Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves signed a bill into law Monday that would bar transgender people from using bathrooms that correspond with their gender identities in the state’s public schools.
The legislation, titled the Securing Areas for Females Effectively and Responsibly Act, or the “SAFER Act,” mandates that the state’s schools have single-sex restrooms, changing rooms and dormitories. Its text defines someone’s sex as “‘determined solely by a birth,’ without regard to the fluidity of how someone acts or feels.”
Reeves, a Republican, wrote in a statement on X that the law — which takes effect immediately — is intended to “keep Mississippi’s daughters safe.”
“It’s mind blowing that this is what Joe Biden’s America has come to,” he wrote. “Having to pass common sense policies that protect women’s spaces was unimaginable just a few years ago. But here we are… we have to pass a law to protect women in bathrooms, sororities, locker rooms, dressing rooms, shower rooms, and more.”
The White House did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Rob Hill, the Mississippi state director for the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy group, called the new law an attempt to “strip basic rights from LGBTQ+ people in our state.”
“This bill does nothing but attempt to push us further apart at the expense of LGBTQ+ people, who deserve the freedom to be and to use bathrooms and locker rooms without the prying eyes of politicians peering over the stall,” Hill said in a statement. “Shame on the governor and the MAGA agenda of hate.”
Since lawmakers in North Carolina sparked national outrage in 2016 by passing a similar measure into law — which was partially repealed the next year — 10 other states have also enacted measures that limit trans people from using restrooms that correspond with their gender identities, according to the Movement Advancement Project, an LGBTQ advocacy group. Mississippi now joins their ranks.
In January, lawmakers in Utah passed a law barring trans people from using bathrooms in schools and government buildings. Earlier this month, transgender activists flooded a Utah tip line created to alert the state about violations of the law. The thousands of hoax reports were intended to overwhelm authorities and drown out any legitimate complaints residents might have made about which bathroom trans people used.
Mississippi’s legislation restricting trans people’s access to public restrooms is among the hundreds of anti-LGBTQ bills proposed by conservative lawmakers in recent years. More than 500 anti-LGBTQ bills have been introduced in legislatures across the country this year, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.
In 2021, Reeves enacted a law that limits trans students from competing in sports that correspond with their gender identities. He also enacted a law that bars trans minors from accessing certain transition-related care last year.
Mississippi is one of more than 20 Republican-led states challenging Title IX rules the Education Department issued last month. Among several provisions, the rules explicitly prohibit barring trans students from using bathrooms and changing facilities that correspond with their gender identities at schools that receive federal funding.
The South Carolina legislature has just passed a ban on gender-affirming care, making it the 25th state to do so. The ban also requires educators to out trans students to their potentially unsupportive parents. Gov. Henry McMaster (R) has signaled that he’s likely to sign it into law. If he does, the law will take effect immediately.
House Bill 4624 will prohibit healthcare professionals from providing puberty blockers, hormone therapy, or surgeries to people under the age of 18, even though such surgeries are rarely ever performed on minors. Any professional who provides these to a minor can risk being disciplined by the state medical licensing board or have their licenses revoked.
The bill states that any minors receiving gender-affirming medications must quit receiving them by the end of January 2025. Major American medical associations have said that gender-affirming care is safe, effective, and essential to the overall well-being of trans youth. Ending such care can worsen a trans youth’s sense of gender dysphoria and increase their risk of suicide.
The Campaign for Southern Equality, a state LGBTQ+ advocacy organization, has launched the Southern Trans Youth Emergency Project to help fund and provide information to families so that trans youth can continue receiving gender-affirming care despite the coming ban.
The bill additionally states that healthcare professionals in South Carolina who provide gender-affirming care can be sued by a patient or their parents until the patient in question turns 39 years old.
The bill forbids public funding, including Medicaid, from being used “directly or indirectly” for gender-affirming care. This provision may face an immediate challenge since the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which includes South Carolina, ruled in April that government- and state-funded health care and insurance plans cannot exclude coverage for gender-affirming medical care, The Hill reported.
The bill also requires school principals and counselors to notify parents if a child indicates in any way that their gender identity doesn’t match the sex they were assigned at birth. This provision will make trans, nonbinary, and gender-fluid students less likely to seek help from trusted adults in schools, leaving them without any adult support if their parents disapprove of their gender identity.
In January, Gov. McMaster called the bill “a good idea,” adding, “If they wanna make those decisions later when they’re adults then that’s a different story, but we must prevent our young people from making irreversible errors.” Several studies have shown that most people who receive gender-affirming healthcare do not regret it.
A March 2024 poll found that 71% of South Carolina voters felt that the government should not intervene in LGBTQ gender-affirming healthcare decisions that regard individuals under the age of 18.
