About 100,000 trans youth in America live in a state that took a basic quality of life element away this year. Some lost the ability to stay on a youth sports team while others lost access to essential health care, or countless teens lost the ability simply to use the restroom of their choice.
A new study by UCLA’s Williams Institute found roughly a third of transgenderteenagers in the U.S. between ages 13 to 17 had access to one or more of these rights compromised as a wave of anti-LGBTQ+ laws kicked into effect across numerous states.
“A record number of laws impacting transgender youth were introduced in state legislatures in 2023,” said lead author Christy Mallory, legal director at the Williams Institute. “While most of them did not pass, the ones that did significantly shifted the legal landscape for transgender youth.”
The study tracked several kinds of legislation specifically impacting trans youth, both laws limiting rights and those aimed at protecting youth from threats like conversion therapy.
But the scales definitely leaned against the ability of youth to live as their true selves.
At this point, 22 states have banned gender-affirming care for minors, with 19 of those implementing laws this year. That includes Georgia, Florida, Iowa, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and West Virginia.
An estimated 92,700 trans teenagers live in those states, according to the study. Notably, court orders prohibit the enforcement of those laws — at least for now. That preserves access to care for about 26,000 youth.
The study covers all sorts of bans, including blocking access to puberty blockers, hormones, and surgical care.
More states place limits on sports for trans youth. A total of 23 states now restrict participation in athletic activities based on gender assigned at birth rather than a child’s gender identity. That impacts 101,500 teens in total, about a third of the estimated 300,000 trans youth living in the U.S. Five states — Kansas, Missouri, North Carolina, North Dakota and Wyoming — implemented trans sports bans in 2023, touching the lives of 14,200 minors.
The year also saw a rapid expansion in bathroom bills, a once-anathema topic that led to boycotts in North Carolina as recently as 2016.
Segregation of school bathrooms under the guise of protecting students grew especially, with six states enacting new laws. An estimated 32,700 trans teens now live with restroom and changing room restrictions at schools, and of those, 23,600 live in states with newly implemented restrictions, including those in Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, Idaho, Kentucky and North Dakota.
The study brought some good news. As a wave of anti-trans laws rode into statute books in conservative states, more inclusive states passed gender-affirming care “shield” laws protecting doctors and parents who prescribe or seek access to medical care for youth in various ways. That means 146,700 trans youth, about half the total number in the country, now live with some level of protection. Of those, 88,000 live in states that in 2023 passed laws or saw governors implement protections by executive order. That describes 11 states — Arizona, Colorado, New Jersey, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Vermont and Washington — as well as the District of Columbia.
Also, 27 states and D.C. now have bans in place prohibiting the use of conversion therapy, most of those with prohibitions in statute and another five with protections in place by administrative order. New protections were put in place in Arizona, Michigan, Minnesota and Utah this year, bringing protections for an additional 21,800 trans youth.
The state of Georgia will start paying for gender-affirming health care for state employees, public school teachers and former employees covered by a state health insurance plan, settling another in a string of lawsuits against Georgia agencies aiming to force them to pay for gender-confirmation surgery and other procedures.
The plaintiffs moved to dismiss their case Thursday in Atlanta federal court, announcing they had reached a settlement with the State Health Benefit Plan.
The December lawsuit argued the insurance plan illegally discriminated by refusing to pay for gender-affirming care.
“There’s no justification, morally, medically, legally or in any other way for treating transgender healthcare as different and denying people access to it,” David Brown, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said in a phone interview Thursday.
The state Department of Community Health, which oversees the insurance plan, did not immediately respond Thursday to an email seeking comment.
The state will also pay a total of $365,000 to the plaintiffs and their lawyers as part of the settlement. Micha Rich, Benjamin Johnson and an anonymous state employee suing on behalf of her adult child all said they spent money out of their own pockets that should have been covered by insurance.
Starting July 1, Georgia legally barred new patients under the age of 18 from starting hormone therapy and banned most gender-affirming surgeries for transgender people under 18. That law, challenged in court but still in effect, lets doctors prescribe puberty-blocking medications and allows minors already receiving hormone therapy to continue.
