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Federal Judge Orders Trump DHS to Return Man to US After Deportation to Equatorial Guinea
Since being deported, Ahmed Soliman "has been confined under armed guard, assaulted, held at gunpoint, and, most recently, arrested, hooded, beaten, and held incommunicado," said the judge.
Oct 08, 2026
A lawyer for Ahmed Soliman, a 31-year-old Phoenix man who has been arbitrarily detained in Equatorial Guinea since April, when US immigration agents forced him onto a plane under the Trump administration's third-country deportation policy, expressed cautious optimism and relief on Wednesday after a federal judge ruled that the Department of Homeland Security must return Soliman to the United States.
"We all frankly broke into tears of relief, and hope" when the ruling in the US District Court of Arizona was handed down, Dana Camilleri, a senior attorney at Green Evans-Schroeder, told the Arizona Daily Star.
District Judge John C. Hinderaker, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, ordered DHS to "take all reasonable steps within their control" to facilitate Soliman's return to the US.
Soliman's removal to Equatorial Guinea violated his due process rights under the Fifth Amendment of the US Constitution, said Hinderaker, who said the man has faced "irreparable harm" after being "unlawfully" deported.
As Common Dreams reported last month, human rights advocates have warned that Soliman has been placed at risk of being tortured in Equatorial Guinea, where he and dozens of other people deported by the Trump administration have been held at a decommissioned hotel in Malabo.
None of the prisoners have any ties to Equatorial Guinea, which Trump paid $7.5 million in one of several secretive deals, in exchange for taking deportees whom the US is barred from sending to their home countries due to their credible fear of persecution.
Last month, Soliman was targeted for arrest in Equatorial Guinea after he spoke out about the abuse that he and others have faced at the hotel.
He has since been held "incommunicado" at a jail, despite the fact that he has not been charged with a crime.
Soliman's family in Arizona "have been left waiting, without any assurance that he is safe—or even still alive," Jesse Evans-Schroeder, another lawyer representing him, told the Star.
A video that was shared with the press last month showed armed guards pointing a gun at Soliman and another man in the hotel lobby. According to Amnesty International, after the video was shared, Soliman was taken to an overcrowded jail where he has been denied food and access to counsel.
"The unrebutted record shows that, since his removal, [Soliman] has been confined under armed guard, assaulted, held at gunpoint, and, most recently, arrested, hooded, beaten, and held incommunicado, reportedly without food or water," Hinderaker wrote in his order.
Since Amnesty, United Nations rights experts, and US Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D-Ariz.) have raised alarm about Soliman's case, DHS has been dismissive of his ordeal, sneering in one social media post that a New York Times article on the case was a "poor excuse for a sob story" and that he and another detainee, Samson Birhane, "are CRIMINAL ILLEGAL ALIENS with rap sheets a mile long."
Soliman arrived in the US when he was 4, after his family fled Egypt, where they had faced persecution due to their political activities.
He lost his immigration status after being convicted of driving under the influence in 2021. Soliman has said in media interviews that he developed substance abuse problems as he came to terms with his identity as a gay man, having grown up in a conservative household.
He served two-and-a-half years in prison after the car accident that led to his conviction. While serving his sentence, Soliman "rehabilitated himself, confronting the 'self-hatred' he said led to his addiction," the Star reported.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement ordered his deportation in October 2025. His attorneys had won protections against his deportation to Egypt, based on his LGBTQ+ identity and his family's history there.
But under the Trump administration's third-country deportation policy and deals with dozens of governments that the White House has spent $40 million brokering, about 25,000 people have been sent to countries where they have no ties. From there, many have been sent on to their home countries, while others have been detained and faced ill treatment.
When Soliman was forced onto a deportation flight in April, he was given no opportunity to contest the decision to send him to Equatorial Guinea, where homosexuality is effectively criminalized and where authorities are known to perpetrate arbitrary detentions and torture.
A federal court ruled last month that DHS must provide deportees with meaningful notice and an opportunity to be screened for a credible fear of being sent to the third country. The US Supreme Court stayed that ruling, clearing the way for the Trump administration to continue abruptly removing people from the country, as it did with Soliman. The court is set to hear arguments in DVD v. DHS, a case challenging the third-country deportations, in December.
On Wednesday, Hinderaker gave the Trump administration's lawyers three days to provide the court with an update on its progress in returning Soliman to the US. DHS has 30 days to appeal his ruling. Soliman could still be removed to another country later, but Hinderaker ordered DHS to give him a "meaningful opportunity" for a credible fear screening.
Camilleri told The American Prospect that the legal team was "still thinking of everyone who’s confined at the hotel there and wanting to get them home."
The judge's ruling was "a great step forward, but I’m a little cautious, honestly," she said.
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Rights Groups Demand Türkiye End Attack on LGBTQ+ Community, Free Detained Activists
"When authorities abuse the criminal justice system to silence lawful expression, they undermine the rule of law for everyone," said Human Rights Watch.
Sep 15, 2026
Amnesty International on Tuesday joined Turkish and other global human rights advocates urging the Justice and Development Party government of longtime President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to end its persecution campaign against Türkiye's LGBTQ+ community and immediately free the scores of activists arrested during the ongoing crackdown.
Police in Istanbul detained at least dozens more demonstrators outside the Çağlayan Courthouse on Tuesday as the protesters demanded the release of the more than 60 people arrested across 15 provinces during and after recent raids on LGBTQ+ rights groups.
