
” Grace will remain on probation while her appeal is pending or on “ further order ” from the Court of Appeals .
She will be on home confinement with a GPS tether and will have individual and family counseling .
She can not have access to a phone unless her probation officer allows it and must obey all laws @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
She also must attend school and do schoolwork as directed , though school is not currently in session .
The order from the Court of Appeals states that Grace ’ s attorney has 35 days to submit a brief in support of her appeal on the judge ’ s decision to revoke her probation and detain her .
The prosecutor will then have 21 days to respond , though prosecutors have said they supported Grace ’ s release .
“ The Court of Appeals did the right thing , and they did @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were very gracious .
They didn ’ t even want it to hit the weekend , ” Khalil said .
“ I am so grateful to them for looking at everything as quickly as they possibly could.
” Grace was a sophomore at Groves High School in Beverly Hills when she was charged with assault and theft for separate incidents last year in which she bit her mother ’ s finger and pulled her hair and then , weeks later , stole another student ’ s cellphone .
Brennan placed Grace on probation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and , among other requirements , required her to complete her schoolwork .
Her probation officer filed a violation against her on May 5 .
She was found guilty on May 14 and placed in secure detention at Children ’ s Village for about three weeks before being transferred to a residential treatment program within the facility .
The decision to detain Grace came while the state was operating under an order from Gov .
Gretchen Whitmer to eliminate any form of detention or residential placement unless a young person posed a “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” In a hearing last week denying Grace ’ s attorneys ’ request to release her , Brennan cited a long history of conflict between the teen and her mother detailed in police and child welfare records , most of them from 2017 and 2018 .
The records describe Grace yelling , pushing , punching and biting her mother , and her mother ’ s inability to control her , including a request in 2018 for Grace to enter a court diversion program for her “ incorrigibility , ” the judge said .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ health treatment and troubles at school , including her theft of school technology , as well as social services support to help resolve conflicts between the mother and daughter .
Brennan said Grace was doing well and would be best served by getting more mental health treatment at Children ’ s Village .
The program could have taken three more months to complete ; Brennan had set Grace ’ s next hearing for Sept. 8 .
Brennan , the Oakland County prosecutor ’ s office and the Oakland County Circuit Court did not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ On Wednesday , the prosecutor ’ s office told the Court of Appeals that it supported the release of Grace from detention .
Brennan ’ s husband , attorney Edward Lennon , said his wife “ is going to respect the Court of Appeals order .
She is just going to do her job like she has been doing.
” Congressman Andy Levin , who represents the Oakland County district where Grace lives , said after the Court of Appeals decision was announced that “ there is absolutely no doubt that public pressure @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mother.
” “ Throughout this pandemic , the injustices underlying so many of our systems have risen to the surface , and the people ’ s voice has risen just as swiftly to proclaim they must end , ” he wrote .
Activists and others , including Grace ’ s mother , say her case highlights systemic racial disparities in the juvenile justice system .
From January 2016 through June 2020 , about 4,800 juvenile cases were referred to the Oakland County court .
Of those , 42 % involved Black youth even @ @ @ @ @ @ @ county ’ s youth are Black , according to a ProPublica Illinois analysis .
Research also has shown a disproportionate number of youth of color are incarcerated in Michigan .
“ I thank the Michigan Court of Appeals for taking action , every journalist who brought attention to this matter , every protester who camped outside of Children ’ s Village and every one of my colleagues who joined me to demand ‘ Free Grace !
’ in the weeks past , ” Levin said .
“ We must continue dismantling the systems @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Grace to be incarcerated at a disproportionate rate.
” Michigan congresswoman Rashida Tlaib wrote on Twitter : “ Coming together to demand justice in both the halls of Congress and the streets of Michigan really can make a difference .
We did it for Grace — and we ’ ll do it again.
” Rep. Debbie Dingell tweeted “ Great news !
” when it was announced that Grace would be going home .
“ But we can ’ t forget Grace is just one case in our broken criminal justice system , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ case shine a light and raise awareness of the work we still need to do.
