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18 LGBTQ+ Words added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2022

Language is constantly evolving and dictionaries are always trying to capture the latest additions to how we communicate. Queer language moves quickly and the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) managed to include several new LGBTQ+ entries (including “LGBTQ” itself) this year. You may be surprised at the slang that made it into such a fancy institution and how they chose to define words that mean so many different things to so many different people. Anti-gay and Anti-homosexual The Oxford English Dictionary added a bunch of anti- prefixed words this year, and unfortunately, these two were on the list. Bakla This word is borrowed […]

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The right has a hot new legal theory to destroy LGBTQ+ rights

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The Federalist Society – the right-wing legal group that Donald Trump made the selection committee for his judicial appointees – has had a lot of success peeling back LGBTQ+ rights by promoting the doctrine of originalism. Originalism tests laws on the principle of whether the nation’s founders intended the Constitution to be interpreted in a particular way. Unsurprisingly, conservatives like the ways things looked in the 18th century a lot more than they do today, so originalism has been a handy way of bending the law rightward. The apotheosis of originalism was the Supreme Court’s decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. The majority […]

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Scotland lawmakers pass transgender rights bill

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The Gender Recognition Reform bill introduced by the Scottish government last spring was passed in the country’s Parliament in a final 86-39 vote Thursday. The sweeping reform bill modifies the Gender Recognition Act, signed into law in 2004, by allowing transgender Scots to gain legal recognition without the need for a medical diagnosis. The measure further stipulates that age limit for legal recognition is lowered to 16. Colin MacFarlane, director for Stonewall Scotland and Northern Ireland at the U.K.’s largest LGBTQ advocacy and rights organization, in a statement released after the vote called the bill’s passage “a tremendous step forward for […]

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LGBTQ+ people have more federal student debt than non-LGBTQ+ people

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A new William’s Institute study has found that LGBTQ+ adults are more likely to have federal student loan debt than non-LGBTQ+ adults. The study found that 39% of LGBTQ+ adults have student debt totaling approximately $93 billion. Most of those loans are federal loans, and the study found that 35.4% of LGBTQ+ adults have federal loans, compared to 23.2% of non-LGBTQ+ adults. The largest burden seems to fall on transgender adults. 51% of trans adults have federal student loans, compared to 35.9% of LBQ cisgender females and 27.9% of GBQ males. The news you care about, reported on by the people who […]

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Drag queens take on Tennessee bill seeking to restrict their performances

“The intent of the legislation is just to simply say that you cannot have sexually explicit entertainment … in a public venue where kids might be present,” Johnson said. Critics like Veronika, whose name off-stage is Steve Raimo, say the bill targets the LGBTQ community and that the subjectivity of what is considered “sexual” could effectively ban drag in many settings.   “I don’t know who will be the drag police to judge whether my performance was adult-oriented,” Veronika said. Chris Sanders, executive director of the Tennessee Equality Project, a statewide LGBTQ advocacy group, said other art forms use many of […]

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18 Attorneys General Challenge ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Law in Amicus Brief

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Washington D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine announced a coalition of 18 attorneys general that are opposing Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Act — also known as the “don’t say gay” law. Racine’s office said in a press release late last week that the law posed a threat to LGBTQ+ students, emphasizing that they are at particular risk and harm to discrimination. “My office has a strong track record of fighting for LGBTQ+ rights in the District and across the country to make sure that everyone can simply be who they are and love who they love,” Racine said. “Florida’s law offers no benefit to anyone […]

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Supreme Court keeps in place Trump-era immigration policy allowing asylum-seekers to be quickly turned away

The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed Title 42 — a Trump-era immigration policy implemented when the pandemic broke out to quickly expel asylum-seekers at the border — to remain in effect for now, putting a judge’s ruling that would have ended it last week on hold. The court voted 5-4 to grant an emergency request by 19 Republican state attorneys general who sought to intervene in defense of the policy. The decision puts on hold a ruling by Washington-based U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan, who said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s implementation of the policy was “arbitrary and capricious.” Sullivan’s ruling was due to go […]

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Gay MAGA Congressman-elect George Santos admits to some lies, ignores other questionable claims

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Out gay Rep.-elect George Santos (R-NY) has admitted lying to voters about some parts of his resume, but didn’t address other alleged falsehoods in his backstory. He also said he wouldn’t give up his seat even though Democrats have said that he should. “My sins here are embellishing my resume. I’m sorry,” he said on Monday, according to the New York Post, adding, “I am not a criminal… This [controversy] will not deter me from having good legislative success. I will be effective. I will be good.” Among the falsehoods he fessed up to is the fact that he never graduated from Baruch […]

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Same-sex couples wary despite federal marriage rights bill

Mary and Sharon Bishop-Baldwin were jubilant after winning a decadelong fight for the right to wed in Oklahoma. But eight years after tying the knot — on the day they won their lawsuit challenging a state ban on gay marriage — and seven years after the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed same-sex couples’ constitutional right to marry, they no longer take their union for granted. While they’re happy that Congress is moving swiftly to ensure nationwide recognition of same-sex and interracial marriages, they — like many in LGBTQ communities — are frustrated it’s even necessary after so many years and are unsure whether it’s […]

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LGBTQ students wrestle with tensions at Christian colleges

As monks chanted evening prayers in the dimly lit Saint John’s University church, members of the student LGBTQ organization, QPLUS, were meeting in a dedicated, Pride flag-lined lounge at the institution’s sister Benedictine college, a few miles away across Minnesota farmland. To Sean Fisher, a senior who identifies as nonbinary and helps lead QPLUS, its official recognition and funding by Saint John’s and the College of Saint Benedict is welcome proof of the Catholic schools’ “acknowledging queer students exist.” But tensions endure here and at many of the hundreds of U.S. Catholic and Protestant universities. The Christian teachings they ascribe […]

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