The Montana Supreme Court on Wednesday affirmed a lower court ruling that temporarily blocked a state law prohibiting transition-related health care for minors.
The suit, which was filed by two transgender teens and their families, as well as two providers of transition-related care, will now go to trial before Missoula County District Court Judge Jason Marks, who initially blocked the law in September 2023.
The American Civil Liberties Union and Lambda Legal, an LGBTQ legal advocacy group, which are representing the teens and providers, said the decision was a victory for the state’s trans youths.
“Fortunately, the Montana Supreme Court understands the danger of the state interfering with critical healthcare,” Kell Olson, an attorney for Lambda Legal, said in a statement. “Because Montana’s constitutional protections are even stronger than their federal counterparts, transgender youth in Montana can sleep easier tonight knowing that they can continue to thrive for now, without this looming threat hanging over their heads.”
Chase Scheuer, press secretary for Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, said the office looks forward to “defending the case on its merits, which will include recent scientific developments ignored by this court.”
“The Supreme Court has abandoned Montanans once again to rule in favor of their out-of-state political allies,” Scheuer said in an emailed statement. “In upholding the district court’s flawed decision to temporarily block a duly enacted law, the Supreme Court put the wellbeing of children — who have yet to reach puberty — at risk by allowing experimental treatments that could leave them to deal with serious and irreversible consequences for the rest of their lives to continue.”
Doctors treat gender dysphoria — the distress that results when a person’s gender identity is in conflict with their gender assigned at birth — on a case-by-case basis, but minors who do pursue medical transition begin puberty blockers, which temporarily stop puberty, at its onset.
Montana’s Republican-controlled Legislature passed a law in April 2023 prohibiting health care providers from using puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgery to treat minors with dysphoria. The law also prohibits Medicaid from covering such treatments for trans minors.
When Marks issued a preliminary injunction against the law last year, he wrotethat it was likely unconstitutional and that “barring access to gender-affirming care would negatively impact gender dysphoric minors’ mental and physical health.”
He also noted that the same Legislature, which described puberty blockers and hormone therapy as “experimental,” had passed a law giving patients, including minors, the right to receive treatment with experimental drugs if they consent and the treatment is recommended by a health care provider, The Associated Press reported.
In upholding the injunction, Montana Supreme Court Justice Beth Baker wrote in the majority opinion that the Legislature “did not make gender-affirming care unlawful,” nor “did it make the treatments unlawful for all minors,” as minors can still receive the treatments for other reasons.
“Instead, it restricted a broad swath of medical treatments only when sought for a particular purpose,” Baker wrote, adding that the law “puts governmental regulation in the mix of an individual’s fundamental right ‘to make medical judgments affecting her or his bodily integrity and health in partnership with a chosen health care provider.’”
All seven state Supreme Court justices agreed with the decision to uphold the injunction. Two issued a separate concurring opinion, arguing that the court should have made clear that discrimination based on transgender status is a type of sex discrimination prohibited by the equal protection clause of Montana’s Constitution. One issued a partial dissent, arguing that the court should’ve allowed the portion of the law prohibiting Medicaid coverage of trans care for minors to take effect, because “there is no current federal mandate for Medicaid funding of gender-affirming care.”
Montana is one of 26 states that has passed a law restricting transition-related care for minors, according to the Movement Advancement Project, an LGBTQ think tank. Montana garnered international headlines last year when state lawmakers were debating the law. State Rep. Zooey Zephyr, the first trans woman elected to Montana’s Legislature, was censured in a party-line vote after telling her colleagues that they would have blood on their hands if they supported the restriction on trans care.
The U.S. Supreme Court took up such restrictions for the first time last week, when it heard arguments over a similar law in Tennessee. It is expected to issue a decision this summer.
West Virginia advocate Ash Orr said he’s rushing to legally change his name and update the gender marker on his passport.North Carolina lawyer Katie Jenifer is trying to prepare one year’s worth of estrogen for her transgender daughter. Oregon comedian and writer Mx. Dahlia Belle is focused on advocating for immigrants and people with disabilities.
This trio is among nearly a dozen transgender Americans, plus the parent of a trans teen, who talked to NBC News about how they’re readying themselves for the second administration of a president-elect who has promised to restrict their ability to modify identity documents, receive transition-related health care, enlist in the military and participate on sports teams, among other things.
Though trans people told NBC News they have a variety of concerns about President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign promises regarding trans people, nearly all shared a similar message: They are better prepared than they were eight years ago.
Heron Greenesmith, the deputy director of policy at the Transgender Law Center, who uses they/them pronouns, said they felt “clear-eyed” the day after the election, whereas in 2016 they were crying and felt devastated by the election results and the effect that Trump’s policies would have on marginalized communities, including trans people.
“This time around is not going to be any different,” Greenesmith said, “but this time around, I know what to do.”
Even though trans people had their rights targeted under the first Trump administration, Greenesmith added, “we also thrived.”
“We provided safety for ourselves and mutual aid, we defended ourselves from criminalization and got ourselves out of jail when we needed to — and provided health care for folks who needed it.” said Greenesmith, who is based in Massachusetts. “We’ll do the same thing again. We got us.”
Day 1 promises
During his campaign, Trump and his supporters spent nearly $60 million on eight anti-trans network-TV ads, one of them in Spanish, between Sept. 19 and Nov. 1, according to AdImpact, a firm that tracks political ad spending.
