1. The House Freedom Caucus just released a letter threatening to shut down the government over policy riders that include anti-trans national bans.
Of the riders, Gender affirming care and sports bans are a high priority.
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2. The latest threat is the clearest message that policy riders targeting trans people are one of the sticking points in the fight to keep the government open.
3. The letter itself lists out several policies that include "defunding gender transition surgeries or gender affirming care," DEI bans, Planned Parenthood funding bans, and sports bans.
These policies could disrupt trans care nationwide.
4. In an exclusive released by Axios, the government is currently expected to shut down by many Republicans, and they cite transgender issues as a top reason.
5. Opposed to this are Democrats. 163 Democrats have signed onto a letter stating that bans on gender affirming care, pride flags, DEI, and discrimination should not be on the table for negotiation.
6. HRC appears to be giving the threat some credibility. They released an ad calling out Republicans for potentially shutting down the government over trans people.
7. Meanwhile, Republicans like Rep Crenshaw have fired back, stating that gender affirming care bans are "the hill we will die on."
8. These riders remain the largest threat to transgender people nationwide until the 2024 election. Should Democrats negotiate over them, there could be severe national anti-trans bans.
Up to now, they have refused - many LGBTQ+ leaders hope they continue to.
9. Lastly, I am a transgender journalist covering this issue every day. Please consider subscribing to support my work and be the first to receive my articles.
1. Police officers in Oklahoma are now backtracking after claiming trans student Nex Benedict's death "was not caused by trauma," and have filed search warrants suspecting "foul play."
Meanwhile, LGBTQ+ leaders are calling for the DOJ to step in.
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2. Recent statements by the Owasso police department have raised serious questions about their ability to investigate Nex's death. Allegations of cover-ups, a long history of anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment in the school system have emerged.
3. Nex Benedict was a transgender gender fluid teenager in Oklahoma. They were reportedly jumped in a bathroom and beaten, leaving them with a head injury. Reportedly, the school didn't call an ambulance and instead, their mother took them to the hospital. They died the next day.
3. Just one month ago, I wrote on how State Superintendent Ryan Walters, who himself has been viciously anti-trans appointed Libs of TikTok as part of a plan to "make schools safer."
1. Protests unfolded at several Florida DMVs today as protestors staged die-ins over a new policy that would criminalize trans Floridians who use their gender markers on drivers licenses.
Over 8 LGBQT+ orgs took part.
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2. Orlando, Tampa, Miami, and Gainesville were among the places seeing demonstrations. Protestors laid on the ground, often draped in trans pride flags, with tombstones about the harmful effects of the anti-trans policy.
3. Florida is the first state to criminalize changing the gender on one's drivers license for transgender people. This comes after a recent policy by the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles which stated trans people could be guilty of criminal fraud.
1. Recently, Journalist Evan Urquhart and I wrote articles correcting misinformation in Pamela Paul's NYT article targeting trans care. Addressing us, Paul dismissed our work as "activism."
We respond here in a piece the NYT declined to publish.
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2. Paul, responding, weaves a tale where every person opposing misinformation in her piece is an "activist," and the anti-trans organizations that support her are "non-partisan and neutral."
3. Paul backpedals after reading our criticism, titling her new piece "The Courage To Admit You Don't Know."
This is despite, in her original piece, devoting 4,500 words that painted a picture of high detransition rates, citing studies that she misread and misunderstood.
1. Soon, in a quest to legalize discrimination against transgender people, Iowa will meet to vote on a bill that redefines the word "equal."
For trans people, "Equal" will no longer mean "same" or "identical."
Read my latest piece in The Guardian.
2. The bill would do many other things... it would require trans people to have special markers on birth certificates, which have been compared to pink triangles used in the past. It also explicitly brings back "separate but equal."
1. The US Transgender Survey is out, and in it, we find that 90,000 people answered, the vast majority saying they were satisfied.
The largest Littman study of detransitioners could only recruit 100 responses, despite similar sample methods.
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2. The survey, released overnight, shows huge satisfaction rates for transgender people that go even higher when they start gender affirming care - a finding supported by the body of research into trans care to this point.
3. The study reports that of those who transition, only 3% report being less satisfied than before they started their transition. This contradicts narratives of regret pushed by the New York Times writer Pamela Paul this weekend.