The Advocate

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Who is Lillian Bonsignore — set to be first out gay Fire Department of New York commissioner?

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NYC Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani has named Lillian Bonsignore commissioner of the Fire Department of New York, making her the second woman and first out gay person in that post. Mamdani made the announcement at a press conference Tuesday afternoon in Queens. “[The FDNY] deserves a leader who cares about their work, because she did it herself,” he said, as reported by Newsweek “She is the kind of leader I’m so proud to have in my administration.” “My goal is to ensure that every member of [the FDNY] has the resources and environment they need to perform their role safely and effectively,” Bonsignore […]

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Gen Z women are more likely to identify as bisexual but still embrace lesbian label: study

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Gen Z women aren’t trying to cancel the lesbian label — they’re just more likely to identify as bisexual.  Among 913,253 international users of the queer women’s and nonbinary dating app Zoe (71.1 percent of whom identify as female), 48.3 percent identify as lesbian, 39.8 percent as bisexual, 6.6 percent as pansexual, 3.4 percent as queer, 1.2 percent as gay, and 0.7 percent as asexual, according to a new report in Demographic Research.  Gen Z users — those born between 1997 and 2006 — were slightly more likely to identify as bisexual than lesbian, with 45 percent of users ages 20 to 29 using the bisexual […]

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After 30 years in uniform, a veteran in Nebraska who survived ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ is running for Congress

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When Kishla Askins talks about why she is running for Congress in Nebraska, she does not begin with polling or party. She begins with the people she could not bring home. Askins, a retired U.S. Navy veteran and former senior Pentagon and Veterans Affairs official, spent more than 30 years in uniform, first as an enlisted sailor, then as a Navy corpsman and emergency medicine physician assistant who deployed with the Marine Corps to combat zones. Some of the service members under her care died. That loss, she said, still guides her. “I made a sacred promise,” Askins said in an interview with The […]

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California hospital will continue youth gender-affirming care after families protest

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When Sutter Health told its patients in late November that it would no longer be providing gender-affirming care services for those 19 and under, their families began organizing.  The largest hospital system in Northern California didn’t announce the policy change publicly, but quietly informed those receiving the care — right around Transgender Day of Remembrance — that the treatment would stop as of December 10. While it put a damper on their Thanksgiving holidays, the families of the affected transgender youth weren’t going to take it lying down. Rainbow Families Action, a collective of families in the Bay Area who have trans children, put out a call to […]

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Sacramento man still in coma six weeks after suspected anti-LGBTQ+ hate crime

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A Sacramento man’s family and the local LGBTQ+ community are still fighting for justice six weeks after he was rendered comatose during an attack that’s been designated as an anti-LGBTQ+ hate crime. Alvin Prasad, 57, was leaving an LGBTQ+ club with his daughter and a friend on Halloween night when a man began shouting at them from his car. Prasad’s daughter, Andrea, told ABC10 at the time that the man insulted her father’s flamboyant costume “in a very rude, aggressive way,” and when Prasad turned around to ask why he spoke to them like that, the man allegedly punched him. The punch was directly to […]

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Massachusetts removes rule requiring foster parents to support LGBTQ+ youth

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Massachusetts has removed state rules requiring that foster parents support LGBTQ+ youth in their care after lawsuits from families and threats from the Trump administration.  The state Department of Children and Families removed the policies Friday, replacing them with a general statement about parents supporting children’s “individual identity and needs.” The change comes in the wake of two lawsuits from families who lost or were denied their foster care licenses after refusing to sign an agreement to not discriminate against LGBTQ+ youth nor attempt to change their gender identity or sexual orientation. “The Department of Children and Families’ top priority is providing a safe and […]

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A devastating reality: New report finds violence and erasure ahead of Transgender Day of Remembrance

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As Transgender Day of Remembrance approaches on November 20, a stark new report from Advocates for Trans Equality reveals the extent of the violence, erasure, and institutional abandonment confronting transgender Americans and the resilience of a community determined to survive it. The 2025 Remembrance Report, prepared by A4TE’s public education team and seen exclusively by The Advocate, documents 27 violent deaths of transgender and gender-nonconforming people over the last year and 21 deaths by suicide, a devastating pattern that has become grimly familiar. Sixty-one percent of the transgender people lost to suicide were between ages 15 and 24, a finding the report connects directly to […]

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LGBTQ+ people are more likely to be stopped, arrested, and falsely accused by police: report

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LGBTQ+ people are significantly more likely to report being stopped, detained, and falsely accused by law enforcement compared to non-LGBTQ+ people, and it’s keeping them from calling for help.  A recent review of more than 25 years of research on interactions between LGBTQ+ people and law enforcement by the Williams Institute found that LGBTQ+ people were more likely than non-LGBTQ+ people to face mistreatment from police. LGBTQ+ people were more likely have been stopped (51 percent vs. 42 percent), searched (27 percent vs. 16 percent), arrested (20 percent vs. 14 percent), and held in custody (19 percent vs. 14 percent) over the course of their lives.  […]

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Washington State University credentials anti-trans hate group to teach medical providers

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The Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine (SEGM), a Southern Poverty Law Center-designated hate group, received the green light to teach medical professionals through Washington State University’s continuing medical education (CME) program — meaning medical providers may now use SEGM courses to fulfill requirements to maintain their licensure. Critics argue the move by WSU gives the appearance of legitimacy to a group with opaque funding and a disturbing proximity to far-right, Christian fundamentalist forces. It also means well-meaning providers who want to enhance their practice with trans-competent care may be misdirected to SEGM propaganda instead of evidence-based best practices. Most damning, critics say, is that listing SEGM as […]

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Transgender Air Force members sue Trump administration over revoked retirements

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Seventeen longtime transgender members of the U.S. Air Force and Space Force have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, alleging that the Department of the Air Force unlawfully revoked their approved retirement orders in violation of federal law. Filed Monday in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in Washington, D.C., the 19-page complaint, brought by attorneys from GLAD Law, the National Center for LGBTQ Rights, pro-bono counsel from Stapleton Segal Cochran LLC, and the Law Office of Jeremy Spiegel, argues that the administration’s actions stripped the plaintiffs of retirement benefits they had already earned after years of honorable service. Each of the plaintiffs has between 15 and […]

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