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Russia bans Elton John AIDS Foundation for trying to “denigrate” the country

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Russia’s General Prosecutor on Thursday banned the Elton John AIDS Foundation from operating in the country, claiming it’s part of an effort “by the ‘collective West’ to discredit traditional values and escalate social tensions” in Russia.

The ban stopped short of deeming the foundation an “extremist” group under the umbrella of a 2023 order by Russia’s Supreme Court designating the so-called “international LGBT social movement” as an “extremist organization.”

That declaration paved the way for increased persecution of LGBTQ+ activists throughout the country and abroad, adding to “gay propaganda” laws that were already erasing LGBTQ+ identity from public life in Russia.

The Elton John AIDS Foundation is registered in both the U.S. and Britain as non-governmental organizations. Both NGOs are now officially designated as “undesirable organizations” in Russia. The designation exposes foundation staff and partners to potential criminal prosecution.

John established his namesake foundation in 1992 to increase access to health care related to HIV/AIDS and address anti-LGBTQ+ stigma associated with the disease. The foundation has raised more than $600 million to support over 3,100 projects in 95 countries, including Russia.

According to Rospotrebnadzor, the Russian federal agency for public health and consumer rights, more than 1.2 million people in the country carry the HIV virus, the highest per capita rate in Europe.  

John has a large fan base in Russia, where he’s performed multiple sold-out concerts. He’s also been outspoken about what he calls unacceptable discrimination against gay people by Russian authorities.

In 2014, John published an open letter condemning Russia’s “gay propaganda” law, enacted the year before and expanded in successive legislation.

“When a musician plays along with the promoters of democracy, you get propaganda,” the General Prosecutor’s office said in an overtly political statement announcing the ban of the NGOs, posted to its official Telegram channel and reported by Reuters. “And if Elton John is at the piano, it is not just anti-Russian propaganda.”  

In a separate statement on its website, the prosecutor’s office pointed to the foundation’s promotion of “non-traditional sexual relationships, Western family models, and gender reassignment.”

The statement also accused the foundation of taking part in what it called a coordinated Western campaign to “denigrate Russia” over its war in Ukraine, referred to by its official designation as a “special military operation.”

President Vladimir Putin has portrayed the battles against both Ukraine and the “international LGBT social movement” as twin fronts in an existential struggle with a decadent West.

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Hormones and surgery improve transgender men’s quality of life: study

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Gender-affirming care directly improves quality of life among transgender men by increasing their satisfaction with their bodies, a new study has proven.

The report, “Understanding the Role of Gender Congruence and Affirming Care in Trans Men’s Body Image and Quality of Life” published in the International Journal of Transgender Health, surveyed 166 trans men, measuring their physiological, psychological, social, and environmental quality of life.

“Most research involving TGD [trans and gender diverse] populations has focused on clinical mental health outcomes such as suicidality,” the report states. “While such outcomes are crucial to explore, it is equally important to examine the broader well-being of TGD people, including factors that contribute to their overall quality of life (QoL).”

The report found that improving trans men’s gender congruence — the sense of alignment between one’s gender identity, body, and others’ perceptions of them — “can have cascading benefits for other dimensions of well-being, including body satisfaction and [quality of life], by reducing dysphoria and promoting a more cohesive sense of self.” The report concluded that gender congruence can be improved through gender-affirming care.

Gender-affirming care encompasses several forms of therapies that are meant to validate a person’s gender identity, including talk therapy, hormone therapy, or surgical procedures. The report found that chest surgery was “associated with improved physiological, psychological, and environmental QoL,” while hormone replacement therapy “improved psychological and environmental QoL.” 

The report noted that while “gender-affirming care may not directly alter how individuals perceive their bodies,” it instead “fosters a sense of alignment between physical appearance and gender identity, a key driver of body satisfaction.”

“Our results highlight that fostering positive gender congruence, which enhances body satisfaction, significantly improves physical and psychological functioning,” it concluded. “This finding underscores the critical role of addressing body satisfaction within gender-affirming care.”

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Pro-LGBTQ Candidates Prevail in Wisconsin’s Spring Election; Voters Reject Campaigns Targeting Transgender People

Voters in Wisconsin have elected two candidates who support LGBTQ equality in the state’s hotly contested Spring Election. Susan Crawford was elevated to the state Supreme Court and Jill Underly will return as State Superintendent of Public Instruction.

