Mira Lazine

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Book bans have increased nearly 200%. Florida and Iowa are partly to blame

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Over 10,000 books have been banned across the entire United States over the past school year. The trend has seen a particularly strong increase in states with a strong Republican presence, according to the free-speech nonprofit PEN America.  This is a major increase compared to the 2022-2023 year, which saw a total of 3,362 books banned across the country. Florida and Iowa are leading in the total number of bans, with over 8,000 recorded between the two states. This number is largely due to the increasingly strict laws on book bans.  The banned books include Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie; the […]

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HRC criticizes companies for ending DEI programs under right-wing pressure

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The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) has criticized companies like Molson Coors, Ford, and others for “abandoning their values and backtracking from commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)” following right-wing pressure campaigns. The HRC concurrently released new survey data showing that rollbacks on DEI from large corporations in recent years are wildly unpopular with LGBTQ+ individuals and alienating many consumers. This data comes in response to far-right activist and conspiracy theorist Robby Starbuck allegedly causing numerous prominent companies — including Ford, Lowe’s, and Harley-Davidson— to significantly scale back their DEI efforts via public pressure campaigns. Starbuck, who reportedly believes that chemicals in tap water […]

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Criminals are targeting gay Brazilians in a string of murders & robberies

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Gay Brazilians have become targeted as a slew of murderers have been using dating apps to target gay men, Reuters reports. One victim, Leo Nunes, was murdered on Lover’s Day in Brazil after he met someone on Hornet, a gay dating app. He was killed in a middle-class neighborhood in Sao Paulo. One suspect has been arrested, however the string of crimes has yet to stop. People report being robbed and attacked after meeting up with assailants using fake profiles. Straight men may be at risk, too, of “love cons,” where straight men are lured to a remote location to meet with […]

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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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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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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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Trans trailblazer Leigh Finke is facing a brutal, national attack campaign from the right

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“There were attacks from inside the House, including members on the floor using their time on the floor to attack me. There was the national hate group, Gays Against Groomers, that attacked me. And they’re sort of built on a national campaign against me… that never really slowed down,” Minnesota state Rep. Leigh Finke (D) tells LGBTQ Nation. Finke has been the target of a right-wing campaign that falsely accused her of supporting pedophilia. There is no evidence for this assertion. “I was targeted. I received death threats. I had regular meetings with the Sergeant at Arms and the state troopers […]

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Tennessee put sex workers on sex offender registry for having HIV. They will be removed.

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The Tennessee government has agreed to scrub sex workers who were unjustly convicted of being sex offenders due to an HIV diagnosis from the sex offender registry following a settlement this past Monday. The lawsuit, OUTMemphis vs. Lee, concerns a Tennessee criminal statute regarding Aggravated Prostitution, which says that if any sex worker knows they are HIV-positive and has sex, they can be put on the state’s sex offender registry, regardless of whether the other party knew or if there’s proof of intent to transmit the infection. An additional lawsuit was filed by the U.S. Department of Justice earlier this year on the same issue. […]

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Life-saving HIV clinic unexpectedly closes its doors with little explanation

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Last Thursday, a long-running HIV clinic, Rainbow Health in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul Twin Cities area of Minnesota, abruptly closed its doors, laying off 85 employees and ending thousands of people’s access to LGBTQ+ focused HIV care. The union representing the employees, Service Employees International Union, said in a statement, “We are shocked, saddened and angered by this news, both as staff dedicated to Rainbow Health’s mission and even more so for our clients and community. We are left with many huge questions: How could this massive decision come with no warning? What happened to the funding that the organization has been receiving? […]

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