2014: The LGBTQ Year In Review

Greetings from my childhood bedroom. Yes, this is in fact the room where I spent many of my adolescent years. Please appreciate the Broadway and kitten posters on the wall surrounding me. I will not apologize for them, I like them there, but I am not here to talk to you about my childhood cat observation.

I am here to talk to you about the year 2014 and how mostly amazing it was for LGBT people. There’s a lot to cover so let’s just jump into it.

So much marriage equality. Toward the end of the year, the Supreme Court decided not to intervene in a series of lower court decisions that had struck down marriage equality bans.

That means that practically overnight we won almost a dozen marriage equality victories including some of the most conservative states in the country. This was followed by a plethora of district and state decisions that same-sex marriage bans are unconstitutional, so we ended 2014 with 35 states where same-sex couples can get married. That is twice as many as we had this time last year. Holy cow.

That said, this is probably not the last we’ll hear from the Supreme Court when it comes to marriage equality, exactly one federal appeals court in the United States, the Sixth Circuit, has voted to uphold same-sex marriage bans in the states that it covers. All of the other federal appeals courts that have ruled on this have found that same-sex marriage bans are unconstitutional. That’s called a circuit split and it means that the Supreme Court is most likely going to have to intervene to make a decision. Really, let’s just get this done and move on.

International marriage equality is also on the rise. We now have 19 countries on five continents that have embraced full marriage equality. That means fully 10% of the world’s population lives in a country where same-sex couples can get married. That rocks.

All eyes have been on Russia with the Winter Olympics being held in Sochi earlier this year. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s horrific anti-gay laws left LGBT spectators and athletes alike terrified to be themselves but that was just a drop in the bucket as LGBT Russians continue to be persecuted and even attacked for being openly LGBT or even for advocating for LGBT people and not just when the cameras are on.

President Obama signed and executive order protecting LGBT federal workers from workplace discrimination. That was a big deal.

His administration also took several big steps to protect transgender people from discrimination. First asserting that trans students are protected under Title 9, then that trans people are protected from workplace discrimination under Title 7. Hoo. Lots of words, lots of titles, lots of really great things.

We had a lot of notable comings out in 2014. Ellen Page, where were you when Ellen Page came out? Do you remember? I was at Gino’s East in Chicago eating pizza with my girlfriend for Valentine’s Day and then suddenly Ellen Page came out and our lives would never be the same again. I think we’re no longer going to celebrate Valentine’s Day, we’re just going to celebrate Ellen Page Coming Out Day. I’m not sorry.

Michael Sam, college football’s SEC Defensive Player of the Year came out as gay and shortly after was drafted by the NFL. While he ultimately didn’t get signed to a team, he did open up a necessary conversation with the NFL and with the sports world in general about LGBT athletes.

Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, published a great piece in Businessweek where he finally acknowledged being gay. While it’s been kind of common knowledge that Cook was gay even since before he took this position, it was really great to have the first openly gay CEO of a Fortune 500 company step forward to assert and be proud of that title.

Supermodel Andrea Pejic came out as a trans woman, adding another trans face to the modeling industry. Also, Tom Daley, Gina Rosario, Sam Smith, Samira Wiley, Raven Symone, Daniel Franzese, Billy Gilman, Vicky Beeching, more people, a lot of people.

We talked a lot about the intersections of freedom of religion and discrimination and private businesses and practicing your beliefs and this whole big messy complicated thing that that makes.

A bunch of major LGBT organizations this year dropped their support of ENDA, or the Employment Nondiscrimination Act, because it includes a fairly strong religious exemption. Because ENDA died in committee this year, the new rallying cry is for a workplace equality bill that does not include religious exemptions because not believing in someone’s lifestyle does not give you the right to fire them.

Likewise, we a saw a number of cases where local businesses like flower shops or bakeries got in big legal trouble because they refused to serve LGBT people or same-sex couples on the basis of their religious beliefs.

Along the same lines, in Arizona, a bill that would have legalized religious-based discrimination, was rejected at the very last second while a similar bill is on its way to passing in Michigan.

Trans women of color changed the freaking world this year in some amazingly visible ways. Laverne Cox’s portrayal of Sophia Burset on Orange is the New Black jumpstarted a national conversation about trans representation in the media. She taught Katie Couric a thing or two about doing her research before an interview. She was on the cover of Time Magazine, she was on the cover of my heart.

Janet Mock’s memoir, Redefining Realness, brought her account of a trans experience to New York Times Bestseller status and she kicked ass on national television from Piers Morgan to Stephen Colbert. CeCe McDonald was finally released from prison and Laverne Cox is working on a documentary about her incarceration and her life.

Carmen Carrera and Gina Rosario continue to be amazing spokespeople and role models, and all the while murders of transgender people in the United States and across the world are occurring at staggeringly high rates, especially trans women of color.

While it’s amazing to have advocates representing these marginalized groups speaking out in public ways, we all have to do more, this is not over.

Speaking of trans visibility, Transparent is a great new show from Amazon about a trans woman who comes out later in life. While it’s a little bit problematic that the main character is played by a sis man instead of a trans woman, it’s still a great show that brings the realities of trans experience and family and identity and life into mainstream media in another way.

Is my cat in the background? My cat’s absolutely in the background of this entire video, I am so sorry.

Women’s colleges are becoming more attentive and receptive to the needs of trans women and some of them are making formal declarations to announce that trans women are welcome as students on their campuses. Mount Holyoke, Mills, and Simmons are among the schools that have already made these announcements and we’re sure that many more are on the way.

The FDA has just recommended lifting the policy that bans men who had sex with men from donating blood for life. However, the policy they’ve suggested instead is not much better. Instead of a lifetime deferral, they’re suggesting that these men can donate blood after being celibate for one year. It’s still out of touch with current medical technology and it’s still discriminatory

Facebook, Google Plus, and OkCupid started rolling out more gender and sexual orientation options for their profiles, recognizing that we are not just male or female, we are not just gay or straight, we are so much more than that.

The status of Uganda’s anti-homosexuality act is still unclear. A version of it was signed into law earlier this year then it was struck down. Now another version may be in the works. It’s all very messy and very scary.

We sadly said goodbye to Leslie Fineberg, a groundbreaker trans activist and gender revolutionary and writer and thinker and all around amazing person who will truly be missed. We also said goodbye to Fred Phelps, the leader of the horrifically anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church and we are not too sad about that.

Alabama finally decriminalized gay sex because 2014 better late than never.

Queen Latifah married around 30 couples, gay, straight, and otherwise on national television during the Grammys, Same Love was playing in the background, Madonna came out wearing a cowboy hat, it was a little weird but generally delightful, and a lot of other stuff happened but that is all I have the breath for.

It had its ups and downs and but overall 2014 was an unprecedented year for LGBT progress so thank you all for what you did to help make that happen.

If I didn’t mention your favorite LGBT moment of 2014, please leave it in the comments, a lot of stuff happened and I’m very forgetful. Thank you so much for an amazing year and I know that 2015 is going to be even bigger and even better. I will see you there.

Happy New Year!

Look who joined me. It’s Ringo. Say hello. Say hi. Meow.