(ORLANDO, Fla.) — Nearly six months after college student Miya Marcano was allegedly murdered by a man who worked in her apartment building, Florida lawmakers have passed a bill mandating stronger protections for tenants.
“Miya’s Law,” which passed Friday in the state legislature, now mandates landlords and building managers require background checks for all prospective employees, reinforces requirements regarding access to individual units and requires landlords to give tenants 24 hours notice if a repairs need to take place.
State Sen. Linda Stewart, the bill’s lead sponsor, said she and her colleagues worked to ensure that what happened to the 19-year-old Valencia College student doesn’t happen again.
“I do hope with the passing of Miya’s Law, this will bring some peace to the family and knowing that their daughter’s death was not in vain,” she said in a statement.
On Sept. 25, Marcano went missing from her apartment in the Arden Villas complex in Orlando, Florida, and was found dead a week later in the woods. Investigators said Armando Caballero, a maintenance worker at Arden Villas, kidnapped and killed Marcano after gaining access to her apartment using his master key.
Investigators found Caballero dead in his apartment on Sept. 27 from an apparent suicide. They said there are no other suspects involved in the killing.
Marcano’s family said she rebuffed romantic advances from Caballero and they accused the apartment complex’s management of failing to address complaints against Caballero. The management company said in a statement in October that “all employees are vetted using a national background check service” and that Caballero had “no record of burglary or sexual assault.”
Marcano’s family has called for stronger tenant protections and more scrutiny of prospective apartment maintenance employees.
If Miya’s Law is signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, landlords who violate the new rules could be hit with a felony or first-degree misdemeanor charge.
“I urge Gov. DeSantis to honor Miya’s name and sign this potentially lifesaving legislation into law,” Florida state Rep. Robin Bartleman, who was the lead sponsor of the house version of the bill, said in a statement.
(NEW YORK) — Attorneys for the estate of notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein told a judge in the U.S. Virgin Islands this week that they are “extraordinarily close” to resolving a civil case filed by the government of the island territory against the late financier’s estate, once valued at over $650 million.
“We’ve been having intense negotiations and talks for settlement. We are very, very, very close,” said Gordon Rhea, a lawyer for Richard Kahn, a former accountant for Epstein and one of the estate’s co-executors. “And I think one more push … and we could be at the finish line.”
The news of a potential deal came on Wednesday during a virtual conference in Superior Court in St. Thomas, where the parties continued to spar over the estate’s legal fees and other expenses. The hearing was the first since the case was filed more than two years ago by Denise George, the attorney general of the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Carol Thomas-Jacobs, a deputy attorney general, acknowledged talks are ongoing and that progress is being made, but said there were a few “sticky issues” that remain.
“We remain open to engaging in settlement discussions until there is some resolution,” Thomas-Jacobs told Superior Court Judge Harold Willocks. “We hope we can reach a resolution.”
Epstein died by suicide in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial in New York on conspiracy and child sex trafficking charges.
The government’s case against the estate, filed in January 2020 under the U.S. Virgin Islands’ racketeering statute, alleged that Epstein created a network of shell companies, charitable organizations and individuals that participated in and conspired with him in a decadeslong pattern of criminal activity tied to alleged sex trafficking of minor girls and young women.
“Epstein, through and in association with defendants, trafficked, raped, sexually assaulted and held captive underage girls and young women at his properties in the Virgin Islands,” the complaint said.
The government also contends that one of Epstein’s U.S. Virgin Islands-based businesses, Southern Trust Company, misrepresented the nature of its work to fraudulently obtain more than $73 million in tax incentives.
After filing the lawsuit, George placed liens on all of Epstein’s properties, including two private islands off the coast of St. Thomas, as well as the estate’s bank accounts, which effectively gave her office control over the estate’s money.
The government has since sent dozens of subpoenas to financial institutions and individuals around the world previously associated with Epstein, including billionaire investors Leon Black and Glenn Dubin, as well as Epstein’s former paramour Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted of sex trafficking in federal court late last year. Maxwell has a pending motion for a new trial based on alleged juror misconduct.
The estate, which filed a motion to dismiss the government’s lawsuit in 2020, has so far refused to engage in any pretrial exchanges of documents with the government, arguing that it would be wasteful and unnecessary to do so until a court rules on its motion to dismiss the claims.