LGBTQ+ advocates condemn the ban & promise to sue
Responding to the law’s recent passage in the state legislature, Cathryn Oakley, senior director of legal policy for the Human Rights Campaign, wrote, “This is a major violation of South Carolinians’ liberty. South Carolina legislators abused their power today by substituting their judgment for that of parents, medical professionals, mental health care professionals, and other experts.”
Chase Glenn, Executive Director of the Alliance for Full Acceptance wrote, “Denying transgender people access to medically-necessary healthcare is not only a violation of their basic human rights but also an egregious display of intolerance. We will not back down and will continue to stand in solidarity with our transgender community today in their fight for their dignity, respect, and equal rights.”
Ivy Hill, a leader in the South Carolina United for Justice & Equality coalition, wrote, “We will be organizing tirelessly in the hours ahead to ensure that we’ve left everything on the field and pushed back against this legislative attack with everything we have.”
In a post on the social platform X, the Campaign for Southern Equality wrote, “We are sending so much love, support and solidarity and want trans people in SC to know that you are loved, affirmed, and seen – and that there is an entire community ready to fight against these oppressive laws.”
Editor’s note: If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org. The Trans Lifeline (1-877-565-8860) is staffed by trans people and will not contact law enforcement. The Trevor Project provides a safe, judgement-free place to talk for youth via chat, text (678-678), or phone (1-866-488-7386). Help is available at all three resources in English and Spanish.
Western Carolina University in North Carolina is investigating after a student confronted and filmed a trans woman in toilets on the campus grounds.
In the clip, which was filmed on the Western Carolina University (WCU) campus, the person behind the camera can be heard asking the trans woman what she is doing in the female toilets.
“Going to the bathroom,” the trans individual responds.
“Why are you in the girls’ bathroom?” the camera operator probes, continuing to challenge the trans woman’s presence.
In response, the person being questioned replies that she is a trans girl, to which the woman retorts: “But you’re not a girl.”
Remaining cool, the individual being filmed replies “Interesting. Never had this before. I don’t know what to say. I’m sorry you feel that way.”
The person filming claims they “pay a lot of money” to be safe in the female toilets, to which the trans woman agrees and starts to leave.
After the footage, which PinkNews has chosen not to publish, was shared on social media, it was picked up by conservative online platform LibsofTikTok, sparking a barrage of transphobic abuse.
However, a number of people also came to the trans woman’s defence and pointed out how inappropriate it was for the person behind the camera to film a stranger in such a setting without their consent.
In a statement given to The Advocate, a WCU spokesman said: “Western Carolina University is dedicated to fostering a safe and welcoming environment for all students. The university’s primary concern is the safety and wellbeing of all members of its campus community.”
The spokesperson added that the matter was being investigated.
Meanwhile, in the UK all new non-residential buildings could be forced to have separate male and female toilets under proposed legislation from the Conservative-led UK government in an attempt to ban gender-neutral facilities.
A policy proposed by the Department for Levelling Up on Monday (6 May) will prevent all non-domestic new builds, including restaurants, shopping centres, offices, and more, from having gender-neutral toilets.
An Arkansas transgender advocacy group’s community center was vandalized this week for at least the fifth time in the past year, the group’s executive director said.
InTRANSitive, the only trans community center in the state, has become increasingly visible in recent years due to its activism against a wave of state legislation targeting trans people, Rumba Yambú, the founder and executive director, said.
InTRANSitive’s Little Rock-based community center has seen repeated acts of vandalism since it opened in December 2021, said Yambú, who uses they/them pronouns. Starting last year, someone has damaged the pipes outside of the building at least four times, they said. Cameras have also disappeared and plants have been damaged. This past weekend, the same pipes that had been repeatedly damaged were completely removed from the ground and taken from the premises.
The first four times the pipes were damaged, the group spent an estimated $900-$1,200 to repair them each time, Yambú said. This most recent act of vandalism cost about $1,400 to fix the pipes and another $900 to install a protective cage over the them, they added. The group is fundraising to cover the cost since Yambú had to pay for it using a credit card. Yambú said they also expect the group’s water bill to be much higher due to flooding caused by the damage.
“We just can’t afford to be closed for too long,” Yambú said. “It just puts a pause on everything that we do and all the people that we serve.”
The pipes outside of InTRANSitive’s community center after they were vandalized for the fourth time.Courtesy Rumba Yambú
Yambú said the FBI called them Wednesday and asked to have an in-person meeting to talk about the incident, though Yambú said they did not report it to the bureau.
A spokesperson for the FBI said the bureau “is aware of the situation,” but in keeping with long-standing policy “we can neither confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation. As always, we encourage individuals to immediately report suspicious or unlawful activity to law enforcement.”
