Tag: politics

Federal judge shuts down Texas drag ban: If you don’t like drag “just don’t go”

Read more at LGBTQ Nation.

A federal judge in Texas ruled this week that the state’s drag ban is an unconstitutional restriction of free speech in violation of the First Amendment.

US District Court Judge David Hittner’s Tuesday decision strikes down S.B. 12, a 2023 law signed by anti-LGBTQ+ Gov. Greg Abbott (R). While the law does not explicitly mention the word drag, it criminalized “sexually explicit” performances in the presence of minors, defining such performances as those featuring “a male performer exhibiting as a female, or a female performer exhibiting as a male, who uses clothing, makeup, or other similar physical markers and who sings, lip syncs, dances, or otherwise performs before an audience.”

Under the law, businesses that host all-ages drag shows faced up to $10,000 in fines, and performers could be charged with a Class A misdemeanor resulting in up to one year in prison.

S.B. 12 was initially scheduled to take effect on September 1, 2023. But several LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations and drag groups — including The Woodlands Pride, Abilene Pride Alliance, and 360 Queen Entertainment — challenged the law. In September 2023, Hittner issued a permanent injunction blocking enforcement of the law, ruling that it constituted “viewpoint discrimination” and that it was “substantially overbroad” and “unconstitutionally vague.”

After Texas appealed the decision, the US 5th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Hittner’s permanent injunction last November, sending the case back to the lower court and instructing Hittner to focus only on the claims from 360 Queen Entertainment. The appeals court’s ruling also allowed the law to go into effect while the case played out.

On Tuesday, Hittner once again ruled that S.B. 12 “is an UNCONSTITUTIONAL restriction on speech” that “violates the First Amendment,” even under the conditions the 5th Circuit outlined, according to The Texan.

The law, Hittner wrote, “applies to countless protected performances that might contain elements that are ‘in some sense erotic’ and meet either the law’s definition of ‘nude’ or ‘sexual conduct’ but are not obscene or obscene for minors and are thus constitutionally protected.” Hittner cited examples including a gymnast performing in a leotard and a singer performing in a lowcut dress.

As NBC News notes, Hittner went so far as to cite the late Dolly Parton, an LGBTQ+ ally who supported drag performers and even gifted a rhinestone guitar to drag performer and advocate Brigitte Bandit, one of the plaintiffs in the case, as an example of a performer who might be targeted by the law for her reputation “as a voluptuous sex symbol because of her big hair, flamboyant clothes and breast exposure.”

Hittner further ruled that “S.B. 12 is unconstitutionally vague because it fails to give a reasonable person notice of what is prohibited.” While “multiple aspects of the law render it vague,” Hittner wrote, the “most glaring issue” relates to the inclusion of the term “prurient interest in sex.” The fact that the term “is undefined in Texas law, lacks a readily ascertainable ordinary meaning, and applies to all performances targeted by the statute,” Hittner wrote, “renders S.B. 12 irredeemably vague… in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause.”

“Finally, for those who find such activities as described in this case offensive, the solution is relatively simple,” Hittner wrote. “Just don’t go.”

In several Instagram Stories posts Tuesday, Bandit responded to Hittner’s ruling, writing that “drag is free speech b—-” and that the decision “is a huge win for Texas and my t——.”

Meanwhile, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R), who is running for US Senate, described Hittner’s ruling as “a profoundly flawed decision that endangers our children and is an affront to Texas values.”

“I will appeal this decision immediately and continue to fight to protect our kids,” Paxton wrote in an X post.

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NC’s newest bathroom battle is stoking worries about LGBTQ student harassment

Read more at Charlotte Observer.

Transgender students are absorbing the consequences of a growing fight in Cabarrus County Schools, where two federal lawsuits and a Trump administration investigation are challenging how the district handles bathroom access, LGBTQ advocates say. For months, parents, elected officials and community members clashed over whether transgender students should be allowed to use bathrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender identity. But advocates say another question has received less attention: What does the fight mean for LGBTQ students going to school every day?

