A group of government workers filed a lawsuit this week against the Trump administration over a policy to end gender-affirming care for adults through federal employee health insurance offerings. The five government workers who are suing the administration are being represented by the Human Rights Campaign, an organization that promotes and defends LGBTQ causes. The workers argue that the…
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The United States Department of Education will no longer collect data measuring harassment, bullying, or assaults of transgender or nonbinary students. The Office of Management and Budget approved the rule change in July. The move comes as the executive branch agency has taken over many aspects of the Education Department, with the Trump administration seeking to consolidate and eventually…
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This story originally appeared in The Progressive Magazine on June 18, 2026. It is shared here with permission.
Florida has a magic that only Floridians truly understand. The mix of whimsy, bravery, and devotion you find here is unique, as is the land itself: lush acres of forest and marshy wetlands, puppy like creatures found in springs and slow-moving rivers, beaches of white sand, and off-the-beaten-path trails.
It’s tough to be from here—we’re plagued with hurricane season, mocked with GIFs like Bugs Bunny sawing from the rest of the country, and absurd “Florida man” jokes reflecting the tired 2010s-era cliché that our state is a den of drug-addled chaos and bizarre misadventure. If you mention Florida in conversation, you’re often met with a disgusted or concerning gaze.
The state has also long served as the country’s playground—or, as scholar Julio Capó Jr. describes it in his history of queer Miami culture, a “fairyland” that lures in tourists with the promise of a quick getaway surrounded by Disney animatronics and dreamy beaches. It may be unrecognizable to visitors from outside of the state, but Florida has always been a little queer, even beyond the periphery of the gay club scene in Miami.
In the past several years, however, Florida has become increasingly known for being hostile to queer people. Republican Governor Ron DeSantis—whose term began in 2019, less than three years after the June 2016 mass shooting at Orlando’s Pulse nightclub that killed forty-nine people—is fixated on decimating Florida’s queer population and crushing the morale of our indomitable spirit. In 2021, DeSantis signed into law a provision that redefined a public demonstration of more than three people who “commit a breach of
“I am the ONLY female being held in a male prison here in New Jersey all because I am transgender,” Gia Valentina told Truthout. In January 2026, after years of requesting the procedure, Valentina had vaginoplasty, a gender-affirming surgery that creates a vagina and vulva. She was hoping that the procedure would allow her to be moved to Edna Mahan Correctional Facility, New Jersey’s sole…
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Organizers in several cities across the country say they were forced to cancel historic Pride celebrations this month. Groups in several cities, including Tampa, Florida; Arlington, Texas; and Tucson, Arizona, cited a political environment that has made supporting queer events nearly impossible, both politically and financially, and attending them potentially dangerous. In Florida…
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Students at both the University of Texas and University of North Texas held mock funerals in May 2026 outside of meetings of the board of regents for their respective universities, where they mourned the loss of open discussion and academic freedom and integrity due to years of a right-wing legislative and institutional onslaught. Cameron Samuels, a law student at the University of Texas at…
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