Fox News taking Tucker Carlson off the air means that one of the loudest anti-trans voices in US media falls silent – for now. But his anti-LGBTQ+ legacy will continue to reverberate.
Carlson was Fox News’ top-rated and most-watched host, and he’s been credited with setting the agenda for US conservatives from coast to coast.
Night after night, millions tuned in to watch Carlson rant and paint a dystopian picture of a US where conservatives are under attack from the encroaching ‘woke’ left.
Over the years his eponymous show aired, he raged against the LGBTQ+ community, embraced racist conspiracy theories and pushed an increasingly far-right agenda on his viewers.
His departure from the network came as a shock to many. In a terse statement released Monday (24 April), Fox News said it and Carlson agreed to “part ways” effective immediately. It’s been reported that the decision was made by Fox chair Rupert Murdoch.
It means that Carlson made his final appearance, apparently unknowingly, on Friday, bringing to a quiet close an era of right-wing hate and ‘radicalisation’.
It said he “worked to radicalise the Republican party in the direction of its most dangerous, authoritarian elements”.
“Carlson has been the face of the network since at least the 2020 election, with executives counting on his personal connection to viewers to keep them coming back as former president Donald Trump receded from the national stage,” Media Matters added.
“He used that opportunity to focus the network (and through it, the GOP) on his own particular obsessions, like the ‘great replacement’ conspiracy theory, anti-trans invective and support for authoritarian regimes in Russia and Hungary.”
Tucker Carlson was at the forefront of anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and attacks on trans rights
Among Carlson’s most vehemently pursued talking points was the idea that white, cisgender, heterosexual people are under attack in the US. It’s a common bigoted topic pushed by the right-wing to abuse anyone who deviates from their perceived norm.
Fast forward to 2020, he took to the air to call the Black Lives Matter protests an “insidious” attempt to “challenge Western civilisation itself”. He also called workplace anti-bias training “poison” and reverse racism.
Tucker Carlson has also been at the forefront of the modern attack on gender-affirming healthcare by the right-wing.
Over the years he appeared on Fox News, Carlson hosted a lengthy list of anti-trans guests, who espoused hateful talking points. He’s also devoted hearty chunks of his on-air career to personally attacking the lives of trans people.
In 2021, he hosted a guest who falsely suggested gender-affirming healthcare for trans youth allows people to “basically molest and abuse children”. Carlson agreed before falsely characterising such medical treatment as “genital mutilation”.
He depicted healthcare officials providing gender-affirming care as “criminals” and said Boston Children’s Hospital was “playing the victim” after it received bomb threats over such care.
Tucker Carlson used mass shootings to attack drag queens and trans people
Amid right-wing attacks against drag, Tucker Carlson said on Fox News that kid-friendly drag events were attempts to “indoctrinate and sexualise children”. In another segment, he claimed it’s “not that unfair” to accuse drag queens of “being creepy with kids”.
He also blasted what he described as the “sexualisation” of children by teachers and urged parents to “fight back” against discussions of LGBTQ+ issues in schools.
The host falsely claimed on his Fox News show that the school shooting “happened because of a deranged and demonic ideology that is infesting this country with the encouragement of people like Joe Biden”.
He also labelled trans people as the “natural enemy” of Christianity as he alleged that the “trans movement is targeting Christians”.
Tucker Carlson characterised the trans community as the “natural enemy” of Christianity in the wake of the Nashville school shooting. (Fox News)
What will happen to Tucker Carlson after his Fox News exit?
Once O’Reilly stepped away for good from the mic, his name, reputation and sway in the right-wing crowd faded into obscurity. Carlson may face a similar fate.
It also came just a short while after Fox settled a defamation lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems for $787.5m. The lawsuit centred on Fox airing false claims that the presidential election was stolen after former president Donald Trump’s 2020 loss.
Filings in the case featured a lengthy list of messages from Carlson disparaging the media group’s news division and management, revealed his feelings about Trump and demonstrated his scepticism of the ‘stolen election’ conspiracy theory.
The commissioner for The Council of Europe’s Human Rights is urging politicians in Slovakia to vote against proposed legislation that would effectively prevent trans people from having their gender legally recognised.
The bill, set to have its second reading next month, proposes only allowing someone to change their gender marking if they can prove, via genetic testing, it had been incorrectly determined.
In a letter to the Slovakia parliament, dated 19 April but released publically on 25 April, commissioner Dunja Mijatović said she was concerned that the bill would “effectively” mean trans men and women’s genders would not be legally recognised and “lead to human rights regression”.
She said it was “in conflict” with the Slovak Republic’s obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights.
It “should have triggered a process of addressing long-standing concerns about intolerance towards LGBTI people”, she said.
“However, I am disappointed that no discernible progress has been made, and that the human rights of LGBTI people in the Slovak Republic appear to be more, rather than less, at risk.”
Mijatović also used the letter to highlight issues relating to the rights of same-sex couples and hate incidents towards queer people.
Rights for same-sex couples in the Slovak Republic fell short of European Court of Human Rights case law, she said, noting, specifically, that the current legal framework did not grant same-sex couples “adequate recognition and protection of their relationship”.
She went further and urged that human rights of queer people be protected.
“These include ensuring that gender identity and sex characteristics are explicitly recognised as protected characteristics in hate-crime legislation, and included as aggravating circumstances when offences are committed on those grounds.”
Mijatović also recommended raising societal awareness and acceptance of sexual orientation and gender identity, noting parliamentarians had downplayed links between hate crimes and the wider Slovakia society and political sphere.
The Slovak Republic is not the only European country facing condemnation for its laws in relation to LGBTQ+ people.
Residents have been left stunned after antisemitic and anti-trans flyers were recently distributed across multiple Atlanta neighborhoods.
