Features

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Texas professors sue Biden for the right to discriminate against trans students

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Two Texan professors have filed a lawsuit against the United States government, arguing for their right to discriminate against people on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, and abortion history. The plaintiffs in the suit — Daniel A. Bonevac, a philosophy professor at the University of Texas at Austin, and John Hatfield, an economics professor at the same school — are represented alongside Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) on behalf of the state. The two professors are backed by America First Legal (AFL), a large conservative legal organization that files hundreds of lawsuits to whittle away LGBTQ+ discrimination protections. The […]

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Federal authorities are investigating attacks on transgender and Latino students in Virginia

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The Department of Justice has launched an investigation into incidents of violence inVirginia against bothtransgender and Latino students at Norview High School in Norfolk. The investigation follows reports of harassment and physical assaults that school officials allegedly failed to address adequately. Norfolk public radio station WHROreports that the DOJ contacted one mother, Melissa Corrigan, regarding her transgender son, Matt, who faced severe harassment and violence due to his gender identity. According to Corrigan, her son was subjected to escalating harassment that included a sexual assault in a school bathroom and a physical attack during class. Despite Matt reporting these incidents to the school administration, she […]

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The Status of Health Care for Transgender People: Successful Legal Challenges and a Dangerous Expansion

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The landscape on health care access for transgender Americans seemingly shifts by the day. Here’s a summary of the most recent movement in state legislatures and the courts: On Tuesday, May 21, South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster signed into law one of the most extreme anti-transgender laws in the nation. H. 4624 bans health care for transgender youth under 18. Alarmingly, it also imposes severe restrictions on access to health care for transgender adults under major insurance plans and health care providers who receive public funds. “Anti-transgender extremists claimed that their surge of attacks against basic access to health care were in […]

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Meet the Trans Adults and Their Families on a Mission to Ensure More Americans Get to Know a Transgender Person

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71% of Americans say they have never met a transgender person. Well, here they are. GLAAD, in collaboration with GROUND Media, an award-winning strategic storytelling studio, launched Here We Are, a campaign that aims to combat misinformation about the transgender community. The campaign features transgender people from Ohio and Florida alongside supportive family members. This is especially important in a time when anti-transgender rhetoric from politicians and some in the media continues to rise. Here We Are includes 6 one minute long videos that feature transgender adults living in the U.S. with their unconditionally supportive loved ones. Their stories will premiere online at www.herewearenow.com and will […]

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Bishop Yvette A. Flunder on LGBTQ Inclusion in the Black Church: ‘We Have to Have the Courage to Create Something of Our Own’

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At the bottom of the first page of the program for Spelman College’s Baccalaureate Service held on May 18, 2024, at the Georgia International Convention Center in College Park, a southwest suburb of Atlanta, is the last sentence in baccalaureate speaker Bishop Yvette A. Flunder’s bio, and perhaps for some the most jarring. It reads: “Bishop Flunder is a proud mother and grandmother and recently celebrated 40 years of commitment and marriage to her partner in ministry and life—Ms. Shirley A. Miller, a renowned Gospel music artist.” It is not unusual for queer people to exist in conservative Black religious spaces, whether parishioners or clergy. However, it […]

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U.K. temporarily criminalizes puberty blockers for trans kids

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The United Kingdom’s government just issued an emergency order to temporarily ban and criminalize the usage of puberty blockers for transgender minors, independent journalist Erin Reed reports. This criminalization is unprecedented and has not been seen in any other country. It could lead to prison sentences of up to two years, Jo Maugham of the Good Law Project told Reed. Notice of the policy was sent out on Wednesday, when the U.K. Department of Health and Social Care announced restrictions on puberty blockers as an emergency order from Conservative Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Victoria Atkins. The restrictions on puberty […]

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Biden asks tech companies to help stop AI-generated sexual deepfakes used to harass gay students

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The administration of President Joe Biden is urging tech and financial industries to help stop the spread of abusive, AI-generated “deepfake” sexual images used to harass real-life school kids and educators — particularly girls, women, and gay kids in schools. These images can ruin their lives, the Biden Administration says, but current school policies and laws don’t provide consistent ways to prevent their dissemination. “As generative [artificial intelligence] broke on the scene, everyone was speculating about where the first real harms would come. And I think we have the answer,” said Biden’s chief science adviser Arati Prabhakar, director of the […]

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Tennessee gov. OKs penalizing adults who help minors receive abortions, gender-affirming care

Tennessee’s governor has approved legislation designed to block adults from helping minors get an abortion or receive gender-affirming care without parental consent, proposals that are both likely to face immediate legal challenges when they go into effect later this year. Republican Gov. Bill Lee quietly signed the bills Tuesday without comment. However, the governor’s actions weren’t unexpected. During his time in office, Lee has enacted sweeping restrictions on gender-affirming care for young people and has defended Tennessee’s near total ban on abortion while stressing his opposition to the procedure. Both laws go into effect July 1. Lee’s actions mean Tennessee will soon become […]

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Transgender 17-year-old Tayy Dior Thomas shot to death in Alabama

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Tayy Dior Thomas, a 17-year-old transgender girl, was shot to death May 7 in Mobile, Ala., and the suspect is a man who her family says she had been dating. Police found her body about 3:30 a.m. in the front yard of a home after responding to a report of shots fired in the area, according to TV station WALA.A vehicle had crashed into the house as well. Police arrested Carl Washington Jr., 20. He is charged with murder. He pleaded not guilty this week and was denied bond. Most news reports, including the WALA one, misgendered and deadnamed Thomas, but her family […]

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Supreme Court won’t hear Maryland school district gender identity case

The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to hear a bid backed by a conservative Christian legal group to challenge a Maryland school district’s policy against informing parents if their children identify as transgender or gender-nonconforming. The justices turned away an appeal by three parents with children attending public schools in the Washington suburb of Montgomery County of a lower court’s ruling holding that they lacked the necessary legal standing to challenge the policy. The plaintiffs are represented by the Virginia-based National Legal Foundation. The issue of transgender rights has become a flashpoint in the U.S. culture wars. As part of this, […]

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