But Brown said Thursday’s settlement requires the health plan to pay for care deemed medically necessary for spouses and dependents as well as employees. That means the health plan could be required to pay for care for minors outside the state even though it’s prohibited in Georgia.
“The plan can’t treat the care any differently from other care that’s not available in the state,” Brown said.
The lawsuit cited a 2020 Supreme Court ruling that treating someone differently because they are transgender or gay violates a section of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex. The plaintiffs in that case included an employee of Georgia’s Clayton County.
Affected are two health plans paid for by the state but administered by Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield and UnitedHealthcare.
It’s the fourth in a line of lawsuits against Georgia agencies to force them to pay for gender-confirmation surgery and other procedures. State and local governments lost or settled the previous suits.
A jury last year ordered Houston County to pay $60,000 in damages to a sheriff’s deputy after a federal judge ruled her bosses illegally denied the deputy health coverage for gender-confirmation surgery. Houston County is appealing that judgment, and oral arguments are scheduled in November before the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit settled Thursday included three transgender men. Micha Rich is a staff accountant at the Georgia Department of Audits and Accounts, and Benjamin Johnson is a media clerk with the Bibb County School District in Macon. The mother of the third man, identified only as John Doe, is a Division of Family and Children Services worker in Paulding County and covers the college student on her insurance.
All three were assigned female at birth but transitioned after therapy. All three appealed their denials for top surgery to reduce or remove breasts and won findings from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that Georgia was discriminating against them.
“I am thrilled to know that none of my trans colleagues will ever have to go through what I did,” Rich said in a statement.
This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with The Salt Lake Tribune. Sign up for Dispatches to get stories like this one as soon as they are published.
This story discusses sexual assault.
Three additional men have come forward to say a therapist recommended and paid for by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints touched them inappropriately during counseling sessions related to struggles with their sexuality. The men’s statements follow allegations by three others, previously reported by The Salt Lake Tribune and ProPublica, that clinical mental health counselor Scott Owen touched them sexually during therapy.
The three who most recently came forward said their counseling sessions were paid for with money donated by church members to help those in need. The church said it has no process in place to vet the therapists its church leaders recommend.
The disclosures follow an investigation by the news organizations this summer detailing allegations against Owen, who gave up his license as a mental health worker in 2018.
Austin Millet, one of the men who have spoken out in recent weeks, said he saw Owen in 2010 while attending Brigham Young University, in Provo, Utah. At that time, he was questioning if he was gay and struggling with how that fit in with the theology of his Latter-day Saint faith.
His bishop suggested he try therapy, Millet recalled, and said he wouldn’t need to worry about the cost — the church would pay the bill. He said the lay leader referred him to a local practice, Canyon Counseling. One of its co-owners, his bishop told him, was a specialist in helping gay LDS men be in romantic relationships with women. Owen was also a bishop during that time, according to the three men The Tribune/ProPublica spoke with for this story.
Millet said that when an employee at Canyon Counseling later called Millet, then 23, to set up an appointment, he was told payment was taken care of.
“It was kind of like, ‘Oh, don’t worry, we’re taking care of it behind the scenes,’” Millet remembered. “‘And your job is to just show up.’”
But Millet said his therapy sessions in Owen’s Provo office quickly turned physical and then sexual — with the therapist cuddling with him, kissing him and groping him.
Owen has not responded to allegations that he touched a number of clients inappropriately and did not answer detailed questions sent to him last week.
The Tribune/ProPublica report in August showed that Utah’s Division of Professional Licensing and LDS church officials had known about allegations of inappropriate touching involving Owen and were slow to act. Utah licensing officials say that, given the evidence they had, they believe they responded appropriately. The church said in response that it takes all matters of sexual misconduct seriously and “this case was no exception.” The church said it annotated Owen’s membership record in 2019 with a confidential marking intended to alert bishops that he was someone whose conduct has threatened the well-being of other people or the church.