Both candidates defeated opponents and campaign ads that targeted LGBTQ people, including a late surge of ads and text messages that baselessly spread fear about transgender people.

The Grio also reports that voters in La Crosse, Wisconsin, made history on Tuesday when they elected the city’s first Black and first out gay mayor, Shaundel Washington-Spivey.

La Crosse Mayor-elect Shaundel Washington-Spivey via WXOW
La Crosse Mayor-elect Shaundel Washington-Spivey via WXOW

A high number of voters turned out, with reports that polling places needed to print more ballots to accommodate. The race was billed as a “litmus test,” ABC News reported, for voters to “get the chance to weigh in on President Donald Trump’s agenda,” and express their opinion on the actions of Trump’s billionaire donor and “DOGE” leader Elon Musk.

Musk and related political action committees contributed more than $20million to Brad Schimel’s campaign, making this the most expensive judicial race in history. Musk personally campaigned in Wisconsin to offer two voters one million dollars each.

GLAAD and Fair Wisconsin had documented the LGBTQ and equality records of the supreme court candidates.

Crawford’s election secures a pro-equality majority on the court, which could decide on abortion access, voting rights, and accurately representative voting districts for the state legislature.

Schimel made several appearances at Alliance Defending Freedom events, LGBTQ Nation reported. The group was designated an anti-LGBTQ+ hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Schimel aired an anti-trans ad during the campaign attacking Crawford for supporting transgender rights.

Crawford defeated Brad Schimel by 10 percent (55% and over 1,300,000 votes / 45% and over 1,050,000 votes). Crawford spoke out against Musk’s attempts to influence the election. “I’ve got to tell you, as a little girl growing up in Chippewa Falls, I never could have imagined that I’d be taking on the richest man in the world,” Crawford said. “And we won.”

https://youtube.com/watch?v=eYZg-9UonbY%3Ffeature%3Doembed

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jill Underly beat Brittany Kinser by five percent (52.9% and over 1,100,000 votes / 47.1% and over 1,000,000 votes). Underly spoke in support of LGBTQ students during the campaign: “Schools should be inclusive spaces where all students feel safe, supported and able to fully participate in extracurricular activities. Excluding transgender students from sports not only harms their mental health and well-being but also goes against the principles of fairness and equal opportunity in education.” Kinser had campaigned to exclude trans students from school sports, and advocated for private school vouchers that compete for funding with public schools.

Jill Underly; photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner
Jill Underly; photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner

“These results are a victory for LGBTQ+ rights in Wisconsin, and a victory for every Wisconsinite as we build a more fair, more inclusive state,” said Abigail Swetz, Executive Director of Fair Wisconsin.

“They show a strong commitment to a Wisconsin that lives up to our state motto “Forward.” Thank you, Wisconsin, for voting for equality and against the cynical use of our LGBTQ+ community as political pawns.”

“Wisconsin voters spoke out on behalf of LGBTQ people and for future elections to be fair and free of interference from self-serving billionaires,” GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said.

“Lies and fearmongering about transgender people do not win elections. Wisconsin sent a message of support for the health and safety of each person, and reaffirmed that every vote and every voter matters.”

“Susan Crawford’s victory is a rejection of extremism and a clear message that Wisconsinites want to protect our civil liberties, reproductive rights, and environment,” said Milwaukee LGBTQ activist and GLAAD Media Institute Alumni Kat Klawes.

Kat Klawes, Milwaukee LGBTQ Activist, Citizen Action Climate Action Policy Coordinator, and GLAAD Media Institute Alum
Kat Klawes

“Voters turned out in historic numbers, so many that some polling places ran out of ballots because they know what’s at stake: the right to control our own bodies, breathe clean air and live in a democracy where every vote truly counts.”

Approximately 207,000 LGBTQ people live in Wisconsin. Due to a varying patchwork of local laws, only 21% of Wisconsin’s population is protected from discrimination based on gender identity, with 12% partially protected in limited areas such as employment, housing, or public accommodations.

