Meta, the parent company of Instagram, is under fire for its treatment of LGBTQ+ users after journalist Taylor Lorenz revealed that the platform had restricted LGBTQ-related hashtags for months. The issue, reported in Lorenz’s Substack publication User Mag on Monday, has sparked criticism of Meta’s content moderation practices and repeated failures to support marginalized communities.
Lorenz, a journalist known for her reporting on technology and social media in The New York Times and, most recently, The Washington Post, uncovered that Instagram blocked users—especially teenagers—from searching hashtags like #gay, #lesbian, #trans, and #nonbinary under its “sensitive content” policy. The restrictions, which were in effect for months, were applied by default to teen accounts. When teens searched these hashtags, they were met with a blank screen and a prompt about Instagram’s content restrictions. Meta reversed the blocks only after Lorenz reached out for comment, User Mag reports.
“These search terms and hashtags were mistakenly restricted,” a Meta spokesperson told Lorenz. “It’s important to us that all communities feel safe and welcome on Meta apps, and we do not consider LGBTQ+ terms to be sensitive under our policies.” Meta added that it was investigating how the error occurred but provided no timeline for the investigation or concrete actions to prevent such mistakes in the future.
“Meta categorizing LGBTQ hashtags as ‘sensitive content’ is an alarming example of censorship that should concern everyone,” Leanna Garfield, social media safety program manager at GLAAD, told Lorenz. “These platforms are lifelines for young LGBTQ+ people, and restricting this content isolates them further.”
A GLAAD spokesperson also told The Advocate, “LGBTQ people all over the world, especially young people, use Instagram to express who they are and to find and be part of a community. A responsible and inclusive company would not build an algorithm that classifies some LGBTQ hashtags as ‘sensitive content,’ hiding helpful and age-appropriate content from young people by default.”
The spokesperson added that whether it was an unintended mistake, “Meta should remedy this issue immediately, publicly apologize to its LGBTQ users, and test significant product updates before launch.” They added, “Everyone, not just LGBTQ people, should be deeply concerned about the larger implications of this kind of content suppression.”
Garfield highlighted the damage that blocks like the one Meta had in place do.
“For many LGBTQ people, especially youth, platforms like Instagram are crucial for self-discovery, community building, and accessing supportive information,” Garfield told User Mag. “By limiting access to LGBTQ content, Instagram may be inadvertently contributing to the isolation and marginalization of LGBTQ users.”
Reports of such challenges on Instagram are not new. In September 2023, Mashable highlighted the issue of shadowbanning—when content is flagged as “non-recommendable” and hidden from non-followers. LGBTQ+ creators were disproportionately affected by these restrictions. Topher Taylor, a sexuality educator and creator, told Mashable that his content had been categorized as non-recommendable for years because of reports from bigoted users. “You will get more reports if you’re visibly queer,” he said. Meanwhile, mainstream accounts promoting explicit or suggestive content, such as those tied to celebrities or brands catering to heterosexual audiences, often bypass these restrictions.
The controversy over restricted hashtags is the latest in a series of criticisms against Meta. Last year, a GLAAD report revealed that Meta had failed to moderate harmful anti-trans content across its platforms, including Instagram and Threads. The report detailed violent speech and harassment targeting transgender and nonbinary users, much of which remained live despite clear violations of Meta’s community guidelines.
Meta also faced backlash in September for delaying the ban of far-right Republican Valentina Gomez, who used Instagram to spread antigay slurs and burn LGBTQ-themed books. In December, U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina posted videos on Instagram using a transphobic slur to mock protesters opposing her anti-trans bathroom bill. Despite repeated reports from advocacy groups, Mace’s videos remain live on the platform.
Critics argue that these incidents highlight systemic flaws in Meta’s approach to content moderation.
While opponents of gender-affirming care for trans youth often act as if such care is common and undertaken thoughtlessly, it’s actually quite rare, according to a new study.
The study, published Monday in JAMA Pediatrics, found that “fewer than 1 in 1,000 U.S. adolescents with commercial insurance received gender-affirming medications — puberty blockers or hormones — during a recent five-year period,” the Associated Press reports.
Other studies have looked at gender-affirming surgery for transgender minors and concluded it is rare, but the use of medications for gender confirmation is not well-documented, the study’s authors note.
“Because age and experience of puberty onset varies by sex assigned at birth and dictates the course of care, it is important to analyze these rates by age and sex assigned at birth,” says an abstract of the study (the full research paper is behind a paywall). “This study filled this gap by using private insurance data across all 50 states.”
“We are not seeing inappropriate use of this sort of care,” lead author Landon Hughes, a researcher at Harvard University,” told the AP. “And it’s certainly not happening at the rate at which people often think it is.”
The authors examined insurance data for more 5 million patients aged 8 to 17, covering the years 2018 to 2022, so it as before many of the state bans were enacted. Only 926 of these patients received puberty blockers and 1,927 received hormones, coming out to 0.1 percent. Puberty blockers were not administered to anyone under age 12.
