Republican lawmakers in West Virginia’s state legislature have passed a terrifying bill allowing health care providers to examine children’s genitals to identify their “biological sex” without parental consent. The bill seeks to confine gender within a binary, defining “sex” based on whether a person produces eggs or sperm, and demanding that gender-segregated spaces such as restrooms and locker rooms be used based on an individual’s sex assigned at birth. The bill would also require transgender students to face examinations at school. The West Virginia House of Delegates approved an amendment from Delegate J.B. Akers to officially allow childrens’ health care…
Author: Lauren Mulvey
City councilors in Boston have voted 12-1 to make Boston a sanctuary city for members of the LGBTQ+ community. The designation came after Councilor-at-Large Julia Mejia and District 9 Councilor Liz Breadon called on the city to adopt measures to support transgender people. NBC 10 Boston reported Mejia said Boston wouldn’t back down on Wednesday. “We’re seeing attacks on our trans loved ones, and here on the local level, a lot of folks are feeling helpless.” Breadon, the first openly gay woman elected to the city council, said “many of our neighbors are feeling unsafe and insecure for various reasons,”…
A new law was passed in Hungary this week banning all Pride events. The draconian legislation officially makes holding a public Pride event a criminal offense according to Outright International. The bill, that was pushed through hastily thanks to an initiative from nationalist-populist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, imposes crackdowns on civil rights throughout the country leading up to the 2026 general elections. It passed with a wide margin, with 136 votes in favor and only 27 against. The bill is aligned with Orbán’s rhetoric surrounding LGBTQ+ rights, i.e. that they are a threat to society, namely minors. The new law…
Art lovers visiting L.A. should mark their calendars to see The Broad art museum’s exhibition “Jeffrey Gibson: The Space In Which To Place Me” May 10 through Sept. 28, 2025. Gibson is a member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and Cherokee by descent and he received a B.A. from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in painting, and a masters from the Royal College of Art in London. His career’s work has centered around indigenous and LGBTQ+ experiences. This is Jeffrey Gibson’s first solo museum presentation in Southern California and will include over thirty artworks exploring…
MSNBC is doing a talent revamp to include two out gay Black men on “The Weekend,” a historic win for Black LGBTQ+ representation. “The Weekend” will be hosted by MSNBC vet Jonathan Capehart and senior Washington correspondent Eugene Daniels, who will join new Washington correspondent Jackie Alemany for a three-person panel show, according to LGBTQ Nation. Capehart and Daniels are the first two Black gay men to host a news program together under a major network. The three hosts make a highly qualified united front. Capehart is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and associate editor for the Washington Post, and current…
Following Trump’s executive order to ban transgender people from the military, the Pentagon is now saying that it will draft and submit a procedure to identify trans service members and begin discharging them. Trump introduced a similar policy in 2017 during his first presidential term, which banned the military from accepting trans enlistees, according to The Washington Blade. But the current directive takes his previous actions a step further, removing personnel unless they are granted a special waiver. When issuing his initial ban, Trump said being trans fundamentally “conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful and disciplined lifestyle,…
Donald Trump has fired Amy Paris, one of the federal government’s highest ranking employees. Paris’ work for the federal government has spanned five administrations. During Biden’s term, she helped to implement trans-inclusive policies. When terminated, her role was deputy digital services lead in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) where she oversaw organ donation safety, according to LGBTQ Nation. Paris’ work over the last decade deemed her one of the highest ranking employees in U.S. federal government, second to former Assistant Secretary of Health Rachel Levine, according to The 19th. Paris told The 19th that she was told…
As a conservative, Friedrich Merz, Germany’s new chancellor holds a more traditionalist perspective when it comes to LGBTQ+ rights. Here’s a brief history of the comments Merz has made about the LGBTQ+ community in recent years. According to Pink News, he opposed a marriage equality bill introduced in Germany in 2017, but has since stated that he respects the passing of the law and would not take action to undo it. Additionally, he suggested that some LGBTQ+ people might be better parents than some straight ones during conversations on same-sex adoption, though he has stated he was against the practice…
There are more out LGBTQ+ identifying Americans today than ever, and they aren’t going anywhere. According to a 2024 Gallup poll, a record 9.3% of U.S. adults now identify as LGBTQ+, an increase from just 3.5% in 2012, revealing that more Americans than ever are openly identifying as LGBTQ+. Unsurprisingly, a large portion of queer identifying people in the U.S. population are Gen Z adults. Over 20% of this group identifies as LGBTQ+ with millennials following closely behind at around 12%. The survey asks respondents to indicate whether they are straight/heterosexual, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or something else. Gallup indicates that…
A New Jersey agency that oversees sports across the state’s schools is refusing to change its policy on trans athletes’ participation in athletics. The New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) is standing their ground and decidedly letting trans athletes continue to compete in school sports. They have confirmed they would not be making any changes to the standing policy, defying President Trump’s executive orders. Trump’s executive order entitled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” bans trans women and girls from competing in girl’s and women’s sports and threatens to revoke federal funding from educational programs that do not comply.…
