The two men who provided the narcotics that caused the death of trailblazing trans activist and actress Cecilia Gentili have both pleaded guilty to distributing the drugs.
Gentili, 52, died in her Brooklyn apartment from fentanyl-laced heroin that authorities say she received from the men, Michael Kuilan, 44, and Antonio Venti, 52.
Prosecutors said Gentili was found dead in her bedroom in February from the combined effects of controlled substances including fentanyl, xylazine (a vetrinary sedative), cocaine and heroin. The heroin, laced with fentanyl, was provided by Kuilan and Venti.
On Monday, Kuilan on Monday pleaded guilty to possession and possession with intent to distribute both of the drugs, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York. Kuilan also pleaded guilty to a charge of gun possession following an earlier conviction that barred him from carrying a firearm.
Venti pleaded guilty to narcotics possession in July.
Text messages, cell site data, and other evidence revealed that Venti sold the fentanyl and heroin mixture to Gentili on February 5, 2024, and that Kuilan supplied Venti with the lethal narcotics.
As part of their plea agreements, Kuilan and Venti agreed that they caused Gentili’s death. In addition, law enforcement searched an apartment in Williamsburg, Brooklyn belonging to Kuilan and found hundreds of baggies of fentanyl, as well as a handgun and ammunition.
“The perpetrators of the tragic poisoning of Cecilia Gentili, a prominent leader of the New York transgender community, have now both admitted their guilt in selling the lethal drugs that have caused this heartbreaking death,” said U.S. Attorney Breon Peace. “These drugs, heroin and fentanyl, have caused so much pain throughout our community. I hope this case will bring a sense of closure to Gentili’s family and serve as a warning that this Office will be relentless in holding fentanyl dealers accountable.”
“While these guilty pleas can’t undo the tragic loss,” Peace added, “it sends a message that we will do everything we can to make sure those responsible for drug related deaths face the consequences for their actions, and the families of those who lost their lives receive justice.”
Gentili’s death shocked the transgender community in New York, where she received an outpouring of grief from local prominent figures, including nightlife legend Amanda Lepore and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), as well as her fellow cast members on the trans-centered TV series Pose.
The Argentina native was honored with a memorial service at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan, attended by over a thousand mourners. The joyous and “scandalous” service earned condemnation from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York City.
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Daniel Trujillo first spoke at a hearing at the Arizona legislature when he was nine years old. The now-17-year-old has spent years telling lawmakers that as a trans boy he exists, he is loved, and he’s thriving.
In fact, at one drive home after a hearing, Daniel told his mother Lizette that the only time he felt discriminated against was when he would go to those meetings. Outside of facing down anti-trans lawmakers, he lived a normal teenage life. He skateboarded. He hung out with friends. He was happy.
Daniel is content to share his story. It’s kind of his way of giving back.
“There’s a lot of younger trans kids [out there who] are shy, and they don’t always have the words to express the feelings that we all feel,” he told The Advocate. “And so sometimes it feels like this is the least I can do for these people that are so close to me.”
Daniel’s and others’ joy is at the center of a new campaign from the American Civil Liberties Union called “Freedom to Be.” As the organization tracks hundreds of bills going after transgender people, like Daniel, the group is pushing back by highlighting the actual lives these individuals lead.
The campaign couldn’t come at a more important time. The Skrmetti Supreme Court case could affirm Tennesse’s ban on gender-affirming care, eroding the medically necessary care that many trans youth depend on.
Freedom to Be will be a year-long, multimedia, multi-platform campaign, with a focus on long- and short-form video content, including a portrait series of trans people, digital and billboard ads, art installations created by and for trans people that will blanket the National Mall in 2025, and call to action surrounding a pledge to support trans youth, the ACLU said.
Abdool Corlette conceptualized Freedom to Be.
“We knew that we wanted to create something bold, something bright, something that embodies the like beautiful simplicity of the words “Freedom to be,” “Freedom to be me,” said Corlette, the head of brand at ACLU. “[The campaign] is about bringing as many people in. We knew that we wanted to create beautiful portraits of our primary storytellers that captured them as they are, that captured them in the beauty of their day-to-day lives.”