“I hope that our paper cools heads on this issue and ensures that the public is getting a true sense of the number of people who are accessing this care,” Hughes said.
The new study “adds to the growing evidence base about best practices when serving transgender and gender-diverse youth,” Dr. Scott Leibowitz, who has helped develop the adolescent standards of care for the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, told the AP.
Twenty-six states have passed laws banning some or all gender-affirming procedures for trans youth. The U.S. Supreme Court heard a case in Decemberseeking to overturn Tennessee’s ban, and a decision is expected in the spring or summer. Donald Trump has vowed to ban such care nationwide through an executive order when he becomes president again, something that would undoubtedly lead to more court cases, and during his campaign he falsely claimed that young people are receiving gender-affirming medical care at school. He has promised to enact other anti-trans policies as well.
Like the residents of Munchkinland celebrating Elphaba’s watery demise in Wicked‘s opening number, anti-‘woke’ pundits are delightedly banging the drum that diversity, equality and inclusion policies (DEI) – aimed at reducing discrimination in the workplace – are dead, dunzo and pushing up daises.
“The death of DEI is finally here,” Michael Deacon proclaimed, “the DEI cult is now imploding,” Sam Ashworth-Hayes declared – citing car manufacturer Jaguaras the first fatality – “the DEI game is up,” Matthew Lynn insisted.
You get the picture.
Whilst you could argue these statements are just the overzealous sells of attention grabbing headlines, it is undeniable the right’s self-imposed ‘War on Woke’ – which this year turned its Eye of Sauron-esque gaze on DEI – has forced US multi-billion dollar businesses to abandon commitments to fostering fair and equitable workplaces.
Robby Starbuck is leading campaigns against companies he deems ‘woke’. (Jason Kempin/Getty Images)
Leading the charge throughout 2024 has been former music video director turned MAGA pundit and anti-woke campaigner Robby Starbuck, whose mission to bring “sanity back to corporate America” via public pressure campaigns and boycotts has seen big name US brands like Harley-Davidson, Jack Daniel’s, Ford, Stanley Black & Decker and John Deere – just to name a few – all roll back DEI policies.
Starbuck’s ire is with American firms supporting minority causes and communities, such as sponsoring LGBTQ+ Pride events, running inclusivity training for staff and taking part in the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index. That being said, business participation in the HRC’s Index reached record levels in 2024, despite Starbuck’s best efforts.
Further to this, corporations abandoning their DEI commitments has certainly not happened without criticism, with disdainful LGBTQ+ folks voting with their feet and making it clear that they’re more than willing to take their cash elsewhere.
The 2024 LGBTQ+ Climate Survey found that 80 per cent of LGBTQ+ adults in the US would boycott a company that rolled back equality programmes, whilst more than 75 per cent said that they would have a less-favourable opinion of a company that cut its DEI policies. The survey found 52 per cent of people said they would urge others to boycott the company, including by posting negative reviews on social media.
As the year draws to a close, here are some of the biggest and most well-known businesses that have backed down on supporting diversity this year.
Walmart
(Getty Images/Bob Riha, Jr.)
Not the most recent company to fold on its DEI commitments, but no doubt the biggest.
Walmart is the America’s largest private employer and has 1.6 million associates working across nearly 5,000 locations in the US, with a total of 2.1 million staff on the books worldwide.
According to revenue data published by Forbes for its Fortune 500 list, Walmart generated revenue worth $645.15 billion in 2023.
Walmart’s decision to step back on its DEI policies came as Starbuck threatened to galvanise a boycott in conjunction with the Black Friday sales, a post-Thanksgiving shopping event which generated a total of $9.8 billion across the US economy in 2023.
Taking to X, formerly Twitter, Starbuck said he warned Walmart executives he was “doing a story on wokeness there” and had “productive conversations to find solutions.”
The business will now no longer take part in the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index – it earned a perfect score of 100 in 2023 – stop selling “inappropriate sexual and/or transgender products” marketed at children, review Pride funding and no longer provide staff with racial-equity training.
Walmart will also stop using the term Latinx, discontinue the use of DEI as a term and “will evaluate supplier diversity programmes and ensure they do not provide preferential treatment and benefits to suppliers based on diversity.”
Starbuck said the decision would “send shockwaves throughout corporate America.”
Ford
(Carl Court/Getty Images)
Iconic car manufacturer Ford is known not only for producing vehicles but for entirely revolutionising the means of mass production through assembly lines. But despite its industry-leading history, it seems it flinches at the risk of conservative upset.
According to the Fortune 500 list, the brand generated revenue of $176,191,000,000 ($171.19 billion) in 2023 and employs around 130,000 staff members in the United States.
In August, the company announced it would be ending its participation in the HRC’s Corporate Equality Index, with CEO Jim Farley saying in a memo: “We are mindful that our employees and customers hold a wide range of beliefs, and the external and legal environment related to political and social issues continues to evolve.”
