Features

/ /

300+ Methodist Churches Bail Over LGBTQ Policies

CNN reports: The North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church voted Saturday to accept the decision of 261 congregations to leave the denomination over a divide on LGBTQ issues. “I realize how sad this time is for many, including myself,” said Bishop Robin Dease, the leader of the conference. “I just hate that those who are leaving us, I will not have the opportunity to meet or to be with.” The churches are breaking from the UMC after a 2019 decision by the national United Methodist Church to allow congregations to leave by the end of 2023, “for reasons of […]

/ / /

Trans people are magic. They should inspire us all to live more authentically.

There is a certain magic among trans people simply existing. Just our presence, our reluctance to conform to the constructs around gender that have been instilled in all of us since birth is powerful.  Trans people offer everyone a certain freedom, a permission to exist authentically and embrace all of the innate elements that make us human. They show us it is possible to disregard the arbitrary notion that certain traits, emotions, and expressions are “masculine” or “feminine.” Related: At 30, I look back to my childhood and realize that I grappled with this conflict around gender and performance well […]

/ / / /

The relative acceptance trans folks once found in Iran is being destroyed by America’s culture war

Iran is one of the oldest civilizations on earth.  Throughout its history, many forms of gender expression have been celebrated – from the acknowledgment of a third gender to men wearing makeup to distinguish their noble and higher status in contrast with cultures like the Greeks, who were seen as less civilized. Many have tried to argue for the rights of trans people by pointing out the more accepting attitudes of ancient Iranian civilization, an attitude that is at odds with the modern interpretation of masculinity and femininity.  And a shift did begin to take place in the 1960s thanks […]

/ / /

For Transgender Awareness Week, a Look at the Reality of Health Care for Trans Youth

The National Center for Lesbian Rights is opening Transgender Awareness Weekwith the launch of #HealthcareIsCaring, a campaign aimed at transforming the narrative surrounding trans youth’s access to health care and empowering parents to support their trans children. It comes at a time when gender-affirming care for young trans people is being banned in conservative states across the nation — 22 states at last count — and the provision of such care is sometimes being criminalized or being defined as child abuse. There has also been an effort by Republicans in Congress to ban such care nationwide. NCLR seeks to tell what gender-affirming care […]

/ /

LGBTQ youth suicide prevention group leaves X after uptick in ‘hate & vitriol’

The Trevor Project, a national suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for LGBTQ youth, announced it is leaving X, formerly known as Twitter, because of “increasing hate & vitriol on the platform targeting the LGBTQ community.” The decision comes just over a year after billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk finalized his $44 billion purchase of the company. “LGBTQ young people are regularly victimized at the expense of their mental health, and X’s removal of certain moderation functions makes it more difficult for us to create a welcoming space for them on this platform,” the organization wrote in a tweet Thursday. The […]

/ / /

Vatican says transgender people can be baptized

Vatican officials said Wednesday that transgender people can be baptized in the Catholic church. “A transgender person, even if they have undergone hormone therapy and sex-reassignment surgery, can receive baptism under the same conditions as other faithful, if there are no situations in which there is a risk of generating a public scandal or disorientation among the faithful,” a Vatican office said in a documentpublished Wednesday in Italian on its website. The document was a response to six questions that Bishop Jose Negri of Santo Amaro in Brazil sent to the Vatican in July, regarding LGBTQ people’s involvement in routine Catholic […]

/ / /

The Supreme Court is being asked to hear its first case on gender-affirming care

,

The American Civil Liberties Union has asked the Supreme Court to block a Tennessee law banning gender-affirming care for minors. On Wednesday, the ACLU, along with the ACLU of Tennessee and Lambda Legal, petitioned the court to review a Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling allowing the state’s anti-trans law to go into effect. As The Hill notes, if the court accepts the case, it would be the first time the Supreme Court hears a case involving gender-affirming care. Tennessee Republicans passed the state’s S.B. 1 in February, and it was signed into law by Gov. Bill Lee (R) in early March. In addition […]

/ /

PragerU Makes $1 Million Anti-Trans Ad Buy On X

NBC News reports: The Prager University Foundation, a conservative advocacy group, purchased a “takeover” ad on X on Thursday as part of a larger $1 million marketing campaign to promote its polarizing film “Detrans: The Dangers of Gender-Affirming Care.” The 21-minute film focuses on two people who have detransitioned, meaning they previously identified as transgender and later decided they were not. Though both of them began transitioning when they were adults, their stories are part of the film’s larger criticism of transition-related care for minors. PragerU’s X takeover represents X’s shift toward promoting more conservative — and, critics would argue, more […]

/ /

Black Transgender Woman Lisa Love Killed Walking Home in Chicago

,

Lisa Love, a Black transgender woman from Chicago, was shot and killed in the early hours of October 17. She was 35. She’s one of more than 20 trans and gender-nonconforming people to have been killed in 2023. She’s the fourth to be reported in October alone. All four of the victims this month have been Black. Authorities say she was shot in the chest and back, according to local news station WGNTV. Her family said she was leaving a friend’s home.  “An all-around good person who did not deserve this,” Donna, a cousin of Love’s, told WGNTV. “A loving, caring, free-spirited person. Always […]

«‹ 75 76 77 78›»