Jacob Ogles

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In Democratic-led Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh hospital caves to Trump. Trans kids lose care for a decade

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Pennsylvania trans rights activists protested the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s agreement to stop providing gender-affirming medical care to patients under 19 for the next decade. About 20 people protested outside UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh in Lawrenceville on Sunday, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The protest came after UPMC agreed to pay the federal government $950,000 to resolve an investigation into alleged billing practices related to gender-affirming care for minors. The settlement also includes protections for patients’ private medical information. UPMC denied any wrongdoing. Stay up to date with the latest in LGBTQ+ news with The Advocate’s email newsletter, in your inbox five […]

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Oregon promises safe homes for LGBTQ+ foster kids, but just dropped a requirement to support their identities

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Oregon will no longer require prospective foster and adoptive parents to agree in advance to affirm a child’s sexual orientation or gender identity. The change follows a settlement between the Oregon Department of Human Services and Jessica Bates, who was represented by the conservative legal group Alliance Defending Freedom. The state has removed the affirmation requirement from its rules, though officials say they can still consider a child’s individual needs when deciding where to place them. Stay up to date with the latest in LGBTQ+ news with The Advocate’s email newsletter, in your inbox five days a week. Bates, a widowed mother of five, […]

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Federal court rules Oregon can place trans women in men’s prisons

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A federal appellate court ruled Thursday that Oregon can house transgenderfemale inmates in men’s prisons. A panel of federal judges on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals tossed a lower court ruling that ordered Oregon prison officials to place transgender women prisoners in institutions based on gender identity, counter to a February directivefrom the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Stay up to date with the latest in LGBTQ+ news with The Advocate’s email newsletter, in your inbox five days a week. All three appellate judges who overturned U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark D. Clarke’s decision were appointed by President Donald Trump, and trans inmates in the appellate court ruling consistently referred […]

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Pete Buttigieg: ‘Of course’ America is ready for a gay president

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Pete Buttigieg says “of course” America is ready for a gay president. “I wouldn’t have run for president in the first place if I didn’t believe that,” he told Meet The Press host Kristen Welker in an interview aired Sunday. Stay up to date with the latest in LGBTQ+ news with The Advocate’s email newsletter, in your inbox five days a week. Buttigieg ran for president in 2020 while serving as the mayor of South Bend, Indiana and became the first gay candidate to win a major party caucus when he came out on top in Iowa. That would be the only state he won that year. […]

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Justice Department sues Kansas schools for protecting trans students from being outed

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The Justice Department has filed a lawsuit against a Kansas school district, accusing officials of helping students socially transition at school without informing their parents. The Trump administration’s suit against Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools, the fifth-largest school district in the state, marks the first such legal action in the department’s history. “Parental rights are paramount in the operation of America’s public schools, and Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools does not know children better than their own parents,” said Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general and head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “The Department will not tolerate school districts playing fast and loose with […]

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Utah detectives say accused stalker told victim he ‘couldn’t wait to kill a gay person’

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A Provo, Utah, man accused of stalking a former high school classmate and threatening to kill him and his family now faces charges carrying hate crimeenhancements after allegedly saying he “couldn’t wait to kill a gay person.” Damyen Vainuku, 18, was charged Thursday in Utah’s 3rd District Court with stalking, a second-degree felony; six counts of being a restricted person in possession of a weapon, a third-degree felony; and one count each of making a threat of violence and harassment, both class A misdemeanors, according to KSL Media. The stalking, threat and harassment charges carry “targeting” enhancements — Utah’s equivalent of a hate […]

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21 states sue over Trump’s attacks on gender-affirming care insurance coverage

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Nearly two dozen Democratic-led states sued the Trump administrationWednesday over a new rule barring federal Medicaid funding for gender-affirming care for transgender youth. The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in federal court in Massachusetts, challenges a rule the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued last month barring states from using federal Medicaid or Children’s Health Insurance Program funds for what the agency calls “experimental and life-altering sex-rejecting procedures.” But the coalition of 21 states and Washington, D.C., alleges that CMS exceeded its legal authority by excluding otherwise lawful medical treatments from federal reimbursement. “Contrary to Congress’s clear directive, the Rule strips the states of their statutorily authorized role as […]

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Four suspects beat California man while shouting anti-LGBTQ+ slurs, police say

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Police in California are investigating the assault of two men in Sacramento’s Lavender Heights district. One victim said four men beat him while shouting anti-LGBTQ+ and racist slurs. Joseph Sais said the beating that left him bloodied on the street was especially painful because it happened in an LGBTQ-friendly area of town. “How can this happen here?” Sais told news station KCRA. “How can this happen in a space where it’s for us? It’s for queer individuals to come feel supported.” Sacramento police told news outlets they received reports of an assault around 1 a.m. Last Sunday near 20th and […]

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Trans band teacher accepted an Iowa school job offer. Days before classes, the board blocked his hiring

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A transgender music teacher in Iowa says a school board blocked his hiring days before the school year began. Ace Rios told Omaha CBS affiliate KMTV that he had accepted an offer to teach music at a high school in Tabor, Iowa. But the Fremont-Mills Community School Board deadlocked 2-2 on approving his contract. One board member was absent, and under board rules, the tie meant the motion failed. Stay up to date with the latest in LGBTQ+ news with The Advocate’s email newsletter, in your inbox five days a week. An agenda shows Rios’ name among eight new hires considered by the board on August 19. The […]

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Gay New Jersey detective says supervisor groped him — and bosses did nothing

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A gay detective said supervisors in the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office failed to act after a supervisor allegedly groped him at work. Detective Russell Kingsland of the Division of Criminal Justice is seeking $1.5 million in a lawsuit alleging he suffered years of workplace harassment, including pressure from supervisors to come out to his colleagues and family, according to NJ.com. He also accused one of those supervisors of sexually assaulting him at work. Kingsland said in his claim that the supervisor came up behind him, pressed his body against him at a Trenton justice complex, moved his hand toward Kingsland’s crotch and asked, “Are […]

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