“The identities we hold matter, and while race is a social construct, at the end of the day, who we are in our lived existence needs to be understood, appreciated and respected for what it is,” LaCrosse’s newly elected mayor said.

“I just look forward to making sure that we bring this community together across difference, across socio-economic status, across race, gender, sexual orientation, all of those things to ensure that we truly build a community that’s for everybody.”

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RFK Jr’s ‘dangerous’ health layoffs could undo years of HIV prevention research, experts warn

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Mass layoffs across the US Department of Health (HHS) could have “dangerous” effects on the prevention of HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STIs), not-for-profit groups have warned.

More than 10,000 HHS positions have reportedly disappeared since Robert F Kennedy Jr, better-known as RFK Jr, became secretary of health. Among them are positions in the Office of Infectious Disease and HIV/Aids Policy, as well as at the world-famous Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Other key areas affected include jobs in STI and HIV response teams, the dismantling of the PrEP Implementation Branch, and cutbacks on HIV awareness campaigns.

RFK Jr is notorious for his conspiratorial views on healthcare and medical treatment, especially when it comes to LGBTQ+ care. The vaccine sceptic once claimed that chemicals in the atmosphere could be turning children trans.

His latest move, which comes as part of a series of firings and cuts to federal funding by the Trump administration, was branded “irresponsible” by experts and civil rights groups, who warned that it was likely to have dangerous effects.

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) urged the government to reconsider, arguing that the plans would have “devastating consequences” for public health, particularly in the LGBTQ+ community, which have been “historically side-lined” when it comes to healthcare.

The advocacy group warned that actions such as further dismantling PrEP distribution branches would reduce access to vital information and resources about the preventative drug, which, it claimed, could risk “higher HIV rates”.

The cuts to the CDC would potentially cause vital data on HIV treatment to disappear and significantly delay “access to newer, more-effective treatments, particularly for marginalised groups”.

Matthew Rose, a social-justice advocate at HRC, branded the HHS cutbacks “irresponsible and dangerous” and risked more than just people’s jobs.

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“[The layoffs] are a direct blow to the health and well-being of LGBTQ+ communities around the nation,” he said. “Without vital surveillance, prevention programmes that expand access to PrEP, and data collection, we risk undoing years of progress in the fight against HIV and STIs.”

US could lose ability to ‘prevent HIV cases’ 

Elsewhere, the HIV+ Hepatitis Policy Institute warned that the US risked losing its ability to prevent further cases “in just a couple days”.

The organisation’s executive director, Carl Schmid, told the Washington Blade: “The expertise of the staff, along with their decades of leadership, has now been destroyed and cannot be replaced. We will feel the impacts of these decisions for years to come and it will certainly translate into an increase in new HIV infections and higher medical costs.”

Analysis of international HIV aid cuts in the US, France, the UK, Germany and the Netherlands showed that global cases could increase by 10 million by 2030, while HIV-related deaths might rise by 2.9 million by the start of the next decade.

Researchers at the Burnet Institute, in Australia, have cautioned that global infection rates could rocket if further cuts are made.

Anne Aslett, the chief executive of the Elton John Aids Foundation, said that if HIV funding was cut further, “millions more people will get sick, and health budgets will simply not be able to cope.”

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Trump admin orders scientists to research transition “regret”: It’s “America’s Cass Review”

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According to Nature, several National Institute of Health (NIH) employees who wish to remain anonymous confirmed that the White House is instructing the biomedical agency to study the negative effects of gender transitioning. This directive was issued after nearly every research project on transgender health was defunded by the NIH.

Since Donald Trump was sworn in on January 20th, he has been on a crusade to cut “unnecessary spending within government agencies” and heavily limit the rights and public presence of trans people in society. 

The NIH, the world’s largest financial contributor to biomedical research, was not spared from the ire of the Trump administration. According to this data sheet by the HHS, more than 270 NIH grants totaling $125 million were canceled. The number is believed to be far greater, with Nature reporting that more than $180 million in grants for research on transgender health were upended.

