BREAKING: At least seventeen bomb threats have been reported against Planet Fitness locations after Libs of TikTok began a campaign against the brand for canceling the membership of a woman who took a photo of another customer using the locker room. LoTT's campaign began after a member of the gym's Fairbanks location complained about “a man shaving in a women's bathroom.” As the posts gained viral traction, Planet Fitness released a statement reiterating the gym's trans-inclusive policy mediamatters.org/libs-tiktok/bo…

SCOOP: Before Chris Rufo was an architect of Ron DeSantis' effort to cancel classes and ban books, he was paid to help produce documentaries about pregnant teenagers and teachers affirming gay youth over the wishes of their parents. 🧵 From 2009 to 2011, Rufo’s nonprofit Documentary Foundation ran a “community outreach and education initiative” intended to teach students how to make films on “important local topics” and gain skills necessary for “activism in the community.” mediamatters.org/justice-civil-…

The hyperbolic claim | the paper cited to support it

https://twitter.com/LeorSapir/status/1775891815758963185

Leor has a real talent for saying things that are technically true and sound very scary but that quickly fall apart when you check his citations.

It had been 368 days since Bud Light sent Dylan Mulvaney one (1) can of beer with her face on it, and Fox News has mentioned her on average nearly once a day since then 🧵 Fox News covered Mulvaney's Instagram post multiple times in the first three days, Kid Rock filmed himself using the product for target practice, Matt Walsh demanded a boycott, and the rest is, as they say, history. mediamatters.org/fox-news/bud-l…

The New York Times is playing sleight of hand again with an oped claiming the term "sex assigned at birth" was adopted to protect the delicate feelings of trans people, but then going on to list reasons why "sex matters" that are nearly entirely linked to (changeable) hormones 🧵



A 2023 paper found that once you accounted for the fact that women were more likely to engage in "health-seeking behavior" (that is, getting medication) than men, the disparity in side effects mostly vanished news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/…

NEW: Media Matters and GLAAD looked at a full year New York Times coverage of anti-trans legislation:
🔴 Two-thirds of stories didn't include trans voices
🔴 18% quoted misinformation without adequate fact-checking
🔴6 articles obscured the anti-trans background of sources 🧵 Last February, the Times received two letters: one from a coalition including GLAAD, and a separate letter by Times contributors that criticized the outlet's contributions to a deadly anti-LGBTQ culture war. These criticisms were largely dismissed. mediamatters.org/new-york-times…

NEW: Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters once attended a fundraiser thrown by a podcaster deemed unfit to work in Owasso Public Schools because of public statements he made encouraging his daughters to “kick the sh*t” out of transgender peers trying to use the restroom. 🧵 Walters has vowed not to “back down to woke mobs” after the death of transgender sophomore Nex Benedict raised questions about the impact of anti-trans rhetoric on Oklahoma schools.

"Is there a law against lying?" Libs of TikTok creator Chaya Raichik acknowledges that her post accusing an innocent trans woman of committing the tragic mass shooting in Uvalde Texas was false, but she refuses to remove it. 🧵 Raichik originally used the post — which originated from 4chan trolls — to misleadingly sketch a pattern of mass shootings carried out by transgender people. mediamatters.org/libs-tiktok/li…

A far-reaching media narrative has incorrectly identified the alleged armed assailant at a Texas megachurch as a transgender woman, adding fuel to a moral panic as legislators across the country push a raft of laws restricting the lives of trans people in the United States. 🧵 Apparently drawing from police reports, MSNBC reported just after noon Monday that the shooter was transgender, with the chyron adding that the suspect “identified as a woman.”

As Ron DeSantis' presidential campaign gives its final gasp, I want to share some of the stories of queer and trans Floridians who he forced to leave homes, jobs, and loved ones in his state in his failed attempt at winning over GOP primary voters. 🧵 "The month I moved home, the middle school I had attended banned a trans kid from using the bathroom and the local newspaper called her a man. When I was a trans kid, I thought I was the only one." autostraddle.com/overheating-le…

The priorities of Republican elected officials are set by unaccountable media figures whose bottom line requires that they keep their audience scared or angry, and what's happening to trans people in Ohio right now is exhibit A 🧵 Ohio was one of many states to introduce legislation to ban gender-affirming care for trans youth in 2023. It passed through the majority Republican chambers but was vetoed by Gov Mike DeWine, who said medical decisions should be left to families and their doctors.

