Anti-gay remarks made on Saturday by a Hezbollah leader in Lebanon who has recently called for anti-gay violence sparked panic and terror among lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people.
Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah in Lebanon, described same-sex relations as a “sexual perversion,” and warned that gay people’s existence is a “threat to society.”
Days before, on July 22, Nasrallah explicitly incited violence against gay and lesbian people. He called for them to be killed, urged people to use derogatory terms to describe gay people and to “collectively face this phenomenon [homosexuality], by all means necessary, without any limits.”
LGBT people, who already face heightened risks in Lebanon, have reported online harassment and death threats following his July 22 speech.
A gay man residing in Beirut’s southern suburbs told me that, following Nasrallah’s remarks, he received a threat on Grindr, which said: “We will find you and expose you one by one. We have your pictures, chats, and numbers, you “faggots.” We have been monitoring this platform and all the data is ready. The zero hour is here.”
Jack Harrison-Quintana, director of Grindr for Equality, the dating app’s advocacy arm, told Human Rights Watch that Grindr took immediate measures to protect users in Lebanon from such threats.
In a 2023 report, Human Rights Watch reported on the far-reaching offline consequences of online targeting against LGBT people, including being blackmailed and outed, family violence, and arbitrary arrests by Lebanon’s Internal Security Forces.
Lebanon’s government effectively banned pro-LGBT events, due to an unlawful directive issued in June 2022 by Interior Minister Bassam al-Mawlawi. In November, following a court order to suspend the directive, al-Mawlawi issued a second directive banning any “conference, activity, or demonstration related to or addressing homosexuality.” Since 2017, Lebanese security forces have regularly interfered with human rights events related to gender and sexuality.
Still, activism, including around the rights of LGBT people, will continue in Lebanon. Government and nongovernment actors should uphold freedom of expression and assembly for LGBT people and rights defenders, and not attempt to undermine their fundamental human rights.
LGBTQ+ advocacy groups, including the Human Rights Campaign and the Trevor Project, are asking the White House to add gender-affirming care to new rules under consideration by the Department of Health and Human Services, strengthening health privacy protections related to abortion.
The proposed changes to HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, would bar law enforcement officials from accessing information about abortion across state lines in pursuit of prosecutions in states where the procedure has been drastically limited.
Like the right to abortion, access to gender-affirming care for minors has been severely curtailed or legislated out of existence in many states under the grip of right-wing fundamentalists.
About 20 red state legislatures have enacted laws banning gender-affirming care for minors. Most are tied up in court, while in July, judges in Kentucky and Tennessee allowed bans to go into effect as objections make their way through the judicial system.
“Right now, there is such an extreme attack that’s happening on the transgender community,” Michael Ulrich, a Boston University law professor, told Bloomberg Law, referring to new laws that would subject parents and healthcare workers to prosecution for providing children with trans care.
Expanding privacy protections to gender-affirming treatment would bring it “into the fold with health care” in general, Ulrich said.
“I would like to see a rule coming out of HHS that protects the privacy of health information related to gender-affirming care,” said Casey Pick, director of law and policy at the Trevor Project.
If an “individual leaves their state to go somewhere else to receive that care, that home state should not be able to drag back health information about what care an individual received somewhere else where that care was entirely legal,” Pick said.
With or without the addition of gender-affirming care, the new rules, proposed in April, are drawing fire from conservatives seeking to protect their Supreme Court win a year ago in June.
Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX), J.D. Vance (R-OH), and 28 other GOP lawmakers have condemned the proposed changes for attempting “to undermine enforcement of Federal and State abortion laws, simply because this administration disagrees” with Dobbs.
The Supreme Court “returned the power to regulate or prohibit abortion back to people and their elected representatives,” they wrote in a letter criticizing the proposed changes.
In June, the Human Rights Campaign added their voice to the chorus of organizations calling on President Joe Biden to add gender-affirming care to the rules, with an expansion of protections of personal health information to “transgender, gender nonconforming, and other gender minority individuals’ PHI related to gender-affirming care.”
According to estimates by the Williams Institute, over 1.6 million adults and youth in the U.S. identify as transgender.
Laurel Sakai, Planned Parenthood’s national director for public policy and government affairs, said the parallels between the far-right’s attacks on abortion and the trans community are clear and call for similar responses.
