A ban on Medicaid coverage for gender-affirming healthcare took effect in Florida on August 21st. It has left doctors scrambling to provide care, and is already taking a toll on the transgender community.
Tom Daley: Illegal to Be Me
Since Tom Daley came out in a YouTube video nine years ago, he has become an outspoken advocate of LGBTQ+ rights. The diver, national treasure and five-medallist was a good choice, then, to present an examination of homophobia in Commonwealth countries, filmed in the months leading up to the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
These “issue” documentaries often present us with the manufactured “journey” of a celeb, but in the case of Illegal to Be Me, Daley truly does change his views. Homosexuality is illegal in 35 of the 56 member states that make up the Commonwealth, Daley tells us, and he starts the film with the goal that such countries should be banned from hosting the competition. Then he speaks to LGBTQ+ athletes from the countries that would be affected by such a ban. Read more…
The documentary is sadly only available in the UK for now but if you’re interested you can watch an extensive interview with Tom about it above.
Why US schools are at the centre of trans rights
In recent years, state legislatures in the US have introduced hundreds of bills targeting the rights of LGBTQ Americans. Many of those laws are focused in particular on the rights of transgender school children in public schools: what types of bathrooms they can use, whether their pronouns will be used, and whether they can participate in school sports. These laws are increasingly common in Republican-controlled states. Also, they may be violations of federal law.
This puts public schools in these states in a strange position: do they follow state laws that, under the Biden administration, could open them up to a federal civil rights investigation? Or do they ignore state law, and risk the state cutting their funding? Amid all that uncertainty, those who suffer most are the trans children caught up in the fight.
This video focuses on how that battle is playing out in Tennessee, the state that has introduced more anti-LGBTQ laws in 2022 than almost any other state. We looked at two of the laws that target transgender public school kids: one about bathrooms and one about participation in school sports. Those two issues have very different legal contexts, which you can read more about in the links below.
Killed for being gay in Australia’s LGBTQ capital
Sydney is home to one of the world’s most famous pride events – Mardi Gras. But for years, gay-hate gangs roamed the streets of the Australian city, attacking and sometimes murdering queer men. And local police have been accused of being initially indifferent to these crimes.
It has been *that* kind of week in American state senates
Last week gay Missouri lawmaker Ian Mackey called out an anti-trans bill by State Rep. Chuck Basye in a moving speech that has been watched over 1.6 million times on TikTok since.
Meanwhile Michigan state senator Mallory McMorrow delivered an impassioned response after a Republican colleague accused her of supporting pedophilia by opposing “Don’t Say Gay” bills, reiterating a common right-wing talking point.
We know trans people are being killed. Now what?
There’s a growing movement to acknowledge and recognize the killings of trans people. Transnational’s Eva Reign looks back at Transgender Day of Remembrance in Queens with Make the Road New York–and how honouring the deaths of fallen trans people is also a painful way of trying to save others from the same fate.
Florida student takes queer education into own hands
High school GSA presidents continue to carry the entire LGBTQ+ community on their backs, as one high school student demonstrated in a viral video from this past weekend. After their teacher said he didn’t know what Stonewall is, Will Larkins decided to teach their U.S. history class themselves..
On Sunday, 17-year-old Will Larkins posted a short clip of themself educating their fourth period U.S. history class on the history of the Stonewall riots. This might be otherwise unremarkable if it wasn’t for the fact that Larkins attends Winter Park High School in Florida, the state that recently signed a so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill into law.
The law outright bans discussion of gender and sexuality in kindergarten through third grade classes, or “age-inappropriate” discussions of sexuality or gender at any educational level. And judging from the number of insane conservative replies to Larkins’ tweet, including accusations of pedophilia and grooming, it’s safe to say that “age-appropriate” discussion of LGBTQ+ issues amounts to none at all in the eyes of the proponents of the law.
Trans kids in Texas scared they’ll be taken from their parents
In late February, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ordered the Texas Department of Family & Protective Services (DFPS) to investigate “child abuse” in parents who seek gender-affirming care for their trans kids. Vice News talks to a family who fears that they could be separated.