A man convicted of killing a Black transgender woman should have been allowed to use the victim’s sex assigned at birth as part of his defense, a Tennessee appellate court ruled last week. In its October 5 ruling, a three-judge panel for the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals overturned Samuel Ward
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The 2025-2026 school year experienced a record number of book bans, according to a new report from PEN America. Public schools across the country saw 12,000 book bans during that time period, the largest number in a single year since PEN America began tracking in 2021. The organi...
culture
Dr. Annie Andrews, the Democrat running for the Senate seat from South Carolina, slammed her opponent, Sen. Darline Graham Nordone (R-SC), for calling her a "socialist" and had a response that social media found trenchant. "I told you my opponent was going to call me a socialist,...
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A federal judge last month dismissed a case by a Christian spa worker claiming she was a victim of religious discrimination after she was suspended in 2023 for refusing to give a trans woman a tour of the facility. Jeriah Sellers sued Hershey Entertainment after the company suspe...
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Twenty years ago, in October 2006, the Equality Forum of Philadelphia christened 31 LGBTQ+ persons as History Month Icons. Almost all of them were big stars in the sky: author James Baldwin, comedian Ellen DeGeneres, congressman Barney Frank, lesbian pioneer Barbara Gittings, art...
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Donald Trump claimed in a speech on Friday that it is becoming unacceptable for kids to use the term "mom." The president was mocking a New York bill focused on updating language in state law surrounding surrogacy and parentage to "gestating parent" and "non-gestating parent" rat...
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Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito doesn't believe the Court will overturn marriage equality, despite his strong opposition to the ruling. In a CBS News interview promoting his new book, So Ordered: An Originalist’s View of the Constitution, Alito said the Court's overturning of ...
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Republican California gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton is targeting Spanish-speaking voters with an AI-generated ad that shows a caricature of a trans girl playing soccer against high school girls. The ad even features an AI-generated version of his Democratic opponent, Xavie...
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The BBC is facing backlash after the broadcaster was caught electronically removing a pro-trans rights message from a dancer's T-shirt on Strictly Come Dancing. While recording the October 10 episode, Bethany Antonia, an out lesbian actor from House of the Dragon appearing on thi...
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The GOP is a sinking ship, and the rats are deserting- well, the other rats. With just three weeks to go before Election Day, Republican candidates are trying their best to convince voters that they really don't always agree with everything their leader is doing. A new analysis f...
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The Center for Black Equity held its annual BE. Gala at Conrad Washington, D.C. on Saturday, Oct. 5. Lolita Leopard Miyake-Mugler and Anthony Oakes co-hosted the awards ceremony. Honorees included journalist and producer Justin Stewart; nonprofit leader Nikki Alexander; HIV advoc...
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The punk subculture, in its idealized form, brought people from all walks of life — mostly outcasts and weirdos — together to make music and art. But nowadays, if you ask most people to picture a generic 1970s punk, they'll likely imagine a sneering white guy with a mohawk and a ...
safety
‘The Lost Brontë’By Catherine Friendc.2026, Bywater Books$22.95/335 pages Mom always said to tell the truth. One lie leads to another and another and you have to remember them all until pretty soon, you’re caught. Fibs are hard, mistruths are messy, even little white social lies ...