The government filed an amended complaint last year that added the estate’s co-executors, Khan and Epstein’s long-time attorney Darren Indyke, as individual defendants, alleging that the pair were “indispensable captains” in Epstein’s criminal organization, who had “profited substantially from their relationship with Epstein.”
“This includes their direct participation in virtually all of the business operations and financial activities of Epstein’s trafficking network, including facilitating forced marriages among Epstein’s victims to secure their immigration status,” George said in a statement early last year.
Indyke and Kahn were selected by Epstein as co-executors in a will he updated two days before his death. The documents stipulate that each of them be paid $250,000 annually for their management of the estate. The two men, through their attorneys, have denied the allegations in the lawsuit and deny any involvement in misconduct by Epstein.
Daniel Weiner, an attorney for the co-executors, told ABC News by email in 2021 that Indyke and Kahn “categorically reject the allegations of misconduct made for the first time today by the Attorney General of the Virgin Islands regarding their purported roles in the so-called ‘Epstein Enterprise.'”
“Neither Mr. Indyke nor Mr. Kahn had any involvement in any misconduct by Mr. Epstein of any kind, at any time,” Weiner wrote. “It is enormously regrettable that the Attorney General chose to level false allegations and to unfairly malign the Co-Executors’ reputation without any proof or factual basis to do so.”
The government’s attorney, Thomas-Jacobs, expressed concern during the hearing that the estate’s value had been greatly diminished over the last two years, and described some of the expenses of the estate, including more than $15 million in legal fees to date, as “extremely outrageous.” Since its initial valuation of $656 million, the estate’s coffers have dwindled to $166 million, according to the estate’s most recent accounting in probate court.
“We are absolutely concerned that in the end, there will be no money left for the people of the Virgin Islands,” she said.
Those comments drew a sharp rebuke from estate attorney Marc Weinstein, who noted that the estate had paid $175 million in taxes and $150 million to Epstein’s victims, which he said accounted for the bulk of the estate’s expenses over the last two years.
“I assume nobody on the government side is saying we shouldn’t pay the taxes and we shouldn’t pay out to the victims,” Weinstein said. “They just keep throwing out the numbers to make it sound bad.”
The estate recently filed an emergency motion for a release of $1.3 million in legal fees incurred primarily for mediation with Epstein’s victims, that the government has thus far declined to pay, according to court records.
In a statement to ABC News, George declined to comment on the status of negotiations, but said the government is “determined, among other things, to address tax benefits that Epstein fraudulently obtained from the Government and People of the Virgin Islands and to protect assets for Epstein victims who may not have resolved their civil claims.”
George’s statement noted that the estate has also refused to disclose the details of several trusts established by Epstein, including the “1953 Trust,” the sole entity listed in Epstein’s last will and testament. The beneficiaries of that trust have not been publicly disclosed.
“These concerns, along with the alleged conduct of the co-executors … in facilitating Epstein’s conduct, including through marriages allegedly forced upon his victims, raise significant concerns about the appropriateness of their management of the Estate,” George wrote.
Given the reported progress in settlement talks, Willocks placed the case on hold for at least 90 days to allow for the parties to try to reach a negotiated resolution. He set a hearing for early May on the dispute over the legal fees.
Weinstein, however, predicted that the case could be resolved without the need to be in court again.
“This case is unbelievably close to resolution,” he told the judge. “I think if the parties focus on that effort, this will be done, and you probably won’t see us again — unless they don’t pay our fees and our expenses. That’s the only reason we’re going to be before you.”
(KENOSHA, Wis.) — An off-duty police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin, is under fire after a video went viral appearing to show him putting his knee on the neck of a 12-year-old girl at Lincoln Middle School on March 4, while trying to stop a fight that the girl was involved in.
A video of the incident taken by one of the students at the school was obtained by ABC News and shows the officer responding to a reported fight between two students.
The 12 year-old girl, whose name has not been revealed as she is a minor, appears to push the officer and then he pins her to the ground and appears to kneel on her neck, according to the video. It is unclear what happened before or after.
