National

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‘Saint of 9/11’ and ‘Hero of Flight 93’: They lived very different lives but share a legacy in death

Twenty years ago, on one of America’s darkest days, two planes flew into the twin towers, another into the Pentagon, and a fourth crashed in a field in rural Pennsylvania. But even during the tragic early morning hours of Sept. 11, 2001, there were heroes. People like Mark Bingham, who was aboard United Airlines Flight 93 when it went down near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. And the Rev. Mychal Judge, who was tending to victims in the World Trade Center’s north tower when debris from the collapsing south tower killed him and many others. On the face of it, the two men couldn’t […]

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Feminist icon Judith Butler compares ‘gender critics’ to fascists

Philosopher and feminist icon Judith Butler has explained why “rethinking the category of ‘woman’” to include trans women is vital in “securing greater freedoms for women”. Butler’s 1990 book Gender Trouble is a text that proved foundational to the development of queer theory. In an interview with The Guardian, Butler reflected on the book 31 years later, and explained that “it was meant to be a critique of heterosexual assumptions within feminism, but it turned out to be more about gender categories”. Before the book’s publication, and since, “what it means to be a woman does not remain the same from decade to […]

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Lawyer who won equal marriage for the US is ‘optimistic’ trans rights will prevail

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The lawyer who fought for – and won – equal marriage for gay, lesbian and bisexual people says she is “optimistic” about the future of trans rights in the US. Mary L. Bonauto, an LGBT+ civil rights lawyer, represented the gay plaintiffs in the momentous Obergefell v. Hodges ruling, which paved the way for same-sex marriage in the US in 2015. She had been fighting for marriage equality since the 1990s – and led on the Goodridge v. Department of Public Health case which saw Massachusetts become the first state where same-sex couples could legally marry in 2004. In an op-ed for USA Today, […]

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Five shot in attack near Atlanta Black Gay Pride event

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At least five people sustained gunshot wounds in a shooting near an Atlanta nightclub hosting a black gay Pride event. Shots rang out around 6 am Monday (September 6) near The Marquette Lounge, a venue hosting a Lil Kim concert as part of black gay Pride. Officers responded to reports of gunshots at the scene and discovered the five aforementioned victims. All received treatment at a nearby hospital and fortunately did not sustain any life-threatening injuries. The identities of the victims have not been made public. 11Alive reports that an investigation suggested that a fight broke out among concert patrons. Several […]

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Top official at nation’s largest LGBTQ group fired over ties to Cuomo

The president of Human Rights Campaign, the country’s largest LGBTQ advocacy organization, was fired Monday after a report found he tried to help discredit an accuser of former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the group said. Alphonso David was fired effective immediately after an internal investigation was completed and the group’s boards of directors voted to remove him, Human Rights Campaign Chairs Morgan Cox and Jodie Patterson said in a joint statement They said David violated his contract. David’s apparent role working with Cuomo was revealed in a report this year in which New York Attorney General Letitia James accused David of being involved […]

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Anti-gay hate crimes fell slightly in 2020, while anti-trans crimes rose, FBI says

Hate crimes based on sexual orientation dipped slightly last year, but crimes based on bias against trans and gender-nonconforming people continued to increase, new FBI data suggest.  The Uniform Crime Reporting Program’s Hate Crime Statistics 2020 report found that 7,759 hate crime incidents were reported last year, up by 6 percent from 7,314 incidents in 2019.  Although reports of hate crime incidents based on anti-LGBTQ bias were down overall, from 1,393 in 2019 to 1,287 in 2020, reports of incidents motivated by gender-identity bias jumped by nearly 20 percent for the second year in a row.  Law enforcement agencies reported 1,051 hate crime […]

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Half of LGBTQ people behind on rent fear eviction in next two months, report says

Some LGBTQ renters report not being caught up on rent and fear losing their homes in the next few months, according to a new report published just after the the Supreme Court struck down an extended eviction moratorium last week. Nearly one-fifth (19 percent) of LGBTQ renters report not being caught up on rent, compared to 14 percent of non-LGBTQ renters, according to the report by the Williams Institute, a think tank at the UCLA School of Law.  Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer renters who are behind on rent are slightly more likely than non-LGBTQ renters who are behind on payments to […]

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Va. school district to pay $1.3 million in legal fees to resolve Gavin Grimm case

A Virginia school district will pay more than $1.3 million in legal fees to resolve the case of Gavin Grimm, former high school student who challenged its bathroom policy. The American Civil Liberties Union on Thursday announced in a press release the Gloucester County School Board in a court filing said it would not challenge Grimm’s request to pay the fees and other costs associated with his case. Grimm was a sophomore at Gloucester County High School in 2015 when he filed a federal lawsuit against the Gloucester County School District’s policy that prohibited students from using bathrooms and locker […]

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LGBTQ Americans taking bigger economic hit amid pandemic, census data finds

As the nation battles new variants of the Covid-19 virus, LGBTQ Americans have felt the economic brunt of the pandemic harder than the general public, according to a new report from the U.S. Census Bureau. Released Wednesday, the latest version of the agency’s Household Pulse Survey is the first to include gender identity and sexual orientation.  It found 19.8 percent of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender adults lived in a household where there was a loss of income in the past month, compared to 16.8 percent of non-LGBTQ adults.  Economic disparities between LGBTQ and non-LGBTQ people existed long before the pandemic, says […]

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Biden administration sends trans students a back-to-school message

As young people across America prepare to return to class — some in person, some remotely — the Biden administration issued a message for transgender students. In a joint video Thursday, Suzanne Goldberg, the acting assistant secretary of education for civil rights; Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke; and Dr. Rachel Levine, the assistant secretary of health and human services for health, outlined the federal government’s support for transgender students even as their community is under siege on the state level, where more than 130 anti-trans bills in 36 states have been introduced this year alone, according to the Human Rights Campaign.https://iframe.nbcnews.com/UjuZokP […]

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