Condemning Trump Administration Attacks on LGBTQIA+ Persons
Association of Flight Attendants–CWA, AFL-CIO Executive Board Resolution, June 25, 2019
WHEREAS, this month marks the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, and
WHEREAS, AFA-CWA’s Mission Statement says “It is a core value of AFA-CWA to promote economic and social justice for all workers through education and action. We are committed to the broadest employment of our members regardless of age, color, disability, marital status, national origin, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression.”; and,
WHEREAS, the AFA Executive Board adopted a resolution at our meeting on November 18, 2018 opposing any efforts to erase transgender rights; and,
WHEREAS, 2017 saw more anti-LGBTQ hare crimes than any of the prior 20 years. Within the last few years, violence against transgender women of color in particular has grown into a crisis.
WHEREAS, the following actions by the Trump Administration continue to attack LGBTQIA+ persons:
- President Trump opposes the Equality Act, recently passed House of Representatives;
- President Trump withdrew protections for transgender individuals by stating Title IX no longer applies to the transgender community and no longer allowing trans school children the ability to use the restroom that matches their gender expression.
- President Trump signed an executive order focused on “religious liberty,” setting the groundwork to allow discrimination against the LGBTQ community based on religious beliefs.
- The Labor Department issued guidance to “ensure” religious freedoms are protected from LGBT non-discrimination rules,
- The Bureau of Prisons required that inmates be housed according to their biological sex, rolling back Obama-era protections for transgender individuals,
- President Trump banned transgender persons from serving in the military.
- The Trump Administration enacted a policy stating transgender Americans would not be guaranteed healthcare protections under the Affordable Care Act, potentially harming 1.5 million trans-Americans.
- The Trump Administration went to great lengths to prevent the Pride Flag from flying on a flagpole at the Stonewall National Monument, because the monument is on federal land.
- The Trump Administration announced it would cut federal funding for an HIV and AIDS research program being conducted by the University of California.
- The Trump Administration quietly shut down a HIV research facility in Montana after the administration objected to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and its scientists using fetal tissue as a part of its research to find a cure for HIV and AIDS.
- The Trump Administration discharged two service members in the Air Force after disclosing their HIV-positive status to the Department of Defense.
- The Trump Administration announced plans to begin implementing a new policy which would allow adoption agencies to deny LGBTQ couples the ability to adopt based on so-called "religious exemptions.”
- Trump Administration rescinded an Obama-era policy which had asked homeless shelters receiving federal dollars to grant transgender Americans the ability to use facilities according to their gender identity.
- The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will no longer be collecting data on LGBTQ youth in foster care programs.
- Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson refused to reinstate housing protection guidelines that would prevent LGBTQ Americans from experiencing discrimination while attaining a home, including access to homeless shelters.
- The Trump Administration signed a trade agreement with Canada and Mexico that makes it clear the United States doesn’t have to proactively combat anti-LGBTQ discrimination in order to adhere to the agreement.
- The Trump Administration's State Department announced a new policy that the same-sex, unmarried partners of United Nations employees will not be granted visas to stay in the U.S., effective immediately. In doing so, diplomats in same-sex partnerships who come from countries where same-sex marriage is illegal will either be forced to marry in the U.S. and risk repercussions, including threats, harassment, and even incarceration back home; quit their jobs; or separate for the sake of one partner's career.
- White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters that President Trump backs the position that businesses owners should be able to put up signs saying they won’t serve gays.
- President Trump endorsed candidate Roy Moore, who has a violently anti-LGBTQ record and multiple well-documented accusations of sexual assault, abuse, and assessment, in the Alabama special Senate Election
- President Trump ended the DACA program, which protected an estimated 800,000 young undocumented immigrants, including 36,000 LGBTQ DREAMers, from detention and deportation.
- DHS proposed regulations allowing healthcare workers, doctors, hospitals and health insurance companies that receive federal funding to refuse to provide health care services to LGBT people, including transition-related and reproductive care, and to deny insurance to LGBT patients or policy-holders because of personal, religious or moral beliefs.
- Trump continues to meet with anti LGBTQIA+ Individuals at the White House.
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the AFA-CWA Executive Board, representing 50,000 Flight Attendants at 20 airlines, reaffirms our Mission Statement that we promote economic and social justice for all workers through education and action, regardless of sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression; and,
BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, that AFA will continue to oppose any efforts by the Trump administration, lawmakers, or private companies to reinterpret existing laws and regulation; and continue to oppose enactment of any new legislation which would erase LGBTQIA+ protections that would cause harm Flight Attendants.
Unanimously Adopted
AFA-CWA Executive Board
June 25, 2019
