Health

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How to protect your mental health during Trump’s second term, according to LGBTQ+ experts

We’re living in dark times. Every time you turn on the TV or open social media, you’re bombarded with terrible news that is often life-altering if you’re queer.  The Trump administration is busy dismantling LGBTQ+ rights and protections, attacking the trans community left and right, curtailing free speech, and, since they can’t overturn Roe v. Wade again, they’re attempting to destroy almost $10 million worth of taxpayer-funded birth control. And every time a big event happens — like Charlie Kirk being shot — it always seems to circle back around to queer and trans people being to blame or it increases the […]

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Monogamy Doesn’t Make Sense, According to Science. So Why Aren’t We More Polyamorous?

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In the United States, nearly one in five people have explored consensual non-monogamy, the practice of openly seeing multiple partners with the knowledge and consent of everyone involved. Despite this, those venturing into non-monogamous relationships often find themselves with more questions than answers, navigating a cultural landscape that still privileges monogamy and stigmatizes other relationship structures. So when five clients approached Jessica Fern in the same week a few years ago, each expressing a desire to open their relationship, she knew something deeper was happening. Fern, a psychotherapist and the author of Polysecure and Polywise, has since become a guiding voice in […]

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Trump’s Rollback of Rules for Mental Health Coverage Could Lead More Americans to Go Without Care

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During his first term, President Donald Trump frequently turned to the issue of mental health, framing it as a national crisis that demanded action. He linked it to opioid addiction, mass shootings and a surge in veteran suicides — and he later used it to argue against COVID-19 lockdowns and school closures. At times, he backed up his rhetoric with action. His administration issued tens of millions of dollars in grants to expand community mental health services and continued funding contracts to help federal regulators enforce the parity law, which requires insurers to treat mental and physical health care equally. But just months after Trump returned to the presidency this year, […]

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Court blocks termination of LGBTQ-related NIH health research grants

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A U.S. District Court judge in Maryland Friday blocked the National Institutes of Health from terminating grants that fund research addressing the health of sexual and gender minorities, including HIV research. The ruling came in GLMA v. NIH, a lawsuit filed by Lambda Legal and law firms Crowell & Moring LLP and Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP on behalf of GLMA: Health Professionals Advancing LGBTQ+ Equality and 16 individual health researchers whose funding was eliminated or whose grant applications have been unlawfully withheld from review. The judge issued the ruling orally after two hearings in the case, and a written order is forthcoming, according to a Lambda Legal press release. The suit was filed in […]

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Britain Rolls Out “World-First” Gonorrhea Vaccine

The BBC reports: Gonorrhoea vaccines will be widely available from Monday in sexual health clinics across the UK, in a bid to tackle record-breaking levels of infections. The jabs will first be offered to those at highest risk – mostly gay and bisexual men who have a history of multiple sexual partners or sexually transmitted infections. NHS England say the roll out is a world-first, and predict it could prevent as many as 100,000 cases, potentially saving the NHS almost £8m over the next decade. The Terrence Higgins Trust, who campaigned for the vaccine to be introduced in the UK, told […]

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New study ranks U.S. states with highest STI rates

Summertime means more sunshine, more socializing, and, according to medical researchers, more sexually transmitted infections (STIs). A new study by telehealth company Invigor Medical analyzed data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to determine how infection rates have evolved across the United States, and which states and cities have the highest rates of reported STIs. Examining the four most commonly tested STIs — chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis, and HIV, — the study tracked how rates have changed over time, and where the infections are most concentrated in the U.S. According to the study, the overall number of reported STIs has […]

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“I Won’t Change My Body to Fit Your Expectations”: Reflections From a Masculine Woman with PCOS

I knew something was off when I started growing facial hair at 12 years old. Small chin hairs, but still noticeable to everyone. I’d poke and prod them at first, not out of shame but curiosity and wonder. The more body hair I grew, the more intrigued I became. I thought it was neat that my body changed in this way! I soon found out not everyone would agree with me. My grandmother would tell me not to pick at it or I’d get spots and scars. Other girls in my class soon whispered about me being a man. I vividly remember a girl at my […]

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Bans on Gender-Affirming Care Harm Trans Youth

Laws banning gender-affirming care for transgender youth in the United States are inflicting severe harm on young people and their families, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Since 2021, 25 states have enacted sweeping bans targeting this best-practice medical care, replacing gradual, evidence-based treatments with blunt and politically driven restrictions. The 98-page report, “‘They’re Ruining People’s Lives’: Bans on Gender-Affirming Care for Transgender Youth in the US,” documents the devastating consequences of these bans for transgender youth, including increased anxiety, depression, and, in seven reported instances, suicide attempts. Human Rights Watch found that these laws contribute to an increasingly […]

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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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Texas to require sex assigned at birth on state documents

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Legislators in Texas have passed a bill requiring a person’s sex assigned at birth rather than their gender identity for official state documents and records. House Bill 229, entitled “Relating to general definitions for and collection of governmental information regarding biological sex” or the Women’s Rights Bill, passed the state Senate on a party-line vote of 20 to 11 late Wednesday night. The bill passed the House by a vote of 87 to 56 on May 12. “A governmental entity that collects vital statistics information that identifies the sex of an individual for the purpose of complying with antidiscrimination laws or for […]

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