Latest news with #transRights
New York Times
2 days ago
- Politics
- New York Times
What to Know About the Transgender Rights Movement's Supreme Court Gamble
The Supreme Court's decision on Wednesday allowing Tennessee and other states to ban gender-affirming care for minors was a crushing blow for the trans rights movement. For some trans activists and their allies, the case, known as United States v. Skrmetti, was the culmination of a powerful Trump-era backlash against trans people, artfully stoked by right-wing politicians and abetted by biased media coverage. But some civil rights experts and veterans of the L.G.B.T.Q. movement view the Skrmetti case as a tragic gamble built on flawed politics and uncertain science. An examination by The New York Times found that over the last decade, the movement was consumed by theories of sex and gender that most voters didn't grasp or support, radicalizing and calcifying its politics just as the culture wars reignited. The decision by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Biden administration to take Skrmetti to the Supreme Court was 'one of the biggest mistakes in the history of trans activism,' said Brianna Wu, a trans woman who serves on the board of Rebellion PAC, a Democratic political-action committee. Here are six takeaways from the full Magazine article: Some L.G.B.T.Q. activists and legal experts have long expected a defeat in Skrmetti. In private meetings of L.G.B.T.Q. legal-advocacy groups, many lawyers expected a loss almost from the moment the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case, according to one person briefed on the conversations. On the outside, many experts considered the case an extraordinary risk. Not only was there little chance that the conservative-dominated court would expand heightened constitutional protections to trans people; a defeat in Skrmetti could open the door to other losses. 'If you can't win a challenge to strike down a gender-affirming-care ban, it's going to be hard to win other cases around trans rights,' said Michael Ulrich, a professor of health law and human rights at Boston University. Underlying Skrmetti was a broader cultural battle over how to understand — and describe — human identity. In recent years, many L.G.B.T.Q. activists came to believe that gender identity should supplant older understandings of physical sex. In this view, all people have the right to determine their own gender, regardless of how they dressed or whether they opted for medical transition. This self-identified gender — not your physical body — should determine what appears on your driver's license, which bathrooms you could access and what sports teams you could play on. When Joe Biden was elected in 2020, his administration embraced much of that worldview, directing government agencies to interpret old civil rights laws against sex discrimination to include this more novel — and more contested — concept of gender identity. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Telegraph
2 days ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
Green Party accused of silencing gender critical voices
A former Green Party spokesman who was expelled for raising concerns about transgender ideology has accused the party of silencing gender critical voices. Dr Pallavi Devulapalli learnt earlier this month that she had been removed from the party following an investigation into comments she made at a hustings event a year ago. It comes after the party was found to have discriminated against Dr Shahrar Ali, its former deputy leader, over his belief that 'biology is real and immutable'. Campaigners in the party told The Telegraph that the decision to expel the spokesman exposed an 'authoritarian rot' at the heart of the Greens. Speaking at an event in June 2024, Dr Devulapalli showed support for sex-based rights and questioned whether trans activists were behaving 'mischievously' in the debate. The King's Lynn and West Norfolk councillor, who now sits as an independent, was subsequently suspended after also showing her support for the Cass report into self-identification. 'Purge' against gender critical politicians In an interview with the Guardian, Dr Devulapalli accused her party of launching a 'purge' against gender critical politicians and members. She said: 'They don't like my stance on trans self-ID and the trans women policy. They didn't come out and say that so they expelled me on a technicality.' Dr Devulapalli added: 'We've seen the Greens veer away from its original founding culture towards a much more Left-wing authoritarian culture. 'If you say or think the wrong thing, then you're out – that's really worrying.' She has joined 24 fellow former party members in the new Greens in Exile group, who have been suspended or removed from the party largely because of their gender critical views. In its ruling expelling Dr Devulapalli, the party said she was being removed to 'avoid or reduce the likelihood of further harm to the party'. Dr Devulapalli said in response that she was 'disappointed and infuriated' by the decision. It comes after Dr Ali was awarded more than £9,000 in damages in February 2024 after a judge ruled that the Green Party discriminated against him and that he had been improperly dismissed. In remarks after his court victory, Dr Ali called for the Equality and Human Rights Commission to investigate the Green Party over how it handles trans rights debates. The Mayor's and City County Court had ruled that Dr Ali's removal was 'procedurally unfair' because the Green Party identified no code breaches at his dismissal. In papers submitted to the court, lawyers acting for Dr Ali claimed that officials in the Green Party 'collaborated' to remove him from his post because of his beliefs about gender, which include the view that 'biology is real and immutable'. 'Kafkaesque charges' Speaking to The Telegraph on Wednesday, Dr Ali said: 'The Green Party is using weaponised disciplinary complaints processes to continue to persecute, exclude and betray sex realist members who have built the party up for over a generation. 'Not content to lose a gender critical discrimination case against me in a landmark protected belief case last year, at an estimated total cost to them of £450,000, they have now expelled our health spokesperson on Kafkaesque charges. 'As a medical practitioner, Pallavi well understood the importance of Cass for protecting children and youth from unsafe 'gender affirming' medical malpractice. 'True Greens are not ones to stand idly by and abide by unlawful discrimination against themselves, when they have been fighting all their lives to end discrimination against others. We have been seeking remedy through the courts to expose the authoritarian rot and will continue to do so.' A Green Party spokesman said: 'We don't comment on individual cases.'
