Jo Yurcaba

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Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney to reintroduce LGBTQ-inclusive violent crime data bill

Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, a New York Democrat, said Monday that he plans to reintroduce a bill aimed at improving sexual orientation and gender identity data collection in violent crimes and suicides.  The “LGBTQ Essential Data Act” would require law enforcement to include sexual orientation and gender identity information in the National Violent Death Reporting System — a database run by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that documents violent deaths and suicides, and provides information about why they occurred. “The epidemic of violence against transgender Americans — particularly transgender women of color — is only getting worse,” Maloney said in […]

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‘Keeps me up at night’: Doctors who care for transgender minors brace for bans

Dr. Stephanie Ho, a family medicine physician in Fayetteville, Arkansas, said she’s had state legislators in her exam room before. Ho, who has provided gender-affirming care to transgender people in the state since 2015, is also an abortion provider, so she is familiar with lawmakers’ restricting the care she provides. She said she wasn’t surprised when the Legislature overrode Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s veto of a bill last month that would ban puberty blockers, hormones and surgery for transgender minors.  “I think that it’s kind of ridiculous that we’ve gotten to the point that we’re letting politicians dictate how health care is delivered […]

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Pride 2021: Big cities ‘playing the safe card’ with small gatherings, virtual events

Holly Duchmann, who lives in Lafayette, Louisiana, plans to attend a Pride celebration for the first time this year.  “In the years before the pandemic, while I was out to my friends, I was still really scared to go to Pride,” Duchmann, 27, said. “Because I’m bisexual, I kind of pass as straight a lot, and so that kind of created anxiety with me for years, making me feel like I didn’t really belong in the LGBT community.” She felt more accepted after finding queer community through her roller derby team, and in 2020, she was looking forward to going […]

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Gay Iranian man dead in alleged ‘honor killing,’ rights group says

Ali Fazeli Monfared, a 20-year-old gay Iranian man, was allegedly killed in an “honor killing” by some of his male family members after they found out he was gay, according to an LGBTQ rights group in Iran and Turkey. Fazeli Monfared, who was known as Alireza by friends and family, lived in a city in southwest Iran. He had applied for an exemption from compulsory military service so he could leave the country and move to Turkey to live with his close friend, Aghil Bayat, according to 6Rang, the Iranian Lesbian and Transgender Network. Though homosexual conduct is criminalized in Iran, […]

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NCAA considers holding tournaments in states with trans athlete restrictions

The NCAA announced a preliminary list of 20 schools being considered to host the Division I Softball Championship, and three of them — Alabama, Arkansas and Tennessee — are in states that have recently passed laws banning transgender girls and women from competing on women’s sports teams. The final list of 16 schools that will host games in the tournament’s regional round will be announced May 16, about a month after the NCAA released a statement backing trans athletes as more than 30 states have considered legislation to limit their participation. “When determining where championships are held, NCAA policy directs that only locations where hosts can […]

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Amazon will not remove book advocates say endangers transgender youth

Amazon is still selling a book that advocates say perpetuates the idea that being transgender is harmful to youth and something to be “cured.” The book, “Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters,” by the journalist Abigail Shrier, explores what Shrier calls an “epidemic” of young girls coming out as trans. “A generation of girls is at risk,” the Amazon description of the book reads. “Abigail Shrier’s essential book will help you understand what the trans craze is and how you can inoculate your child against it — or how to retrieve her from this dangerous path.” Dozens of […]

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Caitlyn Jenner says transgender girls in women’s sports is ‘unfair’

Caitlyn Jenner, the former Olympic champion and reality TV personality now running for governor in California, said she opposes transgender girls competing in girls’ sports at school. Jenner, a 1976 decathlon gold medalist who came out as a transgender woman in 2015, told a TMZ reporter on Saturday that it’s “a question of fairness.” “That’s why I oppose biological boys who are trans competing in girls’ sports in school. It just isn’t fair. And we have to protect girls’ sports in our schools,” Jenner said Saturday during a brief interview in a Malibu parking lot. It was Jenner’s first comment […]

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Undoing 4 years of ‘damage’: LGBTQ advocates on Biden’s first 100 days

Finn Cooper, who lives in Cincinnati, volunteered for the Michigan Democratic Party to call voters in the swing state on behalf of the Biden-Harris presidential campaign in the months leading up to the election. Cooper, who uses gender-neutral pronouns, said they supported Joe Biden’s message on LGBTQ rights. “I thought he seemed like a good candidate — much better than Trump, of course, and I do think he has done infinitely better than Donald Trump on these issues,” Cooper, 20, said. “At the administration level, I think he’s done well. The problem I think more comes down to the legislative […]

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A ‘troubling rise’ in business owners refusing gay couples, advocates say

Amy and Stephanie Mudd drove an hour from their home in Glasgow, Kentucky, to the city of Radcliff on April 3 to meet with an accountant at Aries Tax Service. Mudd said her mother-in-law, who lives in the area, recommended the business because it offers a $55 flat fee to file taxes electronically. When they got there, they saw a sign on the door that listed 10 things customers should have with them if they want the business to e-file their tax return. But the last item on the list stopped them from opening the door. It read, “Homosexual marriage […]

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‘It’s not safe’: Parents of transgender kids plan to flee their states as GOP bills loom

George and Emily Spurrier are leaving their home of 16 years in central Arkansas due to a new law that will ban the health care that they say their 17-year-old transgender son needs. Gov. Asa Hutchinson, a Republican, vetoed the measure earlier this month, calling it “a vast government overreach.” But the Arkansas General Assembly overrode the veto, and the bill will become law this summer. Emily Spurrier said when her son heard the news, he sat in her car and cried for an hour. “It was just kind of a wave of emotions, thinking about moving and then him worrying about some friends […]

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