Attempted genocide of transgender people

• Banning Medicaid and other state funds from going to anyone who provides trans healthcare (at any age)
  
• Banning referrals to trans healthcare or "aiding and abetting"
  
• Threatening parents of trans children with Child Protective Services and removal of custody
  
• Requiring teachers to out trans children to their parents, misgender them, and use their birthname
  
• Requiring trans people to use the wrong bathroom, both for kids in schools and adults out in the world
  
• Banning gender marker changes on identification
  
• Banning drag, often open-ended enough to apply to trans people who aren't drag performers
  
• Constantly lying that trans healthcare is experimental/dangerous or that most patients change their mind, in law and policy documents
  
• Requiring written consent to trans healthcare including the above lies, and banning Nurse Practitioners from providing it (a page from the anti-abortion playbook)
  
• Blanket banning trans people from sports

The Orange County, Va., Board of Supervisors last week released its proposed fiscal year 2024 budget that removes $9,000 in funding it approved last year for the nonprofit Arts Center In Orange in response to plans by the center to host a design class taught by a local drag performer.
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The newspaper quoted the individual who wrote to Johnson asking that the funds be revoked as telling Johnson the revocation was needed to “protect children from adults who prey on them with sexually explicit agendas.” The newspaper reported, “Johnson said that he agreed with the individual’s comments and outlined the board’s plans to defund the center through the county’s budget process.”

Taken in their totality, Florida’s slate of laws and policies targeting basic freedoms and rights pose a serious risk to the health and safety of those traveling to the state. We regret that these attacks have already led many to flee the state and are driving others to consider relocation. And, in a state whose economy is fueled by visitors from around the world, it is with great sadness that Equality Florida has had to take the extraordinary step of responding to inquiries by issuing an official advisory warning about the risks of travel to the state.

Travel to all areas of Florida should be done with extreme caution as it can be unsafe for people of color, individuals who speak with an accent, and international travelers. Due to unconstitutional legislation supported by Governor Ron DeSantis and introduced by Legislative Leadership, every county in Florida poses a heightened risk of harassment, possible detainment, and potential family separation based on racial profiling.

The NAACP Florida State Conference voted unanimously in favor of asking the NAACP Board of Directors to issue a travel advisory for the state of Florida. If issued, the advisory from NAACP National would urge the Black community to avoid visiting or moving to the state of Florida.

• Give written consent to a bunch of lies
  
• Be out as trans to doctors for 3 years before starting treatment (actually, might need 3 years of a diagnosis, unclear)
  
• Have 15 hours of therapy over 18 months
  
• Not have any mental illness
  
• Be screened for autism (I guess autistic people don't get to transition)
  
• Be screened annually for "social media addiction" (this is part of their propaganda effort to say social media makes you trans)
  
• Be screened for "social contagion", which is either the same as the social media one or an attempt to ban trans people from being friends with each other
  
• Be tracked for adverse effects for 15 years
  

Collectively, these provisions aim to bring gender affirming care back to the way it was done in the 1970s, when transgender people had to go through things such as “real life experience” and years of assessments before they could access their care. These standards caused intense trauma for transgender people who would socially transition but could not access care for years.

A leaked cache of emails from 2019 and 2020 reveals how the anti-trans lobby in the U.S. was playing the long game when it came to targeting trans people—and is now able to push for anti-trans policies more publicly than before.

The emails, which are available online for journalists and others to read and were first reported on by Mother Jones, reveal conversations about anti-trans policies between South Dakota GOP Rep. Fred Deutsch, anti-trans lobbyists, and other state lawmakers. They include revelations about some of the ways that anti-trans lobbyists—and elected Republicans like Deutsch and Idaho Rep. Julianne Young—collaborate and strategize to write and endorse policies that directly target trans people on a national scale.

Now, what was said in private is said publicly—online, in the media, and on the floors of state houses—suggesting that in the last few years, the strategy that was being hashed out in those emails has come to fruition, and the movement that created it is emboldened.

At the time the emails were written, the anti-trans lobby was somewhat underground; anti-trans hate wasn’t new, but the people pushing for anti-trans policymaking, including members of the American College of Pediatricians, classified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group, didn’t have the mainstream momentum they have today. That’s perhaps one of the biggest takeaways from the emails, experts say.

Former President Donald Trump said he would use the government to investigate and potentially curtail transgender health care if he’s reelected.

“Upon my inauguration, I will direct the FDA to convene an independent outside panel to investigate whether transgender hormone treatments and ideology increase the risk of extreme depression, aggression and even violence,” Trump said during a speech at the National Rifle Association’s conference in Indianapolis on Friday.

“I think most of us already know the answer,” Trump added.

Several legislatures passed gender-affirming care bans, bringing the total to 15 states with hormone therapy bans backed by veto-proof majorities including Missouri’s new AG policy banning many trans adults from care. Drag bans continue to advance but face obstacles from court challenges and amendments that weaken them. There is a rise in laws that define sex in ways excluding transgender people from rights, threatening restroom access and identity documents. Other bills moving include total bathroom bans and those targeting adult insurance coverage. On a positive note, 10 states now protect transgender individuals and abortion patients fleeing criminalization in other states.

There are over 472 bills moving through the United States that target transgender people, and many of these defy the previously mentioned categories. Some of the most harmful new pieces of legislation target transgender people’s bathroom rights in Florida, adult health insurance coverage in several sates, and expand on “Don’t Say Gay” bills that ban books, classroom discussion, and more.

An Anheuser-Busch employee confirmed to Patch that several Budweiser facilities across the nation were targeted with bomb threats as the company faces massive backlash for an advertising partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.

New guidance from the UK’s Conservative government will see teachers forced to ‘out’ trans, non-binary and gender non-conforming pupils to their parents, and ban trans children from using changing and shower facilities that align with gender identity.
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According to a report in The Sunday Times on Sunday (16 April), the government will also ban trans girls from taking part in contact and competitive school sports on girls’ teams. However, sources briefed on the discussions say the rules on non-contact sports will be “more relaxed”.