” ProPublica is using the teenager ’ s middle name to protect her identity .

A Michigan teenager who had been detained since mid-May after not doing her online schoolwork was released on Friday.
A Michigan teenager who has been detained since mid-May after not doing her online schoolwork was set free on Friday, after the Michigan Court of Appeals ordered her immediate release from a juvenile facility in suburban Detroit.
Grace, a high school sophomore, spent 78 days at the Children’s Village after an Oakland County family court judge found she had violated her probation on earlier charges of assault and theft. Friday’s decision comes a week after that judge denied her lawyer’s request to set her free. The lawyer then asked the appellate court to release her.
Within two hours of the court order, shortly after 5 p.m., Grace left the facility after her mother arrived to get her. She “had her bags ready to go, they jumped in the car and they were gone,” said one of Grace’s attorneys, Saima Khalil. “They were definitely emotional and happy.”
The case involving Grace, who is Black, was detailed in a ProPublica Illinois investigation this month and has drawn national scrutiny over concerns about the juvenile justice system, systemic racism and holding a teenager accountable for schoolwork during the pandemic.
The three-judge appellate court panel ordered that Grace be “immediately released from detention to the custody of her mother.” She will remain free pending the appeal of Judge Mary Ellen Brennan’s decision in May that found Grace “guilty on failure to submit to any schoolwork and getting up for school.” Brennan called Grace a “threat to (the) community,” citing the assault and theft charges that led to her probation this spring.
Michigan lawmakers and school board members have called for the girl’s release, more than 300,000 people signed an online petition and federal lawmakers asked the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Justice Department to intervene. There were several protests outside the courthouse where the case was heard.
“We are elated. We are so happy for Grace to be going home. It is amazing that she is going to be able to sleep at home tonight,” said Grace’s other attorney, Jonathan Biernat.
A statement released on behalf of Grace and her mother said, “They are both extremely and deeply appreciative of the outpouring of support from around the country, and for Grace’s release; she is anxious to be with her family.”
Grace will remain on probation while her appeal is pending or on “further order” from the Court of Appeals. She will be on home confinement with a GPS tether and will have individual and family counseling. She cannot have access to a phone unless her probation officer allows it and must obey all laws and follow her mother’s rules. She also must attend school and do schoolwork as directed, though school is not currently in session.
The order from the Court of Appeals states that Grace’s attorney has 35 days to submit a brief in support of her appeal on the judge’s decision to revoke her probation and detain her. The prosecutor will then have 21 days to respond, though prosecutors have said they supported Grace’s release.
“The Court of Appeals did the right thing, and they did it as expeditiously as possible. They were very gracious. They didn’t even want it to hit the weekend,” Khalil said. “I am so grateful to them for looking at everything as quickly as they possibly could.”
Grace was a sophomore at Groves High School in Beverly Hills when she was charged with assault and theft for separate incidents last year in which she bit her mother’s finger and pulled her hair and then, weeks later, stole another student’s cellphone.
Brennan placed Grace on probation for those charges on April 21, and, among other requirements, required her to complete her schoolwork. Her probation officer filed a violation against her on May 5. She was found guilty on May 14 and placed in secure detention at Children’s Village for about three weeks before being transferred to a residential treatment program within the facility.
The decision to detain Grace came while the state was operating under an order from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to eliminate any form of detention or residential placement unless a young person posed a “substantial and immediate safety risk to others.”
In a hearing last week denying Grace’s attorneys’ request to release her, Brennan cited a long history of conflict between the teen and her mother detailed in police and child welfare records, most of them from 2017 and 2018. The records describe Grace yelling, pushing, punching and biting her mother, and her mother’s inability to control her, including a request in 2018 for Grace to enter a court diversion program for her “incorrigibility,” the judge said. She also mentioned Grace’s mental health treatment and troubles at school, including her theft of school technology, as well as social services support to help resolve conflicts between the mother and daughter.
Brennan said Grace was doing well and would be best served by getting more mental health treatment at Children’s Village. The program could have taken three more months to complete; Brennan had set Grace’s next hearing for Sept. 8.