“When I think about a trans girl going into a girl’s restroom, I worry about her harassment, not what she will do to other young people,” said Sarah Mikhail, CEO of Time Out Youth. Time Out Youth serves LGBTQ young people ages 13 to 24 in Charlotte and surrounding communities. Within the organization, young people regularly talk about the broader social climate surrounding bathrooms, sports and LGBTQ issues in schools, she said. Mikhail said the effect shows up in basic routines. Some young people Time Out Youth works with avoid school bathrooms entirely because they do not feel safe using them. She said that kind of vigilance does not stay confined to the restroom. Students who are constantly calculating where they can go, who might be watching them or whether an adult will support them can have a harder time concentrating, asking for help or feeling comfortable enough to learn. “We have young people that do not go to the bathroom all day at school,” Mikhail said. “This is not uncommonly reported.”

LGBTQ students not only face school rules, they also hear messages from politicians, social media, family members and community leaders about what gender means and what transgender people should be allowed to do. For some students, those messages arrive before they even figure out how they identify or whether they feel safe coming out. That uncertainty, she said, can impact whether students feel comfortable telling a teacher they had a hard night, asking for help on an assignment or using the name and pronouns that feel right to them. “You need to feel emotionally okay to share and be yourself at school,” Mikhail said. “So then you can be open to learning.” How Cabarrus became a legal battleground Cabarrus County Schools does not have a separate policy governing transgender students’ bathroom access. School board attorney William Isenhour has said the district handles the relatively rare situations on a case-by-case basis while attempting to comply with federal law.

The district has repeatedly pointed to a 2020 Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling, Grimm v. Gloucester County School Board. In that case, the court ruled a Virginia school board violated Title IX and constitutional protections when it required a transgender boy to use bathrooms based on his sex assigned at birth or use a private restroom. Because the Fourth Circuit includes North Carolina, Cabarrus officials have said the ruling binds the district. The Trump administration now takes a different view. The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights opened a Title IX investigation into Cabarrus in June after complaints that the district allowed transgender students to use girls’ bathrooms and locker rooms. Federal officials said the administration interprets Title IX based on biological sex and is investigating whether the district violated the privacy and safety rights of female students. On July 31, three anonymous 17-year-old Cox Mill High School students and their parents sued the district. Represented by the conservative legal organization America First Legal, they argue transgender students should not be permitted to use multi-person bathrooms and locker rooms corresponding with their gender identity.

A second lawsuit followed one week later. Cabarrus father Brandon Matthews sued after school officials declined to promise they would notify him if transgender students were permitted to use the same sex-segregated bathrooms or locker rooms as his children. He argues parents have a constitutional and religious right to receive that information and request another arrangement. The Cabarrus controversy comes as transgender rights have become a major national political talking point, with fights over girls’ sports, bathroom access and school policies playing out in courts and school board meetings. ‘Stop arguing about bathrooms’ Rebecca Herrick, a mother of three Cabarrus County Schools students, said she sees the bathroom fight as a distraction from other issues in the district. Her own children have thrived socially in CCS, Herrick said, and she wants transgender students to be treated the same. She said the controversy pulls energy away from issues that affect students more, including the district’s ongoing financial and operational challenges.

“It is time to stop arguing about bathrooms,” Herrick said. “By shifting the conversation to social issues, they are successfully diverting public energy.” Herrick said she worries that it sends a message about who belongs in school when adults devote so much attention to policing which bathrooms students use. She said the repeated lawsuits and public fights over bathrooms risk turning transgender students themselves into the subject of controversy. “These bathroom bills and the resulting lawsuits create a climate of fear and exclusion that treats transgender students as problems rather than children who deserve support,” Herrick said. ‘They’re just kids’ Joshua Jernigan said he is already hearing that fear from families. Jernigan founded the Gender Education Network, which works with transgender and gender-diverse children age 12 and younger and their families across North and South Carolina.

