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The Rev. Jesse Jackson was an athlete from a young age, and throughout his life he immersed himself in the world of sports. He accepted a football scholarship at Illinois, then transferred to historically Black North Carolina A&T after a year. Jackson was a quarterback for the Aggies in the early 1960s and was inducted into A&T’s athletic Hall of Fame in 1984. His sports experiences fueled a deep passion for ensuring athletes were given equal opportunities and treatment, regardless of race, gender, sport or native country. Jackson was a champion of the NFL’s Rooney Rule that attempted to address the lack of minority head coaches. He was a fixture at sporting events, especially the NBA.

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Pride Month, a global celebration of LGBTQ+ people, is starting this weekend in many places. It's always a mixture of party and protest. Some of the celebrations this year will commemorate the 10th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that allowed same-sex marriage nationally. A lot of the protest in the U.S. are expected to be against President Donald Trump's efforts to impose restrictions across several fronts on transgender people. The event emerged in 1970 as a response to the violent police raid of New York City's Stonewall Inn in 1969.

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As the rhetoric around transgender athletes grows more heated, one organization is trying to create a safe space. The National Association of Intercollegiate Gymnastics Clubs allows trans and non-binary athletes to self-select their gender at its annual national meet. A dozen gymnasts opted into the category at the recently completed 2025 nationals. Ray Hung, a student at Northeastern University, is non-binary trans masculine. Hung called the NAIGC a “shield” for trans gymnasts. NAIGC director of operations Ilana Shushansky says the organization's mission is to create an environment for gymnasts to compete into adulthood in a place that feels comfortable and supportive.

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President Donald Trump has signed a slew of policies aimed at wiping transgender people out of government records, sports and even history. That means a different tone for Monday's annual Transgender Day of Visibility. Trump's policies follow what many social conservatives have pushed for in the U.S. and around the globe. They are being challenged in court, but already are having a major impact on transgender people. But why is he dedicating so much energy to restricting a group that makes up around 1% of the nation's population? Some experts say it could be because the group is so small that many people don't know any of its members.

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President Donald Trump has signed an executive order Thursday "aimed at eliminating” the U.S. Education Department. Meanwhile a federal judge ordered the administration Thursday to provide more information about flights that took deportees to El Salvador, or make a formal “state secrets“ claim. The Justice Department has resisted, accusing the judge of encroaching on the executive branch’s “absolute and unreviewable” authority relating to national security and foreign policy. Trump's border czar has tallied 40,000 immigration-related arrests since Trump got into office. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has negotiated the release of an American hostage held for more than two years by the Taliban.