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Conservatives sue school for refusing to out transgender students

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The right-leaning group Parents Defending Education (PDE) has sued the Linn-Mar Community School District of Iowa because its policies protect transgender students from transphobic parents and students. PDE supports banning LGBTQ books and curricula about institutional racism from schools. The organization has also previously partnered with the anti-LGBTQ group Moms for Liberty. The Linn-Mar Community School District allows students (grades seven and up) to create a “gender support plan.” The plan requires school staff, students, and school documents (including ID cards and yearbooks) to address students by their self-assigned name and gender identity. The policy also allows these students to enter the […]

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Just how effective are monkeypox vaccines? Here’s what we know—and don’t.

As monkeypox continues to spread worldwide, health officials have recommended high-risk individuals get vaccinated as soon as possible—but research is limited on just how effectively the available vaccines prevent infection, Randy Dotinga writes for MedPage Today. How the US plans to vaccinate against monkeypox The US boosts vaccine supply to combat monkeypox CDC has confirmed 6,326 cases of monkeypox across 48 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. The states most impacted by the outbreak so far are New York with 1,617 cases, California with 826 cases, and Illinois with 533 cases. To reduce the risk of viral transmission, health officials have […]

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Southern Decadence “Will Be A Superspreader Event” Without MPX Vaccine Availability

The Louisiana Illuminator reports: Southern Decadence, advertised as the largest LGBTQ+ festival held annually in the Deep South, is scheduled for Labor Day weekend (Sept. 1-5) in New Orleans. It typically attracts 100,000 to 300,000 participants and is a major economic boon to the city in a season when tourism is otherwise sluggish. Health officials at the state and local level say Louisiana’s meager vaccine supply will leave the state vulnerable to a large monkeypox outbreak following such a massive event. Southern Decadence could also further the virus spread in other parts of the country if visitors become infected while in New […]

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Trans 8-year-old sues state for not letting her use school restrooms like everyone else

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An eight-year-old transgender girl and her parents are suing the Tennessee Department of Education over the state’s Accommodations for All Children Act, which bans trans students from using school bathrooms that correspond to their gender identity. On Thursday, the Human Rights Campaign filed the lawsuit in federal court on behalf of the child, identified as D.H., and her parents. Under the 2021 law, which allows cisgender public school students and their families to sue if they’re not given a “reasonable accommodation” by their school if they don’t want to share bathrooms, locker rooms, and other facilities with trans people, D.H. was forced to […]

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‘Social contagion’ isn’t causing more youths to be transgender, study finds

“Social contagion” is not driving an increasing number of adolescents to come out as transgender, according to a new study published Wednesday in the journal Pediatrics.  The study also found that the proportion of adolescents who were assigned female at birth and have come out as transgender also has not increased, which contradicts claims that adolescents whose birth sex is female are more susceptible to this so-called external influence.  “The hypothesis that transgender and gender diverse youth assigned female at birth identify as transgender due to social contagion does not hold up to scrutiny and should not be used to argue […]

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Why is Ron DeSantis’s surgeon general trying to lower public trust in the monkeypox vaccine?

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Joseph Ladapo — Florida’s surgeon general appointed by the state’s anti-LGBTQ Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis — is trying to make people distrust the monkeypox vaccine, stating that there is “little data” on it, which is misleading. Ladapo’s position is hardly surprising considering that he spent years spreading COVID-19 disinformation and echoing DeSantis’ distrust in vaccines. On Tuesday, DeSantis criticized the Democratic governors of California, Illinois, and New York for declaring states of emergency over monkeypox. The declarations give their governments greater ability to mobilize resources against the virus. (U.S. President Joe Biden declared a national state of emergency for monkeypox […]

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Police are four times more likely to stop transgender people for “reasonable suspicion”

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A new draft report from the California Attorney General’s office indicates transgender people in the state are stopped by police at vastly different rates than cisgender men and women. The report is based on data reported from 58 of the state’s largest law enforcement agencies and shows transgender people were stopped because of “reasonable suspicion” alone —instead of a specific violation or clearly unlawful behavior — in nearly half the stops. For transgender people, the proportion of “reasonable suspicion” stops was 44%, or four times the ratio for cisgender people. The data includes all people stopped by police, regardless of […]

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U.S. officials declare monkeypox a public health emergency

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The Biden administration declared monkeypox a public health emergency on Thursday as cases topped 6,600 nationwide.  The declaration could facilitate access to emergency funds, allow health agencies to collect more data about cases and vaccinations, accelerate vaccine distribution and make it easier for doctors to prescribe treatment. “We’re prepared to take our response to the next level in addressing this virus and we urge every American to take monkeypox seriously and to take responsibility to help us tackle this virus,” Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a Thursday briefing about the emergency declaration.  A quarter of U.S. cases […]

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For pioneering AIDS activists, monkeypox outbreak evokes déjà vu

As cases of monkeypox surge around the globe, four pioneers of the AIDS activist movement watch in awe and with a sense of nostalgia. Some of the similarities between the two viruses speak for themselves. Like the HIV strain that started the AIDS pandemic in the late 1970s, the current monkeypox outbreak has emerged from sub-Saharan Africa and has been found overwhelmingly in men who have sex with men who live in the world’s metropolises. And while epidemiologists have not reached a complete understanding of how the current outbreak of monkeypox spreads, recent research points to sexual transmission. Four pioneering AIDS activists of the […]

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More than 1 in 8 LGBTQ people live in states where doctors can refuse to treat them

South Carolina became the seventh state last month to permit health care providers to decline to serve people if they feel doing so would violate their religious beliefs.  As a result, more than 1 in 8 LGBTQ people now live in states where doctors, nurses and other health care professionals can legally refuse to treat them, according to the Movement Advancement Project, an LGBTQ think tank. In addition to South Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee, Ohio and Illinois have similar measures in effect. “The conflict between patient needs and religious directives has been a serious problem in the past, and […]

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