It was a week full of mostly national news:
- The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued guidance to state Medicaid agencies to clarify “that they are able to offer same-sex couples many of the same financial and asset protections available to opposite-sex couples when a partner is entering a nursing home or care facility.”
- The Veterans Health Administration issued a directive that transgender and intersex veterans are entitled to the same care as other veterans, regardless of their stage of transition, and that “Patients will be addressed and referred to based on their self-identified gender.” Monica Helms, president of the Transgender American Veterans Association, has more about this over at Pam’s.
- The U.S. Department of Education held the first-ever federal summit for LGBT youth. It also issued guidance reiterating that the First Amendment and the Equal Access Act require any school receiving federal funds to provide all student groups with equal support, “without regard to philosophical or political orientation,” including LGBT student groups.
- Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) introduced the Tax Parity for Health Plan Beneficiaries Act, to ensure tax equity for same-sex couples receiving employer-provided health benefits. In the meantime, Cambridge, Massachusetts will soon be paying quarterly stipends to public employees who are married to same-sex partners, in order to defray the federal taxes on their healthcare benefits—taxes opposite-sex couples do not have to pay.
- The Connecticut State Senate passed a bill prohibiting discrimination on the basis of gender identity or expression in jobs, housing, public accommodations and credit. The House had already approved the bill, so it now goes to Gov. Dan Malloy (D), who has said he will sign it.
Around the world:
- After reports of the abduction of a Syrian American lesbian blogger in Damascus, some are questioning her existence.
- And on a lighter note, a same-sex pair of penguins at the London Aquarium (not the famed Silas and Roy of And Tango Makes Three) just celebrated their two-year anniversary.
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