Texas DAs: Paxton’s opinion, Abbott’s letter are ‘un-American’

A federal judge ruled Wednesday that Dustin Hice must pay Don Lemon $77,000 in attorneys fees. In an 18-page-long ruling, U.S.

Law could give me a trash bag and I'd thank him.No one asked, but I ordered rhinestoned fishnet gloves for this weekend — so yeah, I will be stealing this Instagram caption.

Cassie Randolph learned 'the same way that everyone else did' that her ex Colton Underwood had come out as gay.Cassie, 26, who dated Colton for over a year after meeting on The Bachelor, revealed she learned the news after coming across his Good Morning America interview on social media.'I found out the same way that everyone else did. I was actually in Mexico on vacation with friends, which was great — great to be away,' she said during an appearance on Kaitlyn Bristowe's podcast Off The Vine. 'But yeah, I found out through Snapchat on Good Morning America.

Lily Collins is the queen of Netflix. The actress visited The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and discussed all of her Netflix projects, including her new film “Windfall” and the super successful second season of “Emily in Paris.” She also talked about her wedding and how shooting in Paris streets made her schedule weekly visits to the podiatrist.Emily in Paris: Lily Collins celebrates renewal of season 3 and 4Lily Collins pays emotional tribute to dad Phil Collins on his 71st birthday: ‘I’m forever grateful’A post shared by Lily Collins (@lilyjcollins)Lily Collins and Charlie McDowell got married in September of last year. The two have a movie together coming out called “Windfall,” where Collins stars and McDowell directs.

Cassie Randolph is opening up about Colton Underwood. The 26-year-old “Bachelor” alum appeared on the latest episode of Kaitlyn Bristowe‘s “Off the Vine” podcast, and told the host how she found out that her ex was gay.

Being outed can be a traumatic event for LGBTQ individuals, and it’s especially bad when personal details become water cooler chatter in the workplace. One Reddit user revealed in the r/gay forum earlier this month that he was “beyond pissed off” because a coworker outed him to a new employee that day.“He was showing the new person around, introducing them to everyone, and when they got to me, he told them my name and added, ‘I don’t know if it matters to you or not, but he’s gay,’” this user wrote.He went on: “It is my choice and your choice who you come out to. No one, [not] even family, has the right to out you without your permission.

Like so many others, I recently sat down to watch the new Pixar movie, "Turning Red." For those who may not be aware of the film, it is a coming-of-age movie about Meilin "Mei" Lee, a 13-year-old Chinese Canadian girl growing up in Toronto in 2002. The movie blends fantastical elements into the mix, with Lee transforming into a giant red panda whenever her emotions rise.The story also gives a pretty accurate portrayal of a young teen's life and crushes, and while not entirely a metaphor for menstruation, it does treat the topic with an honesty not seen in a lot of animated fare, let alone one with the Disney name attached.Yes, that Disney, the one recently, rightfully criticized for its toothless, ham-fisted response to Florida's House Bill 1557, aka the "Don't Say Gay" bill, currently awaiting the signature of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R).

first reported the new steps to ease the process for Ukrainian refugees.The administration hasn’t yet given a number for how many refugees would be brought into the U.S. under the new actions.

Andrew Shaffer, interim co-executive director of the GLBT Historical Society, introduced the new virtual tour of the Lyon-Martin House in San Francisco's Noe Valley to a small group of invited guests March 22. Late lesbian pioneers Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin lived at the home for decades. It's where they held social events with the Daughters of Bilitis, the early lesbian group they co-founded, as well as many other gatherings.

This is the final 50 years in 50 weeks of the News section looking back at the Bay Area Reporter's half-century of covering the LGBTQ community. The Arts section's finale commemorates the paper's historic 50th anniversary issue of April 1, 2021 and the News section is highlighting the paper's June 3 issue that marks 40 years of the AIDS epidemic.

