Transgender / Transsexual

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Anti-trans ads erode support for transgender people in America with no effect on presidential election: study

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Despite significant spending by former President Donald Trump’s campaign and Republicans on anti-transgender ads, new research released Thursday by Ground Media shows that the ads are failing to influence voter preferences. However, these ads are succeeding in a different, more harmful way: They are eroding public support for transgender Americans and their rights.

Ground Media CEO David Rochkind told The Advocate in an interview that while the ads did not boost voter enthusiasm or mobilization for Trump, they did decrease public comfort with transgender people. “We found that there is a decrease of 3.1 percent among those folks who say they would be comfortable accepting a close friend or family member who is transgender,” Rochkind said. He also noted a 3.7 percent decline in support for gender-affirming care for transgender youth. “I find that incredibly damaging,” he added.

The ad in question portrays Vice PresidentKamala Harris as supporting taxpayer-funded gender-affirming surgeries for undocumented immigrants and prisoners, a point designed to inflame anti-transgender sentiment. It concludes with the divisive tagline “Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for you, and features prominent images of transgender figures within the Biden-Harris administration, including Assistant Secretary for Health Rachel Levine.

The ad follows similar tactics seen in right-wing rhetoric, focusing on Harris’s support for gender-affirming care as evidence of her “extremism.” However, advocates and experts have pointed out that this framing is not based on a factual understanding of transgender rights or the legal obligations to provide health care in prisons. Rochkind explained that the ad leverages fear and misunderstanding by focusing on issues that most people have no personal connection to, like prisoners and gender-affirming health care. “In this ad, they try and find the thing that is most different from anything that the audience could possibly understand,” Rochkind said. He added that the ad plays on the fact that most people “don’t understand what it means to be a prisoner” or the specifics of gender-affirming health care, making it easier to incite fear and discomfort — sentiments of “It seems so odd, it seems so different, I don’t know if I’m comfortable with that,” Rochkind explained.

GLAAD President Sarah Kate Ellis emphasized these ads’ negative impact on public discourse. “Tens of millions of dollars are being spent on ads that demonize and spread lies about transgender people, and it’s not earning one vote,” Ellis said.

Perhaps the most troubling finding from Ground Media’s study, which was released Thursday, was that the anti-trans ads reduced acceptance even among individuals who already knew a transgender person. “We think if you just knew somebody, you would get it, you would accept, you would get over everything — these ads push back on that,” Rochkind said. This backlash among potential allies highlights how powerful and harmful the narratives in these ads can be, especially when targeting groups already leaning toward acceptance of transgender individuals.

“After the election, trans Americans will have to deal with the dangerous fallout from the shameful lies and misinformation that far too many political candidates are intentionally spreading,” Ellis said.

Despite the harmful social impact, the ads have yet to succeed politically. Ground Media’s randomized controlled trial, which involved nearly 2,000 people, revealed no significant increase in support for Trump. “They’re not persuading people to vote for Trump,” Rochkind said, pointing out that the ads did not move the needle on voter choice, mobilization, or enthusiasm.

Transgender rights rank relatively low on the list of priorities for voters. According to a September Gallup survey, only 18 percent of registered voters consider candidates’ positions on transgender rights “extremely important” when deciding their vote for president. By comparison, 52 percent of voters rank the economy as “extremely important,” followed closely by democracy in the U.S. at 49 percent. 

According to a separate survey conducted by Data for Progress, 54 percent of likely voters believe that political attack ads targeting the transgender community have become “mean-spirited and out of hand.” Voters, the survey suggests, are more concerned about core issues such as inflation and the economy than the divisive cultural battles around transgender rights.

While the ads are failing to achieve their intended political outcomes, they are leaving lasting scars on the social landscape. The decline in support for transgender rights, health care access, and acceptance — particularly among potential allies — presents a serious challenge for advocates fighting to protect and expand transgender rights in the United States.

Rochkind emphasized the importance of truthful storytelling in combating misinformation and disinformation. In partnership with GLAAD, Ground Media has been working on campaigns like “Here We Are,” which focus on real stories of transgender people and their families. “We found that [these ads] increase acceptance, increase support for policy, and increase belief that being transgender is real,” he said.

The ads have been running in battleground states such as Michigan, Florida, and Texas, showcasing transgender Americans and their families, according to Ground Media. The campaign garnered 25 million impressions and 3 million video views in Michigan alone. Nadya Lopez, a transgender woman featured in one of the ads with her father, said, “Transgender people just want to live their lives free from fear … our lives are filled with joy, and we are not going anywhere.”

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Teacher banned from profession after outing trans kid by name on social media

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A teacher in the U.K. has been banned from the profession indefinitely for outing a transgender student on social media.

According to The Daily Mail, in May 2023, a whistleblower alerted the unnamed Manchester school where 54-year-old Camilla Hannan had been teaching since 2001 that Hannan had posted offensive and anti-trans sentiments on X, then known as Twitter. In one of her posts, Hannan even outed a transgender student by name.

“Where I teach we have gender identity policy,” Hannan wrote in one post alongside an eye-roll emoji. “It’s a load of nonsensical rubbish, as you’d imagine.”

In another post, Hannan wrote that she taught a student who had changed their pronouns, going so far as to include the student’s name in her post. “I worry about what the next steps will be,” she wrote.

“Where I teach the trans kids are untouchable,” she wrote in another post. “They get everything they ask for and everyone staff and other students alike, is petrified of upsetting them. They don’t seem oppressed to me more like oppressors tbh.”

In two other posts, she seemed to suggest a link between autism and being transgender, writing that her autistic students “are all plastered with trans flags and badges, without exception.”

Studies that have shown that transgender and nonbinary people are more likely to be autistic than cisgender people have been misused to fuel the anti-trans, ableist narrative that there is something “wrong” with transgender and nonbinary people and that their gender identity is the result of mental illness. Some trans and nonbinary people on the spectrum suggest that the real connection is that autistic people are less likely to feel a need to conform to social pressures around gender.

The Manchester Evening News reports that in August of this year, Hannan admitted to writing the posts. A Teaching Regulation Agency misconduct hearing was held to address the matter, and in September a panel found that she had shared the private medical information of the student named in her post without the student’s knowledge or consent. The panel noted that she had also “repeatedly misgendered” the student.

A report on the panel said that it had found that Hannan “had a deep-seated attitude, and that, whilst she was entitled to have that attitude and hold the views that she did, it was not acceptable for her to have posted these on social media in a way that was damaging to the profession, the School, pupils and in particular” the student she outed. The panel said that Hannan’s behavior was incompatible with a teacher’s duty to be a role model for students and the wider community.

According to the Manchester Evening News, Hannan blamed her posts on her frustration with her workload and admitted that she had exercised “poor judgment.” In a statement, she said that she does “not bear trans people any malice or ill will” and she respects “their right to live as they please, and to ask others to refer to them by names and pronouns of their choice,” the Daily Mail reported. However, she added that she was concerned about so-called “gender ideology” — a clear anti-trans dog whistle — in schools.

But according to the Manchester Evening News, the panel noted that Hannan’s remorse seemed to be “somewhat self-serving.” They said that the fact that she believed her posts were anonymous suggested that her remorse “stemmed from being caught, rather than from reflections on her own behavior.”

The panel banned Hannan from teaching indefinitely. She will have the opportunity to appeal the decision in two years.

