Tag Archives: trans issues

NBC News reports: President-elect Joe Biden has tapped Pennsylvania Health Secretary Rachel Levine to be his assistant secretary of health, leaving her poised to become the first transgender federal official to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate. A pediatrician and former Pennsylvania physician general, Levine was appointed to her current post by Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf in 2017, making her …

The Huffington Post reports: Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) introduced legislation in the House on Thursday that would bar schools from receiving federal funding if they allow transgender girls and women and non-binary people to compete on sports teams consistent with their gender identities. The bill — co-sponsored by Republican Rep. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma — was met with immediate outrage …

The Associated Press reports: The Supreme Court declined Monday to take up an appeal from parents in Oregon who want to prevent transgender students from using locker rooms and bathrooms of the gender with which they identify, rather than their sex assigned at birth. The case came from a school district near Salem, Oregon’s capital city. The federal appeals court …

The New York Daily News reports: The actor formerly known as Ellen Page announced he is transgender and now goes by Elliot Page. “I want to share with you that I am trans, my pronouns are he/they, and my name is Elliot,” the “Juno” star shared in a tweet Tuesday. “I feel lucky to be writing this. To be here. …

ABC News reports: Sarah McBride has won a seat in the Delaware state Senate Tuesday night, making history by becoming the first openly transgender state senator in the United States. McBride, 30, will also be the nation’s highest-ranking openly transgender elected official. She defeated her Republican opponent, Steven Washington, 73% to 27%, with all precincts reporting. This is not the …

From the hate group Family Policy Alliance: The nationwide movement to #SaveGirlsSports has never been stronger, and today there’s a big development. Family Policy Alliance is excited to stand with Senator Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) in her effort to #SaveGirlsSports by introducing new federal legislation that would make sure schools keep girls’ sports for girls if they receive federal funds. The …

“How do you combat your child going into a kindergarten class — and this is actually the circumstance in some schools — where they are allowed to call your child by a different gender all day, and they’re not required to tell the parent. “I can’t wrap my — to me that is Satan, right? Satan is the author of …

NBC News reports: Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday pardoned a United States Marine convicted of killing a transgender woman in the country nearly six years ago, sparking condemnation from activists who described the move as a “mockery of justice.” Lance Corporal Joseph Scott Pemberton was jailed in 2015 for killing Jennifer Laude near a former U.S. navy base. A …

The New York Times reports: New York City has reached the largest settlement recorded over an inmate’s death at the Rikers Island jail complex, agreeing to pay $5.9 million to the family of a 27-year-old transgender woman who died there last year while in solitary confinement. Layleen Polanco was found unresponsive in her cell in June 2019 after having an …

The Hill reports: A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked a Trump administration policy that would scrap ObamaCare’s nondiscrimination protections for sex and gender identity, one day before it was set to take effect. According to Judge Frederick Block of the U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, the Trump administration’s rule is contrary to a recent Supreme Court ruling that outlawed …

Via press release from the Justice Department: The Department of Justice today filed a statement of interest in Idaho federal court defending Idaho’s Fairness in Women’s Sports Act against a challenge under the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause. “Allowing biological males to compete in all-female sports is fundamentally unfair to female athletes” said Attorney General William P. Barr. “Under the Constitution, …

NBC News reports: Protesters packed the courtyard of the Brooklyn Museum and surrounding parkway in New York City on Sunday in support of Black trans lives, merging the fight to protect two deeply marginalized groups. The rally began about 1 p.m. in front of the museum, just a short walk east of Brooklyn’s Grand Army Plaza, as activists made speeches …

NBC News reports: Aimee Stephens, the Detroit-area funeral home worker whose firing led to a Supreme Court case that could decide the employment rights of millions of transgender and gender-nonconforming people, died Tuesday, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, which was working on her case. She was 59. Stephens had kidney disease for several years and required lengthy dialysis …

Courthouse News reports: Idaho Governor Brad Little Monday evening signed into law two bills that place new restrictions on transgender individuals in the state. The first of the two bills the Republican governor signed targets a transgender person’s ability to request a birth certificate change. Under the new law, transgender individuals will no longer be able to change their listed …

ABC News reports: A measure prohibiting homicide defendants from claiming a defense that panic brought on by a victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity has been passed by lawmakers in Washington state. Nine states — California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Nevada, New Jersey New York and Rhode Island — have legislatively banned the use of gay or transgender panic as …

Dominic Holden reports at Buzzfeed News: A newly uncovered video shows Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg in 2019 describing transgender people as “he, she, or it” and “some guy in a dress” who enters girls locker rooms — invoking a conservative cliché as he argued that transgender rights are toxic for presidential candidates trying to reach Middle America. And yet, …

The Associated Press reports: A bill proposed by a group of Republican lawmakers on Wednesday that would have amended the Iowa Civil Rights Act by removing protections against discrimination for transgender people is dead, a powerful committee chairman said. Nine Republican House members sponsoring the bill introduced it Wednesday morning but by evening Republican Rep. Steven Holt, chairman of the …

CNN reports: A Georgia school district has reversed its transgender-friendly bathroom policy after board members, staff and students were threatened, the school board said in a news release. Pickens County School Board changed its policy this week, citing “death threats, student harassment and vandalism of school property” in the news release. The policy had allowed transgender students to use restrooms …

Chris Johnson reports at the Washington Blade: Protesters demanding attention to ongoing violence against transgender women momentarily disrupted Thursday night the CNN town hall on LGBT issues as several Democratic candidate were on stage. The first time protesters came on the stage just as an audience member was about to ask the first question of Pete Buttigieg. Their numbers were …

NBC News reports: Exposure to “conversion therapy” — efforts by a secular or religious professional to change a transgender person’s gender identity — is associated with thoughts of and attempts at suicide, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal JAMA Psychiatry. Dr. Jack Turban, the study’s lead author and a resident physician in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, …