The Advocate

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Black Americans are disproportionately criminalized for living with HIV. Here’s how

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Black people in the U.S. aren’t just more likely to have HIV — they’re more likely to be criminalized for it.  Black Americans accounted for about 38 percent of new HIV diagnoses and 39 percent of people living with HIV in 2023, according to a report from the Williams Institute, despite making up around 12 percent of the population. Stay up to date with the latest in LGBTQ+ news with The Advocate’s email newsletter, in your inbox five days a week. Black women had the highest HIV diagnosis rate at 19.6 per 100,000, which is about 11 times the rate for white women at […]

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New York jury finds psychologist and surgeon didn’t follow best practices in gender-affirming care case

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For the first time, a jury has ruled that a medical professionals who approved and performed gender-affirming surgery on a minor committed medical malpractice. The verdict came in a suit filed by Fox Varian, now 22, of Yorktown Heights, New York. At age 16, while identifying as a transgender male, Varian underwent a double mastectomy. Varian now regrets the surgery and identifies as female. Stay up to date with the latest in LGBTQ+ news with The Advocate’s email newsletter, in your inbox five days a week. She filed suit in 2023, saying her health care providers, psychologist Kenneth Einhorn and surgeon Simon […]

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Protest set at NYC’s Stonewall after Trump administration removes Pride flag from national LGBTQ+ monument

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A protest is set for Tuesday afternoon at the Stonewall National Monument in New York City after the Trump administration removed the LGBTQ+ Pride flag from the site. That decision has drawn swift backlash from LGBTQ+ advocates, New York officials, and national civil rights groups who say the move is part of a broader effort to narrow how queer history is told on federal land. By late Tuesday afternoon, Christopher Park is expected to fill with people who know exactly why they’re there. The gathering, advertised as a community rally to defend “our flag, our park, our history,” was organized after the Pride flag was removed from the Stonewall […]

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Florida restores funding for 16,000 people’s HIV medication — for now

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The Florida Department of Health is reversing its funding cuts to a program that provides HIV medication for low-income individuals, but only until they can do it legally.  The department published a notice Tuesday backtracking its decision to gut the AIDS Drug Assistance Program after supposedly failing to find $120 million in the state budget to cover it. Instead, the state will attempt to go through the formal rule-making process in order to make the cuts after a lawsuit from the AIDS Healthcare Foundation accused officials of violating the law.  Stay up to date with the latest in LGBTQ+ news with The […]

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Half of U.S. trans teens live in a state that restricts their rights: study

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More than half of U.S. transgender youth aged 13-17 live in a state with at least one law restricting their rights, according to a new study from the Williams Institute, a research organization at the University of California, Los Angeles,School of Law. The study, titled “The Impact of 2025 Anti-Transgender Legislation on Youth,” looks at laws enacted in 2025 and previously. An estimated 724,000 Americans in this age group identify as transgender, the institute notes. Of these, 382,800, 53 percent, live in one of the 29 states that has enacted one or more laws banning access to gender-affirming care, participation in sports, use of bathrooms and other sex-separated facilities, or gender […]

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Trump admin is trying to deport LGBTQ+ asylum-seekers to countries where they’d be killed, lawyers say

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The Trump administration is quietly advancing immigration policies that attorneys and LGBTQ+ advocates say could send asylum seekers to their deaths, including by transferring queer and transgender people to countries such as Uganda and Iran, where same-sex relationships and gender nonconformity are criminalized and can be punished by imprisonment, torture, or execution. Sign me up! See what’s new and hot in queer entertainment, in your inbox three times a week. Through third-country transfer agreements and aggressive deportation tactics, the administration is placing LGBTQ+ asylum seekers, many with what lawyers describe as strong, well-documented claims, at risk. Advocates tell The Advocate the policies mark a dangerous shift away from the United […]

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Don Lemon defiant in first remarks after arrest and release from federal custody

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Journalist Don Lemon walked toward the microphones Friday afternoon with his husband, Tim Malone, by his side, the two holding hands as Lemon prepared to address reporters outside a federal courthouse in Los Angeles. Speaking around 3:30 p.m. Pacific, Lemon thanked supporters and described his arrest as a defining moment for press freedom. A federal judge released him without bail. “I have spent my entire career covering the news,” Lemon said. “I will not stop now. There is no more important time than right now, this very moment, for a free and independent media that shines a light on the truth and holds […]

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Florida seeks to expand gender-affirming care ban; could criminalize pharmacists and counselors

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Florida legislators have introduced bills that would expand the state’s ban on gender-affirming care for trans youth, including felony charges for any health care provider who “aids or abets” such procedures. LGBTQ+ activists and parents warn that this provision is dangerously vague and would penalize counselors who discuss gender issues with young people or pharmacists who fill prescriptions — something that sponsors of the bills have confirmed, to a degree. House Bill 743 and Senate Bill 1010 would also authorize the attorney general to investigate and sue health care professionals who violate the law restricting gender-affirming care. Both were voted out of committee this week. The law, enacted in 2023, already […]

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EEOC rescinds LGBTQ-inclusive guidance on workplace harassment

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The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has rescinded LGBTQ-inclusive guidance about what workplace harassment looks like and how to fight it, enraging community activists and allies. The commission, which enforces federal antidiscrimination laws and can take employers to court, voted 2-1 Thursday to withdraw the document, which was approved in 2024, when Joe Biden was president, multiple media outlets report. It took up nearly 200 pages and included more than 70 examples of on-the-job harassment. “While much of that guidance wasn’t new, one addition that rankled many conservatives was a section on gender identity and sexual orientation,” NPRreports. That was added to be in keeping with […]

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Trump administration is potentially sending two gay men to their death by preparing to deport them to Iran

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Two gay Iranian men who fled their home country after being arrested for “homosexual conduct” and facing possible execution are at risk of being deported by the United States as early as Sunday, according to their attorney, even as one federal court has intervened to temporarily block one of the removals. Advocates warn that the case exposes a deeper collapse of asylum protections. The men, romantic partners in their late 30s and early 40s, were arrested in Iran in 2021 by the country’s morality police for what authorities described as homosexual activity — a charge that can carry punishments ranging from flogging […]

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