Brennan, the Oakland County prosecutor’s office and the Oakland County Circuit Court did not respond to requests for comment Friday. On Wednesday, the prosecutor’s office told the Court of Appeals that it supported the release of Grace from detention.
Brennan’s husband, attorney Edward Lennon, said his wife “is going to respect the Court of Appeals order. She is just going to do her job like she has been doing.”
Congressman Andy Levin, who represents the Oakland County district where Grace lives, said after the Court of Appeals decision was announced that “there is absolutely no doubt that public pressure turned the tide for Grace and her mother.”
“Throughout this pandemic, the injustices underlying so many of our systems have risen to the surface, and the people’s voice has risen just as swiftly to proclaim they must end,” he wrote.
Activists and others, including Grace’s mother, say her case highlights systemic racial disparities in the juvenile justice system. From January 2016 through June 2020, about 4,800 juvenile cases were referred to the Oakland County court. Of those, 42% involved Black youth even though only about 15% of the county’s youth are Black, according to a ProPublica Illinois analysis. Research also has shown a disproportionate number of youth of color are incarcerated in Michigan.
“I thank the Michigan Court of Appeals for taking action, every journalist who brought attention to this matter, every protester who camped outside of Children’s Village and every one of my colleagues who joined me to demand ‘Free Grace!’ in the weeks past,” Levin said. “We must continue dismantling the systems that allow young, Black girls like Grace to be incarcerated at a disproportionate rate.”
Michigan congresswoman Rashida Tlaib wrote on Twitter: “Coming together to demand justice in both the halls of Congress and the streets of Michigan really can make a difference. We did it for Grace — and we’ll do it again.”
Rep. Debbie Dingell tweeted “Great news!” when it was announced that Grace would be going home.
“But we can’t forget Grace is just one case in our broken criminal justice system,” Dingell wrote. “Let this case shine a light and raise awareness of the work we still need to do.”
ProPublica is using the teenager’s middle name to protect her identity.
Tired of reading the same old news from the same old sources? So are we! That’s why we’re on a mission to shake things up and bring you the stories and perspectives that often go untold in mainstream media. But being a radically, unapologetically independent news site isn’t easy (or cheap), and we rely on reader support to keep the lights on.
If you like what you’re reading, please consider making a tax-deductible donation today. We’re not asking for a handout, we’re asking for an investment: Invest in a nonprofit news site that’s not afraid to ruffle a few feathers, not afraid to stand up for what’s right, and not afraid to tell it like it is.
This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.


truthout--2020-08-01--Abel Cedeño and Queer Youth of Color Are Still Caged for Self-Defense

In 2017 , Abel Cedeño was an 18-year-old high school senior when the bullying he ’ d experienced for so many years came to a head .
Defending himself from a homophobic attack , Cedeño injured one student and killed another .
In September 2019 , a New York judge sentenced him to 14 years in prison .
Cedeño is in a cell after daring to defend himself against vicious bullying — bullying he ’ d reported many times to school officials , and to the point he and his mother , Luz Hernandez , went to the New York @ @ @ @ @ @ @ transfer to another school .
The Department denied the request .
After years of physical , emotional and sexual torment , Cedeño has been met with more homophobia and abuse behind bars .
“ In jail , they say , ‘ Stay away from the three Gs : gambling , gangs and gays.
’ ” When another prisoner spit at him on one of his first days at the Coxsackie Correctional Facility in upstate New York , he understood the homophobia he suffered on the outside was only going to be exacerbated .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ largest LGBT nonprofits , corporate media and politicians push the same line for Pride Month as last year , and the year before that : Life in the U.S. is progressively getting better for queer and transgender people .
That may be true for a few gay and lesbian elites , but not for most queer people — people like Cedeño , who celebrated his 21st birthday on July 18 in a prison cell .
Stories like Cedeño ’ s don ’ t fit the “ LGBT progress ” narrative that was bolstered @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Court ruled that LGBT people may be protected under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 .
