An eastern Ohio man told investigators that he tried to burn down an Ohio church because he wanted to prevent a drag show that was scheduled to take place there, federal prosecutors allege in newly unsealed charges.
Aimenn Penny, a 20-year-old from Alliance who is a member of a “white lives matter” group that espouses racist and neo-Nazi views, tried to burn down the Community Church of Chesterland early on March 25, authorities allege in court documents unsealed Monday. Chesterland is a small community east of Cleveland.
According to the criminal complaint, Penny said he tried to burn down the church using Molotov cocktails because he wanted to “protect the children and stop the drag show event.” He also regretted that it didn’t work, authorities said.
According to court documents, Aimenn D. Penny, 20, of Alliance, attempted to burn the church to the ground after learning the church was holding multiple drag show events the following weekend.
Penny was initially arrested and charged with federal offenses on March 31. If convicted, Penny faces a maximum penalty of up to 20 years in prison for the violation of the Church Arson Prevention Act.
Penny also faces a mandatory minimum of five years and up to 20 years in prison for the malicious use of explosive materials charge and up to 10 years in prison for the possession of a destructive device charge.
In addition, if convicted of using fire to commit a federal felony, Penny faces a 10-year mandatory prison sentence that will run consecutively with any other prison term imposed
Rep. Zooey Zephyr, the first openly transgender woman elected to the Montana Legislature, held her microphone in the air during a House session Monday as her supporters chanted “Let her speak!” from the gallery.
For the third day in a row, Zephyr’s House colleagues refused to allow her to speak on bills that would restrict the rights of transgender people. The refusal followed a comment she made last week during a hearing on a bill that seeks to ban gender-affirming care for minors.
“I hope the next time there’s an invocation, when you bow your heads in prayer, you see the blood on your hands,” Zephyr, a Democrat, said while debating the bill on April 18.
That evening, the Montana Freedom Caucus, a group of 21 Montana Republicans, called for the House to censure Zephyr and misgendered her, using the incorrect pronouns to refer to her in a statement and social media post.
“This kind of hateful rhetoric from an elected official is exactly why tragedies such as the Covenant Christian School shooting in Nashville occurred,” they also said in the statement.
Though the House did not hold a vote to censure Zephyr, two days later House Speaker Rep. Matt Regier refused to recognize Zephyr and allow her to speak on a bill that would define sex under state law as only male or female, and determined only by biology and genetics “without regard to an individual’s psychological, behavioral, social, chosen, or subjective experience of gender.”
Both the House rules committee and the full House, where Republicans outnumber Democrats by more than 2 to 1, voted to uphold Regier’s decision despite repeated protests from Democrats.
“It’s about everybody having equal access to this floor to be able to discuss and to be able to represent their community,” state Rep. Sharon Stewart Peregoy, a Democrat, said Thursday, the Montana Standard reported. “And I believe that where we’re at is we are being discriminatory.”
In a statement shared on social media after Thursday’s House session, Zephyr said, “No amount of silencing tactics will deter me from standing up for the rights of the transgender community.”
“This year, I have lost friends to suicide, and I have listened to the heart-wrenching stories of families dealing with suicide attempts, trans youth fleeing the state, and people being attacked on the side of road — all due to legislation like this,” she said in the statement.
Republicans have called on her to apologize for her remarks last week, but Zephyr said she has no intentions of doing so.
“Montana Republicans say they want an apology, but what they really want is silence as they take away the rights of queer and trans Montanans,” she said in her statement Thursday.
Republicans continued to block Zephyr from speaking Friday, including on bills unrelated to LGBTQ people. On Monday, some of her supporters delivered a petition with more than 3,000 signatures to Regier’s office, according to KTVH-TV, an NBC affiliate in Helena.
Some of Zephyr’s supporters rallied on the Capitol steps Monday and at one point displayed banners across the front steps that read “Democracy dies here.”
Republicans voted again Monday afternoon to continue to block Zephyr from speaking and, after they did, protesters in the gallery shouted “Let her speak!” until they forced the House to halt proceedings. Zephyr held her microphone in the air.
Seven people were arrested for criminal trespass, the sheriff said. Regier’s office shared a statement Monday night describing the events as a “riot.”
