The Daily Populous Saturday February 22nd, 2025 night edition
Authored by glaad.org and submitted by AdSpecialist6598

Major legal victories break through the anti-LGBTQ fury of the current administration and anti-LGBTQ politicians against youth and teen populations across the country.

In Texas, the student-led policy organization Students Engaged in Advancing Texas (SEAT) championed additional temporary injunctions on a Texas law barring freedom of speech for minors. Meanwhile, New Jersey Superior Court upheld an injunction blocking three Monmouth County school districts from implementing policies that would’ve forcibly outed transgender, Two-Spirit and gender nonconforming students.

As part of its education and advocacy “Going Local” programming across the country, the GLAAD Media Institute (GMI) – GLAAD’s training, research and consulting division – convened meetings with local leaders and community advocates in Texas and New Jersey in recent months and years. Attendees who completed a program or session with the GLAAD Media Institute were immediately deemed GLAAD Media Institute Alumni, who are equipped to maximize community impact by leveraging their own story for culture change.

On August 16, 2024, Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) sued Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on behalf of three plaintiffs from SEAT who use the internet to communicate with young Texans and keep them informed on issues that affect them, shared FIRE and SEAT’s joint press release.

With that said, Judge Robert Pittman, in a 37-page decision, ordered a stop to the enforcement of three provisions of Texas law “Securing Children Online Through Parental Empowerment Act” (also known as the SCOPE Act or HB 18). Blocked provisions include required content monitoring and filtering, targeted advertising bans, and age-verification requirements.

“If we think we’re actually right, we have to take it up to the courts because our direct advocacy and organizing can only go so far,” GLAAD Media Institute Alum, Teen Vogue’s 2024 20 Under 20, and Deputy Executive Director of SEAT Da’Taeveyon Daniels said in opposition of the SCOPE ACT. “Getting the ruling back that we have right now, it sends a really strong message that young people’s rights matter.”

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Da’Taeveyon Daniels (@dataeveyond)

The act passed in the 2023 Legislature and has since had other injunctions, according to the Texas Tribune. However, the decision by Pittman concluded that the “parental rights” coveted legislation is “unconstitutionally over broad, vague, and not narrowly tailored to serve a compelling state interest.”

Additionally, the SCOPE ACT aims to prohibit content found to “promote, glorify, or facilitate … grooming, child pornography, suicide” among other trigger labels manufactured as a disguise for disinformation to be construed as fact, according to GLAAD research and guidance.

With all evidence in mind, “…the Court finds that HB 18 produces a ‘determinative or coercive effect’ on [social media companies], which results in preventing speech and produces Plaintiffs’ injuries, as is required to show standing,” Pittman ruled.

“When we (SEAT) think of social media , we have to view it as what it is, it’s more than entertainment, it’s a tool that we use for connection, advocacy, and survival, specifically LGBTQ+ youth,” Daniels said.

Laws like the SCOPE ACT do not protect LGBTQ youth or youth in general, the youth activist shared.

“We should be focusing on how we can teach youth people how to be safe online as opposed to basically secluding them for the duration of their lives just for them to be hit by whiplash at the ripe age of 18,” Daniels continued.

Daniels speaks to a larger calling for youth in public life and that is to educate instead of erase the lives and reality of young people.

In June of 2023 three school districts – Marlboro, Manalapan-Englishtown, and Middletown – amended their guidance for transgender students to have a forced outing measure. “Forced outing,” or “parental notification,” is when a school makes a decision to notify a parent of a student’s social transition at school. This is specific to the at-large transgender community, also an umbrella term for nonbinary and gender nonconforming identities.

These 2023 decisions of the board went directly against New Jersey’s best guidance in the original policy titled 5756. “The school district shall accept a student’s asserted gender identity; parental consent is not required,” reads the original guidance.

Following the institution of the forced outing measure, the office of the Attorney General swiftly followed the measure up with a civil rights complaint against all three school boards and filed motions in Superior Court to stop the policies from going into effect while the challenges were pending.

That’s exactly what happened. The policies were stopped.

ACLU of New Jersey, the law firm Lowenstein Sandler LLP, among Garden State Equality (New Jersey’s LGBTQ equality organization) argued before the Superior Court in November of 2024.

