By Minh Ha, Verite | NEW ORLEANS, La. – Transgender public school students are caught in the middle of a legal battle between the state of Louisiana and the federal government, and schools have no clear answers on how to proceed.

Last week, Gov. Jeff Landry announced that Louisiana — along with Mississippi, Montana and Idaho — filed suit against the federal government over newly issued rules under Title IX, a 1972 law prohibiting gender discrimination in educational institutions that receive federal funding, including public K-12 schools in the state.

The new guidelines, released by the U.S. Department of Education last month, expand the definition of prohibited sex discrimination to apply to “sex stereotypes, sex characteristics, pregnancy or related conditions, sexual orientation, and gender identity.” Failing to comply risks losing billions of dollars in federal funding that goes to schools around the state.

The lawsuit focuses on the requirements around gender identity. The state argues that the rule is an overreach of Title IX authority. The law, the state argues, was intended to prohibit discrimination based on biological sex alone.

“The consequences will be shocking and severe,” lawyers for the states, among them Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill, wrote in the April 29 complaint. “Boys and girls will be forced to share bathrooms, locker rooms, and perhaps even lodging on overnight field trips with members of the opposite sex. Adding insult to injury, they will be forced to use ‘preferred pronouns’ or else face punishment, which raises distinct Free Speech and Free Exercise problems.”

The rules, set to take effect Aug. 1, have faced backlash from other Louisiana state leaders, who have called the move an attack on women’s rights. In a letter sent out to school leaders April 22, state Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley said that the changes could contradict state law and urged schools not to follow the federal guidelines.

“The Title IX rule changes recklessly endanger students and seek to dismantle equal opportunities for females,” Brumley said in the letter.

Late last week, 17 parish school boards — including Bossier, Caddo and St. Tammany parishes, among the largest districts in the state — joined the state in its lawsuit against the Biden administration.

The revisions come during a time when Louisiana lawmakers are making a concerted effort to erode LGBTQ+ rights, with bills under consideration that would prohibit school employees from addressing students by their preferred pronouns, outlaw the discussion of sexual orientation in schools and segregate bathrooms and locker rooms based on sex assigned at birth.

Louisiana has about 4,000 students in the 13-17 age group identifying as trans, according to a 2022 report. In New Orleans, the largest and most politically left-leaning city in the state, school district leaders have not taken a stance on the issue.

Orleans Parish School Board President Katherine Baudouin declined to comment, citing a lack of information, while a spokesperson for the NOLA Public Schools district said these “complex issues are being reviewed.”

The school board previously took a stand on a related issue. In 2022, the board adopted a resolution denouncing anti-trans legislation moving through the state Legislature.

The Greater New Orleans Collaborative of Charter Schools, which 14 charter schools are a member of, said it is reviewing statements by federal and state authorities regarding the new Title IX requirements. Member schools, which include The Willow School and Warren Easton High School, all currently have similar non-discrimination policies with wording in compliance with the requirements of their respective public authorizers, like the NOLA Public Schools district, Jefferson Parish School Board and the Louisiana State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.

“It is our policy to refrain from commenting on current or imminent litigation,” a spokesperson for the collaborative said in an email to Verite News. “We will continue to monitor this situation as we prepare for next school year.”

‘It is heart-wrenching to watch us die’

Lux Matt, a sophomore at New Harmony High School in New Orleans who identifies as trans and nonbinary, is still mourning the death of Nex Benedict, a trans high schooler who died after being bullied at school in Oklahoma earlier this year. Medical examiners have ruled the death a suicide.

Matt was in the process of receiving gender-affirming care when a statewide ban on gender-affirming care for minors took effect in January.

“People underestimate how much this affects us,” Matt said. “We grieve every single trans person that is murdered, whether they are 45 years old or 15. It is heart-wrenching to watch us die.”

Surveys have consistently shown that LGBTQ+ youth have high rates of suicidal thoughts, with transgender youth at particularly high risk. A 2019 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey also shows that trans and queer high schoolers were almost twice as likely to face bullying compared to their straight peers. In Louisiana, LGBTQ+ students reported in 2019 hearing anti-LGBTQ remarks regularly in school.

Matt said respecting trans kids’ names and pronouns at school helps prevent suicides. Since late 2021, they have been advocating for their and other queer and trans youths’ rights through advocacy work via Trans Queer Youth NOLA.

Matt said they have been in conversations with school leaders to keep their school safe and inclusive. For example, the school might work to allow students to use nicknames in school even if the state passes House Bill 121.

The bill, which passed the state House last month and is now in the Senate, would require school employees to refer to students by the names listed on their birth certificates (known as “deadnaming”) and pronouns that align with the gender they were assigned at birth, regardless of their gender identities, unless their parents give permission to do otherwise.

The school also doesn’t have a dress code or uniform, which Matt said allows trans students to express themselves freely.

English teacher Rebecca Cavalier sponsors the gay-straight alliance at Benjamin Franklin, which she said is one of few organizations of its kind in the city. Cavalier said Ben Franklin is committed to making sure LGBTQ+ students have a safe space on campus.

“Unfortunately, schools have become these political war zones where people from the right want to control what’s going on in the classroom,” she said. “It does create a feeling of fear, and I think that’s what’s going to do the most damage. Even teachers who are allies are going to take out queer representation in their libraries because they’re afraid.”

This year, her team has carried out protests, organized email campaigns to advocate for LGBTQ+ rights and even put on a play about growing up queer in Louisiana at the state capitol, she said. With support from local advocacy groups, the school also built a queer library and a gender-affirming clothing closet at the school, she added.

“My administration probably won’t want to fully break the law, but we’ll do whatever we can to make kids feel safe,” she said. “But I don’t think that’s going to happen at other schools, which is sad. Kids are gonna feel very isolated.”

Cavalier said she’s worried the club might be seen as running afoul of yet another proposed state law next year. House Bill 122, which passed the State House last month and is awaiting debate in the Senate, would prohibit the discussion of sexual orientation in public schools, including during extracurricular activities.

But Cavalier said the group plans to hold meetings outside of school and partner with the Pride Center and other groups to avoid breaking the law. The gay-straight alliance is also putting together a working group to find loopholes in the law, Cavalier said.

