The facility will be held at The Connie Norman Transgender Empowerment Center on North Martel Street for the nominating contest in California on 5 March. The centre is open to all voters, but organisers have stressed that it especially serves as a safe and empowering place for trans, non-binary and the LGBTQ+ community to vote.
The centre is open between 2-5 March and will also serve as a voting centre in the general election, which will take place on 5 November .
Aside from opening to voters, the centre provides resources, training, support and access to medical services for trans people in the community.
Across the weekend of 24 February, 119 voting centres opened across Los Angeles to allow residents to cast their votes. On 2 March, 525 further centres in LA will open for people to have their say and cast their vote before election day.
And it’s more important than ever for the LGBTQ+ community to have their say this year on the presidential vote. Whoopi Goldberg has expressed concerns about the potential of Donald Trump being elected for a second time.
During 9 January’s episode of The View, some of Goldberg’s co-hosts commented that young voters might not vote for Biden – or possibly not vote at all – as an act of protest against America’s support of Israel in its ongoing conflict with Palestine.
The Ghost actress seized the opportunity to plead with viewers at home to get out and vote not matter what, in order to keep Donald Trump from being re-elected.
“I’m here to say, it is ours to lose. This is what it’s all about. Either you want it to work forward-thinking, you want everybody to have the ability to say how they feel, what they want, to move forward, or you don’t,” she warned.
“Or do you want somebody who says, ‘I’m going to be, on day one, I’m going to be a dictator’? Who says it to you, tells you, ‘I’m going to put you people away. I’m going to take all the journalists, I’m going to take all the gay folks, and I’ll move you all around and disappear you.’
“If that’s the country you want, you know who to vote for. If that’s not the country you want, you have to make a decision.”
An independent non-profit think tank based in the US has created an interactive map to show which states in the US are safest for LGBTQ+ people to live and work – and which are not.
It has then scored each state based on those laws and policies – the higher the score, the more protective its laws are towards LGBTQ+ people while the lower the score a state receives, the more harmful its policies are towards LGBTQ+ people. The states are then put into five categories: High, Medium, Fair, Low, and Negative.
States must score between 75 to 100% of possible points to end up in the High category, between 50 to 74.9% for the Medium category, between 25 to 49.9% for the Fair category, 0 to 24.9% for the Low category, and less than zero to be placed in the Negative category.
The interactive map is colour-coded, with states highlighted in red being places where LGBTQ+ people have barely any protection under the law or are actively stopped from living freely as an LGBTQ person and thus have scored negatively on MAP’s criteria. This includes Texas, Arkansa, Oklahoma, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Montana, South Dakota, Missouri, Indiana, Tennessee, South Caroline, and Louisiana.
LGBTQ+ safe states
By comparison, states who score in the highest category are highlighted in green on the map are considered places where LGBTQ+ people are safest and offered the most amount of protection under the law.
The map only reflects current laws and policies. (MAP)
This includes states like California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, New York, Vermont, Illinois, Minnesota, Connecticut, Maine, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Maryland, and Washington D.C.
MAP is keen to stress that their map only reflects existing laws and policies that are already in place and not does include bills currently under consideration by the state legislature nor does it look at how each state enforces these laws.
“These scores are an excellent measure of the current LGBTQ policy landscape across a wide range of issues, but the scores do not necessarily reflect the entire political or social landscape for LGBTQ people,” it writes.
According to the organisation’s research, 27% of the overall LGBTQ+ population in the US currently live in states with low scores while 44% of the overall LGBTQ+ population live in states with high scores.
The think tank was founded in 2006 with the mission to “create a thriving, inclusive, and equitable America where all people have a fair chance to pursue health and happiness, earn a living, take care of the ones they love, be safe in their communities, and participate in civic life”.
The first at-home cervical screening device is currently under clinical trial to become FDA-approved in the USA, and we think it’s about time for a change.