The guidance, which is currently being drawn up by the Department for Education, will apply to all state and independent schools in England.
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The Tories appear to be taking cues from the wave of right-wing anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment sweeping the US, where trans young people are repeatedly targeted by harmful and oppressive legislative proposals.

Team Ron DeSantis continues to demonize everyday Americans, this time targeting his own state’s residents. On Saturday, Christina Pushaw, rapid response director for the Florida governor and potential 2024 presidential candidate, celebrated the idea of people fleeing Florida and the measures DeSantis has supported with the explicit goal of making their lives worse.

In response to a headline that a majority of Florida LGBTQ parents are considering leaving the state in response to the repressive “Don’t Say Gay” bill, the DeSantis right hand had one simple reaction: Bye!

Florida's state education board voted Wednesday to ban teaching students about sexual orientation and gender identity through high school, expanding the scope of a contentious state law that last year thrust Gov. Ron DeSantis to the forefront of the cultural clash over classrooms.
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"Gender ideology has no place in our K through 12 school system," DeSantis said from South Carolina on Wednesday. "It's wrong for a teacher to tell a student that they may have been born in the wrong body or that their gender is a choice and so we don't let that happen in Florida."

Montana Republicans have demanded transgender house representative Zooey Zephyr be reprimanded by the state house for “inappropriate and uncalled-for language”.
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She said: “If you disallow the use of the medical care that is accepted by every major medical association… the only therapy left is either meaningless, or conversion therapy, which is torture.”
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In its letter, the Montana Freedom Caucus Republican coalition wrote that it believed the legislature must condemn the speech to uphold “a commitment to civil discourse”.

It went on to claim: “This bill already passed the Montana house and senate, and the debate was over amendments requested by the governor. This kind of hateful rhetoric from an elected official is exactly why tragedies such as the Covenant School shooting, in Nashville, occurred.”
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Prior to the final vote on the bill, Zephyr said: “I will say that those who vote in this amendment, next time this legislative body bows their head to pray, I hope you see the blood on your hands.”

Complete this form to submit a complaint or concern about gender transition intervention you have experienced or observed in Missouri. The Attorney General is not a private attorney, but enforces the laws of the State of Missouri as written.

On Thursday, the Florida Board of Medicine’s ban on transgender youth health care for new patients will go into effect after a monthslong rulemaking process that largely excluded the voices of trans Floridians and relied on science outside the mainstream.
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A bill sponsored by Reps. Randy Fine and Ralph Massullo would go further than the Board of Medicine ban, prohibiting gender-affirming care for both new and current patients. It also bans insurance coverage of the treatment for trans adults.
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A similar bill in the Senate, sponsored by Sen. Clay Yarborough, would largely stick with the Board of Medicine ban, allowing current patients to continue treatment under rules established by the Board.

The bills, House Bill 1421 and Senate Bill 254, also add steps for adults to receive such care. Both bills require a physician to administer medical care in person, effectively banning appointments via telehealth or with other health care providers, such as nurse practitioners or physician's assistants.
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That portion of the bill would shut down the LGBTQ clinic SPEKTRUM Health in Orlando, where nurse practitioners provide all of the gender-affirming care, CEO Joey Knoll said.

“We serve about 5,000 patients who will lose access to care in a snap of a finger,” Knoll said. “It's causing massive panic and chaos in the transgender community.”

Finally, the bills propose a ban on state and local government spending on gender-affirming care, which could restrict insurance coverage for trans public employees and further restrict access to care for children, said Alejandra Caraballo, a lawyer and trans rights advocate who helps run a national LGBTQ legislation tracker.
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Another pair of bills would require an employer who covers transition-related medical care to also cover health care associated with reversing their transition should they regret it later — whether they’re still with the company or not. Bill sponsors Rep. Taylor Yarkosky and Sen. Blaise Ingoglia titled it the “Reverse Woke Act.”

Regret associated with transitioning is rare, studies show, but transgender advocates worry the requirement would lead employers to scrap coverage altogether.

Another set of bills, filed by Rep. Dr. Joel Rudman and Sen. Jay Trumbull, would allow medical providers to refuse to participate in services if they have “an objection based on a sincerely held religious, moral or ethical belief.”

Along with the health care restrictions in Yarborough’s Senate bill is a provision that would make transition-related care a child custody issue.

Senate Bill 254 grants a pathway for a parent who doesn’t support medical care for their child’s transition to challenge a custody agreement with a parent who does. The related House bill, filed by Fine and Massullo, does not include such a provision.
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Critics of Florida’s Parental Rights in Education law, which restricts classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in grades K-3, worried that lawmakers would seek to expand it to more grade levels. A pair of bills filed by Yarborough and Rep. Adam Anderson aims to do just that.

House Bill 1223 and Senate Bill 1320 would apply the restrictions from prekindergarten through eighth grade. The House bill would also apply the rules to charter schools.

The bills would bar teachers and school contractors from referring to someone by a pronoun that doesn’t correspond to their sex assigned at birth. They also provide protections to students who don’t want to refer to a fellow student by their desired pronouns.
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The legislation passed along party lines.

Those proposals and a third bill would define “sex” as either male or female depending on reproductive characteristics. House Bill 1069, filed by Rep. Stan McClain, would require schools to teach that definition and that “these reproductive roles are binary, stable, and unchangeable.” That language could restrict students from learning about transgender and non-binary identities.

House Bill 999, filed by Rep. Alex Andrade, would do the same thing at the college level by eliminating gender studies as a major or minor.

That bill passed through a House subcommittee Monday.
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Under Senate Bill 1438, filed by Yarborough, and an identical House Bill 1423, filed by Fine, children would be barred from attending drag shows.

