Tag: LGBTQ

GOP Virginia governor vetoes bill seeking to protect PrEP users from insurance discrimination

*This is being reported by LGBTNation

Virginia’s anti-LGBTQ+ Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) vetoed a bill seeking to ban health and life insurance companies from discriminating against people taking the HIV prevention drug regemin PrEP.

H.B. 2769 amends the current insurance anti-discrimination law by explicitly stating a company cannot “Refuse to insure, refuse to continue to insure, or limit the amount or extent of life insurance or accident and sickness insurance coverage available to an individual or charge an individual a different rate for the same coverage based solely and without any additional actuarial risks upon the status of such individual as having received pre-exposure prophylaxis for the prevention of human immunodeficiency virus”.

Both chambers of the Virginia General Assembly have Democratic majorities. The bill passed the state Senate 24-15 and the House of Delegates 53 to 44. The veto was one of 157 bills the governor vetoed on Monday as part of what the Virginia Mercury called his “veto storm to drown progressive legislation.”

He also vetoed a bill that would have incrementally raised the minimum wage to $15 per hour and one that sought to expand voter turnout by making state and local elections at the same time as the presidential primary during election years.

Youngkin did, however, sign a landmark campaign finance reform bill that passed with bipartisan support. H.B. 2165 bans personal use of campaign funds.

Youngkin has supported numerous policies attacking LGBTQ+ students under the guise of so-called “parents’ rights” in education. His policies for trans youth in schools include the forced misgendering or deadnaming of kids who don’t have parents’ permission, allowing youth to “opt-out” of being near trans kids in gendered spaces, and forced outing of trans kids to their parents.

In an October 2021 interview with the Associated Press, Youngkin said he didn’t personally support same-sex marriage. In 2024, however, he signed a bill codifying same-sex marriage in the Commonwealth.

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Former NC Gov. Pat McCrory says transgender restrictions are ‘more complex’ than bathrooms

*This is being reported by WFMY 2.

A new bill introduced in the North Carolina Senate would significantly restrict transgender rights, drawing parallels to the controversial House Bill 2 from 2016 that sparked nationwide debate and economic backlash.

Senate Bill 516, filed by Sen. Vickie Sawyer from Iredell County and Sen. Brad Overcash from Gaston County, would require transgender individuals to use the bathroom or locker room of their biological sex in public schools and prisons. 

However, the bathroom rules aren’t as extensive as House Bill 2.  Some institutions that receive government funding, such as domestic violence shelters, would be impacted, but many government buildings would be exempt. It would also allow individuals to sue facilities if they believe these rules have been violated.

Senate Bill 516 also goes a step further, defining sex strictly as male and female and preventing individuals from changing their birth certificates or driver’s licenses after gender reassignment surgery.

The controversial 2016 bill, House Bill 2 was often referred to as the “bathroom bill.” However, former North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory said that was a misleading description that he hopes is changed this time around.

“It’s much more complex than that. We’re dealing with locker rooms and showers and women’s sports and fairness and even security regarding what your driver’s licenses say,” McCrory said. “It’s a very complex issue. It’s a very emotional issue.”

McCrory acknowledged that many cite this controversy as the reason he narrowly lost his reelection campaign in 2016. It put North Carolina in the national spotlight due to the nationwide boycotts that followed, leading to an estimated $3.76 billion in economic losses. The law was partially repealed after a letter signed by more than 200 CEOs pushing for the change.

In the time since, many other states have passed similar legislation without such sweeping boycotts. McCrory said the companies owe North Carolina an apology.

“PayPal, Bruce Springsteen, Ringo Starr, you name it. And frankly, I think a lot of them owe North Carolina an apology,” McCrory said. “I don’t think corporations are ever going to get involved in this issue again, because public opinion now has turned, although it is still an extremely complex issue, and we ought to have good dialogue on it.”

Critics still worry this bill will cause an uptick in discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community, especially transgender youth.

Time Out Youth, a Charlotte-area nonprofit that provides support for LGBTQ+ kids and young adults including housing and mental health counseling, says it’s already seeing a steep increase in need.