For women and those with uteruses, undergoing a regular pap smear to prevent cervical cancer can be an unpleasant experience thanks to the speculum used.
The outdated device used in pelvic appointments to separate the vaginal walls can be cold and uncomfortable. The clamp-like instrument was invented in the mid-19th century and hasn’t adapted much since its origins.
The new device called Teal Wand, designed by women-led company Teal Health, is an at-home cervical cancer screening device. The brand explained in an Instagram post that the at-home screening device “follows the American Cancer Society’s cervical cancer guidelines and runs the samples on approved primary HPV assays”.
Teal Health’s initial study of the device revealed that 97% of women said the at-home cervical cancer screening device was easy or very easy to use. Meanwhile, 92% of participants said they would choose self-collect over the current standard of care with a clinician collecting, while 87% said they would be more likely to get screened if the Teal Wand was an option.
In the US, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that around 4,000 women and people with uteruses die of cervical cancer a year. Self-collected cervical screening tests are already an option in other countries and actively reduce the barrier for women and LGBTQ+ people facing healthcare-based discrimination.
The Australian Government introduced such tests in July 2022. The home kit tests “allow privacy and help break down barriers for thousands of people who have never screened – including women who have experienced sexual violence, LGBTQIA+ people and culturally and linguistically diverse and First Nations communities”, the Department of Health and Aged Care website reads.
“Australia has always punched above its weight when it comes to cervical cancer, and now Australia is on track to be the first country in the world to eliminate this deadly disease,” said the assistant minister for the department The Hon Ged Kearney.
Unsurprisingly, the original device has bleak origins. In 1945, Dr James Marion Sims performed surgeries on enslaved women without anaesthesia or pain relief, in a bid to understand the reproductive system. He invented the instrument to allow himself – and largely Cis male doctors – the ability to better look at the vagina and cervix, GE HealthCare explains.
A gay rights activist has criticised Grindr for its trans and nonbinary-inclusive filter.
Currently, the dating app prevents users from searching solely for Cisgender men and women, the site explains. “It was important to us to not further perpetuate discrimination and harm for the trans and nonbinary community.”
Instead, users can filter who they’d like to speak to on the app. The trans-inclusive filter details “three umbrella gender groups”: men, women and non-binary people.
Fred Sargeant took to X (formerly Twitter) on 5 February to question the app’s filter. The app detailed its trans-inclusive filter in a frequently asked questions section of the website.
However, Sergeant criticised the app – which was the most popular among users aged 54+ last year. “So, filtering for gay men is bad but filtering for trans and nonbinary is okay @Grindr? You recognise trans/nonbinary needs to discriminate while invalidating precisely the same need for gay men.
“Delete your service @Grindr. You’re no longer needed.”
Fred Sargeant questioned the app’s filter. (X/@FredSargeant)
Others took to the comments section, with one social media user branding the app “homophobic” for its trans-inclusive filter. “Gay men, @Grindr is no longer for us,” a different person wrote.
A representative of Grindr told PinkNews: “Trans men, trans women, and non-binary people have been a part of the Grindr community from the very beginning, and we have always been committed to creating a safe space for trans users.
“This has included working with the National Center for Transgender Equality on profile fields for gender identity and pronouns, and building a Gender Identity Resource Center so that cis Grindr users can increase their understanding of trans people and issues.
“As part of our commitment to our trans users, we are pursuing a gender filtering system to allow all users, trans and cis, to find who they’re looking for on the app. Users who are only interested in men, for example, can select not to see women and explore a Grindr cascade of men. Of course, trans men are men, so users filtering to see men will see both cis and trans men.”
What is Grindr’s trans-inclusive filter?
The FAQ on the website regarding the trans-inclusive filter reads: “Why can’t I filter for Cis Men or Cis Women?”
“We allow filtering based on gender – you can specify that you want to see men or women – but this will include all men or all women, because trans men are men and trans women are women.
