The Advocate

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Climate change has a bigger impact on LGBTQ+ couples than straight couples

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Same-sex couples are at greater risk of climate change-related threats than their heterosexual peers, a new study has found. Because LGBTQ+ people disproportionately live in coastal areas and cities, as well as areas with poorer infrastructure and less access to resources, they are more vulnerable to climate hazards, according to a report from the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law.  Among the 15 counties researchers surveyed with the highest proportions of same-sex couples, all were coastal or urban. Several were low-income, making them “less prepared to respond and adapt to natural hazards and other climate disruptions.” Climate change “exacerbates existing disparities among individuals […]

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Iraq postpones vote on bill punishing gay sex with death

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Iraq’s Parliament on Monday postponed voting on an anti-prostitution bill that contains an amendment penalizing same-sex sexual relations and wife-swapping with life imprisonment or death, Reuters reported. The proposed legislation encountered widespread international condemnation along with warnings of “catastrophic consequences” for diplomatic and trade relations if signed into law from unnamed sources. A vote on the bill was listed as the second item on the legislature’s agenda before it was postponed. Two unidentified lawmakers told Reuters the delay was due to time constraints and disagreement on amendments, although some speculated the vote was postponed to avoid controversy ahead of Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani’s […]

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Black trans woman África Parrilla García shot to death in Puerto Rico

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África Parrilla García, a 25-year-old Black transgender woman, was killed in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in February, and details of her life and death are just now coming to light after she was deadnamed and misgendered in early news reports. She was shot several times about 1 a.m. February 2 on a San Juan street, according to Puerto Rican newspaper El Nuevo Día. She was impoverished and experiencing homelessness. “A lot of trans women are on the streets and are made invisible because many people believe that their lives are worthless,” LeQueen, a trans artist and friend of García’s, told the paper. “They don’t give […]

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Supreme Court lets Idaho enforce law criminalizing gender-affirming care for minors

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Idaho can enforce its law making it a felony to provide gender-affirming care to transgender minors while a lawsuit against it proceeds, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday. A federal district court had issued an injunction against the law last year, blocking it from enforcement while the suit is heard, as the court found the suit likely to succeed on its claim that the law is unconstitutional. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld the injunction in January. But the high court said lower courts had erred in blocking the law’s application to all state residents instead of just those who brought the […]

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Two military members denied promotions for having HIV just won their lawsuit

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An Air Force cadet and a Navy midshipman have won their lawsuit after being denied promotions for being HIV-positive.  Former Navy midshipman Kevin Deese and former Air Force cadet John Doe (a pseudonym) filed the lawsuit against the Department of Defense in 2018 when they were denied commissions after graduating from their respective service academies simply because they are living with HIV.  The settlement, announced Monday, will see that the two are commissioned as officers “in recognition of the status and military careers they qualified for and earned years ago,” according to a Lambda Legal press release. “Joining my brave co-plaintiff in […]

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Trans and nonbinary migrants file complaint over treatment at ICE detention facility

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Activists have filed a civil rights complaint with the Department of Homeland Security on behalf of five transgender and nonbinary migrants who say they were mistreated at an immigration detention center in Colorado. They are currently detained at the Aurora Contract Detention Facility, a prison privately owned and operated by the GEO Group, where Immigration and Customs Enforcement incarcerates people who have pending or recently concluded immigration legal matters. The complaint, filed Wednesday, says the five suffered medical neglect, inadequate access to necessary medical and mental health care, dehumanizing treatment, and more. It calls for major changes in ICE’s handling of transgenderand nonbinary migrants. The migrants […]

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Trans Latina Meraxes Medina killed in Los Angeles

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Meraxes Medina, a 24-year-old transgender Latina, was shot to death March 21 in Los Angeles. Police responded to a call about 4:30 a.m. that day and found her on the street on the city’s south side, having been shot in the head, the Los Angeles Timesreports. She had been dumped from a car. She was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital. The Times story did not state Medina’s name, but her identity was confirmed by friends on a GoFundMe page. Another woman, apparently cisgender, was fatally shot in the same neighborhood two days earlier. The area is known for sex work, and police have said the […]

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Lesbian News publisher Ella Matthes has died at 81

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Ella Matthes, the longtime publisher and editor of Lesbian News Magazine, died March 16 at a hospital in Norwalk, Calif. She was 81 years old, and the cause was a heart attack, according to a press release. She ran Lesbian News Magazine, commonly known as the LN, from 1994 until 2022. The LN was North America’s longest-running lesbian publication. When it was founded in 1975 in Southern California by Jinx Beer, it was the lone voice for lesbian issues (The Ladder, published by the Daughters of Bilitis, had ceased publication three years earlier) and evolved throughout the years under Matthes’s leadership. The press release calls it “the nation’s foremost voice for […]

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These are the most challenged library books in America — yes, most are LGBTQ+

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The American Library Association has released its list of the 10 most challenged books of 2023, and seven of the 10 were challenged — that is, subject to ban attempts — at least in part for LGBTQ+ content. Several of them are by or about people of color. “In looking at the titles of the most challenged books from last year, it’s obvious that the pressure groups are targeting books about LGBTQIA+ people and people of color,” ALA President Emily Drabinski said in a press release. “At ALA, we are fighting for the freedom to choose what you want to read. […]

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Republican anti-LGBTQ+ legislation bad for mental health and quality of life: survey

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After a record year for anti-LGBTQ+ legislation at the state level and in a year that threatens to outdo it, LGBTQ+ Americans are seeing a negative impact on their mental health and quality of life, according to a new survey from Data for Progress. Keep up with the latest in LGBTQ+ news and politics. Sign up for The Advocate’s email newsletter. In 2023, more than 550 anti-LGBTQ+ bills were introduced in state legislatures across the U.S., and more than 80 became law, by the Human Rights Campaign’s count. The number of bills introduced this year is approaching 500. Many of last year’s bills were […]

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