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Olympian-turned-doctor ‘made herself a target’ by offering gender-affirming healthcare to trans kids

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Dr Michelle Telfer, who represented Australia in gymnastics at the 1992 Olympic Games, has described how she “made herself a big target” by becoming a global leader in caring for trans kids. In a short documentary for ABC News In-depth, Telfer explained that after the end of her gymnastics career at the age of 18, she was inspired to become a doctor by those who had treated her various sports injuries. She said: “I was trying to decide between doing paediatrics or doing psychiatry. And then in paediatrics, I found adolescent medicine, which is that perfect combination of paediatrics and mental health… I’d found […]

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In the Southeast, heightened danger and few protections for trans people

Before the coronavirus pandemic tore through the U.S., resulting in nearly 600,000 deaths and a slew of collateral damage, transgender people across the Southeast were participating in self-defense classes catered specifically to them. The courses, organized by LGBTQ advocacy group Campaign for Southern Equality, had one goal: to teach trans people to protect themselves should they be the target of an attack.  The campaign saw the classes as a necessity, with trans Americans facing disproportionate levels of violence — including record levels of reported fatal violence against the community. “When folks are being attacked and murdered, helping with a name change doesn’t really do much […]

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Meet the gay couple who exploited a legal loophole to marry way back in 1971

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Long before the push for marriage equality truly began, before Obergefell v Hodges, before the Defense of Marriage Act, there was Jack and Michael McConnell. This year Jack and Michael will celebrate 51 years of happy marriage, making them longest-wed same-sex couple in the world. They were also the very first. Thanks to a clever legal loophole they managed to do it as early as 1971, exchanging vows before a Methodist pastor and a dozen guests in a friend’s apartment. Their journey began in 1966, at a Halloween party in Oklahoma where the pair first laid eyes on each other. […]

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5 Trans Activists Discuss the Complexities of “Visibility”

Every year it gets better and worse for the transgender community. March 31 is International Transgender Day of Visibility and the first in four years we’re celebrating under political leadership championing queer and transgender rights.  Politics plays a critical role when it comes to including and empowering transgender people. At the highest level, inclusive laws and protections must be enforced to create equal access to basic human needs like healthcare, housing, and employment.  However, the cis-heteronormative powers that sit in the decision-making chairs have deliberately chosen to exclude and dehumanize transgender and nonbinary folks. This creates inequality that waterfalls into their involvement […]

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Former foster child abandoned for being gay ‘wouldn’t be alive’ if not for his two dads

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A former foster child adopted by two fathers after being abandoned for his sexuality has urged Congress not to stand in the way of loving LGBT+ families like his. On Wednesday Weston Charles-Gallo, a former youth ambassador for the Human Rights Campaign, bravely testified in support of the bipartisan Every Child Deserves a Family Act (ECDF). he bill would prohibit any federally-funded child welfare services from discriminating against prospective parents based solely on their sexual orientation, gender identity or marital status, as well as the sexuality or gender identity of the child involved. This law is critical for young people like Weston, […]

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20 states and DC allow a gender marker of “X” on driver’s licenses, and 13 states allow an “X” gender marker on birth certificates

An estimated 476,000 transgender adults in the U.S. are without any form of identification with the correct gender marker, according to a new report by the Williams Institute at the University of California Los Angeles School of Law. Michigan has the highest percentage of transgender adults without an ID that lists the correct gender (78%), and Delaware has the lowest (31%). Using data from the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey (USTS), researchers estimated the number of transgender people nationally and by state without accurate IDs and examined the relationship between state-level policies and having accurate IDs. Findings show that transgender people […]

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What genderfluid and genderqueer mean, how the terms differ, and how you can be a great ally

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If the traditional gender categories of “male” and “female” feel too restrictive to you, there’s a chance you could be genderfluid or genderqueer. Gender is a spectrum, not a binary, and the words we use to describe it are constantly changing as our language evolves to encompass identities that have always existed, but were previously hidden under the burden of shame. We now have a wider range of gender expression than ever before, which is great! But it’s OK to ask questions. Here’s a breakdown of what it means to be genderqueer and genderfluid, and how the two are different. What is genderqueer? Genderqueer is an […]

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57% of states fall short in providing comprehensive legal protections for LGBTQ+ residents

When making a decision about where one should live, several factors come into play for everyone: housing costs, availability of medical services, access to entertainment, and more. But for the LGBTQ+ community, other questions are top-of-mind. Will I be welcome here? Will I be safe? To help these individuals make an informed decision about the best places to live, our research team compiled state-by-state rankings from over a dozen sources (including the FBI, UCLA School of Law, the U.S. Census, and more). Through this research we’ve created comprehensive safety rankings that highlight some of the best and worst states to […]

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‘We’re not hiding’: Gay and lesbian Russians say a cultural shift is underway

When Lisa Androshina threw her first lesbian party in Moscow in 2017, she had low expectations.  “We wanted to just gather with our friends and just listen to cool music,” Androshina, 34, told NBC News. “We didn’t plan to do anything serious.”  She booked a bar that she said was often empty and invited her friends and some DJs. After a few parties, her event, called LVBZ, grew in popularity.  Androshina, who lives in Moscow, said about 500 people now attend the quarterly LVBZ nighttime dance, which features DJs from around the world.  Despite the government’s anti-gay restrictions and the […]

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What does intersex mean, and how is it different from transgender?

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Intersex people have been around for as long as humans have, yet they’ve been shrouded in secrecy and ignorance for much of our history. The truth is that these traits are perfectly natural and far more common than many people realise. Up to 1.7 percent of the world population is born intersex, a figure roughly equivalent to the number of redheads. Nowadays, growing numbers of intersex people are casting aside the historical stigma and proudly embracing their identity as members of the community. Here’s a breakdown on what it means to be born outside the gender binary. What is intersex? Intersex people are […]

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