Jernigan said his organization has heard directly from families since the lawsuits and federal investigation intensified attention on the district. Some have reached out worried about what the legal fight could mean for their children and whether it will make school feel less safe. “We’ve had a lot of families reach out in a bit of a panic,” Jernigan said. He said transgender and gender-diverse children may not follow the legal arguments themselves, but they hear how adults in their communities talk about people like them. When they hear phrases like “these people” or “those people,” Jernigan said, they understand they are being singled out. That can be especially unsettling for children approaching middle school, he said, when situations involving locker rooms and trying to fit in already feel scary. “There’s nothing sinister or nefarious about trans kids,” Jernigan said. “They’re just kids who want to go out for recess and hate math.”

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Rehoboth Beach elects first openly gay mayor, the resort town’s first female leader in decades

Read more at WHYY.

Residents of Rehoboth Beach chose a new mayor last weekend. Susan Stewart was elected by a wide margin, winning more than 60% of the vote out of four mayoral candidates.

Stewart’s win is significant; she will be the first openly gay mayor of Rehoboth Beach, and the first woman elected mayor in decades.

The win comes only a year after Stewart was elected to the city’s Board of Commissioners.

“I went knocking on all these doors for the second summer in a row, because I ran last year for commissioner,” Stewart told WHYY News. “Every commissioner should have to do it because it’s such an enlightening experience to sit down and hear people.”

She said she didn’t have plans to run for mayor after that election, but was encouraged to campaign by local residents, leaders and organizations. Stewart said it took her a long time to think about running again, but decided to start campaigning as she felt she was the only person right for the position.

Preserving Rehoboth Beach’s charm

Stewart started her professional career as an attorney, but spent most of it in financial services. She is originally from Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and lived in Washington, D.C., prior to Rehoboth Beach. She had a vacation home in the city since 2013, but moved to the beach full time during the COVID-19 pandemic.

During her campaign, Stewart emphasized her desire to preserve the character of Rehoboth Beach. She told WHYY News there is a physical charm to the city, showcased through old buildings, outdoor spaces and the beach itself.

Stewart also said there is a fun atmosphere to the area, pointing to specific traditions like the Mrs. Roper Romp, where crowds of people dress up like the character Mrs. Roper from the 1970s sitcom  “Three’s Company,” and walk through the city.

“I don’t have the skill set to articulate what I like about it, but I know I like it,” Stewart said.

Before her term as an elected official, she served on the city’s Planning Commission, as well as the Mixed-Use Zoning Ordinance Task Force and Stormwater Utility Task Force.

While serving in these groups, Stewart said she learned about zoning codes, challenges in the commercial district and the city’s comprehensive development plan. It outlines goals and policies for how the city’s land is used. That includes increasing mixed-use developments, workforce housing, walkability and how bicycle-friendly the city is. When Stewart decided to run, she said the city was at a tipping point with expanding growth, business and tourism.

“We really needed to be very thoughtful and purposeful about what we see as the future of Rehoboth Beach, and that it needed a leader that would help us articulate that in a way that preserves our quality of life and our charm that was getting away from us,” Stewart said.

Stewart said that more than 60% of the city’s revenue is tourism related, including parking, the hotel accommodations tax and the short-term rental tax, while about 10% comes from property taxes. According to Stewart, the majority of the voting population in town are property owners, while “revenue generators are a different cohort.”

“What we need to do as a community of engaged residents is to figure out how we preserve that revenue stream, but perhaps more importantly, how we find a way to preserve our quality of life, because some of the tourism is what causes tension,” she said.

Stewart said that she plans to continue having the city consult with experts ranging in topics from urban planning to business development to traffic, as well as gather community input on what the city should look like over the next decade. Their input will help form a city master plan.

