This week’s edition of the Trans News Tracker is the 10th one so far. It’s also the first one where news of resistance efforts made by trans people, queer people, and their allies actually outweighs new efforts being made by the far right, anti-trans Democrats, and other institutions trying to limit our rights and push us out of the public eye entirely. This certainly doesn’t mean we’re winning, but I think it’s important to recognize that resistance is expanding, taking new shapes, and happening in almost every place where trans rights are continually imperiled.

Trump Administration Prders States To Remove All References to ‘Gender Ideology’ From Sex Ed

Although there is a lot of good news here, I do think it’s important to highlight the latest attempt by the Trump administration to erase trans people from public consciousness since we’ll likely see a string of backlash soon from state governments across the country.

Last week, the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), Robert F. Kennedy Jr., along with the rest of the administration released notices through its Administration for Children and Families (ACF) to 40 states and six U.S. occupied territories “demanding” they remove “remove all references to gender ideology in their federally-funded Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) educational materials within 60 days.” The PREP program was/is a federal initiative aimed at providing evidence-based sexual education programs to young people aged 10-19 in public educational institutions. In a statement following the release of all 46 letters, Acting Assistant Secretary Andrew Gradison said, “Accountability is coming. Federal funds will not be used to poison the minds of the next generation or advance dangerous ideological agendas. The Trump Administration will ensure that PREP reflects the intent of Congress, not the priorities of the left.”

To save you from reading through the entirety of these letters, I’ll just tell you here what has been flagged for removal from this program: all definitions of gender identity and gender expressions, references to gender-affirming pronoun usage and guidance on allowing young people to express the pronouns they’d like to use, and any information about gender-affirming care or procedures. In what has become one of the far right’s favorite tactics, they’ve adopted the language/mores of progressive movements by claiming in these letters that these state institutions must cease providing this education as a way to “demonstrate acceptance and respect for all participants, regardless of personal characteristics, including race, cultural background, religion, social class, sexual orientation or gender identity.”

Since the funding for PREP programs helps states educate young people about safe sex and how to protect themselves from youth pregnancy and the transmissions of sexually transmitted infections, any cuts in funding to this program would impact these states’ and territories’ ability to actually provide that education, as well. It’s hard to say right now exactly how many of these places will comply or fight. Aside from this being yet another hostile and violent attempt to push trans people out of public life, this represents a particularly dangerous new development for both young trans and cis people going to school in public institutions. And it serves as a deeply horrifying reminder of how low the far right is willing to go in their crusade to make trans people’s lives unlivable in this nation.

Some Good Trans News For Once

Trans Texans face yet another attempt to ban them from bathrooms. In response to the possible passing of Texas’s Senate Bill 8, a group of trans people and their allies took over both the House State Affairs Committee to testify against the bill and the Texas State Capitol for a bathroom sit-in protest. Since Texas Governor Gregg Abbott vowed to sign the bill if/when it makes it to his desk, the urgency of these actions and plans to continue pushing back against this bill cannot be understated.

Illinois launches LGBTQ+ legal hotline amid Trump-led onslaught. Some great news coming from a Democratic politician, finally. Illinois Governor JB Pritzker announced last week that the state has launched its own hotline for queer and trans people called IL Pride Connect. According to Pritzker, “IL Pride Connect will inform individuals of their rights and connect them to health and social services support – making us the only state in the nation to provide free legal advice and advocacy tools to protect the LGBTQ community.”

Judge dismisses lawsuit to remove transgender sister from UW sorority. This is one of my favorite news stories this week. In 2023, a lawsuit was filed by members of the University of Wyoming’s Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority against their national organization seeking to remove an already sworn in trans sorority sister. After not one but two court hearings over this issue, U.S. District Court Judge Alan Johnson finally dismissed the lawsuit with prejudice — meaning it can never be brought to the courts again — stating, “Nothing in the Bylaws or the Standing Rules requires Kappa to narrowly define the words ‘women’ or ‘woman’ to include only those individuals born with a certain set of reproductive organs, particularly when even the dictionary cited by Plaintiffs offers a more expansive definition. Nor has Kappa or the Fraternity Council concealed this definition from its members: in fact, it has published and distributed multiple texts clarifying the issue.” I think it’s cool he basically told the plaintiffs to “eat shit” and get over it.

