Blythe del Kuzio

A new study published by researchers at the University of California Riverside has revealed the ideal phalloplasty results for transmasculine individuals. These results were based on participant input in clinical studies about the physical features that make penises most desirable. In aggregate, the review showed that participants favored penises with a longer shaft, a moderate-sized head, and a rounded ridge as the most preferable features. Additionally, participants preferred that penis width stay the same size rather than becoming gradually thicker or slimmer. Related Trans men hit back at haters & share how gender-affirming care saved their lives An anti-trans tweet about gender-affirming surgery led trans men to proudly share their scars. In terms of length, researchers found that previous research determined that 6.3 inches was a desirable length on average. The average male penis size is around 5.5 inches. Global perspectives delivered right to your inbox Our news...

Opening a gay bar in downtown Waterloo, Iowa, was not on Darin Beck’s bingo card a few years ago. Beck, the owner of a restaurant group with eateries and nightclubs in Cedar Falls and Iowa City, was already retired. But three years ago, as the COVID pandemic raged and the hospitality business ground to a halt in Waterloo, Beck came out as gay. He married his husband two years later. Related This city lost both of its LGBTQ+ spaces in the last two years. Now the community is rallying. They even got some help from Gloria Estefan. “This one for me is very different and it really kind of comes from more of the heart than the head, so to speak,” Beck told the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier . “It’s just something that I feel fortunate I got to do.” Never Miss a Beat Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights. Subscribe to our Newsletter today “It’s refreshing and liberating,” Beck said of owning a gay club. “I was never, you know, a...

Same-sex coupling is not the sole province of us homo sapiens. Neither is mourning the death of our partners.  When  Magic the penguin recently died , its same-sex partner Sphen mourned by singing, and their rookery joined in.  Related These 31 openly gay pets will melt your cold, dark heart We scoured two animal-obsessed Insta reels for the most utterly heartwarming moments. “We’re not entirely sure exactly what was being said in these moments of singing, but it was definitely a beautiful moment to witness,” Renee Howell, the aquarium’s penguin keeper  told Australia’s ABC . Dive deeper every day Join our newsletter for thought-provoking commentary that goes beyond the surface of LGBTQ+ issues Subscribe to our Newsletter today In 2018, their courtship became international when the two male gentoo penguins — a power couple at the aquarium — exhibited more than a mere bromance.  Their romance and inseparable bond amazed their caretakers at the Sea L...

Yesterday, the American Civil Liberties Union of South Carolina announced that they are filing a lawsuit against heavy restrictions on gender-affirming care in the state owing to a recently passed bill. “A law that takes away healthcare from people, that strips away the ability of parents to make medical decisions for their children, that criminalizes doctors who follow the established standards of care isn’t just mean-spirited and harmful – it’s also unconstitutional,” said Jace Woodrum, Executive Director of the ACLU of South Carolina. “Transgender South Carolinians should be able to get the medical care they need without politicians coming into their doctors’ offices with them. That’s why we’re challenging this dangerous law.” Related Trans-affirming medical providers face increased stress & risk as states ban trans health care “The waitlist is what keeps me up at night,” one doctor in Minnesota – which has seen an increase in people from red states seeking care – said. ...

Former President Donald Trump on Thursday scrambled to salvage any hope of earning the votes of suburban women and others opposed to Republican efforts to strip them of their bodily autonomy, even denouncing his state’s six-week abortion ban and promising free in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments. “We want more babies, to put it very nicely,” Trump pandered. Related Southern Baptists just voted to oppose IVF Republicans are scrambling to combat the perception that they’ll ban IVF in an election year, but many religious conservatives oppose the procedure. Fearing the impact of two years of judicial and legislative assault on reproductive freedoms in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade , which ended federal protections for abortion rights, Trump went on offense Thursday, trying to soften his image on the issue. Your LGBTQ+ guide to Election 2024 Stay ahead of the 2024 Election with our newsletter that covers candidates, issues, and perspectives ...

