Mixed feelings within the Taos LGBTQ community
Contradictory rulings emphasize ‘our humanity is not fully here yet’
One step back, one step forward – this might best sum up the cautious feeling among some in the Taos LGBTQ community in light of last week’s federal rulings.
The decision by the U.S. Supreme Court June 15 that employers cannot fire employees based on their sexual orientation or gender identity was greeted with general jubilation.
Yet it came on the heels of the crushing decision three days earlier by the federal Department of Health and Human Services withdrawing anti-discrimination provisions for transgender patients under the Obama administration’s Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare.
“I want to celebrate but it is hard for me,” said Price Valentine, an art student, sculptor and set designer in Taos, in a phone interview shortly after the Supreme Court decision. “I hope it will encourage a baseline dialogue about queer experience, queer existence. But, it’s unfair to address this ruling without addressing the other – I’m very concerned about health care rights being stripped away.
“Our humanity is not fully here yet,” Valentine said.
Under Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, health care providers are required to treat individuals consistent with their gender identity, and insurers are prohibited from imposing transgender-specific exclusions to care. Under the final rule, HHS’ Office of Civil Rights would no longer enforce these protections.
In a statement quoted in the
Santa Fe New Mexican, New Mexico Superintendent of Insurance Russell Toal contended that the rollback of health care rights will “endanger civil rights protections for the LGBTQ community, women and people who need language access services.”
He said his office can exercise its authority to prohibit New
Mexico insurers regulated by the state agency “from discriminating against transgender individuals on the basis of their gender identity or health conditions.”
On the other hand, the 6-3 Supreme Court decision cemented LGBTQ workers’ protections under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, sex, religion or national origin. The landmark decision in Bostock v. Clayton County ruled that those protections include sexual orientation and gender identity.
The majority opinion was written by conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch: “It is impossible to discriminate against a person for being homosexual or transgender without discriminating against that individual based on sex,” wrote Gorsuch.
Yavanne Jaramillo, the former president of Taos Pride, an artist who makes metal furniture and is an advocate for kids with special needs in the local schools, said they were “very surprised” by the Supreme Court decision, especially that conservative justice Gorsuch wrote the majority opinion.
“I fell to the floor almost,” Jaramillo expressed over a phone interview, “I didn’t think it would pass. It’s been hard for us even to be able to put pictures of your partner on your desk.”
Although as a gay woman, Jaramillo said they had not personally experienced discrimination in their jobs as a stainless steel pipe metal welder in Denver working with 80 men, or working in Taos High School or for the town administration, “We still have a long road ahead of us,” they noted of discrimination against the LGBTQ community in general.
“We’re moving forward but moving in baby steps.”
Kathleen Brennan, a longtime Taos photographer and filmmaker, received the Supreme Court decision as “wonderful news,” but with caution.
“It’s long past due,” Brennan said in a phone interview last week. “We’re in a period of transition. COVID-19 has popped the lid and brought up all these important movements – Black Lives Matter, and Confederate statues are coming down, conquistadors are coming down. People say they’re just symbols but they represent something. It doesn’t mean there will be overnight change. But every step on the journey gets us closer to our goal.
“I’m in my late 60s and have seen this one step forward, one step back for a lot of years,” Brennan added with some resignation about the Supreme Court decision. “What is missing in that law is that it only applies to businesses with 15 or more employees. It’s not perfect, it’s a bone, it’s a scrap, just like we’ve thrown to Black lives, Native Americans and every marginal community.”
Moreover, Brennan noted, “A lot of people in marginalized cultures stay away from traditional jobs. I did not wear heels and makeup – a lot of job opportunities are written off. Also with Native Americans and Blacks. A lot of marginalized people who are on the outside choose jobs on the outside – working alone or helping people.”
The rulings coincided with the wave of national protests that took place over the last weeks in reaction to the death in police custody of George Floyd May 25 and commemoration of Juneteenth – the day the last slave was freed two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. In Taos, on June 18 a somber Juneteenth Block Party was held at the Revolt Gallery, on Paseo del Pueblo Norte.
Price Valentine described the mood in the queer community as far from joyous.
“The community this last week was like a funeral. All of us have had to lean on each other – group sit-downs and cry dinners. There is no party for the workplace thing,” they said, referring to the Supreme Court decision.