Daniel Villarreal

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CDC officials urge calm after Texas reports its first monkeypox-related death

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Texas has reported its first death of a person diagnosed with monkeypox. The unnamed man lived in Harris County, the state’s largest county, containing Houston and several nearby suburbs. He was also “severely immunocompromised,” the Texas Department of State Health Services said in a statement issued on Tuesday. The statement provided no other identifying information about the man. “The case is under investigation to determine what role monkeypox played in the death,” the department wrote. In a Tuesday White House press briefing, Dr. Jennifer McQuiston with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) expressed sympathy for the man’s passing, and […]

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6 LGBTQ candidates won their Florida primaries. They all oppose the state’s “Don’t Say Gay” law

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Six out, Democratic LGBTQ candidates running for the Florida state legislature all won their primaries this Tuesday. All of them oppose the state’s “Don’t Say Gay” law. At least 20 states have introduced “Don’t Say Gay” laws this year. The candidates worry that, if left unopposed, Republicans will spread similar laws to harm queer youth and families nationwide with their newfound brand of queerphobia. Adam Gentle and state Reps. Carlos Guillermo Smith and Michele Rayner are all running for the State House. Eunic Ortiz and Janelle Perez are running for the State Senate. State Sen. Shevrin Jones won his re-election campaign this week. […]

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Gay & bi men reduce sexual partners to fight monkeypox exposure

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The spread of monkeypox is causing men who have sex with men (MSM) to reduce their numbers of sexual partners, according to survey results released this week by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The CDC’s survey found that 48 percent of respondents had reduced their number of sexual partners, 50 had reduced their number of one-night stands, and 49 percent reduced the amount of sex they had with men that they’d met through hookup apps, The Hill reported. The publication noted that local public health officials have been hesitant to suggest that people practice sexual abstinence as a key […]

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Conservatives sue school for refusing to out transgender students

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The right-leaning group Parents Defending Education (PDE) has sued the Linn-Mar Community School District of Iowa because its policies protect transgender students from transphobic parents and students. PDE supports banning LGBTQ books and curricula about institutional racism from schools. The organization has also previously partnered with the anti-LGBTQ group Moms for Liberty. The Linn-Mar Community School District allows students (grades seven and up) to create a “gender support plan.” The plan requires school staff, students, and school documents (including ID cards and yearbooks) to address students by their self-assigned name and gender identity. The policy also allows these students to enter the […]

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Why is Ron DeSantis’s surgeon general trying to lower public trust in the monkeypox vaccine?

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Joseph Ladapo — Florida’s surgeon general appointed by the state’s anti-LGBTQ Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis — is trying to make people distrust the monkeypox vaccine, stating that there is “little data” on it, which is misleading. Ladapo’s position is hardly surprising considering that he spent years spreading COVID-19 disinformation and echoing DeSantis’ distrust in vaccines. On Tuesday, DeSantis criticized the Democratic governors of California, Illinois, and New York for declaring states of emergency over monkeypox. The declarations give their governments greater ability to mobilize resources against the virus. (U.S. President Joe Biden declared a national state of emergency for monkeypox […]

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Trans people in Southern states have to travel & pay more just to get medical care, study finds

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Nearly 50 percent of transgender people travel outside of their state of residence to get gender-affirming genital surgeries, according to a new study from Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU). The percentage could increase as more states put bans against gender-affirming healthcare for trans people in place, the study’s authors say. The study, published Wednesday in JAMA Surgery, looked at 771 transgender patients who had a vaginoplasty or phalloplasty between 2007 and 2019. It found that 49 percent left their state of residence to get the procedure. People who lived in southern states were more likely to have to leave their […]

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The Supreme Court may overturn same-sex marriage. A new bill could enshrine it into federal law

Sixteen Democrats and one Republican senator have introduced “The Respect for Marriage Act,” a bill that would enshrine same-sex marriage rights into law. The bill could get a House vote as early as this week, but it’s unclear if it will attract the ten Republican votes needed to pass through the Senate. The bill was created in response to conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ stated wish to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 court decision that legalized marriage equality nationwide. The Respect for Marriage Act would officially repeal the so-called Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), the 1996 law that forbade the federal government […]

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Applebee’s franchise must pay $100K in racist & homophobic employee harassment settlement

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The owners of an Applebee’s franchise restaurant in Plant City, Florida must pay $100,000 to settle claims that it allowed racist and homophobic discrimination against a gay Black employee. Shortly after Jebriel Teague, a gay Black man, began working as a line cook for the Applebee’s franchise in March 2019, two of his co-workers — Cody Curby and Bobby Hogge — made inappropriate jokes about his sexual orientation, directing comments to him about dildos and anal beads on a near daily basis, and frequently using the n-word as well as slurs like “f**,” “f****t,” and “bi**h,” the complaint states. Subscribe to […]

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Trans woman sues Chick-fil-A after an employee sexually harassed & threatened to beat her up

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A transgender woman is suing a franchise of the notoriously anti-LGBTQ fast-food chain Chick-fil-a for harassment and wrongful termination after she was allegedly subjected to homophobic comments and sexual harassment. Aaron White had barely started her first day of training to become director of operations at a Chick-fil-a location in Decatur, Georgia when a co-worker allegedly sexually harassed her by saying, “I would eat your a*s and p***y” and “On God, I will f**k the s**t out of you.” The on-duty shift leader reportedly told White to share what happened with the franchise owner, Joe Engert. Engert allegedly replied by […]

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Democrats introduce Transgender Bill of Rights to fight Republican anti-LGBTQ attacks

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As Republican attacks on transgender people continue nationwide, five Democratic House representatives have introduced a Transgender Bill of Rights that would protect trans and non-binary people. The bill would ban discrimination against gender identity and expression in public accommodations, employment, housing, and credit. The bill would also ensure access to gender-affirming medical care — including abortion and contraception — and would ban forced surgery on intersex children and infants. Intersex individuals are often subject to unnecessary genital surgeries before they can provide informed consent. The bill would ban so-called “conversion therapy,” the pseudoscientific form of mental torture that purports to […]

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