New top story from Time: In Win For LGBTQ Rights, Supreme Court Declines to Hear Appeal Challenging Landmark Trans Rights Ruling

https://ift.tt/3x4RZ10

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal on Monday to a circuit court ruling that required a Virginia school to let a transgender student use the bathroom corresponding with his gender identity. The decision delivers a major win for Grimm as well as LGBTQ advocates that have decried bathroom bans and other anti-trans policies that have sprung up across the U.S. this year, many of which target trans youth.

The case began in 2015 when Gavin Grimm, a then-16-year-old transgender teen, sued his public high school over a policy that prevented him from using the boys restroom, instead directing him to use a unisex one. With the backing of the ACLU, Grimm’s suit alleged the policy violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment and Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in schools.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

The Obama-era Justice Department supported Grimm’s position, and in 2016 the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in his favor. The school board appealed, and the Supreme Court agreed to take up the case in 2017. But later that year the Trump Administration revoked an Obama-era directive to schools to not discriminate on the basis of gender identity, so SCOTUS then sent the case back to the 4th Circuit to reevaluate. The 4th Circuit ruled in Grimm’s favor again in 2020, and the school board once again appealed. But to no avail: the Supreme Court declined to hear that appeal, leaving in place the 4th Circuit’s ruling and handing Grimm one last and final win.

While the court did not offer reasoning in its order, Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented, signaling they would have taken up the case.

“I am glad that my years-long fight to have my school see me for who I am is over,” said Grimm in a statement. “Being forced to use the nurse’s room, a private bathroom, and the girl’s room was humiliating for me, and having to go to out-of-the-way bathrooms severely interfered with my education. Trans youth deserve to use the bathroom in peace without being humiliated and stigmatized by their own school boards and elected officials.”

I was barred from the bathroom at my highschool 7 years ago, when I was 15. 6 years ago, at 16, myself with the @ACLU/@ACLUVA filed suit in response to that discrimination. Twice since I have enjoyed victories in court, and now it's over. We won.

— Gavin Grimm 🏳️‍⚧️ (@GavinGrimmVA) June 28, 2021

“This is an incredible victory for Gavin and for transgender students around the country,” said Josh Block, a senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) LGBTQ & HIV Project, in a statement. “Our work is not yet done, and the ACLU is continuing to fight against anti-trans laws targeting trans youth in states around the country.”

Douglas NeJaime, a professor of law at Yale Law School, tells TIME that in some ways the order is not surprising because “the logic follows” from 2020’s Bostock v. Clayton County case, in which the Supreme Court ruled that firing individuals for being gay or transgender violates Title VII’s ban on sex discrimination. “The reasoning in that opinion would apply to a range of federal laws that prohibit sex discrimination, including in education,” he explains.

“Courts across the country will take note of Gavin Grimm’s decision, and decisions in appellate and district courts around the country that have consistently ruled in favor of transgender students,” says Paul Castillo, counsel and students’ rights strategist at Lambda Legal, an LGBTQ legal advocacy organization. (The 4th Circuit’s ruling will apply to school policy in states in the mid-Atlantic, including Maryland and Virginia, but the issue remains unsettled nationwide.)

The order also comes weeks after the Biden Administration reversed a Trump-era policy on June 16, issuing a letter announcing the Department of Education interprets federal protections against sex discrimination to include protections of LGBTQ students.

“The Supreme Court has upheld the right for LGBTQ+ people to live and work without fear of harassment, exclusion, and discrimination – and our LGBTQ+ students have the same rights and deserve the same protections,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, in a statement that same day, adding that the “Department makes clear that all students—including LGBTQ+ students—deserve the opportunity to learn and thrive in schools that are free from discrimination.”

Comments

Raksha Bandhan 2020

Raksha Bandhan 2020 is going to be celebrated in India according to the lunar calendar month of Shravan which is August 3 this year. During the celebration women tie a variety of Rakhi on the wrist of their brothers with a wish to keep all misfortune, distress, evils away from their brothers. In return, brothers promise them for protection and to stand by her in every circumstance. During the rituals, brother offers some gifts to their sisters as a customary gesture. Raksha Bandhan is a very important festival in India. During the festival, sisters who resides far away from their brothers send them Raksha Bandhan quotes to brother through SMS or any other electronic medium. Similarly, brothers sent to their sisters Raksha Bandhan quotes to sister through these media to express their good wishes and well beings for their sisters. In this festival, Raksha Bandhan Quotes, Raksha Bandhan Images, Raksha Bandhan greetings typically trends on all social media platforms. People sen...

New top story from Time: How Spirited Away Changed Animation Forever

https://ift.tt/3xVoGP5 Twenty years ago, on July 20, 2001, a film that would become one of the most celebrated animated movies of all time hit theaters in Japan. Directed by Hayao Miyazaki and produced by Studio Ghibli, Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi, titled Spirited Away in English, would leave an indelible mark on animation in the 21st century. The movie arrived at a time when animation was widely perceived as a genre solely for children, and when cultural differences often became barriers to the global distribution of animated works. Spirited Away shattered preconceived notions about the art form and also proved that, as a film created in Japanese with elements of Japanese folklore central to its core, it could resonate deeply with audiences around the world. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] The story follows an ordinary 10-year-old girl, Chihiro, as she arrives at a deserted theme park that turns out to be a realm of gods and spirits. After an overeating incident ...

India's second-quarter GDP data to be released today https://ift.tt/2JfXhDl

The second-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) data on India will be released today with the industry expecting positive news. The data will be released by the National Statistical Office.