Just a few months later on February 10 New Jersey Superior Court upheld the injunctions in accordance with New Jersey’s Law Against Discrimination, stopping the forced outing measures from being introduced into these three Monmouth County schools.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Garden State Equality (@gsequality)

GLAAD Media Institute Alumni and Communications Manager at Garden State Equality Aedy Miller said she felt “relief and gratitude” when she heard that New Jersey’s Law Against Discrimination held public schools accountable.

“As I read the actual decision, I started to feel excited. It’s not every day you get to read a 34-page legal decision in which a powerful court outlines why and how New Jersey law unequivocally protects transgender and gender diverse students!” Miller said.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie passed NJ S3067 (16R) in 2017, requiring the state’s education commissioner to “develop guidelines for school districts (K-12) on addressing common issues concerning the needs of transgender students.”

Thus, Policy 5756 , or “Transgender Student Guidance for School Districts,” was born.

Nevertheless, it wasn’t long before Moms for Liberty attempted undoing decades of advocacy and legal victories for the LGBTQ community. Moms for Liberty has chapters within and along all the borders of the Garden State, including those it shares with major cities like New York City and Philadelphia, according to their website.

“Our trans youth deserve to be safe and affirmed in schools,” said GLAAD Media Institute Alum and Garden State Equality Project Manager and Trainer Hime Sarah Thomas. “The injunction allows for a level of security for trans youth to disclose their identities in their own time and comfortability without the fear of being outed against their will.”

The decision states that New Jersey’s anti-discrimination law makes it unlawful for schools to subject individuals to discrimination based on their “gender identity or expression,” showing how New Jersey’s Law Against Discrimination harm reduces instead of instigating it, reports journalists.

Erin in The Morning reported that: “This ruling reinforces that the state has both the legal right and a compelling interest in protecting transgender students from policies that would expose them to harm and discrimination.”

With that said, since “Transgender Student Guidance for School Districts,” is simply suggested guidance, it is likely these three school districts will abolish the policy. Brian Cohen, the president of the Marlboro Township Board of Education, told Patch news that the board members have been advised of three options going forward:

“Do nothing with the current policy (which would be Policy 5756, not the amended one “Amend Policy 5756 again, though the amendment could be subject to state action “Abolish or rescind Policy 5756”

With a number of elections coming up in 2025, New Jersey remains a battleground state for LGBTQ equality in the coming years. This means the fight is far from over, albeit, today’s good news.

For more, stay tuned to GLAAD’s election work.

So far, SEAT’s recent fight against censorship was covered in multiple legal outlets like Technology and Marketing Law Blog and Lawyer Monthly. They were also covered by local news like Texas Tribune, KXAN – NBC affiliate, Dallas News, and national news like Yahoo! (reprint of KXAN), and MediaPost.

So far, New Jersey’s school board victory was covered by national outlets like Erin in the Morning, and local outlets like NJ.com, Patch, Save Jersey, the Bergen Record, New Jersey Monitor, and Out in Jersey.

More about the GLAAD Media Institute: The GLAAD Media Institute provides training, consultation, and actionable research to develop an army of social justice ambassadors for all marginalized communities to champion acceptance and amplify media impact. Using the best practices, tools, and techniques we’ve perfected over the past 30 years, the GLAAD Media Institute turns education into armor for today’s culture war—transforming individuals into compelling storytellers, media-savvy navigators, and mighty ambassadors whose voices break through the noise and incite real change. Activate with the GLAAD Media Institute now at glaad.org/institute

SignificantHippo8193 on February 21st, 2025 at 18:24 UTC »

The fight will be long and hard, but if we're going to win we have to stay resolute. No matter what comes our way we have to fight the battle. During the civil rights era people fought for equality regardless of whether they thought it was coming or not because they knew what they were doing was right. Same with now. No matter what comes our way we can win as long as we keep up the fight.

Tu4dFurges0n on February 21st, 2025 at 13:48 UTC »

Gotta keep fighting the bigoted Republicans

Nunyafookenbizness on February 21st, 2025 at 13:30 UTC »

This is wonderful news!

Minorities are under attack, and we must unite to become the new majority to protect one another before it’s too late.

Don’t let them separate us, that was they are hoping for.