Metro Weekly magazine: 2019-03-21 edition (PDF)
By Metro Weekly Contributor
on
March 21, 2019
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Donald Trump has targeted yet another law firm for taking up cases challenging his administration's anti-transgender policies and for formerly employing a prosecutor involved in a special counsel investigation of his 2016 campaign.
In an executive order, President Trump stripped lawyers from Jenner & Block LLP of security clearances, barred them from entering federal buildings (which could include, in some cases, federal courthouses), and pressured federal contracting agencies to terminate any existing contracts for services that they have with the law firm.
The order declares that Jenner & Block's actions on behalf of its clients are a threat to national security, undermine U.S. interests, and conduct "harmful activity" through their pro bono work.
"This is about coming back home for me," Evan Low says of his new role as president and CEO of the LGBTQ+ Victory Fund and LGBTQ+ Victory Institute.
"Victory endorsed me as a candidate when I was 20 years old for City Council, back in 2004," the former California State Assemblymember says.
"I lost that first election, but Victory was there for me to help pick me up, catch me, and push me right along. I ran the next cycle, and I was successful at 23 years old. Victory helped invest in me to make me become the youngest openly LGBT Mayor at that time back in 2009."
Trinidad and Tobago reinstated its ban on homosexuality, which was overturned as unconstitutional by the Caribbean nation's High Court in 2018.
LGBTQ activist Jason Jones had challenged the colonial-era anti-sodomy law in 2017, claiming that prohibitions on "buggery" and "acts of serious indecency" between two men violate LGBTQ individuals' right to privacy and freedom of expression.
Judge Devindra Rampersand ruled in Jones' favor, finding that two portions of the Sexual Offenses Act, as applied to consenting adults, are unconstitutional.
The Attorney General's office appealed the ruling.