Yambú said they have not reported any of the incidents of vandalism to local police because the group and its members have experienced police harassment. Yambú said officers with the Little Rock Police Department repeatedly patrol in front of the center and have tried to enter while asking how many children are inside — a question that Yambú said echoes language coming from conservative advocates in the state and nationwide who have called trans advocates “pedophiles” and “groomers.”
Mark Edwards, a spokesperson for the Little Rock Police Department, said Friday the department only has three incident reports from the community center’s address, and only one of those is during the time that InTRANSitive has occupied the space. In that May 2023 incident, he said, someone called 911 and when police got there, officers didn’t speak with anyone.
Regarding officers patrolling in front of the center and asking about children on the premises, Edwards said, “There’s nothing on our side that shows proof we’ve been there” outside of the three incidents.
“If we’ve driven in the area, it’s because we patrol the area,” he added. “There are thousands of businesses we patrol, and there are some businesses we do the same patrolling, they say they’ve never seen us. Unless there’s an incident report number that I can actually go to and look at, it’s kind of hard to comment.”
The removal of pipes outside of InTRANSitive’s community center resulted in flooding.Courtesy Rumba Yambú
Yambú said people on social media have suggested that the act was unrelated to the group’s work, but Yambú disagrees.
“It all started with the visibility that we’re getting, how much anti-trans hate is being pushed by our legislators,” they said, noting that they purposely don’t have a sign that says the group’s name on the building in an effort to minimize harassment.
In 2021, the same year InTRANSitive opened its community center, Arkansas became the first state in the country to pass a ban on transition-related care, including puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgery, for minors. A federal judge declared the law unconstitutional last year. However, Arkansas is also one of 25 states that have passed a measure barring transgender students from competing on school sports teams that align with their gender identities, and that law is in effect.
Yambú said that every time the center is vandalized and has to close, it makes it harder for the group to do its daily work, which includes providing free food every Tuesday, a space for people who don’t have affirming homes or families to hang out for a few hours, free HIV testing and free assistance to people who need help navigating the immigration process.
Yambú said the group plans to raise funds for better lights outside of the building and for security cameras, because the current cameras are solar powered and only activate when there’s movement and enough light. However, regardless of the additional security measures, they said they expect the vandalism to continue.
“Our folks know that we’re here,” Yambú said. “The more work that we’ve been doing, the more visible that we’ve been in sessions, the more our name is getting out there, the more that this is happening.”
More states have announced lawsuits against the Biden administration over its new Title IX rules mandating anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ+ students, bringing the total number of states suing the administration to 14.
Last week, Alabama, South Carolina, Florida, and Georgia filed a joint lawsuit against the administration, along with the Independent Women’s Network, Parents Defending Education, Speech First, and the Independent Women’s Law Center. In a separate lawsuit, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) also announced a challenge to the new rules.
Now the state of Tennessee is leading a lawsuit against the new rules and is joined by Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, and Virginia in its complaint. A separate lawsuit has also been filed by the attorneys general of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Idaho.
The new rules interpret Title IX, which bans discrimination on the basis of sex in education, as a legal protection against anti-LGBTQ+ school policies. The idea is that it’s impossible to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity without taking sex into account, a legal argument that the Supreme Court has already used in its 2020 Bostock v. Clayton Co. ruling with respect to job discrimination.
With these rules, any school that receives federal funding will no longer be able to discriminate against LGBTQ+ students. This could affect states and school districts with policies to out LGBTQ+ students to their parents or ban trans students from using bathrooms that correspond with their gender. The new rules could also give students who face discrimination recourse in federal courts.
In a press conference, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti (R) invoked the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg as justification for his fight to discriminate against trans youth.
“Title IX has protected women for 50 years,” Skrmetti said, as reported by The Tennessean. “It is a law… built around the idea of men and women, sex binary. As Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg noted, enduring differences between the sexes necessitate things like separate bathrooms, separate locker rooms, separate living facilities, separate sports teams. This is something that our law has recognized for decades.”
The rules, however, do not suggest that schools eliminate single-gender spaces. Rather, they simply require schools to include everyone who identifies as a boy in boys’ spaces and everyone who identifies as a girl in girls’ spaces.
While GOP attorneys general are up in arms about the effect the rules will have on athletics, they do not actually discuss transgender student-athletes and which teams they can play on. The DOE is reportedly planning to issue a separate rule regarding what Title IX means for sports participation.
Skrmetti, however, claimed that with the rules, “a boy can walk into a girl’s locker room at a school and if the girl complains that his presence makes her uncomfortable, she can be brought up for investigation and potential penalties for violating civil rights. The new rules is entirely inconsistent with the text of Title IX and its adoption violates the United States Constitution.”
Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen (R) claimed in a press release that the rules will “ultimately prohibit schools from distinguishing between males and females in athletic and educational opportunities” as well as “put women at an unfair disadvantage” and “force boys and girls to share bathrooms, locker rooms, dorms, and even overnight lodging while on a school trip.”
He also said it is designed to “federally coerce schools into indoctrinating students in gender identity theories popular among progressive parents but that ignore science.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) wrote on X that President Joe Biden is “abusing his constitutional authority to push an ideological agenda that harms women and girls and conflicts with the truth.”
“We will not comply,” DeSantis continued, “and we will fight back against Biden’s harmful agenda.”
Conservative parent organizations have also spoken out against the new rules. Fifty-three groups signed a letter led by Parents Defending Education (PDE) claiming trans inclusivity “poses a grave threat to the safety and opportunities of women and girls and thwarts students’ First Amendment rights” by forcing them to use accurate pronouns for trans and nonbinary students even if they don’t want to.
The letter also accused the Biden administration of pandering to “a small yet vocal group of extreme activists.”
On Monday, out White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said she could not speak about the new rule too much due to the all the litigation. “So I’ll just say every student has the right to feel safe in school,” she said.
The new rules are set to take effect on August 1 and invalidate numerous anti-transgender policies developed under former President Donald Trump. The Trump administration spent four years fighting against the legal argument that laws that ban discrimination “based on sex” ban anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination, particularly in schools. In 2017, then-Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos issued guidance to schools saying that Title IX did not protect LGBTQ+ students, shortly after she and Attorney General Jeff Sessions revoked a guidance from the administration of former President Barack Obama that said the opposite.
The Biden administration had promised to present the newly unveiled rules by January, but the DOE said its release was delayed due to an unprecedented number of over 240,000 comments submitted during the new rules’ 30-day public response period.
In contrast to the conservative backlash, LGBTQ+ organizations have celebrated the announcement, though they also say more is needed.
In a statement both celebrating and criticizing the newly unveiled rules, the National Women’s Law Center wrote, “As we celebrate this milestone, we recognize that this regulation does not go far enough in making the law’s protections clear for all student-athletes.” The statement was signed by 22 other organizations, including LGBTQ+ advocacy groups like GLSEN, the Human Rights Campaign, PFLAG National, and the National Center for Transgender Equality.
Out gay Rep. Mark Takano (D-CA) wrote, “The Education Department and Biden Administration showed real courage today, delivering on a long-held promise to ensure that the federal government does more to protect all Americans—especially LGBTQ Americans—from discrimination. This groundbreaking rule is a major victory, but we still have much to do. We need to enshrine and expand its protections by passing the Equality Act because for too many Americans, their rights and protections depend on the zip code they live in.”
In the summer of 2015, an 8-year-old Choctaw child named Twelve walked in their first Two-Spirit LGBTQ Pride parade, recognizing Native people with a male and female spirit within them. They wore their hair in braids and a black suit, their mother and auntie by their side. Out and proud adults waved hello to Twelve from their colorfully decorated floats. The streets of Oklahoma City were filled with music, dancing and drag performances. It was a celebration that seemed like a step toward a future of acceptance for Oklahoma’s Indigenous queer community.
“That memory sticks in my mind — seeing someone that young and seeing loving parents be so supportive,” said Auntie Sage, youth leader at Cousins, a group for queer Indigenous youth in the state. “I had not seen that in my lifetime.”
Nine years later, queer and Two-Spirit youth in Oklahoma have witnessed the introduction of more than 50 bills targeting LGBTQ people this year alone — more than any other state — from bans on gender-affirming health care to penalizing public school employees for asking a student their pronouns.
In addition, LGBTQ communities continue to reel from the death of Nex Benedict, a 16-year-old transgender student who lived on a Cherokee reservation in Oklahoma and reportedly faced bullying over their gender identity.
“With all these anti-LGBTQ bills going on right now, it is very dangerous and it is a very sad time for Oklahoma,” Auntie Sage said.
Today, Twelve is a member of Cousins, which has been offering a sanctuary for queer Indigenous youth in a time of rising anti-LGBTQ hostility. Through outdoor activities, out-of-state trips, theater shows, monthly counseling, group talks and mentor pairing, the group is cultivating a community.
“Cousins is a place of education, fun, community, support, love and all this good stuff,” Twelve said. “But at the end of the day, it’s also a safe space for kids who need it.”
Reeling from the death of ‘our relative’
Sarah Adams, the mother of Twelve, and Kendra Wilson Clements — both of whom are Choctaw and Two-Spirit — co-founded Cousins in 2022 after observing a lack of support systems in Oklahoma for queer Indigenous youth. That year, U.S. lawmakers proposed a record 238 bills that would limit the rights of Two-Spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and/or questioning (2SLGBTQ) Americans, including religious exemptions to discriminate against queer people, and limits on trans people’s ability to play sports and receive gender-affirming health care.
