DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Over 200,000 trans people could face voting restrictions because of state ID laws
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( Jo Yurcaba | Jo Yurcaba Is A Reporter For Nbc Out. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +12 min

Seaton showed his state ID. “So I expect that we’re going to hear more stories of trans people being harassed, whether by voters, poll workers, poll monitors or other folks who are present during the election.”Impact of voter ID laws on trans votersVoter identification laws differ widely by state. Eight of those states have strict photo ID laws. Since the 2020 election, 12 states have enacted new or stricter voter ID laws, according to VoteRiders, a nonpartisan voting rights organization. In the 15 states without ID laws, voters’ identities are usually verified by checking them against their voter registration information, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

☆ Florida medical board votes to ban gender-affirming care for transgender minors
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-29 | by ( Jo Yurcaba | Jo Yurcaba Is A Reporter For Nbc Out. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +8 min

Florida’s medical board is the first in the country to pursue such a rule, but Florida is among a wave of states where officials have attempted to restrict gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors. The effort to restrict such care began in April, when DeSantis and Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo issued nonbinding guidance through the Florida Health Department that sought to bar both “social gender transition” and gender-affirming medical care for minors. Accredited medical groups — including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychological Association — have supported gender-affirming care for transgender youths. The first nine attendees who spoke were in favor of restricting gender-affirming care for minors. Only one of the eight had received gender-affirming medical care as a minor.

☆ 'Changed my life': Trans teen testifies against nation's first ban on gender-affirming care
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( Jo Yurcaba | Jo Yurcaba Is A Reporter For Nbc Out. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +7 min

The Save Adolescents From Experimentation Act bars minors in the state from receiving certain gender-affirming medical care, including puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgeries. Carolyn Kaster / APThe American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit in May on behalf of four trangsgender youths and their parents, as well as two physicians who provide gender-affirming care. ‘Changed my life for the better’The parents of four transgender young people represented in the suit spoke to how gender-affirming care has improved their children’s lives. Donnie Saxton of Vilonia, Arkansas, said his 17-year-old son, Parker, became “a new person” after coming out as trans and receiving gender-affirming medical care, according to the Arkansas Democrat Gazette. Three other states — Alabama, Arizona and Tennessee — have also passed measures restricting gender-affirming care for minors.

Congressional Republicans introduced what some are calling a national version of Florida’s Parental Rights in Education bill — or what critics have dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. It would prohibit schools, for example, from providing sex education or library books that include LGBTQ topics to children under 10. Advocates say the law stigmatizes LGBTQ families and queer youths, who already face disproportionate rates of bullying and harassment at school. Let’s call this what it is, a national ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill.”But some advocates say the federal bill would actually go further than Florida’s measure, because its impacts would extend outside just classrooms to any institution, program or event that receives federal funding or takes place on federal property. “No child should ever be exposed to sexual exhibitions like drag shows in public places, whether that’s at a public library or a public park,” he said.

RALEIGH, N.C. — A North Carolina district attorney said Friday that she intends to charge the 15-year-old suspected in a mass shooting that killed five people in Raleigh as an adult. Freeman's announcement came as a neighborhood northeast of Raleigh was left reeling and families of those killed mourned their loss. Officials said the suspect was taken into custody after a “long standoff” with police and was in critical condition. She always knew how to “take charge of everything” in order to help her loved ones, Howard said, his voice heavy with emotion. “This is an incredibly difficult time for our school community as well as the broader Raleigh community,” Richardson wrote in a statement.

☆ Milwaukee set to designate site of 1961 LGBTQ uprising a historical landmark
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-12 | by ( Jo Yurcaba | Jo Yurcaba Is A Reporter For Nbc Out. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +8 min

Wisconsin LGBTQ History ProjectOn Oct. 5, the Milwaukee County Landmarks Committee held a public hearing to discuss four landmark nominations, including the site of the Black Nite. “A group of Navy trainees went to the Black Nite on a dare, they knew it was a gay bar. The Black Nite was targeted because it was a gay bar,” Buck said, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “I’ll never forget that as long as I live,” Carter told Takach. The Black Nite event, in addition to its effects on the state, may be the first recorded LGBTQ uprising in history, Takach said.

