Gregg Owen

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Another trans military ban would cost the United States billions of dollars

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Donald Trump is planning to implement a total ban on transgender service members and recruits on “Day One,” according to Defense Department insiders, which will have massive costs that affect both military preparedness and the DoD’s bottom line. A total trans ban will cost the Pentagon at least $18 billion, according to Emily “Hawking” Shilling, president of SPARTA, a leading trans military advocacy organization. The group estimates 73% of the 15,000 transgender service members in the U.S. military are senior enlisted personnel with 12 to 21 years of experience. The total operational investment in them is up to $176,000 per year per […]

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Federal court rules against trans student’s right to use the correct bathroom

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The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Florida has reversed a lower court ruling that granted access to boys’ restrooms for a trans student in the state. The 7-4 decision said the student’s civil rights were not violated under either the Equal Protection Clause or Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. The vote was split for and against between Republican and Democratic appointees. The Eleventh Circuit’s decision is a break with the Fourth and Seventh Circuit Courts, which found in favor of trans students in similar cases presenting the same issues. In 2017, Drew Adams, […]

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Journalist & friend attacked & called homophobic slurs in gayborhood

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A journalist for the Manchester Evening News and his companion were verbally and physically harassed last week in the city’s iconic Gay Village. “He started to get right up in my face, pushing me, shoving me, grabbing me and kicking me in the legs quite hard, then he went to go towards my friend. He said, ‘You are in my space, you are trying to touch me, you queer.’” Daniel McLaughlin, 28, a podcast producer at Manchester’s largest news daily, was waiting for a taxi with his nonbinary friend in the early hours of Friday morning after a night out in the […]

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Police are four times more likely to stop transgender people for “reasonable suspicion”

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A new draft report from the California Attorney General’s office indicates transgender people in the state are stopped by police at vastly different rates than cisgender men and women. The report is based on data reported from 58 of the state’s largest law enforcement agencies and shows transgender people were stopped because of “reasonable suspicion” alone —instead of a specific violation or clearly unlawful behavior — in nearly half the stops. For transgender people, the proportion of “reasonable suspicion” stops was 44%, or four times the ratio for cisgender people. The data includes all people stopped by police, regardless of […]