“It’s hard to keep fighting because it just felt so hopeless this year, but we can’t make it easy for them,” she said.

A chilling effect

A’Niya Robinson, an advocacy strategist for the ACLU of Louisiana, said conflicting messages regarding Title IX from the federal and state levels had caused confusion among students, parents and educators statewide.

“There are a lot of different layers: there’s local law, there state law, there’s federal law,” she said. “There are folks who are knowingly injecting more confusion by filing baseless lawsuits — it really creates this chilling effect. I can easily see situations where teachers and students may be afraid to exercise their rights because they don’t exactly know what’s outlawed and what’s not.”

The ban on gender-affirming care that took effect this year forced New Orleans Center for Creative Arts sophomore Nicholas Lavender and his family to visit Rhode Island in March to access gender-affirming care. His parents, Beth Rosch and Will Lavender, said the family will return in August to take care of his medical needs.

“I’m grateful that this expansion has happened at the federal level because it’s keeping up with our continuing understanding and knowledge of what sexual identity is,” Rosch said, adding that she was frustrated with the state Legislature. “It’s an integral part of a person. It’s not a costume you put on to get into the other gender’s locker room.”

Will Lavender said he hopes school administrators will be vocal and take a stance to protect trans kids as the lawsuit progresses.

Rosch said it’s important for schools and teachers to provide all students with an inclusive and supportive learning environment.

“Children spend the majority of their waking hours at school, and that’s an enormous part of their social experience,” she said. “Just the cultural damage of these poor kids and adults [by] being told, ‘You’re not, you’re not real, you’re not true, you’re not a regular human being, you’re flawed, you’re imagining your own identity’ — that’s incredible psychological damage.”

Will Lavender said the attacks on queer and trans rights from the Statehouse have made the family feel unwelcome in Louisiana. But he hopes the NOLA Public Schools district would protect queer and trans students.

“All trans kids just want to be their normal, regular selves,” he said. “I would like to have faith that [the NOLA Public Schools district] will do the right thing, and hopefully not be afraid to get [its] hands dirty to support the kids of our city, all of them.”

******************************************************************************************

Minh (Nate) Ha is a recent magna cum laude graduate from American University with a Bachelor’s degree in journalism. Originally from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Ha has spent the past four years in Washington, D.C. His reporting includes stories about how second-generation Vietnamese Americans fought to protect their community center in Virginia amidst redevelopment plans and the construction and delays of the Washington, D.C. metro.

******************************************************************************************

The preceding article was previously published by The Louisiana Illuminator and is republished with permission.

This article first appeared on Verite News and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

The Louisiana Illuminator is an independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization with a mission to cast light on how decisions in Baton Rouge are made and how they affect the lives of everyday Louisianians. Our in-depth investigations and news stories, news briefs and commentary help residents make sense of how state policies help or hurt them and their neighbors statewide.

We’re part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.

By Nina Banks | KATY, Texas – The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights opened an investigation Monday into Katy Independent School District’s gender identity policy on the basis of gender harassment under Title IX. The investigation came nine months after the district adopted a policy that notifies parents if their child requests to use a different name or pronouns at school.

Katy ISD did not respond to a request of how many parents have been notified this year under the new policy, which requires staff to inform parents that students are transgender or ask to use different names or pronouns.

The Houston Chronicle reported in December that the district had notified parents at least 23 times since the policy was adopted.

The gender identity policy also bars schools from teaching “gender fluidity” and denies students from competing in sports with the gender they identify with, which mirrors state legislation already regulating K-12 athletics.

Students Engaged in Advancing Texas, a student-led advocacy group, filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education in November regarding the policy. Katy ISD graduate and member of SEAT Cameron Samuels labels the investigation as a win against the conservative policies being passed in the district.

“Elected solely on platforms to target marginalized students, far-right school board candidates accomplished exactly what they were elected to do: weaponize identity and neglect students’ educational needs,” they said.

Title IX prohibits sex-based discrimination in educational settings or federally funded activities. Gov. Greg Abbott has loudly voiced his opposition to the federal law recently ordering the Texas Education Agency to disregard the Biden administration’s expansion of Title IX.

“The district is committed to offering equal educational opportunities to our entire community,” a spokesperson from Katy ISD told the Tribune in a response to the investigation. “While we have received the OCR filing and deny any wrongdoing, we are committed to remaining fully cooperative and responsive throughout the process.”

Victor Perez, Katy ISD board president and proponent of the policy, argued that the policy was “mischaracterized” by community members as an attack on its queer and transgender students and instead relieves the burden for staff withholding information from parents. The policy was passed at a board meeting in August with a vote of 4-3 after four hours of public comment.

Alastair Parker, a member of the Cinco Ranch High School Gender-Sexuality Alliance, spoke at the board meeting in opposition to the policy.

Parker and others argued that the policy infringes on the rights of transgender kids to express themselves and opens them to potential harm if they are outed to transphobic parents or caregivers.

Johnathan Gooch from Equality Texas, a nonprofit advocacy group for LGBTQ+ Texans, said he hopes students recognize their power to report policies like this in the wake of the increasing number of legislation targeting LGBTQ+ youth.

This isn’t the first instance in Texas of a gender related policy being investigated on the federal level. Carroll ISD in Tarrant County was reported to have eight open investigations last February after it eliminated protections over race, religion, gender and sexual orientation.

There are documented mental health benefits to using preferred pronouns. A research team at the University Texas at Austin conducted a study in which they concluded that students in gender-affirming environments report 71% fewer symptoms of severe depression, a 34% decrease in reported suicidal ideation and a 65% decrease in suicide attempts.

“When students place their trust in teachers and school administration, the school has a duty to preserve that trust,” Gooch said. “That duty requires schools to ensure that no disclosure would place a student in harm’s way.”

Parker has been out as a transgender man since the seventh grade and is supported by his father, who he resides with. He acknowledged that this isn’t the case for many of his classmates as some have parents that are less accepting.

His teachers have gone by his preferred name and pronouns for his entire high school experience. But since the policy has been enacted, he has seen some of his peers go by their deadnames fearing that their parents would be notified.

