Happy Wednesday! Hope you’ve been having a great Pride season so far. Take a break with the top stories today:
1. Judge blocks Florida’s ban on trans healthcare for minors
2. Largest U.S. LGBTQ2S+ group declares a state of emergency
3. Elliot Page dropped his memoir, Pageboy
4. Support for same-sex marriage remains high
5. Uganda’s anti-gay law causing queer people to go into hiding
1. Judge blocks Florida’s ban on trans healthcare for minors
Let’s start off with some good news: yesterday, a Florida judge blocked parts of the state’s law barring trans youth from receiving puberty blockers. Issuing a preliminary injunction against the law, Judge Robert Hinkle said that Florida has no basis for denying trans patients’ treatment and affirmed that “gender identity is real.” With the ruling, the three trans children whose parents challenged the law can continue receiving care.
“There are risks attendant to not using these treatments, including the risk—in some instances, the near certainty—of anxiety and depression and even suicidal ideation. The challenged statute ignores the benefits that many patients realize from these treatments and the substantial risk posed by foregoing the treatments,” Hinkle said in his ruling.
2. Largest U.S. LGBTQ2S+ group declares a state of emergency
Just weeks after the Human Rights Campaign issued an updated travel advisory for Florida, the LGBTQ2S+ rights group has declared a “state of emergency” for queer people across the U.S.
This declaration is the first in its 40-year history and comes “following an unprecedented and dangerous spike in anti-LGBTQ+ legislative assaults sweeping state houses this year,” the organization said. Along with the declaration, HRC published a guidebook including health and safety resources as well as updated information about anti-LGBTQ2S+ legislation.
3. Elliot Page dropped his memoir, Pageboy
In need of a book to read for your upcoming summer vacation? Good news—actor Elliot Page’s hotly anticipated memoir Pageboy was released yesterday. In it, the actor discusses transitioning, relationships, Juno fame and more (you can find excerpts from their memoir here, and he discusses the memoir in an interview with ABC News).
Page also delves into the complications of being closeted in Hollywood. “It puzzled me to watch cis straight actors play queer and trans characters and be revered,” Page wrote in his memoir. “Hollywood is built on leveraging queerness. Tucking it away when needed, pulling it out when beneficial, while patting themselves on the back … I was punished for being queer while I watched others be protected and celebrated, who gleefully abused people in the wide open.” Preach!
4. Support for same-sex marriage remains high
In some good news, a Gallup poll released this week reveals that support for same-sex marriage has remained high, with 71 percent of Americans believing that it should be legal—remaining consistent over the past several years, despite the ongoing conservative backlash against queer and trans rights.
Support for same-sex marriage has been above 50 percent since the 2010s, reaching over 70 percent for the first time in 2021. Still, the poll noted that support remains relatively low among Republicans and weekly churchgoers.
5. Uganda’s anti-gay law causing queer people to go into hiding
Signed into law last month, Uganda’s anti-gay law is causing queer people to go into hiding. One of the harshest anti-gay laws in the world, it punishes same-sex intimacy with life in prison—or in some cases, the death penalty—and criminalizes anyone who is seen to “promote homosexuality,” a clause that has had a chilling effect on human rights groups that advocate for LGBTQ2S+ rights and provide HIV- and AIDS-related care.
“A lot of people are going into hiding in Uganda or crossing the border into Kenya. Over the past month, gay rights groups and human rights groups have been talking about people who call them seeking assistance,” said Abdi Latif Dahir, a reporter for the New York Times.
🌈Bonus good news (because we need it)🌈
The trailer for Bottoms—Emma Seligman’s queer-girl-high-school-fight-club comedy starring Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edibiri—just dropped, and we’ve never been more excited for anything (well, except for the Barbie movie, maybe …)
Why you can trust Xtra
