Features

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Community grieves Juniper Blessing, trans student with ‘heart of gold’ who loved meteorology and Pokémon

Students at the University of Washington are in mourning after the identity of the 19-year-old trans student stabbed and killed on Sunday became public. Her name was Juniper Blessing. Stay up to date with the latest in LGBTQ+ news with The Advocate’s email newsletter, in your inbox five days a week. Blessing, a major of the Department of Atmospheric and Climate Science, was the “most amazing human being we have ever known,” her family wrote in a statement. According to friends who have posted on social media, she enjoyedplaying video games like Hollow Night, studying meteoreology, buying jewelry and perfume, and singing with a […]

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Kansas anti-trans bathroom law leaves even state officials confused

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There may be a few public restrooms in Kansas where the state’s expansive anti-trans bathroom law won’t apply. Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach issued an opinion exempting certain spaces from the requirement that restroom facilities be segregated based on gender assigned at birth. The Republican issued an opinion in response to a request from Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s office, according to the Kansas Reflector. Stay up to date with the latest in LGBTQ+ news with The Advocate’s email newsletter, in your inbox five days a week. Kelly’s office said the law was overly vague and wanted clarity on whether it would apply even to restrooms […]

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Meta hits all-time low for LGBTQ+ safety in new GLAAD report

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A new social media report from GLAAD shows that Meta has hit an all-time low when it comes to safety for its LGBTQ+ users. The LGBTQ+ advocacy organisation’s Social Media Safety Index confirmed that Meta’s policy changes on Facebook, Instagram and Threads have made the platforms more harmful for queer users, particularly trans and non-binary people. The news comes after a year in which Meta has been scaling back best practice policies surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and loosening its hateful conduct policies. In 2025, Meta’s policy changes included allowing anti-LGBTQ+ terminology when referring to queer people, removing protections for LGBTQ+ people, modifying sections of its Hateful […]

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America could elect its first Black transgender member of Congress

She was the first transgender bride on the TV show “Say Yes to the Dress.” She and her husband are the first transgender parents in Illinois history to be listed as their accurate genders on their children’s birth certificates. “This idea of, ‘I won’t be erased,’ that’s something that brewed in my childhood,” she said. “I think that’s where the fight comes from. … I don’t want to fail, and I haven’t failed yet. I think that’s the scary part. I’ve never, ever had a floor beneath me.”  Brady-Davis is currently the only Black trans person holding public office in the United States, serving on […]

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A new strain of Shigella is disproportionately impacting queer men

Dr. Carlton Thomas, a gastroenterologist and host of the Butt Honestly podcast, knew something was wrong after having oral sex in the dark room play space of a Fort Lauderdale gay bar last year. Just a few days after returning home from the trip, he had developed diarrhea, dehydration, extreme fatigue, and a 104-degree fever.  As a gay GI doctor, Doctor Carlton, as his social media followers regard him, knew his symptoms could only be one thing: Shigella, an increasingly common bacterial infection that can spread through feces, usually via water contamination, unwashed hands, and, yes, certain types of sexual contact, especially […]

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Transgender Americans are fleeing hostile red states. Seattle says it’s overwhelmed

Seattle may be facing what advocates describe as a refugee crisis, not from foreign migrants but from transgender Americans fleeing red states. The city and its residents are welcoming to the trans community. Seattle city leaders are discussing declaring a civil emergency based on the growing influx of LGBTQ+ individuals moving to the Washington metropolis, according to the Seattle Gay News. Stay up to date with the latest in LGBTQ+ news with The Advocate’s email newsletter, in your inbox five days a week. The outlet reports that the Seattle LGBTQ Commission sent a letter to city leaders on Trans Day of Visibility, raising concerns about the […]

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For the Parents of Intersex Kids, Deciding how to Proceed Isn’t Easy

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In the fall of 2023, Cindy Howard was in a hospital bed recovering from a cesarean section. While the birth had gone smoothly, the pregnancy itself carried intense uncertainty. In the months leading up to the delivery, a technician had indicated she was expecting a girl. But during an ultrasound at around 30 weeks pregnant, she was told that while her baby had no visible penis, there were testicles. “We figured it was just a bad angle,” Howard told Uncloseted Media and GAY TIMES. “We went to a 3D ultrasound just for fun. And then we spent about 10 minutes […]

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Franklin Graham: “America Has Become Morally Rotten With Transgenderism And Same-Sex Marriage”

“There is a downward moral decline spiraling ever deeper into the mire. Things that never would have been talked about publicly just 30 years ago, sinful behavior that should make us blush, is now celebrated and flaunted on Main Street America has become morally rotten, completely sick with sin; transgenderism, same-sex marriage, opening women’s locker rooms to men, are just the tip of the iceberg. The spiritual climate of 2026 is vastly different than the country our Founding Fathers established in 1776. The vast majority of Americans then had at least a basic understanding of the Bible. There can be […]

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The Unspoken LGBTQ Youth Mental Health Crisis in Canada

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Last year, at 17 years old, Jack Wonnacott remembers taking a work break in his car, tears streaming down his face as he clutched the steering wheel. He had been keeping his gay identity a secret, and the weight of staying closeted was destroying his mental health. As he sat in a Vancouver parking lot, he contemplated suicide. “My mindset that day was, ‘I’m probably not going to go back to my home after this. I’m probably not going to see my family again,’” Wonnacott, now 18, told Uncloseted Media. After making a phone call to the 988 crisis hotline—a mental […]

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BOYCOTT: Hobby Lobby is funding the latest push to end marriage equality

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Earlier this year, a group of 47 anti-LGBTQ+ organizations launched a new campaign to end marriage equality in the U.S., demanding that the Supreme Court overturn Obergefell v. Hodges. The campaign, called “Greater Than” – a response to the push for equality by claiming that straight people are “greater than” queer people – immediately got the media’s attention. Now the Seattle Times has revealed that a key organization behind the Greater Than campaign is being funded by the conservative Christian business Hobby Lobby, the same business that got the Supreme Court to rule in 2014 that for-profit corporations don’t have to pay for employees’ health care […]

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