Over the past year, other schools across the state have adopted similar policies.

Keller ISD, which is also in Tarrant County, passed a policy in late June that prevents students from using their preferred name and pronouns or using restrooms with the gender they identify with.

The policy was met with retaliation from the Texas American Civil Liberties Union, writing in a letter to the district that the policy is “deeply invasive and unlawful for school administrators to interrogate students’ private medical information in this way.”

As the end of the school year nears, Parker observed the policy being enforced at varying levels of severity by teachers. The passing of legislation or policy like this deters from the ongoing health crisis for queer and transgender youth and is wholly unnecessary, he said.

“If a child’s not telling their parents something like that, it’s for a reason,” he said. “I know that most of the people who are in favor of this are the ones who bounce off whatever their parents have told them to repeat.”

******************************************************************************************

Nina Banks is the Tribune’s Dallas Press Club Foundation reporting fellow based in Arlington where she is studying communications at Tarrant County College. She is managing editor of the student-run newspaper, The Collegian, and hosts the staff’s podcast, The First Draft. When Nina isn’t hunched over her laptop, you can find her sipping on boba tea.

******************************************************************************************

The preceding article was first published by The Texas Tribune and is republished with permission.

Disclosure: Equality Texas has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

Texans need truth. Help us report it.

Independent Texas reporting needs your support. The Texas Tribune delivers fact-based journalism for Texans, by Texans — and our community of members, the readers who donate, make our work possible. Help us bring you and millions of others in-depth news and information. Will you support our nonprofit newsroom with a donation of any amount?

YES, I’LL DONATE TODAY

WASHINGTON — Karine Jean-Pierre sat down with the Washington Blade for an exclusive interview in her office on Tuesday, a week before the two-year anniversary of her appointment as America’s first Black and first openly queer White House press secretary.

Her history-making tenure has come at an especially fraught time for LGBTQ people.

The Biden-Harris administration has been widely celebrated as the most pro-equality in history. Over the past four years, rights and freedoms were expanded through the passage of landmark legislation and the enactment of bold new policies by federal agencies like the FDA and U.S. Department of Education, while the president elevated record-breaking numbers of LGBTQ appointees to serve in the highest levels of government.

At the same time, conservative Republicans have led an unprecedented legislative assault on queer people, especially transgender and gender-expansive youth, which has been accompanied by an escalation of dangerous fear and hate-mongering rhetoric against the community and spikes in bias-motivated acts of violence as well as depression, anxiety, self-harm behaviors, and deaths by suicide.

On these matters Jean-Pierre has often spoken out, addressing reporters from the lectern in the West Wing’s James S. Brady Press Briefing Room in remarks that have often gone viral and driven news coverage.

Reflecting on her tenure, the 49-year-old press secretary explained why she is uniquely positioned to leverage her influence as the most visible spokesperson for President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and the administration — at this pivotal moment for LGBTQ people both at home and abroad.

Leadership comes from the top

“Representation matters,” Jean-Pierre said. “And the president was certainly very aware of that, and wanted to make sure that he put together the most diverse administration,” she said, “and he did that.”

About 14 percent of appointees in the Biden-Harris administration identify as LGBTQ, including U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Adm. Rachel Levine, assistant secretary for health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In his first term, Biden has appointed a record-breaking 11 LGBTQ judges to the federal bench, tying with the number who were confirmed under former President Barack Obama over the course of eight years.

“I am in this job because the president of the United States believed and wanted me to speak on behalf of him and said, ‘You have my voice, and you know how to speak for me, and this is the role that I want’ — I mean, that’s why he chose me,” she said.

Jean-Pierre stressed that she is able to condemn “these bad bills, these awful bills, these really hateful, prejudiced, anti-LGBTQ+ bills” because of “this president” — and not just by virtue of his appointment of her to the role of press secretary, but also because “he believes it is important to speak out.”

“Silence is complicit,” she said. “You know, that’s something that you hear from this president all the time: We cannot be silent in this moment. We cannot. Not when we see these anti-LGBTQ+ bills” nor when attempts are made to restrict reproductive rights or other freedoms.

When vulnerable queer youth are being targeted, Jean-Pierre said, “we have to do everything that we can — as an administration, as the White House, as the federal government — to protect them, and that’s what I get to do” because “this president allows me to speak out and show up.”

Jean-Pierre also pointed to Biden’s remarks in defense of the LGBTQ community and other marginalized groups during his State of the Union addresses and other major speeches.

“One of the things that he has said that always touches me is he says, ‘trans kids are some of the most impressive, brave people’ that he has seen,” she said. The president understands that “This is not about politics. This is about the right thing to do. And protecting lives.”

“And I say all of this to say it matters. It matters who sits behind that Resolute Desk. It matters who’s the president of the United States,” Jean-Pierre said.

The press secretary added that Biden’s actions as president affirm his verbal commitments to protect, support, and defend the LGBTQ community.

“The president signed an executive order to make sure that we were lifting up LGBTQ+ rights on the federal level, to make sure that policies that we were putting out there were taking steps toward protecting families, protecting youth, addressing mental health amongst young people, and in the community, and that was something that was really important for the president to do.”

She described a pivotal moment in the White House when, after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade’s constitutional protections for abortion with a 6-3 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022), conservative Justice Clarence Thomas signaled his interest in revisiting other cases, including those that established the right to marriage equality.

“So, one of the things that came out of Congress in a bipartisan way was protecting marriage, protecting marriage equality,” Jean-Pierre said, “and I remember when the president signed [the Respect for Marriage Act] in December of 2022, and how beautiful that was knowing that that was protected by law.”

“We have made sure to do what we can on the federal level,” she added, noting that, “Obviously, there’s legislation that we have to continue to push for,” including the Equality Act — which would codify nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ Americans — “but we do what we can from this side of things.”

The importance of diversity of lived experience

The president also understands the value of narrative storytelling in policymaking and governance, Jean-Pierre said, noting how Biden often talks about economic issues by relating to the struggles of working families with his journey from humble beginnings in Scranton, Pa.

