Perspectives

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Darts player Noa-Lynn van Leuven forced to retire by trans ban

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A new ruling from the world of darts means that Noa-Lynn van Leuven, the first trans darts player to qualify for the World Championships, has been forced into “retirement.” The Darts Regulation Authority (DRA), which governs the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC), has banned trans women from competing in its women’s events with immediate effect. This follows the World Darts Federation (WDF) banning trans women from women’s competitions in 2025. ‘I respected the sport every game and every single day’ Posting on Instagram, Van Leuven shared: “I just got an email. Apparently, I just got retired. Not by choice, but because I am no longer allowed to compete. […]

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Viktor Orbán won’t be the last anti-LGBTQ+ strongman to topple

One of the world’s most openly homophobic and misogynistic leaders just lost power. Viktor Orbán is out. For years, Orbán, as prime minister, held up Hungary as proof that a country could be tightened, simplified, and brought under control — a place where national identity came first and anything that complicated it could be pushed out. That message did not stay in Hungary, it moved, was studied, repeated, and turned into strategy by political movements that wanted the same kind of power. A sitting prime minister stands in front of an international conservative audience, calls liberalism a virus, lays out a governing formula built on […]

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Attacks on abortion and gender-affirming care are inextricably linked

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What does a person seeking abortion care have in common with a young trans person seeking gender-affirming care? More than most people think. The campaign to restrict gender-affirming care follows a well-worn and ultimately successful playbook designed by anti-abortion advocates. That success has emboldened them to target intersecting issues and groups who face the steepest barriers to accessing sexual and reproductive health care, like young people.  Stay up to date with the latest in LGBTQ+ news with The Advocate’s email newsletter, in your inbox five days a week. Now, the movements to restrict gender-affirming care and abortion care are evolving together […]

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Texas wants Bibles in public classrooms as another way to bully, harm, and exclude LGBTQ+ kids

I went to a Catholic school for eight years, so I had no choice when it came to learning about the Bible. I remember being confused by scripture on many occasions. As a child, I could not comprehend how Noah got all those animals onto a small boat. It was around the same time I began to wonder how Santa could carry presents for all the children in the world on his small sleigh. Nevertheless, I came to respect the Bible and what it stood for. Some might say it was eight years of brainwashing, but I prefer to think of […]

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Don’t fall for WSJ’s ‘normal gay’ whitewashing of queer life

In a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, titled “I’m gay, but that doesn’t make me queer,” contributor Ben Appel draws a clean line between being gay and being “queer,” casting queerness as an ideological project built on rejecting what is normal and legitimate. On its own, the argument might read like a personal distinction, but placed alongside the Journal’s broader cultural coverage, it begins to look like something more deliberate: an effort to define which versions of queer life are acceptable and which ones are not. The problem is not that Appel’s argument is controversial. It is that it is reductive, historically thin, […]

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Leigh Ryswyk makes history as the first AFL player to come out as gay

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Leigh Ryswyk has made history as the first male Australian Football League (AFL) player to come out as gay. Speaking on radio show GayFL on 25 March, Ryswyk shared that he has been out to close friends for the last five years. “There will be people though, if they do listen to this, it will be the first time they know about this,” he said. “I’m a very private person, so it’s not all over my social media, and things like that, and that’s fine.” He continued: “It can be a bit of a shock to some people, they might not […]

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Gay billionaire Peter Thiel is now a self-appointed theologian

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Having apparently exhausted his interest in seasteading and blood transfusions from young people to ward off aging, gay Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel has found a new topic to explore: the anti-Christ.  Since last fall, Thiel has been touring a four-part lecture series on the figure mentioned in the New Testament as the primary opponent of Jesus in the final days before his second coming. If that seems like an offbeat topic for a Silicon Valley millionaire, Thiel has always been known for his esoteric interests.  Thiel’s interest in the anti-Christ may date back to his own upbringing, as he was raised an […]

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Olympics cave to Trump, banning transgender women from competition

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The International Olympic Committee has approved a new policy restricting participation in women’s events to athletes deemed “biological females,” a decision set to take effect at the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles and expected to exclude transgender women while expanding scrutiny of athletes’ bodies. “Eligibility for any female category event at the Olympic Games or any other IOC event, including individual and team sports, is now limited to biological females,” the IOC said in announcing the rule. The policy establishes a new eligibility standard based on a one-time genetic screening for the SRY gene, which is typically associated with male sex development. Athletes who test negative […]

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The far-right’s dehumanization of trans people is similar to the Nazi’s treatment of Jewish people

Throughout history, autocratic regimes, especially authoritarian or populist ones on the far left and the far right, have demonized what they have determined to represent their nations’ “internal enemies,” foes who, if left to thrive, would undermine the security and very existence of these societies. Regimes have done this to consolidate and expand its power, to divert attention away from misdeeds and failed economic and social policy initiatives, to justify repressive tactics, to stifle critical thinking, and to create a more pliant and obedient population. Though the processes of marginalizing and isolating these purported internal enemies vary by case and […]

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Trump DOJ sues Minnesota over its trans-inclusive school sports policies

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The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Monday that it is suing Minnesota and the Minnesota State High School League (MSHSL) for allowing transgender girls and women to play on school sports teams matching their gender identity. The case, filed in the Minnesota District Court, is just the Trump administration’s latest attempt to impose a nationwide ban on trans student-athletes (without congressional approval) by harassing and blackmailing states into dropping their trans-inclusive policies. The DOJ claims that schools with trans-inclusive sports policies violate Title IX, the federal law that bans discrimination on the basis of sex in education. President Joe […]

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