The Lavender Ledger: Your Strategic LGBTQ+ Reader By Erin In The Morning

Our service for the week to cover the news we did not carry but do not want you to miss.

Inside EITM’s newsroom, we track dozens of breaking stories weekly—tips flood in from readers embedded in state houses, school boards, and organizations across the country. Our sources are everywhere. But here’s our strategic dilemma: while we’re chasing down original leads and working our exclusive angles, critical intelligence is moving through other channels that deserves your attention.

Consider this your weekend drop.

These are the stories that crossed our desk, passed our vetting, and matter to LGBTQ+ people—reported by trusted outlets while we were deep in our own investigations. Think of it as our intelligence-sharing agreement with you: the essential coverage from across the LGBTQ+ media landscape that we’ve been monitoring, verified, and deemed operationally significant.

This week’s important releases:

Trump admin is trying to deport LGBTQ+ asylum-seekers to countries where they’d be killed, lawyers say, Christopher Wiggins - The Advocate

Anti-immigrant actions by the Trump administration have dominated headlines in recent weeks, from ICE raids in major cities to the brutal treatment of citizens and noncitizens alike. Now, new reporting suggests those policies may place transgender and queer people in mortal danger. According to emerging accounts, the administration is advancing deportation practices that would send LGBTQ+ people back to countries such as Uganda, where they face severe persecution—and, in some cases, death. In other instances, individuals are reportedly being removed to third countries with which they have no connection at all, leaving them exposed to violence with no support or protection. The full, deeply disturbing reporting is available at The Advocate and deserves close attention.

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Council of Europe votes to pass trans-inclusive ban on conversion therapy, by Amelia Hansford - Pink News

In Europe, there has been a huge fight over whether or not to ban conversion therapy across the European Union’s 26 member states. This effort has been opposed by anti-transgender groups, including TERF organizations who find the conversion therapy of transgender peopel completely acceptable, regardless of how they feel about LGB conversion therapy. Despite significant lobbying by anti-transgender organiations like Sex Matters, this week the vote advanced at the Council of Europe. The 71-member body voted in favor of the ban, with only 26 members voting against it.

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The Trojan Horse Before the Supreme Court, by Michael Waters - NY Mag

I have long argued that the transgender athlete ban now before the Supreme Court of the United States is a doorway the far right intends to use to restrict transgender people across nearly every aspect of public life. In a new piece for Intelligencer at New York Magazine, journalist Michael Waters lays out exactly how that strategy works. Once courts bless discrimination against transgender people in sports, the same legal logic can be extended to housing, education, and beyond. It is an argument we have been making at Erin In The Morning for some time, and it is notable—and important—to see it articulated in a major legacy outlet.