Turkish Justice Minister Akın Gürlek said the operation, dubbed "My Family Is Safe," targeted 162 people, nine organizations, and 13 businesses.
“We will show no tolerance for any criminal organization targeting the institution of the family, the future of our youth, and social order,” Gürlek declared at the start of the operation.
More than 180 websites and social media accounts belonging to LGBTQ+ organizations and activists, journalists, media outlets, and others have been blocked or restricted, including Amnesty International Türkiye’s X account.
“This appalling escalation in Türkiye’s crackdown amounts to a full-scale assault on LGBTI rights and those who defend them," Amnesty International deputy regional director for Europe Esther Major said Tuesday in a statement. "The relentless raids, arrests, and demonization of LGBTI people under the spurious guise of ‘protecting the families’ demonstrates why defending LGBTI rights in Türkiye is more important than ever."
“This sweeping crackdown, in which scores of people have been arrested, has nothing to do with protecting families and everything to do with further harming and stigmatizing a community that has battled decades of discrimination and intimidation," Major added.
“This appalling escalation in Türkiye’s crackdown amounts to a full-scale assault on LGBTI rights and those who defend them."
Amnesty is one of dozens of groups that signed a declaration calling on the Turkish government to "stop criminalizing LGBTI+ organizations and human rights defenders."
Human Rights Watch (HRW) noted Monday on social media that "the arrests are allegedly for offenses such as 'obscenity,' prostitution, and drug use, effectively conflating defense of LGBT rights with criminal conduct—all under the pretext of a government campaign to 'protect families.'"
"In fact the arrests have nothing to do with making families safer," HRW said. "Instead, they weaponize the rhetoric of 'family values' to pursue discrimination, stigma, and state repression. Everyone in Türkiye should be concerned: When authorities abuse the criminal justice system to silence lawful expression, they undermine the rule of law for everyone."
"The government should end its crackdown on LGBT rights groups, immediately release detained activists, and end discriminatory targeting of LGBT people and their advocates," the group added.
At the United Nations, Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders Andrea Bolaos Vargas said on Sunday that she was "deeply concerned by reports of mass raids and detention of LGBTIQ+ human rights defenders across Türkiye, alongside searches of LGBTIQ+ associations and seizure of digital equipment."
"I urge the authorities to ensure the immediate release of all those detained solely for their legitimate human rights work and to guarantee that LGBTIQ+ defenders and associations can exercise their rights without criminalization, intimidation, or reprisals," she added.
Turkish rights groups and activists were the first to condemn the crackdown. A coalition of more than 110 women's groups issued a joint statement against the arrests, noting they came on the anniversary of the September 12, 1980 military coup and subsequent evisceration of human rights.
"Today, on the anniversary of September 12th, we woke up with reports of the arrest of activists and independent rights defenders from LGBTI+ associations for the LGBTI+ movement," the groups wrote. "These operations are nothing more than the actual implementation of efforts to criminalize LGBTI+ organizing."
"It is not a crime to make and organize policies on gender identity and sexual orientation," they continued. "As women, we are against these operations, which are carried out under the name of 'keeping the family safe.'"
“We know that pressures on our bodies, our lives, our identities, and the right to organize are part of the same authoritarian politics," the groups added. "Let our detainees be released immediately, and the raids on LGBTI+ organizations, access barriers, and criminalization policies be put down. We, as women's organizations, are in solidarity with the LGBTI+ movement; we will not give up our joint struggle against male-dominated and authoritarian policies!"
Numerous officials in Western nations also condemned the crackdown, including Council of Europe Human Rights Commissioner Michael O'Flaherty, who on Tuesday asserted that “mere references to ‘family values’ or ‘protection of children’ cannot serve as legal justification for human rights restrictions."
Leftist Barcelona Mayor Jaume Collboni said Monday: “I condemn the unacceptable wave of pressure targeting LGBTI+ people and organizations in Türkiye. We demand that these operations be terminated immediately and that everyone who has been detained will be released."
"We will not take a step back from defending civil rights in the face of attacks on LGBTI [people] in Türkiye and around the world," he added. "Barcelona will always be with [them]."
“Mere references to ‘family values’ or ‘protection of children’ cannot serve as legal justification for human rights restrictions."
Under Erdoğan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP), Turkey has undergone a major shift from relative tolerance of LGBTQ+ public life toward increasingly systematic state repression.
While homosexuality—which was decriminalized by the Ottoman Empire in 1858—remains legal, the government has increasingly used restrictions on assembly, speech, civil society, and public expression to marginalize LGBTQ+ people. The AKP is currently weighing proposals that could criminalize LGBTQ+ identity and activism outright.
Erdoğan has repeatedly demonized LGBTQ+ people, especially during elections, during which he has used homophobia in his appeals to an overwhelmingly Muslim electorate.
As one protester outside Çağlayan Courthouse told The Associated Press on Tuesday, “We are going through a period where there is an attempt by the ruling power to portray LGBT+ people as the cause of every problem in this society."
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Dolly Parton Remembered as 'Advocate for Inclusion, Women’s Rights, Children's Literacy, and More'
"She was not only a talented musician and songwriter, but a lifelong philanthropist and advocate for literacy, education, LGBTQ+ rights, healthcare, and disaster relief. Her music and humanity touched millions."