Likewise, Jean-Pierre said that drawing from her lived experiences “helps me understand policy a little bit more and telling stories around policies a little bit more.” For example, she sees the danger of anti-LGBTQ laws targeting youth not just because of her identity as a member of the community — but also as the mother of a nine-year-old.

In February, Jean-Pierre spoke out repeatedly after a nonbinary Oklahoma teen named Nex Benedict died, in what was later ruled a suicide, after enduring months of bullying over their sexual orientation and following their state’s passage of a bill prohibiting trans students from using restrooms and facilities consistent with their gender identity.

“I know that for many LGBTQ+ students across the country this may feel personal and deeply, deeply painful,” Jean-Pierre said in remarks to reporters during the opening (the “topper”) of her press briefing on Feb. 23.

“Nex Benedict and so many young people are dying by suicide,” she told the Blade. “And that hurts. That’s an incredibly hurtful thing. Because they were bullied, because they were attacked, because they don’t feel free.”

“As a parent, as a mom, I do everything that I can to make sure that [my daughter] is protected,” Jean-Pierre said. “And what I want for my child, I want for every child, so that does hit differently, because it’s very personal.”

The press secretary recalled how she met two mothers at an event last year and, in separate conversations with the women, learned how they planned to leave their respective home states — Texas and Oklahoma — because they had trans children and felt unable to protect them amid the legislative attacks.

“Can you imagine,” she asked, “you’re raising your child in a community that you are familiar with” when suddenly, “there is a piece of legislation that’s going through the state legislature that gets signed by the governor and it is telling you that your child is in danger?”

Jean-Pierre also recognizes how her professional background and experience have equipped her for the briefing room and other duties of her role as White House press secretary.

Prior to joining Biden’s 2020 campaign and then the Biden-Harris administration, she worked as a political analyst for NBC News and MSNBC, having also served as a senior adviser and national spokesperson for MoveOn, the progressive public policy advocacy group.

Jean-Pierre began her career working on political campaigns and fundraising before joining the faculty of her alma mater, Columbia University, where she was a lecturer in international and public affairs.

“There’s something to growing and experiencing and taking chances and jumping from one thing to another,” she said, “understanding that you’re learning from the last thing and what you’re learning from the last thing you’re going to take to the next experience.”

The president, Jean-Pierre said, “had watched me do TV and watched me in my roles prior, and really believed that I was the person that he wanted” for the press secretary role.

Ultimately, “whether it’s making sure I am empathetic, sympathetic to what people are going through as a mom, as someone that belongs to multiple communities, I get to do that. Whether it’s the media and understanding how the media works, how TV works, how communicating with the press works, I’ve done that, so I’m able to bring that to the podium,” she said.

‘Lifting up issues that matter‘

In the immediate aftermath of Benedict’s death, Jean-Pierre noted that LGBTQ advocacy groups and individuals had sought to “get more attention to what happened there,” while the Biden-Harris administration wanted folks to understand “that we’re watching, we’re seeing what is happening, and we’re going to speak” about it.

“We’re not going to be silent, here,” she said. “We were very purposeful about it.”

In hindsight, Jean-Pierre said, her remarks from the podium made a real impact. “It brings coverage; it brings the White House press corps and others to cover what we’re saying. That is why it is so important what we do at the podium; it is so important what we do in this press briefing room — lifting up issues that matter to the American people.”

The press secretary added, “sometimes it’s not even an issue that’s popular. It’s something that needs to be spoken to, because it is something that could lead to a dangerous situation; something that could oppress a community, harm a community — and we get that; this president gets that, this administration gets that.”

Initially, there was very little press coverage of Benedict’s death, Jean-Pierre said, but “we wanted to really lift up what was happening,” because “it wasn’t just Nex Benedict. It was a story of many, many people in that community who were being bullied, who were being attacked. And we needed to speak to that” especially amid the hundreds of bills targeting the rights of queer youth in Oklahoma and across the country.

In another instance recalling her comments from the briefing room, Jean-Pierre stressed how it was important for the administration to “take on the governor” of Florida, Ron DeSantis (R), over his efforts to target the LGBTQ community by banning books, imposing curriculum restrictions, and limiting educators’ ability to be out at work.

Doing what’s right — regardless of the backlash

Jean-Pierre was quick to brush aside the question of whether she considers the risk of incurring backlash from the right when deciding whether to speak out on matters of LGBTQ rights.

Blowback “happens all the time,” she said. “Every day!” So, “I just don’t pay attention to it. We have to do the right thing and we can’t live in fear, here.”

The choice to be silent about a problem is the choice to be complicit, and not only does silence forestall any progress toward addressing the issue at hand, but it also constitutes an abrogation of one’s responsibility as a leader, Jean-Pierre said.

“The president is very clear about that,” she said. With respect to issues like dangerous anti-LGBTQ legislation, “you can’t be silent” because “people’s lives are at stake.” Ultimately, “The backlash is going to be the backlash, but we’ve got to do the right thing and history will remember where we stood.”

The Biden-Harris administration believes this principle extends to America’s leadership on the international stage, Jean-Pierre said, in her response to a question about U.S. Rep. Tim Walberg’s (R-Mich.) travel to Uganda last year to speak in defense of the country’s draconian Anti-Homosexuality Act.

She stressed that the law, which criminalizes homosexuality and imposes the death penalty in some cases, is “dangerous and undermines the rights of all citizens. And the president has been very clear, the Biden-Harris administration has been very clear, that no one should live — and I’ve said this before — in constant fear.”

Rather, Jean-Pierre said, “They should feel safe in their community, they should feel protected, and no one should be subjected to violence and discrimination. It is not what we believe, whether it’s here in this country or abroad.”

Since the legislation was made effective in May 2023, she noted, “we’ve taken several accountability actions, including restricting visa entry to the United States, restricting economic support to the government, and sanctioning officials who abuse human rights.”

Jean-Pierre added that, “we’re also deeply troubled by the copycat anti-LGBTQ+ legislation around the world,” which is “why it’s important what we do as the United States, because we’re leaders. And when you’re seeing other countries trying to implement and copycat the same thing, you need the United States to stand up and speak out against it. And that’s leadership.”