Following weeks of back-and-forth discussions between a gay San Francisco man and the organizers of a support group for people living with HIV over the age of 50, he has decided against rejoining the group after being subjected to what he said were humiliating and shaming comments from other group members, as well as a facilitator.Michael Misenti, 67, signed up to participate in a support group sponsored by Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital's Ward 86, the hospital's HIV care and research center, in 2021. The group is a part of Ward 86's This text will be the linkGolden Compass Program>, which was designed specifically for people living with HIV over the age of 50.

The San Francisco Redistricting Task Force is facing criticism for a preliminary map that divides supervisorial District 8, home to the Castro, Noe Valley, Duboce Triangle, Dolores Heights, Corona Heights, and other neighborhoods.The task force convened a meeting March 18 specifically to take public comment on Districts 8 and 9, which includes the Mission, Bernal Heights, and Portola. More than 100 people addressed the body, with most critical of the proposed boundaries for the two supervisor districts.

He may be the underdog in the race for the vacant 17th Assembly District seat, but former supervisor David Campos knows what it's like to fight for causes he believes in. In this case, he's fighting for not only the LGBTQ community — Campos is a gay Latino man — but for all of his would-be constituents in what has become in these closing weeks a slugfest between him and his opponent, District 6 Supervisor Matt Haney. We wish that wasn't happening, but negative attacks work, research has found, and candidates can't seem to help themselves.During last month's primary, Campos and Haney were the top two finishers, resulting in their square off in the special general election April 19.

The San Francisco Arts Commission has welcomed a lesbian Iranian woman to the panel after Mayor London Breed swore her in earlier this month.Mahsa Hakimi, who also identifies as queer, is an attorney who founded Hakimi Law in 2003 in San Francisco. She specializes in intellectual property issues and protecting the creative talent and business interests of artists and entrepreneurs, a news release from the mayor's office stated.

Whether when he lived in San Francisco or after moving to New York City, Martin Greenberg could always rely on strangers he encountered on the street to help him navigate either city. As a deaf, legally blind gay man, he would carry a written out message asking people for help, for instance, crossing the street.But when COVID-19 emerged in early 2020, and New York City went into lockdown, Greenberg found it near impossible to leave his East Village apartment. If he did, he would often be the only person out on the streets of Manhattan, with no one to provide him assistance.

While longtime San Franciscans tend to loathe large capital infrastructure projects, there is one project that neighborhood groups and neighbors agree on that deserves public support: the long-awaited reimagining of Harvey Milk Plaza and the Castro Muni station, at Castro and Market streets.As president of the Eureka Valley Neighborhood Association since 2020, an involved Castro resident since 2013, and a former board member of the GLBT Historical Society, I've gotten to watch and participate as the Harvey Milk Plaza redesign project began in its infancy and has now progressed to a fully formed, ready-to-go plan. The Friends of Harvey Milk Plaza organization has engaged in a robust multi-year community engagement program that has unequivocally obtained and incorporated numerous layers of feedback from a wide swath of community stakeholders.

Almost two years to the day when then-named Lyon-Martin Health Services announced a massive potential cut in its services, the 43-year-old clinic for women and transgender people is striking back out on its own with a new name, severing a seven-year relationship with a statewide chain of medical centers.Merged in 2015 with HealthRIGHT 360, a network of medical and substance-abuse counseling clinics that now has branches in 13 Bay Area and Southern California counties, Lyon-Martin leaders had hoped the merger would ease its ongoing financial instability. In 2011, just four years before the merger, the clinic was nearly shut down after its board announced the organization was nearly $1 million in debt.

Persistence has paid off for transgender nurse Veronika Fimbres, as the Green Party member has qualified to appear on the June 7 primary ballot as a candidate for California insurance commissioner. She is the first known transgender statewide office seeker to make it onto a general election ballot in California, as well as the first person living with HIV to do so.Twice before she had attempted to qualify as a candidate, first in the 2018 gubernatorial race.

Last month, when Mayor Eric Adams’s decision to hire three people with histories of homophobic views and statements was met with outrage from members of the L.G.B.T.Q. community, he agreed to meet to hear their grievances. Some attendees described the meeting as productive, but Mr.