[Virginia] school board sues Trump administration to defend transgender student policy. I know I’m biased, but can I get a “Hell yeah, teachers!!” in the chat, please???

Trans news from across the pond:

UK’s LGBTQ+ literary prize cancelled after controversy over ‘gender critical’ author John Boyne. Following the inclusion of TERF author and JK Rowling supporter John Boyne’s new novel on the Polari Prize longlist, 10 other longlisted authors pulled their novels from consideration in protest, which forced the Prize to put a pause on its competition for 2025. It’s always amazing to see writers — a group who, financially, has a lot to lose — doing this kind of work in defense of trans people.

Nottingham Against Transphobia hold die-in in city centre. An activist group called Nottingham Against Transphobia held a die-in in the center of Nottingham last week in protest against the  Equality and Human Rights Commission’s (EHRC) new guidance urging service providers to “ban trans people from all single-sex facilities and services including changing rooms, wards and sporting competitions.” According to reports from the protest, “The demonstration in Nottingham saw dozens of participants carry out a die-in where they lay silently on the ground as the sound of a steady heartbeat played from a loud speaker. One attendee was dressed as the Grim Reaper and wore a mask plastered with the face of prime minister Keir Starmer, standing ominously amongst the participants on the floor.” As the fight for trans rights gets just as dire in England as it is here, we’ll likely see more and more of these actions in the coming months.

International trans news:

Transgender people in Kenya just won a major court victory. Shieys Chepkosgei sued the Kenyan government over her arrest and indictment in 2019 for “impersonation” (despite the fact that she had legal documents matching her gender identity), and the judge not only ordered the government to give her financial restitution but he also ordered Parliament to pass a law protecting trans people’s rights in Kenya: “The judge went a step further, directing the Kenyan government to initiate legislation in Parliament addressing the rights of transgender Kenyans, either with new protections or by amending current legislation on the rights of intersex people currently moving through Parliament.” Judges here and abroad are really putting in the work to protect trans people lately, and it’s incredible to see.

Trans News I Wish I Didn’t Have to Report

Alaska medical board moves to restrict gender-affirming care for minors in the state. Yet another blow to trans youth, but this time in a state where literally less than a million people live. That’s how you know this is simply retaliatory politics masquerading as “care.”

Trump’s widening war on gender-affirming care. Unsurprisingly, the Trump administration is moving to prevent federal workers and their dependents from receiving gender-affirming care, even if the care is available where they live and through their healthcare providers.

University of Michigan ends gender-affirming care for minors, citing federal pressure. Michigan Medicine at the University of Michigan became the newest compiler, kowtowing to the Trump administration’s pressures on institutions that receive federal funding to stop providing gender-affirming care to trans youth. I’ve reported on this several times in this column, and the list grows longer by the week despite the fact that many institutions are pushing back legally.

South Carolina asks Supreme Court to let it enforce trans bathroom ban. I don’t know how we’re not constantly pointing out how obsessed with this shit these people are. All emotional reactions aside, if this does make it to the Supreme Court, we could be looking at the enshrinement of a legal definition of “woman” and “man” in the same way the UK is experiencing that right now. This is something to keep our eyes on for sure.

Last Bits of Trans News

Sam Nicoresti becomes first trans comedian to win best comedy show at Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Please join me in congratulating Sam on this huge honor: CONGRATULATIONS, SAM!

Learn why activist Jae Douglas is so dedicated to helping other LGBTQ+ Floridians. This is a truly wonderful profile on a young person doing some of the hardest work in my home state. As someone who has been organizing in South Florida for the last 20 years of my life, I can tell you that what Jae is doing is no small feat. I hope you’ll read it and listen to what Jae has to say.

Charlize Theron’s adopted daughters – Jackson and August – are officially living their best lives. Charlize Theron joins the growing list of celebrities who are loving and supporting the hell out of their trans children in public and in front of all the anti-trans losers. It’s nice to see the list is getting longer, not shorter.

Before you go! Autostraddle runs on the reader support of our AF+ Members. If this article meant something to you today — if it informed you or made you smile or feel seen, will you consider joining AF and supporting the people who make this queer media site possible?

Join AF+!

