The Utah Public Auditor has been “unable to substantiate” a single violation of the state’s anti-transgender bathroom ban out of over 12,000 complaints.
The state auditor released a form in May for the public to report transgender people who use the changing rooms and restrooms that align with their gender identity to state authorities. The form was meant to be a method of enforcing a recently enacted state law that levies criminal penalties against people who use “changing rooms” that do not align with their biological sex in government-owned and run buildings.
HB 257 changed the state’s legal definitions of “female” and “male,” defining the terms based solely by one’s reproductive organs. It defines a “women’s bathroom” and “men’s bathroom” as spaces exclusively designated for females and males, respectively. Government facilities impacted include public schools, courthouses, libraries, recreation centers, airports, and some sporting arenas.
The form was quickly flooded with memes and joke reports upon its launch. Now, nearly two months later, the form still has not led to a single substantiated complaint after over 12,000 filings. Only five reports were deemed “plausible” enough to investigate, and each inquiry turned up nothing, the Utah Public Auditor announced in a statement Wednesday, via the Salt Lake Tribune.
The state auditor’s office has struggled with how to enforce the bathroom ban since its passage, noting in its statement that it still does not have a “privacy compliance plan” in place. Privacy violation has been a key concern since the law’s passage, as the form enables people to upload pictures to provide evidence of “incidents” while requiring the submitter’s name and email address.
Despite the overwhelming failure, the Utah Public Auditor insisted it would keep the form up and continue to investigate the few reports it deems serious.
“During June, almost all of the complaints we received were also frivolous complaints,” the statement continued. “We have completed our investigations and are not investigating any other complaints at this time. As we identify credible or good-faith complaints, we will investigate those pursuant to the statutory requirement.”
Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum prepares for her last service at the Masonic Hall in New York on June 28.Andres Kudacki / AP
For more than three decades, Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum has led the nation’s largest LGBTQ synagogue through the myriad ups and downs of the modern gay-rights movement — through the AIDS crisis, the murder of Matthew Shepard, the historic civil-rights advances that included marriage equality, and mostly recently the backlash against transgender rights.
She is now stepping down from that role and shifting into retirement. The New York City synagogue that she led for 32 years — Congregation Beit Simchat Torah in midtown Manhattan — will have to grapple with its identity after being defined by its celebrity rabbi for so long.
Her retirement also comes at a challenging moment for the LGBTQ-rights movement. Same-sex marriage is legal nationwide, but conservative politicians are enacting restrictions on transgender healthcare, restricting LGBTQ curriculum in schools, and proposing bans on the performances of drag queens.
“I’ve been blessed and privileged to have the opportunity to use the gifts I have, on behalf of God’s vision for the world,” Kleinbaum said in an interview. “I’m very, very lucky that I’ve been able to do this. I just feel like now is the time to make room for a younger generation.”
Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum sings during her last service at the Masonic Hall in New York on June 28.Andres Kudacki / AP
Embraced by her congregation and left-leaning politicians, Kleinbaum, 65, taught an unapologetic progressive vision for Judaism that resonated beyond the enclave of Manhattan and liberal Judaism. When Donald Trump was elected president, Kleinbaum had the synagogue do outreach to Muslims. The congregation also built an immigration clinic to help LGBTQ refugees in hostile parts of the world get asylum in the U.S.
“It is a religious calling to help the immigrant. I see that it is just as deeply important for (the synagogue) as it is leading Friday night services,” Kleinbaum said.
Congregation Bet Simach Torah, better known as CBST, has roughly 1,000 paying members. About 4,000 Jews, from nonreligious to Orthodox, show up to the temple’s High Holy Day services, historically held in New York’s Jacob Javits Convention Center on the West Side of Manhattan.
The temple’s regular congregants have been a Who’s Who of media and LGBTQ historical figures. Edie Windsor, who sued and won to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act, was in regular attendance while she was alive. Andy Cohen, of “Real Housewives” fame, is there regularly. Joan Rivers showed up for Yom Kippur. Kleinbaum’s wife is Randi Weingarten, the head of the nation’s biggest teachers union.
Appointed in 1992, Kleinbaum spent much of her first year burying members of her congregation, many of them dying from AIDS. The need for a salaried rabbi to provide pastoral care was among the biggest reasons for CBST to hire its first rabbi. One of her first funeral services was for a member of the search committee that hired her.
The 1990s brought the increased visibility of gay and lesbians in the public sphere, but also brought the passage of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which defined marriage as between only a man and a woman.