“You can also filter for trans and nonbinary people, as we know it’s critical for this community to be able to find each other easily.”
Grindr explains its trans-inclusive filter on its website. (Grindr)
The FAQs also explain that the “Cis Man/Woman” gender identities have changed to “Man/Woman” as part of their “ongoing commitment to inclusivity and an effort to reduce discrimination toward trans and nonbinary folks”.
Users can edit their gender and pronouns in the app’s settings “to search (and be found) by gender identity”.
“We have a list of 50+ gender identities to choose from – and even provide non-gendered pronoun options for languages that don’t have gendered pronouns. To ensure that culturally specific gender identity terms were included in that list, we partnered with experts across 20 languages.
“We’re still learning every day – and always open to expanding that list. If you have a gender identity or pronoun suggestion for us, please submit it using the Suggest a Gender link on the gender selection screen.”
Amber Glenn has won the U.S. Figure Skating Championship, becoming the first openly LGBTQ+ woman to win.
Glenn — who identifies as bisexual and pansexual— has competed in the championship eight times prior, and won the silver medal in 2021 and the bronze medal in 2023.
Despite making mistakes on two major jumps in her free skate routine on 26 January, Glenn won with 210.46 points to silver medalist Josephine Lee’s 204.13 points and bronze medalist Isabeau Levito’s 200.68 points.
She’s competed in the competition eight times prior. (Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)
In an interview with NBC Sports, the victor said: “Being the first openly queer women’s champion is incredible. When I came out initially, I was terrified. I was scared it would affect my scores or something.
She continued: “It was worth it to see the amount of young people who felt more comfortable in their environments at the rink, [people] who feel, ‘Oh, I’m represented by her, and she’s one of the top skaters [so] I don’t have to try and hide the sight of me.’ Just because you have this aspect doesn’t mean you can’t be a top athlete.”
Glenn’s win marks the first openly LGBTQ+ woman athlete to reach the top spot at the competition, but there are other out queer U.S. figure skaters, including Adam Rippon, Eliot Halverson, Karina Manta, and Timothy LeDuc.
The figure skater won the championship a decade after winning the junior U.S. championship title in 2014, and navigating a few bumps in the road during her professional career.
At the start of this season, Glenn suffered from a severe concussion and was previously forced to withdraw from the 2022 Olympic trials after testing positive for Coronavirus.
“This wasn’t exactly how I wanted to win my first national title, but I’m extremely grateful for it,” she said during a press conference following the event. “It means so much to me, after everything I’ve been through in the last 10 years.”
Glenn proudly lifted the Progress Pride flag following her win and came out publicly in 2019. She said to Dallas Voice at the time: “The fear of not being accepted is a huge struggle for me.
“Being perceived as [going through] ‘just a phase’ or ‘[being] indecisive’ is a common thing for bisexual/pansexual women. I don’t want to shove my sexuality in people’s faces, but I also don’t want to hide who I am.”
Are transgender athletes allowed in the Olympics? With Paris 2024 soon approaching, many people have been asking that question.
Unfortunately, recent years have seen transgender athletes competing in sporting events face increasingly extreme restrictions.
While transgender athletes are technically allowed in the Olympics, they’re not exactly given a warm welcome given the increasingly demanding requirements placed on them.
Ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympic games, the topic of trans athletes’ participation is once again being raised. The forthcoming Olympic games are set to introduce further restrictions to previous editions.
Can trans athletes compete at the Olympics?
Taking place in Paris this July and August, the 2024 Olympics includes a new requirement that athletes must have completed their transition before the age of 12 to compete.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has suggested that transitioning after the age of 12 could give an advantage to athletes over their cisgender competitors.
There are examples of transgender athletes at the Olympics. At the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard made history as the first openly trans athlete to compete at the Olympic Games.
Now, athletes like Hubbard who have previously represented their nation at the Olympics will not be eligible for the Paris 2024 Games.
