All Things LGBTQ+ (6 Viewers)

[Farb]

Didn't really see a place for this so I thought I would start a thread about all things LGBTQ since this is a pretty hot topic in our culture right now

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/17/sup...y-that-refuses-to-work-with-lgbt-couples.html

• The Supreme Court on Thursday delivered a unanimous defeat to LGBT couples in a high-profile case over whether Philadelphia could refuse to contract with a Roman Catholic adoption agency that says its religious beliefs prevent it from working with same-sex foster parents.
• Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in an opinion for a majority of the court that Philadelphia violated the First Amendment by refusing to contract with Catholic Social Services once it learned that the organization would not certify same-sex couples for adoption.

I will admit, I was hopeful for this decision by the SCOTUS but I was surprised by the unanimous decision.

While I don't think there is anything wrong, per se, with same sex couples adopting and raising children (I actually think it is a good thing as it not an abortion) but I also did not want to see the state force a religious institution to bend to a societal norm.

 

[Optimus Prime]

The Department of Defense under Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered military officials to “immediately” review medical records for transgender service members to begin removing them from service.

Service members will also be asked whether they experience gender dysphoria in their annual health exams, according to a newly released Pentagon memo.

The memo from the Pentagon’s acting head of personnel follows an order from a divided Supreme Court that allows Donald Trump’s administration to continue banning trans service members despite court rulings that found the measure plainly discriminatory.

Routine exams will be “the primary method” for identifying and removing trans service members — or “service members who have a current diagnosis or history of” or are “exhibiting symptoms” of gender dysphoria, according to the memo.

Commanders who are “aware” of service members “with gender dysphoria, a history of gender dysphoria or symptoms consistent with gender dysphoria” must perform “individualized medical record reviews,” the memo states.…….

New Pentagon memo reveals how US military will purge trans troops from service

Pete Hegseth’s Defense Department commands officials to ‘immediately’ begin removing trans service members

www.independent.co.uk

 

[Optimus Prime]

 

[coldseat]

fork the US Army and the whole of this government for trying to "disappear" transgendered people! And fork the US voting pubic for going along with this!

Like with immigrants, this is the second step in a four step process to the final solution. First they ridicule them, then they disappear them, then they outlaw them, then they eliminate them.

 

[Optimus Prime]

Another ‘freedom to force my religion on others’
==============================

Steven Hotze, a Republican donor from Texas, has spent decades fighting against LGBTQ+ rights, with campaigns seeking to roll back protections for people he has deemed “termites”, “morally degenerate” and “satanic”.

The Houston-area physician is not well-known in mainstream politics, and his efforts targeting queer and trans people have generally been local, with limited impact.

His latest cause could be different. Hotze, 74, has sued the federal government to roll back healthcare coverage for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), the HIV prevention medication. The case is now before the US supreme court, which is expected to rule in the coming weeks. A decision in his favor could upend healthcare access for LGBTQ+ people across the country – and derail a wide array of preventive treatments for tens of millions in the process.


“People will die,” said Kae Greenberg, staff attorney with the Center for HIV Law and Policy, which filed a brief in the case. “Preventive healthcare saves lives, and this case is about whose lives we consider worth protecting. It’s about cutting off people’s care based on them being gay or substance users or living their lives in a way the plaintiffs do not approve of. It’s using the law to legitimize bigotry.”

The case, Kennedy v Braidwood, originated with Hotze’s Christian healthcare firm, Braidwood Management, which filed a lawsuit in 2020 objecting to the federal requirement that his company’s insurance plan cover PrEP. Braidwood, another Christian business and two individuals argued the daily PrEP medications “facilitate and encourage homosexual behavior”, saying the government violated their religious beliefs by making them support “sexual promiscuity”.

Braidwood challenged the requirement under the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, that insurers and group health plans coverpreventive services, a provision that includesdiabetes and cancer screenings, medications to reduce heart disease risks, contraception and vaccinations. Along with opposing PrEP, Hotze explicitly objected to STI screenings, counseling for alcohol use and childhood obesity interventions.

A Texas district court sided with Braidwood, saying the US violated the firm’s religious freedom. The ruling also found that a taskforce of medical experts that recommended the preventive services covered by the ACA was unconstitutional because the experts hadn’t been confirmed by the Senate, and therefore health plans should not be required to cover the care.……..

