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Judge Blocks Ohio’s Anti-Transgender Bans

challenge the law in court last month, were likely to suffer “immediate” harm, in the form of reduced access to health care providers willing to treat their gender dysphoria, if the law — which imposes penalties on doctors who prescribe gender-affirming treatments — were to take effect.Holbrook found that, because the plaintiffs were likely to succeed in their lawsuit, it was best to issue a temporary restraining order “maintaining the status quo while the Court can more thoroughly review the evidence and argument following a full hearing.”Holbrook also noted that the whole law had to be blocked because lawmakers combined the bill banning gender-affirming care with a separate bill banning transgender athletes from women’s sports to gain the necessary votes to pass the Republican-controlled state legislature.In December, Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine vetoed the bill from taking effect, expressing qualms about infringing on parents’ rights to make medical decisions for their own children.
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Gay Furries Hack Right-Wing Network Real America’s Voice
#OpTransRights2 breach is here!We've breached Real America's Voice, a news platform spreading LGBTQ+ misinformation! time for a bit of lulz~User data leaked, AWS S3 buckets deleted, and user data wiped :3 https://t.co/dOLrkHkOrG pic.twitter.com/4yrP5SjEI7— SiegedSec (@SiegedSecurity) April 15, 2024SiegedSec also bragged about its actions on its X account, saying the hack was the second iteration of #OpTransRights, “a broader offensive against transphobia and the organizations that perpetrate it.”According to The Daily Dot, the data reportedly wiped from the Amazon server included personal user information related to the network’s top shows, including those hosted by right-wing mouthpieces, including Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, former advisor to President Trump Steve Bannon, and musician Ted Nugent.It’s unclear whether the hack caused any permanent damage.The #OpTransRights campaign started last year after the group targeted government websites in five states over their policies limiting access to gender-affirming care.The campaign was revived on April 1 when SiegedSec hacked the website of the River Valley Church in Burnsville, Minnesota, over anti-transgender remarks made by its pastor, Rob Ketterling.The hack of the River Valley Church website resulted in the leak of about 15,000 user accounts from the ministry’s website, as well as private prayer requests.The group followed that action by doxing Ketterling, making his email and personal phone number public, and encouraging pro-transgender advocates to send him texts criticizing his anti-trans rhetoric.SiegedSec addressed criticism of the group that the online attacks reflect negatively on the LGBTQ community as a whole.“Throughout our attacks on
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Biden’s New School Rules Protect LGBTQ Students
Supreme Court decision finding that the Civil Rights Act protects LGBTQ workers from workplace discrimination, and that instances of anti-LGBTQ discrimination are inherently a form of sex-based discrimination.The revised Title IX rules also restore some protections for students who make sexual assault allegations against other students, offering them alternatives to Trump-era policies that required live hearings in which students could cross-examine each other when an accusation was contested.Democrats, including some LGBTQ advocates, had long criticized the Trump-era policies, arguing they were overly deferential to students accused of sexual violence.The new rules also expand the types of harassment complaints that schools are required to investigate, asserting that schools must address any unwelcome sex-based conduct that is so “severe or pervasive” that it limits a student’s equal access to an education, but do not completely roll back provisions instituted under former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos intended to bolster accused students’ due process rights.“These regulations make it crystal clear that everyone can access schools that are safe, welcoming and that respect their rights,” Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in a call with reporters on Thursday.Regarding the explicit LGBTQ protections, Caronda added, “No one should face bullying or discrimination just because of who they are, who they love.
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School Board Cancels Maulik Pancholy’s Anti-Bullying Talk
Maulik Pancholy at a local middle school’s anti-bullying assembly due to concerns over his “lifestyle.”The Cumberland Valley School District school board voted unanimously to cancel the gay actor’s scheduled May 22 appearance at Mountain View Middle School in Mechanicsburg, a town of 9,000 people in the state’s center, just 10 miles outside Harrisburg.Pancholy, who played Jonathan on the hit TV show 30 Rock, Sanjay in Weeds, and voiced the character of Baljeet for Disney’s Phineas & Ferb, is also an author of novels for young adults, including The Best at It, the story of a gay Indian-American boy and his experience dealing with bullying in a small Midwestern town, and Nikhil Out Loud, about a group of eighth-grade theater kids rising up against homophobia in their community.The conservative school board balked at the idea that Pancholy might address the middle schoolers and bring up topics like homosexuality or politically-tinged issues, which could violate a district policy prohibiting “political” events.“He labels himself as an activist who is proud of his lifestyle, and I don’t think that should be imposed on our students,” School Board Member Bud Shaffner said at an evening meeting on April 15.Kelly Potteiger, a newly-elected board member who is also a member of the right-wing, anti-LGBTQ group Moms for Liberty, fretted that Pancholy might mention his books, which deal with anti-LGBTQ bullying themes, or his own experience with bullying, potentially even advocating for ideas like “empathy and inclusion” — which right-wingers typically deem as contrary to conservative values.“[I]t’s not discriminating against his lifestyle, that’s his choice, but it’s him speaking about it,” Potteiger sad.
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‘The Nance’ at 1st Stage: Pansy Division (Review)
The Nance, directed by Nick Olcott.With careful discretion, Chauncey arranges an assignation for later with the younger man, Ned, a whippersnapper fresh from Buffalo played with aw-shucks joie de vivre by Patrick Joy.While an opening scene set at the Irving Place Theatre establishes Douglas Carter Beane’s well-plotted comedy-drama within the world of 1930s burlesque, the automat scene succinctly, incisively characterizes Chauncey and his compromised existence as a practicing homosexual at a time and place where that could easily get you arrested.It’s also a time when he might happen to get arrested for doing his job as a burlesque performer who specializes in a pansy act, camping it up onstage as the flamboyantly gay stock character known as “the nance.”The play — a winner of three Tonys in its original Broadway production starring Nathan Lane — finds Chauncey and his fellow artists of the burlesque revue at the Irving Place squarely in the sights of city authorities cracking down on these risqué cabaret showcases for ecdysiasts and vaudeville comedians.There’s a great montage in Singin’ in the Rain during the “Broadway Melody Ballet,” showing the rise of Gene Kelly’s Don Lockwood from burlesque hoofer to vaudeville showman to Broadway headliner. The quality of refinement in Don’s costumes, choreography, and chorus girls steadily sparkles brighter, along with Don’s million-dollar smile as he ascends to the top.The denizens of The Nance dwell near the bottom of that stairway to paradise, on the seedier side of Manhattan.
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Nashville Settles HIV Discrimination Lawsuit
separate court case.However, since 2022, the Pentagon has stopped discharging active-duty service members due to their HIV status.That year, a Virginia federal judge ruled that the military could not discharge, refuse to commission, or categorically bar people with HIV from deploying, especially if they are asymptomatic and virally suppressed — making it highly unlikely that they can pass the virus to others.Additionally, in 2022, Davidson County voters approved an amendment to Metro Nashville’s charter removing the requirement that police recruits abide by military fitness standards, instead allowing the Civil Service Commission to set its own requirements. Subsequently, in 2023, Doe, enlisting the help of Lambda Legal, sued the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County, arguing that the Metro Nashville Police Department’s policies were not only discriminatory but violated federal law, including the Americans with Disabilities Act.As part of the settlement, the Metro Nashville government not only must provide Doe with monetary relief, but agrees to update and rewrite the city’s Civil Service Medical Examiner’s policies to make clear that people living with HIV are no longer categorically banned from serving as first responders or police officers.“I feel vindicated,” Doe said following the settlement.
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