“House Republicans condemn violence and will always stand for civil debate and respect for our processes of government,” Regier said in a joint statement with Rep. Sue Vinton, House majority leader, and Rep. Rhonda Knudsen, speaker pro tempore. “Today’s riot by far-left agitators damages our discourse and endangered legislators and staff.”
The Montana Freedom Caucus called for immediate disciplinary action against Zephyr in a statement Monday, saying she stood on the House floor and encouraged “an insurrection.”
Zephyr said in a statement that she raised her microphone to stand in solidarity with those who “protested on behalf of their democratic right to be heard.”
“As an elected representative, I am devoted to supporting those who speak in defense of democracy, as it is my duty to ensure their voices are heard and respected,” she said.
Koko Da Doll, one of the subjects of a forthcoming documentary on transgender women, was fatally shot in Atlanta this week, the film’s publicist said Friday. She was 35.
Cinetic Media, the publicity firm representing “Kokomo City,” which highlights the stories four Black transgender sex workers in New York City and Georgia, confirmed by email that Koko Da Doll was the transgender woman killed Tuesday in Atlanta.
Atlanta police and the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office have not publicly released the identity of the victim in Tuesday’s shooting.
The homicide is the third fatal shooting of a transgender woman in the city since the beginning of the year, the police department said in a statement Friday.
“While these individual incidents are not related, we are very aware of the epidemic-level violence that black and brown transgender women face in America,” the department said.
Koko Da Doll in Park City, Utah, on Jan. 21, 2023.Neilson Barnard / Getty Images file
Tuesday’s shooting was reported at 10:42 p.m. at an address that corresponds to a shopping center, Atlanta police said. The victim was dead at the scene, police said.
Like the two other attacks this year on transgender women — one Jan. 9 that followed a dispute and one April 11 that also followed a dispute — the case was still under investigation, police said.
Police said there’s no evidence so far to suggest the victims were targeted because of their gender.
“Our investigators have not found any indication the victim was targeted for being transgender or a member of the LGBTQ+ community and these cases do not appear to be random acts of violence,” the department said.
GLAAD announced the death of Koko Da Doll, who was also known by the name Rasheeda Williams, on Friday and stated, “Williams should be alive today.”
“All transgender people deserve to live in safety and acceptance, beloved by their families, communities, and able to contribute to a world where all are more free,” the LGBTQ advocacy group said.
The documentary’s director, D. Smith, told Variety the killing was difficult for her to process.
“I created ‘Kokomo City’ because I wanted to show the fun, humanized, natural side of Black trans women,” she said. “But here we are again.”
During its January premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, “Kokomo City” received three major accolades, including the Sundance Audience Award.
Its public release date was not available.
Producer Harris Doran said in an Instagram post Thursday that he was grief stricken, especially because Koko Da Doll was advancing her life and finding some success as a rapper.
“This tragedy is just unbearable to process,” he said. “Koko was working so hard to get out. She is brilliant in the film and when you see it, you will fall in love with her just as we all have.”
Daniella Carter, one of the other subjects of the documentary, also posted a heartfelt statement on her Instagram page Thursday.
“I’m waiting here my arms wide open, tears running down my face,” she said, “Ready for you to return even if it takes forever my sister.”
Over the centuries, lesbians and other queer women have pushed the world forward, often challenging norms and defying the expectations of their times. From 1700s England to the contemporary shores of New York’s Fire Island, these women forged new paths and made a space for others to do the same.
Some of those on this list lived at a time when there was no language for queer identity as in the present time, and often could not come out due to societal restrictions and concerns for their own safety. Like much of LGBTQ history, identifying who someone was requires squinting through the haze of the past and reading between the lines of diaries, historical records and second-hand accounts.
What is certain, though, is that queer women have always been around, even if their circumstances forced them to obscure their full selves.
Anne Lister (1791-1840)
Anne Lister.Visual Arts Resource / Alamy Stock Photo
Anne Lister, who has been described as “the first modern lesbian,” was born in northern England and lived during the height of the Industrial Revolution. Educated, wealthy and masculine in appearance, she had relationships with women beginning at an early age and by all accounts was unabashedly queer and self-assured, navigating her way around polite society while excelling as a businesswoman. Her womanizing reputation earned her the nickname “Gentleman Jack,” the latter part being a slur for lesbian at the time, but the name was reclaimed on Lister’s behalf, thanks to the BBC-HBO series “Gentleman Jack,” which ran from 2019 to 2022.
