Trudy Ring

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How Anti-LGBTQ+ Is Newly Elected House Speaker Mike Johnson?

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Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Johnson, the new speaker of the House, is little-known nationally, but he’s as anti-LGBTQ+ as any of the more prominent members of his party — perhaps even more so. The Human Rights Campaign calls him “the most anti-equality speaker in U.S. history.” Johnson was elected speaker Wednesday, winning 220 votes to Democrat Hakeem Jeffries’s 209. The speaker is usually drawn from the House’s majority party, although he or she does not have to be, and sets the agenda for the House, which can do no business without a speaker. Johnson, in his fourth term representing a […]

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Arson Suspected After San Diego Queer Women’s Bar Set on Fire

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The front patios at San Diego’s Gossip Grill, one of the few remaining lesbian-focused bars in the nation, were set on fire in an apparent arson attack about 12:30 a.m. Friday. Damage was limited to the two patios, and no one was injured, Gossip Grill staffers said in social media posts. But the incident was extremely distressing, they said. “It was intentional and was arson,” they wrote on Instagram and Facebook, adding, “Gossip Grill is one of the last remaining Queer Women’s bars in the country. It breaks my heart knowing that someone intentionally tried to burn it down.” Related: An Epic Journey […]

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Black Trans Woman Chyna Long Shot and Killed in Milwaukee

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Chyna Long, a Black transgender woman, was found shot to death on a street in Milwaukee on Sunday. Family members think she may have been targeted for being trans; she had often been harassed about her identity, Milwaukee TV station WISN reports. Family and friends who gathered for a vigil Thursday night said police told them a suspect was in custody, but police would not confirm this to the station. Her loved ones remembered her fondly. “She wasn’t apologetic about nothing,” April Gipson, her aunt, said at the vigil, according to WISN. “This was who she was. And we accepted her, with all our hearts.” Of […]

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Biden Administration Looks to Protect LGBTQ+ Foster Kids With New Rule

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The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families is proposing a rule aimed at assuring that LGBTQ+ and intersex youth in foster care are placed in supportive homes, the federal government announced Wednesday. “The proposed rule would require that every state’s child welfare agency ensure that LGBTQI+ children in their care are placed in foster homes where they will be protected from mistreatment related to their sexual orientation or gender identity, where their caregivers have received special training on how to meet their needs, and where they can access the services they need to thrive,” says a White […]

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Delaware Becomes 17th State to Outlaw ‘Gay and Trans Panic’ Defense

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Delaware has become the 17th state to ban the “gay and trans panic” defense.  Gov. John Carney signed a bill to this effect into law September 24. It states in part, “In any prosecution or sentencing for an offense, a defendant is not justified in using force against another based on the discovery of, knowledge or belief about, or the potential or actual disclosure of the victim’s actual or perceived sexual orientation, sex, gender, gender identity, or sex assigned at birth.” State Rep. Eric Morrison, a gay man, was chief sponsor of the bill in the House of Representatives, and Sen. Sarah McBride, a transgender woman, […]

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Maryland Parents Charged With Murder Over Death of Transgender Teenager

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A Maryland transgender boy with disabilities died last year in what police are calling a case of criminal neglect by his parents, who have been charged with second-degree murder. Morgan Moore died May 10, 2022, at age 17 at his home in Montgomery Village. His passing is just now being recognized as one of the violent deaths of transgender people in 2022, as some media reports at the time of his death misgendered him. Police and paramedics were called to his home, where they found him unresponsive. He weighed only 79 pounds, and his father and mother, Dominique and Cynthia Moore, said he hadn’t […]

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Gender-Affirming Surgeries Have Risen, Likely Due to Better Insurance: Study

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The number of gender-affirming surgeries in the U.S. nearly tripled from 2016 to 2019, likely due to more insurers covering the procedures, with top surgery more common than genital surgery, according to a new study. The study was published online Wednesday in the American Medical Association’s JAMA Network Open. It was conducted by faculty at the medical schools of Columbia University in New York City and the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, using data from the Nationwide Ambulatory Surgery Sample and the National Inpatient Sample. The study identified 48,019 patients who underwent gender-affirming surgery from 2016 through 2020. The authors […]

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Nebraskans Ask State Supreme Court to Overturn Abortion, Trans Care Restrictions

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Planned Parenthood of the Heartland and its medical director, Dr. Sarah Traxler, are appealing the dismissal of their lawsuit challenging a Nebraska law that bans most abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy and restricts gender-affirming care for transgender people under age 19. They argue that the law violates the Nebraska constitution, which stipulates that any piece of legislation should deal with one subject only. Attorney General Mike Hilgers had countered that the legislation complied with the constitution because the restrictions on abortion and transition procedures both deal with health care. Lancaster County District Court Judge Lori Maret agreed with Hilgers and dismissed the suit August 11. Lancaster […]

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Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer Outlaws Conversion Therapy on Minors

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Michigan has just become the 22nd state to ban the use of conversion therapy on minors. Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed two bills into law Wednesday — House Bill 4617, defining conversion therapy, which seeks to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity, and House Bill 4616, which bars licensed therapists from subjecting minors to the practice and lays out penalties for violation, including discipline by public health regulators. Both take effect in 90 days. “Today, we are banning the horrific practice of conversion therapy in Michigan and ensuring this is a state where you can be who you are,” Whitmer said […]

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The Right Is Using the Anti-Abortion Supreme Court Ruling to Attack Trans Care

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When the U.S. Supreme Court revoked the national guarantee of abortion rights last year, there were warnings that the ruling would endanger other rights involving bodily autonomy. And indeed, it’s now being weaponized against gender-affirming care. Several states that have outlawed such care for transgender minors are invoking the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization anti-abortionruling when defending their laws in court. That argument hadn’t succeeded until this month, when a federal appellate court cited Dobbs in letting Tennessee’s gender-affirming care ban take effect. The ruling, from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, isn’t the final word on the case; it simply lets the law […]

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