Nick Duffy

Speaker Nancy Pelosi has hit out at the Trump administration’s newly-announced ‘freedom to discriminate’ rules for healthcare workers. Pelosi led a stinging rebuke after Trump unveiled new rules that permit healthcare workers the right to discriminate based on their religious beliefs before an audience of conservative evangelical leaders at a May 2 White House reception. The Department of Health and Human Services issued the new rules, extending rights for religious objection against an alleged “culture of hostility to conscience concerns in health care.” It advises healthcare professionals: “You have the right under Federal law to decline to perform, assist in the performance of, […]

Iowa Republicans have launched an eleventh-hour plot to cut off funding for transgender people’s healthcare. Republicans in the Iowa Senate launched a surprise attack on Friday (April 26), quietly slipping in an amendment to a crucial healthcare funding bill taking aim at transgender people. Iowa Republicans ‘slip in’ amendment to cut off transgender healthcare funding The amendment, penned by Senator Mark Costello, carves a broad exemption into non-discrimination healthcare laws, stipulating that civil rights measures “shall not require any state or local government unit or tax-supported district to provide for sex reassignment surgery or any other cosmetic, reconstructive, or plastic surgery […]

As Barack Obama’s former Vice President Joe Biden announces his own run for US president, we look at his LGBT rights record. The candidate launched his long-rumoured campaign for President on Thursday (April 25), with polls making him the immediate favourite to clinch the nomination, ahead of Bernie Sanders and gay candidate Pete Buttigieg. Serving as vice president of the United States between 2008 and 2016, Biden earned a reputation as a solid supporter of LGBT+ rights, advocating for equal rights in the US and around the world. Biden was credited with forcing Barack Obama’s hand on same-sex marriage in 2012, by backing equality in a TV interview […]

National Guards in at least five states will continue to welcome trans troops, despite the Trump administration’s transgender military ban coming into effect. The Trump administration rule that bans transgender people from serving in the armed forces went into effect on April 12. However, a number of states have signalled that they will not extend discriminatory policies to their National Guard, which is one of the few parts of the armed forces not under direct federal control. The southern border states of California, Nevada and New Mexico have all signalled that trans troops are still welcome, alongside Oregon and Washington state. […]

A Mississippi man’s jaw was broken in two places during a brutal beating because his attackers thought he was gay, according to his family. Trevor Gray’s jaw was wired shut after the horrifying attack in Waynesboro, Mississippi, on April 12. According to the Clarion-Ledger, Gray met alleged attackers Landon McCaa and Toman Sion Brown at a local bar. Mississippi man attacked ‘because he was different’ Gray was part of a group that went on to continue drinking at McCaa’s home when the bar closed, but some of the men turned on Gray and decided to attack him. A video of the attack filmed […]

The Trump administration has attacked LGBT+ rights 100 times since taking office. GLAAD’s Trump Accountability Project, which monitors regressive actions on LGBT+ rights taken by the Trump administration, passed its 100th entry to date on April 3, as Housing and Urban Development secretary Ben Carson confirmed LGBT non-discrimination guidance for housing service providers had been axed. Trump administration passes 100th attack on LGBT+ rights The 100 actions include the Trump administration’s well-documented attacks on transgender rights, banning trans people from serving in the military and stripping protections for trans kids in schools. They also include actions that have received less mainstream media attention, like the Department of Justice’s support […]