logo
ISU, Pride Center resolve lawsuit

ISU, Pride Center resolve lawsuit

Yahoo03-04-2025

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV) — Indiana State University has resolved a lawsuit filed by an LGBT support group and the American Civil Liberties Union over an annual gay pride event.
The Pride Center and the ACLU sued the school, claiming that school officials prevented the group from holding Pride Fest on campus. College leaders denied that claim.
The parties issued a joint statement Thursday afternoon.
'Indiana State University is thankful for the continued partnership with the Pride Center of Terre Haute, and we look forward to the ongoing success of Pride Fest. Indiana State University and the Pride Center have agreed to resolve this dispute,' the statement reads. 'Indiana State University will be a non-financial sponsor of the 2025 festival and looks forward to working with the Pride Center and student organizations on issues affecting the LGBTQ+ community. In turn, the City of Terre Haute is proud to host Pride Fest 2025 at Fairbanks Park, this September.'
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Northwest Indiana LGBTQ+ community celebrates Pride Month with resilience, caution
Northwest Indiana LGBTQ+ community celebrates Pride Month with resilience, caution

Chicago Tribune

timea day ago

  • Chicago Tribune

Northwest Indiana LGBTQ+ community celebrates Pride Month with resilience, caution

The first day of June was 'such a breath of fresh air,' as Pride Month kicked off amid President Donald Trump's second term, said Leah Peksenak, president of NWI Pridefest Inc. 'It's been such a stressful year, stressful since last November, and it was just so nice to take a second and prioritize joy for a little bit. Even though it's not like you forget all of the things that are happening and what's at stake, not just for LGBT people but for so many vulnerable communities, but it is nice to just take a second and say joy is itself a revolutionary thing,' Peksenak said. Trump has taken action against the LGBTQ+ community in many ways, like signing an executive order stating that the U.S. only recognizes two genders, a transgender servicemember military ban, and banning transgender athletes from collegiate sports. The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday to uphold Tennessee's ban on gender-affirming care for transgender minors. The court's 6-3 decision effectively prevents legal challenges to efforts by Trump's administration and state governments to roll back protections for transgender people, as 26 other states have laws similar to Tennessee's. Indiana Lieutenant Governor Micah Beckwith called Pride Month a 'rainbow beast' on social media and how it's coming for children. Beckwith's words depicting the LGBTQ+ community as predators give people permission to violently target the members of that community, Peksenak said. 'Nobody cares what happens to predators. Nobody cares what happens to pedophiles. So if you tell people, 'oh these people are targeting children, they are harming children, they are a beast that's coming for your kid,' some unstable person is going to hear that as a mandate to do something about it. That's frightening,' Peksenak said. Jeremy Gregson, the entertainment director for NWI Pridefest Inc., said entering Pride Month was nerve-wrecking this year, especially as the organization planned its second annual pride festival in Lake Station earlier this month. The organization took extra precautions this year, he said. 'There was a heightened sense of security,' Gregson said. 'There was some nervousness, some anxiety. But for my community, I had to step up. I had to show, on my face, that there was no anxiety because others feed off that.' The organization raised about $12,000 for Indiana Youth Group over the course of the two-day festival, Peksenak said. But, there was a bit of a challenge securing organizations to be vendors for this year's festival because so many organizations are stretched thin supporting marginalized communities targeted by the federal government, Peksenak said. 'It's like we're at empathy capacity right now because there's so many areas to care about and focus on,' Peksenak said. The actions against the LGBTQ+ community by the Trump administration are disheartening, but the community will continue to fight for rights and access, Gregson said. 'It makes me sick that we're going backwards instead of going forward,' Gregson said. Earlier this month, Southern Baptist delegates at their national meeting overwhelmingly endorsed a ban on same-sex marriage — including a call for a reversal of the U.S. Supreme Court's 10-year-old precedent legalizing it nationwide. The wide-ranging resolution doesn't use the word ban, but it left no room for legal same-sex marriage in calling for the 'overturning of laws and court rulings, including Obergefell v. Hodges, that defy God's design for marriage and family.' Further, the resolution affirmatively calls 'for laws that affirm marriage between one man and one woman.' Gregson said the church's endorsement scares him because he's currently engaged. 'My wonderful fiancé has already stated no man is ever going to stop him and I from being happily ever after,' Gregson said. 'I would hope that the Supreme Court would never want to hear the case again. But knowing who is sitting on the Supreme Court, could it be likely they would? Maybe.' If the Supreme Court did hear the case, Gregson said the LGBTQ+ community would hit the streets and the intensity would likely be that of the Stonewall Riots in 1969, where protestors and police clashed after police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar, in New York City. The riots were a catalyst for the gay rights movement throughout the world. Regardless of the Supreme Court's potential action, Gregson said he will be with his partner. 'He's mine. I'm his. No judgment is going to make me not be with the man I love,' Gregson said. 'I think the Supreme Court sees it as we're human, and at the end of the day that's all we want to be treated like.' Peksenak, who is also a reverend at Marquette Park United Methodist Church and Hobart First United Methodist Church, said both parishes have people who support and oppose the Trump Administration. Similarly, Peksenak said she's aware that not all parishioners support her involvement in LGBTQ+ activism. When she preaches, Peksenak said she tries her best to speak to different situations in life, different scripture passages to avoid being 'a one note.' But, she said she also focuses on not compromising her beliefs and values. Peksenak said she tells parishioners that she doesn't have more access to God than they do, and that they can disagree with her. But, she said at the end of the day, Peksenak said as the spiritual leader of the church she has to stick to her convictions and speak to Biblical and current events. At its core, Peksenak said the church is following someone who was executed by the state for speaking his mind and supporting oppressed people. So the church has an obligation to follow that path, she said. 'I have been adamant in my stance that I understand that it might be uncomfortable when we talk about LGBT issues, I understand that it might be uncomfortable if immigration is mentioned in a sermon, but to preach a message that doesn't have anything to do with what's happening in the world today is pointless,' Peksenak said. With increased political and social attacks on the LGTBQ+ community, Peksenak said it's important that people show support for the community. 'The more that powerful people spew hate, that increases our mandate to love and love loudly. It becomes even more urgent that we go out of our way to do as much good as we can, to love and care for and protect this community.' Peksenak said.