“I believe all our interests are aligned, residents and business owners and commercial property owners and developers. It’s just never been considered holistically before,” she said. Rehoboth Beach adopted its first five-year strategic plan in May 2025, and is currently in the process of rewriting its zoning code. Stewart said this is foundational to creating a master plan.

“Harmonizing our code will be important, because there are gaps in our existing code that lead to tensions,” she said. “If a zoning code or building code doesn’t address something clearly, then that leaves it subject to interpretation.”

Last month, the city hosted a week’s worth of events and public meetings with the urban planning group Dover Kohl & Partners to gather community feedback on zoning changes.

The city reported that some of the top concerns from residents involved downtown revitalization, increasing mixed-use development and workforce housing, reducing parking requirements and traffic, and supporting local business and cultural and art programs.

Stewart said the events during the week, like a walking tour of the city, helped visualize some of these ideas.

“When you turn onto Rehoboth Avenue, it’s our boulevard, and it’s the boulevard to our beautiful nature and our boardwalk, but it’s filled with cars,” she said. “Our forebears did a great job of laying out the city, but it was done decades and decades ago.”

To Stewart, the event was valuable to the city and she believes it’s important to keep engaging in consistent dialogue with residents.

Mike Venanzi is a business owner and board member for Rehoboth Beach Main Street, a nonprofit designed to promote the downtown area of the city. He said he supports Stewart as mayor, and believes her election will benefit the city as a whole. “I think having a commissioner and a mayor that welcome the business owners, speak with them, invite them to have conversations, are good for business, good for the residents of Rehoboth and good for the tourists,” Venanzi said. “That’s really [what] Susan and the entire crew there are focused on that.”

He said he hopes that during her term, Stewart is able to encourage growth as well through policy.

“Some of the growth that should have happened here in town — that was really stalled — because of rules, regulations that don’t make sense anymore,” Venanzi said.

Stewart said she also wants to make the city government more efficient. She said that after she was elected commissioner, she realized that the governing body can keep city staff from getting work done by being too involved in daily operations.

“I’ve been trying to work on a set of rules for us as a governing body that will help us get back to the point where we can concentrate on strategy and vision and let the professionals execute that vision,” she said. A historic election

Robin Brennan is the executive director for CAMP Rehoboth, a nonprofit focused on cultivating an inclusive environment for LGBTQ+ individuals. She described the election as “incredible.”

“My first thought was really about representation and how much it matters,” Brennan said. “When people see themselves reflected in leadership positions, it sends a powerful message about who belongs and that our voices matter, that we’re heard.”

Rehoboth Beach has had a strong LGBTQ+ presence for decades, and Brennan said having an openly gay mayor reflects an important population that has shaped the city’s history.

The Human Rights Campaign’s Municipal Equality Index, which rates cities based on how their policies serve LGBTQ+ residents, issued Rehoboth Beach  a perfect score last year. It was an increase from the 61 out of 100 the city received in 2024. City officials cited a stronger partnership with CAMP Rehoboth as the reason the score improved.

Stewart said she believes community members and organizations like CAMP Rehoboth have helped the city become more welcoming. Though she acknowledges that there are still struggles for LGBTQ+ people, she said she feels there is less division in Rehoboth Beach.

“This is just a place where everyone are people, and that’s the aspiration for everything,” Stewart said.

Brennan said she hopes that partnership can continue to grow under Stewart’s leadership.

Stewart will be sworn into office on Sept. 18.

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Slovakia defies EU & refuses to register gay couple’s marriage

Read more at LGBTQ Nation.

The Central European nation of Slovakia rejected a gay couple’s attempt to have their marriage registered, possibly setting up a clash with the European Union (EU).

Ivan Novotný and Metod Špaček, who are both Slovak, got married in Austria in 2020. Both nations are EU member states.

This past December, they applied to have their marriage registered in their country, and they finally got a response this past Monday in the form of a rejection letter. IBTimes notes that the letter didn’t come from the registrar’s office like it normally would have, but directly from Slovak Minister of Interior Matúš Šutaj Eštok.

