The Trump administration has agreed to restore a Pride flag that was previously removed from Stonewall National Monument in New York City, following a lawsuit from several nonprofit groups alleging it had been improperly removed earlier this year. In February, the National Park Service (NPS) took the Pride flag down, following a directive from the Interior Department stipulating that “only…
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Today is International Trans Day of Visibility, a day to celebrate the resilience and accomplishments of transgender people worldwide. The extraordinary accomplishments — in law, art, and beyond — of incarcerated trans people tend to receive far too little celebration. Yet many trans people in prison keep fighting for their communities, in environments where they often face violence…
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Olive Garrison has been teaching high school history in Bakersfield for the past eight years. Born and raised in the Central Valley city, Garrison has incorporated LGBTQ history into lessons, from the Lavender Scare, a moral panic in which thousands of gay workers in the 1940s and ’50s were driven out of government service jobs, to the struggles of queer Americans during the Great Depression.
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Last week, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced the creation of the Office of LGBTQIA+ Affairs, fulfilling a key promise he made to queer and trans New Yorkers on the campaign trail. The office’s appointed director, Taylor Brown, who worked in the Civil Rights Bureau of the New York Attorney General’s Office, becomes the first openly transgender person to lead a New York City office or…
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Thousands of low-income people living with HIV could be losing drug coverage as states impose limitations on HIV assistance programs amid constrained budgets — raising alarms over consistent access to lifesaving medications. Many factors are putting budget constraints on state programs, including federal funding — which has remained flat for years and hasn’t been adjusted for inflation…
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As their public approval sinks lower and lower, the MAGA right is leaning harder and harder into policies of abject cruelty directed at vulnerable populations that have been turned into sacrificial scapegoats; that is especially true when it comes to immigrants and trans people. In the state of Kansas, for instance, Republicans just rammed through one of the most extreme anti-trans bills in the country. TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez speaks with journalist and LGBTQ+ policy analyst Erin Reed about how the new law is affecting trans Kansans and about the explosion of anti-trans policies around the country.
Additional links/info:
Erin Reed website, Substack, Facebook page, Bluesky page, TikTok, and Instagram
Erin Reed, Substack, “Anti-Trans National Legal Risk Assessment Map: Feb 2026”
Erin Reed, Substack, ““You outlaw it”: Heritage Foundation President announces intent to outlaw all trans adult care”
Sherman Smith & Morgan Chilson, Kansas Reflector, “Trans Kansans struggle with Legislature’s ‘cruelty’ as driver’s licenses are invalidated”
Sherman Smith, Kansas Reflector, “Trans men file lawsuit over Kansas law that restricts bathroom use and invalidates driver’s licenses”
Credits:
Audio Post-Production: Alina Nehlich
Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.
Maximillian Alvarez:
Welcome everyone to the Real News Network podcast. I’m Maximillian Alvarez. I’m the editor-in-chief here at The Real News, and it’s so great to have you all with us. Between the federal government’s coverup of the Epstein Files, President Trump’s catastrophic decision to plunge the US into a war with Iran, an economy that’s crushing working people while hurling money at billionaires and corporations, and the daily litany of rampant and jaw-droppingly blatant corruption throughout the Trump administration.