A federal district court in Tucson granted the plaintiffs' request to certify a class action in a case challenging Arizona's requirement that transgender people must have surgery to change the gender marker on their birth certificates, per a National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) press release. This ruling means that this case will now benefit all transgender people born in Arizona, not just the individual plaintiffs who originally brought the case. NCLR Staff Attorney Rachel Berg said, "Access to correct identity documents is critically important to the health and well-being of transgender people."
Meghan Buell—the transgender founder and president of TREES, Inc., a South Bend, Indiana-based resource center for the LGBTQ+ community—has passed away, according to WNDU. Buell served on nonprofit boards and transgender advisory committees, and was a regular collegiate guest lecturer. She began TREES, Inc. in 2015; the organization then launched the Tree House Gender Resource Center in 2022. Before Buell's passing, it was announced that the Tree House would cease operations by the end of November 2023.
In Florida, months after 59-year-old Timothy Floyd Smith was brutally murdered, his husband, Herbert Swilley, has been identified by detectives as the lead suspect, per Ocala-News.com . "Detectives spoke with Mr. Swilley at the earliest stages of the investigation and they have been trying to speak with him again, but his attorney has indicated that he will only cooperate if he is provided with immunity from prosecution for Timothy's murder," stated the Marion County Sheriff's Office. Swilley's daughter, Jordan Swilley, is also a person of interest in this case.
Republican New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu signed a bill into law banning the use of the "LGBTQ+ panic" defense in homicide cases, according to Yahoo! News. House Bill 315 bans defendants in these cases from blaming their actions on a victim's actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation or gender identity. The bill was the subject of contention among legislators, with some objections from Democrats and Republicans. At least 17 states and the District of Columbia have banned use of the defense; also, Delaware legislators recently passed such a bill, and it's awaiting the governor's signature, which is expected.
The U.S. Department of Education (DoE) has affirmed the exemption of Baylor University—the conservative Christian school in Texas that Brittney Griner played for and attended—from certain anti-discrimination requirements after LGBTQ+ students submitted complaints of harassment, according to The Advocate. The Religious Exemption Accountability Project filed the complaint with the DoE's civil-rights office in 2021 on behalf of Veronica Bonifacio Penales. Penales, a queer woman who graduated from Baylor in May, said she was often harassed while she was a student at the school, per The Texas Tribune. (Others have complained as well.) The DoE issued a notice in 2021 that it would consider anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination to be covered under the ban on sex discrimination; however, a federal judge has temporarily blocked that interpretation as a lawsuit against it proceeds.
Virginia legislators removed the term "homosexuality" from the state's definition of "sexual conduct" that is used in a number of laws, including the law that requires schools to inform parents of sexually explicit materials used in classrooms, The Washington Post reported. Last summer, Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin enacted a measure requiring the Virginia Department of Education to publish guidance for how sexually explicit material should be handled and how parents should be informed about it—so they could opt their children out of learning it. The law was quickly criticized by LGBTQ+ students and advocates who worried that the inclusion of the term "homosexuality" could be interpreted to include any depiction of a romantic same-sex relationship.
In Ohio, a jury awarded lesbian former highway patrol officer Stacey Yerkes more than $2.6 million in damages and lost pay after a jury found she was discriminated against on the bases of gender and sexual identity, The Advocate noted, citing The Columbus Dispatch. erkes sued the Ohio Highway Patrol (OHP) and four of her former co-workers— Lt. William Stidham, Capt. Michael Kemmer, Maj. Gene Smith and Scott Wyckhouse—alleging she was subjected to abuse and discrimination throughout her employment as a member of the OHP. Yerkes joined the OHP in 1994 and retired in 2018 rather than face more abuse and possible termination.
A man who pulled a gun and threatened employees at a historic Minneapolis gay bar in 2022 was recently sentenced to nearly five years in prison, The Advocate reported. Conell Walter Harris was sentenced to 57 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release. Last year, he was accused of entering the 19 Bar and threatening employees with a gun while using anti-LGBTQ+ slurs. The bar first opened its doors in 1957 and is the oldest continuously operating gay bar in Minneapolis.
North Carolina's health secretary, Kody Kinsley, was among the first to donate blood under newly relaxed rules for gay and bisexual men issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), WFAE reported. Under the new rules, gay and bisexual men no longer must abstain from all sex for three months before they can donate; instead, the agency will ask people to wait if they've had anal sex with new or multiple partners, or have taken HIV-prevention drugs, like PrEP, in the past three months. Kinsley used to donate blood when he was in high school and college, he said, but stopped after he came out as gay and learned of the FDA restrictions.
In New York, state leaders are stepping up to issue guidance for public schools ahead of the school year in an effort to further promote diversity, equity and inclusion, Gay City News reported. The guidance—launched by New York State Attorney General Letitia James and New York State Education Department Commissioner Betty A. Rosa—pertains to three key areas: learning and teaching, student discipline, and addressing bullying and harassment. "Every student in New York is entitled to learn, grow, and discover in an environment free from discrimination or harassment," James said in a written statement. "As states such as Texas, Florida, and Missouri are banning books and canceling classes, New York is making clear that diversity, equity, and inclusion will always be protected and central to our children's education.
In Wyoming, Campbell County Public Library Director Terri Lesley was fired (after 27 years working there) for refusing to remove books from the town's collection, The Advocate noted, citing HuffPost. Lesley said she believed a library's collection should include a wide variety of materials about diverse subjects, including books by and about LGBTQ+ people. The library administrators received a complaint in 2021 from conservatives alleging children's books had sexual content. Also, the library announced an event featuring a transgender magician, and transphobes criticized it.
