Perspectives

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Meet the all-trans hockey team changing lives one game at a time

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As soon as Team Trans’ hockey players first stepped onto the ice four years ago, they felt something life-changing. They’d found a family for life.  Mason LeFebvre joined Team Trans, an international collective of trans and non-binary hockey players, for its first event in Boston in November 2019. They played off against Boston Pride Hockey, an LGBTQ+ team that’s been around since the early 90s.  It meant to a lot to Mason, who’d been playing hockey since he was 10. Finally, he was “getting to play with other people who had similar experiences”. “Up to that point in my life, […]

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James Cooper was the first out LGBTQ person elected to the Oklahoma City Council

I’m a teacher and writer, loves of mine since I was six. I went to film school to study storytelling, media violence, its effects on society, and root causes of real-life violence and crime. This research guides my values, civic engagement, and work in our classrooms. I was born in Midwest City—where my mother lives as a retired registered nurse—and I’ve lived in OKC’s historic Paseo neighborhood since 2010, serving in Oklahoma City Public Schools at Jefferson Middle School as an AVID college preparation teacher, where I helped students strengthen their reading, writing, group work, organization, and critical thinking skills. […]

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Hockey star released from team after calling LGBTQ+ fans ‘the bottom of the barrel of society’

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A mid-level professional ice hockey team in Illinois has released a player who posted a string of disgusting, anti-LGBTQ+ tweets. And the player Louie Rowe has retweeted numerous more messages since he was let go by ECHL outfit the Peoria Rivermen, accusing LGBTQ+ people of grooming and raping children, as well as using them as prostitutes. Rivermen co-owner Bart Rogers told the Lincoln Journal Star: “We are shocked, and we have immediately released Louie Rowe.” Rowe’s retweets targeted LGBTQ+ people, calling them peadophiles, and trans people, who were labelled mentally ill. In addition to anti-LGBTQ+ tweets, Rowe’s Twitter includes messages demonising other […]

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Florida students may be forced to prove they can menstruate before playing sports

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Student athletes in Florida could be forced to turn in information about their menstrual history after an athletics association’s medical panel doubled down on its recommendation.  The Florida High School Athletics Association’s (FHSAA) sports medicine advisory committee has stood by its recommendation to require high school athletes to submit information about their periods for each year they register to participate.  The move comes after a suggestion that the association’s board adopt a national sports registration form – which makes menstrual information mandatory.  Questions listed on the form include asking if players have had a period, when they first got their period, the date […]

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Soccer Star Jakub Jankto Comes Out as Gay

Czech football star Jakub Jankto has become the first active international men’s player to announce he is gay. “Like everybody else, I have my strengths, I have my weaknesses; I have a family, I have my friends,” Jankto said in a video released on social media Monday. “I have a job, which I have been doing it as best as I can, for years, with seriousness, professionalism and passion. Like everybody else, I also want to live my life in freedom without fears, without prejudice, without violence, but with love. “I am homosexual, and I no longer want to hide myself.” The 27-year-old midfielder […]

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World Surf League reveals new policy on trans athletes

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The World Surf League has announced it is to adopt a new policy on transgender athletes. The governing body announced it would adopt a policy recommended by the International Surfing Association (ISA) in a Friday (3 February) statement. Under new guidelines, trans female athletes are required to maintain a testosterone level of less than 5 nmol/L (nanomoles per litre) for at least 12 months in order to compete in the women’s division.  “The WSL is working hard to balance equity and fairness and it’s important for a policy to be in place,” WSL chief of sport Jessi Miley-Dyer said. “We […]

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Republican Attacks on LGBTQ Lives May Have Helped Elect Democrats

In December, President Biden signed the Respect for Marriage Act, which grants federal protections for same-sex and interracial couples if the Supreme Court strikes down its decisions requiring states to perform and recognize such marriages. While marriage equality is broadly popular, passage may well have been influenced by the fact that LGBTQ voters have become a powerful voting bloc for Democrats, who still control both the House and Senate. That control will shift in January, when Republicans take control of the House after a midterm election. But their control will be slight — and LGBTQ voters probably limited their success. LGBTQ voters have become a […]

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Conservatives fight the NHL in a culture war clash

The National Hockey League finds itself on thin ice with some conservatives as a new target in the U.S. culture war. In the run-up to its All-Star Game in Florida on Saturday, the league has sought to put its efforts aimed at promoting diversity and inclusion front and center. But those moves have drawn sharp criticism from powerful conservatives, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a leading contender for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, and Fox News host Tucker Carlson, the most-watched primetime cable news host, and sparked controversy on and off the ice. There’s little indication those tensions will soon wane. Amid […]

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Trans people are in the midst of a second Lavender Scare

To be trans in the U.S. is to know fear. It is a companion that travels with us constantly: from the moment we realize we are trans, to coming out, to transitioning, and now into our lives long past the point where we should have faded away into anonymity in days past. We are in the midst of a second Lavender Scare, and in many ways this is far more dangerous: even Christine Jorgensen wasn’t barred from receiving hormones or being within 2,500 feet of children simply for being transgender.  I have been called a doomsayer who profits from prognosticating […]

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Tony Dungy’s anti-LGBTQ history gets renewed attention after controversial tweet

NFL Hall of Famer and NBC Sports analyst Tony Dungy is facing renewed criticism for his history of anti-LGBTQ statements after he tweeted an anti-transgender conspiracy theory last week. Dungy shared a debunked myth to his nearly 950,000 followers that U.S. schools are providing litter boxes for students who identify as cats. His tweet was in response to an article regarding a Mississippi state bill that would mandate menstrual products in boys bathrooms. “That’s nothing,” the former Indianapolis Colts head coach wrote in the since-deleted tweet. “Some school districts are putting litter boxes in the school bathrooms for students who identify as cats. […]

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