New York State’s ‘Best Practice’ Document Urges Schools to Keep Child’s Gender Transition from Parents

The New York State Department of Education (NYSED) published a “legal update and best practice” document last week that encourages schools to keep a child’s claim of a new gender identity from parents.

“The student is in charge of their gender transition and the school’s role is to provide support,” the document states. “Only the student knows whether it is safe to share their identity with caregivers, and schools should be mindful that some TGE [transgender and gender-expansive] students do not want or cannot have their parents/guardians know about their transgender status.”

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The Trans Lobby Wants to Make It Illegal in Michigan to Talk a Child Out of a Sex Change

Transgender activists, hospitals and medical associations are pressuring lawmakers in Michigan to pass a “conversion therapy” ban that critics say would effectively prohibit therapists from helping gender-confused children come to terms with their natural bodies and biological sex.

If enacted, the ban would be another win for activists and their medical industry allies who have helped push more than 20 states to ban clinical attempts to change a minor patient’s “gender identity.” Critics say these laws silence and intimidate therapists who don’t automatically affirm young patients’ transgender status and put them on the medicalization track.

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Largest Catholic Health Network Hospitals Providing Puberty Blockers to Minors and Gender Transition Surgeries: Report

A watchdog organization dedicated to the defense of the Catholic Church released a report Sunday that claims the largest Catholic health system in the United States is “acting directly against Catholic moral teaching in direct defiance of its Catholic identity.”

The shocking report, issued by the Lepanto Institute, alleges in its executive summary that CommonSpirit Health, with over 1,000 healthcare sites and 140 hospitals in 21 states, is “performing transgender surgeries, providing hormone-based transgender therapies, [and] providing puberty blockers to children under the auspices of so-called ‘gender-affirming care.’”

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State Medical Authorities Are Cracking Down on Therapists Who Don’t ‘Affirm’ Kids’ Trans Identities

by Laurel Duggan   State laws have made it effectively illegal for therapists to help children with gender identity issues come to terms with their natural bodies and biological sex in much of the country by labeling the practice an illegal form of “conversion therapy.” While conversion therapy is broadly understood to refer to clinical attempts to get patients to stop feeling same-sex attractions, and has historically included practices like shock therapy, the term has expanded since the mid-2010s to include efforts by health care professionals to help gender-confused patients accept their birth sex rather than putting them on the transgender medicalization track. As states pushed new conversion therapy bans under this new definition, therapists are facing intimidation, legal battles and threat of licensure loss for offering a critical or exploratory approach to children who struggle with their gender identity. “If someone tells you what their gender identity is you must affirm them; you must accept it at face value,” Joseph Burgo, a psychotherapist and vice director of Genspect, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “It has a chilling effect on the whole profession. I know therapists who avoid gender altogether because they’re afraid of activists coming after them.” Many transgender activist groups advocate…

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Democrats Maintain Control of Pennsylvania House With Boyd’s Win

Democrat Heather Boyd defeated Republican Katie Ford in a Delaware County-based special election on Tuesday to occupy the seat recently vacated by Democratic Pennsylvania state Representative Mike Zabel. 

Democrats held a one-seat majority in the chamber since the new legislative session began last autumn, but Zabel jeopardized his party’s hold on the House when he resigned in response to allegations he made untoward sexual advances toward multiple women.

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Almost 15 Percent of American Voters Will Be LGBTQ by 2030, New Report Claims

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) suggested in a new report that one in seven voters will identify as LGBTQ by 2030.

LGBTQ voters are predicted to become the fastest growing voting bloc in the near future, with the report suggesting that one in five voters will be LGBTQ by 2040, according to the HRC and Bowling Green State University (BGSU). The report explained that 11% of voters are currently LGBTQ, and expects numbers to continually climb as Generation Z voters age and “come out.”

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Far-Left Group Suing Tennessee Again over Trans Bathroom Law

A far-left group is once again suing the state of Tennessee over its policy of children using bathrooms based on their assigned sex at birth. 

“This lawsuit challenges a recently enacted Tennessee law, the “Tennessee Accommodations for All Children Act,” Tenn. Code Ann. § 49-2-801, et seq. (the “School Facilities Law” or “Law”), which bans transgender public school students from accessing multioccupancy restrooms and other facilities consistent with their gender identity,” says a lawsuit filed by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). “By singling out transgender students for disfavored treatment and explicitly writing discrimination against transgender people into State law, the School Facilities Law violates the most basic guarantees of equal protection under the U.S. Constitution and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.”