Fine’s trans health care bill, House Bill 1421, also seeks to prevent trans people from changing the sex on their birth certificate.

House Bill 1521 and its identical companion, Senate Bill 1674, takes the school bathroom debate to restaurants, health care facilities and other public places. The bills would prohibit trans people from using the bathroom that corresponds with their gender and require certain businesses and public places to have male, female and unisex restrooms.

The Missouri ban outlines numerous stipulations for clinics offering care, effectively making it illegal or too legally precarious to provide such services. One particularly troublesome requirement mandates that transgender individuals must have depression and anxiety resolved prior to receiving gender-affirming care. Coupled with another condition stating that dysphoria must be "intense," clinics that successfully address depression and anxiety to comply with the first stipulation may then be informed that their patients' dysphoria was not "intense" enough. This creates a clear Catch-22, particularly since gender-affirming care often alleviates depression and anxiety on its own.
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For transgender adults already receiving care, a questionable "grandfather" clause purportedly allows them to continue treatment. However, in practice, this is not the case. Clinics must still retroactively adhere to all other regulations, even for transgender adults who have been grandfathered into their care. Compliance with some of these regulations is unattainable, such as evaluating "transgender social contagion," an unproven pseudoscientific concept that clinics have no means to assess.

Additionally, the mandate requires clinics to maintain 15-year follow-up records, distribute misleading informational pamphlets, ensure that patients are evaluated by a psychologist for unspecified developmental psychology concerns, and maintain extensive paperwork detailing compliance with these regulations. Ultimately, the directive imposes sudden and strict infrastructure requirements, similar to Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers (TRAP) laws used to close abortion clinics. As a result, transgender individuals' access to medication is effectively restricted or eliminated at all levels.
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Harvard Clinical Instructor Alejandra Caraballo stated of the regulations, “This policy effectively bans all gender affirming care by creating a kafkaesque set of regulations no one can meet.”

Rep. Zooey Zephyr, the first openly transgender woman in the Montana Legislature, will likely not be allowed to speak about bills on the House floor for the remainder of the 2023 session after Republicans took issue with comments she made this week about a bill restricting gender-affirming health care for trans minors.

Zephyr, a freshman Missoula Democrat and vocal opponent of GOP legislation concerning trans Montanans, attempted to participate in a debate on the House floor Thursday about Senate Bill 458, sweeping legislation that would insert a binary definition of sex into state law, but was not recognized to speak by House Speaker Matt Regier, R-Kalispell. When House Minority Leader Kim Abbott, D-Helena, asked the speaker why Zephyr wasn’t recognized, Regier pointed to legislative rules giving him the prerogative to allow — or disallow — lawmakers to speak on the floor.

A Missouri government tip site for submitting complaints and concerns about gender-affirming care is down after people flooded it with fanfiction, rambling anecdotes and the “Bee Movie” script.

The Missouri Attorney General’s office launched an online form for “Transgender Center Concerns” in late March, inviting those who’ve witnessed “troubling practices” at clinics that provide gender-affirming care to submit tips. The site didn’t ask users to name patients or healthcare providers, but encouraged users to complete the form “in as much detail as possible.”

But after days of TikTok and Twitter users spamming the site with gibberish, the tip line has been removed from the Missouri government site entirely. Instead of the online form, the link to the tip line now says that the page no longer exists.

Boston Children’s Hospital has received several bomb threats.

The gender clinic at Seattle Children’s Hospital has installed panic buttons and hired a full-time security guard.

Doctors who treat transgender children are receiving death threats, debating whether to buy guns, scouring the internet to see if they’ve been doxxed and trying to get their addresses removed from property records.

The impact of gender-affirming care bans — inflamed by the rhetoric on the right about “child grooming” — is rippling beyond Republican-controlled states, making it harder everywhere for transgender youth to receive care and physicians to provide it ...

Even in states without bans, providers said death threats, harassment, fears of litigation and, in some cases, a lack of support from institutions have created a chilling effect that undermines their ability to provide care.
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Physicians in states where gender-affirming care remains legal said they now spend significant chunks of patient visits either batting down misinformation from parents or talking through kids’ mental health concerns related to the new laws. The bans outlawing therapies in nearly a third of the country threaten to overwhelm clinics in blue states, like Minnesota, that already have waiting lists of anywhere from several months to more than a year and have left red-state providers grappling with how to care for their young transgender patients under the bans.

Transgender and gender nonconforming employees of the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) received an unwelcome surprise last Monday: a new dress code that continues Governor Greg Abbott’s campaign of anti-LGBTQ+ oppression. The Observer obtained a copy of the policy on Friday.

The opening sentences of the memorandum, titled “Texas Department of Agriculture Dress Code and Grooming Policy,” include the following language: “Employees are expected to comply with this dress code in a manner consistent with their biological gender.” Running afoul of the new rule could carry serious consequences. The memo also reads, “Violation of this agency policy includes remedies up to and including termination.” While provided without context, it is clear that the new policy is intended to single out queer and trans employees for censure.

Montana Republicans persisted in forbidding Democratic transgender lawmaker Zooey Zephyr from participating in debate for a second week and her supporters brought the House session to a halt Monday — chanting “Let her speak!” from the gallery before they were escorted out.

Zephyr defiantly hoisted her microphone into the air as her supporters interrupted proceedings for nearly half an hour in protest of Republicans denying her requests to speak on a proposal that would restrict when children can change the names and pronouns they use in school and require parental consent.

The interruption — hours after supporters rallied on the Capitol steps — was the latest development in a standoff over Zephyr’s remarks against lawmakers who support a ban on gender-affirming care for minors. Zephyr, a first-term Democrat from Missoula, hasn’t spoken on the Statehouse floor since last Tuesday when she told Republican colleagues they would have “blood on their hands” if they banned gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth.