Though she did not use the word “lesbian” to describe herself, she wrote in her diary in 1821, “I love and only love the fairer sex and thus beloved by them in turn, my heart revolts from any love but theirs.” Lister married her neighbor and fellow landowner, Ann Walker, in 1834 at a church in York, England, an event considered to be the first recorded lesbian wedding in the history of Britain. Though it is unclear exactly what transpired at the church, experts are in agreement that the pair made vows to each other and exchanged rings. There was no legal recognition of the marriage at the time, but a commemorative plaque adorns the church and celebrates their union.
Dr. Margaret ‘Mom’ Chung (1889-1959)
Margaret Chung in 1942. AP
Dr. Margaret Chung is best known as the first Chinese American woman to become a physician — and lesser known as a queer woman who attracted a clientele of lesbian couples and women seeking birth control.
Chung graduated from medical school in 1916 and was known to wear a dark suit and carry a parakeet around in a cage dangling from her wrist. During the 1930s and 1940s, she became known as “Mom Chung” for her support of U.S. troops, “adopting” hundreds of them, sending care packages and hosting soldiers for Sunday dinners at her home in San Francisco. Although Chung never came out, she did reportedly have intimate relationships with women, and rumors of her sexuality followed her throughout her life. A plaque hanging on Chicago’s Legacy Walk, which commemorates the contributions of LGBTQ people, celebrates her life.
Djuna Barnes (1892-1982)
Djuna Barnes in 1930.adoc-photos / Corbis via Getty Images
Djuna Barnes was an avant-garde writer best known for her 1936 title “Nightwood,” one of the earliest lesbian novels to be published by an American writer. Barnes’ other well-known works include “Ladies Almanack,” published in 1928 and described as “a gentle satire of literary lesbians,” and the 1958 play “The Antiphon,” which The Paris Review described as a work that “concerns the war of wills within a family, primarily between a middle-aged woman and her mother.”
Barnes was a journalist before she was a novelist, poet and playwright. Her reporting stood out for being sensationalist and immersive, and she often tackled the political issues of her day. For an assignment published in New York World Magazine in 1914, Barnes submitted to being force-fed in prison, something that was being used on suffragists as they carried out hunger strikes.
Gluck (1895-1978)
Gluck in 1932.Fox Photos / Getty Images
An artist who defied the expectations of her day, Gluck was a British painter born Hannah Gluckstein in 1895. It is not clear how she would identify using the modern day’s vernacular, or if she would’ve considered herself a lesbian, but what is known is she had her short hair cut at a gentleman’s hairdresser, wore men’s suiting, kept a dagger hanging off her belt and was referred to as “Peter” among close friends, or as “Tim” by a female lover.
Gluck came from a wealthy family, and her privilege both insulated her and offered her the freedom to live a more open life. She had relationships with several women, including a playwright and society woman named Nesta Obermer. Gluck referred to Nesta as“my own darling wife,” and “my divine sweetheart, my love, my life.” She painted a portrait of them together, which later became the cover of “The Well of Loneliness,” a novel published by British author Radclyffe Hall in 1928 that is regarded as the first lesbian novel in the English language.
Gladys Bentley (1907-1960)
Gladys Bentley in 1930.Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images
Gladys Bentley was a singer, piano player and entertainer who performed in the 1920s and 1930s, in the era that came to be known as the Harlem Renaissance.
Bentley was a powerful performer, and she was known for her top hat, tailored white tuxedos and risque lyrics. She did not conceal her sexuality but celebrated it, flirting with women in the crowd and incorporating a more masculine identity into her performances. She became one of the best-known Black entertainers of the time, and at the height of her fame she moved from Harlem to Park Avenue and had a team of servants. Bentley left New York in the late 1930s and performed throughout California, most notably Mona’s 440 Club, the first lesbian bar in San Francisco.