“We wanted it to be a safe place for us to be able to celebrate what it is to be LGBTQ in the Indigenous community,” Adams said. “When you feel safe, then you can be exactly who you are. You can remove all those masks that you put on from your day to day.”
Adams and Clements began reaching out to local queer leaders to find mentors and advocates for queer Indigenous youth. Mentors can share their experiences, show kids they are not alone and let them know they are supported.
“We want [our youth] to be strong. We want them to be inspired,” said Auntie Sage. “And we want them to know what it looks like to be visible and out and proud.”
Through word of mouth, the group has become home to over a dozen youth ages 12 to 22, representing numerous tribes. With the help of donations, grants and volunteers, the group goes hiking, takes self-defense classes and attends virtual meet-ups.
When Benedict died in February, it shook the community. Police bodycam video showed Benedict in a hospital bed recounting how they were attacked by three students after standing up to their bullying at school. The next day, Benedict died. A full autopsy report ruled the death a suicide.
Benedict’s death sparked global interest and criticism from LGBTQ advocates who link their alleged bullying to anti-LGBTQ legislation in Oklahoma and other states. In the weeks following Benedict’s death, the Rainbow Youth Project, a national LGBTQ nonprofit focused on youth suicide prevention, saw a 238% increase in crisis calls from Oklahoma. The Centers for American Indian and Alaska Native Health reported last year that 60% of Indigenous youth have experienced severe mental distress.
“I was already dealing with so much of my own mental health stuff, and then hearing [about Benedict’s death], it just made me hate so much more about the state we live in and the world we live in and how people don’t care until someone dies,” said Bear, 15, a Cousins member.
Cousins members say they are concerned about discrimination in their schools, which has only been highlighted by Benedict’s death.
“There’s no amount of safety here that can really make me feel confident enough in the public school system at this point, especially after what happened with Nex,” said Angelina Steinmeyer, 21, a Cousins mentor and member.
In response to safety concerns from the group, Dan Isett, director of communications at the Oklahoma State Department of Education, told NBCU Academy in an email: “The safety of every student in Oklahoma schools is prioritized equally, with equal care taken for all our students.”
Shortly after Benedict’s death, Adams brought in a grief counselor during Cousins’ monthly circle talks. Members learned how to recognize grief and how it might show up in their lives. Twelve said they were coping through writing.
“We wanted to help them through this moment, this terrible, horrible moment when we lost a relative,” Adams said. “Nex is our relative, that’s how I see it.”
Raising the next generation of leaders
To open up the lines of support, Cousins recently decided to make some of their events inclusive to all LGBTQ youth in the state, not just those who are Indigenous.
“My son said, ‘We don’t have the luxury of cherry-picking anymore. We have to make sure that everybody has spaces,’” said Adams. “And now we’re trying to figure out how we do that.”
In February, the group took a trip to San Francisco to participate in the Bay Area American Indian Two-Spirit Powwow. The event honored traditional Indigenous culture through song, dance, drumming and contests; it also offered a supportive gender-affirming experience for the diverse Two-Spirit community and allies.
“I was just like looking all around myself and I was like, ‘Wow, they made it,’” said Twelve. “‘Oh my God, there’s so many people like me around here.’”
Auntie Sage said she wants to take members away from spaces that often exclude 2SLGBTQ people and put them into environments where they can see possibilities and take pride in who they are.
“I hope they can have those kinds of stories for themselves one day,” Auntie Sage said. “They spread their little wings and they fly.”
In the meantime, the group will continue to host open conversations, expand its space and counsel queer Indigenous youth and others in the face of rising tensions in schools and opposition to 2SLGBTQ events in the state.
“If there were to be an end goal, I hope that the end is us breaking the cycle,” said Steinmeyer, adding that it’s important to “teach children what it’s like to be different.”
While the ad is comical, online dating apps continue to provide an uneven experience for trans, nonbinary, and genderfluid users. Most dating websites and smartphone apps didn’t initially offer gender descriptions for these users to authentically present themselves to others. Even with expanded gender presentation options, non-cisgender users say that ignorance and transphobia continue to make online dating feel unsafe.
A brief (incomplete) history of LGBTQ+ online dating
The earliest days of LGBTQ+ online dating harken back to the late 80s and early 90s, when gay men used dial-up modems to connect through bulletin board systems (BBSs) like Backroom and Gay.net. Back then, some lesbians also used an e-mail listserv called Sappho and, later, the website lesbian.org, which contained personals, discussion forums, web links for lesbian-oriented non-profits, and even a lesbian literary journal called Sapphic Ink.
