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☆ Robbi Mecus, Who Helped Foster L.G.B.T.Q. Climbing Community, Dies at 52
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-28 | by ( Gaya Gupta | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Robbi Mecus, a New York State forest ranger who led search-and-rescue missions and became a prominent voice within the L.G.B.T.Q. climbing community, died after falling about 1,000 feet from a peak at Denali National Park and Preserve in Alaska on Thursday. Her death was confirmed by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, where she worked for 25 years. Ms. Mecus, who worked mostly in the Adirondacks, searched for and rescued lost and injured climbers facing hypothermia and other threats in the wilderness. She then worked to foster a supportive community for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning climbers in the North Country of New York.

Persons: Robbi, Mecus Organizations: New, and, New York State Department of Environmental Locations: New York State, Alaska, New York City, New York

☆ Biden Administration Restores Health Protections for Gay and Transgender People
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-26 | by ( Noah Weiland | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Biden administration announced expansive new protections on Friday for gay and transgender medical patients, prohibiting federally funded health providers and insurers from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. The new rule reverses a policy instituted by the Trump administration and helps to fulfill part of President Biden’s vow to restore civil rights protections for L.G.B.T.Q. people that were eliminated by his predecessor. The rule overhauls federal policy in an area that has become a political flashpoint, with more than 20 Republican-led states banning or restricting gender-affirming care for minors in recent years, and it is likely to draw legal challenges. Even the history of the rule illustrates the political sensitivities at play: It has now taken three different forms under three successive presidents.

Persons: Trump, Biden’s, “, ” Xavier Becerra Organizations: Biden, Republican

☆ Giorgia Meloni Is Leading the Far-Right Takeover of Europe - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-22 | by ( David Broder | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Yet for all the apocalyptic anger, this wasn’t a call to quit the European Union. In this project, they have a model: Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy. Ms. Meloni is already an inspiration to the European far right. For the European far right, poised for an advance, Ms. Meloni is leading the way. Since coming to power in October 2022, Ms. Meloni has impressed many with her pragmatic approach and abandonment of her previous criticism of the European Union.

Persons: “ There’s, Marion Maréchal, sulfurously, Giorgia Meloni, Meloni, “ Orban, Viktor Orban’s Organizations: L.G.B.T.Q, European Union, NATO, Ukrainian, European Commission Locations: Europe, European Europe, “, Italy, Brussels, Hungary, Ukraine

☆ Biden Administration Releases Revised Title IX Rules
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-19 | by ( Zach Montague | Erica L. Green | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Biden administration issued new rules on Friday cementing protections for L.G.B.T.Q. students under federal law and updating the procedure schools must follow when investigating and adjudicating cases of alleged sexual misconduct on campus. The new rules, which take effect on Aug. 1, effectively broadened the scope of Title IX, the 1972 law prohibiting sex discrimination in educational programs that receive federal funding. They extend the law’s reach to prohibit discrimination and harassment based on sexual orientation and gender identity. And the administration took steps to roll back some of the more rigid campus sexual assault policies issued during the Trump administration, which drew condemnation from Democrats, including Mr. Biden, for being overly deferential to students accused of sexual violence.

Persons: IX, ” Miguel A . Cardona, Bostock, Trump, Biden Organizations: Biden, Civil Locations: Clayton County

☆ Nijole Sadunaite, Lithuanian Nun Who Opposed Soviet Rule, Dies at 85
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-10 | by ( Sam Roberts | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Nijole Sadunaite, a fearless but forgiving Roman Catholic nun and anti-Soviet Lithuanian nationalist who was inspired by Pope John Paul II and publicly hailed by President Ronald Reagan, died on March 31 in Vilnius. Her death was confirmed by Sister Gerarda Elena Suliauskaite, laureate of the Freedom Prize of the Republic of Lithuania, which was also given to Sister Sadunaite in 2018 for her defense of democracy and human rights. In 1975, Sister Sadunaite (pronounced sah-DOO-nay-teh) was arrested by K.G.B. agents who had stormed an apartment where she was writing an underground newspaper, The Chronicle of the Catholic Church in Lithuania, which documented abuses against Christians in the Baltic state. “I had typed six pages when I was caught, so I effectively got one year for every page,” she told The Atlantic in 1994.