In response to the more recent allegations, the church has said that it allows its church leaders to pay for therapy for its members, but added it could not say how much money, if any, bishops have paid to Owen specifically.
Sam Penrod, a spokesperson for the church, said it does not screen therapists that its leaders are paying. He said that Family Services, a nonprofit arm of the church, maintains a list of licensed professionals that bishops can refer to when recommending therapy. It does not individually vet those mental health workers, he added. That, he said, falls to individual church members.
“It is up to Church members who are referred to a therapist by a bishop or other referral to make their own decisions when it comes to using a licensed therapist,” Penrod wrote in an email.
Millet, now 36, said going to therapy with Owen was his bishop’s “firm counsel.” It was that same bishop who had given him the required ecclesiastical recommendation to attend BYU, and he feared that not following what his bishop said could impact his academic career. Losing his bishop’s endorsement meant he would not have been able to attend the church-owned university.
“Since he referred me to Scott, who was another bishop at the time, it seemed that this was required of me academically and religiously,” Millet said. “Trying to say no to either of them would have been overwhelming at that time in my life.”
Sexual touching in a therapy session is considered unethical by all major mental health professional organizations, and Utah licensers consider it “unprofessional conduct” that can lead to discipline. It’s also illegal in Utah.
State licensers stopped Owen from practicing in 2018 after investigating at least three complaints of inappropriate touching in a two-year period. Penrod has said that the LDS legal department also learned of alleged inappropriate conduct that same year. The August article from the Tribune/ProPublica revealed that one former patient had reported the alleged abuse to both his bishop and state licensers in 2016.
Since that article was published, other entities have responded: Police in Provo are investigating. Brigham Young University has reevaluated its relationship with Owen’s business. And Canyon Counseling cut ties with him before announcing in September that it was closing altogether.
But the church has not publicly reevaluated its own role in referring these men to a therapist they now say abused them.
“Bishop Pay”
According to the church handbook, bishops can pay for clothes, food or medical services for members who are in need. The money for this comes from member donations after monthly Fast Sundays, a prayer-filled day when members are encouraged to donate what money they would have spent on food and drink to help the poor and needy.
Church guidance tells bishops that this money, called “fast offerings,” should be used to pay for only essential items, like food, clothes or housing. It may also “be used to pay for personal services such as counseling, medical care, or vocational training.”
The handbook gives little guidance as to how a bishop should recommend a therapist or other medical professional or how to ensure a church member is receiving quality care. It says that when a church member is seeking counseling about “intimacy,” a bishop should refer them to “professionals who specialize in such counseling and whose beliefs and practices are consistent with Church doctrine.”
The term “bishop pay” is listed as an option for form of payment on several websites of Utah-based therapists, usually on the same page as insurance forms and other pay rate information. Several Utah-based therapy businesses require that anyone using this payment method also sign a confidentiality waiver allowing therapists to share patient information with the patient’s bishop.
When asked what privacy expectations a church member can expect when a bishop pays for their therapy, Penrod said church leaders may follow up with a therapist to ensure the member is keeping their appointments and “pursuing goals set by the therapist.”
“Otherwise,” he said, “it is Family Services policy that HIPAA principles are closely followed and the content of sessions including diagnostics, progress notes and observations are not shared with anyone, including bishops, without a release signed by the client.”
HIPAA is a federal law to protect people’s medical records from being shared by health care providers without a patient’s knowledge.
Owen is one of several Utah therapists who have received church funds for sessions who in recent weeks have been accused of abusive behavior.
One therapist was charged last month with aggravated child abuse after the children of her business partner in an online self-improvement program were found malnourished at the therapist’s home. Her niece said during a Mormon Stories podcast interview that she handled the billing for the practice and that many clients’ bills were paid by their local church leaders.
Another therapist is facing felony charges for allegedly physically abusing a client during counseling sessions. His life coaching and therapy website offers an option for billing to be sent to bishops. It also includes a form that requires patients whose treatment is paid for by the church to agree to waive their privacy rights and allow a therapist to share any health information with their bishop “without limitation.”