“We submitted our application to the registry office, and it was the registry office that should have made the decision,” Novotný said. “Instead, we learned of the rejection—which was based on weak legal arguments—only through a letter from the incompetent Šutaj Eštok.”

Novotný claims that Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico went to the registry office on June 12 to order them to refuse to register the marriage certificate, citing the country’s recently adopted constitutional ban on same-sex marriage rights.

The couple plans to sue to challenge the decision. “I reiterate that I have no doubt we will ultimately achieve equality for all in Slovakia as well,” Novotný said.

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled last November that EU member states had to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other EU member states in a lawsuit involving a Polish couple that married in Germany. While a Polish court originally abided by the CJEU ruling, the country’s Constitutional Tribunal ultimately overturned that decision in July.

The European Commission denounced Slovakia’s rejection of the marriage as well as its defiance of the CJEU decision.

“One of the foundations of our Union is that EU law, as interpreted by the Court of Justice of the EU, takes precedence over national law,” the European Commission said in a statement. “All Member States have the obligation to fully implement all judgments of the CJEU. We will continue to monitor the situation very closely and, if necessary, will not hesitate to use all the instruments at our disposal.”

Slovakia is a Christian-majority nation where same-sex relationships have been legal since 1962, when it was part of Czechoslovakia. Sexual orientation and gender identity are protected categories under the nation’s anti-discrimination laws, and LGBTQ+ people can serve in the military.

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Medicaid to stop covering gender-affirming care for transgender kids

Read more at USA Today.

The federal agency that runs Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program will no longer pay for gender-affirming care for minors who don’t identify with the sex they were assigned at birth.

The Department of Health and Human Services announced Aug. 12 that it finalized a rule after more than a year of taking steps to use the federal government’s power to limit this type of medical care.

“We are not going to pay for our innocent children to undergo these barbaric surgeries and practices, which result in unthinkable and irreversible harm to their young bodies,” President Donald Trump wrote in a social media post.

More than 30 major medical associations and health organizations worldwide support health care for transgender adults and youth, which they say can help prevent suicide in this vulnerable population.

The rule goes into effect Oct. 13 and includes a six-month grace period for children with government insurance who are currently using hormone therapy, according to HHS. It does not affect mental health coverage.

“Children deserve our protection, not experimental interventions that pose serious risks and convey no proven benefits,” Dr. Mehmet Oz, who runs the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said in a news release. He said the move is “protecting children from potentially irreversible harm.”

HHS did not say how much federal money it currently spends on surgeries, puberty blockers or hormone therapy, or how many children enrolled in government health insurance are receiving gender-affirming care.

Most gender-affirming care is sought by young adults, not children, but as many as one in four people getting this type of care are covered by Medicaid.

Rep. Mark Takano, a Democrat who chairs the Congressional Equality Caucus, called the move “another cruel, overreaching attack” on transgender youth.

“Decisions about a young person’s care should be between the patient, their parents, and their provider – not politicians,” Takano wrote.

Trump first took action against gender-affirming care for minors with an executive order in January 2025. In April 2025, Oz told states not to use Medicaid funding for surgeries or hormone treatment.

In December, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced his department was beginning an administrative process to end funding for hospitals who provide gender-affirming surgeries.

The Food and Drug Administration, which regulates medical devices, also sent warning letters to manufacturers of breast binders telling them not to market their devices to children with gender dysphoria.

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Bolivia recognizes first same-sex marriage in historic step towards equality

Read more at LGBTQ Nation.

After a nearly four-year legal battle, Fabiana Banzer and Scarlett Rocha became the first same-sex couple to be civilly married in the South American country of Bolivia. Despite these women’s recent wedding, the country’s constitution still forbids same-sex marriages. Nevertheless, their legal victory could open the door to other same-sex couples eventually marrying.

