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:

Crisis calls among Oklahoma LGBTQ+ youth drop after Ryan Walters quit his job as the state’s schools chief, by Christopher Wiggins

Sometimes, good things really do happen. One of the nation’s most virulently anti-LGBTQ+ education officials, Ryan Walters, has resigned—and the impact was immediate. Walters built his career on demonizing queer and transgender students, injecting a brand of far-right Christian fundamentalism into public education that left no space for difference or dignity. His tenure was defined by chaos and cruelty, culminating in the death of transgender student Nex Benedict, whose story sparked national outrage. Now, in the wake of his departure, something remarkable has occurred: youth crisis calls from LGBTQ+ people have dropped by 36 percent.

Sumner County fails to pass transgender book ban after fourth attempt, by Craig Shoup, Katie Nixon, and Angele Latham

Sumner County, a populous suburb of Nashville, has failed for the fourth time to pass a ban targeting transgender-related materials in its public libraries. The latest effort followed the appointment of Riley Gaines—one of the country’s most outspoken anti-trans activists—to the county library board. Her first meeting proved as unproductive as her past crusades: the board deadlocked in a 4–4 tie, blocking the measure once again. The proposal would have barred even adult access to books mentioning transgender people and banned interlibrary loans of such materials. Perhaps the fifth attempt will fare better—but history suggests otherwise.

Grokipedia’s ‘transgender’ page is an absolute dumpster fire, by Amelia Hansford

You may have missed it, but Elon Musk has launched a conservative, AI-generated knockoff of Wikipedia—and it’s every bit as disastrous as it sounds. Among its worst entries is the one on transgender people, which reads less like an encyclopedia and more like a manifesto of misinformation. The article buries credible research showing the benefits of gender-affirming care while elevating discredited pseudoscience that frames transition as harmful. It describes being transgender as a choice and a social contagion, citing debunked studies like Lisa Littman’s and the controversial Cass Report as evidence. In some sections, it even rewrites LGBTQ+ history, recasting figures like Marsha P. Johnson as side characters rather than trailblazers.