According to Fox 5, the flyers appear to have come from a group called the Goyim Defense League, which the Anti-Defamation League describes as “a loose network of individuals connected by their virulent antisemitism” whose “goal is to cast aspersions on Jews and spread antisemitic myths and conspiracy theories.”
Doctors could get up to 10 years in prison under the new law.
One of the flyers said Jews are behind “the rise in transgenderism” and included photos of trans leaders superimposed with Jewish stars. The flyer also warned of a “4000% explosion in kids identifying as transgender” and said kids are being “forced to unlearn boy-girl differences.”
Other flyers declared “every single aspect of feminism is Jewish” and “every single aspect of the Jewish Talmud is Satanic.”
“We just need to be more open and kind,” one resident, Caroline Joe, told Atlanta News First. “It’s kind of cowardly actually to just come into a neighborhood and distribute information like that.”
“I think the best places for those messages are in the trash can,” said another resident, Brian Davis. “I think we need to start treating people better, and I encourage whoever did this to go out there and find a Jewish person or a Black person or a gay person and befriend them.”
The FBI told the news agency that while they are of the situation, the distributors of the flyers do not appear to have broken federal law and are exercising their first amendment rights.
The flyers were found in the district of City Councilmember Lilliana Bakhtiari, the first nonbinary official elected in Atlanta. Bakhtiari called the flyers “vile” and “repugnant” and said their office “has been in regular communication” with the Atlanta Police and leaders of the affected communities.
“I will continue to extend myself – and my platform – as a resource to any person targeted on the basis of exclusion,” they said.
A statement from the Atlanta Police Department said it is “not aware of any criminal acts related to the flyers. However, their distribution has led to a heightened level of awareness throughout our department, and we have increased patrols around where the flyers were found.”
Georgia state Rep. Saira Draper (D) told Rough Draft Atlanta she is “appalled and disgusted” and that “this is not an isolated incident of hate.”
“As a state legislator, I can’t help but view this incident and our legislative policy choices as related. During the 2023 legislative session, the Georgia General Assembly failed to pass proposed legislation to curb rising rates of antisemitism.”
“Concurrently, the General Assembly prioritized the passage of legislation that discriminates against and harms transgender children and their families. There is a direct line between these policy decisions and creating an environment that emboldens hate groups and normalizes discriminatory rhetoric. It’s not enough for leaders to say they don’t tolerate hate; our policy agenda must do the same.”
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens (D) also condemned the flyers, saying he is “deeply disturbed.”
As more LGBTQ+ people marry and have families, they’re welcoming a growing number of nonbinary, gender-neutral, and gender-expansive relatives. But the titles used for relatives tend to be old-fashioned and heavily gendered. If someone has nonbinary elders or children, for example, they may find themselves unsure about the best gender-neutral family terms for “uncle” and “aunt” or respectful gender-neutral words for “niece” and “nephew.”
However, there are gender-neutral family terms for every branch in one’s family tree. Though some of the labels are instantly familiar and understandable — like “parent” or “sibling” — others may seem newer and less familiar — like “moppa” or “pibling.”
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People even make up new, unique terms for nonbinary and gender-neutral family members all the time to help describe the unique relationships they have with their relatives.
While some of the newer family terms below may require a bit of explanation so others can understand them, using these terms regularly will help normalize them, making them more widely accepted in the mainstream. (There’s also a complete list of gender-neutral pronouns to help make nonbinary people feel welcome at any occasion — though some people use “rolling pronouns” too.)
Let’s explore some of the most adopted ways to ungender various family member labels below:
Mother /Mom / Father / Dad
Naturally, “parent” and “guardian” are the most commonly understood terms for someone with legal or parental rights to a child. Many of the words in this section, however, are less common and more endearing, leaning even into affectionate “child-speak.”
Bapa: Uses the “b” from nonbinary with soft “a” vowel sounds
Bibi: Uses the “b” from nonbinary and hard “i” vowel sounds
Dida: Combines the hard “i” and soft “a” vowel sounds
Nibi: Uses the “b” from non-binary and “i” vowel sounds (either hard or soft)
Nini: Uses the “n” from non-binary and hard “i” vowel sounds
Maddy / Moddy / Muddy: Combines “mommy / mummy” and “daddy”
MaiMai: uses a hard “a” vowel sound
Mombo: Combines “mom” and the hard “o” vowel sound
Moppa: Combines “mommy” and “poppa” (popularized by the transgender TV series Transparent)
Zaza: Uses soft “a” vowel sounds
Sister/Brother
Sibling/Sib: short for “sibling”
Sibster/Sibter: a mixture of “sibling” and “sister” with a hard “b” sound
Daughter/Son
Most of the terms in this section are more commonly understood.
Child
Offspring
Kid/Kiddo
Oldest: referring to one’s eldest child
Youngest: referring to one’s most recently born child
Spawn: a humorous term, usually applied to underwater creatures
Aunt/Uncle
The gender-neutral terms for “uncle” and “aunt” either combine the two words or use affectionate “child-speak” nicknames.
Pibling: a mixture of “parent’s sibling”
Auncle: a mixture of “aunt” and “uncle” (though make sure to emphasize the “au” vowel sound)
Titi: a mixture of the Spanish words for “aunt” (tia) and “uncle” (tio) — though “titi” is Spanish is similar to “auntie”
Zizi: a mixture of the Italian words for “aunt” (zia) and “uncle” (zio) — though “zizi” is also French child slang for “penis”
Unty/Unitie: a mixture of “uncle” and “auntie”
Niece/Nephew
Gender-neutral terms for “niece” and “nephew” tend to combine the words or acknowledge the child’s relationship to one’s own sibling.
