NATIONAL Aetna sued, NBJC’s awards, Kentucky, HIV drug, PGN’s leaders

After being denied coverage for gender-affirming facial reconstruction (GAFR), three transgender women have filed a federal class-action civil-rights lawsuit against health insurance giant Aetna, The Advocate noted. The suit classifies all GAFR for trans women as cosmetic and that there were blanket denials of coverage in violation of the Affordable Care Act. The suit seeks a permanent injunction against Aetna’s blanket denial of GAFR for transgender Aetna plan holders; compensatory damages for all Aetna plan holders who have had to pay for similar surgeries and treatment; and their attorneys’ fees and costs.

The National Black Justice Collective (NBJC) hosted its Bayard Rustin-Pauli Murray Advocate for Justice Awards, which celebrate the contributions of Black leaders working to challenge stereotypes and change the way the world thinks about the Black LGBTQ+/same-gender loving (SGL) movement and community, according to a press release. The Rustin-Murray Awards were part of NBJC’s OUT on the Hill annual week of action that brought together advocates, thought leaders, community members, allies and partner organizations. Honorees included Congresspersons Sheila Jackson Lee, Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush; Amazon Vice President of Inclusive Experiences and Technology Candi Castleberry; Center for Black Equity Founder and President/CEO Emeritus Earl D. Fowlkes Jr.; and Jay Jones, the first openly trans person to be executive president of the Howard University Student Association.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear signed an executive order banning the medically discredited practice of conversion therapy on minors in the state, NBC News noted. The state now joins 23 others where the debunked mental-health treatment supposedly aims to change the sexual orientation or gender identity of LGBTQ+ minors. Born Perfect co-founder Mathew Shurka said in a press release, “We applaud Governor Beshear’s leadership in protecting LGBTQ youth and their families from so-called conversion therapy, which has been rejected as unethical and harmful by every leading medical and mental health association in the country.”

 The injectable HIV-prevention drug lenacapavir seems to be highly effective—and expensive, NBC News noted. Lenacapavir has proven to be 89% more effective at preventing HIV than daily oral preventive medication among gay, bisexual and transgender people, and the drug has been 100% effective in cisgender women. Lenacapavir’s current list price for use as HIV treatment is $3,450 per month—and Gilead has not yet indicated if it will set a different price for the drug’s use as PrEP. Given that Truvada has been available as a generic since 2020 and now costs as little as $20 per month (while Descovy remains on patent and is $2,200), it remains unclear if insurers will make lenacapavir available widely enough to have what epidemiologists predict could be a sweeping public health impact.

In celebration of its 48th anniversary, Philadelphia Gay News (PGN) revealed its 48 Most Influential LGBTQ+ Leaders list for 2024. A few of the individuals who made the list included U.S. Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta; Philadelphia City Councilmember-at-Large Rue Landau; Ashleigh Strange, the executive director of Gov. Josh Shapiro’s LGBTQ+ Affairs Commission; Philly Black Pride Vice President Jacen Bowman; Lez Run Philadelphia founder CC Tellez; RuPaul’s Drag Race season 16 runner-up Sapphira Cristal; journalist Victoria A. Brownworth; Independence Business Alliance CEO Zach Wilcha; and Mazzoni Center President/Executive Officer Sultan Shakir. 

In Florida, while most of the Broward County School Board members decided to recognize the contributions of LGBTQ+ community members to the country’s history, the majority of Miami-Dade School Board members—for the third year in a row—will not recognize LGBT History Month (October), Local 10 noted. The school board’s vote in Miami-Dade came after board members heard passionate public comments on the item. Sponsor/school board member Lucia Baez-Geller said that recognizing the contributions of LGBTQ+ community members to “the fabric of American society” could help foster a sense of belonging. 

Also in Florida, the Nassau County School Board must return three dozen books related to race and the LGBTQ+ community to school libraries as part of a settlement reached with authors, parents and students, NBC News noted. The board removed 36 books last year—including Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye as well as Peter Panell and Justin Richardson’s And Tango Makes Three—after the titles were challenged by the conservative organization Citizens Defending Freedom. The suit was among several that challenged the book removals across Florida under a law signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed that made it easier for community members to challenge books they found to be inappropriate in school libraries.

