Daniel Villarreal

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Queer Sikhs are challenging bigotry by mixing their identities, faith, & cultural traditions

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Followers of the Sikh religion believe in a genderless, eternal, omnipresent God who views all humans as equal; the religion also emphasizes the importance of helping vulnerable people in need, and its central holy religious text, the Guru Granth Sahib, contains no anti-LGBTQ+ scriptures. However, the religion also originates from India — a country with few LGBTQ+ legal protections where 59% of people consider homosexuality “morally unacceptable” — many LGBTQ+ Sikhs, who are part of the estimated 25 million Sikhs worldwide, say they still struggle to find a place in their religious communities.  Gurleen Kaur, a 30-year-old queer Sikh Kaur told Queerbeat that she never felt that […]

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An app banned an LGBTQ+ activist as a “terrorist.” They ignored it for years, until he fought back.

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Waymo, a ride service that uses self-driving “robotaxis,” recently changed its user policies after San Francisco-based LGBTQ+ rights activist Dr. Nasser Mohamed sued the service’s parent company, Alphabet. Waymo had banned and denied him service for years because his name resembled other Middle Eastern names on a government terrorist watchlist. When Mohamed registered his Waymo account in early November 2023, the company forbade him from booking rides in its self-driving cars. For two years, he thought it was a technical error. He submitted numerous support requests, but the company repeatedly closed them without explanation, The San Francisco Chronicle reported. When he complained […]

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Trump DOJ sues Minnesota over its trans-inclusive school sports policies

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The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Monday that it is suing Minnesota and the Minnesota State High School League (MSHSL) for allowing transgender girls and women to play on school sports teams matching their gender identity. The case, filed in the Minnesota District Court, is just the Trump administration’s latest attempt to impose a nationwide ban on trans student-athletes (without congressional approval) by harassing and blackmailing states into dropping their trans-inclusive policies. The DOJ claims that schools with trans-inclusive sports policies violate Title IX, the federal law that bans discrimination on the basis of sex in education. President Joe […]

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State bans against conversion therapy are ineffective, argues leading LGBTQ+ activist

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Even though the Supreme Court is currently considering Chiles v. Salazar, a case that could overturn the bans on conversion therapy for minors currently in place in 27 states, longtime LGBTQ+ activist Wayne Besen says these bans don’t stop a majority of those who actually offer services to change people’s sexual orientation or gender identity: namely, unlicensed religious counselors and life coaches working with so-called ex-LGBTQ+ organizations. “The term ban is inaccurate,” Besen told LGBTQ Nation. “Show me: Show me one conversion therapist who has been put out of business because of these laws.” Besen is executive director of Truth Wins Out, an […]

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Two Dem Senate candidates stand up for trans athletes in the face of GOP attacks

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Graham Platner, the Democratic U.S. Senate candidate who is trying to unseat Maine’s longtime Senator Susan Collins (R), recently said that Republicans have attacked transgender rights as part of an “invented culture-war scare” to distract from economic issues (namely, taxing billionaires). A similar point was recently made by state Rep. and U.S. Senate nominee James Talarico (D-TX). Platner – who has had several of his own scandals – made his comments last week while speaking to Slate’s Death, Sex, and Money podcast. The podcast hosts mentioned how Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) refused to comply with President Donald Trump’s demand that Maine ban all trans female athletes from competing in girls’ and […]

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Governor vetoes bill that would’ve funded Charlie Kirk’s anti-LGBTQ+ organizations

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Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) vetoed a bill to create a specialty license plate honoring slain MAGA influencer Charlie Kirk. Republican legislators are unlikely to override her veto, as they only have six- and four-seat majorities in the House and Senate, respectively. The bill would have donated $17 of the license plate’s $25 price to Turning Point USA (TPUSA), Kirk’s organization for young conservatives, which pushes anti-trans, anti-immigrant stances and encourages students to harass and report left-wing college professors. In her March 6 veto letter, Hobbs wrote that the bill (S.B. 1439) fell short of “working toward solutions that bring people together […]

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An entire generation of AIDS survivors is now struggling with a hidden epidemic

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Tez Anderson decided to get tested for HIV after he moved to San Francisco in 1986 at the age of 25 and began dating his new boyfriend. When the results came back positive two weeks later, the doctor told Anderson he had 18 to 24 months to live. It was two days after his 26th birthday. Devastated by the news, Anderson began planning his death. But decades later, he remained relatively healthy while watching many friends and acquaintances die of HIV-related illnesses. As he approached age 50, Anderson realized, “Oh, my God, I’m going to be an old man with […]

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The president wants to turn back the clock on HIV. We refuse to idly stand by.

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I’ve never taken comfort in the phrase, “HIV isn’t a death sentence anymore.” Yes, the phrase is meant to honor the hard-won victories achieved by HIV activists so that current generations of newly HIV-positive people could live long and fulfilling lives without fear, but the slogan is only as true if we have access to medication and social services. The truth is that 4,496 U.S. residents died of HIV-related illnesses in 2023. Of them, 24% were women, 30% were over 55 years old, 43% were Black, and 56% lived in the South, where homophobia, lack of sex education, and poverty run rampant. […]

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GOP lawmaker said trans people “harm” children. Now he’s going to prison for child porn.

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South Carolina state Rep. RJ May (R) — an anti-LGBTQ+ politician who has accused drag queens and transgender people of harming kids — was sentenced to 17.5 years in federal prison on Wednesday after pleading guilty to five counts of distributing child sex abuse material (CSAM).  May — who was honored by the anti-LGBTQ+ “parents’ rights” group Moms for Liberty in 2023 as its Legislator of the Year — first denied the charges after investigators found evidence that he had shared hundreds of images of kids, including pictures of adults raping seven-year-olds. Judge Cameron McGowan Currie, who sentenced May, said the CSAM he shared was “more […]

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MAGA influencers at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest fight & accuse each other of being gay

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MAGA infighting erupted at Turning Point USA’s America Fest in Phoenix, Arizona, as conservative broadcaster Ben Shapiro blasted Candace Owens for spreading conspiracy theories about the murder of Turning Point’s founder Charlie Kirk, Tucker Carlson for platforming neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes, and Steve Bannon for aiding the president’s poor handling of files related to convicted child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. “The conservative movement is in serious danger… from charlatans who claim to speak in the name of principle but actually traffic in conspiracism and dishonesty,” Shapiro said, according to Politico. Elsewhere, both ex-gay provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos said that Fuentes is gay and MAGA broadcaster Benny […]

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