He has supported a number of policies targeting transgender people, who make up less than 1% of adults in the U.S. At campaign rallies over the summer, he promised to take at least two actions regarding the trans community on his first day in office: undo Biden administration Title IX protections that allowed trans students to use the school bathrooms that align with their gender identities, and cut federal funding for schools “pushing critical race theory, transgender insanity and other inappropriate racial, sexual or political content onto the lives of our children.”
Trump also promised to reinstate a policy enacted during his first term that barred trans people from enlisting in the military and to institute a new policy barring transition-related care for minors nationwide. The agenda on his websitesays he would declare that any hospital or clinician that provides transgender care to minors would “no longer meet federal health and safety standards for Medicaid and Medicare — and will be terminated from the program immediately.”
The president-elect’s agenda also includes issuing guidance to federal agencies to define sex only as one’s sex assigned at birth, which would make it harder for trans people to change the gender markers on federal documents such as passports.
Plans for IDs, moving and medical care
The State Department began offering the gender-neutral “X” marker on passports, in addition to the standard “M” or “F,” in April 2022, but a new federal definition of sex could end that policy, legal experts say. If the Trump administration still allows trans people to change the gender marker on their passport, Greenesmith said, it might require them to provide proof of gender-reassignment surgery, putting gender-marker changes out of reach for the majority of trans people.
As for those who already have a passport with an “X” gender marker, if the Trump administration discontinues issuing new “X” passports, the future of those existing identity documents is unclear, according to both Greenesmith and Sasha Buchert, the director of the nonbinary and transgender rights project at Lambda Legal, an LGBTQ legal advocacy organization. There is no existing policy that would allow the government to require people to turn in “X” passports, for example.
“In response to what needs to be done in this moment, now is always a good time to update any identity documents that you need to update,” Buchert said.
A person fills out a passport application with an X gender marker at their home in Virginia in 2022.Stefani Reynolds / AFP via Getty Images
Ash Orr, who lives in Morgantown, West Virginia, and is the press relations manager for Advocates for Trans Equality, the nation’s largest trans rights organization, said the election prompted him to legally change his name. His name-change hearing is scheduled for Jan. 15, and he plans to apply to update his passport as soon as his name change is complete.
He also plans to leave his home state by the spring as a result of the election, and because West Virginia’s state politics have become increasingly conservative in recent years. He declined to share the state he and his partner are moving to due to safety concerns, noting he has received an increasing number of threats over the past two years.
“West Virginia is my home, and it has always been my home, and I’ve had to come to the realization that your home isn’t always a place where you can thrive,” Orr said, adding that he’s struggled with the feeling that he’s abandoning his community and the trans people in the state who can’t afford to leave.
Finn Franklin, a 20-year-old who is finishing his associate’s degree at Rogue Community College in Grants Pass, Oregon, said the election has affected where he plans to apply to finish a four-year degree.
“I was looking at some rural schools because I like the smaller school size,” Franklin said. But after the election, “I’m not going to be applying to schools outside of the West Coast because I don’t want to live somewhere that is not Washington, Oregon or California for the next four years. I think I want to be in a metro area because of the typical politics difference between urban and rural areas, and access to health care.”
Finn Franklin, 20, said the election has affected where he plans to apply to finish a four-year college degree.Courtesy Finn Franklin
Franklin said he receives his testosterone through telehealth offered by Oregon Health & Science University Hospital, which is in Portland, about five hours north. He’s worried about how the incoming administration could affect that treatment, as well as a top-surgery consultation he has scheduled in October 2026, because he receives health care through the Oregon Health Plan, the state’s Medicaid program. OHSU Hospital, which has a program that provides gender-affirming services to children and teens, could be affected if Trump follows through on his promise to cut Medicaid funding for hospitals that provide transition-related care to minors.
“If the funding for those kinds of things goes away, then it kind of becomes utterly inaccessible, and that’s definitely very scary,” Franklin said.
North Carolina lawyer Katie Jenifer said she is trying to secure a year’s worth of estrogen for her 17-year-old daughter, Maddie, in case Trump does issue federal restrictions that could curtail access to transition-related care for minors nationwide. Her daughter’s doctor prescribed her enough medication for a year, but their insurance will only cover one month at a time. Out of pocket, the medication costs $109 a month, but Jenifer received a coupon from the pharmacy that brings the cost down to $49 per month.
Katie Jenifer and her transgender daughter, Maddie, at the White House for a Pride Month celebration in June.Courtesy Katie Jenifer
Jenifer previously told NBC News that she had plans to move with Maddie out of the state or out of the country depending on the election outcome.
“If I can get enough medication on hand to get Maddie to 18, then we will try to stay through high school graduation in June and continue to monitor and make plans to exit soon after or before if necessary,” Jenifer said Tuesday. “If we cannot get the needed meds, then we will probably try to leave mid- to late January. Where we go will depend on my job search.”
Advocates say the election is already having an effect on LGBTQ young people, in particular. The Trevor Project, an LGBTQ youth suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization, saw a 700% increase in crisis contacts in the 24 hours after the election compared to weeks prior. About one-third (30%) of the contacts identified as LGBTQ young people who are Black, Indigenous or people of color, and more than 40% were trans or nonbinary young people, a spokesperson told NBC News.