On paper , this will grant queer and trans people a better chance at suing employers who discriminate against them because of their identities .
As coronavirus rages inside prison walls , and global rebellions rage against state violence and the neglect of people like Cedeño who are at the intersections of oppression , the Supreme Court decision sucked up the meager airtime that mainstream corporate media outlets allot for LGBT news .
The decision reinforces the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but surely working toward queer liberation , but whether it will help many queer and trans people depends on who you ask .
Queer organizer Dorothee Benz has worked at some of the nation ’ s largest LGBT legal rights groups , including the Center for Constitutional Rights ( one of the groups that filed the legal case leading to the Supreme Court decision ) .
Benz described who is likely to benefit : “ The queer people that they ’ re most thinking of here are the same people that they thought @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and by default , that ’ s white folks .
By default , that ’ s people with middle-class jobs , and things like that.
” The mostly white gay men and lesbians with platforms in corporate media don ’ t reflect conditions experienced by trans and queer people of color who may never have had stable housing or “ above-ground ” income .
Speaking to Truthout by phone , Cedeño explained that at 18 , he didn ’ t know other queer people who were out at school or in his neighborhood @ @ @ @ @ @ @ already having ] enough problems at home , ” such as being in and out of shelters , prevented him from coming out to his family .
“ I had to come out because of this experience… So I [ came out to my family ] in my free phone call when I was in the police station.
” Jackie Shane is the pseudonym of a member of the network of Black trans/queer radical activists who organize as the Lucy Parsons Project .
Speaking to the need for queer and transgender communities to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ says that under increasing militarization and surveillance by police and other state institutions , “ Our self-defense is all we have.
” This year marks the 50th anniversary of the first Gay Pride held in Cedeño ’ s hometown of New York City .
The first Gay Pride in 1970 was an anti-police brutality “ Liberation Day March ” centered around a protest to free political prisoners at the city ’ s Women ’ s House of Detention , where Black Panthers Joan Bird and Afeni Shakur were imprisoned for yet another battle @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Gay Pride events are public relations fests for companies and , yes , the police .
Widespread protests sparked by police murders of Black people are centering people at the intersections of class , gender and racial oppression .
Last year , Layleen Polanco , a Black trans woman , was killed by extreme neglect by corrections officers ( guards knew of Polanco ’ s disability , epilepsy , but shoved her into a solitary confinement cell regardless ) .
Tony McDade , a Black trans man , was shot on May 27 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cop who is currently on paid leave , and whose identity is a secret .
The state ’ s largest labor organization for police officers , the Florida Police Benevolent Association , is attempting to argue in court that police who murder civilians should be covered under a victims ’ rights law ( Marsy ’ s Law ) .
U.S. courts routinely imprison queer people of color who defend themselves against anti-queer , anti-trans attackers .
Two of the most well-known cases , the cases of CeCe McDonald and the New Jersey 4 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the U.S. legal system as a site of liberation , but legislators , corporate media , politicians and many LGBT nonprofits are not hearing us .
Instead , they praise what has become a Pride Month tradition : the federal government makes a legal concession that promotes the justice system as progressively fairer toward some of society ’ s most marginalized people .
For example , the federal government picked June to thumbs-up gay marriage ( 2015 ) ; to give trans people the chance to openly serve U.S. militarism ( 2016 ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ first LGBT National Monument ( also 2016 ) .
At a time when unemployment rate is at its highest since the Great Depression , poor and unemployed queer and trans people can watch on as the community is thrown a bone in the form of anti-discrimination labor laws .
When trans and queer folks who are employed are able to find a lawyer to take their case , few actually win , especially against corporate employers who already have laws of their own that make suing corporations hellishly hard .
Shane puts no @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for Black trans women .
Instead , she told Truthout , “ the law has only ever been a tool for the criminalization ” of Black and Brown queer people .