Chavela Vargas (1919-2012)
Chavela Vargas in 1973. Gianni Ferrari / Getty Images
Born in Costa Rica in 1919, Chavela Vargas was 14 years old when she fled to Mexico with dreams of becoming a singer. She became one of Mexico’s best-known female singers, achieving dominance in the world of canción ranchera, a style that often includes broken hearts and unrequited love, mournful ballads traditionally told from a man’s perspective.
Vargas rose to fame in the 1960s and 1970s, and had a reputation for being macho and drinking hard. While rumors long swirled about her being a lesbian, she didn’t come out until she was 81 years old, in an interview from the 1990s included in the 2017 film “Chavela.”
“When you’re true to yourself, you win in the end,” Vargas said.
Rosalie ‘Rose’ Bamberger (1921-1990)
In the 1950s, Rosalie “Rose” Bamberger had the idea to form a secret society for lesbians. The bars were constantly being raided, and Bamberger was looking to give women a space to meet one another that would be safe and private. She also wanted to dance without being arrested.
The first meeting was at Bamberger’s house in 1955, which she shared with her partner Rosemary Sliepen. The private club became The Daughters of Bilitis and morphed into the first lesbian rights group in the United States — and one that would eventually be surveilled by the CIA and the FBI. Though the club was Bamberger’s idea, she only lasted as a member for about six months, after a disagreement on the direction of the organization concerning her own safety as a working class woman of color.
Lorraine Hansberry (1930-1965)
Lorraine Hansberry in 1959. David Attie / Getty Images
Lorraine Hansberry is best known for her 1959 play “A Raisin in the Sun,” about racial segregation in Chicago. It became the first play written by an African American woman to be produced on Broadway, and Hansberry, at 29 years old, became the first Black playwright and youngest American to win a New York Critics’ Circle Award. Activism was central to her life, and issues of racial equality, feminism and queer identity were all themes in her work.
She lived in New York’s Greenwich Village, which enabled her to have a more expansive life than was typically possible for women in the 1960s. Hansberry did not publicly come out during her lifetime, and most of what we know about her sexuality comes from her diary entries and other personal writings.
In a journal entry in 1962, she wrote, “The thing that makes you exceptional, if you are at all, is inevitably that which must also make you lonely.”
Barbara Gittings (1932-2007)
Barbara Gittings in 1972. Kay Tobin New York Public Library
Barbara Gittings, often referred to as the “mother of the LGBTQ civil rights movement,” began her activism in the late 1950s — about a decade before the first brick was thrown during the 1969 Stonewall uprising.
She founded the New York chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis and edited The Ladder, the first nationally distributed lesbian publication in America.
In the 1960s, she marched in picket lines at the White House, the State Department and Independence Hall in Philadelphia. Later, she was key in the 1973 decision by the American Psychiatric Association to end its classification of homosexuality as a mental illness. An advocate of education and books as a necessity for freedom and representation, she joined the gay caucus of the American Library Association in the 1970s. An LGBTQ library collection is named in her honor at the Independence Branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia.
Esther Newton (Born 1940)
Esther Newton attends the screening of “Esther Newton Made Me Gay” on June 5, 2022, in New York.John Lamparski / Getty Images file
Esther Newton is an anthropologist whose 1968 dissertation was titled “The Drag Queens: A Study in Urban Anthropology,” a work that foreshadowed her career as a trailblazer questioning and challenging societal expectations of gender, sexuality and anthropological methods. Newton’s dissertation became her first book, “Mother Camp: Female Impersonators in America,” which examined the world of drag bars in the Midwest in the 1960s. It was the first anthropological study of a queer community in the U.S., and that study would lead to a lifetime of work that provided a foundation for countless LGBTQ activists and scholars.
Hungary’s president rejected a bill that would enable citizens to report anonymously same-sex families to authorities, a rare rebuke from an otherwise loyal ally of Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
The draft law approved by parliament earlier this month would allow people to report those who contest the “constitutionally recognized role of marriage and the family” and those who deny children’s rights “to an identity appropriate to their sex at birth.”
President Katalin Novak sent the bill back to parliament for reconsideration, saying that it weakens rather than strengthens constitutional protections. While lawmakers can still override Novak’s veto, her letter contains unusually sharp criticism from a member of Orban’s self-styled “illiberal” leadership.
