John Russell

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Employers openly biased against nonbinary job applicant in resume study

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Nonbinary people face “clear bias” in the job market according to a new study from Business.com, with employers expressing blatant discrimination when presented with a resume that used they/them pronouns. “As layoffs sweep through the U.S., our data shows nonbinary individuals may have a difficult time finding new jobs,” the site tweeted.  According to the study, many nonbinary workers feel they must conceal their gender identity. “People have complained about ‘the gay agenda’ to me,” one person in Oregon said. “This is why I am hesitant to openly identify as nonbinary. It jeopardizes my personal safety to be out. I […]

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Trans men hit back at haters & share how gender-affirming care saved their lives

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As anti-trans activists and right-wing politicians in the U.S., along with so-called “gender critical feminists” in the U.K., continue to stigmatize gender-affirming healthcare, trans men who have undergone phalloplasty are sharing their stories. PinkNews reports that a recent post from an anti-trans Twitter user seems to have sparked a wave of trans men posting about how the surgical procedure, which uses a skin graft to construct (or reconstruct in the case of cis men who have sustained serious injuries) a penis, has had a positive impact on their lives. In late January, a Twitter user who goes by “terftastic” posted photos of what appear […]

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Activists took over the Oklahoma Capitol to protest anti-trans legislation

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On Monday, activists gathered at the Oklahoma State Capitol building in Oklahoma City to protest two bills that would dramatically restrict access to gender-affirming care in the state. Around 150 protesters gathered outside the Capitol, according to OU Daily, before entering the building, chanting “trans lives matter” and holding signs that read “Save Trans Lives” and “Stop Healthcare Bans on Trans.” The protest took place the same day as the start of the legislative session and Gov. Kevin Stitt’s (R-OK) State of the State address. At issue were two bills introduced by Republican state senators: Senate Bill 129 would ban gender-affirming care […]

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HOA wants gay couple to remove Pride flag after it was repeatedly vandalized

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A gay couple in Arizona says that their Pride flag has been repeatedly vandalized, and now their Homeowners Association wants them to remove it. Jared and Tim Deluca of Queen Creek, AZ, first posted a variation on the traditional Pride flag in December modeled after the American flag, with 50 stars and some of its 13 stripes cast in bright rainbow colors. It flew on a flagpole behind the married couple’s home in full view of a busy street. ADVERTISING The couple told CBS affiliate KTVK that they wanted to show people that it was ok to be themselves and encourage others […]

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Lesbian shop owners allegedly forced out of town by anti-LGBTQ+ harassment

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A lesbian couple has closed their shop in a small Florida town after allegedly enduring repeated harassment, including anti-LGBTQ+ comments from a town commissioner. Joy Drawdy says that she and her wife were initially welcomed by the community when this past June in Micanopy, Florida, they opened Restless Mommas, which sold clothes and crafts made by LGBTQ+ artists and people of color. But Drawdy told University of Florida student paper The Independent Florida Alligator that they quickly became uneasy. Soon after opening, they were informed by the shop’s landlord of a letter from the town commission demanding they remove a Pride flag […]

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Federal judge rules Catholic hospital discriminated against transgender man

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A federal judge has ruled that a Catholic hospital discriminated against a transgender man when it refused to perform a gender-affirming procedure. Jesse Hammons sued the University of Maryland Medical System, which owns St. Joseph Medical Center, after the facility canceled a hysterectomy in January 2020. Hammons’s doctor, Steven Adashek, had approved the procedure to treat his gender dysphoria. But St. Joseph’s chief medical officer, Dr. Gail Cunningham, later informed Adashek that the procedure could not be performed at the hospital because it conflicted with the facility’s religious directives. “We cannot do transgender surgery at St. [Joseph],” Cunningham told Adashek, according […]

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AZ GOP lawmakers now want to ban drag brunches on Sundays

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Arizona state GOP lawmakers have introduced a series of bills that would regulate and limit drag shows in the state. Family-friendly drag performances like drag brunches and drag queen story hours have become a lightning rod for Republicans over the past year, with local far-right and anti-LGBTQ+ groups disrupting events all over the country. But one of the Arizona bills targets even performances aimed at adults. Arizona state Sen. Anthony Kern (R) has introduced S.B. 1030, which calls for regulation and business licenses for drag shows. Under the law, drag performances would not be allowed between 1 a.m. and 8 […]

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Christian manufacturing company denies trans woman health care because of “honoring God” mission

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A transgender woman in New Hampshire has filed a discrimination complaint against her employer for denying her healthcare coverage for gender-affirming care. Lillian Bernier, 31, has been an employee of New Hampshire-based manufacturing company Turbocam since 2019. She began transitioning in 2020. According to the complaint, filed on December 16 with the New Hampshire Human Rights Commission and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the company’s self-funded health coverage plan says that no benefits will be paid for “gender dysphoria treatment, including but not limited to, counseling, gender reassignment surgery or hormone therapy, and related preoperative and postoperative procedures, which, as […]

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Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs extends protections to LGBTQ+ state employees and contractors

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Arizona’s newly elected Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) signed an executive order extending employment protections to state employees and contractors who are LGBTQ+. As the Human Rights Campaign reports, the executive order, signed on Hobbs’s first day in office Tuesday, directs the state’s Department of Administration to update hiring, promotion, and compensation policies for all state agencies to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity and include provisions in all new state contracts to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The executive order goes beyond what is already required under state and federal laws banning employment discrimination […]

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Biden administration expands veteran survivor benefits for same-sex spouses

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A major policy change from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) allows certain same-sex spouses of veterans to qualify for survivor benefits. The VA requires couples to be married for one year for surviving spouses to qualify for survivor benefits and eight years for a higher rate of benefits. Prior to the policy change, which was announced last week, many surviving spouses of LGBTQ veterans did not meet those requirements due to bans on same-sex marriages prior to the Supreme Court’s 2015 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized same-sex marriage in the U.S. According to the VA, “This wrongly […]

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