Farley added Ford would focus on taking care of employees and customers “versus publicly commenting on the polarising issues of the day.”
The HRC slammed the decision, writing on a social media post that Ford was “cowering to MAGA weirdo Robby Starbuck.”
Starbuck, unsurprisingly, celebrated the move: “This isn’t everything we want but it’s a great start. We’re now forcing multi-billion dollar organisations to change their policies without even posting just from fear they have of being the next company that we expose.”
Lowe’s
(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Another large retail chain, Lowe’s might be smaller than Walmart but still has more than 2,000 stores and employs 300,000 people. It generated $86 billion in 2023.
The home improvement chain announced its DEI rollback via an internal memo where the firm announced it would stop taking part in surveys for the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), combine employee groups into one umbrella organisation and end support for “festivals, parades and fairs” – arguably meaning Pride events.
Starbuck claimed he contacted executives at the chain last week “to let them know I planned to expose their woke policies” and subsequently “woke up to an email where they pre-emptively made big changes”.
However, a spokesman for Lowe’s told CNN they had heard from Starbuck after the company “already announced changes that had long been in process.”
Toyota
Toyota. ( Ralph Orlowski/Getty Images)
After coming under fire from Starbuck, car-manufacturer Toyota announced their “refocus” of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes means they won’t sponsor cultural events and parades such as LGBTQ+ Pride in the US.
In a memo sent to 50,000 US employees and more than 1,500 dealerships, the company said the decision follows a “highly politicised discussion” around business commitments to DEI.
“We will no longer sponsor cultural events such as festivals and parades that are not related to Stem [science, technology, engineering and maths] education and workforce readiness,” the memo read.
According to Bloomberg, Toyota will also no longer participate in cultural surveys, and will end their participation in the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) annual Corporate Equality Index, which once gave them a perfect score for their DEI efforts.
The car-makers will refocus employee resource groups for professional development, networking and mentoring with a “clear alignment to driving the company’s business”.
John Deere
Tractor manufacturing John Deere was targeted by the ‘anti-woke’ brigade. (Getty)
In a post on social media in July following a Starbuck campaign, agricultural manufacturer John Deere confirmed it was rolling back its corporate inclusion efforts.
The statement read: “We will no longer participate or support external social or cultural awareness parades, festivals or events. Business resource groups will exclusively be focused on professional development, networking, mentoring and supporting talent recruitment efforts.”
All company-mandated training materials and policies would be audited to ensure the absence of socially motivated messages while being in compliance with federal, state and local laws, the company promised while reaffirming that “the existence of diversity quotas and pronoun identification have never been and are not company policy”.
However, the statement also noted that the company “fundamentally believe a diverse workforce enables us to best meet our customers’ needs, and because of that, we will continue to track the advancement of the diversity of our organisations”, adding: “Your trust and confidence in us are of the utmost importance to everyone at John Deere, and we fully intend to earn it every day and in every way we can.”
Stanley Black & Decker
Stanley Black & Decker became the focus of another right-wing campaign group. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Toolmakers Stanley Black & Decker have been accused of “scrubbing” all mentions of DEI from its corporate website.
This time though, the backlash came from Consumers’ Research, a right-wing campaign group that prides itself on targeting “wokeness” in business.
The pressure group’s executive director, Will Hild, believed Stanley Black & Decker might continue to undertake DEI activities “albeit more surreptitiously than before they were caught”.
Molson Coors
Despite a history of supporting LGBTQ+ causes, Molson Coors scrapped progressive policies. (Getty Images)
Molson Coors Brewing Company reportedly began restructuring its corporate training programmes in March, according to an internal memo.
Despite once being “refreshingly proud”, the brewer added that it will do away with DEI programmes and diversity quota because of the “complicated” rise of anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric.
Human rights groups struck back, with GLAAD shaming the company for deciding to “walk away” from supporting marginalised groups “when it gets noisy and hard”.
Ford
Ford will focus on employees and customers rather than “polarising issues of the day”. (Getty Images)
The car manufacturer announced in August an intention to leave the HRC’s CEI. Chief executive Jim Farley wrote in a memo that the company would focus on taking care of employees and customers “versus publicly commenting on polarising issues of the day”.
Farley also sits on the corporate board at Harley-Davidson.
While Starbuck publicly celebrated another win, the HRC condemned the move, saying: “Today, Ford abandoned its values and commitments to an inclusive workplace, cowering to MAGA weirdo Robby Starbuck.”
Harley-Davidson
Harley-Davidson was another big name to bow to the anti-woke brigade. (Emanuele Cremaschi/Getty Images)
The motorcycle maker succumbed to the anti-woke brigade after Starbuck accused the company of taking on DEI initiatives. “I don’t think the values at corporate reflect the values of nearly any Harley-Davidson bikers,” he wrote on X.
