Shania Twain expresses her love for the LGBTQ community
“I've learned a lot from drag queens,” she says.
Shania Twain appeared in conversation with GLAAD’s Anthony Allen Ramos last week, and talked about her lifelong commitment of allyship to her LGBTQ fans and friends.
The country pop icon's most recent album, Queen of Me recently topped the UK album charts. That record was the singer's first since Now in 2017, and is her first to not be released with her previous label of 29 years, Mercury Nashville.
Twain, 57, previously guest judged on Ru Paul’s Drag Race, and told Allen Ramos that she admires the talent and courage of drag queens.
“I've learned a lot from drag queens,” she says.
Shania Twain appeared in conversation with GLAAD’s Anthony Allen Ramos last week, and talked about her lifelong commitment of allyship to her LGBTQ fans and friends.
The country pop icon's most recent album, Queen of Me recently topped the UK album charts. That record was the singer's first since Now in 2017, and is her first to not be released with her previous label of 29 years, Mercury Nashville.
Twain, 57, previously guest judged on Ru Paul’s Drag Race, and told Allen Ramos that she admires the talent and courage of drag queens.
Idaho House passes bill that bans providing transgender treatment to minors
BOISE — After emotional debate, the House voted on a near party-line vote to pass a bill Tuesday that would make it a felony to provide most transgender treatment to youth under 18. Rep. Matt Bundy, R-Mountain Home, was the only Republican to vote against it.
HB 71’s sponsor, Rep. Bruce Skaug, R-Nampa, said the legislation is “about protecting children.” The bill’s opponents said it would harm transgender children by preventing them from receiving treatment that’s recommended by many major medical associations.
Skaug argued that common treatments for gender dysphoria — including sex reassignment surgery, puberty blockers and hormone therapy — could sterilize adolescents if used for long periods of time.
“Why would we allow them, in this tender state of mind that is under 18, to make decisions on having healthy body organs removed? And really a lot of this is based on what the child’s feelings and thoughts are that are going forward on these procedures,” Skaug said. “That’s the wrong way to approach it scientifically.”
Skaug passed similar legislation through the House last year by a similar margin, but it died in the Senate.
Rep. Colin Nash, D-Boise, said the content of HB 71 was inconsistent with his family’s experience with his transgender sibling.\
“The surgeries that are put forth there are not something that I saw in the standard of care for my own sibling,” Nash said. “Largely, that care is helping the child feel understood and accepted and helping them to a place where they can safely make these decisions on their own.”
The Democrats who debated against the bill made the argument that the sex reassignment surgeries that the bill bans are not being performed on children in Idaho. Rep. Chris Mathias, D-Boise, said in the two years he’s been looking into the issue, he hasn’t found a provider in the state who has performed surgery to treat gender dysphoria.
“It doesn’t happen here,” Mathias said.
He argued the bill would not only take away the hormone and puberty blocker treatment that is recommended by most major medical societies — including the American Medical Association, American Academy of Pediatrics and the Endocrine Society — but it would disincentivize physicians from practicing in Idaho.
“Our increasing tendency to criminalize standard medical practices is driving health care providers away from Idaho,” Mathias said. “We need to be drawing them to Idaho. This bill directly undermines policy and other investments that we’ve made in increasing the number of medical residencies here in Idaho so that we have a pipeline of people to treat us ... it’s bad for all of us.”
He and others who opposed the bill also argued it took away parental rights, something that’s usually held in high regard in the Idaho Legislature.
Rep. Julianne Young, R-Blackfoot, said she is a strong supporter of parents’ rights to direct the “care, custody and upbringing” of their child, but that has limits; she pointed to laws against child abuse.
“There is no one else that is better suited to make a decision about what is right for a particular child than the parent,” Young said, “and I support that principle whole-heartedly. I also believe that there are circumstances where even a parent does not have authority.”
Federal judge temporarily blocks Biden administration from protecting transgender students and workers in 20 states
The Biden administration must pause enforcement of federal guidelines seeking to protect transgender students and workers in 20 states, a federal judge ruled Friday, siding with Republican-led states competing for enforce anti-trans policies on their books.
The order issued Friday allows the 20 states to continue to enforce controversial laws without the risk of government retaliation, including the loss of federal funding for schools. It received praise from Tennessee, which leads the states in a lawsuit, and condemnation of LGBTQ advocates who criticized the judge for “legislation from the bench.
Tennessee and 19 other GOP-led states filed a lawsuit last August arguing that the guidelines issued earlier that year by the Department of Education and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission constituted an unlawful overstepping of executive power.
According to the agencies’ guidelines, transgender students and workers fall under Title IX, which prohibits gender discrimination in federally funded schools, and Title VII, which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, gender, and national origin. . The directive is designed to protect transgender people from a range of anti-trans policies, including bans on school sports teams, bathrooms and locker rooms in line with their gender identity, as well as measures that allow employers to intentionally refuse to use an employee’s favorite pronouns.
