Camille is a twentysomething working in the LGBT nonprofit industry. She runs an LGBT news blog at gaywrites.org.
Transgender issues are more visible than they have ever been, and with heightened awareness comes heightened criticism. As someone who writes about LGBT issues, I am used to right-wing think-pieces bashing transgender people, I am used to the same old tired arguments about the nature of gender, and I am used to reading false accusations about transgender people in bathrooms. What I am not used to is people who have a relationship with a transgender person — nay, people who have a deceased transgender parent — refusing to change their views or even open their minds the slightest bit to life experiences different from their own. But that’s what I came across in this piece by Denise Shick for the conservative Daily Signal. Read more
Jeff Landry, the Attorney General for the state of Louisiana, opposes equality for transgender students for two reasons: the opinion of a hate group masquerading as a medical organization, and “the good Lord.” In an interview for the Family Research Council’s “Washington Watch” radio program, Landry told Tony Perkins about why his state is encouraging schools to disobey recent guidance from the Obama administration relating to Title IX. The guidance says transgender students should be able to access facilities that correspond with their gender identity — including bathrooms — and that federal funding is at risk if schools don’t comply. Read more
While top officials in the United States argue over where transgender people can pee, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau just proposed sweeping legislation to protect trans people from discrimination across the board. The prime minister’s administration proposes to ban anti-trans discrimination nationwide, as well as add transgender people as a protected class under the country’s hate crimes law. Read more
Michael Voris, producer of the conservative Christian website “Church Militant,” recently shared a video explaining that not only did God cure his *homosexual tendencies*, but that it happened through a pretty gruesome way: God gave his mother cancer, which eventually killed her, and it turned him straight. Read more
Tennessee is on the brink of legalizing faith-based discrimination in a particularly despicable way. In mid-April, the state passed HB1840, which allows therapists and counselors to deny services to people — including children — if treating them would “violate sincerely held principles.” Today is the last day Gov. Bill Haslam can veto the bill or it will become law. Read more