Organizing within community
Some trans people told NBC News that after the election, they immediately started organizing with local community groups.
Orr, for example, said he planned to volunteer with Holler Health Justice, a reproductive health organization led by queer people of color, to deliver emergency contraception and other reproductive health supplies across West Virginia.
Bennett Kaspar-Williams, an entertainment lawyer based in Los Angeles who is skilled in martial arts, said he is working with other local activists to organize self-defense classes for LGBTQ people and women in response to increased fears of violence given Trump’s rhetoric about trans people.
Bennett Kaspar-Williams is organizing self-defense classes for LGBTQ people and women in Los Angeles.Courtesy Bennett Kaspar-Williams
Ahead of the 2020 election, he said, he volunteered for Democrats because at the time he was pregnant, and, as a trans man, he was afraid of what the future would look like for his child if Trump were re-elected.
“If you had told me that in four years he’s going to win again, I definitely would not have believed you,” he said. “I feel really scared for the generation of people who were waiting until they were old enough to be able to start a medical transition, who are now facing the possibility of never being able to do that at all, and what that means for them.”
Many trans people also mentioned giving directly to mutual aid groups, specifically those that support trans people of color.
Aldita Gallardo is the the director of the Action for Transformation Fund, a partnership between the Transgender Law Center and the Emergent Fund, a national rapid response fund that supports groups led by LGBTQ people of color. The $1 million Action for Transformation Fund was a pilot effort to move funds directly to trans activists working within their local communities. Gallardo noted that foundations that provide money to LGBTQ communities allocated less than 4 cents per $100 of their total giving to U.S. trans communities and issues, according to a 2021 report by Funders for LGBTQ Issues.
Gallardo, who is based in Oakland, California, said the Action for Transformation Fund, which launched in September and just made its first round of grants, wasn’t previously thinking about long-term fundraising, but that changed after the election.
“Now we see it as an opportunity to bring more dollars for the increasing amount of need,” Gallardo said. “We know that things will escalate in the four years of the administration.”
Some of the groups that were supported by the fund’s first round of grants include House of Tulip, which provides housing to trans people of color in Louisiana; Transgender Advocates Knowledgeable Empowering, or TAKE, which provides services to trans people of color in Birmingham, Alabama; and the Unspoken Treasure Society, a Black, trans-led organization in Jacksonville, Florida.
Mx. Dahlia Belle, a comedian and writer based in Portland, Oregon, who also works as a peer support operator for a trans nonprofit, encouraged trans people to support those outside of their immediate community as a second Trump administration begins. She fears her job with the trans nonprofit could “cease to exist” if Congress passes a bill that would allow Trump to target nonprofits’ tax-exempt status. If that were to happen, she could lose access to health care. Still, she said she still feels comparatively safe and privileged.
Mx. Dahlia Belle said she’s focused on advocating for immigrants and people with disabilities.Courtesy Dahlia Belle
“We as a community are facing a very real existential threat,” Belle said. However, she added, “in the grand scheme of things, the threat we are facing pales in comparison to the immediacy and severity that will be faced by immigrants and people with disabilities and people who may be in need of reproductive care.”
She acknowledged that trans people and LGBTQ people more broadly fit into all of these categories and said it’s “those intersections of identity where I feel our advocacy is most needed and needs to be focused.”
The majority of transgender employees, 82%, reported experiencing workplace discrimination or harassment because of their gender identity or sexual orientation at some point in their lives, according to a new survey.
The survey, conducted by the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law, an LGBTQ research think tank, defined “discrimination and harassment” as being fired, not hired, not promoted, or verbally, sexually or physically harassed. Trans employees were more likely to report such experiences than cisgender lesbian, gay, bisexual and queer employees, at 45%, and nonbinary employees, at 59%.
“Transgender people are a particularly vulnerable and marginalized group in the workplace,” Brad Sears, lead author of the report and founding executive director at the Williams Institute, said in a statement. “Many are not bringing their full selves to work and face unsupportive workplace environments, which makes them less likely to fully invest in their current employer and job.”
Previous research from the Williams Institute has estimated that there are about 1.3 million trans adults in the U.S. The new report surveyed 1,902 LGBTQ adults in the workforce, including 86 trans adults, in the summer of 2023, and compared the experiences of trans adults to their cisgender lesbian, gay, bisexual and queer peers.
Half of the trans adults surveyed were people of color and 6 in 10 were making less than $50,000 a year. Of the trans respondents who reported having experienced workplace discrimination or harassment at some point in their lives, 65% reported experiencing verbal harassment, 34% reported experiencing physical harassment and 42% reported experiencing sexual harassment.
Many of the trans respondents provided examples of being persistently misgendered or deadnamed, referring to someone intentionally using the incorrect pronouns or their previous name, and reported that colleagues asked invasive questions about their body or transition, among other types of verbal harassment.
The report includes quotes from respondents who described some of their experiences. For example, one trans employee from Massachusetts said their boss, supervisor and co-workers all asked them too many personal questions “about how I do things as a trans person,” including how they get dressed and wear a binder to flatten their chest and how their sexuality changed when they transitioned.
Trans employees who reported experiencing discrimination were two tofour times more likely than cisgender LGBQ employees to report being fired (12% vs. 5%), not being hired (20% vs 5%) or not being given career advancement opportunities (15% vs 5%), based on their gender identity or sexual orientation in the past year.