In California, activists hoping to nullify Prop 8 once and for all are going to the November ballot with Prop 3—another constitutional measure that would officially scrub Prop 8 from the state books and declare same-sex marriage a fundamental right, NBC Bay Area noted. In 2013, a U.S. Supreme Court ruling nullified California’s controversial Prop 8—the voter-approved state constitutional measure that officially defined marriage as an opposite-sex union. Equality California Political Director Shay Franco-Clausen said, “Seeing what happened with Roe v. Wade, we’re just preparing California to be a safe haven for those people that are married so we make sure it’s legal here in California.”

Former President Donald Trump promised, if elected, to carry out mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, starting in Springfield, Ohio, and Aurora, Colorado, according to Axios. “We’re going to have the largest deportation in the history of our country,” Trump said at a news conference at Trump National Golf Club in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. The announcement came as he continued to push baseless conspiracy theories about immigrants, including during the recent presidential debate against Vice President Kamala Harris. 

The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) convened its quarterly interagency meeting with LGBTQI+ community stakeholders, per a press release. Members of the Office of the Attorney General and the LGBTQI+ Working Group of the DoJ’s Civil Rights Division outlined important enforcement efforts across the department, and highlighted actions to address discrimination in education and employment as well as combat hate crimes. Assistant Secretary of Education Catherine Lhamon of the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights also spoke, spotlighting efforts to ensure safe learning environments at schools, colleges and universities.

Executives at Fortune 500 companies such as JPMorgan Chase and Cigna Healthcare are reassuring investors that they remain committed to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) principles—even as mounting attacks on DEI erode certain programs, Fortune noted. “It’s good for business; it’s morally right; we’re quite good at it; we’re successful,” billionaire JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said at a Council of Institutional Investors conference in Brooklyn, explaining that it makes sense for the financial institution to reach out to the Black, LGBTQ, Hispanic, disabled and veteran communities. Companies including Molson Coors Beverage Co., Lowe’s Companies Inc., Ford Motor Co. and Harley-Davidson Inc. drew attention in recent weeks after walking back some DEI commitments (including no longer taking part in the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index) following pressure from conservative social media influencer Robby Starbuck. 

The Justice Department hosted hundreds of survivors, advocates, victim services professionals, community leaders, government officials, and partners from the criminal and civil justice systems in the Robert F. Kennedy Building to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the passage of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), a press release announced. The event included remarks from Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco and Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General Benjamin Mizer; it also featured a series of panel discussions focused on the impact of VAWA in addressing domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking in the last 30 years.

Idaho’s first official march for transgender rights and visibility took place during the Boise Pride Festival, which marked its 35th year, according to the Idaho Statesman. “As trans people … what we need to do is really intentionally carve out places and make spaces and moments in which we can really just be in the joy of things,” Trans Joy March organizer Bonnie Violet Quintana told the Idaho Statesman before the event. Idaho in recent years has passed several laws targeting trans and nonbinary people. Since 2020, lawmakers have barred trans women and girls from participating in female sports, banned gender-affirming care for people under 18 and required teachers to get parental permission to use a student’s name or pronouns that differ from their sex at birth.

Anti-LGBTQ+ Republican North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, who’s running for governor, is dogged by rumors that he may drop out because of an impending CNN story with damning allegations, according to LGBTQ Nation. Those accusations include him allegedly peeping in women’s locker rooms when he was a student at North Carolina A&T State University, saying he wanted to own slaves and saying in online forums that he enjoyed porn featuring transgender models. Robinson’s communications director denied to The Carolina Journal that Robinson is being pressured by campaign staff and the Trump-Vance campaign to drop out of the election due to a scandal “that involves activity on adult websites in the 2000s.” He also released a video denying that he would drop out of the race.

The Little Gay Pub, an LGBTQ+ venue in D.C., was vandalized when a man spray-painted the initials “HMS” on several images of Vice President Kamala Harris, The Advocate noted. The photos were part of the pub’s “Coconut Christmas” decor in honor of Harris’s Aug. 22 acceptance of the Democratic nomination for president at Chicago’s United Center. The man responsible for the vandalism was caught in the act by the pub’s general manager, Paul Guarino, according to a police report; Guarino chased after him and snapped photos of the suspect.

