The Supreme Court allowed which state's gender-affirming care ban to go into effect this week?
Idaho
The Supreme Court mostly reinstated Idaho’s ban on gender-affirming health care for minors on Monday, overturning a lower court decision to block the transphobic law while Labrador v. Poe, a lawsuit challenging its constitutionality, moves forward in lower courts. The law will now go into effect for all but the two minors and their families who sued to stop it… and the justices’ written comments suggest that they may ultimately rule in favor of such bans.
Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) vetoed 13 Republican bills, including one anti-LGBTQ+ bill. What was the goal of the anti-LGBTQ+ bill she vetoed?
To define gender as sex assigned at birth
The so-called “Arizona Women’s Bill of Rights,” vetoed by Hobbs, would have defined gender as sex assigned at birth and also banned trans people from using bathrooms and other facilities that do not align with the sex they were assigned at birth.
Critics said the bill would have erased trans and nonbinary people from public life in Arizona. Hobbs has vetoed other anti-LGBTQ+ bills in the past.
Why did an anti-LGBTQ+ activist recently claim that former President Donald Trump is too accepting of LGBTQ+ people?
Because Trump’s re-election campaign is escalating “his pro-homosexual policies” to try to win the election
Peter LaBarbera — founder and president of the anti-LGBTQ+ organization Americans for Truth About Homosexuality — accused Trump of pushing pro-LGBTQ+ policies during his re-election campaign. In reality, Trump is considered one of the most anti-LGBTQ+ presidents of all time.
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Why are some LGBTQ+ rights advocates like HRC starting to feel optimistic about the state of LGBTQ+ rights?
Anti-LGBTQ+ laws keep failing to pass
Several advocacy groups, including the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), believe that the movement around anti-LGBTQ+ policies is losing steam as several red states ended their legislative sessions without passing dozens of proposed anti-LGBTQ+ laws.
Rep. Lauren Boebert has endured a slew of challenges since switching districts. What was the latest roadblock in her campaign this week?
A massive fundraising nosedive
The anti-LGBTQ+ representative has been criticized as a carpetbagger for fleeing her district when it became apparent she was likely going to lose, and now Boebert has reportedly had her worst fundraising quarter in years.
A gay furry group recently claimed to have hacked a right-wing media outlet — which outlet was it?
Real America’s Voice
SiegedSec, a self-described hacker group of gay furries, claimed to have leaked data from Real America’s Voice, a far-media outlet that has platformed anti-LGBTQ+. The hacker group has previously targeted a transphobic pastor and state governments that passed bans on gender-affirming healthcare.
A judge rejected a lawsuit from Nassau County, NY, as part of their attempt to violate LGBTQ+ rights. What did Nassau County want to do?
Ban trans girls from participating in girls' sports
The county's executive banned trans girls from participating in sports, comparing them to "6-foot, 210-pound males." State Attorney General Letitia James started to challenge the ban under state anti-discrimination law, and the county sued her.
But a judge sided with James: "The law is perfectly clear: you cannot discriminate against a person because of their gender identity or expression. We have no room for hate or bigotry in New York."
What anti-LGBTQ+ law did appeals court overturn in West Virginia this week?
A ban prohibiting transgender athletes from playing on sports teams matching their gender identity
A federal appeals court overturned West Virginia’s transgender sports ban, saying it amounted to sex-based discrimination that violates laws prohibiting sex discrimination in schools. The state’s attorney general will likely appeal the ruling.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) recently signed a bill to curb book ban challenges. Who did he say the bill was written to target?
Liberals abusing the system
On Tuesday, DeSantis signed into law an education bill that included a limit on who can challenge books and how many challenges they can register. But DeSantis was targeting not the “frivolous” book challenges made by racist and anti-LGBTQ+ folks but rather liberals “abusing” the system to make a political point about the absurd overreach of Florida’s book-banning policies.
Why did gay MAGA Republican Alison Esposito recently hang up on a reporter?
He asked why she wasn’t paying her campaign staff
Alison Esposito is running for Congress in New York, but according to Times Union reporter Timmy Facciola, her campaign finance records show she did not pay her staff for three months after launching her campaign. It is also not known if she has since begun paying them. When asked about this by Facciola, she told him to submit another inquiry to her communications team before abruptly hanging up. The communications team, however, has reportedly been unresponsive.
