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A federal judge in St. Louis halted implementation of Title IX—a Biden administration rule that extends protections for LGBTQ+ students—adding to the number of U.S. courts that have issued similar orders, The Missouri Independent noted. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Rodney W. Sippel, of the Eastern District of Missouri, came in a lawsuit filed in May by Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin and the attorneys general of Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota. Sippel’s order enjoins the U.S. Department of Education, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona and others from “implementing, enacting, enforcing or taking action in any manner to enforce” the nondiscrimination rule promulgated by the department that was set to take effect on Aug. 1; the order halts implementation of the rule until final resolution of the lawsuit. “Congress enacted Title IX to protect and promote educational opportunities for women and girls,” Griffin said, focusing on an anti-trans slant.
Out MSNBC host Rachel Maddow feels that former President Donald Trump’s choice of JD Vance as a running mate may cost him the election, LGBTQ Nation noted. Maddow said that Vance brings nothing of value to the GOP ticket, adding that Trump was “going to win Ohio anyway,” and often a running mate is picked to help secure a swing state. Plus, Vance is more conservative than Trump on some subjects, such as abortion.
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LGBTQ+ and homeless service organizations criticized an executive order from California Gov. Gavin Newsom that directed state agencies to begin dismantling homeless encampments on state land, The Los Angeles Blade reported. Newsom’s order directs state agencies to adopt policies to “address encampments on state property” and urges local governments to do the same. Los Angeles LGBT Center Chief Social Services Officer Lisa Phillips said, ““The governor’s decision criminalizes homelessness—which by default increases potentially dangerous law enforcement interaction with Black youth—and will not solve our housing crisis. And whether we like it or not, this absolutely is an LGBTQ+ issue: Queer youth are 120 percent more likely to experience homelessness than their peers, and they make up 40 percent of the 4.2 million youth experiencing homelessness nationally.”
Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott fired Health Commissioner Dr. Ihuoma Emenuga after learning she is under criminal investigation, The Washington Blade reported. Her abrupt departure, just six months after settling into the position, leaves the health department once again without a leader as Baltimore struggles with rampant overdose deaths. The Baltimore Office of the Inspector General allegedly opened a probe into Emenuga’s work at a private health clinic while she was also serving as health commissioner; her clinical work was done at Chase Brexton, a nonprofit healthcare center founded in 1978 as a volunteer-run gay health clinic in the Mount Vernon neighborhood.
A priest is suing Grindr after the company supposedly failed to protect his data, leading to his resignation from a top position at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), per the Catholic News Agency. In July 2021, Monsignor Jeffrey Burrill stepped down from his post of general secretary of the USCCB ahead of a report by The Pillar alleging that he had engaged in inappropriate behavior and the frequent use of Grindr. The suit, filed in the Superior Court of California, claims the group Catholic Laity and Clergy for Renewal (CLCR) bought the priest’s data from the app and sent it to The Pillar. In 2022, Burrill returned to active ministry as a priest in his home diocese of La Crosse, Wisconsin, with then-Bishop William Callahan stating that the priest had “engaged in a sincere and prayerful effort to strengthen his priestly vows.”; Burrill currently leads St. Teresa of Kolkata Parish in West Salem, Wisconsin.
According to LGBTQ Nation, Donald Trump’s running mate, U.S. Sen. JD Vance, once attended Pride and supported gender-affirming surgery. Years ago, Vance had a transgender classmate and friend named Sofia Nelson who he met at Yale Law School. Vance wrote about Nelson in his well-known 2016 memoir Hillbilly Elegy, referring to her as “an extremely progressive lesbian.” When Nelson underwent gender-affirming surgery, Vance wrote to her, “I don’t understand what you’re doing, but I support you.” In 2015, Vance, in his messages to Nelson, called Trump a “morally reprehensible human being,” criticized Trump’s “racism,” and noted that lots of “dumb racists” were supporting Trump.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee appointed Lisa Keating as Washington State LGBTQ Commission’s new director, KHQ reported. “With her integrity, experience and dedication to public service she is well placed to lead this commission and advance the cause of building a stronger, more equitable Washington,” Inslee said. Keating served as the director of family engagement and policy at the GenderCool Project, a nonprofit serving transgender youth, from 2021 to 2023, according to the governor’s office. She succeeds Acting Executive Director Sheri Sawyer, who was promoted up to Inslee’s executive director of legislative affairs.