“She really was doing rabbinical triage work at the beginning, working with a community that ultimately saw (a third) of its members die of AIDS,” said William Hibsher, a member of CBST for several decades who was there when Kleinbaum was appointed.
Hibsher was not an observant Jew in early 1990s, but he said he felt inspired by Kleinbaum’s work as well as the care she provided to his partner, who died from AIDS in the mid-1990s. He later became heavily involved with the synagogue, including serving on its board of directors and helping raise millions for its current location on West 30th Street.
When New York legalized same-sex marriage in 2013, Kleinbaum stood in the park across the street from the marriage bureau and performed same-sex weddings outdoors. Among the couples she married in 2014 were two men who had spent 20 months planning their wedding, which was held in a former Broadway theater.
Kleinbaum hasn’t specified what she plans to do in retirement, but said she’s likely to continue doing social justice work or working in Democratic politics. CBST has given her the title of “senior rabbi emerita” to show a level of connectedness as she steps down, but the bimah at CBST will no longer be hers.
Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum reads with her daughter during her last service at the Masonic Hall in New York on June 28.Andres Kudacki / AP
Even people who would be considered her ideological adversaries have found common ground to collaborate with her on issues of religious freedom and human rights.
When President Joe Biden appointed Kleinbaum to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, which monitors and researches freedom of religious expression worldwide, she served as a commissioner along alongside Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council. The council opposes the LGBTQ-rights movement.
“She’s able to step back and see where (two with strong ideological differences) can meet on core issues, and realize here’s where we can find common ground,” said Fred Davie, an administrator at Union Theological Seminary and a longtime friend of Kleinbaum.
Kleinbaum served two terms on the USCIRF. Her first term ended early in 2020 when she decided to focus attention on her congregation amid the COVID-19 pandemic. For her and the congregation, it was familiar territory after the AIDS crisis.
“We knew immediately many of the elements that we had to deal with: isolation, loneliness, fear,” Kleinbaum said. “There were differences, of course, between AIDS, but many things were enough similar that it almost felt like muscle memory.”
For the congregation, there seems to be a degree of uncertainty of what the synagogue will be without her. CBST, like many congregations, skews toward older members; many have been with Kleinbaum since the beginning.
The synagogue named Jason Klein as new chief rabbi earlier this year; he will start on July 1. But the consensus among members seems to be that Kleinbaum is simply irreplaceable.
“I think people, in their heart of hearts, wanted to find a Kleinbaum 2.0 to replace her,” Hibsher said. “There’s a landscape of wonderful progressive synagogues throughout Manhattan. So part of the question for the congregation will be: Is there a need for an LGBT synagogue in the year 2024? I think there is.”
While Kleinbaum laid out her plans to leave CBST a year ago, there were audible gasps at Yom Kippur services last September among the attendees when it was mentioned that CBST would no longer be headed by her. Her second-to-last Shabbat service, held June 21, was a sold-out event. The keynote speaker: New York Attorney General Letitia James.
“Most importantly, she has given us a space,” James said, using her hands to point to the synagogue and its standing room only crowed. “This space. Where we can be safe. Where we can be free.”
Gene Dinah misses his late husband, Robert Malsberry, every day. He misses Malsberry’s cooking, his love for gardening, the way he fixed things around the house and the way he made him feel special and protected.
“He was just great,” Dinah said of Malsberry, who died in 2019. “I couldn’t have had a better partner.”
The memories of the 46 years the men had together are all around him.Malsberry is in the paintings he bought to decorate their home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He is in the medals he received for his service with the Air Force. Heis in the photos from a lifetime together.
“Oh, this is one of my favorite pictures,” Dinah said as he held a photo of himself and his husband standing in front of lush green shrubs at their home. “That’s our rock garden.”
Gene Dinah, left, and his husband, Robert Malsberry.Courtesy Gene Dinah
Picking up another photo, he said, “That’s my husband in our dining room in our house in Victoria Park with Cleo, our Persian cat.”
Robert Malsberry with Cleo, the cat he shared with Gene Dinah.Courtesy Gene Dinah
“Oh, this is a good picture,” he continued. “This is my husband when he was an Air Force lieutenant after graduating college.”
Robert Malsberry when he was an Air Force lieutenant.Courtesy Gene Dinah
They had no children, so when Malsberry was diagnosed with leukemia and later dementia, Dinah became his full-time caregiver. “I took care of him as best I could,” he said.
Malsberry died in 2019, four years after the couple got married in 2015, following that year’s landmark same-sex marriage ruling by the Supreme Court.
“My husband was very happy when we got married,” Dinah said. “I didn’t know how he was going to take it. I really didn’t, because he’d been in the closet, you know, for all those years.”
