LGBTQ+

Who'd have guessed it would be a 6-3 ruling?

A Tennessee state law banning gender-affirming care for minors can stand, the US supreme court has ruled, a devastating loss for trans rights supporters in a case that could set a precedent for dozens of other lawsuits involving the rights of transgender children.

The case, United States v Skrmetti, was filed last year by three families of trans children and a provider of gender-affirming care. In oral arguments, the plaintiffs – as well as the US government, then helmed by Joe Biden – argued that Tennessee’s law constituted sex-based discrimination and thus violated the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment. Under Tennessee’s law, someone assigned female at birth could not be prescribed testosterone, but someone assigned male at birth could receive those drugs.

Tennessee, meanwhile, has argued that the ban is necessary to protect children from what it termed “experimental” medical treatment. During arguments, the conservative justices seemed sympathetic to that concern, although every major medical and mental health organization in the US has found that gender-affirming care can be evidence-based and medically necessary. These groups also oppose political bans on such care.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has ruled that a trans middle schooler can continue to use the bathroom that aligns with her gender identity while her case moves through the lower courts.

This is really not a new finding, but just consistent with what was already found by previous studies, but here we go:

The report found that 98 per cent of respondents that had socially and/or medically transitioned had significantly higher levels of happiness and satisfaction.

The researchers found reasons for detransition were due predominantly to transphobia and “challenges related to social acceptance”, such as not being accepted by friends or family for being trans.

“Social and structural explanations dominated the reasons why respondents reported going back to living in their sex assigned at birth at some point,” the report read.

“Only four per cent of people who went back to living in their sex assigned at birth for a while cited that their reason was because they realized that gender transition was not for them. When considering all respondents who had transitioned, this number equates to only 0.36 per cent.”

If like me you have zero parenting and fathers day is painful try !dadforaminute@lemmy.world It's a great group of dads there for pep talks, big hugs or dad advice. Totally lgbt inclusive

The Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs in the U.S. aren’t just affecting American Pride celebrations this year. Events across Europe are reportedly also feeling the pinch as corporate sponsors pull back their financial support for fear of crossing the president.

Zee Pepper, a trans and aboriginal man in Melbourne, Australia, is speaking out after experiencing allegedly blatant transphobia in a restaurant at the start of Pride Month. [...] Pepper was dining at the Soho restaurant in Australia’s second city with his mother and stepsister when he went to use the restroom. He opted for the unisex handicapped bathroom, as he usually does when there’s a choice between unisex and men’s bathrooms.

Four drag performers were greeted with applause when they showed up to opening night of Les Misérables at the Kennedy Center on Wednesday, while President Donald Trump arrived to a mixture of boos and cheers from the crowd.

This funding will expand Lambda Legal’s capacity, helping the organization fight against immediate threats to LGBTQ+ people in the courts, win new rights and protections, and prepare a defense for the future. By the end of 2026, the organization will build up its legal team by 42%, growing from 36 to 51 members, effectively expanding the organization’s case docket capacity by 86%.

Lambda Legal is stretching its dollars to the maximum to meet the moment, and continued support will go toward critical strategic and expanded legal action. Already, the organization is in court fighting back, litigating for the rights and dignity of LGBTQ+ communities all the way up to the United States Supreme Court.

This includes:

• Arguing in front of the Supreme Court to force an end to anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, including the United States v. Skrmetti case.
• Litigating six separate cases against the current Trump administration for its anti-LGBTQ+ policies and executive orders targeting transgender rights and inclusion in the military, access to HIV medication and gender-affirming care, and DEI.
• Maintaining an impressive 86% success rate against the last Trump administration.

Of the $285 million raised by Lambda as part of the Unstoppable Future campaign, 30 percent — roughly $80 million — is available as current-use cash to support strategic growth. The remaining 70 percent are long-term legacy commitments from donors that will help ensure the organization’s continued growth and protect the future rights of the LGBTQ+ community

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A highly significant Supreme Court decision is approaching, and the lives of trans teens and their families hang in the balance. United States vs Skrmetti will decide, once and for all, whether state bans on gender-affirming treatments are constitutional. If the court sides with Tennessee, its ban and other similar laws will remain in place. Nationally, access to gender affirming care has also been threatened by a presidential executive order and the Republican-dominated congress, but these efforts thus far have fallen short of a full ban.

At stake in Skrmetti, advocates say, is safety and stability for trans youth and their families. If the conservative-leaning court upholds state care bans, loving families fear the prospect that their children could be removed by state child protective services. (Due to the seriousness of these potential legal threats, this piece uses pseudonyms for trans youth and their families in states with bans.)

Why have some families decided to risk everything for these treatments? The answer, families say, is as simple as love. Those Teen Vogue spoke to describe how decisions to seek gender-affirming treatments sprang from the trust trans youth placed in their parents, and parents’ drive to do what’s best for the health of their children.

Posters advertising a “bear weekend” cling to the utility poles on Fire Island, punctuating the wooden boardwalks that meander through a lush dune landscape of beach grass and pitch pine. It’s not a celebration of grizzlies, by the looks of the flyers, but of large bearded men in small swimming trunks, bobbing in the pools and sprawled on the sundecks of mid-century modernist homes. You might also find them frolicking in the bushes of this idyllic car-free island, a nature reserve of an unusual kind that stretches in a 30-mile sliver of sand off the coast of Long Island in New York.

Over the last century, Fire Island Pines, as the central square-mile section of this sandy spit is known, has evolved into something of a queer Xanadu. Now counting about 600 homes, it is a place of mythic weekend-long parties and carnal pleasure, a byword for bacchanalia and fleshy hedonism – but also simply a secluded haven where people can be themselves.

“My most vivid memory of my first visit here in the late 90s is being able to hold my boyfriend’s hand in public without fear,” says Christopher Rawlins, architect and co-founder of Pines Modern, a non-profit dedicated to celebrating the modern architecture of the island. The palpable sense of community and liberation here is, he says, “what happens when people who are accustomed to a certain degree of fear no longer feel it.”