In the early to late 90s, web services like Compuserve and America Online (AOL) provided real-time M4M, W4W, and “transexual” chatrooms where queer love-seekers could connect, talk dirty, and spend hours uploading and downloading pixelated photographs of themselves via very-slow internet connections.
“I think LGBTQ+ people were always really early adopters to online dating,” Michael Kaye, the one-time director of brand marketing and communications for OkCupid told QSaltLake. “Speaking from experience, we are limited to the safe spaces that we have available.”
In the 2000s, some popular heterosexual dating sites like eHarmony didn’t allow gay and lesbian profiles, leaving queer users to look elsewhere like OkCupid, a personal ad site for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and cis-het people that appeared in 2004. OkCupid helped facilitate LGB dating by including a unique feature: It let users choose only to be visible to other queer folks, reducing the likelihood that gay men or lesbian women would receive messages from a bunch of eager and unwitting heterosexuals.
However, the biggest revolution in online dating occurred in 2009 with the advent of Grindr, one of the first third-party apps for Apple’s iPhone. While the app — and similar ones — facilitated countless quick hook-ups and longer-term relationships, the apps weren’t initially inclusive of trans, nonbinary, and gender-fluid users because they offered a limited range of self-identifying gender options and transphobic responses from other cisgender users.
Over time, trans-inclusive apps like Tser appeared. Tser specifically marketed itself as a place where trans people could find community and support, but trans users found that the app still contained transphobia: It categorized cis individuals as “men” and “women,” invalidating trans women and trans men as not “real” women and men. It also used the outdated term “transsexual.”
Expanding gender options is a good start, but not enough
In 2016, Tindr offered users the option of entering any term that best describes their gender identity for display on their profiles. Grindr and Hinge took similar paths by offering more gender description options — like “trans man,” “trans woman,” “non-binary,” “non-conforming” and “queer” — in 2017.
In 2023, eHarmony also began offering an expanded list of genders — including options like “agender,” “bigender,” “genderqueer,” “pangender,” “questioning,” “trans masculine/feminine nonbinary,” and “Two-Spirit.”
The app Bumble also expanded its options to be more inclusive of nonbinary users in 2022, but the app’s “women make the first move” feature — which was created to reduce creepy unwanted advances from men — didn’t allow nonbinary people to message others who identified as women.
“I applaud them for trying to be inclusive, but they’re just completely missing the point,” one user named Kay told NBC News. “I get that their whole shtick is women message first. But if that’s the case, don’t add the gender-inclusive options if you’re going to make nonbinary people feel like they are being squished into a woman or man category.”
Non-cisgender users of Tinder and Hinge also had another issue: after self-identifying as their preferred gender description, the sites would then reductively ask if they’d like to be paired with people who were looking for “men” or women,” the independent cultural site The Skinny reported.
Other users expressed frustration that dating sites often group people by gender rather than by sexuality, making it impossible for searchers to filter out heterosexual users. Others found that, even when apps and sites had inclusive gender options, they had very few non-cisgender users, making the dating “community” feel isolating.
Taking a stand against transphobia
In 2015, when the women’s dating app HER launched, founder Robyn Exton said, “All of the online platforms for women [before 2015] were just reskins of sites built for gay men but turned pink, asking you how much body hair you had, or straight sites that were filled with guys asking you [to have a three-way]. It felt crazy to me, at the time, that no one had truly made a dating product for women.”
HER eventually branded itself as a community and dating app for the FLINTA [female, lesbian, intersex, trans, and agender] community. In 2023, it used Lesbian Visibility Day to send out an announcement to all users reiterating its “no TERFs” policy against transphobes, something it felt was particularly important considering the rise of right-wing anti-trans laws and rhetoric.
“[Trans-exclusionary radical feminists’] harmful and transphobic mentality negates the experiences and identities of our trans and gender non-conforming community, fosters their marginalization, and contributes to discrimination and [harm],” the announcement declared. “Besides being sad, hateful clowns who spew out a lot of misinformation, TERFs are also a genuine threat to the LGBTQIA+ community. And that’s just not going to fly here.”
Despite the announcement, HER still found that its trans, nonbinary, and genderfluid users still faced challenges when using the app, including people expressing trans-exclusionary preferences, misgendering, invasive questions, different forms of fetishization, ignorance about the trans experience, and even other users maliciously reporting their profiles as somehow violating the app’s user policies.
Apps like Grindr, Scruff, and OkCupid have since expanded by allowing users to express the range of genders they’re attracted to, making their profiles easier for non-cis users to find.