Neither of these mental health professionals have entered a plea to the charges against them.
Mark, who is being identified by his middle name to protect his privacy because not all of the experiences detailed here are known to people in his life, is another of the three former patients who came forward after publication of the earlier article. He told The Tribune and ProPublica about therapy sessions the church paid for where, he said, Owen held him.
Mark began to see Owen in 2008, he said, after his church leader suggested therapy. Mark had been in the middle of a disciplinary process with the church at that time after being unfaithful to his wife with a man.
At that time, many Latter-day Saint authorities taught that being gay was a choice, and the church opposed measures to allow same-sex couples to marry. The church has since said that sexuality is not a choice, but still does not allow its members to be married to someone of their same sex.
Mark, who is bisexual, had been disfellowshipped — now called “membership restricted” — which means that while he was encouraged to attend church, he was not allowed to take the sacrament, or Communion, enter a Latter-day Saint temple or give sermons. It is considered a step below the most severe action the church can take against its members, which is excommunication, now termed “membership withdrawal.”
Though he’s no longer a believing member, Mark said it was important to him at the time to follow the guidance of his faith leader and attend counseling with Owen in order to get back into good standing with the church.
“There’s definitely a bit of pressure there,” he said. “Like what if I say no? Is that going to make my bishop think that I’m not repentant?”
Mark remembers paying a portion of the therapy cost for the handful of sessions he had with Owen. His bishop, he said, picked up the rest of the bill.
Like other former patients who spoke to The Tribune, Mark recalled how Owen had told him that he had a “fear of intimacy” and suggested that they embrace as they sat on a couch in Owen’s office. Mark did not see Owen for long, relocating shortly after their therapy sessions started.
Millet, the then-BYU student, saw Owen a year later. He said his therapy sessions began similarly, and that Owen also said he was teaching Millet to be “intimate” without being sexual. He trusted Owen because he was a therapist and a church leader, and he remembers that at first the embraces felt powerful — and positive.
“I’m this vulnerable gay kid from BYU,” Millet recalled. “I was just craving this physical touch. And it was wonderful.”
But the touching, Millet said, gradually became more sexual, and he found the sessions confusing. Owen directed Millet to take his clothes off during many sessions, Millet remembers, while the therapist remained clothed. They would often kiss, he said, with Owen touching Millet’s thighs or his bottom.
Millet kept seeing Owen for a year and a half, he said, until the therapist ended their sessions when Millet became engaged to a woman.
“We Opened an Investigation”
Even after Owen surrendered his license in 2018 in response to several patient complaints to licensers of inappropriate touching, there was no criminal investigation, and he appears to have continued to play an active role in his business. A woman who worked at Canyon Counseling for about six months last year — and who asked that her name not be used because she works as a therapist and doesn’t want to be associated with the business — said that Owen led monthly training sessions with the young therapists who worked there and recalled that he taught them about “how to incorporate theology and religion into therapy.”
The woman, whose past employment with Canyon Counseling was verified by The Tribune, said Owen had told her that he no longer saw patients because Canyon Counseling’s “business was booming” and one of the owners needed to focus their work on handling that growth. Owen did not respond to questions asking about his role in the business after he surrendered his license.
Melanie Hall, a spokesperson for Utah’s licensing division, said a therapist who teaches isn’t required to be licensed if they are not also treating patients.
It was only after the publication of the Salt Lake Tribune/ProPublica investigation, however, that Owen’s role in the business changed dramatically. First, on Aug. 15, less than two weeks after the article appeared, Owen was removed from state business records as Canyon’s Counseling registered agent. Soon after, the practice noted on its website that Owen has “no ownership nor any other affiliation in any manner” with the business.
The business itself also faced repercussions. This summer, BYU’s Student Center — where four Canyon Counseling therapists worked — began reevaluating its relationship with the business “as it learned of concerns about one of the owners,” according to university spokesperson Carri Jenkins. She said that because Owen had never practiced there, the Student Health Center was previously unaware that he had surrendered his license.