During this time, Matthew Memoli was the interim director of the NIH after being appointed by Trump, while Trump’s nominated choice, Jay Bhattacharya, awaited confirmation from the Senate. During Memoli’s last two weeks, he sent emails to the directors of various NIH institutes informing them that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) was directed to fund research on studies relating to transgender people who regret transitioning to align their bodies with their gender identity and what it calls “chemical and surgical mutilation” of children and adults.

Though no studies have been published as of this moment, many people reacting to the news on social media are comparing this to the Cass Review, a report on gender-affirming care for transgender youth released by the National Health Service in England. The Cass Review was heavily criticized for misrepresenting data to promote transphobic bias and is scoffed at by academic researchers and institutions globally.

Gillian Branstetter of the ACLU wrote in a post on Bluesky, “This is functionally what the Cass Review was in the UK and lots of people in prestige media swallowed it whole while accusing trans people ourselves of ‘politicizing science’ by pointing that out,” in reference to the NIH directive.

The legitimacy of the NIH’s findings will no doubt face similar criticism due to the Trump administration’s bias against funding medical research into trans lives.

Numerous studies have already been published that show that trans people are unlikely to regret medically transitioning. One study found that top surgery patients report 100% satisfaction with their surgery, according to the University of Michigan. Another study published in JAMA Pediatrics indicated that only 3% regret transitioning, which is far lower than for other medical treatments.

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Advocates cry foul after YouTube quietly removes ‘gender identity’ from hate speech policy

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YouTube quietly scrubbed the phrase “gender identity and expression” from its public-facing hate speech policy earlier this year, prompting concern fromLGBTQ+ advocates who warn the change removes clarity around protections for transgender and nonbinary users. According to the company, there’s no change in policy. 

However, the altered language occurred between January 29 and February 6, according to archived versions of the policy reviewed by The Advocate via the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. On January 29, the platform’s hate speech policy explicitly barred content that promotes violence or hatred based on “gender identity and expression.” By February 6, the next time a snapshot of the page was stored in the archive, that language was no longer listed. Instead, the revised version grouped “Sex, Gender, or Sexual Orientation” as protected categories, omitting any reference to gender identity.

A YouTube spokesperson told journalist Taylor Lorenz’s Substack newsletter User Mag, which first reported the change, that the update was part of routine “copy edits” and claimed enforcement of hate speech policies remains unchanged. However, the platform has not explained why it chose to remove an explicit reference to gender identity, a term that is foundational to many users’ lived experiences and protections under civil rights law in several jurisdictions.

YouTube reiterated its position in a statement to The Advocate. “Our hate speech policies haven’t changed,” a YouTube spokesperson said. They also said that “as we told the reporter,” the User Mag story mischaracterized the copy edits made to YouTube’s Help Center.

The change comes as the Trump administration moves aggressively to erase federal recognition of transgender and nonbinary people. Just hours after returning to office on January 20, President Donald Trump signed an executive order declaring that the U.S. government would only recognize two sexes — male and female — determined at birth. The order requires federal agencies to remove references to “gender identity” from policies, identification documents, healthcare programs, and nondiscrimination protections.

Advocacy groups and LGBTQ+ creators say the revision is more than cosmetic — it’s a dangerous rollback at a time when transgender people face escalating attacks both online and offline.

“The larger implications of YouTube’s actions should concern everyone,” a spokesperson for GLAAD told The Advocate. “When a company, or political leaders, decide that certain groups of people are to be seen as less than others — it too often results in real-world harm. YouTube and other platforms should be protecting LGBTQ creators and users during a time when right-wing extremists and others are seeking to harm them.”

Longtime trans YouTube creator Samantha Lux told User Mag she’d noticed a rise in hateful rhetoric on the platform. “The right-wing creators have gotten a lot more brave about how they talk about trans issues,” Lux said. “If you say that you’re protecting against gender, it’s more like you can’t discriminate against somebody for being a woman. But gender identity really zones in on the trans aspect of it.”

The update comes amid broader cultural and political efforts to erase references to gender identity. Just weeks ago, Iowa became the first state to eliminate “gender identity” from its civil rights protections. At the federal level, the Trump administration has moved to eliminate mentions of gender identity in agency communications. Project 2025, a sweeping conservative policy roadmap, calls for deleting the terms “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” from government and public discourse.

