The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday upheld a lower court’s decision that blocked enforcement of an Arizona law banning transgender girls from playing on public schools’ sports team that correspond with their gender identity.

Then-Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican, in 2022 signed the law.

The Associated Press reported the parents of two trans girls challenged the law in a lawsuit they filed in U.S. District Court in Tucson, Ariz., in April 2023. U.S. District Judge Jennifer Zipps on July 20, 2023, blocked the law.

Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne, who was named as a defendant in the lawsuit, appealed the ruling to the 9th Circuit. Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes is not defending the law.

A three-judge panel on the 9th Circuit unanimously upheld Zipps’s ruling.

“We are pleased with the 9th Circuit’s ruling today, which held that the Arizona law likely violates the Equal Protection Clause and recognizes that a student’s transgender status is not an accurate proxy for athletic ability and competitive advantage,” said Rachel Berg, a staff attorney for the National Center for Lesbian Rights, in a press release.

NCLR represents the two plaintiffs in the case.

This weekend, the heat wasn’t the only thing taking over Los Angeles. NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists was hosting its convention in Hollywood. This weekend was slated to be the biggest and most attended conference NLGJA has ever seen.

The NLGJA conference is hosted annually in a different city, focusing on uplifting and supporting LGBTQ journalists who have often been overlooked in newsrooms across the U.S. This year it’s in Los Angeles at the Loews Hollywood Hotel, right off the famous Hollywood Boulevard. The conference has an extensive range of events including networking meetings, panel discussions with LGBTQ media giants and workshops, all designed to aid LGBTQ journalists.

The mission of NLGJA is to “advance fair and accurate coverage of LGBTQ+ communities and issues” and “promote diverse and inclusive workplaces.” NLGJA has worked toward this mission since 1990, when Leroy F. Aarons founded the association.

Los Angeles last hosted the conference in 2003, the year discrimination protections for sexual orientation and gender identity expression became state law. It was held at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel that year and attendance included more than 500 journalists from around the nation.

The city has a vibrant gay scene — West Hollywood (often referred to as WeHo) has more than 40 percent of residents identifying within the LGBTQ community, holds the record for the earliest lesbian publication in the U.S. with Vice Versa in 1947, and hosted the first Pride parade in the U.S. (alongside New York and Chicago.)

This year has a long lineup of convention speakers touching on multiple themes. The lineup includes actors Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Zachary Quinto, who will talk about their upcoming projects; CNN national news correspondent David Culver to discuss accurate social media reporting; Los Angeles Times reporter Tracy Brown to dissect pop culture reporting; and many more.

The conference talks cover a wide variety of topics, but all center around maximizing coverage of LGBTQ communities in traditional and new age media. Other key topics include how and why outlets need to diversify newsrooms as well as how to properly cover the ongoing and nuanced fight for transgender rights in America.

Besides professional talks, the conference offers LGBTQ journalists a way to strengthen their community, much of which is achieved outside the conference halls. One way the conference does this is by hosting a “night OUT” at a local gay bar where discussions of journalist-source relations, how to navigate being the only queer person in the newsroom, and what to say to allies when they begin to encroach on unfriendly rhetoric are just some of the topics that can be heard from attendees.

In addition to talks and community building, the conference is giving out awards to LGBTQ journalists who have made significant contributions to the coverage of LGBTQ issues in the past year. Awardees include popular social media journalist Erin Reed, the Texas Newsroom’s Lauren McGaughy, “Journalist of the Year” Steven Romo and many more.

This conference is crucial for the ongoing professional development of LGBTQ journalists, providing a unique opportunity to connect with peers, share experiences and gain insights from others within their community.

For more information, visit NLGJA’s website at www.nlgja.org.

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