“At a time when real-world violence and harassment against LGBTQ people is on the rise, social media companies are profiting from the flames of anti-LGBTQ hate instead of ensuring the basic safety of LGBTQ users,” said Sarah Kate Ellis, GLAAD’s president and CEO.
for transgender children coming from other states forin February that said the state’s human rights protections supersede
on sports, and the attorney general said his guidance is legally binding in Minnesota unless a court rules otherwise.“Trump’s burning desire to destroy trans kids and punish us for helping them live and thrive isn’t just a violation of law, it’s a violation of Minnesota values,” Ellison said. “And we’re not going to sell out trans kids or any vulnerable community just to stay in the good graces of a lawless administration.”The White House and Department of Justice did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the lawsuit.
But the top Republican in state government, House Speaker Lisa Demuth, of Cold Spring, backed Trump’s position.“It’s extremely disappointing that Attorney General Ellison would rather risk federal funding and file yet another taxpayer-funded lawsuit against the Trump administration than simply do the right thing and keep boys out of girls sports,” Demuth said in a statement. “It’s a waste of taxpayer money to further a political agenda that makes girls less safe and makes sports less fair.”
Ellison was joined at his news conference by parents of transgender children and human rights activists, incuding state Rep. Leigh Finke of St. Paul, Minnesota’s first openly transgender legislator. Addressing Trump and his supporters, Finke said LGBTQ+ people have always existed in every culture throughout history.
“No law, no policy, no hate-fueled campaign will ever change that. So I’m asking you to just please stop trying,” Finke said. “To those of you in that world who still are capable of hearing from those of us outside of it, understand this: All that we ask is to be left in peace, to live and love and without fear.”Cardinal Raymond Burke attends the conference “The synodal Babel” in a theater near the Vatican, Oct. 3, 2023. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, File)
Burke, 76, a staunch Catholic traditionalist,with the more reform-minded Francis. Born in Wisconsin, he was a bishop there before becoming archbishop of St. Louis from 2004 to 2008. Pope Benedict XVI made Burke a cardinal in 2010, after he appointed him prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, the Vatican’s high court. After Francis removed him from that post in 2014, he made Burke the cardinal patron of the Knights of Malta, a prestigious but limited role. There, too, Burke and Francis clashed over a governance crisis at the chivalric order;
. Burke has been outspoken in saying Catholic politicians shouldn’t take Communion if they support abortion rights.Cardinal Blase Cupich, archbishop of Chicago, speaks during an interview in Rome, May 25, 2023. (AP Photo/Paolo Lucariello, File)