“Grandparent” and “grandchild” are the most commonly used nonbinary terms for these relatives, but some people use the less common nonbinary slang terms for parents or aunts and uncles to designate grand-relations (like “zaza,” “bibi,” or “titi.”
Godmother/Godfather/Goddaughter/Godson
“Godparent” and “godchild” are the most commonly used nonbinary terms for these relatives.
“Betrothed” is an old-fashioned word that means a person that one is engaged to marry. However, some of the terms for girlfriend/boyfriend listed above may also work.
Wife / Husband
“Spouse” and the somewhat disparaging “ball and chain” are both gender-neutral terms that can refer to one’s married partner. However, some of the terms for girlfriend/boyfriend listed above may also work.
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Gender-Neutral Family Terms Are Here to Stay
Gender-neutral family terms are becoming increasingly popular as a way to break down traditional gender roles and create a more inclusive language for families of all kinds.
By introducing gender-neutral terms such as “parent” instead of “mother” or “father,” families can avoid unnecessary assumptions about their structure and foster an environment of respect and understanding. This doesn’t just apply to the queer world.
With the growing recognition of the importance of gender equality, it is likely that the evolution and use of gender-neutral family terms will continue to be embraced in the years to come.
When Kyle Freels got off work Tuesday, he and his wife, Rene, drove from their home in Missouri across the Mississippi River to look at neighborhoods in Illinois. They also picked up three months’ worth of estrogen for their daughter, Chelsea, who is transgender.
The Freels are preparing to potentially leave St. Louis, where they moved 17 years ago just before Chelsea was born, due to the state’s repeated efforts to restrict the rights of trans people.
“I never thought we’d have to be refugees in the United States, but now we’re being forced out,” Kyle Freels said.
So far this year, Missouri lawmakers have introduced 48 bills targeting LGBTQ rights — the second highest number in the nation behind Texas — with nearly half of those restricting trans rights, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.
Kyle and Rene Freels moved to St. Louis 17 years ago, just before the birth of their daughter, Chelsea.Kyle Freels
In February, just as the state’s legislative session was starting and Missouri Republicans were filing bills to bar gender-affirming care for minors, Attorney General Andrew Bailey announced that he had started an investigation into the Transgender Center at the St. Louis Children’s Hospital, the state’s only multidisciplinary clinic for trans adolescents. The probe followed claims by Jamie Reed, a former case worker at the center, who alleged the facility was harming children by not conducting thorough mental health assessments before providing patients puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapy, or HRT.
Reed’s allegations — outlined in an affidavit and an op-ed, both published on Feb. 9 — have become a flashpoint in the debate over transition-related care for minors, both in Missouri and nationwide. The week after Reed’s op-ed was published, state Sen. Mike Moon, a Republican, introduced a trio of bills to restrict such care and cited Reed’s allegations.Earlier this month, the Republican-led House passed a bill that would ban gender-affirming care for minors.
“Sex changes and little kids are two things that should never go together,” Rep. Brad Hudson, the Republican who introduced the recently passed bill, said on the House floor earlier this month, as reported by the Kansas City Star.
“I never thought we’d have to be refugees in the United States, but now we’re being forced out.”
KYLE FREELS, PARENT OF A TRANS TEEN
Though Bailey’s investigation into the Transgender Center is ongoing, he issued a rule on April 13 to significantly restrict transition-related care for all trans people in the state by requiring them to meet a list of criteria before treatment, including attending 15 hourly therapy sessions over at least 18 months and having any mental health issues “treated and resolved.” The rule was scheduled to take effect Thursday, but a judge issued a temporary stay Wednesday night, after civil rights groups and local attorneys filed a petition seeking a temporary restraining order against it. The rule is now slated to take effect Monday, pending the outcome of a hearing.
More than a dozen parents with trans children in the state described the resulting climate as hostile, with one parent calling it a “a dystopian nightmare” and another saying they’ve been “living with harassment every day.” When the Freels talk about it, they call it a “battle” — one that they said will eventually push them out of the state, even though they want to stay and support families with younger kids.
“We kind of feel battle-tested, so we don’t want to leave, but yet we also want our child to be safe,” Rene Freels said. “With the legislation, I know if it goes through, I don’t want to be in the state.”
Allegations made public
Reed, who was a case worker at the Transgender Center from 2018 to November 2022, alleged in a 23-page affidavit that children were being harmed at the center as a result of being routinely prescribed puberty blockers or hormone therapy too quickly and without “appropriate or accurate” mental health assessments.
She also said patients were provided medication “without informed parental consent,” alleging that parents were not given enough information about the side effects of hormone therapy, which can include infertility. The center, she alleged in her affidavit, also did not obtain custody agreements from divorced parents to ensure all parties consented to treatment.
Shortly after Reed went public with her allegations in an op-ed published in The Free Press, a news website started by Bari Weiss, a former op-ed writer and editor at The New York Times, the Missouri attorney general’s office announced its investigation and made Reed’s affidavit public. Reed, who has a master’s degree in clinical research management, concluded her op-ed by calling for a “moratorium on the hormonal and surgical treatment of young people with gender dysphoria.”
NBC News contacted Reed’s legal team via phone and email, and Reed via mail, but after multiple requests, she declined an interview.
‘Unsubstantiated’ allegations
Washington University in St. Louis, the parent institution of the St. Louis Children’s Hospital, released the findings of an internal investigation into the Transgender Center on Friday. It found that “allegations of substandard care causing adverse outcomes for patients at the Center are unsubstantiated.”
Reed’s attorneys, Vernadette Broyles and Ernest Trakas, said in a statement on Reed’s behalf that the university did not interview their client for its internal investigation. They also said the university “acknowledges the validity of several of Ms. Reed’s allegations,” including that the center didn’t obtain written informed consent from parents or custody agreements.
