Category: From Philadelphia Gay News

With mere weeks till Election Day, more than ten percent of Pennsylvania voters remain undecided in two of the most critical races in the country: John Fetterman and Mehmet Oz for the U.S. Senate, and Josh Shapiro and Doug Mastriano for governor. Whoever wins Pennsylvania’s Senate race could determine which party holds a majority in […]

“Anti-trans legislation is a direct attack on our siblings and their ability to participate in a world that is largely falsified,” D’Auriel Epiphany said at the 2022 Philly Trans March (PTM). Epiphany started the local queer skate group Rolling with the Homos. “The rules are made up; it is all about telling us how we […]

Mahsa Amini didn’t have to die. While visiting Tehran, Iran with family, Amini was dragged off the street for not wearing her hijab properly and taken to the police station for some “re-education.”  She was never seen alive again. Amini’s death on September 16 has propelled protests throughout Iran, with women illegally removing their hijabs […]

A federal judge in Texas ruled last week that employers in the state are no longer required to provide coverage for the HIV prevention medication PrEP, as mandated by the Affordable Care Act (ACA). A Christian-owned company called Braidwood Management is one of the plaintiffs in the suit against the federal government, claiming that compulsory […]

Legislative attacks on LGBTQ youth are not a new phenomena. As more LGBTQ secondary school students came out publicly in the ‘80s and ‘90s, so too did opposition to both their increased visibility and to their choice to come out at all. Such opposition often took the form of campaigns to restrict LGBTQ students’ abilities […]

Crystal meth use, a longtime and still prevalent health concern in the LGBTQ community, started to become an issue in the late 1990s when gay and bisexual men in New York began using the drug as an aphrodisiac. A stimulant which releases dopamine and norepinephrine in the brain, Meth is a powerful, addictive drug that […]

The balance of the U.S. Senate hangs on the result of the November 8 general election, and the race in Pennsylvania, between Lt. Governor John Fetterman and television host Dr. Oz, is among the most closely watched in the country, and whoever wins in Pennsylvania will likely determine which party holds a majority. Democrats have […]

As her trial on drug smuggling charges continued on July 7, Olympic gold medalist and WNBA all-star Brittney Griner shocked the world with a surprise guilty plea. Griner has been in what the U.S. State Department calls “wrongful detention” since February 17. Griner’s Russian lawyers, Alexander Boykov and Maria Blagovolina told media that the guilty […]

On June 21, the Pennsylvania Senate Education Committee passed two wide-ranging anti-LGBTQ+ bills that LGBTQ advocates are calling worse than Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” legislation. The first bill, SB 1277, sponsored by Sen. Ryan Aument (R-Lancaster), would require parents to be notified and have the option of opting out of their child having access to […]

A recent Gallup poll indicates that the percentage of adults in the U.S. who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or as non-cishet has gone up since the company’s initial poll in 2012. Based on a 2021 survey of over 12,000 American adults, 7.1% identify as LGBT, twice the percentage since the 2012 study. Overall, […]

One of the lesser known pieces of statewide LGBTQ-related legislation in Pennsylvania, HB 2125, passed the state house 198-0 on June 8. Sponsored by Republican Representative Todd Stephens (R-Horsham), HB 2125 amends Title 18 of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statute and removes discriminatory language concerning homosexuality from the title. Title 18 regulates crimes and offenses. The […]

“Throughout the years advocating for Black trans men, there are topics that don’t come up or people are still clueless about, or would like to know more about,” said Christian Lovehall, a Black trans man who is an artist, advocate, and founder of the Philly Trans March and the Trans Masculine Advocacy Network. He often […]

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed a lawsuit against the state of Alabama after Republican Gov. Kay Ivey signed a law criminalizing medical care for trans youth. The lawsuit is the first the DOJ has filed against any state over restrictions on gender-affirming healthcare. Bills threatening trans healthcare are being proposed nationwide in record […]