The couple applied for a civil marriage certificate on October 12, 2022, with the legal support of the non-governmental LGBTQ+ rights organization IGUAL Bolivia. The organization noted that, on January 9, 2018, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR), which oversees 21 Caribbean, Central, and South American countries issued an advisory opinion stating that countries that had signed onto the 1969 American Convention on Human Rights should grant same-sex couples “accession to all existing domestic legal systems of family registration, including marriage, along with all rights that derive from marriage.”

However, Article 63 of Bolivia’s constitution limits marriage to heterosexual couples. The lengthy subsequent legal battle for Banzer and Rocha resulted in courts issuing two constitutional injunctions, an extraordinary judicial remedy used to protect citizens against actions that violate basic constitutional rights, Merco Press reported.

The couple eventually won their battle, but their court victory applies only to them, and no legislative or constitutional changes have occurred to allow same-sex marriages nationwide. Nevertheless, the victory could open the door to similar challenges that could accelerate the path towards marriage equality.

“Scar and I have been together for more than 4 years,” Banzer wrote in a public August 8 Facebook post. “It makes me very happy to announce to our family and friends that after a legal fight of 3 years and 10 months we have finally been able to access civil marriage as two women.”

Interestingly, Banzer and Rocha are the second same-sex couple to win legal recognition from their home country. In December 2020, David Aruquipa and Guido Montaño won their court battle to become the first same-sex couple to register their partnership as a civil union (a form of legal recognition that bestows many of the same legal privileges as marriage).

In Aruquipa and Montaño’s case, the Second Constitutional Chamber of the La Paz departmental court issued a ruling in the couple’s favor that was upheld by the Plurinational Constitutional Court. But similar to Banzer and Rocha’s case, the men’s legal victory didn’t immediately open the door to legalized same-sex unions across the country until further legal challenges resulted in spring 2023 court rulings requiring Bolivia’s Civil Registry Service to allow same-sex unions.

Aruquipa said on Sunday that he considers the women’s recent marriage to be a significant development in the country’s longer journey towards marriage equality. “Rather than speaking of a beginning, we should speak of a historical continuity: from the first recognized union to the first civil marriage,” he said.

While Bolivia doesn’t criminalize same-sex sexual encounters and has LGBTQ+ anti-discrimination protections, same-sex couples and partners aren’t legally allowed to adopt children, lesbian couples aren’t guaranteed access to in vitro fertilization (IVF), and conversion therapy remains legal.

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An 11th state is set to ban updating gender markers on licenses

Read more at LGBTQ Nation.

South Dakota is reportedly set to enforce a policy that will make it impossible for trans people in the state to update the gender marker on their driver’s license. However, the policy has not yet been enacted, meaning trans people may still have a small window to update their gender markers.

There are currently ten states that bar trans people from obtaining an accurate driver’s license. Some have passed laws that strictly forbid gender correction for licenses under any circumstances; others have created policies that rely on other restrictions to do the job, such as requiring an amended birth certificate in a state where one cannot be legally obtained.

The South Dakota drivers’ license policy is set to mimic the second option. In March, South Dakota Governor Larry Rhoden (R) signed HB 1184, which banned legal recognition of trans identities by defining “sex” as “an individual’s biological sex, either male or female.” The law restricted trans people from updating their birth certificates. It was also signed less than a month after the South Dakota Supreme Court ruled that a trans woman could not update her birth certificate and neither could other trans people born in the state.

However, it wasn’t clear exactly how that law and ruling would impact drivers’ licenses. While an amended birth certificate could be used to update the gender marker on a license, it was not the only method.

The previous rules allowed gender markers to be updated based on an amended birth certificate, passport, or a court order, combined with either a court order certifying someone’s gender change or “a letter from a physician stating that the applicant is undergoing gender reassignment care (such as hormone replacement therapy),” as Equaldex explained. While the requirement for a doctor to sign off on gender-affirming care is a large hurdle, the restrictions are still looser than in some states, which require surgery before updating gender markers.