Two other platforms, Taimi and Lex, take different approaches by centering non-cis users and not focusing solely on gender as a way of matching users. Taimi lets users say whether they’re looking for trans, intersex, or nonbinary users. Lex is a text-based app that’s primarily for “womxn, trans, genderqueer, intersex, two-spirit and non-binary ppl” where users can describe what kind of people and social interactions they’re craving.
As HER and other dating website and apps figure out how to be more welcoming for non-cis users, HER’s non-cis users said the app would feel safer if it provided more education about trans experiences, better profile filtering, more ways to self-identify one’s gender, better account verification methods, and better safety protocols to prevent and penalize transphobia.
“Even in spaces built for all queer folks, there is much work to be done,” Exton wrote.
A transgender high school athlete has told a New Hampshire state legislature that she did not join women’s sports with the goal of “dominating competition” in powerful testimony.
16-year-old trans high jump state champion, Maelle Jacques, told politicians that sports had become a place that allowed her to “be seen as normal,” and that rescinding her right to compete would be devastating.
“If banned from sports teams and locker rooms, joining male teams wouldn’t be a choice for me,” she said.
Her speech came during a Tuesday (23 April) debate on a bill which would have forced New Hampshire trans athletes to compete in male-only competitions.
During the Education Committee vote, Jacques said that she was in opposition to the bill, as it would stop her from enjoying something she has loved “throughout my entire life.”
“Playing soccer since the age of three, when I began my transition in the sixth grade my school welcomed me into the girls’ team,” she said.
“This act of being part of the team allowed me to skip through the phase of social ostracisation. The other girls accepted me as who I was.
“Being part of the team allowed me to be seen as normal, where everywhere else I could be perceived as a pariah.”
She continued that she didn’t join sports “with the goal of dominating competition or being better than anyone else,” but to feel a sense of belonging.
“No one would go through the bullying and self hatred of transition purely to win a sport, especially woman’s sports, which are under-appreciated in our nation.
“I joined because it is something I am passionate about and enjoy.”
New Hampshire votes to kill sports bill
Following Maelle Jacques and testimony from several other people, the bill was killed by the Education Committee in a 19-1 vote.
A similar bill, HB 1205, is still in processing after passing through the House in March, according to local outlet, Seacoast Online. It would explicitly prohibit transgender girls from entering female locker rooms and block them from competition.
Committee chairman and Republican representative, Rick Ladd, said the bill was shot down because the House bill has already passed, and the newly implemented bill extends its remit, which he said the GOP “did not support when we passed our initial bill.”
New Hampshire state capitol. (Getty)
Republican Mike Belcher, said: “I don’t mind the idea of telling colleges and universities what we need to be doing on this, but my hang-up here is that in this bill, there is an exception that allows young women to participate on boys’ teams.
“I believe that is somewhat inconsistent with the goal of preventing injury,” he said, commenting on trans men participating in male competition. “I also think boys’ sports deserve to be protected.“
Democratic House representative David Luneau said the bill, and those like it, should be thrown out of New Hampshire state legislature entirely.
“We think [the bill] doesn’t have any place, doesn’t have any business in New Hampshire,” he said. “And frankly, what we heard from almost 40 people yesterday that, hey, these kids just want to play and be part of the team.”
As transgender people in Louisiana watched surrounding states in the deeply conservative South implement a slew of laws targeting nearly every facet of their lives in recent years, they counted on their ally in the governor’s office to keep their home a relative oasis.
Former Gov. John Bel Edwards, the only statewide elected Democrat at the time, was indeed able to block most of the bills.
But this year, nothing stands in the way. Edwards has been replaced by Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican backed by former President Donald Trump who has shown support for such legislation. And the GOP holds a two-thirds supermajority in the Legislature. That means previously introduced legislation hostile to transgender people now has a clear path forward, as do new proposals.
“These bills are absolutely going to become law,” said SarahJane Guidry, executive director of the LGBTQ rights group Forum for Equality. “And that is such a tragedy, but it doesn’t end there. We are going to continue to fight.”
As the only Democratic governor in the Deep South at the time, Edwards used vetoes to block anti-transgender legislation, including one broadly barring teachers from discussing gender identity and sexual orientation in schools, a type of policy critics have dubbed “Don’t Say Gay”; and a measure requiring public school teachers to use the pronouns and names students were assigned at birth.
In a veto message, Edwards described the bills as discriminatory, extremist and harmful to a group “comprised of the most vulnerable, fragile children” in Louisiana.
He was unable to keep the Legislature from overriding his veto of a ban on gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors. And he blocked a 2021 bill seeking to restrict transgender athletes’ access to sports, but allowed it become law the next year, knowing a veto would probably be overridden.
