Latest news with #TransLashMedia
Yahoo
31-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
In Memphis, Kayla Gore is building homes — and a future — for Black trans people
While lawmakers across the country push a record number of anti-LGBTQ+ bills, in Tennessee, Kayla Gore is pushing back — not just through protest but with power tools, persistence, and vision. In a quiet stretch of Memphis, she's creating something remarkable: a neighborhood of tiny homes designed to house Black transgender people and nonbinary individuals impacted by housing insecurity. Her nonprofit, My Sistah's House, founded in 2016, is reimagining what safety and autonomy can look like in the South. Keep up with the latest in + news and politics. Gore and her work are featured in the GLAAD Media Award-nominated documentary American Problems, Trans Solutions, hosted and produced by Emmy and Peabody-winning trans journalist Imara Jones, the founder of TransLash Media. The film follows Gore alongside Breonna McCree and Oluchi Omeoga, each a leading visionary, community-rooted response to systemic failures — from housing inequality to immigrant justice. Gore appears in the film walking through the lots she and her team have developed for trans and nonbinary people in need, describing the homes with pride. 'It really helps people who would never, ever in their wildest dreams think they could own a home,' she says in the documentary. The Advocate recently spoke to Gore about her work and the documentary. 'We wanted to build sheds,' Gore said, remembering how the project took root during the pandemic and Black Lives Matter uprisings. 'That was the original goal. But the support came in so strong, we started buying land. An architect reached out. We realized — we could actually build homes.' Related: Tennessee Senate passes bill making 'recruiting' for trans youth care a felony Today, My Sistah's House has completed 11 homes, each one filled. 'The 11th house will be occupied on the first [of April],' Gore told The Advocate. 'Somebody's moving in.' More are on the way. But Gore is clear: This work is not aspirational — it's urgent. My Sistahs House Memphis Tennessee Kayla Gore completed tiny Black for My Sistah's House According to the American Civil Liberties Union, 527 anti-LGBTQ+ bills are advancing in state legislatures across the country. Tennessee, where Gore's work is based, is among the worst. In 2025 alone, the ACLU is tracking more than a dozen bills in the state targeting health care, education, and legal recognition for LGBTQ+ people — especially transgender Tennesseans. 'These policies don't just create stigma — they cause homelessness,' Gore told The Advocate. 'We're already blocked out of economics. Then you repeal HUD's Equal Access Rule, and trans people lose even the minimal protections we had in shelters.' Transgender people — particularly Black and Brown trans individuals — face alarming rates of housing instability. According to the 2022 U.S. Transgender Survey conducted by the National Center for Transgender Equality, nearly 30 percent of transgender people have experienced homelessness at some point in their lives due to their gender identity. For transgender people of color, the rates are even higher. According to a 2022 Harvard Civil Rights - Civil Liberties Law Review report, 41 percent of Black trans people have experienced homelessness. The Equal Access Rule, first established by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development under President Barack Obama in 2012 and expanded in 2016, required that people seeking shelter be housed in accordance with their gender identity rather than their sex assigned at birth. It barred shelter providers from intrusive questioning or requiring anatomical or medical documentation. The rule was designed to ensure that transgender people could access HUD-funded shelters safely and without discrimination — including emergency shelters with shared sleeping or bathing facilities. However, on February 7, HUD Secretary Scott Turner announced the agency would halt enforcement of the rule, declaring that HUD programs would now be guided by 'biological truth' and provide services 'based on sex at birth.' Housing advocates, including the National Low Income Housing Coalition, condemned the rollback, emphasizing its harmful impact on already vulnerable transgender people and pledging to continue fighting for equal access. Gore says the rollback of Equal Access has real consequences: 'Trans people are being turned away. We hear it directly from people applying for shelter.' Gore and her team working on a new Black for My Sistah's House 'Well, it's not affecting us in a way of funding because we don't get federal funding,' she said. 'But without the strong enforcement of the equal access rule, like many trans people, specifically here in Memphis, they're going to be displaced, they're going to be homeless, and, I mean, that's just the bottom line about it.' Related: Gore knows this firsthand. She once experienced homelessness in Arizona after losing her job — and says housing became even harder to access once she began her gender transition. 