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Meet Vivian Smotherman, who is running to be Colorado’s first trans state senator

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Vivian Smotherman is out to not only make history for transgender Coloradans but flip a district from Republican to Democratic.

Smotherman is running for the state’s Senate in District 6. It’s located in southwestern Colorado, a region that has traditionally been red or at least purple, and is the largest Senate district by area in the state. She’s facing Republican Cleave Simpson Jr., a first-term incumbent who was elected before the district was redrawn last year. She would be Colorado’s first out trans state senator; Rep. Brianna Titone, running for a fourth term this year, was the first out trans person in the Colorado House.

She’s a Navy veteran with extensive experience in farming, teaching, and the oil and gas industry, having worked on offshore rigs. “I have leadership skills — I’ve really recognized them over the last 10 years,” Smotherman says of her motivation for running. She saw problems that were plaguing her district; it needs improvements in housing, education, and access to health care, she says.

“I was also really upset about all the anti-trans rhetoric, all the anti-LGBT rhetoric,” she says. Colorado is largely an LGBTQ-friendly state, with a gay governor in Jared Polis, but homophobia and transphobia still rear their ugly heads.

“We still have Moms for Liberty trying to invade every school board, every library district,” Smotherman says. In addition, right-wing activists tried but failed to get several anti-trans initiatives on this year’s ballot, including a ban on gender-affirming care for trans youth, restrictions on trans sports participation, and a measure that would out trans students to their parents.

“We’re still fighting the LGBT battle here. … We’ve been successful so far, but we can’t let down our guard,” Smotherman says.

“I’m a much better target for hate than the kids are,” she adds.

Smotherman lives in Durango, the largest city in the district. In the early 1970s, her family moved from Michigan to Colorado. She left Colorado to serve in Navy, then lived in New Mexico and Texas for a while. After the COVID-19 pandemic, she decided to go back to where grew she up, “where the politics are better, the weather is better, and the people are better,” she says.

Her district has two Indigenous tribes and many migrant workers. “We have such a diverse district, and all of those groups need to be represented,” she says. “As someone who’s part of a marginalized community, it’s much easier to see when [marginalization] happens to somebody else.”

Improving health care, housing, and schools will help attract people to the district and result in better services for everyone, she notes. “All of these things, in my mind, work together,” she says.

“What I try to get people to understand, my diverse background … gives me the experience to look at these issues from a lot of different angles,” Smotherman says. In addition to her work experience, she has degrees in history and anthropology.

She started transitioning in 2012 and has been Vivian since then. She passes pretty well, she says, so others often don’t realize she’s transgender. “If I don’t tell somebody, they don’t assume,” she says, but it’s important to her to be out. The big key is to say this is who I am … but it’s not what I’m running on,” she points out.

However, that hasn’t insulated her from attacks on her identity, but when those attacks have come, the LGBTQ+ community allies have stepped up and supported her. Even some Republicans have spoken out against transphobic rhetoric, she says. “The support has actually been amazing,” she notes.

Her endorsers include the LGBTQ+ Victory Fund, EMILY’s List, One Colorado PAC, Moms Demand Action, U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper of Colorado, and numerous environmental and labor groups. “I’m really proud of my labor endorsements,” among others, she says. Colorado is a modified right-to-work state, meaning that newly hired employees don’t have to join a union if there is one at their workplace, so unions aren’t as strong as they could be, Smotherman says. “I want everybody to be open to having the benefits of a union,” she says.

She’s also committed to “understanding and embracing cultural differences, to listening to everybody with understanding and compassion,” she adds.

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Here are the 28 transgender Americans lost to violence so far this year

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Fatal violence against transgender, gender-nonconforming, and nonbinary Americans continues at an alarming rate. While the number of reported deaths has come down somewhat since 2021’s record of 57, it should be noted that this number is almost always an undercount. In any given year, the majority of those who’ve died by violence are trans women of color, Black women in particular. 

Tori Cooper, director of community engagement for the Transgender Justice Initiative at the Human Rights Campaign, previously told The Advocate that media outlets and authorities aren’t always the best at covering and handling cases involving LGBTQ+ people, specifically trans and nonbinary people.

“There have been times when we have been made aware of deaths of trans individuals and nonbinary individuals before they hit the media, because people who are in these communities are saying, my sister, my girlfriend, a friend of a friend was just killed in Miami,” Cooper said. One time, Cooper said the mother of a trans woman called to say her daughter was killed and the local media weren’t covering the story.

Another issue that Cooper pointed to is misgendering or deadnaming victims.

“What often happens is there will be folks who happen to be of trans experience who will say ‘Well, that wasn’t [their] name. But that wasn’t a name that she was known by,’” Cooper said. “If I were killed in the streets, and they listed me as Thomas Cooper. But the world knows me as Tori Cooper. And you put out an APB for the killer of Thomas Cooper, my friends aren’t going to know. And so, we’re actually impeding progress.”

Related: Murders of LGBTQ+ People Often Go Unsolved. We’re Telling Their Stories.

This year also saw the much-publicized death of Oklahoma transgender high-schooler Nex Benedict February 8, the day after an altercation with other students in a school restroom. Benedict had often been bullied. Their death has been ruled a suicide, but their loved ones and activists are skeptical of that verdict. However, the verdict stands for now, so Benedict is not included in this list.

In addition, Darri Moore, a Black trans woman from St. Louis, was found dead in a quarry 60 miles away May 1, but police have said they do not believe her death was due to foul play. Her family and friends have asked for further investigation, though.

Here’s a look at those confirmed lost to violence so far in 2024. May they rest in power. 

If there is someone you believe should be remembered who is not on this list, you can reach out to news@equalpride.com with information.

Keep up with the latest in LGBTQ+ news and politics. Sign up for The Advocate’s email newsletter.

Kitty Monroe

Kitty Monroe, a 43-year-old transgender Latina, was the U.S. trans community’s first known victim of fatal violence in 2024. She was killed January 1 in Phoenix, run over with a truck driven by a man who had been chasing her. She was being chased by a man and a woman in the parking lot of a liquor store, Casa de Licores, about 2 a.m. New Year’s Day. The man hit her in the back with a gun, and she fell to the ground. He then ran over her with his truck, and he and the woman left the scene. Another vehicle accidentally hit Monroe. To date, there’s no report of an arrest.

Monroe was known for her distinctive fashion sense and her “protective” and “loving” nature, her sister Brissa Lugo told The Arizona Republic. She was the “main character” wherever she went, Lugo said. Lugo added that she wouldn’t be surprised if Monroe was targeted because of her trans identity.

Sasha Williams

Sasha Williams, a trans woman of color, was stabbed to death on a city street in Las Vegas the morning of January 26. She was 36. Hassan Malik Howard, 20, who had been seen quarreling with Williams before the stabbing, was arrested shortly afterward at his family’s home. He is charged with murder. Authorities are trying to determine if he is competent to stand trial; two doctors have said he is not.

Her friend David Leach, who she met through the Vegas ballroom scene, and her aunt Tina Thornton both praised her generosity, saying she sent baskets of treats to them when they were ill and that she often paid studio fees for her musician friends. She was a hair, nail, and makeup artist who hoped to become a performer in Vegas, but recent financial setbacks had left her depressed, they told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Thornton had urged her to return to North Carolina, where she grew up.

