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Florida - Transgender teenager quits Irish dance competition after pressure from elected officials. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, and Representatives Randy Fine (FL-6) and Greg Steube (FL-17) all wrote letters to An Coimisiún Le Rincí Gaelacha, or CLRG (the Dublin-based governing body for Irish dance), and the Irish Dance Teachers’ Association of North America, or IDTANA, ahead of the North American Irish Dance Championships, which were held in Orlando, to pressure the organizations to ban a trans girl from participating with other girls. Uthmeier went as far as to threaten legal action against CLRG and IDTANA if a transgender girl was allowed to compete. Following this, the dancer in question decided not to participate. Kansas - University of Kansas sends written warning to transgender employee about bathroom use. Siobhán Kirchstein, a transgender woman who works as a janitor at the University of Kansas, was reported for using the women’s restroom, as she has done for years without incident. The University emailed Kirchstein, making clear the consequences of violating Kansas’s anti-trans bathroom ban law. Individuals reported twice for using the bathroom aligned with their gender identity, rather than their sex assigned at birth, can face a $1,000 fine, and a subsequent violation can result in arrest on a misdemeanor charge. The university also can face fines of $25,000 for a first violation of the law and $125,000 for each subsequent violation. Maine - Supreme Court keeps anti-trans initiative off the ballot. The Maine Supreme Judicial Court affirmed the Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows’ decision to remove an initiative to ban trans students from using facilities or participating in sports aligned with their gender identity from the November ballot. The Court unanimously held that “The petition fell below the constitutional threshold for an initiative petition to be submitted to the voters of Maine.” Maryland - Two parents, backed by conservative nonprofit, sue Anne Arundel County Public Schools over trans-affirming policies. The parents – who claim they were unaware that their child wished to be referred to by a masculine name and male pronouns at school – are suing, seeking temporary and permanent injunctions barring school officials from referring to their child by “anything other than her legal name” and for a declaration that the school system’s policies that students are called by their “preferred names and pronouns in the school setting,” are illegal.
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