In GLAAD’s 2024 Social Media Safety Index, YouTube scored 58 out of 100. The platform was credited for launching a pronoun display option for creators but criticized for falling short in key areas. YouTube is the only major platform evaluated as lacking a clear policy protecting users — including public figures — from targeted misgendering and deadnaming. The company also provides little transparency on addressing wrongful demonetization, filtering, and removing LGBTQ content from ad services.

“YouTube quietly removing ‘gender identity and expression’ from its list of protected groups is a major radical shift away from best practices in the field of trust and safety and content moderation,” a GLAAD spokesperson told User Mag. “Like Meta’s recent dangerous rollbacks of hate speech protections for transgender and nonbinary people, the removal of these specific words appears to be a responsive alignment with the anti-LGBTQ agenda of Project 2025.”

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Taliban arrests & beats two queer women in Afghanistan. They might get death by stoning.

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LGBTQ+ activists Maeve Alcina Pieescu and Maryam Ravish were arrested by the Taliban last month while trying to flee Afghanistan. According to the U.K.-based human rights non-profit the Peter Tatchell Foundation, the two women face possible torture and execution.

“They are expected to be tortured to reveal the names of other LGBTs and sentenced to a long jail term or possibly executed,” said Nemat Sadat, CEO of Afghan LGBT+ network Roshaniya, which is working with the foundation to press for the two women’s release.

In a March 31 press release, the Peter Tatchell Foundation said that 19-year-old Ravish and 23-year-old Pieescu, who is trans, had planned to board a flight from Kabul to Iran with Ravish’s 20-year-old partner Parwen Hussaini on March 20.

“When Maryam and Maeve went to board the plane, they were detained by the Taliban’s intelligence unit who searched their phones and discovered LGBT+ content,” Sadat said. “Maeve and Maryam were beaten by the Taliban.”

According to Sadat, Ravish’s family had forced her to marry a man. Pieescu had been trying to help her escape the country “at great personal risk.”

Hussaini, a Roshaniya member, was able to board the flight in Iran as of March 31. She later recorded a video in which she said that since Pieescu’s and Ravish’s arrest, both her own and Ravish’s family have threatened her life. She also said that Pieescu’s family in Afghanistan has “dismissed” Roshaniya’s offer to work with them to secure her release.

However, Pieescu’s Michigan-based sister, Susan Battaglia, provided a statement to the Peter Tatchell Foundation saying that she is “distraught” over her sister’s imprisonment.

“My family in Afghanistan is very anxious about Maeve being tortured and killed,” Battaglia said. “During the Taliban’s interrogation, Maeve confessed that she is not a Muslim and doesn’t believe in Islam. This is scary for our family since the penalty for apostasy — under Sharia law — is death. We ask from [sic] the world governments to demand that Maeve be released from prison and safely leave the country.”

Hussaini said that while she has had no word from Ravish and does not know “what situation they are in now,” it is possible that the two women have been put in solitary confinement and could be sentenced to death by stoning.

The Taliban returned to power following the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, instituting an immediate return to its interpretation of Sharia law. As Sadat noted, under Taliban rule, homosexuality is forbidden and women are required to have a male chaperone if they wish to leave their homes.

In October 2023, Afghan LGBTQ+ rights group Rainbow Afghanistan detailed the harrowing abuses queer people in the country have faced since 2021. In an open letter, the group said that LGBTQ+ Afghans had been tortured, stoned to death, sexually assaulted, and forced into heterosexual marriages, among other atrocities, while “a large number of members of the LGBT community lost their lives due to suicide.” The group called on the United Nations and international human rights organizations to act.

Hussaini described the threat that she, Pieescu, and Ravish face from the Taliban and their own relatives as “existential.”

“We ask human rights organizations and international LGBT+ organizations that work towards helping LGBT+ people to please work with us to pursue our freedom and save our loved ones from harm’s way,” she said.

Sadat, similarly, called on Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, OutRight International, ILGA Asia, Stonewall, Rainbow Railroad, and the Human Rights Campaign to “spread the word about the arrest of Mariam and Maeve and pressure the Taliban regime to release these two brave LGBT+ Afghan human rights defenders.”

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US Citizenship and Immigration Services implements “cruel & unnecessary” anti-trans policy

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This week, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it will only recognize “two biological sexes.”