We're all numb to this, but yesterday Libs of TikTok creator Chaya Raichik accused a completely innocent person of carrying out the tragic Uvalde school shooting to push anti-trans hate. It's still up despite the community note. No apology. No retraction. No standards. The image Raichik shared of an innocent woman originated in a 4chan hoax last spring. “I just want to live without being attacked when I leave my house,” she wrote when it first circulated. The actual Uvalde shooter was killed on the scene by police. nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna3…

Did you miss last night's GOP debate because you had better things to do, like staring at a wall or scrubbing your toilets? I watched it so that you didn't have to, and it featured moderator Megyn Kelly trying to push the field to adopt even more extreme anti trans positions 🧵 Megyn Kelly, famous for insisting that Santa Claus "just is" white, demanded that Chris Christie answer “aren't you way too out of step on [trans issues] to be the Republican nominee?”

Christie replied that his opposition to trans healthcare bans was based in parental rights.

Last night's debate revealed how hollow the anti-trans veneration of "parents' rights" is. Dana Perino asked a question about parental notification. Vivek responded that "transgenderism" is a mental disorder and promised to ban transition for minors with supportive parents. 🧵 Former President Mike Pence took the GOP's anti-trans extremism even further in last night's debate, promising to ban ALL gender affirming care, for people of all ages, trampling on the rights of parents and any other kind of adult.

Elon seems committed to degrading the user experience for everyone but annoying trolls on this website, so here's a quick guide to making your mentions more bearable from somebody who gets a lot of vicious harassment here: (1/4) You can control what you get notifications for under the settings menu. First click on "settings," then "notifications," then "filters." Make sure that the "quality filter" is on, which should hide some spammy replies. Then click through to "muted notifications" for more. (2/4)

My two cents on SCOTUS' ruling in 303 Creative v Elenis:
1) It's reasonable to not be compelled to make a website whose message you disagree with
2) I am worried how this precedent will be expanded to allow discrimination against LGBTQ people that is banned against other groups🧵 Ideally the impact of this ruling is narrow, but this court has taken a pretty broad view of what counts as speech, far beyond individual words from an individual mouth, and there are lots of ways in which rulings like this could erode certain foundational principles of society.

Of note: no state has successfully defended the constitutionality of a ban on transition supportive care for minors. Both in this case and Indiana, Trump-appointed judges overturned the bans.

https://twitter.com/chrisgeidner/status/1674163229822681088

We can - and will - debate these bans on their merits until everyone is blue in the face but the simple fact odd that state legislatures are wasting a lot of floor time passing laws that they know will fall in court.

NEW poll from @NavigatorSurvey: voters trust Democrats over Republicans to look out for children and protect the rights of Americans to make decisions about their own bodies Just 1/4 of respondents have a trans friend, family member, or co-worker — and those who do are 9 points more likely to have heard of the GOP's anti-trans legislative onslaught

I think it's really important for you guys to know that Ben had his producer play the full video AGAIN on his show today so that he could react to it all over again:

https://twitter.com/AriDrennen/status/1668679634475532290

I think my favorite genre of right wing rage video is where they're trying *really hard* to misgender the trans people they're talking about and they fail

Historic moment today as former President of the United States Donald Trump is indicted on federal espionage charges for the first time. Let's see what the guys on the Daily Wire are up to! Ben's facial expressions while he's watching the video ☠️

MSNBC’s @chrislhayes: “Telling parents how they can or cannot raise their children is among the most authoritarian things a government can do. And now that is exactly what Ron DeSantis and the Republican Party in Florida…are doing.” Hayes: “there are parents and families in Florida who have decided as a family, as parents, along with their doctors, that this healthcare - gender affirming care - is the best care for their kids. You may not like it, but you know what? It’s none of your…goddamned business.”