Then, in late September, Canyon Counseling announced it was closing altogether. A therapist who worked there at that time, Shawn Edgington, has since reopened the business as Palisades Counseling.
Edgington said his business has “no ties” to Owen, adding that “any alleged abuse by Mr. Owen is completely unacceptable and not condoned in any manner by Palisades Counseling.”
“Palisades Counseling and its therapists, do NOT tolerate abuse of any kind,” he wrote in an email. “Any kind of abuse of women, children, or anyone is completely unacceptable and will not be tolerated in any form by Palisades Counseling and its therapists.”
Neither the church nor Utah licensers would comment on whether they reported Owen to police. But Provo police officials said the first time they learned that a former therapist in their city had been accused of sexual abuse was after the news organizations published their investigation in August.
“We opened an investigation after we saw your initial report,” Provo’s Capt. Brian Taylor told a Tribune reporter, “and we have offered interviews to anyone who has something to say about their experience at Canyon Counseling, with Dr. Scott Owen. And we continue to do that.”
Taylor said the investigation is still open, and the Provo police are seeking to speak with other people with allegations of abuse involving Owen. He said they have been in contact with “more than one” alleged victim so far.
It’s the first time local police have looked into whether Owen’s purported therapy practices are illegal.
In Utah, with few exceptions, the state licensing division is not legally required to forward information to law enforcement. At least one state — Ohio — mandates that medical boards report felonies to the police. The Federation of State Medical Boards encouraged boards in a 2020 report to err on the side of reporting physicians to the police in cases of allegations of sexual misconduct.
“Best practices dictate that boards have a duty to report to law enforcement anytime they become aware of sexual misconduct or instances of criminal behavior,” the report recommended.
Hall, the spokesperson for Utah’s licensing division, said licensers do collaborate and report crimes to police agencies “often,” though she would not not explain under what circumstances they would do so.
D.C. police are investigating the unexplained death of a 30-year-old transgender woman, Skylar Harrison Reeves, whose partially naked body was found on a park bench in a secluded section of Marvin Gaye Park on Oct. 2.
A Metropolitan Police Department spokesperson told the Washington Blade detectives from the department’s natural death squad are investigating the case as detectives await a determination by the D.C. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of the cause and manner of death, which could take up to 60 days or more.
“This case remains under investigation, and at this time there is no additional information to provide,” said police spokesperson Elizabeth Grannis.
But Rhonda Hailes, Skylar’s aunt, told the Blade that a homicide detective came to her house in Capitol Heights, Md., where Skylar was living, to inform her that her niece was found deceased in a D.C. park with her belongings missing and the dress she was wearing pulled up over her head, with her breasts exposed.
Hailes said the detective, whose last name she recalls is McWilliams, came to her home on Monday, Oct. 2, shortly after he said her niece’s body was found in a secluded section of Marvin Gaye Park.
The park, which a Blade reporter visited on Oct. 16, consists of a long, narrow wooded area with a creek running in the middle with trees and bushes, park benches, a nature trail, and fitness equipment located throughout the park.
According to Hailes, Det. McWilliams said police think Skylar may have died from a drug overdose, but he didn’t say how police came to that possible conclusion. Hailes said the detective’s graphic description of what he saw after park employees initially found the body and called police leads her to believe her niece did not die from a drug overdose, even though she may have occasionally used drugs.
“Her dress was up over her head off her body, her hand was over her genitals, her breasts were exposed,” Hailes said the detective told her. “I have a history with drugs myself,’ Hailes said. “I’m not bragging about it, but I’ve ODed myself,” she told the Blade, adding that the circumstances surrounding the body of her niece made it unlikely if not impossible that the cause of death was a drug overdose.
“How was she outside partially naked?” said Hailes. “How was she there with her dress over her head and her tits exposed and her hand over her genital area? That does not happen when you OD,” she said, adding that someone experiencing an overdose loses consciousness and could not take off their clothes.