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Culture Clash: Exec Chairman Of Pro-Trans Oracle Backs Ortagus as Tennessee Leaders Work to Support Birth Gender Distinctions, Parental Rights

The executive chairman, and chief technology officer, of software giant Oracle, was revealed as the sole contributor to Tennessee Conservatives PAC, the Super PAC backing GOP Tennessee-5 House hopeful Morgan Ortagus, presents a clash of Silicon Valley values, such as attacks on those defending birth-gender in the Volunteer State.

Lawrence J. “Larry” Ellison donated $1 million to the Super PAC, according to the committee’s Friday filing posted on the Federal Elections Commission website at 12:19 p.m.

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Bill to Withhold Funds from Schools That Allow Transgender Athletes Passes Tennessee House

A bill that would strip some funding from schools who break Tennessee’s new law on transgender athletes Thursday passed the Tennessee State House of Representatives. 

“I’m very pleased that the House passed this legislation and I’m confident the Senate chamber will pass it as well. It’s illogical to think sporting competitions involving speed, strength and endurance with males competing against females is a fair contest,” State Rep. John Ragan (R-District 33), the primary sponsor of the bill, told The Tennessee Star Friday.

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Three More States Consider Bills Banning Men from Women’s Sports

Arizona, Kentucky and Oklahoma are the latest states considering bans on biological males participating in girls’ and women’s sports, with all three states passing legislation Thursday addressing the issue.

The Arizona legislature passed two bills addressing transgender issues that currently await Republican Gov. Doug Ducey’s signature. If enacted, one bill will ban biological males from girls’ sports teams while the other will ban gender reassignment surgeries for minors.

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Human Rights Campaign Fires Alphonso David for Advising Cuomo on #METOO Allegations

Alphonso David

The nation’s largest LGBTQ rights advocacy group has fired its president for advising Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on the #METOO allegations against the governor.

The two Human Rights Campaign (HRC) boards terminated Alphonso David “for cause” Monday evening, The New York Times reported. David called his termination unjust in a Monday evening statement and accused the HRC board of lying to him about its investigation.

“As a black, gay man who has spent his whole life fighting for civil and human rights, they cannot shut me up,” he said. “Expect a legal challenge.”

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Defiant DeSantis Signs Bill That Bans Transgender Girls from Girls Sports

Women playing lacrosse

A defiant Gov. Ron DeSantis Tuesday signed a bill banning transgender girls – biological boys – from competing in girls sports. 

“At a bill signing event at the Trinity Christian Academy in Jacksonville, DeSantis touted the ban as a way to protect the integrity of women’s and girls’ sports,” Tampa Bay Times reported, describing the bill as “controversial.”

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Ohio Republicans Reintroduce Bill to Ban Trans Girls from Girls Sports

As Florida’s governor singed into law Tuesday a bill that bans transgender girls – biological boys – from competing in girl’s sports, Republican lawmakers in Ohio reintroduced a bill that would do the same. 

The Save Women’s Sports Act was reintroduced by Rep. Jena Powell (R-Arcanum), and co-sponsored by Rep. Reggie Stoltzfus (R-Paris Township), who first introduced the bill during Ohio’s shortened legislative session last year. 

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Cincinnati Church Celebrates Pride Month with Drag Queen Story Hour During Sunday Worship

  A Cincinnati church celebrated LGBT Pride month by hosting one of their own, caretaker Dan Davidson, dressed in drag. Davidson, called Sparkle Leigh in costume, greeted church attendees and read to the children during the service. His story of choice? Pride: the Story of Harvey Milk and the Rainbow Flag. Milk was the first openly homosexual politician elected in California and has often been referred to as a pedophile. The pastor of Mount Auburn Presbyterian Church, Reverend Stacey Midge, couldn’t offer comment to The Ohio Star without permission of her church board, but she was willing to share that the church has received both positive and negative feedback. Midge was able to speak more freely on the church Facebook page about their choice to host the performer. “We are particularly outspoken about our welcome to people of all sexual orientations and gender identities/expressions because 1) we do not believe variations in sexual orientation or gender identity/expression to be sinful, and 2) people of non-heterosexual orientation or whose gender identity or expression does not fit into a rigid binary are historically and currently marginalized, especially by the Church.” “The idea of reading a child’s book about Harvey Milk is the…