In a rare move, two amicus briefs were filed by the U.S. Department of Justice and 16 state attorneys general plus the District of Columbia in support of a Georgia teacher who was fired from a public school for reading a book with LGBTQ+ themes to her classroom. “The DOJ and States’ involvement reflects the significant impact of this case on the future of public education across the country,” the Southern Poverty Law Center’s interim deputy legal director, Michael J. Tafelski, tol d  LGBTQ Nation. “All students deserve the freedom to learn in schools where their identities are affirmed, and clearly the DOJ and states across the country agree.” Related Teacher sues school district after she was fired for reading a book about accepting others The school said it was a “controversial issue” to talk about acceptance. The case is Rinderle v. Cobb County School District. , a lawsuit filed in February of this year after fifth-grade teacher Katherine Rinderle was fired from Cobb Co...

A federal court upheld Alabama’s ban on gender-affirming care in a 173-page decision that argued that parents do not have a right to get their kids gender-affirming care that’s “deeply rooted in the nation’s history and traditions.” A three-judge panel had already sided with the state of Alabama on its ban on gender-affirming care. In this week’s decision, a majority of the 11 judges on the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals declined to reconsider the three-judge panel’s decision. Related A small town tried to shut down a Pride festival. The ACLU fought back and won. However, the legal battle is still ongoing, with organizers alleging mistreatment by the city Two appointees of President Donald Trump, U.S. Circuit Judges Barbara Lagoa and Andrew Brasher, participated in the ruling. Lagoa wrote the original opinion from the three-judge panel as well as a concurring opinion in the full court’s decision and drew from  the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson ...

A retired gay teacher who threatened a Trump-appointed judge over a Don’t Say Gay ruling she issued was sentenced to five years in prison on Wednesday, double the time prosecutors were asking for. The sentence was issued by U.S. District Judge William Jung for the Middle District of Florida in Tampa. Related Florida continues its anti-LGBTQ+ crusade by deleting its LGBTQ+ tourism website The website used to give LGBTQ+ tourists ideas on what to visit in the state. Now it doesn’t mention LGBTQ+ people at all. Stephen Thorn, 66, was sentenced after he pleaded guilty in May to a single threat charge for obscenity-filled voicemails he left for U.S. District Judge Wendy Berger in Orlando. Stay connected to your community Connect with the issues and events that impact your community at home and beyond by subscribing to our newsletter. Subscribe to our Newsletter today Berger had rejected a challenge to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Don’t Say Gay law restricting classroom discussion of se...

Ford Motor Company is the latest company to announce they are rolling back internal policies related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).  The company previously withdrew from external corporate culture surveys such as those administered by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). But a memo from the company’s CEO Jim Farley, reveals that Ford will be extending the move to DEI.  Related Lowe’s drops its LGBTQ+ inclusive programs as right-wingers claim victory The hardware supply retailer is the latest in a string of companies to restrict LGBTQ+ rights Before scaling back the policy, Ford scored high on external ranking systems like HRC’s that measure companies’ commitments to inclusion by evaluating their corporate policies, practices, and benefits for historically disenfranchised groups. Stay connected to your community Connect with the issues and events that impact your community at home and beyond by subscribing to our newsletter. Subscribe to our Newsletter today...

Mary Trump — Donald Trump’s lesbian niece and a clinical psychologist — excoriated her uncle over a campaign stunt he held at Arlington National Cemetary in Virginia, a military cemetery, on Monday. Former President Trump attended a wreath-laying ceremony on Monday while his campaign staff filmed and took pictures in an area of the cemetery where recent U.S. casualties were buried. This is against the cemetery’s rules, and Arlington officials tried to stop Trump’s campaign staff from turning the military cemetery into a campaign ad. Related Donald Trump’s psychologist niece shares the “origin story” for his thin skin And it all has to do with mashed potatoes. NPR is even reporting that Trump’s campaign staff pushed and “verbally abused” an Arlington official who tried to stop them. The campaign denies that the incident occurred and said the Arlington official was “suffering from a mental health episode.” Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), Donald Trump’s running mate, later confirmed tha...

