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LGBTQIA

Washington Blade: LGBTQ News, Politics, LGBTQ Righ •

LGBTQ aid workers reflect on a year in Gaza, working with queer Palestinians

Editor’s note: International News Editor Michael K. Lavers was on assignment in Israel from Oct. 4-14.
JERUSALEM — LGBTQ Israelis and the groups that advocate for their rights continue to struggle with the aftermath of Oct. 7.
Hadas Kerem Bloemendal is the chair of Jerusalem Open House for Pride and Tolerance, a group that organizes the city’s annual Pride parade. The therapist and former Israel Defense Forces intelligence officer who is raising twins with her wife spoke with the Washington Blad...
Washington Blade •

How data helps — and hurts — LGBTQ communities

When Scotland voted to add questions about sexuality and transgender status to its census, and clarified the definition of “sex,” it was so controversial it led to a court case.
It got so heated that the director of Fair Play for Women, a gender-critical organization, argued: “Extreme gender ideology is deeply embedded within the Scottish Government, and promoted at the highest levels including the First Minister.”
Data, like the census, “is often presented as being objective, being quantitative...
Washington Blade •

A trans president? March organizer dares to dream

The fifth annual Transgender Visibility March returned to D.C. on Saturday, Aug. 24. This marked the first time the march has been back in D.C. since the inaugural event in 2019, which featured “Pose” star Angelica Ross and then-Human Rights Campaign president Alphonso David. 
The Washington Blade caught up with Hope Giselle-Godsey, executive director of the march, as she got ready for the festivities. 
BLADE: Would you mind telling me a little bit of background about yourself? How did you end u...
Washington Blade •

TransTech Social removing barriers to trans success

It is common knowledge that women earn 84% of the average worker. Less common knowledge? Trans women earn 60% of the average worker. Trans men and non-binary people come in at around 70%, while 16% of all trans people make less than $10,000 annually. 
E.C. Pizarro was lucky, and he knew it. He had a BFA in graphic design and had taught himself how to code. As a stealth trans man in a corporate job, he had access to a stable wage and good benefits. “People that do not have experiences in corporat...
Mother Jones •

First they tried to "cure" gayness. Now they're fixated on "healing" trans people.

The conversion therapists met last November at the south end of the Las Vegas Strip. Behind the closed doors and drawn blinds of a Hampton Inn conference room, a middle-aged woman wearing white stockings and a Virgin Mary blue dress issued a call to arms to the 20-some people in attendance. “In our current culture, in which children are being indoctrinated with transgender belief from the moment they’re out of the womb, if we are confronted with a gender-confused child, you must help,” declared
Mother Jones •

Learning to love my trans self after conversion therapy

Growing up, Myles Markham always felt like an outsider. Markham was multiracial in small, mostly white Florida towns. And they were queer. “I was swimming in water that told me that who I was, what I was, needed to change if I wanted to be safe,” they say. “I really believed, ‘I am a problem. I need to be fixed.’”

As a teen, a friend got them interested in evangelical Christianity, which seemed to offer the promise of ­transformation. They joined a church youth group and began studying the Bibl
Washington Blade •

Aime Wichtendahl becomes Iowa's first trans legislator

Aime Wichtendahl first made history as the first openly trans woman to be elected to government in the state of Iowa when elected to the Hiawatha City Council. She made history again this Election Day, becoming Iowa’s first trans legislator.

Wichtendahl kept the seat blue by beating Republican opponent John Thompson 52 to 48. She will succeed Art Staed (D), who ran successfully for a state Senate seat, with unanimous support from the Democratic base.
Washington Blade •

More than 35 trans, genderqueer candidates running across U.S.

When Jennifer Williams was collecting signatures for her first political campaign in 2022, people told her, a transgender woman, “I think you would do an awesome job, but you got no chance to win.”


Their hesitancy was not unfounded. Williams won her seat on Trenton, N.J.’s City Council by a single vote.