It’s “concerning to see politicians taking the same approaches” in going after people for gender-affirming care, Sakai said. They’re the same as attacks on the right to abortion and “all sexual reproductive health,” she wrote in support of the addition of gender-affirming care protections to the HIPAA rules.
Georgetown Law professor Lawrence Gostin said a Supreme Court challenge to the rules change was inevitable, with congressional authority and previous “very aggressive” Supreme Court rulings around religious freedom at play.
“This is squarely in the Supreme Court’s judicial danger zone,” he said.
A federal judge in Arkansas temporarily stopped a new law in the state that would have authorized criminal prosecution of librarians and bookstores who provide juveniles with “harmful” materials, the Associated Press reports.
Judge Timothy L. Brooks enjoined the law, which would have constructed a new process for contesting library materials for relocation to locations not accessible by children. Former TrumpWhite House Press Secretary and current Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed the measure earlier this year, with an August 1 effective date.
Libraries and booksellers would be chilled from carrying titles that could be challenged if they fear prosecution under the law, according to a coalition that includes the Central Arkansas Library System.
The judge also rejected the defendant’s motion to dismiss the case sought by state lawyers.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas praised the court’s ruling, stating that this law would have imperiled First Amendment rights without a preliminary injunction.
“The question we had to ask was — do Arkansans still legally have access to reading materials? Luckily, the judicial system has once again defended our highly valued liberties,” Holly Dickson, ACLU of Arkansas executive director, said.
It comes as lawmakers in conservative states force measures to make the ban or restriction of books easier. Last year, the American Library Association recorded the most attempts to ban or ban books in the U.S. in 20 years.
Laws have been enacted in Iowa, Indiana, and Texas restricting access to certain materials or making it easier to challenge them.
Florida’s extreme anti-LGBTQ+ laws, including Gov. Ron DeSantis’s “don’t say gay” law, also remove access to publications.
There are 28 local prosecutors from Arkansas and Crawford County who are defendants in the case. The county’s decision to separate children’s books featuring LGBTQ+ themes is the subject of separate litigation.
Gov. Ron DeSantis – one of the most anti-LGBTQ+ governors in history – has yet again stood behind his widely mocked anti-LGBTQ+ campaign video by claiming he is not in favor of “demeaning” anyone.
While speaking to Bret Baier on Fox News, DeSantis took “responsibility” for the ad and yet also continued to defend himself. He said the issues the video brings up (like the fact that Donald Trump expressed support for trans people once, years before he was president) are “totally legitimate.”
“I don’t believe in demeaning anybody, and we have not done that since I’ve been governor,” he said. “These things get shared or whatever — and look, I’m responsible for it, don’t get me wrong. But the idea that I was sitting there like ‘oh, share this video,’ no, it was a rapid response thing.”
DeSantis’s claim that he has not demeaned anyone since his time in office is a direct contrast to the video’s message, which brags about the barrage of legislation he has signed decimating LGBTQ+ rights.
The ad opens with several clips of Trump expressing support for LGBTQ+ people, framing these comments as damning. After the clips of Trump – most of which came from before he was elected president in 2016 – the video abruptly shifts to intense music and a photo of DeSantis shooting lasers out of his eyes, followed by snapshots of headlines about the anti-LGBTQ+ laws DeSantis has passed.
The video proudly shares that DeSantis has been called “evil,” “dangerous,” “draconian,” and “public enemy no. 1” and even includes a clip accusing DeSantis of passing legislation “that literally threatens trans existence.” It also contains images of shirtless buff muscle men inter-spliced with these statements about how DeSantis is hurting LGBTQ+ people in his state.
This pro-DeSantis video purports to contrast Trump’s supposed alignment with LGBTQ folks and DeSantis’ anti-LGBTQ actions.
Ironically, it surrounds DeSantis with homoerotic imagery common on fascist channels, like “Giga Chad” and Brad Pitt in “Troy.”pic.twitter.com/hIIK3LcZrn— Leah McElrath (@leahmcelrath) July 3, 2023
DeSantis was universally mocked for the ad, but initially defended himself by saying, “Identifying Donald Trump as really being a pioneer in injecting gender ideology into the mainstream, where he was having men compete against women in his beauty pageants — I think that’s totally fair game. Because he’s now campaigning saying the opposite.”
While the video appeared to come from a supporter outside the campaign, it has since been revealed that staffers were involved in its creation and dissemination.
