Perspectives

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Women’s soccer players forced to go through humiliating genital exams to compete in World Cup

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Soccer champ Nilla Fischer has revealed that she and her teammates on Sweden’s national team had to “show their genitalia for the doctor” at the 2011 Women’s World Cup to prove that they were cis women. Fischer bares all in her new autobiography I Didn’t Even Say Half of It, where she describes the “humiliating” experience of showing her vagina to a designated physiotherapist. “We were told that we should not shave ‘down there’ in the coming days and that we will show our genitalia for the doctor,” wrote Fischer. The reveal at that year’s World Cup in Germany was prompted […]

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Toronto Blue Jays drop pitcher Anthony Bass after anti-LGBTQ+ Bud Light post

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The Toronto Blue Jays baseball team have announced they are to drop pitcher Anthony Bass after an anti-LGBTQ+ post he made has caused widespread condemnation. The 35-year-old was dropped from the Canadian baseball team after three years following the pitcher sharing a video to his Instagram account in May encouraging viewers to boycott Bud Light. Bud Light boycotts became synonymous with right-wing anti-LGBTQ+ bigotry after the beer company organised a sponsorship deal with trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney. Bass’ post, which he later deleted and apologised for, encouraged Christians to boycott the brand, calling it an “evil” and “demonic” force being shoved […]

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Republicans prove how vile and frightening they can be

Day after day we see Republicans trying to outdo each other in how vile and frightening they can be. From the fight over the debt ceiling, to their presidential primary, they continue to try to take the nation backwards.  In the debt ceiling fight, they clearly say, “We will protect the wealthy in our country at all costs, and instead will cut, or eliminate, programs to help the poor.” The far-right wing crazies like Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), Chip Roy (R-Texas), and Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), are threatening their own speaker, Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), with the […]

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Republican Attacks on LGBTQ+ Educators and Students Will Set Us Back 40 Years

I’m a former teacher and an openly gay man. Before I ever stepped foot in the halls of Congress, I spent the 1980s and 90s working in California public schools, and I can tell you: we’ve been here before. What Republicans are trying to do to our students and public education will send us back 40 years. When I began my career in the 80s, California was just a few years out from a defeat of the Briggs Initiative — a piece of state legislation that would have banned all openly gay and lesbian teachers from working in California public […]

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Outsports founder’s endorsement of DeSantis betrays trans community

Many of us have lived the contradiction. We have had friends and/or family members loving and supporting us to our faces, but facing a ballot box, vote for someone eager to do us harm. Do they really love us?  We are collectively experiencing such a situation as a community, a back-stabbing characteristic of when Julius Caesar uttered “E Tu Brutus,” as his best friend’s knife came hurling towards him.   This time the victim is not some classical politician however, it is a group of our most vulnerable — our LGBTQ kids who are getting the steely betrayal. American conservatism has […]

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Why we must defend LGBTQ rights as we decriminalize cannabis

On March 31, Kentucky became the 38th state to legalize medical cannabis. The same week, the state’s legislature overrode the governor’s veto to enact what the ACLU has called the “worst anti-trans bill in the country.” Kentucky is not an aberration. At the same time, the United States celebrates tremendous progress in the movement to decriminalize cannabis, more than 400 pieces of anti-LGBTQ legislation have been introduced in statehouses around the country.  The progression of the LGBTQ movement and the cannabis justice movement are intricately intertwined, as activists in both movements have fought together for years. However, if we are […]

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Who Is Behind Anti-LGBTQ+ Legislation and What Are We Going to Do About It?

Even those of us in media serving the LGBTQ+ community were pleasantly surprised by the results from a recent Gallup study finding 1 in 5 of the rising Gen Z adults (ages 20-26) identifying as LGBTQ+. That means of the 82 million Gen Z Americans, an estimated 17 million identify as LGBTQ+. Never in the history of polling for LGBTQ+ identity have we seen such a staggering statistic from a single generation. When you compare the Gen Z queer identifiers at more than 20 percent for this rising group of new adults versus the older Gen X at identifying at only 4 […]

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House Republicans pass transgender sports ban for schools

 The Republican-controlled House passed legislation Thursday that would ban transgender women and girls from competing in female school athletics — the latest GOP salvo in the intensifying culture wars over transgender rights in America. The bill, authored by Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., would amend Title IX to bar schools that receive federal funding from allowing people “whose sex is male” to participate in sports designated for women or girls. The Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act defines sex as “based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.” The bill passed on a 219-203 vote, but it will go nowhere in […]

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NHL’s Pride nights collide with LGBTQ political climate

Sports leagues and teams often use Pride nights to raise the visibility and acceptance of LGBTQ people — as well as sell them tickets — and the NHL has been a leader. They can include special jerseys designed by LGBTQ artists, performances, information tables, even drag performances. And they’re largely a hit. But six NHL players recently opted out of wearing rainbow-colored jerseys on their teams’ Pride nights for the first time, leading the league’s commissioner to say it is weighing the future of the events. That worries some fans and LGBTQ supporters, who say it’s a sign that a political climate […]

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Sex Testing Rules Harm Women Athletes

Women track and field athletes will be subjected to tight surveillance based on gender stereotypes under a new set of global regulations, the latest in a series of arbitrary and increasingly restrictive policies, Human Rights Watch said today. World Athletics, the international body governing athletics competitions, approved a new version of its “Eligibility Regulations for the Female Classification” on March 23, 2023. The new rules, which go into force on March 31, require women with higher than typical testosterone, and certain diagnoses of variations in their sex characteristics and hormonal sensitivity to go through medical procedures to reduce their testosterone levels […]

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