In a Wednesday, April 2, press release, the agency said that it was “updating the USCIS Policy Manual to clarify that it only recognizes two biological sexes, male and female.”

The release cited President Donald Trump’s January 20, “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.” 

The president’s anti-trans order similarly declared that the U.S. government will only recognize two sexes, male and female, and falsely characterized so-called “efforts to eradicate the biological reality of sex” as fundamental attacks on women “depriving them of their dignity, safety, and well-being.”

Among the order’s many anti-trans provisions, it instructed government agencies “to end the dederal funding of gender ideology.” It declared that “‘sex’ shall refer to an individual’s immutable biological classification as either male or female” and “is not a synonym for and does not include the concept of ‘gender identity.’” It also required that all federal agency forms that list an individual’s sex list only “male or female” as options.

Prior to Wednesday’s announcement, USCIS included an X gender option on intake its intake form for gender-nonconforming immigrants applying for naturalization status. That change was announced almost exactly one year ago, in April 2024.

But in its Wednesday release, USCIS said that per its new guidelines, the agency “considers a person’s sex as that which is generally evidenced on the birth certificate issued at or nearest to the time of birth. If the birth certificate issued at or nearest to the time of birth indicates a sex other than male or female, USCIS will base the determination of sex on secondary evidence.”

As the Los Angeles Blade notes, the USCIS Policy Manual defines “secondary evidence” as “evidence that may demonstrate a fact is more likely than not true, but the evidence does not derive from a primary, authoritative source.” According to Boundless, that may include medical records or other government-issued documents.

While the agency said that it would not “deny benefits solely because the benefit requestor did not properly indicate his or her sex,” it would issue documents on which the “sex” field is left blank or that indicate a sex different from the one an applicant was assigned at birth.

“There are only two sexes — male and female,” DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. “President Trump promised the American people a revolution of common sense, and that includes making sure that the policy of the U.S. government agrees with simple biological reality. Proper management of our immigration system is a matter of national security, not a place to promote and coddle an ideology that permanently harms children and robs real women of their dignity, safety, and well-being.”

Immigration Equality Law and Policy Director Bridget Crawford called the policy “cruel and unnecessary,” adding that it “puts transgender, nonbinary, and intersex immigrants in danger,” according to the Blade. Crawford said that by forcing people to carry identity documents that do not reflect their gender identity, the U.S. government is opening them up to increased discrimination, harassment, and violence.

The policy, she said, will affect people’s ability to travel, work, access healthcare, and live their lives authentically.

“This is not about ‘common sense,’” Crawford said. “It is about erasing an entire community from the legal landscape.”

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Ohio Democrats call out Republicans for targeting LGBTQ+ people in 2025-2026 budget

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Republican legislators in Ohio have added anti-LGBTQ+ provisions to its 2025 budget that would officially recognize only two sexes, ban Pride flags from government buildings, and restrict the availability of LGBTQ+ books in public libraries, local media report.

One of the provisions targets gender identity by declaring the state will only recognize the binary male and female sexes for official government documents and policies, declaring the two “sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality.”

Democrat state Rep. Rose Sweeney questioned both the “continuous attack” on the LGBTQ+ community in Ohio as well as the attempt to enact de facto legislation without meaningful debate and an up-or-down vote on the proposals.

“I would ask why they feel the need to put this into the state budget,” Sweeney said of the anti-LGBTQ+ provisions, Cleveland.com reports. “They should do a stand-alone bill and have people be able to come and testify for or against that piece of legislation.”

Brian Stewart, chair of the House Finance Committee, described the provision recognizing only two sexes as a “common sense” measure.

“It conforms with federal law, and it’s common sense,” Rep. Brian Stewart told reporters on Tuesday, the Columbus Dispatch reports. “We codify that in the law and kind of put this behind us. It’s like saying the world is round instead of flat.”

He added that if passed, the provisions would become the “overriding standard” for the state.

Other provisions would reportedly mirror similar laws passed in other states or executive orders issued by Pres. Donald Trump. One would define gender identity as a “subjective sense of self, disconnected from biological reality,” while another would restrict the placement of LGBTQ-themed books in public libraries to ensure they are not seen or checked out by youth. Another provision would ban non-approved flags like the Pride flag.