África Parrilla García

África Parrilla García, a 25-year-old Black transgender woman, was killed in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in February. She was shot several times about 1 a.m. February 2 on a San Juan street, according to Puerto Rican newspaper El Nuevo Día. She was impoverished and experiencing homelessness.

“A lot of trans women are on the streets and are made invisible because many people believe that their lives are worthless,” LeQueen, a trans artist and friend of García’s, told the paper. “They don’t give them the ‘spotlight’ that they deserve, and those men take advantage of that. They think, If I kill her here, no one is going to care.”

There has been no arrest to date.

Righteous Torrence “TK” Hill

Black transgender man Righteous Torrence “TK” Hill, a popular hair salon owner, was shot to death in February outside his home in East Point, near Atlanta. Hill, nicknamed Chevy, was shot February 28 and died the next day. Police confirmed to The Advocate that the suspect is a cousin, Jaylen Hill, who had received much assistance from Chevy. He remains a fugitive.

Chevy Hill, 35, was the founder and owner of Evollusion, a hairstyling and beauty salon in Atlanta. “Hill’s salon offered a much-needed safe space for the Black, LGBTQIA+ residents of Atlanta and its surrounding areas,” Gaye Magazinereports. His partner of six years, Terri Wilson, told TV station WXIA, “He just wanted it to be a safe haven for the community.”

Reyna Hernandez

Trans woman Reyna Hernandez, 54, of Renton, Wash., was found dead in early March in Mexicali, Mexico. She went missing February 26 after she ran an errand to her former residence, now occupied by three men, including a 61-year-old who is the prime suspect in the case, which police are investigating as a homicide. The man, who is currently under arrest in Mexico on unrelated charges, is reportedly Hernandez’s partner of 30 years. His name has not been released.

Police in Renton were alerted March 8 to a Mexican newspaper article referencing the body of a woman dumped in a cemetery in Mexicali, which is on the U.S. border. The body was wrapped in a blanket, bound hand and foot, and showed signs of extreme torture, according to Seattle TV station KCPQ. The cause of death was a head wound, an autopsy determined.

Police had suspected Hernandez was a victim of foul play immediately after they were notified of her disappearance by friends on February 28. Her popular hair salon had not been opened in two days and she had not responded to texts and calls from friends and family, both of which were out of character for Hernandez.

Diamond Brigman

Black trans woman Diamond Brigman, 36, was fatally shot on a street in Houston early in the morning of March 16. She was found about 1 a.m., suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. A witness stayed with her until paramedics arrived, but she was pronounced dead at the scene.

“The Houston Police Department (HPD) has launched an investigation thanks to crucial information from a courageous witness who stayed with Diamond until emergency services arrived,” said a statement from the department.

Witnesses told investigators Brigman was standing by the side of the road when a white 2017 Chevrolet Malibu LT circled the area several times before it pulled up alongside her. A male passenger exited the car and fired multiple shots at Brigman before fleeing the scene in the vehicle, which was driven by another person.

A memorial service was held for Brigman a few days later. Friend and local trans activist Joell Espeut told TV station KHOU that Brigman was outgoing and vivacious. “She was larger than life; she had a lot of energy and always smiling and personable,” Espeut said.

Police arrested Walter Daniel Saravia Palacios, 35, in late May. He is charged with murder.

“I’m thankful for the people who followed him. I’m thankful for the people who took pictures of him and the people who had information about him,” Brigman’s friend Verniss McFarland told KHOU after the arrest.

Alex “Boo” Taylor Franco

Alex “Boo” Taylor Franco, a 21-year-old trans man, was abducted from the home of his girlfriend and killed March 17.

Franco willingly entered a 2000 white Jeep Liberty around 4:15 p.m. that day but was killed by a single gunshot fired by a 15-year-old suspect following a brief exchange of words, according to statements posted to social media by the Taylorsville, Utah, Police Department. His body was found March 19 in a remote desert region outside Lehi. Three suspects, the 15-year-old and two 17-year-olds, were arrested shortly afterward. Their names were not released because they are minors.

Alyssa Henry, Franco’s girlfriend, told local CBS affiliate KUTV that the three were “friends of friends” who were going to give the pair a ride to a local park. However, police say Franco was meeting with the youths to purchase a gun. The suspects claimed they intended to rob Franco, but an argument ensured, resulting in the shooting.

Friends and family remembered Franco fondly.

“He’s had his tough spots and stuff, but he’s a good kid,” Franco’s aunt, Sherry Bennett told local ABC affiliate KTVX. “He walks in the room and everyone brightens up immediately, so it’s really hard to even think that somebody could be so mad to do this to him.”

Meraxes Medina

Meraxes Medina, a 24-year-old transgender Latina, was shot to death March 21 in Los Angeles.

Police responded to a call about 4:30 a.m. that day and found her on the street on the city’s south side, having been shot in the head. She had been dumped from a car. She was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.

Medina, who turned 24 in February and recently begun hormone therapy, had worked as a makeup artist at Universal Studios. She was undocumented and had experienced homelessness. But friends were predicting great things for her.

“She left an impression on everybody,” her longtime friend Alejandro Fernandez told officials at the Los Angeles LGBT Center. “She was someone you weren’t going to forget. She had this aura about her, and everywhere we went, people would turn around. She had so much potential. I was waiting for her to be an influencer and blow up. I would tell her, ‘Girl, I’m waiting for your moment because you’re already the bomb.’”

Yella Clark

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 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.

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. 

“Yella was finally living their truth — something that everyone deserves to do, no matter their circumstances,” Tori Cooper, director of community engagement for the Human Rights Campaign’s Transgender Justice Initiative, said in a 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.”

River Nevaeh Goddard

Nonbinary 17-year-old River Nevaeh Goddard was found dead April 5 in Stow, Mass., two years after they were first reported missing. Their 20-year-boyfriend admitted to attacking them with a sword, authorities said.

Goddard went by both their chosen name River and birth name Nevaeh, used they and she pronouns, and was pansexual, according to GLAAD. They were first listed as a missing child by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in April 2022.

Police round Goddard’s body while responding to a request for a welfare check at their boyfriend’s residence. Shane Curry, 20, blocked entrance to the home for over two hours before authorities gained access, upon which they found Goddard dead.

Curry confessed to stabbing them with a sword several times and was taken into custody. He accused Goddard of cheating on him and using drugs. Curry was charged with assault and battery on a household or family member and assault and battery causing serious bodily injury. He pleaded not guilty in Concord District Court, on account of his schizophrenia diagnosis, which court records indicate he first received in 2020. Additional charges are possible.

Michael Simmons, Goddard’s grandfather, told TV station WJAR that Goddard had a difficult upbringing, spending part of their childhood in the care of the Rhode Island Department of Children, Youth and Families. Simmons also said that he had spoken with Curry before, revealing, “He promised to take care of her.”

“Never in a million years did I ever think this [would happen]. There couldn’t have been a nicer, more soulful, and more spiritual person,” Simmons said of Goddard.

Tee Arnold

Tee Arnold, a 36-year-old Black transgender man, died April 7 of a gunshot wound he suffered early in the morning of April 3 at a shopping and entertainment complex in Hallandale Beach, Fla. Police were called to the Village at Gulfstream Park about 1:30 a.m. April 3 and found Arnold had been shot. He was taken to HCA Florida Aventura Hospital, where he died four days later.