Orbán has been clamping down on LGBTQ+ rights for more than a decade. A year after he came to power, in 2010, his party passed a new constitution that bans same-sex marriage. Later, the document was amended to bar same-sex couples from adopting children.
This has pit Budapest against Brussels, with the European Commission taking Hungary to the bloc’s highest courts for passing a law that the EU executive believes discriminates against people on the basis of their sexual orientation and gender identity.
The European Parliament and European Commission, along with more than a dozen European countries, have joined the lawsuit against the law.
It’s worth noting that after being elected, last year Novak appeared on Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network to boast about her anti-abortion and “anti-radical gender ideology” positions.
City officials in Port St. Lucie, Florida, have canceled a planned Pride parade in anticipation of Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signing into law a bill aimed at banning drag shows and, in the words of one state Republican, “erasing” the LGBTQ+ community. Ongoing festivities scheduled to take place this weekend will now be restricted to those who are 21 and older.
On Wednesday, Pride of the Treasure Coast, Inc., announced the move in a Facebook post, citing the current “political climate” in Florida.
Florida’s biggest LGBTQ+ organization says their state “may not be a safe place” anymore.
“After multiple meetings with city officials, it is with a heavy heart that Pride Alliance of the Treasure Coast has to announce that this weekend’s Pridefest will now be a 21 and older event,” the post read. “The city has decided that with the likelihood that the Governor will sign the latest bill into effect this evening, that we will need to be on the side of caution and has required us to make this necessary change.”
As of Friday morning, DeSantis has yet to sign the bill into law, though he is widely expected to.
“We are obviously upset and dishearten that it has come to this,” the post continued. “We also regret to announce that we will have to cancel our plans to bring back our beloved parade.”
Pride of the Treasure Coast added that they will be announcing “a family friendly Party in the Park where our youth can celebrate who they are.”
S.B. 1438, which was passed by the Florida House of Representatives in an 82–32 vote on Wednesday, prohibits government entities from issuing permits to organizations that may hold “adult live performances” in the presence of minors. The bill defines “adult live performance” as “any show, exhibition, or other presentation in front of a live audience which, in whole or in part, depicts or simulates nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement, or specific sexual activities… lewd conduct, or the lewd exposure of prosthetic or imitation genitals or breasts.”
While it does not specifically mention drag, Republican politicians across the country have increasingly targeted drag performances and family-friendly events like drag queen story hours, characterizing them as sexually explicit adult entertainment.
As The New Republic notes, the language of the Florida bill is so vaguely worded that Pride organizations across the state have expressed concerns that they could lose permits for their upcoming events a little over a month before the start of LGBTQ+ Pride Month in June. The American Civil Liberties Union has called the bill “an extreme governmental overreach of power.”
Friends and family are mourning Ashley Burton, a Black trans hairstylist who was murdered earlier this month.
Atlanta police reportedly found the 37-year-old’s body shortly after 4:30am on April 11 in the breezeway of her apartment complex. Investigators say she was shot inside her home before fleeing outside, where she collapsed. So far a suspect has not been named, but according to 11 Alive, police believe this was a domestic-related shooting.
One activist said she is even considering detransitioning for her own safety.
A friend told Fox 5that Burton, a South Carolina native who moved to Atlanta to pursue a career as a makeup artist and hairstylist, “was a very sweet young lady. She was very full of life really. It was always smiles and laughs with us whenever we work together.”
Burton’s mother and brother said they were unaware of any enemies she may have had and that they do not believe her gender identity had anything to do with her murder.
“Ashley was very loved all the way across the board, like from South Carolina to Atlanta,” Burton’s brother Patrick said. “The way my sibling moved in life, it was…take it or leave it. ‘This is how I am.’ You can respect it or neglect it, but Ashley put it out there and let that person know. It’s not going to be a secret.”
“I just want justice for my cousin,” she said. “I’m tired of all these incidents with transgender women just being pushed up under the rug. We are human beings.”
Burton is at least the ninth trans or nonbinary person to die by violence in the U.S. this year, according to Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents. The blog also notes that Burton was initially deadnamed and misgendered by both law enforcement and media following her death.
“I agree with Ashley’s cousin,” York said, “we are tired of the murders of trans women being pushed under the rug. They deserve justice, and their family, friends, and loved ones deserve closure. Local law enforcement must make solving the murders of trans people and protecting the community a priority. Our trans brothers and sisters deserve to live their lives without fear.”
