The Advocate

A federal judge on Monday ordered the Trump administration to turn over the evidence behind its restrictions on transgender military service members, while laying the groundwork for a potential class action that could extend the case’s protections to transgender troops across the armed forces. The hearing in Talbott v. United States had originally been scheduled to take place in person at the federal courthouse in Washington, D.C. But Judge Ana Reyes moved the proceeding online due to forecasts of widespread severe weather across the capital region. Reyes granted in part the plaintiffs’ request to move the case forward and denied, for now, a government motion seeking to […]

The U.S. Department of State has finalized a new immigration rule requiring visa applicants to identify their sex assigned at birth. Advocates warn that the change will expose transgender and nonbinary travelers to scrutiny, delays, visa denials, or deportation if their documents do not align with the Trump administration’s definition of sex. The regulation, published Wednesday in the Federal Register, updates federal immigration procedures to align with an executive order issued by President Donald Trump last year directing agencies to recognize sex as a fixed biological classification and remove references to gender identity from federal policy. Under the new rule, visa and immigration systems will record sex assigned […]

In most of New England, the question of whether transgender people may use bathrooms consistent with their gender identity has largely been settled. In New Hampshire, lawmakers are reopening it. The Republican-controlled New Hampshire House voted 181–164 on Wednesday evening to pass House Bill 1442, legislation that would allow schools, government buildings, and some businesses to restrict bathrooms and locker rooms based on sex assigned at birth rather than gender identity. The bill now heads to the state Senate. If enacted, the measure would place New Hampshire further out of step with the rest of the Northeast, where protections for trans residents in public accommodations remain broadly intact. House […]

Every afternoon, when Saoirse Stone gets home from her job as a teacher in Florida, she performs a small ritual. She changes out of the clothes she wore to school. She sets aside the bag that holds her lesson plans. She places everything she will need for the next day near the door, then tries to stop thinking about the classroom. It is, she says, the only way to keep herself intact. “You have to have a clear division,” Stone, who is transgender, told The Advocatein an interview. “I change clothes immediately. I set my work stuff down. And then I don’t touch […]

The Trump administration has ordered federal prisons to begin tapering hormone therapy for incarcerated transgender people. Physicians say that it could inflict immediate psychological distress and long-term medical harm on a vulnerable population. The guidance, issued February 19 by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, outlines how the federal prison system will treat incarcerated people diagnosed with gender dysphoria. It bars the agency from initiating hormone therapy for inmates who were not already receiving it and instructs clinicians to develop tapering plans that could ultimately discontinue treatment for prisoners who currently rely on hormones as part of their medical care. To physicians who treat transgender patients, the […]

A new report is raising questions about how U.S. law enforcement agencies across the South classify the deaths of transgender women, arguing that some cases ruled suicides may warrant deeper scrutiny. The story, in too many Southern towns, begins with speed. A body is found. Authorities announce no foul play. A ruling is entered. The case, advocates argue, was closed before it was ever truly opened. Jill Collen Jefferson has spent years in the gap between what official records say and what families believe happened. The founder of social justice organization JULIAN, she has reviewed hundreds of deaths across seven Southern states, […]