“Do Harley riders want the money they spend to be used later by corporate to push an ideology that’s diametrically opposed to their own values?”
Despite a long history of supporting LGBTQ+ causes, Harley-Davidson said they hadn’t had a DEI function since April and “no longer have supplier diversity spend goals”.
In addition, all employee training would only be business-related and “absent of socially motivated content.”
Jack Daniel’s
The parent company of Jack Daniel’s axed initiatives because the “world has changed since 2019”. (Getty Images)
Another well-known brand, Jack Daniel’s, announced the scrapping of all DEI initiatives because “the world has evolved” since 2019 when the business, owned by Brown-Forman, first introduced the policies.
Starbuck considered this a big win, writing on X that he received the news before he could expose the company and bragging: “We are winning… one by one we will bring sanity back to corporate America”.
Despite the new “strategic framework”, including leaving the HRC’s CEI index, the company will still foster an inclusive culture where “everyone is welcomed, respected and able to bring their best self to work”.
Tractor Supply Co
Rural farm supply store Tractor Supply was one of the first companies to scrape DEI policies. (Getty Images)
The rural America retail chain specialising in agricultural wares was the first domino to fall under Starbucks’ scrutiny. In a lengthy tweet exposing Tractor Supply for having “woke priorities”, including donations to charities that support LGBTQ+ youngsters, the company faced an intense backlash on social media.
The firm quickly relented, promising to eliminate their DEI programmes and climate change goals, saying: “We have heard from customers that we have disappointed them. We have taken this feedback to heart.”
In addition, the company will no longer provide data to the Human Rights Commission’s (HRC) Corporate Equality Index (CEI), a bench-marking tool that rates American businesses on policies and practises that affect their LGBTQ+ employees.
In the week ending December 21, there was nearly three times as much Covid-19 circulating in the US than there was during the week ending December 7, CDC data shows.
This surge happened in all regions of the country, but there has been a particularly sharp uptick in the Midwest, where Covid-19 levels are nearly twice as high as they are in other parts of the country.
Some experts worry that the rapid rise after an unusually long lull could have left many people vulnerable to disease spread at the height of the holiday season.
The IGLTA Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the International LGBTQ+ Travel Association (IGLTA), today released a report titled “Addressing LGBTQ+ Workplace Challenges in Tourism within Asia.” The report focuses on practical ways tourism businesses can create more inclusive work environments for their employees. This report is the direct result of the Leadership Think Tank that brought together professionals in the Asian tourism industry during the 2024 IGLTA Global Convention in Osaka, Japan.
“Creating welcoming workplaces for LGBTQ+ staff isn’t just the right thing to do, it also improves the overall travel experience for everyone,” said John Tanzella (he/him), IGLTA President/CEO. “This Think Tank was a significant moment for the LGBTQ+ tourism industry in Asia. By creating regionally focused spaces for sharing experiences and best practices, we can help our members build a welcoming future for LGBTQ+ travelers and industry professionals in a way that will resonate with their communities.”
“This Think Tank united Asian experts to discuss workplace challenges faced by LGBTQ+ employees. What thrilled me was how we exchanged our practices from Asian perspectives,” said Dr. Bella Vongvisitsin (she/her), Hong Kong Metropolitan University and Think Tank co-moderator. “We found that cultural attitudes, societal norms, and sometimes legal complexities, are paramount in addressing LGBTQ+ workplace issues. This will be a long journey, requiring continual dialogue, and it has already been kicked off in Osaka!”
“Simpleview was proud to sponsor the IGLTA Foundation Think Tank and be part of this exclusive gathering of thought leaders dedicated to advancing LGBTQ+ tourism,” said Sandee Jordan (she/her), Simpleview and Think Tank participant. “This event truly reflects our shared commitment to fostering collaboration, driving innovation, and championing inclusion in the global tourism industry.”
With over 60% of the world’s population, Asia is a diverse region, but LGBTQ+ rights and acceptance vary greatly across its 48 countries. This disparity not only impacts LGBTQ+ travelers, but it also affects the LGBTQ+ individuals working within the Asian tourism industry.
The Leadership Think Tank identified five key areas for creating a more equitable and welcoming industry:
Visibility: Creating a safe space for LGBTQ+ employees to be open about their identities.
Commitment Beyond Policy: Taking consistent action and reinforcing commitment to LGBTQ+ inclusion.
Leading by Example: Forward-thinking companies prioritizing equal benefits for LGBTQ+ employees, regardless of legal mandates.
The Power of Intersectionality: Utilizing this framework to promote empathy and understanding of LGBTQ+ issues within the company.
Investing in the Future: Identifying and nurturing the next generation of LGBTQ+ leaders in Asian tourism.
This edition of the Leadership Think Tank was presented by Simpleview and hosted by the Osaka Convention and Tourism Bureau at the Swissôtel Nankai Osaka.
The discussion was co-moderated by Mie Kitano (she/her), SynFiny Advisors and Dr. Bella Vongvisitsin (she/her), Hong Kong Metropolitan University.