Aug 25, 2026
Dolly Parton died Tuesday in Nashville, Tennessee at the age of 80, and was fondly remembered by people around the world for not only her decades in the entertainment industry but also her philanthropy and promotion of the belief that "everybody should be treated with respect."
Parton's nephew and head of security, Bryan Seaver, confirmed the country music icon's passing in a video message shared on her social media accounts. As Rolling Stone reported, she "was born January 19, 1946, the fourth of Robert Lee and Avie Lee Owens Parton's 12 children, in a one-room cabin on the banks of the Little Pigeon River," and "grew up in rural poverty," lacking plumbing and electricity.
The obituary shared on Parton's platforms notes that she was preceded in death by her parents, as well as "her beloved husband of 59 years, Carl Thomas Dean," who died last year, and that "the family asks for donations to be made to Dolly Parton's Imagination Library," which was inspired by her father's inability to read and write, and has gifted more than 300 million books to children over the past three decades.
"Dolly Parton could have retired long ago having achieved greatness," Congressman Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) said of the singer and actress who won multiple Grammy and Emmy awards, among numerous others, and whose songs include "Coat of Many Colors," "I Will Always Love You," and "Jolene."
Rather than retiring from the spotlight, Khanna noted, "she chose to continue her life pursuing the arts, and pushing boundaries to advocate for inclusion, women's rights, children's literacy, and more. Dolly touched countless hearts and will forever be remembered."
US Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) wrote on social media that "Dolly Parton was one of the great entertainers of our era. She was not only a talented musician and songwriter, but a lifelong philanthropist and advocate for literacy, education, LGBTQ+ rights, healthcare, and disaster relief. Her music and humanity touched millions. She will be sorely missed."
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said that "Dolly Parton gifted the world with her talent and heart. From supporting children, donating to science, investing in Tennessee, and giving us songs to sing our hearts out to (looking at you, '9 to 5'), she made the world a better place. Thank you, Dolly, for leading with love."
Democratic North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein said that "Dolly Parton was so special, so universally loved. The first word that came to my mind just now was 'authentic,' which is funny since she is well known for her big wigs and extravagant gowns. But she was always herself. Her music was powerful and moving... But her impact on the world was much greater—from providing kids free books to funding vaccine research and promoting tolerance. America lost one of our best today."
Similarly saying that "Dolly Parton represented the very best in America," former Labor Secretary Robert Reich wrote at his blog that "I think what I admired most was her empathy (the sentiment disparaged by Elon Musk. In fact, to my mind she was the human that embodied the exact opposite of Musk.) She felt the pain of those in poverty. She felt for women subordinated to patriarchy... She felt for working women."
Other key Democrats who posted remembrances included Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (NY), and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), who called Parton "a singular American icon whose extraordinary voice, joyful spirit, and generous heart brought light to millions and made America kinder and more hopeful."
Parton took stances on topics that have become divisive in US politics—such as supporting LGBTQ+ rights and vaccine research—but she openly avoided wading into political races, and was also honored on Tuesday by various right-wing politicians and other figures, from Cabinet members, federal lawmakers, and governors to Republican President Donald Trump, who announced on Truth Social that "I am lowering the American flag throughout the United States for a one week period."
Meanwhile, as elected Republicans ban books and cut programs for the working class while giving more tax breaks to the ultrarich, Melanie D'Arrigo, executive director of the Campaign for New York Health, said that "Dolly Parton spent her life helping kids, marginalized communities, and people in need, while entertaining millions. She never had to, she chose to. In a world full of wannabe Donald Trumps, choose to be a Dolly Parton."
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'Heinous Act in Berlin' as Attack on Pride Festival Kills 1, Injures Dozens
"People are trying to divide our society and set some people against others," said a spokesperson for the Christopher Street Day festival. "At the CSD in Berlin, we will not allow this."
Jul 26, 2026
One person was killed and at least 29 others injured on Saturday when a van plowed into a crowd near Berlin's annual LGBTQ+ Pride festival, with the attacker—who wounded some of his victims with a machete after crashing—later shot dead by police, who said he was a suspected Islamic extremist.
The attack occurred Saturday evening during the Christopher Street Day (CSD) celebration—named after where New York's Stonewall Inn is located—following the main parade near the Tiergarten area near the Brandeburg Gate. In what German authorities have officially designated a terrorist attack, police said a 21-year-old German-Lebanese man, identified as Abdul Ballout, drove his van into a crowd before assaulting people with a machete.
One woman, whose identity has not yet been publicly disclosed, was killed.
On Sunday, police located Ballout in the Berlin suburb of Spandau. Police said Ballout was fatally shot as he ran toward officers with a sharp object.
Berlin prosecutors said Ballout traveled to Syria last year while trying to join the so-called Islamic State militant group. According to The Associated Press, Ballout was arrested in Lebanon and sentenced to three months' imprisonment for incitement. He was arrested again upon returning to Germany, where he received a suspended sentence from a juvenile court for publishing pro-Islamic State messages on Instagram and preparing an act of serious violence threatening the state.
During a Sunday press conference, a CSD spokesperson implored people not to use the attack "for political ends."
"People are trying to divide our society and set some people against others," he said. "At the CSD in Berlin, we will not allow this."