Despite it being “the weirdest ad in American political history,” as The New Republic called it, the video is nonetheless an accurate portrayal of DeSantis’s time in office – which he has devoted to attacking – or perhaps one could describe it as demeaning – LGBTQ+ equality, as well as the rights of people of color.
DeSantis has gone to war with Disney over its opposition to the Don’t Say Gay law, has launched numerous blindsides attacking “woke indoctrination” in schools, and has taken control of the state’s education system with handpicked administrators and the power of the bully pulpit. His staff has regularly smeared LGBTQ+ people and allies on social media with vile slurs and insinuations of sexual abuse.
The Don’t Say Gay law – which has been expanded to all grades – has led to the banning of LGBTQ+ books in schools and the forced outing of students to their parents by school administrators.
In 2021, DeSantis signed a bill banning trans students from participating in school sports.
DeSantis has ranted against “woke gender ideology” and once claimed, “In the state of Florida, we are not going to allow them to inject transgenderism into kindergarten.”
LGBTQ+ students in Florida have been so scared of repercussions that many have refused to speak with LGBTQ Nation about their experiences. Earlier this year, a non-LGBTQ+ student told us that terrified queer students are learning to “shut up and keep their head low.”
Oklahoma’s Republican governor signed an executive order Tuesday aimed at limiting the rights of transgender people in the state, and trans women in particular.
Known as “The Women’s Bill of Rights” by supporters, the order requires state agencies to define the words “female” and “male” based on a person’s sex assigned at birth. Specifically, it defines a female as a “person whose biological reproductive system is designed to produce ova” and a male as a “person whose biological reproductive system is designed to fertilize the ova of a female,” the Associated Press reports. It also defines the words “man,” “boy,”
Oklahoma’s new law will force trans youth to detransition, even though every major medical association opposes it.
“Today we’re taking a stand against this out-of-control gender ideology that is eroding the very foundation of our society,” Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) said at a signing ceremony on Tuesday. “We are going to be safeguarding the very essence of what it means to be a woman.”
“Oklahomans are fed up with attempts to confuse the word ‘woman’ and turn it into some kind of ambiguous definition that harms real women,” he continued.
Stitt was joined by members of Independent Women’s Voice (IWV), a conservative, anti-trans nonprofit organization, and former University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines. Gaines has become a prominent anti-trans voice advocating against trans women competing in women’s sports since tying for fifth place with University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas, who is transgender, in the 2022 NCAA freestyle championship.
In Tweets on Tuesday, Gaines and IWV characterized the order as protecting cisgender women’s rights and safety.
“Stitt is the first governor to take decisive action and safeguard women’s privacy, safety, and equal opportunities,” Gaines tweeted.
“Thank you @GovStitt for signing an executive order to implement the #WomensBillofRights,” IWV tweeted. “Your leadership is a recognition that sex-defintions matter and women deserve to have access to private spaces when safety and fairness require.”
Nicole McAfee, executive director of Freedom Oklahoma, called Stitt’s executive order a “thinly veiled attack” on the rights of transgender women. “This executive order is neither about rights, nor is it about protecting women,” McAfee said.
Florida “effectively banned” Advanced Placement Psychology classes in the state due to the course’s content on sexual orientation and gender identity, the College Board said Thursday.
The state’s Department of Education informed the College Board that its AP Psychology class is in violation of state law, the higher education nonprofit said in a statement. Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Act, or what critics have dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” law, restricts the instruction of sexual orientation and gender identity in the state’s classrooms.
“The state’s ban of this content removes choice from parents and students,” the College Board said in a statement. “Coming just days from the start of school, it derails the college readiness and affordability plans of tens of thousands of Florida students currently registered for AP Psychology, one of the most popular AP classes in the state.“
The state’s move to restrict the AP Psychology course comes several months after its decision to block AP African American Studies courses was widely condemned by academics and civil rights activists.
The College Board added that Florida will allow superintendents to offer the college-level psychology class for high schoolers if they exclude LGBTQ topics.
However, the College Board argued that excluding the lessons — which it describes as teachings on “how sex and gender influence socialization and other aspects of development” — “would censor college-level standards.”
It added that lessons regarding sexual orientation and gender identity have been included in AP Psychology since the course was created 30 years ago.
The group said that more than 28,000 Florida students took AP Psychology in the prior academic year.
