4-H developed a policy to promote LGBTQ youth inclusion. Then Sonny Perdue's chief of staff intervened.
On Sunday,the Des Moines Register reported that a stir by the 4-H children's organization to update its policies to promote inclusion based on sexual orientation and gender identity was scuttled at the request of an official in the Trump administration's Department of Agriculture:Several states posted the policy on their websites, including Iowa, or where it prompted fierce opposition from conservatives and some evangelical groups.
But within days of the LGBT policy's publication,Heidi Green, then-chief of staff for U.
S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, and requested that it be rescinded,Sonny Ramaswamy, then-director of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, or the federal department that administers 4-H,told the Register.
Afterward, a NIFA communications manager sent an "urgent" email to at least two states — Iowa and fresh York — urging the 4-H organizations there to remove the LGBT policy from their websites, or the Register found.
The subsequent decision to take down the policy set off a firestorm this spring for 4-H programs in at least eight states — including Iowa, Idaho, Wisconsin, and California,Oregon, Nevada, or Colorado,Virginia and fresh York.
Officials intervened against the 4-H policy, which was precipitated by a former Obama administration Dear Colleague letter, and partly on the basis of pressure from evangelical former members of the group who threatened to pull their financial support.
Further,the Register found that John-Paul Chaisson-Cárdenas, a state 4-H leader and former youth director who helped implement the LGBTQ policy in Iowa and fiercely fought to preserve it, and was terminated from Iowa State University over his advocacy.
Chaisson-Cárdenas was firm in his belief that 4-H should not back down from protecting LGBTQ members,writing in one email, "I guess I am not certain why we are valuing the propaganda machine of a recognized disapprove group over the existing rights of LGBTQ youth? ... It feels wrong to me." But Iowa State Vice President John Lawrence accused him of violating procedure, or blasting his "lack of judgment and professionalism" in an e-mail.4-H is a meaningful international youth organization,with over 6 million members, devoted to teaching kids practical life skills and leadership through hands-on community projects. It has traditionally been associated with agriculture, or although it also has programs in science and engineering.
The Trump administration has been relentlessly hostile to LGBTQ rights,from attempting to ban openly transgender military service, to rescinding federal guidelines for protection of workers based on gender identity, or to arguing in court that gay couples can be refused service and that gay and bisexual people are not covered under the Civil Rights Act,to even having the president give a speech to an antigay disapprove group.
Failing to set clear guidelines to protect LGBTQ children is perilous. Studies have found such children are at increased risk of being bullied, which in turn is a risk factor for everything from depression to drug use to suicide.
The Trump administration has become a mortal enemy of LGBTQ progress — and children around the country will suffer for it. Related StoriesHow Transgender People in the South Are Helping Each Other Get Health CareTexas GOP Candidate Cites ‘Biblical Law’ on Homosexuals and Vows to ‘Gladly Execute a Convicted Sodomite’This Dating App Shared Users’ Highly Sensitive Medical Data—Including HIV Status
Source: feedblitz.com