“Today’s riot by far-left agitators damages our discourse and endangered legislators and staff. Their actions did not represent Montana values,” House Speaker Matt Regier, Speaker pro tempore Rhonda Knudsen and Majority Leader Sue Vinton said in the statement.

What you heard today is people standing for democracy. People standing to let their voices be heard in that floor. And what you're watching here, is you're watching people who do not want to see democracy in action. They want to strip us of our rights, and it's not enough for them to get the harmful bills through. When someone stands up and calls out their bills for the harm they cause, for the deaths they cause, they want silence. And we will not be complicit in our eradication.

These proposed executions would presumably include any parents who support their trans kids. Note that it's mostly blue checks in the comments supporting this.

I need people to understand: the calls for government sponsored mass murder are coming from inside the house.

This is NOT normal. This is not good. This is not unserious: this is the GOP base riled into a frenzy and they are going to look to Republicans to step up to meet their demands for death to transgender "gr**mers" and those they see as enablers.

This is the sort of language you see right before really, really bad things happen. Like the Khmer Rouge killing all the "bourgeoise", Rwanda, or Kristallnacht. GOP legislatures aren't there yet, but only because they still worry SCOTUS might overturn them for "animus".

But this is absolutely a mob inciting each other toward violence, like what happened to Dr. George Tiller. Except, this is even more blatant, more out in the open. And Republican Governors like Abbott are dropping big hints there's a pardon waiting for any would be assassins.

Stop for a moment. Let's say some deranged person hunts down and sh**ts some therapist, teacher, or doctor that's been singled out by Walsh or Libs of TikTok. The entire right wing ecosystem will rise up to angrily and loudly demand, 24/7, that they be pardoned preemptively.

Most of these states have already banned health care for trans youth, true. But they could just as easily target the parent, a drag artist, or the gender variant kid themselves for "spreading the contagion" to prove "we don't tolerate that here in Texas."

My over-arching point is that there is a huge, pent-up demand by the GOP base for lethal violence against trans people and there allies right now. If politicians aren't quick enough in providing it for them, they seem poised to provide it themselves.

If it happens in a GOP controlled state, there's going to be immense, almost irresistable, pressure for a pardon. Once that happens, the floodgates will open, and God help any trans people, drag artists, parents of trans kids, or trans allies still in those states.

All that's holding these folks back now is the fear of spending the rest of their lives in an 8x8 cell. If that goes away... It also seems nearly inevitable that someone, soon, is going to test this theory. Far too many insanely angry, violent people with guns.

They're getting angrier, more deranged, with more guns at an alarming rate. It's the monkeys with typewriters problem: eventually something very bad WILL inevitably happen, it's mostly a matter of when, where, and who.

Where it goes from there will largely depend on the reactions commentators like Walsh, and of the local governor to see if it remains a one-off or sets off a wave of terror

We're on a precipice and no one outside the trans community and a few SMEs on genocide seem to get it

The future of Indonesia's only Islamic community centre for transgender women is in jeopardy after its leader, Shinta Ratri, died in February - and the government says it cannot support it. There are 63 trans women who regularly attend the Al-Fatah community centre, which provides a space for them to pray, learn the Quran, learn skills or simply socialise without being judged for who they are... "It's a safe place where we can pray"... "Many Islamic centres do not accept transgender people"...

As queer artists increasingly become political targets, volunteers wielding large wings are swooping in to their defence...

I've been having crazy deja vu because I'm an adult, I'm 26, and throughout childhood I was called "too feminine" and "over-the-top", and here I am now being called all those same things, but this time it's from other adults.

Among the many contradictions posed by the liberal story of transgender visibility is the myth that we were ever invisible. Transgender people, for better and for worse, have been a feature of the mass media landscape for as long as there has been mass media. Trans women especially have long been trotted out as villains, deviants, honeypots, mutants, harpies, scolds, charlatans, and bitches in works of fiction and nonfiction alike, and few stewards of these stereotypes were as eager to indulge in them as Jerry Springer.
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Unlike the last decade of trans visibility, the depictions within these narrow and exploitative tropes didn’t challenge what society thought about trans people—they merely reflected back at them the transphobia and misogyny they already believed. It’s why public narratives about us before the 2010s didn’t inspire the level of organized political backlash we’re now experiencing—trans women had a role in public life and were restrained to it. It was only once the culture began to show us outside of that role that we became the main character in the nightmares of revanchists, demagogues, and politicians currently trying to banish our health care.

Nearly a year ago, I wrote that Mulvaney’s popularity held promise as an example of the power of transgender joy in dispelling the myths that suggest we lead, as sociologist Laurel Westbrook puts, “unlivable lives.” When the only thing cis people hear about trans people is our misery and suffering, it reinforces the notion that the current gendered order is inevitable and any lives pursued outside of it doomed to fail.

The company told the Wall Street Journal that people have confronted workers in stores, knocked down Pride merchandise displays and put threatening posts on social media with video from inside stores.

On May 22nd 2023, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women released a Special Procedures statement calling for police protection of anti-trans feminists and other activists targeting trans people. This statement spread like wildfire within an international network: Women's Declaration International (WDI), a global campaign led by white academics of the Global North to undermine trans people's rights to live freely in society.

Meanwhile, in the United States, United Kingdom, Latin America and Eastern Europe, trans and gender diverse people face widespread suppression by the media and state. We are being barred from restrooms, our access to gender affirming care is being gutted, Pride events are being banned or are targeted by anti-LGBTQ+ supremacists, and if we dare protest we face violence from police.

The fight for trans rights is the first beachhead in the global fight for human rights. Trans and gender diverse people are under attack by highly coordinated, international networks. We are in every community dating back to the dawn of humanity. The attacks on us are already bleeding over into attacks on other vulnerable groups because our rights as human beings are inherently linked. The opposition aims to enforce an outdated and abusive hierarchy and if we don't stop them now it will spread fast. A threat to trans people is a threat to us all.

