Features

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Trans Girl Scouts sell over 71,000 cookies thanks to inspiring campaign

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A group of transgender Girl Scouts have collectively sold over 71,000 cookies thanks to a heartwarming annual campaign. Every year, independent trans journalist Erin Reed curates a list of trans and non-binary youngsters who are part of Girl Scout troops and asks readers to buy a box of cookies as part of a fundraising drive to help “make a few of their days better.” Girl Scouts in the US famously sell boxes of biscuits between January and April to help raise funds for the youth organisation, raking in an average of over $800 million per year. Girl Scouts earn cumulative prizes depending […]

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Gay Men, Ketamine and Trauma. A Therapy or a Trap?

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This story was produced with the support of MISTR, a telehealth platform offering free online access to PrEP, DoxyPEP, STI testing, Hepatitis C testing and treatment and long-term HIV care across the U.S. MISTR did not have any editorial input into the content of this story. This story talks about addiction and substance use. If you or someone you know needs help, resources can be found here. In 2015, on the patio of Nowhere Bar, a queer nightclub in Louisville, Kentucky, music pulsed and bodies pressed as 23-year-old Lucas Pearson moved through the flashing lights and a blur of grinding limbs. “I […]

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Trump eliminates rape protections for trans people in ICE facilities and prisons

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Donald Trump has ended rape protections for trans inmates in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities and US prisons, in a move that further attacks the trans community.  Guidance was released this month by the Department of Homeland Security for several privately-run ICE facilities, where, as of 8 January, 68,990 people are being held – a record high.  The Department of Justice is also working to remove rules protecting LGBTQ+ people from sexual abuse in prisons.  According to reporting by the American Prospect, at least six ICE detention facilities, mostly run by private prison companies, have updated government contracts to remove safeguards against rape and […]

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‘Deeply concerning’: Drug and alcohol deaths significantly higher among queer people, study finds

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Drug and alcohol related deaths are significantly higher among queer people, a “deeply concerning” study has found.  The findings come from analysis by the Office for National Statistics in the UK, which cross-referenced 2021 census data with death registrations between March 2021 and November 2024.  Multiple studies have revealed that LGB+ people are disproportionately affected by addictions, including alcoholism and drug use. The study specifically used the definer LGB+. According to the study, suicide and drug and alcohol overdoses are among the most significant causes of death for members of the LGB+ community.  The study revealed that there were nearly three times as many “drug poisoning” […]

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Americans are leaving Christianity because of anti-LGBTQ+ animus. Why now?

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When Garth Huelskamp was on his Mormon mission at 19 years old, he journeyed through western Nevada, where he remembers meeting a lesbian couple. While he remained tight-lipped, his companions quickly jumped into a conversation with them, speaking about how Jesus can save them from all sins, including homosexuality. “[There was] always an elephant in the room,” he says. That’s because at the time, Huelskamp knew he was gay. But like many queer religious people, he believed he could pray it away. “I was hoping that I’d come up from my mission and be attracted to women and be able […]

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Transgender youth who receive hormone therapy are less suicidal: study

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There’s simply no denying that gender-affirming care is life-saving. Transgender youth who are able to access hormone replacement therapy are less likely to be suicidal, according to a report recently published in The Journal of Pediatrics. Researchers surveyed 432 patients ages 12 to 20 over 679 days, finding that “suicidality significantly declined from pretreatment to post-treatment” across all sexes, ages, and treatment durations. “HT was associated with clinically meaningful reductions in suicidality over time, extending prior findings with a larger sample and longer follow-up,” the report concludes. “These study findings provide clinical evidence supporting the mental health benefits of timely access to HT in this population.” Hormone […]

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Majority of Americans think Republicans have a transphobia problem

A majority of US citizens think Republicans are too concerned with “transphobic ideologies” and transphobia. A YouGov poll published earlier this week suggests that US adults believe transphobia among the GOP is at least somewhat of a problem. 64 per cent of the 1,107 adults surveyed said that they believe transphobia is a problem among Republicans, with 44 per cent saying it is a major problem. Transphobia was the second-highest issue that respondents believed Republicans had taken too far, just behind hostility towards immigrants at 68 per cent. White supremacy and conspiracy thinking ranked highly too, with 62 per cent and 71 […]

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Gen. Stanley McChrystal presides over historic farewell for five transgender troops forced into retirement

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On Thursday, the Human Rights Campaign dedicated its headquarters in Washington, D.C., to transgender military members and veterans, where people gathered to reckon with what advocates are calling one of the most consequential civil rights reversals in modern U.S. history. Keep up with the latest in LGBTQ+ news and politics. Sign up for The Advocate’s email newsletter. At the organization’s Equality Forum, the day began with a policy panel titled Serving With Pride: The Future of LGBTQ+ Veterans’ Benefits & Recognition. It concluded with a retirement ceremony honoring five transgender service members whose distinguished careers were abruptly cut short by the Trump administration’s renewed transgender military ban. An unprecedented retirement ceremony The official party […]

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Fearing The Cult, Publishers Pull Back On LGBTQ Books

The Hill reports: President Trump’s return to office has fueled the grassroots forces that have driven a spike in LGBTQ book bans in recent years, creating a notable chill in the market for queer stories, according to authors and others in the publishing industry. “This is the first year in like a decade that I’ve had [rejection] responses from editors specifically citing that it’s difficult to place queer books in stores, and they’re being selective about acquiring queer stories,” said Rebecca Podos, a senior literary agent at Neighborhood Literary and young adult and adult novelist. Industry professionals and authors fear that this […]

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What the AIDS crisis stole from Black gay men

Sex scares me. As a teenager, at a time when most young men were starting to physically connect with their new, exciting, primal sexual desires, the blood in my body was flowing through my veins just as fast. There was nothing unusual about puberty. Except that my desires were for other men. I had no references, images, or examples. No place to go, and no one to talk to about these feelings. My resources included a pamphlet from my godmother on men’s bodies. I clung to a passage in it on how common it was for teenage males to have sexual […]

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