The provisions come in response to the legislative response to Republican Gov. Mike DeWine’s proposed $61 billion 2025-2026 budget. Republican lawmakers slashed a billion from the budget, cutting a proposed child tax credit funded by a tax on cigarettes.

“There are no tax increases in this budget,” Stewart said, the Ohio Capital Journal reports. “We are not raising taxes on sports betting, marijuana, or tobacco products.

While Republicans opposed new taxes in the budgets, they did approve selling bonds to provide $400 million to the Cleveland Browns NFL football franchise to build a new domed stadium.

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Trans student’s arrest for violating Florida bathroom law is thought to be a first

A transgender college student declared “I am here to break the law” before entering a women’s restroom at the Florida State Capitol and being led out in handcuffs by police. Civil rights attorneys say the arrest of Marcy Rheintgen last month is the first they know of for violating transgender bathroom restrictions passed by numerous state legislatures across the country.

Capitol police had been alerted and were waiting for Rheintgen, 20, when she entered the building in Tallahassee March 19. They told her she would receive a trespass warning once she entered the women’s restroom to wash her hands and pray the rosary, but she was later placed under arrest when she refused to leave, according to an arrest affidavit.

Rheintgen faces a misdemeanor trespassing charge punishable by up to 60 days in jail and is due to appear in court in May.

“I wanted people to see the absurdity of this law in practice,” Rheintgen told The Associated Press. “If I’m a criminal, it’s going to be so hard for me to live a normal life, all because I washed my hands. Like, that’s so insane.”

At least 14 states have adopted laws barring transgender women from entering women’s bathrooms at public schools and, in some cases, other government buildings. Only two — Florida and Utah — criminalize the act. A judge on Wednesday temporarily blocked Montana’s new bathroom law.

Rheintgen’s arrest in Florida is the first that American Civil Liberties Union attorneys are aware of in any state with a criminal ban, senior staff attorney Jon Davidson said.

Rheintgen was in town visiting her grandparents when she decided to pen a letter to each of Florida’s 160 state lawmakers informing them of her plan to enter a public restroom inconsistent with her sex assigned at birth. The Illinois resident said her act of civil disobedience was fueled by anger at seeing a place she loves and visits regularly grow hostile toward trans people.

“I know that you know in your heart that this law is wrong and unjust,” she wrote in her letter to lawmakers. “I know that you know in your heart that transgender people are human too, and that you can’t arrest us away. I know that you know that I have dignity. That’s why I know that you won’t arrest me.”

Her arrest comes as many Republican-led states that have enacted restroom restrictions grapple with how to enforce them. Laws in Alabama, Kansas, Kentucky and North Dakota do not spell out any enforcement mechanism, and even the state laws that do largely rely on private individuals to report violations.

In Utah, activists flooded a tip line created to alert state officials to possible violations of its bathroom law with thousands of hoax reports in an effort to shield transgender residents and their allies from any legitimate complaints that could lead to an investigation.

The Republican sponsors of the Florida bathroom law, Rep. Rachel Plakon and Sen. Erin Grall, did not immediately respond Thursday to phone messages, emails and visits to their offices to seek comment on Rheintgen’s arrest. They have said the restrictions are needed to protect women and girls in single-sex spaces.

Opponents of the law such as Nadine Smith, executive director of the LGBTQ+ advocacy group Equality Florida, said it creates dangerous situations for all by giving people license to police others’ bodies in bathrooms.

“The arrest of Marcy Rheintgen is not about safety,” Smith said. “It’s about cruelty, humiliation and the deliberate erosion of human dignity. Transgender people have been using restrooms aligned with their gender for generations without incident. What’s changed is not their presence — it’s a wave of laws designed to intimidate them out of public life.”

If Rheintgen is convicted, she worries she could be jailed with men, forced to cut her long hair and prevented temporarily from taking gender-affirming hormones.

“People are telling me it’s a legal test, like this is the first case that’s being brought,” she said. “It’s how they test the law. But I didn’t do this to test the law. I did it because I was upset. I can’t have any expectations for what’s going to happen because this has never been prosecuted before. I’m horrified and scared.”

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