The IGLTA Foundation would like to thank our esteemed participants for their thoughtful contributions: Shintaro Koizumi (he/him), Out Asia Travel; Maki Muraki (she/her), Nijiiro Diversity (assisted by Yoshino Sakka (she/her), Student Volunteer Translator from Ritsumeikan University); Shiho Ikeuchi (she/her), Ace Hotel Kyoto and IGLTA Board Member; Sandee Jordan (she/her), Simpleview; Melvyn Yap (he/him), Zennadu; Marian Magsino (she/her), UN Tourism – Regional Support Office for Asia and the Pacific; Ida Chen (she/her), Airbnb; Makiko Matsuda Healy (she/her), New York City Tourism + Conventions; Nori Tsugama (he/him), American Express; Akshay Tyagi (he/him), The Lalit Suri Hospitality Group; Francesco Tornieri (he/him), Asian Development Bank; Hiroki Tanimura (he/him), Google Cloud Japan G.K.; and Lisa Lam (she/her), Imagine3.
The International LGBTQ+ Travel Association is the global leader in advancing LGBTQ+ travel and a proud Affiliate Member of UN Tourism. IGLTA’s mission is to enable authentic travel that enriches lives and connects the LGBTQ+ community and tourism industry. IGLTA’s global network includes 13,000+ LGBTQ+ welcoming accommodations, destinations, service providers, travel agents, tour operators, events, and travel media in 80 countries. The philanthropic IGLTA Foundation empowers LGBTQ+ welcoming travel businesses globally through leadership, research, and education. For more information: iglta.org, igltaconvention.org or iglta.org/foundation and follow us on Facebook at @IGLTA, @IGLTABusiness and @IGLTAFoundation, X and LinkedIn at @IGLTA and @IGLTAFoundation, and Instagram @IGLTA.
Another American-based big-leaguer is kicking in cash to incoming President-elect Donald Trump’s January inaugural fund.
Ford Motor Company, headquartered in Dearborn, Mich., will donate $1 million as well as a fleet of vehicles for the festivities, a spokesperson confirmed to USA TODAY Monday.
Earlier this month, Ford CEO Jim Farley told reporters his leadership team is carefully watching for policy changes in Washington but isn’t panicked about Trump returns to the presidency.
After a record-breaking year for anti-trans legislation, 2025 is shaping up to be even more challenging for transgender and queer people across the United States. A legislative tracker maintained by Erin In The Morning and other volunteers has found that nearly 120 anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ+ bills have already been filed in states nationwide ahead of the 2025 legislative season. This far surpasses the 80 bills filed by this time in 2023, signaling another historic wave of legal attacks on the ability of transgender people to move, live, and exist freely as themselves in public.
The bulk of the bills so far come from Texas and Missouri, two of the earlier states that release prefilled legislation ahead of the 2025 session. However, states like South Carolina, New Hampshire, Georgia, Wyoming, and Montana all feature multiple anti-LGBTQ+ bills, with more being added every day. Thirteen states in all have seen anti-trans bills filed: Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Indiana, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio, South Carolina, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming.
This year, several state bills aim to strip legal recognition from transgender people entirely. Between 2022 and 2024, ten states passed such legislation or enacted similar policies, with devastating consequences for affected communities. In Kansas, Florida, and Texas, transgender individuals are now unable to update their driver’s licenses, and in some cases, states have begun reverting gender marker changes that were made years or even decades ago. Transgender people who have lived as their legal gender for years may face forced reversion of their identification documents if these new bills are enacted. Similar legislation has already been introduced in Texas, Missouri, South Carolina, and Wyoming.
In many states that have passed such legislation, bathroom bans have also been attached. Indeed, in the initial rush of bills, several bathroom bans can be found that target transgender adults. Two Texasbills would allow lawsuits if transgender people are encountered in bathrooms. One bill in Montana would bar transgender people from publicly owned bathrooms of their gender identity. One bill in Missouri would even make it “unlawful public discrimination” to allow a transgender person in bathrooms of their gender identity.
Book bans are seeing a resurgence in the prefiled bills. In 2024, PEN America found 10,046 instances of individual books banned, affecting 4,231 unique titles. Banned books include the Handmaids Tale, Flamer, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Gender Queer, and more. Texas features severalsuchbillsthisyear, despite the state being rebuked by higher courts for book bans in 2024.
Another common type of anti-trans legislation that is common is sports bans. Many bills aim to expand existing restrictions to even broader contexts. In Texas, one proposed bill seeks to deny private sporting events access to the state’s Events Trust Fund—a source of professional funding for major sporting events—if they allow trans athletes to compete. Other bills aim to extend sports bans to new age groups. For instance, a bill in Wyoming would expand its current ban, which applies to students in grade 7 and above, to include kindergarteners.
Several other categories of bills have seen activity, such as drag bans, forced outing of transgender students, “don’t say gay” bills, birth certificate gender change bans,drivers license gender change bans, and more.
