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RFK Jr.’s HHS investigates Seattle Children’s Hospital over youth gender-affirming care

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Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has launched an investigation into Seattle Children’s Hospital for providing gender-affirming careto youth.  The department announced Friday that it has referred the hospital to the Office of Inspector General for “for failure to meet professional recognized standards of health care as according to Secretary Kennedy’s declaration.” If the department concludes the hospital violated the policy, it could lose its Medicaid and Medicare funding. Cited in the referral is the agency’s announcement from earlier this month that it is proposing to ban the lifesaving care for those under age 18, and to prevent both Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance […]

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Oklahoma instructor who gave student a zero on gender essay barred from teaching duties, school says

The University of Oklahoma said Monday that the graduate teaching assistant who assigned a failing grade to a student for a psychology essay on gender stereotypes will “no longer have instructional duties” at the university. A graduate teaching assistant for an online psychology class was “arbitrary in the grading of this specific paper” and therefore will “no longer have instructional duties,” the university said in a statement. It is not immediately clear whether the teaching assistant faces further disciplinary action or is still on leave. “We are committed to teaching students how to think, not what to think,” the university […]

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TikTok allegedly monitoring users’ Grindr activity, digital rights group claims

An internet privacy group is accusing TikTok of violating international law by tracking its users’ Grindr data. European digital rights group NOYB filed a complaint against the social media platform, as well as Grindr and digital marketing company AppsFlyer, over claims they breached online privacy laws by tracking user’s inter-app activities. The Austria-based organisation alleged to the country’s Data Protection Authority on Wednesday (16 December) that TikTok was violating the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and risked exposing its customer’s sensitive data. It claimed TikTok, owned by China’s ByteDance, and Grindr shared sensitive user data, which AppsFlyer allegedly facilitated. […]

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“Becoming a woman”: How anti-trans activists are twisting the roots of feminism

Simone de Beauvoir is one of the most influential feminist philosophers of all time, with The Second Sex (1949) defining many elements of second-wave feminism. In recent years, her work has been twisted to support the biological imperative agenda pushed by prominent anti-trans figures in their most inflammatory books and blog posts. Beauvoir scholar Megan Burke sought to set the record straight and prove that Beauvoir’s work supports an ethics of trans affirmation. That’s precisely what they have achieved in their gripping new book, Becoming A Woman: Simone de Beauvoir and the Politics of Trans Existence. When Burke originally sat down to write […]

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The heartwarming community project bringing joy to hundreds of trans kids this holiday season

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Trans rights have taken a big hit in the United Kingdom this year, but one community project is working to give trans youth a reason to smile this holiday season.  Over the past few years, Trans Secret Santa UK has provided over a thousand gifts to trans youth under 25. But the group’s call for donations this year acknowledged that this year was especially tough.  In 2024, the UK government released the Cass Review, a wide-ranging review of Britain’s medical interventions for transgender youth that was condemned by many trans people and allies. Following the review, the UK Department of Health and […]

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HHS moves to slash funding and access to care for transgender minors

The Trump administration announced Thursday that it would begin to take steps aimed at ending transition-related care — or what the Department of Health and Human Services has termed “sex-rejecting procedures” — for minors nationwide.  The proposals — which, if enacted, would pull federal funding from hospitals that offer transgender care to minors — are the latest effort by the administration to restrict access to certain transgender care. Doctors across the country “provide needless and irreversible sex-rejecting procedures that violate their sacred Hippocratic Oath, endangering the very lives that they are sworn to safeguard,” Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. […]

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Delta Failing Their Employees by Restricting Access to PREP Drugs

In violation of the ACA preventive services coverage requirement, Delta Air Lines, which has 100,000 employees in the United States, is only covering daily oral generic PrEP to prevent HIV without prior authorization.  Contrary to the ACA, it is refusing to cover the full array of PrEP drugs specifically required by the United States Preventative Services Task Force (“UPSTF”) without access restrictions in its employee health plan. In recent months, the HIV+Hepatitis Policy Institute has reached out to Delta officials after employees received notice that Delta would no longer cover a branded oral PrEP drug. Delta’s Chief Health and Wellness Officer responded initially that the notices […]

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The sex ed you get depends on your ZIP code — and your state’s politics

Faith Fluker’s cousin was a 14-year-old cheerleader and magnet school student when she became pregnant last year. She didn’t have to be such a young mom; she just lacked the means to avoid teen parenthood, Fluker said. “She fell pregnant because she didn’t have access to reproductive health resources, and she didn’t have transportation to end the pregnancy, which is what she wanted to do,” said Fluker, an Auburn University senior who champions reproductive rights as part of her work with Advocates for Youth, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. “The lack of sex education in Alabama has led to […]

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U.S. bishops officially ban gender-affirming care at Catholic hospitals

U.S. Catholic bishops voted Wednesday to make official a ban on gender-affirming care for transgender patients at Catholic hospitals. The step formalizes a yearslong process for the U.S. church to address transgender health care. From a Baltimore hotel ballroom, the bishops overwhelmingly approved revisions to their ethical and religious directives that guide the nation’s thousands of Catholic health care institutions and providers. More than one in seven patients in the U.S. are treated each day at Catholic hospitals, according to the Catholic Health Association. Catholic hospitals are the only medical center in some communities. Major medical groups and health organizations […]

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BOYCOTT: Apple removes two gay dating apps in China to comply with government order

Apple said it has removed two popular gay dating apps from its app store in China, in compliance with an order from the country’s cyberspace regulator, stoking fears within the country’s LGBTQ community. The same-sex dating and social apps Blued and Finka suddenly became unavailable to download on iOS devices over the weekend, while users of Android devices can still download them from their official websites. Apple said the removal was “based on an order” from the Cyberspace Administration of China but didn’t elaborate on what the order was about. “We follow the laws in the countries where we operate,” an Apple spokesperson said […]

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