Corlette added that the team wanted to put power back into the hands of the trans storytellers. They asked them what comes to mind when they think of freedom to be me. What does that provoke in you? What does that inspire in you?
“We really allowed the answers from our storytellers to inform the look and feel of the campaign. We wanted this campaign to feel accessible. We wanted it to feel like we were just observing a person’s everyday life,” Corlette said. “We knew that there was already so much rich authenticity in folks’ day-to-day lives, and we just wanted to bring that to a wider audience.”
The focus on joy, Corlette said, is just continuing the legacy of LGBTQ+ rights movements. Trans and queer liberation always centered joy as a core element of the battle against injustice.
“What trans folks know is that their lived experience should not be defined by the people who are trying to erase them. And joy is something that is key to the trans experience. There is nothing more powerful than experiencing joy in the face of so much oppression, and we need it now more than ever. We need to showcase narratives that are not just rooted in trauma,” Corlette said. “There is nothing more powerful than saying, ‘I deserve the freedom to be.’”
New research suggests bisexual men experience body dissatisfaction differently from gay men.
Bi men are reportedly less motivated to be lean and show a lower dissatisfaction rate with their muscularity, while gay men show a higher drive, according to psychologists at Nottingham Trent University (NTU), in the UK.
After interviewing more than 370 gay, bisexual and straight cisgender white men as part of a study on body satisfaction, the study showed that men who identify as bi are more likely to have the same sort of opinions about body satisfaction as straight men.
However, results for other concerns, including height, penis size and capability, remained consistent among all sexual orientations.
The study, “Tackling bisexual erasure: An explorative comparison of bisexual, gay and straight cisgender men’s body image” was published in an effort to tackle the “homogenous” way that gay and bi men are grouped in research.
New research has shown why bisexual men should not be grouped with gay men when it comes to body image. (Getty)
Dr Liam Cahill, the project’s lead researcher and a lecturer in LGBTQ+ psychology at NTU, said the traditional act of grouping bisexual and gay men is outdated.
“Traditionally, bisexual men have been grouped in the same category as gay men when it comes to body image research,” he said. “Our findings show they are unique in how they experience differences in their body image.”
While society generally has a preference for men to be “muscular or lean with low body fat,” bisexual men’s dissatisfaction with their physique is only compounded when integrating with the gay community, he added.
However, the study’s results still suggest that, while bisexual and straight men are less dissatisfied with their muscularity, societal pressures still influence all men – regardless of sexuality.
“When it comes to increased pressure and dissatisfaction related to muscularity, previous studies have found that gay men’s stronger preference for muscular partners may contribute to their higher levels,” Cahill said. “This is a pressure that bisexual men may only experience when they are integrated with the gay community, hence their dissatisfaction is lower.”
This means that bi, straight and gay men all experience the same motivation to gain muscle and lose body fat, but gay men are typically more dissatisfied with the results.
“The experiences of bisexual men are often overlooked in research,” the study concluded. “Bisexual people experience greater stigma, marginalisation and prejudice than other sexual [minority] identities.
“As of the most recent review of this issue, only a small number of studies have explored bisexual and gay men’s body image differences.
“Our findings contradict the view that bisexual and gay men experience similar body-image concerns concerning their drive for leanness and muscularity dissatisfaction.”
Brands that are supportive of LGBTQ+ rights or social justice movements see greater consumer engagement and loyalty from customers, a new study found. The study comes after several major brands have distanced themselves from their previous pro-diversity initiatives.
Unstereotype Alliance, a business initiative convened by UN Women, more inclusive advertising campaigns positively impact profits, sales, and brand worth.
Researchers at Saïd Business School at Oxford University analyzed data from Diageo, Kantar, and Unilever in collaboration with the Geena Davis Institute. The research, based on an analysis of 392 brands across 58 countries, reveals that inclusive advertising can boost short-term sales by nearly 3.5% and drive long-term sales by over 16%.
The study spanned various product categories, including confectionery, snacks, personal care, beauty, pet food, pet care, alcohol, consumer healthcare, and household products across diverse regions.