According to the ACLU, legislative attacks on transgender people grew “exponentially” over 2023 and 2024. These anti-trans laws have directly causedan increase in suicide attempts in some states by up to 72%. According to the Centers for Disease Control, one in four transgender youth have attempted to take their own life in the last year, with many of those attempts requiring medical treatment.
In the coming months, a landmark Supreme Court decision will determine the constitutional fate of bills targeting transgender people. While the case centers on a law restricting transgender medical care, its broader implications go far deeper—addressing whether discrimination against transgender people qualifies as sex discrimination warranting heightened scrutiny. The Court may also weigh whether transgender individuals are granted equal protection around their transgender status. This ruling has the potential to either shut the door on many of these bills and laws or swing it wide open, unleashing a flood of legislative attacks that could make 2025 a historically devastating year for transgender rights.
These bills will continue to be tracked by Erin In The Morning and other volunteers and can be found here.
Restrictions on gender-affirming care proposed by Republicans in Congress and President-elect Donald Trump could be devastating for transgender youths, doctors say, especially for teens with eating disorders.
Gender-affirming care — which includes mental health counseling and sometimes puberty-suppressing medication and hormone therapy — is a critical part of care for trans teens with eating disorders, said Jessie Menzel, a psychologist and vice president of development at Equip Health, which provides virtual mental health care for people with eating disorders.
Yet transition-related care is increasingly out of reach for minors struggling with gender dysphoria, the acute distress that results from a mismatch between one’s sex assigned at birth and one’s gender identity. Most U.S. medical associations consider transition-related care to be essential for minors struggling with gender dysphoria.
Public opinion polls show that Americans are divided over transition-related care for minors. A Gallup survey published in June found that 51% of respondentsagreed that “changing one’s gender is morally wrong,” although 60% also oppose laws banning transition-related care.
Many people who oppose such care say that minors are too young to understand the risks of hormonal therapies and that they are concerned about the lack of long-term data on potential side effects. Although the effects of puberty-blocking medications are largely reversible, they can cause a temporary reduction in bone density. Taking the hormones estrogen or testosterone, which many trans teens eventually receive, restores most of that bone loss. Gender-affirming surgery is rarely performed on patients under 18, and hospitals require parental consent before they provide any transition-related care.
But forbidding that type of care can also cause harm, and state bans have been linked to increased suicide attempts by trans youths. Additional restrictions could lead more kids to develop eating disorders and make it harder for people with eating disorders to recover, Menzel said.
“We are absolutely going to see an increase in eating disorders amongst these individuals,” Menzel said.
Carsen Rhys Beckwith, 27, of Kansas City, Missouri, said they developed an eating disorder around age 14, as they began developing the curves typically associated with female bodies.
But Beckwith didn’t feel female. They wanted to look muscular and more masculine.
“My body was developing in a way that didn’t match how my identity was developing,” said Beckwith, who identifies as nonbinary and transmasculine.
Carsen Rhys Beckwith, now 27, said they developed an eating disorder around age 14, as they began developing the curves typically associated with female bodies.Carsen Beckwith
Beckwithbegan trying to change their body the only way they could: by losing weight and constantly working out at the gym.
“It started with counting calories,” said Beckwith. After a while, Beckwith was subsisting on a single piece of fruit a day. “I would give most of my lunch away to my friends and think, ‘I don’t need to eat until dinner.’”
Feeling more at home in their bodies
For trans teens with eating disorders, receiving gender-affirming care — a comprehensive approach that validates a young person’s feelings, provides psychological support and, in many cases, includes hormonal therapies — can reduce their need to lose weight, Menzel said.
“It’s life-changing for them to be able to have access to somebody who is willing to listen to them,” Menzel said. “Just having someone who is willing to affirm who they are can make such a big difference.”
Puberty-blocking hormones can give trans teens a temporary reprieve from developing more adult bodies, giving them time to explore their gender identities with therapy, Menzel said. Other hormonal therapies, such as estrogen and testosterone, typically taken later in the teen years, can help children grow into bodies that match their gender identities.
Dr. Ellen Rome, a pediatrician and head of the center for adolescent medicine at Cleveland Clinic Children’s Hospital, said gender-affirming care can help teens feel better about their bodies and their relationships with food.
“When a kid is living as who they want to be,” Rome said, “often the eating disorder symptoms are relatively easy to eradicate.”
Although Ohio’s ban allows children currently receiving gender-affirming care to continue the treatments, doctors are no longer allowed to prescribe the medications for new patients under 18.
“They have taken that tool out of our toolbox,” Rome said.
Starvation as a coping strategy
Gender-affirming care — like trans rights in general — has become a hot-button political issue.
Tiffany Justice, a co-founder of the influential conservative group Moms for Liberty, dismisses gender-affirming care for minors as “child abuse” and “snake oil,” and she said her organization is working to ban gender-affirming care for minors in every state.