Dinah was destroyed after Malsberry died. “My whole life was him,” he said.
While taking care of his sick husband, Dinah did not think about his own elder years. Now, at 76, he is one of many LGBTQ elders who have no surviving relatives who can take care of them.
LGBTQ older adults are four times less likely to be parents than older heterosexual adults, and twice as likely to grow old single and living alone, according to SAGE, a national group that offers services and advocacy for LGBTQ adults 50 and older.
The challenges LGBTQ elders face overlap with an aging U.S. population. According to the U.S. Census, the population aged 65 or over grew to an unprecedented 55.8 million, or 16.8% of the total population, in 2020. The number of people in the U.S. that are 65 or older is projected to increase by 47% by 2050.
An older population exacerbates workforce shortages in senior living facilitiesand health care institutions, and while this affects many older Americans, LGBTQ elders face unique challenges when compared to their heterosexual counterparts.
In a report published in 2018, SAGE found LGBTQ elders are far more likely than their heterosexual peers “to have faced discrimination, social stigma and the effects of prejudice.” They are therefore, the report found, more likely “to face poverty and homelessness, and to have poor physical and mental health.”
Caregiving
Since LGBTQ people are less likely to have children, more than half (54%) of LGBTQ elders receive care from their partner and nearly a quarter (24%) receive care from a friend, according to SAGE. More than 20% of older LGBTQ adults have provided care to friends, compared to just 6% of their heterosexual counterparts.
Mitchell Zahn, a coordinator for SAGE in South Florida, said that in heterosexual family units, caregiving tends to have a vertical model, in which the child takes care of their parents.
“But in the gay community, since so many do not have a family, caregiving tends to be with friends, a more horizontal model,” Zahn said. “However, when you age, your friends tend to be older as well and have their own health needs, so our health support is failing as well because we don’t have that intergenerational aspect.”
Photographs of Gene Dinah and his husband, Robert Malsberry, throughout the years.Courtesy Gene Dinah
Dinah is a vivid example of the horizontal model of caregiving. For the four years during which Dinah was his husband’s sole caregiver, he arranged all of his medical appointments, found him the doctors he needed, took care of him through medical procedures, cooked for him, took care of the house and got him all the medical supplies he needed. After his husband died, Dinah had no one to help him with his own health care.
“I didn’t see a doctor or a dentist for four years while I was his caretaker,” he said. “When it was all over, I started going to the doctor, and I found out I had prostate cancer.”
Dinah went through six weeks of radiation treatments by himself.
Health care
Discrimination in health care and the fear of such discrimination are major factors that lead to health disparities for LGBTQ elders, according to research. In its 2018 report, for example, SAGE found approximately 20% of LGBTQ people avoid medical care out of fear of discrimination.
Zahn, the SAGE coordinator, said that because many LGBTQ elders grew up in a time when discrimination was more widespread and intense, they tend to fear government and health care institutions.
“People have experienced housing evictions, not having their partners recognized in health care institutions,” Zahn said. “So as a result, many are closeted when seeking services through traditional institutions.”
Zahn said LGBTQ elders may feel judged for who they are, so they may not share everything about their medical history with their doctors, which could lead to misdiagnosis and overall poor health outcomes.
The challenges of aging are even greater for transgender elders and even more for trans immigrants and trans people of color.
More than 20% of transgender people report that a doctor or other health care provider used harsh or abusive language while treating them, according to SAGE, while 50% of trans people reported having to teach medical providers about transgender care.
Morgan Mayfaire, 65, is the executive director of TransSOCIAL, an organization that aims to create a more inclusive community for transgender people. As a trans man, he said, he has experienced prejudice when visiting medical providers.
“When they look at your records, they’re going to see in your list of medications that you’re either taking estradiol or you’re taking testosterone,” Mayfaire said. “The question then is, ‘Why?’ The minute you tell them that it’s because you’re trans, you can see the bias in their face.”
Mayfaire helps train a variety of institutions, including those focused on health care, about best practices when caring for older trans people.He said very few medical professionals have gone through sensitivity training, and those that have, typically don’t train their new hires.
Florida is one of the states that has recently passed legislation seeking to restrict transgender rights, including a law signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis that made it harder for transgenders adults to access gender-affirming care. That law is now on hold after a federal district court ruled it unconstitutional, but Mayfaire said the effects are palpable.
“A lot of the providers that we had before have either left the state and moved somewhere else, or are reluctant to reopen those services,” Mayfaire said.