In a summary of its investigation findings, the university said the center’s existing policy includes obtaining verbal parental consent for treatment and documenting that consent in the patient’s medical record, as well as requesting custody agreements “before medical intervention in cases where decision-making authority was in question.” Going forward, the university said, the center will require written consent from parents prior to prescribing medications, such as puberty blockers and hormone therapy, and families to provide custody agreements before an initial visit at the center if the patient is a minor.
The university did not answer NBC News’ question about whether Reed was interviewed as part of the investigation.
“WPATH is an advocacy organization whose publications rely very little on the emerging international evidence and much more on the idea that trans health care is about the right to embodiment of cosmetic goals on demand,” the attorneys said in their statement. “The newest WPATH publication even contains a chapter on the rights of those of the eunuch gender. It seems clear that reasonable people would have caution in providing unquestioning affirmation to children and teens, but neither WPATH nor the Center clinic does this.”
Firsthand accounts
Over the last two months, NBC News has requested interviews with nearly 40 people currently or formerly associated with the Transgender Center — including parents of children treated at the center, current and former patients and former employees — as well as local mental health providers and providers at other gender clinics. NBC News has also reached out to local and national groups that both support and oppose transition-related care for minors.
The more than two dozen people who agreed to interviews said Reed’s allegations don’t reflect their experiences at the center.
Sixteen parents, two current patients and two former patients of the center said the care they received was thorough and slow. The shortest amount of time that a parent said their child waited between their first appointment at the center and when their child started a puberty blocker was about six months. Five parents said their children waited more than a year between their first appointments at the center and their children beginning medical transition.
The Freels are among those five parents. Chelsea, now 17, waited about 15 months between her first appointment at the clinic in August 2021and when she started hormone therapy in November 2022. They waited a year between their first appointmentand their second in August 2022, in part because they had to receive a letter of support from a therapist in order for Chelsea to start hormone therapy. They also alleged that Reed was responsible for some of the delay.
“Medicine is stashed around town at friends’ homes that we’ve stockpiled already in advance of legislation passing.”
DANIELLE, PARENT OF A TRANS TEEN
When they first called the center in the summer of 2021 and asked to make an appointment, Rene Freels said, Reed repeatedly asked them, “What do you want?”
“We were just very dumbfounded, because we didn’t know,” Rene Freels said. “At this point, we were so new to everything that we didn’t know what we wanted.”
Rene Freels said Reed allegedly told them she could email them some information but couldn’t do anything else for them.
“We were in tears,” Rene Freels said. “We hung up the phone. We thought we were supposed to call this place, and they’re supposed to help us.”
Reed’s attorneys did not return a request for comment regarding the Freels’ allegations.
Not knowing where to turn next, they found a therapist for Chelsea who told them to call the center again and tell the center that Chelsea was under the therapist’s care. So they did, and they scheduled their first appointment in August 2021 with Dr. Christopher Lewis, the center’s endocrinologist.
Kyle Freels said the first appointment took more than an hour and a half. Lewis drew on the paper roll on the exam room table to illustrate how various medications interact with different body parts. He then said that, before Chelsea could start hormone therapy, she would need to provide him with a letter of support from a psychologist, and he would run a blood test to check her bone density.
Now that she’s been on hormone therapy since November, Chelsea said, she feels much happier. She’s a junior in high school and the business lead of the robotics team.
“The Missouri legislature is doing its thing, restricting trans rights for political gain and all that stuff,” she said. “But overall, I still feel better now than I did back then, and I think not all of it, but definitely a good part of it, has been being on HRT and transitioning. And that has led to other good things, like more social involvement, getting in a group of my peers that support me for me.”
Other families have similarly said their children’s treatment has been very slow and thorough. Becky Hormuth said Dr. Sarah Garwood, one of the Transgender Center’s providers, said she didn’t want Hormuth’s son to move forward with treatment until he had seen a dietician, because she was concerned he had an eating disorder. Another parent, Kelly, who asked that her last name not be published to protect her family’s privacy, said she and her transgender son, Logan, were well informed about the potential effects of testosterone on fertility, and Logan chose to have eggs harvested at 15 before he started testosterone. And another mom, Christine Hyman, said her son saw a therapist more than 80 times before he received a letter of consent to start testosterone.
While no one who could validate Reed’s claims agreed to an interview with NBC News, one parent shared their negative experience with The Free Press in an interview published earlier this month.
A parent who went only by her first name, Caroline, said she felt “bullied” into agreeing to allow her teenager, Casey, to receive puberty blockers. She said Casey’s mental health has severely declined and that she revoked consent for the blocker in June, but that it still hasn’t been removed. Casey, who uses they/them pronouns, lives primarily with their father, who hasn’t consented to have the blocker removed, according to the article.
The day after the article was published, Casey, whose real name is Alex, criticized the story in a series of Twitter posts. NBC News has independently verified that the account does belong to Alex and that Alex is Caroline’s child, but Alex declined an interview. Neither Caroline nor Alex’s father returned requests for comment.
Legislative impact
Dr. Angela Goepferd, the chief education officer and medical director of the gender health program at Children’s Minnesota, said she was disappointed when she read Reed’s allegations. She said she is connected online with doctors who provide care to trans youths nationwide, but she doesn’t know any of the providers at the Transgender Center and hasn’t heard anything negative about the clinic.
“Whether the allegations are true or not,” she said, “it doesn’t really matter, because this is going to be something that is going to make it harder for all of us to provide the care that we know that kids and families need.”
Jeff Dewald, the parent of a trans teen who has been a patient at St. Louis’ Transgender Center for two years, said Reed’s allegations don’t reflect the experience of his family. And while he said he wants to give Reed the benefit of the doubt, he questioned the timing of her claims.