This round she is running unopposed with broad community support. She attributes this to the fact that she got her job done. “Things have gone so well,” she says, “I think I delivered on ev...
LGBTQ Nation •

Parents across the political spectrum are banding together to save their trans children

Eric Childs says he joined the army because “serving my country was a defense of freedom.” 
“I live in a small town in South Carolina,” he declares in a video while at a shooting range with his son. “I absolutely believe in protecting my rights. And I absolutely love my trans child.”
The video is the first in a series by GRACE – Gender Research Advisory Council and Education – a non-profit founded by trans veteran Alaina Kupec with the goal of reaching across the aisle on transgender rights. The...
Washington Blade •

Lesbian software developer seeks to preserve lost LGBTQ history

Up until the early 2010s, if you searched “Babe Ruth” in the Baseball Hall of Fame, nothing would pop up. To find information on the greatest baseball player of all time, you would have to search “Ruth, George Herman.” 
That is the way online archival systems were set up and there was a clear problem with it. Kristen Gwinn-Becker was uniquely able to solve it. “I’m a super tech geek, history geek,” she says, “I love any opportunity to create this aha moment with people through history.” 
Gwinn-B...
Washington Blade •

How I — a trans man — went undercover on a TERF dating site

It turns out the “lesbian renaissance” only has 85 people. 
No, I am not talking about the Renaissance as defined by Chappell Roan, Billie Eilish, Bottoms, and Drive-Away Dolls. That Renaissance is well populated. 
It’s the Renaissance defined by Jenny Watson, a lesbian and self-described TERF (trans-exclusionary radical feminist) committed to the idea that lesbians can only be “biologically female.”My number comes from Watson’s female-only lesbian and bisexual dating and community app, L Commun...
Washington Blade •

Trans experiences with the internet range from ‘harrowing’ to ‘powerful’

Alex, 29, would not have met their friends without the internet. While living in a small city surrounded by farmland, finding community was not always easy.
Alex tried out one of those apps for adults seeking to make friends. It turned out to be a remarkable success. “I’ve made my friend group as a direct result of using the internet,” they said, explaining that even though all the friends are trans, due to their diverse interests, “we would have been hard-pressed to have ever really run into ea...
Washington Blade •

Mass. startup streamlining name changes for trans, non-binary residents

A guy in America wants to buy a truck. They save money. They have built up good credit. They find a truck in their price range. They go to the dealership to buy it, but when the dealership puts the guy’s name through the system no credit shows up.

The problem? That guy is trans and had recently changed their name. “Due to the name change, I was credit invisible,” Luke Lennon explained. “This can happen often for trans and non-binary folks who change their name.” The kicker? “That piece is not t
Them. •

Gottmik on Her Instantly Legendary Top Surgery Look for ‘Drag Race All Stars’

You know a drag look is fierce when it causes Libs of TikTok to correctly gender a trans person.

That’s what happened last Sunday when Gottmik’s top surgery runway look from week three of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars made its way to conservative Twitter, earning some shout-outs from notable far-right voices. After Libs of TikTok mocked the look, Megyn Kelly tweeted “this ideology is sick” — yes, Megyn, the look is sickening! Meanwhile, anti-trans advocate Riley Gaines posted about the look seve
Mother Jones •

The UK's new study on gender affirming care misses the mark in so many ways

Last month, the UK’s four-year-long review of medical interventions for transgender youth was published. The Cass Review, named after Hilary Cass, a retired pediatrician appointed by the National Health Service to lead the effort, found that “there is not a reliable evidence base” for gender-affirming medicine. As a result, the report concludes, trans minors should generally not be able to access hormone blockers or hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and instead should seek psychotherapy. While t
Washington Blade •

From LGBTQ book bans to internet bans: A bipartisan attack on knowledge

“They had LGBTQ-inclusive books in every single classroom and school library,” Maxx Fenning says of his high school experience. “They were even working on LGBTQ-specific course codes to get approved by the state,” he said, describing courses on queer studies and LGBTQ Black history.