The administration’s robust response “sends a message around the world, that we do believe in human rights; we do believe that people should be protected; we do believe that violence and discrimination is not OK,” Jean-Pierre said. “And we lead by example.”

Likewise with respect to her comments from the podium, she said. “And [those remarks] went viral, because we spoke to it very loudly, very clearly,” in what was “an important moment for the community here but [also for] the community abroad, to hear from us, [that] we’re not afraid to talk about this because we have to and we understand our role in the world.”

By Erin Reed | SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – On Wednesday evening last week, the Utah Public Auditor released a form allowing cisgender people to report transgender people in bathrooms. This was done in response to a law passed earlier this year banning transgender people from bathrooms and changing rooms in various circumstances.

Within a couple of days, the form was flooded with over 4,000 meme submissions, leading to a flurry of news articles critical of the approach to enforcing anti-transgender bathroom legislation. Now, the Utah Public Auditor is responding to the critiques by deferring blame onto the state legislature for making his office the “bathroom monitor,” a role he says he never asked for.

In a statement released today, Utah State Auditor John Dougall called the passage of the bill rushed and stated his office was never consulted during the process of passing the law: “The Office created the complaint form to comply with a statutory mandate – a role we did not request. Indeed, no auditor sets out to become a bathroom monitor. Unfortunately, neither Rep. Birkeland, nor any other legislator consulted with this Office regarding this newly mandated obligation placed on the Office under this bill. Like many in the public, we learned about our role under this bill shortly before the bill was rushed to final passage.”

You can view the full statement here:

The statement is in response to widespread criticism and outcry over the use of the form to target transgender people. The form included a section where people could upload images, among other things, to support their allegations.

This led to fears that the form would encourage members of the public to act as vigilante bathroom police, taking pictures of people they thought were transgender in private bathroom spaces.

This was a criticism shared by Senator Jennifer Plumb, a vocal critic of the legislation, who posted shortly after its release, stating, “Apparently Utah’s solution to people feeling unsafe in restrooms is to encourage folks to take photos of & focus extreme attention on the private parts of others who are taking care of a biological need to eliminate waste?”

The form was quickly recognized as a threat to transgender people, and in response, thousands of people flooded the tip line with frivolous complaints and memes, over 4,000 in all. Memes sent to the form included the yelling cat meme, Godzilla with trans pride flags, the entire script to the Bee Movie, and more.

In a separate twist, private data such as images from those who submitted forms was leaked through an open database, which allowed some of these meme submissions to be publicly viewable for a short time.

The ordeal over the bathroom reporting tool in Utah mirrors problems seen in many other anti-trans bathroom laws targeting transgender adults. These laws are extremely difficult to enforce. Questions of enforcement were brought up often in the debate, with many pointing out that you can’t always tell who is transgender.

This sentiment was shared in the Senate Business and Labor Committee by Dustin Parmley, a public defender, who stated, “This bill is impossible to enforce. It relies on citizens to determine if someone is feminine or masculine enough to use it. The exceptions are for hidden conditions, such as someone’s surgery or birth certificate. It will lead to unnecessary police investigations.”

It remains to be seen what the future of the form looks like. Already, the option to submit a picture has been removed. There is no indication that any actionable complaints have been submitted.

Other attempts to create such forms have similarly failed, such as in Virginia, where Governor Glenn Youngkin’s tip line was flooded with complaints about Beowulf, or in Missouri, where scripts for the Bee Movie were sent in.

In this case, it appears that when faced with problems enforcing anti-trans laws, the state of Utah attempted to sidestep the issue by abdicating the responsibility of enforcement to its citizens. In its “rush” to pass the legislation, those who pointed out that such a bill would create “bathroom police” appear to have been proven correct.

****************************************************************************

Erin Reed is a transgender woman (she/her pronouns) and researcher who tracks anti-LGBTQ+ legislation around the world and helps people become better advocates for their queer family, friends, colleagues, and community. Reed also is a social media consultant and public speaker.

******************************************************************************************

The preceding article was first published at Erin In The Morning and is republished with permission.

By Jackie Llanos | TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Republican State Attorney General Ashley Moody filed a lawsuit Monday against new Biden administration regulations defending access to common medical treatments for transgender and gender non-conforming people.

The regulations that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued Monday state that blanket exclusions in services that single out transgender people are “presumptively discriminatory on the basis of sex.” Those guidelines for sex-based discrimination also encompass gender identity, according to the regulations.

The agency crafted specific provisions related to gender-affirming care “given the widespread discriminatory denial of care for such services and its direct connection to an individual’s transgender status.”

While the federal regulations are set to go into effect on July 5, Moody is asking the U.S. District Court of the Middle District of Florida in Tampa to throw out the rules, which seemingly go against the state’s ban on gender-affirming care, such as puberty blockers, for minors and the restrictions for what kind of providers can treat trans adults seeking treatment for gender dysphoria.

For the duration of the case, Moody requested that the court issue a temporary injunction exempting Florida agencies from enforcing the rules.

Florida’s gender-affirming care landscape

“Florida passed a law to protect our children from dangerous, irreversible gender-transition drugs and surgeries,” Moody wrote in a Tuesday press release. “Now, Biden and his federal bureaucrats are trying to go around our child-protection law to force the state to pay for puberty blockers and gender-transition surgery for children. These rules trample states’ power to protect their own citizens and we will not stand by as Biden tries, yet again, to use the force of the federal government to unlawfully stifle Florida’s effort to protect children.”

However, the regulations from the federal agencies don’t state that a healthcare provider would have to give gender-affirming care to a trans patient. Instead, it states that providers should determine treatment on a case-by-case basis.

“Nothing in this rule impedes covered entities from taking nondiscriminatory actions based on current medical standards and evidence, such as making decisions about the timing or type of protocols appropriate for care. The rule does not (and cannot) require a specific standard of care or course of treatment for any individual, minor or adult,” the rules state.

But Florida’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors and the restrictions for adults are also wrapped up in a legal challenge in a federal court in Tallahassee. The trial for the case brought by transgender children, their parents and transgender adults took place in December but the judge has yet to rule.

Equality Florida, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group, condemned the lawsuit in a statement to Florida Phoenix.