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Joe Biden Skips California’s Democratic Convention to Stump in Ohio at Human Rights Campaign’s Columbus Dinner

  Joe Biden is rolling the dice and striking out on his own on the campaign trail, keeping his distance from the other Democratic presidential candidates. Biden appeared at the Human Rights Campaign’s Columbus Dinner Saturday, Cleveland.com said. The gala was at Ohio State University’s Archie Griffin Ballroom. The HRC is the nation’s largest LGBTQ rights organization. In visiting Ohio Saturday, the former vice president, who is the front-runner in his party’s primary race, showed he is not afraid of missing out by not attending the same events as his plethora of competitors, WGME said. Instead, he is focusing on a November 2020 competition against President Donald Trump, as if his primary challengers are not an issue. Also, Biden plans to avoid an Iowa state party dinner that will draw rivals next weekend, although he will visit Iowa two days later, WGME said. And, he will miss a South Carolina economic forum on the black community, although he will attend the state party convention the next weekend. Fourteen of the 23 other Democratic presidential hopefuls attended the California Democratic Convention in San Francisco that Biden skipped. The stakes are big as California has 400 delegates for the national convention up…

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Wisconsin Governor Issues Executive Order on ‘Gender Identity or Expression’ on First Day in Office

In one of his first acts in office, Gov. Tony Evers (D-WI) signed an executive order seeking to prohibit discrimination on the basis of “gender identity or expression” in state agencies. Executive Order #1 states that it “is the expressed policy of my administration that the executive branch should prevent discrimination and harassment against any class of citizens because of age, race, religion, color, disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression,” and so forth. The order is not yet available online, likely because Evers was just sworn in Monday, but he posted a picture of it to his Facebook page. “In addition to the excitement of taking the oath of office today, I had the opportunity to sign my first two executive orders as governor. These orders prevent discrimination in state agencies and recognize the importance of state employees,” Ever said in a Facebook post. “Each person deserves to be treated with dignity and respect. This fosters sound government, society, and business, and it’s just the right thing to do.” According to The Capital Times, the order states that any recipients of government contracts or grants can only hire on the basis of merit, and requires the Equal Employment…

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Birmingham City Council Passes Sweeping Protections For LGBT People

The Birmingham City Council in Alabama this week passed non-discrimination ordinances that include sweeping protections for LGBT people and spell out criminal penalties for violators. The council on Tuesday unanimously passed an ordinance addressing discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodations, and a companion measure addressing discrimination in  awarding city contracts. The council will create a human rights commission “to promote principles of diversity, inclusion, and harmony” and to hear complaints. The ordinances also mention other statuses such as race and disability, but the main intent was to offer protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity, which are not covered under Alabama law. The legislation is the first of its kind in the state, though there are more than 200 cities and counties across the country with similar protections. Sexual orientation is defined in the Birmingham legislation as “actual or perceived homosexuality, heterosexuality, or bisexuality.” Gender identity is defined as “actual or perceived gender related identity, expression, appearance, or mannerisms or other gender related characteristics of an individual, regardless of the individual’s designated sex at birth.” Violators found to be discriminatory can be fined up to $500. In 2014, the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest pro-LGBT activist group, launched an…

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Tennessee Businesses Step Up Efforts To Be LGBT-Friendly

  Tennessee businesses and corporations are yielding to pressure from LGBT activists to promote LGBT ideology in the workplace in the name of diversity. Nissan is now offering benefits to help transgender employees transition, and even Cracker Barrel is pro-actively seeking approval and recognition from the LGBT community. Cracker Barrel had a booth at Nashville’s gay pride festival in June next to which it set up its trademark rocking chairs for festival-goers to kick back and relax. The push is well under way despite Tennessee being a red state where conservatism is influenced by Christian faith, and where voters overwhelmingly helped put President Trump in office. Trump recently announced that he would restore a ban on transgender troops in the military that had been undone by former President Obama, who not only wanted to welcome openly transgender troops but help them with the medical costs of transitioning. In the private sector, special medical benefits for transgender individuals have also become an issue. Nissan North America, based in Franklin, has added benefits to cover sex reassignments, according to the Nashville Business Journal. Covered costs include those associated with treatments, surgeries and other medical procedures. Last year, Nissan worked with the Human Rights Campaign, the…

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