Jacob Ogles

There may be a few public restrooms in Kansas where the state’s expansive anti-trans bathroom law won’t apply. Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach issued an opinion exempting certain spaces from the requirement that restroom facilities be segregated based on gender assigned at birth. The Republican issued an opinion in response to a request from Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s office, according to the Kansas Reflector. Stay up to date with the latest in LGBTQ+ news with The Advocate’s email newsletter, in your inbox five days a week. Kelly’s office said the law was overly vague and wanted clarity on whether it would apply even to restrooms […]

A federal judge has ordered Oregon to house transgender women prisoners based on gender identity, issuing a ruling that conflicts with President Donald Trump’s executive order requiring that inmates be housed based on sex assigned at birth. U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark D. Clarke issued a preliminary injunction blocking the placement of transgender women in men’s facilities and ordered the Oregon Department of Corrections to conduct individualized assessments for all transgender women in custody, The Oregonian reports. Stay up to date with the latest in LGBTQ+ news with The Advocate’s email newsletter, in your inbox five days a week. While the state agency has an evaluation process in place, Clarke noted that […]

One of Texas’s largest cities has formally recognized transgender history for the first time. The San Antonio City Council approved a resolution recognizing this week, May 4 through 10, as Trans+ History Week. Stay up to date with the latest in LGBTQ+ news with The Advocate’s email newsletter, in your inbox five days a week. “At a moment when both our state and country are systematically trying to push trans people out of public life, erase our stories, and outright deny our existence, this proclamation recognizing Trans History Week is a beacon to trans people in San Antonio and across Texas,” said Naveen Farrani, a […]

As the Trump administration has stopped considering gender identity in its prison policies, Oregon officials will pay $295,000 to settle a lawsuit from a transgender woman who said she was abused while housed in a men’s prison, where a judge later found she was likely subjected to repeated harm. Zera Lola Zombie filed a federal lawsuit in 2021 alleging abuse during her time at Two Rivers Correctional Institution in Umatilla, in eastern Oregon. While she was later transferred to the Coffee Creek Correctional Facility, a women’s prison in Wilsonville, south of Portland, the Oregon Department of Corrections settled the case this week. Stay up to date […]

Minnesota’s largest pediatric health system is restoring gender-affirming care for minors after a federal judge blocked a Trump administration effort to label the treatment unsafe, reversing a suspension that had disrupted care for families across the state. Children’s Minnesota said it resumed services this week after pausing some forms of gender-affirming care in February, after Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. issued guidance declaring such care for minors outside accepted medical standards. The hospital system had suspended services on February 27 and restored them on April 6, according to Minnesota Public Radio. “Offering science- and research-based health care to transgender and gender diverse youth is part of […]