Judge rules Missouri AG has no right to medical records of transgender minors at Wash U
A St. Louis judge on Friday determined Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey has no right to access unredacted private health information of transgender children treated at the Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital.
St. Louis Circuit Court Judge Joseph Whyte ruled that Washington University does not have to provide the unredacted medical records sought by the attorney general’s office as part of his investigation into the clinic’s practices.
Whyte found that the health information sought in Bailey’s demands is protected, and the data is not relevant to an investigation under the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act, which is the state’s consumer protection law.
A third layer of protection for the information, the judge ruled, is the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, which prohibits the disclosure of personal health information without authorization.
I think transgenderism is going to be nazi'ed and pretty much be forced into the closet. Sucks if you're trans but this is probably the reality of it. Gays will probably be not far behind if Trump is elected.
Nebraska Supreme Court upholds law restricting abortion and trans health care for minors
LINCOLN — The Nebraska Supreme Court on Friday protected the Legislature’s prerogative to decide which bills are related, allowing the last-minute combination of a stricter abortion ban and restrictions on the treatment options of trans minors.
Planned Parenthood, represented by ACLU of Nebraska, had argued that Legislative Bill 574 had merged two unrelated ideas that did not succeed on their own and that the merger was unconstitutionally combined to secure votes.
The court disagreed with the group’s assertion that lawmakers overstepped the constitutional limit requiring bills to address a single subject. The decision could protect the practice of combining multiple bills as long as they address a related topic.
The court wrote that because the bill’s title was aimed at “public health and welfare,” that sufficiently covered the bill’s contents. It said they were logically connected and let the Legislature decide.
Same-sex Marriage Recognition Helps Countries Attract, Retain Highly Skilled Workers July 24, 2024
Introduction:
(Eurekalert) PULLMAN, Wash. – Marriage equality appears to have a major economic benefit for countries. Washington State University researchers found that European countries that recognized same-sex marriages kept more of their highly skilled workers from emigrating to the U.S.
The researchers analyzed 20 years of data on HB1 visas, which are reserved for immigrants to the U.S. with advanced degrees and specialized skills. From 2000-2019, a total of 13 European Union countries legalized same-sex marriage—and following that move, the U.S. saw a decrease in new HB1 visas from each of those countries, a drop of about 21% on average. The pattern held even though the enactment of marriage equality in the EU countries happened in different years and under different economic conditions.
“This just shows that having more inclusive policies can make a country more attractive for skilled labor,” said Koroles Awad, a WSU Ph.D. candidate in economics.
Awad and co-author WSU economics Professor Jill McCluskey reported their findings in AEA Papers and Proceedings. Their analysis focused on skilled workers coming from European Union countries since it is a political and economic union with a shared labor market, making it possible to isolate the effect of same-sex marriage legalization. In addition, the EU presented a natural experiment as about half of the 27 member countries had enacted marriage equality by 2019, and the other 14 countries, had not—and could serve as a control group.
The researchers also looked at the effect of the U.S. first recognizing foreign same-sex marriages in 2013. They found the enactment of that policy slowed the decline of visa admissions from EU countries that already had marriage equality policies, including The Netherlands, Belgium and Spain.
The highest court in Nepal has ruled that a trans woman should be recognised as a woman on her legal documents without having to submit to medical verification.
Rukshana Kapali, a law student and human rights activist who was named on the BBC’s 100 Women list, has sued the Nepalese government more than 50 times since 2021 in an effort to bring forth rights-based recognition of gender identity.
While the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling has set a precedent for trans rights in the country, other transgender people will need to petition the court separately to have their gender recognised without medical intervention.
Outrage as librarians reveal UK schools are banning LGBT+ books after complaints from parents
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LGBT+ books are being banned from UK schools after complaints from parents, librarians have revealed.
A six-month investigation by Index on Censorship, the results of which have been shared exclusively with The Independent, found that 53 per cent of UK school librarians polled had been asked to remove literature and in more than half of those cases books were taken off shelves.
The snapshot survey found that more than two dozen librarians had experienced such censorship, with one saying they had been told to remove every book with an LGBT+ theme after a single complaint from one parent about one book.
Freedom of Information requests revealed that specific titles removed from school libraries included This Book Is Gay, by Juno Dawson, a memoir about a young person discovering their sexual identity; Julián is a Mermaid, by Jessica Love, a picture book about a gender non-conforming boy who dreams of being a mermaid; and the alphabet book ABC Pride, by Louie Stowell, Elly Barnes and Amy Phelps, which introduces young readers to the alphabet while they learn more about the LGBT+ community.
LGBT+ charities, MPs and authors have warned the move represents a worrying regression on gay rights, “returning us to that world of prejudice that most of us thought we had moved on from”. Former MP Elliot Colburn, who received homophobic death threats while serving in Parliament, said preventing children from accessing material that speaks to their experiences represented a “clear and present danger to young LGBT+ people”.