Andrea Montanez, a trans field organizer in Orlando with the National LGBTQ Task Force, said, “It’s scary to be an elder as a transgender person, to be honest.”
Montanez, 58, said a doctor who had given her great treatment for years suddenly turned curt, cold and distant after she transitioned.
She also suspects her apartment lease was not renewed because she told her landlord she had transitioned.
Housing
Mayfaire said housing is another big obstacle for LGBTQ elders.
Half the LGBTQ population live in states with no laws prohibiting housing discrimination against them, and 48% of LGBTQ couples experience adverse treatment when seeking senior housing, according to SAGE.
“There are very few retirement communities for LGBTQ folks to begin with,” Mayfaire said. He added that even at retirement communities that are accepting of gays and lesbians, “it’s very rare” that they accept trans people.
He said he has heard of LGBTQ elders who end up having to go back into the closet in order to be accepted in some retirement communities.
“It’s a little bit more difficult when you’re trans and you’ve transitioned,” Mayfaire said. “How do you backtrack on that and how do you deal with that emotionally and mentally?”
Isolation
Nearly 60% of LGBTQ older adults report feeling a lack of companionship and over 50% reported feeling isolated from others, according to SAGE.
That isolation can really impact the mental health of LGBTQ elders, many of whom faced the brunt of discrimination and were the pioneers of the movement for LGBTQ rights.
To combat that loneliness, SAGE matches elders with “friendly visitors”: volunteers who donate their time to accompany an LGBTQ elder.
Volunteers sometimes share a meal with an elder, tell stories, watch movies, play board games or just simply talk. Some volunteers check in with their elders with a simple text message or a call.
“I’ve seen some real magic happen between volunteers and participants, some incredible relationships that have formed,” Zahn said.
Craig Rosenblatt is one of SAGE’s volunteers. Sitting next to Dinah on a recent Friday afternoon, Rosenblatt said he volunteers in part to pay homage to and learn from his LGBTQ elders.
“You’ve had experiences that I have not had with bigotry. Where there were a lot of things that I was able to do that you were not able to do, and there’s a lot of things that I was not able to do that people can do today,” Rosenblatt told Dinah.
After his husband died, Dinah said, he was so consumed by grief that he couldn’t manage to put up his Christmas tree for several holiday seasons.
“I just didn’t feel like doing anything for the holidays,” he said. “Grief is a funny thing. It saps your energy.”
Last Christmas, however, that changed, thanks to another SAGE volunteer.
“He got our Christmas tree out, got it working and plugged it in and everything, and that meant everything to me,” Dinah recalled. “The passage of time is a good thing. I know I feel much better now than I did in the beginning.”
Several churches have made the decision to leave one of the oldest Christiandenominations in the United States after the delegation voted to hit members who support LGBTQ+ worshipers with a “limited suspension.”
The Christian Reformed Church in North America (CRCNA), which has approximately 200,000 members, voted 134-50 last week to disaffiliate congregational leaders and institutions that go against the church’s beliefs on same-sex relationships by publicly embracing the queer community. The decision comes two years after the synod voted to include “homosexual sex” in its definition of “unchastity,” which also includes adultery, polyamory, and pornography.
The synod did not vote to designate same-sex relationships as a “salvation issue,” instead determining that it “does not meet the high standards of definition and articulation needed for declaring a heresy.”
Rev. Ryan Schreiber, a pastor from Michigan, attended the meeting to speak in support of LGBTQ+ members. He said he intends to disaffiliate his Grand Rapids church following the synod’s vote, which he expects to negatively affect church membership and even threaten the denomination’s longevity.
“I am deeply concerned about the Christian Reformed Church, and especially those that I’m leaving behind, gentle conservatives and moderates,” Schreiber told Religion News Service, adding, “There is a coalition of churches in the Christian Reformed Church that is turning the polity of the Christian Reformed Church into a steamroller.”
Schreiber isn’t alone — synod delegate Trish Borgdorff was one of several Reform leaders in Michigan that told local station News 8 her church also intends to disaffiliate itself. Ultimately, she expects the majority of the nearly 30 supportive churches in her area to follow suit, saying: “There isn’t room for us anymore in the denomination I love.”
“What grieved my heart the most was that we were separating over conflict,” Borgdorff said. “In a broken world where we so long for peace, that even under what we know to be God’s call on our lives, we couldn’t find it with each other. And so it was a call to all of us to acknowledge that the problem we are facing, we all contributed to. It’s not any one person, not any one side.”
Turkey is an extremely popular destination, both for holidays and for people looking to get cost-effective dentistry and weight-loss surgery. But is it safe for LGBTQ+ people to visit?
