News

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Trump poised to make LGBTQ+ nonprofit workers ineligible for student loan forgiveness

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Donald Trump‘s Department of Education is drafting plans to gut a student loan forgiveness program for public servants — and employees of LGBTQ+ groups are being singled out.  Trump signed an executive order in March dismantling access to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, directly pointing to nonprofits that serve transgender people as ineligible for loan forgiveness. Now, the Education Department has unveiled drafted plans that would follow through with the order. The cuts are expected to disproportionately impact LGBTQ+ people, who are more likely to have student loans and more likely to work for nonprofits.  “The proposed restrictions on student loans […]

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Protesters rally against closing largest gender-affirming care center for kids in the U.S.

Growing up, Sage Sol Pitchenik wanted to hide. “I hated my body,” the nonbinary 16-year-old said. “I hated looking at it.” When therapy didn’t help, Pitchenik, who uses the pronoun they, started going to the Center for Transyouth Health and Development at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, the country’s biggest public provider of gender-affirming care for children and teens. It changed their life. But in response to the Trump administration’s threat to cut federal funds to places that offer gender-affirming care to minors, the center will be closing its doors July 22. Pitchenik has been among the scores of protesters who […]

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Positive Images is Moving

 While this year has brought deep challenges — including harmful federal policies that threaten our safety and well-being — we know that joy, connection, and care are acts of resistance. They are vital to our survival.          That’s why today, we’re overjoyed to share a bright moment of our own: Positive Images is moving to a new home!          For nearly a decade, we’ve welcomed you into our space on Montgomery Drive — a place where we laughed, cried, found community, and held each other through it all. But we’ve outgrown it. Our community deserves […]

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LGBTQ+ groups face alarming funding crisis as Republican anti-trans attacks mount, new report finds

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Philanthropic support for LGBTQ+ causes is collapsing just as queer and transcommunities face an escalating national crisis. New data from Funders for LGBTQ Issues shows foundation funding for LGBTQ+ organizations in the U.S. dropped sharply to $209.4 million in 2023. That’s a staggering decline of nearly $49 million, or 19 percent, from 2022. When adjusted for inflation, that cut deepens to 22 percent. Even as the funding picture grows increasingly dire, many philanthropic institutions are opting to remain anonymous. The report omits the names of top funders and grantees for the first time in decades, reflecting a growing trend among donors who fear political retaliation […]

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Authors and Illustrators Issue Personal Statements in Response to Ruling in Supreme Court Banned Books Case

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This past Friday, June 27, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a blow to public school education and the freedom to read with their ruling in Mahmoud v. Taylor,allowing a preliminary injunction to remain in place for a small group of Maryland parents seeking to opt their kids out of LGBTQ-inclusive children’s books at school. The nine authors and illustrators named in the case issued a joint statement following the decision, slamming the ruling and stating in part:  “We created our books for all children. We believe young people need to see themselves and families like theirs in the books they read; this is […]

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More than 100 trans inmates ‘missing and presumed dead’ after Israeli strike on Iranian prison

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More than 100 trans prisoners are reportedly missing, and presumed dead, after the infamous Evin prison in the Iranian capital city of Tehran was hit by Israeli airstrikes. Situated in the Evin neighbourhood of north Tehran, Evin Prison was opened in 1972 and has a long and bloody history of human rights abuses, including beatings, torture, prolonged solitary confinement, sleep deprivation and sexual abuse, alongside poor conditions.  The prison is the main site for detaining the Islamic Republic’s political prisoners, journalists, academics and foreign citizens accused of spying – including dual-British-Iranian national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, human rights activist Narges Mohammadi and Australian academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert. The prison […]

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Wisconsin Supreme Court clears the way to enact a conversion therapy ban

The Wisconsin Supreme Court cleared the way Tuesday for the state to institute a ban on conversion therapy in a ruling that gives the governor more power over how state laws are enacted. The court ruled that a Republican-controlled legislative committee’s rejection of a state agency rule that would ban the practice of conversion therapy for LGBTQ people was unconstitutional. The decision, which has a broad impact far beyond the conversion therapy issue, takes power away from the Legislature to block the enactment of rules by the governor’s office that carry the force of law. The 4-3 ruling from the […]

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How SNAP cuts will disproportionately impact some LGBTQ+ people

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Cutting Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits will disproportionately harm the LGBTQ+ community — and women and transgender people will bear the brunt of the changes.  About 15 percent of LGBTQ+ adults — nearly 2.1 million people, including 250,000 trans individuals and 1.3 million lesbian and bisexual women — received SNAP benefits in the past year, according to a new report by the Williams Institute, compared to 11 percent of non-LGBTQ+ adults. SNAP is the largest anti-hunger program in the U.S., supporting over 42 million people monthly. The current Budget Reconciliation Bill, Donald Trump‘s so-called “Big Beautiful Bill,” would cause an estimated seven million people to either lose their SNAP benefits or […]

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How a new trans rights PAC looks to rebuild the political playbook with these high-profile endorsements

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The Christopher Street Project, a new political group focused on building support for transgender rights within the Democratic Party, has announced its first slate of congressional endorsements as it moves to equip candidates with political and messaging strategies ahead of the 2026 midterms and the 2028 presidential election. Named after the New York City street where the 1969 Stonewall uprising began and founded in the wake of the 2024 election cycle that saw Republicans spend more than $200 million attacking transgender Americans, Christopher Street Project is endorsing 16 Democratic lawmakers. The slate includes prominent LGBTQ+ members, parents of trans children, relatives of transgender people, and high-profile allies such as Reps. Sarah McBride, Delia Ramirez, Sara Jacobs, Dina Titus, Katherine […]

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Democratic governor vetoes anti-trans measure passed by Republican legislature

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North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein (D) has vetoed several anti-diversity bills, including one that would ban gender-affirming care for transgender inmates in the state prison system. The bill is H.B. 805, which bans the state from paying for gender-affirming hormone replacement therapy and surgeries for transgender inmates. It would have also required the state to keep a copy of a transgender person’s original birth certificate if they have the gender marker on it updated, and it included language saying that there are only two genders, male and female.  According to WPDE, the bill started as a bipartisan measure requiring age […]

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