The 2022 U.S. Transgender Survey shows that trans people face steep economic and health disparities while anti-trans state laws have caused thousands to flee their homes.
Author: Orion Rummler, The 19th
Students and Advocates ‘Frustrated’ With Biden Administration’s Slow Response to Finalize Title IX Changes
Democrats in Congress, students and LGBTQ+ advocacy groups are growing frustrated with the Biden administration’s slow pace to finalize proposed updates to Title IX, the federal civil rights law prohibiting sex discrimination in schools. More than 60 House Democrats sent a recent letter to Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, calling on the agency to act.
“So for the last three years, and now fourth school year, student survivors have fewer rights. Now it’s getting close to 2024 and we don’t know when a final rule will come out. So students are frustrated, and we’re frustrated as advocates.”
What Virginia’s Elections Could Mean for LGBTQIA+ People
Even as Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin has worked to restrict the rights of trans youth, Virginia remains the sole state in the South with more protections for LGBTQIA+ people than discriminatory policies—a status that could change after this week’s elections.
Nebraska Filibuster Over Trans Rights Echoes Wendy Davis’ 2013 Abortion Standoff
State Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh ground Nebraska’s legislative body to a halt for three weeks, stonewalling every bill regardless of whether she personally opposed it. In eight-hour stretches, she fulfilled the promise she made to her colleagues last month: to “make it painful” for the statehouse to target trans youth—even if it meant sleeping on the hardwood floor of her office between committee hearings.
Her use of the filibuster to keep a bill from being quietly slipped through the legislature echoes another one-woman statehouse stand from 10 years ago. Both Wendy Davis and Cavanaugh took advantage of tools available to them as the minority party in their statehouses—and used it to amplify dry procedural politics into a powerful rallying cry.
Transgender Minors Have a Right To Gender-Affirming Care, Justice Dept. Warns States
The Justice Department said last week that states seeking to block transgender minors from accessing gender-affirming care may be violating federal law—and signaled that it is prepared to pursue legal action or support existing litigation against states seeking such restrictions.
“It’s probably the most powerful and progressive step we’ve seen on transgender rights ever from the federal government, at least today,” said Ezra Ishmael Young, who teaches constitutional law at Cornell Law School.
The Word Missing From the Majority of Anti-Trans Legislation? “Transgender.”
In 102 anti-trans bills in seven states, the word “transgender” appears just eight times—part of an effort to deny trans kids’ existence even as the legislation affects what they can and cannot do.