Firstly, same-sex relationships and queer or trans people are not illegal in Turkey, but the country doesn’t offer any legal protection from discrimination in employment, education, housing or health care.
Same-sex marriages and civil partnerships are not recognised and, in general, the country is very conservative. People outside big cities can hold negative attitudes towards members of the LGBTQ+ community – but that’s not to say the major areas are liberal havens either.
Istanbul aerial shot. LGBTQ+ rights are complicated in Turkey. (Getty)
According to Intrepid Travel, gay couples should be wary of displays of affection except in private because kissing in public is frowned upon in relationships of any kind, but particularly risky for same-sex couples.
Following anti-government protests in 2013, president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan placed censorship restrictions on the press and social media, which halted Turkey’s EU membership application, and a failed coup in 2016 led to a state of emergency being declared.
This gave Erdoğan the opportunity to impose further restrictions on civil liberties and human rights. As a result, Istanbul Pride was banned in 2015 – shut down through police intervention– and banned again for the following two years. There were reports of widespread arrests and police violence against anyone who tried to defy the authorities.
A Turkish policeman detains a demonstrator during a Pride march in Istanbul. (Getty)
In 2017, Turkey’s capital Ankara banned all LGBTQ+-rights-related events, saying there was a need to provide “peace and security”.
The Guardian has previously reported that queer Turkish people were “fearful of what may follow” and felt the president was waging a war against them.
In 2021, then interior minister Süleyman Soylu dismissed student protestors as “LGBTQ+ perverts” and said the government would not tolerate the “perverts who attempted to occupy the rector’s office” just days after Erdoğan praised the young people in Turkey who did not identify as LGBTQ+.
Istanbul Pride was banned in 2015 and police took strong action against anyone who defied the order. (Getty)
“We’ll carry our youth to the future, not as LGBTQ+ youth, but the youth from this glorious past. You are not the LGBTQ+ youth. You are not the youth who vandalises, but you are those who mend those vandalised hearts,” the president said.
It’s clear that Turkey is not particularly friendly towards LGBTQ+ people, despite no laws being in place to actively discriminate against the community.
Azoulay told of being harassed, beaten and scalded with boiling water by his fellow inmates, in homophobic attacks. He was jailed for 16 years but released in 2021.
What’s arguably even more significant when considering your travel plans is the fact the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office currently advises against travel to all parts of Turkey, whether you’re LGBTQ+ or not.
Your travel insurance could be invalidated if you travel against FCDO advice and British embassy staff cannot travel to areas where FCDO advises against travel to help you in person.
As American society navigates an era marked by deep divisions and heightened cultural conflicts, specifically targeting trans people,Delaware State Sen. Sarah McBride stands at the forefront of a historic transformation. She’s positioned to become the first outtransgender person elected to the U.S. Congress, and McBride’s candidacy for Delaware’s at-large House seat is a powerful symbol of progress and a stark reminder of the ongoing battles forLGBTQ+ rights.
The Democrat captured the essence of this pivotal moment in a recent conversation with The Advocate.
“While my candidacy reflects our progress, the urgency of this moment underscores the challenges we face,” she said.
The momentum behind McBride’s campaign is substantial, buoyed by endorsements from influential figures such as House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and U.S. Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, who holds the seat now and is running for the U.S. Senate, and an impressive fundraising total nearing $1.9 million.
Numerous groundbreaking milestones punctuate McBride’s political journey. McBride is the first transgender state senator in U.S. history. She also made history as the first out trans person to serve in the White House, during the Obama administration, and the first to speak at a major party’s national convention, in 2016. Her 2018 memoir, Tomorrow Will Be Different: Love, Loss, and the Fight for Trans Equality, with a foreword by President Joe Biden, reflects her close ties with the current administration.
As a state lawmaker, McBride’s legislative accomplishments are noteworthy. She was pivotal in passing paid family and medical leave, advancing gun safety measures, and safeguarding reproductive rights.
Last October, McBridechampioned Delaware’s legislation to ban the “gay and trans panic” defense, making it the 17th state to enact such a law. This legislation prevents defendants from justifying violent actions based on the discovery of a victim’s LGBTQ+ identity. McBride convinced all her colleagues — Democrats and Republicans — to cosponsor and support the bill.
“In many cases, simply being present and collaborating on a range of issues helps to open some of the most closed hearts and minds,” McBride reflected. Her ability to cultivate bipartisanship in Delaware’s state legislature is a model she hopes to replicate in Congress. “There are so many issues where we can find common ground. They might not always make headlines, but there are a lot of day-to-day quality of life issues thatDemocrats andRepublicans can work together on.”