Black teen handcuffed in viral video of mall fight speaks out on police treatment
Attorney Drew DeVinney, who represents the girl and her father, Jerrel Perez, told ABC News that the girl “suffered injuries to her head and neck and is currently receiving medical treatment.”
Perez shared videos of the incident on his Facebook account and expressed outrage over the police officer’s tactics, comparing the image to George Floyd — the Minnesota man who was killed in May 2020 after a police officer placed a knee on his neck for nine minutes.
Amid a national push for police reform after Floyd’s death, Wisconsin banned the use of police chokeholds in June 2021 except in life threatening situations or in situations where a police officer had to defend themselves. Chokeholds include various police neck restraints.
“Mr. Perez was saddened and upset when he saw videos of an officer using a chokehold against his twelve-year-old daughter at school,” DeVinney said. “He then felt his world collapse as he listened to his child describe how she could not breath under the weight of an adult’s knee against the back of her neck.”
DeVinney said that since chokeholds have been banned in the state, the “incident should never have occurred.”
“The family hopes to find out why this happened, so that it does not happen again to anyone else’s child,” he added.
Perez told Milwaukee ABC affiliate WISN in an interview published Tuesday that his daughter was arrested for disorderly conduct.
The Kenosha Police Department released a statement on Monday addressing the incident.
According to KPD, after a fight broke out between two students in the cafeteria during lunch, Kenosha Unified School District employees, including the off duty officer, intervened and one staff member was injured.
“K.P.D. has watched the video clip and has seen the photo which has been widely shared on social media over the weekend. We are keenly aware of the significant sensitivity surrounding the photo. K.P.D., together with K.U.S.D. is investigating the incident in its entirety while being cautious not to make conclusions based off of a small piece of information shared on social media,” police said. “Both agencies will look to our respective policies and procedures for guidance in this circumstance. It is the highest priority of those officers who work in our schools to provide a safe and secure learning environment for our children and staff.”
The officer is a 37-year-old male with four years of service at KPD, police said, but when asked by ABC News whether the officer’s identity will be revealed, a KPD spokesman declined to comment. Police did not comment when asked if there were any updates on the investigation and would not confirm if the 12 year-old girl was arrested for disorderly conduct.
Tanya Ruder, chief communications officer for the Kenosha Unified School District, told ABC News on Tuesday that the officer is a “part-time KUSD employee, who was hired as an off-duty Kenosha police officer,” and is “currently on a paid leave from the district.”
“We appreciate your patience as we work with the Kenosha Police Department to investigate the facts surrounding this incident,” she added.
DeVinney said that he is working to obtain security footage of the incident from the school.
Ruder told ABC News that they cannot release the footage as this is a pending investigation.
ABC News’ Keara Shannon contributed to this report.
(WILTON MANORS, Fla.) — Four spring breakers who overdosed Thursday night in Wilton Manors, Florida, are cadets at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point public affairs told ABC News Friday.
One of the cadets is on the West Point football team, according to the academy, which is located in Orange County, New York.
“The U.S. Military Academy is aware of the situation involving West Point cadets, which occurred Thursday night in Wilton Manors, FL,” a West Point statement said.
Miami ABC affiliate WPLG reported the cadets were part of a group of college students from New York state at a short-term rental home where cocaine laced with fentanyl caused seven people to overdose.
Three people remained hospitalized Friday with two in critical condition. It’s unclear if that includes any of the cadets.
West Point public affairs told ABC News that no more details are available at this time, and the incident is under investigation.
(WASHINGTON) — At least two people are dead and eight others hospitalized after a car plowed into a Washington, D.C., restaurant during lunchtime Friday, authorities said.
D.C. Fire and EMS reported a “mass casualty incident” resulting in life-threatening injuries midday Friday in northwest D.C.
Ten victims were transported to a local hospital, where two women succumbed to their injuries, police said. The other eight victims were in stable to serious condition, police said.
All victims are believed to have been sitting in the outdoor dining area of the popular Greek restaurant Parthenon on the sunny D.C. day when the SUV careened off the road, authorities said.
The victims range in age from about 30 to 80, according to D.C. Fire and EMS Chief John Donnelly.