Now that Edwards is out of office because of term limits, the Republican-controlled Legislature is advancing the “Don’t Say Gay” and pronoun and name proposals; definitions of male and female that could effectively legally erase transgender people; and restrictions on the use of bathrooms and changing rooms in schools, domestic violence shelters and prisons. President Joe Biden’s administration has said a new federal rule could clash with such bathroom restrictions.
The situation in Louisiana mirrors a national flood of bills that have targeted transgender people, and especially youths, in recent years, a movement some observers say seeks more to motivate conservative voters than to solve real problems.
A report released Tuesday by the Williams Institute, a research center at UCLA Law, estimates that about 93% of transgender youths ages 13-17, or about 280,000, live in states that have proposed or passed laws restricting their access to health care, sports, school bathrooms and facilities, or the use of gender-affirming pronouns.
The institute estimates that in Louisiana, about 4,000 people ages 13-17, or 1.3% of that age group, identify as transgender.
Landry’s office did not respond to an email seeking comment on this year’s legislation. But he has made no secret of his support for, among other things, restrictions on gender-affirming care for minors. In 2023, when he was running for governor, he posted on X: “As attorney general for 8 years I have worked hard to protect our children. I urge the full Senate to take up and pass” the law. It eventually passed and was vetoed but overridden.
Advocates in the Bayou State are organizing their fight, looking to other states that have blocked similar measures in court, educating their communities on the imminent laws, seeking sanctuary city policies, and recruiting more residents to their cause.
“We’re not going to look to the apocalypse, we’re going to look to the revolution,” Guidry said.
Advocates want the city council in liberal New Orleans to create local protections for transgender people, such as refusing to enforce state laws targeting them. Other cities like Austin, Texas, and Kansas City, Missouri, have already taken similar actions, though it’s not clear how effective the protections have been.
Last month, hundreds marched in New Orleans’ French Quarter. Transgender residents continue to testify in the Capitol. Advocates try to work with conservative lawmakers to create amendments to soften legislation. Students took to the Capitol steps in Baton Rouge last month to perform a play they wrote, based on their own experiences about how the bills would affect them.
“It’s almost like the Twilight Zone,” said William Leighton, who drove four hours to the Capitol this month with his 13-year-old transgender daughter, Arielle, who was not in the play.
“It’s not fair. I really don’t like the fact that people like me are being discriminated (against) for being different,” said Arielle, who is in eighth grade.
William Leighton had already prepared a letter to send to Arielle’s teachers, granting permission to use her name and pronouns, but he decided that was not enough and needed to get more politically active.
He was recently elected to the state’s Democratic State Central Committee. Among his priorities are to get more Democrats to vote and find candidates who, if elected to the Legislature, would work to repeal legislation targeting transgender and other LGBTQ people.
Like their counterparts in the South and elsewhere, advocates in Louisiana will also look to courts for guidance and to keep legislation from taking effect.
Five transgender youths and their families filed a lawsuit this year against the state’s ban on gender-affirming medical care, as reported by The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate. The suit is pending in Orleans Parish Civil Court.
“Nothing is off the table,” Guidry said. “If we cannot protect our students, we will continue to work, and if that includes litigation, we will take those steps when we need to.”
Over 90 percent of transgender youth in the United States are living in states that have either passed or proposed legislation restricting their rights, according to a new study.
The alarming report from the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law found that 93 percent of transgender minors ages 13 to 17 — approximately 280,300 people — live in states that have considered or enacted laws restricting their access to health care, sports, and school facilities. There are only an estimated 300,100 children ages 13 to 17 in the U.S. who identify as transgender.
A large percentage of trans youth live in states where such laws have been enacted, including 85 percent of trans youth in the South and 40 percent in the Midwest.
Conversely, nearly half of all trans youth live within the 14 states that have enacted shield laws that protect access to gender-affirming care and prohibit conversion therapy. This includes all trans youth in the Northeast and 97 percent of those in the West.
“For the second straight year, hundreds of bills impacting transgender youth were introduced in state legislatures,” lead author Elana Redfield, Federal Policy Director at the Williams Institute, said in a statement. “The diverging legal landscape has created a deep divide in the rights and protections for transgender youth and their families across the country.”
Almost 240,000 trans youth live in the 40 states that have considered bans on gender-affirming care, 24 of which have enacted such bans, impacting 113,900 children. Gender-affirming care bans are currently pending in 16 states, where 123,600 trans youth live. Forty-one states have also proposed or passed laws restricting participation in school sports, with 30 states vying to restrict transgender students’ bathroom use.
“A growing body of research shows that efforts to support transgender youth are associated with better mental health,” said co-author Kerith Conron, Research Director at the Williams Institute. “Restrictions on medically appropriate care and full participation at school exacerbate the stress experienced by these youth and their families.”