Children who are desperately unhappy — and unable to delay puberty in any other way — may take matters into their own hands, said Dr. Jason Nagata, an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco.
Trans boys, for example, sometimes avoid eating, because they know that without enough daily calories, they won’t begin menstruation, Nagata said.
“Some people will intentionally restrict their food intake to get rid of their periods,” Nagata said. “We have seen that a lot, particularly when people can’t get gender-affirming care.”
Trans girls also sometimes try to delay the effects of puberty through starvation, Nagata said. “If they really restrict their food intake, they can prevent themselves from developing facial hair or Adam’s apples.”
Eating disorders can be life-threatening, Nagata said.
Anorexia, a condition in which people severely restrict their calorie intake, has the second-highest mortality rate of any psychiatric disorder, behind only opioid addiction. It can cause abnormal heart rhythms, anemia, bone loss and brain damage. About 5% of people die within four years of anorexia diagnoses. Even with intensive treatment, relapse rates are high. Fewer than half of people with anorexia make full recoveries.
Research shows such state bans on gender-affirming care heighten the stress and anxiety with which many trans people already live. Calls to a mental health crisis line run by The Trevor Project, a nonprofit organization that works to prevent suicide in LGBTQ youths, rose 700% the day after the November election. A recent study in Nature found that suicide attempts among trans youths increased 72% in states that outlawed gender-affirming care for minors.
Both trans children and those with eating disorders have elevated rates of self-harm and suicide, Menzel said. If lawmakers ban puberty-blocking hormones, Menzel predicts, more trans teens will look for ways to stop the process themselves.
Finding peace
Beckwith said they owe their recovery to transition-related health care and the support of other trans people.
Eight years ago, Beckwith began taking testosterone, which they describe as “lifesaving.” Although they still sometimes need to be reminded to eat more, Beckwith said they are much healthier than they were in college, when they contemplated suicide.
“I still have days when I have thoughts that creep back in,” said Beckwith, a program director at Project HEAL, an advocacy group that aims to increase access to treatment for eating disorders. Thanks to mental health counseling, “I have so much more practice now in rewiring those thoughts and leaning on the people around me who can affirm me and lift me up.”
Among Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominees, it’s hard to choose who is the most dangerous to LGBTQ+ rights. But it’s easy to pick out who is the most dangerous to LGBTQ+ health: Robert Kennedy Jr. As the nominee to run the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Kennedy has the potential to make literal life-and-death decisions about the nation’s health. But his crackpot ideas are a direct threat to the very issues that can matter most to the LGBTQ+ community.
Much has been made of Kennedy’s conspiracy-ridden, fringe beliefs. He believes that vaccines cause autism, even though abundant evidence has shown no link. He has said that COVID-19 “is targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people” and “the people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.” He thinks fluoride in the water supply, which is proven to reduce dental disease, can cause everything from arthritis to bone cancer. He believes that Prozac is a reason for the outbreak of school shootings.
But not as much has been made about how Kennedy’s ideas have dire implications for the health of LGBTQ+ Americans. For one thing, the would-be secretary of HHS is an AIDS denialist. In his 2021 book blasting former public health official Anthony Fauci, Kennedy sneers at the “theology that HIV is the sole cause of AIDS.”
“No one has been able to point to a study that demonstrates their hypothesis using accepted scientific proofs,” he says of the thousands of scientists who have demonstrated beyond a doubt the connection between the virus and the disease.
Perhaps just as disturbing as the stench of homophobia that underpins what Kennedy thinks is the reason for AIDS. He cites “lifestyle exposures,” including poppers, “a popular drug among promiscuous gays.” All in all, it wasn’t the virus killing people but “compulsive homosexual behavior,” Kennedy told podcaster Joe Rogan just last year.
That was the argument that the right wing used during the Reagan administration to delay and deny helping the thousands of gay men who were dying. Kennedy seems happy to revisit it, which is a chilling hint at what he might do as secretary.
For example, if MPOX comes back with a roar, what would Kennedy do? He’s already suggested that its emergency was a conspiracy among the WHO, Big Pharma, and Bill Gates. He already hates vaccines. Would he mobilize the force of the government to stop the spread of the disease in the gay community, when he seems prone to blame the victim to begin with?
Meanwhile, you can forget about federal help for an AIDS vaccine. Kennedy doesn’t believe in the virus and he doesn’t believe in vaccines, so he’s never going to support more funding for that effort. Worse still, he will be spreading doubt about HIV, potentially leading to unsafe behavior and an increase in infections.
Then there’s transgender health care. Kennedy is blatantly anti-trans. “I am against people participating in women’s sports who are biologically male,” Kennedy said on CNN.
Moreover, his ideas about gender dysphoria are every bit as bizarre as most of his other beliefs. He thinks chemicals in the water are making kids trans.
