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Call To Action: Urge Your Representatives to Make Schools Safe for :LGBTQI+ Students

Our nation’s schools face longstanding challenges in preventing and effectively responding to instances of bullying and harassment. AAUW’s research has shown alarming rates of harassment, bullying and assault in schools and on campuses. Research also shows that LGTBQ+ young people experience higher rates of bullying than their non-LGBTQ+ peers. Bullying and harassment interfere with a student’s ability to achieve high standards and have a significant impact on GPAs, school attendance, dropout rates, and likelihood of completing college.  Simply put, students can’t learn if they do not feel safe. Ask your representative to support the Safe Schools Improvement Act!  The Safe Schools […]

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These Men Say Their Utah Therapist Touched Them Inappropriately During Sessions Paid for by the LDS Church

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This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with The Salt Lake Tribune. Sign up for Dispatches to get stories like this one as soon as they are published. This story discusses sexual assault. Three additional men have come forward to say a therapist recommended and paid for by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints touched them inappropriately during counseling sessions related to struggles with their sexuality. The men’s statements follow allegations by three others, previously reported by The Salt Lake Tribune and ProPublica, that clinical mental health counselor Scott Owen touched them sexually during therapy. The three who most […]

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Leading homophobic nations bid for 2036 Olympics

I am writing this shortly after being released from “house arrest” in Mumbai, India. I came here, where the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is meeting, to lobby them against awarding the 2036 Olympics to a homophobic regime. Some of the world’s leading anti-LGBTQIA tyrannies are bidding to stage the games, including Qatar, China, Turkey, Indonesia, Egypt and Hungary. Giving any of them the Olympics would not be consistent with an event the IOC claims will “celebrate humanity.” I thought India was a democracy but I was wrong. The day after I arrived in Mumbai, six police officers turned up at […]

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LGBTQIA+ and progressive communities have a Palestine problem; supporting Israel is not the answer

For 11 excruciating days now, I have been in tears and terrified for the safety of my blind mother, paralyzed father and two siblings in the Gaza Strip.  For 11 days, I have been watching horrific Israeli violence defying humanity while being fully supported by the U.S. — liberals and conservatives alike — with the stated intent of destroying the lives of more than two million people, including my family and loved ones. This intent and the magnitude of the destruction and loss of life make a textbook example of genocide, defined as:  Any of the following acts committed with […]

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18 GOP attorneys general file brief accusing doctors of lying to make money with needless trans care

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Eighteen state attorneys general signed a brief asking a federal judge in Florida to allow states to ban gender-affirming care for transgender people from being covered under state Medicaid programs, using inflammatory language to explain why trans people shouldn’t have equal access to health care. Last year, the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) finalized a rule banning healthcare providers from billing the state’s Medicaid program for trans people’s gender-affirming care, a rule that covered puberty blockers, hormone therapies, and surgical procedures for adults. Medicaid is a joint federal and state program providing healthcare coverage for low-income people. Related: Four trans […]

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Japan Court Rules Against Mandatory Transgender Sterilization

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A Japanese family court has ruled that the country’s requirement that transgender people be surgically sterilized to change their legal gender is unconstitutional. The ruling is the first of its kind in Japan, and comes as the Supreme Court considers a separate case about the same issue. In 2021, Gen Suzuki, a transgender man, filed a court request to have his legal gender recognized as male without undergoing sterilization surgery as prescribed by national law. This week the Shizuoka Family Court ruled in his favor, with the judge writing: “Surgery to remove the gonads has the serious and irreversible result of loss of reproductive function. […]

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Philadelphia becomes safe haven for trans people seeking gender-affirming healthcare

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Philadelphia has become a safe haven for trans people seeking gender-affirming healthcare. On Tuesday (17 October), mayor Jim Kenney signed an executive order at City Hall, giving anyone who goes to the state access to treatment. The executive order prohibits the local government from using any resources to assist states seeking to investigate or punish people for providing or receiving gender-affirming care in the Pennsylvanian city, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.  Ahead of signing executive order 4-23, Kenney said: “We won’t help those who seek to discriminate against trans people.”  Sultan Shakir, the president and executive officer of the Mazzoni Center, a […]

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FBI crime statistics show anti-LGBTQ hate crimes on the rise

Anti-LGBTQ hate crimes rose sharply in 2022, jumping more than 19 percent over 2021, according to the FBI’s annual crime report released Monday. More than 11,600 hate crime incidents were reported to the FBI in 2022, the highest number recorded since the agency began tracking them in 1991. A majority of hate crimes recorded last year targeted Black people, according to the report. Hate crimes targeting LGBTQ people were up significantly compared with 2021, with 622 reported single-bias, anti-LGBTQ hate crimes. Hate crimes motivated by an anti-transgender bias rose more than 35 percent year over year, reaching 338 incidents. Kelley Robinson, president of the […]

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India’s Top Court Rejects Marriage Equality in Landmark LGBTQ+ Ruling

 India’s top court has declined to legally recognize same-sex unions in a landmark ruling that also emphasized the rights of the LGBTQcommunity to be free of prejudice and discrimination. Campaigners had sought to obtain the right to marry under Indian law, giving them access to the same privileges extended to heterosexual couples, but while that was denied they welcomed the court’s recognition of their relationships. A five-judge constitution bench led by India’s chief justice delivered the much-anticipated verdict on Tuesday, streamed live across the nation and to crowds outside the court who gathered to watch on their cellphones. During the two-hour ruling, […]

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Anti-LGBTQ+ Vandals Wage War on Washington’s Safe Spaces

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Homophobic vandals have attacked multiple LGBTQ+ targets in eastern Washington this month, painting over a rainbow crosswalk, defacing an LGBTQ+ youth resource center with antigay slurs, destroying Halloween decorations, and ripping down a flag at the home of a local politician. The Odyssey Youth Movement in the South Perry neighborhood of Spokane suffered three consecutive nights of vandalism this month, according to local NBC affiliate KHQ. The sign and rainbow crosswalk outside its facility were defaced with paint on October 5. The following evening the property was again defaced with hateful slurs painted on the doors, windows, and sign. And on October 7, witnesses […]

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