Aqua RichJo | September 29, 2026 The Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to let it enforce restrictions on gender-affirming healthcare for transgender people in federal prisons while a lawsuit continues. The Justice Department filed the emergency request Monday, September 28. The Court has not ruled on it. The request puts a direct question before the justices: Can the Bureau of Prisons put its new policy into effect now, despite a lower-court order blocking it?

Aqua RichJo | September 29, 2026 The federal government has formally removed the Biden administration’s 2024 Title IX regulations and restored the 2020 regulations in the Code of Federal Regulations. The change takes effect today, September 29. The 2024 rule explicitly addressed discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity; the restored 2020 rule uses a narrower sexual-harassment standard and gives people accused of misconduct additional procedural protectio

Aqua RichJo | September 25, 2026 Two more major hospital systems have agreed to stop providing specified gender-affirming treatments to minors as part of federal settlements. NYU Langone Hospitals and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center will also pay a combined $9.45 million. The Justice Department says at least four other hospital systems have entered similar agreements. The money and the care restrictions are real terms of the latest agreements. The government’s all

Aqua RichJo| September 25, 2026 At UT Austin, students may still be able to take classes on Black women’s history, LGBTQ literature and women’s lives. But under the university’s redesigned core curriculum, none of the Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies courses submitted for review were approved to satisfy core requirements. That is a decision about what counts toward every undergraduate’s foundational education—and who gets to make that call. Reporting published September

Aqua RichJo| September 24, 2026 If a public university can decide a drag show is not protected expression, what happens to the next performance whose meaning officials dislike? That question was at the center of September 23 arguments before the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Judges heard two disputes over drag performances at Texas A&M System campuses. Student groups say the restrictions violate the First Amendment. The university defendants say they are regulating con

On September 15, the council unanimously denied the permit for Pride Kel-So’s planned October 3 festival at St. Martin-in-the-Fields Episcopal Church. Council members did not publicly explain their reasoning during the vote or ask co-organizer April Dreyson questions, according to KERA. That decision came after the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission recommended approval.