Pastor Dillon Awes, a hate preacher at the Stedfast Baptist Church in Watauga, Texas, is upset that some Christian churches affirm LGBTQ+ people—or “sodomites” and “sexual predators,” as he calls them—and he’s especially angry that some pastors even allow queer people to speak from the pulpit. “These fa***ts should get a bullet in their brain,” he said in a recent sermon. “They should get the death penalty, not be preaching behind the pulpit.” Related A Texas town is protesting against one of the most anti-LGBTQ hate churches in the nation “They’re so close to our home. There’s no way that we can’t be afraid of that,” one lesbian protestor said. Awes made his comments in response to Pastor Charles Andrew Stanley—founder and senior pastor of the nondenominational evangelical Christian megachurch North Point Ministries—who invited a married same-sex couple to deliver a sermon at a recent conference. LGBTQ+ news you can rely on Keep track of the ongoing battle against bias and ...

A Texas man who detransitioned and tried to change his driver’s license to reflect his new identity was rebuffed by state officials, who acted on orders from the state’s right-wing Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton. Razavi, who asked to be identified by his last name only in an interview with Texas Monthly , said he decided to detransition when he realized that as a transgender woman he “would always be viewed as a second-class citizen.” Related Donald Trump could nominate anti-LGBTQ+ zealot Ken Paxton as attorney general Paxton is Texas’s attorney general and a committed Trump loyalist. Now he’s battling the same discriminatory and transphobic forces that would discriminate against him as transgender woman as he tries to document his return to being a cisgender man. Stay connected to your community Connect with the issues and events that impact your community at home and beyond by subscribing to our newsletter. Subscribe to our Newsletter today “I am a biological ma...

Ysabel Jurado, 34, a lawyer and a political novice, is running for a seat on one of the most powerful city councils in the country. LA’s Council District 14, covering the East Side of Los Angeles, has over a quarter of a million constituents, among more than ten million in the county. In March, Jurado, a queer single mom, made it halfway to representing the largely Latino neighborhoods between Downtown LA and Pasadena, earning the top spot in the primary among a large field challenging incumbent Councilmember Kevin de Léon, who came in second and will face off against Jurado in November. If de Léon’s name sounds vaguely familiar to readers outside Los Angeles, it may be because dozens of elected officials, from fellow councilmembers to President Joe Biden, called for his resignation in the aftermath of a scandal in 2022 involving racist and homophobic remarks, insider dealing, and gerrymandering caught on tape and released like a bomb on LA’s political class via Reddit. De Léon ref...

A group of Republican attorneys general asked the Supreme Court to rule against transgender rights in litigation concerning anti-trans sports bills that were previously blocked in Idaho and West Virginia. “The Ninth Circuit erred when it held that Idaho’s Fairness in Women’s Sports Act likely violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Constitution does not require States to redefine ‘sex’ to mean or include ‘gender identity.’ The difference between men and women in athletics ‘is a real one, and the principle of equal protection does not forbid’ States from ‘address[ing] the problem at hand in a manner specific to each gender,” wrote the attorneys general 26 states in a brief concerning Idaho’s legislation. Related Trans teens sue New Hampshire to stop sports ban New Hampshire just passed a slate of anti-trans laws. Now they’re fighting back. Idaho and West Virginia have asked the Supreme Court to hear cases concerning iterations of the Fairness in Wo...

California continues to lead among states when it comes to transgender rights and gender-affirming care. The latest indicator: The state Senate recently passed AB 2442, a bill to expedite licensing for specialists in trans healthcare. The legislation passed out of the Senate on a party-line vote, with Democrats all voting yea and all but two Republicans voting against it, The Sacramento Bee reported . Despite their unified opposition, no Republicans spoke against the bill on the Senate floor. Now the fate of AB 2442 rests in Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s hands. Related School district sues Gavin Newsom for the right to out trans kids to their parents California just banned outing trans kids, which made some conservatives angry. AB 2442’s author, California Assemblyman Rick Chavez Zbur, touted his state’s leading role as a sanctuary for trans people and warned of a continuing threat from lawmakers in thrall to MAGA and its culture war on LGBTQ+ people. Stay connected to your...