Trudy Ring

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Rep. Sharice Davids introduces bill to improve mental health services for LGBTQ+ youth

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U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids is observing Pride Month by reintroducing a bill aimed at improving mental health care for LGBTQ+ and intersex youth. Her Pride in Mental Health Act, introduced Thursday, would update care standards, develop training for caregivers, identify school bullying prevention guidelines. It would call for a report on the mental health and mental health care of LGBTQ+ and intersex youth in foster care and other federal social services programs and direct the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to review and update resources listed on its website that pertain to LGBTQ+ communities. Davids, a Kansas Democrat who is gay and Native American, introduced similar […]

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Lesbian Rep. Becca Balint & ally Sen. Jeff Merkley file bill to nullify Trump’s anti-LGBTQ+ executive orders

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U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon and U.S. Rep. Becca Balint of Vermont, both Democrats, have introduced legislation to nullify Donald Trump’s anti-LGBTQ+ executive orders. The No Place for LGBTQ+ Hate Act, introduced Thursday, would ensure that Trump’s anti-LGBTQ+ orders would have no force or effect and that no federal funds would be used to put them into effect. During his second term, Trump has issued executive orders saying the federal government will recognize only two sexes, male and female as assigned at birth, therefore denying the existence of transgender, nonbinary, and intersex people; reinstating and expanding the trans military ban; seeking to prevent trans youth from receiving gender-affirming care; seeking to keep trans students from […]

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Lesbian journalist Victoria A. Brownworth dead at 69

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Victoria A. Brownworth, a lesbian journalist who wrote for The Advocate, The Bay Area Reporter, Philadelphia Gay News, and other LGBTQ+ publications, died Thursday at age 69. She “had long lived with multiple sclerosis and had battled cancer for many years,” according to an obituary in the Reporter, where she was a television critic. She had recently been hospitalized in her hometown of Philadelphia. “With an astute eye toward entertainment, Ms. Brownworth penned the B.A.R.’s Lavender Tube TV column for three decades,” the Reporter notes. “One of the great pleasures of my editorial job of the past five years was working on Victoria’s twice-monthly Lavender Tube column, which she had been writing […]

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Medicare, Medicaid agency demands info on gender-affirming care for trans youth

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The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, headed by Mehmet Oz, has sent a letter to some hospitals demanding information on their provision of gender-affirming care to transgender youth. The CMS, like all of Donald Trump’s administration, is opposed to this care, falsely claiming it is experimental and is not supported by evidence. The letter, dated Wednesday, expresses “urgent concerns with both the quality standards adherence and profits related to these harmful procedures,” says a CMS press release. The release quotes Oz as saying, “These are irreversible, high-risk procedures being conducted on vulnerable children, often at taxpayer expense. Hospitals accepting federal funds are expected to meet rigorous quality […]

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Trans Americans consider moves to safer states because of Trump election: Williams Institute

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With many states and the federal government adopting anti-transgenderpolicies, nearly half of the trans people in a Williams Institute survey have moved to a more welcoming state or are considering such a move. The institute, located at the School of Law at the University of California, Los Angeles, surveyed 302 trans, nonbinary, and other gender-diverse American adults in December to gauge the effect of Donald Trump’s election on them. They are referred to under the umbrella term “transgender” in the report. Respondents could remain anonymous. More than a third were people of color, and more than 40 percent had an annual income under $50,000.  Forty-eight percent […]

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Smithsonian National Museum of African Art abruptly postpones LGBTQ+ exhibit

The Smithsonian National Museum of African Art has postponed an exhibition of works by LGBTQ+ African Artists, which was originally scheduled to open in late May to coincide with WorldPride, being held in Washington, D.C., this year. Officials at the museum, which is in D.C., said the rescheduling was due to budget constraints and not because of Donald Trump’s orders banning federal funding for so-called woke content, The Washington Post reports. “This exhibition was on a very ambitious schedule to meet WorldPride and we did not have enough time to secure all the private sector funds we had hoped to due to shifts in the fundraising […]

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Poland’s last ‘LGBTQ-free zone’ is no more

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The last “LGBTQ-free zone” in Poland has been abolished. The governing council of Łańcut County voted last Thursday to repeal the resolution that created the zone, formally called a Charter of Family Rights, Notes From Poland reports. The vote was 13-5. Council members made clear, however, that they were motivated only by financial considerations. The European Union is withholding funds from cities and counties that had such zones. “The [council] is of the view that the over 80,000-strong community of Łańcut County cannot be deprived of benefits resulting from participation in many programs and grants,” said a statement from the council, as translated by Notes From Poland. The decision “is […]

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Jill Sobule, ‘I Kissed a Girl’ singer-songwriter, dies in house fire

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Bisexual musician Jill Sobule, the singer-songwriter behind the 1995 sapphic anthem “I Kissed a Girl,” died Thursday in a house fire at age 66. Firefighters were called about 5:30 a.m. to a home in Woodbury, Minnesota, a suburb of the Twin Cities, The New York Times reports. They found Sobule dead inside the house. She was staying with friends while rehearsing for a performance of songs from her autobiographical one-woman show, Fuck 7th Grade, which was to take place Friday at the Swallow Hill Music Festival in Denver, Sobule’s hometown, her publicist said. Sobule’s “I Kissed a Girl” came out 13 years before Katy Perry’s different […]

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Economic insecurity linked to LGBTQ+ youth mental health issues: Trevor Project report

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t’s well documented that LGBTQ+ young people are at greater risk of mental health problems and suicidal ideation or attempts than their straight and cisgender peers. Now a new research brief from the Trevor Project shows how economic insecurity correlates with that. Food insecurity, being unhoused, and being unable to meet basic economic needs were all associated with increased odds of mental health issues, according to the brief, “The Impact of Houselessness and Food Insecurity on the Mental Health of LGBTQ+ Young People,” released Wednesday. It draws on data from the Trevor Project’s 2024 U.S. National Survey on the Mental Health of LGBTQ+ Young People. “Overall, economic insecurity […]

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Federal judge blocks Trump admin’s gender-restrictive passport policy

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A federal judge in Massachusetts has blocked the Trump administration’s move to cease offering the X gender marker on U.S. passports or allowing passport holders to change their gender marker. U.S. District Judge Julia Kobick, an appointee of President Joe Biden, granted a motion Friday for a preliminary injunction, which keeps the policy from being enforced while a lawsuit against it is heard, the Associated Press reports. The State Department implemented the policy, which affects transgender, nonbinary, and intersex people, in January in keeping with Donald Trump’sexecutive order recognizing only male and female sexes and denying that one’s gender can ever change — something that is at odds with the view of every major medical group. The […]

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