Top Stories

/ /

Parents speak out after their teen died by suicide: Idaho’s anti-trans extremism took a toll

,

The parents of a transgender teen who died by suicide earlier this year are speaking out about the toll Idaho’s anti-trans laws and the Trump administration’s anti-trans crusade took on their daughter. “You worry about that hatred being internalized, and that’s what happened to my kid,” Elyse Thorpe told NBC News in a recent profile. “It got inside.” Thorpe and ex-husband Joseph Pollard describe their late daughter, May Pollard, as an energetic and curious child who loved sloths, video games, and writing poetry. She just wanted to live her life and experience the same things any teen does. But she was […]

/ /

Gay German politician resigns after welcoming child via surrogacy despite opposing it

,

German conservative politician Jens Spahn has resigned as parliamentary leader of the country’s governing coalition after facing intense criticism over becoming a father through surrogacy in the United States, despite years of publicly supporting Germany‘s ban on the practice. Spahn, a senior member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and former health minister, announced his resignation on Saturday (18 July), writing that he had realised that “my personal happiness – founding a family together with my husband and becoming a father – is not compatible with my political office”. He added that the growing tension between his personal decision and the expectations placed on him […]

/ /

What queer people should know about the ‘diarrhea parasite’ ruining our summer salads

,

Big gay salads are the spice of life when it comes to summer living, but queer people can’t have anything under this administration — not even fresh produce and a sense of unadulterated whimsy at the farmers market. It’s no secret that the Trump administration’s defunding of institutions that previously kept us healthy, such as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and National Institutes of Health (NIH), has had widespread consequences, now including a parasite that loves to live on fresh produce and causes watery diarrhea. If you’re looking at that bag of salad mix sitting in your fridge a little more suspiciously, […]

/ /

Womontown: How a group of 80s lesbians built their own community to escape the patriarchy

,

In the late 1980s, two women set about creating a lesbian community in Kansas City, Missouri. The result was Womontown, an urban community of over 70 women that spanned a 12-block radius and contained 28 homes and 14 apartment buildings. “We just started imagining, what if we could just walk hand in hand, freely, down the street, a bunch of lesbians all in this neighborhood,” said co-founder Mary Ann Hopper in the 2022 documentary, Womontown. “And I thought, well, if we can do the work, I could imagine that it would maybe be fun to live here.” The journey began when Hopper’s partner, […]

/ /

Andy Burnham’s record on LGBTQ+ issues as he becomes UK’s Prime Minister

,

The LGBTQ+ stories you don’t want to miss, delivered to your inbox daily. On 22 June, Starmer announced he would be resigning as leader of the Labour party but would remain as prime minister until a replacement is found this summer. It soon became clear that it was a one-horse-race, with Burnham, who re-entered Parliament weeks before Starmer’s resignation when he won the Makerfield by-election, set to take over. Burnham, who was the Mayor of Greater Manchester from 2017 until earlier this year, previously held a number of other positions in government, including as Secretary of State for Health under […]

/ /

Nonprofit crisis line supports marginalized people wary of police intervention

,

When Vanessa Green answers calls to Call Blackline, her responses vary widely. Some people need referrals to trusted nonprofits for emergency resources. Others just need to vent to someone who understands their experience, and Green is happy to fill that role. “We don’t give an opinion,” Green, who helped create Call Blackline in 2014, toldThe Advocate in an interview. “We’re there to affirm their experiences navigating racism and white supremacy and anti-immigration in this country.” Stay up to date with the latest in LGBTQ+ news with The Advocate’s email newsletter, in your inbox five days a week. Call Blackline is a nonprofit crisis […]

/ /

Depositions reveal how an Ohio school board’s hunt for LGBTQ+ ‘ideology’ began

,

Last February, the Little Miami School Board in suburban Cincinnati ordered a social studies teacher to remove a “Hate Has No Home Here” poster because it included images of LGBTQ+ and trans Pride flags, alongside other flags. In response, the Little Miami High School teacher George McIntyre sued the districtfor violating his First Amendment rights.  Depositions from the board president, superintendent, high school principal, and an affidavit from a former teacher not only point to how the controversy started, but also to how the hunt for LGBTQ+ “ideology” has disrupted learning environments and could endanger students. Stay up to date with the latest […]

/ /

Ohio Democrats accused of sacrificing transgender rights for votes

,

Backlash has erupted among Democrats and LGBTQ+ advocates in Ohio after two major state politicians pulled back on their support for transgender rights, according to an in-depth report by local news outlet Signal Statewide.  Democratic gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton and longtime U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur of Toledo, who is up for reelection in November, are being criticized by Democratic advisory groups and LGBTQ+ activists for their positions on transgender issues ahead of the fall election. Kaptur recently voted for a GOP-backed measure requiring parental notification when students seek to change their names or pronouns at school, and Acton was criticized for describing transgender girls as “boys” while explaining her position on […]

/ /

In the Middle of the Bible Belt, a Summer Camp Lets Trans Kids Exhale

,

On a June night in rural North Carolina, dozens of campers sat around the fire as a counselor asked them to close their eyes. “Picture a place where you feel completely safe,” they were told. “Think about what it looks like and how it feels, what you can hear, smell and taste.” When they were invited to share what they had imagined, one camper described sitting in a circle with other trans people. It was dark. Trees surrounded them. Mosquitoes buzzed. “‘That place is here, and this is the place where I feel safe,’” Jacob Hofheimer, one of the camp’s […]

/ /

A federal judge just slapped down Ron DeSantis’ anti-LGBTQ+ “Stop WOKE Act”

,

Florida’s so-called Stop WOKE Act, championed by anti-LGBTQ+ Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), received a major blow on Tuesday, when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit upheld a 2022 injunction against applying the law to colleges and universities.  In the 2-1 decision, the judges called the law “a breathtaking assertion of power to ban unpopular ideas from public discourse in the very places the State’s own statutes recognize as centers of inquiry – classrooms where students are trusted to puzzle through ideas that are good and bad, easy and hard, ideally getting ever closer to the truth.”  The Stop WOKE Act censors protected […]

‹ 1 2 3 4›»