Transgender rights advocates gird for more fights after US Supreme Court loss
Transgender rights advocates gird for more fights after US Supreme Court loss

Yahoo

time4 days ago

  • Yahoo

Transgender rights advocates gird for more fights after US Supreme Court loss

By Andrew Chung WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Supreme Court delivered a blow to transgender rights by upholding a Tennessee ban on gender-affirming care for adolescents, but legal experts said the ruling was narrower than it could have been and left open the door for challenges to the rising number of government restrictions aimed at transgender people. The court decided that Tennessee's Republican-backed law, which prohibits medical treatments such as puberty blockers and hormones for people under age 18 experiencing gender dysphoria, did not violate the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment promise of equal protection, as challengers to the measure had argued. The court's six conservative justices powered the ruling authored by Chief Justice John Roberts, with its three liberal members dissenting. Transgender rights advocates called the decision a major setback while the law's backers welcomed the Supreme Court's endorsement and urged other states to adopt similar restrictions. Gender dysphoria is the clinical diagnosis for significant distress that can result from an incongruence between a person's gender identity and sex assigned at birth. The ruling rejected the assertion made by the law's challengers that the measure was a form of discrimination - based on sex or transgender status - that should trigger tougher judicial review and make it harder to defend in court under 14th Amendment protections. Instead, the ruling concluded that the ban classified people based on age and medical diagnosis, and the court applied what is called a rational-basis review, a deferential analysis that merely requires a rational connection between a law and a legitimate state interest. Application of rational basis review by courts generally would make it easier to defend a broader array of measures curbing transgender rights, from bathroom use to sports participation. But Wednesday's ruling did not foreclose the possibility of courts in the future applying tougher scrutiny and finding unlawful discrimination in certain measures targeting transgender people. 'PLENTY OF TOOLS' Karen Loewy, a lawyer with the LGBT rights group Lambda Legal, called the ruling heartbreaking for transgender youths and their families but saw some hope. "I think the court here went out of its way to confine what it was doing here to a restriction on care for minors," Loewy said, adding that it "left us plenty of tools to fight other bans on healthcare and other discriminatory actions that target transgender people." The court concluded that Tennessee did not create a sex-based category or specifically draw a line between transgender people and others, said Georgetown University law professor Paul Smith, who has argued many cases at the Supreme Court including a landmark gay rights victory in 2003. "Other statutes may not be viewed the same," Smith said. Roberts wrote that the "fierce scientific and policy debates" concerning the medical treatments at issue justified the court's deferential review of Tennessee's ban. Roberts added that questions about these treatments should be left "to the people, their elected representatives and the democratic process." Liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor in a written dissent disagreed with that view. Judicial scrutiny, Sotomayor said, "has long played an essential role in guarding against legislative efforts to impose upon individuals the state's views about how people of a particular sex (or race) should live or look or act." The ban's proponents welcomed the ruling and the court's reasoning. "Voters, through their elected representatives, should have the power to decide what they believe on serious issues like this one," said Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, a Republican who signed the ban into law. Lee added that the measure protects young people from "irreversible, life-altering medical decisions." "This ruling sends a strong message to the country that states have a clear right and path forward to protect children from irreversible body mutilation," added Republican state legislator Jack Johnson, one of the lead sponsors of the Tennessee measure. The issue of transgender rights is a flashpoint in the U.S. culture wars. Tennessee's law is one of 25 such policies enacted by conservative state lawmakers around the United States, and various states have adopted other restrictions on transgender people. Donald Trump in particular has taken a hard line against transgender rights since returning to the presidency in January. TRANSGENDER STATUS Tennessee's law, passed in 2023, aims to encourage minors to "appreciate their sex" by prohibiting healthcare workers from prescribing puberty blockers and hormones to help them live as "a purported identity inconsistent with the minor's sex." In litigation brought by plaintiffs including transgender individuals and former President Joe Biden's