A landmark study on LGBTQ+ identities from 2016 has vanished from the National Park Service’s website following the removal of LGBTQ+ content across government agency websites. The Washington Blade reports that the study was entitled “LGBTQ America: A Theme Study of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer History” and was commissioned by the National Park Service after they received a grant from the Gill Foundation to include LGBTQ+ historical information on their site in 2014. The Washington Blade reportedly reached out to the NPS for comment and received a response that the agency is implementing Trump’s executive order: “Defending Women…
Passport Magazine’s savvy traveler writers are not just globetrotters, they are also domestic travel dynamos who have explored the best places to visit in the USA. Here are five of the most LGBTQ+ friendly destinations in the USA that our writers have personally experienced and recommend for all travelers. AUSTIN, TEXAS “Keep Austin Weird” became a slogan so popular and impactful that it was famously copied by Portland, Oregon and other cities around the nation. Is Austin weird? Yes, in a wonderful way. It’s a college town, a liberal hippie hideout, a tech-industry magnet, and an outdoorsman’s paradise. And, despite…
The government of Tamil Nadu, a small South Indian state has proposed a new policy that would, in effect, improve the lives of LGBTQ+ residents. The proposal entitled “Draft Policy for the Welfare of LGBTQIA+ Persons” was introduced by the Tamil Nadu State Planning Commission in July of 2023. According to the Washington Blade, key points of the policy included a 1% quota for transgender and intersex people in local education and employment. However, the proposal has seen little movement since. Tamil Nadu is home to nearly 82 million people, and if the government is successful in carrying out policy…
As it becomes increasingly clear to Americans that the Trump administration has every intention of erasing trans people, references to transgender and non-binary people have literally been erased from the Stonewall National Monument’s official National Park Service page. The site, which commemorates the Stonewall Inn riots led by trans women in 1969, after police violently raided a gay bar in Greenwich Village, only briefly mentions Marsha P. Johnson. A spokesperson from The Stonewall Inn said they were “outraged and appalled” about the info scrubbing. “This blatant act of erasure not only distorts the truth of our history, but it also…
As the Trump administration pushes forward on a federal funding freeze for essential organizations and institutions nationwide, two federal judges have moved to check his power but they have been unsuccessful so far. In the early days of Trump’s second term, he directed Matthew Vaeth – director of Trump’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) – to order all federal agencies and departments to “temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all federal financial assistance.” According to LGBTQ Nation, Trump issued the freeze to stop funding initiatives that “advance Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social…
A recent study from Stonewall Scotland, has found that nearly 40% of LGBTQ+ citizens of the U.K. are still closeted in the workplace. The Findings indicate that two in five (39%) of LGBTQ+ employees still feel the need to hide their sexuality at work, and around 36% have heard discriminatory comments about a queer-identifying colleague, while 26% have themselves experienced negative comments or conduct from customers or clients. Some employees even reported that they believed they were fired or dismissed because of their identity. Around 31% reported they could not be themselves at work, and of these 53% have already…
While the U.S.’s basic human rights topple down with the reentry of the Trump Administration in the White House, across the Atlantic in France, public schools are rolling out new “essential” gender equality and consent curriculum. France’s Education Minister Elisabeth Borne is said to be launching a new plan to elevate sex education in schools across the country to combat sexual violence against women and girls. This good news follows a similar trend in other European countries like the U.K. which has launched new government plans to treat the worst cases of misogyny as extremism, according to reports from Pink News. …
While some conservative states are toughening restrictions on the LGBTQ+ community, and American companies are eliminating DEI programs, Michigan is expanding its hate crime law to include LGBTQ+ identities. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) signed the bill adding sexual orientation and gender identity to the state law in late January alongside a companion bill amending sentencing guidelines for hate crimes, according to LGBTQ Nation. The original hate crime bill was passed in 1988, and has been known as the ethnic intimidation law. The law originally applied to religion, ethnicity, and race, but the new law will extend to LGBTQ+ identities, sex,…
In recent remarks made to a delegation of bishops in Ghana, new president John Mahama announced that a bill targeting LGBTQ+ citizens was “effectively dead.” A bill entitled “The Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill” was introduced by Ghana’s parliament in 2021. In effect, the bill would require a prison sentence of up to to three years for LGBTQ+ identifying Ghanaians, and five years for those who organized and/or funded LGBTQ+ advocacy groups, according to LGBTQ Nation. Mahama won Ghana’s most recent presidential election in a landslide victory, and officially took office on Jan. 7.…
Based on his campaign promises, the LGBTQ+ community was not shocked to learn that one of Trump’s first actions when he took office was to issue executive orders to essentially erase trans identities. One order, entitled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” was among more than 200 executive orders Trump issued on his first day back, according to reports from Them. Other orders including the pardoning of 1,500 people convicted of attempted insurrection on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021; withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord and World Health Organization; freezing…
