LGBTQ Nation

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Ron DeSantis smeared this trans candidate. She just won her primary.

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Ashley Brundage, 44, a DEI educator and former bank executive, moved one step closer on Tuesday to becoming the first elected transgender lawmaker from Florida despite a smear campaign perpetuated by the state’s governor, Ron DeSantis. Brundage, running for a state House seat from the Tampa area, swamped her opposition with more than 81 percent of the vote in Florida House District 65’s Democratic primary.  She’ll face incumbent Republican Florida state Rep. Karen Gonzalez Pittman in November. “I am incredibly honored and humbled to announce that we’ve won the Democratic primary election with a resounding victory over 80% for Florida State […]

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Rep. Robert Garcia believes “radical” queerness & compassion can help win the 2024 election

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Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) understands the stakes of the upcoming election. He immigrated to the U.S. at age 5, became a U.S. citizen in his early 20s, tackled the COVID-19 epidemic as the youngest and first out LGBTQ+ mayor of Long Beach, California, and—after the virus killed both his mother and stepfather—became the first out gay immigrant ever elected to Congress. Now Garcia is surrounded by some Republican legislators who believe COVID-19 was a hoax, immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country,” and that LGBTQ+ people don’t deserve legal protections. About a month ago, Garcia was all in on […]

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Over 1000 trans people show up for historic “Trans Folks for Harris” call

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Over 1,000 people, primarily trans folk, showed up in a “Trans Folks for Harris” Zoom call to express support for Kamala Harris, The 19th reports. “A lot of times, elected officials have not really taken our issues seriously, in part because they think that we’re too small of a community to matter,” said Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen, executive director of Advocates for Trans Equality. “Now we’ve been able to prove that that is not true at all.” The call featured a who’s who of well-known trans people, particularly trans politicians. Co-organized by activist Charlotte Clymer, the meeting also put a spotlight on elected officials like […]

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Trans teens sue New Hampshire to stop sports ban

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Last Friday, two New Hampshire teenagers – soccer players who have been living as girls since a young age – have sued the state of New Hampshire for instituting a transgender sports ban. The lawsuit was filed with help from the ACLU. The lawsuit claims that the ban on trans inclusion in girls’ sports violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and Title IX, a 1972 amendment that further guarantees equal treatment in education on the basis of sex. The lawsuit also reveals that the plaintiffs are aiming to file a restraining order against the defendants alongside their […]

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Gay man freed from Qatar after being “honey-trapped” by police in Grindr plot

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A gay man from Britain who was jailed in Qatar after being entrapped by the police has finally been permitted to leave by Qatari authorities and has returned to the United Kingdom after months of imprisonment in inhumane conditions. Manuel Guerrero Aviña, a gay man who has British/Mexican citizenship, was arrested in February 2024 in Qatar, where homosexuality is illegal. Aviña was a former employee of Qatar Air Lines. He was convicted of drug possession in a so-called “honey trap.” Aviña said he responded to fake messages on Grindr that were actually sent by the police.  He was lured to a location […]

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Federal court allows Iowa to enforce anti-LGBTQ+ book ban, but questions remain

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A federal appeals court just ruled that Iowa can its enact bill banning LGBTQ+ books from classrooms. The ruling, from a three-judge panel of the Eight Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, decided that the preliminary injunction issued by a lower court was based on a “flawed analysis” of the law. The bill, SF 496, requires parental consent before giving their child any book containing content relating to LGBTQ+ topics. This effectively censors LGBTQ+ books from youth living in antagonistic homes. It was signed into law last year by Gov. Kim Reynolds (R). The bill was challenged in the court case Iowa Safe Schools, […]

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A gay weed activist turned dispensary owner is ready to pass the torch

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In 2021, Terrance Alan celebrated the long-anticipated opening of Flore, a well-appointed cannabis dispensary just across the street from the legendary and now-closed Castro hangout Cafe Flore, a victim of the COVID pandemic. Thirty years earlier, at the height of another devastating health crisis, Alan was a regular at Cafe Flore with his husband, who was HIV positive and slowly succumbing to the effects of the disease. “Cafe Flore was a stop on the underground railway line for experimental HIV drugs, and my husband and I would go and hang out,” Alan explained in an interview with Greenstate. “And certain people […]

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Trans state employees win court victory against a Ron DeSantis law banning their care

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Last week, a federal judge overturned Florida’s restrictions on gender-affirming care for state employees, referring to the insurance program in the state as “facially discriminatory.” “Our clients dedicated their careers to bettering Florida, and in return they were denied coverage of essential medical care needed to better their own lives,” said Samantha Past, a staff attorney with the ACLU of Florida, in a statementcelebrating the ruling. “Discrimination has no place here, and we are hopeful that this decision will encourage a commitment from the state to treating members of our transgender community with the respect they deserve and reciprocating their care and devotion […]

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Rebel groups in Colombia are killing trans women in a “social cleansing” campaign

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In Colombia, armed groups are targeting transgender women along with other so-called undesirables in a violent campaign of “social cleansing” across the country. Paramilitaries in Colombia—still operating despite a peace agreement with the country’s largest rebel group, the Farc, in 2016—killed more than 40 transgender women last year, according to reporting in The Guardian. Eight more died between February and April this year, activists say, in an effort by armed groups to create a “parallel state” where trans women and others seen as damaging to society are punished or killed. In Caquetá, a sparsely populated department in southern Colombia and a rebel stronghold, […]

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Trans woman sues Whole Foods & Amazon after allegedly “humiliating” harassment

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A transgender woman in Washington, D.C., Ximena Navarrete, claims she was sexually harassed, raped, and generally discriminated against while working at local Whole Foods supermarkets. She has filed lawsuits against the company and its parent company, Amazon, seeking a combined $2.5 million in damages. Navarrete, age 46, allegedly endured sexual harassment, assault, and transphobic harassment, including nonconsensual touching, name-calling, indecent exposure, and lewd gestures, her lawsuit states. Amazon has denied any wrongful conduct. She filled online food orders at several D.C.-area Whole Foods stores from September 20, 2020 to October 6, 2021. Even though she reportedly made it clear to […]

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