With Cedeño ’ s case , “ we see how impossible it is for people like us to be regarded as targets of harm , ” to the point that lawyers ’ organizations continues to flag the ‘ LGBTQ+ panic defense ’ — a legal tactic used by lawyers with cisgender clients who have been charged with violence against queer and trans @ @ @ @ @ @ @ defense argues that their cis clients were taken off-guard by a victim ’ s gender identity , so they attacked .
And so it follows , Shane noted , that when trans people defend themselves , “ it is we , and not the [ transphobic and ] homophobic people attacking us , who are unprotected by the state.
” The prison industry ’ s reforms via “ trans-friendliness ” trainings and empty policies like 2003 ’ s Prison Rape Elimination Act may lead to more retaliation from prison guards , rather than @ @ @ @ @ @ @ people are money magnets for the people who run prisons , psychiatric help who staff the wards , politicians whose campaigns receive funding from them , and the many , many others who benefit from the industry ’ s growth .
An assistant professor at the University of California-Riverside ’ s Ethnic Studies Department , Alisa Bierria writes about the intersections of anti-Blackness , gender and prisons .
Bierria is also a longtime organizer with Survived and Punished , a group that works to free people who defend themselves against abuse .
As @ @ @ @ @ @ @ yet another act of violence ” that serves to reinforce a series of already “ tragic events ” in the life of many young queer people of color like Cedeño .
“ Incarcerating Abel Cedeño for self-defense against anti-trans/queer torment is particularly insidious , ” Birria said .
“ Valuing the lives of young people — especially young trans/queer people of color and young Black people — demands our divestment from systems of punishment … that deplete our resources ” and “ diminish our capacity to meaningfully address and prevent violence.
” Cedeño @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of resources vacuumed up by policing and prisons .
He would love to see “ a therapy program , community service , and some sort of leadership program where they teach you … how to apply to jobs and give you all the necessary skills to succeed.
” It wasn ’ t until Cedeño was temporarily released on bail that he learned about the Callen-Lorde Community Health Center in Midtown Manhattan .
Cedeño talked about his time there excitedly — how lucky he was to have had access to mental health and medical @ @ @ @ @ @ @ After Cedeño ’ s imprisonment , his high school in the Bronx closed for the academic semester — long enough to spend time and resources on contracting out the work of installing expensive metal detectors around school , but not counseling or programs to assist queer and trans teens with transitioning or tactics for coping with queerphobia .
Caging youths might fulfill someone ’ s revenge impulses , but it won ’ t heal or end harm that is ultimately a society-wide problem .
Instead , police and prison abolitionists , like those @ @ @ @ @ @ @ investing in health care ( such as centers like Callen-Lorde ) is a proactive way to deal with social problems like bullying .
Trauma-informed practices ( an approach in which recognizing trauma shapes care ) would ensure that educators and administrations listen to students like Cedeño when they tell them what they need .
Defunding violent state institutions like the police is one step toward a more supportive environment for youth like Cedeño , and could free up money and resources that instead could go to community health care , housing and education @ @ @ @ @ @ @ justice practices to curb violence .
A growing movement of abolitionists understand government institutions , and their partners in the corporate and nonprofit worlds , are better at producing violence than solving it — and they ’ re working on alternatives to the state ’ s “ justice ” system , one with accountability and healing at its center .

In 2017, Abel Cedeño was an 18-year-old high school senior when the bullying he’d experienced for so many years came to a head. Defending himself from a homophobic attack, Cedeño injured one student and killed another. In September 2019, a New York judge sentenced him to 14 years in prison.
Cedeño is in a cell after daring to defend himself against vicious bullying — bullying he’d reported many times to school officials, and to the point he and his mother, Luz Hernandez, went to the New York City Department of Education to request a transfer to another school. The Department denied the request.
After years of physical, emotional and sexual torment, Cedeño has been met with more homophobia and abuse behind bars. “In jail, they say, ‘Stay away from the three Gs: gambling, gangs and gays.’” When another prisoner spit at him on one of his first days at the Coxsackie Correctional Facility in upstate New York, he understood the homophobia he suffered on the outside was only going to be exacerbated.