This doctor calls LGBTQ+ rights ‘satanic’. He could now undo healthcare for millions

Exclusive: A rightwing activist behind a current supreme court challenge has spent decades railing against ‘homosexual behavior’

www.theguardian.com

 

[coldseat]

Another ‘freedom to force my religion on others’
==============================

Steven Hotze, a Republican donor from Texas, has spent decades fighting against LGBTQ+ rights, with campaigns seeking to roll back protections for people he has deemed “termites”, “morally degenerate” and “satanic”.

The Houston-area physician is not well-known in mainstream politics, and his efforts targeting queer and trans people have generally been local, with limited impact.

His latest cause could be different. Hotze, 74, has sued the federal government to roll back healthcare coverage for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), the HIV prevention medication. The case is now before the US supreme court, which is expected to rule in the coming weeks. A decision in his favor could upend healthcare access for LGBTQ+ people across the country – and derail a wide array of preventive treatments for tens of millions in the process.


“People will die,” said Kae Greenberg, staff attorney with the Center for HIV Law and Policy, which filed a brief in the case. “Preventive healthcare saves lives, and this case is about whose lives we consider worth protecting. It’s about cutting off people’s care based on them being gay or substance users or living their lives in a way the plaintiffs do not approve of. It’s using the law to legitimize bigotry.”

The case, Kennedy v Braidwood, originated with Hotze’s Christian healthcare firm, Braidwood Management, which filed a lawsuit in 2020 objecting to the federal requirement that his company’s insurance plan cover PrEP. Braidwood, another Christian business and two individuals argued the daily PrEP medications “facilitate and encourage homosexual behavior”, saying the government violated their religious beliefs by making them support “sexual promiscuity”.

Braidwood challenged the requirement under the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, that insurers and group health plans coverpreventive services, a provision that includesdiabetes and cancer screenings, medications to reduce heart disease risks, contraception and vaccinations. Along with opposing PrEP, Hotze explicitly objected to STI screenings, counseling for alcohol use and childhood obesity interventions.

A Texas district court sided with Braidwood, saying the US violated the firm’s religious freedom. The ruling also found that a taskforce of medical experts that recommended the preventive services covered by the ACA was unconstitutional because the experts hadn’t been confirmed by the Senate, and therefore health plans should not be required to cover the care.……..

This doctor calls LGBTQ+ rights ‘satanic’. He could now undo healthcare for millions

Exclusive: A rightwing activist behind a current supreme court challenge has spent decades railing against ‘homosexual behavior’

www.theguardian.com

-----------------
If the supreme court sides with Braidwood, it could lead to widespread loss of access to free preventive healthcare, with one study finding 39 million people received the threatened services. A 2023 Yale study estimated the loss of free PrEP could result in more than 2,000 preventable HIV infections within one year.
-----------------

These religious extremist freaks are forking heinous. They don't give a fork how many people they kill in pursuit of their ideology.

 

[Optimus Prime]

When Utah brought in its pride flag ban, organizer Chad Call was hardly surprised. On 7 May the US state became the first to explicitly prohibit the flying of LGBTQ+ flags at government buildings and schools; anyone who does so could face fines of $500 a day.

“We live in an incredibly conservative state,” says Call, executive director of Utah Pride. “It’s disappointing that this is such an important issue to our lawmakers. Unfortunately, we lead the nation in anti-LGBTQ legislation.”

Similar Pride month flag bans have been signed into law in Idaho and Montana. “Bigotry is nothing new,” says Donald Williamson, executive director of Idaho’s Boise Pride.

“This community has been dealing with targeted legislation for several years now — flags are just the latest. All it does is bond us more closely together and emphasize how important festivals like Pride are.”

In Salt Lake City and Boise, which are both Democrat-run, people are already resisting the bans. Salt Lake City has introduced three newly designed flags featuring the city’s traditional sego lily design imposed over a pride flag, the transgender flag and the Juneteenth flag.

Meanwhile, Boise’s mayor issued a proclamation retroactively making the pride flag an official city flag.

Around 31 flag-related bills have been introduced across 17 states, says Logan Casey, policy director of independent LGBTQ+ thinktank the Movement Advancement Project (MAP).

“Some bills apply to all government property, while some apply to school settings only,” says Casey. “Some specifically name and prohibit LGBTQ-related flags, while others only allow certain flags like the national, state, or other governmental flags – and so LGBTQ-related ones are prohibited implicitly.

Ushering in a Pride month that is sure to be tumultuous, these flag bans are among a raft of fresh anti-LGBTQ+ legislation.

At the time of writing, the ACLU was tracking the progress of 588 anti-LGBTQ+ bills across the country. MAP puts the figure at around 700 bills, while pointing out that in recent years most anti-LGBTQ+ bills have ultimately been defeated.