'I had a roof but no stove, no fridge. I was barely able to close my door,' she recalled. 'So when I bought my own home, I thought — we can pay this forward. That's how My Sistah's House started.' The homes are modest, light-filled, and permanent. Built through a mutual aid model, they bypass traditional barriers like credit checks and down payments. Residents now sign rental agreements, but Gore envisions a future where a community land trust enables ownership. 'We're in the process of forming a community land trust,' she told The Advocate. 'Some students at the University of Memphis are promising to work with us online, getting through the legal part of forming an actual community land trust so that it protects everybody involved — the organization, our residents, and the people in the adjacent houses.' But the path forward isn't easy. Gore's success has drawn attention — and rising land prices. Lots that once cost $2,500 now go for $15,000. So, the organization is pivoting. A drop-in center and emergency shelter are in the works to meet growing needs on a plot of land that is zoned accordingly. My Sistahs House Memphis Tennessee Kayla Gore new residentsSean Black for My Sistah's House Since the Trump administration returned to office and began targeting transgender people with executive orders, Gore said demand for services has surged. 'In recent months, we've seen more housing requests than the entire previous year,' she said. Still, there are moments of hope when talking about a family who moved from a shelter into one of the homes, Gore beams. 'That was a full-circle moment,' she said. 'And people in the neighborhood want to move in too because they see the beauty of these homes.' TK CAPTIONSean Black for My Sistah's House Her neighbors in South Memphis and Glenview are curious — and often supportive. Some ask how to rent one. Others admire the design. Gore said their interest signals a shift in how trans-led development is viewed — but she also pointed to persistent barriers. 'If a white gay man is living on the street, property values go up,' she said. 'But add Black trans women, and suddenly people think it brings the community down.' Gore emphasized that transgender people still face structural and cultural exclusion, even when their presence improves neighborhoods. 'People should be throwing land at us," she said, 'but instead, we have to fight for every lot.' In American Problems, Trans Solutions, Gore explains the practice of putting signs up at construction sites: a signal of pride and presence. 'We don't put them up at occupied homes — we don't want to put anyone at risk. But while we're building, it creates visibility and normality.' Related: Under Trump, U.S. government now supports Tennessee law against gender-affirming care Gore lays out her dream: a world where My Sistah's House doesn't have to exist. She admits she said as much in the documentary, but in light of the new Republican regime and escalating threats to transgender rights, she added, 'In this climate, it's just not foreseeable for us to even think that right now.' For Transgender Day of Visibility, My Sistah's House is hosting a citywide rally in Memphis. The bridge will be lit in the trans flag's colors. The mayor will be there. So will the community. 'People say, 'Don't you want to move to a blue state?'' Gore said. 'But the work is here. Memphis is a blue city in a red state. Our local government supports us. And our community needs us.' Watch the documentary below. - YouTube
Axios
03-03-2025
- Politics
- Axios
Trump executive order bans transgender athletes from women's sports
President Trump again targeted transgender people in a Wednesday executive order barring transgender women and girls from competing in girls' and women's sports. The big picture: The executive order denies federal funds for schools that allow trans women or girls to play in capacities corresponding with their gender identity, the latest in an onslaught against gender and diversity. Schools that don't abide by the order will be considered in violation of Title IX, which could jeopardize their access to federal funding. The order also calls for Secretary of State Marco Rubio to pressure the International Olympic Committee to create standards so that eligibility for women's sporting events is determined by sex rather than gender identity. The latest: The NCAA announced Thursday that it's updating its participation policy for transgender student-athletes in light of Trump's executive order. The new policy, effective immediately, limits competition in women's sports to those assigned female at birth only, per the NCAA, which includes more than 530,000 student-athletes nationwide. Student-athletes assigned male at birth are allowed to practice with women's teams, the association noted. State of play: Before the order was signed, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the White House would host women athletes to discuss their experiences