Atlanta police are requesting that anyone with information about Burton’s murder call 404-577-8477.
A Missouri man was sentenced to nearly 22 years in prison Thursday for a hate crime after shooting a gay teen in May 2019.
Malachi Robinson, 25, shot the teen, who is referred to as M.S. in court documents, eight times after meeting him at the Kansas City Public Library and luring him into the woods under the guise of looking for a place to engage in a sexual act, according to the United States Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Missouri.
On the day Robinson met M.S., who was 16 at the time, he messaged his girlfriend about M.S. and said, “He tryna set me up on sumn now, gonna unfriend him, might shoot this boy if he try some gay shit,” according to court documents.
In the days after the shooting, Robinson told a friend in a message that he had shot someone because “he was being gay af and following me like a mf,” according to court documents. Before his arrest on June 3, 2019, Robinson Googled phrases including “how to get away with murder in real life” and the victim’s name with the word “shot,” according to the documents.
M.S. was taken to a hospital in critical condition and remained hospitalized for two weeks. The department said he has suffered “long-term effects of the shooting,” including having to undergo multiple surgeries and physical therapy. He also still has several bullets inside of him, the attorney’s office said.
As part of a plea deal, Robinson pleaded guilty to one count of a hate crime involving an attempt to kill and was sentenced to 21 years and 10 months in prison without parole, according to the plea.
“This defendant’s sentence holds him accountable for the violent and callous hate crime perpetrated against a defenseless teenager targeted because of their LGBTQ+ status,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a news release. “Recent FBI data makes clear that hate crimes targeting the LGBTQ+ community persist and this sentence should send a strong message to the perpetrators of these crimes that they will be held accountable.”
The FBI’s supplemental 2021 hate crime statistics found that hate crimes increased 11.6% nationally from 8,120 in 2020 to 9,065 in 2021. Out of over 10,500 single-bias incidents involving 12,411 victims, the majority — 64.5% — were targeted due to the offenders’ bias against their race, ethnicity or ancestry, followed by 15.9% who were targeted because of the offenders’ bias against their sexual orientation, 14.1% who were targeted because of the offenders’ bias against their religion, and 3.2% who were targeted due to the offenders’ bias against their gender identity.
Over the last two years, LGBTQ people, venues and events have increasingly become the targets of violence.
North Dakota’s Republican Gov. Doug Burgum signed a bill into law that restricts transgender health care in the state, immediately making it a crime to give gender-affirming care to people younger than 18.
Gender-affirming care for minors has been available in the U.S. for more than a decade and is endorsed by major medical associations, but it has increasingly come under attack in many conservative legislatures, including North Dakota’s, where lawmakers have passed at least three bills targeting trans people this year.
The measure that Burgum signed Wednesday received veto-proof support from GOP lawmakers — though some Republicans did vote against it, alongside all Democrats.
In a statement released Thursday morning, Burgum said the law is “aimed at protecting children from the life-altering ramifications of gender reassignment surgeries” but he added that medical professionals have testified these surgeries have not been and are not being performed on minors in North Dakota.
He said the law still allows medication treatment for early onset puberty and other rare circumstances with parental consent, and minors currently receiving gender-affirming care will still be able to receive treatment.
“Going forward, thoughtful debate around these complex medical policies should demonstrate compassion and understanding for all North Dakota youth and their families,” he said.
The new law takes immediate effect and allows prosecutors to charge a health care provider with a felony — up to 10 years in prison and $20,000 in fines — for performing sex reassignment surgery on a minor.
It also enables prosecutors to charge a provider with a misdemeanor — up to 360 days in prison and $3,000 in fines — for giving gender-affirming medication, like puberty blockers or hormone therapy, to a trans child.
The American Civil Liberties Union of North Dakota denounced the new law as “a vast government overreach that undermines the fundamental rights of parents” and that violates constitutional guarantees of equal protection and due process by singling out gender-affirming care for prohibition.
“By signing this bill into law, Gov. Burgum has put the government in charge of making vital decisions traditionally reserved for parents in North Dakota,” Cody Schuler, the group’s advocacy manager, said in a statement. “This ban won’t stop North Dakotans from being trans, but it will deny them critical support that helps struggling transgender youth grow up to become thriving transgender adults.”
