LGBTQ Nation

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Hate group reveals plan to overturn conversion therapy bans nationwide

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The Christian anti-LGBTQ+ legal advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) — defined as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center — is hoping the U.S. Supreme Court will overturn state bans on so-called conversion therapy for minors. Though the court hasn’t agreed to take on the case just yet, it provide insight into how ADF plans on challenging more conversion therapy bans in the future. The ADF is providing legal counsel to licensed marriage and family counselor Brian Tingley in Tingley v. Ferguson, a legal challenge to Washington state’s ban. Tingley says the ban violates his rights to free […]

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Mike Johnson “applauds” efforts to make gay marriage & sodomy illegal again

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Anti-LGBTQ+ House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) didn’t just agree with Justice Clarence Thomas’ suggestion that the Supreme Court should revisit its 2015 decision legalizing same-sex marriage — he applauded it. The court’s 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organizationstruck down Roe v. Wade, ending the constitutional right to abortion in the U.S. In his concurring opinion, Thomas included a footnote asserting that by striking down the legal basis for Roe, the court had called into question every other decision using the same reasoning. Thomas went so far as to specifically name the Supreme Court’s decisions in Obergefell v. Hodges and Lawrence v. Texas, the cases that established […]

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Here’s why gay & bi young people smoke more than their straight peers

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Gay, lesbian, and bisexual young people are more likely to use alcohol, e-cigarettes, cannabis, and tobacco than their heterosexual peers, a new study has found. Researchers say that stress from sexual orientation-based discrimination is to blame. The study — published this autumn in the American Medical Association’s open-access medical journal, JAMA Network Open — looked at data on the habits of 28,291 middle and high school students taken from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) 2022 National Youth Tobacco Survey. About 4.5% of student respondents self-identified as gay or lesbian, and 11.8% self-identified as bisexual. These percentages represent about […]

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Five anti-LGBTQ+ Republican congressmembers announce early retirement amid GOP woes

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Five anti-LGBTQ+ House Republicans have announced their intentions to retire. While some of them blamed their GOP colleagues’ antics for their early departures, their announcements have coincided with recent Republican losses in an off-year election and the rise of former President Donald Trump in the Republican presidential primary. The representatives — Reps. Ken Buck (R-CO), Kay Granger (R-TX), Michael Burgess (R-TX), Debbie Lesko (R-AZ), and Victoria Spartz (R-IN) — all voted against the 2022 Respect for Marriage Act, a law that requires the federal government to recognize legal same-sex marriages. “The Republican House is failing the American people again,” Spartz said. “[The House is] like […]

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Teacher fired because of Don’t Say Gay law for using a gender-neutral title

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A nonbinary teacher in Florida was fired for using the gender-neutral title “Mx.” Now they’ve filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that could challenge the state’s “Don’t Say Gay” law. According to WMNF, AV Vary recently came out as nonbinary and began using the title Mx. They say they informed the principal at Florida Virtual School (FLVS), a statewide online public school where they taught physics, of the change. “I let him know that I was doing it. And he didn’t say anything at first, and then about a month later he told me he needed me to […]

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This activist built himself a website to track global LGBTQ+ laws

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In 2008, Dan Leveille, 35, was studying computer science at the Rochester Institute of Technology when California voters passed Proposition 8, eliminating the right of same-sex couples to marry in the state. It was a sucker punch to the queer community, including Leveille, who found himself wanting to bring order to how he thought about LGBTQ+ rights in the US. His solution was Equaldex, a passion project that visualizes the state of queer rights not only at home but around the world. The site has become a trusted resource for governments, the media, and LGBTQ+ travelers everywhere. Related: LGBTQ Nation spoke with […]

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Majority of non-binary youth now avoid joining sports teams, study finds

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A new study has determined that a vast majority of non-binary youths in Canada now avoid joining sports teams over discrimination fears. The study, conducted by Trans Connect and Simon Fraser University, surveyed queer, non-binary, and transgender youth ranging from ages 14 to 26. It determined that only 11 per cent of non-binary youth in Canada currently take part in an organised team sport. “The experiences of non-binary youth in organized team sports in Canada have been drastically understudied,” said researcher Martha Gumprich.  “Our report found that many youths avoid team sports due to abuse and discrimination but there are some solutions that would make sport more […]

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Pretty much everybody opposes everything Mike Johnson stands for

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New House Speaker Mike Johnson (R) holds extremist views on social issues and based his political and professional career on opposition to LGBTQ+ rights. He’s argued that gay sex should be illegal, opposes same-sex marriage, and is a proponent of debunked attempts to turn gay people straight. But when Americans were asked about their views on Johnson’s Christian Nationalist positions, the overwhelming majority opposed everything he stands for. Related: In a recently released Data for Progress poll, most respondents admitted that they didn’t know how to feel about him because they still had no idea who he was.  Get the Daily Brief The […]

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The Supreme Court is being asked to hear its first case on gender-affirming care

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The American Civil Liberties Union has asked the Supreme Court to block a Tennessee law banning gender-affirming care for minors. On Wednesday, the ACLU, along with the ACLU of Tennessee and Lambda Legal, petitioned the court to review a Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling allowing the state’s anti-trans law to go into effect. As The Hill notes, if the court accepts the case, it would be the first time the Supreme Court hears a case involving gender-affirming care. Tennessee Republicans passed the state’s S.B. 1 in February, and it was signed into law by Gov. Bill Lee (R) in early March. In addition […]

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Vermont’s largest school district unanimously approves strong protections for trans students

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Vermont’s largest school district, the Champlain Valley School District, has passed a set of policies that affirm transgender and nonbinary students’ identities. The policies require schools to let trans students access school facilities, play on sports teams, and use pronouns and names that match their gender identity without informing potentially unsupportive parents. The policies, which closely follow the trans- and nonbinary-inclusive guidelines issued by the state Agency of Education in 2017, were developed using “feedback from principals, school counselors, and nurses, students, and parents, along with staff from the Vermont Department of Health and Outright Vermont,” the independent state publication Seven Days reported. The school […]

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