Pride 2025 already has an acutely political focus due to the sheer scale of these legislative attacks on LGBTQ+ people, alongside the Trump administration’s targeting of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and trans rights. In this precarious landscape, a swath of big-name corporate sponsors have withdrawn from Pride events, leaving organizers to urgently re-evaluate both their size and security costs.

A wave of withdrawals​

The exodus of sponsors from America’s Pride events, large and small, have made headlines: the loss of the likes of Anheuser-Busch, Comcast and Diageo from San Francisco Pride has accounted for – at the time of writing – a $200,000 shortfall for a $3.2m event last year attended by an estimated 1.5 million people. (La Crema and Benefit Cosmetics have recently returned as sponsors, a spokesperson said.)


Some organizers say that companies retreating from Pride have been spooked by Trump’s anti-DEI crusade. (The White House did not respond to requests for comment about its plans for any Pride month messaging.)

Utah Pride, for instance, is currently short $400,000 – or close to half – of its typical sponsorship total. “It’s primarily due to the anti-DEI rhetoric happening on a federal and state level,” says Call, declining to name the companies that have withdrawn.

“We definitely have a target on our backs. But there is nothing they can do to prevent us from having Pride, unless more legislation is coming down, and that would be probably unconstitutional.”

Yet some companies have said they are pulling their financial support because of the jittery economic climate.…….

Scared advertisers, flag bans and Trump: the US is in for a troubled Pride 2025

Event organizers in red and blue states have seen an exodus of sponsors amid an anti-LGBTQ+ political climate. They insist the show will go on

www.theguardian.com

 

[coldseat]

When Utah brought in its pride flag ban, organizer Chad Call was hardly surprised. On 7 May the US state became the first to explicitly prohibit the flying of LGBTQ+ flags at government buildings and schools; anyone who does so could face fines of $500 a day.

“We live in an incredibly conservative state,” says Call, executive director of Utah Pride. “It’s disappointing that this is such an important issue to our lawmakers. Unfortunately, we lead the nation in anti-LGBTQ legislation.”

Similar Pride month flag bans have been signed into law in Idaho and Montana. “Bigotry is nothing new,” says Donald Williamson, executive director of Idaho’s Boise Pride.

“This community has been dealing with targeted legislation for several years now — flags are just the latest. All it does is bond us more closely together and emphasize how important festivals like Pride are.”

In Salt Lake City and Boise, which are both Democrat-run, people are already resisting the bans. Salt Lake City has introduced three newly designed flags featuring the city’s traditional sego lily design imposed over a pride flag, the transgender flag and the Juneteenth flag.

Meanwhile, Boise’s mayor issued a proclamation retroactively making the pride flag an official city flag.

Around 31 flag-related bills have been introduced across 17 states, says Logan Casey, policy director of independent LGBTQ+ thinktank the Movement Advancement Project (MAP).

“Some bills apply to all government property, while some apply to school settings only,” says Casey. “Some specifically name and prohibit LGBTQ-related flags, while others only allow certain flags like the national, state, or other governmental flags – and so LGBTQ-related ones are prohibited implicitly.

Ushering in a Pride month that is sure to be tumultuous, these flag bans are among a raft of fresh anti-LGBTQ+ legislation.

At the time of writing, the ACLU was tracking the progress of 588 anti-LGBTQ+ bills across the country. MAP puts the figure at around 700 bills, while pointing out that in recent years most anti-LGBTQ+ bills have ultimately been defeated.

Pride 2025 already has an acutely political focus due to the sheer scale of these legislative attacks on LGBTQ+ people, alongside the Trump administration’s targeting of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and trans rights. In this precarious landscape, a swath of big-name corporate sponsors have withdrawn from Pride events, leaving organizers to urgently re-evaluate both their size and security costs.

A wave of withdrawals​

The exodus of sponsors from America’s Pride events, large and small, have made headlines: the loss of the likes of Anheuser-Busch, Comcast and Diageo from San Francisco Pride has accounted for – at the time of writing – a $200,000 shortfall for a $3.2m event last year attended by an estimated 1.5 million people. (La Crema and Benefit Cosmetics have recently returned as sponsors, a spokesperson said.)


Some organizers say that companies retreating from Pride have been spooked by Trump’s anti-DEI crusade. (The White House did not respond to requests for comment about its plans for any Pride month messaging.)

