Features

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D.C. bar owners say Trump’s federal law enforcement crackdown is killing their business

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President Donald Trump’s federal takeover of Washington, D.C. policing, billed as a crackdown on violent crime, has quickly turned into an economic and cultural crisis for the capital’s LGBTQ+ nightlife. In the most LGBTQ+ city in America, bar owners say sales have collapsed, patrons are staying home, and workers are carrying passports and legal documents just to walk the streets. “This whole thing is being billed as a violent crime crackdown, but it’s just an immigration sweep,” Mark Rutstein, co-owner of Crush Dance Bar, told The Advocate on Saturday. A deserted corridor Rutstein said that on Wednesday evening, federal and local agencies staged checkpoints on 14th […]

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Trans couple takes over beloved bookstore after anti-trans law forces owners to move

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A South Dakota community has rallied to help a transgender couple buy the town’s only bookstore now that the state’s anti-trans bathroom ban has forced its original owner to move east to protect his 10-year-old daughter. As The Washington Post reports, the people of Vermillion, South Dakota have so far donated over $27,000 via a GoFundMe campaign for Nova and Elias Donstad to make a down payment on Outside of a Dog, a beloved family-owned bookstore. The shop’s owner, Mike Phelan, opened the store shortly after moving to Vermillion with his family five years ago and discovering that the town did not have a […]

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Air Force denies early retirement for group of transgender service members

The Air Force is denying early retirement to all transgender service members with between 15 and 18 years of military service, opting instead to force them out with no retirement benefits, according to a memo seen by Reuters. These longer-serving transgender service members will have the same choice as more junior ones: quit or be forced out, with corresponding lump-sum payments as they walk out the door, the August 4 memo says. The move is the latest escalation by President Donald Trump’s administration as it seeks to bar transgender individuals from joining the U.S. military and remove all who are […]

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Parents of bullied trans teen who died by suicide sue Alabama school district

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The parents of a transgender teen who died by suicide after persistent bullyingin school have sued a school district in Alabama. Carmeisha and Cory Williams filed suit Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama against the Elba City Board of Education and two past principals of Elba High School, Wynn Grimes and Warren Weeks. The Williamses are represented by Artur Davis at HKM Employment Attorneys and Matthew Billips, Constance Cooper, and Ben Stark at Barrett and Farahany. Their child, S.W., came out as gay and gender-neutral in seventh grade, according to the suit. They requested to be called Shane and use they/them pronouns. S.W. […]

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‘Girl Scouts but Indoctrination’: A Christian Extremist Alternative

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Growing up, Kenzie remembers dragging her feet as her mom sent her to American Heritage Girls (AHG) programs. “I describe it as Girl Scouts but indoctrination,” says Kenzie, a 20-year-old dance major from Oklahoma.  “Ever since I was little, I always knew I was queer; different from the people around me. … [In the eyes of AHG staff] it felt wrong to be feminine, but also wrong to be masculine.” AHG and Trail Life USA—a similar organization for boys—have troops in all 50 states and more than 110,000 members. They teach kids that homosexuality is sinful and that anything outside the gender […]

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NYC opens first publicly funded homeless shelter for transgender people

Ace’s Place, which opened in Queens this week, will offer 150 beds, services like counseling and a work-study program.Kayla Bartkowski / Getty Images New York City opened the country’s first city-funded shelter for transgender and gender-nonconforming people experiencing homelessness. Ace’s Place, which opened this week in Queens and will offer 150 beds, is a collaboration between the NYC Department of Social Services and Destination Tomorrow, an LGBTQ nonprofit in the Bronx. Ace’s Place will provide transitional housing as well as other services including individual and group counseling, planning and assistance for permanent housing, referrals to medical and mental health services, […]

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A Supplementary Resource to “Identity Document Guidance for Transgender, Nonbinary, Gender-Nonconforming, and Intersex People”

In the wake of recent federal policy changes, many transgender, nonbinary, gender-nonconforming, and intersex (TGNCNBI) people are asking: What practical steps can I take to protect myself, minimize risks, and prepare for what’s ahead? This guide offers practical strategies for travel, documentation, and safety planning in 2025. Whether you’re renewing a passport, preparing for a trip, or deciding how and when to update your documents, this resource is here to support your decisions—with tools to help you stay informed, prepared, and empowered. Note: This document is for informational purposes only and not legal advice. Consult an attorney licensed in your state for […]

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LinkedIn exposes transgender users to targeted harassment after company quietly changes hate speech policy

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LinkedIn, the popular professional networking platform, has quietly stripped explicit protections for transgender and nonwhite users from its English-language hate speech rules, repeating a playbook now familiar to LGBTQ+ advocates tracking the rollback of content safeguards across major social mediaplatforms. The changes, first flagged by the nonprofit Open Terms Archive and independently confirmed by The Advocate, involve edits to LinkedIn’s Professional Community Policies, specifically the “Hateful and Derogatory Content” and “Harassment and Abusive Content” sections. In both, references to protections for transgender people and people of color were either weakened or removed entirely. Before Monday, the site’s “Hateful and Derogatory Content” page included a line explicitly prohibiting the “misgendering […]

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U.K. to begin major study on health of transgender youth

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A major study of the health of transgender and gender-nonconforming young people in the United Kingdom will begin later this year. The study will include up to 3,000 children and teens whose gender identity differs from the gender they were assigned at birth and have turned to the country’s National Health Service for treatment, The New York Times reports. Researchers will look at participants’ physical, mental, and social health. It will be funded by the NHS and the U.K. government’s clinical research agency and will be conducted by King’s College London as part of a larger King’s College project to determine how the NHS can best […]

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Why are Visa and Mastercard banning ‘adult’ purchases? Here’s everything you need to know

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Earlier this month, a set of payment processors, including Visa and Mastercard, forced video game marketplaces to remove thousands of adult video games from their storefronts. The financial companies forced gaming marketplaces Steam and Itch.io to remove their library of Not Safe For Work (NSFW) video games, or else customers would be prevented from using their credit cards to make purchases on the platforms. Itch.io was forced to “deindex” its entire NSFW library, saying it was vital to “ensure we can continue to operate and provide a marketplace for all developers.” “This is a time critical moment for itch.io. The situation developed […]

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