Based in San Antonio, Holley serves as the executive director of Thrive Youth Center, a nonprofit organization working to provide homeless queer, trans and nonbinary youth with a safe and supportive environment. While being queer was never going to be an issue on surface level, Holley tells Reckon that this internal battle he dealt with regarding his sexuality led him to substance abuse—a point of connection he makes with the youth he sees at the center.

“My parents loved me, yet I didn’t feel loved enough. And although it’s not necessarily the reality of what was there, it was [still] my reality,” he said, explaining the profound significance of giving people a safe space. “If we can create that environment to individuals that have already gone through trauma, they can get back on track in their early teens and 20s instead of having to wait when they’re much older to deal with those issues.”

He recalls a particular story from last year, when a 19-year-old trans girl briefly stayed at Haven For Hope, another homeless shelter in San Antonio. Thrive Youth Center enrolled the teen—who had dropped out of school in seventh grade—into their own program. Within three months of staying with Thrive Youth Center, she earned her high school diploma. Today, she is in college.

Is there an emoji[^1] that is recognised to mean any genitalia, sexual organ, erogenous zone or the like in a wildcard or reader's-choice kind of way?

[^1]: It doesn't necessarily have to be a fruit or a vegetable or flower or anything particular. The question can be interpreted more generally.

We all know about brinjals, peaches and certain blossom emoji but I'm looking for a single emoji, likely a little suggestive, that people in the LGBTQ+, non-binary, sexually freed and queer community interpret as meaning their parts – whatever those happen to be, whether expressed or observed at birth or chosen, freely, in life – and welcomes their own free will to choose what that means, for them.

Although I have recently chosen new levels of acceptance of the ways in which I deviate from the "traditional"[^trad] gender binary I remain, alas, uneducated in how others talk and communicate about their sexuality and so I find myself scared to express my own sexuality for fear of perpetuating the very indoctrination from which I feel I escape, unwillingly and likely unconsciously. Yet I have Thoughts to share and so I seek, now, to learn how to communicate sympathetically – symbiotically – on these topics.

Help me.

[^trad]: Even here, I know that "traditional" is actually only a descriptor for very recent human history. I actually don't know if it is right to use this descriptor and I wonder. Are there better terms for 20th century cis-het. binary strictures, sexual suppression, prudishness and culture-wars?

Apply for asylum in the UK or elsewhere.

Recently found out I can use Microsoft rewards points to donate to non-profits, looked around and ended up donating them to Lamda Legal for their work, but I was wondering if anyone here knew any other good reputable LGBTQ+ nonprofits or charities? I realized I didn't actually know that many when I was thinking of which one to give to

I want your opinion of how she looks. Do you think she looks pretty, do you think she looks cool? Both?

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/49671489

Recently today I realized that I am in fact a trans girl. I made a post about it in !asktransgender@lemmy.blahaj.zone and after that I was reflecting a lot on my past, the mistakes I've made, and I realize I've made a lot of them. I've said horrible things about and to LGBTQ people, and just awful shit in general when I was younger. I was a young and stupid kid and I would say horrible things online, things I heard from other people or read online. Things I now regret and feel horrible about. I know I can never excuse any of them just because I was younger but I do deeply regret those mistakes, and I am deeply sorry I said any of those things. I know that isn't an excuse but I hope people can find it in them to forgive me for my awful mistakes and accept me as a new person.

Immensely terrified at the moment

Oppenheimer actor Nick Dumont has come out as transmasculine and non-binary and has shared their new pronouns.

The star, who portrayed Jackie Oppenheimer – Oppenheimer’s sister-in-law – in the film, revealed their identity via their Instagram bio, which now includes “they/them” pronouns.

“They identity as a trans masculine non-binary person,” a representative for the actor told TMZ. Despite the star updating their information on the social site with their affirmed name, their Instagram handle, however, still includes their deadname.

cross-posted from: https://aussie.zone/post/15853634

Pride in Protest has consistently campaigned for the exclusion of NSW Police from the parade citing a culture of homophobia within the force and an adversarial attitude towards unsolved gay hate deaths.

United States v. Skrmetti is not distinct from these fights over reproductive rights — it’s their next phase. Before 2020, there was not a single law that banned access to gender-affirming care for trans people. Since then, nearly 36 states have attempted to restrict trans rights. This is not a coincidence. Recognizing the conservative turn of the courts, the Alliance Defending Freedom has drafted and promoted bills that restrict access to gender-affirming care. These model bills have been introduced in various state legislatures, contributing to a coordinated and successful strategy to limit transgender healthcare. These laws “are the result of an openly political effort to wage war on a marginalized group and our most fundamental freedoms,” writes Chase Strangio, Co-Director of the ACLU's LGBT & HIV Project.

[alt text: text that says: "gay clubs when the lights come on". Below the text is an image of a "SUPER MARIO BROS. universe size reference chart", which depicts all characters from the colorful Mario Bros universe standing upright, side-by-side, and staring directly at the "camera".]

cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/5105313

Archived link

The decision comes after a landmark 2023 ruling by the same court shut the door on legalising same-sex marriage, but gave the government two years to set up an "alternative legal framework" to safeguard rights for such couples.

Tuesday marked the end of a six-year legal battle after resident Nick Infinger took the government to court when he and his partner were excluded from public rental housing on the grounds they were not an "ordinary family".

The case was later heard together with that of Henry Li and his late husband, Edgar Ng, who challenged government policies on subsidised housing and inheritance rules that barred same-sex couples.

[...]

Chief judge Andrew Cheung said policies that excluded same-sex couples from public rental flats and subsidised flats sold under the city's Home Ownership Scheme "cannot be justified".

"(For) needy same-sex married couples who cannot afford private rental accommodation, the (government's) exclusionary policy could well mean depriving them of any realistic opportunity of sharing family life under the same roof at all," Cheung added.

[...]

On the issue of inheritance, judges Joseph Fok and Roberto Ribeiro wrote that existing rules were "discriminatory and unconstitutional", adding that authorities had "failed to justify the differential treatment" of same-sex couples.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/33346676

Got back into drawing recently

Archived version

In the wake of President-elect Donald Trump’s reelection, advocates for transgender people in Illinois are scrambling to strengthen the state protections they’ve created, while some trans Midwesterners consider moving to states with shield laws for safe harbor.

State Rep. Kelly Cassidy told the Sun-Times there has been a coalition effort of state lawmakers to protect trans and reproductive health care access since the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade leaked in 2022.

Now, they’re looking closely at Project 2025 — a conservative policy playbook created by the Heritage Foundation — and Trump policy proposals and “evaluating what further protections we can enact in the coming months,” a spokesperson for Gov. JB Pritzker said.

[...]

Protections for reproductive rights and gender-affirming care were enshrined in state law in January 2023, putting Illinois on the side of people who risk prosecution by traveling to the state for treatment and also protecting the licenses of Illinois doctors who provide care that’s illegal elsewhere. The Illinois Human Rights Act also protects against discrimination based on gender identity.