September is National Suicide Prevention Month and Self-Care Awareness Month — two observances that go hand-in-hand. To honor both, Nice News is partnering with The Jed Foundation to fundraise and highlight its mission to make youth mental health a priority and prevent teen suicide. JED, founded by parents Phil and Donna Satow in 2000 after their youngest son Jed died by suicide, empowers young adults by helping them build resiliency and life skills, promoting social connectedness, and encouraging help-seeking and help-giving behaviors. To date, the nonprofit has worked with more than 9,000 high schools, colleges, and universities to strengthen their mental health and suicide prevention safety nets. Click here to donate to the September Cause of the Month, and here to access JED’s robust mental health resource center.

Post of the Day

@apnewsWhat do you do with the tons of overripe tomatoes left at the end of the summer season? In Buñol, Spain — a town in the country’s tomato-producing region — you use them for an epic food fight. On the last Wednesday of each August, locals and tourists alike flock to the town’s main street to throw tomatoes at each other, drenching the road and everyone on it in red pulp (many don swimming goggles to protect their eyes). The annual “Tomatina” festival, inspired by a food fight among children in 1945, ends with a cleansing hose-off — click here to see more photos from this year’s event. (Photo Credit: Jorge Gil/Europa Press via Getty Images)

TOP STORY

Texas

The Story

Today, a ban against trans kids’ gender-affirming care goes into effect.

Explain.

Yesterday, the state’s Supreme Court cleared the law to go into effect, making Texas the latest and most populous state to ban transgender therapies — like hormone blockers — for minors. Kids who are already on medication will have to be weaned off in a “medically appropriate” way. The ruling comes as at least 20 states have enacted some kind of ban on transgender care for minors. One study found that 86% of transgender and nonbinary youth’s mental health has been negatively impacted by the recent anti-LGBTQIA+ policies. More than 300,000 teenagers identify as trans — a sharp increase from just six years ago.

What happens now?

The ACLU called Texas’ law “cruel” and says it will make kids “fearful of what awaits them.” Conservative groups said that “protecting children from harmful and dangerous gender transition surgeries and puberty blockers is in the best interests of the child.” Most Americans support laws that protect trans people from discrimination in situations like jobs, public accommodations, and housing. But almost half want to make it illegal for healthcare providers to support transitions for minors.

Never before have so many kids openly identified as trans — though they still make up less than 2% of minors. In response, states have introduced an estimated 130 bills this year to restrict medical care for their transition.

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