with trans women in sports. LGBTQ media organization GLAAD said in a statement: "All women and girls, including transgender women and girls, should be welcome to play sports if they want, make decisions about their own bodies, be hired for jobs they are qualified for, and be free from lawless attacks by elected officials." Context: Attacks on trans people were a major focus of Trump's recent presidential campaign. The GOP's official 2024 party platform vowed to "keep men out of women's sports," and Republican lawmakers have led similar national efforts. In addition to the executive orders, federal websites with information about trans health care have been shut down. The executive orders have targeted legal recognition of trans people, youth gender-affirming care and transgender service members in the military. Zoom in: Advocacy organizations have launched legal challenges to these executive orders, arguing that they threaten human rights and are unconstitutional. What they're saying: TransLash Media CEO Imara Jones said in a statement after Trump signed the order that it is not just about politics but "the ability of trans people — in this case, trans athletes — to exist and participate in society." "This is also an attempt to bend the education, America's last universal public good, to the will of an Administration built on centralized control," Jones added. "For those concerned about America's slide into authoritarianism - this is what it looks like, and this is just the beginning." Go deeper: All of the anti-trans executive orders Trump has signed Trump admin lays out framework for order targeting transgender protections Editor's note: This article has been updated with the NCAA's new policy.
Yahoo
02-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
How Trump and Musk's agenda is shaping up to be full-on class warfare
When it comes to the House GOP budget, Trump's new 'Gold Card' visa for wealthy foreigners, or any other policy coming out of the White House, there is a common denominator: good for the extremely wealthy, bad for everyone else. MSNBC's Ayman Mohyeldin is joined by Francesca Fiorentini, Co-Host of the 'America Unhinged' podcast and Imara Jones, Founder and CEO or TransLash Media to discuss the all-out class warfare being waged by the GOP and what can be done about it.
Yahoo
29-01-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
"Carte blanche to enact violence": Expert warns that Trump's pardons will fuel anti-LGBTQ+ extremism
President Donald Trump's first days in office have seen many Americans' freedoms rolled back at a lightning pace as he has fired off dozens of executive orders reversing Biden-era policies on everything from diversity policies to who has the right to call themselves a citizen. On Day 1, Trump unilaterally defined sex so as to exclude gender-expansive people and include references implicating fetal personhood, setting the stage for a national ban on abortion and emergency contraception. Meanwhile, a flurry of actions sought to restrict opportunities for people seeking refuge in the United States, as well as targeting their children by attempting to end birthright citizenship, suspending asylum and refugee resettlement, and sending troops to the U.S.-Mexico border to deter irregular crossings. He also began his presidency by pardoning some 1,500 far-right supporters serving sentences for storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. In a moment marked by levels of political violence unseen in decades — including two attempts on Trump's own life last year — the president's moves lay the foundation for such violence to flourish under his administration — and attacks on transgender people will be at the forefront of it, argues Imara Jones, CEO and founder of TransLash Media and host of "The Anti-Trans Hate Machine" podcast, which most recently chronicled the links between far-right paramilitary groups and anti-trans hate at the local level. Data makes the threat clear, she said: 2023 saw the highest number of active anti-LGBTQ+ and white nationalist groups ever recorded, according to a Southern Poverty Law Center report that documented 86 anti-LGBTQ+ hate groups and 166 white nationalist chapters. The report also found that nearly 50% of white power demonstrations held in 2023 targeted LGBTQ+ people. Jones, a journalist who last year interviewed Proud Boy founder Gavin McInnes, spoke with Salon about how she anticipates such political violence will manifest in the latest Trump-era, how the pardons will boost anti-trans violence — and how Americans could combat extremists' push toward authoritarianism before its too late. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. We've seen Donald Trump pardon around 1,500 Jan. 6 rioters and sign an executive order federally excluding gender-expansive Americans on government forms, etc. What impact are you seeing these actions having with respect to this rise in political violence we've seen as of late, this past year in particular? We know that we are in an era of political violence unseen since the 1970s — that's a fact. And we know from the Southern Poverty Law Center, that an increasing focus of far-right paramilitary groups is violence against trans people and LGBTQ+ writ large. In our latest investigative series in "The Anti-Trans Hate Machine," we dug deep into the obsession of paramilitary groups with trans people and enforcing the gender binary and the way in which they were using that in order to recruit and keep themselves alive during the Biden administration, and then to make common cause with local Republican politicians, to strengthen their bonds. Therefore, the release of these insurgents — many of which are highly trained both in terms of paramilitary tactics and approaches, and who served in the U.S. armed forces — radically altered the security environment in the United States and opens up to an even more heightened and dangerous period of political violence. Enrique Tarrio, who led the Proud Boys, said ... upon his release that ["success is going to be retribution"]. That means that they're coming out to settle scores, and they're coming out to target the politicians and the people that they believe should be targeted. I think among that will be members of the LGBTQ+ community and trans people. They believe that not only have they been pardoned, but they've been given a green light by this administration to do whatever they think they should do because of, for example, the nomination of Kash Patel in the FBI and even Trump saying that he's open to inviting some of them to the White House for a conversation. They believe that they now have carte blanche to enact violence and intimidation in whatever way they think is in service to their largely patriarchal vision for the country. What kind of political violence are you anticipating over the course of these next several months, next few years, and against trans and gender-expansive folks in particular? Well, I think that we can see a range of things. I am basing my response upon what we have already seen, with an anticipation that it will increase. We know that, for example, there were a series of bomb threats to gender-affirming clinics and hospitals across the country. I think that we can move from actual bomb threats to actual bombs, very similar to what we saw in the anti-abortion movement. I think that we could see the targeting of both events — Pride events and marches — and demonstrations and protests by these groups. We know that, and have seen that in the past, when there have been protests for marches about people or topics that they disagree with, they show up and those have turned violent. I think that those will now be even more violent. I think that this will encourage individuals to share the ideology and follow these groups online, to act violently in themselves, such as the person who attended a massive rally in Wadsworth, Ohio and then went and tried to firebomb a church that was supportive of trans and LGBTQ+ people. I just think that we are going to see all types of violence from physical violence and intimidation and confrontation to gun violence, individual acts of gun violence and possible bombings and more. We have to prepare ourselves for a much more turbulent and disturbing future because these groups have been given the green light. Can you break down the link you've identified between these paramilitary groups and the anti-trans ideology that they espouse, and how that's influencing their approach to brokering connections with GOP officials at all levels of government? Around the world, a lot of radical insurgent movements have a violent wing. The Sinn Féin had the [Irish Republican Army], for example. And in Nazi Germany, the party had the brownshirts. If you establish a social order, muscle is an essential ingredient in that. What we see on this particular issue is that these paramilitary groups have a political vision for the United States. It ranges in how radical it is, but all want patriarchal authoritarianism in the United States. Whether it's Blood Tribe or Proud Boys or Oath Keepers or Patriot Front, they all want that. Proud Boys would say that they want patriarchal democracy but understand that authoritarianism is a part of that. Then Blood Tribe just wants straight-up Nazism. Because they have a political vision, they are looking for the people and places who share that vision and can help bring that about. One of the things that gravitated Proud Boys, for example, to Donald Trump — and he's very aware of this — is his anti-trans rhetoric. He's chosen to pull close a group of violent people as a part of his project through his anti-trans rhetoric. And anti-trans rhetoric from some of the Proud Boys that were interviewed by the Jan. 6 committee was an important affinity point, both for their membership and for their connection to Donald Trump. Ideology in conversation is a way that both members of paramilitary groups and radical politicians are able to find each other and begin to work together — and we see that across the country. We see that in a place like Idaho