Maine, Texas, Florida, Boise, and Salt Lake City notch victories against anti-LGBTQ policies
7 found guilty of harassing Paris Olympics choreographer
Philippines: A proposed “Right to Care Act” is being debated in congress which would allow same-sex couples to have hospital visitation rights and rights over medical decisions.
France: A court has found seven people guilty of sending hate messages and death threats to the choreographer of last year’s Paris Olympics opening ceremony. Far-right influencers spuriously accused the choreographer of perverting Catholic imagery, which, of course, is something that far-right people are deeply concerned about.
Honduras: The national human rights commissioner has asked congress to pass a bill allowing people to change their name based on gender, in accordance with a longstanding ruling of the Interamerican Court of Human Rights.
Vietnam: The government has proposed removing the death penalty from eight nonviolent crimes, as part of a trend of conforming to global judicial standards.
Meanwhile, in the States
SCOTUS has allowed the President’s order banning trans people from serving in the military to go into effect while the government continues to appeal a lower court ruling striking the ban down.
The federal Department of Justice is erasing trans people from crime data. And Housing and Urban Development is undoing protections for trans people in housing policy.
The Trump administration is also threatening LGBTQ nonprofits, ordering them to remove terms like transgender or queer in order to keep receiving federal grants.
The Advocate has a list of all the anti-LGBTQ executive actions taken by the Trump administration so far.
Maine: Forgot to mention this on Monday, but the state has won its dispute with the Trump administration, which had frozen USDA funds to schools over the state’s policy allowing trans girls to compete in girls’ sports. The USDA has agreed to reinstate the funding with no policy change. (USDA funds things like school lunch programs).
Florida: Equality Florida is celebrating the fact that every anti-LGBT bill proposed during this year’s legislative session has been defeated. Of course, the damage to LGBT rights had largely been done in previous year’s by the legislature’s lopsided Republican majority.
North Carolina: A federal court has ordered the state elections board to finally certify the Democratic candidate’s victory in last November’s Supreme Court election. The Republican has until next Monday to appeal. Meanwhile, a separate court ruling has handed control of the board to Republicans, after lawmakers connived to remove it from the governor’s office.
Idaho and Utah: The city councils of Boise and Salt Lake City have found a way to defy recently passed state laws that banned the flying of non-official flags from government buildings – that is, banning Pride flags. Both cities passed resolutions making the Pride Flag an official municipal. Both cities also added the designation to certain other flags, including the Trans Pride flag and the Juneteenth flag.
South Carolina: The state attorney-general has urged Columbia city council to repeal its ban on conversion therapy and is threatening legal action against it.
Colorado: The Senate gave approval to a bill that would generally make misgendering a person classified as discrimination, after amending it to provide exceptions for parents. The amendments need to be approved by the House before the end of the legislature today.
Texas: Local elections this week ousted a slate of far-right Christian nationalists from school boards across the state, after they had imposed anti-LGBT, anti-DEI, and book ban policies in schools. The victories may be a good sign for statewide races in 2026.
Meanwhile, a state Republican has proposed a bill that would prohibit teachers referring to a trans student by their chosen name or pronoun, even with their parents’ permission.
Oklahoma: A state Republican is attempting to get a resolution passed calling on the Supreme Court to overturn same-sex marriage. There was a wave of these resolutions introduced earlier this year, but they all failed.