Date

Year: 2026

Our Voices blog

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Shannon Minter Named to TIME100

There are advocates who chase the spotlight, and those who simply do the work. Shannon Minter, one of the most consequential civil rights attorneys of our generation, is unambiguously the latter. This past year I watched Shannon, the legal director of the National Center for LGBTQ Rights, argue in Talbott v. USA, representing transgender service members in their battle to continue to serve our country, while working in deep collaboration with partners including GLAD Law’s Jennifer...

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The Federal Bureau of Prisons Is Running a Conversion Therapy Program. We Must Not Let It Stand. 

On February 19, 2026, the Federal Bureau of Prisons issued a new policy on the “Management of Inmates with Gender Dysphoria.” The title sounds clinical. The reality is brutal: the federal government has now officially placed itself in the business of punishing transgender people for being who they are — by withdrawing their medical care, confiscating their personal belongings, and subjecting them to forced psychological treatment. It is, in every meaningful sense, a blueprint for a...

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The Supreme Court Is Deciding the Future of Conversion Therapy Protections. Here’s What You Need to Know. 

More than 30 years ago, the National Center for LGBTQ Rights (NCLR) began its fight to end conversion therapy — a dangerous practice that claims to be able to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity, causing devastating harm to LGBTQ+ youth and their families. In the decades since, that work has grown into NCLR’s Born Perfect, a national effort that has helped pass protections in 27 states, plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico,...

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Why We’re Fighting a Dangerous Federal Rule That Would Cut Off Health Care for Transgender Youth

By Shannon Minter, Legal Director at the National Center for LGBTQ Rights (NCLR) and Jennifer Levi, Senior Director of Transgender and Queer Rights at GLAD Law On February 17, 2026, NCLR joined GLAD Law and COLAGE in filing formal comments opposing a proposed federal rule that would devastate health care access for transgender young people across the country. Here’s what you need to know – and why this matters. What is this proposed rule? In December 2025, the Centers for Medicare...

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Black History Holds the Answers to Today’s Questions 

When I reflect on Black History Month, I think of the brilliant Black science fiction writer Octavia Butler. Her work masterfully tied together social justice and speculative futures. People often say she predicted the future. But what Butler really understood was power. She understood patterns. She understood what happens when fear, hierarchy, and oppression go unchecked.  In 2000, in an interview with Essence, Butler was asked what the answer was to...

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