“We saw more new young people last month than we’d seen all of the previous year in one month,” spokesperson Elissa Miller said.

While they are not able to comment on this specific bill, Miller says this is a reminder of what transgender youth are facing right now.

“Being a queer young person right now is very difficult,” she said. “Their very identities are kind of under debate, in the spotlight. Decisions are being made about them, without them.”

Equality NC also sent WCNC Charlotte a statement, saying in part: “We were disheartened to learn of yet another attack on our transgender community — this time in the form of SB 516.”

McCrory says he expects this version of the bill to face less scrutiny and hopes the people on both sides of the debate can avoid it as well.

“My family and I got a lot of physical and verbal threats during that three-month period, and it was not right, and I wanted to have good conversation,” he said. “It’s not time for anyone to spike the ball saying we were right 10 years ago. It’s time for respect and dignity.”

The bill’s sponsors did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

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Netherlands tightens US travel advice for LGBTQ+ people

*This is reported on Politico.eu

German and Finnish authorities have taken similar steps, and Belgium is planning to do the same, as the Trump administration removes some protections for sexual minorities.

The Netherlands has tightened its travel advice to the United States for LGBTQ+ people, highlighting an unease among European nations about Washington’s policies toward sexual minorities.

The Dutch foreign ministry’s travel advice portal now notes that people belonging to a sexual minority should take into account that “laws and customs in the US towards LGBTQI+ people may differ from those in the Netherlands.”

Dutch public broadcaster NOS points out that the travel advisory previously stated that U.S. laws were “comparable to those in the Netherlands,” with its liberal, progressive stance on LGBTQ+ rights.

Following the Dutch notice, the Belgian government announced that it is also working on adjusting the travel advice in light of stricter border controls and changing attitudes toward transgender people and the wider LGBTQ+ community, Flemish public broadcaster VRT reported.

German and Finnish authorities have also tightened their travel warnings for the U.S. after President Donald Trump took steps to remove some protections for sexual minorities, such as only accepting M or F (male or female) as gender identification on passports and visas.

”It reflects a sad and completely needless reality,” Dutch MEP Kim van Sparrentak, from the Greens group, told POLITICO.

Van Sparrentak, who also heads the European Parliament’s LGBTIQ+ intergroup, stressed that the liberal European fears are “not only for people traveling to the U.S. but for a large part of the U.S. population too, trans and intersex people in particular.”

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North Carolina Democrats push bills for reproductive rights and LGBTQ+ protection

*This is being reported by WFMY 2.

North Carolina Democrats filed a slew of bills Tuesday all centered around reproductive health and LGBTQ+ protections.

According to Democratic lawmakers, some of the bills will guarantee the rights to use contraception to prevent pregnancy and access fertility treatments through IVF. Others will ban conversion therapy and the use/perception of gender and sexual orientation as a defense in assault and homicide cases. An equality for all bill is also proposed.

“We need to be done with treating people as anything less than full human beings deserving of respect and dignity,” state Sen. Julie Mayfield said.

State Sen. Sophia Chitlik said, “Contraception is taken to support people with a variety of health challenges, including polycystic ovary syndrome.”

While state Democrats said they’re pushing their priorities, Republicans filed Senate Bill 516 Tuesday. Entitled the Women’s Safety and Protection Act, it is sweeping legislation that would limit a transgender person’s access to bathrooms and their ability to change legal documents.

Republicans have previously said banning biological men from women’s bathrooms is a safety measure.

According to Democrats, Republicans are only attacking marginalized communities and putting LGBTQ+ and transgender communities in danger.

“If you don’t believe it, just look out there at all those people who just want to be recognized as humans,” state Rep. Allison Dahle said. “They don’t care if you recognize their pronouns, they just want to be human and live their lives.”

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Raleigh leaders work to preserve history of LGBTQ community, recognizes significant sites in city

*This is being reported by ABC 11.

Raleigh leaders are embarking on a special effort to document historic and significant LGBTQ sites around the city.