“DeSantis and Attorney General Moody’s lawsuit is another taxpayer-funded distraction so Floridians won’t notice that their insurance rates continue to skyrocket as Florida has the highest rate of inflation in the country and the lowest rate of teacher pay,” the group wrote. “Everyone deserves respect and the freedom to seek best-practice healthcare, but our Governor is hellbent on denigrating transgender Floridians and overruling parents’ ability to obtain essential care for their transgender child.”

Complaint arguments

Moody filed the 84-page complaint — with dozens of additional exhibits and other documents — on behalf of the state of Florida, Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, the Florida Department of Management Services and the Catholic Medical Association and its director Mario Dickerson.

The defendants were listed as: Department of Health and Human Services; Xavier Becerra, in his official capacity as Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services; Melanie Fontes Rainer, in her official capacity as the Director of the Office for Civil Rights; Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services; Chiquita Brooks-Lasure, in her official capacity as Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid.

In the complaint, she argues that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) of the Department of Health and Human Services violated the Administrative Procedure Act and the Spending Clause because the agencies didn’t have the power to change the definition of sex-based discrimination and tie federal funding based on states’ compliance with those rules.

“Under the OCR Rules, Florida now faces the untenable choice of surrendering its power to protect the health and safety of Floridians or losing billions of dollars in federal funding without adequate notice that this would be part of the bargain,” Moody wrote in the complaint.

The lawsuit also includes arguments that the regulations would violate the Catholic Medical Association (CMA) members’ freedom of religion and speech.

“CMA and its members hold the position that gender-transition procedures are unethical and dangerous. Providing, facilitating, referring for, or endorsing gender-transition efforts violates their medical views, their core religious beliefs, and their oath to ‘do no harm,’” Moody wrote in the lawsuit. “CMA’s members have medical and ethical positions contrary to the 2024 Rules’ requirements, and they also have overlapping religious objections. It is within CMA’s advocacy mission to advocate and litigate for its members’ right to the conscientious and faithful practice of medicine.”

Just last month, Moody joined other states in challenging new Biden administration rules protecting transgender people from discrimination in schools, colleges, and universities.

******************************************************************************************

Jackie is a recent graduate of the University of Richmond. She has interned at Nashville Public Radio, Virginia Public Media and Virginia Mercury.

******************************************************************************************

The preceding article was previously published by the Florida Phoenix and is republished with permission.

The Phoenix is a nonprofit news site that’s free of advertising and free to readers. We cover state government and politics with a staff of five journalists located at the Florida Press Center in downtown Tallahassee.

We’re part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.

LAS VEGAS, Nev. – A man currently on parole for a habitual criminal offense has been charged by Clark County, Nevada prosecutors for an April 25 incident for shooting at his neighbors while using homophobic slurs.

CBS affiliate KLAS-TV 8 News reported that Larry Walraven, 75, faces a charge of assault with a deadly weapon with a hate crime enhancement, according to the court documents filed this week.

In the court filings it was stated that on April 25, Walraven allegedly shot at his neighbor “due to their sexual orientation.” A Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department spokesperson said that in the initial 911 call, the victim said he was standing outside when Walraven “provided a black, revolver handgun and pointed it at [him]. After Walraven pointed the handgun, he fired four rounds at [the victim] with none of the rounds making contact with [him].”

After allegedly firing the weapon, Walraven reportedly said, “I’m going to kill you fucking faggots,” using a homophobic slur.

Metro officers seized a BB-gun when they arrested Walraven. A preliminary hearing in this case was scheduled for May 15. Because of a parole violation, he will remain in custody without bail.

By Nuria Martinez-Keel | OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. – Oklahoma’s attorney general and state Department of Education are both suing the Biden administration over new Title IX rules protecting gender identity in schools.

Attorney General Gentner Drummond and the state agency each announced Monday they filed lawsuits against the U.S. Department of Education in Oklahoma City federal court. The cases were filed separately, but both asked that a U.S. district judge block the new regulations from taking effect.

The federal government released new legally binding Title IX rules on April 19 that include treatment based on gender identity within the scope of sex discrimination, among many other changes. The U.S. Department of Education declined to comment on pending litigation.

Multiple Republican attorneys general have filed legal challenges to the rules, specifically over the gender identity protections.

State Superintendent Ryan Walters said his agency is the first state education department to sue over the regulations.

“Title IX was designed to ensure women had the guarantee of sex equality in education and an environment free from discrimination, but this rewriting – rooted in radical gender theory that ignores biological reality – has set back the cause of civil rights for women by generations,” Walters said in a statement Monday. “I will do everything possible to protect the essential and fundamental right of women and girls to have safe spaces of their own to compete, change clothes, and use the bathroom.”

Walters has been a frequent opponent of schools making accommodations for transgender students’ identities. He advocated for an Oklahoma law that requires school bathrooms to be used according to a person’s birth sex, and he established a new rule that prevents a student’s gender to be changed retroactively on prior school records.

The state also has outlawed transgender girls from participating in women’s sports.

Drummond said the new rules are unconstitutional and will conflict with state law. The set of Title IX regulations “jeopardizes the equal opportunity that has been afforded to female athletes ever since the establishment of the statute,” his lawsuit states.

The new rules do not take a stance on athletic eligibility, though they could apply to other school policies, such as restroom use.

Walters already asked Oklahoma school districts to disregard the regulations.

However, the federal Department of Education has said the rules are mandatory for schools to continue receiving federal education funding, which amount to hundreds of millions of dollars for Oklahoma districts.

“As a condition of receiving federal funds, all federally-funded schools are obligated to comply with these final regulations and we look forward to working with school communities all across the country to ensure the Title IX guarantee of nondiscrimination in school is every student’s experience,” the federal agency said in a statement last month.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include a response from the U.S. Department of Education. The federal agency declined to comment on pending lawsuits.

******************************************************************************************

Nuria Martinez-Keel covers education for Oklahoma Voice. She worked in newspapers for six years, more than four of which she spent at The Oklahoman covering education and courts. Nuria is an Oklahoma State University graduate.

******************************************************************************************

The preceding article was previously published by the Oklahoma Voice and is republished with permission.

