News

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Ana Reyes confirmed as first LGBTQ federal judge in D.C.

The U.S. Senate on Wednesday voted 51-47 to confirm President Joe Biden’s nomination of D.C. attorney Ana C. Reyes to become what D.C. Congressional Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton announced will be the first Latino woman and the first openly LGBTQ person to serve as a judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Norton noted that Biden accepted her recommendation to nominate Reyes for the judgeship position in Norton’s role as D.C.’s congressional representative, similar to the role that presidents have historically given U.S. senators in recommending judicial nominees from their home states. “Ana Reyes has the […]

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Los Angeles LGBT Center Celebrate Historic Ownership Transfer of Triangle Square Affordable Housing for LGTBQ Seniors

Fifteen years after the opening of Hollywood’s Triangle Square Apartments, the nation’s largest LGBTQ-affirming affordable housing complex for seniors, the Los Angeles LGBT Center has spearheaded a historic partnership with April Housing to transfer the building’s ownership to the Center. The transfer, which ensures that the building will be preserved as affordable housing for current and future residents, was commemorated with a reverse ribbon cutting ceremony on Thursday, Jan. 26. “Today serves as an important reminder that the best way to combat homelessness is by providing the housing, services, and care that so many need,” said Los Angeles County Supervisor […]

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On safe consumption sites in San Francisco. Can we “re-wild” our hearts?

Elected officials, nonprofits, activists, and community leaders are pushing forward the idea of safe consumption sites in San Francisco, in order to prevent overdose deaths, improve the health of people who use drugs, and reduce outdoor and public substance use. Safe consumption sites and services are a well-accepted and effective public health intervention that exist in hundreds of cities around the world, but are slow to gain acceptance and be implemented in the U.S.   To gain traction and momentum for safe consumption services in San Francisco, in January Supervisor Hillary Ronen, from San Francisco District 9, organized a panel discussion […]

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LGBT National Help Center Launches The LGBT National Coming Out Support Hotline

On Tuesday, February 21, 2023, the LGBT National Help Center will officially launched its newest program, the LGBT National Coming Out Support Hotline.  The brand-new hotline focuses specifically on the concerns of those who are struggling with coming out issues (regardless of age, or how each person defines that process).  All services are free and confidential.  Staffed by all LGBTQIA+ volunteers, the dedicated toll-free phone number is 1-888-OUT-LGBT (1-888-688-5428), with a dedicated website at www.LGBTcomingOUT.org.   The new hotline is a program of the LGBT National Help Center, a non-profit organization with a 26-year history of providing coming out services.  The LGBT National Coming Out Hotline […]

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EU human rights commissioner calls for end to ‘dangerous’ conversion therapy across all of Europe

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So-called “conversion therapy” has “no place in a human rights-based society”, according to the EU commissioner for human rights. Bosnian EU official Dunja Mijatović wrote in a Thursday (16 February) report that the controversial practice is “dangerous” and should end. Conversion therapy is an abusive attempt to change an LGBTQ+ person’s sexuality or gender identity through psychological manipulation, often carried out by religious or medical institutions and often following pressure from family members.  Not only does the practice not work, but it can also leave behind immense trauma and mental health issues for those subjected to it. “These interventions continue […]

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Williams Instate Releases Report on the LGBT+ Community, 23% Live in Poverty

This brief details levels of poverty among LGBT people before and since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. When our last LGBT poverty report was released in 2019, data indicated an economic disparity between LGBT and non-LGBT people. Since that report, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and a cascade of negative economic effects were felt by large proportions of the U.S. population. Our new analyses, across multiple datasets, indicate that these disparities persist—a higher percentage of LGBT than non-LGBT people have incomes below the federal poverty level (FPL). We see consistency in the relevance of LGBT status over time, […]

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7.2% of U.S. adults identify as LGBTQ, Gallup Poll finds

The percentage of adults in the U.S. who identify as LGBTQ increased slightly year over year, to 7.2% last year, according to a Gallup Poll released Wednesday.  While that’s just a slight increase from 7.1% in 2021, it’s more than double what it was a decade ago, when Gallup found just 3.5% of the U.S. population identified as something other than heterosexual in 2012. Gallup asked more than 10,000 adults nationwide how they identify in telephone interviews last year.  For the first time, the organization recorded the identities of LGBTQ people who said they are something other than lesbian, gay, bisexual […]

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Hungary Court Closes Door on Transgender Legal Recognition

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In the latest blow to trans people in Hungary, the country’s Constitutional Court issued a ruling that will continue to block new applications from transgender people for legal gender recognition. The judgment effectively creates two categories of trans people in Hungary: those who applied early enough to pursue gender recognition and those who did not. In 2020, Hungary’s parliament passed a law banning transgender or intersex people from legally changing their gender, putting them at risk of harassment, discrimination, and even violence when they need to use identity documents. In 2021, the Constitutional Court ruled the ban on legal gender recognition does not apply retroactively, so […]

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Trans woman to stand trial after video accusing her of indecent exposure goes viral

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A trans woman is facing an upcoming trial in which she has been charged with five felony counts of indecent exposure for an incident that occurred at a Los Angeles spa.  A judge recently ruled that the trial of Darren Merager can move forward after multiple witnesses testified in a pre-trial hearing that in the summer of 2021 Merager made them uncomfortable while naked in the spa’s women’s locker room due to her exposed penis.  ADVERTISING Witnesses cannot agree on whether or not Merager’s penis was erect, but the possibility that an erection took place was enough for the judge […]

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