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10% of new business owners are LGBTQ+ — and they’re offering better benefits

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There are more LGBTQ+ new business owners than ever recorded — and they’re treating their employees better than others. Ten percent of all new business owners in 2024 identified as LGBTQ+, according to a new report from Gusto, marking a 50 percent increase from 2023. This is in line with demographic shifts, the study notes, as about 9.3 percent of U.S. adultssaid in a Gallup survey last year that they identify as something other than heterosexual, up from 7.6 percent from the previous year.  This suggests that “more LGBTQ people are seeing fewer barriers to entrepreneurship and are choosing it as an accessible and viable path to make a […]

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Wisconsin Supreme Court clears the way to enact a conversion therapy ban

The Wisconsin Supreme Court cleared the way Tuesday for the state to institute a ban on conversion therapy in a ruling that gives the governor more power over how state laws are enacted. The court ruled that a Republican-controlled legislative committee’s rejection of a state agency rule that would ban the practice of conversion therapy for LGBTQ people was unconstitutional. The decision, which has a broad impact far beyond the conversion therapy issue, takes power away from the Legislature to block the enactment of rules by the governor’s office that carry the force of law. The 4-3 ruling from the […]

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HIV Awareness still belongs at the heart of Pride Month

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It has been said that the first Pride was a riot, sparked by the Stonewall Uprising in 1969. The meaning of Pride Month has expanded and evolved since Stonewall and the subsequent first Pride Parade in 1970. Though Pride was established before the rise of HIV and AIDS, HIV awareness and advocacy have stood at the center of Pride since the early days of the illness.  Though HIV is no longer the death sentence it once was, there are still approximately 1.2 million people living with HIV in the United States and over 30,000 new infections every year. The continued prevalence of HIV […]

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How SNAP cuts will disproportionately impact some LGBTQ+ people

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Cutting Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits will disproportionately harm the LGBTQ+ community — and women and transgender people will bear the brunt of the changes.  About 15 percent of LGBTQ+ adults — nearly 2.1 million people, including 250,000 trans individuals and 1.3 million lesbian and bisexual women — received SNAP benefits in the past year, according to a new report by the Williams Institute, compared to 11 percent of non-LGBTQ+ adults. SNAP is the largest anti-hunger program in the U.S., supporting over 42 million people monthly. The current Budget Reconciliation Bill, Donald Trump‘s so-called “Big Beautiful Bill,” would cause an estimated seven million people to either lose their SNAP benefits or […]

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How a new trans rights PAC looks to rebuild the political playbook with these high-profile endorsements

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The Christopher Street Project, a new political group focused on building support for transgender rights within the Democratic Party, has announced its first slate of congressional endorsements as it moves to equip candidates with political and messaging strategies ahead of the 2026 midterms and the 2028 presidential election. Named after the New York City street where the 1969 Stonewall uprising began and founded in the wake of the 2024 election cycle that saw Republicans spend more than $200 million attacking transgender Americans, Christopher Street Project is endorsing 16 Democratic lawmakers. The slate includes prominent LGBTQ+ members, parents of trans children, relatives of transgender people, and high-profile allies such as Reps. Sarah McBride, Delia Ramirez, Sara Jacobs, Dina Titus, Katherine […]

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UPenn to ban trans athletes, feds say, ending civil rights case focused on swimmer Lia Thomas

The University of Pennsylvania has agreed to ban transgender women from its women’s sports teams to resolve a federal civil rights case that found the school violated the rights of female athletes. The U.S. Education Department announced the voluntary agreement Tuesday. The case focused on Lia Thomas, the transgender swimmer who last competed for the Ivy League school in Philadelphia in 2022, when she became the first openly transgender athlete to win a Division I title. It’s part of the Trump administration’s broader attempt to remove transgender athletes from girls’ and women’s sports. Under the agreement, Penn agreed to restore […]

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Democratic governor vetoes anti-trans measure passed by Republican legislature

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North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein (D) has vetoed several anti-diversity bills, including one that would ban gender-affirming care for transgender inmates in the state prison system. The bill is H.B. 805, which bans the state from paying for gender-affirming hormone replacement therapy and surgeries for transgender inmates. It would have also required the state to keep a copy of a transgender person’s original birth certificate if they have the gender marker on it updated, and it included language saying that there are only two genders, male and female.  According to WPDE, the bill started as a bipartisan measure requiring age […]

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Pete Buttigieg’s replacement begs governors to remove rainbow crosswalks, claiming they kill people

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Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is asking governors in all 50 states to remove rainbow crosswalks that were installed to celebrate Pride, arguing without evidence that drivers get so distracted when they see the rainbow that they crash their cars. In a letter addressed to state governors, the governor of Puerto Rico, and the mayor of Washington, D.C., Duffy states that 39,345 people died on roads in the U.S. in 2024, a 3.8% decrease since 2023, but still “unacceptable.” The letter discusses the SAFE ROADS initiative for non-freeway roads. Duffy wrote that the initiative stresses “recognizable traffic control devices including crosswalk […]

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These hotlines are still available for LGBTQ+ youth after Trump kills 988 services

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The Trump Administration is ending the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline’s LGBTQ+ Youth Specialized Services – but there’s still help available.  The federal government revealed it will be closing the program that provides emergency crisis support to queer youth considering suicide effective July 17, several months ahead of its initial October 1 closure deadline that was first revealed by leaked budget draft in April. While Congress can reverse the cuts, it’s unlikely under a Republican-controlled House and Senate.  There are still several existing lifelines for LGBTQ+ youth in crisis, whether it involves mental health, substance use, sexual health, or domestic violence. Here are some of the hotlines available […]

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Supreme Court to rule on state bans on transgender students’ participation in girls’ and women’s sports

The Supreme Court on Thursday waded into the legal fight over state laws that ban transgender athletes from competing in girls’ and women’s school and college sports, taking up cases from West Virginia and Idaho. The court will hear cases involving two transgender students, Becky Pepper-Jackson and Lindsay Hecox, who challenged state bans in West Virginia and Idaho, respectively. Both won injunctions that allow them to continue to compete in sports. Pepper-Jackson, now 15, takes puberty blocking medication, while Hecox, a 24-year-old college student, has received testosterone suppression and estrogen treatments. The court’s decision to hear the case comes two weeks after […]

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