After a public records request was denied, Aleksandra Vaca of Transitics contacted employees at the South Dakota Department of Public Safety (DPS), who issue drivers’ licenses for the state. She was told that a policy was updated on July 1st to require applicants for a gender change to provide an amended birth certificate. That is no longer possible to obtain, and so the policy will prevent trans people born in South Dakota or other states that refuse to issue corrected birth certificates from updating their drivers’ licenses unless they already have an updated birth certificate.

But the policy isn’t being implemented yet. The DPS employees told Vaca they are waiting to “get word” from their superiors before starting enforcement.

There’s no telling how soon that might happen, but in the meantime, there remains a potential window for trans people in South Dakota. While some states, such as Kansas, retroactively revoked the licenses of trans drivers with practically no notice period, there’s no indication that the South Dakota policy would do the same.

South Dakota has moved forward with these policies despite evidence of flaws in the system and the harm they cause trans people (having an ID that does not match the way someone presents could out them in situations where it’s dangerous). Last month, a trans woman was charged for not having a valid license because the officer didn’t believe the male gender marker on her ID. The charges were eventually dropped.

As with Wyoming’s ban on updating gender markers on drivers’ licenses, this policy has been crafted without any fanfare, suggesting the point is to harm trans people rather than to score political points.

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Polish court rejects European court’s ruling in favor of marriage equality

Read more at LGBTQ Nation.

Poland’s highest court rejected a ruling from a European court requiring the Catholic-majority nation to recognize same-sex marriages performed abroad.

The ruling from the Constitutional Tribunal comes after the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled last November that Poland, which is a European Union member state, has to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other countries, even if it doesn’t perform same-sex marriages itself.

But the Constitutional Tribunal on Tuesday rejected that, DW reports. While a full opinion is not yet available, the court said that the CJEU decision was “inconsistent with Article 92, Paragraph 1, in conjunction with Article 18 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland.”

Article 18 says: “Marriage, being a union of a man and a woman, as well as the family, motherhood and parenthood, shall be placed under the protection and care of the Republic of Poland,” and Article 92, Paragraph 1 says that regulations are determined by “the organs specified in the Constitution.”

That is, the court found that Poland’s constitution claims sovereign authority to determine who has access to marriage, which creates a potential conflict with the European court.

The original case was filed by a German-Polish gay couple who got married in Berlin in 2018. When they returned to Poland, the government refused to recognize their marriage, so they sued.

They ultimately won their case in a ruling that said that EU member states are required to recognize marriages performed in other EU countries, citing the EU’s protection of “respect for private and family life.” Of the 27 EU member states, only 18 recognize marriage equality.

In March, Poland’s Supreme Administrative Court (NSA) ruled in favor of the couple as well, ordering that the men’s German same-sex marriage certificate be transcribed into the Polish system. The NSA said that the couple had a “right to lead a normal family life” while exercising their “freedom to move and reside within the territory of the member states” as EU citizens.

Earlier this year, Poland’s Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, promised to pass a law to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other EU countries in response to the CJEU and NSA rulings. Parliament passed a bill to create “cohabitation contracts” for same-sex couples, but President Karol Nawrocki, whose party is more conservative than Tusk’s, vetoed it last week, saying that the cohabitation contracts were too similar to marriage.

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Trump admin. halts federal money to local HIV/AIDS community groups

Read more at LGBTQ Nation.

Funding for HIV services is the likely victim of a longtime Republican goal of devolving power to the states.

The Trump administration notified the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) last month that it would cease a years-long community grant program funding local organizations that provide HIV testing, referrals for care, PrEP and Doxy PEP, and outbreak response measures. About 96 organizations are currently recipients of the direct federal grants worth $46 million, Roll Call reported.

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB), under the direction of longtime Heritage Foundation official Russel Vought, has stripped that money from the CDC and is redirecting it as supplemental funding to state health agencies, which will then decide whether or not the money goes to the same HIV-focused local organizations.