This past June, we witnessed the largest LGBT nonprofits, corporate media and politicians push the same line for Pride Month as last year, and the year before that: Life in the U.S. is progressively getting better for queer and transgender people. That may be true for a few gay and lesbian elites, but not for most queer people — people like Cedeño, who celebrated his 21st birthday on July 18 in a prison cell.
Stories like Cedeño’s don’t fit the “LGBT progress” narrative that was bolstered on June 15, when the Supreme Court ruled that LGBT people may be protected under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. On paper, this will grant queer and trans people a better chance at suing employers who discriminate against them because of their identities.
As coronavirus rages inside prison walls, and global rebellions rage against state violence and the neglect of people like Cedeño who are at the intersections of oppression, the Supreme Court decision sucked up the meager airtime that mainstream corporate media outlets allot for LGBT news. The decision reinforces the notion that the U.S. government is slowly but surely working toward queer liberation, but whether it will help many queer and trans people depends on who you ask.
Queer organizer Dorothee Benz has worked at some of the nation’s largest LGBT legal rights groups, including the Center for Constitutional Rights (one of the groups that filed the legal case leading to the Supreme Court decision). Benz described who is likely to benefit: “The queer people that they’re most thinking of here are the same people that they thought of in the marriage equality struggle, and by default, that’s white folks. By default, that’s people with middle-class jobs, and things like that.”
The mostly white gay men and lesbians with platforms in corporate media don’t reflect conditions experienced by trans and queer people of color who may never have had stable housing or “above-ground” income. Speaking to Truthout by phone, Cedeño explained that at 18, he didn’t know other queer people who were out at school or in his neighborhood in the Bronx, and “[already having] enough problems at home,” such as being in and out of shelters, prevented him from coming out to his family. “I had to come out because of this experience… So I [came out to my family] in my free phone call when I was in the police station.”
Jackie Shane is the pseudonym of a member of the network of Black trans/queer radical activists who organize as the Lucy Parsons Project. Speaking to the need for queer and transgender communities to organize their own safety networks, she says that under increasing militarization and surveillance by police and other state institutions, “Our self-defense is all we have.”
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the first Gay Pride held in Cedeño’s hometown of New York City. The first Gay Pride in 1970 was an anti-police brutality “Liberation Day March” centered around a protest to free political prisoners at the city’s Women’s House of Detention, where Black Panthers Joan Bird and Afeni Shakur were imprisoned for yet another battle against the cops. Today, corporate Gay Pride events are public relations fests for companies and, yes, the police.
Widespread protests sparked by police murders of Black people are centering people at the intersections of class, gender and racial oppression. Last year, Layleen Polanco, a Black trans woman, was killed by extreme neglect by corrections officers (guards knew of Polanco’s disability, epilepsy, but shoved her into a solitary confinement cell regardless). Tony McDade, a Black trans man, was shot on May 27 outside his Florida apartment complex by a cop who is currently on paid leave, and whose identity is a secret. The state’s largest labor organization for police officers, the Florida Police Benevolent Association, is attempting to argue in court that police who murder civilians should be covered under a victims’ rights law (Marsy’s Law).
U.S. courts routinely imprison queer people of color who defend themselves against anti-queer, anti-trans attackers. Two of the most well-known cases, the cases of CeCe McDonald and the New Jersey 4, mobilized activists and helped us rethink the U.S. legal system as a site of liberation, but legislators, corporate media, politicians and many LGBT nonprofits are not hearing us.
Instead, they praise what has become a Pride Month tradition: the federal government makes a legal concession that promotes the justice system as progressively fairer toward some of society’s most marginalized people. For example, the federal government picked June to thumbs-up gay marriage (2015); to give trans people the chance to openly serve U.S. militarism (2016); and memorialize the country’s first LGBT National Monument (also 2016).
At a time when unemployment rate is at its highest since the Great Depression, poor and unemployed queer and trans people can watch on as the community is thrown a bone in the form of anti-discrimination labor laws. When trans and queer folks who are employed are able to find a lawyer to take their case, few actually win, especially against corporate employers who already have laws of their own that make suing corporations hellishly hard.