However, far-right leaders in Germany and beyond blamed "Islamism." Tino Chrupalla, co-leader of the Alternative for Germany, said on X that “we will not allow religious extremists to divide our country with violence and intolerance."
Numerous X users pushed back, with one saying, "You constantly incite against queer people and are now exploiting the attack for your disgusting incitement!"
Andre Lehmann of LSVD+, Germany's largest LGBTQ+ advocacy organization, said, “We are simply stunned by what happened," adding that the attack "hits the heart of the queer community."
Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner said on social media that the assault was "an attack on our free and open society."
"After a peaceful and colorful CSD, the assembly for a tolerant and peaceful Berlin was attacked in the most brutal way," he continued. "Berlin is the city of freedom—and our freedom has been attacked in the most horrific way today."
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz told reporters at a Saturday press conference outside the Marienkirche in central Berlin: "What a heinous act in Berlin. This attack on peaceful Christopher Street Day celebrants is an assault on our open, tolerant society. We will investigate it with utmost severity."
"Our thoughts are with the victims of this Islamist terrorist attack," Merz continued. "I wish those who sustained injuries a swift recovery."
The Christian Democratic Union chancellor thanked first responders for "intervening as quickly as possible, which could well have prevented an even worse outcome last night."
"Let us not be intimidated by these crimes," Merz added. "They want to divide our society, they want to take the most important thing that we have: namely, our open society, our liberal society."
The climate action group Fridays for Future Germany posted on X: "We are devastated. Yesterday's attack on the Berlin CSD was an attack on all of us. Our thoughts are with the victims, their loved ones, and all those who had to witness this attack. Now is the time for solidarity with the queer community."
LGBTQ+ advocates and their allies around the world condemned the attack and offered their condolences and solidarity.
In the Slovakian capital Bratislava, the gay bar Tepláreň—where a far-right extremist teen shot and killed two people in 2022—posted on Instagram: "We are thinking of you, friends in Berlin. It is with great sadness that we are watching the terrible news. We express our deepest condolences to the victims, their loved ones, and everyone who has been affected by these events."
Extremism "is growing dangerously worldwide," the bar added. "People blinded by hate and lies threaten our communities, threatening our chance to coexist in peace."
"Prides are meant to be a place where all can feel safe, welcome, and seen," the rapid response team at the US group Human Rights Campaign said on social media. "We are sending our love to the victims, their families, and the entire city of Berlin today."
People gathered for vigils across Germany and around Europe and the world Sunday to mourn and condemn the attack. In Berlin, the Brandenburg Gate was illuminated in rainbow colors, with the message "Berlin, City of Freedom" projected beneath its Quadriga sculpture, as people took part in a candlelit vigil.
“There was so much joy here yesterday,” Luise V., who attended both CSD and a vigil near the site of the attack, told Berliner Zeitung. “Today I had to face it and come here, also to process what happened."
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Judge Blocks Trump Admin From Holding Billions in Food Aid Funds 'Hostage to Its Political Agenda'
"This protects every Oregon family who depends on these programs to put food on the table," said the state's attorney general, who is among the 21 AGs behind the case.
Jun 06, 2026
A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked an attempt by the US Department of Agriculture to force state governments to comply with President Donald Trump's positions on gender and immigration or lose out on billions of dollars in funding, including for food assistance.
The attorneys general of the District of Columbia and 20 Democrat-led states sued the department and Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins in March, arguing that "USDA has now thrown unconstitutional and unlawful roadblocks between the programs created by Congress and the states that rely on them, threatening critical nutrition support, vital agricultural research, and the safety of our national food chain and communities."
Specifically, the Trump administration imposed "a vague set of funding conditions relating to USDA's purported anti-discrimination 'policies,' 'gender ideology,' 'fair athletic opportunities' for women and girls, and immigration," without specifying the policies or even confirming "that certification is limited to currently existing policies," says the complaint, filed in the District of Massachusetts.
The March filing also makes the case that "even if USDA went back and cured its vagueness problem and conducted a reasoned analysis before taking final agency action, the challenged conditions would still be unlawful."
While US District Judge Myong Joun has not explicitly agreed, the appointee of former President Joe Biden granted a preliminary injunction sought by the AGs and said he would issue a memorandum explaining his decision at a later date.
Welcoming the judge's unexplained decision on social media, Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield highlighted that the move safeguards funding for school lunches, emergency aid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).
"This protects every Oregon family who depends on these programs to put food on the table," Rayfield said. "The court rejected the Trump administration's attempt to hold school lunches, WIC, and SNAP hostage to its political agenda. These are lifelines for 86,000 Oregon kids, working families, seniors, and rural communities—and they will remain protected."
New York Attorney General Letitia James also celebrated that "we won a court order protecting billions of dollars in USDA funding as our lawsuit continues," and pledged that "my office will keep fighting to protect New Yorkers and stop the federal government from punishing our state for refusing to bend."
NEW: When Trump tried to gut billions in USDA funding for states refusing to comply with his anti-immigrant agenda, we sued.The court just ruled in our favor, blocking his cuts while our case continues.These grants are a lifeline - I'll always fight to protect food assistance for families.
— AG Andrea Joy Campbell (@massago.bsky.social) June 5, 2026 at 4:58 PM
The other states involved in the case are California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin. Collectively, according to the complaint, "'plaintiff states receive over $74 billion annually in funding from USDA."
