Trans News Now 5/6/24

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Honey Mahogany

Honey Mahogany has been selected by San Francisco Mayor London Breed to head the city’s Office of Transgender Initiatives. Honey Mahogany is a transgender activist, who rose to fame as a contestant on RuPaul’s Drag Race. KQED has this story.

New Rules

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals decided that the states must cover gender-affirming medical care as a part of Medicaid. The court was reviewing new laws passed in West Virginia and North Carolina, both of which tried to end payments for gender-affirming care as part of Medicaid. NBR has this story.

The Biden administration announced its new rule that Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, the section which bars discrimination and especially bars discrimination in general and discrimination on the basis of sex in specific, forbids discriminating against transgender people. The Trump administration had a rule which said Section 1557 did not protect against discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation, but the Biden administration has restored interpretation of Section 1557 that was used by the Obama administration. This story comes from The Advocate.

Also this week, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued a new guidance which protects against being misgendered or denied the use of a restroom consistent with your gender identity at work. The 19th has this story.

Another new rule from the Biden administration requires that LGBTQ and intersex foster children are to be placed in supportive homes only. This story comes from The Advocate.

The city council for Austin, Texas, has approved a resolution offering local protections for gender-affirming care patients. The resolution says that “no City personnel, funds, or resources shall be used to investigate, criminally prosecute, or impose administrative penalties upon (1) a transgender or non-binary individual for seeking healthcare, or (2) an individual or organization for providing or assisting with the provision of healthcare to a transgender or nonbinary individual” except as required by law. This story comes from KXAN-TV.

A court announced that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton will end his attempts to get information about transgender minors from Texas who seek gender-affirming medical care at Seattle Children’s Hospital as a part of the settlement of a court case between the two parties. This story comes from the Texas Tribune.

Lawsuits & Vetoes

We reported recently that Kansas Governor Laura Kelly vetoed a bill which would have banned gender-affirming medical care for minors in the state. That bill then was sent back to the legislature. The state Senate approved a proposal to override the governor’s veto, but two Republican members of the state House of Representatives voted along with the Democrats to not override the veto. This story comes from Them.

Reuters reports that nine states with Republican state attorneys general have filed a suit challenging the Biden administration’s new rule on the definition of “discrimination on the basis of sex.” in Title IX. It seems that five more state Attorneys General have signed onto the lawsuit since that story came out, bringing the total to 14 states.

The state of Arkansas, one of the states challenging the new rule on Title IX, has made it harder for transgender, non-binary, and intersex residents to update the gender marker on their state driver’s licenses and state ID cards. Several transgender people are challenging this new rule. The Advocate has this story.

In Tennessee, the state is being sued over its long-standing policy of not changing the sex listed on birth certificates. This story comes from the Associated Press.

Since several of the lawsuits over anti-transgender legislation seem to be headed to the Supreme Court, The 19th takes a look at where the justices of the Supreme Court seem to stand on transgender rights.

As the Mississippi state legislature comes to the end of its session for the year, legislators were so backed up in conference committees that they didn’t manage to work out the details of a compromise before the deadline. However, the bill was reintroduced, according to the Mississippi Clarion-Ledger.

Erin Reed has updated her Anti-Transgender Risk Assessment Map. Maine moves to the best category, while Florida is alone (for the moment) in the “Do Not Travel” category.

Deceased

Transgender woman Sasha Williams was stabbed to death in Las Vegas in January. Her death is only now being attributed as another murder of a transgender woman of color, as The Advocate reports.

General News

Changing gender can be expensive. A legal name change costs money, and then there are medical co-pays. CNBC has this story.

Gwen Smith

Gwen Smith, the woman who started Transgender Day Of Remembrance, has been trying to update her records, as a part of her gender change, for over 30 years. She still does not have everything updated, according to The 19th.

A new study, published in the American Journal of Surgery, concludes that people are more likely to regret having a child than to regret having gender-affirming surgery. This story comes from The Advocate.

The Human Rights Campaign has an article entitled, “Seven Things About Transgender People You Didn’t Know.” Bold of them to assume that I didn’t know any of these seven things.

The Philadelphia Trans Wellness Conference is returning to in-person attendance. Registration for the Conference opened today at 9:00am. To register and learn more about PTWC visit the Mazzoni Center website.

A Facebook group which specializes in satire created a story about Venus Williams refusing to play a game of tennis against a transgender opponent. Although the story even ran with a picture of her sister Serena Williams, several people reacted to it as if the story were true. PinkNews has the story.

Minima Gesté

Later this year, Paris will host the Olympic Games. A drag queen named Minima Gesté (smallest joke) has been announced as one of the torchbearers. This story comes from LGBTQ Nation.

I Saw the TV Glow is now in theaters in limited release, and the stars talked about the film with Them.

A detransitioner in Texas who tried to sue her former doctors for over a million dollars for “gross malpractice” has had her case dismissed. To add insult, she was ordered to pay more than $40,000 in legal fees for the doctors she tried to sue. LGBTQ Nation has this story.

WOW Presents Plus announced a new limited-run series called House On Fire, a reality show set in the New York City ballroom scene. The announcement can be found in Them.

A transgender activist in Hong Kong, Henry Tse, has received an identity card with his correct gender on it. It has been a long time in coming, according to CNN.

Nicole Maines

Transgender actress Nicole Maines has a new memoir coming out in October. It’s titled It Gets Better. . .Except When It Gets Worse. PinkNews has this story.

The Conversation has a story about the Cult of Cybele. Male followers wore feminine clothing and engaged in female behaviors and appearances.

The state of Utah created an online complaint form to report violations of their anti-transgender bathroom law. The form crashed almost immediately, due to people using it to troll the oppressive legislation. Many people filled the form with quotes from and pictures of one particular character from Bee Movie. This story comes from Them.

The Trevor Project released the results of their latest survey of LGBTQ youth. Suicide ideation is quite common, almost half of transgender or nonbinary students found their school to be unsupportive of their gender identity, and 905 of respondents were negatively impacted by politics.

Trans News Now is assembled by Cecilia Barzyk with additional content and editing by Angela Gardner. Care to make a comment on this post? Login here and use the comment area below.

Tags: featured, news, Transgender

Category: Transgender Community News