“We’re in the middle of the legislative session, so right when this was issued, not even a week later, they took to hearing three bills on banning health care for trans kids,” he said. “And of course, that was the only talking point in the hearing.”
Dewald said Reed’s affidavit was the last straw for him as a parent. Before this, he said, he had never gone to the Capitol to advocate or spoken to reporters.
“Until that moment, I wanted to protect my kid and our family and just that was good enough,” he said.
But, he added, things changed after Reed’s affidavit came out and, shortly after, his child turned 18.
“I really feel for those that are in the heat of this health care battle,” he said. “Kids that have years to go and genuinely wondering where they’re gonna go if this health care stuff passes. So since then, I’ve actually started stepping up my activism.”
‘Safety versus engagement’
Like the Freels, many Missouri parents of trans kids are making plans in anticipation of the attorney general’s rule taking effect and potential laws restricting trans care loom.
Danielle, the parent of a trans teen who asked not to have her last name published to protect her family’s privacy, said her family has had a plan in place for a while.
“Medicine is stashed around town at friends’ homes that we’ve stockpiled already in advance of legislation passing,” she said. “I feel like we’re living in a dystopian nightmare.”
Chelsea Freels has signed up for text updates on the legal challenge to Bailey’s rule.
She joked that it’s “not doing wonders” for her mental health, but, “Hey, Missouri’s keeping its therapists employed.”
She joked a lot while talking about the attorney general and the Legislature’s attempts to restrict her health care. Her parents said she is generally a very happy kid, but they recently noticed she was struggling.
“My energy bank for hiding everything kind of ran out,” Chelsea said. “It’s back.”
She turns 18 in November, but if she has to leave the state and change high schools before she graduates, she said she’ll be sad to leave behind the robotics team and her friends. Part of her wants to stay, she said, but the other part thinks the state might not be safe anymore.
“If you leave, to some extent, they gain, because you’re not going to be as politically engaged,” she said. “It feels like you’re losing your voice by moving. Safety versus engagement.”
A new study has shown that less than half of LGBTQ+ women and non-binary people are out at work.
The research, published by myGwork, indicates that high rates of discrimination towards LGBTQ+ and non-binary professionals are preventing many from coming out in a professional environment, with just 44 per cent of LGBTQ+ women reporting that they are out at work.
The number of LGBTQ+ women and non-binary people who are out at work includes the 23 per cent who reported being out and proud in all aspects of their professional and personal lives, and the 21 per cent who say they are only out in the workplace.
The results of the survey of more than 2000 LGBTQ+ women and non-binary people has been published to coincide with Lesbian Visibility Week – a time to reflect on the progress made for LGBTQ+ women and also to acknowledge the need for further visibility for LGBTQ+ women, including in their professional lives.
Within wider society, the report reveals that less than 25 per cent of respondents are completely out and proud, and 46 per cent of LGBTQ+ women and non-binary people are only out to their friends and family members.
The report confirms that 70 per cent of respondents still encounter discrimination while they are at work – and for people of colour, marginalised communities and those from ethnic minority groups, the figures are even higher.
Gender non-conforming and queer people experience the highest rate of discrimination at work, followed by cis-gender women, gender fluid, intersex, trans women and non-binary people.
This discrimination at work is playing a factor in many lesbian and queer women believing that their sexual orientation and/or gender identity is hindering their career progression.
In fact, nearly 80 per cent of respondents across all age groups say that it’s tougher for LGBTQ+ women and non-binary people to smash through glass ceilings than straight cis-gender women. This figure is much higher for those with intersectional experiences who belong to other marginalised communities.
Marginalised groups aren’t climbing the corporate ladder
Those in ethnic minority groups say that they find it much harder to progress higher up the career ladder than their white colleagues. For example, those with Latinx (86 per cent), South Asian (85 per cent) and Middle Eastern (85 per cent) backgrounds found it the most difficult, followed by East Asian (83 per cent) and Black/African communities (81 per cent).
This is in comparison to 76 per cent of their white colleagues. These staggering data points are in despite of high rates of allyship from both men and cis-gender straight women and even more visible LGBTQ+ role models at work.
While there are a handful of notable queer women in the boardroom, the research also confirms that very few LGBTQ+ women and non-binary professionals occupy top C-suite leadership roles. Only nine per cent hold leadership roles, and only three per cent are CEOs or founders.
The report from myGwork also uncovers insights such as how the community perceives the term ‘lesbian,’ with 61 per cent of women happy to be called a lesbian, but 20 per cent saying that they are uncomfortable with that label. Additionally, an overwhelming 78 per cent would like their employers to provide menstrual leave.
The report also confirmed that LGBTQ+ women from marginalised groups are not climbing the corporate ladder compared to their White cishet colleagues. (Getty Images/PinkNews)
Business leaders need to embrace diversity and champion inclusivity
The research also provides advice on the steps organisations need to take to make the workplace more inclusive and stamp out discrimination.
Over 65 per cent say that LGBTQ+ education and training are needed within work so LGBTQ+ women and non-binary people feel safe enough to come out, stay out and work with pride.
“To create a workplace that is truly inclusive and supportive, businesses need to actively listen to and learn from their employees,” says Michelle ‘Michi’ Raymond, business development director at myGwork. “By embracing diversity and championing inclusivity, we can create a work environment that not only accepts but celebrates all identities.”
Given the fact that over 50 per cent of LGBTQ+ women and non-binary professionals are currently job hunting, the report shares tips on how to attract and retain this highly talented group of people.
73 per cent say that they would leave an employer for not providing an inclusive working environment or not doing enough to achieve proper gender equality. Offering training, being transparent about the gender pay gap and offering up employee resource groups are all ways to keep LGBTQ+ women in their current roles.
Wrapping up the report, around 33 per cent say that celebrating key awareness dates like Lesbian Visibility Week is vital.