Human Rights Campaign says emergency stems from ‘unprecedented and dangerous spike in anti-LGBTQ+ legislative assaults’...

A brawl broke out Tuesday as hundreds of protesters supporting and opposing LGBTQ rights gathered outside a Southern California school district headquarters where board members were deciding whether to recognize June as Pride Month.

In the fall of 2022, a German court heard an unusual case.

It was a civil lawsuit that grew out of a feud on Twitter about whether transgender people were victims of the Holocaust. Though there is no longer much debate about whether gay men and lesbians were persecuted, there’s been very little scholarship on trans people during this period.

The court took expert statements from historians, including myself, before finding that the historical evidence shows that trans people were, indeed, persecuted by the Nazi regime.

Beginning Aug. 28, Missouri health care providers won't be able to prescribe those gender-affirming treatments for teens and children. Most adults will still have access to transgender health care under the law, but Medicaid won't cover it.

Gender-affirming surgeries for inmates and prisoners will be outlawed.
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Gov. Mike Parson also on Wednesday signed legislation that would ban transgender girls and women from playing on female sports teams from kindergarten through college. Both public and private schools face losing all state funding for violating the law.

Rodriguez has spent over $15,000 on legal fees defending herself against these claims. During the latest period of investigation against her, she was also doxxed; her address spread online after she spoke out in the press against the worsening climate of transphobia in Texas. Campaigners showed up at her home picketing with signs accusing her of child abuse and posted flyers through her neighbors’ mailboxes picturing her face with a target over it. Strangers carrying guns have followed her to work. The police were unable to intervene due to Texas’s constitutional carry laws, until one of her tailgaters was arrested for carrying a weapon as a convicted felon.

Do you remember, way back in 2021, when American conservatives were still obsessed with critical race theory? As a moral panic, it was all encompassing but also frustratingly vague because exactly what CRT meant could feel a little slippery. Critical race theory is a real academic discipline, but that was never exactly what conservatives meant when they attacked it. Instead, their complaints had something to do with teaching young people about racism, the Civil Rights era, and slavery in America. Numerous laws were proposed to reshape school curricula, whole organizations were formed with this as their founding purpose, and then, quite suddenly, all the CRT talk faded.

Within a few months it seemed like every conservative group had re-tooled to make anti-trans policies their top priority. How did that happen? A reporter for the New Yorker seems to have stumbled, reluctantly, over the answer.

Maryland is the 12th state to enact policies that refuse compliance with out of state laws that target transgender people.

New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs, facing a revolt from eight members of his caucus over changes made to the province's policy on sexual orientation in schools, said Thursday he is willing to call an election on the issue.
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One major change is that students under 16 who identify as Trans and nonbinary won't be able to officially change their names or pronouns in school without parental consent.

“Outside of a research setting, puberty–suppressing hormones should not be routinely commissioned for children and adolescents who have gender incongruence/dysphoria,” the NHS said regarding its new “interim policy.”

Instead, puberty blockers will only be made available to children who take part in clinical trials or under specific circumstances – including those who had a history of treatment “outside NHS protocols.”

President Joe Biden’s administration banned drag shows on U.S. military bases on June 1, the start of Pride Month, following criticism from Republican lawmakers amid a general campaign against LGBTQ+ events, The Associated Press reported

Recent polling from Data for Progress shows that LGBTQ+ adults nationally are greatly impacted by anti-LGBTQ+ legislation and rhetoric in the U.S. Particularly, LGBTQ+ adults feel unheard and unprotected by the Democratic Party, which is the party that the community strongly prefers

While those fleeing states like Florida are justifiably seeking safety across state lines, the aspirations of the far-right to enshrine hateful policy at the national level means that none of us are truly safe. Already, these politicians demonstrated their capacity to punish any who get in their way to amass power—children and families included. This is not a Florida problem, this is a national crisis.

Starbucks has banned Pride decorations in stores halfway through Pride Month, the company’s workers union claimed Tuesday. If true, it would be a stunning cave to far-right anti-LGBTQ fury—but the coffee chain denies that any such policy is in place.

Nevada – Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo has signed a bill requiring health insurers cover gender-affirming care for transgender minors and adults, bucking expectations as other GOP-led states across the country advance anti-LGBTQ legislation.

The coffee giant’s HQ in Seattle insists that policies have not changed amid anti-LGBTQ backlash, but messages viewed by Fast Company say otherwise.

If approved, the measure would authorize the bishops' doctrine committee to begin the process of revising the Religious and Ethical Directives for Catholic Health Care, which are described as the "authoritative guidance" for U.S. Catholic health care institutions. The revision would change the directives to align with a doctrinal note the bishops released in March, which focused on what the prelates called the "moral limits to technological manipulation of the human body."

A small group of conservative doctors has sought to shape the nation’s most contentious policies on abortion and transgender rights by promoting views rejected by the medical establishment as scientific fact, according to documents reviewed by The Washington Post that describe the group’s internal strategies.

Heidi Starr said that her daughter was taking part in a shot-put competition in Kelowna, British Columbia, last week, when Josef Tesar, the grandfather of another student, suddenly insisted that her daughter was either a boy or transgender and should be disqualified from the competition

Russian lawmakers gave initial approval Wednesday to a bill that would outlaw gender transitioning procedures in yet another blow to the country’s beleaguered LGBTQ+ community.
Senior lawmaker Pyotr Tolstoy, who is among the bill’s sponsors, has said it is intended to “protect Russia with its cultural and family values and traditions and to stop the infiltration of the Western anti-family ideology.”
Russia’s LGBTQ+ community has been under growing pressure for a decade as President Vladimir Putin and the Russian Orthodox Church embarked on a campaign to preserve what they deem the country’s “traditional values.”
The bill bans any “medical interventions aimed at changing the sex of a person,” as well as changing one’s gender in official documents and public records.

