Quickies – Obama, Biden, Manning, Miller

• Obama Speaks at Selma, Mentions Gay Rights – President Obama spoke on the 50th anniversary of the brutal police assault on peaceful civil rights marchers as they crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, AL. In his speech, he evoked “warriors of justice” such as Sojourner Truth, the Navajo code-talkers, and “the gay Americans whose blood ran on the streets of San Francisco and New York.”
• Biden Reaffirms Support for national LGBT Nondiscrimination Law – Vice President Joe Biden spoke to the HRC on March 6, connecting the struggle for LGBT people with the greater civil rights movement, and saying “We have to pass the federal non-discrimination legislation, and we need to pass it now.”
• “Gay Son Speaks Out Against Texas Lawmaker Father’s Anti-LGBT Bill” – “As many of you know by now, my dad has authored and submitted a bill in the Texas House of Representatives that, if signed into law, would prevent municipalities in Texas from maintaining sexual orientation anti-discrimination laws. While I love my dad very much, I am extremely disappointed by his actions and will do everything I can to prevent that bill, or any such legislation, from becoming law.”
• Appeals Court Orders Military to Respect Manning’s Pronouns – The military must now refer to Chelsea Manning as a woman and use either female pronouns or gender neutral terms when referring to her in legal documents. Manning is still being denied transition-related healthcare.
• Florida Brewing Anti-Trans Bathroom Bill – The bill, which just made it out of subcommittee, would bar trans people from using gender appropriate bathrooms, and also criminalize establishments allowing trans people to use gender appropriate bathrooms.
• Victoria Transgender Woman Takes Segregated Bathroom Fight Online – “A 23-year-old Victoria woman is using men’s washrooms to protest a proposed federal law that is supposed to protect transgendered people. She says it does the opposite.”
• Planet Fitness Stands By Decision to Ban Woman Who Complained about Trans Woman – The gym canceled a woman’s membership after she complained about a transgender woman using the woman’s locker room. The gym characterized the woman who made the complaint “disruptive to other members, which is a violation of the membership agreement and as a result her membership was cancelled.”

Featured image: Obama and marchers via Jacquelyn Martin/AP