“There’s atrazine throughout our water supply,” Kennedy insists. “If you, in a lab, put atrazine in a tank full of frogs, it will chemically castrate and forcibly feminize every frog in there. And 10 percent of the frogs, the male frogs, will turn into fully viable females able to produce viable eggs. If it’s doing that to frogs, there’s a lot of other evidence that it’s doing it to human beings as well.”
It’s one thing for your crazy uncle to share his looney theories with you at the family dinner table. It’s entirely enough for him to have control of the federal apparatus where he can do something about them.
Kennedy has said that youth experiencing gender dysphoria should not be allowed medical treatment until they are adults.
“We must protect our children,” he said last May. That puts Kennedy squarely on the side of the rightwing effort to put legal restrictions in place around care for transgender youth.
As secretary of HHS, he will be in a powerful position to issue guidelines that will make it harder – if not impossible – for trans youth to get medical care. He could take his beliefs a step further and push for even broader restrictions regardless of age.
The ACLU of Florida is suing the state’s Department of Corrections over a new anti-transgender policy that will restrict trans prisoners’ access to gender-affirming medical care as well as their ability to express their gender identity.
According to a report from The Marshall Project and theTampa Bay Times, a federal judge in Tallahassee held a preliminary hearing in the case on December 9. The ACLU of Florida has asked the judge to block enforcement of the policy, calling it an unconstitutional ban on gender-affirming care. A ruling is expected in the weeks ahead.
Under the new policy, Florida prisons will only provide inmates diagnosed with gender dysphoria with therapy. Trans inmates will not have access to gender-affirming hormone therapy except “in rare instances” when it is deemed “necessary to comply with the U.S. Constitution or a court decision.”
“Unaddressed psychiatric issues and unaddressed childhood trauma could lead to a misdiagnosis of gender dysphoria,” the policy claims. Gender-affirming hormone therapy, it continues, “may be requested by persons experiencing short-termed delusions or beliefs which may later be changed and reversed.”
Daniel Tilley, lead attorney from the ACLU of Florida, compared the policy’s therapy requirements to so-called “conversion therapy.”
In court documents, Danny Martinez, the state prison system’s medical director, said he based the department’s new policies on a 2022 report commissioned by Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA). The report focused primarily on the effects of gender-affirming care on children and its findings contradicted the overwhelming consensus of all major medical organizations, which hold that gender-affirming healthcare is necessary and frequently lifesaving for transgender individuals suffering from gender dysphoria.
The 2022 report resulted in the state banning healthcare providers from billing the state’s Medicaid program for gender-affirming care. But in June 2023, a federal judge struck down the Florida Medicaid ban, finding that the AHCA report was “a biased effort to justify a predetermined outcome, not a fair analysis of the evidence,” and its conclusion was “not supported by the evidence and was contrary to generally accepted medical standards.”
The Florida Department of Corrections’ new policy was announced in September during meetings in which incarcerated transgender women were told that trans inmates would be “reevaluated” to determine whether they would still be allowed access to gender-affirming healthcare and other accommodations that they were already receiving. According to the Tampa Bay Times, inmates said they were not told how prison officials would determine whether they would still be allowed access to care. While so far no inmates reported being taken off hormone therapy, more than a dozen incarcerated trans women told the paper they had already been forced to cut their hair short.
In court filings and interviews, incarcerated trans women in Florida prisons also reported being subjected to breast examinations to determine whether or not they would still be allowed access to bras.
“It felt like I was being treated less than human,” Josie Takach, a trans inmate at a Florida men’s facility, said of the examination. Takach said her undergarments, now considered contraband, were confiscated. “I feel like I’m 12 years old again, sneaking around wearing a bra.”
Sara Maatsch, who is also incarcerated in a Florida men’s prison, said that her gender dysphoria diagnosis was now considered a serious psychiatric illness. She was told she would have to be moved to a more restrictive facility with fewer work and programming opportunities to continue receiving treatment.
Mariko Sundwall told The Marshall Project that after spending 10 days in solitary confinement for refusing to cut her hair, a prison barber buzzed her hair short while she was handcuffed.
“I’m very sad and depressed. I feel like they’re taking away my identity,” Jada Edwards, another trans inmate, said of the buzz cut she was forced to receive.
As The Marshall Project notes, previous court decisions have held that prisons in the U.S. are required under the Constitution to provide gender-affirming care as needed.
University of California San Francisco psychiatrist Dan Karasic, who helped develop international standards for treatment of transgender people, told The Marshal Project that Florida’s new anti-trans prison policies were “a fig leaf on [the state’s] efforts to ban gender-affirming care.”
“They are really trying to skirt the law, as determined by multiple courts, that gender-affirming medical and surgical care must be provided when medically necessary,” Karasic said.
The battle over Florida’s anti-trans prison policies follows the 2024 presidential campaign, which saw Donald Trump’s campaign target Democratic nominee Kamala Harris with ads claiming the Vice President “supports taxpayer-funded sex changes for prisoners.”
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