Across social media, prominent conservative stars are gaining clout through transphobic content — and more and more are following suit

Even when these so-called "causes" are screened for and no underlying reasons for a person's gender identity are found, treatment remains banned. Essentially, these screenings don't provide access to gender-affirming care for trans youth; rather, they erect a formidable barrier to even obtaining mental healthcare for transgender youth.

A summer day in the Florida panhandle coats your body. Wraps sticky tendrils across your skin and into your crevices and pulls the sweat out of you within moments of stepping outside. The first day this happens after the too brief winter is the worst. But soon you know no difference. It’s the way it’s always been. It’s not comfortable, but it’s familiar. And besides, you’re adaptable. You have air conditioning and iced tea. Being trans in Florida was like one perpetual north Florida summer, until recently. Until the thermometer rose every day, every year, relentlessly. Until the power went out and the air conditioner shuddered off and the ice melted.

Under the new plans, heads in England will be told that parents must always be consulted if a child wants to be called another name, or wear a different gender uniform.
And the school will not be able to use the child’s new preferred pronouns until parents give consent.
Teachers will be ordered not to recognise a transition within the school gates if the parents do not agree with it.
And neither students nor teachers will have to call another pupil by their preferred pronouns if they do not want to.
Even if parents do give the move the green light, heads must also consider the mental effects on other children before approving the gender change, following a long period of consideration.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center has turned over transgender patient medical records to the Tennessee Attorney General's office, which confirmed Tuesday it is conducting an investigation into potential medical billing fraud.

U.S. District Judge James Moody Jr. of the Eastern District of Arkansas overturned and permanently blocked the law from taking effect, writing that it violates the First Amendment and the equal protection and due process clauses of the 14th Amendment.

In a shocking announcement, Attorney General Kris Kobach of Kansas released an official opinion on Monday that will threaten transgender people’s legal documents in the state. If Kobach’s opinion is enforced, transgender individuals who had moved ahead and legally corrected their birth certificates and driver’s licenses now may have their corrections reversed. The wrong gender marker may be placed on all legal documents provided by the state.

On Saturday morning, the far right violently attacked members of the Lewisham community who had gathered to protect children attending a Drag Queen Story Hour event in Honor Oak Pub.

When Renton Sinclair texted his mom to say that he was transgender, she summoned a curse on the testosterone he was taking.

New draft policies for the UK’s 500,000 civil servants would block some trans staff from using single-sex spaces such as toilets, and force staff to accept transphobic views in the workplace, VICE News can reveal.

Trans people have long maintained that transphobia does not just affect us. That’s been proven true in the worst way, with reports of two cis people being murdered for allegedly misdirected anti-trans hostility.

The Russian State Duma, or lower house of parliament, has voted in favor of a new law banning nearly all medical help for transgender people including gender reassignment surgery, in a raft of new anti-LGBTQ laws in Russia.
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It also restricts registry offices from amending official documents based on medical certificates of gender change.

“None of us would ever recommend transition for anyone,” Gunn said. “The key point here is: eyes on the prize! We have to stop child transitions. On those over 25 we say little, because it’s not in YOUR interests to mention this. We have to break through to the policymakers who are left of center, and the way to do that is to focus relentlessly on the problem of transition for under 25s.”

Children’s Hospital Colorado will no longer provide gender-affirming surgeries for adults and has “largely scrubbed references to gender-affirming care from its website,” The Denver Post reports.

Foreign interference and growing anti-LGBTQ+ movements are threatening the European Union membership prospects of Western Balkan countries. A growing network of foreign organisations are pouring hundreds of millions of euros into "culture war" groups campaigning to roll back LGBTQ+ rights across Europe, European lawmakers have warned. In a resolution published earlier this month, the European Parliament raised the alarm about foreign interference in all democratic processes in Europe, pointing out that most of the foreign funding originates from Russia and the US. This foreign interference, coupled with disinformation and numerous attacks perpetrated by malicious foreign actors, is predicted to increase in the lead-up to the European Parliament elections in 2024, becoming more sophisticated in nature. MEPs flagged that at least 50 organisations now fund anti-gender activities — opposing what they call gender ideology. “Europe is seeing a growing number of anti-gender movements, specifically targeting sexual and reproductive health, women’s rights and LGBTIQ+ people,” the EU parliamentary report read. “Such movements proliferate disinformation in order to reverse progress in women’s rights and gender equality. These movements have been reported to receive millions of euros in foreign funding, either public or private, including from Russia and the US”...

When Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti’s office informed Vanderbilt University Medical Center that it was under investigation, it reportedly produced something ominous — a list of 106 transgender patients who had received care from the hospital.

Skrmetti wanted all of the patients’ records. And VUMC gave the documents to the state.
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The suit alleges that Vanderbilt turned over some of the most sensitive information possible, including pictures of genitalia, gender identity unknown to others, private communication with clinicians, sexual history, identity of intimate partners and more.

Lambert alleged that there was an incident last year when a group of girls “tried bashing him” in the toilets, and the bullying then continued online.

The school said it would “handle it”, she said. “But there’s never been any consequences for the pack of girls.”

Pope Francis has told a young transgender person that "God loves us as we are", his latest outreach gesture towards the LGBT community... One of the young people was Giona, an Italian in their early 20s who said they were "torn by the dichotomy between (their Catholic) faith and transgender identity". Francis replied that "the Lord always walks with us ... Even if we are sinners, he draws near to help us. The Lord loves us as we are, this is God's crazy love." The Catholic Church teaches that members of the LGBT community should be treated with respect, compassion and sensitivity, and their human rights respected. Whether the Church can and should be more welcoming towards LGBT people, for example by offering blessings for same-sex unions, is a particularly sensitive topic. Francis has famously said "who am I to judge" in an answer to a question specifically about homosexuals, and has condemned laws criminalising members of the LGBT community as a sin and an injustice...