Arnold had posted on social media that his life was in danger. Hallandale Beach police are looking for a woman suspect who was known to Arnold. “We don’t believe this was a hate crime,” Capt. Aaron Smith told TV station WPLG. “When we have incidents like this, we do our very best and we do everything to keep our community safe.” A reward is being offered, but so far no arrest has been made.

Arnold was also known as Lagend Billions. His family and friends paid tribute in social media posts, noting his supportive nature. “I thank you for always answering the phone when I was lost, for never being afraid to tell me when I’m wrong, telling me to pray when I was weak, always offering words of encouragement,” friend Cece Gates wrote on Facebook.

Starr Brown

Starr Brown, a Black transgender woman, was shot and killed in Memphis in the early morning hours of April 19 after she finished her work shift at Checkers, a drive-through fast-food establishment. She was seen on video driving away in her Pontiac G3 with coworker Alexavier Williamson, 20, just after 2:30 a.m. Brown’s body was discovered in her car several hours later in a wooded area. She suffered a single gunshot wound to her left side.

Williamson voluntarily walked into a police station April 28 and confessed to the crime. Police provided no information about a possible motive or why he decided to confess. He is charged with second-degree murder.

Friends and loved ones described Brown as a “beautiful soul” who “always had uplifting words.”

Andrea Doria Dos Passos

Andrea Doria Dos Passos, 37, a transgender woman who was experiencing homelessness, was found beaten to death April 23 outside the Miami City Ballet building in Miami Beach, Fla. The attack on Dos Passos was caught on surveillance video and led to the arrest of Gregory Fitzgerald Gibert, 53, who was originally charged with second-degree murder, but the charge was raised to first-degree murder Miami-Dade Judge Mindy Glazer shortly afterward. He is being held without bond.

“I’ve had a chance to review the arrest affidavit — to me it looks like it should be a first-degree murder, not a second-degree, based on the facts alleged in this arrest affidavit where he allegedly struck the victim with a metal pipe about the head and face, and then it looks like he defiled the body by doing other things to the victim after she was deceased,” Glazer said, according to Miami’s NBC station. She appointed a public defender for the suspect.

Dos Passos’s stepfather, Victor Van Gilst, mourned her in an interview with Miami’s CBS affiliate. “She had no chance to defend herself whatsoever,” he said. “I don’t know if this was a hate crime since she was transgender or if she had some sort of interaction with this person because he might have been homeless as well. The detective could not say if she was attacked because she was transgender. She has been struggling with mental health issues for a long time, going back to when she was in her early 20s. We did everything we could to help her. My wife is devastated. For her, this is like a nightmare that turned in to reality. Andrea moved around a lot and even lived in California for a while. She was sadly homeless. I feel the system let her down. She was a good person.”

Kita Bee

Kita Bee, a 46-year-old Black transgender woman, was killed in a hit-and-run accident May 3 in Kansas City, Mo. Bee was hit by two cars that night. One of the drivers has been identified, and charges are pending, police told The Kansas City Star. “Some friends and family members have expressed concern online that Bee’s death was caused by foul play, or that someone pushed her into the road,” the Star reports.

Bee had endured periods of housing instability but still served as a mentor to other trans women in her community, according to local trans advocacy group KC Transformations.

Bee had been seriously injured in another hit-and-run this year, Kris Wade, executive director of the Justice Project, which assists women who’ve experienced homelessness and violence, told the Star. She had recently found stable housing, Wade added.

“She had a very sweet soul,” Wade noted. “I’ve got millions of memories of her… She was in her full authentic persona all the time, and that takes guts when you’re a trans person. Especially a trans woman of color.”

Jazlynn Johnson, an 18-year-old transgender woman, was shot to death May 6 in Las Vegas, and a 17-year-old has been charged with murder.

Johnson was found inside a car early that morning and was pronounced dead at the scene, TV station KLAS reports. Police had responded to a call from a man who said his son told him he’d shot a friend. The son, Cesar Sandoval, was arrested and charged with murder with the use of a deadly weapon and destroying or concealing evidence. He is being held at Clark County Juvenile Hall.

Sandoval had come home about 3 a.m. in a hysterical state and said he had accidentally shot his friend, the station reports. He asked his parents not to call the police, but they said they had to. He insisted that the shooting was accidental and told police he did not know where the gun was.

There is little information available about Johnson, but LGBTQ+ rights groups are speaking out and calling for further investigation to see if hate-crime charges can be brought.

Tayy Dior Thomas

Tayy Dior Thomas, a 17-year-old transgender girl, was shot to death May 7 in Mobile, Ala., and the suspect is a man who her family says she had been dating.

Police found her body about 3:30 a.m. in the front yard of a home after responding to a report of shots fired in the area, according to TV station WALA. A vehicle had crashed into the house as well.

Police arrested Carl Washington Jr., 20. He is charged with murder. He has pleaded not guilty but has been denied bond.

Most news reports, including the WALA one, misgendered and deadnamed Thomas, but her family confirmed her trans identity to the Human Rights Campaign. The family told HRC that Thomas and Washington had been dating for about a year, and they believe Washington was afraid their relationship would become known to others.

Thomas was kind and giving, Rolanda Carl, Thomas’s grandmother, told AL.com. “That’s the thing that I get the most from her personality. She was a giving person,” Carl said. “That trusting and loving nature got her killed.”

Family and friends said they hope for changes in Alabama’s hate-crimes law, which does not cover crimes motivated by the victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity.

Michelle Henry

Michelle Henry, a 25-year-old Black transgender woman, died May 15 in San Francisco after being strangled and stabbed.

Police responded that afternoon to a report of a fight between two people in a home. They found Henry lying on the ground. She had been stabbed multiple times. Paramedics attempted to revive her, but she was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police arrested Raymani Yuhashi, 33. She is charged with “the unlawful killing of a human being with malice aforethought,” as a San Francisco Police Department report puts it.

Henry had been involved in the SF LGBT Center’s youth program. “Michelle was a ray of light for our team and so many others she connected with over the last two years at the center,” Executive Director Rebecca Rolfe told the publication. “Her warmth and presence were felt in every room she walked in. She was kind, deeply caring, courageous, and fearless. Michelle’s death is a profound loss for our community. There are no words to fully convey what we are collectively feeling right now — our grief is immense. We want to thank those who cherished Michelle, and our hearts are with all who had the opportunity to truly know, love, and care for her.”

Liara Kaylee Tsai

Liara Kaylee Tsai, a 35-year-old transgender woman who was a well-regarded Trevor Project volunteer, was killed in Minnesota June 22, and her former romantic partner is charged with second-degree murder.

Tsai, who lived in Minneapolis, was found in the back seat of a car driven by that partner, Margot Lewis, when the car crashed into a guardrail in Minnesota’s Olmsted County, about 100 miles southeast of Minneapolis, according to several local media outlets. Tsai was wrapped in bedding and a mattress, and she had a puncture wound to her neck, while Lewis was sitting in a lawn chair in an interstate median when police arrived. Investigators later searched Tsai’s home, and they found her bed and bedclothes soaked with blood.

Lewis is charged with two counts of second-degree murder and one of interference with a dead body. 