Previously, the IOC had guidelines in place that allowed trans women athletes to compete if their testosterone levels were below 10 nanomoles per litre a year before competing.
Various further bans have also been enacted against trans athletes recently in a number of sporting groups.
Laurel Hubbard speaks to media after competing in the Tokyo Olympic Games (Laurence Griffiths/Getty)
Are there restrictions on trans people in professional sports?
Last March, the governing body of athletics (World Athletics Council) banned women from competing in elite female competitions if they have gone through male puberty.
At the time, World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said the tightening restrictions to exclude transgender women was due to the “overarching need to protect the female category.”
The decision was enacted on 31 March, Transgender Day of Visibility.
Unfortunately, similar attitudes were then adopted by World Aquatics in its ‘Gender Inclusion Policy’.
The governing body voted to bar trans women from competing in women’s swimming events if they had gone through any part of puberty.
Swimmer Lia Thomas has now filed a legal dispute against World Aquatics’ anti-trans policies, citing a number of decisions from the governing body disqualifying most trans women and intersex athletes from international events.
The International Cycling Union (UCI) has also introduced bans on trans women participating if they have reached puberty before transitioning.
Such restrictions are introduced with the attempted justification of ‘safeguarding’ women’s sport. These trans bans have reached every corner of the sporting world: professional golfer Hailey Davidson was pushed into testosterone testing to verify her eligibility after she won a women’s pro tournament in Florida.
Former Las Vegas Raiders star Carl Nassib made history during Pride month in 2021 when he came out as gay.
“I actually hope that, one day, videos like this and the whole coming-out process are just not necessary,” he said in a post on Instagram. “But until then, I’m going to do my best, and my part, to cultivate a culture that’s accepting, that’s compassionate.”
Having also played for the Cleveland Browns and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Nassib announced his retirement from the NFL last September.
Many people believe that Nassib was the first player to come out, but that’s far from the case. Sure, he was the first to come out while on the sport’s regular season roster, but the title of “first” actually goes to Dave Kopay, who revealed his gay identity 26 years earlier, three years after retiring.
What’s more, in 1969 Kopay was on the same team as two other gay NFL football players, training under the legendary (and open-minded) Washington coach Vince Lombardi. He also played for the San Francisco 49ers, Detroit Lions, New Orleans Saints and the Green Bay Packers.
To date, there have only ever been 16 out gay or bisexual NFL players – hardly any, in the grand scheme of things, especially when you think about the huge number of footballers who have donned a uniform since the NFL was founded in 1920.
There are undoubtedly more players who never came out, but sadly that means their stories are lost in the mists of time.
Thankfully, we do know the incredible, powerful and heart-wrenching stories of three players. Two lost their lives during the Aids crisis, but all of them were truly talented.
These are the stories of running back Dave Kopay, who played between 1964 and 1972, Jerry Smith (1965-77), a tight end with Washington, and Ray McDonald (1967-68), a running back, also for Washington.
Dave Kopay
Dave Kopay was the first professional team sport athlete ever to declare his homosexuality. He made the announcement in 1975, three years after his retirement, following a nine-year NFL career.
He played for five teams during his career: San Francisco, Detroit, Washington, New Orleans and Green Bay. After he came out, he tried to get into coaching, but he claims that NFL and colleges expressed no interest after his sexuality became public knowledge.
Dave Kopay, pictured in 1977 (Getty)
Kopay spent a lot of his younger years denying his sexuality. He joined the Theta Chi fraternity when he arrived at the University of Washington, and it was at the there that he says met the man he now calls the great love of his life. But he was still very much in the closet, and trying to deny who he really was. After all, this was the early 1960s, when declaring he was gay would have essentially ruined his prospects.
Describing that time to the University of Washington Magazine, he said: I was never thinking I was a gay man because I just wasn’t like ‘one of them’. Just talking about it like that almost reinforces the utter bullsh*t that society uses to identify gay folks.