Jan Dvorkin had raised and nurtured his adopted son in Moscow for seven years until, one day in May, the Russian authorities notified him they were revoking custody. A woman Mr. Dvorkin knew had filed an official complaint, saying that because he was transgender and gay, he was an unfit parent.

The American Academy of Pediatrics has reaffirmed its support for gender-affirming medical care for transgender children, even as the treatments face a growing push for bans and restrictions from Republican lawmakers across the US. The board of directors for the group, which represents 67,000 pediatricians, unanimously voted to reaffirm its 2018 position on the treatments... "the board is concerned about restrictions to accessing evidence-based health care for young people who need it,” Mark Del Monte, the academy’s chief executive, said in a statement released by the group, calling the restrictions enacted by states “unprecedented government intrusion”...

After driving home a message to young people for several days in a row that the church is open to everyone, Pope Francis on Aug. 6 reiterated that such a message includes LGBTQ people and all marginalized groups. "The Lord is clear," the pope said in reflecting on who is welcome in the church: "The sick, the elderly, the young, old, ugly, beautiful, good and bad"... Throughout the visit, the pope continued to repeat the message that everyone is welcome in the Catholic Church — at one point getting young people to repeat after him "todos, todos, todos" ("everyone, everyone, everyone”). Yet on the same day of those remarks, a Mass for LGBTQ pilgrims in Lisbon was interrupted by traditionalist protestors who believed the event to be sacrilegious. Organizers said the protest underscored the challenges gay and lesbian Catholics face in the church today. "The church is a mother," he said...

Vanderbilt University Medical Center is facing a federal civil rights investigation after turning the medical records of transgender patients over to Tennessee’s attorney general, hospital officials have confirmed.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ investigation comes just weeks after two patients sued VUMC for releasing their records to Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti late last year.

Chino Valley Unified School District President Sonja Shaw has rapidly become a rising star— both in the California Republican Party and the national right-wing movement opposing LGBTQ+ rights. The firebrand politician’s crusade against her district’s LGBTQ+ students has garnered significant media attention, and for good reason. In July, Shaw and her school board ruled in a 4-1 vote that Chino Valley Unified School District would now mandate teachers to force transgender and non-binary students out of the closet to potentially bigoted family members— a move that experts say will increase the likelihood for abuse, bullying, and self harm amongst impacted students. This comes after the same school board already banned LGBTQ+ Pride flags from district schools.

On Thursday, the Murrieta Valley School Board voted 3-2 to approve almost exactly the same policy passed in Chino Valley Unified School District: the forced outing of transgender and non-binary students to bigoted family members. The meeting was, yet again, filled with Leave Our Kids Alone supporters— who publicly tell LGBTQ+ youth activists that they should hang themselves and die in the closet.

International Chess Federation, FIDE, has released new guidelines targeting transgender players. The guidelines would strip trans men's titles, and potentially bar trans women from playing.

The House’s and Senate’s override votes, which passed largely along party lines, mean bills that ban gender-affirming care for minors, restrict how gender identity can be discussed in schools, and prohibit transgender athletes from competing on girls’ sports teams are now law in the state.

The U.S. Education Department accepted Baylor University’s request for exemption from Title IX’s sexual harassment provision after the private Baptist school asked to dismiss discrimination complaints filed by LGBTQ+ students that the university said were “inconsistent” with the institution’s religious values.

“For the first time in Title IX’s history, a federally-funded university has been given special permission, by the Biden Administration no less, to allow its LGBTQIA+ students to be sexually harassed,” wrote Paul Southwick, director of the Religious Exemption Accountability Project, in a statement.

A US shop owner was shot dead after a dispute over a Pride flag displayed outside her business, police say.

Laura Ann Carleton, 66, was found with a bullet wound at her Mag Pi shop in Cedar Glen, California, on Friday.

A suspect - who fled the scene on foot - was killed by police when found nearby, allegedly still armed.

It's not a coincidence that this shooter favorably interacted with and often promoted content from James O'Keefe, Jordan Peterson, Matt Walsh of The Daily Wire, Andy Ngô of The Post Millenial, Rogan O'Handley of Turning Poing USA, Alex Rosen, Ethan Schmidt, OANN, Fox News, The Babylon Bee, The Gateway Pundit, and other similar right-wing provocateur pages.

Three Trump appointees reversed an injunction blocking the law, allowing the ban to go into effect. Florida and Georgia rulings now in jeopardy.

We believe that children deserve the right to experience the wide-reaching benefits of organized sports in a fun, safe, and nurturing environment, without having to compromise who they are. We believe that is what is right and fair, from both a scientific and a moral perspective—and in this package we explore exactly why and how. We hope this collection of stories will help people who are new to this issue see that trans kids are simply kids, and will equip you to advocate for them in your own community.

Earlier this week the New York Times published a biased and misleading story by Azeen Ghorayshi on the allegations of Jamie Reed, a former employee of the Washington University Pediatric Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital.
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Accusing the NYT of not accurately representing what their reporting found is a big swing, and something we know many people will find difficult to believe. That’s why Assigned Media went through every claim made by Reed and coded them as either corroborated, uncorroborated, or refuted by reporting in either the NYT or other outlets. We believe this shows, conclusively, that none of Reed’s allegations of wrongdoing at the Center have been confirmed, and that the NYT misled readers by implying that they had.

The law, known as Senate File 496, includes a section barring teachers from using “a name or pronoun that is different than the name or pronoun assigned to the student in the school district’s registration forms or records” unless a parent has been notified and has approved the change.

A prosecutor in Blount County, Tennessee has threatened Pride organizers with an anti-drag law found unconstitutional. In a court filing, leaders at Maryville College were threatened with arrest.

The lead sponsor of the "Kids Online Safety Act," otherwise known as KOSA, has stated over the weekend that it will be used to "protect minor children from the transgender in our culture."
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The bill boasts broad bipartisan backing, with 43 co-sponsors listed, including 21 Democratic Senators. Even President Biden has endorsed the legislation, emphatically stating, "Pass it. Pass it. Pass it."