On Monday night, a consultant hired by the city presented a study of those places, as well as recommendations on the locations that should be given an historic designation.

Over 250 properties have been identified.

Willie Pilkington, a resident in Raleigh said we all have something to contribute.

“When you see a marker, and if it’s a gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender reference point, then that’s just one more ‘ah ha’,” he said. “This is who those people are. This what they actually did…and that’s what those markers do.”

City leaders said the effort is a step in preserving the stories and history of the LGBTQ community.

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Trump administration cancels at least 68 grants focused on LGBTQ health questions

*This is reported by WFMY 2.

 A surge of grant cancellations hit researchers focused on the health of gay, lesbian and transgender people last week, as the Trump administration continues to target what it describes as ideologically driven science.

Last week the U.S. government terminated at least 68 grants to 46 institutions totaling nearly $40 million when awarded, according to a government website. Some of the grant money has already been spent, but at least $1.36 million in future support was yanked as a result of the cuts, a significant undercount because estimates were available for less than a third of grants.

Most were in some way related to sexual minorities, including research focused on HIV prevention. Other canceled studies centered on cancer, youth suicide and bone health.

Health and Human Services spokesman Andrew Nixon said the agency is “dedicated to restoring our agencies to their tradition of upholding gold-standard, evidence-based science.” The grants were awarded by the National Institutes of Health, an agency under HHS.

One canceled project at Vanderbilt University had been following the overall health of more than 1,200 LGBTQ people age 50 and older. Most of the money has been spent from the grant funding the project, but it was up for renewal in April, said Tara McKay, who leads Vanderbilt’s LGBTQ+ Policy Lab.

She said the grant won’t be renewed because of the termination, which jeopardizes any long-term results. Still, the Vanderbilt project had already generated two dozen published papers, including work used to train doctors to provide better care to LGBTQ people, increasing the likelihood of cancer screenings and other preventive care.

“That saves us a lot of money in health care and saves lives,” McKay said.

Insights from minority populations can increase knowledge that affects everyone, said Simon Rosser, who studies cancer in gay and bisexual men at the University of Minnesota.

“We now no longer have anywhere studying LGBT cancer in the United States,” said Rosser, who saw his grants canceled on Friday.

“When you decide to cancel all the grants on sexual minorities, you really slow down scientific discovery, for everyone,” Rosser said. Young researchers will lose their jobs, and the field as a whole will suffer, he added.

“It’s a loss of a whole generation of science,” Rosser said.

Termination letters seen by The Associated Press gave as reasons that the research was “unscientific” or did “nothing to enhance the health of many Americans.”

That language felt personal and stinging, McKay said.

“My project’s been accused of having no benefit to the American people. And, you know, queer and trans folks are Americans also,” McKay said.

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State Department to remove LGBTQ information from annual human rights report

*This is being reported by the Washington Blade

The State Department has not commented a report that indicates it plans to remove LGBTQ-specific information from their annual human rights report.

Politico on March 19 reported the Trump-Vance administration “is slashing the State Department’s annual human rights report — cutting sections about the rights of women, the disabled, the LGBTQ+ community, and more.” The Politico article notes it obtained “documents” and spoke with “a current and a former State Department official who were familiar with the plan.”

“We are not previewing the human rights report at this time,” a State Department spokesperson told the Washington Blade on March 21.

Congress requires the State Department to release a human rights report each year. 

The 2023 report specifically noted Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act that contains a death penalty provision for “aggravated homosexuality.” The 2022 report highlighted, among other things, anti-LGBTQ crackdowns in Afghanistan, Russia, and Hungary and so-called conversion therapy.

President Donald Trump since he took office has signed a number of executive orders that have specifically targeted the LGBTQ and intersex community. These include the “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government” directive that, among other things, bans the State Department from issuing passports with “X” gender markers.

The State Department has eliminated references to transgender travelers from its travel advisories. Germany, Denmark, and Finland have issued travel advisories for trans and nonbinary people who are planning to visit the U.S.

A directive that Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued bans embassies and other U.S. diplomatic institutions from flying the Pride flag. (Former President Joe Biden in March 2024 signed a government spending bill with a provision that banned Pride flags from flying over U.S. embassies.)