Earlier this month, Burgum also signed a transgender athlete ban into law after it similarly passed the House and Senate with veto-proof majorities. In 2021, Burgum vetoed a bill that would have imposed a transgender athlete ban at that time, but House and Senate lawmakers did not have enough votes back then to override his veto.
North Dakota joins at least 13 other states that have enacted laws restricting or banning gender-affirming care for minors.
Republican lawmakers across the country have advanced hundreds of measures aimed at nearly every facet of trans existence this year.
That includes bans on gender-affirming medical care for minors, restrictions on the types of restrooms transgender people can use, measures restricting classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity, and bills that would out transgender students who want teachers to address them by the pronouns they use.
The Food and Drug Administration approved puberty blockers 30 years ago to treat children with precocious puberty — a condition that causes sexual development to begin much earlier than usual. Sex hormones — synthetic forms of estrogen and testosterone — were approved decades ago to treat hormone disorders or as birth control pills.
The FDA has not approved the medications specifically to treat gender-questioning youth, but they have been used for many years for that purpose “off label,” a common and accepted practice for many medical conditions. Doctors who treat transgender patients say those decades of use are proof the treatments are not experimental.
Research has shown that transgender youths and adults can be prone to suicidal behavior when forced to live as the sex they were assigned at birth. And critics of legislation to restrict gender-affirming care for children say it’s an attempt by conservatives to motivate their voting base.
Proponents of the measure have raised concerns about children changing their minds. Yet the evidence suggests detransitioning is not as common as opponents of transgender medical treatment for youth contend, though few studies exist and they have their weaknesses.
Michael Denneny, who edited and oversaw the publication of many important LGBTQ-related books, including Randy Shilts’s And the Band Played On, has died at age 80.
Denneny was found dead Saturday at his home in New York City, The Washington Post reports. He most likely had been dead three days, probably due to a heart attack, his brother, Joe Denneny, told the Post.
Denneny had been an editor at St. Martin’s Press since 1977, and he founded an LGBTQ+ imprint, Stonewall Inn Editions, at that company in 1987. It was “the first gay imprint at a major publishing house,” the Post notes. He also was believed to be the first out gay editor at a high-profile publisher.
“It’s probably too much to say that without Michael there would be no gay literature, but it would be a very different landscape, because once he started to publish and show it was possible to write about these lives, writers and other editors were inspired and emboldened,” Keith Kahla, an executive editor at St. Martin’s and Denneny’s former assistant, told the paper.
In his acknowledgments for And the Band Played On, one of the most significant chronicles of the AIDS epidemic, Shilts said his “reporting would never have been transformed into a book if it were not for the faith of” Denneny, who “believed in this project when most in publishing doubted that the epidemic would ever prove serious enough to warrant a major book.”
Denneny brought out books, both fiction and nonfiction, by many other gay authors, including Larry Kramer, Ethan Mordden, Christopher Davis, Larry Duplechan, Malcolm Boyd, Paul Monette, and Edmund White. Several of the works he oversaw dealt with AIDS; The New York Times once noted that he “may have published more books on AIDS than any other editor at a commercial house.”
He “also was known for supporting authors across the literary spectrum,” the Post reports. Among them were Renata Adler, Ntozake Shange, Buckminster Fuller, and Judith Thurman, whose biography Isak Dinesen won the National Book Award. The Oscar-winning 1985 film Out of Africa, starring Meryl Streep and Robert Redford, was based partly on it.
Denneny cofounded the gay literary magazine Christopher Street in 1976 and was an editor there for a time. Starting the publication cost him his job at the Macmillan publishing house. Most recently, he wrote the similarly titled On Christopher Street, a book of gay history since the Stonewall riots of 1969, and it came out just a few weeks ago. Earlier, he had written Lovers and Decent Passions, both nonfiction works about gay life and relationships.
He once said he considered his own community to be the primary audience for LGBTQ+ books. “I was never worried about educating straight people,” he told Gay City News in 2004. “All of us were self-hating. We needed to reformulate gay imaginations, reimagine sex and relationships. The way you do that is with books.”
