Queering the News for the week of 7/25
Native Tribes and LGBTQ+ care, Cuba's new self-ID law, and New U.S. Olympic Policy
Native Tribal leaders stand for gender affirmation
On June 25th, a conference highlighting two-spirit individuals took place in Northern Nevada. Indigenous Americans met in support of the LGBTQ+ community amid the ongoing anti-trans legislation at the federal and state levels.
“I want people to not kill themselves for who they are,” said organizer Myk Mendez, a trans and Two-Spirit citizen of the Fort Hall Shoshone-Bannock Tribes in Idaho. “I want people to love their lives and grow old to tell their stories.”
To protect their communities, Native communities are claiming tribal sovereignty over Native American medical care. One such issue is transgender healthcare and gender affirming resources.
In March, the National Indian Health Board, which represents and advocates for federally recognized Native American and Alaska Native tribes, passed a resolution claiming this sovereignty.
Today, tribes are readying themselves to defend the queer people in their community from legislation, as well as dwindling benefits like SNAP and Medicaid.
Cuba to allow self-ID gender markers without bottom surgery
On July 18, Cuba’s National Assembly of People’s Power passed a law allowing trans people to self-declare their gender on official documents and forms without first having bottom surgery.
This follows a May proposal by Cuban lawmakers to make ID changes for trans people simpler. Cubadebate, a government-run website, referenced the proposal in an article about an International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia march in Havana that the National Center for Sexual Education (CENESEX) organized.
Mariela Castro, the daughter of former Cuban President Raúl Castro, is the director of CENESEX, and she also heads many initiatives on the island supporting LGBTQ+ people.
Technically, undergoing bottom surgery in Cuba should be easy, with some of the most comprehensive and progressive LGBTQ+ laws in the world, especially since 2008, when Resolution 126 was signed into law. The resolution made Cuba the first Latin American country to fully cover gender-affirming surgeries, but resources are limited. Even with the largest number of per-capita doctors, Cuba faces medical supply shortages in large part due to a U.S. embargo.
The new law also allows sweeping changes to Cuba’s national registry, allowing much more freedom when updating official documents like birth and death certificates, marriage licenses, and citizenship papers. It also allows for a more streamlined process of digitizing paper records.
The new law “will allow the country to have a modern civil registry,” wrote Minister of Justice Oscar Silvera Martínez on X, including “the issuance of digital documents with full validity and efficiency.”
The law faces some controversy, however, as it allows the implementation of artificial intelligence into government systems.
This is still the largest LGBTQ+ reform in Cuba since the 2022 vote to allow same-sex couples to marry and adopt children.
U.S. Olympics and Paralympics to Ban Trans Women from Participating
With no public announcement, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee updated its eligibility policy on June 18, barring trans women from participating in women’s sports. This is a move to comply with Executive Order 14201, otherwise known as “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports.”
“The USOPC will continue to collaborate with various stakeholders with oversight responsibilities... to ensure that women have a fair and safe competition environment consistent with Executive Order 14201 and the Ted Stevens Olympic & Amateur Sports Act.”
At the international level, gender diverse people have been allowed to compete officially since 2004, and there is some claim that intersex and gender diverse people have been participating since at least the 1930s. The International Olympic Committee released guidelines in 2004 referring to trans athletes, and written in consultation with medical, athletic, and human rights professionals, stating there should be “NO PRESUMED ADVANTAGE BASED ON SEX ASSIGNED AT BIRTH OR SEX CHARACTERISTICS.”
No trans woman has ever won an Olympic medal, and the first out trans woman to take part in the games was Laurel Hubbard, a weightlifter from New Zealand, who took part in the 2020 Tokyo Games. She failed to make it past the opening rounds.
Back in the States, Appeals courts reviewing state bans on transgender participation have noted “the absence of any empirical evidence” that opportunities for women athletes are “threatened by transgender women athletes” and found “compelling evidence that equality in sports is not jeopardized.”
Organization heads like Fatima Goss Graves are speaking out against the new policy. Graves is president and CEO of the nonprofit National Women’s Law Center
“The world is watching with alarm at the loss of freedom and opportunity in our country, especially as the United States is expected to host future Olympic events,” Graves said in a statement. “The Committee will learn — as so many other institutions have — that there is no benefit in appeasing the endless, shifting, and petulant demands coming out of the White House.”