The Massachusetts Medical Society and the Fenway Institute urge FDA to change blood donor policy for men who have sex with menOur nation’s health care system continues to deal with a myriad of challenges resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, many of which are complex and will likely require a substantial amount of time to address and correct, according to Fenway Institute.One of the most pressing issues in the delivery of quality care, however, can be mitigated by rescinding a policy that is discriminatory and not based on sound science. The physicians of the Massachusetts Medical Society and The Fenway Institute urge the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to revoke its policy on unnecessary scrutiny and subsequent exclusion of men who have sex with men (MSM) from donating blood — a simple, safe step that will expand a blood supply that is perilously low across all health care settings.

In 1966, three years before the Stonewall Riot in NYC, the Transgender community took action against police abuses in San Francisco’s Tenderloin District. A documentary called Screaming Queens: the Riot at Compton’s Cafeteria was made about the incident.

WCCB about Fezco, the dog who was abandoned by his owners for humping another male dog. “It was one of the stupidest things I’ve ever heard,” Nichols said of the reason given for leaving Fezco with Stanly County Animal Protective Services. “That’s just pack behavior.” He said he and Winn looked at each other after hearing the news story and decided to adopt the abandoned dog.Nichols told TMZ that he felt a connection to the dog, who was being unfairly discriminated against, just as he and Winn have been in their own lives. According to the The Charlotte Observer, Nichols then drove about an hour from their home to Albemarle, located about 40 miles northeast of Charlotte, to adopt the dog, who he and Winn have renamed Oscar, after Oscar Wilde, a gay Irish poet and playwright in the early 1890s.Nichols said the application wanted to make sure that whoever adopted Oscar would be committed to nursing him back to health.

Nobody likes to be stereotyped…. Unless it’s by a fellow gay.The ‘gay culture is…’ meme refuses to disappear, and folks across Twitter have plenty of responses, ranging from the relatable to the utterly ridiculous.Here’s how people are answering the question — “What is gay culture?”gay culture is saving the same photo five times because it’s “not the same photo, they’re cropped slightly differently each time!” pic.twitter.com/HXavA1Rbke— ali | GAY PIRATES ??? (@docwhovians) March 23, 2022Gay culture is saying “hay gurl” to a fully twenty-seven year old man with a beard.— Andrew Z¡gler (@andrewzigler) March 20, 2022Gay culture is developing a crush on ur friend and mentally friend zoning yourself out of fear if you express ur feelings it will either a.

District attorneys in Texas have slammed Governor Greg Abbott and attorney general Ken Paxton over their harmful anti-trans directives.

Several Texas prosecutors have said they will refuse to follow Gov. Greg Abbott’s demand they investigate parents of trans children.Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee said in a statement he would not abide Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton’s direction to the Department of Family and Protection Services to investigate parents for child abuse if they let their trans children access gender-affirmative medical care.“Governor Abbott and General Paxton are ignoring medical professionals and intentionally misrepresenting the law to the detriment of transgender children and their families,” Menefee said in a statement.

From left, Chris Wallace, Coalition for Aging LGBT; Shelly Skeen, Lambda Legal; Gary Snachez, North Texas LGBT Chamber of Commerce; Rafael McDonnell, Resource Center and Dr. John Carlo, Prism Health North Texas. (David Taffet/Dallas Voice)

Elliot Page is speaking out.

After Texas Governor Greg Abbott gave a direction to the state’s Department of Family and Protective Services to order investigation of parents of transgender children who have received gender-affirming surgeries as child abuse, numerous celebrities have spoken out against the action. Now, stars like Ariana Grande, Demi Lovato, and more are jumping on board, noting their condemnation of the action and standing up for trans rights.

War Room broadcast Wednesday, shortly before Russia began its invasion of Ukraine. He and a guest also lauded Texas Gov.

Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott ordered state agencies February 22 to investigate reports of gender-affirming care on minors, following an official opinion from state Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) that called the treatment a form of "child abuse" under Texas law.In a letter to the Department of Family and Protective Services, Abbott cited Paxton's opinion, writing, "A number of so-called 'sex change' procedures constitute child abuse under existing Texas law." He added that because the DFPS is "responsible for protecting children from abuse, I hereby direct your agency to conduct a prompt and thorough investigation of any reported instances of these abusive procedures in the state of Texas."Abbott targeted a "wide variety of elective procedures" in his letter, including gender-affirming surgery and reversible puberty blockers."Texas law imposes reporting requirements upon all licensed professionals who have direct contact with children who may be subject to such abuse, including doctors, nurses, and teachers, and provides criminal penalties for failure to report such child abuse," Abbott wrote.It is unclear what the immediate effect of the order will have on trans and nonbinary children in the state, but LGBTQ+ advocates warn it could be devastating.A spokesperson for the DFPS told the Dallas Morning News that it will "follow Texas law as explained [by Paxton's opinion]," adding that "there are no pending investigations of child abuse involving the procedures described in that opinion."However, Christian Menefee — a county attorney who represents the DFPS in civil child abuse cases in Harris County, Texas — wrote in a tweet that his "office won't be participating in this political game.""We'll continue to follow

Zack Sharf Elliot Page is “horrified” by Texas government officials declaring that medical care for transgender youth is child abuse. The “Juno” actor spoke out after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton proclaimed Monday that hormone therapy, puberty blockers and other types of gender-affirming health care for trans youth are forms of chid abuse.“There is no doubt that these procedures are ‘abuse’ under Texas law, and thus must be halted,” Paxton said in a news release.

Republican Governor Greg Abbott, just one week before the gubernatorial primary, is facing massive nationwide outrage and condemnation after ordering this week the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) to investigate for “child abuse” anyone aware of certain medical treatments for transgender youth, in yet another example of Lone Star State vigilantism.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott is calling for an investigation by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) on parents who support their Trans children and allow them to receive gender-affirming medical care. The governor claims that allowing minors to access such medical care, even if prescribed by doctors, could be considered as ‘child […]

Greg Abbott, the governor of Texas, compared medical procedures for young transgender people to “child abuse”.

Greg Abbott, signed a letter stating that a number of gender-affirming procedures in children are considered to be child abuse under Texas law.In a letter signed on Tuesday, Abbott told Jaime Masters, commissioner of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, that the state's Office of the Attorney General held the opinion that "a number of so-called 'sex change' procedures constitute child abuse under existing Texas law."Abbott then directed the department to "conduct a prompt and thorough investigation of any reported instances of these abusive procedures in the State of Texas."The White House criticized the move, with a spokesperson describing it as an "attack on loving parents who seek medical care for their transgender children," according to a statement to ABC News.The Texas Family Code defines a "child" as a person under the age of 18.Gender-affirming care is a wide umbrella term referring to medical or social care designed to help affirm someone's gender identity—their internal experience of gender as a male, female, both, neither, or anywhere along the gender spectrum.

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Gov. Greg Abbott told state health agencies in Texas on Tuesday that medical treatments provided to transgender adolescents, widely considered to be the standard of care in medicine, should be classified as “child abuse” under existing state law. His statements, made in a letter to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, followed an opinion on Friday by Attorney General Ken Paxton that said providing medical treatments like puberty-suppressing drugs and hormones to transgender teenagers should be investigated as child abuse.