Organisations that have more visible allies and improved inclusion policies will retain and support their valuable LGBTQ+ women and non-binary employees. These employees will be more likely to rise up the corporate ladder and be visible, out, and proud role models.
To celebrate Lesbian Visibility Week, the PinkNews Business Community will be hosting a special one-hour virtual chat with Raga D’Silva on Wednesday 26 April at 8:30am BST. Raga will talk about the importance of intersectionality, representation and the freedom to be yourself. Registration for this virtual breakfast session is open to everyone and is free. Sign up here!
Knowing your LGBTQ+ history is not only important, but it can provide great comfort and reassurance for members of the community. What’s more, it opens our eyes to the fact that, yes, queer really has always been here!
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In honor of Lesbian Visibility Week, we thought we’d educate you on some key moments in lesbian history, from the first arrest for lesbian activity to the first televised kiss between two women.
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The first conviction for lesbian activity
We’re starting off by throwing it all the way back to the 1600s.
In March 1649, there was the first known conviction for lesbian activity in North America.
Sarah White Norman and Mary Vincent Hammon were charged with “lewd behavior with each other upon a bed” in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
Hammon was under 16 and not prosecuted.
The first lesbian marriage
Public domainAnne Lister plaque in York
Same-sex marriage wasn’t legalized in the United States until 2015, but that didn’t doesn’t mean lesbian weddings only started happening then.
In fact, the very first marriage between two women actually happened in the 1800s.
Anne Lister (whose name you might recognize from the HBO series Gentleman Jack) was dubbed “the first modern lesbian,” and she married Ann Walker at Holy Trinity Church, Goodramgate, York in 1834.
Of course, their union was without legal recognition, given that same-sex marriage was only legalized in the U.K. in 2014. However, they took communion together on Easter Sunday and thereafter considered themselves married.
In years since, the church has been described as “an icon for what is interpreted as the site of the first lesbian marriage to be held in Britain,” and the building now hosts a commemorative blue plaque in their honor.
The word “lesbian” is used
The word “lesbian” is part of many people’s everyday vocabulary now, but do you know when it was first used?
Well, the word “lesbianism” to describe erotic relationships between women had been documented way back in 1732.
The term was first used by William King in his book, The Toast, published in England, which meant women who loved women.
The book has become notable for providing proof that the term “lesbians” was used in a sexual sense as early as the 1700s, in exactly the same way that it is used today.
Before this, the word lesbian meant “of Lesbos”, such as “Lesbian wine” or “Lesbian culture.”
The term “lesbian” is used in a medical dictionary
Then, in 1890, the term lesbian was used in a medical dictionary as an adjective to describe tribadism (as “lesbian love”).
The terms lesbian, invert, and homosexual were then interchangeable with sapphist and sapphism around the turn of the 20th century.
Arrest for lesbian partying
WikipediaMa Rainey
Singer Ma Rainey – the so-called Mother of the Blues – was arrested in her house in Harlem for having a lesbian party in 1925.
Her protégé, Bessie Smith, bailed her out of jail the following morning.
Both Rainey and Smith were part of an extensive circle of lesbian and bisexual African‐American women in Harlem, and the Blues scene of the Harlem Renaissance provided Black women with a space to explore their sexuality and gender. It gave them the freedom to be themselves without the white supremacist gaze, which sexualized and criminalized Black women.
Rainey wrote about speculation regarding her sexuality three years later in the song “Prove it On Me Blues,” with lyrics including: “Ain’t nobody caught me, you sure got to prove it on me.”
Publication of a groundbreaking lesbian novel
In 1928, English author Radclyffe Hall published what many consider today a groundbreaking lesbian novel, The Well of Loneliness. It follows the life of Stephen Gordon, an Englishwoman from an upper-class family whose “sexual inversion” is apparent from an early age.
The book’s release caused the topic of homosexuality to be a topic of public conversation in both the United States and England.
The formation of the first known lesbian rights organization
In September 1955, the first known lesbian rights organization in the United States was formed in San Francisco.
Daughters of Bilitis (DOB) hosted private social functions until it was dissolved in 1995. It was conceived as a social alternative to lesbian bars and clubs, which were subject to raids and police harassment, as well as general discrimination.
Throughout its 14 years, Daughters of Bilitis became an educational resource for lesbians, gay men, researchers, and mental health professionals.
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While representation is well on its way now, there was a time when TV shows didn’t want to touch lesbianism with a bargepole, making the first on-screen kiss between two women all the more monumental.
Although it might surprise you to learn that it wasn’t until the nineties that two women first locked lips on American TV.
The kiss in question aired in a 1990 episode of 21 Jump Street, but the camera cut off their actual lips, meaning the actual kiss wasn’t really shown at all.
So, unofficially, the first lesbian kiss on TV is often attributed to a 1991 episode of legal drama L.A. Law, in which bisexual lawyer C.J. briefly kissed her female colleague Abby Perkins on the lips.
Sadly, romance never blossomed between the two characters, as Abby left the show and C.J ended up with a boyfriend, not to mention the network received major backlash for the scene.
Still, we’ve come a long way.
Audre Lorde is named State Poet of New York
A sign with an Audre Lorde quote at the 2017 Women’s March in Toronto
In 1991, self-described “Black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet,” Audre Lorde became the State Poet of New York. She dedicated both her life and her creative talent to confronting and addressing various injustices, whether it be classism, homophobia, racism, or sexism.
The critically acclaimed novelist, poet, and essayist was also a co-founder of The Kitchen Table Women of Color Press, and an editor of the lesbian journal Chrysalis.
In April 1997, comedian Ellen DeGeneres came out as a lesbian on the cover of Timemagazine, stating: “Yep, I’m Gay.”