Utah Pride, for instance, is currently short $400,000 – or close to half – of its typical sponsorship total. “It’s primarily due to the anti-DEI rhetoric happening on a federal and state level,” says Call, declining to name the companies that have withdrawn.

“We definitely have a target on our backs. But there is nothing they can do to prevent us from having Pride, unless more legislation is coming down, and that would be probably unconstitutional.”

Yet some companies have said they are pulling their financial support because of the jittery economic climate.…….

Scared advertisers, flag bans and Trump: the US is in for a troubled Pride 2025

Event organizers in red and blue states have seen an exodus of sponsors amid an anti-LGBTQ+ political climate. They insist the show will go on

www.theguardian.com

Straight Republicans will again learn that trying to intimidate us, hurt us, harass us, and silence us to stuff us back into a closet is not going to work. We only get louder, corporate sponsorship or not.

 

[Optimus Prime]

Days before Morgan Armstrong was set to graduate from Tennessee Christian Preparatory School, she announced on Instagram and Facebook that she is gay and in a relationship with another woman.

Armstrong, 18, said the late-April decision to come out online — using the caption “cats outta the bag” — happened spontaneously.

“Everyone else gets to post their boyfriend or girlfriend,” Armstrong said. “So just because I have a girlfriend and I’m a girl, why does that mean that I shouldn’t be able to? ... I like the pictures, I love my girlfriend and I wanted to show it.”

But less than a week later, Armstrong was summoned into a meeting with Tennessee Christian’s top administrators and banned from the campus and school events — including her own graduation, she alleges in a lawsuit filed May 19 against the school near Chattanooga. The school also threatened to withhold her diploma and share records of her social media posts with prospective colleges and universities if she spoke out about the school or people associated with it, the lawsuit alleges.

The suit accuses Tennessee Christian of violating its disciplinary policy with its punishment of Armstrong. It asks a Tennessee judge to order the school to allow the senior to take her final exams, expunge her suspension record and rule that the school’s maximum discipline for Armstrong according to its policy is a one-day in-school suspension.

“In its haste to suspend Morgan for being gay, the Defendant violated its own Disciplinary Policy and summarily imposed a ‘Long-term suspension (more than 10 days)’ instead,” the lawsuit reads.

“There is no circumstance in which this school would have authority to withhold her diploma or to sabotage her college admissions process as part of its policy,” Daniel Horwitz, Armstrong’s lawyer, told The Washington Post. “Those are not permitted punishments under the handbook here.”

Jared Tilley, head of schools for Tennessee Christian, pushed back against the claims made in Armstrong’s lawsuit, saying in a statement that the school has already mailed her diploma. “The school denies said allegations in full, particularly the assertion that Morgan Armstrong’s diploma is being withheld. Morgan Armstrong’s diploma has been mailed,” Tilley said................

Student banned from graduation after coming out online, lawsuit says​

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/05/29/tennessee-christian-school-gay-diploma/

 

[Optimus Prime]

Guidance issued by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth states that transgender service members have to voluntarily depart from active duty by June 6.

After that date, the military is set to start involuntary separations for active duty trans service members.

The Army issued further guidance on Wednesday regarding how it will identify and interact with soldiers who have gender dysphoria, documents obtained by CBS News reveal.


In February, Hegseth said in a memo that trans service members would be treated with dignity. However, the new internal orders for the Army instruct personnel to address trans troops by the gender they were assigned at birth and not their preferred pronoun.

The guidance includes a list of criteria that the military will use for soldiers to begin to identify fellow service members who are suspected of having gender dysphoria. The requirements include previous requests for exemptions to grooming standards connected to medical assignment at birth or starting a medical treatment plan connected to gender dysphoria.

Other markers, according to the guidance, include “overt conduct” on social media or in person, showing a gender identity other than what an individual was assigned at birth, as well as a “private conversation” that a commanding officer may have with a soldier in which they disclosed having gender dysphoria.……

New army documents outline the plan for throwing transgender troops out of military

Soldiers are expected to identify fellow service members who are suspected of having gender dysphoria

www.independent.co.uk

 

[Optimus Prime]

Pop star Jade Thirlwall has led a crowd of thousands in an anti-J.K. Rowling chant during a music festival known for celebrating LGBTQ+ culture.

While performing on the Main Stage at Mighty Hoopla in London Saturday evening, Thirlwall ignited the crowd when she chanted “transphobes” and the crowd responded: “F*** you!”

She then changed the prompt to “J.K. Rowling” to which the crowd responded with another enthusiastic “F*** you!”