Anti-LGBTQ+ Project 2025 co-author Mike Howell was called a hypocrite after The Advocate discovered a photo of him with a friend dressed in drag. The photo, posted on Yelp on Dec. 12, 2012, and captioned “The good doctor with his lost wife,” shows a younger Howell,The Heritage Foundation’s executive director of the Oversight Project, smiling alongside a friend in full drag attire. (According to Esquire, the Oversight Project is Heritage’s oversight initiative that targets the Biden administration.) Howell has harshly criticized events like Drag Queen Story Hours, where drag performers read to children in libraries and other community spaces.
Also, Project 2025 director Paul Dans has stepped down, per the AP. The news came after Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has increasingly disavowed Project 2025 amid escalating attacks by Democrats, prompting speculation that Trump’s campaign forced the exit. However, Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts claimed Dans’ exit happened after the project “completed exactly what it set out to do: bringing together [more than] 110 leading conservative organizations to create a unified conservative vision, motivated to devolve power from the unelected administrative state, and returning it to the people.”
LGBTQ+ California legislators were able to secure $2.2 million during this year’s budget negotiations for improving data collection on the health of LGBTQ+ state residents, per The Bay Area Reporter. The gathering of the information was required under a law enacted last year and included a deadline of July 1, 2026 for state agencies to meet. In particular, the funds will let the California Department of Public Health, and its Center for Infectious Diseases and Center for Health Statistics and Informatics to better track the health needs of transgender, gender-nonconforming, and intersex (TGI) Californians.
With the naming of Rachele Sullivan Park, San Francisco is believed to be the first U.S. city to name a public park after a leather icon, per The Bay Area Reporter. A cis straight ally and native San Franciscan who was a traditional Filipino healer, Sullivan—who played vital roles in the establishment of the city’s district celebrating leather and queer culture as well as space for women at its leather street fairs—died in 2022 at age 54. Commissioner Joe Hallisy noted that Sullivan didn’t just play an important role in the South of Market community but had “touched so many other neighborhoods in this city,” having lived and gone to school in various parts of San Francisco.
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The American Civil Liberties Union announced the promotion of attorney Chase Strangio to the role of co-director for the LGBTQ & HIV Project, per a press release. Formerly the deputy director for Transgender Justice within the Project, Strangio will co-direct alongside James Esseks, whose title will change from director to co-director. “Having worked closely with Chase for over a decade, I have seen the visionary contributions he has made to the ACLU’s trans justice strategy,” Esseks said. Before joining the ACLU as a litigator in 2013, Strangio was an Equal Justice Works fellow and the Director of Prisoner Justice Initiatives at the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, where he represented transgender and gender non-conforming individuals in confinement settings.
Melinda French Gates said the new generation of billionaires—like Elon Musk and openly gay Republican Peter Thiel—don’t put their money where their mouths are, per Yahoo! News.In an interview with The New York Times, French Gates was asked what she thinks about the approach to philanthropy shown by the new generation of “billionaire activists” like Musk, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, hedge fund manager Bill Ackman and PayPal founder Thiel. “Well, the people you just named have not been very philanthropic yet,” French Gates replied. “They use their voice and they use their megaphones, but I would not call those men philanthropists.” French Gates also told the Times that she found Musks’s criticism of her political activism “silly.”
And speaking of Musk, Don Lemon filed a lawsuit against him and X over the cancellation of a partnership on the platform, per Deadline. Lemon was to host exclusive content on X as he launched a new show earlier this year, but Musk canceled the partnership in the wake of a sometimes combative sit down interview with the former CNN host. The full lawsuit can be read here.