Trans people attempted to mitigate workplace discrimination and harassment by concealing their gender identity at work or by looking for another job, according to the report. More than 1 in 3 trans respondents, or 36%, said they are not out as trans to their current supervisor; 13% said they are not out as trans to any of their co-workers; 71% said they’ve engaged in behaviors to cover up their gender identity, such as changing their voice or mannerisms while at work; and 67% said they had left a job because of how they were treated based on their gender identity or sexual orientation.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued a Dallas doctor Thursday accusing her of providing transition-related care to nearly two dozen minors in violation of state law.
Paxton alleged that Dr. May Chi Lau, who specializes in adolescent medicine, provided hormone replacement therapy to 21 minors from October 2023 to August for the purpose of transitioning genders. Texas enacted a law,Senate Bill 14, last year banning hormone replacement therapy and other forms of gender-affirming care for minors.
“Texas passed a law to protect children from these dangerous unscientific medical interventions that have irreversible and damaging effects,” Paxton said in a statement Thursday. “Doctors who continue to provide these harmful ‘gender transition’ drugs and treatments will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”
The statement alleged that Lau used “false diagnoses and billing codes” to mask “unlawful prescriptions.”
Neither Lau nor her employer, the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, immediately replied to requests for comment.
If Lau is found to be in violation of the law, her medical license could be revoked and she could face a financial penalty of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Paxton’s suit is the first in the country by an attorney general against an individual doctor alleging violation of a restriction on transition-related care for minors.
Texas’ law includes a provision that allows physicians to continue to prescribe puberty blockers and hormone therapy to patients who began treatment before June 1, 2023, in order to wean them off the medications “over a period of time and in a manner that is safe and medically appropriate and that minimizes the risk of complications,” according to Paxton’s suit. Minors are required to have attended at least 12 mental health counseling or psychotherapy sessions for at least six months before they started treatment. It’s unclear whether Lau’s treatment of the minors could fall under that provision.
So far, a few attorneys general, including Paxton, have subpoenaed hospitals and practices that provide such care to minors for those patients’ records. Twenty-six states ban at least some forms of gender-affirming care for minors, according to the Movement Advancement Project, an LGBTQ think tank.
Gov. Greg Abbott signed Texas’ restriction in June 2023, and a court blocked itafter families and doctors sued. In September 2023, the Texas Supreme Court allowed the law to take effect pending an appeal from the state, and this June, it vacated and reversed the previous injunction, allowing the law to stand.
The U.S. Supreme Court is expected in its current session to hear oral arguments and rule on whether to strike down a similar law in Tennessee. How the court rules on the Tennessee law is expected to affect similar laws in other states.
The statement from Paxton’s office described gender-affirming care as “experimental, and no scientific evidence supports their supposed benefits.”
Major medical organizations, such as the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, disagree, arguing that transition-related care is an effective and medically necessary way to treat gender dysphoria, which is distress felt by people whose gender identities differ from their genders assigned at birth.
For the first time, the Democratic National Committee will invest in an advertising campaign dedicated entirely to LGBTQ publications in large metropolitan areas and several key battleground states.
The DNC will roll out the ad campaign, worth at least $100,000, on Friday morning in 16 publications across eight states, and it is estimated to reach more than 1 million voters in the first week. Those publications include the Washington Blade and Metro Weekly in the Washington, D.C., area; Out South Florida; Qnotes in Charlotte, North Carolina; the Las Vegas Spectrum; Georgia Voice; GoGuide Voter’s Guide in Iowa; Dallas Voice; Philadelphia Gay News; Ambush Magazine in New Orleans; ION Arizona; and SWERV Magazine, a national Black LGBTQ periodical.
The campaign will be featured in the Georgia Voice during Atlanta’s Pride weekend and in Philadelphia Gay News during OurFest, a festival to celebrate National Coming Out Day in Pennsylvania.
The DNC is rolling out an ad campaign on Friday in 16 LGBTQ publications across eight states.DNC
“This historic investment from the Democrats aims to meet voters where they are, recognizing that the LGBTQ+ community is a large and diverse voting bloc that we are not taking for granted,” Jaime Harrison, DNC chair, said in a statement. “Our fundamental freedoms to be who we are and who we love are on the ballot this November, and we’re empowering diverse corners of the LGBTQ+ community to make their voices heard.”
Harrison added, “In this fractured media environment, we know that we need to be smart about how we are talking to people, reaching voters through trusted platforms so folks in the LGBTQ+ community and beyond can easily check their voter registration status and learn when, where, and how to vote.”
Beyond saying it was a six-figure ad buy, the DNC declined to say exactly how much it spent on the campaign.
The ads feature the message “Freedom is on the Ballot. Make a Plan to Vote,” and they urge voters to visit Iwillvote.com, a DNC-run platform that helps eligible voters register and check their registration status, check the status of cast ballots and learn more about voting. The ads use a simple red, white and blue scheme, and some feature the progress Pride flag, which also includes the transgender flag colors and colors to represent LGBTQ communities of color.
The DNC worked on the ads with Rivendell, the oldest LGBTQ marketing and media company in the country.
The ads will roll out just a day after the Harris-Walz campaign and the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy group, launched 10 Days of Action, a series of events aimed at mobilizing LGBTQ and allied voters.
