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Massachusetts vows to fund trans kids’ healthcare after Medicaid ban

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Massachusetts has vowed to assume the full cost of gender-affirming healthcarefor transgender children and teenagers covered by the state’s Medicaid and CHIP programs if a new Trump administration rule takes effect this October. The federal rule, finalised Tuesday (11 August), would prohibit Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program funds from being used for gender-affirming healthcare for people aged 18 and under. The Trump administration’s Medicaid administrator, Dr Mehmet Oz, described the treatments as harmful and “sex-rejecting procedures” in a statement, while major medical organisations continue to support gender-affirming care as appropriate treatment for some transgender young people. The federal government currently covers around 50 per cent […]

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NHS to roll out ‘life-saving’ meds to combat drug-resistant HIV

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The NHS is going to prescribe a new medication to treat the minority of patients living with a drug-resistant strain of HIV, in a landmark move. Around 100,000 people have HIV in England. There is currently no cure, though the vast majority can manage the virus with medication which hugely reduces the viral load to an undetectable level, which means they cannot pass it on. For a minority, though, the virus has mutated and become resistant to medication readily offered. Now, the drug Lenacapavir will be offered to those at risk in the coming weeks – reportedly 92 eligible patients. That number is […]

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ICE detains a beloved Philadelphia drag queen. The community is asking for support

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Philadelphia’s drag community is rallying around drag queen Chantal Waldorf after their detention by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The performer’s official Instagram account, which also identifies Waldorf as Manuel, posted a message later shared by supporters announcing that the Nicaraguan immigrant had been taken into custody. Stay up to date with the latest in LGBTQ+ news with The Advocate’s email newsletter, in your inbox five days a week. “As you know, since he arrived in this country, he has dedicated himself to being a hardworking person, who has dedicated himself to fulfilling his dreams and goals, who has integrated and contributed in a positive way […]

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White House trusted a transgender CIA briefer with the most sensitive secrets until her identity went public

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Julia Curlee spent nearly two decades carrying the country’s secrets. She worked in war zones, traveled to 35 countries, briefed presidents, and boarded Air Force One with the President’s Daily Brief. She was trusted to decide what some of the world’s most powerful people needed to know before beginning their days. Stay up to date with the latest in LGBTQ+ news with The Advocate’s email newsletter, in your inbox five days a week. But in a remarkable first-person account published Monday by The Atlantic, Curlee describes how the second Trump administration came to view something else as dangerously sensitive: the fact that […]

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Pastor Of Anti-LGBTQ Church Indicted In Hooker Sting

Amarillo’s ABC affiliate reports: A former Amarillo pastor was indicted following his arrest in a prostitution sting. A Randall County grand jury indicted David Austin Ritchie, 42, on a charge of solicitation of prostitution. Ritchie, the former senior pastor of Redeemer Christian Church, was among eight men arrested during a June undercover operation conducted by the Texas Department of Public Safety. The church fired Ritchie after learning of his arrest. He had served as senior pastor since 2011. From our first report: An Amarillo pastor was fired following his arrest in a prostitution sting. David Ritchie, 42, is charged with solicitation of […]

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Lawsuit Alleges Moms For Liberty Conspired To Have Gay Principal Fired, Faked Claims Of Grooming

Wisconsin Public Radio reports: A former longtime Wisconsin educator in a new federal lawsuit says he was fired from his job as a principal in rural Racine County because he is gay. Jeffrey Peterson, who previously filed a discrimination complaint with the state, was put on leave in 2023 and later, the district declined to renew his contract. At the time, he was a principal in the small Raymond School District No. 14, in Racine County, southwest of Milwaukee — the same place where he attended elementary school himself. His lawsuit claims multiple school board members and their allies pushed him […]

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GOP Senator’s Campaign Pledge: I’ll Stop Drag Queens

The Kansas Reflector reports: Both U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall and Kansas Senate President Ty Masterson present themselves to the public as square-jawed manly men, red-blooded conservative Republicans who love the Second Amendment, juicy steaks and gargantuan American flags in equal measure. They command the landscape. Nothing scares them. Well, nothing except drag queens. Then the candidates for U.S. Senate and Kansas governor shriek like little girls, flail their hands in panic and beat a hasty retreat behind the nearest piece of overstuffed furniture. Who knows what that drag queen might do to them? If their recent social media posts are any indication, […]

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Houston Gets Emergency Shelter For LGBTQ Teens

The Houston Chronicle reports: By some estimates, at least 10,000 youth aged 15 to 17 in the Houston area don’t have a place to sleep on any given night. Many identify as LGBTQ+ and may be fleeing unsupportive or unsafe living environments. A new emergency shelter aims to give those most at risk a safe place to rest their heads. On Monday, LGBTQ+ community leaders and advocates unveiled Asia’s House, the city’s first temporary emergency shelter for queer and trans youth. The shelter is a partnership between Houston’s Montrose Center and Grace Place, a nonprofit that provides support for homeless youth in […]

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Strength In Weakness: Guy Hammond’s Program That Devastates LGBTQ Survivors

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At 17 years old, Sami Tacher remembers standing atop a parking garage outside Seattle and staring down at the pavement. They had been trying for five years to suppress their attraction to men. At 15, Tacher had found Strength in Weakness, a Christian ministry that purported to teach people experiencing “same-sex attraction” how to resist those desires. To Tacher, who had grown up believing that being gay would destroy their relationship with God and devastate their family, SIW felt like an answer. Two years later, Tacher says, they could no longer imagine how they were supposed to live the rest […]

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Lindsey Graham Was Allegedly This Trans Sex Worker’s Client. Now, She’s Speaking Out

Lindsey Graham, who passed away on July 11 at 71 years old, served in the Senate for 23 years and garnered a reputation for his hawkish views and hardline anti-LGBTQ beliefs. Years before his death, rumors swirled as allegations surfaced about the Republican senator engaging with male sex workers. The public and the media underscored the hypocrisy of the senator publicly working to roll back LGBTQ rights while allegedly engaging in queer sex behind closed doors. In this episode of “UNCLOSETED with Spencer Macnaughton,” Taylor Snider, a trans woman and former sex worker, says Graham was a former client. She says Graham’s team […]

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