The judge's decision came on the heels of four Democrats in the US House of Representatives voting with Republicans to approve legislation that the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) has estimated would strip modest fruit and vegetable benefits from "nearly 5.4 million toddlers, preschoolers, and pregnant and postpartum WIC participants."
Already, since congressional Republicans passed and Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act last year, at least hundreds of thousands of Americans have lost federal food assistance. Last month, Trump's USDA chief suggested that some of them were receiving SNAP benefits fraudulently—without offering evidence—while others are "moving into the American dream and off of welfare."
Katie Bergh, a senior policy analyst at CBPP, responded that "unless the Trump administration has redefined 'the American dream' to mean 'losing the help your family needs to afford groceries because of federal cuts,' I have some bad news for Secretary Rollins."
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'MAGA's Weird Obsession' Continues as House Passes Bill Forcing Schools to 'Out' Trans Kids
One Democratic lawmaker said the legislation "puts trans youth in harm's way and censors content that acknowledges trans people’s existence."
May 20, 2026
The Republican-controlled US House of Representatives on Wednesday passed legislation that critics warn would force public schools receiving federal funding to "out" transgender students to their parents without or without their consent, a policy that advocates warn could endanger many trans youth.
HR 2616, the Stopping Indoctrination and Protecting Kids Act—but dubbed the "Don't Say Trans" bill by some critics—was introduced by Reps. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.) and Burgess Owens (R-Utah) and passed by a vote of 217-198, with eight Democrats joining every Republican and one Independent present in voting for the legislation.
The bill—which faces an uncertain future in the Senate—requires federally funded elementary and middle schools to obtain parental consent before changing a student's gender markers, pronouns, or preferred names on school forms. It also mandates parental consent for a student's access to sex-based accommodations, such as locker rooms or bathrooms.
The legislation also prohibits federal elementary and secondary education funds from being used to advance concepts of so-called "gender ideology"—an inaccurate term that GLAAD says is "deployed by opponents to undermine and dehumanize transgender and nonbinary people"—in the classroom. The term features prominently in a day-one executive order signed by President Donald Trump in what critics say is an effort to effectively erase trans people from public existence.
"Too many schools are keeping parents in the dark about what’s happening in their own children’s classrooms, even going so far as to withhold critical information about their kids’ well-being and development," Walberg said.
"Families deserve honesty, not secrecy—especially when it comes to issues like gender identity," he continued. "Simply put, parents should never be the last to know—that’s not political, it’s common sense."
"Meanwhile, political and ideological agendas are being pushed through curriculum without parents’ knowledge or consent, sidelining the very people responsible for raising these children," Walberg added.
However, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.)—whose daughter is transgender—accused Republicans of "targeting trans kids with a bill that would require public schools to forcibly out students who want to use certain pronouns or accommodations, even if it would put them in danger."
"I'm a hell no," Jayapal said of the bill. "Trans kids deserve better."
Other House Democrats echoed Japayal's objections, with Rep. Robin Kelly of Illinois warning that the "Republicans’ extreme bill puts trans youth in harm's way and censors content that acknowledges trans people’s existence."
"I will always stand up for student safety, and I am voting NO," Kelly added.
Rep. Christian Menefee of Texas said that "instead of making sure America’s schools have the resources and support they need to ensure every student is given the same shot at success, Republicans are bringing a 'Don't Say Trans' bill to the floor today to forcibly out trans students, even if doing so would put students in immediate physical danger."
"Parents across the country want their children to learn in safe, affirming environments, without worrying about their kids being outed for their gender identity," he added. "I won’t vote to put those kids in danger."
Rep. Laura Friedman of California lamented: "This week, congressional Republicans could have spent their time working with us to help Americans afford groceries and pay their rent. Instead, they spent their time advancing a bill meant to demean trans youth."
"I voted no and urge them to focus on the real needs of Americans," Friedman added.
The eight Democrats who voted for the bill are: Reps. Vicente Gonzalez and Henry Cuellar of Texas, Don Davis of North Carolina, Cleo Fields of Louisiana, Laura Gillen of New York, Marcy Kaptur of Ohio, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington, and Eugene Vindman of Virginia.
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) called HR 2616 part of "MAGA’s weird obsession with trans people."
"When the going gets tough for Republicans in Congress—when they have no answers to soaring gas prices from Trump’s illegal war with Iran, rampant corruption, or spiking health premiums—they can’t help but fall back on their favorite strategy: fearmongering," HRC's Jennifer Pike Bailey wrote on Tuesday. "And unfortunately, the transgender community is still the scapegoat du jour."
"Policies that denigrate trans youth don’t succeed in erasing these students, they just make their lives immeasurably harder," she continued. "It’s the job of schools to keep youth safe. And as we’ve seen, LGBTQ+ students are in physical danger when harmful policies are implemented. Recent FBI data shows that in states that have passed these types of laws, anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes in schools have quadrupled."
"Opponents of LGBTQ+ equality are creating a lot of noise, and the only way to stop them is to be louder," Pike Bailey stressed. "We need phone calls, emails, letters to every member of Congress telling them to stop these attacks. And then we need to show up at the ballot box."
BREAKING: The House of Representatives just voted to require teachers to forcibly out transgender youth against their will.Censoring "gender ideology" does nothing to advance the basic promise that every child deserves the same opportunity to thrive, and that includes transgender students.