“This is rare. … We haven’t had an incident like this in many years,” Donnelly told reporters during a press briefing Friday. “A car hitting a crowd of people is a very serious event. Obviously, which we see, it’s a tragedy that results in a lot of injuries — serious injuries — so that’s what we’re dealing with right now.”
Crash with Mass casualty incident declared 5500 block Conn. Ave NW. Vehicle struck outside seating area of restaurant. #DCsBravest triaging multiple patients. No structural damage. pic.twitter.com/RTQN8hHr8u
The crash is believed to have been an accident, authorities said. The driver, described as an elderly man, was alone in the vehicle when he apparently lost control, D.C. Police Second District Cmdr. Duncan Bedlion said.
“There are no indications this was intentional in any form or fashion,” Bedlion told reporters.
The driver received treatment at the scene and is cooperating with authorities, Bedlion said.
No structural damage to the building has been found.
The Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia is investigating.
(ASHEBORO, N.C.) — A one-year-old boy who was born with a congenital heart defect and underwent three open-heart surgeries in his first months of life, now has a new heart.
Easton Sinnamon, of Asheboro, North Carolina, underwent a first-of-its kind heart transplant. The baby not only received a new heart, but also, two weeks later in a separate procedure, received thymus tissue from the same donor.
With the transplanted thymus tissue comes the hope that Easton will have to take much smaller doses of the immunosuppressive drugs transplant recipients typically have to take for the rest of their lives, according to Joseph W. Turek, M.D., Ph.D., chief of pediatric cardiac surgery at Duke University Hospital, and the doctor who oversaw Easton’s transplants.
“This is a huge step in the right direction,” Turek told “Good Morning America.” I would hope that we could envision a day in the near future where we wouldn’t need to use such high doses of immunosuppression with this technique.”
Turek had to seek emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration for the combined heart and thymus transplant, which took place in August.
They were able to try the procedure first in Easton, because he was born both with a congenital heart defect and a deficiency of T cells, which protect the body from infection and are developed in the thymus, an organ that sits close to the heart, according to Turek.
“It’s not very common that you’re going to find a child that has these two issues, and that’s really given us an opportunity to to look at this in a real clinical environment that that we would never have the opportunity to do otherwise,” he said. “It’s also what allowed the FDA to realize this is probably a very safe plan for Easton.”
Kaitlyn Sinnamon, Easton’s mom, said she and her husband were willing to let doctors try the procedure on their youngest child because they knew their son was in a near-death situation.
Sinnamon, also the mom of a 4-year-old daughter, said she found out at her 20-week ultrasound that Easton had a congenital heart defect, which happens in about 1% of births in the United States each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Once Easton was born, doctors discovered he also had a damaged heart valve. As a result, Easton underwent three open heart surgeries in his first five months of life, the first of which happened when he was five days old.
Sinnamon quit her job to care for Easton, who spent nearly all of his first year of life in the PICU at Duke University Hospital, about 75 minutes away from the family’s home.
“That was my job, to be at the hospital with him,” said Sinnamon. “I’d get up in the morning, take our daughter to day care, go to Duke for the day, come home, pick her up, do all the normal household things when we would get home and go to bed and do it again, every day of the week.”
Easton spent 112 days on the waiting list for a heart transplant, at times having to be taken off the list because he was so sick.
About two weeks before his transplant, Sinnamon said she and her husband had to make the call to put Easton on life support so that he could stay alive as they waited for a heart.
“He’d been listed for over 100 days … and we weren’t going to let those days that we’d been waiting and fighting be for nothing,” she said. “It was really hard there towards the end. We were scared that we were going to lose him.”
In early August, doctors told Sinnamon the news she had been waiting over three months to hear — they had found a donor heart for Easton.
In an overnight procedure done just hours later, on Aug. 6, 2021, a team of doctors and nurses led by Turek, who also flew to procure the heart and thymus from the donor, transplanted the heart into Easton.
Around two weeks later, doctors implanted thymus cells from the same donor into about 25 to 40 spots in Easton’s thigh, according to Turek.
Sinnamon said that once a new heart was beating inside Easton, his recovery was fast, adding, “With a functioning heart, he just kind of took off.”
For Turek and the transplant team, they closely watched Easton’s internal reaction to his new heart and thymus cells, and saw success.