When asked to confirm that the department effectively banned the course, Cassie Palelis, a spokesperson for the Florida Department of Education, or FDOE, said the nonprofit was “attempting to force school districts to prevent students from taking the AP Psychology.”
“The Department didn’t ‘ban’ the course. The course remains listed in Florida’s Course Code Directory for the 2023-24 school year. We encourage the College Board to stop playing games with Florida students and continue to offer the course and allow teachers to operate accordingly,” Palelis said in an email. “The other advanced course providers (including the International Baccalaureate program) had no issue providing the college credit psychology course.”
When asked by a reporter on the presidential campaign trail on Friday if AP Psychology was banned in the state over the inclusion of sexuality and gender topics, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said “that’s wrong.”
“That’s part of our course catalogue,” he said. “I bet it’ll end up being offered.”
He appeared to imply that similar college-level classes could be offered through nonprofit organizations other than the College Board, including International Baccalaureate.
In a statement shared with NBC News on Friday, the Florida Association of District School Superintendents said it is working “diligently with FDOE and school superintendents who want to continue to offer AP Psychology.”
“Superintendents are openly communicating with parents their district’s plans for this course or an alternative college level course as we prepare for the start of the school year,” the statement, sent by association spokesperson Diana Shelton Oropallo, said. “AP Psychology continues to be listed in Florida’s Course Code Directory and we hope that College Board will keep the best interests of students at the forefront and award college credit to all Florida students who successfully complete the AP Psychology exam.”
The governor’s office did not immediately return a request for comment.
The American Psychological Association, the nation’s largest scientific and professional organization of psychologists, argued against stripping AP Psychology of LGBTQ topics earlier this year, after the state requested that the College Board review sexuality and gender identity topics in all advanced placement courses.
“Understanding human sexuality is fundamental to psychology, and an advanced placement course that excludes the decades of science studying sexual orientation and gender identity would deprive students of knowledge they will need to succeed in their studies, in high school and beyond,” the association’s CEO, Arthur C. Evans Jr., said in a statement in June. “We applaud the College Board for standing up to the state of Florida and its unconscionable demand to censor an educational curriculum and test that were designed by college faculty and experienced AP teachers who ensure that the course and exam reflect the state of the science and college-level expectations.”
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, the nation’s second largest teachers union, said the decision to restrict AP Psychology in the state is “part of the DeSantis playbook of eroding rights” and “censoring those he disagrees with.”
LGBTQ advocates also condemned the state’s AP Psychology restriction on Thursday.
“Psychology is centered around people – all people,” Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy group, said in a statement. “Erasing us from the curriculum ignores our existence, sets back Florida students who want to pursue psychology in higher education and disrupts pathways for future mental health professionals to provide comprehensive, culturally competent mental healthcare for the LGBTQ+ community.”
DeSantis, a Republican who is running for president, signed the so-called Don’t Say Gay law last year.
The law was widely condemned by LGBTQ activists and prompted an ongoing feud between the governor and The Walt Disney Co., Florida’s largest employer.
The measure initially prohibited “classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity” in kindergarten through third grade “or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards” in public and charter schools.
But earlier this year, DeSantis doubled down, signing a measure into law expanding the restrictions to explicitly include students through the eighth grade. The newer version of the law also restricts reproductive health education in sixth through 12th grade.
In addition to enacting the “Don’t Say Gay” law, the governor recently signed into law a measure that bars transgender people from using public restrooms that align with their gender identities and another that restricts drag performances in front of minors. A judge subsequently blocked the drag law.
On the final day of LGBTQ Pride Month in June, DeSantis’ presidential campaign released a video portraying the governor as a champion of anti-gay and anti-trans policies.
The video garnered widespread attention for its pairing of DeSantis’ anti-LGBTQ policy accomplishments alongside images of shirtless bodybuilders, in what appeared to be an attempt to portray the Florida governor as strong. It was condemned by both Republicans and Democrats, with some calling it “homophobic.”
A federal judge has ruled on the side of trans rights after a conservative group tried to overturn an Ohio school district’s anti-bullying policy.
The national conservative group Parents Defending Education (PDE) tried to get a preliminary injunction passed on the Olentangy Local School District’s prohibition on misgendering trans students. The policy includes students, teachers, and parents and it applies to out-of-school hours and social media as well.
PDE’s lawsuit claimed the policy is unconstitutional because “they compel speech, discriminate based on content and viewpoint, and are unconstitutionally overbroad.”