— ACLU (@aclu.org) May 20, 2026 at 2:32 PM
Tyler Hack, executive director of the trans political advocacy group Christopher Street Project, said in a statement that “HR 2616 is yet another escalation in Republicans’ sick obsession with criminalizing queer people and trans youth."
"This ‘Don’t Say Trans’ bill does not protect kids—it is government-mandated forced outing," Hack added. "Mandating that teachers act as agents of the state and out their own students is not protection; it’s cruelty."
According to the Trans Legislation Tracker, "an independent research organization tracking bills that impact trans and gender-diverse people across the United States," there are currently 778 state-level and 126 national bills under consideration "that would negatively impact" targeted people.
One of the most recently approved bills, signed into law Friday by Republican South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, forces trans and nonbinary students who need to use public school restrooms to go outside to porta-potties. LGBTQ Nation's Greg Owen slammed the law as a "latter-day 'separate but equal' attack on trans rights."
The Campaign for Southern Equality (CSE) said that “this bill will do nothing to make our schools safer."
"Rather," CSE added, "it will make using the bathroom a difficult and even dangerous experience for trans and nonbinary youth, who are extremely likely to be bullied and harassed when using the bathroom."
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Trump FCC Chair Hints at TV Warnings for Kids' Content That Acknowledges Existence of Transgender People
"This is a solution in search of a problem, and another example of this commission prioritizing culture war politics over the real issues that affect consumers every day," said the only Democratic FCC commissioner.
Apr 22, 2026
In the Trump administration's latest attempt to push transgender people out of public life, Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr said Wednesday that his agency is weighing whether ratings on television shows should be modified to warn viewers when trans people are acknowledged.
Carr posted a public notice on social media that the FCC's Media Bureau would be seeking public comment on whether the TV Parental Guidelines age rating system—established under the Telecommunications Act of 1996—should include notices for "transgender and gender nonbinary programming" in a similar fashion to existing labels for sex, violence, and other content that parents could consider "harmful" to children.
Carr wrote: "Recently, parents have raised concerns with the industry’s approach... They argue that New York and Hollywood programmers are promoting controversial issues in kids' programming without providing any transparency or disclosures to parents."
Neither Carr nor the FCC's notice elaborated on what supposedly harmful content children were being exposed to or which programs it would seek to warn families about.
The FCC notice also asked for public comment on whether other changes should be made to ensure that the TV Oversight Management Board, which oversees the rating system, represents a "range of family values." It also inquired about whether it should add board members from religious organizations.
While the FCC does not directly implement the programming ratings, it does have a role in overseeing them. As FCC chairman, Carr has brought an unusually heavy hand down on the rights of broadcasters to air content critical of President Donald Trump.
He has threatened to strip the broadcast licenses of networks that cover Trump's war in Iran unfavorably. Before that, he was briefly successful in his efforts to bully ABC into pulling the Trump-critical late-night host Jimmy Kimmel's show from the air.
By labeling transgender and nonbinary representation as dangerous to children, Carr would be taking yet another action to bring the media landscape into conformity with the Trump administration's agenda, which has consisted of systematic attempts to push transgender Americans to the margins of society and portray them as deviant and dangerous, particularly to children.
Among a slew of other anti-LGBTQ+ policies, the administration has reinstated a full ban on transgender people in the military, attempted to punish medical establishments that provide gender-affirming care, withheld passports and other legal documents from transgender people containing their preferred gender identifiers, and aggressively sought to pressure school districts into adopting policies that refuse to recognize trans students.
FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, the agency’s only Democratic commissioner, criticized Carr's push to revise TV ratings.
“American families are worried about affordability, access, and rising costs, not whether the TV ratings system has enough warnings about gender identity,” Gomez said in a statement. “The FCC’s own record shows the existing system is working fine."
While Carr claimed there had been many complaints about "ratings creep" from parents, Gomez noted that the most recent report from the TV Parental Guidelines Monitoring Board said it received just 11 complaints about ratings guidelines in 2025 and that only two resulted in a ratings change.
Gomez said, "This is a solution in search of a problem, and another example of this commission prioritizing culture war politics over the real issues that affect consumers every day."
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'A Chilling Alarm': Trump Admin Kills Civil Rights Settlements Supporting Trans Students
"There is absolutely no basis for what the Department of Education is doing, and it is unimaginably cruel," said a leader at the National Women's Law Center.
Apr 06, 2026
Continuing the assault on transgender people that President Donald Trump launched as soon as he returned to power last year, the US Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights rescinded portions of settlements intended to protect trans students at five school districts and one college.
The department framed the move as "freeing schools" from the Biden and Obama administrations' "illegal and burdensome enforcement of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972," a landmark civil rights law that bars sex-based discrimination in schools that receive federal funding.
According to The Associated Press, "One of the school systems, Delaware Valley School District in rural eastern Pennsylvania, received notice of the change from the Trump administration in February and has since voted to roll back its antidiscrimination protections for transgender students."
The administration also rescinded provisions of resolution agreements with Cape Henlopen School District in Delaware and Fife School District in Washington, as well as California's La Mesa-Spring Valley School District, Sacramento City Unified, and Taft College.
This is a cruel step by the Trump administration that will make our schools less safe and welcoming for all.Trans kids deserve what every student deserves — a school that supports their freedom to thrive.