Easton’s body, which once had “negligible T cell activity,” now has normal levels of T cells, according to Turek, who said the next step is watching to see if Easton has developed enough of a tolerance to go off some immunosuppressive drugs.
“It’s incredibly rewarding to know that something you worked on in the laboratory was able to be translated, and you can actually see tangible evidence that it’s helping someone,” said Turek, who has researched the use of thymus cells in transplants for the past five years. “Especially a child like Easton, who really wasn’t doing well for a long period of time.”
The Sinnamons’ decision to let Easton be the first to receive a heart and thymus transplant could potentially pave the way to help thousands of organ donor recipients in the future, according to Turek. The next stage of his research will be to see if this process can be replicated more broadly, including in people who have functioning T cells.
In the U.S., more than 106,000 people are currently on the transplant waiting list, and 17 people die each day waiting for an organ transplant, according to government data.
“Easton gives us all a lot of hope about what the future could be,” said Turek. “The fact that he needed a thymus and also needed a heart has really allowed us to figure out if this combination of using these two … could increase the longevity [of a donated organ] and decrease the amount of medications that are needed.”
Sinnamon said she and her family are grateful for Turek and the team at Duke University Hospital, whom she said have become “like family,” and for the family of the organ donor, whom they do not know.
“As much as this is Easton, it’s as much the donor’s child as well,” said Sinnamon. “On your happiest day, it’s another family’s worst day, so it’s kind of bittersweet when you get excited because you have to think about what the other family is going through.”
Easton was able to go home in September, where he was greeted by his big sister, Ivy, whom he met then for the first time.
“Because he was doing so poorly at times, we didn’t think we would have everybody together,” said Sinnamon. “Now that we do, it’s so nice to see him and Ivy playing and them both laughing and giggling together.”
In February, Easton celebrated his first birthday at home. He remains on a gastrostomy tube, or G-tube, for his medications and has a tracheotomy to help him breathe, the latter of which Sinnamon said should be removed soon.
“Even through all he went through, he’s one of the happiest babies I’ve ever seen,” said Sinnamon, who described Easton as “very social” and “extremely active.” “It’s funny seeing his attitude and personality come out once we made it home.”
(NEW YORK) — A video of an Arkansas man giving his grandsons a two-armed hug for the first time has touched the hearts of many and is drawing attention to adaptive equipment that can make a big difference for people with disabilities.
Emily Sisco, an adjunct professor of occupational therapy at Arkansas State University, shared the now-viral video on Facebook on Feb. 2. The clip shows her dad, Kevin Eubanks, tearfully holding his grandsons, Cope, 9, and Rigney, 6. Eubanks’ left arm was injured following a stroke in 2014 but last month, with the help of a soft, stretchy wristband tool, he was able to link his arms into a circle shape and lift them together for a warm embrace with the boys.
Eubanks, 60, said the special moment was “overwhelming” and one he couldn’t have imagined eight years ago. “It caught me off guard and as you can tell, it was very emotional for me because the family I grew up in, we always love to hug each other with both arms and it’s what we call giving a bear hug, and that is just something that I hadn’t been able to do since my stroke,” Eubanks explained to “Good Morning America.”
He went on, “I got to hug my second one, Rigney, which was born after my stroke. The realization really hit me then that this is the first time I’ve got to hug him like that with two arms. And I just could not control it then. I just cried and cried and cried.”
It’s a significant breakthrough for Eubanks, who, at 52, suffered a stroke that temporarily rendered the left side of his body paralyzed. He said doctors told his family at the time that he might not even live. But in the years since, Eubanks has worked hard to make a strong recovery. Watching the therapists who helped her dad even inspired Sisco to pursue occupational therapy as well.
“She saw how much work they were doing with me in the facility that I was in and it just touched her heart to where she wanted to be able to help people,” Eubanks said. “And that’s when she went back to school and got her degree.”
Sisco’s Facebook post has nearly 5 million views in just over five weeks. It has also shined a spotlight on the wristband tool Eubanks used.
Initially named the “Hugger” and now called the “HugAgain,” the tool is a prototype created by Arkansas State University students Erica Dexter, Larissa Garcia, Lisa James and Casey Parsons, all students of Sisco’s in the occupational therapy assistant program. The “HugAgain” is one of several adaptive tools, including an adaptive fishing pole, card holders and a soap holder tool — all made by Sisco’s students.
