Introducing Bills to Limit Transgender Athletes from Playing Sports In 2020, twenty bills in eighteen states were introduced by state legislatures to limit athletes who are transgender from competing on sports teams. Only Idaho was successful in passing such a law. By the end of January 2021, these bills began to gain momentum again, with states once again introducing bills to limit athletes who are transgender from competing on sports teams. If the bills pass, these students would be…

On December 5, 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court heard the case of Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, a case about a baker who refused to sell a cake for a same-sex wedding reception because of his religious beliefs. The case began in 2012 when Charlie Craig and Dave Mullins, a same-sex couple, went to Masterpiece Cakeshop, a bakery in Lakewood, Colorado, to purchase a custom wedding cake for their wedding reception. The bakery owner, Jack Phillips, said that he would sell…

On July 27, 2015, the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) officially lifted its long standing ban on adult leaders who are openly gay. The Scouts’ 80-member National Executive Board approved the resolution that drops its blanket restriction on openly gay adult leaders and employees. This comes on the heels of a pivotal speech in May 2015 in which Robert Gates, president of the Boy Scouts of America, urged the lifting of the ban, saying that it was “unsustainable.” In 2013, the Boy…

Caitlyn Jenner has been in the news because she was recently interviewed on ABC’s 20/20 news program and came out as transgender; more than 16.8 million people tuned in to hear her story. Caitlyn Jenner’s fame spans several generations: she was an Olympic athlete in the 1970s where she won the decathlon, Jenner has been in several television programs and she’s also known by many people because of her marriage to Kris Kardashian Jenner and her participation on the reality show…

Middle and high school students, especially those who identify or are perceived as LGBQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual and queer or questioning), often face ongoing acts of homophobia. As LGBQ students go about their everyday lives in school, they can feel unsafe, miss school, be harassed and bullied, hear anti-gay slurs and other biased remarks and experience discriminatory policies and procedures. Despite the great strides our country has made in public opinion and positive legislation for LGBT…

On October 28, 2009, President Barack Obama signed into law the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act (HCPA). The HCPA allows the federal government to provide assistance in the investigation and prosecution of hate crimes—or, in limited circumstances, to investigate and prosecute hate crime cases when a locality is unable or unwilling to prosecute. Second, it ensures that crimes which target their victims because of race, color, religion, national origin, gender…

Over the past several years, there has been a dramatic increase in the visibility of transgender people and the understanding of transgender issues. Polls show that most Americans believe they know what being transgender means and overwhelmingly feel that our laws should protect transgender people. At the same time, transgender and gender non-conforming people face injustice in every aspect of their lives: at home, in schools, in workplaces, in doctors’ offices and emergency rooms and in…

[Updated]On June 26, 2015, in a 5-4 decision the Supreme Court of the United States held that that the 14th Amendment requires a state to license a marriage between two people of the same sex and to recognize marriages lawfully performed in other jurisdictions. This means that marriage equality is now the law of the land in all 50 states. Prior to this historic day, 37 states plus the District of Columbia had legalized marriage for same-sex couples. This lesson provides an…