The efforts contrast recent advertisements from the Trump campaign featuring prominent LGBTQ figures such as drag performer Pattie Gonia and photos of trans people as examples of what the campaign views as extreme left-wing views on gender.
Over the last few weeks, two Trump ads running nationally and locally in swing states — especially during NFL and college football games — criticized Vice President Kamala Harris’ past support for taxpayer-funded gender-affirming medical care for people in prison. The ads end with the tagline: “Kamala is for they/them,” referring to gender-neutral pronouns used by some LGBTQ people, “President Trump is for you.”
Bob Witeck, president of Witeck Communications, a firm specializing in LGBTQ marketing, described the DNC’s ad campaign as “brilliant.” He said he spoke to DNC officials in 2000 and 2004 about doing a similar campaign but was told they didn’t have the budget for it.
In 2003, Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, a Democrat who was running for president, hired Witeck to write the text for an advertisement in The Advocate, the oldest LGBTQ magazine in the U.S. Witeck said it may have been the first pro-LGBTQ targeted ad in presidential politics.
“He risked his political career to stand with us,” the ad read, referring to a law Dean signed in April 2000 that made Vermont the first state to legalize same-sex unions. “It’s time for us to stand with him.” The law caused fervent backlash and an effort to unseat Dean and regain Republican control of the state Legislature.
Witeck said the ad was effective simply because the LGBTQ community had never seen any presidential candidate advertise in gay media — let alone taking a supportive stance.
The DNC paying for an advertisement this far-reaching more than two decades later, Witeck said, “is a breakthrough.”
“I hope that it’s going to be the kind of wake-up call people will see,” Witeck said.
Gabriele Magni, an assistant professor of political science at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles and director of the school’s LGBTQ Politics Research Initiative, said his initial reaction to the DNC’s historic ad buy was: “Finally.”
Magni said LGBTQ voters have historically been taken for granted by the Democratic Party because the majority of them vote Democratic, often because Republicans have supported anti-LGBTQ policies and voters feel like they don’t have another option.
“But I think that the problem with this mentality is that we overlook the fact that it is essential to mobilize voters to convince them to go to the polls on Election Day,” Magni said, adding that although LGBTQ voters are unlikely to switch their vote to the Republican Party, they might stay home if they’re not mobilized.
“That is why this initiative is important, especially given how close the election is in many swing states, even mobilizing a few 1,000 voters — people that otherwise would have stayed home — that really can determine the outcome of the election,” he said.
A fourth university has forfeited its women’s volleyball match against San José State University following controversy over the gender identity of one of the team’s players.
Utah State University said in a brief statement Tuesday that it would not play its Oct. 23 match against SJSU, joining the University of Wyoming, Boise State University and Southern Utah University, which have all forfeited matches against the California school over the last three weeks.
The San Jose State University Spartans line up for the playing of the national anthem and player introductions for their NCAA Mountain West women’s volleyball game against the Colorado State University Rams in Fort Collins, Colo., on Oct. 3, 2024. Santiago Mejia / San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images
None of the universities explained their decisions, though the University of Wyoming said the decision was made “after a lengthy discussion.” The universities have not responded to requests for additional comment.
Michelle Smith McDonald, senior director of media relations for SJSU, said the university will not address the gender identity of any student due to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, a federal student privacy law.
“It is disappointing that our SJSU student athletes, who are in full compliance with NCAA and Mountain West rules and regulations, are being denied opportunities to compete,” McDonald said in an emailed statement on behalf of the university. “We are committed to supporting our student-athletes through these challenges and in their ability to compete in an inclusive, fair, safe and respectful environment.”
The forfeitures began after months of speculation in conservative websites about the gender identity of one of SJSU’s players. In April, the far-right website Reduxx published an interview with an anonymous parent of an SJSU player who said there were “rumors” that one of the other players was a transgender woman.
The teammate in question did not return requests for comment. NBC News is not using her name because she has not made a public statement about her identity or confirmed that she is trans.
On Sept. 23, SJSU player Brooke Slusser joined a lawsuit filed by more than a dozen women athletes against the NCAA, which oversees collegiate athletics, arguing that its policy allowing trans women to compete on women’s teams violates Title IX, a federal law protecting students against sex discrimination in federally funded schools and programs. The suit is led by Riley Gaines, a former 12-time NCAA All-American swimmer who competed for the University of Kentucky and objected publicly to the participation of University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas, the first trans woman to win an NCAA championship.
In the lawsuit, Slusser says the teammate who was the subject of the media coverage told her she was a trans woman. When Slusser asked the teammate, whom Slusser had roomed with on team trips, why the teammate hadn’t shared this information with her before, the teammate said “there never seemed to be a good time to bring it up,” and that she was afraid Slusser would not be her friend if Slusser knew the truth, according to the suit, which uses “he” pronouns for the teammate. Slusser said she told the teammate she didn’t want her to be bullied but that she questioned whether it was safe or fair for the teammate to play on the women’s team.
Soon after, according to the suit, SJSU officials convened a meeting to address the news article about the teammate’s gender identity, and told members of the volleyball team that they shouldn’t speak about the teammate’s gender with anyone outside of the team. Slusser says that the teammate was stronger than other members of the team and that volleyball hits from the teammate caused more bruising and pain than hits from other players.
The suit says Slusser has experienced “physical and emotional injuries, embarrassment, humiliation, emotional distress, mental anguish and suffering” due to the teammate’s participation on the team and the NCAA’s policy that allows trans women to compete. Slusser did not return a request for additional comment.
