I am not optimistic about the ruling to come on the mife case, which you knew, but here is why: newrepublic.com/article/172087… It is possible the Court has asked for more time because they do intend to consider DOJ’s request to expedite the case—as well as ADF’s response that if the Court does that, they must consider Comstock.

in prep for whatever comes out of SCOTUS here's some alt comstock art "Anthony Comstock in his New York office" wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Image/…

I think the thing that drove me over the edge with this one was invoking “we live in an era when journalists regularly come under fire”—as if working on those stories compare to the experience of those reporters in the US in the last year even getting arrested, jailed, injured…

https://twitter.com/maxwelltani/status/1626324277422133253

or as if criticism from one’s journalist peers is tantamount to being arrested, jailed, beaten—or being called out by the president by name, doxxed by the far right, swarmed by racists and misogynists online repeatedly (often with no help from newsroom leaders or peers)

“The letter’s signatories… point to specific instances in the current legal battles to restrict gender-affirming care for trans youth where the Times’ coverage is used as evidence.” buzzfeednews.com/article/lilkal… Proud to sign this letter as a Times contributor and @nyguild member. “To see how fast a sentiment can move from the hard right to the paper of record to policy—how fast that happens and how much the New York Times facilitates that process by condensing hard-right talking points into ostensible front-page stories….” - @Jo_Livingstone

Journalists should call this, at best, unsupported by the facts Just a few examples to the obvious contrary… theguardian.com/society/2020/j…

I don’t have time to write this this week, but it’s clear we’re in the midst of the invention of the “concerned liberal parent” as a political figure, so—why now? This is what I hear across these stories: “we [presumed cis liberals] have to accommodate anti-trans politics or else we [ibid] will lose people [concerned liberal parents] to the right”

Broken record over here, but if you email me asking how to help you reach sex workers or sex workers' rights groups for a story, this is what I will say: "I can share your inquiry with a group I think would be good for you to speak with, but no promises they will want to speak with you as I can't vouch for you...

Segment was intro'ed this way: "We're getting new details on the Club Q shooting. And some people are pointing at political rhetoric as the cause." The "some people" bit is rote by now, but "political rhetoric"? WHAT rhetoric exactly? From who? ABOUT who? npr.org/2022/11/21/113…

https://twitter.com/EgSophie/status/1595040692489060354

It's pathetic to watch this massacre covered like this, almost solely through what police "believe" the motivation was. And if you are in Colorado in-person, you have no excuse not to include what the community believes.

I don't think *not* calling violence a hate crime or terrorism means you are treating it lightly; it can also be a way of acknowledging that the legal system that grants those terms legitimacy perpetuates anti-LGBTQ violence. Relatedly:

https://twitter.com/PatBlanchfield/status/1594372480147361805

Let me super clear: “just asking questions” here operates as a cover for fascism—and the particular kind of anti-trans rhetoric the Times is packaging as “concern” is meant for people who think themselves liberal but want a less fascist way to express anti-trans positions

https://twitter.com/melissagira/status/1592234267903655937

I think this is why it’s a mistake to interpret the midterms as a rebuke of such positions, as if transphobic rhetoric and anti-trans politics were defeated because they were too extreme, because what I suspect was rejected was the packaging, not the content.

Feeling like I am running out of ways to say that we’re in the middle of an open fascist street mobilization, with the tacit support of a political party and its media organs I am open to suggestions

With respect: trans journalists have written that this was coming for years, but feminist and political media alike ignored or discounted the work they did which is seemingly being re-done now

https://twitter.com/amandamarcotte/status/1545011939801288706

(Also Title IX is not the comparison I’d reach for, not even sure there even is a fair comparison to be made in this century.)

This was beyond my piece but there’s so much about the “women are being erased” disinfo campaign that reminds me of how some feminists have reacted to being asked to respect reproductive justice approaches, or to consider criminalization as gender-based violence I think some white feminist veterans of repro rights activism reacted poorly—pushing back on young women of color, rejecting their leadership, bemoaning how “it’s not just about abortion” anymore, telling themselves they’d been erased from the work

After he yelled “it used to be legal to kill gay people” at a woman and her wife, and she later saw him carrying a gun, she learned her community already ID’d his Gab account and were collecting screenshots. Police acted after they were handed all of this. kiro7.com/news/local/pol… His account was not subtle kiro7.com/news/local/pol…

I guess two more things on the Bazelon piece, maybe too insidery: there’s a big diff between someone on this beat having to sell an editor on covering trans rights and someone with a lot of institutional clout/power who never has doing it because a big org handed her an exclusive There’s a huge structural imbalance here is what I’m pointing at: trans journalists working precariously as freelancers or as the only one in their newsroom vs someone who already has a lot stability, clout, and connections just wandering in

The attack on a Pride event in Dallas on Saturday, at a family-friendly drag show in a gay neighborhood, has set the stage for the far right, in any city or town, to launch their own Pizzagate. More from me here: newrepublic.com/article/166712… This video shows the scene:

https://twitter.com/efjbgc/status/1533217028731027456

In what I hope does not become an every Sunday thing like it has become in England, NYT runs an A1 story today on trans girls in sports that reads like UK TERF bingo ("TERF is a slur," Martina, Kathleen Stock, etc.) nytimes.com/2022/05/29/us/… (gift link) ADF's comms team must be pleased to have got all their talking points in without actually being mentioned as the architects of this attack on trans rights

I have no idea what my life would even look like if I hadn’t always had abortion as an option. My extremely Catholic mother—last time I was in her place, there was prayer card on the kitchen counter with a fetus with made-up facial features encircled by a rosary. Her rosary group is one of those ones that protests at clinics.

I don't know why, of everything right now, this ad getting played on a cable news show just now is the thing driving me around the bend—it's an election ad meant to look like PSA about what abortion criminalization will look like and it's so off-base Do I even need to say it? Abortion criminalization will not be cops pulling over white moms and white daughters on the highway crossing state lines. It will be nurses reporting you to the police for a miscarriage. It will be cops in the ER asking to go through your phone.

The woman who wrote this letter to the Times is a telling example of how even women, feminists, Democrats, progressives, etc. who say QAnon is nonsense end up caving to QAnon nytimes.com/2022/04/30/opi… Pretty precarious place to end up politically, to say that when *you* want to deny kids gender-affirming care, it's just you doing the research, not advancing misinformation and conspiracy theories... you know, unlike what QAnon says...

Having a moment to breathe after the last week + appreciating that my queer coming of age was less surveilled and in some ways more expansive, contra this conservative talking point about “kids today” I had friends then who came out as trans as teenagers and in college, and that shapes how I still see this fight: if we stake it on “ask the state recognize our ‘real’ gender” and not “the state wants ppl to be cis and we reject this” we will be stuck in the fight forever