Inclusive advertising also persuades 62% of consumers to choose a product and enhances brand loyalty for 15% of shoppers. The study highlights that ads that authentically portray people without using stereotypes have a clear competitive advantage in the marketplace, influencing consumer preferences and long-term success.
Sara Denby, head of the Unstereotype Alliance secretariat at UN Women, emphasized that the long-held belief that inclusive advertising could harm a business – or, in conservative parlance, “Go woke, go broke” – has hindered progress for too long. “This claim is consistently unfounded,” she said, “but we needed evidence to counter it. These undeniable findings should reassure any business and motivate brands to strengthen their commitment to inclusivity—not only to serve their communities but also to drive growth and boost profitability.”
Unstereotype Alliance was founded in 2017 and has 240 member companies. The organization seeks to end harmful stereotypes in advertising and has 12 national chapters across five continents.
In the effort to be more inclusive, some companies have fumbled. Kendall Jenner and Pepsi were ridiculed after an ad from the soda company showed Jenner solving a clash between protestors and the police by handing a cop a soft drink.
On the other side, the beer brand Bud Light also faced right-wing rage after partnering with trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney. After the incident, Jason Warner, CEO of the European branch of Bud Light’s parent company, Anheuser-Busch InBev, said that the company would no longer attempt inclusivity and “stay in our lane.”
The study comes after right-wing influencer Robby Starbuck pressured multiple companies to cave by accusing them of having “woke agendas” and sending a social media mob after them. Starbuck succeeded in getting companies such as Lowe’s, John Deere, Harley Davidson, and more to drop their DEI initiatives, stop partnering with the Human Rights Campaign, and end sponsorship of Pride festivals. When fear of Starbuck caused Ford Motors to follow behind the other brands, president of the Human Rights Campaign, Kelley Robinson, called Starbuck a “MAGA bully and Republican-reject.”
It later released a study that details how rollbacks on DEI from large corporations in recent years are wildly unpopular with LGBTQ+ individuals and alienating many consumers. The latest research adds even more weight to that argument.
GLAAD is calling on Meta, the parent company of Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp, to take stronger action against anti-transgender content, submitting a public statement to Meta’s Oversight Board that urges the company to enforce its policies on hate speech and bullying.
The advocacy group’s involvement comes as the Oversight Board reviews two cases in which Meta failed to remove videos from Facebook and Instagram that misgendered transgender people despite being flagged multiple times for violating the platform’s policies.
Senior director of GLAAD’s Social Media Safety Program, Jenni Olson, told The Advocate in a statement that Meta must follow its existing guidelines.
“Meta’s Bullying and Harassment policy clearly states that users are ‘protected from … Claims about romantic involvement, sexual orientation or gender identity.’ By intentionally misgendering these two trans people, the two videos in this case are making a ‘claim about a person’s gender identity.’ It’s very clear that the company should enforce its own policies and mitigate the posts accordingly,” Olson said.
The cases in question involve one video on Facebook showing a confrontation between a woman and a transgender woman in a public restroom and another on Instagram of a transgender girl participating in a sporting event where her gender identity is challenged. Both posts received thousands of views, but Meta opted not to take them down, ruling that the content did not violate its Hate Speech or Bullying and Harassment Community Standards. Misgendering, referring to someone using incorrect pronouns or gendered language, is not explicitly considered a violation under Meta’s hate speech policies.
Olson pointed out that Meta’s inaction perpetuates harm against transgender users.
“Meta’s failure to enforce its own policies continues to cause immense harm, and we look forward to the ruling of the Oversight Board on this case,” she noted.
GLAAD’s public comments to the Oversight Board highlighted how both videos should have been removed under Meta’s current guidelines. Regarding the Instagram post, which misgendered a transgender athlete, GLAAD pointed out that Meta’s own Bullying and Harassment policy states that users are protected from claims about their gender identity. The video, they argue, clearly violates this standard. GLAAD wrote, “Clearly, this policy is applicable to cover targeted misgendering (as well as targeted deadnaming) — which is a ‘claim about a person’s gender identity.’ Specifically here, the account denies the minor’s gender identity by asserting that she is a boy.”