Persons: Nijole, Pope John Paul II, Ronald Reagan, Sister Gerarda Elena Suliauskaite, Sadunaite, “, ” Organizations: Catholic Church Locations: Soviet Lithuanian, Vilnius, Republic of Lithuania, Lithuania, Baltic

☆ Four Takeaways From the Vatican’s Document on Human Dignity
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-08 | by ( Jason Horowitz | Elisabetta Povoledo | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The document issued on Monday by the Vatican puts human dignity at the center of Catholic life, but in doing so, it broaches some of the most difficult and sensitive social issues, those that Pope Francis has spent his papacy avoiding. On Monday, though, his church leaned hard into them in the document, called “Infinite Dignity.” It argued that the exploitation of the poor, the outcast and the vulnerable amounted to an erosion of human dignity. Catholics to receive blessings from priests and transgender people to be baptized and act as godparents, has a limit: Catholic doctrine. The pope’s conservative critics have for a decade argued that his tendency to speak off the cuff and in overly welcoming ways toward L.G.B.T.Q. people, the divorced and remarried, along with others who sin in the church’s eyes, had sent the wrong signal.

Persons: Pope Francis, Pope Francis ’ Organizations: Vatican

☆ 2 Men Charged With Supplying Drugs That Killed Cecilia Gentili
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-01 | by ( Liam Stack | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Two men have been charged with providing fentanyl-laced heroin that killed Cecilia Gentili, a prominent transgender activist and actress who was found dead in her Brooklyn home in February. The indictment accused Michael Kuilan, 44, and Antonio Venti, 52, of supplying Ms. Gentili with the drugs, according to an announcement Monday by federal prosecutors in New York. It was the first time that officials have disclosed Ms. Gentili’s cause of death. Ms. Gentili was a well-known community leader, activist and actress on the critically acclaimed television show “Pose.” Her death, at age 52, was met with an outpouring of grief from the L.G.B.T.Q. community, and she was mourned by New York elected officials, including Gov.

Persons: Cecilia Gentili, Michael Kuilan, Antonio Venti, Gentili, Kathy Hochul, Eric Adams, Alexandria Ocasio, Cortez Organizations: New York, Gov, Roman Catholic Archdiocese Locations: Brooklyn, New York, St, Patrick’s

☆ Moscow Concert Hall Shooting Russia Begins Day of Mourning for Victims
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-24 | by ( Mike Ives | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +7 min

The terrorist attack outside Moscow a few days later was a blow to his aura as a leader for whom national security is paramount. Just days later came a searing counterpoint: His vaunted security apparatus failed to prevent Russia’s deadliest terrorist attack in 20 years. Inside Russia, the election — and its predetermined outcome — underscored Mr. Putin’s dominance over the nation’s politics. The area is closed as part of increased security measures after the terrorist attack on Friday. Before Friday, the most recent mass-casualty terrorist attack in the capital region was a suicide bombing at an airport in Moscow in 2011 that killed 37 people.

Persons: Vladimir V, Putin, “, ” Aleksandr Kynev, ” Mr, Mr, ”, Nanna Heitmann, Aleksei A, ” Ruslan Leviev, Olga Skabeyeva, Margarita Simonyan, Russia’s, Aleksandr Dugin, Dugin, Dugin’s, Andriy Yusov, Putin’s, Shamil Zhumatov, Kynev, Vladimir Putin’s, Constant Méheut Organizations: Kremlin, Islamic State, Passengers, The New York Times, Terrorism, Islamic, ., Reuters Locations: Russia, Moscow, Ukraine, Russian, Beslan, United States

☆ For Irish L.G.B.T.Q. New Yorkers, It’s Been a Long Way to Staten Island
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-16 | by ( Liam Stack | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

This year, for the first time, every New York City borough will host a St. Patrick’s Day Parade that allows L.G.B.T.Q. That milestone will be celebrated on Sunday with a new parade on Staten Island, part of a deal brokered by Mayor Eric Adams. It’s the result of decades of work by activists like Brendan Fay, an indefatigable Irish immigrant who began lobbying for the inclusion of gay marchers 34 years ago. “There has been a huge cultural transformation that I have lived through from 1990 until today,” Mr. Fay, 65, said this week as he prepared to march in the Staten Island parade. Most of New York’s elected officials, who plan to march on Sunday, have boycotted the borough’s original parade for years.

