Washington Blade

As we're seeing efforts here to fight back against the dismantling of the rights of trans athletes.

This from the Washington Blade campaign urging Virginia High School League to reverse stance on trans athletes.

"A Virginia advocacy group has launched a campaign that urges the Virginia High School League to once again allow student athletes to compete on sports teams that correspond with their gender identity.

Equality Arlington on September 16th published an article about the Right to Play Virginia campaign.

Amie, a group representative, spoke about the initiative with The Washington Blade.

The primary goal is to reverse the Virginia High School League's discriminatory ban on allowing transgender girls to play on girls' sports, um, and replace it with a policy that is fair for all students, she said.

The Virginia High School League in twenty twenty-five announced the policy." And of course, this is right after the Trump adminis- second Trump administration took over, and it was just this immediate attack on the LGBTQ+ community.

Uh, but even that, I've had story after story on here of LGBTQ immigrants, uh, here legally have been, uh, swept up and deported.

Uh, but this issue about homeless people, and this is from Washington Blade.

DC's LGBTQ homeless facilities face possible hit from Trump funding cuts.

A decision by Trump administration to eliminate most federal funding for community-based programs to place homeless people in permanent subsidized housing could have a severe adverse impact on LGBTQ people facing homelessness in DC, according to local advocates.

Uh, Cesar Tlereto, executive director of the Wanda Alston Foundation, which currently provides transitional housing for twenty LGBTQ homeless youth, said his organization receives local DC government funding but no federal funding, so his group has so far not been impacted by the Trump action.

Debbie Shore, executive director of the Sasha Bruce Youth Work Organization that provides housing for young peoples ages eighteen to twenty-four, including some LGBTQ youth, said her organization also has not yet been impacted, but, uh, could be impacted soon.

"We have not seen that funding cut," she told the Washington Blade.

"What we understand is if HUD is allowed to go through with those changes, then we will," she said.

Passed hand to hand and distributed through community spaces, the Gay Blade helped turned scattered updates, warnings, referrals, and organizing news into a durable public record.

It grew into the Washington Blade, one of the most important LGBTQ newspapers in United States.

Two weeks ago we were talking about the Washington Blade.

Remember?

Mm-hmm.

This is good news too.

This from the Washington Blade, 988 restores crisis services for LGBTQ youth.

The life-saving 988 call-in number to help people experiencing mental health crisis or suicidal thoughts has once again restored specialized services for LGBTQ youth.

The Press 3 option rolled out as a pilot program in 2022 through a government contract with the Trevor Project as Suicide Prevention and Crisis Intervention Organization for LGBTQ People.

And let's start there.

This from the Washington Blade, HRC report, LGBTQ students face far greater challenges in non-supportive states.

I mean, that's just kind of common sense, but let's get into it.

The Human Rights Campaign Foundation The educational arm of the national LGBTQ advocacy organization Human Rights Campaign has released a report showing LGBTQ public school students are more likely to face bullying, harassment, and other barriers in states that have less overall support of LGBTQ laws and policies.