U.S. District Chief Judge Algenon L. Marbley disagreed, writing in his opinion that “ultimately, transgender youth are far too often subject to harassment and bullying in public schools. They are threatened or physically injured in schools at a rate four times higher than other students. They are harassed verbally at extraordinarily high rates. More than one in five attempt suicide…. Allowing speech that creates a hostile environment for transgender students can have devastating consequences.”
Citing another case, Marbley also reminded PDE that “the fundamental right of parents to direct the care, upbringing, and education of their children does not encompass a right ‘generally to direct how a public school teaches their child’ or how the school disciplines their child.”
This is seemingly a direct indictment of the right-wing’s “parent’s rights movement,” the belief that parents should have the power to control everything their children are exposed to at school. The fight for “parent’s rights” has been a thinly veiled way to advocate for banning LGBTQ+ content and lessons about race from schools.
A statement from the district lauded the judge’s decision and said that it “affirms our commitment to maintaining a safe learning environment where all feel welcome and supported. We will continue to do so and are looking forward to another great school year.”
According to local news outlet WCMH, PDE is appealing the decision.
If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org. The Trans Lifeline (1-877-565-8860) is staffed by trans people and will not contact law enforcement. The Trevor Project provides a safe, judgement-free place to talk for youth via chat, text (678-678), or phone (1-866-488-7386). Help is available at all three resources in English and Spanish.
The U.N body on the HIV pandemic has raised concerns over a spike in the disease among gay and transgender people in eastern and southern Africa due to harsh anti-homosexuality laws.
The UNAIDS in its latest 2023 Global AIDS Update reportreleased last month notes laws criminalizing consensual same-sex relations have remained a major obstacle in preventing and treating HIV among the LGBTQ community. These statutes have been enacted in the region the disease has impacted the most and in a part of Africa that has seen significant progress in reducing the number of new HIV infections.
New HIV infections have dropped by 57 percent and AIDS-related deaths have decreased by 58 percent among heterosexual people since 2010.
“HIV incidence has reduced substantially by 73 percent since 2010 among adult men aged 15–49 years, but it is not declining among gay men and other men who have sex with men,” reads the 196-page UNAIDS report.
HIV prevalence in 2022 around the world was 11 times higher among gay men aged 15-49 years, compared to heterosexual men within the same age bracket and 14 times higher among trans people.
The report reveals the HIV prevalence among gay men stands at 12.9 percent and 42.8 percent for trans persons in 21 of 24 surveyed countries in eastern and southern Africa where a total of 20.8 million people in live with the virus.
The disease remains rife among gay men and trans people and efforts to combat it among the aforementioned population continues to lag because of stigma and discrimination in accessing equitable HIV care from anti-homosexuality laws in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and in other countries.
A total of 67 countries in the world criminalize homosexuality, with nearly half of them being in Africa. Twenty countries criminalize trans people.
A recent survey in 10 sub-Saharan African countries showed HIV prevalence among gay men was five times higher in countries that criminalize consensual same-sex relationships compared Rwanda and South Africa and other nations that don’t.
The survey also notes HIV prevalence was 12 times higher in countries that use anti-homosexuality laws to prosecute gay men, compared to nations without such prosecutions. It also notes HIV prevalence was more than nine times higher in countries that curtail the operations of pro-LGBTQ civil society organizations, compared to nations that do not obstruct them.
UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima noted HIV/AIDS killed one person every minute last year. She also called for stronger collaboration and equality to end the disease by 2030.
“HIV responses succeed when they are anchored in strong political leadership to follow the evidence, tackle the inequalities holding back progress, enable communities and civil society organizations in their vital roles in the response and ensure sufficient and sustainable funding,” she said.
The UNAIDS report points out gay men and trans people are left out of HIV treatment programs in eastern and southern Africa, where coverage among adult women stands at 86 percent and men at 78 percent.
The neglect that punitive laws and police harassment exacerbates has, in turn, led to HIV prevention gaps that increase the risk of transmission and limit access to services and sabotages efforts to decrease the impact of the virus among the group.
Uganda this year enacted the Anti-Homosexuality Act with a death penalty provision for “aggravated homosexuality” and severe punishment for organizations the government claims promote homosexuality. A similar punitive bill is set to be introduced in Kenya’s Parliament.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni’s decision to sign the Anti-Homosexuality Act in May saw a U.S.-funded HIV treatment clinic in Kampala that normally sees dozens of patients a day almost deserted because clients, many of them gay, feared arrest.
