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Vermont passes landmark bill protecting trans prisoners’ rights

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Vermont lawmakers have passed a sweeping, first-of-its-kind bill expanding protections for transgender people in prison, marking one of the strongest state-level responses yet to the Trump administration’s escalating prison policies targeting trans people. The legislation, titled H.550, which was passed yesterday (21 May), acknowledges that trans incarcerated people face heightened risks of abuse, harassment and sexual violence, and requires prison staff to respect inmates’ gender identities and undergo gender-responsive training, as reported by Transitics via Substack. The bill also allows incarcerated trans people to request transfers to facilities that align with their gender identity, with reviews conducted alongside medical and mental health professionals experienced […]

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63 years ago, the Quakers stood up for gay dignity & they’re still fighting for our LGBTQ+ rights

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Quakers, like most Protestant denominations, hold differing views of homosexuality within their ranks. But no other mainstream Protestant religion has embraced LGBTQ+ identity like the Quakers, known officially as the Religious Society of Friends. The clearest example is a text promulgated over seven years in meetings by a group of Quaker writers, psychiatrists, psychologists, and teachers, assembled to consider issues surrounding homosexuality. Published in 1963, “Towards a Quaker View of Sex” asserted, “An act which expresses true affection between two individuals and gives pleasure to them both, does not seem to us to be sinful by reason alone of the fact that […]

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Running for office while LGBTQ+ increasingly means preparing for violence

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After years of escalating anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric in American politics, a new national report suggests the consequences are no longer confined to campaign ads, legislative fights, or online outrage. For many LGBTQ+ candidates, the threats have become intensely personal and increasingly physical. The threats arrive in direct messages, voicemail inboxes, comment sections, and late-night emails. Sometimes they follow candidates home. Stay up to date with the latest in LGBTQ+ news with The Advocate’s email newsletter, in your inbox five days a week. One LGBTQ+ candidate reported that a neighbor shot at their house after they advocated for transgender rights. Another described being shoved off a […]

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Trans students made to use outdoor porta-potties as new bill signed in South Carolina

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Trans students may be forced to use outdoor porta-potties if no single-occupancy toilets are available (Image: Getty Images) South Carolina governor Henry McMaster has signed House Bill 4756, a “privacy” law that allows schools to treat outdoor porta-potties as an acceptable single-occupancy toilet option for trans students if no indoor single-user bathroom is available. The Campaign for Southern Equality warned in an Instagram post that the measure could make going to the toilet “difficult and even dangerous” for trans and non-binary young people. The bill, titled the South Carolina Student Physical Privacy Act, requires multi-person bathrooms, locker rooms, and changing facilities […]

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Queer Sikhs are challenging bigotry by mixing their identities, faith, & cultural traditions

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Followers of the Sikh religion believe in a genderless, eternal, omnipresent God who views all humans as equal; the religion also emphasizes the importance of helping vulnerable people in need, and its central holy religious text, the Guru Granth Sahib, contains no anti-LGBTQ+ scriptures. However, the religion also originates from India — a country with few LGBTQ+ legal protections where 59% of people consider homosexuality “morally unacceptable” — many LGBTQ+ Sikhs, who are part of the estimated 25 million Sikhs worldwide, say they still struggle to find a place in their religious communities.  Gurleen Kaur, a 30-year-old queer Sikh Kaur told Queerbeat that she never felt that […]

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Trump’s FCC is eyeing warnings for trans TV content. Rights groups are pushing back

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For decades, LGBTQ+ Americans fought to be visible on television screens that either erased them entirely or treated them as punchlines, predators, or cautionary tales. Now, a coalition of more than 40 civil rights, free expression, and LGBTQ+ advocacy groups says the federal government is flirting with reviving that history in a new form. This time, the government wants to put warning labels on shows that include transgender and nonbinary people. In a joint filing submitted Friday to the Federal Communications Commission, organizations including GLAAD, Human Rights Campaign, PEN America, PFLAG National, Lambda Legal, and others, warned that a recent FCC inquiry into television ratings could pave the way for government-backed stigmatization […]

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Eight Democrats voted with Republicans on bill that could out trans students

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Eight Democrats voted with Republicans to help pass a bill that could force teachers to out transgender students to their parents and ban the acknowledgement of trans identities in school settings. HR 2616, also known as the ‘Stopping Indoctrination and Protecting Kids Act’, was passed in the House of Representatives on 20 May. If approved by the Senate and signed into law by Donald Trump, it would prohibit any school that receives federal funding from teaching “concepts related to gender ideology”, effectively ban state-funded schools across the United States from acknowledging the existence of trans people. The House Equality Caucus has dubbed the bill the ‘Don’t […]

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Europe has a new best country for LGBTQ+ rights

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ILGA Europe has published its annual Rainbow Map and LGBTQ+ rights index, and Spain has now claimed the number one spot for the most LGBTQ+-positive laws and policies. Spain displaced Malta from the number one spot, a position that Malta had held for the last 10 years. ILGA explained in its report that, “Spain’s rise to the top reflects a combination of achievements, including a fully functioning depathologization of trans identities in healthcare, new legal protections, new national LGBTI and trans strategies, a new independent equal treatment and non-discrimination authority, and a determined fightback against far-right attempts to dismantle national trans […]

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Trans salutatorian’s powerful graduation speech puts Mississippi school’s mistreatment on display

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His commencement speech was greeted with applause and even cheers, but Jonas Hole, Salutatorian of the Class of 2026 at his Mississippi high school, had to endure being called “young lady,” being misgendered, and deadnamed by the same administrators who handed him his diploma.  “Despite my own self-acceptance, others judged me without understanding me. I became my label, and it felt as if my achievements, hardships, personality, all became irrelevant for the sole fact that I present myself differently,” he said. Hole identifies as transmasculine. Stay up to date with the latest in LGBTQ+ news with The Advocate’s email newsletter, in your […]

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Art scholarship to be established for trans student found dead

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Friends, loved ones, and community members are mourning the death of Murry Foust, a 22-year-old trans man and student at Northern Kentucky University, whose body was found on Sunday night after a month-long search. “While our hearts are broken and this is not the outcome we were hoping for, we can only pray that finding them provides closure and comfort to everyone who is hurting,” Foust’s family wrote in a statement posted to Facebook on Monday, May 26. Foust, who used he/they pronouns, was last seen alive on April 27, captured on security footage in Covington, Kentucky’s Latonia neighbourhood. After nearly a […]

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