“And the way my niece was found, it was a hate crime,” Hailes said, pointing to additional details she said the police detective told her. “Her purse, her phone, her credit cards, all of that stuff was gone.”
And, according to Hailes, the detective also told her investigators could not find any footprints from the tennis shoes Skylar was wearing on the muddy ground along the path leading to where she was found.
As if that were not enough, Hailes said Skylar, who was gainfully employed at the time of her death, never hung out at Marvin Gaye Park, which has a reputation of being a place where transgender sex workers sometimes congregate. She said she went to the park a short time after her niece’s death and showed photos of Skylar to the people who were hanging out in the park. None of them said they recognized Skylar as among those who hang out at Marvin Gaye Park.
“So how did she get there?” Hailes continued, saying she asked the detective if someone might have carried her niece into the park to the site where her body was found. She said the detective would only say the investigation was continuing.
“I’m not saying my niece is perfect,” Hailes said. “Nobody is. But I will stake my life and tell you I know my niece. My niece never hung out on Division Avenue,” which runs along the border of part of Marvin Gaye Park and is an area where trans sex workers sometimes congregate.
Under longstanding D.C. police protocol, homicide detectives are almost always called to the scene of an unexplained death. But the homicide detectives usually turn over the case to the natural death squad detectives, who continue the investigation until the medical examiner makes a determination of the cause and manner of death. If the medical examiner rules the death a homicide, then the homicide unit takes over the investigation.
“She has been shunned and persecuted all her life for being who she is,” Hailes said of her niece Skylar. “Yet my niece, she was a beautiful beacon of life. She could have been in the darkest room and shined it bright.”
Transgender activist Iya Dammons, who heads the recently opened D.C. Safe Haven, which provides services to the local trans community as well as to the LGBTQ community, said Safe Haven helped to organize a candlelight vigil in honor of Skylar on Oct. 9 at the entrance to Marvin Gaye Park at the intersection of Division Avenue and Foote Street, N.E.
Dammons noted that Skylar’s death is among many deaths of transgender women of color in the D.C. area in recent years, some of which are related to a drug overdose, but others involve anti-trans violence.
“And my thought here is there is an outcry that this is happening, and I don’t think D.C. is actually paying attention to the crisis,” Dammons said.
Like all possible crimes that have yet to be solved, D.C. police ask anyone who has information that may help in their investigation to contact police at 202-727-9099. An anonymous tip can also be sent by text message to the police TEXT TIP LINE at 50411.
Eighteen state attorneys general signed a brief asking a federal judge in Florida to allow states to ban gender-affirming care for transgender people from being covered under state Medicaid programs, using inflammatory language to explain why trans people shouldn’t have equal access to health care.
Last year, the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) finalized a rule banning healthcare providers from billing the state’s Medicaid program for trans people’s gender-affirming care, a rule that covered puberty blockers, hormone therapies, and surgical procedures for adults. Medicaid is a joint federal and state program providing healthcare coverage for low-income people.
Related:
Four trans people and their families sued in federal court for access to needed health care and U.S. District Court Judge Robert Hinkle invalidated AHCA’s rule this past June with a scathing 54-page opinion. “Gender identity is real,” Hinkle wrote, accusing AHCA of making the rule “for political reasons.”
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“Pushing individuals away from their transgender identity is not a legitimate state interest,” Hinkle wrote.
Florida is appealing the decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Eighteen Republican attorneys general from other states signed a briefsupporting Florida, arguing that doctors are greedily pushing gender-affirming care on people to make money, including the doctors who work for national medical organizations like the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Endocrine Society, which all support access to gender-affirming care for transgender people. The brief’s point was that Judge Hinkle relied on the research of the medical organizations and heeded their opinions more than the odd doctors Florida was able to find to say that trans people don’t need gender-affirming care.
“Medical interest groups, composed of physicians self-interested in Medicaid coverage, are not neutral arbiters of ‘medical opinion,’” the Republicans wrote, accusing the organizations of stifling debate.
