An LGBTQ market in Texas shut down after complaints, activists raised funds to replace an LGBTQ plaque in Louisiana, and the Supreme Court is debating upholding a ban on trans youth care.
LGBTQ Market Shuts Down After Complaints
An LGBTQ-friendly street market in Dallas that predominantly promotes small queer businesses was shut down by the city following complaints from other local businesses, according to Kera News.
Local business owner Donna Barnard said she filed a complaint to the city because the market slowed down foot traffic to stores on weekends.
However, she said her intention wasn’t to shut down the whole market. Barnard sent a follow-up letter asking for the decision to be reversed.
The city responded and cited other issues with the market, such as violations of street closure requirements, but didn’t specify which rules it broke.
An online petition has garnered hundreds of signatures pleading for the market’s return.
Activists Raise Funds To Replace Historic LGBTQ Plaque
Site of the UpStairs Lounge, 2019. Photo by Deisenbe, via Wikimedia Commons.
A plaque memorializing one of the deadliest attacks on the LGBTQ community was stolen earlier this year. Now, activists are raising money to replace it.
The plaque memorialized the Upstairs Lounge fire in New Orleans in 1973. The bronze marker listed the 32 victims who died when an arsonist set fire to the gay bar.
Though a man was arrested in connection with the theft, Frank Perez, head of the LGBTQ Archive of Louisiana, said the empty gap in the brick sidewalk where the marker was placed reminds him of a darker time.
“I’m old enough to remember when it was not okay to be gay,” Perez said.
Supreme Court Debates Upholding Ban On Trans Youth Care
Photo via Adobe.
The Supreme Court is considering a challenge to a Tennessee law that restricts gender transition treatments for minors, according to NBC News.
The conservative-majority court is reportedly leaning to upholding that law. Court discussions implicated that many justices didn’t believe the law was a form of sex discrimination.
The state measure, which was enacted last year, also bans puberty blockers and hormone therapy.
Liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor highlighted the impact state bans on gender-affirming care have had on youth.
"The evidence is very clear that there are some children who actually need this treatment," Sotomayor said. “So courts have a duty to take a close look at the government's rationale for enacting laws to ensure that those children who are going to suffer all of these consequences will be made to do so only when it's compelling.”
Conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh seemed to disagree, pointing to other countries that have restricted access to this care.
"It strikes me as a pretty heavy yellow light, if not red light, for this court to come in, the nine of us, and to constitutionalize the whole area, when the rest of the world … are pumping the brakes on this kind of treatment," Kavanaugh said.
