LGBTQ Nation

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Brittney Griner faces violence, bigotry and threat of torture in Russian penal colony, experts say

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The 32-year-old was sentenced in August to nine years in a Russian penal colony after pleading guilty to drug charges. She was reportedly found at an airport with vape cartridges containing cannabis oil.  At her sentencing, Griner told the court she had made “an honest mistake” and she “never meant to break any laws”.  In early November, Griner was moved from a detention centre to the IK-2 penal colony in Yavas, Mordovia – some 480 kilometres southeast of Moscow.  University of Helsinki sociologist Olga Zeveleva told The Guardian prisons in the area “are notoriously terrible, even by Russian standards”.  “It is a place any […]

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Lauren Boebert lashes out at LGBTQ critics

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Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) defended her anti-LGBTQ rhetoric after she was widely denounced online in the wake of the Club Q shooting for stoking violence against LGBTQ people. “That is completely false,” she told Ross Kaminsky on KOA, an AM radio station. “I have never had bad rhetoric towards anyone and their personal preference as an adult.” Sexual orientation is not a “personal preference” and minors can have sexual orientations. In fact, Boebert herself got pregnant for the first time when she was in high school. This past Saturday, a shooter entered the LGBTQ bar Club Q in Colorado Springs, […]

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Civil rights groups urge feds to investigate anti-trans policies in Texas schools

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The ACLU and six other civil rights groups filed complaints Monday against two Texas school districts, asking the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights to investigate policies they say unlawfully discriminate against transgender students, The Hill reports. The policies at the center of the complaint include one censoring books that discuss “gender fluidity” and another forcing trans students to use bathrooms that align with their sex assigned at birth rather than their gender. “The effect of the [book] policy, absent federal civil rights intervention, will be to stigmatize LGBTQ+ and particularly transgender, non-binary, gender diverse, and intersex students in Keller ISD, […]

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Herschel Walker’s new ad slams trans people barely a day after a mass shooting at an LGBTQ bar

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Barely a day after a deadly LGBTQ bar shooting killed two transgender people and three other patrons, Georgia senatorial candidate Herschel Walker (R) released a campaign ad slamming trans athletes. Democrats are pointing to Republican anti-LGBTQ campaigns like Walker’s as the type of rhetoric that led to the murder of five people at Colorado Springs bar Club Q on Saturday night. The video featured Riley Gaines, a self-described 12-time NCAA All-American swimmer. In March, Gaines tied for fifth place with trans swimmer Lia Thomas. Gaines has been complaining about it ever since. In Warnock’s ad, Gaines says, “For more than a […]

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Christian conservatives campaign against lesbian polar bears in “Peppa Pig”

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The anti-LGBTQ One Million Moms (OMM) is circulating a petition against the beloved British children’s show Peppa Pig after it aired an episode featuring a young polar bear child with two polar bear moms. The petition tells families to “Beware! Peppa Pig is now boldly glorifying gay marriage.” It states that OMM is “concerned with the normalization of a sinful lifestyle choice during a children’s show.” Get the Daily Brief The news you care about, reported on by the people who care about you. “This type of sexuality should never be included in a cartoon designed for children, much less praised. It is especially distressing since […]

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Nancy Pelosi says “MAGA Republicans” are to blame for anti-trans violence

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In the aftermath of the tragic shooting at an LGBTQ bar in Colorado Springs that left five people dead and 18 injured, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said MAGA Republicans are to blame for anti-trans violence. “Whether spouting dangerous rhetoric from cable news desks or openly bullying schoolchildren from the halls of power, MAGA Republicans are cruelly undermining the safety and well-being of our transgender community,” Pelosi said in a statement released on Sunday to mark the Transgender Day of Remembrance. She also touted House Democrats’ work enacting “fully-inclusive federal hate crimes protections with the historic Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. […]

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Police killed a transgender mother of two while conducting a mental health wellness check

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One night, someone called 911 to ask police in Malvern, Pennsylvania to conduct a mental wellness check on Maddie Hofmann, a 47-year-old transgender woman. The caller said that Maddie had sent an email that sounded like a suicide letter. When police checked on Hofmann, they ended up shooting her three times inside her own home. She died from the injuries. Her death left behind her wife, Rebecca Hoffman, and their two children, ages 9 and 4. Her wife and family are still searching for answers and accountability. “[My wife] belonged on medication, not on a shelf,” Rebecca told The Philadelphia Inquirer, referring […]

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Democratic governor signs law punishing HIV transmission with up to 10 years in prison

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Pennsylvania’s Gov. Tom Wolf (D) just signed a new law that makes it a felony to pass on a communicable disease when they “should have known” that they had it, the HIV Justice Network reported. Opponents of the law worry it will be used to punish people with HIV or other STDs who unknowingly transmit it to sexual partners. Such HIV criminalization laws have disproportionately been used to target Black men and other men of color. While the offense, a third-degree felony, has to be “intentional,” one could see an arrestee being charged with it if they accidentally spit onto an […]

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This organization wants Odessa Kelly to be the first out Black woman elected to Congress

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Glynda Carr has devoted her life to helping progressive Black women gain political power. As co-founder and president of the organization Higher Heights, she has worked for over a decade to help Black women get elected to positions across the country. ADVERTISING The organization offers training for those interested in running for office or working on campaigns at every level, from school board to Senator. The connected federal PAC, Higher Heights for America PAC, focuses on supporting Black women running at the federal level, for statewide executive roles, and for mayor of the top 100 cities. Carr describes Higher Heights […]

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Here’s how all 9 LGBTQ House members are expected to do in the midterm elections

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The nine out LGBTQ members of the U.S. House are also all chairs of the Equality Caucus, the congressional group that pursues LGBTQ legislation and issues statements against anti-queer discrimination. All nine are up for re-election, and the House’s Democratic majority and the future of LGBTQ rights hang in the balance. Here are all nine LGBTQ House members and how they’re expected to do in their races. ADVERTISING David Cicilline (D-RI) Cicilline is chair of the House Equality Caucus and a reliably progressive Democrat. He’s running his sixth reelection campaign, this time against Allen Waters (R). Get the Daily Brief […]

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