She recalled an incident in 2016 when she took a selfie in aNorth Carolinabathroom, defying the state’s controversial “bathroom bill” that restricted transgender people from using government buildings’ restrooms aligning with their gender identity. The photo went viral, exposing her to a torrent of online vitriol. Yet McBride remains undeterred, drawing strength from her community, family, and friends.
“The negativity and hatred we see toward the trans community writ large bothers me, but the hatred and the insults that are directed specifically toward me don’t bother me any more than the broader hatred,” she noted.
Her platform addresses the pressing issues facing Delawareans, advocating for universal health care, affordable child care, and comprehensive gun control measures. “We need people in federal office who have a proven record of rolling up their sleeves, diving into the details, and bringing people together to deliver lasting change,” she emphasized.
The path to this historic moment became more apparent last week when McBride’s primary opponent, Eugene Young,dropped out of the race. Young, the former director of Delaware’s Housing Authority, suspended his campaign without specifying a reason, leaving McBride unopposed in the Democratic primary. This development, coupled with Delaware’s strong Democratic lean, virtually assures McBride’s victory in the general election.
Annise Parker, president and CEO of the LGBTQ+ Victory Fund, remarked on the significance of this. “With trans rights under assault in states across the country, Sarah McBride’s ability to clear the primary field to represent Delaware in Congress proves that voters want their leaders focused on solving the issues that matter to their daily lives – not singling out their trans neighbors,” Parker said in astatement.
Moreover, Delaware Gov. John Carney, a Democrat, endorsed McBride’s campaign Friday, underscoring her effectiveness and dedication. “Sarah McBride has been a strong advocate for all Delawareans. She is a hardworking public servant who cares about the details and the impact that legislation can have on folks up and down the state,” Carney said.
Since launching her campaign a year ago, McBride has built an impressive coalition of supporters, earning endorsements from over 20 Delaware unions, eight statewide elected officials, and numerous colleagues in the General Assembly. Her endorsers include prominent figures such as House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark, and House Democratic Chair Pete Aguilar.
McBride’s popularity was displayed prominentlyat the recent Equality PAC Gala, where she received a standing ovation. The event, held atWashington, D.C.’sUnion Station, celebrated a decade of advocacy for LGBTQ+ rights and urged support for queer candidates in the upcoming election. Several speakers highlighted that if McBride wins, she would represent President Joe Biden in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Reflecting on this prospect, McBride expressed gratitude for Biden’s support, noting his legacy as the most pro-LGBTQ+ president in U.S. history.
“Joe Biden is a giant here in Delaware,” she said. “Knowing [Biden’s late son] Beau was a personal and professional privilege, and having the opportunity to get to know and work with his dad has been an incredible blessing. Representing Delaware and the Bidens would be an honor.”
PrEP access has been maintained for most Americans after an appeals court ruling ended a lawsuit that challenged the medication’s coverage.
In a ruling that upholds crucial components of the Affordable Care Act, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Friday in Braidwood Management, Inc. v. Becerra, mandating that most insurance providers continue to cover preventive services, including PrEP medication, while deeming parts of the law unconstitutional.
The Advocatewas first to report in 2022 that the plaintiffs, led by Jonathan Mitchell, an ultraconservativeTexas lawyer with a history of challengingLGBTQ+ rights, argued that the ACA’s requirement for insurance plans to cover preventive services violated their religious freedom. They specifically objected to covering PrEP, pre-exposure prophylaxis, a medication that prevents HIV transmission, citing their Christian beliefs against homosexuality.
Judge Reed O’Connor of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, who has also been allergic to LGBTQ+ causes, initially sided with the plaintiffs, ruling that the ACA mandate infringed on their religious freedom. The Department of Justicequickly appealed to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which has jurisdiction over Texas,Louisiana, andMississippi.
In itsruling, the Fifth Circuit upheld the lower court’s decision but limited the scope of the exemption to the plaintiffs in the case. This means that the broader mandate requiring most insurance providers to cover preventive services, including PrEP, remains in effect for the rest of the nation.
The court also addressed constitutional issues regarding the appointments of the United States Preventive Services Task Force members. It determined that these members are principal officers under Article II of the Constitution and must be appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. While this raised constitutional concerns, the court reversed the district court’s decision to vacate all agency actions enforcing the preventive care mandates, deeming the remedy overly broad.