This is Trans News Tracker, a biweekly Autostraddle roundup and analysis of the biggest trans news stories.

The anti-trans losers in the U.S. government and beyond have been…a little quiet over the last couple of weeks. I can’t figure out if they’re losing steam or if they’re amping up to hit us with even harsher legislation actions. Either way, trans youth are experiencing an onslaught of major changes to their ability to access healthcare and are at higher risk of losing all access to gender-affirming, so we should be keeping our eyes on how that develops. As for the rest of this week’s news, there is an equal mix of good and bad here. Let’s not forget that witnessing resistance is important fuel in our continued efforts to ensure all trans people get the resources they need and deserve.

Nine More U.S. Hospitals Cut Gender-Affirming Care for Trans Youth

We have reported on this in piecemeal several times since Trans News Tracker was created, but the last couple of weeks specifically have seen the continued shut down of medical care for trans youth across the country. This is happening in states where trans healthcare is supposedly a priority, proving once again that in the face of fascism, “liberalism” rarely has the means or desire to protect the most vulnerable among us.

Since the middle of June, nine different hospitals in the U.S. — Stanford Medicine in California, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Rush Medical Center in Illinois, University of Chicago Medicine, Connecticut Children’s Hospital, Yale Medical, Yale New Haven Hospital, and Kaiser Permanente — have cut some or all of their programs that provide gender-affirming care to trans youth in order to capitulate to the Trump administration’s threats to cut funding and the Supreme Court’s decision in U.S. vs Skrmetti. The changes in these medical facilities will primarily impact trans people under the age of 19 and include cuts in access to puberty blockers, hormone replacement therapy, and gender-affirming surgeries.

What makes this story stranger, though, is that these hospitals seem to be rushing to comply with the Trump administration’s orders as the Attorneys General of 16 states have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration to challenge their attacks on trans healthcare. So far, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawai’i, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C. have joined in on the complaint, which means that every hospital cutting off access is in a state listed on the lawsuit. It’s uncertain what that will mean in the coming months, but for right now, what is happening in the state legislature and on the ground are totally at odds.

Meanwhile, according to S. Baum at Erin in the Morning, “trans patients are applying pressure on lawmakers and health systems to hold the line on trans-affirming care” through staged protests and plan to continue until these decisions are reversed.

Some Good Trans News For Once

Team USA Olympics trans ban may violate Federal law. Considering how everything has been going, I’m not sure this will matter much, but at least it gives trans athletes and their allies an opportunity to make some kind of legal case against these new bans.

Native tribal leaders push back on gender-affirming care restrictions for their citizens. Although the legal specifics are somewhat complicated, Indigenous people do technically have sovereignty over their land and the laws that govern the members of their tribes. Since many Indigenous tribes recognize gender outside of the “Western” conception of the gender binary, they’re pushing back against the Trump administration’s attacks on trans people’s access to healthcare. According to this article, “the National Indian Health Board, which represents and advocates for federally recognized Native American and Alaska Native tribes, passed a resolution declaring tribal sovereignty over issues affecting the Native American community’s health, including access to gender-affirming care. The resolution calls on the federal government to preserve and expand programs that support the health and well-being of Two-Spirit and LGBTQ+ Native Americans.”

20 police raided a gay bar for a “compliance check.” Then the patrons did something surprising. In what feels like an event straight out of the 1960s, Pittsburgh police raided the P Town Bar while a drag show was going on to perform what the officers were calling a “compliance check.” Despite threats from the police and the overall violence of being kicked out of the bar, the drag performers and the bar patrons kept the party going right outside the bar’s doors.

International Good Trans News

UK: World’s biggest study of trans children to include toddlers treated by NHS. I’m counting this as good news because as we’ve seen over the years, studies about trans life and efficacy of gender-affirming treatment generally come out proving the anti-trans lobby wrong about us. Considering the UK is seeing just as much anti-trans backlash as we are in the U.S., I feel like this will only help build cases for trans youth to have more access to gender-affirming care rather than break them down.

Czech Republic: Trans people in Czech Republic can now change gender without surgery. As we reported in the last Trans News Tracker, Cuba recently made it legal for trans people to change their gender marker on their identifying documents without undergoing any gender affirming medical interventions. Now, the Czech Republic has made it legal for citizens there to do the exact same thing.