“Removal or reform of these laws in line with public health evidence would boost the HIV response and the human rights of people from marginalized populations, particularly, key populations who continue to have much higher HIV prevalence than the general population,” the UNAIDS report states.
In 2022, a total of $9.8 billion meant for universal HIV financing in eastern and southern Africa was spent. Thirty-nine percent of this money was domestic funding, while the rest came from the Global Fund, UNAIDS, the U.S. Agency for International Development and other international donor organizations. Botswana, Kenya and South Africa contributed the largest share of donor funding.
UNAIDS asks countries to use disaggregated data to effectively identify populations to ensure the LGBTQ community and other key groups are not left out of HIV care since many countries lack programs and size estimates. UNAIDS also requests stronger action against stigma and discrimination at healthcare facilities in order to increase access and use of HIV testing and treatment services by all people, regardless of their sexual orientation.
“Failure to protect people from key populations against HIV will prolong the pandemic indefinitely at great cost to the affected communities and societies,” warns UNAIDS.
UNAIDS notes Singapore and other countries last year repealed laws that criminalize consensual same-sex sexual relations and trans people and introduced statutes that protect gender identity. UNAIDS, nevertheless, in its report raised concerns over an increase in homophobia and transphobia in countries that prompt the introduction of anti-homosexuality laws.
The American Academy of Pediatrics reaffirmed its support for gender-affirming medical care for transgender children on Thursday, even as the treatments face a growing push for bans and restrictions from Republican lawmakers across the U.S.
The board of directors for the group, which represents 67,000 pediatricians, unanimously voted to reaffirm its 2018 position on the treatments. The board also voted to provide additional documents to support pediatricians, including clinical and technical reports, and to conduct an external review of research regarding the care.
“The additional recommendations also reflect the fact that the board is concerned about restrictions to accessing evidence-based health care for young people who need it,” Mark Del Monte, the academy’s CEO, said in a statement released by the group, calling the restrictions enacted by states “unprecedented government intrusion.”
“We therefore need to provide the best and most transparent process possible,” he said.
At least 21 states have now enacted laws restricting or banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors, and most of those states face lawsuits. A federal judge struck down Arkansas’ ban as unconstitutional, and federal judges have temporarily blocked bans in Alabama and Indiana.
The judge who struck down Arkansas’ ban cited the position of the groups in his ruling against the ban. Arkansas has appealed the judge’s decision.
People opposed to such treatments for children argue they are too young to make such decisions about their futures.
Every major medical group, including the academy and the American Medical Association, has opposed the bans and has said the treatments are safe if administered properly.
The academy and the AMA support allowing children to seek the medical care, but they don’t offer age-specific guidance.
Kevin Maxen, associate strength coach for the Jacksonville Jaguars, came out on Thursday and is believed to be the first openly gay NFL coach, as reported by WFSB.com. Hailing from Southbury, Connecticut, and an alumnus of Pomperaug High School, Maxen’s journey from a star football player to an NFL coach is marked by determination and hard work.
Maxen said, as quoted by Outsports, “I don’t want to feel like I have to think about it anymore. I don’t want to feel like I have to lie about who I am seeing or why I am living with someone else. I want to be vocal in support of people living how they want to live, but I also want to just live and not feel fear about how people will react.”
As a former Pomperaug High School Panthers captain, Maxen’s leadership skills and talent on the field were evident from an early age, graduating with the Class of 2011. Not only was he known for his prowess in football, but he was also recognized as the “most artistic” by his senior class, demonstrating a multifaceted personality beyond the sports arena.
Maxen’s success also extended to the baseball field, where he played a pivotal role in helping the Panthers achieve an impressive 26-2 record during his senior year. His dedication to sports continued as he played college ball at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury, honing his skills and preparing for the path that lay ahead.
According to ESPN, Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan said, “Kevin is a Jacksonville Jaguar through and through, and a key member of our football team and community. “I look forward to seeing Kevin next week at training camp and hope that he comes to work each day during camp and through the season feeling confident, free, and at peace.”
Maxen said on Friday that the support he received from both the NFL and the people around the country was “Out of this world.” as quoted by Outsports.