Seeing Bishop Mariann Budde standing up to Donald Trump and his cronies at a church service held in his honor was a much needed reprieve from all the conservative malarky since the presidential inauguration. Bishop Mariann Budde made headlines and went viral all over the internet last week after giving a critical and necessary inaugural sermon addressing Donald Trump’s bigotry head on. During her sermon, Budde said “Let me make one final plea, Mr. President. I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now. There are gay, lesbian, and transgender children in Democratic,…
In response to Trump winning a second term as president, women are swearing off men, expanding the ‘4B’ movement which originated in South Korea. In his previous term as president, Trump appointed the three conservative Supreme Court judges who made it possible to overturn the landmark pro-choice case Roe vs. Wade. In his campaign rhetoric and during his first term, Trump often insulted female politicians, not to mention the famous “grab her by the p****” comment that went viral during his first presidential run (and didn’t lose him the election). During his 2024 campaign, Trump often referred to his Democratic…
A “romantic” getaway is different for every couple. Some might want to visit an exciting city with lots of art and culture, while others may prefer to visit a tropical location and enjoy sun, sand, and sea. Whatever your preference, here are five destination that are perfect for you and your lover this Valentine’s Day. Lyon, France Paris is famed for its romantic flair, but for a Valentine’s getaway with the same French mystique head to Lyon, France. Here you’ll discover beautiful medieval and Renaissance architecture, including the famous Notre-Dame de Fourvière, a famous basilica with hilltop views. You can…
As Trump and his administration wreak havoc on the rights and freedoms of Americans, three Unitarian churches in upstate New York came together just ahead of inauguration day to host a “Big Gay Wedding” event for LGBTQ+ couples hoping to get married quickly. In Rochester, New York LGBTQ+ couples were invited to participate in the wedding ceremony by First Universalist Church of Rochester, First Unitarian Church of Rochester, and Unitarian Universalist Church of Canandaigua. Those in attendance enjoyed donated cakes and flowers from local vendors and even had their photos taken for free. Minister of the First Universalist Church of…
Poland has a new museum dedicated to the history of the country’s LGBTQ+ community. QueerMuzeum will be operated by Lambda Warsaw Association, Poland’s oldest operating LGBTQ+ organization, according to the Washington Blade. The museum hosts many important artifacts, some of which date back as far as the 16th century. QueerMuzeum challenges Poland’s post-communist conservatism, which has seen extremist anti-LGBTQ activity such as LGBTQ free zones in sections of Poland where older populations have opted to completely eliminate queer culture from their towns and communities. Lambda president, Milosz Przepiórkowski said of the launch “This sends a message to politicians: ‘Look we are…
The Vatican has announced new guidelines for gay men hoping to become priests, a switch from previously held beliefs expressed by Pope Francis that gay men were not fit for priesthood. In a press release from the Italian Bishops Conference, the Vatican made it clear that it’s fine for those studying for priesthood – or seminarians – to be gay so long as they don’t act gay, engage in sexual relations, or support the “gay lifestyle.” The document emphasizes the importance of celibacy. “The objective of the training for priesthood in the emotional-sexual sphere is the ability [to] welcome chastity…
With the arrival of a new year also came the commencement of a new session of Congress, this one with a Republican majority. So what will the next two years entail for trans people while conservatives are in charge? In recent years, a slough of anti-trans legislation has been introduced at a federal level and across the nation in conservative states. Though some state level bills have been passed, federal bills have run into more trouble getting passed during the Biden-Harris Administration. But now, the usual roadblocks are limited and at the center of the conservative agendas are trans rights.…
Social technology company Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp and more, has been priming for a new era of anti-LGBTQ+ policies and messaging, according to recent activity across its platforms. Meta, which is owned and overseen by Mark Zuckerberg, has slowly been withdrawing its associations with LGBTQ+ pride and identities. Just this month, Pink News reports that Meta removed Pride and LGBTQ+ themes from Facebook Messenger. This follows a recent loosening of hate speech rules on the platform which includes giving users permission to refer to queer people as “mentally ill.” New guidelines state “We do allow allegations of mental…
The Vatican is organizing an inaugural pilgrimage for LGBTQ+ Chrisitians along with their relatives and allies. The pilgrimage will occur during the Vatican’s 2025 celebration of Jubilee, a Holy Year that only occurs every 25 years, according to LGBTQ+ Nation. The pilgrimage, which is being referred to as “Church: Home for All, LGBT+ Christians and Other Existential Frontiers,” will take place on Sept. 6 of 2025. The journey will include a visit to St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, a prayer vigil for members of the LGBTQ+ community and their families held in the city’s Il Gesù church, and a…
As the nation awaits Donald Trump’s second presidential inauguration day, House Republicans have released a new rules package, which indicates the party plans to fast-track anti-trans rights Just as the new year arrived, GOP representatives released a new package which lists anti-trans provisions as one of several bills that will be considered during the current House session which commenced on Jan. 3. According to LGBTQ Nation, no bill number is provided but a description of the bill reads: “The bill to amend the Education Amendments of 1972 to provide that for purposes of determining compliance with Title IX of such…