Health

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Almost all older LGBTQ+ Americans got vaccinated for COVID

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A new study by the Williams Institute at UCLA finds older LGBTQ+ Americans were affected more negatively by the COVID-19 pandemic than their straight peers. Using data from the U.S. Census Household Pulse Survey, the report examined the demographics, health, and economic experiences of LGBTQ+ adults aged 50 and older during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study was led by Research Data Analyst Lauren J.A. Bouton, with Amanda M. Brush and Ilan H. Meyer, Distinguished Senior Scholar of Public Policy. Among the findings: LGBTQ Nation spoke with the study’s lead author to find out what the data reveals and how it can be used […]

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Fentanyl deaths on the rise in Marin and Sonoma counties

Trevor Leopold would have turned 22 on Jan. 30. Instead, he’s “forever 18,” his mother says. When Greenbrae resident Michelle Leopold received the news that her 18-year-old son died in his Sonoma State University dorm room, she didn’t need to wait for the coroner’s report to know what had killed him. Although it was November 2019, before most parents had heard of the fentanyl crisis, there was no doubt in Michelle Leopold’s mind that this powerful synthetic opioid was the culprit. Sadly, she was well aware of the dangerous drug because her son’s close friend had succumbed to a fentanyl overdose the […]

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Utah is the first state to pass a gender-affirming care ban in 2023

Utah is the first state to ban gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors this year. Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican, signed a bill Saturday that bars minors from receiving gender-affirming surgeries and places an indefinite moratorium on their access to puberty blockers and hormone therapy.  The bill, which passed in the Utah State Legislature last week, is prospective, so minors who were diagnosed with gender dysphoria before the bill’s effective date, May 3, 2023, would still be able to receive care if they meet a list of requirements. “Legislation that impacts our most vulnerable youth requires careful consideration and deliberation. […]

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Queer Youth Negatively Affected by Anti-LGBTQ+ Laws, Debates: Trevor Project Poll

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Debates over LGBTQ+ rights are having a negative effect on the lives of young people in the community, according to a new poll. “An overwhelming majority of LGBTQ youth have been negatively impacted by recent debates and laws around anti-LGBTQ policies and that many have also experienced victimization as a result,” says a press release on the poll, conducted for the Trevor Project by Morning Consult between October 23 and November 2 and released this week. The poll included 716 LGBTQ+ youth ages 13–24 around the U.S. It assessed emotional responses to anti-LGBTQ+ policies as well as which other social issues often […]

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DeSantis seeks transgender university students’ health care information

Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is asking state universities for the number and ages of their students who sought or received gender dysphoria treatment, including sex reassignment surgery and hormone prescriptions, according to a survey released Wednesday. Why he’s conducting the survey wasn’t completely clear. DeSantis has been criticized by LGBTQ advocates for policies seen as discriminatory, including banning instruction on sexual and gender identity in early grades and making it easier for parents to remove books related to the topic in public schools. “We can see cuts in funding for universities to treat students with this condition, and I think an […]

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Jordan Peterson could have psychology licence revoked over Twitter conduct and anti-trans tweets

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Far-right pundit Jordan Peterson has finally discovered that his actions have consequences following several controversial tweets. The anti-LGBTQ+ author has been told he could have his psychology licence revoked if he refuses to undergo a mandatory coaching program by the College of Psychologists of Ontario (CPO). Peterson initially revealed he was obligated to take the course in a 3 January twitter thread. “The Ontario College of Psychologists has demanded that I submit myself to mandatory social media communication retraining with their experts,” he wrote. “About a dozen people from all over the world submitted complaints about my public statements on […]

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Christian manufacturing company denies trans woman health care because of “honoring God” mission

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A transgender woman in New Hampshire has filed a discrimination complaint against her employer for denying her healthcare coverage for gender-affirming care. Lillian Bernier, 31, has been an employee of New Hampshire-based manufacturing company Turbocam since 2019. She began transitioning in 2020. According to the complaint, filed on December 16 with the New Hampshire Human Rights Commission and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the company’s self-funded health coverage plan says that no benefits will be paid for “gender dysphoria treatment, including but not limited to, counseling, gender reassignment surgery or hormone therapy, and related preoperative and postoperative procedures, which, as […]

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Same-sex couples have less stressful marriages, according to science

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Same-sex married couples handle stress better than different-sex spouses do, according to a new study. The study, published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships by researchers at the University of Texas Austin, found that while stress is common in all kinds of marriages, same-sex couples are able to deal with it better together. By analysing survey responses of 419 couples on dyadic coping – coping as a couple – in both same-sex and different-sex marriages, researchers revealed that same-sex spouses were able to be more positive and collaborative in handling stress compared to their counterparts. Same-sex married couples handle stress […]

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Can Meditation Help Heal Queer Communities of Color?

Many of us have been cut from our usual networks of care, affection, pleasure and exchange during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the context of queer life, this seems especially palpable: So much of how we engage with each other centers around community, contact, and proximity, conditions which now might evoke potential danger and anxiety, risk even. One of the many transformations undergone in the pandemic, then, relates to the amount of time we’ve been forced to spend in isolation, barred from care and kin. I, like others, found myself yearning anxiously for the outside world. And yet, in those same […]

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Some of Us Weren’t ‘Fixed,’ and the Results Were Fantastic

Humans often want to fix things about ourselves that aren’t broken. From foot-binding to plain old circumcision, our species has historically been obsessed with altering our bodies — which I can’t help but think about today as it’s Intersex Awareness Day. The observance commemorates the first protest by intersex people — those of us born with atypical sex characteristics — against the practice of subjecting intersex infants and minors to cosmetic, sex trait-altering medical procedures, on October 26, 1996. The impetus for fixing is so prevalent regarding the intersex population that it’s often come to define us, via statements such […]

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