Shane puts no faith in the law as a liberator for Black trans women. Instead, she told Truthout, “the law has only ever been a tool for the criminalization” of Black and Brown queer people. With Cedeño’s case, “we see how impossible it is for people like us to be regarded as targets of harm,” to the point that lawyers’ organizations continues to flag the ‘LGBTQ+ panic defense’ — a legal tactic used by lawyers with cisgender clients who have been charged with violence against queer and trans people. Using this strategy, the defense argues that their cis clients were taken off-guard by a victim’s gender identity, so they attacked. And so it follows, Shane noted, that when trans people defend themselves, “it is we, and not the [transphobic and] homophobic people attacking us, who are unprotected by the state.”
The prison industry’s reforms via “trans-friendliness” trainings and empty policies like 2003’s Prison Rape Elimination Act may lead to more retaliation from prison guards, rather than less sexual violence. Queer and trans people are money magnets for the people who run prisons, psychiatric help who staff the wards, politicians whose campaigns receive funding from them, and the many, many others who benefit from the industry’s growth.
An assistant professor at the University of California-Riverside’s Ethnic Studies Department, Alisa Bierria writes about the intersections of anti-Blackness, gender and prisons. Bierria is also a longtime organizer with Survived and Punished, a group that works to free people who defend themselves against abuse. As she told Truthout, “Incarceration is yet another act of violence” that serves to reinforce a series of already “tragic events” in the life of many young queer people of color like Cedeño.
“Incarcerating Abel Cedeño for self-defense against anti-trans/queer torment is particularly insidious,” Birria said. “Valuing the lives of young people — especially young trans/queer people of color and young Black people — demands our divestment from systems of punishment … that deplete our resources” and “diminish our capacity to meaningfully address and prevent violence.”
Cedeño has plenty of ideas for better uses of resources vacuumed up by policing and prisons. He would love to see “a therapy program, community service, and some sort of leadership program where they teach you … how to apply to jobs and give you all the necessary skills to succeed.”
It wasn’t until Cedeño was temporarily released on bail that he learned about the Callen-Lorde Community Health Center in Midtown Manhattan. Cedeño talked about his time there excitedly — how lucky he was to have had access to mental health and medical help and to meet LGBTQ teens. After Cedeño’s imprisonment, his high school in the Bronx closed for the academic semester — long enough to spend time and resources on contracting out the work of installing expensive metal detectors around school, but not counseling or programs to assist queer and trans teens with transitioning or tactics for coping with queerphobia.
Caging youths might fulfill someone’s revenge impulses, but it won’t heal or end harm that is ultimately a society-wide problem. Instead, police and prison abolitionists, like those behind 8 to Abolition, recognize that investing in health care (such as centers like Callen-Lorde) is a proactive way to deal with social problems like bullying. Trauma-informed practices (an approach in which recognizing trauma shapes care) would ensure that educators and administrations listen to students like Cedeño when they tell them what they need. Defunding violent state institutions like the police is one step toward a more supportive environment for youth like Cedeño, and could free up money and resources that instead could go to community health care, housing and education, with the goal of establishing restorative justice practices to curb violence.
A growing movement of abolitionists understand government institutions, and their partners in the corporate and nonprofit worlds, are better at producing violence than solving it — and they’re working on alternatives to the state’s “justice” system, one with accountability and healing at its center.
Tired of reading the same old news from the same old sources? So are we! That’s why we’re on a mission to shake things up and bring you the stories and perspectives that often go untold in mainstream media. But being a radically, unapologetically independent news site isn’t easy (or cheap), and we rely on reader support to keep the lights on.
If you like what you’re reading, please consider making a tax-deductible donation today. We’re not asking for a handout, we’re asking for an investment: Invest in a nonprofit news site that’s not afraid to ruffle a few feathers, not afraid to stand up for what’s right, and not afraid to tell it like it is.
Copyright © Truthout. May not be reprinted without permission.