In the Facebook case, where a transgender woman was misgendered in a restroom confrontation, GLAAD again emphasized that Meta’s policies regarding claims about gender identity should have applied. GLAAD’s statement said the post “intentionally misgendered” the woman and should have been removed under the company’s Bullying and Harassment guidelines.
GLAAD’s critiques build on previous rulings by the Oversight Board that have faulted Meta for failing to enforce its policies onLGBTQ+ hate speech. In a January 2024 decision involving an anti-trans post in Polish, the Oversight Board ruled that “the fundamental issue in this case is not with the policies, but their enforcement,” concluding that Meta had repeatedly failed to take appropriate action.
GLAAD publicly criticized Meta following the company’s independent Oversight Board’s ruling on a post from Poland, where a user shared content implying that transgender people should die by suicide. Despite multiple reports from users, Meta initially left the post up, claiming it didn’t violate the company’s Hate Speech and Suicide and Self-Injury Community Standards. The post was only removed after the Oversight Board selected it for review and ultimately overruled Meta’s decision.
Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of GLAAD, responded at the time by calling on Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to publicly address the company’s failings in protecting transgender people from hate speech and harassment. Ellis emphasized the urgency for Meta to demonstrate that it prioritizes the safety and dignity of LGBTQ+ users. Meta has defended its decision to leave the posts up, citing the broader social and political debate around transgender issues, including restroom access and sports participation. The company argued that these discussions are part of public discourse and should be protected under its “newsworthiness allowance,” even if the content misgenders individuals. However, GLAAD contends that such debates should not rely on dehumanizing rhetoric or misinformation.
The Oversight Board’s ruling on these cases is expected in the coming months. While its decisions are not binding, Meta must respond and take action based on the board’s recommendations.
Olson reiterated that protecting LGBTQ+ users must be more than a promise on paper.
“In previous rulings on Meta’s moderation of anti-LGBTQ content, the Oversight Board has repeatedly criticized Meta’s failures to enforce its own hate speech policies,” Olson said. “This reflects the daily experience of so many LGBTQ users on Instagram, Facebook, and Threads — which over time seems to indicate that protecting LGBTQ users is simply not a priority for the company.”
Meta did not respond to The Advocate’s request for comment.
The hotly anticipated results are in from a landmark pair of major clinical trials of a long-acting, injectable HIV-prevention drug that only requires dosing every six months.
They are sensational.
Thrilled over the news Thursday that lenacapavir was 89% more effective at preventing HIV than daily oral preventive medication among gay, bisexual and transgender people, plus previous news that the injectable drug was 100% effective in cisgender women, HIV advocates are looking to the future. They hope that if rolled out broadly and equitably, lenacapavir could be the game changer the nation badly needs.
“These kinds of results are unprecedented,” said Dr. Jared Baeten, senior vice president of virology clinical development at Gilead Sciences, which manufactures lenacapavir. “I have moments like this where I truly am speechless. What this can mean for the trajectory of the HIV epidemic is everything that all the world has imagined for years. We can actually turn off new infections.”
And yet, as battle-worn public health advocates stand on the front lines of an over four-decade effort to finally bring the U.S. HIV epidemic to heel, they find a cold, hard fact staring back at them: Lenacapavir is extraordinarily expensive.
Calling lenacapavir’s clinical trial results “nothing short of amazing,” Jen Kates, director of global health and HIV policy at the nonpartisan health nonprofit KFF, said the news “raises the stakes on the importance of getting this new tool to all those who need it, in the United States and around the world. The track record thus far has unfortunately not been a good one.”
Gilead also manufactures Truvada and Descovy, the two daily oral tablets approved for use as pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP. The pharma giant has already secured approval for the injectable drug in treating highly drug-resistant HIV.
Lenacapavir’s current list price for use as HIV treatment is $3,450 per month. Gilead has not yet indicated whether it will set a different price for the drug’s use as PrEP. A company spokesperson told NBC News on Thursday, however, that the reference point for the price of lenacapavir as PrEP will not be its current use as treatment. It remains unclear whether that statement signals a willingness on the part of the pharmaceutical giant to bring the injectable drug’s price down closer to Earth for its use as HIV prevention.
