Bil Browning

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Despite last-minute GOP push, all anti-LGBTQ+ bills fail in Iowa legislature

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In state after state, GOP-dominated state legislatures are adjourning without passing anti-LGBTQ+ legislation. Now, Iowa has become the latest state to fail to pass any of the numerous bills introduced this session.  It joins Kentucky, Georgia, and West Virginia in the cohort of states failing to pass a single bill. Florida passed only one. Iowa Republicans saw bill after bill fall this session despite prioritizing them. A last-minute effort to push one through as an amendment to another bill also collapsed. More than 20 bills were introduced during this session. Some were introduced by the governor herself. One bill tried to remove […]

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Queer Colorado legislator sponsors bill to require schools use students’ preferred name

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Stephanie Vigil, a queer Colorado state legislator, flipped her district from Republican to Democrat. Now, she’s ready to make some other changes. While the GOP has launched repeated attacks on transgender students nationwide, a local effort to prevent teachers from asking a teenager about their preferred pronouns has spawned a response from Vigil. She’s introduced a bill requiring teachers to use a student’s preferred name in the classroom. Deadnaming a trans student would be considered discrimination. “Making sure that we can create space for them to be seen and heard as their true self is very important,” said Nadine Bridges, the executive […]

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Retired gay couple has fostered 33 kids

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Two gay elders have opened their home and lives to a slew of foster children since they retired. So far, they have fostered 33 kids and have no intention of stopping any time soon. Their first placement was a six-year-old boy and his nine-year-old sister. The siblings stayed with the couple for a year. Swiis Foster Care clients Barney and Rajainder spoke to Pink News about the challenges and rewards of being foster parents.  “As the main carer, I decided that emergency and respite care would be more suitable to our lifestyle. Obviously, emergency and respite care entails a high turnover of placements, […]

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Maine legislators frantically working to make the state a trans refuge

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A proposed law in Maine would make the state the 15th “trans refuge” as lawmakers push back on attempts by some activist state attorneys general to demand private medical information from health authorities. Texas, in particular, has been at the forefront of attempts to persecute trans youth and their parents, along with hospitals, doctors, and healthcare providers, across state borders. Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) has gone so far as to send special investigators across the state border to interrogate children and their families. The bill would protect Texans who flee to the state to seek medical care for their children or […]

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Maryland to cover unprecedented number of gender-affirming procedures in “groundbreaking” win

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A new law in Maryland requires Medicaid to cover “medically necessary” gender-affirming care for residents — including care well beyond hormones or surgery. The law went into effect on January 1. It requires coverage for “gender-affirming treatment in a nondiscriminatory manner.” Voice therapy and lessons, scar and hair removal, hormone therapy, puberty blockers, fertility preservation, and “alterations” to the abdomen, genitals, chest, buttocks, neck, and face are all included. Patients cannot be denied unless a healthcare professional decides the treatment would be detrimental to their health. “In the state of Maryland, nobody should have to justify their own humanity,” Gov. Wed Moore […]

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These books were going to be burned. Now they’re being given away to Florida kids

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Florida Republicans’ book bans have resulted in thousands of books being yanked from school libraries statewide. The Duval County Public Schools system alone pulled more than 22,000 titles from circulation. Over half of those books centered around LGBTQ+ history or characters and a contractor was hired to dispose of them. Instead of burning the books, they donated them to a radical anarchist bookstore that is going to redistribute them to any kids in Florida who ask for them. Firestorm Books in Asheville, North Carolina, was offered the books after Gov. Ron DeSantis‘ (R) radical agenda went into effect in the Sunshine […]

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Pretty much everybody opposes everything Mike Johnson stands for

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New House Speaker Mike Johnson (R) holds extremist views on social issues and based his political and professional career on opposition to LGBTQ+ rights. He’s argued that gay sex should be illegal, opposes same-sex marriage, and is a proponent of debunked attempts to turn gay people straight. But when Americans were asked about their views on Johnson’s Christian Nationalist positions, the overwhelming majority opposed everything he stands for. Related: In a recently released Data for Progress poll, most respondents admitted that they didn’t know how to feel about him because they still had no idea who he was.  Get the Daily Brief The […]

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Polish opposition leader “marries” partner in beautiful protest for marriage equality

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Polish opposition leader Robert Biedroń symbolically wed his partner, Krysztof Śmiszek, during a theatrical performance to protest the country’s lack of marriage equality. The two men, politicians from The Left (Lewica) party, have been together for 23 years. Poland is considered the worst country in Europe for LGBTQ+ rights. The video features some of Poland’s biggest and most visible LGBTQ politicians, celebrities and activists. “I performed hundreds of weddings as mayor of Słupsk, but this is the first time I’ve stood on the other side,” Biedroń said during the ceremony. “It’s a beautiful feeling that needs to be shared. That’s why […]

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Here’s how Amsterdam has almost eradicated HIV transmission

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Amsterdam, the capital city of the Netherlands seems well on its way to accomplishing its goal of zero HIV transmissions by 2026. Only nine cases of HIV were reported in Amsterdam last year, thanks to heavy investment in pre-exposure prophylactics (PrEP), a drug protocol that prevents HIV transmission, and other HIV-prevention efforts. While scientists have announced that a half dozen people may have been cured of HIV worldwide, the process is painful and expensive. It generally requires a bone marrow transplant after a cancer diagnosis. Dutch health authorities have found a way to circumvent the curing process that prioritizes prevention […]

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Students in Iowa are organizing to circumvent state’s anti-LGBTQ laws

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Students around the nation are pushing back on Republican attacks on LGBTQ+ rights. They’ve stood up for teachers and coaches, walked out en masse, and this week, a Missouri university reopened a student resource center after students protested. But high schoolers in Iowa are taking a different approach to defy the state’s laws. They’ve heckled the state’s anti-LGBTQ+ governor, and instead of relying on teachers and faculty for support, they’re providing it themselves. State law bans healthcare professionals from providing any medical treatment that attempts “to alter the appearance of, or affirm the minor’s perception of” a gender other than the minor was assigned […]

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