Video of the moment was shared on social media with on-screen text reading: “Jade, the legend you are!!!”……..

Jade Thirlwall leads anti-JK Rowling chant at music festival

Thirlwall was performing at music festival Mighty Hoopla when the chant broke out

www.independent.co.uk

 

[Optimus Prime]

A federal judge has blocked Donald Trump’s administration from denying gender-affirming care to transgender inmates, dealing another blow to the president’s executive ordertargeting incarcerated trans people.

Ronald Reagan-appointed Judge Royce Lamberth, 81, said Trump’s policy isn’t based on any “reasoned” analysis, adding that “nothing in the thin record” from the government shows that the administration “consciously took stock of — much less studied — the potentially debilitating effects” of stripping trans people of their healthcare.

He also slapped down the government’s arguments that courts should allow Trump to dictate how federal agencies are run by letting the “democratic process” play out after the election. “Democracy is not as simple as the defendants make it sound,” Lamberth wrote.


Just as the president can issue an executive order telling agencies what to do, he must abide by the Administrative Procedure Act that governs how they operate, Lamberth said.……

Trump can’t stop gender-affirming care for trans inmates, judge rules

Reagan-appointed judge blocks prison officials from enforcing Trump’s executive order targeting trans people.

www.independent.co.uk

 

[Optimus Prime]

Trump Tower will host a Pride month event later this June, despite the White Houserefusing to officially acknowledge the celebrations.

The event, hosted by Log Cabin Republicans of New York City, will take place at the president’s Manhattan hub, promising an evening of drinks, canapes and networking for LGBTQconservatives.

“I’ll be bringing my pride flag!” wrote one user, in response to the post on the group’s official Instagram page announcing the event, adding a U.S. flag emoji. Tickets cost $175 dollars, or $150 for “dues-paying members.”

It comes after White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt dodged a question on whether the Trump administration would formally be recognizing June as Pride Month.

“There are no plans for a proclamation for the month of June,” Leavitt said during a media briefing on Tuesday. “But I can tell you this president is very proud to be a president for all Americans, regardless of race, religion or creed.”…..

Trump Tower is throwing a Pride month party for LGBTQ+ Republicans

‘I’ll be bringing my pride flag!’ wrote one user, in response to the post on the group’s official Instagram page announcing the event, adding a U.S. flag emoji.

www.independent.co.uk

 

[fooferdoggie]

Trump Tower will host a Pride month event later this June, despite the White Houserefusing to officially acknowledge the celebrations.

yes only for the forking idiots that are gay and trans but hate gays and trans.

 

[Optimus Prime]

How exactly did Gaines become a right wing darling and turn this into a career?

She tied with Thomas for fifth place which means four other women beat Thomas

That fact kind of blows the trans women have such a huge and insurmountable advantage if they compete

And furthermore, if Lia wasn’t in this race Gaines finishes fifth and nobody ever hears her name

Gaines is acting like she had the best race of her life, her time would have set a record but Thomas won by like ten seconds
==================


Olympic champion Simone Biles eviscerated former college swimmer Riley Gaines over her “sick” online comments about a transgender female softball player.

Gaines, a vocal Donald Trump supporter who is known for campaigning against trans athletes in women’s sports, had mocked the Minnesota State High School League for removing comments on their post about the Chaplin Park girls’ team celebrating the State Championship.

“To be expected when your star player is a boy,” Gaines wrote on X of 17-year-old pitcher Marissa Rothenberger, who threw a complete-game shutout, allowing just three hits and striking out six to secure the title.

Seven-time Olympic gold medalist Biles responded to Gaines’s tweet on Friday, writing: “You’re truly sick, all of this campaigning because you lost a race.”

Gaines tied for fifth place with transgender woman Lia Thomas in the 200m freestyle swimming at the 2022 NCAA Championships.

“Straight up sore loser,” Biles continued. “You should be uplifting the trans community and perhaps finding a way to make sports inclusive OR creating a new avenue where trans feel safe in sports. Maybe a transgender category IN ALL sports!! But instead… You bully them… One things for sure is no one in sports is safe with you around!!!!!”………

Simone Biles blasts ‘truly sick’ Riley Gaines over comments on junior trans athlete

Gaines had taken aim at a 17-year-old trans softball player

www.independent.co.uk

 

[Optimus Prime]

Corporations are ditching Pride. LGBT+ people say they won’t forget it

After years of showy tributes and accusations of ‘rainbow-washing’, US companies are shrinking back for fear of Donald Trump, Io Dodds reports

www.independent.co.uk