“As shown above, the damages alleged by plaintiff states are already occurring – their sovereign power to enforce their own legal code is hampered by the defendants’ issuance of directives and as a result they are under significant pressure to enforce their state laws.” change,” Judge Charles ruled. E. Atchley Jr., a Trump appointee, wrote in his preliminary injunction.
“As it stands, plaintiffs must choose between the threat of legal repercussions — enforcement action, civil penalties and withholding federal funding — or changing their state laws to ensure compliance with the guidelines and avoid such adverse action,” it said. the order. .
CNN has reached out to the Department of Education and the EEOC for comment on the order.
The Biden administration based its advice on the 2020 Supreme Court ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County that the federal civil rights law protects transgender, gay and lesbian workers. The government has used the ruling to extend anti-discrimination protections to LGBTQ people in the US in many areas of life. The Department of Education guidelines issued last year reversed the Trump administration’s stance that gay and transgender students were not protected by the law.
But Atchley said in his order that the Department of Education is “ignoring Bostock’s limited reach”.
Tennessee Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III applauded the order in a statement Sunday, saying Atchley “rightly acknowledged that the federal government put Tennessee and other states in an impossible situation: choose between the threat of legal repercussions, including withholding federal funding, or changing our state laws to comply.”
“We are grateful that the court ended it, maintained the status quo as the lawsuit progressed, and reminded the federal government that it cannot order its agencies to rewrite the law,” he added.
The order sparked outrage from LGBTQ advocates, with one of the country’s largest LGBTQ rights groups calling it “another example of far-right judges legislating from the bench.”
“Nothing in this decision can stop schools from treating students in accordance with their gender identity. And nothing in this decision eliminates the obligations of Title IX schools or the ability of students or parents to file lawsuits in federal court,” Joni Madison, interim president of the Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement Saturday. “HRC will continue to fight these anti-transgender statements with every tool in our toolbox.”
The government has been working to strengthen some of the protections challenged in the lawsuit. President Joe Biden announced last month that the Department of Education issued new rules that would clarify that Title IX protections against discrimination apply to sexual orientation and gender identity and that it would be against anyone to participate in a school program. or activity consistent with their gender identity the law.
The proposed changes will undergo a public comment period before being finalized.
Tennessee is the #1 state with the most legislation that restricts trans youth
Superficially, Americans and their legislators accept and understand LGBTQ+ individuals more now than even a decade ago. The Supreme Court’s 2015 decision to legalize same-gender marriage stands as of the most tangible and significant wins for LGBTQ+ rights—yet the 2015 ruling only directly protected cisgender lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals.
At least 19 states in 2016 considered bathroom bills, legislation that would force every person to use the gendered restroom matching the gender listed on their birth certificate. North Carolina passed this legislation, igniting conversations across the country and empowering lawmakers to draft similar bills in other states. But sister bills struggled to pass, and even North Carolina has since repealed its bathroom bill.
Several congressional representatives have turned to gender legislation to target a new group: transgender youth.
Stacker took a look at state-by-state data on sexual orientation and gender identity policies that affect transgender youth from the Transgender Law Center. All 50 states and Washington D.C. were then ranked by their total policy “tallies” (the number of laws and policies driving equality for LGBTQ+ people), with #51 being the most restrictive state and #1 being the most protective state of trans youth. Negative tallies mean more discrimination laws exist than protection laws.
TLC’s policy tally accounts only for passed legislation and does not take into account activism efforts, attitudes, and feelings expressed by people in the state, nor implementations of these laws. The core categories TLC considered revolve around relationships and parental recognition, nondiscrimination, religious exemptions, LGBTQ+ youth, health care, criminal justice, and identity documents.
TLC’s findings capture how trans youth remain protected or vulnerable by statutory law, but legislation is elastic and lawmakers introduce new bills constantly. One category of these rankings only capture laws pertaining to sexuality since significant overlap exists within the queer community and within the legislation. Many lesbian, gay, or bisexual individuals also identify as transgender, nonbinary, or gender nonconforming, meaning LGBTQ+ individuals can identify with more than one queer identity.
Tennessee by the numbers
– Overall tally: -6
– Gender identity policy tally: -5.75
– Sexual orientation policy tally: -0.25
Since 2020, anti-trans youth legislation claiming to protect children popped up more frequently in state legislatures, entering the more mainstream lexicon in 2021. During the first three months of 2022, lawmakers filed about 240 anti-LGBTQ+ laws—most of which targeted trans people.
Tennessee, the top state for anti-trans youth legislation, in 2017 signed a bill into law preventing trans children from receiving gender-affirming care. It was the fifth anti-trans law to pass in the state. Bills like these claim to protect parents and children, yet lawmakers in Tennessee are also considering a bill that would establish common-law marriages in the state between “one man and one woman” while eliminating age restrictions for marriage.
While anti-trans youth legislation outnumbers legislation to protect trans youth, several states have enacted or are considering laws intended to protect trans children. California has gone so far as to introduce a bill to accept families escaping anti-trans youth legislation. Colorado—formerly known as the “Hate State” for its history of passing anti-LGBTQ+ legislation throughout the ’90s—passed legislation banning conversion therapy, prohibiting bullying based on LGBTQ+ identities, and ending discrimination against LGBTQ+ families adopting children. Hawaii passed legislation in March that would require health insurance companies to pay for gender-affirming care—but not until 2060.
