Daniel Villarreal

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Missouri attorney general bans gender-affirming care in “power grab”

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Missouri’s Attorney General Andrew Bailey (R) has announced an “emergency regulation” that restricts gender-affirming medical care for transgender people in his state. Trans and civil rights advocates have criticized Bailey’s announcement for spreading misinformation and attempting a “power grab” while his state’s legislature considers a bill restricting gender-affirming care. Though Bailey’s announcement mentions “children,” it doesn’t list any age limits for his emergency regulations, meaning that it could apply to people of all ages. Republicans sneaked a last-minute amendment into a voting rights bill. One Democrat said the genital examinations would happen “over my dead body.” In a March 20 statement, […]

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Italy is reopening an archaeological treasure and it holds secrets about gay sex in Ancient Rome

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After a long period of restoration, one of Italy’s most famous archaeological treasures — the House of the Vettii — is reopening to the public. The house’s extensive collection of fresco wall paintings includes lots of erotic art. But while some commenters have claimed that the house’s original owners were preoccupied with sex or even running a brothel, a gay Roman historian has said that those claims show a misunderstanding about the role queer sex played in ancient Rome. The house was originally constructed for two freed male slaves who were likely owned by the same master. These men became wealthy […]

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Megachurch forces all members to sign statement opposing LGBTQ+ rights

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First Baptist Church — a megachurch in Jacksonville, Florida — is forcing its members to sign a “Biblical Sexuality Agreement,” an anti-LGBTQ+ statement that denies the existence of trans people, opposes same-sex marriage, and calls same-sex intercourse ungodly. The statement reads:  “As a member of First Baptist Church, I believe that God creates people in his image as either male or female, and that this creation is a fixed matter of human biology, not individual choice. I believe marriage is instituted by God, not government, is between one man and one woman, and is the only context for sexual desire […]

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Gay sperm donor sues Canada for its policies against gay & bi men

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A gay man is suing Canada’s federal government, alleging that its restrictions on gay and bisexual male sperm donation are unconstitutional. The man, identified only in the press as Aziz M., is suing Health Canada, the country’s national health department. He says the current policy is unconstitutional and renders him and other MSM as “second-class citizen[s].” Health Canada’s current policies prohibit men who have sex with men (MSM) from donating to a sperm bank unless they’ve abstained from sex for three months or are donating sperm to someone they personally know, CTV News reported. The policy refers to sperm from MSM donors […]

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Russian festival changes name to avoid breaking anti-LGBTQ+ propaganda law

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The Rainbow Festival — an annual international theatre festival held in St. Petersburg, Russia — has changed its name to “The International Theater Festival” in order to avoid violating Russia’s recently-expanded law banning LGBTQ+ propaganda. The festival, held in May at the St. Petersburg Bryantsev Theatre for Young Spectators, has run since 2000 and has hosted young performance groups from the U.S. and Europe. Explaining the festival’s name change, the theater’s director, Svetlana Lavretsova, said, “When the law passed banning LGBT propaganda, we immediately started thinking, ‘We don’t want to look like we’re making LGBT propaganda.’ So we gathered our team […]

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A trans woman founded a group to help trans people leave the U.S. due to rising hate

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In response to the flood of anti-trans legislation and anti-LGBTQ+ hatred in the U.S., a transgender woman has founded TRANSport, an organization helping trans people flee the country. Rynn Azerial Willgohs, a 50-year-old transgender woman, began researching ways to leave the country after two events took place. First, in March 2021, a man nearly strangled her to death in a public restroom while she was traveling across the state for work — she hasn’t felt safe in public ever since. “There’s like 30 states right now I wouldn’t even drive through,” Willgohs, a North Dakota resident, told VICE News. Then, in June 2022, […]

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Spain’s parliament passes bill allowing trans children to legally change their gender

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Spain’s parliament recently passed a bill that makes it easier for people to change their legal gender. The bill allows people older than 16 to legally change their gender without medical supervision or a judge’s approval. It removes the previous requirements that applicants provide a doctor’s diagnosis of gender dysphoria and additional proof that they have lived as their gender identity and undergone hormone treatment for the past two years. The bill requires minors below the age of 13 to still get a judge’s authorization before legally changing their gender. Minors below the age of 16 will still need parental […]

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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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Louisiana asks people to report teachers & librarians who “sexualize children” with books

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Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry (R) has launched an online form encouraging state residents to report the “taxpayer-subsided sexualization of children” by librarians, their supervisors, teachers, school board members, and district superintendents. “Librarians and teachers are neither empowering nor liberating our children by connecting them with books that contain extremely graphic sexual content that is far from age appropriate for young audiences,” the form, entitled “Protect Minors,” reads. “If this type of taxpayer-subsided sexualization of children has impacted you or your family, tell us about it.” Landry, who recently launched a bid for governor, has a history of anti-LGBTQ+ policy positions. […]

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The upcoming generation makes this lesbian teacher feel hopeful for the future of LGBTQ+ equality

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Jere Chang’s talented and gifted students in Atlanta, Georgia are growing up in a world very different from the one she grew up in. When she was a student during the 1980s, she and her queer peers largely stayed closeted, trying to fit in to avoid being bullied or outed. There wasn’t much LGBTQ+ representation in the media. Instead, she constantly heard about how people like her were “abominations” who “live in sin.” She worried that her own family might disown her if she ever came out, and she never imagined she’d be able to live authentically as a lesbian. […]

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