Indiana State Sen. J.D. Ford (D-Carmel) won the Democratic nomination for Indiana's 5th Congressional District in the May 5 primary election.
Ford, the first openly gay person elected to the Indiana General Assembly, will face Republican U.S. Rep. Victoria Spartz in the general election. In 2019, he proposed a bill to protect minors from conversion therapy. A year later, he introduced legislation to prohibit schools that discriminate against LGBTQ people or other protected groups from receiving taxpayer-funded school vouchers.
The U.S. Department of Education has opened a civil rights investigation into Smith College, accusing the all-women's school in Northampton, Massachusetts, of violating federal laws against sex-based discrimination by allowing transgender women to enroll.
The investigation marks the first time the Trump administration has targeted school admissions policies as part of its broader crackdown on transgender rights. Previously, the Education Department's Office for Civil Rights had focused primarily on transgender athletes competing on female sports teams and transgender restroom access.
Republicans have attached five anti-LGBTQ riders to the National Security and Department of State Appropriations Act for fiscal year 2027.
The bill, which funds the U.S. State Department and national security programs, is considered "must-pass" legislation. Lawmakers often attach riders -- unrelated provisions with little connection to the underlying bill -- to such measures in order to push through proposals that might not survive greater scrutiny.
According to an Instagram post from the Congressional Equality Caucus, Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee attached the anti-LGBTQ provisions to the funding bill.
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