The NCAA said in a statement that it “will continue to promote Title IX, make unprecedented investments in women’s sports and ensure fair competition for all student-athletes in all NCAA championships.” Michelle Brutlag Hosick, director of external communications for the NCAA, declined to comment further.
Trans rights advocates have noted that the teammate hasn’t confirmed her gender identity, but, if she is trans, it appears the information has been shared and spread without her permission, outing her nationally. Her profile with the team indicates she has played on women’s teams since at least high school and also played at SJSU for two previous seasons without public controversy.
Tony Hoang, the executive director of Equality California, said that in forfeiting matches against SJSU, school administrators are harming all students involved.
“Let’s be clear — this isn’t actually about sports; it is part of a coordinated nationwide attack on the LGBTQ+ community led by extremist right-wing politicians,” Hoang said in a statement Thursday.
The Republican governors of both Utah and Idaho publicly supported decisions by Southern Utah University, Utah State University and Boise State University to cancel their matches against SJSU.
Idaho Gov. Brad Little applauded Boise State for working “within the spirit” of a bill he signed to prohibit trans student athletes from playing on the school sports teams of their gender identities in K-12 schools and colleges, though the law is currently blocked by a lawsuit.
Conservatives have increasingly attempted to restrict trans inclusion in sports, among a variety of other LGBTQ-related issues. Half of states, including Idaho, Utah and Wyoming, prohibit trans student athletes from participating on the school sports teams that align with their gender identities as opposed to their assigned sexes at birth. Idaho’s and Utah’s laws are currently blocked by lawsuits.
Previously, trans athletes’ participation in sports was regulated by state sports associations, school districts and, in college athletics, the NCAA. In January 2022, the NCAA updated its trans athlete policy to adopt a sport-by-sportapproach that allows sports governing bodies to determine their own eligibility criteria. USA Volleyball requires trans women athletes to submit documentation of their testosterone levels to ensure they do not exceed the upper limit of the normal female range.
A school district in northeastern Florida must return three dozen books related to race and the LGBTQ community to school libraries as part of a settlement reached Thursday with authors, parents and students.
The Nassau County School Board removed 36 books last year after the titles were challenged by Citizens Defending Freedom, a conservative advocacy group. The books included “And Tango Makes Three,” a popular children’s book by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson based on the true story of two male penguins who raised a chick together at New York’s Central Park Zoo, as well as classics such as “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison and “Crank” by Ellen Hopkins.
“This settlement — a watershed moment in the ongoing battle against book censorship in the United States — significantly restores access to important works that were unlawfully removed from the shelves of Nassau County, Florida’s public school libraries,” said Lauren Zimmerman, an attorney with the New York law firm Selendy Gay, which sued the district on behalf of Parnell and Richardson, along with Florida parents Sara Moerman, Toby Lentz and their children.
“Students will once again have access to books from well-known and highly-lauded authors representing a broad range of viewpoints and ideas,” Zimmerman added in a statement.
The Nassau County School Board did not immediately return a request for comment.
The suit was among several that challenged the removal of books by school districts across Florida under a law signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis that made it easier for community members to challenge books they found to be inappropriate in school libraries. The law, which has since been rolled back, was part of a handful of bills that restricted how schools can provide information about race and the LGBTQ community.
The plaintiffs filed their suit in May, arguing that the school board used “unlawful censorship” to remove “the children’s book behind closed doors and without community involvement or comment.” The suit also argued that the district violated the state’s “Sunshine Law” by removing the books without a public meeting.
“They have a statutory right to get the opportunity to attend and comment on these types of decisions, the removal of books or the restriction of books, and they weren’t given that opportunity here,” Zimmerman told First Coast News at the time. “All 36 books, including ‘Tango’, were removed without any public hearing whatsoever, which means there wasn’t any community commentary on, you know, whether this was the appropriate decision.”
From July 2021 through December 2023, Florida had the highest number of book-ban cases in the U.S., at 3,135 bans across 11 school districts, according to an April report from PEN America, a nonprofit that works to protect free expression and has also filed a lawsuit against another Florida county over book bans.
Books with LGBTQ characters and themes made up 36% of all book bans from 2021 to 2023, while books about race and racism and books with characters of color made up 37% of all bans, PEN America found.Book ban numbers from the full 2023-2024 school year have not yet been released but by midway through that school year, according to PEN America, book bans had already surpassed the previous school year’s total.
Though LGBTQ adults say society has become more accepting of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people in the last 10 years, nearly 1 in 5, 18%, say they have never come out to anyone, according to a new Gallup survey.
“Roughly 1 in 5 LGBTQ+ Americans are comfortable telling Gallup that they’re LGBTQ+, but not comfortable telling others,” said Justin McCarthy, an analyst at Gallup.
That rate is higher for bisexual adults, with 23% reporting that they aren’t out to anyone, compared to 5% of gay and lesbian adults. When broken down by gender, 16% of LGBTQ men and 19% of LGBTQ women reported that they aren’t out to anyone. Though trans Americans were included in the data, due to sample size limitations Gallup was not able to report their specific experiences.
McCarthy noted that the majority, about 70%, of LGBTQ adults nationally and U.S. adults overall report that societal acceptance of LGBTQ people has “gotten a lot” or “gotten a little” better in the past 10 years.