Govt proposes capping surge pricing by cab aggregators at 1.5 times of base fare https://ift.tt/37iLQ5R

The government on Friday proposed to cap surge pricing charged by cab aggregators like Ola and Uber at 1.5 times of the base fare. The development assumes significance in the backdrop of a long-pending demand of citizens to cap the pricing of ride-hailing services.

New top story from Time: We’re in the Third Quarter of the Pandemic. Antarctic Researchers, Mars Simulation Scientists and Navy Submarine Officers Have Advice For How to Get Through It

https://ift.tt/2MtohAV McMurdo Station, an Antarctic research base 2,415 miles south of Christchurch, New Zealand, is a strange place to ride out the COVID-19 pandemic. But it’s been a home of sorts for Pedro Salom since he took a dishwashing job there in 2001, when he was 24. Now an assistant area manager with more than a dozen Antarctic deployments behind him, Salom has grown accustomed to the ebb and flow of life on the ice. There’s the surge of excitement when new arrivals join the camp, the feeling of isolation from the rest of the world when earth and sea disappear in the endless night from April to August; and the joy when the sun finally appears behind the mountains once again. He’s also been around long enough to know that, as people reach the end of their deployments, many begin to struggle—whether they’ve been at McMurdo for over a year, or even just a few months. “One of the things I look for is dramatic changes in people’s habits,” says Salom. “If somebody has...

New top story from Time: Matt Damon Shines in Stillwater, an Uneven Thriller Inspired by a Real-Life Murder Case

https://ift.tt/3iYwyJq In Tom McCarthy’s somber thriller Stillwater, Matt Damon plays the ultimate ham-fisted American in France, doing such a good job of it that he helps disguise the flaws of this sometimes compelling but often frustrating movie. Damon plays Bill Baxter, an out-of-work Oklahoma oil-rig worker who travels to Marseille to visit his estranged daughter, Allison ( Abigail Breslin ), who’s serving a prison sentence there for a murder she claims she didn’t commit. Though he speaks no French and is generally known to make a mess of things, Bill attempts to investigate new evidence in Allison’s case, drawing a local single mom, Virginie (Camille Cottin), and her young daughter Maya (Lilou Siauvaud) into an increasingly tangled net. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Stillwater was loosely inspired by the case of Amanda Knox —who spent nearly four years in an Italian prison after being convicted of the 2007 murder of a fellow exchange student—though the movie foll...

With 12,689 new COVID-19 cases, 137 deaths in a day; India's tally jumps to 1,06,89,527 https://ift.tt/2YjtH3C

India's COVID-19 tally mounted to 1,06,89,527 with 12,689 new cases in a day, while 1,03,59,305 people have recuperated from the infection so far pushing the national recovery rate to 96.91 per cent on Wednesday, according to the Union Health Ministry's data.

New top story from Time: ‘Judge Me By My Actions.’ Trevor Lawrence Discusses the 2021 NFL Draft and Questions About His Work Ethic

https://ift.tt/3vvFjiL Trevor Lawrence, the former Clemson star quarterback and presumptive top overall selection in the 2021 NFL draft—which begins Thursday—has had one hectic month of April. He’s prepping for the most important night of his football life. He married his longtime girlfriend, Marissa Mowry. (The honeymoon will have to wait). He signed endorsement deals with Gatorade, Topps, which has offered both physical trading cards and NFTs with his likeness, and the cryptocurrency investment app Blockfolio —his signing bonus was paid in crypto. On Wednesday morning, Lawrence announced he signed an endorsement deal with Adidas. He’s also received a taste of the ridiculous headaches a franchise quarterback must endure. Quarterback, more than perhaps any position in all of pro sports, unmasks the obsessiveness of sports fans. Especially a player like Lawrence, whom ESPN draft guru Mel Kiper Jr. rates as the fourth-best quarterback draft prospect since 1979, trailin...

New top story from Time: 11 Moments From Asian American History That You Should Know

https://ift.tt/330kaRq More than 30 years after President George H.W. Bush signed a law that designated May 1990 as the first Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month , much of Asian American history remains unknown to many Americans—including many Asian Americans themselves. Often the Asian-American history taught in classrooms is limited to a few milestones like the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the incarceration of people of Japanese descent during World War II, and that abridged version rarely includes the nearly 50 other ethnic groups that make up the fastest-growing racial and ethnic group in the U.S. in the first two decades of the 21st century . To many, the resulting lack of awareness was highlighted after the March 16 Atlanta spa shootings that left six women of Asian descent dead. The killings fit into a larger trend of violence against Asians failing to be seen or charged as a hate crime , even as leaders lamented that “racist attacks [are]… no...

New top story from Time: After Its Deployment in Upstate New York, Residents Raise Concerns Over Gun Violence Task Force

https://ift.tt/375f9sG In the midst of nationwide calls to move away from age-old police tactics towards incorporating more community-led responses to gun violence, one U.S. Attorney’s decision to form a task force—with the goal of taking “proactive” measures to address gun violence in two cities in New York—has drawn criticism from local residents. James P. Kennedy Jr., U.S. Attorney for the Western District of New York, announced the formation of the Violence Prevention and Elimination Response (VIPER) task force on July 7, intended to combat a recent surge of gun violence in Rochester and Buffalo, NY. Combining the work of city, state and federal agencies, VIPER’s focus is to get high-level and well-known gun offenders off the cities’ streets, Kennedy said. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Similar federal-led initiatives are rolling out across other cities in the country. Last week, the Department of Justice launched a series of firearms trafficking strike forces in “fi...

My precise view

Search This Blog