Donald Padgett

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Texas to require sex assigned at birth on state documents

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Legislators in Texas have passed a bill requiring a person’s sex assigned at birth rather than their gender identity for official state documents and records. House Bill 229, entitled “Relating to general definitions for and collection of governmental information regarding biological sex” or the Women’s Rights Bill, passed the state Senate on a party-line vote of 20 to 11 late Wednesday night. The bill passed the House by a vote of 87 to 56 on May 12. “A governmental entity that collects vital statistics information that identifies the sex of an individual for the purpose of complying with antidiscrimination laws or for […]

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Tennessee high school student-athlete banned from graduation after coming out on social media

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A student-athlete who was banned from graduating with her classmates after she came out in a social media post is suing her high school, local NBC and ABC affiliates WSMV and WTVC report. Morgan Armstrong was a senior at Tennessee Christian Preparatory School (TCPS), a private Christian school in Chattanooga. She played on the school’s basketball team and earned her diploma. Then she came out. “Cats outta the bag,” Armstrong wrote in the post dated April 23, according to court documents obtained by WTVC. The post contained pictures of Armstrong with her girlfriend, including the pair kissing. Armstrong subsequently posted a separate comment urging others to like and comment […]

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Democrat Adam Schiff to be the first U.S. senator to participate in California’s AIDS/LifeCycle bike ride

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Democratic U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff will participate in the upcoming AIDS/LifeCycle 2025 ride in California, making him the first U.S. senator to take part in the seven-day fundraising bike ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles.  Organizers of the annual ride, which first started in 2002, earlier announced that 2025 would be the final year of the fundraiser due to rising costs and declining participation. “You may not know this, but I was the first member of Congress to participate in the ride back in 2014, and now, I’m going to be the first U.S. senator to do the ride in early […]

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Alabama community saves library after funding cut over LGBTQ+ books

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When Alabama Republicans cut funding to a local library in a dispute over LGBTQ-themed books for children and teens, it took less than a week for a community fundraiser to more than cover the loss of funds. At a contentious board meeting on Monday, the Alabama Public Library Service (APLS) voted to pause $40,000 in funding to the Fairhope Public Library while the board reviews the practices of the library. The move came after the board heard complaints about books with LGBTQ+ themes and where they were placed on shelves, AL.com reports. The APLS recently introduced a new age-based three-tier system for shelving books, with sections for children, […]

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Walmart fires 6’4″ cisgender woman threatened by man who thought she was trans

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A cisgender woman Walmart employee who says she was verbally assaulted in the female restroom by a man who mistook her for a transgender woman was fired because she reported the incident to the wrong supervisor and created a security risk. Dani Davis, who is queer, took to social media on March 24 and wrote a post about what she said happened while she was at work. The incident occurred on March 14 at the Walmart in Lake City, Florida. She noted she was a nearly seven-year employee of Walmart and holds several other part-time jobs, including the “joy and privilege” of tutoring “special-needs […]

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Ohio changes election forms to protect transgender political candidates

Ohio’s Secretary of State Frank LaRose has changed the state’s candidate declaration forms to help prevent a repeat of earlier this year when a trans candidate was disqualified after failing to list her deadname. Vanessa Joy, a transgender woman, was disqualified from running as a Democrat to represent House District 50 in Stark County in January after she failed to include on her signature petition forms any names she legally used within the prior five years. While Joy was upset about the forced outing of her deadname, she was more upset that she was not informed of the requirement at the time she […]

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California’s first state-wide LGBTQ+ senior survey shows mixed experiences

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The results from California’s first state-wide survey of LGBTQ+ older adults showed overall high levels of satisfaction with their quality of life but also concerns about the personal, financial, and mental health well-being of transgender women. The survey, entitled “From Challenges to Resilience,” was conducted in early 2024 with 4,037 respondents. The survey was conducted by the California Department of Aging, the University of California, Berkeley, the University of California, San Francisco School of Nursing’s Department of Community Health Systems, and Openhouse, a nonprofit LGBTQIA+ older adults support group. “This survey marks an important step in understanding the unique needs of LGBTQIA+ older […]

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California confirms first case of even more deadly mpox strain

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California has confirmed the first case of a new, more lethal strain of mpox in a man who recently traveled to Africa, and public health officials now want to speak with anyone who may met the person. The new mpox clade I strain has a higher mortality rate than the earlier clade IIb strain that caused a global outbreak in 2022 and greatly impacted gay men. The World Health Organization declared a global public health emergency over the spread of the clade I mpox strain in August after the number of cases exploded in Africa. “The California Department of Public […]

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Despite Republican rhetoric, marriage equality wins big at the ballot box

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Voters in California, Colorado, and Hawaii approved ballot measures amending their constitutions to remove language banning marriage equality by significant margins on Tuesday. In California, Proposition 3, Constitutional Right to Marriage, amends the California Constitution to remove language stating that marriage exists only between men and women. Prop. 3 leads by 61.1 percent to 38.9 percent, with over 95 percent of the estimated vote counted. In Colorado, Measure J removes the language “Only a union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in this state” from the Colorado Constitution. Measure J passed with over 63 percent of the vote, Colorado […]

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12 Maryland college students arrested in alleged Grindr hate crime video attack

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Police in Maryland have arrested 12 students from Salisbury University for allegedly attacking a gay man targeted and lured using the dating and hookup app Grindr, the Salisbury Police Department said in a press release on Thursday. The 12 students, seven of whom were associated with the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, allegedly targeted the unnamed victim because of his sexual identity. According to charging documents obtained by local CBS affiliates WBOC and WJZ, one of the students set up a profile on Grindr claiming to be a 16-year-old gay male and used the fictitious profile to contact the victim. The age of consent in Maryland […]

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