A federal employee care ban taking effect next year will leave the 11 million members of the federal workforce either to absorb the full cost of gender-affirming care out of pocket or to find employment elsewhere.

New York's $269 billion state budget landed this week with nothing for transgender care as hospitals across the state continue to capitulate to Trump administration pressure — the New Pride Agenda declared it a miss on every funding priority advocates had pushed. The New Jersey Senate passed a trans healthcare shield bill protecting patients, providers, and medical records from out-of-state legal and in-person threats; the NJ Monitor reports the protections extend to reproductive healthcare seekers and providers as well.

Maine's anti-trans ballot initiative banning trans students from school sports and bathrooms has been ruled invalid: Secretary of State Shenna Bellows found the Uihlein-funded signature-gathering campaign riddled with forgery and improper practices. Douglas County District Judge Carl Folsom blocked the Kansas care ban on parental rights grounds, ruling the challenge is likely to succeed on constitutional grounds.

Assigned Media corrected the New York Post on its misrepresentation of a detransition lawsuit settlement that anti-trans commentators had been amplifying as a political win. A Needle News opinion piece called out Idaho media for covering the dismissal of the bathroom bill lawsuit without reporting that its teen plaintiff died by suicide before graduating.

Ken Paxton's Republican nomination for a Texas Senate seat drew an Advocate opinion piece arguing his record of anti-trans persecution may hand Democrats a rare opening in the state, particularly given his opponent James Talarico's unambiguous commitment to trans rights. In Ohio, Neighborhood Family Practice opened a new Cleveland clinic specializing in LGBTQ+ and Latino care, bringing community-rooted, culturally specific services to one of the city's most underserved neighborhoods.

Ghana's anti-LGBTQ+ bill passed this week, a measure that would jail LGBTQ+ people, their allies, and rights advocates — activists have called it "imported hate," a reference to the foreign-funded origins of legislation that civil society warned about last week during exclusionary hearings. The Washington Blade reports the bill, which criminalizes allyship, now awaits the president's signature ahead of a major anti-rights conference.

Respond to public health erasure — The Buckeye Flame's This News Is So Gay podcast investigates the sudden disappearance of LGBTQ+ health information from government websites, featuring Advocate politics editor Christopher Wiggins on what's been removed and what that erasure means for providers and patients.

Submit your response to the NHS England consultation — The public consultation on NHS England's proposed hormone therapy ban for trans youth closes June 7; this post from Dr. Ruth Pearce, one of 85 clinicians and researchers who signed an open letter raising serious concerns about the flawed evidence reviews underlying the policy, links directly to the submission form and to a detailed critique of the NHS methodology.