The Advocate

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Meet the gay Navy veteran trying to flip a red congressional seat in Virginia

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Mike Pruitt knows what he’s up against. Virginia’s 5th Congressional District, which stretches from Charlottesville to the North Carolina border, hasn’t sent a Democrat to Congress since 2008. The district is vast, rural, and deeply conservative, characterized by some localities with shuttered hospitals, deserted main streets, and long-neglected infrastructure. But Pruitt, a 33-year-old gay Navy veteran, attorney, and a member of the board of supervisors for Albemarle County in central Virginia, says he isn’t running to hedge his values.  He’s running to represent places like the one he came from — rural, working-class communities left behind by both parties. His campaign centers on defending Medicaid, regulating […]

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Court blocks Trump admin’s anti-LGBTQ+ restrictions on grants for domestic violence and homeless shelters

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A federal judge in Rhode Island has granted a temporary restraining order blocking conditions the Trump administration had placed on grants to organizations serving survivors of domestic and sexual violence, LGBTQ+ youth, and people experiencing homelessness. U.S. District Judge Melissa DuBose issued the order Thursday in Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence v. Kennedy, which was filed just four days earlier. While the case is named for the Rhode Island group, it was brought by a nationwide coalition of organizations that serve these populations. The plaintiffs will submit a proposal for the scope of the restraining order for the court’s review, focused on the organizations […]

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Kansas public universities end LGBTQ+, DEI programs

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The University of Kansas and Kansas State University are ending LGBTQ+ and diversity, equity, and inclusion programs due to a new state law. A provision in the latest state budget bill, Senate Bill 125, directs all state agencies, including colleges and universities, to end any programs or activities related to DEl. It also bars state employees from using gender-identifying pronouns or anything related to “gender ideology” in email signatures. It doesn’t define DEI or gender ideology, Inside Higher Ed notes, and takes up just a few lines in a 300-page bill. But the universities are implementing it in their own way. Kansas State announced last week that […]

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21 states that have passed anti-LGBTQ+ laws in 2025 so far

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21 states, 67 laws Anti-LGBTQ+ legislation isn’t slowing down in 2025 — it’s gaining traction.  Five hundred and ninety-eight bills restricting the rights of queer people have been proposed in state legislatures across the United States so far this year, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, with 67 becoming law. That’s compared to 533 proposed in all of last year, and 510 in all of 2023.  The 67 laws that have been enacted this year come from only 21 states, with just four of them accounting for 26 laws. Most target transgender people’s access to public facilities, gender-affirming care, and recognition in society.  […]

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Boston opens new park named after murdered Black transgender woman Rita Hester

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Hester’s family attended the park opening ceremony with at-large Boston City Councilor Henry Santana and Allston-Brighton City Councilor Liz Breadon. Santana said on Instagram that it was “an honor to join the community in dedicating this space to Rita’s legacy.”  Eartha Hester, Rita’s sister, told The Advocate in 2023 that she believes the case went unsolved because Boston Police didn’t devote time or resources to it, as “Rita wasn’t just gay, she was also Black so she had two things that were not on her side at that time.” “They didn’t gather evidence that they were supposed to because they didn’t really care,” […]

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Florida officials claim SCOTUS ruling allows them to deny trans adults health care

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Days after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Tennessee could ban gender-affirming health care for minors, Florida officials argued the decision allows them to deny coverage to adults. In August, a federal judge ruled Florida cannot legally deny health care coverage for gender-affirming care to state employees. The state appealed that decision to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. After the June Supreme Court ruling in United States v. Skrmetti, which upheld a Tennessee law banning hormone therapy and puberty blockers only for transgender minors, appellate judges asked both sides in the Florida case if the verdict impacted arguments. Attorneys representing the state of Florida said the Skrmetti ruling opened the door to government […]

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This Republican governor vetoed anti-LGBTQ+ book ban and bathroom bills

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New Hampshire Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte has gone against her party and vetoed two anti-LGBTQ+ bills and three other far-right ones. Ayotte vetoed the bills Tuesday, while signing 101 others into law. House Bill 324 would have barred schools from distributing books and other materials deemed “harmful to minors.” It was aimed primarily at sexual content and likely would have been used against books with LGBTQ+ characters and themes. It also would have required school districts to strengthen the process through which parents could challenge these materials. “Current state law appears to provide a mechanism for parents through their local school district to […]

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Puerto Rico’s governor just signed one of the harshest gender-affirming care laws yet

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Puerto Rico’s Republican Gov. Jenniffer González-Colón signed into law Wednesday a far-reaching ban on gender-affirming medical care for transgenderpeople under 21, enacting one of the harshest measures of its kind in the United States and its territories and prompting swift condemnation from medical experts and LGBTQ+ advocates.  The law, Senate Bill 350, prohibits the use of puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and gender-affirming surgeries for anyone under 21, threatening doctors and other health professionals with up to 15 years in prison, a $50,000 fine, and the permanent loss of their licenses and permits. Public funds are also barred from being used for such care. In […]

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House Oversight Democrats demand records over RFK Jr.’s HIV program cuts

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Two senior House Democrats, including the first out gay immigrant member of Congress, are demanding records and explanations from Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. following what they describe as a politically driven dismantling of HIV prevention, treatment, and research programs under the Trump administration’s fiscal year 2026 budget proposal. In a Thursday letter to Kennedy, Rep. Robert Garcia, ranking member of the powerful House Oversight Committee and representing California, and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, ranking member of the Oversight Subcommittee on Health Care and Financial Services and representing Illinois, accused HHS of systematically abandoning decades of bipartisan progress in the fight against HIV and AIDS in both domestic […]

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Federal HR office sets deadline for government-wide purge of transgender and nonbinary inclusion

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The Trump administration has issued a new mandate requiring all federal agencies to eliminate recognition of gender identity, reinforcing a rigid, binary definition of sex and gender throughout the executive branch by mid-August. In a July 10 memorandum to department heads, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management directed agencies to implement Executive Order 14168, titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” by revoking gender-inclusive policies, disbanding diversity programs, and enforcing sex-based definitions in all personnel and facility protocols. Agencies have until August 11 to submit a detailed report to OPM outlining the steps taken to comply. The […]

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