The U.S. has withdrawn from the U.N. LGBTI Core Group, a group of U.N. member states that have pledged to support LGBTQ and intersex rights, and the Organization of American States’ LGBTI Core Group. The Trump-Vance administration’s decision to suspend most U.S. foreign aid spending has been a “catastrophe” for the global LGBTQ and intersex rights movement.

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Dallas March for Queer & Trans Liberation

*Check out the photos on the Dallas Voice

Several hundred people crowded into the parking lot between Cathedral of Hope and Resource Center on Sunday afternoon for a short rally before pouring out onto Cedar Springs Road and marching to The Crossroads.

The March for Queer & Trans Liberation, organized by a coalition of more than 20 local organizations with GLAAD’s Texas representative and communications director for Texas Latino Pride Jacob Reyes, was held in response to the ongoing wave of anti-LGBTQ legislation and policies coming out of Washington, D.C., and state Capitols around the country, including Austin where Texas lawmakers this session have introduced a record number — 205 — of anti-LGBTQ bills, especially focusing on anti-trans efforts.

In explaining the reasons last week for the march, Cece Cox, CEO for Resource Center which was one of the organizations behind the march said, “The Queer & Trans Liberation March sends a message to all in Dallas and across Texas that when we stand up and show up for our communities, we move closer to reclaiming justice.’

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This scenic town in Croatia is selling houses for just 13 cents—but there’s a catch

*This is being reported by CNBC. We are also unsure if it applied to legally married same sex couples, since Croatia has a different law with similar rights for same sex couples under the Life Partnership Act, which is not marriage equality.

Forget a penny for your thoughts; what about 13 cents for a house in Croatia?

Legrad, a town in northern Croatia, has been trying to get more people to settle in the area by offering houses for pennies. It’s an initiative they started in 2018.

The small town, with around 2,000 people, borders Hungary and has seen its population dwindle since the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian empire in 1918.

In January, government officials announced another batch of houses is ready for sale at just 13 cents.

To be eligible to buy one of the houses, applicants must be under 45 years old, in a marital or extramarital partnership, and have no criminal record.

Most notably, if you want to snag one of these low-cost homes, applicants can’t already own property — though officials don’t specify if that means in Croatia or anywhere else in the world.

Local Croatian media outlet HRT reported that since the program started in 2018, there are more children today than there were five years ago, and as a result, they’re even building a new daycare center.

“A total of five houses ready for occupancy have been sold. Three families have already moved in, and what delights us is that all three families welcomed a new member during their move-in. This has increased the number of children in the daycare center,” Ivan Sabolić, the mayor of Legrad, told HRT.

In 2021, Legrad put up 19 empty houses and abandoned construction sites for sale at the price of 1 kuna, Croatia’s currency at the time. Seventeen were sold, according to Reuters. The houses were in various states of disrepair, so to help out, the municipality said it would pay $25,000 kuna (about $3,558) for any necessary renovations.

For new residents who wanted to buy a privately owned home, the town offered to cover 20% of the price or up to 35,000 kuna (about $5,056). It’s unclear if the town will offer the same incentives this time around.

Croatia isn’t the first country to take this kind of approach to bringing new life to their shrinking populations. Mussomeli, a town in Sicily, went viral for selling off deteriorating homes for 1 euro.

“The Sopranos” and “Good Fellas” star Lorraine Bracco also bought into this trend when she purchased a 1 euro home in a different Italian town called Sambuca di Sicilia.

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NIH at DOGE Behest Cancels Nearly $2.2 Million in University Minority Research Grants

*The below is part of a larger report from Ohio’s NBC4.

Nearly $2.2 million worth of grant funding for university research was cancelled earlier this month by the NIH at the behest of DOGE. The majority of the funding dealt with the LGBTQ community. The remainder was specific to structural racism.

The report of course stems from a post on X by DOGE “itself”. The news article does confirm the cancellation of the cannabis use study funding. Others have not been independently verified as having been cancelled.

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