The argument is similar to one that AHCA made in the original case that Hinkle rejected, calling it “fanciful to believe that all the many medical associations who have endorsed gender-affirming care… have so readily sold their patients down the river.”
In June, Hinkle ruled that AHCA’s rule violates the federal Medicaid statute, the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, and the Affordable Care Act. He also ordered the state to cover gender-affirming care for transgender people on the state’s Medicaid program.
“I am extremely relieved,” said August Dekker, a 29-year-old transgender man and the lead plaintiff in the case. “Florida’s policy effectively denied me the treatment my doctors recommended,” he said. “Now access to that lifesaving, critical care can continue.”
Advocacy groups estimate that 9,000 transgender people in Florida use Medicaid to fund their treatments.
The states that signed the brief are Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and West Virginia.
Philadelphia has become a safe haven for trans people seeking gender-affirming healthcare.
On Tuesday (17 October), mayor Jim Kenney signed an executive order at City Hall, giving anyone who goes to the state access to treatment.
The executive order prohibits the local government from using any resources to assist states seeking to investigate or punish people for providing or receiving gender-affirming care in the Pennsylvanian city, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Ahead of signing executive order 4-23, Kenney said: “We won’t help those who seek to discriminate against trans people.”
Sultan Shakir, the president and executive officer of the Mazzoni Center, a not-for-profit LGBTQ+ health care provider in Philadelphia, said patients visiting the centre want to be treated in a way that allows them to live their authentic lives.
“Today’s executive order also sends a message that we respect and value our medical providers here in Philadelphia,” Shakir said.
Other Democratic-led cities have adopted similar protections for trans people.
Rise in anti-trans bills
In June, New York City mayor Eric Adams signed executive order 32, which not only guarantees access to gender-affirming healthcare, but also prohibits prosecution of those who seek it.
It comes as many Republican-led legislatures restrict access to gender-affirming care.
Chyna Long, a Black transgender woman, was found shot to death on a street in Milwaukee on Sunday.
Family members think she may have been targeted for being trans; she had often been harassed about her identity, Milwaukee TV station WISN reports.
Family and friends who gathered for a vigil Thursday night said police told them a suspect was in custody, but police would not confirm this to the station.
Her loved ones remembered her fondly. “She wasn’t apologetic about nothing,” April Gipson, her aunt, said at the vigil, according to WISN. “This was who she was. And we accepted her, with all our hearts.”
Of whoever killed Long, Gipson said, “They left my baby there like trash.”
“As a father, I wish I would have asked more questions,” added her father, Jonathan Long. “I should have been close. Even though I know [she] knows I accepted [her] lifestyle, I feel like I could have done more.”
The family has set up a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for funeral expenses. The service is scheduled for next Thursday at Serenity Funeral Home in Milwaukee.
At least 20 trans people are known to have died by violence in the U.S. this year, most of them women of color. The true count in any given year is likely higher, as some are misgendered or deadnamed by police and media, or their deaths not reported at all.
Anyone with information about Long’s killing is asked to call the Milwaukee police at (414) 935-7360. Tips can be reported anonymously to Crime Stoppers at (414) 224-TIPS.
Today the European Commission services formally sent X a request for information under the Digital Services Act (DSA). This request follows indications received by the Commission services of the alleged spreading of illegal content and disinformation, in particular the spreading of terrorist and violent content and hate speech. The request addresses compliance with other provisions of the DSA as well.
Following its designation as Very Large Online Platform, X is required to comply with the full set of provisions introduced by the DSA since late August 2023, including the assessment and mitigation of risks related to the dissemination of illegal content, disinformation, gender-based violence, and any negative effects on the exercise of fundamental rights, rights of the child, public security and mental well-being.
In this particular case, the Commission services are investigating X’s compliance with the DSA, including with regard to its policies and actions regarding notices on illegal content, complaint handling, risk assessment and measures to mitigate the risks identified.
The Commission services are empowered to request further information to X in order to verify the correct implementation of the law.
X needs to provide the requested information to the Commission services by 18 October 2023 for questions related to the activation and functioning of X’s crisis response protocol and by 31 October 2023 on the rest.
