| | |  | | Election Day is this Tuesday! When safe and supportive learning environments, healthcare, and dignity and recognition for the LGBTQ+ community are on the ballot, it's clear that love and liberty are inseparable. If you've already voted, thank you! If you haven’t had the opportunity to vote yet, please make a plan to vote on Election Day tomorrow. For your polling location or questions about your ballot, visit our voter information hub at vote411.org/pflag. Hoosiers Earlier this year, the Indiana BMV proposed a rule that would ban transgender and gender-expansive Hoosiers from updating the gender marker on their IDs. After Hoosiers showed up and made clear their strong opposition, the BMV quietly withdrew it. But despite overwhelming opposition, the BMV reintroduced the exact same harmful language for yet another round of public comment. Join our friends at IYG and tell the BMV that Hoosiers care about accurate IDs and OPPOSE this rule! And, if you can, RSVP to show up to the public hearing Friday morning, November 14th! Michiganders Email the State Board of Education and tell them to vote YES on inclusive Health Education! On November 13th, the State Board of Education will vote on the first updates to the state’s health education standards since 2007. These changes will make health education in Michigan more accurate, inclusive, and responsive to the real lives of students today. The vote will shape what young people learn about mental health, consent, safety, healthy eating, respect, and other topics for years to come. We need you to speak up NOW: tell the Board to vote YES on the updated health education standards! |
|
|
| | | | | Federal judge strikes down Biden-era rule extending non-discrimination protections to the LGBTQ+ community in healthcare. U.S. District Court Judge Louis Guirola, Jr. ruled that the Biden Administration exceeded its authority by interpreting a ban on sex discrimination in Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act to include discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Twenty-five states file lawsuit to compel the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to use existing contingency funds to distribute food stamp (SNAP) benefits. The coalition of states filed their lawsuit in a federal district court in Massachusetts, seeking to compel the Administration to use contingency funds to continue SNAP benefits during the government shutdown. The Administration said that it will not distribute them on November 1st. Trump Administration draft rules target medically necessary pediatric care for trans and nonbinary youth. NPR obtained the text of two draft rules by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which are being prepared for public release in November. One rule would ban Medicaid and CHIP reimbursements for gender-affirming care for youth under 18 and 19, respectively. Another would block all Medicare and Medicaid funds for any hospital providing pediatric gender-affirming care. PFLAG National will keep you apprised of developments and actions you can take once the proposed rules are officially released. Trump Administration demands University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) pay fine, limit rights of transgender people. The Administration is levying a $1.2 billion fine against the university and demanding policy changes in exchange for unfreezing nearly $600 million in federal funding. The Administration’s demands include that UCLA’s medical school and its affiliated hospitals stop providing medically necessary pediatric care for trans and nonbinary youth, that UCLA ban trans women from participating in school sports, among other policy changes. Gay Russian couple seeking asylum in the U.S. held in ICE custody. Andrei Ushakov and Aleksandr Skitsan, who are married, fled Russia on March 14, 2024, fearing for their safety after Skitsan faced threats at work. The couple applied for asylum in the U.S. from Mexico and had an appointment for their asylum application on November 27th, 2024. They have been held separately in ICE custody since then, barred from communicating with each other. |
|
|
| | | South Korea - Same-sex couples to be counted in census for the first time. While same-sex marriage is not legal in South Korea, the Ministry of Data and Statistics updated its system for this year’s census in order to be able to count same-sex couples as “spouses” or “cohabitating partners.” United Kingdom - King Charles III unveils memorial to LGBTQ+ veterans. The King opened the memorial, a sculpture called “an opened letter,” at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire. This was the first official engagement the King has undertaken specifically in support of the LGBTQ+ community since taking the throne in 2022. |
|
|
| | | New book celebrates gay rights pioneer Craig Rodwell. Rodwell, who was active in the Mattachine Society, was present at the Stonewall Uprising, and organized the first Pride march in 1969, is celebrated in Insist That They Love You: Craig Rodwell and the Fight for Gay Pride. Openly gay speed skater wins two medals at US speedskating championships. Conor McDermott-Mostowy won two medals – one silver and one bronze – at the championships on October 25th and 26th. This brings McDermott-Mostowy closer to qualifying for the 2026 Winter Olympics. Singer Róisín Murphy removed from music festival lineup following anti-trans comments. The Back in Town music festival organizers removed Murphy as the festival’s headliner after the singer made comments on social media denying the legitimacy of trans and nonbinary identities and claiming that youth identifying as trans or nonbinary represented “havoc wreaked on children, families and society.” Lia Smith, transgender college student, dies by suicide. Smith, who was 21, was a student at Middlebury College in Vermont, where she was a former diver on the women’s swimming and diving team, a member of the chess club, and an advocate for trans rights. |
|
|
| | |
|
|
