Features

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Federal court rules Americans with Disabilities Act protects trans people from discrimination

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A federal court of appeals judge ruled Tuesday that transgender people are protected from discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act. As The Hill reports, the ruling stems from a 2020 lawsuit filed on behalf of a transgender woman who was incarcerated in a Virginia men’s prison despite the fact that she had been receiving hormone replacement therapy for nearly two decades. Kesha Williams spent more than six months incarcerated alongside men and was periodically denied hormone therapy. After she was released in 2019, she sued Fairfax County Sheriff Stacey Kincaid, as well as a prison nurse and a deputy, alleging that the prison […]

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Boston Children’s Hospital warns employees over far-right online harassment campaign

Boston Children’s Hospital has warned employees about mounting threats and is coordinating with law enforcement after far-right activists on social media began targeting the hospital with false claims about its treatment of young transgender people. It’s the most recent in a series of attempts to target hospitals for their work with trans youth, adding to an ongoing wave of anti-LGBTQ sentiment that has hit libraries, schools and even a trans-inclusive Los Angeles spa. The public relations office of Boston Children’s Hospital sent an email to employees with guidance on how to respond to harassment and threats earlier this week, citing an “increase of threatening […]

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Pope Francis meets transgender guests of Rome church

Pope Francis has met with a fourth group of transgender people who found shelter at a Rome church, the Vatican newspaper reported Thursday. L’Osservatore Romano said the encounter took place Wednesday on the sidelines of Francis’ weekly general audience. The newspaper quoted Sister Genevieve Jeanningros and the Rev. Andrea Conocchia as saying the pope’s welcome brought their guests hope. The Blessed Immaculate Virgin community in the Torvaianica neighborhood on Rome’s outskirts opened its doors to transgender people during the coronavirus pandemic. Francis previously met with some of them on April 27, June 22 and Aug. 3, the newspaper said. “No […]

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New White House monkeypox strategy targets Pride events

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The White House will announce today it is zeroing in on the population most at risk currently of contracting and spreading the monkeypox virus: men who have sex with men. A pilot program rolls out this weekend at Charlotte Pride. The Biden administration’s deputy director for monkeypox response, Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, described the new effort to LGBTQ Nation ahead of the White House announcement. That starts with bumping up the supply of the vaccine for local health jurisdictions where large LGBTQ events are happening. The program sets aside 50,000 doses of vaccine from the Strategic National Stockpile that jurisdictions can request on top […]

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LGBTQ+ charities and Truvada-maker Gilead launch $5 million monkeypox fund

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Leading LGBTQ+ charities including GLAAD, and pharma company Gilead have teamed up to support responses to the monkeypox outbreak. The coalition, which also includes the Human Rights Campaign, the National Black Justice Coalition, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, and the National Minority AIDS Council, was announced on 9 August. Gilead, which makes PrEP pills Truvada and Descovy, has pledged up to $5 million in global grant funding to support a public education and vaccine hesitancy campaign, a public policy response and a global outbreak emergency fund. The fund will issue grants of up to $50,000 to pre-existing Giliead grantee organisations that […]

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New 988 Suicide Lifeline seeks to meet LGBTQ community’s unique needs

LGBTQI+ individuals are more likely than their counterparts to exhibit suicidal behavior. According to data reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2019, nearly half of students identifying as gay, lesbian or bisexual reported seriously considered suicide. These students experienced a near fourfold increase in suicide attempts compared with heterosexual students. LGBTQI+ adults are also at greater risk of suicide. According to the Substance Use and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) 2020 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 15.9 percent of LGB respondents ages 26 to 49 reported serious suicidal thoughts within the past year, and 2.1 percent […]

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If monkeypox spreads through sexual contact, is it an STD?

For most of the six decades that monkeypox has been known to affect people, it was not known as a disease that spreads through sex. Now that has changed. The current outbreak is by far the biggest involving the virus, and it’s been designated a global emergency. So far, officials say, all evidence indicates that the disease has spread mainly through networks of men who have sex with men. “It clearly is spreading as an STI (sexually transmitted infection) at this point,” said Dr. Tom Inglesby, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. WHO declares monkeypox a global health emergency as […]

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Monkeypox outbreak in the U.K. may be peaking, health officials say

British health authorities said Friday the monkeypox outbreak across the country may be peaking and that the epidemic’s growth rate has slowed. The U.K.’s Health Security Agency said in a statement there were “early signs that the outbreak is plateauing,” with 2,859 cases detected since May. No deaths have been reported. Last month, authorities estimated the outbreak was doubling in size about every two weeks, but the number of new infections has dropped in recent weeks. “While the most recent data suggest the growth of the outbreak has slowed, we cannot be complacent,” said Dr. Meera Chand, Director of Clinical and Emerging […]

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Monkeypox vaccine: Australia secures 450,000 doses as EU struggles to roll out jab

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The Australian government is to import 450,000 monkeypox vaccine doses to help tackle a rise in cases. Health minister Mark Butler told reporters on Thursday (4 August) the government had negotiated at least 450,000 doses of the third-generation Bavarian-Nordic vaccine to be prioritised for specific at-risk groups including gay and bisexual men. The government began negotiating vaccine distribution on 20 May, according to Butler, just one day after the first confirmed case in Australia. At the current time of reporting, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that at least 53 cases of the disease have been reported in Australia […]

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Moderna May Create mRNA-Based Monkeypox Vax

ABC News reports: Amid growing concerns over the potential threat of monkeypox, executives from Moderna said Wednesday they have initiated a research program to consider whether the company could create a monkeypox vaccine with mRNA technology. “We’re obviously very aware of the monkeypox concern and obviously very sensitive to recent announcements,” Moderna President Stephen Hoge said during an investor call. “Our platform is pretty well established and our ability to rapidly scale has been demonstrated. If we were to go after a monkeypox clinical development program, it would be to very quickly progress toward an approvable set of endpoints in a […]

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