Tag Archives: LGBT youth

Two weeks ago the New Hampshire Senate followed the state House in approving a ban on ex-gay torture. The Senate vote even came with the support of GOP Majority Leader Jeb Bradley. But that’s where the good news ends, for now. New Hampshire Public Radio reports: The House and Senate passed differing versions of a ban on conversion therapy earlier …

Dominic Holden reports at Buzzfeed: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and officials in 10 other states on Wednesday filed a lawsuit in federal court resisting the Obama administration’s guidance that instructs schools to let transgender students use bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity. Among the defendants in the case, filed in federal district court in Northern Texas, are the …

From the National Center for Lesbian Rights: Today, Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin signed Senate Bill 132 into law, making Vermont the eighth jurisdiction—behind California, New Jersey, Oregon, Illinois, New York, Washington D.C., and Cincinnati—to protect LGBTQ youth from the dangers of conversion therapy. Senate Bill 132, which protects LGBTQ youth from mental health providers attempting to change their sexual orientation …

From the Dallas Morning News: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is expected to announce a legal challenge to President Barack Obama’s directive instructing school districts to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms that match their gender identity. The attorney general has scheduled a 2 p.m. news conference Wednesday in Austin. WFAA-TV (Channel 8) reported Tuesday evening that Paxton would …

From World Net Daily: Lawmakers in Oklahoma, alarmed by the chaos that’s been generated from President Obama’s pressure on schools to open bathrooms to both sexes – else face loss of federal funding – have introduced a bill that declares the matter an “emergency” and allows the state’s attorney general to provide legal representation for those who come under fire …

Nutcase Daryl Metcalfe is at it again. Via Newsworks: Ninety-seven Republican state representatives in Pennsylvania — including several from the Philadelphia region — have signed off on a letter to President Barack Obama, calling the new federal directive to make public schools transgender-inclusive “unconstitutional” and an “extreme outrage.” Led by state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, R-Butler, lawmakers argue in their letter …

This is a major setback for supporters of North Carolina’s hate law: The Supreme Court announced Monday, over the dissent of one conservative justice, that it will not review a legal precedent key to an appeals court ruling last month requiring public schools to allow transgender students to use bathrooms corresponding to their gender identity. The justices declined to take …

The Texas Observer reports: A Texas GOP committee rejected an effort Wednesday to remove support for so-called ex-gay therapy from the party’s platform, according to Jeff Davis, president of the LGBT group Log Cabin Republicans of Texas. Instead, the panel tweaked some language in the plank but left it mostly intact. At the party’s state convention in Dallas, Davis told …

Brian Tashman has the transcript at Right Wing Watch: “The country is imploding,” he said. “We are seeing a moral implosion. Just like we saw the World Trade Center on 9/11 when the planes hit the tower, they imploded, they fell from within, and this is what’s happening to our country, we’re falling within. Our foundations have been weakened by …

From the Dallas-Fort Worth NBC affiliate: Top Republicans in America’s largest conservative state are ready to take on the issue of transgender rights and public restrooms, as thousands of party activists gather in Dallas for the Texas GOP convention. An Obama administration directive issued late Thursday amid a court fight between the federal government and North Carolina says public schools …

From the ABC affiliate in southeast Texas:  Port Neches-Groves Superintendent Dr. Rodney Cavness on Thursday slammed the Obama administration’s expected letter which is set to tell districts to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms of their choosing. Dr. Cavness did not mince words when telling 12News anchor Kevin Steele. “I got news for President Barack Obama. He ain’t my …

The governor says she’ll sign it into law. The Concord Monitor reports: Republican and Democratic lawmakers in the state Senate reached an agreement late Thursday on a bill to ban gay conversion therapy on minors after a debate over religious freedom nearly derailed the effort. “Who among us would want to be converted from the essence of who we are? …

Whoa. From the New York Times: The Obama administration is planning to issue a sweeping directive telling every public school district in the country to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms that match their gender identity. A letter to school districts will go out Friday, adding to a highly charged debate over transgender rights in the middle of the …

Oregon Live reports: Transgender students across Oregon should be able to use the bathrooms, names and pronouns they want, according to unprecedented guidelines released Thursday by the Oregon Department of Education. In a sweeping 15-page document the department issued what are likely to be controversial suggestions for Oregon educators — directing them to allow transgender females to play girls sports, …

From the Associated Press: Giving no indication of yielding to pressure, North Carolina’s Republican leaders called a federal warning about the legality of the state’s new law limiting LGBT anti-discrimination rules a broad overreach by the government. Gov. Pat McCrory and top state legislators were determining what steps to take after the U.S. Justice Department said in a letter Wednesday …

Reuters reports: Dozens of families on Wednesday sued two federal agencies and a suburban Chicago school district over a policy they said disregards student privacy and safety by allowing transgender students to use bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity. Fifty-one families in the Palatine, Illinois, area sued the U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. Justice Department and Township High …

From the Windy City Times: Chicago Public Schools, on May 3, issued revised guidelines pertaining to its transgender students, staff and volunteers, tackling head-on questions surrounding restroom and locker room use that have been vexing school districts across the country in recent months. The guidelines—which revise policies that CPS issued in 2014—explicitly state that students will be able to use …

But there’s a happy ending (for now) below. From Myrtle Beach Online: More than 500 people gathered to protest and support Horry County Schools policy on transgender student bathroom use, and while the board was in executive session a conflict broke out between a policy supporter and protestors. The group occasionally broke out in song to silence the woman who …

From the National Center for Lesbian Rights: Today, U.S. Senators Patty Murray (D-WA) and Cory Booker (D-NJ) introduced the Therapeutic Fraud Prevention Act, a companion bill to HR 2450, introduced in the House of Representatives by Ted Lieu in 2015. The bill would define the provision of conversion therapy for profit as consumer fraud and, additionally, take Rep. Lieu’s bill …

“The LGBT lobby is like a kid in a candy store with unlimited credit. The kid is high on sugar and bouncing off the walls while demanding more, all the while disturbing the other customers. The North Carolina Legislature and Governor are the brave candy store owners by saying no, and now the kid is out of control and will …