The cover coincided with the broadcast of “The Puppy Episode,” a two-part episode of the American situation comedy series Ellen.
The episode details lead character Ellen Morgan’s realization that she is a lesbian and her coming out, with the title initially used as a code name for Ellen’s coming out so as to keep the episode under wraps.
To say the moment was groundbreaking for lesbian history would probably be an understatement, as not only did it win multiple awards, Ellen became a cultural icon. DeGeneres’s career, though, suffered as the network stopped promoting her sitcom until it was ultimately canceled.
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First lesbian elected to Congress
Campaign photoSenator Tammy Baldwin
In 1998, aged 24, Tammy Baldwin became the first openly lesbian candidate ever elected to Congress, winning Wisconsin’s Second Congressional District seat over Josephine Musser.
The Democrat was also the first woman elected to either chamber in Wisconsin.
Then in 2012, she made history as the first LGBTQ+ person elected to the Senate.
Publication of When We Were Outlaws: a Memoir of Love and Revolution
Written by Jeanne Cordova, When We Were Outlaws was published in 2011.
The radical lesbian activist and pioneer’s memoir offers a raw and intimate insight into the life of a young activist torn between conflicting personal longings and political goals, at a time when the fight for gay rights and liberation for women was still fresh.
Today, When Were Outlaws is still considered extraordinary.
Lesbian history is still in the making
Looking back at these groundbreaking moments in lesbian history, we can see how far the LGBTQ+ community has come in the fight for equality and acceptance. However, we must also acknowledge that lesbian history is still in the making.
There is still much work to be done in terms of combating discrimination and bigotry and ensuring that all members of the community are treated with dignity and respect.
Let us honor the brave pioneers who paved the way for us and continue to fight for a better future for all members of the LGBTQ+ community.
By subscribing to the LGBTQ Nation newsletter, we can stay informed and engaged with the ongoing struggle for LGBTQ+ rights and contribute to the ongoing progress towards a more just and equitable society.
On Thursday, Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly (D) vetoed a slate of anti-trans bills passed by the Republican-dominated legislature.
One bill seeks to ban trans people from using bathrooms and other public facilities that align with their gender identity, and another attempts to ban gender-affirming care for trans youth. A third would ban trans students from rooming with cis students on overnight school trips, and a fourth would require trans prisoners to be housed based on their sex assigned at birth.
She was accused of using “inappropriate and uncalled-for language” while defending trans youth.
In a statement on her vetoes, Kelly blasted the bills for taking away trans people’s rights and for their potential to hurt the Kansas economy.
“Companies have made it clear that they are not interested in doing business with states that discriminate against workers and their families. By stripping away rights from Kansans and opening the state up to expensive and unnecessary lawsuits, these bills would hurt our ability to continue breaking economic records and landing new business deals. I’m focused on the economy. Anyone care to join me?”
For at least three of the four bills, the legislature appears to have enough votes to override Kelly’s vetoes. The bill on gender-affirming care is the only one that may not, as 14 House Republicans voted against S.B. 26, which would ban all forms of gender-affirming care – including reversible puberty blockers – for those under 18.
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) praised Kelly for vetoing the legislation.
“Today, Governor Kelly did the right thing,” said HRC state legislative director and senior counsel Cathryn Oakley. “By vetoing a series of bills designed solely to discriminate against LGBTQ+ – particularly transgender – Kansans, she rejected the politics of hate and division being perpetrated by the state legislature, all while keeping her focus on the issues that really matter. She’s right that discrimination is bad for business, bad for Kansas, and bad for this nation.”
Earlier this month, the Kansas GOP succeeded in passing an anti-trans sports ban that many worry will lead to invasive and traumatic genital examinations of student-athletes.
Lawmakers overrode Kelly’s third veto of the “Fairness in Women’s Sports Act,” which bans transgender girls and women in kindergarten through college from participating in girls’ and women’s school sports.
“It breaks my heart,” Kelly said in the wake of the bill’s passage. “I’m sorry that they distracted themselves with this really awful bill.”
“It won’t increase test scores. It won’t help any kids read or write,” she wrote in her veto message. “It won’t help any teachers prepare our kids for the real world. Here’s what this bill would actually do: harm the mental health of our students.”
Kelly has long championed LGBTQ+ rights. When she first became governor in 2019, her first official act in office was to sign an executive order to restore protections for LGBTQ+ state employees.
“Discrimination of any kind has no place in Kansas,” Kelly said on her official Twitter account. “It will not be tolerated.”
As the nation’s culture wars rage on in classrooms and libraries, attempts to ban books have reached a record high, and titles with LGBTQ themes remain top targets.
In its annual book censorship report, the American Library Association documented 1,269 challenges to more than 2,500 books in 2022, the highest number of attempted book bans since the association began tracking such efforts in 2001. It was a 75% jump from 2021, which held the previous record.
Of the 13 books that made the ALA’s list of “Most Challenged Books” last year, seven titles — including three of the top four — were challenged for having LGBTQ content, the association found.
Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, said the LGBTQ-heavy list “sends a message of exclusion.”
“It’s a way of telling young gay and transgender persons that they don’t belong in school, that they don’t belong to the community,” she said. “It sends a message to the LGBTQ community as a whole that they’re not considered full citizens with full rights to participate in community institutions like the library.”
The ALA reported that, prior to 2020, the “vast majority” of challenges against books were made by individuals who sought to restrict access to a single book their child was reading. But the group found that 90% of last year’s challenges were directed at multiple books and nearly a fifth of them were made by “political/religious groups.”
The association cited this finding as “evidence of a growing, well-organized, conservative political movement, the goals of which include removing books about race, history, gender identity, sexuality, and reproductive health from America’s public and school libraries that do not meet their approval.”