“For decades, direct federal investment in community-based HIV prevention has helped trusted local organizations reach people and communities that traditional health systems too often fail to serve,” AIDS United, a DC nonprofit focused on ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic, said in a statement condemning the decision.

“We cannot end the HIV epidemic by dismantling the trusted community systems that make prevention possible,” Carl Baloney, the group’s CEO, said. “This decision threatens access to testing, PrEP, PEP and care — and will ultimately lead to preventable HIV transmissions, program closures and higher health care costs.”

AIDS United and other HIV/AIDS-focused providers watched with dismay as the Trump administration dismantled similar HIV-prevention efforts overseas, through the dismemberment of USAID and scaling back PEPFAR, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. President Donald Trump’s own stated desire to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic in his first term is another casualty of that slashed funding, and the OMB’s latest action is contrary to that goal, AIDS United said.

“Federal, state and local government partners all have vital roles to play in HIV prevention,” the group continued. “But the United States cannot end the HIV epidemic without significant financial support for community-based organizations that are connected to, trusted by and staffed by people from the communities most affected by HIV.”

Ending the direct grants puts “trusted community services at risk—particularly those serving Black and Latino communities, LGBTQ+ people, people in the South, and others disproportionately affected by HIV.”

Carl Schmid, executive director of the DC-based HIV+ Hepatitis Policy Institute, agreed that handing funding decisions to the states could break a successful chain of prevention efforts. While DC and other blue state governments may already have open lines to local groups, “other states and jurisdictions don’t have that relationship with the community-based organizations,” he told the Washington Blade.

“It depends on the state,” Schmid said, adding, “Not all states send their money to the communities that really need it most. And not all states are fast in getting money to the community-based organizations.” 

Another factor that could slow down community groups’ efforts: the loss of steep drug discounts available to recipients of the federal grants.

“They could still qualify as a sub-grantee from a state,”  Schmid said. “But what if they don’t get that grant again? They would not be able to qualify to obtain the drugs” at the discounted price, he said.

Even while condemning the administration for the change, AIDS United seemed resigned to the new arrangement, asking “State and local health departments receiving supplemental funds to prioritize continued support for the community-based organizations currently delivering these services and prevent disruptions in care and prevention.”

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Polish president vetoes bills to recognize same-sex couples

Read more at LGBTQ Nation.

The president of Poland, Karol Nawrocki, vetoed two bills last week that would have extended recognition to same-sex couples.

The bills would have created “cohabitation contracts,” according to Reuters, which would have given some legal recognition to same-sex couples when it comes to medical information, property rights, and funeral arrangements.

The bills were part of reforms promised when Prime Minister Donald Tusk took office in 2023, which included measures regarding LGBTQ+ people’s rights and abortion. The current ruling coalition in parliament is considered liberal and pro-European.

Nawrocki, though, ran as an independent in 2025 after having been chosen as the candidate for the right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party, moving the country to the right. He said that the cohabitation contracts were too similar to marriage.

“These proposals create a new, formalized institution of family law, equipped with a broad catalog of rights similar to those of marriage,” he said in a statement. He said that the bills would lead to “the loss of the special status of marriage,” defined as “a union of a man and a woman under the protection and care of the Republic of Poland.”

LGBTQ+ rights advocates denounced the vetoes. The organization Campaign Against Homophobia said that the bills were “merely a fragment” of what they wanted to get when it comes to domestic partnership rights in the country.

“Today’s veto of the bill, however, shows that even the absolute minimum of rights the bill was intended to provide is too much for the president,” the group said.

Former Equality Minister and New Left Member of Parliament Katarzyna Kotula said Nawroicki “turned his back on 2 million people living today in informal relationships.”

Earlier this year, a gay couple who traveled to Berlin to get married won the right in court to have their marriage recognized in Poland.

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