President Biden has signed an executive order repealing the Trump administration’s ban on transgender people serving in the military. Biden also ordered the Pentagon to review the files of troops who were forced out because of the ban and to immediately halt discharges of transgender troops now serving. Lieutenant Colonel Bree Fram, vice president of the transgender military advocacy organization SPART*A, welcomed the news. 

Lt. Col. Bree Fram: “We believe, with four or eight more years of open service, looking back, you’ll see a military without transgender people just as unconscionable as one would be without other minorities that are serving today.”

Puerto Rico’s governor has declared a state of emergency over gender-based violence, following at least 60 incidents of femicide reported in 2020. Six of the murders were of trans women.

Meanwhile, right-wing state lawmakers in Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota are pushing a number of new anti-trans bills. We’ll have more on the fight over trans rights after headlines with the ACLU’s Chase Strangio.