A display of banned books at a Barnes & Noble book in Pittsford, New York, in 2022.Ted Shaffrey / AP
Just last week, the Florida Board of Education approved Gov. Ron DeSantis’ request to expand the state’s so-called Don’t Say Gay law — which restricts the instruction of sexual orientation and gender identity in the state’s public schools — to all grades. Previously, the law only explicitly applied to children in kindergarten through third grade.
Last year’s most challenged book was the award-winning memoir “Gender Queer,” which also topped the ALA’s 2021 list of most banned books.
The illustrated memoir — which chronicles nonbinary author Maia Kobabe’s journey of self-identity — has faced unparalleled pushbackfrom school boards and conservative activists around the country in recent years.
A representative for Kobabe did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment.
In a previous interview with NBC News, Kobabe acknowledged that parts of their memoir may not be appropriate for elementary school children. However, the author said the book’s straightforward accounts could be used to show readers an experience growing up outside of cisgender and heterosexual norms.
“It’s very hard to hear people say, ‘This book is not appropriate to young people,’ when it’s like, I was a young person for whom this book would have been not only appropriate, but so, so necessary,” Kobabe said. “There are a lot of people who are questioning their gender, questioning their sexuality and having a real hard time finding honest accounts of somebody else on the same journey. There are people for whom this is vital and for whom this could maybe even be lifesaving.”
Other titles at the top of the 2022 list include George M. Johnson’s “All Boys Aren’t Blue,” Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye,” Mike Curato’s “Flamer,” John Green’s “Looking for Alaska” and Stephen Chbosky’s “The Perks of Being a Wallflower.”
Caldwell-Stone said that the group of books — as with all books — should remain on shelves without “fear or favor.”
“Everyone is entitled to find books that reflect their interests, their experiences, their backgrounds, their identities on the shelves of a publicly funded library that’s there to serve everyone,” she said.
Lizzo brought an army of drag performers to the stage at her Knoxville, Tennessee, concert on Friday night to protest the state’s anti-drag law.
RuPaul’s Drag Race alums Aquaria, Kandy Muse, Asia O’Hara, and Vanessa Vanjie Mateo joined the singer onstage at the Thompson-Boling Arena along with over a dozen local Tennessee drag performers.
Kids need protection from poverty, not drag queens, she said.
“Support your drag entertainers!” Lizzo told the crowd at the end of the show-stopping number.
In early March, Tennessee became the first U.S. state to pass a law aimed at banning drag performances in public spaces when Gov. Bill Lee (R) signed the state’s Senate Bill 3 into law. The law would ban “male or female impersonators who provide entertainment that appeals to a prurient interest” from appearing “on public property” or “in a location where the adult cabaret performance could be viewed by a person who is not an adult.”
A federal judge in Nashville temporarily blocked the law on March 31, ruling that the law “is likely both vague and overly-broad” and that it would bar businesses that host drag performances “from engaging in protected First Amendment expression” under threat of criminal penalties.
The law has received widespread condemnation from LGBTQ+ advocates and allies. During her Friday night show in Knoxville, Lizzo explained her decision to perform in Tennessee despite calls to boycott the state.
“In light of recent and tragic events and current events, I was told by people on the internet, ‘Cancel your shows in Tennessee,’ ‘Don’t go to Tennessee,’” she told the crowd.
“Their reason was valid,” she added, telling the crowd not to boo the request. “But why would I not come to the people who need to hear this message the most? The people who need to feel this release the most. Why would I not create a safe space in Tennessee where we can celebrate drag entertainers and celebrate our differences and celebrate fat Black women?”https://www.instagram.com/reel/CrWHQziuqMc/embed/captioned/?cr=1&v=14&wp=1080&rd=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.lgbtqnation.com&rp=%2F2023%2F04%2Flizzo-brought-an-army-of-queens-to-protest-tennessees-anti-drag-law%2F#%7B%22ci%22%3A1%2C%22os%22%3A726%2C%22ls%22%3A120%2C%22le%22%3A580%7D
“Thank you so much for standing up for your rights, protecting each other, and holding the people accountable who should be protecting us,” she concluded.
Over the weekend, Lizzo posted several video clips and backstage photos from the Knoxville show, thanking all the drag performers who joined her onstage.https://www.instagram.com/p/CrWC2dpsuGl/embed/captioned/?cr=1&v=14&wp=1080&rd=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.lgbtqnation.com&rp=%2F2023%2F04%2Flizzo-brought-an-army-of-queens-to-protest-tennessees-anti-drag-law%2F#%7B%22ci%22%3A2%2C%22os%22%3A728%2C%22ls%22%3A120%2C%22le%22%3A580%7D
“Thank you so much for the platform for me and the Drag Race girls and especially for uplifting the queens on Tennessee!” Aquaria commented on one post. “Those ladies are all so strong and brave and I know tonight was definitely the best of a tricky situation for everyone. Thanks for shedding light for our friends who definitely need our hand these days. We appreciate it.”
On Twitter, Daily Wire host and professional transphobe Matt Walsh reposted video from the concert.
Lizzo isn’t the first high-profile musician to protest the Tennessee law. In March, Yo La Tengo’s Ira Kaplan and James McNew appeared in drag onstage at a show at Nashville venue The Basement East. Sheryl Crow, Maren Morris, and Hozier were among the line-up at the March 20 “Love Rising” concert benefiting Tennessee Equality Project, Inclusion Tennessee, Out Memphis, and the Tennesee Pride Chamber in Partnership with the Looking Out Foundation at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena. Meanwhile, Madonna recently added a Nashville stop on her upcoming “Celebration” tour with opener Bob the Drag Queen specifically calling out the state’s anti-drag law and pledging a portion of the proceeds from the show to organizations advocating for transgender rights.