Given that Truvada has been available as a generic since 2020 and now costs as little as $20 per month (Descovy remains on patent and has a $2,200 sticker price), it remains unclear whether, absent some perhaps novel form of government intervention, insurers will indeed make lenacapavir available widely enough to have what epidemiologists predict could be a sweeping public health impact.
Gilead plans to submit lenacapavir for approval for use as PrEP to the Food and Drug Administration by the end of the year. So this powerful new HIV-prevention tool could hit the U.S. market by mid-to-late 2025.
An HIV-prevention upgrade is badly needed. Since Truvada was approved as the first form of PrEP 12 years ago, the drug has failed to achieve anything in the U.S. approaching its awesome impact on HIV rates among gay and bisexual men in wealthy Western nations such as Australia and the United Kingdom. Those countries boast the type of streamlined sexual-health-care systems that the fragmented U.S. health care system lacks.
“The entire story of PrEP is a missed opportunity,” said Amy Killelea, a health consultant in Arlington, Virginia, and a prominent HIV advocate.
Unprecedented clinical trial results
The advanced clinical trial of lenacapavir in gay men was launched in 2021 at 88 sites across the U.S. and Latin America, and in South Africa and Thailand. It enrolled more than 3,250 cisgender men and transgender and nonbinary people who have sex with male partners.
The participants were randomized to receive either lenacapavir or Truvada on a placebo-controlled, double-blind basis, meaning neither the participants nor the researchers knew who was getting which drug. They were instructed to return every six months for an injection and to take the one dose of the provided pills daily.
A planned interim independent analysis of the trial results indicated that two out of 2,180 participants who received lenacapavir contracted HIV during the trial, as did nine out of 1,087 people who got Truvada. For the lenacapavir group, this represented an 89% lower HIV rate than those in the Truvada group and what Gilead estimated was a 96% lower infection rate than would be expected absent either drug.
Given the clear statistical superiority of lenacapavir over Truvada, the trial’s blinded phase will now be ended several months early. The participants will be informed of which drug they received and provided the option of receiving either going forward.
Lenacapavir proved safe and well-tolerated, with no major safety concerns, according to Gilead. One catch is that the subcutaneous, or under the skin, injection of the drug in the abdominal area leaves a small deposit that can be visible among those with low body fat. It is possible that in real-world use, some will find this off-putting or stigmatizing.
When taken as prescribed, Truvada is over 99% effective at preventing HIV; Descovy is comparably effective. But poor adherence to the daily oral PrEP regimen compromises oral PrEP’s efficacy. And gay and bisexual Black men in particular — the group with the highest HIV rate — have often posted particularly low adherence rates in oral PrEP studies.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated in May that between 2018 and 2022, annual U.S. HIV transmissions declined by a modest 12%, from 36,200 to 31,800 cases. Approximately 7 in 10 new HIV cases are in gay and bisexual men, with Black people and Latinos in this group acquiring the virus at much higher rates than their white counterparts. Transgender women, in particular those of color, are also at substantial risk of the virus.
A problem that has bedeviled the CDC and HIV advocates for over a decade is that, in particular given the disproportionately high rates of the virus in their respective demographic groups, Black and Latino gay and bisexual men have never adopted PrEP use at the critical mass needed to truly bring the U.S. epidemic to heel among them. Meanwhile, PrEP has accelerated a long-standing decline in HIV among their white counterparts, exacerbating the gap between the groups.
HIV advocates worry that lenacapavir could only widen such racial disparities further.
“Oral PrEP has been around since 2012. Look at our failure,” said Jirair Ratevosian, an associate research scientist at the Yale School of Nursing.“How do we learn from the past so we don’t squander the opportunity?”
Excitement about lenacapavir’s potential
Dr. Hansel Tookes, a professor in the infectious diseases division at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, was the most bullish HIV expert to speak with NBC News about lenacapavir’s prospects.
“I am borderline delusional,” Tookes said of his excitement about how lenacapavir could benefit, in particular, the Southern gay men of color he’s charged with helping protect from HIV.