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— ACLU (@aclu.org) April 6, 2026 at 6:05 PM
"The Trump administration has opened at least 40 civil rights investigations into educational institutions that provide protections for transgender students," and filed lawsuits in California and Minnesota, The New York Times reported. However, "Education Department officials said there was no precedent for the federal government terminating previously negotiated civil rights settlements with schools. Civil rights lawyers who worked under Democratic and Republican administrations said they were unaware of previous examples of such a move."
Advocates for trans people sharply condemned the rollback, which came on the heels of last week's International Transgender Day of Visibility.
"This sends a chilling alarm that trans students really are a target of this administration," Shelby Chestnut, executive director of the California-based Transgender Law Center, told the Times. "It's extremely concerning. Students should be safe to go to school and get an education."
Shiwali Patel, senior director of education justice at the National Women's Law Center, said in a statement that "there is absolutely no basis for what the Department of Education is doing, and it is unimaginably cruel. Title IX exists to ensure that students are protected from discrimination and treated with dignity so that they can learn and thrive in our schools. It's always been about that. It's what students, families, lawmakers, and advocates fought for when Title IX was passed decades ago. But the Trump administration's Department of Education has spent its limited resources to strip Title IX of that very purpose."
"Real complaints of discrimination and sexual assault are going unanswered by the Department of Education while conservative lawmakers continue to escalate their attacks on a small minority of students," Patel noted. "Parents, teachers, and students need the department to focus on addressing real harms on campuses instead of rolling back policies that keep all students safe."
"We should all be alarmed at the Trump administration's cruel escalation of their anti-trans agenda," she added. "When they push laws that explicitly target trans people or attempt to use scientifically inaccurate language to define sex, they are also inevitably targeting all women and girls. They want to control what we do, how we look, and how we act until we are pushed out of public life. But we are not going anywhere."
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Trump Attack on Trans Athletes Continues as DOJ Sues Minnesota Education Department
"It is astonishing that any president would try to target, shame, and harass children just trying to be themselves, let alone a president with so many actual problems to address," said the state attorney general.
Mar 30, 2026
The US Department of Justice on Monday continued President Donald Trump's crusade against transgender youth competing in sports in line with their identity by suing the Minnesota Department of Education and the state's high school league.
"The United States files this action to stop Minnesota's unapologetic sex discrimination against female student athletes," says the complaint, filed in a federal court in the state by the DOJ's Civil Rights Division.
"The state of Minnesota, through its Department of Education, and the Minnesota State High School League require girls to compete against boys in athletic competitions that are designated exclusively for girls and share intimate spaces, such as multiperson locker rooms and bathrooms, with boys," the complaint continues. "This unfair, intentionally discriminatory practice violates the very core of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972."
The Associated Press noted that "the administration has filed similar lawsuits against Maine and California, and has threatened the federal funding of some universities over transgender athletes, including San José State in California and the University of Pennsylvania."
Tim Leighton, a spokesperson for the league, told the AP that it does not comment on threatened or pending lawsuits. According to The New York Times, Emily Buss, a spokesperson for the state department, said Minnesota's leadership was reviewing the complaint while remaining "committed to ensuring every child—regardless of background, ZIP code, or ability—has access to a world-class education."
While Trump and his allies have aimed to stop all trans women and girls from competing as they identify—including at the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles—the fight with Minnesota specifically traces back to the president's February 2025 executive order, after which the administration began investigating the state.
The Minnesota Department of Education gets over $3 billion in federal funding. Democratic state Attorney General Keith Ellison sued to stop the administration from pulling that money last April. In September, the US departments of Education and Health and Human Services concluded that the state agency and league violated Title IX, and the case was referred to the DOJ in January.
In a Monday statement, Ellison said that the DOJ's lawsuit "is just a sad attempt to get attention over something that's already been in litigation for months."
"Donald Trump is currently facing an unpopular war that he launched, rising gas prices, massive health insurance price hikes, and a partial government shutdown caused in part by his ICE agents killing two Minnesotans in broad daylight," Ellison said, referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. "It is astonishing that any president would try to target, shame, and harass children just trying to be themselves, let alone a president with so many actual problems to address."
The DOJ filing about trans student-athletes came less than a week after Ellison and other Minnesota officials sued the Trump administration over its refusal to cooperate with state investigators probing the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal immigration agents earlier this year, as well as the shooting of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, who was wounded but survived.
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Attacks on Transgender Americans Are Attacks on Health Care
This is not difficult: Gender-affirming care is health care, period, and decisions about that care belong to patients and their health care providers (and families in the case of minors), not politicians on an ideological crusade.
Mar 21, 2026
For some time now, right-wing forces have been attacking gender-affirming health care for transgender individuals, and especially for trans youth. Those attacks ratcheted up seriously in December, when the Trump administration proposed rules designed to ban gender-affirming care for young people, with HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. flatly calling such care “malpractice.”
The medical community promptly and unequivocally disagreed, with American Academy of Pediatrics President Dr. Susan J. Kressly telling NPR, "These policies and proposals misconstrue the current medical consensus and fail to reflect the realities of pediatric care and the needs of children and families." AAP’s view represents the overwhelming consensus among medical, nursing and psychiatric organizations, but that has had no impact on the crusade by the administration as well as right-wing state officials to erase trans people and eliminate and even criminalize their health care.