Greg Abbott has become the target of death threats on social media as news of his order to have the parents of trans children investigated for child abuse hit the trending page of Twitter, prompting an outcry from users.A Tuesday letter sent from Abbott to the state's Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS), saw the Republican governor demand that the agency look into parents who have supported gender-affirming procedures for their children.The letter read that reassignment surgeries, puberty blockers and hormone treatments violated state law and amounted to "child abuse," adding that doctors, nurses, and teachers held a responsibility to report parents who violate this law.Outrage around this measure sparked violate comments from Twitter users, with one person stating "[I] will personally beat [G]reg [A]bbot to death. [I] do not care that [I] live in a different country [I] will personally fly to [T]exas and beat the ever loving s**t out of him."i will personally beat greg abbot to deathi do not care that i live in a different country i will personally fly to texas and beat the ever loving shit out of himA separate user tweeted, "'Vote out Greg Abbott!' b**ch we need to KILL him." Another user wrote, "[M]fs in [T]exas are so stupid, all u gotta do is kill Greg Abbott." Other tweets, including one where a user wrote "I'm going to kill the governor of Texas" have since been taken down."Vote out Greg Abbott!" bitch we need to KILL him.mfs in texas are so stupid, all u gotta do is kill greg abbottThough actual surgery is rarely used, some trans children do use puberty blockers, a measure that medical professionals report to be "completely reversible," The Texas Tribune wrote.

Gov. Greg Abbott, left, and Attorney General Ken Paxton

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has directed state agencies to carry out investigations into the use of gender-affirming care for transgender youth, following an opinion issued last Friday from the state attorney general that the treatments constitute a form of “child abuse.”The Republican governor referenced Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s opinion, which states gender-affirming treatments like gender reassignment surgery and puberty-blocking meds “can legally constitute child abuse under several provisions” of state law, in a letter sent Tuesday to the state’s Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS).The agency, Abbott wrote in his letter, “is responsible for protecting children from abuse.” In a tweet, he added that it will “refer for prosecution any such abuse.”A spokesperson for the DFPS told the Dallas Morning News that it “will follow Texas law as explained [by Paxton’s opinion].”Abbott added that doctors, nurses, teachers and the general public are obliged to report such “child abuse,” and that failure to do so is a punishable crime.The move is the latest attack on trans youth in Texas. Last October, Abbott signed a law banning transgender girls from playing on female sports teams in public schools.

letter to DFPS.In 2021 the Texas legislature tried and failed to pass S.B. 1646, a bill that would codify any gender-affirming care, including hormone replacement therapy and surgical procedure for minors as child abuse under state law, making it illegal for parents to seek medical care for children experiencing gender dysphoria.While the bill, fortunately, failed in committee, that didn’t stop Gov.

Greg Abbott has officially ordered the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate families whose transgender children underwent certain sex change procedures.In a letter addressed to the DFPS on February 22, Abbott enacted the agency to consider some of these procedures as examples of child abuse. These surgeries include sterilization or mastectomies, as well as the administration of certain doses of testosterone or estrogen.

Cypress Ramos was found dead in Texas, making her at least the third trans or gender non-conforming person to be killed in America in 2022.

gender-affirming care," a protocol that affirms a child's transgender identity and allows for medical transition with puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and, in some cases, surgeries like mastectomies or orchiectomies. The ACLU, which is now suing the state on behalf of four transgender young people, their families and two doctors, noted that "Gender-affirming care is life-saving care for our clients" and that banning it "runs counter to science and medicine." There have been as many as 25 such bills floated, mostly in right-leaning states.From the outside, it looks as if the controversies around young people with gender dysphoria—marked distress at an incongruence between biological sex and gender identity—are political: The Left fights to ensure trans kids get the care they need, and the Right bans it.But when the politics are pulled back and the science scrutinized, a very different picture becomes clear—or rather, it becomes clear just how murky the science is, just how much dispute there is about how life-saving these medical interventions are.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, indicted nearly seven years on three felony charges on securities fraud violations and now under investigation by the FBI for abuse of power, released a formal attorney general opinion today (Monday, Feb. 21) declaring that “performing certain ‘sex-change’ procedures on children, and prescribing puberty-blockers to them, is ‘child abuse’ under Texas law,” according to a press release from Paxton’s office.

The national teacher shortage has not spared San Francisco, which is seeing extreme difficulty filling teaching positions. "Hard to fill" subject areas, including math, face greater challenges still.

Jayla Wilkerson

Big changes are afoot at San Francisco Pride with the sudden departure of its executive director, less than five months before the nonprofit plans to return to pre-COVID life with its annual in-person parade and festival.