administration, a federal judge blocked the law as likely violating the 14th Amendment. The Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals subsequently reversed the judge's decision. Lawyers for the challengers noted that the Supreme Court did not go as far as the 6th Circuit to decline to recognize transgender people as a class of people whose status requires courts to apply tougher judicial review to laws targeting them. The Supreme Court left that question unresolved. Future legal challenges may hinge on whether a law draws a line between transgender people and others, Smith said. "If a state refused to hire transgender people or excluded them from juries, for example, that might well lead the court to apply heightened scrutiny under a sex discrimination theory or under the theory that such a line itself warrants heightened scrutiny," Smith said. "Targeting transgender people out of animus, as other more-recent restrictions have done, still violates equal protection," said Pratik Shah, an attorney who also helped represent the plaintiffs. However, three conservative justices who wrote or joined opinions concurring in Wednesday's outcome - Amy Coney Barrett, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito - agreed with the 6th Circuit that laws based on transgender status do not merit tougher legal scrutiny like laws that divide people based on race or sex. Such a ruling "would require courts to oversee all manner of policy choices normally committed to legislative discretion," Barrett wrote. Though some transgender advocates had expressed concern that a ruling favoring Tennessee could bolster restrictions on transgender adults as well, Jennifer Levi of the LGBT rights legal group GLAD Law said Wednesday's decision was explicitly limited to care for minors and that challenges to restrictions on adults remain viable under existing precedent. The Supreme Court also did not rule on a separate argument made by the plaintiffs that laws like Tennessee's violate the right of parents to make decisions concerning the medical care of their children. Competent adults could similarly claim a right to make medical decisions about their own bodies, Smith said. In a previous major case involving transgender rights, the Supreme Court ruled in 2020 that a landmark federal law forbidding workplace discrimination protects gay and transgender employees. Chase Strangio, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer representing the plaintiffs in the Tennessee case, made history in the case in December as the first openly transgender attorney to argue before the Supreme Court. Strangio emphasized the narrowness of Wednesday's ruling, but acknowledged its practical impact. "Of course the most immediate effect is on our clients, other young transgender people in Tennessee and across the country who need medical care that the government has stepped in to ban," Strangio said. "And for them we are devastated."

US to end LGBT suicide prevention service, says general hotline sufficient
US to end LGBT suicide prevention service, says general hotline sufficient

Yahoo

time4 days ago

  • Yahoo

US to end LGBT suicide prevention service, says general hotline sufficient

(Clarifies in second paragraph that funding was not renewed from earlier mention of fund being pulled) By Kanishka Singh WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump's administration is ending funding for an LGBT suicide prevention hotline that it says encourages "radical gender ideology," a move that the project running the service called "devastating." The Trevor Project, a non-profit that provides free, specialized support to LGBT youth, said on Wednesday that its hotline would soon close as a result of the funding not being renewed. "I am devastated and heartbroken. The @TrevorProject received official notice that The Trump administration has ordered the closure of the national LGBTQ+ youth suicide lifeline in 30 days," Trevor Project CEO Jaymes Black said in a statement on Instagram. A spokesman for the White House Office of Management and Budget said funding would continue for 988 Lifeline, a wider suicide prevention hotline. "The president's Budget funds the 988 at $520 million – the same number as under (former President Joe) Biden. It does not, however, grant taxpayer money to a chat service where children are encouraged to embrace radical gender ideology by 'counselors' without consent or knowledge of their parents," the spokesman added. Since taking office in January, Trump has signed multiple executive orders aimed at restricting transgender rights and dismantling diversity, equity and inclusion practices in the government and private sector. The Trump administration says such steps restore fairness, but civil rights and LGBT advocates say they leave marginalized groups more vulnerable. "The administration is eliminating a critical, life-saving resource that was part of this nation's public health infrastructure," said Black, adding that it seemed the country "has failed our LGBTQ+ young people." The hotline had serviced over 1.3 million young people since its inception in 2022, Black added.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store