LGBTQ+
ACLU, Equitas Health sue Ohio over ‘medical conscience’ clause
Challenging a clause in Ohio’s last budget bill, the ACLU and a health care system that focuses on LGBTQ+ care sued the state and Gov. Mike DeWine on Friday over a provision that allows doctors to deny health care based on a matter of “conscience.” ACLU of Ohio and Equitas Health announced the lawsuit on […]
Shawnee State professor settles case, won’t be required to use identified pronouns
A professor who sued an Ohio university over punishment for refusing to use a student’s pronouns will receive a six-figure settlement from the school. Shawnee State University said four years of litigation resulted in an “economic decision” to settle with philosophy professor Nicholas Meriwether. “Over the course of this lawsuit, it became clear that the […]
LGBTQ community, people of color in the crosshairs of banned book movement
Students in one Pennsylvania school district were not allowed to read a biography of the first Black President, Barack Obama. (The ban was reversed following student protests.) In some Tennessee classrooms, a nonfiction comic book about the atrocities of the Holocaust is banned. And one school district in Wisconsin banned from libraries a picture book […]
House Republicans introduce Ohio’s version of Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill
The following article was originally published on News5Cleveland.com and is published in the Ohio Capital Journal under a content-sharing agreement. Unlike other OCJ articles, it is not available for free republication by other news outlets as it is owned by WEWS in Cleveland. House Republicans introduced Ohio’s version of Florida’s controversial ‘Don’t Say Gay’ […]
Fighting anti-trans legislation is suicide prevention
I’m trans. This year I turn 30, and my teenage self would be beyond surprised — not just at the joys that fill my life, but the fact that I’m alive at all. I’m part of the last generation that didn’t quite have the language for the feelings that flooded us as kids. I didn’t […]
Proposed anti-trans bill would prohibit care for LGBTQ youth
The following article was originally published on News5Cleveland.com and is published in the Ohio Capital Journal under a content-sharing agreement. Unlike other OCJ articles, it is not available for free republication by other news outlets as it is owned by WEWS in Cleveland. Only about 0.3-0.6% of people in the United States identify as […]
Queer Halloween saved lives
For many queer and trans folks, Halloween was the one safe place we could express ourselves. It’s been that way for centuries. In 1848, Columbus, Ohio, became one the first cities to officially outlaw people wearing clothing that didn’t align with one’s assigned sex at birth, known at different points of history as cross-dressing, drag […]
Ohio representatives file new anti-trans bill, targeting health care providers
Ohio House lawmakers are running back a fight over trans youth in the state. But this time, instead of focusing on school sports, the proposal would prohibit offering minors any kind of gender affirming treatment — from hormones to surgery. The measure, H.B. 454, puts the onus on health care providers by defining that treatment […]
In reelection mode, DeWine panders to base, ignores will of most Ohioans
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine is in trouble. He’s in full reelection mode, and nothing is going as planned. He figured he’d coast to a second term on his brand image as a “moderate” Republican ably leading the state. But the curtain has dropped on that façade. Sure, DeWine may still fool some in the national […]
Ohio AG Yost joins another national lawsuit, this time to overturn LGBTQ protections
Joining 19 other state attorneys general, Ohio’s Dave Yost has jumped in on a lawsuit demanding that sexual orientation and gender identity not be included in discrimination protections. The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee, argues “administrative agencies,” in this case the Biden administration, don’t have the power to […]
Supreme Court affirms transgender rights in declining to hear Virginia school bathroom case
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court said Monday that it will not hear a case of a transgender student in Virginia who was barred from using the boys’ bathroom, a decision that affirms lower-court rulings that said treating transgender students differently violates federal law. Justices on the top court offered no comment in declining to take […]
Trans kids in the U.S. were seeking treatment decades before today’s political battles
By Jules Gill-Peterson, University of Pittsburgh In 1942, a 17-year-old transgender girl named Lane visited a doctor in her Missouri hometown with her parents. Lane had known that she was a girl from a very young age, but fights with her parents over her transness had made it difficult for her to live comfortably and […]