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.
For two weeks, Albé Sanchez didn’t leave their house in South Minneapolis. “[I was] forced into survival mode,” Sanchez told Uncloseted Media and Rewire News Group (RNG). “I felt like there was an invisible wall [to the outside world] that I couldn’t cross unless I really wanted to put myself in a place where there was a chance that I might not be able to come back,” they added.
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Bathroom bans targeting transgender people have been spreading rapidly across the United States. In previous years, adult bathroom bans in public buildings were limited to a handful of states with extreme laws. This year, they have become one of the primary vehicles for anti-trans legislation nationwide. Kansas was the first to act, passing a bathroom bounty hunter system and invalidating…
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Attorney General Ken Paxton of Texas announced on Monday a new interpretation of state law that would extend the state’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors to mental health providers, declaring that any therapist who affirms a trans youth’s gender identity is “facilitating” illegal treatment and committing child abuse. Under his interpretation, therapists, counselors…
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