National

/ / / /

Arienne Childrey on becoming Ohio’s first trans city council member

,

Arienne Childrey, the first out transgender person on any city council in Ohio, wants her constituents to know she can serve her town’s needs as well as anyone else. Her presence “means the same thing as having any other type of person on the city council,” Childrey, who was sworn in Monday as a member of the St. Marys City Council, tells The Advocate. “This is about good local government.” But she’s also eager to stand up for trans people and show that “we’re just your neighbors,” she adds. “I think it’s incredibly important to be on the council and show our LGBT community, our […]

/ /

Gay Congresswoman Becca Balint: I’ll show Trump I’m not intimidated

,

U.S. Rep. Becca Balint, a progressive gay Democrat from Vermont, is attending Donald Trump’s inauguration to show she’s not intimidated. “My presence at the inauguration will be my way of saying ‘I see you and I know what you’re about. And I won’t be intimidated by you,’” Balint wrote a Friday commentary piece for Courier, a news service. “It will be a way to show Americans and viewers across the world that I respect the vote of the people, unlike Trump himself. Four years on, he’s still lying about the 2020 Election. And Republican leaders in both the House and the Senate are not just complicit in […]

/ /

Advocates criticize Biden for inaction after judge orders military to accept recruits with HIV

Several people living with HIV told NBC News they have been turned away from military service or have faced roadblocks to enlistment, despite a federal judge’s ruling in August that found prohibiting healthy HIV-positive recruits is unconstitutional. Now, as Joe Biden’s presidency reaches its final days, advocates for people with HIV are increasingly concerned that his administration will not fully implement the judge’s ruling, punting it to the incoming Trump administration. The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 has barred employment discrimination based on HIV status for decades. The Defense Department, which employs nearly 3 million people, has remained the one […]

/ /

The Trevor Project to undergo layoffs and restructuring in major ‘transformation’

The Trevor Project, a national LGBTQ youth suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization, announced Friday that it will undergo a “transformation” that will include layoffs and restructuring. The timing of the announcement, just days before the start of the second Trump administration, has staffers particularly concerned. Jaymes Black, who became the nonprofit’s CEO last July, said the organization, which has around 600 employees, is in the midst of a “perfect storm” — soaring crisis calls and messages from LGBTQ youths, an increasingly hostile political climate for LGBTQ rights and a drop in individual donations. The California-based Trevor Project, like many […]

/ /

Supreme Court takes up parents’ bid to opt out of LGBTQ content at elementary schools

The Supreme Court on Friday took up a new dispute on the tensions between LGBT rights and religious rights by agreeing to hear a claim by parents of elementary school students in Maryland who objected to books available in classrooms concerning gender transition and same-sex relationships. The case concerns a policy enacted by the Montgomery County Board of Education in November 2022 requiring new story books covering LGBT issues that could potentially be read in class.  One book titled “Pride Puppy!” concerns a puppy that gets lost during a gay rights parade. Initially, the board indicated parents could opt their children out of […]

/ /

Supreme Court To Hear Hate Group On LGBTQ Books

The Washington Post reports: The Supreme Court agreed Friday to hear a case about whether public schools must give parents of elementary schoolchildren a chance to opt out of instruction on gender and sexuality that they say goes against their religious convictions. The case stems from a challenge by a group of parents in Maryland’s largest school system, who objected to Montgomery County education officials prohibiting parents from taking their children out of lessons that used storybooks with LGBTQ+ characters and themes. The parents said the policy violates their First Amendment rights to freedom of religion and sued in 2023. The policy […]

/ /

Trump to sign executive orders proclaiming there are only two biological sexes, halting diversity programs

,

President Donald Trump on Monday plans to sign executive orders proclaiming that the U.S. government will recognize only two sexes, male and female, and ending “radical and wasteful” diversity, equity and inclusion programs inside federal agencies, according to senior White House officials. The officials grouped both orders under the Trump administration’s wider “restoring sanity” agenda. The orders were detailed by an incoming official on a phone call Monday ahead of Trump’s swearing-in. The official presented the gender order as part of a policy “defending women from gender ideology extremism and restoring biological truth to the federal government.” The order aims […]

/ /

Some LGBTQ people race to claim rights, fearing rollbacks under Trump

 In the week after Donald Trump won the U.S. presidential election, Isla Lima submitted paperwork to change her gender from male to female in official documents, as some LGBTQ people worry their rights could be cut back. Trump, who won the Nov. 5 vote and will be inaugurated on Monday, has stated his intention to rescind some LGBTQ rights during his second term in office. In December, Trump said he will sign an executive order to end “child sexual mutilation,” an apparent reference to gender-affirming care, and “get transgender out of the military and out of our elementary schools and middle schools […]

/ /

State Legislatures Reconvene to Consider 2025 LGBTQ-Related Bills

,

With the holiday break over, a number of state legislatures are reconvening starting this week to hold their 2025 sessions, and LGBTQ-related bills and policies are already on the docket in many states. Massachusetts, Montana, Ohio, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Minnesota, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York, Vermont, Virginia, and West Virginia are all states where legislators have already started meeting again to consider legislation for the new year. According to the Trans Legislation Tracker, there have been 115 trans-specific bills prefiled in 2025 as of early this week. The state-level bills are […]

/ /

Cops kill conspiracy theorist who shot-up gay-owned pizzeria

,

Police in Kannapolis, North Carolina, killed 36-year-old Edgar Maddison Welch, the so-called “Pizzagate” conspiracy theorist who carried a gun into a gay-owned Washington, D.C., pizzeria in 2016 under the belief that the business’ nonexistent basement was a venue for a child-molestation ring that involved high-ranking Democrats. On January 4, two Kannapolis police officers lethally shot Welch during a traffic stop. One officer pulled Welch over to arrest him for an outstanding warrant for a probation violation. But when the officer opened Welch’s car door to apprehend him, Welch allegedly pulled out a handgun from his jacket and pointed it at […]

«‹ 54 55 56 57›»