No, Fenning didn’t grow up in Portland or a Boston suburb. Fenning graduated from a South Florida high school in 2020. Florida’s transformation from mostly affirming to “Don’t Say Gay” has been swift, he says. “It feels like a parallel universe.”
Mother Jones •

Not even a child's death can stop these lawmakers from spewing hate

Trans teen Nex Benedict died after an altercation in the girl’s bathroom of his public high school in Owasso, Oklahoma a bathroom he was required to use because of the state’s 2023 legislation forcing students at public and charter schools to use bathroom and changing facilities that match their biological, sex rather than their identity.

The exact cause of Benedict’s death—which occurred less than 24 hours after he was “jumped” by three other students who, in Benedict’s words, were “beating th
Mother Jones •

Anti-trans bills keep citing the New York Times

New York Times columnist Pamela Paul argued in a 4,500-word op-ed earlier this month that transgender health care procedures amount to “unproven treatments for children,” despite major medical associations’ support for gender-affirming care and the widespread view that it is lifesaving. The piece, which builds upon Paul’s record of espousing anti-trans views in the pages of the country’s most important paper, was roundly condemned by trans journalists over what they alleged was an argument rife
Mother Jones •

A new podcast investigates religion, conversion therapy, and a young woman's death

On August 2, 2019, Colorado became the 17th state in the US to ban conversion therapy. Four months later, Alana Chen, a 24-year-old Catholic woman, died by suicide in Boulder after sharing her struggles with sexuality with church elders and seeking counsel.

Chen’s family believes that the advice she received contributed to her death. And they say that, even if it had been in effect when Chen sought guidance, the conversion therapy ban would not have helped Chen at all. That’s because laws like
Mother Jones •

The irony of Jewish activists facing anti-LGBTQ backlash for supporting Palestinians

“Mr. President, you care about Jewish people. As a rabbi, I need you to call for a cease-fire right now,” called Rabbi Jessica Rosenberg last week, interrupting Biden at a campaign reception in Minneapolis.

Biden responded with “I think we need a pause.” It was the first time Biden had wavered from his unconditional support for Israel, though he clarified that “a pause means give time to get the prisoners out. Give time.”

Rosenberg, a Reconstructionist rabbi, author, and organizer, is a member
Mother Jones •

He claimed God sent Hitler to create Israel. Now he's speaking at the pro-Israel rally. What?

He claimed God sent Hitler to create Israel. And on Tuesday, he is prominently featured in one of the country’s biggest pro-Israel demonstrations since the conflict began on October 7.

John Hagee, a mainstay in right-wing politics for decades, is reportedly invited to speak on Tuesday at the March for Israel event alongside Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), former CNN personality Van Jones, and Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa). It’s expected to garner an attendance in the tens of thousands and will reintrod
Mother Jones •

Here is all the evidence you needed that drag bans are about erasing trans existence

On Thursday, Butte, Montana, became the first documented place to legally cancel an event because the speaker is trans.

As NBC Montana reported, a lawyer with Butte-Silver Bow County informed the local library that its LGBTQ history event with transgender speaker Adria Jawort would not be taking place. The reason given? House Bill 359, which limits public displays of drag. After the cancellation, Jawort tweeted, “The irony is I testified against this bill saying it would target trans people tha
5280 •

3 Queer-Owned Food and Drink Spaces Serving Denver’s LGBTQ+ Community

A restaurant sparked the modern queer liberation movement, and it wasn’t even Stonewall. In August of 1966, three years before the historical riot in New York City, queer and trans patrons of Compton’s Cafeteria in San Francisco fought against police harassment with 60 cent coffee cups, handbags, and high heels. It was the United States’ first recorded act of militant queer resistance, and subsequent history of protest starting in queer spaces like the Stonewall Inn and Black Cat Tavern in Los A
5280 •

Reverend Nicole Garcia Is Preaching Inclusive Faith

As many young adults do, Nicole Garcia had a crisis of faith in college. While studying at the University of Colorado Boulder, the Latina student took several Chicana Studies classes and was confronted with the violent history of the Catholic faith she was raised in.“Through the Doctrine of Discovery, the church was able to murder millions of Native people in this country, and steal [their land] and enslave them,” she says. Combined with the rigid hierarchical structure and patriarchy intrinsic
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