“I didn’t have the knowledge or strength to take it on then, and even after I did take it on, there were many, many times that it almost consumed me and took me into deep depression.”
Letters from fans helped him to find the strength to carry on, the former running back explained.
Kopay is alive and well. He became a Gay Games ambassador, and was a featured announcer in the opening ceremony for Gay Games VII, in Chicago in July 2006.
Jerry Smith
In 1986 Kopay revealed, in his autobiography, a brief affair with fellow NFL star Jerry Smith, who played for Washington (then the Redskins, but now called the Commanders) from 1965 to 1977, playing in a losing Super Bowl team in 1973 – although he didn’t name Smith at the time.
Tight end Smith kept his sexuality very private, focusing on his career. After officially retiring at the end of the 1978 season, he quietly came out as gay to a few family members. He moved to Austin, Texas, where he co-owned a gay bar called The Boathouse.
Jerry Smith kept his sexuality private even after revealing he had Aids. (Getty)
In 1986, Smith revealed that he had contracted AIDS, hoping to bring awareness about the disease and de-stigmatise it – a brave move as, at the time, the prevailing belief was that it was an illness that only affected “drug addicts and hairdressers” as Jim Graham, director of the Whitman-Walker Clinic, put it in an interview with the Washington Post in 1986.
Smith’s teammates all visited him as he lay in a Maryland hospital. He died, aged 43, on October 15, 1986, of an AIDS-related illness, a year after being diagnosed with HIV. Twenty-three players from Washington’s 1973 Super Bowl team reunited for the funeral, with several, including Sonny Jurgensen, Charley Taylor and Bobby Mitchell, serving as pallbearers.
“I don’t know how many of the players even knew he was gay, but I’ll tell you one thing: if they had known, they wouldn’t have cared,” Jurgensen has said.
Ray McDonald
As it turns out, Washington had not one, not two, but three gay men on the roster in 1969. The third was Ray McDonald, who had studied at the University of Idaho.
Questions about McDonald’s sexuality are believed to have started late in his college career, with rumours spreading that he was seeing a man at Washington State University, about 10 minutes from Idaho’s campus.
He went on to be drafted by Washington and during the rookie talent show at a training camp in 1967, McDonald delighted some with his singing skills, while others, it’s said, raised their eyebrows.
Ray McDonald played for Washington for two seasons and once delighted teammates with his singing voice. (University of Idaho)
At the time, Washington was coached by the now-legendary Vince Lombardi, who was no stranger to the LGBTQ+ community: his brother was gay, and many former players say he knew some of his team were gay. Not only did he not have a problem with it, but he also went out of his way to make sure no one else would make it a problem.
“Lombardi wanted to give him every benefit of the doubt and every chance and said if he found out that any coach was challenging McDonald’s manhood, they [would] be fired immediately.”
Former running back A.D. Whitfield, who played for Washington between 1966 and 1969, agreed that McDonald’s sexuality was something of an open secret.
“People more or less knew he was gay,” he said. “In the first year, there were all kinds of stories about incidents around town.”
One of the biggest incidents was when McDonald was reportedly arrested for having sex with another man in public.
It’s tragic that none of these great athletes felt they could come out during their career, but their legacy lives on through players like Carl Nassib.
Last week, a 52-year-old gay man was fatally shot in a Tampa dog park in what his friends are describing as a hate crime.
When he was shot, the victim had reportedly just had a run-in with another man who had allegedly been harassing him at the park for months, repeatedly threatening him and hurling homophobic slurs.
TheTampa Bay Times reports that the day before a man fatally shot John Walter Lay – known as Walt – Lay recorded a video of himself speaking directly to the camera, explaining, “So this morning while I’m walking — and we’re the only two here — (the gunman) comes up to me and screams at me, ‘You’re going to die, you’re going to die,’ and I asked him to just leave me alone, and so far he has.”