The South, where the effort to treat and prevent HIV remains hampered by the refusal by seven of 11 states to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, accounts for half of all new HIV cases, according to the CDC.
“Right now, the challenge is having people take a pill every day to prevent something that they don’t have,” said Tookes of the difficulty of engaging young people in particular in such a banal, forward-thinking routine. “Having to get an injection twice a year is an easier sell.”
Dr. Boghuma Titanji, an infectious disease specialist at Emory University, said she frequently sees new HIV diagnoses in Atlanta, where her university is based, especially among young Black and Latino men who have sex with men.
“These groups often lack access to and information about existing PrEP options,” she said. “While lenacapavir is a valuable addition to our toolkit, for it to reach its full potential, it must be made accessible to those who stand to benefit the most from its effectiveness.”
After Gilead released its initial findings in June from an advanced clinical trial of lenacapavir in cisgender women and adolescent girls in sub-Saharan Africa, HIV advocates immediately put pressure on Gilead to provide the drug at a scalable cost to lower-income nations. This chorus is sure to get louder now that lenacapavir is officially highly effective at protecting gay and bisexual men and trans people as well. Still to come are results from ongoing clinical trials of the drug in people who inject drugs and cisgender women in the U.S.
On Thursday, Gilead stated in a release that the company is committed to delivering “lenacapavir swiftly, sustainably and in sufficient volumes, if approved, to high-incidence, resource-limited countries, which are primarily low- and lower-middle-income countries.” The company is in “active discussions with the HIV community” about these plans.
“It’s not progress if lenacapavir’s cost and other structural challenges impede access, domestically or globally,” said Tim Horn, director of medication access at the public health nonprofit NASTAD. “The results of the drug’s clinical trials, he said, “must be to the benefit of all people at risk for HIV, including those with cost-related hurdles to state-of-the-art prevention and care.”
CORRECTION (Sept. 12, 2024, 3:15 p.m. ET): A previous version of this article misstated the monthly sticker price of ViiV Healthcare’s injectable drug Apretude. It’s $1,965 monthly, not $3,930. The price per injection, which is administered every two months, is $3,930.
With his selection by Vice President Kamala Harris, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz could be the next Vice President of the United States. Walz’s record of support for LGBTQIA2S+ youth and adults has been clear throughout his career as a teacher, legislator, and Governor.
Under Minnesota’s pro-equality legislative and executive branches, Governor Walz, Lt. Governor Flanagan, and the Queer Legislators Caucus built the state into a national model for protecting the healthcare access and human rights of the 2SLGBTQIA+ communities, especially transgender, non-binary and 2-Spirit residents.
Below are a few of the accomplishments in Minnesota in the 2023-2024 legislative biennium.
First Queer Caucus: Voters elected 11 new LGBTQ+ individuals to the MN Legislature in 2022. In December 2022, Representative Leigh Finke was selected as the inaugural chair of the Queer Legislators Caucus in Minnesota.
Trans Refuge State: Gov. Walz signed an executive order to protect those traveling to Minnesota to receive gender-affirming care. Two months later Trans Refuge became the law in Minnesota, protecting patients, families, and providers from out-of-state laws punishing trans health care access, as well as allowing Minnesota courts to hear cases in which parents disagree about health care planning.
The Take Pride Act expanded protections under the Minnesota Human Rights Act for trans and queer Minnesotans by updating language around gender identity and sexual orientation. The bill also banned rental discrimination in duplexes for LGBTQ renters, as well as banning discriminatory hiring practices in certain nonprofit organizations.
Banned Panic Defense: The panic defense is a legal strategy in which defendants charged with violent crimes attempt to avoid liability due to the real or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity of the victim.
Menstrual Equity: All menstruating students in grades 4-12 are provided free period products in Minnesota schools. These products will be available to all students regardless of gender. The law does not specify which bathrooms the products must be in, it requires school districts to develop plans to ensure all students who menstruate can access the products for free.
This is only a PORTION of what Minnesota accomplished. Other wins include:
Walz and the pro-equality majority legislature also passed and signed into law additional measures for the safety, health and wellbeing of all Minnesotans and youth:
The US Supreme Court has agreed to hear a legal challenge to a Tennessee banon trans healthcare.
