Good Trans News Roundup: September 5, 2025
While I'm at it.
The joyful counterprotest brought out around 200 people â there's even video!
^via LGBTQ Nation, September 2, 2025. They were playing Pink Pony Club on the kazoos, it was in Seattle, and yes, there is video.
The president and right-wingers have railed against it, but diversity helps companies retain customers and employees.
^"Since the president took office in January, over 20 hostile shareholder resolutions were filed demanding companies shed their commitment to DEI, including Visa, Deere, Boeing, Goldman Sachs, Leviâs, American Express, Coca-Cola, Berkshire Hathaway, McDonalds, Amazon, Netflix, Walmart, Alphabet, American Airlines, Caterpillar, Best Buy, Mastercard, and Costco, according to Fortune...
But across those annual meetings, shareholders (representing over $9.8 trillion in value) have voted with management to continue DEI policies and programs.
Those decisions werenât based on altruism alone, if at all: HRCâs study backs up previous research demonstrating that companies embracing DEI are more profitable than their peers that donât."
-via LGBTQ Nation, August 27, 2025
In landmark victory for LGBTQI+ rights in Kenya, a court has ruled that the government must implement laws to protect transgender rights.
"According to Jinsiangu, a Kenyan intersex, transgender, and gender non-conforming (ITGNC) rights group, the court recognised Chepkosgeiâs right to self-identity and gender, declaring her ânotably recognised as a transgender individualâ to ensure her rights are guaranteed...
In a groundbreaking move, the court went beyond addressing the specific violations experienced by the petitioner.
Justice R. Nyakundi directed the Government of Kenya to initiate and table a bill addressing the rights of transgender persons, with Parliament instructed to take the necessary steps to enact protections and recognition in law.
The judge also awarded Chepkosgei 1,000,000 Kenyan Shillings (approximately R137,000 / USD 7,700) in general damages. [Note: And that stretches a LOT further in Kenya, where the average monthly after-tax salary is just $413, making the reward a bit less than 2 years of salary.]
-via Mamba Online, August 21, 2025
"By failing to recognize the gender identity of a transgender person, prevents that person from enjoying a right guaranteed by EU law," he w
"The Advocate General for the European Court of Justice is recommending that all EU member states be required to issue identity documents reflecting their citizensâ âlived gender identity.â
The Courtâs AG Jean Richard de la Tour argued that national rules that do not allow legal gender recognition may violate European Union law, including the right to free movement and residency across all EU member states...
While the Advocate Generalâs opinion is only advisory, the verdicts in about two-thirds of cases argued before the court align with an AGâs recommendation."
-via LGBTQ Nation, September 4, 2025
Some transphobic sisters sued their sorority for letting a trans woman join. They just lost a second time.
"A federal judge has sided with a sorority that inducted a transgender sister after several other members sued over the definition of the word âwoman.â
âHaving considered the issues presented (again), we find that the majority of the claims must be dismissed on the grounds that this Court still may not interfere with [the sororityâs] contractually valid interpretation of its own Bylaws,â U.S. District Court Judge Alan B. Johnson, a Ronald Reagan appointee, wrote in his ruling.
...the judge rejected their arguments again, noting that Kappa Kappa Gammaâs bylaws donât define the words âwomanâ or âwomenâ to be exclusively referring to cisgender women. He even noted that the sorority âpublished and distributed multiple textsâ showing that its interpretation of those words is trans-inclusive, so the plaintiffs canât claim that their contract with the sorority was understood to mean that trans women would be excluded."
-via LGBTQ Nation, August 26, 2025
Gov. JB Pritzker has long been a staunch supporter of LGBTQ+ rights.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) announced a landmark free hotline for LGBTQ+ people in the state. Offered in both English and Spanish, the first-of-its-kind service launches today and will provide legal advice regarding housing, safety, health care access (including gender-affirming care), discrimination, identity documents, and more.
Pritzker announced the initiative, called Illinois Pride Connect, at an August 21 event with the Chicago Legal Council for Health Justice, which will run the hotline. âFor us to be able to go on offense, and not be on defense, is what I love about this state,â he said.
âBuilding upon the stateâs transgender and gender-diverse wellness and equity project that we launched at the beginning of 2024, we will be the only state in the entire United States that provides free legal advice to protect the LGBTQ community,â he said."
-via LGBTQ Nation, August 25, 2025
The judge said that drag shows "plainly involve expressive conduct within the protection of the First Amendment."
"A federal appeals court has ruled that West Texas A&M Universityâs ban on student organization drag performances violates the Constitutionâs First Amendment protections of free speech. The courtâs Thursday ruling overturns a 2023 district court ruling in favor of the university.
FIREâs lawsuit also claimed that Wendlerâs actions violated a campus free speech law signed by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) in 2020, which explicitly forbids universities from taking action against student organizations âon the basis of a political, religious, philosophical, ideological, or academic viewpoint expressed by the organization or [its] expressive activities.â
In its 2-1 decision issued last Thursday, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Leslie H. Southwick (an appointee of former President George W. Bush) wrote that theatric performances and drag shows, âplainly involve expressive conduct within the protection of the First Amendment.â"
-via LGBTQ Nation, August 19, 2025
The districts aren't giving up their pro-trans policies.
"Five Virginia school districts are refusing to revoke their transgender-inclusive policies that allow trans kids to use facilities matching their gender identity [and other policies about pronouns and sports teams], even though the current presidential administration has frozen the districtsâ congressionally approved federal education funding over the matter.
The school districts â Alexandria, Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, and Prince William â say that their policies are required by Title IX, the federal law prohibiting educational discrimination based on sex. But while the previous presidential administration interpreted the law as requiring schools to maintain trans-inclusive policies, the current one has claimed that such policies harm cisgender female students.
...The letter [from a local LGBTQ regional coalition] notes that over 3,000 Virginia families, teachers, and residents signed letters supporting the districtsâ pro-trans policies in the face of âunprecedented federal pressure,â adding, âThese policies and practices foster a culture that affirms the dignity of each student and celebrates our diversity as individuals.â
-LGBTQ Nation, August 18, 2025