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Two bills condemned by members of Wisconsin’s trans community and their allies advanced out of Assembly committees Tuesday on party-line votes, teeing them up for an Assembly floor vote later this week. Gov. Tony Evers has vowed to veto both measures if they reach his desk. Public hearings last week that lasted for hours drew impassioned testimony from opponents of the legislation. ... Both bills were scheduled for Thursday’s Assembly floor session before the committees took their votes. (Gunn, 10/11)

Two national LGBTQ rights groups, a North Carolina doctor and a family with a transgender child are challenging a new North Carolina law preventing transgender minors from receiving gender-affirming health care. The coalition argues in a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday that the law discriminates on the basis of gender identity and infringes on the right of parents to make medical decisions on behalf of their children. (Migdon, 10/11)

Today, National Coming Out Day is often seen as a mainstream, social-media-focused event, but its origins 35 years ago lie in a desperate push for more visibility as tens of thousands of people were dying in part because of government inaction. (Neus, 10/11)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: PrEP, A Key HIV Prevention Tool, Isn’t Reaching Black Women 

Alexis Perkins thought her OB-GYN’s office in Atlanta would be just the place to get a prescription for the type of drug that reduces a person’s risk of contracting HIV. But during a recent visit, the medical assistant who greeted her had not heard of the medicines known as preexposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, and she seemed uncomfortable discussing it, Perkins said. Her provider had heard of it but didn’t feel confident prescribing it. (Whitehead, 10/12)

Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration is trying to fend off a potential class-action lawsuit that alleges the state has not provided adequate information to Medicaid beneficiaries before dropping them from the health-care program. Attorneys for the state Agency for Health Care Administration and the Department of Children and Families on Friday filed court documents arguing that a federal judge should reject requests to issue a preliminary injunction and to make the lawsuit a class action. (Saunders, 10/10)

During the same weekend that California took its first steps toward securing universal health coverage, the state’s top three Democratic Senate candidates emphasized that the issue remains very much a part of the health care debate. While the issue has stalled at the federal level, the push toward single-payer health care continues to resonate as a campaign issue for Democrats. Advocates of a unified health system have mostly rallied behind “Medicare for All,” a federal effort that would fund medically necessary care for U.S. residents through taxes. (Raman, 10/11)

The family of a man who died in an Alameda County jail in 2021 alleges that video footage proves he was left alone and unresponsive for three days before jail officials intervened. Maurice Monk’s daughter initially filed the suit on his behalf in July 2022, less than a year after Monk, 45, died in Santa Rita Jail. Monk’s official cause of death was hypertensive cardiovascular disease, according to the lawsuit, but his family alleged his death was caused by the jail failing to give him his medication. (Munce, 10/10)

A local medical spa is making healthcare more accessible for the uninsured. Now through the end of the year, the House of Contour in Southfield is offering free services, including lab work, vital sign monitoring, and vaginal PH checks. Volunteering with the City of Detroit over the summer sparked the idea for owner and registered nurse Stormie Anderson. "Everyone who would come to our booth to get their blood pressure checked, everybody's blood pressure was high," Anderson said. (Winfrey, 10/11)