Features

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The New York Times Continues to Double Down on Biased, Inaccurate Transgender Coverage

The New York Times’ coverage of transgender people and issues has been critiqued for years by trans people, the broader LGBTQ community, and allies. Now instead of directly addressing the critiques, meeting with the community harmed by the coverage, or forthrightly fixing its errors in reporting and news gathering, the Times is deploying its most distrusted and discredited reporters in a new project designed to profit off its inaccurate and biased coverage. The project is a multi-episode podcast on transgender health care that was repeatedly shopped around by the Times’ sales office, with “sponsorship opportunities” in the tens of thousands of dollars. The podcast promos say […]

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Tim Walz shames Dems who have abandoned trans people: “We need to be the party of human dignity.”

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As the Democratic party argues over whether standing up for trans people is bad for their brand, Minnesota Gov. and former vice presidential candidate Tim Walz (D) has held strong in his support for the community. During an impassioned speech at the annual California Democratic Convention over the weekend, Walz made his stance perfectly clear: “I’m just going to say it, shame on any of us who throws a trans child under the bus for thinking they’re going to get elected,” he said.  “That child deserves our support. Don’t worry about the pollsters calling it distractions, because we need to be the […]

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BarkBox CEO apologizes for leaked message exposing paused Pride ads — but they’re still paused

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BarkBox’s CEO is “deeply sorry” for a leaked message that revealed the company’s plans to forgo advertising for its LGBTQ+ Pride collection — but they appear to have followed through on those plans.  The dog product subscription service came under fire earlier this week after a message from an employee was shared on social media, exposing the company’s intentions to “pause all paid ads and lifestyle marketing pushes for the Pride kit effective immediately.” The author referred to LGBTQ+ existence as “another politically charged symbol,” comparing it to being a supporter of Donald Trump.  “While celebrating Pride is something we may value, we need to acknowledge […]

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Trans former Wikimedia employee says abuse at the nonprofit is “organization wide”

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A trans software engineer fired by Wikipedia is speaking out after she filed a lawsuit against the nonprofit website claiming wrongful termination. Kayla Mae said that the “bigotry” described in her suit is “organization wide” and that most of her former colleagues “are as against the problems in leadership as I was.” “Unfortunately, I became the squeaky wheel for management to retaliate against by reporting the discrimination,” Mae wrote on Reddit, “instead of quietly leaving like others did.” Mae was hired in 2022 by the Wikimedia Foundation, the website’s parent organization, as a software engineer in a remote role based […]

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Rep. Sharice Davids introduces bill to improve mental health services for LGBTQ+ youth

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U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids is observing Pride Month by reintroducing a bill aimed at improving mental health care for LGBTQ+ and intersex youth. Her Pride in Mental Health Act, introduced Thursday, would update care standards, develop training for caregivers, identify school bullying prevention guidelines. It would call for a report on the mental health and mental health care of LGBTQ+ and intersex youth in foster care and other federal social services programs and direct the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to review and update resources listed on its website that pertain to LGBTQ+ communities. Davids, a Kansas Democrat who is gay and Native American, introduced similar […]

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We asked seven AI tools to list ‘pros and cons’ of transphobia – here are their replies

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Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become the centrepiece in the conversation of online misinformation, especially regarding LGBTQ+ people.  As the popularity of the likes of ChatGPT, Google Gemini and Microsoft Co-Pilot has grown, so too have concerns over the potential ramifications, including plagiarism, scams and, most notably, misinformation and bias. Modern AI chatbots, generally speaking, rely on a process called machine learning, where a computer system uses trial and error to analyse patterns and create instructions based on thousands of simulations to reach a goal. In the AI chatbot’s case, the goal is to accurately answer a query. While machine learning […]

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The untold story of Sally-Tom, who legally changed her gender in the 1860s

Sally-Tom was one of the first people in the US to have her gender recognized by a legal governing body long before sex was included in regular documentation. Sally was a formerly enslaved Black trans woman who became an incidental activist. Unlike many others at the time, she was open about her gender in public. In fact, she may be the first trans person in US history to have her gender recognized by any governmental institution. Around 1869, the Georgia Freedmen’s Bureau approved her decision to live as a woman. Although no photographs or recordings of Sally exist, local journalists […]

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Federal judge says prisons must provide gender-affirming care for inmates

A federal judge on Tuesday ruled the U.S. Bureau of Prisons must keep providing transgender inmates gender-affirming care, despite an executive order President Donald Trump signed on his first day back in office to halt funding for such care. U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth in Washington, D.C., allowed a group of more than 2,000 transgender inmates in federal prisons to pursue a lawsuit challenging the order as a class action. He ordered the Bureau of Prisons to provide them with hormone therapy and accommodations such as clothing and hair-removal devices while the lawsuit plays out. The ruling does not require […]

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Judge blocks administration from enforcing anti-diversity and anti-transgender executive orders

A federal judge in California has blocked the Trump administration from enforcing anti-diversity and anti-transgender executive orders in grant funding requirements that LGBTQ+ organizations say are unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar said Monday that the federal government cannot force recipients to halt programs that promote diversity, equity and inclusion or acknowledge the existence of transgender people in order to receive grant funding. The order will remain in effect while the legal case continues, although government lawyers will likely appeal. The funding provisions “reflect an effort to censor constitutionally protected speech and services promoting DEI and recognizing the existence of […]

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Southern Baptists To Vote On Overturning Obergefell

The New York Times reports: Southern Baptists plan to vote this week on acting to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges, the Supreme Court ruling that legalized gay marriage 10 years ago this month. The step is part of a growing effort by evangelicals nationwide to reverse Obergefell, and coincides with a renewed campaign in state legislatures to challenge the widely accepted view that same-sex marriage has become an established civil right. While the Southern Baptist Convention has long opposed gay marriage, the vote at its annual meeting in Dallas will be the first time that the largest Protestant denomination in America will ask representatives […]

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