INTRO

Pride goes before destruction…

The glitter has settled, the brands have packed it up—but queer trans people are still fighting for care, for safety, for joy, and for each other.

This week at Well Beings News, we’re tracking the frontline shifts and behind-the-scenes research. Because even when the parades stop, the data—and the struggle—don’t.

If you believe that queer and trans lives deserve not just visibility but investment, if you’re tired of being “inclusive” and instead are ready to really change some queer trans lives for the better, then stick with us.

Share this roundup. Upgrade your subscription. Support the work that supports the people.

NEWS

The Good

Another week, another rollercoaster of wins and losses in courtrooms, ballot boxes, and sites of care. Let’s get to it.

First, outside the US, court decisions in both Canada and India show promise for maintaining or establishing trans rights. In Alberta, where gender-affirming care for minors has faced intense challenges, a judge temporarily blocked the province’s ban on the care for youth under 16 years of age, citing violations to Charter rights and what the court determined was the potential for irreparable harm. And in the Andhra Pradesh province in southeast India, courts confirmed that a transgender woman is legally recognized as a woman, regardless of her reproductive capacity, which grants certain protections under the country’s domestic violence laws.

In New York, the bringer of “hot commie summer” aka Zohran ‘the Destroyer’ Mamdani won the Democratic primary for the mayoral race, defeating sex pest Andrew Cuomo, and showing establishment Democrats how to actually win an election, if they’ll bother to listen. Mamdani ran on an unapologetic economic platform that actively supports trans people, including a proposed $65 million for healthcare funding, as well as protections for incarcerated trans people.

Turns out you don’t have to throw trans people under the bus to run a solid campaign aimed at working class people! Who knew.

The Bad

A second major California health center—Stanford Medicine, this time—has made the decision to stop offering any kind of gender-affirming surgical intervention for transgender minors. Hospital administrators claim this was done to “protect both our providers and patients” though it’s unclear which patients they mean. The cisgender ones, I suppose.

Their fears of Trump aren’t unfounded, of course. Unconfirmed reports of an FBI probe into pediatric hospitals providing affirming care suggest the administration is conflating gender-affirming surgeries with “genital mutilation” despite the fact that it’s estimated that fewer than 20 gender-affirming genital surgeries are performed on trans minors in the US annually.

And at the University of Michigan, the Trump administration is involving itself in HR, after a physician assistant claimed she was fired for requestion a “religious exemption” from providing care to transgender patients and from using their correct names and pronouns. Notably, the responding filing from U of M clarifies that she was never once actually asked to participate in the care she attempted to gain exemption from, and U of M has denied all her allegations. Apparently HHS is investigating.

The Ugly

In an interview with The Advocate, Leah Litman warns that the recent SCOTUS ruling in United States v. Skrmetti opens a harmful loophole for restricting access to gender-affirming care for all transgender individuals, not just minors. Litman, a legal scholar and co-host of the Strict Scrutiny podcast, highlights the discriminatory nature of the Tennessee law, which allows certain medical treatments for cisgender minors while banning them for trans minors. She argues that the ruling reflects the Court's conservative majority prioritizing partisan goals over legal consistency.

And finally, the face of one of the unsigned authors of the anti-trans HHS report which advocated for conversion therapy for trans minors has been revealed. Alex Byrne, an author and MIT philosopher, claims in his book "Trouble With Gender" that gender identity is a harmful ideological fiction, and took to the Washington Post opinion pages to defend his participation in the report, which was not only misleading and misrepresentative of gender-affirming care, but which also cited “studies” that don’t actually exist.

DIGEST

Last week at Well Beings News:

What Do Trans People Really Want from Providers?
Transgender healthcare cultural competency is about so much more than pronouns—it’s about celebrating our joy, our stories, and our full humanity.

WHY UPGRADE

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Read More at Well Beings News

• Peer Reviewed: Studying SOGICE with Willow Sipling

• In Visible Barriers: the PrEP Divide

• Practicing Radical Safety with Dr. Syd Young

• 5 LGBTQ+ Resources Every Health Worker Should Bookmark

COMING SOON

Stories to Watch Out For

• Crossing State Lines: navigating the legal landscape of virtual care

• Ohio Bill HB96 tries to make it illegal for therapists to have basic human decency

• Awesome queer and trans affirming provider websites!

• Dysphoria, Dysmorphia, Disordered Eating, oh my!

• PLUS: interviews with an HIV care advocate, a trans elder support group facilitator, a healthcare data expert, and more!

Have a story you want to share with Well Beings News?