Persons: Eric Adams, Brendan Fay, Mr, Fay, “ Organizations: New Locations: New York City, Staten Island, Staten, United States

☆ Russia’s Persecution of L.G.B.T.Q. Ukrainians Should Be a Crime Against Humanity - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-15 | by ( J. Lester Feder | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

They found that he’d been gathering information about Russian military positions to share with Ukrainian forces; they also discovered he was gay. Mr. Polukhin gave a detailed account of his detention to Projector, an Odesa-based human rights organization. Mr. Polukhin lived in Kherson, a southern city of around 250,000 people that the Russians conquered with blinding speed in the war’s early days. (This is a common practice by Russian forces, nominally to search for nationalist tattoos.) “I think that all of them should be killed,” Mr. Polukhin said the man responded.

Persons: Oleksii, Polukhin, ” Mr, they’d Organizations: Ukrainian, Russia Locations: Ukraine, Kherson, Ukrainian

☆ Supreme Court Stays Out of Dispute Over Drag Show at Texas University
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-15 | by ( Adam Liptak | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The Supreme Court on Friday rejected a request from an L.G.B.T.Q. student group at a public university in Texas to let it put on a drag show on campus over the objections of the university’s president, who had refused to allow it. Drag shows are increasingly a target of the right, with some Republican-led states, including Florida and Tennessee, seeking to restrict the performances. The student group, Spectrum WT, first sought to sponsor the drag show, a charity event to raise money for suicide prevention, in March 2023. Walter Wendler, the president of West Texas A&M University, canceled it, citing the Bible and other religious texts.

Persons: ’, Walter Wendler Organizations: Republican, WT, West Texas, M University Locations: Texas, Florida, Tennessee

☆ Why Democrats Are Hopeful in North Carolina and Nervous in Georgia
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-11 | by ( Maya King | Nicholas Nehamas | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Democrats are starting to dream that President Biden can wrench North Carolina away from Donald J. Trump in November. They’re less confident that Mr. Biden can hold on to Georgia. The two Southern battlegrounds are creating a tricky strategic calculus for Mr. Biden’s campaign as it grinds into higher gear and decides where to direct its money, advertising and foot soldiers on the political map. The subtle, early tension is leading to no small amount of jealousy among Democratic allies of Mr. Biden in each state as they jockey for cash and attention. views, and Democrats hope he will drag down the Republican ticket to Mr. Biden’s advantage.

Persons: Biden, Donald J, Trump, They’re, Mr, “, ” Roy Cooper, Biden’s Organizations: Democratic, Republican Locations: Carolina, Georgia, North Carolina, ” North Carolina

☆ Arizona Governor Vetoes Bill Allowing Police to Arrest Migrants
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-04 | by ( Jack Healy | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Katie Hobbs of Arizona vetoed a bill on Monday that would have authorized the state police to arrest undocumented immigrants. Her veto on highlights the election-year tensions over border security as border states and major cities grapple with a record number of migrants crossing the southern border. Ms. Hobbs has expressed frustration with the Biden administration’s handling of the border crisis, but said the Republican-backed measure was anti-immigrant and most likely unconstitutional. The bill, called the Arizona Border Invasion Act, would have made crossing the border without authorization a misdemeanor state crime, and a felony for migrants who crossed after being deported or ordered to leave. It would also have allowed state law enforcement officials to detain migrants, and Arizona judges to order deportations.

Persons: Katie Hobbs, Hobbs Organizations: Arizona’s Republican, Biden, Republican, Arizona Locations: Arizona

☆ Texas Judge Temporarily Blocks Paxton’s Demand for Transgender Minors’ Records
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-03 | by ( Colbi Edmonds | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A judge on Friday temporarily blocked the Texas attorney general from forcing an L.G.B.T.Q. organization to turn over documents on transgender minors and the gender-affirming care they may be receiving. In Texas, medical care for gender transition is prohibited for minors under a law passed last year. The judge added that such an ask would infringe on the group’s constitutional rights and that its members would be subject to “gross invasions” of privacy. In a statement, PFLAG’s lawyers, including the American Civil Liberties Union, said they were “grateful that the court saw the harm the attorney general’s office’s intrusive demands posed.”