Hong Kong: Hong Kong judge rules in favor of transgender bathroom access. Another win for trans people abroad here. A judge in Hong Kong ruled against any regulations that criminalize the use of trans people’s preferred bathrooms.

Trans News I Wish I Didn’t Have to Report

Austin police investigating assault of trans woman at Barton Springs as possible hate crime. This is a story that has been developing over the past week, and we do not have the names of the victims or suspects involved. However, the attack on a trans woman and her friends were caught on camera in Barton Springs last weekend, which resulted in a physical altercation that injured a “good samaritan” trying to step in to prevent the women’s harassment. Details are still coming out, and the police are seemingly trying to pursue a hate crime indictment against the suspects in the case.

Majority of Americans think gender transition ‘morally wrong’, poll suggests. I can’t even make a joke about this. Gallup just keeps proving we’re in the trenches as far as public perception goes: “In a survey from analytics firm Gallup, U.S. residents were asked to give their opinion on the ‘moral acceptability’ of 20 different behaviours, regardless of legality. It found that just 40 percent of respondents believe transitioning is ‘morally acceptable’, while 54 per cent believe it is ‘morally wrong’ and five percent have no opinion or believe it isn’t a morality issue.” All the more reason to make sure access to gender-affirming care is non-negotiable.

Sarah McBride’s first successful bill is a private equity law co-sponsored by an anti-trans Republican. Honestly, I don’t think a trans elected official is going to save us, and I’ve especially never thought Sarah McBride would be the one to change my beliefs on that. But I have to say, this sucks! Most of the time, bipartisanship isn’t worth the trouble, especially for a bill that experts say isn’t very good at all. Sometimes it really is your own people selling you out.

Pete Buttigieg stunningly agrees with Trump on trans athletes…but rejects president’s strategy on issue. As I was saying about it really being your own people sometimes: This guy is just constantly finding new reasons for me to dislike him.

Transgender pool player loses discrimination claim after being barred from women’s tournaments. The losers and cowards who make up the “no trans people in sports” lobby are even taking niche sports with small fan bases, like pool in this case. You might be thinking…how can anyone think there is even a semblance of a “fairness issue” in pool? And you’d be right for thinking that, because I seriously do not know how even the bad faith “fairness” arguments could even be work for this one. Seems like the judge knew exactly how they’d rule before this went to trial.

Last Bits

Suzy Izzard given honorary doctorate by the University of Sussex. I’ve loved Suzy Izzard ever since I saw her comedy specials re-running later at night on HBO when I was a teenager. It just made me happy to see her get some well-deserved flowers as the anti-trans backlash rages on in the UK.

RuPaul’s Drag Race champion Jinkx Monsoon roasts JK Rowling for ‘identifying’ as a male author. When my girlfriend and I first saw this video pop up on social media, we watched it five times back-to-back. Everything from the “Jake Hey Rowling” to the delivery to the laughter at the end makes this read so satisfying to watch.

Conservative influencer Candace Owens sued for defamation over claims that France’s first lady is a man. I’m thinking that maybe if Candace is forced to pay a bunch of money as a result of this lawsuit, she’ll finally shut up for once. And maybe, just maybe, it’ll be a lesson for all these other conservative social media slobs who continuously talk shit about people they don’t like for one reason or another.

Trans allies including Kate Nash and Alan Cumming criticise new UK schools sex education guidance. Following the UK’s Department for Education’s decision to change their relationship, sex, and health education (RSHE) guidance to stop including truthful instruction about trans identity, “Pride in Education, a grassroots LGBTQ+ activism group, published an open letter expressing ‘deep concern’ over the guidance and the risk it poses for trans, non-binary, intersex, asexual, and gender non-conforming pupils.” Many of the people who have signed the letter are British celebrities who are using their platforms to push back against the anti-trans attacks happening in British society and through regulation and legislation.

Trans News Tracker is supported by our wonderful members! To become a member and ensure we can keep doing this vital work, consider subscribing for as little as $4 a month.

Before you go! Autostraddle runs on the reader support of our AF+ Members. If this article meant something to you today — if it informed you or made you smile or feel seen, will you consider joining AF and supporting the people who make this queer media site possible?

Join AF+!