Friends of Lay told The Tampa Bay Times that the next morning, at the same park and at about the same time , the man shot Lay dead.
A local sheriff’s office have confirmed that 65-year-old Gerald Declan Radford was the shooter. He claims he shot Lay in self-defence. However, his friends don’t agree that would have been the case.
“In my opinion, there’s no way in hell this is really self-defense,” said Albert Darlington, 68, who was Lay’s friend and landlord. “For over a year, Dec has done nothing but harass Walt. He screams and hollers and calls him a f—-t every time he gets to the dog park. He’ll sit there and he’ll say, ‘I’d like to punch him right in the f–king mouth’ … and it has gotten worse and worse and worse.
Florida has been a hotbed of anti-LGBTQ+ activity recently, much of it instigated by Republican governor Ron DeSantis. In May 2023 alone, six new bills were signed by DeSantis in attacking LGBTQ+ rights in the state.
In response to that, Equality Florida and the Human Rights Campaign issued updated travel advice for LGBTQ+ people considering visiting or moving to Florida, telling queer people to “reconsider” their plans and that it was not a safe place for LGBTQ+ travellers to visit.
A photo of John Walter Lay, taken in 2018 (Facebook)
Lay’s friends told The Tampa Bay Times that he worked in customer service for a health care company, and delivered food and drove for Uber in the evenings. One of his friends added, “He was nice to everyone and treated everybody as a human being.”
His friends claim that Lay and Radford were initially on friendly terms. But after Radford found out that Lay was openly gay, Radford began to target Lay, calling him slurs when he was walking in the park. It’s said that Radford’s politics ‘leaned to the right’.
The Tampa Bay Times reviewed Radford’s Facebook page and found that it included reposted memes that were disparaging to LGBTQ+ people.
It’s believed that the shooter is yet to be arrested or charged.
”We looked around at each other and I thought, this guy just killed our friend and he is not in handcuffs?” one of Lay’s friends is reported as saying. “It was unbelievable to us.”
As the community mourns Lay’s loss, his faithful dog Fala stands as a poignant reminder of his enduring legacy. Lay’s final wish was that a friend in Tampa would take in his dog if anything happened to him, as he wanted to ensure Fala’s continued care within the familiar confines of the Tampa community he called home.
Lay’s friend intends to continue to walk Fala in the dog park despite the fatal attack, explaining that Fala “would be happier with the Tampa pack he already knows”.
The National Football League (NFL) will once again host A Night of Pride event during Super Bowl week, leaving bigots up in arms.
The third annual A Night of Pride with GLAAD, presented by Smirnoff, will be held on 7 February ahead of the Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas four days later.
It will be an evening of music, cocktails and interview-style conversations with GLAAD, including a panel on how inclusion in sports advances acceptance for LGBTQ people, and will feature a special live performance by singer-songwriter VINCINT.
GLAAD president and chief executive Sarah Kate Ellis said: “[Our] partnership with the NFL is committed to creating spaces where all fans can celebrate, and to growing important visibility for LGBTQ fans at the Super Bowl and all season long.
“The third annual A Night of Pride, at Super Bowl LVIII, will spotlight LGBTQ leaders in sports as we work to create safe and inclusive sports environments for our community.”
The NFL is hosting a Pride event. (Ric Tapia/Getty)
Jonathan Beane, the league’s senior vice-president and chief diversity and inclusion officer, added: “Our third annual Night of Pride with GLAAD is yet another strong step to accelerating acceptance and demonstrating the NFL’s unwavering support of the LGBTQ community.
“We look forward to continuing and strengthening our efforts to ensure football is for everyone.”
News of the event was met by anti-LGBTQ+ fans predictably promising a boycott, with the night being labelled ‘woke’.
“NFL being lost to wokeness,” one anonymous social media user claimed.
Another keyboard warrior wrote: “More like a night of watching something else,” while a third grumbled: “No one will watch or be there.”
