Molly Sprayregen

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Donald Trump will reportedly ban trans people from the military on day one

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Donald Trump is reportedly planning to reinstate his trans military ban through executive order on his first day in office. Reports say the president-elect will not only bar trans people from joining but also that he plans to medically discharge the 15,000 trans personnel who are currently serving. If carried out this way, the ban will be significantly harsher than the first time he banned trans people from the military in 2017, when trans people already serving were allowed to remain in their positions. Because the military is already experiencing recruitment issues, experts are worried the policy will significantly impair […]

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LGBTQ+ young adults are experiencing depression en masse

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A new study has found that LGBTQ+ higher education students are more than three times as likely to have depression than their non-LGBTQ+ counterparts. Published in the Journal of American College Health, the study examined data from almost 500,000 respondents to the annual Healthy Minds Study, which tracked mental health in full-time students ages 18 to 35 from 2007 to 2022. “Our findings highlight a growing mental health crisis among LGBTQIA+ students that demands immediate attention,” says David Pagliaccio of the New York State Psychiatric Institute. “Academic institutions need to take urgent and proactive steps to address these alarming rises in depression that […]

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Has Donald Trump forever desensitized America to cruelty?

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Donald Trump can say and do things that basically no one else on the planet can get away with. For reasons that will be analyzed for years to come, consequences seem to evade him at every turn. Instead, he receives endless rewards for his cruelty.  Journalist McKay Coppins has identified this as “the most insidious legacy of the Trump era.” In an op-ed for The Atlantic, Coppoins says Trump has “thoroughly desensitized voters to behavior that, in another era, they would have deemed disqualifying in a president.” “The national bar for outrage keeps rising,” Coppins writes. “The ability to be shocked has […]

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A bomb threat at a drag story hour couldn’t stop a crowd from showing up to spread love

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A Drag Queen Story Hour at the public library in Somerville, Massachusetts was canceled last weekend after someone called in a bomb threat.  While police had been prepared for anti-LGBTQ+ protesters, they didn’t anticipate a bomb threat, which reportedly came through right as the event was about to begin. As such, officials had to evacuate and sweep the building, the Boston Globe reported.  The right-wing group Super Happy Fun America — which has thrown “straight pride parades” in the past — appears to have taken credit for the protest, though not the bomb threat.  “I am thrilled to announce that the Drag Queen Story Hour […]

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LGBTQ+ Chicagoans outraged as city imposes new limits on this year’s Pride parade

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Chicago officials going to reduce the scale of this year’s Pride Parade even more after already announcing an approximately 37% reduction in floats and performances.  The Chicago Police Department (CPD) recently revealed a proposal to reduce the length of the parade by a few blocks, which would eliminate the need for 48 officer posts, Block Club Chicago reported. The possibility has angered many in the LGBTQ+ community.  “We were obviously not thrilled to hear that,” said Jin-Soo Huh, chair of the LGBTQ+ advisory council to the mayor. “Even though it is only a proposal, our message is that this is a proposal […]

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14 states sue the Biden administration for the right to discriminate against trans kids

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More states have announced lawsuits against the Biden administration over its new Title IX rules mandating anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ+ students, bringing the total number of states suing the administration to 14. Last week, Alabama, South Carolina, Florida, and Georgia filed a joint lawsuit against the administration, along with the Independent Women’s Network, Parents Defending Education, Speech First, and the Independent Women’s Law Center. In a separate lawsuit, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) also announced a challenge to the new rules. Now the state of Tennessee is leading a lawsuit against the new rules and is joined by Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, […]

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Dominica’s High Court ends the country’s ban on being gay in historic ruling

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The High Court of Dominica has overturned a colonial-era law banning same-sex relations between consenting adults after a gay man filed a lawsuit claiming the ban was unconstitutional.  The complainant, who remained anonymous, claimed the law led him “to live in constant fear of criminal sanction for engaging in consensual sexual activity” and caused “hateful and violent conduct towards him and other LGBT persons” that stopped him “from living and expressing himself freely and in dignity,” according to BBC. The ruling stated that the constitution guarantees that “a person shall not be hundred in the enjoyment of his right to assemble and freely associate […]

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Trans man Tee Arnold shot to death outside Florida shopping mall

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A 36-year-old trans man named Tee Arnold died earlier this month after he was shot outside a shopping mall in Hallandale Beach, Florida in the middle of the night.  Hallandale Beach police Captain Aaron Smith does not believe the murder was a hate crime and says it was “an isolated incident” sparked by a disagreement between the victim and the suspect. He told Local 10 News the suspect is a woman who knew the victim.  Police transported Arnold – who also went by Lagend Billions – to HCA Florida Aventura Hospital after he was shot around 1:30 am on April 3. He died […]

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Michigan passes landmark law decriminalizing surrogacy & protecting LGBTQ+ parentage rights

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Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) signed a law on Monday that adds crucial protections for LGBTQ+ couples using fertility treatments to build a family.  The Michigan Family Protection Act includes a series of provisions to protect families of all kinds. Most notably for the LGBTQ+ community, it changes “outdated state law to treat LGBTQ+ families equally and eliminate the need for them to go through a costly and invasive process to get documentation confirming their parental status,” as a press release from the governor’s office explains, adding that “Even if they move to a state that does not respect these basic rights, these […]

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Haters attacked an inclusive public library. So its director made the whole city a book sanctuary.

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Last June, the Hoboken Public Library in New Jersey hosted a Banned Books Read-A-Thon event in honor of Pride Month. Library director Jennie Pu described the event as “very simple” and “almost boring,” where participants merely read excerpts from books out loud.  But that didn’t stop the right-wing outrage machine from stirring up trouble. It started when Internet troll Chaya Raichik disparaged the event on her Libs of TikTok social media account, which has been known to inspire threats of violence against the facilities it targets. Raichik claimed the Read-A-Thon books “promote[d] kink and sex apps” and her followers proceeded to flood the library […]

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