It is important to note that there has been some sassy pushback in response to the anti-LGBTQ+ antics of the current cruel and out-of-touch American administration. More than 1,000 people attended a fundraiser for the American Civil Liberties Union at a gay bar in Brooklyn on April 16. The drag event raised $25,000, and the […]
June is Now “Nuclear Family Month” (insert eye-roll here!)
Leave it to Tennessee, whose Republican-run legislature has officially deemed June as “Nuclear Family Month”. The House joint resolution was signed by Governor Bill Lee on April 9. While the policy does not explicitly mention the Queer community, June is when many LGBTQ+ Pride celebrations take place across the country. This is undoubtedly a pointed […]
Library Board Fired Over Trans Children’s Book
In the fall of 2025, the Asheboro Public Library in North Carolina received a complaint about Call Me Max, a picture book by award-winning transgender author Kyle Lukoff. The library board followed established procedures for reviewing challenged materials and voted 5-2 to keep the book in place. Shortly after the decision the Randolph County Board of […]
Good News for African Gays
So much of what we hear from the African continent with regard to the rights of LGBTQ people is discouraging. Hard Copy has run stories about severe legal persecution in Uganda, Nigeria, and Senegal, among others. However, Africa is not a monolith: South Africa has long maintained very progressive policies in defense of its LGBTQ […]
Gay Symbols Banned and Restored
There seems to be no end to the targeting of the LGBTQ+ community in the U.S. these days. Thankfully, these efforts to diminish the visibility of the LGBTQ+ community are receiving push back. In Idaho, Boise’s official Pride flag was removed because a state law prohibits government entities displaying any flags other than approved flags […]
How to Own Your Narrative
Nillin Lore’s recently published Carry On: Unpacking Your Internalized Transphobic and Queerphobic Baggage (Thornapple Press, March 20, 2026) is a self-help book of sorts for Queer and Trans people. The chapters span topics from self-advocacy to finding community and dealing with queer/transphobia. Gender and sexuality are both front and centre in contemporary moral panics around […]
Trans Recognition Advances Globally
Despite political retrenchment in the U.S., recognition of trans and non-binary rights has scored some major victories on the international stage. The United Nations Commission on the Status of Women overwhelmingly rejected a U.S. proposal that gender be defined in strictly binary terms. Only Pakistan and Chile voted in favor of the U.S. proposal, which […]
The Catholic Church and Healthcare
A Catholic nursing facility in Hawthorne, New York serving patients with incurable cancer filed a federal lawsuit against New York State. The state requires care facilities to assign rooms according to a patient’s gender identity and allow them to use restrooms that align with their gender identity. The lawsuit claims that doing so is against […]
Does Data Collection Threaten Transgender Policy?
Both houses of the Tennessee legislature have passed a bill to mandate that any medical provider who receives state funds must report aggregate data concerning transgender medical treatments, including prescriptions, surgeries, and treatment for detransition, which the bill requires of any facility which offers transition. LGBT groups in the state vociferously opposed the measure with […]
Adult Film Star Banned from U.S. by Border Control
Canadian gay porn star Milo Miles has recently gone public regarding his ordeal at the American border at the start of this year, resulting in a 10-year ban from entering the country. He was headed to the annual GayVN Awards (a gay porn industry awards event) with six nominations under his belt. As part of […]