☆ Lawmaker complaint forces Tennessee pride festival indoors
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-07 | by ( Jo Yurcaba | Jo Yurcaba Is A Reporter For Nbc Out. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +7 min

The drag show at a Tennessee pride festival will go on Saturday — but not in the way organizers had planned it. Darin Hollingsworth, a Jackson Pride Committee member, said organizers were “horribly disappointed,” because they know local LGBTQ youths would have felt supported at the drag performance. “But we will be in contempt if we even allow parents to bring in their child, so we won’t.”Hollingsworth said the pride event had been in the works for a year, and Jackson Pride had advertised it repeatedly. The event began to face backlash after a Sept. 17 Facebook post from Republican state Rep. Chris Todd. As a result, the Jackson Pride Committee decided to move the festival, including the drag show, into the Civic Center and to increase security measures by, among other things, having a metal detector.

☆ California governor signs bill offering legal refuge to transgender youths
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-30 | by ( Jo Yurcaba | Jo Yurcaba Is A Reporter For Nbc Out. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

Gavin Newsom signed a bill Thursday that aims to legally protect transgender youths and their parents if they flee conservative states that have restricted access to gender-affirming care. The bill seeks to “offer refuge” to trans minors and their families “if they’re being criminalized in their home states,” state Sen. Scott Wiener, who introduced the bill, said on Twitter after Newsom signed it. Kay Ivey signed a bill that makes it a felony for medical professionals to provide gender-affirming medical care to people under 19. “We believe that no one should be prosecuted or persecuted for getting the care they need — including gender-affirming care,” Newsom said in a statement after signing the measure. It prohibits California health care providers from releasing medical information in relation to other states’ laws prohibiting gender-affirming care for minors.

☆ 'Jeopardy!' champ Amy Schneider shares photos of her wedding
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-28 | by ( Jo Yurcaba | Jo Yurcaba Is A Reporter For Nbc Out. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

champion Amy Schneider on Tuesday tweeted photos of her wedding, calling it one of the best days of the last year "by far." Schneider said that a year ago, she was in Los Angeles ahead of her first "Jeopardy!" "The year since has been full of good days, but by far the best one was May 9th, when Genevieve and I got married," Schneider tweeted, alongside photos from her wedding day. "Without her, none of the other good days would have happened. The photos from Schneider's wedding follow her announcement earlier this year that she and Genevieve Davis were engaged.

☆ Georgia lawmaker comes out as nonmonogamous: 'I'm in love with two wonderful people'
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-28 | by ( Jo Yurcaba | Jo Yurcaba Is A Reporter For Nbc Out. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +11 min

Kris Brown, Liliana Bakhtiari , and Sarah Al-Khayyal cast their vote in the 2021 Atlanta elections. Kris Brown, Liliana Bakhtiari, and Sarah Al-Khayyal hike through Arches National Park in Grand County, Utah. “There are many more ways to be nonmonogamous than there are ways to be polyamorous, and we invite and enjoy the fluidity of the term nonmonogamy,” Brown said. Liliana Bakhtiari, Sarah Al-Khayyal, and Kris Brown celebrate Christmas with Brown's family. Bakhtiari and Brown had three cats and one dog, and when Al-Khayyal joined the family she brought her two cats.

☆ LGBTQ student group strikes deal with Yeshiva University, allowing other clubs to operate
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-22 | by ( Jo Yurcaba | Jo Yurcaba Is A Reporter For Nbc Out. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

The LGBTQ student group at Yeshiva University made the “painful” decision to pause its efforts to receive official university recognition so that the university would allow the rest of its student clubs to continue operating, the group said Thursday. “This was a painful and difficult decision,” the Pride Alliance said in the statement. “Now that Pride Alliance has offered a stay, we have sent their lawyers a signed agreement to stay the trial court order,” Eisenman said, according to a news release. “We came to YU because we want to be part of this institution,” the Pride Alliance said in its Wednesday statement. “YU accepted us as students, YU collects the same tuition from us as everyone else, and we will not be second-class citizens.

