A Wider Bridge, the LGBTQ advocacy group building connections between the Israeli and North American LGBTQ communities, recently published the story of Romy Abergel, an Israeli transgender teenager who, against all odds, will compete in this year’s Beauty Pageant of the South. In the article, “I’d Rather Live One Day as A Girl – And…
Late GOP Sen. Jesse Helms, North Carolina, was fond of the word “pervert” when it came to LGBT people. He intended, of course, “pervert” as a noun not a verb. To be clear, when Helms referred to me and my federal colleagues as a “bunch of perverts” he meant we were federal workers who practiced…
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The White House has announced that the National LGBTQ Task Force’s Barbara Satin has been appointed to serve on President Obama’s Advisory Council on Faith-based Neighborhood Partnerships. Satin is the first transgender woman to serve on this presidential body. “I am both honored and humbled to be selected to serve on the President’s advisory…
Pink & Baby Blue 140108 from Catrin Hedström on Vimeo. A film by Catrin Hedström, which played at the Slamdance Film Festival 2014 and Female Eye Film Festival 2014 is a very timely reminder to the gender neutral bathroom discussion happening right now in states across the country. The film shows a transgender woman deciding…
Today, the United States Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and the United States Department of Justice issued guidance on Title IX and the right of transgender students to attend school free from discrimination based on sex. The guidance affirms that schools, colleges, and universities must provide transgender students with a safe and…
WASHINGTON– Today, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) released the following statement after Donald Trump declined this morning to support the Obama Administration’s important announcement that school districts should ensure that transgender students are treated with dignity and allowed equal access to facilities, such as restrooms, consistent with their gender identity. “Trump’s reckless anti-LGBT suggestion is to turn the…
WASHINGTON – The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights has implemented a regulation that provides explicit protections from discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sex stereotyping, including for lesbian, gay, and bisexual people, in healthcare and insurance under the provisions of Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA)….
If North Carolina GOP Gov. Pat McCrory wanted support for his state’s HB 2, a law that would require a person to use a public restroom based on birth sex rather than gender identity, he need look no further than the LGBT community. Gay rights groups, always inclusive of bisexuals, resisted transgender inclusion for decades….
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The North Carolina law requiring transgender individuals to use the bathroom matching the gender on their birth certificate has had far-reaching effects. Businesses, as well as religious and spiritual communities, have responded in a variety of ways. One spiritual community has a welcome sign on its door: The Self-Realization Community of Greater…
MONTGOMERY Ala. – At a special meeting earlier today, the Oxford, Ala, City Council voted 3-2 to repeal a discriminatory new ordinance that would have prevented transgender residents and visitors from using public restroom facilities consistent with their gender identity. This anti-transgender law was unprecedented in its establishment of criminal penalties for violations — including a…