Like many individuals, trans RuPaul’s Drag Race alum Sasha Colby is concerned about Donald Trump winning in November. Ahead of the MTV’s Video Music Awards Colby (where she introduced “daughter” Chappell Roan, per EW), Colby told TMZ that Trump’s rhetoric is dangerous—saying he’s “weaponizing ignorant minds”—and she took issue with his unsubstantiated claims about the LGBTQ+ community, such as when he said during the Sept. 10 debate that Vice President Kamala Harris “wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison.” 

In California, the 26th anniversary of Gay Days Anaheim took place Sept. 13-15, with more than 30,000 members of the LGBTQ+ community donning their red shirts and enjoying the weekend, WeHo Times noted. The festivities kicked off with events such as a Q&A with Knots Landing stars Michele Lee, Joan Van Ark and Donna Mills. Following this, Cheyenne Jackson performed his one-man show, “Signs of Life.” Some of the other weekend highlights (per the event’s website) included the drag-focused “Not so Disney Disney featuring Raven, Chad Michaels and Morgan McMichaels,” a scavenger hunt, cocktail socials and “Varla Jean Merman: The Errors Tour.” Also, Disneyland Resort offered limited-time rainbow treats (rainbow macarons, rainbow linzer cookies and rainbow cake) to coincide with the event, per Inside the Magic. 

The University of North Texas eliminated three faculty senate committees as well as all faculty and employee resource groups to comply with the anti-DEI Senate Bill 17, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Michael McPherson said in a message to faculty members, according to KERA News. SB 17 prohibits diversity, equity and inclusion departments, programs, initiatives and trainings at Texas’ public colleges and universities. McPherson’s message concluded by saying the latest changes do not change the school’s commitment to its people and mission.

In Boston, hundreds of LGBTQ+ individuals lined up in Back Bay to celebrate the opening of Dani’s Queer Bar—the first new lesbian bar in the city in years, GBH noted. A fundraiser for the effort launched in March 2022, and Dani’s was originally slated to open last year; however, that time frame was pushed after a number of setbacks, including delays with permits. The grand opening also featured appearances and performances from a number of local drag artists, including Tara Dikhof and Andi Van Dyke.

Joe Kapp was named chair of the Advisory Council of the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, per The Washington Blade. Kapp is president/co-founder of the National Center for Resource Development, and is a co-founder of LGBT Tech—a nonprofit that develops programs and resources that support LGBTQ communities and educates organizations and policy makers on the unique needs LGBTQ individuals face when it comes to technology.

In South Carolina, a “Hollywood Glamour” fundraiser at the Columbia Museum of Art marked 30 years of the Harriet Hancock Center’s celebration of the Midlands LGBTQ+ community, the Carolina News & Reporter noted. It was the first gala hosted by the center that was founded in 1993 and that moved to its current location at 1108 Woodrow St., in the city of Columbia, in September 1994. Executive Director Cristina Picozzi came up with the idea for the gala—and she thought a fundraiser was needed. She wanted to raise at least $15,000 to $20,000 from the gala so she can add more staff and expand on existing services.  

Also regarding galas, Equality Utah will hold its annual Allies Gala at the Eccles Theater on Oct. 5, per ABC 4. Erasure—whose lead singer, Andy Bell, is a queer icon—is expected to perform hits such as “A Little Respect” and “Chains of Love” at the event. The title this year is “Enchanted World,” with the dress code of “Forest Phantasia.” Equality Utah, an IRS 501(c)(4) organization, is the state’s largest LGBTQ+-rights organization. 

Michelle Morrow, the Republican candidate for North Carolina superintendent of public instruction, falsely claimed  that the “+” in LGBTQ+ indicates support for pedophilia, LGBTQ Nation noted. Morrow took to social media to attack her Democratic opponent, Mo Green, for having accepted the endorsement of LGBTQ+ advocacy organization Equality North Carolina—and then claimed, ““the ‘+’ includes PEDOPH*L*A!! Mo Green will NOT keep our children safe!” Equality North Carolina’s Jazmynne Cruz told WRAL that the “+” in the acronym indicates the inclusion of people whose sexual orientation or gender identities don’t fit neatly into categories like lesbian, gay, bisexual or queer/questioning—such as those who are asexual, nonbinary, intersex, etc.

Related