☆ Human Rights Campaign, largest U.S. LGBTQ advocacy group, names new president
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-21 | by ( Jo Yurcaba | Jo Yurcaba Is A Reporter For Nbc Out. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

The Human Rights Campaign announced Tuesday that Kelley Robinson will serve as its ninth president — the first Black queer woman to lead the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy organization. Robinson will step into the role a year after HRC fired its previous president, Alphonso David, who was the organization's first Black president. David allegedly consulted with the governor's office in December 2020, while president of HRC, the report said. David maintained that he wasn’t aware of allegations of sexual harassment against the governor during his time as chief counsel. In February, David sued the organization in federal court, alleging that he was underpaid and then terminated “because he is Black."

☆ More than 1,600 books banned during 2021-22 school year, report finds
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-19 | by ( Jo Yurcaba | Jo Yurcaba Is A Reporter For Nbc Out. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +8 min

More than 1,600 books were banned in over 5,000 schools during the last school year, with most of the bans targeting titles related to the LGBTQ community or race and racism, according to a new report. PEN America, a nonprofit that advocates for free expression in literature, released a report Monday, the start of Banned Books Week, that shows the sweeping scope of efforts to ban certain books during the 2021-22 school year. Books were banned in 5,049 schools with a combined enrollment of nearly 4 million students in 32 states, the report found. Friedman pointed to a case in Walton County, Florida, where a popular children’s book called “Everywhere Babies” landed on a banned books list last spring. The most frequently banned books were “Gender Queer: A Memoir,” by Maia Kobabe, followed by “All Boys Aren’t Blue,” by George M. Johnson and “Out of Darkness” by Ashley Hope Pérez, the report found.

☆ Queen Elizabeth II ruled through decades of change on gay rights, but her LGBTQ legacy is complicated
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-18 | by ( Jo Yurcaba | Jo Yurcaba Is A Reporter For Nbc Out. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +7 min

In 1952, when Queen Elizabeth II took the throne after the death of her father, same-sex sexual relations were criminalized in Britain. That support has led some to argue that she was a “quiet” supporter of LGBTQ rights, but to others she was just doing her job. Queen Elizabeth II waves to the crowd from the balcony of Buckingham Palace in London following her coronation, on June 3, 1953. Queen Elizabeth II gave both of the measures her royal assent and went on to continue to approve pro-LGBTQ policies. Queen Elizabeth II during a visit to HMS Queen Elizabeth at HM Naval Base, Portsmouth, ahead of the ship's maiden deployment, on May 22, 2021.

☆ Trans Floridians sue to block Medicaid rule excluding gender-affirming care
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-07 | by ( Jo Yurcaba | Jo Yurcaba Is A Reporter For Nbc Out. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +7 min

Advocacy groups sued Wednesday to block a new Florida rule that bars Medicaid coverage of gender-affirming health care, such as puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgery. The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration adopted the rule last month after it issued a report that claimed gender-affirming procedures have the “potential for harmful long term affects.” The rule took effect Aug. 21. in the lawsuit, said the new Medicaid rule will prevent her and her husband, Joshua, from being able to access puberty-blocking medication prescribed by K.F.’s doctors. They are also represented by two health advocacy groups, the Florida Health Justice Project and the National Health Law Program. Accredited medical groups — including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychological Association — say gender-affirming medical care is safe and medically necessary.

News centered on the trans community is often dominated by such trends, but across the country, grassroots nonprofit groups led by transgender people are creating spaces for their communities to find safety and joy. Here are 11 grassroots groups that do just that by providing their communities with home-cooked meals, health care, space for creativity and other services. Transgender Education Network of Texas — Austin, TexasThe Transgender Education Network of Texas at a protest last year. Jamil-Jack AbreuThe group provides free chest binders to transmasculine people nationwide and Thanksgiving meals to those who need them. The Black trans-led LGBTQ organization provides low-barrier shelter to those experiencing homelessness, transitional housing, middle-age housing and senior housing.

Search resuls for: "Jo Yurcaba"

16 mentions found