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Elon Musk's Estranged Daughter Vivian Holds Up Trans Flag During Debut Drag Show for Pride Month
Elon Musk's estranged daughter Vivian Jenna Wilson proudly waved a trans flag while making her drag debut in Los Angeles for Pride Month. Wilson, 21, debuted her drag persona Vivllainous for a lip sync performance to singer JJ's hit 'Wasted Love' as part of the Pattie Gonia Presents SAVE HER! - An Environmental Drag Show event on Friday, June 14. The drag show was organized to raise money for a legal defense fund for migrants in the Los Angeles area. Dressed in a black bodysuit and corset, Wilson waved the trans flag and whipped her hair around during the energetic performance. Fellow performer Noxxia Datura later shared that she'd done Wilson's makeup for her drag debut. 'Painted @vivllainous for her drag debut at the SAVE HER! show, served cvnty moth and shook my fans 😝 thank you to @pattiegonia and the entire SAVE HER! team for having me!!! last night was sosososooo incredible,' Noxxia Datura confirmed via Instagram. Everything We Know About Elon Musk's Various Custody Battles and Child Support Payments Wilson posted several fan-recorded clips of her performance via her Instagram Stories as well, including one follower complimenting her 'lethal' hair flips. The Twitch streamer and model has spoken often about her rift with her father. Wilson told Teen Vogue earlier this year that she had been financially independent from Musk since coming out as trans in 2020. (Musk shares Wilson with his ex-wife Justine Wilson.) 'I haven't made any money from being famous at all,' she insisted. 'I have made zero dollars and zero cents. I do live in a lot of people's heads rent-free, though. I feel like Twitch streaming would be so much fun…. I don't feel like the world needs another Twitch streamer, but [I'd] love to do it.' She legally changed her last name from Musk to Wilson in 2022 because she 'no longer live[d] with or wish[ed] to be related to [her] biological father in any way.' Musk addressed his rift with his daughter later that year by claiming she'd been influenced 'full-on communism and a general sentiment that if you're rich, you're evil.' '[Our relationship] may change, but I have very good relationships with all [of my other children]. Can't win them all,' he wrote via X in October 2022. Earlier this year, Wilson poked fun at her father for welcoming two children with two different women within five months of each other. (Conservative author Ashley St. Clair announced in February that she'd delivered Musk's 13th child in 2024 while Shivon Zillis confirmed the birth of son Seldon Lycurgus in February, as well.) Where Elon Musk Stands With the Mothers of His 13 Children: A Guide 'Wow, if I had a nickel for every time I found out I had half-siblings through Reddit, I'd have two nickels … which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it's happened twice, right?' she joked on TikTok. Musk is a father to 14 children with four different women. The mogul and ex-wife Justine share five living children from their eight-year marriage, as well as son Nevada, who died of sudden infant death syndrome when he was 10 weeks old. Musk and visual artist Grimes have three kids, while he shares four more with Neurolink executive Zillis. St. Clair announced in February she'd given birth to his 13th child, a son, five months earlier. In March, Wilson admitted to Teen Vogue that she wasn't keeping track of all of the half-siblings her father was adding to their family. 'I will say I do not actually know how many siblings I have if you include half-siblings,' she confessed 'That's just a fun fact. It's really good for two truths and a lie. I found out about the Shivon Zilis thing [at] the same time everyone else did. I had no idea before that.'
