The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that existing federal civil rights protections forbids job discrimination against LGBTQ+ workers. The decision said that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which makes it illegal for employers to discriminate based on a person’s sex, also covers sexual orientation. Twenty-two states plus the District of Columbia […]
First Openly Transgender Official Wins City Council Seat in West Virginia
Tuesday was Election Day in West Virginia and Rosemary Ketchum, a community organizer and activist, was among those elected to office. Ketchum will represent Wheeling, West Virginia’s Third Ward in the Wheeling City Council and has made history by becoming West Virginia’s first openly transgender elected official. Ketchum announced her candidacy for Wheeling City Council […]
Activists Respond to Video of Black Trans Woman Being Attacked by Group of Men
Iyanna Dior, a 21-year-old Black transgender woman from Minneapolis, Minnesota, was brutally attacked by a group of mostly cisgender men on Monday, according to a video that has gone viral on social media this week. The video shows a group of between 15 and 30 assailants beating Dior and calling her homophobic slurs outside a […]
Inclusion of Transgender Student Athletes Found to Violate Title IX
The Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights has found that a Connecticut high school athletics policy that allows transgender students to participate in sports teams that match their gender identity violates federal law and could cost the state federal education funding. A 45-page letter, dated May 15, explained that the decision was based on the […]
U.S. Navy Grants Waiver to Transgender Service Member Despite Trump Ban
The U.S. Navy granted a waiver for a transgender service member to serve according to her gender identity last Friday, the first of its kind since the military enacted a ban on transgender troops. The waiver comes after the officer, publicly known only as Jane Doe, sued President Donald Trump over his ban on transgender […]
South Korean LGBTQ Community Faces Increased Homophobia After COVID-19 Outbreak
The LGBTQ community in South Korea is facing increased homophobia after a recent outbreak of COVID-19 was linked to gay nightclubs in Seoul. In early May, the government announced that a man who had visited multiple night clubs on May 2 tested positive for the coronavirus. More than 100 cases of the virus has since […]
Historic Transgender Rights Supreme Court Case Plaintiff Aimee Stephens Has Died
Aimee Stephens died yesterday at age 59. She was unsure whether the Supreme Court will decide her case as planned on Thursday and if she would live to hear the decision. In 2013, Stephens told her employer that she was going to transition to female and was subsequently fired two weeks later from her job […]
Transgender Woman Nina Pop Murdered in Missouri
On Sunday, May 3rd, the body of 28-year-old transgender woman Nina Pop was found in her apartment in Sikestown, Missouri. She had been stabbed multiple times, according to police. While police have not determined a motive, they are looking into the possibility of a hate crime. The LGBTQ advocacy group Human Rights Campaign reported that […]
Masterpiece Cakeshop Owner Faces Second Lawsuit for LGBTQ Discrimination
Autumn Scardina is the plaintiff in the second lawsuit against Masterpiece Cakeshop Owner Jack Phillips for LGBTQ discrimination. The lawsuit argues that the business unlawfully refused service to Scardina, a transgender woman, who requested a trans-themed birthday cake. Scardina had previously filed a complaint against Phillips when the refusal happened in 2018, but Phillips sued […]
ACLU Files Lawsuit Over Idaho Transgender Athlete Ban
The ACLU has filed a complaint in Boise federal court on Wednesday, April 14 following Idaho Governor Brad Little’s signing of a bill banning the participation of transgender women and girls from women’s public and university sports into law on March 30. The lawsuit challenges the new law, set to go into effect on July […]
Activist Phyllis Lyon Passes Away at Age 95
LGBTQ+ rights pioneer, Phyllis Lyon, died at age 95 yesterday of natural causes. Lyon co-founded the Daughters of Bilitis, the United States’ first lesbian organization in 1955. She and her wife, Del Martin, were the first couple to married in San Francisco’s “Winter of Love” in 2004, a time when the mayor of San Francisco […]
Lawyers Working Nonstop During COVID-19 Pandemic to Protect LGBTQ+ Rights
Despite courts being closed during the COVID-19 pandemic, lawyers at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) have been writing lawsuits challenging new anti-LGBTQ+ legislation across the country. In Idaho, there has been two pieces of legislation passed into law that ban transgender women and girls from playing on high school and college teams and prevents […]
Senators, LGBTQ Advocates Demand Lift on Federal Blood Donation Ban to Address COVID-19 Shortages
Senators and LGBTQ rights groups are urging the federal Food and Drug Administration to allow gay and bisexual men to donate blood and plasma to address supply shortages during the coronavirus pandemic. Current FDA guidelines prohibit men who have had sex with men in the last 12 months from donating blood. Activists argue that this […]
Young Transgender Activist Shot and Killed in North Carolina
Monika Diamond, a 34-year-old transgender LGBT+ activist and businesswoman, was shot and killed on Wednesday, March 18 in Charlotte, North Carolina. Multiple shots had been fired before police and ambulance were dispatched in response to a disturbance call. After attempting to revive her, Diamond was pronounced dead at the scene. According to Maya Oppenheim, Women’s […]
Trans Community Uniquely Affected by COVID-19 Pandemic
The spread of the COVID-19 virus will affect everyone in the country in a number of tangible ways, such work closures, shelter in place mandates, and empty toilet paper aisles in grocery stores. Marginalized communities are particularly affected by this pandemic, and the trans community is no different. Closures and strained health care systems make […]
Transgender Navy Officer Sues Pentagon Challenging Trump Transgender Military Ban
This week, a transgender Navy officer referred to as Jane Doe filed a lawsuit against the Pentagon regarding the Trump administration’s transgender military ban. Doe is seeking emergency relief to continue to serve in the military on the same terms as her cisgender peers, faced with involuntary discharge on the basis of her gender identity. […]
Idaho Senate Passes Bill Banning Transgender Women and Girls from School Sports
The Idaho State Senate passed a bill on March 16th which would ban transgender girls and women from playing on high school and college sports teams. The “Fairness in Women’s Sports Act” would force students to compete on teams that correlate with their sex assigned at birth rather than their gender identity. If there is […]
‘Progressive Vanguard’ of LGBT Voters Showed Up for Democratic Primaries
Even though LGBT people make up about 4.5 percent of the entire US population, they made up more than 9 percent of voters who turned out for the Democratic primary elections. The “disproportionately high number” of LGBT voters who turned out were both younger and more liberal than non-LGBT voters in the primaries, according to […]
Transgender Minors in NY Now Allowed to Change Their Gender Marker
Transgender individuals born in New York can now change their gender marker on their birth certificate before their 18th birthday thanks to a lawsuit by a 14-year-old trans boy, known only as M.H.W. “Effective immediately, transgender individuals born in New York will have the right to make this deeply personal decision without the government’s […]
Canada Proposes Comprehensive Nationwide Conversion Therapy Ban
In a landmark move, Canada’s federal government has proposed legislation to criminalize forced conversion therapy for LGBTQ people. The legislation would also prohibit conversion therapy for minors. “Conversion therapy” is a range of abusive practices performed to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity or expression. These practices, based on the antiquated idea that […]