For the first time, a randomized controlled trial has been completed on gender affirming care and the results are stunning: 55% of those on care saw reduction of suicidality vs 5% of control.

... Although neither the Florida ruling nor the 11th Circuit's decision are conclusive, they've taken shape as preliminary benchmarks, potentially paving the way for even stricter measures. Globally, authoritarian regimes, as seen in Russia and Hungary, have intensified their clampdown on transgender adults. Alarmingly, the United States stands at the precipice of treading a similar trajectory. What began merely as a dialogue on transgender youth in sports just a few years ago has spiraled, revealing there is no bottom to which anti-trans policymakers might go to further restrict trans people in every way imaginable.

Uganda is home to the largest refugee population in Africa – and the third largest in the world – and has been widely praised for its progressive policies, which allow asylum seekers to work, start businesses, and move freely. However, a new law imposing harsher penalties on the country’s sexual minorities has made life harder for LGBTQ+ people who have taken refuge there and increased the risks they face if they leave the refugee settlements. Same-sex relationships were already illegal in Uganda. However, the Anti-Homosexuality Act signed into law by President Yoweri Museveni on 22 March advanced the government's long-running campaign against homosexuality. Engaging in homosexual acts can now result in a life sentence, and attempting to have same-sex relations can earn a 10-year prison term. There is even the death penalty for "aggravated homosexuality", which includes same-sex relationships with HIV-positive people, and up to 14 years in prison for "attempted aggravated homosexuality". While the new law, which has been couched in the language of decolonisation, religious mysticism, and a narrative of a weakened West, will almost certainly result in further persecution and discrimination of Uganda's LGBTQ+ minority, its impact extends beyond local people to the 1.5 million refugees living in the country... Within the refugee context, additional challenges arise. The majority of refugees in Uganda live in one of the country's 13 refugee settlements, where levels of poverty and unemployment levels are high. The conditions within the camps are especially tough for marginalised members of the refugee population, including LGBTQ+ individuals... The recent changes in legislation have only amplified the plight of LGBTQ+ refugees, trapping them between a rock and a hard place. While refugees are allowed to settle elsewhere, leaving the camps could potentially expose LGBTQ+ refugees to prosecution under the new law... Because of their refugee status and the presence of international organisations in the camps, they may have a certain sphere of protection from arrest based on their sexual orientation. However, this has led to a distressing reality: Their fundamental right to free movement has become obsolete in the face of systemic discrimination...

Oxford’s vice-chancellor has said she was “deeply saddened” by the abuse and attacks aimed at the university’s transgender staff and students during her first year in the post, including the controversy which surrounded an appearance by Kathleen Stock, a gender-critical feminist... “I was deeply saddened to learn of the abusive and threatening language and behaviours that our trans community suffered this year. We should have done more to support them; rest assured lessons were learned. In this university, I expect more and we will continue to strive to create a culture of tolerance and respectful disagreement on key issues of the day. That is how we learn together and evolve”...

Trans hospital patients in England will be banned from being treated in female- and male-only wards, under plans announced by the health secretary. In a speech to Conservative activists at the party’s conference in Manchester, Steve Barclay also promised a patient’s request to have intimate care provided by someone of the same biological sex would be respected... However, the comments sparked a backlash from moderate Tory MPs, who fear LGBTQ+ people are being targeted as part of a wider culture war designed to appeal to the right of the party. Jamie Wallis, a Conservative who became the first openly transgender MP last year, said Barclay was grappling with a non-issue...

Not only would it prevent transgender students in K-12 schools from using restrooms that align with their gender identity, but it also extends this restriction to transgender adults across all colleges and universities in the state. Remarkably, these stipulations would apply regardless of the gender reflected on an individual's birth certificate, even if they've legally changed their gender. Instead, restroom use would be determined by the "biological sex" recorded on a birth certificate at or close to the time of birth, pointedly omitting those who have since made legal amendments to their certificates.

Alice Litman had been waiting more than three years to receive gender-affirming healthcare when she died in May 2022...

A Canadian human rights commissioner has resigned after her province’s government said it would use a clause in its constitution to pass legislation preventing children under 16 from changing their names or pronouns at school without parental consent.

X is monetizing an account that posted about the suicide of a 14-year-old transgender boy and suggested his mother was to blame for his death because she’s written about depression and struggling to pay bills. Many have accused the account of making fun of the boy’s death.

The children’s book publisher Scholastic said it will separate titles in its elementary school book fairs by race, gender and sexuality, allowing school districts to include or exclude the list.

The decision is a response to dozens of state laws restricting how the topics are discussed in schools, which Scholastic has opposed. Districts can now opt out of the new list, called the Share Every Story, Celebrate Every Voice catalog, or choose specific titles from it.

The new catalog of 64 titles includes biographies of the supreme court justice Ketanji Brown Jackson and the civil rights icon John Lewis; the memoir I Am Ruby Bridges, on the experience of desegregating schools; the picture book Change Sings by the poet Amanda Gorman; The Storyteller, a middle grade novel about a Cherokee boy; and the disability-positive titles You Are Enough and You Are Loved.

Soon, we will be entering into another wave of state-level legislation. Some states are poised to release prefilled bills as soon as November and December. Our first anti-trans bill of 2023, for example, emerged on November 9th, 2022 in Tennessee. While the specifics of these upcoming bills remain uncertain, restraint is not a likely result. Instead, a consistent trend emerges: what's labeled as the "most extreme" legislation targeting trans people in one year often takes center stage the next, passing in several states. To illustrate, sports bans, seen as radical in 2020, were enacted in multiple states by 2021 and 2022. Similarly, while healthcare bans were perceived as extreme in 2022, by 2023, almost every state that adopted a sports ban had also approved a healthcare ban.