Telegraph
09-06-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Beware the employee activists threatening to bring down British business
This was also true of issues like trans rights, which 64pc of respondents told us they felt 'well prepared' to deal with. But our survey was conducted shortly before the Supreme Court handed down its seminal decision on the meaning of 'sex' under the Equality Act 2010. From the intense public interest the decision has generated, it is reasonable to assume that not all employers may have judged this correctly. Why does any of this matter? Well, for one thing, because getting it wrong can end up in expensive and reputation-damaging litigation that an employer is unlikely to win if they have not been paying attention to their obligations. And if employers already think the Bill is going to drive up business costs, then finding themselves in court won't help. But it also matters because we found that employers are confronting an increasingly politicised workforce where issues that may have no relationship to the workplace itself are becoming topics of intense debate. For every social issue we asked about, from climate change to Israel and Gaza, employers told us it had at least doubled in salience in recent years. And this was particularly likely to be the case if the employer had taken a position on certain issues in the past (say the Ukraine War or Black Lives Matter). We found that once the employer expressed a view on one issue, the more likely they were to be expected to have a position on every issue. This means employers are increasingly being drawn into contentious issues where strongly held views may conflict, and there is a heightened imperative to strike the right balance between competing perspectives. And yet we found that employers are very often getting that balance wrong. Take, for example, the use of social media. Almost 40pc of employers who have a social media policy told us that they routinely reviewed the social media posts of staff and a quarter told us that they had either sacked or disciplined a current member of staff on the basis of something they had written online. Asked why they had taken disciplinary action, and almost 70pc told us that this was because they feared that what the employee had written could cause 'reputational damage' to the business. Around 60pc said it was because it could 'cause offence to other employees', roughly twice the proportion who said they had considered whether it impacted on the employee in question's ability to discharge their professional duties. But from a legal point of view, all of this must be viewed through the prism of the Court of Appeal's landmark decision in Higgs v Farmor's School that was handed down in February of this year. In a decision that was viewed as a vindication of free speech, the Court held that to discipline or dismiss an employee because they had expressed a religious or protected philosophical belief (here, a 'gender critical' view and criticisms of same sex marriage) to which the employer objected, could be unfair and amount to unlawful discrimination. They said it was insufficient to say that other employees had been offended because the employer 'does not have carte blanche to interfere with an employee's right to express their beliefs simply because third parties find those beliefs offensive.' None of which is to say that employees are free to say what they like either. The court described a balancing exercise in which relevant considerations might include whether the comments were made on a professional or personal account, whether guidance had been given about their post, what they had actually said (as opposed to what a third party may have chosen to read into it) and whether their post impacted on their ability to perform their duties. All of which adds up to a tricky situation for employers facing a more politicised (and often polarised) workforce. Protecting one set of views against another not only risks confrontation with members of staff but could also break the law. More than ever, employers need to prepare themselves with sound legal advice, clear internal communications with staff and a robust crisis plan for dealing with these kinds of eventualities. Because getting it wrong in an era defined by employee activism isn't just a management problem, but one that could impact the share price, affect consumer trends or even hit the balance sheet.
Yahoo
08-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
World Pride Attendance Plummets As Trump's Shadow Looms Over D.C.
The glitter-caked gatherings at World Pride have taken a more somber tone amid the Trump administration's crackdown on LGBTQ+ rights. World Pride comes to a close this weekend in Washington, D.C., after a month-long celebration. D.C. had anticipated some 3 million people to mark the 50th anniversary of Pride celebrations in the Capitol. But attendance has plummeted, hotel bookings were down, and the estimated $800 million expected to be generated in the local economy failed to materialize. The BBC reports that a massive two-thirds of expected attendees stayed away. 'It is a risk to now come over [the border] and especially as a trans woman,' one Canadian who decided not to attend told the BBC. The drop is sharp, though not unexpected. Nations around the world have issued travel warnings to their non-binary, trans, and LGBTQ+ citizens, cautioning them that America under Trump is not a safe place. World Pride organizers themselves even considered advising trans attendees not to come. The African Human Rights Coalition explicitly called out the event, warning 'LGBTQI+ people worldwide to refrain from attending' because 'the event is being held in a venue ... governed now by an antagonistic fascist regime which presents distinct dangers to foreign LGBTQI+ attendees.' The last World Pride, held in Sydney in 2023, served as a touchpoint for the Australian government to announce record funding for LGBTQ+ organizations. 'It couldn't be a starker contrast,' an Australian human rights law professor who attended both events told ABC. 'Sydney was a celebration ... This is a call to action. This is a realization of how quickly our rights can be wound back.' Government policy has been notably hostile since the new administration took office. On his very first day, President Donald Trump directed government agencies to recognize only two sexes on official documents. Bans on diversity, equity, and inclusion policies; curtailing anti-discrimination efforts; and suspending trans people from military service quickly followed. The Trump administration has refused to recognize World Pride, in contrast to the administration of former President Joe Biden. The crackdown has spread to corporate America, previously a stalwart supporter of LGBTQ+ rights. A recent survey found that more than a third of Fortune 1000 companies surveyed planned to decrease their support for Pride events in 2025. Booz Allen Hamilton, a leading federal contractor, pulled its support for World Pride this year, while others did not renew previous funding commitments. Ryan Bos, executive director of the group that organizes D.C. Pride events, told The New York Times that corporate fundraising reached about half its target. Some companies sponsoring the event asked for their logos not to be displayed, he said. Still, some attendees saw their attendance as a necessary act of defiance—a return to Pride's more traditional protest, rather than celebratory, history. 'For the first time in many, many years, I'm not parading; I'm marching,' one attendee told NPR. 'It's a very different approach for the first time in a long time. Everything's under threat right now.'