Persons: Ken Paxton, Judge Maria Cantú Hexsel, Paxton, PFLAG, general’s, ” Organizations: Court, American Civil Liberties Union Locations: Texas, Travis County

☆ Why ‘Fetal Personhood’ Is Roiling the Right
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-03 | by ( Emily Bazelon | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The procedure offers a chance to make a baby, with eggs that are fertilized and develop into embryos in a lab. came to a sudden halt because of a State Supreme Court ruling that achieved a central goal of the anti-abortion movement. The ruling vaulted the question of “fetal personhood” to the center of the debate that has followed the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision overturning Roe v. Wade. The Alabama court decision made clear that this stance on the definition of life can broadly rewrite reproductive rights and send states, and perhaps the country, down unpredictable paths. In response, Alabama legislators, led by Republicans who have opposed abortion, rushed to pass bills last week so that I.V.F.

Persons: Roe, Wade Organizations: Court, Republicans Locations: Alabama, U.S .

☆ Vaccines Didn’t Turn Back Mpox, Study Finds. People Did.
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-29 | by ( Apoorva Mandavilli | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Why It Matters: Vaccines often arrive too late to stamp out outbreaks. Public health messaging can “be really powerful to control epidemics, even as we’re waiting for things like vaccines to come,” he said. Some experts unrelated to the work were not convinced that behavioral change was largely responsible for stemming the outbreak. “Add in some vaccine-induced immunity in this group and a bit of behavior change, and it will be even more effective,” he said. “As we’ve seen with Covid, the behavioral change only lasts so long,” she said.

Persons: Miguel Paredes, Paredes, ”, Bill Hanage, Thomas Skinner, Virginia Pitzer, we’ve Organizations: Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Food and Drug Administration, Vaccines, Harvard, of Public Health, Disease Control, Yale School of Public Health Locations: Seattle, North America, Chan, resurging

Ghana’s Parliament on Wednesday passed a bill that imposes jail terms on people who identify as L.G.B.T.Q. or organize gay advocacy groups, measures that Amnesty International called among the harshest on the African continent. issues could get five years, and those who engage in gay sex would receive five years instead of the three years under previous legislation. The bill is the latest in a wave of anti-gay legislation passed in Africa: Tanzania, Niger and Namibia have tightened such laws in recent years, while Uganda has adopted an anti-gay law that includes the death penalty. Many have experienced a surge in homophobic attitudes, behaviors and rhetoric in recent years, the rights group said in a report last year.

Persons: Nana Akufo Organizations: Amnesty Locations: Africa, Tanzania, Niger, Namibia, Uganda

☆ Russia’s Brutal War Calculus
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-24 | by ( Paul Sonne | Josh Holder | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +7 min

Russia’s Brutal War Calculus Freedoms Wages The costs of two years of war in Ukraine have been enormous. Here is a look at how Russia at war has changed — suffering enormous costs by some metrics but faring better than expected by others. But Mr. Putin has convinced many that in invading Ukraine, Russia is defending itself against an existential threat from the West. Blood and TreasureIn the early months of the war, Mr. Putin’s military made grave mistakes, but it has regrouped. But despite their stated support for the war, many Russians would be happy for it to end.

Persons: languish, Instagram, Vladimir Putin, Putin, ”, “, Putin’s, Aleksei A, Navalny Organizations: Daily Life People, Facebook, Travel, Trade, Russia, Military Locations: Ukraine, Russia, China, Soviet Union, India, Moscow, Europe, Turkey, Ukrainian

☆ Alabama Lawmakers Move to Protect I.V.F. Treatments
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-23 | by ( Eduardo Medina | Emily Cochrane | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Alabama lawmakers are considering legislation that would protect in vitro fertilization, after a State Supreme Court ruling last week led some clinics to halt I.V.F. But its wording — paired with a fiery opinion from the chief justice encouraging lawmakers to push its scope further — has left many wondering about the possible wider implications for people seeking I.V.F. At least three major fertility clinics in Alabama have halted I.V.F. treatments this week as doctors and lawyers assess the possible consequences of the ruling. On Friday, a major embryo shipping company said that it also was “pausing” its business in Alabama.

