| | Our healthcare system is facing serious threats, and millions could soon lose coverage or face skyrocketing costs. Without action from Congress, enhanced premium tax credits, currently helping over 20 million people afford healthcare, will expire at the end of 2025. This would not only push people out of coverage but also jeopardize access to HIV prevention, treatment, and care. We must demand that Congress make these credits permanent to keep healthcare affordable and accessible for all.Join us and our partners at AIDS United in ensuring our healthcare remains affordable by sending. Contact your Congressperson now! Texans Join our friends at TENT for their Know Your Rights Tour! TENT will be visiting cities across the state this fall hosting community teach-ins and creative workshops for trans folks and their supporters. During each teach-in, TENT will review bills from this year’s legislative sessions, share tools to stay safe, and cultivate community. Sign up to attend a Know Your Rights event today! |
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|  | | Here is a sample of what’s going on around the country. Please be kind to yourself and use your discretion while reading this section. You can share news from your state with [email protected] for possible inclusion in a future newsletter. California - Elk Grove Unified School District rejects anti-trans athlete ban proposal. The school board voted 7-1 to block a resolution which would have prevented trans girls from participating in girls’ sports. District staff recommended the board reject the resolution, citing California law which mandates trans inclusion in school athletics. Florida - Op-ed: Florida's Appalling Double Standard on Vaccines and Gender-Affirming Care. Jennifer Solomon, President of PFLAG Miami, discusses the hypocrisy of Florida ending school vaccine requirements in the name of “parental rights” while denying families access to gender-affirming care. LGBTQ+ mural planned in Tampa. Tampa-based artist Cam Parker is partnering with PFLAG Tampa to create a mural to represent Tampa’s queer history. Pennsylvania - Group of transgender patients file discrimination complaint against UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. The complaint, filed with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, alleges that the hospital’s decision to deny medically necessary care to trans youth under 19 is sex discrimination. Texas - Gov. Greg Abbott signs SB 8 into law. The law requires state agencies, schools, and local governments to adopt anti-trans facilities bans. Institutions which fail to enforce these bans would be subject to fines of up to $125,000. Texas is the 20th state to adopt a law restricting transgender people’s access to restrooms and other sex-segregated facilities. |
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| | | | Trump Administration preparing for mass layoffs in the event of a government shutdown. A memo from the White House Office of Management and Budget is directing federal agencies to consider firing employees working on any program that does not align with the Administration’s priorities or is not funded by the budget reconciliation bill signed into law in July or similar legislation. The memo further instructs agencies to keep only the smallest number of employees possible to legally operate government agencies once funding is restored. Federal funding will run out, and the government will shut down on October 1st, absent congressional action. Trump Administration withholds $1.25 million in appropriated funds from LGBTQ+, DEI related projects. The funds are being withheld from 20 organizations which represent LGBTQ+ people and other minorities despite Congress voting to appropriate the money, a move which would appear to violate the Impoundment Control Act of 1974, which compels the executive branch to spend congressionally appropriated funds. Trump Administration withholds funding from three school districts over trans-inclusive policies. The Administration is withholding $24 million from New York City Public Schools, Chicago Public Schools, and Fairfax County Public Schools after those districts refused to abandon their trans-inclusive policies granting trans students access to facilities aligned with their gender identity. LGBTQ+ rights groups hold briefing on Trump Administration’s demonization of transgender community. The emergency briefing, held on September 24th, featured chief executives from the Human Rights Campaign, Transgender Law Center, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and PFLAG National CEO Brian K. Bond, and others. The briefing was held amid reports that the FBI is considering crackdowns on the transgender community under the guise of combating domestic terrorism. |
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| | | Netherlands - Dutch Rugby Association adopts trans inclusive athletics policy. Under the new policy, published on their website on September 24th, trans women will be allowed to play rugby competitively on women’s rugby teams following a risk assessment and, in some cases, a medical review. South Africa - Transgender incarcerated woman sues Department of Correctional Services. The suit alleges that Nthabiseng Mokoena, a trans woman who is incarcerated at the Johannesburg Correctional Center, is experiencing bullying by correctional officers, who also refuse to use her chosen name and pronouns, refuse her access to clothing, cosmetics, and toiletries aligning with her gender identity, and are denying her gender-affirming care. |
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