Based on the assessment of X replies, the Commission will assess next steps. This could entail the formal opening of proceedings pursuant to Article 66 of the DSA.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention along with the World Health Organization are raising red flags for the second time this year as cases multiply of a “super strain” of drug-resistant gonorrhea globally, but particularly among men who have sex with men.
This strain of gonorrhea has been previously seen in Asia-Pacific countries and in the U.K., but not in the U.S. A genetic marker common to two Massachusetts residents and previously seen in a case in Nevada, retained sensitivity to at least one class of antibiotics. Overall, these cases are an important reminder that strains of gonorrhea in the U.S. are becoming less responsive to a limited arsenal of antibiotics.
Gonorrhea is a STI with most people affected between ages 15-49 years. Antimicrobial resistance in gonorrhea has increased rapidly in recent years and has reduced the options for treatment.
Last February, cases of XDR, or “extensively drug resistant,” gonorrhea, are on the rise in the U.S., the CDC said.
Gonococcal infections have critical implications to reproductive, maternal and newborn health including:
a five-fold increase of HIV transmission
infertility, with its cultural and social implications
inflammation, leading to acute and chronic lower abdominal pain in women
ectopic pregnancy and maternal death
first trimester abortion
severe neonatal eye infections that may lead to blindness.
This past January, Fortune reported the U.S. is experiencing “a rising epidemic of sexually transmitted disease,” Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, said with some experts referring to the issue as a “hidden epidemic.”
Cases of gonorrhea — an STI that often shows no signs, but can lead to genital discharge, burning during urination, sores, and rashes, among other symptoms — rose by 131 percent nationally between 2009 and 2021, according to public health officials. While rates of STI transmission in the U.S. fell during the early months of the pandemic, they surged later in the year, with cases of gonorrhea and syphilis eventually surpassing 2019 levels, according to the CDC.
Looking for DoxyPEP & uninsured? Picking up your prescription of DoxyPEP is just a few steps away! Here’s how to get GoodRx’s coupon to use for a discounted price of doxycycline at the pharmacy.
Update your location and choose a convenient place to pick up your prescription.
5. Section 3: Pick the price that’s right for you
Select the Limited-time coupon (extra $10 off when you sign up for a GoodRx account), or the Standard coupon (no sign-up required).
6. Get your coupon.
Select option for texted, emailed, or printed coupon.
7. Show the GoodRx to the pharmacist when picking up your prescription to get the discounted price.
Alto pharmacy does not use prescription discount coupons but they offer free delivery and DoxyPEP at approximately $22 for a 1-month supply.
The GoodRx coupon can also be used if you have insurance, but the cost with insurance is higher than the price listed on GoodRx.com. Ask your pharmacist to not bill your insurance for DoxyPEP and apply the GoodRx coupon only.
¿Quiere DoxyPEP y no tiene seguro médico?
¡Recoga su DoxyPEP en unos cuatro pasos!
Abra su navegador del Web y busque www.GoodRx.com
Ingrese a la página de GoodRx y busque el medicamento “Doxycycline hyclate”, haga clic en “Find the lowest prices” o “Ver precios”
En la configuración de la receta asegúrese confirmar que diga lo siguiente:
doxycycline hyclate (generic)
tableta
100mg
60 pills
Revise los precios y las opciones de farmacia preferida, luego haga clic en “GET FREE COUPON” para mostrar en la farmacia. Confirme con su enfermero/a la farmacia que va usar para recoger este medicamento. Puede ser diferente al que usa para otros medicamentos.
La farmacia Alto no aparece en la pagina de GoodRx, pero se le puede usar para la entrega gratis de sus medicamentos. Con Alto DoxyPep cuesta más o menos $22 por un mes.
También se puede usar el cupón de GoodRx si tiene seguro medico y si el copago del seguro es mas alto que el cupón. Pide al farmacéutico que no cobre al seguro por el DoxyPEP y solo aplicar el cupón de GoodRx.