Gov. Paul LePage has ordered the Maine Human Rights Commission and state's the Department of Education to cease issuing rules protecting transgender students.

Schools instead are being given guidelines that lack the force of law.

LePage spokeswoman Adrienne Bennett said LePage has read the court decision and believes it requires the Legislature to take action, and that new rules are not required.

Charlene Lauderdale was denied coverage for the procedures by her private insurance firm, which is funded through Medicare. But for the first time this month, a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services panel found that the insurance provider must cover the procedures.

The council finds that the vaginoplasty surgery requested in this case is covered and is the responsibility of the plan.

--Medicare Appeals Council

Earlier today the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia heard arguments about Gavin Grimm's request to use the boys bathroom at school. Grimm and the ACLU are suing the Gloucester County School Board.

The New England Patriots, Boston Bruins, Boston Celtics, and New England Revolution have all announced their support of legislation that would guarantee protections for transgender people in public accommodations in Massachusetts.

The Boston Red Sox announced their support in November.

I think that having not only New England’s most prominent cultural institutions, but also frankly the most iconic public accommodations that come with that — Fenway Park, TD Garden — really sends the message.

This issue has become mainstream and widely accepted.

--Kasey Suffredini, Freedom Massachusetts

The Fenway Institute and the Center for American Progress have joined forces to produce the policy brief state anti-transgender bathroom bills threaten transgender people’s health and participation in public life.

The Human Rights Commission of the state of Washington announced on December 26 a new set of rules governing use of sex-specific facilities.

In essence the state is officially recognizing transgender women to be women and transgender men to be men.

Of course, there are some folks who can't wrap their heads around that.

The Chicago Tribune's Rex Huppke Has attempted to bring some sanity into the case of the Palatine transgender strudent.

At the center of a suburban school board's dispute over allowing a transgender student access to the girls locker room there is, of course, a human being.

A teenage human being. A female teenage human being who I believe would appreciate it if people would stop trying to tell her who she is and who she is not.

That's the point, Rex.

At bottom, they do not accept that we are human beings.

A settlement was reached last week to allow this girl to use th girls locker room, but that didn't end the disagreement between the Department of Education and the school board, so the school board met again last night and reaffirmed the settlement.

We believe this is the best course of action for this student while balancing the needs of all the teenage students in our district. The district will accommodate gender-identified locker room access for this student predicated on agreement to use the privacy measures provided.

We are installing privacy curtains in our locker rooms, with the assurance that this student will use them.

--school board President Mucia Burke

The Illinois School District 211 school board in Palatine, Illinois voted in the wee hours of last evening to approve a settlement about a transgender girl's access to girl's locker room facilities, much to the apparent displeasure of many in the community.

With hundreds gathered in the cafeteria at Hoffman Estates Conant High School last evening, the majority speaking against any settlement, but apparently favoring rather punishment of the child who dares to be different.

Signs were carried by opponents to fairness which read:

As always, I would respond to that, using their own vernacular, with, "And God made transgender people, but your God is too limited to have done anything like that."

HUD Secretary Julián Castro has announced the agency has proposed a new rule to update the existing policy that bars discrimination against LGBT people seeking public housing or housing assistance from the federal government.

Under the new proposal HUD would provide access to housing and services based on a person's gender, not sex assigned at birth.

The recent spate of stories about the transgender teen in Palatine, IL has, among other things, drawn some real exhibition of lack of understanding...one might even call it ignorance...on the part of some of those commenting. It's the sort of thing one might expect to find from the right-wing commentariat rather than at Daily Kos.

It has made me question whether the 11 years I have spent posting at DK have done anything good whatsoever.

Tuesday's Editorial at WaPo An Illinois high school’s tragic discrimination against a transgender student serves a couple of necessary purposes beyond what I have written or what Kerry Eleveld has written about the situation.

First of all it will be read by more people. Secondly, it includes some facts previously not mentioned.

The writer begins by decrying the fear-mongering, which is good. When it comes to trans people, the Fearmongers Shoppe is always open.

The Fearmongers Shoppe, serving all your phobia needs since 1947.