Tsai was a DJ, producer, combat veteran, and spoken-word artist who had recently moved to Minneapolis from Iowa. She was also a volunteer crisis counselor with the Trevor Project, a mental health and suicide prevention organization focusing on LGBTQ+ youth.

“Liara was a valued member of our 988 Crisis Intervention team and part of our Trevor community,” the Trevor Project posted on its LinkedIn page. “She is remembered by our team for her empowering gentleness and remarkable ability to center the feelings and experiences of LGBTQ+ young people. Liara saved lives through her crisis intervention work, and we are heartbroken that the world has lost an incredibly bright light far too soon.”

Pauly Likens

Pauly A. Likens, a 14-year-old trans girl, was murdered and dismembered in Pennsylvania. She was last seen alive in person June 22, and her remains were found June 25, scattered in a lake in Clark, Pa., in the northwestern part of the state. DaShawn Watkins, 29, is charged with murder in the first degree, aggravated assault – attempts to cause serious bodily injury or causes injury with extreme indifference, abuse of a corpse, and tampering with/fabricating physical evidence. 

“This is one of the worst homicide cases I’ve seen in my 46 years as a lawyer,” Mercer County District Attorney Peter C. Acker said. “We’ve had dismemberment cases before, but this is especially bad. I hope I never see another one of these.”

Taylor Galaska, a City Council member in the town of Sharon, described Likens’s murder as “deeply troubling and incredibly heartbreaking.” She added, “I think I can speak for everyone when I say that our community is outraged by the murder. I have full faith in local and state investigators and the legal system that a thorough investigation and prosecution of this senseless, heinous act will occur.”

Pamela Ladner, president of LGBTQIA+ Alliance Shenango Valley, told CNN Pauly was “a selfless, loving child who loved nature, getting her nails done, and shopping.” She also said that Pauly “aspired to be a park ranger like her Aunt Liz.”

Kenji Spurgeon

Kenji Spurgeon, a 23-year-old Black transgender woman, was shot to death shortly before 12:30 a.m. July 1 in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, shortly after Pride Month ended.

“I think we as a community and as an organization failed Kenji,” Jaelynn Scott, executive director of the Lavender Rights Project, which organized a candlelight vigil in honor of Spurgeon and other Black trans people lost to gun violence, told the Seattle Times. “Our particular calls to action are that we need the city of Seattle, the state of Washington, and King County [to] look at their budget and ensure that LGBT organizations continue to be funded,” she added.

The investigation is continuing, Seattle police spokesperson Eric Muñoz told the paper, and detectives do not believe Spurgeon was targeted for being trans.

Summit Sierra High School, the Seattle charter school that Spurgeon attended, has set up a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for funeral expenses, including the cost of sending her remains home to Alabama.

“Kenji was a bright light in our lives, known for an infectious smile and quick wit,” according to the GoFundMe page. She was a member of the school’s founding class, and “from the very beginning, Kenji stood out, capturing the hearts of teachers and classmates,” the page notes.

Shannon Boswell

Shannon Boswell, a Black trans woman just days from her 31st birthday, was shot and killed July 2in Stone Mountain, Ga., a suburb of Atlanta. Initial reports misgendered her and characterized her death as the result of a hit-and-run accident. But the DeKalb County medical examiner later discovered she had been shot, according to several local news outlets.

Boswell “was shot and then left in the street like a deer,” her mother, Tammy Boswell, told Atlanta TV station WSB. “Shannon was really a very sweet person … and ain’t nobody have a right to take [her] from me.”

Tammy Boswell said several of Shannon’s friends and her boyfriend said she had been shot, so she kept calling the police with that information, but they denied there had been a shooting until the medical examiner’s report came out.

No arrest has been made.

Monique Brooks

Monique Brooks, a 49-year-old Black trans woman, was fatally shot in a parking lot in Orlando July 19.

She was found suffering from at least one gunshot wound outside a Burlington Coat Factory around 3:50 a.m., according to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office. She was taken to a local hospital, where she later was pronounced dead.

Brooks was remembered as a beloved friend and activist within the local trans community. She was involved with Divas in Dialogue, a sisterhood of transgender women of color seeking to empower, build, and strengthen each other and the community.

Police have few leads on the identity of Brooks’s killer and have asked for the public’s help.

Dylan Gurley

Dylan Gurley, a 20-year-old transgender woman, was stabbed and strangled to death July 23 in Denton, Texas.

Her death and her trans identity are just now being widely reported. She was identified by police July 30, and her killing is being investigated as a homicide, the Denton Record-Chronicle reports. She was found in a home in Denton and was pronounced dead at a local hospital shortly afterward.

“A medical examiner ruled her death a homicide and her cause of death as blunt and sharp force injuries with strangulation,” the paper notes. She lived in Little Elm, Texas, and was experiencing homelessness at the time she was killed. She would have turned 21 August 18.

She was misgendered in some media and medical reports, according to the Human Rights Campaign.

Her family has set up a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for a memorial service for Gurley. “We are just trying to put the pieces back together as best as we can and appreciate any and all help,” Senica Ciarallo, her sister, wrote on the GoFundMe page.

Tai’Vion Lathan

Black trans woman Tai’Vion Lathan, 24, was shot and left to die in an alley in Baltimore August 4.

She was found unresponsive in a rear alley by police just after 10 a.m., according to a press release from the Baltimore Police Department. Police determined that Lathan suffered a fatal gunshot wound and opened a homicide investigation. Police provided no information on a possible motive or suspect for the crime.

Family and friends remembered Lathan fondly. She was just who she was, a very outgoing person, a sweetheart,” Carla Stokes, Lathan’s aunt, told local CBS affiliate WJZ.

“She was very loving, like she loved everybody. She was very funny,” Koryne Davis, a friend, told NBC affiliate WBAL.

Police are seeking help from the community to solve the crime.

Kassim Omar

Kassim Omar, 29, a Black transgender woman who immigrated to the U.S. from Somalia, died September 6 in Columbus, Ohio, as a result of injuries she sustained in a shooting in 2022. The shooting left her paralyzed from the neck down and incapable of breathing without assistance. Two teenagers have now been charged with murder.

Omar had lived in Columbus since 2015, having come to the U.S. in search of a better life. She had hoped to bring her parents and siblings to Columbus; they are in a refugee camp in Kenya. She had lived in a nursing home since the shooting, which took place at an apartment complex in the Ohio city.

“She had previously loved to dance and sing, get dressed up and go out and just drive around in her car,” the Columbus Dispatch reports.

Lara Downing, a social worker and victim’s advocate at Community Refugee and Immigration Services, visited Omar frequently. “She had a voice,” Downing told the newspaper. “Even when her doctors and respirator technicians said that people who are fully ventilator dependent cannot speak, she forced the air through her vocal cords and she spoke, reeducating many of them on what was possible.”

However, Omar was never interviewed by police about the shooting, and she did not get to confront those accused of the crime. “So it is deeply tragic that only now, when her voice has been truly taken from her, will the pursuit of justice resume, and again she will not be heard,” Downing said.

One suspect, Ali Abdullahi, who was 16 at the time of the shooting, was tried as an adult. “He pleaded guilty to felonious assault with a gun specification and was sentenced to seven years in prison in February 2023,” the Dispatch reports. The other suspect, who was 12 years old in 2022, was also charged with felonious assault but was found incompetent to stand trial. The paper did not name him because of his age.