Oklahoma Voice provides independent, nonpartisan reporting that holds officials accountable and elevates the voices of those too often sidelined by the political process.

We’re part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.

By Erin Reed | JACKSON, Miss. – Mississippi’s legislature passed a transgender bathroom ban that applies to all college campuses in the state. News of the bill’s passage came just after it appeared the bill had failed to meet deadlines, but Republicans voted to suspend the rules in order to pass it.

The bill bans transgender people from using bathrooms and changing rooms that match their gender identity on college campuses, and even allows cisgender people to sue transgender people who are found in bathrooms forbidden by the law. The bill now heads to the Governor’s desk, who is likely to sign it into law.

The bill is Senate Bill 2753, and it applies to all “public education buildings,” which include public schools and colleges, and any facilities owned or operated by them. It also applies to fraternities and sororities, which may have been included after a transgender girl won the right to stay in her sorority in Wyoming. It specifies that even dormitories must discriminate against transgender people in “single-sex educational housing spaces.”

Lastly, it offers a “private right of action” that appears to be targeted at transgender people, allowing cisgender people to sue to prevent transgender people from using bathrooms aligned with their gender identity, according to local news.

You can see the provision here:

This portion of the bill was a significant source of controversy during debate. Earlier versions of the bill explicitly allowed lawsuits for “compensatory damages,” although that provision was removed in the final conference committee for the bill. In its place is a scaled-down version of the private enforcement provisions, which leaves the question of enforcement uncertain when it comes to targeting transgender people individually. The bill also allows the state Attorney General of Mississippi to enforce the law against educational institutions.

Over the last year, more bathroom bans targeting transgender people have been enacted following Florida’s bathroom ban, which remains the harshest in the nation with criminal penalties of up to one year in jail. Kansas, North Dakota, and Utah also have bathroom bans. Utah’s ban targets all government buildings, including the airport, with enforcement depending on allegations of behavior that “causes affront or alarm.” In Kansas and North Dakota, there is no enforcement mechanism. Other states are also considering bathroom bans, such as Ohio, which has slowly progressed a bill similar to Mississippi’s higher education bathroom ban.

Mississippi has consistently been one of the harshest states toward transgender people. The state has already passed a gender-affirming care ban for transgender youth and a sports ban. Last year, students at one school in Mississippi were forced to wear clothing of their assigned sex at birth for graduation, resulting in both a transgender girl and a cisgender nonconforming girl being barred from walking at their own graduation after a judge sided with the school. This bill will only increase the danger for transgender residents and those who travel through the state.

Although the bill likely runs afoul of Title IX protections, Mississippi is among the states suing the federal government for the right to discriminate against trans people.

****************************************************************************

Erin Reed is a transgender woman (she/her pronouns) and researcher who tracks anti-LGBTQ+ legislation around the world and helps people become better advocates for their queer family, friends, colleagues, and community. Reed also is a social media consultant and public speaker.

******************************************************************************************

The preceding article was first published at Erin In The Morning and is republished with permission.

ARLINGTON, Va. – Between 200 and 250 people, including parents and their children, turned out on Saturday, May 4, for a “Love Fest” Drag Story Hour brunch hosted by the Arlington, Va., LGBTQ establishment Freddie’s Beach Bar and Restaurant.

Local drag performer Tara Hoot, who read children’s stories and handed out coloring books to the kids attending the event, was joined by members of the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, which sang several songs before Hoot began reading from children’s books in keeping with the tradition of drag queens conducting Drag Story Hour events across the country.

The May 4 event at Freddie’s in the Crystal City section of Arlington took place four weeks after the start of a similar event hosted by Freddie’s was delayed by a bomb threat, forcing those who had arrived  to exit through a rear door and wait in a parking lot as Arlington police conducted a search of the premises with a bomb sniffing dog. No trace of a bomb was found.

All the customers, including parents and their kids, were invited back inside and the show took place as planned.

No similar threat occurred at the May 4 event. But three male protesters assembled on the sidewalk next to the parking lot behind the Freddie’s building, with one of them shouting from a bullhorn passages from his Bible that he said indicated the Drag Story Hour event was an “abomination.”

The three protesters were outnumbered by nearly a dozen counter protesters who were  members of the Rainbow Defense Coalition, an LGBTQ organization. They carried bright, rainbow-colored umbrellas while chanting messages of support for the Drag Story Hour event.

Freddie Lutz, Freddie’s Beach Bar owner, called the event a “smashing success” that brought an “outpouring of love from the community.” Lutz released a flier on social media promoting the Love Fest event shortly after the earlier event interrupted by the bomb threat as a showing of love “to stop the hate.”

“Join us for the next story time brunch dressed in your favorite rainbow/hippie outfit” and “carry your favorite homemade signs of support,” Lutz said in his promotional flier. He came to the event dressed in what he called his hippie protest outfit.

Lutz said while the protesters did not interrupt the event, he was concerned that their shouting was scaring some of the kids as they and their parents walked by the protesters to enter Freddie’s.

“I went out back and tried to talk to one of them and it was kind of like talking to a brick wall,” Lutz told the Washington Blade. “He was screaming at the parents that were crossing their kids on the crosswalk,” Lutz said. “And I said, you’re screaming at those kids, you’re scaring them.”

Lutz said the man told him he was yelling at the parents, not the kids. “And I said, no you’re not. The kids are hearing you. You’re scaring them.”

Added Lutz, “And to have such a fun-loving, happy show and then walk out on the sidewalk to that is very disheartening. It’s really sad. I told him my God is a forgiving and loving God.”

One of the protesters, who declined to disclose his name, said he and his two fellow protesters came to talk about the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

“We want them to know this is an abomination to the Lord,” he told the Blade. “We want them to know those children don’t have a voice and they’re being brainwashed in there. We’re here to call out their sin.”

Stephanie Krenrich, who brought her two-year-old daughter to the event, said she strongly disputes the claims of the protesters.

“I brought my daughter here because I think that it was a beautiful and wonderful show, and it was great for her,” she said. “And I think it’s pretty offensive when people come to Arlington and tell parents what to do, especially for something so beautiful and so fun and so wholesome,” she told the Blade.