However, not all the reaction was negative.
A number of LGBTQ+ fans and allies came out to praise the event and poke fun at those who were outraged by it.
“I hope everyone who goes has a great time and I wish all the homophobes in the comments a miserable day,” one person wrote.
Another said: “As a queer football fan, thank you. This means so much.”
And as a third pointed out: “Human rights isn’t wokeness. If you live your life without having to care about racial or LGBTQ+ equality, then you are privileged. Educate yourselves.”
A fourth, more humorous take, read: “You dudes are so f**king soft, I swear. Ninety per cent of the dudes commenting ‘ew’ can’t even afford the flight ticket to Las Vegas, so just relax.”
This is not the first time LGBTQ+ inclusion in sport has prompted a backlash from homophobes and transphobes.
Last summer, the LA Dodgers faced protests after the baseball team hosted the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence at its Pride event.
The drag collective were invited to appear at the Los Angeles club’s 10th annual Pride Night before officials backtracked on the offer after facing criticism from religious groups – only to U-turn again and reinstate the invite after facing a further backlash from LGBTQ+ fans.
An estimated 150,000 people are expected to travel to Nevada for Super Bowl LVIII, which is the championship game of the NFL’s 2023 season. Last year’s Super Bowl attracted a US TV audience of more than 115 million.
Lawmakers in South Carolina, USA, have approved a ban on gender-affirming care for trans youth.
On 18 January, the Republican-dominated House debated and voted “overwhelmingly” in favour of the bill, as per AP News. The bill prevents health professionals from performing gender-affirming surgery, prescribing puberty blockers and overseeing hormone therapy for patients under 18 years old.
The bill also prevents those under the age of 26 – eight years past the age of majority in the Southern US state – from using Medicaid, the nation’s public health insurance program for those from a low-income background, to cover the cost of gender-affirming treatment.
Furthermore, the bill forces teachers and school employees to out transgender and non-binary children to their legal guardians in a potentially unsafe home environment, as it’s illegal for them to withhold such knowledge.
The South Carolina proposal on the ban will soon head to the state Senate, where the chair of the Medical Affairs Committee has said ‘it will have his attention’, according to the outlet.
Last week, lawmakers heard from witnesses and experts on the bill – dubbed House Bill 4624 – including medical experts, who warned that the deeply restrictive legislation could have a detrimental impact on children in the state.
Among those testifying against the bill on medical grounds was paediatrician Dr Deborah Greenhouse, who informed the Medical, Military, Public and Municipal Affairs that, contrary to what they might believe, trans minors in South Carolina do not undergo gender-affirming surgeries. Rather, trans youth who do qualify for gender-affirming care with “fully-involved” parents’ consent, are more likely to have access to hormone replacement therapy and puberty blockers, which can be lifesaving treatments.
In support of this point were parents Dave and Rebecca Bell, who spoke on behalf of their 15-year-old transgender daughter.
The couple revealed that it had taken years for their daughter to be approved for gender-affirming care, with seven visits to an endocrinologist over three years. But, when their child was finally approved for treatment with puberty blockers, they noted a significant difference in her mental health.
Her access to such treatment even meant she was able to stop taking mental health medications. “She did take antidepressants, but in fact, after starting HRT she was able to stop taking them,” they shared.
Elsewhere in the committee hearing, Dr Elizabeth Mack, who is the president of the South Carolina Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, pointed out that gender-affirming care is only provided to trans minors, following meticulous protocols after thorough consultation with doctors and parents.
Dr Mack also pointed out that gender-affirming care for minors is approved and endorsed by every mainstream medical organisation as a safe practice if administered correctly.
Some people shared their testimony anonymously; like one 17-year-old transgender child, who feared what might happen to them if the bill was passed.
“I cannot give you my name because I am one of the kids at risk of physical harm if my family knows I am trans,” their letter read. “South Carolina’s trans kids are all watching you today. We are afraid.”