In Indiana, a new law, House Enrolled Act 1447, is requiring school districts to set up a new process that lets parents request certain books be removed from school libraries, WNDU reported. Schools must remove library books that are considered "obscene" or "harmful to minors." However, to qualify for removal, the material would need to meet certain criteria outlined in Indiana law, such as being seen as appealing "to the prurient interest in sex" or lacking "serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value for minors." Some librarians are concerned that books discussing LGBTQ+ issues are being targeted.
More progressive leaders on Capitol Hill are backing the candidacy of former state Rep. Aaron Regunberg for Rhode Island's open congressional seat that openly gay Congressman David Cicilline vacated, WPRI noted. The Congressional Progressive Caucus PAC announced its endorsement of Regunberg in the Sept. 5 primary to succeed Cicilline; Regunberg is one of 12 Democrats vying for the party's nomination. In February, Cicilline announced he had been selected to lead the Rhode Island Foundation as its president/CEO. According to WPRI, the position paid more than $1 million a year in 2019.
In Illinois, for throwing a makeshift Molotov cocktail into Peoria's Planned Parenthood clinic earlier this year, Chillicothe resident Tyler Massengill will go to federal prison for 10 years, Central Illinois Proud noted. "I feel for the people who have lost their jobs. I'm not trying to play like I am [the] victim at this. I was sincerely hurt," Massengill said, adding that he thought his unborn child was aborted at the clinic. "Today, justice has been served and a powerful message has been sent that acts of violence against Planned Parenthood of Illinois will not be tolerated," Planned Parenthood of Illinois President/CEO Jennifer Welch said in a statement.
The Human Rights Campaign PAC (HRC PAC) announced its endorsement of Minneapolis City Council President Andrea Jenkins for re-election in Ward 8, per a press release. In 2017, Jenkins became the first openly transgender Black woman elected to public office in the country. HRC President Kelley Robinson said Jenkins is "a trailblazer, breaking barriers when she became the first openly transgender Black woman elected to office in the country. And Andrea's consistent record of advocacy brings historically marginalized communities to the forefront, including LGBTQ+ people."
Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) is facing a federal civil-rights investigation after releasing unredacted private medical records of transgender patients to Tennessee's attorney general before alerting the patients, The Advocate reported. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services investigation comes weeks after two patients sued the medical center for releasing its records to Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti last year. Transgender patients suing VUMC say the hospital should have removed confidential details from its records before releasing them.
A paid campaign fundraiser for embattled gay U.S. Rep. George Santos was indicted in New York on federal criminal charges related to him allegedly impersonating a top aide to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy as he solicited donations for Santos, NBC News reported. The fundraiser, Samuel Miele, allegedly sent a letter to Santos last year "in which he admitted to 'faking my identity to a big donor,' but stated that he was 'high risk, high reward in everything I do,' " the indictment noted. Miele, 27, is accused of pretending to be McCarthy's aide in order to get campaign donations for Santos from more than a dozen potential contributors, while also enriching himself via 15% commissions on each donation.
The anti-LGBTQ+ group Parents Defending Education (PDE) criticized a grant program from the LGBTQ+ youth-advocacy organization the It Gets Better Project, claiming that it promotes "bigotry" and "gender ideology" in schools, LGBTQ Nation reported. PDE criticized It Gets Better for awarding $10,000 grants each to at least 56 U.S. and 15 Canadian public and charter schools during 2023. The grants "fund projects that support and uplift LGBTQ+ identity in schools," but PDE Director of Operations Erika Sanzi claimed to The Daily Caller, "The group is funding programs and curricula that are inappropriate for children and certainly inappropriate for classrooms in public schools."
The team at the LGBTQ Young Adult Shelter of Coastal Georgia, in Savannah, hopes to have a fully operating 15-bed shelter by June 2024, WTOC reported. It would be the second homeless shelter for the LGBTQ+ community in the state, with the first being in Atlanta. "There isn't a shelter here in Savannah that is geared specifically to the unique needs of queer young adults, and the intersecting marginalized communities," said Board President Eli Irvin.
The Queer Blended Learning Center—a microschool for middle schoolers—has opened and is housed at the downtown Phoenix headquarters of the nonprofit One-N-Ten, The Arizona Republic noted. The curriculum is built by the Spark Community Schools, with LGBTQ subjects being highlighted. "Specifically, culturally responsive curriculum in Civics LGBTQ history, just making sure we're telling stories from every perspective and point of view," said Spark Community Schools President Katrina Thurman, according to AZ Family. Students do not have to identify as LGBTQ+ youth to enroll.
In Maryland, several Muslim and Christian parents asked a federal judge to block the Montgomery County school system, the state's largest, from requiring students to read books by and about LGBTQ+ people, per The Advocate. In their complaint, the parents accuse Montgomery County of violating a state law that requires an opt-out option for topics of gender and sexuality. However, the district says that opting out of the current program is not allowed since the new books—including In Love, Violet; and My Rainbow—are part of the language-arts curriculum.
Pornhub and a group of other companies and individuals in the adult-entertainment industry have sued Texas and argued that an impending age-verification law is a violation of the U.S. Constitution as well as the Communications Decency Act, The Advocate noted. The law, House Bill 1181, which far-right Republican Gov. Greg Abbott signed in June, forces a "Texas health and Human Services Warning" on all porn websites along with a process to verify someone's age, according to Texas Public Radio.