The Trump administration’s push to erase trans people began early last year with a presidential executive order titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.” The order declared, “Efforts to eradicate the biological reality of sex fundamentally attack women by depriving them of their dignity, safety, and well-being.” Trump’s order oddly failed to acknowledge the existence of transgender men but effectively declared all transgender humans to be nonpersons according to the U.S. government. “It is the policy of the United States,” it read, “to recognize two sexes, male and female. These sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality.”
That’s not a scientific statement but an ideological one. In fact, as Nathan Lents, a molecular evolutionary biologist at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City explained to a reporter after the executive order was issued, “Biology doesn’t operate in binaries very often … Reducing sex to a binary really doesn’t make a lot of sense for how we actually live.”
Many cultures around the world, particularly indigenous cultures, have long recognized gender diversity. In Hawaii, where I live, native Hawaiian culture understood and respected māhū, the Hawaiian word for a person of dual male and female spirit. What administration officials and other right-wingers dismiss as “radical gender ideology” is in fact a factual, science-based understanding of a facet of human diversity that has been recognized by different cultures around the globe for millennia, starting long before either modern science or modern politics entered the picture.
Nevertheless, the president’s order and subsequent messages from the Department of Health and Human Services put intense pressure on hospitals and health care providers, many of whom responded by curtailing gender-affirming care, especially for minors. Those pausing or such care included major hospital systems such as Kaiser Permanente with its 40 hospitals. By late August, news outlets had counted at least 17 major hospital systems in at least nine states and the District of Columbia that had paused, discontinued, canceled or ended gender-affirming care for pediatric patients.
States—generally Republican-leaning states—have also piled on restrictions. Late last year, KFF reported that 27 states had passed laws limiting access to gender-affirming care for minors. Roughly half of the nation’s trans or nonbinary youth are estimated to live in these states. Half a dozen states, including Florida, Alabama and Idaho, have made it a felony to provide gender-affirming care for young people under 18. Though the Supreme Court upheld such bans last year, some of these state laws face legal challenges in state courts based on individual state constitutions.
On the other hand, a number of states—generally “blue states,” including New York and California—have passed laws protecting gender-affirming care, while a few others have such policies via executive orders. Recently, New York Attorney General Letitia James informed a major Manhattan hospital that its actions to curb gender-affirming care under federal pressure violated New York State law. Hospitals and other providers may find themselves more and more caught between conflicting state and federal requirements.
It’s important to remember that for those under 18, gender-affirming care almost never involves surgery, but typically focuses on social and psychological support. Medical interventions such as puberty blockers are sometimes used after puberty begins. Puberty blockers, which are entirely reversible (and which a White House executive order has dishonestly branded as “chemical mutilation”) pause puberty in order to buy the young person time to mature and consider their options before major and complex-to-reverse physical changes set in.
Opponents of gender-affirming care sometimes focus on a handful of patients who later changed their minds and regretted having this care. Nearly any medical procedure results in a few patients wishing they hadn’t done it, but research consistently shows that regret rates for gender-affirming care are quite low. For example, a 2024 review of 55 articles that looked at regret rates after various types of plastic surgery found that gender-affirming surgery had far lower regret rates than other surgeries, including breast augmentation or reconstruction, not to mention other major life decisions such as having children or getting a tattoo.
A later study of 150 youthful individuals (median age 18.6 years) who had had gender-affirming hormone therapy and/or surgery found that the most common emotions associated with these treatments “were satisfaction (88.0%) and confidence (86.7%).” Only one of the 150 wished they hadn’t had the treatments, leading the authors to conclude, “Individuals who accessed [gender-affirming care] as adolescents are largely satisfied with this care. Care-related satisfaction and regret are more nuanced than sometimes portrayed and should not be used to limit access.”
State attacks on transgender residents don’t stop with medical care. Kansas, for example, just summarily invalidated all driver’s licenses in which the driver had legally changed their gender to match their lived identity. Such policies can impact the health of those affected, both by adding new layers of stress and by interfering with their ability to drive to obtain care or just make a living.
All of these policies are based on a myth: That transgender identity is the product of some new, “woke,” “radical gender ideology” and that trans people are simply confused and have been propagandized into believing that they can change their gender.
Trans people know better. Take “Perry” (a pseudonym), a young friend of mine whom I wrote about last October for Defend Public Health. Perry, 17 when I met him and now turning 21, knew something was amiss from early in his childhood. “I always felt uncomfortable,” he told me. “I rebelled against every single authority most of my childhood.” His feelings clarified when he was about twelve. As he explained it, “I always felt like I wasn’t myself, like I was playing a role” -- the role assigned to the female anatomy he was born with.
Despite some parental unease, he eventually began living as a boy and instantly felt more comfortable and like his authentic self. Trans people like Perry know who they are and don’t need politicians dictating what care they can and can’t obtain.
Happily for Perry, he lives in Hawaii, a state that has not restricted gender-affirming care and is unlikely to. But Hawaii doesn’t yet have a shield law to protect providers (such a bill is now up for consideration in the state legislature), and can certainly be impacted by misguided federal policies, so he’s not completely out of danger.
This is not difficult: Gender-affirming care is health care, period, and decisions about that care belong to patients and their health care providers (and families in the case of minors), not politicians on an ideological crusade. We must fight back against these attacks and push our politicians to defend the rights of all, including transgender people, to get the care they need.
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