Features

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Virginia superintendent defies governor’s new policies that discriminate against trans students

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Francisco Durán, the Arlington Public Schools superintendent, announced he would not comply with Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s (R) new educational policy that targets transgender students for discrimination. Durán made a public statement outlining his reasoning for parents in the district. For his decision, Durán cited federal court decisions, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Virginia’s Department of Education introduced policies last week that would force students to use bathrooms, pronouns, and names that align with their sex assigned at birth. The guidelines went into effect immediately. “I reaffirm our unwavering support for our LGBTQIA+ […]

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Trans patients sue hospital that provided their records to Tennessee’s attorney general

Vanderbilt University Medical Center is being sued by its transgender clinic patients, who accuse the hospital of violating their privacy by turning their records over to Tennessee’s attorney general. Two patients sued Monday in Nashville Chancery Court, saying they were among more than 100 people whose records were sent by Vanderbilt to Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti. His office has said it is examining medical billing in a “run of the mill” fraud investigation that isn’t directed at patients or their families. Vanderbilt has said it was required by law to comply. The patients say Vanderbilt was aware that Tennessee authorities are hostile […]

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Explainer: What does nonbinary mean?

As the country and world become more aware and accepting of LGBTQ identities, an increasing number of people are coming out as nonbinary, which means their gender identity is neither exclusively male nor female. A Pew Research Center survey published last year found that about 1.6% of U.S. adults identify as transgender or nonbinary. Transgender means someone’s gender identity, or the personal sense of their gender, differs from the sex they were assigned at birth, which is based on their external sex characteristics.  Transgender can be thought of as an umbrella term, and nonbinary exists under that, though not all nonbinary people […]

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The Right Is Using the Anti-Abortion Supreme Court Ruling to Attack Trans Care

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When the U.S. Supreme Court revoked the national guarantee of abortion rights last year, there were warnings that the ruling would endanger other rights involving bodily autonomy. And indeed, it’s now being weaponized against gender-affirming care. Several states that have outlawed such care for transgender minors are invoking the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization anti-abortionruling when defending their laws in court. That argument hadn’t succeeded until this month, when a federal appellate court cited Dobbs in letting Tennessee’s gender-affirming care ban take effect. The ruling, from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, isn’t the final word on the case; it simply lets the law […]

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Latino families with trans minors fear new laws limiting medical treatment: ‘It’s what’s kept my daughter alive’

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As a 7-year-old, Adelyn Vigil believed death was the way to be able to live as a girl.  Adelyn’s nightly prayer to God was to become a bird to be able to fly, then die and then be made into a girl.  “I was crying and I told her: ‘Oh, but mom, it’s going to take a long time, because first I have to die as a boy and then as a bird and then be a girl,” Adelyn, 14, told Noticias Telemundo about the conversation with her mother years earlier.  “The only thing I could say without crying was: […]

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Far-right Christians fueling anti-queer law

The LGBTQ+ community is under siege, facing an onslaught of attacks across our nation. Underscoring the urgency of this crisis, the Human Rights Campaign declared a state of emergency for LGBTQ+ Americans for the first time in its history. Discriminatory policies and the looming threat of violence have forced many transgender individuals to flee their homes.  Behind this assault on LGBTQ+ rights lies a relentless wave of far-right Christian messaging. Despite claims that these policies aim to protect children or safeguard the integrity of women’s sports, the truth is that this surge of hate is rooted in the belief that […]

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Chick-fil-A’s troubled relationship with the LGBTQ+ community

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Chick-fil-A is one of the top 10 largest fast-food chains in the U.S. with a widely loved offering of chicken sandwiches and an estimated 2022 revenue of $6.4 billion, according to Zippia.com. However, the company has also had a long history of supporting anti-LGBTQ+ causes. Here’s an overview of its queerphobic actions and how social pressure has caused the company to shift its attention away from anti-LGBTQ+ efforts in recent years. A history of Chick-fil-A’s controversial actions Since 2003, the WinShape Foundation, a charity co-founded by Chick-fil-A’s now-deceased founder S. Truett Cathy and his wife Jeanette Cathy, has donated over $1 […]

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More than half of LGBTQ+ users are leaving social media due to safety concerns, survey finds

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More than half of LGBTQ+ social media users are turning their backs on mainstream platforms over toxicity and safety concerns, a new report indicates. Communia – the world’s first social media platform for women and marginalised genders – published its “exposé on women’s and marginalised genders’ social media experiences” report on Monday (10 July).  The research, which was conducted between 20-22 June 2023, surveyed 2,058 women and marginalised genders – including 237 LGBTQ+ people – in the UK who are current or past users of social media.  The survey saw almost two in three (60 per cent) of LGBTQ+ respondents state that […]

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Wisconsin school district can’t restrict bathrooms for trans student, judge says

A federal judge has blocked a Wisconsin school district from requiring transgender students to use bathrooms and locker rooms that match the sex they were assigned at birth while a lawsuit plays out against the school. U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman said Thursday that the Mukwonago Area School District must allow a transgender student to use facilities that align with their gender identity, temporarily blocking a policy approved last month by the school board, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. The order comes in a lawsuit brought anonymously by an 11-year-old transgender student and her mother. The judge ruled that the school’s policy […]

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Families with trans kids are increasingly forced to travel out of state for health care

On an early morning in June, Flower Nichols and her mother set off on an expedition to Chicago from their home in Indianapolis. The family was determined to make it feel like an adventure in the city, though that wasn’t the primary purpose of the trip. The following afternoon, Flower and Jennilyn Nichols would see a doctor at the University of Chicago to learn whether they could keep Flower, 11, on puberty blockers. They began to search for medical providers outside of Indiana after April 5, when Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb signed a law banning transgender minors from accessing puberty blockers and […]

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