that we talk about: an LGBTQ+ event in Coeur d'Alene. A radical politician in that state gave a talk in front of a paramilitary militia type of group and encouraged them to show up at this LGBTQ+ Pride event in a demonstration of force and intimidation. And they did. So there's a way in which anti-trans ideology cuts through the noise and allows both politicians at the federal level and at the state and local level to find each other and to begin to work together. And what they're doing is shifting the tone of democracy in America. You used the term earlier "patriarchal authoritarianism." Could you briefly lay out what that means? All these groups — and they share this kind of conversation with members of the Trump administration like Pete Hegseth and all these other people — they have a diagnosis that America ceased to be great when it began to move away from patriarchy. And I would say white patriarchy. The Proud Boys would dispute. They'd say, "We have Black and brown members." But essentially it's white patriarchy. That's their diagnosis: The country is in decline and declined when it began to move away from a patriarchal vision — when men ruled, when women were without rights, when we didn't accommodate people who are LGBTQ+, who have disabilities, who they believe weaken the overall country. What they took is that we need to reassert — echoing Mark Zuckerberg — masculinity. We need to reassert masculine control in the country and masculine energy, but the way that you have to do that, given the reality, is through authoritarianism. I think that they all have a patriarchal authoritarian view. What the Proud Boys would say is that you have patriarchal authoritarianism, which reasserts the role of men, and then you can have democracy because essentially men will have more rights in the democracy. Patriot Front and Blood Tribe are not interested in democracy. In the final episode of "The Anti-Trans Hate Machine" this past season, you attempt to lay out some potential ways to combat this rising tide in violence, naming education, law enforcement and individual deradicalization as a few options. But in the current climate — and the one that's being introduced by the new Trump administration — how would you say now we combat what seems to be this inevitable rise in policy rolling back individual rights and the potential for violence that comes with it? That's a really good question. Well, it's much harder. I just want to say that. A part of what we were talking about is education. We know that they intend to weaponize the Civil Rights [Office] at the Education Department and talk about discrimination against white people, against cis kids, about a whole host of things. There still is something called federalism in the United States. Schools are overwhelmingly controlled at the local level. Many states have their own version of the Justice Department and/or the FBI. Georgia has the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, for example. Other states have similar things. I don't think this could happen with Georgia, but it's just to illustrate that there are state structures that can implement some of the things that we talk about. The focus would really have to shift to the states as a possibility. But that means that the progress would be slow and uneven. And because of the very successful Republican attempts to control state legislatures, that becomes much harder. So I think it is much, much, much harder to bring about the solutions that we outlined, which means that we're on a train that's gaining momentum. What's happened is that a lot of the possibilities for the breaks to be applied have been removed. And it's hard to see how this train, which is hurtling us towards a much more violent and turbulent nation, is easily stopped. Is there any room for hope with everything that's getting harder? Are there any solutions on the table? Yes, and the hope is that people wake up. That, once it becomes clear that we are on the verge of crossing over into this era of political violence that might be unstoppable, the American people say that that's not the future that they want. That's the hope. But people haven't woken up yet. And I don't understand, overall, why they haven't, and I don't understand why people don't understand what's happening in terms of us moving into a more authoritarian era with fascism now very much on the march. And how might they go about [opposing this]? Electing different people, demanding authorities take action, putting pressure on state and local politicians and state and local public safety officials and apparatus to take action, to demand that schools teach tolerance. I think that's the hope: is that the people rise up democratically and say, "This isn't what we want, and we want you to stop it. And if you don't stop it, we are going to fire you because that's what we get to do in a democracy." Democracy — it's asleep right now in so many ways. I think that my hope is that it wakes up and awakens in the people. And if that happens, this can all go away.