Locations: Alabama

☆ Navalny Is Dead, but Putin Can’t Kill His Vision of the Future - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-20 | by ( Nadya Tolokonnikova | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

I hear my quiet voice join others screaming, “Russia without Putin.” We lock our arms and together push the police out of the street. He gave us something else, too: a vision he called the “beautiful Russia of the future.” This vision is immortal, unlike us humans. President Vladimir Putin may have silenced Aleksei, who died last week. But no matter how hard he tries, Mr. Putin won’t be able to kill Aleksei’s beautiful dream. For all of us in that packed room, Aleksei made it feel not only that a free Russia was possible but also that we could get there with joy, laughter and camaraderie.

Persons: Putin, Aleksei Navalny, Aleksei, Vladimir Putin, Putin won’t, Young, ” Organizations: Mr Locations: Moscow, Russia

☆ How Texas Billionaire Tim Dunn Is Showing How Our System Works - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-17 | by ( Jamelle Bouie | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

This week in The Texas Monthly, I read a troubling profile of Tim Dunn, a 68-year-old billionaire Texas oilman and lavish financier for right-wing extremists in the state. I highly recommend reading the entire profile, which is a comprehensive look at a very powerful man. Dunn makes an unfavorable comparison between human societies and bee hives:“When everybody does what they do best for the hive, it prospers,” he said. If you’re a scout, be a scout.” Dunn then contrasted the cooperation of the hive with the inexorable tumult of modern politics. But when read with Dunn in mind — a straightforward Christian nationalist whose allies in Texas politics are leading the charge to ban books, suppress the rights of L.G.B.T.Q.

Persons: Tim Dunn, Texas oilman, ” Russell Gold, “ Dunn, don’t, Dunn, ”, ” Dunn, “ Organizations: Texas, Texans Locations: “, Texas, L.G.B.T.Q

☆ ‘We’re Going to Stand Up’: Queer Literature is Booming in Africa
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-17 | by ( Abdi Latif Dahir | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

As a queer teenager growing up in northern Nigeria, Arinze Ifeakandu often found himself searching for books that reflected what he felt. He scoured the book stands in Kano, the city where he lived, hoping to find stories that focused on L.G.B.T.Q. Ifeakandu wanted more. “I knew I wanted to write characters who are queer. That’s the only way I am going to show up on the page.”

Persons: Arinze Ifeakandu, Ifeakandu, “, ” Ifeakandu, ” Locations: Nigeria, Kano

☆ Opinion | The Meaning of the Super Bowl ‘He Gets Us’ Ad
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-15 | by ( David French | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

During Super Bowl Sunday, a 60-second ad aired about Jesus Christ, and no one seemed angrier about it than Christians. The ad depicts a series of images of one person washing another person’s feet. A cop washes the feet of a young Black man. An older woman washes the feet of a young woman outside an apparent abortion clinic, while anti-abortion protesters look on. He washed feet.”The ad came from a group called He Gets Us that is running a multimillion-dollar ad campaign with the aim of essentially reintroducing America to Jesus.

Persons: Jesus Christ, Jesus didn’t, “, Jesus, I’ve, they’ve, ” Organizations: Super, Jesus, Hobby, United, and State Locations: America

☆ Report Says 17 Percent of Gamers Identify as L.G.B.T.Q.
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-13 | by ( Zachary Small | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Less than 2 percent of console video games include L.G.B.T.Q. characters or story lines even though 17 percent of gamers are queer, according to GLAAD’s first survey on the industry. But it also found that many queer gamers saw virtual worlds as an escape in states where recent legislation has targeted L.G.B.T.Q. “The statistic is driven largely by young gamers. Its latest report found that 10.6 percent of series regulars in prime-time scripted shows identified as L.G.B.T.Q., which researchers said helped put their video game study in perspective.

Persons: GLAAD’s, ”, Blair Durkee Organizations: Nielsen

☆ Opinion | The Debate Over Transgender Care and Detransitioning
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-10 | by ( ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Ms. Paul cites stories of detransitioners as if they are damning to the practice of gender-affirming care as a whole. Not all detransitioners regret their transition, and not all transgender people will medically transition. By writing this article, Ms. Paul further stigmatizes health care for transgender people. What we do know is that transgender youth are under attack across the nation. Texas’s attorney general, Ken Paxton, last month demanded records from providers outside his state to single out hospitals or clinics that have treated transgender youth from Texas.

Persons: Pamela Paul, Ms, Paul, Ken Paxton Locations: Netherlands, Texas

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