However, “just because they acknowledge societal changes doesn’t mean that you’re not going to have any personal experiences of discrimination,” which 1 in 4 LGBTQ people reported experiencing in the past year, with more than one-third, 36%, of gay and lesbian adults reporting such experiences.
LGBTQ adults reported knowing they were LGBTQ at similar ages across generations: 14 years old for respondents ages 18-29, 15 for those 30-64, and 16 or those 65 and older, the survey found.
Nearly three-quarters, 71%, of LGBTQ adults report that they came out to others before they turned 30, including 57% who came out by the age of 22. One in 10 LGBTQ adults said they came out later in life, with 7% reporting they came out in their 30s, 2% in their 40s and 1% at age 50 or older.
LGBTQ adults today report coming out at younger ages than previous generations. LGBTQ adults aged 18 to 29 came out at a median age of 17, while those aged 30 to 64 came out in their early 20s. Adults 65 and older came out at a median age of 26.
When comparing the median ages in which each group knew they were LGBTQ and when they came out to others, Gallup found that young adults were not out to others for the shortest amount of time before coming out, at three years, and senior citizens were not out to others for the longest, at 10 years.
Though the majority of LGBTQ adults reported that society has become more accepting of the community, 1 in 5 said society’s treatment of LGBTQ people has “gotten a lot” or “gotten a little” worse.
“Future research will tell us if we’re seeing more advancement,” McCarthy said, or if LGBTQ people are perceiving a greater increase in society acceptance, “or if that is taking a different turn.”
McCarthy noted that the survey, which was conducted online May 1-15, is part of Gallup’s larger research effort over the past decade to examine the experiences of LGBTQ adults. Past Gallup research has found that the percentage of LGBTQ adults in the U.S. continues to increase, with an all-time high of 7.6% in 2023. Research published in March found that 30% of Gen Z women identify as LGBTQ, with most identifying as bisexual.
Former President Donald Trump announced Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, as his vice presidential running mate Monday, sparking near-immediate backlash from some of the country’s largest LGBTQ advocacy groups, who called attention to his support for policies and rhetoric targeting the community.
Both the Human Rights Campaign, the country’s largest LGBTQ rights organization, and GLAAD, a national LGBTQ media advocacy group, released lists of comments Vance had made and policies he had supported relevant to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community.
HRC and GLAAD noted that Vance introduced a bill last year called the Protect Children’s Innocence Act, which would have banned transition-related medical care, including puberty blockers, hormone therapy and operations, for minors nationally. The bill, which was never taken up in committee, would have charged health care providers who violated it with a class C felony, which is punishable by up to 15 years in prison, and also would have banned institutions of higher education and accrediting entities from providing instruction about gender-affirming care.
“The last thing the State Department should be doing is wasting its time and your tax dollars pushing far-left gender ideology,” Vance said in a statement at the time. “There are only two genders — passports issued by the United States government should recognize that simple fact. I am proud to introduce this bill to restore some sanity in our federal bureaucracy.”
During his Senate campaign in July 2022, Vance told Mission America, a right-wing Christian organization based in Ohio, that he would oppose the Respect for Marriage Act, a bill to ensure federal marriage protections for same-sex and interracial marriages. Congress passed the legislation in fall 2022, and President Joe Biden signed it in December, before Vance was sworn in in January 2023.
Vance has also echoed false tropes increasingly used by conservatives to describe LGBTQ people and those who support them as “groomers.”
“I’ll stop calling people ‘groomers’ when they stop freaking out about bills that prevent the sexualization of my children,” Vance said on social media in April 2022.
GLAAD wrote in its post about Vance’s record: “There is no evidence that discussing LGBTQ people, history or families in schools ‘sexualizes’ anyone. Experts in child sexual abuse say false rhetoric about grooming diminishes understanding about actual abuse and endangers all children.”
Vance also spoke about bills that would censor discussions of LGBTQ issues on Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight” in April 2022, arguing that teachers were also hiding their efforts to teach children about sexual orientation or gender identity.
“So, one of the things we’re learning, Tucker, is that this is being forced by some of these really radical teachers, and they’re hiding it from the parents,” he said. “‘That’s maybe the most pernicious part.”
Vance did not immediately respond to a request for comment about his stance on LGBTQ issues.
Some gay conservatives voiced support for Vance. Log Cabin Republicans, the country’s largest organization representing LGBTQ conservatives and straight allies, praised him as an “incredible pick” on social media.
Richard Grenell, the acting director of national intelligence during the Trump administration, described Vance, whose bestselling memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” recounted his experience growing up poor in an Ohio Rust Belt town, as “the living example of the American dream.”
He added, “His story gives everyone hope that this is the land of opportunity.”
Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, described Trump and Vance as “anything but a unity ticket.”
“Donald Trump has been a bully for years — and his pick of MAGA clone JD Vance is a reminder that nothing has changed,” Robinson said in a statement. “We are not simply choosing between two campaigns. We are choosing between two fundamentally different visions of America. One, with Trump and MAGA ‘yes man’ JD Vance at the helm, where our rights and freedoms are under siege. And the other, with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris leading the way, where we are advancing toward freedom and equality for all. Everything is at stake and the contrast could not be clearer.”