The bill, approved by state lawmakers last year, mimics similar laws in other states, with civil penalties for any adult who aids a minor to receive getting out-of-state gender-affirming care without their parent’s consent.
Several families, backed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sued Tennessee to prevent the bill passing into law.
The case will now be heard by the country’s top court in October.
The ACLU’s deputy director for trans justice, Chase Strangio, said: “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.
“These bans represent a dangerous and discriminatory affront to the well-being of transgender youth across the country and their constitutional right to equal protection under the law. They are the result of an openly political effort to wage war on a marginalised group and our most fundamental freedoms.”
Following the Supreme Court’s decision to take the case, 64 trans adults, including actor Elliot Page, filed a brief sharing their own experiences.
What is the Supreme Court case US v Skrmetti?
Following the passing of the bill in the state house of representatives and senate, the ACLU, and Lambda Legal, aided by lawyers from Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, sued Tennessee.
The pushback was, to a large degree, over the bill’s aim to outlaw medical care for trans youngsters up to the age of 18, while those currently receiving gender-affirming care would have been forced to end it by July 2023.
Samantha Williams, from Nashville, who brought the case on behalf of her trans 15-year-old daughter, said it was “incredibly painful” to watch her child suffer as a consequence of the proposed legislation.
“We have a confident, happy daughter now, who is free to be herself and she is thriving,” Williams said. “I am so afraid of what this law will mean for her.”
In June 2023, a federal judge blocked the bill from going forward. But a federal appeal court overturned that decision last September, allowing the bill to go into effect, a decision the ACLU described as “beyond disappointing.”
In June this year, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case. While the outcome will specifically affect the Tennessee bill, it is likely to set a legal precedent for similar laws in other states.
Data collected and shared by the ACLU found that at least 530 anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been proposed in the US since the beginning of the year, with 112 of those being healthcare restrictions.
Lambda Legal senior lawyer Tara Borelli said: “This court has historically rejected efforts to uphold discriminatory laws. Without similar action here, these punitive, categorical bans on the provision of gender-affirming care will continue to wreak havoc on the lives of transgender youth and their families.”
Tool company Stanley Black & Decker is the latest US firm to face right-wing criticism and calls for a boycott for having diversity, equality and inclusion policies (DEI) in place
Consumers’ Research, which describes itself as an independent educational organisation which dates back to 1929, and which boasts that it targets “wokeness” in businesses, has called out the Connecticut-based company for supporting racial equality, LGBTQ+ causes and net-zero climate goals.
The not-for-profit organisation was originally set up to test consumer products and report the results, a bit like Which? – the United Kingdom organisation that promotes informed consumer choice by testing products.
However, in 1981, Consumers’ Research was sold to conservative commentator M. Stanton Evans. It completely abandoned its previous core mission, moved its headquarters to Washington, D.C., and entirely stopped assessing products. Its New Jersey testing laboratories were closed down by 1983.
The organisation went dormant in 2000 before being resurrected over 20 years later as a Republican-aligned group, launching a campaign against so-called woke companies in 2021, and seeking to “[put] corporations on notice” and expose “numerous companies that have chosen to put woke politics above consumer interests”.
They have a section on their website which encourages visitors to report “companies who are going woke.”
In 2022, Consumers’ Research was instrumental in forcing insurance company State Farm to drop a partnership with GenderCool, a group that shares positive stories about transgender and nonbinary youth.
Consumers’ Research ran an advertising campaign calling State Farm “a creepy neighbour” and accusing the insurance company of targeting children with books about gender identity. State Farm dropped their support.
Black & Decker boycott
Stanley Black and Decker has been called out over DEI (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
In urging a boycott of Stanley Black & Decker, the group says: “Stanley Black & Decker should focus on its customers, not woke politicians”, and urges customers to “contact Stanley Black & Decker and demand that they drop their ESG [environmental, social and governance] commitments and stop their DEI hiring practices”.