Now both have been charged with murder. “We are going to prosecute them for murder,” Chris Clark, chief juvenile prosecutor in the Franklin County Prosecutor’s office, told the Dispatch. “It’s unbelievably tragic that this happened to her. With all the things she went through to get to this country, and then for this to happen and to live the last parts of her years paralyzed. I can’t imagine what she went through.”

Redd

Redd, 25, a Black trans woman who was also known as Barbie to her friends, was shot multiple times in the back after a lone gunman opened fire on Redd and a group of friends around 1:30 a.m. September 8 on Chicago’s West Side. She was pronounced dead at the scene. A second, unidentified victim aged 34 was taken to a local hospital in critical condition suffering from a single gunshot wound to the chest.

A friend of Redd’s, Michelle Lee, told the Chicago Sun-Times the pair gathered with other friends on a street corner that morning when a man they did not recognize walked past their group to talk with a girl in another group nearby. He then left the area, but Lee said the man returned about 30 minutes later with a gun and opened fire.

She said everyone ran after the first shot and that the man continued to shoot as they fled the scene. When they returned, they found Redd lying motionless on the sidewalk.

“We all just started crying,” Lee said.

Redd suffered multiple gunshot wounds to the back and legs, and police reported finding 15 shell casings at the scene. Police have yet to investigate Redd’s murder as a hate crime. And her family is asking questions.

“I do feel like it was a hate crime,” Redd’s cousin Mariyah Phillips told the Sun-Times. “I want to start [bringing] awareness [that] people are really attacking that community. I want people to know that they are being attacked.”

Her friends remembered Redd as a kind and loving person.

“She wanted to be loved and respected,” said Trevon Pope, a friend. “That’s how she was. That’s one thing she didn’t play about. She loved and respected people.”

Honee Daniels

Honee Daniels, a 37-year-old Black transgender woman, was killed in a hit-and-run accident in Rochester, N.Y., October 2.

She was misgendered and deadnamed in local media reports.

The accident occurred just before midnight. Daniels was a pedestrian, and the driver who hit her left the scene, TV station WHAM reports. She was pronounced dead soon afterward.

The driver and vehicle have since been identified, but no arrests have been made, and the accident remains under investigation.

After the incident, her family gave her name to media outlets as Honee Moffett, but local activists said her name was Honee Daniels. Some were slow to correct their reporting, but most have done so now, according to the activists. The latest WHAM story refers to her as a “pedestrian” and “victim,” with no gender mentioned.“The victim identified both publicly and privately as a transgenderwoman,” says a press release from Blaque/Out Magazine.

“Although several stations have posted updates to the story, the accepted media practice would be to correct the original misreported piece in print if possible and digitally everywhere it originally appeared,” the release continues. “This isn’t just new information, it is considered disrespectful and a documented form of transphobia, transmisia, prejudice and oppression visited upon the LGBTQIA+ but specifically the Trans community. Despite the fact that your original reporting information was likely provided by [the Rochester Police Department], organizations nationwide track the disproportionate rate of deaths of Trans community members, specifically Black Trans women and those numbers are deeply skewed when the media misreports the accurate identity of the individual. These errors whether purposeful or in ignorance can even lead to delayed justice for families and victims.”

“We did receive timely responses from [media outlets] where they recognized our frustrations and made changes to what was reported,” Javannah J. Davis, president and founder of WAVE Women, told The Advocate via email. “My biggest frustration with that is that the Rochester Police Department first reported her as a ‘Man’ at the scene of the accident. I wholeheartedly feel that them reporting that was a deliberate insult to her and the Rochester Transgender community because Honee looked nothing like a man in her daily life.”

Capt. Greg Bello, a spokesman for the Rochester Police Department, told The Advocate that Daniels’s family did not mention her trans identity and that the department meant no disrespect. While no charges have been filed, that’s not to say they won’t be, he said. Police have encouraged the media to speak with Daniels’s loved ones. She is “not just another statistic” but “a person,” he added.

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First openly transgender lawyer to argue at Supreme Court

An American Civil Liberties Union lawyer will make history in December as the first openly transgender attorney to argue before the U.S. Supreme Court, opposing Tennessee’s Republican-backed law banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors.

The ACLU’s Chase Strangio, 41, represents a group of transgender people who pursued a lawsuit challenging the measure that prohibits medical treatments including hormones and surgeries for minors experiencing gender dysphoria.

In one of the most consequential cases of the court’s current nine-month term, the nine justices will hear arguments on Dec. 4 in an appeal by President Joe Biden’s administration of a lower court’s decision upholding Tennessee’s ban.

The Supreme Court on Monday ordered that the argument time for the ban’s challengers be divided between the Justice Department and attorneys representing the original plaintiffs who sued the state. Strangio will present the arguments for these plaintiffs at the lectern in the ornate courtroom.

ACLU Legal Director Cecillia Wang called Strangio the leading U.S. legal expert on transgender rights.

“He brings to the lectern not only brilliant constitutional lawyering, but also the tenacity and heart of a civil rights champion,” Wang said.

Strangio, who joined the ACLU in 2013, is the co-director of its LGBTQ & HIV Project, helping the organization oppose state laws targeting transgender people, including 12 legal challenges against the laws like the one at issue before the Supreme Court.

Strangio has represented people in high-profile cases including transgender student Gavin Grimm, who fought a Virginia school board to use the bathroom corresponding with his gender identity, and Chelsea Manning, a transgender former U.S. soldier who served time in prison for leaking classified documents.

According to the Justice Department, Tennessee is one of 22 states that have passed measures targeting medical interventions for adolescents with gender dysphoria. That is the clinical diagnosis for significant distress that can result from an incongruence between a person’s gender identity and the sex they were assigned at birth.

Lawmakers supporting the restrictions have called the treatments experimental and potentially harmful. Medical associations, noting that gender dysphoria is associated with higher rates of suicide, have said gender-affirming care can be life-saving, and that long-term studies show its effectiveness.

Several plaintiffs — including two transgender boys, a transgender girl and their parents — sued in Tennessee to defend the treatments they have said improved their happiness and wellbeing. The Justice Department intervened in the lawsuit to also challenge the law.

The challengers contend that banning care for transgender youth violates the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment promise of equal protection by discriminating against these adolescents based on sex and transgender status.

In a written filing, the Justice Department highlighted that one of the law’s “declared purposes is to enforce gender conformity and discourage adolescents from identifying as transgender.”

The state asked the Supreme Court to let the law stand.

“Tennessee lawfully exercised its power to regulate medicine by protecting minors from risky, unproven gender-transition interventions,” Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said in a filing.

A federal judge blocked the law in Tennessee in 2023, finding that it likely violates the 14th Amendment. In a 2-1 decision in 2023, the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the judge’s preliminary injunction.

The Supreme Court has confronted several cases in the past decade implicating LGBTQ rights. In 2015, it legalized same-sex marriage nationwide. In 2020, it ruled that a landmark federal law forbidding workplace discrimination protects gay and transgender employees. In 2023, it decided in a case from Washington state that the constitutional right to free speech allows certain businesses to refuse to provide services for same-sex weddings.

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Anti-trans murderer makes history as first convicted under federal hate crime law

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Convicted killer Daqua Lameek Ritter was sentenced to life in prison following a guilty verdict in the death of Pebbles LaDime “Dime” Doe, a 24-year-old Black transgender South Carolina woman who Ritter was in a relationship with.

