| PFLAG National offices are closed the week of July 1-July 8 for the staff to rejuvenate after Pride Month. There will be no issue of Policy Matters issue on July 4th; the next issue will be on July 11th. |
| | Nominate a PFLAG Chapter for a 2025 PFLAG National Chapter Award Hundreds of PFLAG chapters across the country—run primarily by thousands of passionate volunteers—have been working overtime within their communities over the last two years. Now, you can honor that work by nominating them for a 2025 PFLAG National Chapter Award. Presented at our biennial convention, Learning With Love, PFLAG National Chapter Awards honor chapters that are going above and beyond to help achieve PFLAG’s mission of creating a caring, just, and affirming world for LGBTQ+ people and those who love them. All chapters in good standing are eligible for this award, and the deadline for submissions is Friday, August 8th, so we encourage you to submit your nomination now, at pflagnation.al/2025ChapterNoms. As a heads up, at least one chapter leader from each winning chapter will need to be present at the convention. Honorees will be announced on Tuesday, September 9th. |
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|  | | Here is a sample of what’s going on around the country. You can share news from your state with [email protected] for possible inclusion in a future newsletter. Delaware - Gov. Matt Meyer signs executive order to protect medically necessary care for trans Delawareans. The Governor signed Executive Order 11 on June 20th, which designates Delaware as a shield state for providers of gender-affirming care. The order prohibits state agencies from cooperating with out-of-state legal actions against individuals and providers of gender-affirming care, and any other healthcare that is legal in Delaware. Illinois - O’Hare Airport could host the first gay bar at an American airport. Germán González placed a bid to open a satellite location of the popular Chicago gay bar, Sidetrack, at O’Hare. Should the bid be accepted, this would be the first gay bar to open at an American airport. Indiana - Anti-trans athlete ban to take effect July 1st. HB 1041, which bans trans women and girls from participating in women and girls’ sports teams from kindergarten through college, will go into effect on July 1st. This marks an expansion of the State’s existing athlete ban, which applied K-12. North Carolina - State Senate passes bill limiting trans rights. HB 805, which was originally a bipartisan bill aimed at combating sexual exploitation in the adult film industry, was amended to include provisions defining “sex” in state code as binary and tied to sex assigned at birth. The bill also includes provisions barring state funds from being used to provide medically necessary care for trans North Carolinians, banning incarcerated individuals from obtaining such care, providing parents with curriculum opt-outs from a wide range of classes for their children, among other measures. Senate passes anti-trans adoption and foster care bill. The Senate passed SB 442, which bans foster and adoption agencies from considering whether potential parents will be trans-affirming when placing children in adoptive or foster homes. Texas - Gov. Greg Abbott signs sex redefinition bill into law. SB 229 strictly defines “man” and “woman” in the Texas state code based on sex assigned at birth. The law also requires that all state documents identify Texans by their sex assigned at birth. LGBTQ+ advocates stage sit-in at Lubbock City Council meeting. The sit-in was staged to protest the City Council deciding not to approve any official recognition of Pride for the third year in a row. ACLU and Students Engaged in Advancing Texas (SEAT) announce lawsuit challenging anti-LGBTQ+ education law. SB 12 bans student clubs “based on sexual orientation and gender identity” such as GSAs, forces educators to out trans students to the student’s parents, and bans all DEI initiatives in schools. The ACLU of Texas and SEAT announced they would file a lawsuit challenging SB 12 on June 23rd. |
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| | | | Supreme Court grants group of Montgomery County, Maryland parents an injunction allowing them to opt their children out of LGBTQ+ inclusive curriculum. The Court held in a 6-3 decision in Mahmoud v. Taylor that the Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) policy, which did not provide an opt-out from LGBTQ+ inclusive curriculum,must do so. In a joint statement with Lambda Legal and The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, PFLAG National CEO Brian K. Bond said, “Today’s decision by the U.S. Supreme Court is a heartbreaking one... However, this ruling does not erase what PFLAG parents, students, and educators have long known, and a vast body of research supports: All students benefit from a school climate that promotes inclusion, acceptance, and respect.” Supreme Court allows Trump Administration to partially enforce executive order while not ruling on birthright citizenship. The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that federal district courts had exceeded their authority by issuing nationwide injunctions blocking the birthright citizenship executive order. Individual plaintiffs who sued the Administration, challenging the executive order, will continue to be protected by lower court injunctions, but the Administration will be able to enforce its executive order against those who are not already plaintiffs in 30 days. However, the Court did not rule on the constitutionality of the executive order itself and did not rule on birthright citizenship; every district court to hear a case concerning the order has held that it is unconstitutional. Supreme Court rules against challenge to HHS Preventive Services Task Force in Kennedy v. Braidwood Management. The 6-3 decision held that the members of the Taskforce do not need to be appointed by the President and approved by the Senate and can be terminated at any time. The ruling leaves in place Taskforce recommendation that PrEP be covered at no cost to consumers as preventive care. Supreme Court rules that South Carolina can exclude Planned Parenthood from its Medicaid program. In a 6-3 decision, Justice Gorsuch wrote that the Medicaid Act’s requirement that states ensure that Medicaid recipients can get care from “any qualified provider” did not give individuals the right to sue their states for access to care from the provider of their choice. In her dissenting opinion, Justice Jackson wrote that “the project of stymying one of the country’s great civil rights laws continues.” West Virginia asks Supreme Court to hear case concerning anti-trans athlete ban. West Virginia Attorney General John McCuskey is asking the Supreme Court to review a case challenging the state’s anti-trans athlete ban. A lower court order has prevented the ban from going into effect since 2023. Stay tuned as this progresses. |
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| | | Indonesia - Police raid “gay party,” arrest 75 people. Amnesty International stated that those who were arrested could face prison time for violating Indonesia’s Pornography Law, which defines “pornography” very broadly to include any material that “contravenes norms of community morality” and is often used to deliberately target LGBTQ+ people. |
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