In January, Sisco gave her technical skills class a case study and two weeks to create a tool that would benefit the client in the case. In the past, Sisco said she gave students a fake scenario to work with. But this time she decided, with Eubanks’ approval, to present her own father’s real-life story and post-stroke experience for the class assignment.
“When we asked what is one thing that you would like to return doing and he said, hug again with two arms, we just knew that we had to help him get there,” Parsons explained to “GMA.” “We were all in agreement that giving him a hug was occupational-based, it was meaningful to our client, and it was something that we could do or at least try to do.”
The team got to work brainstorming ideas, addressing questions and figuring out technical details like the type of material they wanted to use. The “HugAgain” came together quickly – all within two weeks.
“We kind of went through some options of how we could make something to lift his arm up and we just ended up simplifying it because it really is pretty simple. But it’s just something that people don’t think of,” James said.
The team has since received messages from around the world, asking for more information about the “HugAgain,” so they set up a Facebook page and decided to perfect the design and plan to sell it when it goes into production.
“If you make money off of it, then that’s just icing on the cake, but that’s really not our motivation for what we’re doing,” James said. “We really want to see more reactions like Ms. Sisco’s father, and just see how many lives that can be touched through this one small device.”
Added Dexter: “It’s a thing that a lot of people take for granted. But you know, once it’s gone, you do value that and you can value that again.”
James said the project taught her and her classmates not to overlook each person’s unique needs. “Even just the small things can be just as important or more important to an individual than what our plans are for that person,” she said. “So I think it was a good lesson to really listen to what they’re telling us and not what we think they need.”
Eubanks said at the end of the day, the HugAgain and its impact is nothing short of extraordinary.
“I want people to know: Don’t ever underestimate the effect of a touch of some kind, no matter if it’s a handshake, a hug, or just putting your arm around somebody. That personal touch sends a message to that person that you love them and that can do so much to a person’s confidence and mindset.”
(NEW YORK) — Mother Nature is going to hit the East Coast like a lion this weekend with a winter blast that will bring torrential rain, snow, icy roads and, in some southern states, tornados.
The weather system that’s forecasted to hit on Saturday has already dumped one to two inches of snow in states such as Colorado, Kansas and Missouri.
As of Friday, more than 75 million Americans across 26 states are under alert for winter weather. Most of the East Coast states affected have issued winter storm watches or winter storm warnings.
By Friday night into Saturday morning, the storm will dump heavy snow from West Virginia to Pennsylvania before moving to upstate New York and New England. Up to a foot of snow is possible in some areas, according to the forecast.
Along the I-95 corridor, heavy rain and wind are expected Saturday morning before changing into the snow. Major cities like Washington, D.C., and New York City aren’t expected to see a lot of snow accumulation but the freezing temperatures will make the roads icy.
The forecast is also predicting dangerous weather conditions for southern states.
An enhanced threat for tornadoes and damaging winds has been issued for parts of the Florida panhandle into southern Georgia – including Tallahassee, Panama City and Albany, Georgia. The time for the greatest risk of tornadoes will likely be late Friday night into early Saturday morning.
(AUSTIN, Texas) — A Texas judge is holding a hearing on whether to prevent state agencies from investigating gender-confirming care for transgender youth as child abuse.
District Judge Amy Clark Meachum will hear Friday from the parents of a 16-year-old transgender girl who were under investigation by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. Meachum will also hear from attorneys from the state.
According to the DFPS, there are at least nine similar investigations open as a result of the attorney general’s opinion on trans care.
The opinion written by state Attorney General Ken Paxton last month stated that “there is no doubt that these procedures are ‘abuse’ under Texas law, and thus must be halted.”
He went on: “The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) has a responsibility to act accordingly. I’ll do everything I can to protect against those who take advantage of and harm young Texans.”
The next day, Texas Governor Greg Abbott published a letter, ordering the DFPS to investigate such treatments as child abuse.
“Because the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) is responsible for protecting children from abuse, I hereby direct your agency to conduct a prompt and thorough investigation of any reported instances of these abusive procedures in the State of Texas,” Abbott said in the Feb. 22 letter.