Lambda Legal, an advocacy group for LGBTQ+ rights, responded to the decision with cautious relief. “Lambda Legal is relieved after the recent narrow decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in the case of Braidwood v. Becerra that ruled most of the nation’s insurance providers must continue to cover PrEP medication and other preventative services,” said Jose Abrigo, Lambda Legal’s HIV project director.
Abrigo pointed out that the ruling’s limitation to the plaintiffs ensures broader protections and national healthcare policies remain intact. However, he expressed concerns about the potential for future legal challenges that could threaten healthcare rights and protections for millions of Americans.
He emphasized the importance of preventative care, noting that PrEP plays a critical role in the fight against HIV and AIDS. Access to such preventive measures is crucial for reducing preventable diseases and promoting public health. “Lambda Legal will closely monitor any further developments related to this case and similar legal challenges,” Abrigo said.
The case will likely go to the Supreme Court when either side appeals the ruling.
The Supreme Court on Monday waded into the culture-war debate over gender-affirming care for transgender minors by agreeing to resolve challenges to a law in Tennessee that seeks to restrict it.
The justices will hear a Biden administration appeal of a court ruling that upheld the measure. Oral arguments and a ruling are expected in the court’s next term, which starts in October and ends in June 2025.
The case marks the first time the court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, will issue a ruling in the battle over transgender rights for teenagers, which has raged in both the health care and education contexts.
A young person holds a Pride flag outside the Tennessee House chambers before a legislative session in February.George Walker IV / AP
“The future of countless transgender youth in this and future generations rests on this Court adhering to the facts, the Constitution and its own modern precedent,” said Chase Strangio, a lawyer at the American Civil Liberties Union, which also challenged the law.
The state measure restricts puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgery for minors. The surgery ban is not at issue in the Supreme Court case.
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said in a statement that he had “fought hard” to defend the state’s law.
“I look forward to finishing the fight at the United States Supreme Court,” he said. “This case will bring much-needed clarity to whether the Constitution contains special protections for gender identity.”
In a separate case, the court in April allowed Idaho to mostly enforce a similar law.
More than 20 states have enacted similar bans, according to the Movement Advancement Project, an LGBTQ rights think tank. Whatever the court rules will affect those states, as well.
Major medical organizations say gender-affirming treatments are an effective way to treat gender dysphoria, the clinical term given to the distress people can experience when their gender identities are in conflict with the genders assigned to them at birth.
Plaintiffs, including transgender teens and their families, say the law violates the Constitution’s 14th Amendment, which requires that the law apply equally to everyone, in part by barring medical treatments for transgender people that are available to others. They also say the law violates the right of parents to make health care decisions for their children, although the Supreme Court will not weigh in on that issue.
Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar urged the Supreme Court to take up the issue, saying the law “is part of a wave of similar bans preventing transgender adolescents from obtaining medical care that they, their parents, and their doctors have all concluded is necessary.”
A federal judge blocked the Tennessee ban on puberty blockers and hormone therapy but left in place a ban on surgeryon the grounds that the plaintiffs did not have legal standing to challenge it.
In a separate Kentucky case the justices did not act on, a federal judge blocked the ban on puberty blockers and hormone therapy. The plaintiffs did not challenge the restrictions on surgery.
In a ruling addressing both laws, the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the states in September.
Judge Jeffrey Sutton wrote that no one was questioning “the existence of gender dysphoria or the distress caused by it,” but he indicated the question of what treatments should be available to those 17 or under should be left to elected officials.
“This is a relatively new diagnosis with ever-shifting approaches to care over the last decade or two. Under these circumstances, it is difficult for anyone to be sure about predicting the long-term consequences of abandoning age limits of any sort for these treatments,” he wrote.
The plaintiffs then asked the Supreme Court to step in. The court has until now largely stayed out of disputes involving transgender students.
In 2021, the Supreme Court declined to take up a case about the question of whether transgender students can use school bathrooms that correspond with their gender identities as court battles have continued around the country. The court turned away a similar case in January.
On a related issue, the court last year allowed a transgender girl in West Virginia to participate in girls’ sports.
The court’s biggest intervention on trans issues writ large came in a surprise 6-3 ruling in 2020 written by conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch. He concluded that federal law that bars sex discrimination in employment protected transgender and gay people, a ruling that angered conservatives.
The Arkansas Supreme Court on Monday reinstated an agency rule prohibiting residents from using “X” instead of male or female on state-issued driver’s licenses or identification cards.
In a one-page order, justices stayed a lower-court ruling that had blocked the new rule that also made it more difficult for transgender people to change the sex listed on their IDs and licenses. The court did not elaborate for its reasons on staying the decision.
The Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration said in March that it was rescinding a practice implemented in 2010 that officials say conflicted with state law and had not gone through proper legislative approval. A legislative panel approved an emergency rule implementing the new policy.
The rule change made Arkansas the latest among Republican states taking steps to legally define sex as binary, which critics say is essentially erasing transgender and nonbinary people’s existences and creating uncertainty for intersex people — those born with physical traits that don’t fit typical definitions of male or female.
“I applaud the Arkansas Supreme Court’s decision staying the circuit court’s unlawful order and allowing the Department of Finance and Administration to bring its identification rules into compliance with state law,” Attorney General Tim Griffin, a Republican, said in a statement.
The American Civil Liberties Union had sued the state on behalf of several transgender, nonbinary and intersex residents challenging the emergency rule. A state judge who blocked the rule earlier this month said it would cause irreparable harm to the residents if implemented.
“The only real emergency here is the one created by the state itself, imposing this rule on transgender, intersex, and nonbinary Arkansans,” Holly Dickson, executive director of the ACLU of Arkansas, said in a statement. “By removing the ‘X’ marker option, the state forces those who do not fit squarely into the gender binary to choose an inaccurate gender marker, resulting in potential confusion, distress, discrimination, physical harm, and a lack of proper identification.”
Arkansas is in the process of adopting a permanent rule to implement the new policy.
Department of Finance and Administration Secretary Jim Hudson said he was grateful for the stay, and the department was immediately reinstating the procedures because of the court’s ruling.
Arkansas was among at least 22 states and the District of Columbia that allowed “X” as an option on licenses and IDs. All previously issued Arkansas licenses and IDs with the “X” designation will remain valid through their existing expiration dates, the department said. Arkansas has more than 2.6 million active driver’s licenses, and 387 of them have the “X” designation. The state has about 503,000 IDs, and 167 with the “X” designation.
The emergency rule will also make it more difficult for transgender people to change the sex listed on their licenses and IDs, which they had been able to do by submitting an amended birth certificate. Arkansas law requires a court order for a person to change the sex listed on their birth certificate.
The DFA has said the previous practice wasn’t supported by state law and hadn’t gone through the required public comment process and legislative review.
Yella Clark, 45, an incarcerated Black transgender person, was killed in a fight with other inmates at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, La., in April. Clark’s trans identity is just being widely reported now.
Clark had been deadnamed and misgendered in local reports, notes a recent press release from the Human Rights Campaign. There isn’t conclusive information as to Clark’s pronoun use, so HRC used they/them pronouns. Clark had been diagnosed with gender dysphoria and was taking female hormones.
Clark died April 2, shortly after prison officials broke up the fight between Clark and the other inmates, according to The Shreveport-Bossier City Advocate (no relation to this publication), a newspaper in Louisiana. The Louisiana Department of Corrections declined to give the paper any details about the fight, beyond saying an investigation is ongoing and there may be criminal charges against some prisoners.
Clark was initially sentenced to 75 years at hard labor as the result of an armed robbery at a convenience store in Haughton, La., in 2011. Later, they were convicted of second-degree murder in the death of fellow inmate Dolan Franklin in 2018. Clark was then sentenced to life imprisonment at hard labor with no possibility of parole, probation, or suspension of the sentence.
However, Clark recently appealed, saying they acted in self-defense, as Franklin had raped them the previous night and threatened to rape them again. Clark had been sexually assaulted in prison previously, they testified. But in March of this year, the Louisiana Court of Appeal affirmed Clark’s conviction and sentence. The evidence presented in the appeal was not sufficient to overturn the conviction, the court ruled.
Clark’s trans identity made them vulnerable in prison, Terrance Winn, who served time with them at Angola and is now an activist for criminal justice reform, told the Louisiana paper. “That kind of thing can make things a little bit more dangerous for you,” said Winn, who described Clark as loyal and trustworthy. “It’s a tragedy,” Winn added. “It’s just one of those situations that you wish would never happen. People got that desperation thing going on in prison. If you take away hope from people, tragedies happen.”
Trans prisoners are five times more likely than cisgender inmates to be sexually assaulted by prison staffers and more than nine times more likely to be sexually assaulted by fellow inmates, according to the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey. Other studies have shown harsh conditions for trans inmates as well.
“Yella was finally living their truth — something that everyone deserves to do, no matter their circumstances,” Tori Cooper, director of community engagement for HRC’s Transgender Justice Initiative, said in the press release. “Yet the circumstances of their death, and the harassment and violence faced while incarcerated, show that the system failed them as it does far too often for trans and gender-expansive people.”
