Features

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New study ranks U.S. states with highest STI rates

Summertime means more sunshine, more socializing, and, according to medical researchers, more sexually transmitted infections (STIs). A new study by telehealth company Invigor Medical analyzed data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to determine how infection rates have evolved across the United States, and which states and cities have the highest rates of reported STIs. Examining the four most commonly tested STIs — chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis, and HIV, — the study tracked how rates have changed over time, and where the infections are most concentrated in the U.S. According to the study, the overall number of reported STIs has […]

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More than 1 in 4 trans people live in states with ‘bathroom bans’

Nineteen states have laws that prohibit trans people from using the bathrooms that align with their gender identities in K-12 schools.Tilde Oyster / NBC News Nearly a decade after North Carolina passed its controversial “bathroom ban,” sparking nationwide backlash and corporate boycotts of the state, transgender bathroom restrictions have made a resurgence. Nineteen states have laws that prohibit trans people from using the bathrooms that align with their gender identities in K-12 schools, and in many of those states the restrictions apply to other government-owned buildings as well. As a result, more than 1 in 4 trans people live in states with […]

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How the Black AIDS Institute continues to fill in the gaps

Grazell Howard is a living embodiment of the Black AIDS Institute’s motto of “Our People. Our Problem. Our Solution.” Clear-eyed about the failures of a movement to truly address the needs of those most impacted by the virus, her assessment of this moment in which Black and brown communities are still disproportionately affected by HIV is simple.  “I think what we did, unintentionally, is we went to the largest disease-burdened group, which were men who have sex with men — and that’s fine, that’s what you’re supposed to do,” she said. “However, we never then came back and said, ‘It impacts all of us. We […]

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Boston opens new park named after murdered Black transgender woman Rita Hester

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Hester’s family attended the park opening ceremony with at-large Boston City Councilor Henry Santana and Allston-Brighton City Councilor Liz Breadon. Santana said on Instagram that it was “an honor to join the community in dedicating this space to Rita’s legacy.”  Eartha Hester, Rita’s sister, told The Advocate in 2023 that she believes the case went unsolved because Boston Police didn’t devote time or resources to it, as “Rita wasn’t just gay, she was also Black so she had two things that were not on her side at that time.” “They didn’t gather evidence that they were supposed to because they didn’t really care,” […]

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Florida officials claim SCOTUS ruling allows them to deny trans adults health care

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Days after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Tennessee could ban gender-affirming health care for minors, Florida officials argued the decision allows them to deny coverage to adults. In August, a federal judge ruled Florida cannot legally deny health care coverage for gender-affirming care to state employees. The state appealed that decision to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. After the June Supreme Court ruling in United States v. Skrmetti, which upheld a Tennessee law banning hormone therapy and puberty blockers only for transgender minors, appellate judges asked both sides in the Florida case if the verdict impacted arguments. Attorneys representing the state of Florida said the Skrmetti ruling opened the door to government […]

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A library fired a pastor for misgendering his co-worker. Now he’s trying to bankrupt it.

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Luke Ash, a southern Baptist pastor, was recently fired from his technician job at Louisiana’s East Baton Rouge (EBR) Parish Library after he repeatedly misgendered his coworker. Now he’s claiming that he was fired for his religious beliefs, and an anti-LGBTQ+ hate group leader and other conservative and religious leaders are sharing his story while they all try to get the library defunded. Ash recently told Tony Perkins, leader of the anti-LGBTQ+ hate group the Family Research Council, that on July 7, he misgendered someone who uses male pronouns. “I refused to use those preferred pronouns,” Ash said. “The next day, […]

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Puerto Rico’s governor just signed one of the harshest gender-affirming care laws yet

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Puerto Rico’s Republican Gov. Jenniffer González-Colón signed into law Wednesday a far-reaching ban on gender-affirming medical care for transgenderpeople under 21, enacting one of the harshest measures of its kind in the United States and its territories and prompting swift condemnation from medical experts and LGBTQ+ advocates.  The law, Senate Bill 350, prohibits the use of puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and gender-affirming surgeries for anyone under 21, threatening doctors and other health professionals with up to 15 years in prison, a $50,000 fine, and the permanent loss of their licenses and permits. Public funds are also barred from being used for such care. In […]

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House Oversight Democrats demand records over RFK Jr.’s HIV program cuts

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Two senior House Democrats, including the first out gay immigrant member of Congress, are demanding records and explanations from Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. following what they describe as a politically driven dismantling of HIV prevention, treatment, and research programs under the Trump administration’s fiscal year 2026 budget proposal. In a Thursday letter to Kennedy, Rep. Robert Garcia, ranking member of the powerful House Oversight Committee and representing California, and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, ranking member of the Oversight Subcommittee on Health Care and Financial Services and representing Illinois, accused HHS of systematically abandoning decades of bipartisan progress in the fight against HIV and AIDS in both domestic […]

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Federal HR office sets deadline for government-wide purge of transgender and nonbinary inclusion

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The Trump administration has issued a new mandate requiring all federal agencies to eliminate recognition of gender identity, reinforcing a rigid, binary definition of sex and gender throughout the executive branch by mid-August. In a July 10 memorandum to department heads, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management directed agencies to implement Executive Order 14168, titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” by revoking gender-inclusive policies, disbanding diversity programs, and enforcing sex-based definitions in all personnel and facility protocols. Agencies have until August 11 to submit a detailed report to OPM outlining the steps taken to comply. The […]

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U.S. program to combat HIV/AIDS survives Trump’s latest round of cuts

PEPFAR, the popular global HIV/AIDS program credited with saving millions of lives, has been spared from a package of billions of dollars in spending cuts that Congress sent to President Donald Trump early Friday morning to sign into law. The original rescissions package Trump requested called for $400 million in cuts to PEPFAR, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, which George W. Bush started in 2003.  But in the Senate, Democrats and a handful of Republicans objected to the PEPFAR cuts. Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, said the health program had saved an estimated 26 million lives and allowed nearly 8 […]

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