Meachum has already blocked the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services from investigating the family of the 16-year-old girl. The family is part of a lawsuit against the state’s directive from the American Civil Liberties Union and Lambda Legal.
Several companies, including Ikea, Google, Apple, Meta, Johnson & Johnson, PayPal, Capital One and Electronic Arts have spoken out against the bill in a full-page ad in the Dallas Morning News.
“The recent attempt to criminalize a parent for helping their transgender child access medically necessary, age-appropriate healthcare in the state of Texas goes against the values of our companies,” a signed letter from the companies stated.
Cathryn Oakley, HRC’s state legislative director and senior counsel, said that misinformation is at the center of recent anti-LGBTQ efforts, including the Texas directive.
She told ABC News that she believes fear-mongering has painted a picture of trans youth that is “completely not true.”
She said that for many young children, transitioning means using a name and pronoun that feels right for them and presenting themselves in a way that feels right for them.
She says that when puberty hits is when medical intervention might begin through puberty blockers, which temporarily pause puberty while children and families assess their gender journey. “No one is performing surgery on kids. There’s no amputation happening,” she said.
“They’re literally putting trans kids lives on the line,” she said, referring to mental health conditions that trans youth face in the wake of discrimination.
“It’s incumbent on us to really educate folks about what it means to be a trans kid because I think the only reason people are buying into that kind of rhetoric is because even people who are fair-minded have questions about what it means to be a trans youth,” she said.
(NEW YORK) — On March 26, 1997, an anonymous caller directed police to a mansion outside San Diego where authorities soon discovered the largest mass suicide on U.S. soil.
The 39 victims found within the home were all members of a strange and secretive cult called Heaven’s Gate, which had a goal to transcend to “higher beings” by spaceship.
Watch the full story on “20/20” TONIGHT at 9 p.m. ET on ABC.
The anonymous caller was Rio DiAngelo, a surviving member who left the group after three years and was to stay behind and tell the world about the group’s story.
“I was always looking for answers, looking for purpose in my life,” said DiAngelo. “I loved these people … it meant everything to me.”DiAngelo first spoke to ABC News’ Diane Sawyer in 1997.
“We lived like we were living in a monastery. We were all celibate individuals, looking forward to self advancement,” said DiAngelo.
Heaven’s Gate began in the early 1970s by co-founders Marshall Herff Applewhite and Bonnie Lou Nettles. Applewhite was the son of a Presbyterian preacher and became a talented stage actor and singer. He struggled with his sexuality and had a complicated relationship with his father.
At a moment in his life when he was depressed, hearing voices in his head and having apocalyptic visions, he met Nettles. She was a nurse and mother of four children. She had already believed in UFOs and astrology prior to meeting Applewhite.
According to former friends and colleagues, she said the voices in his head may be spirits from above telling him he one day could be a divine teacher.
Applewhite and Nettles told their followers that the human body was a “vehicle” to carry their soul and that the savior had returned in the human form of Applewhite, who was called “Do.”
They set out to start their own religion and seek out followers. They told people interested that, if they joined them, they could learn how to be pure enough to be invited to heaven too.
Over the course of several years, Applewhite and Nettles required their followers to adhere to increasingly more strange and severe rules, including severing all contact with family and friends and encouraging adopting an asexual appearance. In later years, some members of the group underwent castration.
Now nearly 25 years later, DiAngelo reflected on where his life is now. He says he still feels the presence of Applewhite and Nettles.
“Mostly, it’s just feeling. I don’t get words, but mostly it’s just feeling,” said DiAngelo.
DiAngelo said he made the choice to move on.
“I tried to get a job and people would not hire me because they thought I was part of some crazy thing. And so it’s really a matter of choice for me to get along with my career, my life, just so people would not look at me,” said DiAngelo. “It’s not about me, you know?”
DeAngelo, now a retired art director, said he’s reunited with his mother and is focusing on spending more time with his granddaughter.
“I’m a regular guy. I’m tryin’ to be more of myself,” said DeAngelo. “And a better person in every way I can.”
If you or someone you know is experiencing suicidal thoughts, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline provides 24/7, free and confidential support. Call 1-800-273-TALK (8255) for help.
