Jo Yurcaba

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Less than 10% of 2022’s anti-LGBTQ state bills became law, report finds

State legislators across the country proposed a record number of bills targeting LGBTQ rights last year, but less than 1 in 10 have become law, a report published Thursday by the Human Rights Campaign found.  The LGBTQ advocacy group’s 2022 State Equality Index, an annual review of state legislation and policies that affect the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people, found that state legislators introduced 315 bills that the Human Rights Campaign described as “anti-equality.” Just 29 became law.  The majority of the new laws target transgender minors. In the last three years, 18 states have banned trans […]

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Trans physician uses life savings to keep clinic open after insurers deny reimbursements

Tiffany Najberg, a Louisiana doctor who is transgender, said three insurance companies refused to reimburse her since she legally changed her name nearly two years ago. The companies have since come to agreements with her and her Shreveport clinic, UrgentEMS, but not until after she started a petition that has garnered nearly 12,000 signatures and received news media attention about her cause, including inquiries from NBC News. While the three insurers have agreed to update her name in their records and pay back claims, Najberg and her clinic have yet to receive any checks. In the meantime, she has spent her life […]

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7.2% of U.S. adults identify as LGBTQ, Gallup Poll finds

The percentage of adults in the U.S. who identify as LGBTQ increased slightly year over year, to 7.2% last year, according to a Gallup Poll released Wednesday.  While that’s just a slight increase from 7.1% in 2021, it’s more than double what it was a decade ago, when Gallup found just 3.5% of the U.S. population identified as something other than heterosexual in 2012. Gallup asked more than 10,000 adults nationwide how they identify in telephone interviews last year.  For the first time, the organization recorded the identities of LGBTQ people who said they are something other than lesbian, gay, bisexual […]

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South Dakota becomes the 6th state to restrict gender-affirming care for minors

South Dakota has joined five other states that have restricted transition-related care for transgender minors in just the past two years.  On Monday, Gov. Kristi Noem, a Republican, signed the “Help Not Harm” bill, which bans health care professionals from providing puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgery to minors as treatment for gender dysphoria, which is the distress caused by a sense of conflict between the assigned sex at birth and the person’s gender identity.  Providers who are already treating trans minors with puberty blockers, which temporarily pause puberty, or hormone therapy will be required to taper the minors off […]

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Missouri AG confirms investigation into pediatric transgender center

Missouri has launched a multi-agency investigation into a pediatric transgender center after a former case worker alleged children were being routinely prescribed puberty blockers or hormone therapy without “appropriate or accurate” mental health assessments, the state’s attorney general announced Thursday.  “We have received disturbing allegations that individuals at the Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital have been harming hundreds of children each year, including by using experimental drugs on them,” state Attorney General Andrew Bailey said in a statement. “We take this evidence seriously and are thoroughly investigating to make sure children are not harmed by individuals who may be […]

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DeSantis tries to revoke Orlando Philharmonic’s liquor license over drag show

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis filed a complaint against the Orlando Philharmonic Plaza Foundation alleging that the nonprofit group held a sexually explicit drag show in December in the presence of minors. The complaint, filed Friday through the Department of Business and Professional Regulation’s Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco and shared with NBC News, alleges the foundation violated Florida statutes on lewdness and maintaining a public nuisance and seeks to revoke its liquor license.  The complaint is at least the second that DeSantis’ administration has filed against a venue for hosting a drag performance in the presence of minors. In July, […]

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Utah is the first state to pass a gender-affirming care ban in 2023

Utah is the first state to ban gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors this year. Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican, signed a bill Saturday that bars minors from receiving gender-affirming surgeries and places an indefinite moratorium on their access to puberty blockers and hormone therapy.  The bill, which passed in the Utah State Legislature last week, is prospective, so minors who were diagnosed with gender dysphoria before the bill’s effective date, May 3, 2023, would still be able to receive care if they meet a list of requirements. “Legislation that impacts our most vulnerable youth requires careful consideration and deliberation. […]

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Hormone therapy improves mental health for transgender youths, a new study finds

Transgender youths reported more life satisfaction and fewer symptoms of depression and anxiety after receiving gender-affirming hormone therapy for two years, according to a new study.  The research, published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, evaluated 315 transgender youths between 12 to 20 years old, with an average age of 16, over the course of two years while they were being treated with gender-affirming hormone therapy. The researchers are a group of physicians and professors associated with universities and children’s hospitals in Chicago, Boston and Los Angeles. The study was supported by a grant from the Eunice Kennedy […]

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With over 100 anti-LGBTQ bills before state legislatures in 2023 so far, activists say they’re ‘fired up’

More than 100 bills targeting LGBTQ rights and queer life — from transgender health care to drag shows — have been filed in 22 states for 2023 so far, leading advocates to expect this year will set a new record for anti-LGBTQ legislation.  So far, Texas has taken the lead with 36 such bills, according to Equality Texas, a statewide LGBTQ advocacy group. Missouri is next with 26, then North Dakota with eight and Oklahoma with six.  The majority of these approximately 120 bills focus on transgender young people, continuing a trend that began about two years ago.  In the past three years, 18 states […]

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Florida medical board votes to ban gender-affirming care for transgender minors

After five hours of tense testimony and protests, the Florida Board of Medicine voted Friday to start drafting a rule that would bar all minors in the state from receiving puberty blockers, hormone therapy or surgeries as treatment for gender dysphoria. Florida’s medical board is the first in the country to pursue such a rule, but Florida is among a wave of states where officials have attempted to restrict gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors. By the end of Friday’s five-hour meeting, protesters began yelling “Shame!” at the board members, and some of them staged a “die-in” in the lobby […]

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