Ritter is the first individual to be tried and convicted for a hate crime motivated by gender identity under the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009.

In 2019, Ritter’s relationship with Doe was discovered by his girlfriend, which prosecutors said motivated him to take Doe’s life. Prosecutors said Ritter, in a fit of rage fueled by the news their relationship spreading among friends, lured Doe to an isolated location and shot her three times in the head.

Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke with the U.S. Justice Department’s civil rights division described the hate crime verdict as “historic.”

“We want the Black trans community to know that you are seen and heard, that we stand with the LGBTQI+ community and that we will use every tool available to seek justice for victims and their families,” Clarke said in a departmental statement.

“Every day is a struggle,” Doe’s mother, Debra Saab, said at Ritter’s sentencing. “He shouldn’t get to see the light of day.”

A jury found Ritter guilty on all charges in February for what Clarke called the “heinous and tragic murder” of Doe.

“His crime was motivated by his anger at being mocked for having a sexual relationship with a transgender woman,” prosecutors wrote in court documents introduced during trial. Ritter’s girlfriend called him an anti-gay slur, they believe, which made him “extremely upset.”

Prosecutors said Ritter lied to police about his whereabouts at the time of the killing and got people to help him burn his clothes and hide his weapon as he fled South Carolina for New York.

Video of a traffic stop placed Ritter in Doe’s car just hours before she was killed, along with DNA evidence. Several witnesses said Ritter told them that he killed her.

“He was afraid, shooken up” when he confessed to killing Doe, Ritter’s cousin said during the trial. The cousin said that Ritter asked him to keep the murder a secret and was mad that Doe wouldn’t delete a picture of him from her phone.

A friend of Ritter’s, present when he was burning his clothes after the murder, testified Ritter said, “Nobody gonna have to worry about [Doe] anymore.”

According to the Human Rights Campaign, 27 transgender people have been killed so far in 2024 — 48% were Black transgender women, and 63% were killed with a gun.

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How should Democrats respond to the GOP’s anti-trans attacks?

Republicans have spent tens of millions on transphobic political ads and used anti-trans attack lines during debates. Democrats’ responses have been varied.

Democratic vice presidential nominee, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, recently defended trans people and slammed Republicans for “demonizing” them. Vice President Kamala Harris has responded by saying she would continue to enforce federal laws protecting trans people from discrimination.

However, two congressional candidates have recently released ads responding more negatively to anti-trans attacks against them. Senate candidate Rep. Colin Allred (D-TX) released an ad saying, “I don’t want boys playing girls’ sports.” Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) also released an ad saying that policies on trans athletes should be made by sports’ governing bodies.

Vote in the poll below this week, and we’ll share the results on Friday.

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Texas AG sues doctor accused of providing transgender care to 21 minors

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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued a Dallas doctor Thursday accusing her of providing transition-related care to nearly two dozen minors in violation of state law.

Paxton alleged that Dr. May Chi Lau, who specializes in adolescent medicine, provided hormone replacement therapy to 21 minors from October 2023 to August for the purpose of transitioning genders. Texas enacted a law, Senate Bill 14, last year banning hormone replacement therapy and other forms of gender-affirming care for minors.

“Texas passed a law to protect children from these dangerous unscientific medical interventions that have irreversible and damaging effects,” Paxton said in a statement Thursday. “Doctors who continue to provide these harmful ‘gender transition’ drugs and treatments will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”

The statement alleged that Lau used “false diagnoses and billing codes” to mask “unlawful prescriptions.”

Neither Lau nor her employer, the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, immediately replied to requests for comment. 

If Lau is found to be in violation of the law, her medical license could be revoked and she could face a financial penalty of hundreds of thousands of dollars. 

Paxton’s suit is the first in the country by an attorney general against an individual doctor alleging violation of a restriction on transition-related care for minors. 

Texas’ law includes a provision that allows physicians to continue to prescribe puberty blockers and hormone therapy to patients who began treatment before June 1, 2023, in order to wean them off the medications “over a period of time and in a manner that is safe and medically appropriate and that minimizes the risk of complications,” according to Paxton’s suit. Minors are required to have attended at least 12 mental health counseling or psychotherapy sessions for at least six months before they started treatment. It’s unclear whether Lau’s treatment of the minors could fall under that provision.

So far, a few attorneys general, including Paxton, have subpoenaed hospitals and practices that provide such care to minors for those patients’ records. Twenty-six states ban at least some forms of gender-affirming care for minors, according to the Movement Advancement Project, an LGBTQ think tank.

Gov. Greg Abbott signed Texas’ restriction in June 2023, and a court blocked itafter families and doctors sued. In September 2023, the Texas Supreme Court allowed the law to take effect pending an appeal from the state, and this June, it vacated and reversed the previous injunction, allowing the law to stand. 

The U.S. Supreme Court is expected in its current session to hear oral arguments and rule on whether to strike down a similar law in Tennessee. How the court rules on the Tennessee law is expected to affect similar laws in other states.

The statement from Paxton’s office described gender-affirming care as “experimental, and no scientific evidence supports their supposed benefits.” 

Major medical organizations, such as the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, disagree, arguing that transition-related care is an effective and medically necessary way to treat gender dysphoria, which is distress felt by people whose gender identities differ from their genders assigned at birth.

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Roz Keith, Ally-Founder of Michigan-Based “Stand with Trans,” Kicks-Off Transgender Empowerment Month by Going “Beyond the Binary”

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Stand with Trans, founded in 2015 by Roz Keith, is a nonprofit based in Farmington, Michigan helping trans youth “build resilience, gain confidence and find hope for a future filled with joy.”

Keith launched the organization when she was in search of resources for her own child who, in 2013, came out as transgender. 

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, virtual programming with a blend of in-person programming has helped to maximize their reach and potential as an organization. As a result, the group has expanded accessibility to be a global force for transgender empowerment and erase stigma surrounding trans identities, all while equipping and supporting families of all backgrounds, shapes and sizes.  Each year, Keith and her staff pick a new theme for Transgender Week of Empowerment. This year the conference’s 2024 theme is “Beyond the Binary.” 

This theme introduces important topics from autonomy in healthcare, Democracy, reproductive health, parenting, substance use, sports, sibling, parent, and grandparent ally panels, media representation talks and so much more.  

“I have loved being in touch with so many folks from the trans community and our allies while putting the programming together. Everyone I’ve spoken with is excited and motivated to support trans and nonbinary youth,” Dubbs Weinblatt, Transgender Empowerment Month program coordinator, told GLAAD. 

Raving over the words of Sen. Sarah McBride and others at the launch party, Keith said the start of this year’s event is amazing so far. Scheduled speakers include RuPaul Drag Race Alum, Peppermint, Equality Michigan’s Emme Zannotti, and former Muslim Youth Leadership Council (MYLC) member, Ameera Khan, and so many more.

“We really want to explore the diversity of gender, the intersectionality of different identities, and provide an opportunity for young people to feel like they can connect,” Keith said about this year’s theme, “where they can be inspired, they can have models of possibility for adult caregivers. It’s a place for them to come and learn, and get that education in a credible space.”

In the first year, the Transgender Empowerment Month conference was made up of 45 young people, all trans identified. Keith said many youth were nervous about what to expect, but each year since 2015 the conference has only grown, outsized venues, and broadened the community, says Keith.  