Continue reading to find out which states have the most legislation that restricts or protects trans youth.
States with the most legislation that restricts trans youth
#1. Tennessee: -6 overall
#2. Arkansas: -5.5 overall
#3. South Dakota: -4.5 overall
#4. Alabama: -4 overall
#5. Mississippi: -3.5 overall
States with the most legislation that protects trans youth
#1. Colorado: 39.5 overall
#2. California: 39.25 overall
#3. New York: 39 overall
#4. Nevada: 38 overall
#5. Connecticut: 37.5 overall
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VINCE MUNOZ
On April 5, the Kansas Legislature voted to overturn Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto of the so-called “fairness in women’s sports act.”
The bill bans transgender women from participating in school-sanctioned sports. This vote in the Legislature succeeded despite weeks of advocacy, testimony and other methods of politely petitioning lawmakers to respect trans athletes.
Advocacy and voter turnout have long been the only theories of change advanced by liberals and moderates throughout the state. The thinking goes that by appealing to lawmakers’ better angels or bluffing that you have the numbers to beat them at the polls, legislatorswill back off from the worst of their reactionary agenda. That didn’t stop them from passing this bill, but not all hope is lost.
One alternative to the two failed models is civil disobedience. Civil disobedience is the practice of not voluntarily participating in your own oppression or the oppression of others. It requires openly defying laws that are unjust. The most well-known examples include Civil Rights-era actions like the Greensboro lunch counter sit-ins and Rosa Parks’ refusal to change seats on a segregated bus.
It’s important to understand why this works. Rather than relying on the good faith of bad people, it raises the cost of discrimination. Oppression relies, in part, on the compliance of bystanders. When people start flagrantly ignoring rules, it costs time, money and energy from those in power to enforce their rules. If enough people — especially allies — refuse to play along, those in power cannot continue to uphold an unjust system.
"Oppression relies, in part, on the compliance of bystanders. When people start flagrantly ignoring rules, it costs time, money and energy from those in power to enforce their rules. If enough people — especially allies — refuse to play along, those in power cannot continue to uphold an unjust system." Vince Munoz
Regarding the anti-trans sports ban, there are several ways to disobey this law. Coaches and school administrators should enroll trans athletes in the teams of their choosing, regardless of what the law says. If an opposing sports team says nothing upon seeing this, great. You’ve essentially neutered the law.
When opposing teams do try to enforce the rule, cisgender teammates of the trans students should boycott the game. Parents need to wholeheartedly support the athletes and coaches in doing so. While forfeiture may give the other team a de facto win, it denies them the satisfaction of playing and denies athletes the individual sports statistics needed for college recruitment. So the action raises the cost of discrimination for the discriminator and those around them. To hurt other people, they end up hurting themselves, too.
For solo sports, disobedience requires some creativity. Once again, schools should register trans athletes for competitions in the hopes that no one says anything. But if someone does try to block a trans student from competing, allies need to raise the cost of discrimination. For example, students can physically stop cross country or track an field competitions by laying across tracks and paths. Parents volunteering as timers at swim meets can withhold their needed volunteer labor when trans athletes are excluded. Walk offs can be applied to most other competitions.
Regarding the anti-trans sports ban, there are several ways to disobey this law. Coaches and school administrators should enroll trans athletes in the teams of their choosing, regardless of what the law says. If an opposing sports team says nothing upon seeing this, great. You’ve essentially neutered the law.
When opposing teams do try to enforce the rule, cisgender teammates of the trans students should boycott the game. Parents need to wholeheartedly support the athletes and coaches in doing so. While forfeiture may give the other team a de facto win, it denies them the satisfaction of playing and denies athletes the individual sports statistics needed for college recruitment. So the action raises the cost of discrimination for the discriminator and those around them. To hurt other people, they end up hurting themselves, too.
For solo sports, disobedience requires some creativity. Once again, schools should register trans athletes for competitions in the hopes that no one says anything. But if someone does try to block a trans student from competing, allies need to raise the cost of discrimination. For example, students can physically stop cross country or track an field competitions by laying across tracks and paths. Parents volunteering as timers at swim meets can withhold their needed volunteer labor when trans athletes are excluded. Walk offs can be applied to most other competitions.
Civil disobedience is highly disruptive by design. Doing the right thing sometimes requires grit. There’s just no way around that.
Before trying anything like the above examples, keep in mind that the most successful civil disobedience campaigns are strategic and done in groups. Activists of past movements formed organizations such as the Jane Collective, ACT UP New York, ADAPT (Americans Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation), and so many more to plan and execute their actions. They pooled resources to minimize risk for those at the front lines of these fights, such as setting up legal defense funds for protestors. It’s easy to punish one disruptive person. It’s much harder to punish a large group.
We should not tolerate discrimination in the Free State. Civil disobedience may be disruptive and disrespectful, but the traditional methods of petitioning our legislators didn’t work. It’s time to try something with a much better track record of success.
Trans kids are counting on it!