Molly Spayregen

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Lambda Legal says it needs more willing plaintiffs to fight Donald Trump

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The CEO of Lambda Legal, an LGBTQ+ civil rights organization, says they have long been preparing for Donald Trump’s arrival in the Oval Office.  In an interview with The Advocate, Kevin Jennings said Trump is utilizing a “shock and awe” strategy, flooding the nation with outlandish moves all at once to intentionally overwhelm. But his team is not surprised.  “At Lambda Legal, we knew this was coming. So we have neither been shocked nor awed by what’s happening,” Jennings assured.  “We’ve seen this movie before,” he added. “We sued the Trump administration 14 times during his first presidency and won 12 of those cases […]

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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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LGBTQ+ parents are rushing to safeguard their parental rights before Donald Trump is president

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LGBTQ+ parents are reportedly scrambling to secure their parental rights before Donald Trump takes the oath of office. Attorney Meghan Alexander told Advocate she usually receives about three calls a week from LGBTQ+ parents seeking second-parent adoptions. The week Trump won, she fielded 26 calls. Since then, they have just kept coming.  Project 2025, which is believed to be the blueprint for the Trump administration, essentially calls to eliminate LGBTQ+ rights and states, “Only heterosexual, two-parent families are safe for children.”  “The advice is the same as it’s been for the last couple of decades, which is to do a second-parent adoption,” Alexander […]

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City that placed $10,000 bounty on trans people who use public restrooms makes law even worse

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A Texas city infamous for placing a $10,000 bounty on trans people who use bathrooms and locker rooms that do not align with their sex assigned at birth has voted to make its policy even more strict.  On Tuesday, the Odessa City Council voted 5-1 to maintain its bathroom ban and allow individual citizens (whether or not they are Odessa or even Texas residents) to sue a trans person for a minimum of $10,000 in damages if they violate it (there is no cap on how large the bounty can be). It also approved an expansion of the law. Once applied only […]

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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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Biden admin calls for program to help provide more gender-affirming care for trans people with HIV

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To mark the 12th anniversary of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) is hosting a weeklong celebration to praise its accomplishments. But in the name of health equity for transgender people, who are adversely affected by HIV/AIDS, HHS is also asking for more. In a letter shared exclusively with LGBTQ Nation, the HIV/AIDS Bureau (HAB) of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) is asking the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program (RWHAP) to leverage its existing infrastructure and resources to not only continue providing direct HIV/AIDS care to transgender people, but to provide gender-affirming care as well. Established thirty […]

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Hero teacher resigns after being told to sign a contract comparing homosexuality to pedophilia

A teacher at a Christian K-12 school has resigned and pulled her own son out of the school after the administration asked parents to sign a contract condemning homosexuality and comparing it to bestiality and pedophilia. “Not only could I not sign that as a parent, I couldn’t agree to be a teacher in a school that had that vocabulary and language around some of the most vulnerable kids that we interact with,” Helen Clapham Burns, who worked at the Citipointe Christian College in Brisbane, Australia, said on the news program The Project, while close to tears. Burns also expressed devastation that […]

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Five anti-LGBTQ people who’ve been charged for rioting at Capitol Insurrection

On January 6, 2021, Trump supporters who believed that President Joe Biden had secretly and successfully stolen millions of ballots across multiple states to usurp the presidency stormed the Capitol with the intent of stopping Congress from accepting the states’ election results. The crowd chanted for the death of Mike Pence – who was presiding over the Senate that day – and fashioned a makeshift noose as elected officials were swept to safety by the Secret Service and Capitol Police. Five people died as a result of the day’s events. Since then, over 700 people have been arrested for their role in […]