The importance of the conference then and now is to allow transgender youth to have a space that’s organized for them to experience. 

Logann Finkel met Roz in 2018. “I was transitioning and I was looking for support getting to and from my doctor’s appointments, and somebody had mentioned [that] there is this group, and you could reach out,” Finkel told GLAAD. 

That group was Stand With Trans. From Michigan, Keith found someone in New Jersey that could help take Finkel to and from their transgender healthcare appointments.

Since they met, Finkel has been presenting at Transgender Empowerment Month, but this year, they’re excited to be an observer and a participant. 

Like Keith, Finkel praised the launch of Transgender Empowerment Month 2024 and the programming ahead. Programming was paused between Oct. 2 and Oct. 4 for Rosh Hashanah observance, and resumed on Oct. 6 in the Jewish New Year with an open mic night. 

“The guest speakers [on Oct. 1] were fantastic. It was done in a way that built so much excitement and interest in what we’re about to embark on over this month,” Finkel said. “I would just say I’m really excited.”

There will be more than 30 panels, workshops, and programming strewn throughout the entire month, and people can register at any point in October here.

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Fact Check: Does Kamala Harris support “taxpayer-funded sex changes” for prisoners & immigrants?

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Former President Donald Trump’s campaign released a new ad centered around the claim that Vice President Kamala Harris “supports taxpayer-funded sex changes for prisoners and illegal aliens.” The ad highlights this claim while showing pictures of her with a trans person, a nonbinary person, and a drag queen.

“Kamala is for they/them,” the 30-second ad says. “President Trump is for you.”

LGBTQ Nation evaluated the ad to see whether it holds up to scrutiny.

Kamala’s History

While not explicitly stated within the ad, the core of the claim refers to a 2019 questionnaire sent out from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) asking for Harris’s stance on key policy issues when she was running as a presidential candidate independent from then-candidate Joe Biden. 

The questionnaire asked: “As President will you use your executive authority to ensure that transgender and non-binary people who rely on the state for medical care — including those in prison and immigration detention — will have access to comprehensive treatment associated with gender transition, including all necessary surgical care? If yes, how will you do so?”

Harris said yes and replied: “It is important that transgender individuals who rely on the state for care receive the treatment they need, which includes access to treatment associated with gender transition. That’s why, as Attorney General, I pushed the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to provide gender transition surgery to state inmates. I support policies ensuring that federal prisoners and detainees are able to obtain medically necessary care for gender transition, including surgical care, while incarcerated or detained. Transition treatment is a medical necessity, and I will direct all federal agencies responsible for providing essential medical care to deliver transition treatment.”

Is This Extreme? No, Actually. 

The Trump ad frames Harris’ position as if it’s a very unusual and extreme stance. However, her stance is actually required by the Constitution. The Eighth Amendment of the Constitution restricts “cruel and unusual punishment” from being applied to prisoners or detainees in any context — this extends to healthcare as well. Because of this amendment, it’s unlawful to deny essential healthcare to anyone detained by the U.S. government.

Gender-affirming care is medically necessary according to leading medical associations like the American Medical Association and also the U.S. government. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Offices for Civil Rights details how denial of coverage for gender-affirming care violates the Americans with Disabilities Act. Earlier this year, federal courts ruled that such care is medically necessary and needs to be included in state-funded health insurance plans.

Gender-affirming care includes hormone replacement therapy, fertility preservation treatments, and gender-affirming surgeries, which may include surgeries to change one’s chest and genitalia.

As such, failure to provide inmates and detainees gender-affirming care — including “sex-change surgeries” is unlawful and unconstitutional. 

What Is Kamala’s Current Stance?

In a statement provided to CNN in September, Harris stated that her opinions on such policies are “shaped by three years of effective governance as part of the Biden-Harris Administration,” and that “as President, she will take that same pragmatic approach, focusing on common-sense solutions for the sake of progress.” CNN did not elaborate on whether Harris currently supports these claims.

Harris has made no public comment about her stances on these issues since. Michael Tyler, communications director for the Harris campaign told Fox News that the information within the questionnaire is not a part of her platform or proposals. Tyler didn’t offer new details on where she currently stands on the issue.

Are These Procedures Common?

Gender-affirming procedures, particularly surgeries, are not commonly conducted on federal inmates or detainees. According to a statement from the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to FactCheck.org, only two federal prisoners — out of over 2,000 transgender federal prisoners — have received any form of gender-affirming surgery.

The Bureau of Prisons has a public document describing their procedures for trans prisoners. It says, “For transgender inmates in Bureau custody, surgery may be the final stage in the transition process and is generally considered only after one year of clear conduct and compliance with mental health, medical, and programming services at the gender-affirming facility. Once that period elapses, an inmate may submit a request to his or her Warden requesting surgical consideration”

As for undocumented immigrants detained by Immigration Control and Enforcement (ICE), there is no public record of any surgeries being conducted. Such a surgery would be difficult to conduct – immigrants are held by Customs and Border Patrol for less than a week on average, while those held with ICE are detained for, on average, 47 days. Pre-operative preparations and post-surgical recovery time may require more time. 

ICE said to FactCheck.com of their policies for trans inmates, “The agency recognizes that detained transgender noncitizens have unique needs while in ICE custody. In response to those needs, we have developed structures within our operation to safeguard their rights and ensure their emergent care needs are met from the moment they arrive and throughout the entirety of their stay.”

While ICE policy does recommend providing gender-affirming care to detainees, such surgeries would be difficult to provide due to the complexities involved. Gender-affirming surgeries involve multiple consultations with a surgeon over the course of a year and often have lengthy waiting lists. The surgeries also have a lengthy recovery period that is highly individualized, with post-surgical care requiring many months to upkeep. This is especially unlikely to occur in ICE custody. As of October 2024, there were fewer than 300 trans immigrants in custody.

There is, however, evidence of immigrants being deprived of such medically necessary care. Not only does ICE have a reputation of allegedly providing almost torturous conditions to detainees that often involve solitary confinement and deprivation of medical care, but trans immigrants have reported medical neglect in ICE facilities with the denial of hormone replacement therapy. One transgender woman even had a breast implant burst, which led to inadequate after-care and endless delays.

Expert Opinions and Verdict

LGBTQ Nation reached out to the Harris and Trump campaigns for comment on this issue, however neither responded before publication.

Amy Whelan, Senior Staff Attorney with the National Center for Lesbian Rights, said, “People in prisons and immigration facilities have protections under both the U.S. Constitution and federal law when they experience serious medical conditions.”

“Because those people have no ability to seek care on their own, they must be provided with medical care that sufficiently treats those serious conditions,” Whelan added. “As the medical community has understood for decades, surgery is medically necessary for some people who are experiencing serious gender dysphoria, just as insulin may be medically necessary for diabetics or removing a tumor may be medically necessary for someone diagnosed with cancer. These are foundational principles that apply to all people.”

Based on the above evidence, LGBTQ Nation rates this claim as having a mixture of truth and falsehoods within it.

While Harris has previously stated that she supports providing gender-affirming care to trans inmates and detainees, she has not provided up-to-date comment on the matter. There is scarce evidence that these procedures even occur with any notable frequency, and if anything there is an intense medical neglect of trans people being detained from care.

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