LGBTQ Nation

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The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor said that anti-LGBTQ+ oppression in the country is part of the Taliban’s systematic gender oppression

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The International Criminal Court’s (ICC) chief prosecutor has filed applications for arrest warrants for two senior Taliban officials, charging them with gender persecution, including of LGBTQ+ Afghans. In a January 23 statement, ICC Prosecutor Karim A. A. Khan said that after an investigation of alleged crimes committed against Afghan civilians, his office has determined that there are “reasonable grounds to believe that the Supreme Leader of the Taliban, Haibatullah Akhunzada, and the Chief Justice of the ‘Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,’ Abdul Hakim Haqqani, bear criminal responsibility for the crime against humanity of persecution on gender grounds, under article 7(1)(h) of […]

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Donald Trump got LGBTQ+ business group’s event banned from federal building

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The Greater Houston LGBTQ+ Chamber of Commerce has said it may sue the Trump administration after the chamber was forced to relocate its annual event at the Federal Reserve Bank of Houston last week because of Trump’s executive order banning diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. The chamber said the executive order violated its constitutional rights to free speech. The chamber had planned on holding its second annual Thrive Small Business Summit & Matchmaker event at the federal bank last Thursday. However, the bank forced the event to relocate fewer than 30 hours before its start, telling the chamber that […]

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Trump administration declares Title IX does not protect trans students from discrimination

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The Trump administration has notified public schools at every level that it will not be enforcing the Biden administration’s revised interpretation of Title IX, which included the protection of LGBTQ+ students from discrimination.  In June 2022, President Joe Biden’s Education Secretary Miguel Cardona announced that Title IX, the 1972 education law that prohibits discrimination in federally funded schools “on the basis of sex,” should rely on the Supreme Court’s 2020 decision in Bostock v. Clayton County. That court decision found that Title VII’s ban on sex-based workplace discrimination includes discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The notice repealing this interpretation referred […]

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Trump administration ends Joe Biden’s efforts to fight book bans

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The Department of Education on Friday ended federal efforts to reign in an epidemic of book-banning in local school districts by right-wing groups. The announcement was made in dismissive, partisan and MAGA-inflected language in a press release titled “U.S. Department of Education Ends Biden’s Book Ban Hoax.” “By dismissing these complaints and eliminating the position and authorities of a so-called ‘book ban coordinator,’ the department is beginning the process of restoring the fundamental rights of parents to direct their children’s education,” said Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor. “These decisions will no longer be second-guessed by the Office for Civil Rights […]

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Michigan expands hate crime law to protect LGBTQ+ identities

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Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) has signed a bill adding sexual orientation and gender identity to the state’s hate crime law, along with a companion billamending sentencing guidelines for hate crimes.  The 1988 ethnic intimidation law initially applied only to religion, ethnicity, and race. The new law adds LGBTQ+ identities, as well as sex, age, disability, national origin, and affiliation with these groups.  The bill was originally proposed in 2023 but faced controversy after conservatives spread false claims that it would criminalize the act of misgendering someone. Lawmakers introduced a new version of the bill this year.  “As a Jew in a time of rampant […]

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Donald Trump freezes Civil Rights division’s work fighting discrimination

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The Trump administration has told the Civil Rights division at the Justice Department to stop pursuing any new indictments, cases, or settlements related to civil rights violations, effectively shutting down the division just days into Trump’s second term. A letter to the acting head of the division obtained by The Washington Postorders her to ensure that civil rights attorneys do not file “any new complaints, motions to intervene, agreed-upon remands, amicus briefs, or statements of interest.” The order and a separate memo sent to Kathleen Wolfe, acting supervisor of the Civil Rights division, freezes action on new cases and directs her […]

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Donald Trump orders trans women inmates to be housed with men: “There will be rapes”

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In his latest assault on transgender Americans, President Donald Trump has ordered federal prisons to house transgender women in men’s facilities and halt their gender-related healthcare. The directive follows an executive order Trump issued on his first day in office declaring the federal government would recognize only two “immutable” sexes, male and female.   The executive order, titled “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” also applies to immigration detainees in federal facilities. It does not address trans men held in detention. The directive requires all gender-related healthcare for trans women inmates to […]

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LGBTQ+ activists revive Stonewall Democrats after it shut down over a decade ago

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Facing a financial deficit and a shortage of dues owed by local chapters, the National Stonewall Democratic Federation, founded by retired out Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) in 1998 to unite Stonewall Democratic clubs across the U.S., closed the doors at its Washington office in 2013 to go on an indefinite “hiatus.” They never reopened. Now, in the face of an openly anti-LGBTQ+ second Trump administration, the group has been revived under a new banner, the National Federation of Stonewall Democrats. “The challenges facing LGBTQ+ Americans today underscore the need for a bold and unapologetically progressive action, especially given the uncertainty we face with the incoming Trump […]

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People living with HIV in Gaza are running out of medication

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Isreal’s war on Gaza has made finding medication nearly impossible for people trying to survive in the region, and Palestinians living with HIV have been hit particularly hard. According to The Intercept, aid groups like Glia say that HIV medication has specifically been blocked from entering Gaza, though Isreal’s agency for the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories denies the allegation. “Israel neither blocks nor limits the entry of medications, including those for HIV, which can be brought in without quantitative restrictions,” the agency told the outlet. But Dr. Tarek Loubani, a Palestinian Canadian emergency physician with Glia told The Intercept that Israel has […]

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Cops kill conspiracy theorist who shot-up gay-owned pizzeria

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Police in Kannapolis, North Carolina, killed 36-year-old Edgar Maddison Welch, the so-called “Pizzagate” conspiracy theorist who carried a gun into a gay-owned Washington, D.C., pizzeria in 2016 under the belief that the business’ nonexistent basement was a venue for a child-molestation ring that involved high-ranking Democrats. On January 4, two Kannapolis police officers lethally shot Welch during a traffic stop. One officer pulled Welch over to arrest him for an outstanding warrant for a probation violation. But when the officer opened Welch’s car door to apprehend him, Welch allegedly pulled out a handgun from his jacket and pointed it at […]

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