Gay Virginia couple Christopher Kucera, 46, and Zachary Hatcher, 43, died in a plane crash on their way home from New York’s Long Island to King George, The Advocate noted. Their single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza A36—which Kucera, an accomplished air and space engineer, piloted—made a hard, uncontrolled landing shortly after takeoff from Long Island MacArthur Airport, per the AP. Hatcher was set to begin his tenure as chief executive officer of the Community Foundation of the Rappahannock River Region, a nonprofit organization managing and distributing charitable giving in the area, on Aug. 5.
The San Diego City Council approved a plan that recognized the LGBTQ+ history of the city’s Hillcrest neighborhood and approved a plan that will change the size of the community for the next 30 years, 10News reported. The council unanimously approved adding 17,200 more homes to the area, lifting the build out to 52,800 homes for the next three decades. The vote also designated Hillcrest as an LGTBQ+ cultural district.
Also in California, workers at the San Francisco club Oasis were robbed at gunpoint by masked men who also vandalized the popular LGBTQ+ nightclub and cabaret in the city’s South of Market neighborhood, owner D’Arcy Drollinger told the San Francisco Chronicle. The incident in the early morning hours in mid-July, while the club’s cleaning crew was working. Video surveillance showed four men with ski masks who “ripped the front main door of the club off with crowbars,” Drollinger, who is also San Francisco’s mayor-appointed drag laureate, said. The three cleaners were reportedly held down as the men took their phones and wallets; the names of the victims are not being released upon their request.
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And Trevor Chandler—an out gay man running for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors—said he was attacked in a potential hate crime while campaigning, per LGBTQ Nation. After walking away from a man who had allegedly shouted homophobic slurs at him, the attacker lifted and threw what prosecutors described as a “four-foot A-frame sign” directly at Chandler. The perpetrator was identified as Jeffrey Landon, 58, in a press release from the San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkin’s office. Chandler is running to represent District 9, which covers the city’s Mission and Portola neighborhoods, on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors; he was endorsed as the top pick of the San Francisco Democratic Party in the race for the District 9 Supervisor seat.
Utah drag queen/activist Tara Lipsyncki was forced to sell her childhood home in Riverton, near Salt Lake City, after relentless harassment from right-wing extremists, per The Advocate. Lipsyncki founded Mosaics, an LGBTQ+ resource center in Provo, to provide a haven for her community; however, her mission to create a safe space has made her a target. She said the nightmare began last December, when the anti-trans hate group Gays Against Groomers doxxed her, exposing her private information, including her home address. In April, Mosaics received a bomb threat. In a video, Jaimee Michell, the group’s lesbian leader, admitted to targeting Lipsyncki.
In Florida, a mother who works for the Broward County Public Schools may not get fired after she allowed her daughter, who is trans, to play on a school’s girls’ volleyball team, according to LGBTQ Nation. Recently, the school board concluded that it’s unlikely to fire information specialist and JV volleyball coach Jessica Norton. The school where she coaches, Monarch High School, put her on leave after they found she was violating the state’s ban on trans students participating in school sports that was Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed in 2021—the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act. The state fined the school $16,500 for Norton’s daughter’s participation.
NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists announced the recipients of the Leroy F. Aarons Scholarship Award and the Kay Longcope Scholarship Award, per a press release. Desmond Meagley (any/all)—a staff writer and lead photo editor at The Citizen, the Peralta Community College District’s award winning student-run news publication; and part of the 2024-2025 CalMatters College Journalism Fellowship cohort—is the recipient of the 2024 Leroy F. Aarons Scholarship. Edward Franco (he/him)—a rising senior at New York University, where he is pursuing a double major in journalism and social and cultural Analysis with a focus on broadcasting—will receive the 2024 Kay Longcope Scholarship.
In the world of women’s soccer, San Diego Wave President Jill Ellis sued former team employee Brittany Alvarado for defamation following allegations of a poor work environment, the AP noted. Alvarado—a former video and creative manager—posted on X and Instagram on July 3 that “the treatment we endured under club President Jill Ellis has been nothing short of life-altering and devastating to our mental health.” Ellis issued a statement the next day, saying the allegations were “false” and “personally damaging.”
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