“So that’s why I brought her,” Krenrich said. “I think that it’s really important that we stand up for our values and people just being themselves, being happy and being them.”

Among those who attended the event were four elected officials from Arlington – Virginia State Sen. Barbara Favola, Virginia State Del. Adele McClure, Arlington County Board member Maureen Coffee, and Arlington and Falls Church State’s Attorney Parisa Dehgani-Tafti.

Also attending was Nick Benton, editor and publisher of the LGBTQ supportive Falls Church, Va., News Press; and Kellen McBeth, president of the LGBTQ group Equality Arlington.

“It was fantastic to see so many people come out to support Freddie’s, to support the LGBTQ+ community,” McBeth said. “It was a great event and we’re happy to be a part of it.”

Related:

By Jerod MacDonald-Evoy | PHOENIX, Ariz. – A Glendale Republican lawmaker who was present for the violence at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 and is facing criminal charges for being a fake elector used legislative video equipment to appear on a far-right talk show this week with a host who has declared Adolf Hitler a “hero.” 

On May 1, Sen. Anthony Kern appeared on the Stew Peters show to discuss a Drag Story Hour that was hosted the day before in a basement meeting room in the Arizona House of Representatives. Kern joined the show live on video from the state Senate, which has a video broadcast studio.

The April 30 drag event in the House was hosted by Rep. Lorena Austin, D-Mesa, the nation’s first nonbinary Chicane legislator. When Republicans, who have spent the last several years crusading against drag and the LGBTQ community, learned about the event, it sparked an outcry. 

Kern was the first to post about the event, and he specifically called out his GOP primary opponent for Arizona’s Eighth Congressional District, House Speaker Ben Toma, for allowing the event to take place. 

On Peters’ show, Kern said he thought taxpayers would be outraged at the event for legislators and their staff.

“I said, ‘Hey, Arizona, this is where your tax dollars are going,’” Kern told Peters, appearing from the broadcast filming room on the Senate’s first floor used by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to film videos. 

Peters, a conspiracy theorist, has been increasingly showcasing antisemitism on his social media profiles and on his show. In promotional material, Peters has praised the mass book burning conducted by the Nazis in the lead up to World War II. 

“They did exactly what reasonable people would do if given the opportunity,” Peters said of the Nazi book burnings. The video featured a montage of antisemitic propaganda created by Nazi Germany. 

Peters praised Kern and made the false claim that the drag event in the House included children, calling the drag king that spoke to the small group Tuesday a “mentally ill satanic pedophile.” The event did not include children and Kern did not push back on any of Peters’ claims. 

Peters attacked Toma, implying that the lawmaker could be a “pedohile” or a “groomer,” a term used frequently by anti-LGBTQ extremists to attack the LGBTQ community. The attention from conservative activists towards drag story hours has led to physical attacks on members of that community as well as other threats of violence.  

“Is Ben Toma a pedophile? Is he a groomer?” Peters said on his show before Kern came on to speak. “He’s either incompetent or he is with the pedophiles. It is only one or the other.”

Neither Kern nor a Senate spokeswoman responded to multiple requests for comment. The Capitol broadcast team, who is in charge of the equipment, referred the Arizona Mirror’s inquiry to the Senate spokeswoman, Kim Quintero. 

“I don’t know what to say other than Kern is irrelevant and will continue to be irrelevant in this race,” Toma told the Mirror. “He is not important enough for me to reply.” 

Toma added that any decision on looking into if Kern inappropriately used Senate resources would be up to Senate President Warren Petersen. Toma also defended his position against the use of the Capitol basement for a drag story hour this week. 

“I became aware of it fairly late, and it was already ongoing by the time I became aware of it,” Toma said, adding that he went in person to confirm the event was taking place Tuesday. “It wasn’t approved for that use. The use was supposed to be a stakeholder meeting.” 

Democratic lawmakers have contended that they told Toma’s office that they intended to host the Drag Story Hour event when they reserved the room. 

During the interview, Kern said that churches and Christians need to “rise up” as a remedy to fix the country’s problems. 

“It is time for battle. This is our 1776 moment…We have to rise up and get our country back,” Kern said, adding that he believed God appointed Donald Trump to be president. 

GOP punish Dems over ‘drag story hour’ in AZ House basement.

Kern, who was recently indicted by Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes for his role in Donald Trump’s fake elector scheme, sparked controversy last month when he invited members of his church to pray and speak in tongues on the Senate floor ahead of key votes on abortion. 

The move garnered national media attention, and Kern complained about it to Peters. 

“So I led a prayer group down at the Capitol. Somebody filmed it. Somebody tweeted it out,” Kern said, adding that the media went “beserk.” 

“While at the same time they can allow pedophiles, they can allow perverts, they can allow men dressed up as women, and just a perv show in the basement of our (House of) Representatives, and nothing from the media,” Kern said. 

Kern, who was present at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, said that God was “raising up” people like himself, Peters and Trump. He encouraged Peters’ viewers to get involved and for churches to “rise up.” Peters responded that his viewers need to organize militias. 

“I’m talking about organizing with your neighbors in a militia format,” Peters said as Kern nodded in agreement. “Then advising, not asking permission, but advising your sheriff and advising your DA of exactly what you are willing to do to protect your life, your liberty and your property.” 

Peters has called for violence at the U.S.-Mexico border, used racist terminology and has spoken at a white nationalist conference.  

“I believe it has been inappropriate and irresponsible to vilify the LGBTQ+ community for extremist, cheap political points,” Austin said in a statement to the Mirror. “We are tired of fighting the battle to simply exist.”

******************************************************************************************

Reporter Jerod MacDonald-Evoy joined the Arizona Mirror from the Arizona Republic, where he spent 4 years covering everything from dark money in politics to Catholic priest sexual abuse scandals. He brings strong watchdog sensibilities and creative storytelling skills to the Arizona Mirror.

******************************************************************************************

The preceding article was previously published by the Arizona Mirror and is republished with permission.

Amplifying the voices of Arizonans whose stories are unheard; shining a light on the relationships between people, power and policy; and holding public officials to account.

Arizona Mirror is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.