Dara Adkison, executive director of TransOhio, a state trans rights organization, said Vance’s federal bill to restrict transition-related care for minors goes further “in cruelty, scope and enforcement” than Ohio’s similar law, which a judge blocked in April. Oral arguments in the case began this week.
“Vance is a hateful, cruel man who would love to hurt trans kids,” Adkison said. “He places himself as an authority between doctors, parents and the trans youth. We need legislators with enthusiasm to help their constituents, not venom to harm children.”
LGBTQ rights are mentioned only a few times in the GOP’s 2024 platform, which the Republican National Convention will vote on this week. The platform says Republicans want to “keep men out of women’s sports,” which refers to bans on trans women participating in women’s sports, and “cut federal funding for any school pushing critical race theory, radical gender ideology, and other inappropriate racial, sexual or political content on our children,” referring to bills that would restrict the discussion or instruction of LGBTQ issues in classrooms.
The platform also says Republicans would “promote a Culture that values the Sanctity of Marriage, the blessings of childhood, the foundational role of families, and supports working parents,” using a phrase that is often used to promote only heterosexual marriage.
The number of out LGBTQ people who have won elected office has increased nearly 200% since 2017, according to research published Wednesday and first reported on by NBC News.
The LGBTQ+ Victory Institute, which works to increase queer and transgender representation in public service, found that there were 1,303 out LGBTQ elected officials as of May, a 10% increase from 1,185 officials last year and a 190.8% increase from the 448 out officials in 2017, according to the organization’s latest annual “Out for America” report.
For the first time, there is also at least one out LGBTQ elected official in every state and in Washington, D.C., the report found.
“LGBTQ people are running in historic numbers right now, and we are winning,” Elliot Imse, the executive director of the LGBTQ+ Victory Institute, said.
However, Imse noted that LGBTQ people are still underrepresented in public service. A March Gallup poll found that 7.6% of the U.S. population is LGBTQ, and there are 519,682 elected positions, the Victory Institute report found, meaning the country would need to elect 38,193 more LGBTQ officials to achieve equitable representation.
“The representation gap is so large that we need a moonshot effort to close it, and that is more important than ever right now, given all the attacks in our communities from state legislatures and city councils across the country,” Imse said.
The country has had a wave of state legislation targeting the LGBTQ community, particularly transgender youth, in recent years, with each year surpassing the previous year’s record. As of this June, state lawmakers have introduced 523 such bills — including restrictions on transition-related health care for minors, trans students’ participation in school sports, and how LGBTQ topics can be discussed in schools — up from a total of 510 in 2023, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.
Though representation of LGBTQ people has increased overall, the report found that the number of out transgender officials had decreased for the first time since 2017, from 50 last year to 47 this year.
Imse said it’s “concerning” that the number of trans elected officials has fallen as both trans elected officials and trans people generally have faced more hostility, though the report didn’t evaluate whether the hostility is causing fewer trans people to run for or remain in office.
Despite the decrease in trans elected officials in the last year, the overall number of out trans, nonbinary, two spirit and gender-nonconforming people serving in elected office has increased 1,633% since 2017, from six to 104.
The number of known out gender-nonconforming, nonbinary or genderqueer elected officials has increased from none in 2017 to 57 in 2024. Just since last year, the number of out nonbinary officials has increased 70%, from 23 to 39, the report found.
For the first time, the report also found that less than half (48.2%) of LGBTQ elected officials identify as gay. The number of officials who identify as pansexual increased 28.6%, as queer 23.1 % and as bisexual 20.7%, while the number of lesbian elected officials increased by 8.3%.
The number of LGBTQ elected officials who are Black, Latino and Asian American and Pacific Islander increased by 17%, compared with a 9.3% increase of white LGBTQ elected officials.
Imse said the sharp increase in elected officials who are nonbinary, for example, shows that voters will support candidates with various identities.
“It’s a very hopeful message to see that even though so many people do not yet understand sexual orientation and gender identity in a detailed way, they are de-emphasizing the importance of that when they choose their elected officials and are much more willing to look for people because of what they stand for.”
Nebraska state Sen. John Fredrickson, pictured here in the state Capitol in Lincoln on Feb. 8, 2023, is the first openly gay man elected to the Nebraska Legislature.Margery A. Beck / AP file
Imse added that the data doesn’t show the effect that LGBTQ officials are having in their communities. He pointed to Nebraska state Sen. John Fredrickson, a Democrat who gave an emotional speech in April against a bill that would’ve barred trans students from using the school facilities that align with their gender identities and restricted their participation on school sports teams.
The bill needed 33 votes to pass out of committee. After Fredrickson’s speech, two of the bill’s Republican co-sponsors abstained from voting, bringing the final tally to 31-15 and effectively killing the bill.
Fredrickson said that, as the first openly gay man elected to the Nebraska Legislature, he never wanted his legacy to be about his identity.
“That said, I happen to have come into office during a time where we are seeing an unprecedented number of anti-LGBTQ+ bills being introduced, and I feel a high level of responsibility to my community to speak truth in these spaces,” Fredrickson said in an email. “I’ll be honest — it hasn’t always been easy, and it has taken a toll on myself and my family. That said, I go to bed every night knowing who I am, knowing my community, and knowing that I stand on the right side of history, and that is an honor.”
Fredrickson encouraged LGBTQ people who are interested in running for office to do so.
“Without being in these rooms, we risk the conversation continuing to be about us, not with us,” he said.
