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Trump administration formally ends Biden-era LGBTQ+ foster care protections

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The Trump administration has officially rescinded a Biden-era rule that was designed to help ensure LGBTQ+ children in foster care could access safe, supportive, and affirming placements. Originally introduced in April 2024, the rule required child welfare agencies receiving federal funding to identify designated foster placements equipped to meet the needs of LGBTQ+ young people. It also included training requirements for agencies and sought to ensure LGBTQ+ children had access to age-appropriate support and services. Although the rule never took effect after a federal judge vacated it in 2025, the administration has now formally removed it altogether. The Department of Health and Human […]

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LGBTQ+ families need safe spaces where they can exhale. If you can’t find one, create one.

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Creating a “safe space” looks different for everyone. It might mean being physically protected from harm or knowing that you can share your emotions openly and without judgment. But for LGBTQ+ families, there’s usually one shared quality: knowing you’re free to celebrate your loved ones while expressing your most authentic selves. And if there’s one thing the LGBTQ+ community is good at, it’s forging safe spaces. I think of bell hooks’s definition of queerness: “the self that is at odds with everything around it and has to invent and create and find a place to speak and to thrive and […]

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Phoenix leather bar wins liquor license after months of objection from billionaire neighbor

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Nightlife promoter Matthew Moody has big plans for Phoenix’s up-and-coming gayborhood in the Melrose district: a leather bar called the Barracks. Along with “Eagle” and “Anvil,” the “Barracks” name has a long history and is a shout-out to the leather community everywhere. Moody used to DJ at the bar of the same name in Palm Springs, California, before it closed in 2024. Now he’s brought what’s left of that bar 400 miles east to another desert outpost, where he hopes to resurrect it. Artwork, like pieces portraying a vintage motorcycle and larger-than-life-size Tom of Finland leather men, loiter along one […]

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Religious parents sue school district over staff using child’s chosen pronouns

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A pair of religious parents have filed a lawsuit against a Maryland school district after teachers respected their child’s request to use a masculine name and pronouns at school without first informing them. The lawsuit, filed Wednesday (8 July) in federal court against Anne Arundel County Public School District, seeks to force educators to stop using the student’s chosen name and pronouns, instead requiring staff to refer to the child by their birth name and the pronouns associated with their sex assigned at birth. The parents, identified in court only as John and Jane Doe, are being represented by the conservative legal organisation America […]

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Pakistan shooting leaves one trans person dead and another injured

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A transgender person has been killed and another injured in a shooting that took place in Peshawar in Pakistan. An unidentified assailant opened fire near Raja Ground Bridge in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa city, police have revealed. The deceased person has been identified as Mishi. The other victim, named Tara, was taken to hospital with gunshot wounds. According to The Express Tribune in a report published on 16 July, Mishi and Tara had gone to Raja Ground Bridge in order to retrieve a phone and some money from a friend. The task resulted in an altercation that led to the shooting. Officers arrived on scene shortly after […]

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Trump tried to stop a drag activist group from getting an honorific history marker. He failed.

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Ohio’s lead historical society, the Ohio History Connection (OHC) recently dedicated an official state historical marker to recognize The Rubi Girls, a comedic drag troupe that raised over $3 million for local and region HIV, LGBTQ+, and other community groups over the last 40 years, The Buckeye Flame reported. The OHC unveiled the marker on May 3 outside the Rubi Clubhouse, where the group rehearses, in Dayton’s South Park neighborhood. Tim Farquhar, a Rubi Girls founding member, expressed gratitude that the marker was able to get erected despite the federal government ending funding for LGBTQ+-related historical markers last year. “Ours was the last […]

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Polish president blocks bill that would have granted rights to same-sex couples

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Polish President Karol Nawrocki has vetoed legislation that would have granted unmarried couples, including same-sex couples, a limited set of legal rights, in turn preventing what would have been Poland‘s first legal recognition of same-sex relationships. The bill, which was backed by Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s governing coalition and approved by both houses of parliament in May and June, would have allowed couples to register a legal agreement giving them rights including joint property ownership, access to a partner’s medical information, inheritance tax exemptions, joint tax settlement, and the ability to make burial decisions. It stopped just short of introducing marriage […]

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Gunman killed after opening fire outside North Carolina gay bar

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Police shot and killed an armed man outside a gay bar in Asheville, North Carolina. Shakey’s staff said in a social media post that police were called after a man who had been ejected from the bar earlier that night for concerning behavior was seen in the parking lot brandishing a gun, according to ABC affiliate WLOS. The Instagram post is no longer publicly available. Stay up to date with the latest in LGBTQ+ news with The Advocate’s email newsletter, in your inbox five days a week. Asheville police officers responded to the dive bar around 1:57 a.m. Wednesday after receiving a report that […]

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Parents speak out after their teen died by suicide: Idaho’s anti-trans extremism took a toll

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The parents of a transgender teen who died by suicide earlier this year are speaking out about the toll Idaho’s anti-trans laws and the Trump administration’s anti-trans crusade took on their daughter. “You worry about that hatred being internalized, and that’s what happened to my kid,” Elyse Thorpe told NBC News in a recent profile. “It got inside.” Thorpe and ex-husband Joseph Pollard describe their late daughter, May Pollard, as an energetic and curious child who loved sloths, video games, and writing poetry. She just wanted to live her life and experience the same things any teen does. But she was […]

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Gay German politician resigns after welcoming child via surrogacy despite opposing it

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German conservative politician Jens Spahn has resigned as parliamentary leader of the country’s governing coalition after facing intense criticism over becoming a father through surrogacy in the United States, despite years of publicly supporting Germany‘s ban on the practice. Spahn, a senior member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and former health minister, announced his resignation on Saturday (18 July), writing that he had realised that “my personal happiness – founding a family together with my husband and becoming a father – is not compatible with my political office”. He added that the growing tension between his personal decision and the expectations placed on him […]

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