In a threat shared on X/Twitter, Will Hild, Consumers’ Research’s executive director, labelled Black & Decker “the latest formerly great American company to become tools of the radical left”, adding: “The company has abandoned their consumer focus and instead now says their ‘highest priority’ is advancing DEI both internally and externally.”
The tool-maker is the latest US firm to be targeted by conservative bigotry as culture wars continue to rage.
The backlash to businesses with DEI commitments have become the focus of right-wing pundit and failed political hopeful Robby Starbuck.
In recent months, Starbuck has stirred up social media storms against brands such as Harley-Davidson, Jack Daniel’s, Ford, Lowe’s and John Deere. A number of the companies have caved in and issued internal memos announcing they will abandon DEI commitments, such as support for Pride festivals, end partnerships with the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and stop commenting on “polarising” issues.
Starbuck, who produced an anti-trans film that was banned by Amazon’s streaming service, has insisted in several posts that “we are winning, and one by one we will bring sanity back to corporate America”.
Stanley Black & Decker is the latest firm to be criticised for DEI commitments. (Igor Golovniov/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
It’s not just Starbuck driving the fight. Former president Donald Trump has also been highly critical of DEI initiatives, while Project 2025 – hard-line right-wing policy group The Heritage Foundation’s vision for a second Trump administration – has attacked equality measures within government agencies.
The HRC has been critical of Starbuck, labelling him a “MAGA weirdo” and condemning businesses for “cowering” to him.
“This is obviously something that is having a moment, so to speak,” Eric Bloem, HRC’s vice-president of programmes and corporate advocacy, told USA Today. “This notion that we need a return to sanity or a return to neutrality is something that doesn’t resonate with people who are legitimately focused on business outcomes.”
HRC’s 2024 LGBTQ+ Climate Survey found that more than 80 per cent of LGBTQ+ people would boycott a company which rolled back DEI commitments, with more than half saying they would urge others to also not buy goods from such businesses.
Orlando Gonzales, HRC senior vice-president programmes, research and training, said: “The LGBTQ+ community is an economic powerhouse, and we want to work for and support companies who support us. “Attacks on DEI initiatives are short-sighted and make our workplaces less safe and less inclusive for hard-working Americans of all demographics and backgrounds.
“This new data confirms that companies like [brewers] Molson-Coors, Ford and others that abandon their values and backtrack from commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion, risk losing both top employee talent and consumer dollars.”
A late-night party in a wooded area frequented by teens in Gloucester, Massachusetts, was the scene of a brutal beating over the Labor Day weekend that left a trans high school junior with bone fractures and nerve damage.
Sixteen-year-old Jayden Tkaczyk was transported to a local hospital emergency room after police responded to the area known as Dogtown.
“One second, I was having fun. The next minute, I was on the ground getting my face stomped and beat,” said Tkaczyk after his release from the hospital.
Tkaczyk told reporters he’s dealt with being bullied for years over his trans identity and is sure it played a part in why he was targeted on Friday night.
“They were saying the F-slur over and over and over as they were punching me and stomping me,” he recalled.
As of Wednesday, Gloucester Police Chief Edward Conley had yet to declare the assault a hate crime.
“We are treating these allegations with the utmost seriousness,” Conley said in a statement. “We ask the public to allow the investigation to proceed without rushing to judgment.”
Tkaczyk was reported missing before police responded to the area around 10:45 p.m. Cops say they learned that there had been a “dispute” among teens at the gathering and that one had been assaulted. Authorities said the people involved “are known to one another.”
Adding to the family’s distress: social media posts justifying the attack.
“This has always been my worst fear as a mom of a trans teen,” said Jasmine Tkaczyk, Jayden’s mother. “A lot of them are proud of what they did, and it’s wrong.”
“He’s been bullied by these children for years,” she added.
Chief Conley said he’s assigned a detective trained in civil rights investigations to lead the case and is in contact with the Essex County District Attorney’s office for additional support and resources.
In the aftermath of the brutal beating, the 16-year-old displayed a level of grace beyond his years.
“They had clearly mentioned in the past that they don’t like me because I’m trans,” Tkaczyk said, but he added, “I hope that the people that have hate in their heart find and seek inner happiness within themselves and inner peace.”
